Ahhh 78 degrees and sunshine in Ft Stockton, TX

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We once again pulled out a little before 9am and covered 365 miles on the expressway through San Antonino and then the hill country. We really like the hill country and will plan to spend some time there this fall before and/or after the HHAI Rally in Montgomery, TX the third week on October. We are approaching the desert, low trees and no grass. We saw the large windmill farms with hundreds of windmills & saw several wild javalina (black pigs). The weather is GREAT. 79 right now at 5:10pm in Ft Stockton with a gentle breeze. We stopped at a McDonald's truck stop shortly before noon and that made today's trip very comfortable.

Patches finally let us know that she's had enough traveling for hours inside her small carrier in the back seat. We let her out and she stayed in the back seat but when we returned after lunch she was in my seat but easily returned to the back seat. She lounged in the sun and shade sprawled out on the seat & was quite content napping.

That's Judy & Patches this morning, Judy with her cereal while Patches checks out the back window.

Luling, Texas

We spent yesterday in Kinder, LA because it was an ugly, windy & rainy day. We didn't take the truck anywhere but we did take the casino bus, the ride cost us $47. Bummer. Patches had time to get in a few naps. We were on the road before 9am today and covered another 320 miles; Patches continues to be a very good traveler. The only time she had something to say was when we were going through Houston which seemed like it took forever, a very l o n g city when passing through on the expressway. We arrived at on overnighter CG beside I10 at 2:30 and set up home sweet home. A solid headwind kept mileage down to 8.6mpg but it was a beautiful day, almost 60 when we arrived at Luling. We drove the 2 miles to downtown Luling for diesel, Mexican for supper & a few groceries.

We three escaped Alabama!

Judy and I spent yesterday visiting with Jody & Bruce in Mobile & saying goodbye. Bruce's parents, Diane & Norm, have been there a few days helping get the house ready for sale. It's looking pretty good & their plan is coming together! We had a late dinner with Don & Zola at The Galley, Judy and I tried to eat all the remaining shrimp in AL before we left, we gave it a good shot but failed.....belly ache time.

Up at 7am hooking up at 7:45 but by the time we said goodbye to all the neighbors coming over we didn't pull out until almost 9am. It was good to see that we remembered how to tow this here home of ours. We put in a 7 hour day and covered 370 miles to Kinder, LA for our third stay at the Coushatta Casino, we like the place. We are back on the left side of the Mississippi River, passed miles and miles of rice fields, noticed that LA has green grass and the trees are budding out down here. Patches spent all day in her bag in the backseat without any trouble. She sat in her bag on the toolbox as Judy & I set up and when we let her in she gobbled up her food and water. It seems she will be a good travelling cat. We had a good day, everything still works fine. After resting we spent an hour or two in the casino, net loss was $6 (Judy lost more than I won). Good to be back on the road after 4 months stationary!

Patches & Pensacola NAS

We have a new addition to our RV home, Patches. Jody got Patches in St Martin when she was in medical school and we kept her a couple years while she traveled for her clinical studies and staring her residency. Since then she & Bruce have adapted 2 dogs and Patches pretty much lived in one bedroom out of the way of the bigger dogs. We took her for a couple days to see how she worked out, I don't like animals that shed and shit but it's working pretty good, next test will be traveling which starts in 4 days.

We also took Bev to the Naval Air Museum the day before she went home. It's great that both Bev & Judy enjoyed the museum with me. Bev is checking out a large model of the aircraft carrier Enterprise, she's looking for some specific sailors that the builder included, the seasick sailor, the card players, the sailor & a dog, and the cooks peeling potatoes. Ask Bev why pilots wear a white scarf, she knows the answer!

Bev stopped by, Mardi Gras & house cleaning

My sister Bev came down for a visit and to escape Michigan's winter for awhile. She said one of the highlights was going to 2 days of Mardi Gras parades, as a side benefit she also picked up some new jewelry. She went to 4 parades one day and saw Joe Cain's widows; on Fat Tuesday we all went to 5, most of which were back to back. One parade group was called the Comic Cowboys, you can see a couple of their floats comentary on current events. The weather was only so so, it was colder than usual but we had some decent sunshine so she didn't get to sit outside too much. She did get to check out the beach a few times and some of out favorite restaurants, including Subway! We finally made it to the Gulf Shores Museum, something Judy and I have wanted to check out for the last 2 winters. The most interesting sight was a video of hurricane Ivan (?) which hit the city a few years ago.

We spent 2 nights at Jody & Bruce's home in Mobile. They are getting their place ready to sell in order to move to Gulfport, MS later this year. We enlisted Bev's help for 2 or 3 days house cleaning to help them. Thanks for the help BJ.

Still here and relaxing

Well, a month has gone by! Don & Zola arrived the end of December so we have been visiting with them. Ray & Barb got fed up with the cold and wet weather and are now in Mesa, AZ.....we don't blame them. We were also going to head west 1/28 when our rent was due if the weather didn't return to normal. Normal being high 50s or 60s daytime and 40s at night. Well, it did, so we will stay one more month and head west 2/28. We have met with felow HitchHiker owners as they passed through the area traveling from NY to TX and showed them the Gulf and alittle of the area. Things have been pretty routine with Judy leading a water aerobics class 3 times a week, we play euchre twice a week at the park and have played some at the American Legion and Gulf Shores Senior Center. I play poker twice a week, until last Friday I have been doing a good job of loosing. I do think our euchre, bingo & cribbage winnings are offsetting my losses. We have, of course, been going out to eat quite a bit and have spent time with Jody and Bruce, including his birthday. We did spend 2 days sprucing up their breezeway between the house & garage because Jody has accepted a position in Gulfport, MS starting this coming September after her residency at Univ of S. Alabama is completed and she has her MS medical license. She has signed a 3 year contract and she & Bruce are now working on preparing their Mobile home for sale and starting the search for another in Gulfport. We have invited my sister Bev to come down in February for a visit or travel with us west when we leave.

We have been doing several tasks on the truck & RV such as vacuuming the ceiling and cleaning the carpet and some minor upgrades in preparation of hitting the road. Judy is busy planning the years travel. We currently will attend several rallies and gatherings in AZ, TN, MI, IN, OK & TX. We plan on spending March through May in AZ, NV & UT before returning to AL for Jody's June 18 graduation. Then we'll head north to MI for the rest of summer before heading south after Labor Day.

Hey Clayton....are you heading west with us 2/28?

Kristi & Randy's 2nd anniversary at Felix's

On New Years Eve we joined Devyn along with Jody & Bruce and Don & Zola at Felix's Fish Camp Restaurant, one of the best restaurants in Mobile, to celebrate Kristi & Randy's anniversary. This is where they were married exactly 2 years ago outside on the sand so you'll have to go waaay back in the blog to see those pictures again. Once again we didn't make it to midnight. After Felix's great meal we returned to the RV Park where we had reserved a room so we could enjoy an anniversary cake that matched their wedding cake and play cards.