Texas Hill Country
Odometer 59825
Trip 303 miles
Texas Hill Country
Monday dawned cool and gray, like a day wrapped in damp cotton. Too bad too, because today we will be traveling through what is know as the Texas Hill Country
The weather wasn't the only thing I could describe as damp cotton, day two of a nasty cold, had me coughing and sneezing. We got off to a late start with Joan letting me sleep in as long as I wanted, but eventually we were back on the trail. Fueled with coffee and bagels, shored up with Dayquil. Right away we missed a critical turn and ended up taking a "shortcut" up to Hico and back to Hamilton. The clouds are determined to stay right down on the hilltops today.
We stopped only to fix a quick bite of lunch at Menard. Soup and sandwiches and a 10 minute nap for me and off again headed for fort Stockton for the night.
It was a little after 4 PM when we topped a rise and saw bright light on the horizon! Could this be the Edge of Night!
A half hour later we actually drove out from under the grey blanket that has had us in it's grips since dawn. Whew! Glad it was only a 300 mile wide blanket.
I wanted to go on to Fort Stockton, but my energy was running on empty as we got close to Iraan, TX. Joan found a city park that had full hookups and a fabulous rate of $15/ night. Incidentally the name of the town is pronounced Ira-anne by the locals. The town was named after a rancher named Ira and his wife named, you guessed it, Ann Yates. They gave up part of their land for the town site. There are a few Youtube spoofs on the town that promote the premise that it is a ghost town created by our government to hide a secret installation. All we know is the RV park is quiet, clean, and inexpensive.
A somewhat sleepless night later, we packed up for the 3rd day of our journey out of Texas.
Odometer 60178
Trip 335 miles
Tuesday
Today will be a bit of a slog on the interstate, but it's the only route that heads even somewhat in the right direction from here.
We settled into a rhythm of Christmas music and warm sun pouring in the windows, a smile on our faces, when the melody changed to BuZZZZZ..... and a red warning light on the dash!
Our old friend, the cold solder joint in the Vehicle Display Unit rears it's head again. This problem first occurred when we were cruising down a steep grade in Tennessee in 2013. The way we know it's just a display malfunction is that we still have air pressure even though the lower gauge on the dash display shows "0" air pressure. At zero air, the air brakes would be fully applied and the yellow air brake knob would pop out. (It didn't). Joan did a google search and found that several others who have "fixed" the problem have had a re-occurrence too. Lucky for us the warning fault is not constant (the buzzer would drive us batty) but it comes and goes at random and again, just luck- it mostly stayed off for the next two days (mostly, there were a few notable exceptions). If you want to read about the first repair click this link VDC fix 2013
Joan read a blog by a fellow RVer that described a route that mostly skirts around El Paso and we decided that was just the thing we needed. Our last trip through, a little over a week ago was right through town and the freeway was under major construction. The tri-cities of El Paso, Las Cruces, and Juarez are home to 2.7 million people and it's the largest bi-national workforce in the western hemisphere. El Paso is also home to William Beaumont Army Medical Center, Briggs Army Airfield, and Fort Bliss. This place is seriously busy. Another interesting thing about El Paso is that the city is bisected by a mountain range. The Franklin Mountains divide west from east in the northern part of the city. There is an aerial tram that you can ride to the top of Ranger Peak. One last thing to know about El Paso is that it is 3740 feet above seal level, nearly 2000 feet higher than Ajo, AZ where we spend most of the winter.
The by-pass worked well and was especially important because we were making our transit around the west side of El Paso right in the rush hour. Shortly after re-joining I-10 north of El Paso, we turned off at Vado, NM where Joan had located a small RV park that would honor the Passsport members 1/2 price deal for the night.
The Western Skies RV Park appeared to be a little "distressed" shall we say. We were parked right next to a derelict truck crane, and if there ever was gravel on the roads, it has long since passed. The roads were very dusty as were the RV spaces. As careful as we could be, lot of that dust was carried into our bus. A long day for us, and my head cold has taken it's toll on my stamina, after dinner it was not long before we were both in bed. I-10 is so close, I am forced to put in my earplugs just to crowd out the sounds of passing cars and trucks. The forecast says it should be just a degree or two above freezing tonight- thankful for that!
Tomorrow will be freeway all the way to Tucson where we will provision up before heading to Ajo on Thursday.
Your Traveling Friends,
Jeff and Joan
Trip 303 miles
Texas Hill Country
Monday dawned cool and gray, like a day wrapped in damp cotton. Too bad too, because today we will be traveling through what is know as the Texas Hill Country
 |
| Monday's route |
The weather wasn't the only thing I could describe as damp cotton, day two of a nasty cold, had me coughing and sneezing. We got off to a late start with Joan letting me sleep in as long as I wanted, but eventually we were back on the trail. Fueled with coffee and bagels, shored up with Dayquil. Right away we missed a critical turn and ended up taking a "shortcut" up to Hico and back to Hamilton. The clouds are determined to stay right down on the hilltops today.
We stopped only to fix a quick bite of lunch at Menard. Soup and sandwiches and a 10 minute nap for me and off again headed for fort Stockton for the night.
 |
| US 190 looking west toward Eldorado, TX |
It was a little after 4 PM when we topped a rise and saw bright light on the horizon! Could this be the Edge of Night!
 |
| US 190 in Texas just east of Iraan, TX |
A half hour later we actually drove out from under the grey blanket that has had us in it's grips since dawn. Whew! Glad it was only a 300 mile wide blanket.
I wanted to go on to Fort Stockton, but my energy was running on empty as we got close to Iraan, TX. Joan found a city park that had full hookups and a fabulous rate of $15/ night. Incidentally the name of the town is pronounced Ira-anne by the locals. The town was named after a rancher named Ira and his wife named, you guessed it, Ann Yates. They gave up part of their land for the town site. There are a few Youtube spoofs on the town that promote the premise that it is a ghost town created by our government to hide a secret installation. All we know is the RV park is quiet, clean, and inexpensive.
A somewhat sleepless night later, we packed up for the 3rd day of our journey out of Texas.
Odometer 60178
Trip 335 miles
Tuesday
 |
| Tuesday morning, our route for the day |
Today will be a bit of a slog on the interstate, but it's the only route that heads even somewhat in the right direction from here.
We settled into a rhythm of Christmas music and warm sun pouring in the windows, a smile on our faces, when the melody changed to BuZZZZZ..... and a red warning light on the dash!
 |
| Dash gauge's showing zero on rear air pressure (bottom center) |
Our old friend, the cold solder joint in the Vehicle Display Unit rears it's head again. This problem first occurred when we were cruising down a steep grade in Tennessee in 2013. The way we know it's just a display malfunction is that we still have air pressure even though the lower gauge on the dash display shows "0" air pressure. At zero air, the air brakes would be fully applied and the yellow air brake knob would pop out. (It didn't). Joan did a google search and found that several others who have "fixed" the problem have had a re-occurrence too. Lucky for us the warning fault is not constant (the buzzer would drive us batty) but it comes and goes at random and again, just luck- it mostly stayed off for the next two days (mostly, there were a few notable exceptions). If you want to read about the first repair click this link VDC fix 2013
Joan read a blog by a fellow RVer that described a route that mostly skirts around El Paso and we decided that was just the thing we needed. Our last trip through, a little over a week ago was right through town and the freeway was under major construction. The tri-cities of El Paso, Las Cruces, and Juarez are home to 2.7 million people and it's the largest bi-national workforce in the western hemisphere. El Paso is also home to William Beaumont Army Medical Center, Briggs Army Airfield, and Fort Bliss. This place is seriously busy. Another interesting thing about El Paso is that the city is bisected by a mountain range. The Franklin Mountains divide west from east in the northern part of the city. There is an aerial tram that you can ride to the top of Ranger Peak. One last thing to know about El Paso is that it is 3740 feet above seal level, nearly 2000 feet higher than Ajo, AZ where we spend most of the winter.
The by-pass worked well and was especially important because we were making our transit around the west side of El Paso right in the rush hour. Shortly after re-joining I-10 north of El Paso, we turned off at Vado, NM where Joan had located a small RV park that would honor the Passsport members 1/2 price deal for the night.
 |
| Home for the night at Vado, NM |
The Western Skies RV Park appeared to be a little "distressed" shall we say. We were parked right next to a derelict truck crane, and if there ever was gravel on the roads, it has long since passed. The roads were very dusty as were the RV spaces. As careful as we could be, lot of that dust was carried into our bus. A long day for us, and my head cold has taken it's toll on my stamina, after dinner it was not long before we were both in bed. I-10 is so close, I am forced to put in my earplugs just to crowd out the sounds of passing cars and trucks. The forecast says it should be just a degree or two above freezing tonight- thankful for that!
Tomorrow will be freeway all the way to Tucson where we will provision up before heading to Ajo on Thursday.
Your Traveling Friends,
Jeff and Joan
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