S'Mores anyone?

We had a pretty "laid-back" weekend once the dance recital was over.  On Saturday, we joined the McCurdy's for grilled burgers at dinner time.  Afterwards, friends arrived and enjoyed the pool.  At sundown it was time to gather at the fire-pit and make S'Mores.  On Monday we were in charge of transportation to horseback riding lessons, making lasagna in the crockpot for dinner and a few other chores before the evening meal and games following.  The last week of school coming up!

A busy week

Our days since earlier in the week continued to be fairly busy....we continued afternoon "bus service" from the Jr. Hi and the High School, and some dinner preparations to follow.   Thursday we had a cloudy, windy day and by dinnertime it wasn't looking good at all.  Our drive back to the RV was made exciting as the thunder, lightning, wind and rain ramped up to mega-proportions.  Once we got back to the rig, we brought the slides in to protect the canvas "toppers" and spent the rest of the evening "rockin' and rollin'."  Friday was a bit cooler but by Saturday it was hot and sunny once again.  On Friday there were more costume alterations to be made for the dance recital, and on Saturday afternoon we went to the Abilene Civic Center for the grand performance.  It was a well organized and quickly moving show.  Merrick and Coffey both did well.  We celebrated afterwards with dinner at Red Robin and a rousing game of "Herbie" back at the house.  With no big plans for the holiday weekend, we should have some restful days.

Coffey's pirate costume, minus the big hat,  and Merrick as a "techno-robot"

Into the routine

It didn't take us long to get back into the "Abilene Routine."  On Monday Tom provided the school pickups and then drop-offs at dance and horseback riding in the late afternoon.  Meanwhile, Mary got dinner started for the family plus Alex (Close's friend).  Once dinner was over, the McCurdys headed to the pool to cool off.                                    

Tuesday morning we reported to the "mega-church" across from the Wylie Jr. High to attend the Awards Day for the 6th grade.  Merrick received two awards.  From there we headed to the McCurdy house where Mary spent some time making final adjustments to Coffey's costume for her dance recital coming up this weekend.  Evenings the rest of this week will be busy with rehearsals for the recital in which both Coffey and Merrick will participate.   

                         

Mindful of the tragedy over the last several days in Oklahoma, we watched the weather here in Abilene.  We had some extremely dark clouds, high winds, spits of rain and the temperature dropped about 20*.  Luckily, that is all that happened, and by late afternoon it was sunny and 80* once again.

Abilene, Abilene, Prettiest town I've ever seen

Well, maybe!  But we were glad to arrive here this afternoon and get settled in our familiar campground.  After relaxing a bit from the windy drive, we headed over to the McCurdys.  As usual, the family was involved in various activities...Matt and Coffey spent the sunny 100* afternoon at tryouts for a softball team, Ann and Close tended to various shopping chores gathering stuff for their trip to Peru, new swim suits to meet specifications for Merrick's stay at a camp and groceries.  When we all were finally together Matt cooked burgers on the grill for us and the family enjoyed a dip in the pool.  A pleasant end to a great day!

I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles!

We woke up early today, even without an alarm clock.  Our bodies must still be on the “get up early for golf” schedule.  We walked up to the clubhouse/office to pay our electric bill and check-out and joined some other RVers for homemade cinnamon rolls.  They may have been homemade, but they didn’t compare in the least to Mary’s Mom’s rolls!!!  We went through the morning routine checking the tow hitch and running the car through its gears, checking the vehicle lights and signals and were on the road a little before 9:00 MDT.  We cruised past Las Cruces and through El Paso, then switched drivers for the ride to Van Horn.  Mary’s cousins, Bethann and Geoff called on the phone while we were stopped for lunch – finally catching up on messages we’d left earlier in the week asking if they were at their New Mexico house.  Since we’d passed on by several hours earlier, we were glad to hear they are still in Virginia.  This drive from Arizona to Abilene is through 800 miles of rock, thorns and scrubby bushes.  We can see for miles and miles and miles and miles in any direction!  We arrived at the Escapee’s Tra-Park in Pecos, Texas around 4:30 CDT (we’d lost another hour today!).  The park is in an area of Texas that has lots of oil drilling going on and they have leased many of their sites to oil workers, and it’s a pretty “bare bones” park in the Escapee’s system.  The park is quite full, but at least they keep some open sites for travelers.  This is where we were parked when our engine failed last fall.  Hopefully we’ll be on the road in the morning with no problems!

The Wheels on the Bus go 'Round and 'Round!

After sitting for seven months, the engine started and the wheels turned!  Hooray!!!   At about 8:00am this morning we pulled out of a very empty Palm Creek Golf and RV Resort and headed east on I-10.  We had enjoyed the last six weeks or so of a more “laid back” routine in the park.  Day by day residents departed and by the time we left there were very few people still in the park.  In season the poker games have about 80 people playing.  It’s now down to about 15…and we’re not sure where they come from because as we ride around the park, it looks nobody is around.  For several weeks playing on the golf course was free…and we took advantage of that daily.  The day we left, however, the “back nine” was closed due to all the new construction going on.  We are looking forward to seeing all the changes around the park when we return in the fall.

Our first stop today was at the “Speed-co” just six miles down I-10 from the park.  We had some service done, but they weren’t able to do everything we wanted, so we’ll have to arrange some service stops back east.  From there we continued east, stopping at one of the prettiest rest areas on the Interstate, Texas Canyon, for a lunch break.  It felt good to be back on the road!  From there it was on to Deming, New Mexico and an overnight stop at the Escapee’s “Dreamcatcher RV Park.”    

We pulled into the park just at 5:00 New Mexico time (we’d lost an hour entering NM) and found a space in the almost empty park.  Almost immediately a neighbor came over and asked us about our Ford Escape.  Seems he burned up the transmission in his Escape for the second time just the other day.  We’ve met several people this way!

Our destination tomorrow is Pecos, TX.