The Ray Adventures: April 2018

One the road again, after 6 months in Rockport we said goodbye to friends and are on our way back to Salem.

The first few pictures are of the hot dog roast we had at our site in late March. Prescott and Pat planned the party then they both got sick and couldn't come. They provided the hot dogs and buns, the rest was pot luck, as usual lots of great food. It's no wonder we've gained weight this winter. In spite of being in a disaster zone we had a lot of fun, Lynda, our activities director came up with a lot of new activities.

We left April 2nd for San Antonio about 11, will be staying at Ft. Sam Houston for 3 nights. We needed to check the back passenger inside tire, it kept losing pressure, stopping about halfway to SA. The tire shop guy said "sure" we can accommodate a big rig. It didn't take long to repair the tire valve then the fun began, We couldn't pull ahead, too much mud, we might get stuck and you can't back up(or at least we can't) with the Jeep attached, so we got to disconnect, back out, and reconnect. Just one of the little challenges rv'ers face. We got to Ft. Sam finally about 4, it's only a 3 hour drive usually.

April 3, happy birthday big brother. The windshield is getting repaired today, seems silly to do before the Alaska trip but the crack is over a foot long. The repairmen are scheduled to arrive between 3 and 5, they arrived just before 5pm, we are so glad they were able to come on base instead of us having to go to the shop. It took about 2 hours for the 2 men to finish. We sat outside supervising. Big thunder and lightning storm during the night and no leaks!

April 4, Happy birthday "fav" daughter-in-law Barbara, after a morning trip to the Commissary and Exchange we headed down to the Riverwalk, did a little shopping then took a long walk (over 3 mile rt) to see the Grotto, north of the dam and locks. 41/2 years ago we were quite impressed so had to see it again. We stopped at St Anthony Hotel for snacks and a drink (I chugged water after the long hot walk) before heading back to Luci.

April 5, Off to Abilene about 9:45 for our 255 mile drive to Dyess AFB. About an hour out of Abilene we heard a strange "flapping" noise on top of the windshield. Gary found a spot to pull off - not always easy- the moulding in the middle of the windshield was loose. Hmm, off we go again, soon after the moulding was coming loose and was flapping in the breeze. We had to pull over again. Gary was able to pull the top piece off. We made a few calls to the glass people, our only choice was to continue on to Abilene. The next half hour was stressful, we could hear the glass rubbing on the metal. We followed the directions to Dyess AFB, as we approached the gate an MP came running out - they had reconfigured the entrance for security reasons - YIKES! We had to disconnect and turn around , stopping 5pm traffic in both directions and go to the Tye gate. We finally got settled at 6:30. Challenges like these I can do without!

April 6 , Happy birthday twins Brayden and Jessa, 13 already! We had to take the coach to the glass shop to get moulding replaced, it took most of the day, not to fix but to get the paper work taken care of for the insurance company. Glass Doctor in SanAntonio probably had to pay for it. We took Luci to the dog park near the Abilene Zoo to run some of the "stuff" out of her.

April 7, The weather turned COLD and WINDY as promised, "feels like 17". Brrrrrrr. We decided to go to an afternoon movie, we had plans for dinner with Gary's brother John and his wife Jackie who live in Buffalo Gap, only about 10 miles away. The movie "The Death of Stalin" was, in a word , "odd", a black comedy about the regime take over after his death. We met John and Jackie at ToMolly's at 5. Jackie has to have dialysis every other day, so they came directly from the center, it's been over 41/2 years since we've seen them. John's son and granddaughter joined us, its been many, many years since we've seen Michael - I think he was a teen, Kayla his daughter is a sweet 10 year old. Sure good to see them, we talked about them coming to Oregon for a family reunion this May.

April 8, It's not as cold as windy for our 200 mile drive to Palo Duro Canyon State Park SE of Amarillo. No challenges on our drive, we arrived at the check in about 4, behind about 10 cars. We thought it was odd that time of day, no campers just cars. We found out as we drove down the canyon a wedding was taking place at the event center. We were all set up by 6:00. Palo Duro is the 2nd largest canyon in the US, 120 miles long and 800-1,000 feet deep. Known as the Grand Canyon of Texas. What a nice park, beautiful views no matter where you look. We did 2 hikes, Monday we took a 2 hour walk along the edge of the canyon, we couldn't finish the length of hike it got too hot. Tuesday we hiked the Commanche Trail near our camping area. We didn't know how difficult or how steep it was going to be, we probably gained about 500-600 feet in elevation, but the trail was gradual. we didn't have to stop and admire the view too often.

April 10, 3 deer came into the campground as we were preparing to leave, Luci got a little excited seeing the "big dogs". We left very early for us, 8:00, for the 322 windy mile drive, arriving about 3:00, we were both bushed, thank goodness for leftovers. Originally we were going to stay 2 nights at Kirtland AFB but with strong winds forecast again we're going to stay until Saturday.

April 11 We decided to take the Tram to the top, a 2.7 mile ride to the 10,000 peak of Sandia Mtn, last time we were here we kept postponing the ride, on our last day we drove out there, guess what, it closed the day before for 2 weeks maintenance. Well our timing was great, closed again! We decided to head down Route 66 through downtown Albuquerque, we had lunch at Kelly's, in 1936 the building opened as a Ford dealership and Texaco gas station, now a fun brew pub. We decided to eat outside even if it was windy, no one else was on the patio. Great food. After lunch we went to Old Town just to browse. The forecast was for increasing winds in the evening, about 11:30 we decided we'd better pull the big slide in so the winds wouldn't damage it. Sorry neighbors! (You have to start the engine)

Well that's it for this week, enjoy the pic's!

TTFN

Gary and Pam