Can you hear me now?

We had a great visit in Abilene, Texas with our grandchildren and their parents....learning our way around their new hometown and taking the grandparents role at ball games, dance lessons, horseback riding sessions and more.  We also enjoyed touring some of Abilene's new neighborhoods as the family researched building a new home.

Months ago we had scheduled a string of regular medical appointments in Arizona, so it was finally time to head west once again.  We departed Abilene on Monday, October 10.  Our planned stopping point that night was in Sierra Blanca, Texas at an RV park listed in our Passport America Directory.  When we got to the small town we found that the RV park was abandoned and went to another down the road that didn't look much better.  But, there was working electricity and a lock box to deposit our $10 fee for a night.  Shortly after arriving, we discovered problems with our brand new tow car.  We started making phone calls to get roadside help only to discover that we were in a very marginal area for cell service.  We were alos on the edge of a time zone change.  There was much confusion in trying to get someone to understand where we were located and what help we needed, and then when help would come.  "Can you hear me now???"

A contact was finally made and help arrived.  Our AAA driver, Joe, managed to get us relocated into El Paso, an 80 mile drive, on Tuesday morning.  We spent two days 'camped' in an alley behind a Ford dealer in El Paso before deciding that we would have them totally disengage the drive train and transmission and we would tow the car on to Arizona.  We drove directly to a Ford dealer in Gilbert to drop off the car.  The service department there has been completely helpful and says they will help us recover from our "catastrophic failure" and work with us to prevent it from happening again.

Greater downtown Sierra Blanca, Texas



Load 'em up, move 'em out!


The RV is now happily parked at our winter home at Palm Creek in Casa Grande, Arizona.  There are still details to work out, but it appears that Ford will cover our expenses under warranty.  After all, the car has barely 2000 miles on it and the transmission failed!  We are looking forward to a relaxing winter.



    

Friday Night Lights!

Friday we went to the Abilene-Wylie High School homecoming football game.   We had noticed the big stadium earlier in the week and decided that we'd check out the action on Friday night.  Our granddaughter is a new member of the marching band.  However, since she and a group of other new students are not quite up to speed on the routines and also having to learn a new instrument, they are uniformed "go-fers" for the time being.  I think Tom and I were the only people in the stands NOT wearing bright purple shirts, but we enjoyed being a part of the Wylie spirit for the evening.

The stadium is quite impressive for a high school and is part of a large complex of facilitiess for all the sports.

The football team entered the field running through the giant inflatable helmet.

                                                       

The visiting team brought their leopard along.

The giant scoreboard has a video feed in the center for current action on the filed as well as instant replays.
There were even flat screens mounted above the concession stands and restrooms under the grandstands so you won't miss a minute of the game.

The visiting band arrived in two big busses and two Penske trucks full of instruments. 

 The football team had their own fleet.

The Wylie band takes the field on artificial turf painted with a giant bulldog in the center.  Our granddaughter was in charge of the big drum in the center foreground.

Sadly, the Bulldogs lost the game...but we had a good time!