McGaffs On The Fly

(Yesterday’s News, WiFi no bueno)

After multiple stops and many miles we’ve decided to stop for at least two nights in AZ. We’ve been able to easily find spots to stay at but weekends are much harder to reserve, and pretty much all National and State Parks are hard to reserve any day. Next time we’ll plan ahead more, it really messes with our flying by the seat of our pants.

Yesterday was another long travel day highlighted by our stop at Petrified Forest National Park. What I thought might be some sort of forest was actually scattered prehistoric petrified logs that have been around millions of years. I’m sure most arborist would find the logs thrilling, I found the petroglyphs from back in time the most interesting.

The best part of the forest was not even the forest, it was the Painted Desert, a beautiful valley of brilliant layers of red rock. We tried to get some photos but as in most cases it just doesn’t translate. There is a Best Buy in our future to find a good camera, the old iPhone just can’t hang with us anymore.

We are in the middle of…a…lot…to…do. Can’t wait to see what Joanie has planned.

Mobile Maintenance Bro, “Yea sorry but it looks like your water heater tank is cracked, you’ll have to replace the whole thing.”

Marc, “The whole thing, why not just the tank?”

MMB, “Heck it’s only $600 plus installation and you get a new water heater plus a warranty.”

Marc, “My water heater is fine and if it’s running why do I need a warranty?”

MMB, “At least it will look really nice and brand new.”

Marc, “Thanks Bro, I’ll install myself when I get back…here’s your $85. You’ve been a real champ.”

Marc to Joan, “I may have forgotten to drain the water heater for the freeze but the good news is we’re gonna get a pretty new one.”

We started out this morning and set a destination of Truth or Consequences, Joanie had read an article in the Wall Street Journal about it as an up and coming “artsy-fartsy” town. Heck, Ted Turner has a few places there so it must be nice. When we spoke to our friend Geraldine, who is from NM, she said TandC was always known as a meth town…uh oh. Long story short, don’t be afraid to read the WSJ but always listen to Geraldine when visiting NM.

Along the route we stopped at White Sands National Park, over 275 miles of very white sand. And like all stops Joanie tried her best to march across as much of the sand dunes as possible. White Marc now has a tint of pink!

Decided not to stay in TandC, found a great RV park near Elephant Butte Lake, one of the few wet spots in NM. Thinking maybe Petrified Forest tomorrow…

After ignoring Little Al for over a month we decided it’s time to take his handcuff off and get on the road. Just like all of our travels we have a starting point and a destination but will “fly by the seat of our pants” in between.

Destination St. George, Utah.

Little Al decided to throw a wrench into the departure time when he decided not to let the electric trailer jack work. To my relief, after an hour charging the batteries I was able to raise it just enough to back under it. Bad news, couldn’t get it to lower until we were able to figure out how to do it manually. New batteries to come when we get to Dallas.

First leg…Spring Branch>Austin>Dallas.

Happy Easter.

After leaving Dallas with only a plan to stop in Abilene for Joanie’s 2nd vaccine, we decided that Ruidoso would be a great place to stop for a few nights. Our first night in Little Al since the Texas Arctic blast last month, it appears I did a poor job of winterizing because after hooking up water started coming out of the rear when I turned on the water. Mobile maintenance at noon…it’s always something.

Last night we left the fans going over-head since the air was so crisp and refreshing. I woke up at 3:30 to close the fans and turn on the heater, turns out crisp and refreshing turned to frigid and we were in a 43 degree trailer… no fans on tonight.

Joanie’s resting and nursing a headache, I guess the vaccine is working. Rest day today by orders of the boss.

With the beautiful weather came the flow of beach goers to Port A. I learned my lesson about asking anyone on the beach what they were catching, digging for, or any other question…turns out they are all “close talkers”. Lesson learned.

Checked out the RV park on the end of the island, IB Magee State Park. They are still working on the restrooms and showers, still a ways to go. Great spot but not on our list to stay at.

High wind today for last night, manana bebemos!

There were not a lot of good things that came from the result of Hurricane Harvey in 2017, but one thing that was positive was how much they have fixed up the state parks. We have already decided when we come back we will stay at Goose Island, today we added Mustang Island State Park to the list. Both are more remote and offer all the amenities our current stay offers, without the closeness of the neighbors.

Our current park, Pioneer RV Resort, is a great spot with 90% “snow birds” here for the winter. When we showed up we brought the average age down to about 80. We were pretty proud of ourselves until a much younger couple walked by and gave us the “hi old people” nod bringing us back down to earth.

Weather has been great but 18 mile an hour winds this afternoon, looks like reading in Little Al later.

Some people go to the beach, the shore, seashore, shoreline and/or just ocean. When Little Al kept telling me he was going to the coast with or without me I knew what he meant, I just didn’t know if we were ever going to escape our Spring Branch captivity.

For those of you that have never seen an Airstream cry, we’ll let’s just say you have to drop everything and let the little guy’s dream come true. So we cleaned him up and loaded for our first away trip in months…here in Port Aransas through Monday.

Well, another change of plans.

Seems we were not destined to take Little Al anywhere this month no matter how hard we tried.

Instead of heading to warmer weather we will be driving to the tourist destination of Dallas to babysit our granddaughter for the week. Again, a parent at her school was exposed to COVID and they have shut down the school for 2 weeks.

OK, better safe than sorry!

One step back for our trip. Little Al has no comment, he is not speaking to me.

One step forward, we get to hang with the sweetest and cutest little girl.

Second step forward, Marco done gone and got the shot.

After a tough and tearful conversation with Little Al, we’ve decided to leave him behind and head for warmer weather in Florida. He wants to go so bad but we think it’s better he rest and get ready for our next long adventure in the summer.

Just seems like yesterday we were leaving for CO looking for cooler weather, oh how things have changed.

Our plan is to leave Thursday and drive eastward until we get tired and make our first stop around Lafayette, LA. Our first destination will be the Destin area for two nights to scout out where we want to stay on the return trip then head farther south looking for that perfect 75-80 degree weather. I’ve been told by my copilot that we will go no further south than Tampa, we’ll see how that goes.

A few thoughts on the way:

We still plan to quarantine and will be staying only at Airbnb properties.

We’re hoping we will be able to get the vaccine as quick, if not quicker, in Florida. Since I’m high risk with Type 1 diabetes I hope it is sooner than later.

If I can get mine before Joanie, how will she be able to party with me in Florida when I hit the bar scene? I guess it will just be me, every other high risk geriatric, all the millennials that COVID can’t touch, and “you know who” supporters…should be a grand time.

Thanks for following, here we go…