Livingston, TX with friends

Another 230 some mile day and we arrived at the Escapee HQ park, Rainbows End about 2:30.  We are here to have the bedroom TV cabling checked out as Judy likes the local news using the over the air antenna and the reception is pretty poor.  Just as important or more is we can visit with Rudy & Linda who have a long term site here to be near family.  We went out at 4:30 to eat and visit with them.

We brought a couple hundred "loving friends" with us on the front of the HitchHiker and Ford, love bugs. This is the most bugs we have ever had on the front cap.  We cleaned them off shortly after getting here as they can stain the paint.  They are flying making love all over down here, damn bugs.

Whitney, TX

Today was a 241 mile day southwest to a membership park that will cost nothing to stay in tonight.......except a few thousand dollars for the membership.  We'll stay one night and off in the morning to Livingston for a few days.  We stayed here back in 2010 with Dave & Trish and Jeff & Susan.
I enjoy reading the Texas ranch names on the entrance arches as we travel......today's good ones were Wrong Turn Ranch and the best was Stud Duck Ranch.  Sure would be nice to know how they got their names.

Sweetwater, TX

Well, neither of us were abducted by aliens in Roswell so we had a long 293 mile day to Sweetwater, TX on the back roads.  We are in Lake Sweetwater Municipal CG out in the boonies with one other RV.  We are way off the main roads so it should be very quiet and dark tonight, good for sleeping. The DirecTV and Verizon hotspot work well so we are happy campers.  Two normal 200 mile days to Livingston, TX and the Escapees home park Saturday.

Roswell, NM and the original illegal aliens arriving on UFOs

On the 30th we made the 222 mile tow to Roswell, NM.  We passed by Roswell in 2010 when Margret died and we were headed to Cumming, GA.  This time we stopped and Judy wants to check out the UFOs and te original illegal aliens from 1947.  I was too tired after the drive and setting up so we decided to stay another day and visit the museum(s) tomorrow.  We did go out for a late lunch which was VERY good, I had a bacon cheeseburger and Judy had a chef salad at the Big D restaurant downtown.  Roswell is much larger than we expected.

This fellow (lady?) greeted us as we entered.

And here they meet face to face!

After awhile they got pretty chummy with Judy..........

But they they had to leave.............

One did stick around for some medical attention.........

he was too ill to make the trip to Dracula, GA and have Jody work on him (her).

Judye & Bill

We started the day at the Ford dealer getting the oil changed and some routine service.  We fueled up as diesel was only $3.35 then stopped at Camping World which was next to the CG we are in.  Bill & Judy came over so we had a good visit then went to Sadie's, a Mexican restaurant, for lunch.  We finished our visit so they went home late in the afternoon.

Albuquerque, Bill & Judy visit

Sunday morning the rain woke us at 7am but I managed to sleep in until 8am, Judy was up.  We had a plan to head east from Camp Verde on the back roads but after seeing the forecast of rain, flooding and winds to the east we changed our plans.  At 9:30 we had packed up between the rain showers and headed north to I40 and then east.  We thought we'd travel 200 to 250 miles but after talking about Judye & Bill Teetz being in Albuquerque for the upcoming balloon festival we decided to push on the 370+ miles to see them.  We stopped for lunch at Judy's favorite truck stop....Loves....so by the time arrived and set up the sun was starting to set.  Judy saw on Facebook we passed Robert & Leslie, who were at a casino on I40 west of Albuquerque.  If we'd had known we could have seen them them too.

Camp Verde, AZ visiting Dave & Trish

Wednesday the 24th we traveled 88 miles to Camp Verde and the Western Horizon membership park to visit RV friends Dave & Trish Wood.  The last time we saw them was 2010 at the Grand Canyon while we were with Clayton & Pat.  Dave & Trish went to Camp Verde while we headed east to Meteor Crater.   They liked the Camp Verde area and work camped at the Western Horizon park a couple years until Dave had some significant health problems.  They sold their truck & HH and bought a home in a 55+ community across the road from the park.

 
There is an 18 mile down grade from about 6500 feet to 3000 feet.  It has been in the 90s while we are here.

                                                    Home sweet home for 4 days.

We got to visit with Dave & Trish each day and yesterday we all drove to Jerome, an old copper mining town which is now an artist colony, I think, and a tourist destination.  It's up a steep mountain and the streets are very narrow and twisty.  It has been raining today and we plan to leave tomorrow, the weather should be good.