Burs in the saddle October 27-29 2010

David’s city rhyme: It's really true I swear that we're spending the night in Sayre.
 

Flat Lands of Texas

Largest Cross in Texas!

Oblivious no longer, truck driver

There was a bit of excitement as we traveled towards our next stop. We were traveling along just fine when a truck hauling a horse trailer blew the right rear outside tire on his duel axel trailer as he passed us. Flying pieces of black tire hit the front of the motorhome and the windshield. David honked at him to get his attention but the truck driver remained oblivious and sped on past. We couldn’t drive fast enough to catch up with him so we had to hope he would figure it out before he ran into worse problems and hurt himself or the two horses in the trailer. A few miles down the road we spotted the trailer stopped on the side of the freeway. The other rear tire on the right had finally blown. At least the driver and his horses were somewhat safe.

Oklahoma at last

Route 66

 We found a great place to stay in Sayre Oklahoma; the Sayre RV and City Park. It has wide sites with heavy duty picnic tables. We were surrounded by a golf course, tennis court, trails, playgrounds, and ponds.

There were only a few RV’s at the park so we had lots of privacy. It was so quiet and beautiful we decided to rest there for a couple of days.

Picking out the Burs

The hard part came after we went for a walk and the dogs came back limping. The ground is covered with burs that stick fast and hard to everything. The poor dogs had them in their paws and in their hair. They were so hard to pull out we had to get some needle nose pliers to remove them. We discovered how tenacious this weed is when we walked bare foot in the motorhome and got them in our feet too. The dogs brought them in before we knew they had so many stuck in their hair.  These burs were so strongly attached to the rugs; we had to cut them out. There always seems to be at least one negative to every place we visit.

Geese and more geese

David wanted to find a Mexican restaurant so he checked the phone GPS for listings of local restaurants. Ten came up on the screen so we selected one. It turned out to be a field near the railroad tracks but no restaurant. We chose the next one on Main Street and that one wasn’t there either. Finally we thought we might get lucky if we chose one of the Sonic drive ins. No Sonic drive in at the next location either. Just as we were about to give up, we found a Sonic just up the street. This was the only restaurant listed that was still in operation in Sayre. The people must come from miles around since it is the only fast food restaurant available.

Beckham County Courthouse

We saw our first Oklahoma buffalo statue in front of the Beckham County Courthouse. Interestingly, it was painted in a military uniform.

This is such an interesting town, when I bought some stamps at the small post office, the post mistress told me that the large picture on the stamp booklet was not a stamp. I told her I was aware of that. The reason she explained was due to the fact the inmates at the prison don’t seem to understand the difference and she just wanted to make sure I did. She is always finding it on the envelopes from the prison. I wonder what she thought I had in common with the prison inmates. This is a great little town if you like no distractions whatsoever except for the unique townspeople.

Overnite RV Park in Amarillo Texas October 26 2010

David’s city rhyme:   I hope to sleep like an armadillo as we spend the night in Amarillo.

Last night was very scary because we had 70 mile per hour gusting winds rocking the motorhome back and forth all night long. We were rocking so hard I thought the motorhome was going to flip over on its side any minute. There wasn’t another RV in front of us so we were the wind break for the rest of the RVs on the hill. Hard rain and hail came next. We didn’t dare get back on the road because the cross winds from the storm really would have tipped us over. So much for a peaceful 3 day break: it was such a relief when the winds stopped and we could leave this crazy place.

It was a nice drive to Amarillo Texas for our next stop at the Overnite RV Park. This park was a nice park with large grassy sites, trees and picnic tables. There was even a dog run at the rear of the property. We noticed some long term renters and thought about how it would be to stay here for longer later on, but it would get too cold for us in the winter and their monthly rate is probably expensive monthly if the nightly rate is any indication. They did have free movies and a book exchange. The drawback to the exchange is the fact that the owner won’t trade if your books have any romance in them at all. I had some mystery romance books that have very little but they didn’t pass muster. I did get some great military suspense books for the ones she would trade.

I made some bread in the bread machine that night. It was the first time we had used the bread machine in the motorhome. It was wonderful waking up to the smell of fresh baked bread. The bread tastes better and it is cheaper than the store brands.

Sunday in Tijeras New Mexico October 24 2010

Edgewood Ward Meetinghouse

I found an LDS meeting house only 10 miles away in a town called Edgewood after searching on lds.org. The best news was the meeting time: 11:00a.m. Yea, we get to sleep in after our rough day.

It was a nice drive on the famous Route 66 to the meeting house. We were greeted by four really nice people. It was great to see that this ward took friend-shipping strangers seriously. The ward program was 8 half-size pages of really great information for the ward members. One interesting notice was an invitation to ward members to help clean the Albuquerque, New Mexico Temple every Monday at 9:00 a. m. and included the words, “all hands welcome.” Wow, what a special experience that would be! We only get invited to help clean our ward building. They were also invited to volunteer at the temple cafeteria: “It’s fun and smells heavenly.” This ward is so involved they even have an Empty Nesters Family Home Evening group.

It was a small ward filled with great people. My dad would have felt right at home here. He liked to wear his western suit and bolo ties to church. Quite a few men wore those and some great looking cowboy boots too. This brings back fond memories of David in his cowboy boots. That is all he wore for years because I liked the look of them and we were living in the southwest: Arizona.

Sacrament meeting was presented by the primary and the theme was how to follow Jesus. The kids were really cute as they came up to the mike. Some were very shy and others seemed very comfortable up at the pulpit.  The children sang with such excitement and gusto and their faces just lit up. It was a very sweet and special sacrament meeting.

Sunday School was taught by Brother Reizt dressed as I mentioned above in my dad’s favorite attire; bolo tie, western suit and cowboy boots.  He was a very articulate teacher. He used his GPS as part of the lesson. After writing the letters GPS on the blackboard, he asked the class to come up with appropriate gospel words that started with those letters.
Gospel        /    God            /    God
Prophets    /    Prayer, Prophets    /    Priesthood, Prophets
Savior        /    Scriptures        /    Spirit

These can be our GPS for getting through life. They will keep us on track. We just have to turn them on and make sure the batteries are charged through prayer, scripture study, following the Savior and obeying the commandments.

Diane Reitz, Terrie and Vikki Kreutzian

I met some really great sisters in Relief Society. I was asked once again to introduce myself. I had already done this in Sunday School so most of them knew that David and I were newbie fulltime RVers from Washington on our way to visit our daughter’s family in Austin for Thanksgiving and Christmas. This led to meeting Sister Reitz who in her wonderful southern accent told me that her son is an anesthesiologist at Swedish Hospital in Seattle; small world. Sister Vikki Kreustzian taught a very inspired lesson on faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the many highlights of the lesson: “Faith is a principle of power and the moving cause of action within us.” At the end of the lesson, she asked us to think about the words In and On in relation to the Savior. For example, do we believe in Him and do we believe on Him and the difference between the two. I felt the spirit very strongly during the lesson and there was so much information to feast upon.

Hidden Valley “Resort”? October 23, 2010

 David’s city rhyme:     It's time for some rest, since we're now in Tijeras.

We finally arrived at the Hidden Valley “Resort”? I don’t know how the owners figure they can call this place anything close to a resort. The RV’s are packed in here like sardines. We are so close to our neighbor that the clearance between our slide outs is only few feet.  There are no grassy spots with a picnic table, there is just the site driveway itself. Luckily we only have to pay $10 per night because the “Resort” is part of our campground association. There is a pool closed up for the winter and an indoor hot tub, but it doesn’t look inviting. I am going to check out the exchange library. Hopefully there are some good books to trade.

We were really tired from the 280 mile drive; half on bad reservation roads. We just wanted to get settled so we could begin our three day rest stop. The Resort is located just off the freeway up a steep hill behind a gas station. There are two large signs warning you that this is “private” resort at the entrance.  The manager told us we would need to unhook the towed, the 4runner because the RV would not be able to make it up the next steep hill with it attached. We drove a little ways and David unhooked the 4 Runner as instructed. But we could not go farther, the 4Runner wouldn’t turn over, the battery was dead. We were parked in the middle of the road so we tried to push it to the side a little, but David decided to connect to a site electric box with the charger on the battery to see if it could get enough spark to start the engine. No luck. Then as he was headed forward to turn the RV around to use its’ battery to start the engine, a nice man in the RV next to the road came over. He said, “You shouldn’t set up your camp site here because this is a road.” Duh! I explained that we were aware that we were in the middle of the road, but it could not be helped because the 4 Runner’s battery was dead. He asked us if he could jump our 4 Runner with his car. Saved again; it started right up after we attached the cables. From my perspective in the 4Runner, the hill was so steep; it looked like our RV was going to fall backwards on top of me. At last we arrived at our sardine site to be greeted by Eugene our very helpful and very close neighbor.

Route 66 is alive and well at Towaoc Colorado October 22 2010

David’s city rhyme: This night should rock; as we spend it in Towaoc.

The Sleeping Ute RV Park was on the Indian reservation in Towaoc, Colorado. We were not aware that it was located behind the Ute Mountain Casino until we arrived. The park itself was pretty much empty of RV’s. David had his choice of sites. After getting settled, we decided to check out the casino to see if they still had the cheap food used to lure people into the place. We entered the building and it felt like a smoky neon version of hell to me. People, mainly Indians, looked like they had been glued to their seats for hours at the slots or the gaming tables hoping to win more than they lost. It was sad to see these good people wasting so much of their lives in that place. We found the food lure which was the only restaurant in the place. They were having a seafood buffet. The sign read $11.95 so I went in to check out the food. I saw some really large crab legs, breaded shrimp and other yummy seafood in the buffet. David and I were trying to figure out if it was worth the price, so we went back to check out the sign again to make sure we got the price right. We finally saw the real deal. The $11.95 was only for midweek: Fridays; the price was $22.95. Not exactly the food lure we thought it would be. Second looks is a must for people like us who don’t eat out very often. That fine print will get you every time. We decided David’s homemade tacos for about $2.00 would be great.

The scenery as we left Towaoc was incredible. Located in the Four Corners area we traveled through the Ute Mountain Tribal Park and the Navajo Indian Reservation. We saw quite a few really spectacular formations as we drove through.

Shiprock New Mexico

Near Gallup, New Mexico, Interstate 40 parallels historic Route 66. We noticed sign after sign for the Route 66 Casino Hotel. A rest stop sounded great so we stopped to check it out. David parked across four parking spaces in the back for convenience sake. We were only going to be there for a few minutes. But of course, a casino security guy pulled up and told us that we were parked wrong and that the casino parking lot would be full later in the day. We explained our short stay so he let us stay there. The Route 66 Casino is decorated like Route 66 theme park. The walkways between and around the slot machines are painted to resemble a road, the ceilings are high and there are at least four restaurants surrounding the main floor. The souvenir store has all kinds of memorabilia reflecting the 50’s and the 60’s. If you took out the slots and the gaming tables, this place might be a fun place to eat.

On the road again October 21, 2010

The day finally arrived for us to get on the road again. Right before we left, we saw David’s Dad up on a 15 foot ladder cutting away branches that were overhanging the roof. This is impressive and scary because he is the same age as the prophet, 83. We just hope he survives these household chores. We want to see him again! We said a sad goodbye to David’s Mom and Dad and were on our way. I had to drive the 4Runner because the hill out of Sandy is quite steep. With the RV brake system on a recall, we aren’t taking any chances. We have to wait until we get to Texas to have it fixed because that is where some of the best repair shops are located.

 

David and Tiffanie

We went to American Fork to say good bye to Tiffanie. She was at work, but she was able to use her ½ hour lunch to eat with us and say good bye. I hate the fact that she is without any family there, but she says she has some great friends and church members supporting her. I hope so. She wants to come to Austin for Christmas to see her kids.

Terrie and Tiffanie

Monticello Utah temple

After a long detour to get on the freeway from American Fork, we headed out. As we approached Monticello, Utah, we saw a couple of buildings with steeples or spires in the distance off to our right. David said, “Is that a mosque over there?” I said, “No dear, that is a temple with the angel Moroni on top.” I think after our trip to the Near East, he is either seeing mosques around every corner or his eyesight is deteriorating. He told me he didn’t think there were so many Muslims in southern Utah to warrant a mosque. That is my wonderful man!

We saw a nice little vegetable stand next to a gas station as we traveled south. The vegetables and melons were grown at a local farm about 2 miles down the road and they were fresh picked the day before. I bought a huge honey dew melon, a large spaghetti squash and a cantaloupe. The melon was the sweetest I have ever tasted.






The scenery as we headed further south to Moab was so beautiful.

David’s city rhyme: The scenery isn't drab as we spend the night in Moab. 

Moab was the first stop on our way down south. I didn’t remember that Moab was such a tourist haven. There were so many businesses devoted to rafting, bicycling and off road adventures that I lost count. Most of the RV parks were expensive and appeared to be very high end. The OK RV Park was not very impressive but it was “OK” and much cheaper. The surrounding mountains were beautiful and made our stay worth it.