Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Heading East

We intended to wait for traffic to clear before starting out but left even later when we had to stop to charge the batteries.  Later it was confirmed our converter was only putting out 6.7 instead of at least 13.2 at a minimum.  We will deal with the problem and have a new converter installed back home.

We drove to Deming NM with one stop for lunch and one for Tom to fuel.  He had to pay $2.37 using Flying J and we went into town on arrival and paid $2.13.  With 91 gallons, that adds up.


I had awakened not feeling well, ate a little at lunch and did eat dinner.  By evening I was visiting the bathroom and carrying the wastecan around with me and it kept up all night.  By morning I knew I was in no shape to attempt travel.  We chucked the plans to visit Carlsbad, sent Eileen and Tom on their way and settled in for hopefully a healing day so we could leave in the morning.

By bedtime I was feeling better with the help of some meds and slept pretty well.  We were on the road by 7:45.  We did great until we hit a 5 mile stretch in El Paso that had construction plus an accident.  It took us a whole hour to cover that 5 miles.

We stopped outside Van Horn for a lunch break.  The scenery is so much nicer through this stretch than our last trip out here.  I think it was during a drought and everything was brown.  Now everything is green.



We stopped in Fort Stockton for the night.  Flying J was the same price as everyone else so we bought our fuel there, stopped at Walmart for a couple things then came home for dinner.  We only had 5 TV stations but the football game was on one of them so Ted was happy.  The wifi worked there so I was happy.  Just a day and a half to home!

We had to deal with the batteries again in the morning.  It is aggravating but with patience they charge and the levelers go up and the slides come in.  We have made arrangements with the RV repair close to home to take it in Monday.

We traveled to Luling with just a slow down on 1640 in San Antonio where a ramp to I-10 was closed.  Once we got past that, it was smooth sailing.  We decided to stay hooked up so we didn't have to run the levelers, only the slides.  We learned in the morning that helped.  

I started packing up the things that needed to go home.  I put the bags in the backseat so our first trip home would be fruitful.  We planned to bring my car back to the park and really increase our ability to carry a lot.

Ted grilled burgers and after dinner washed the bugs off parts of the trailer.  The more we get done, the quicker the clean up will take.  The two cleanest days for the trailer are the day we put it away and the day we get it out!

We had no battery issues Saturday morning and left on time.  We stopped at Buccee's, a Texas institution, for $1.99 diesel and coffee.  After the dryness of Phoenix, the 100% humidity hit us right in the face!

We pulled into our neighborhood campground close to noon, set up, putting only 2 of the 6 levelers down and the slides went right out.  I had changed the sheets that morning so a huge amount of laundry went into the truck along with some pantry items and we headed for home.  Of course this makes my perfectly neat house messy once we sit all the bags around!

We returned in my car, which started right up thank goodness, because it carries more than the truck.  Ted started on the outside and I did the inside.  We opted to leave the trailer for two nights so we can take it right to the repair shop versus putting it in storage and then getting it back out.  It gave me time to really clean good too.  By 7 or so we headed home with just the refrigerator needing emptying and cleaning the sides outside.

After Mass Sunday morning we went back and I cleaned out the refrigerator, tossing leftovers and doing those dishes.  Then I cleaned the inside putting everything back in bags to be loaded into my car when we left for home.  When Ted finished up outside, sat a bit to cool off, we left for home.  Monday morning we will take it in for a new converter.

It was another terrific summer out discovering America.  Seeing so many friends and relatives along the way made it even more enjoyable and having it culminate in a family 60th wedding anniversary, a rare occasion, was just icing on the cake.

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