Only Two More Days to Go

We left Amarillo and headed west across the rest of the Texas panhandle. The winds were light, and that is a good thing. In all the other states we passed through, the anti-littering signs were polite requests to not litter, and some tell us the fines if caught. Texas, however, takes a different approach. Its signs read: "DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS!" You almost expect an armed litter cop to jump out and shoot you if you drop a gum wrapper. There is one town in Texas that REQUIRES every resident over 16 to have a gun. Since enacting that bylaw several years ago the crime rate has dropped to zero. Food for thought....

We dawdled along because its a short drive day. After crossing the state line into New Mexico we stopped at a Flying J truck stop and dumped our tanks and filled up with water. The water has a strong smell and taste. We are now back in the Mountain Time zone, so maybe our time lag feeling will dissipate now. Shortly after crossing the state line we came upon a large rest area/ info centre. It was busy, and there were actually staff handing out lots of literature and free coffees. They had a brontosaurus hip bone on display. Both of us immediately thought of Fred Flintstone, and had cravings for Brontosaurus burgers. Yaba-Daba-Doo!

The weather is clear, sunny and beautiful, and the scenery is like something from an old western movie. You can almost see the Indians riding the high plains. New Mexico is mostly Indian lands, and there are many different tribes here, each with its own language and customs. Unfortunately, the ground is covered with plants that drop nasty burrs everywhere. They get caught on everything, especially Ben's paws. And they hurt! He didn't like them, but he also didn't like having them removed. Ouch!

We stopped at a rustic rest area high in the mountains of New Mexico, and Marlene decided to cook up a huge lunch of stroganoff, salad and mashed spuds. It was great. We got into the spirit of the wild west by watching a Bonanza video while eating.

Made the mistake of extending out bedroom slide-out. We were sitting on quite a hill, and didn't bother to level the motorhome. When it came time to leave, the slide would not retract. Oh boy... after messing about and leveling Georgie Boy, we finally got it back in.

We drove through Albuquerque on our way to Los Lunas Walmart (about 20 miles south) which is our overnight stop. Albuquerque is a huge, spread out city. There was snow along the road before Albuquerque. We were over 5000 ft. up.

At Los Lunas, we decided to celebrate Halloween with KFC chicken. We walked to the restaurant, only to find that an 8 piece meal costs $19! Holy smokes... Marlene, the budget queen, freaked out at the prices. We returned to Walmart, and for $9 at the deli we got a whole rotisserie chicken, a pound of coleslaw and over a pound of home fries. We gorged ourselves, and washed it all down with red wine (of course). Then we settled in for a night of watching Young Frankenstein (a Halloween tradition) and drinking bourbon.

Sunday morning we're enjoying a lazy lie-in and a big breakfast before heading south to Las Cruces. A short drive because we can't stay at Walmarts in Arizona for some reason. We hope to be in Tucson early Monday afternoon. We are all getting a bit tired of the constant movement, and need to sit still for a while. This is probably the longest trip over the shortest time we will do, but it was necessary for business.

Deep in the Heart of Texas

Here we are in Amarillo, Texas, right in the middle of the Texas Panhandle. We left Oklahoma City with clear skies, cold and high winds. The driving was tough, but not as bad as yesterday. At least it was sunny. We planned a shorter drive today, and loafed along a bit.

Our first stop was at the only Oklahoma rest area that was of a quality close to those award winning rest areas in Missouri. It was in Erick, Oklahoma, right by the state line. Marlene fried up the left over perogies and kubasa, and we took Ben for a long walk. He then was happy to sit and look at all the semis coming and going.

We have been amazed at the staggering number of semis on the interstate. It is a constant river of trucks, many of which carry "drivers wanted" signs. We also note that at many rest stops there are free trucker magazines available, also listing many jobs and owner/ operator opportunities.

Back on the road, we crossed the state line into Texas, and came across a fabulous rest area. We figured this was a good opportunity to get some excersise, so we walked Ben again! First thing we noticed were the "Beware of rattle snake" signs.

For the past 300 miles we have been seeing billboards advertising a free 72 oz. steak dinner, free that is to anyone who can finish it in one hour! Mike was considering stopping and attempting the gastronomical feat, but Marlene is wise, and reminded him that he isn't 25 any more!

Filled up with gas just before Amarillo, and Georgie Boy was thirsty after running into headwinds all day. Love the accents of the staff in the gas station.

Pulled into Walmart at Amarillo at 5:00, and took Ben for another long walk, then stocked up on groceries for the next few days. Marlene was planning a big dinner for Shabbat, but in Walmart we found pizzas for only $3.33, so we decided to have a supreme pizza. We had purchased a gallon jug of Sangria in Brownsburg for only $10, because it reminded Marlene of the jugs of wine her dad used to keep. Unfortunately, we've almost finished the jug, and Walmart in Texas doesn't sell liquor. They do, however, sell firearms and ammunition! A side note: In Rolla, MO the clinic next door to Walmart had signs in the window saying: No concealed weapons please. Were not in Canada anymore, Toto!

Armageddon has survived the trip so far. Can't wait to fire her up again. Wonder if Walmart would mind a little fire show in the parking lot tonight.

Byyye Y'all til t'morra....

Hell Day on the Road

We woke in Rolla, MO to rain and high winds. The weather then got worse! For the rest of the day we fought terrible crosswinds and torrential rains. We even were hearing tornado warnings on the radio! Our faithful Georgie Boy is a handful in the winds, but with the trailer attached it is four hands full. Glad we decided on the electric brakes for the trailer, since we used them a lot to straighten out each time we got hit with a huge wind gust. Mike's arms and shoulders got a good workout today.

We took an international detour, and filled up with gas in Lebanon (Missouri that is)! Burned a lot of gas on the next leg, due to winds and the Ozark mountains (which are big hills). We were in need of propane, and to empty our sewer holding tanks, so we stopped at a Flying J truck stop in Joplin, Missouri. Just as we arrived, so did a thunder storm. No propane can be pumped during an electrical storm. Oh well, Marlene made lunch, and we settled down to wait. But... another RV from Texas pulled in behind us, and when he learned he couldn't get propane immediately, he wanted to leave. He couldn't back up his rig, so we kindly moved out of his way, manoeuvring our 60' long rig around for him. Since we had to move anyway, we decided to take that time to dump the tanks. Of course, that is when the rain REALLY hit. Mike was standing outside in a lake, in a huge rainstorm, doing the nasty business of tank dumping. He looked like a drowned rat!

We finally got our propane, and hit the road, only to find our Texas travellers stopped 5 miles up the way, so we actually made time on them, and we accomplished all our tasks too. After Joplin, we hit the Oklahoma state line, and the first of 3 toll-roads. We ended up spending a total of $23.30 in tolls in only 2 hours! We saw more police cars in 3 hours in Oklahoma than in our whole trip to date. They raise money for their poor state by tolls, tickets, fines, etc. The difference between Missouri and Oklahoma is striking. The homes in Missouri are large, beautiful, well kept houses. In Oklahoma it's shacks, sheds, and ratty mobile homes. We heard a joke on the Oklahoma radio station about people living a double wide lifestyle on a single wide budget. If you don't understand, it's mobile home humour.

Finally, we arrived at the Walmart Supercenter in Oklahoma city. First thing we noticed is we lost the temporary Indiana license plate on the trailer, probably because it was made of paper. Lucky we have our Alberta plate from the tow dolly. Armageddon survived the stormy drive just fine. We, however, were so stressed, we decided to forgo our usual Thursday night tradition of pasta night, and Marlene is treating us to perogies and kubasa that we carefully packed in Edmonton. Large glasses of bourbon are also called for.

Since we are a day ahead of schedule, we decided to change our itinerary and shorten our daily mileage. We are now re-jigging our route, and will try to stop more often and smell the roses! Stay tuned...

Westward Ho!

We woke this morning after a night of torrential rains, to a better looking day. Made some adjustments to the motorhome rear view camera, and checked on the safety of Armageddon in the trailer. Paul had been at work in his shop since 6:00 a.m., and when we rose at 7:30 he said: "Oh, you're finally up. What time is it in Alberta?" What a character! We decided a photo shoot was in order, check out the pics we've posted today. Marlene told them that she felt like a Munchkin beside them. Me too! They are really nice people, and we hope to see them in California in March. After our good-byes, and hugs between the girls (Paul rejected my hug!), we carefully backed out their driveway, and headed for the highway.

Immediately the weather turned dark and gloomy. We travelled through Indiana, and stopped for lunch at really nice rest area in Illinois. Then we entered Missouri, and found going through St. Louis was very nerve wracking, and Marlene couldn't look at the road with 4 lanes of traffic wizzing by and overpasses, interchanges, and general freeway madness. However, we got a good look at the famous arch, and even Ben was impressed! The old buildings and the Busch Arena were quite interesting in design.

After St. Louis, the scenerey changed. It was nice to see vineyards and wineries instead of cornfields. Tonight we stay at the Rolla, Missouri Walmart. Wonder if it's any different from all the others? Stay tuned...

Made it!

We left our campsite near St. Louis late, around 11:00, and started the last leg of this part of our trip. An uneventful drive most of the way, until about an hour before Indianapolis where the road turned bad and we got shaken up for the whole hour! We finally reached the Indy area, and the highway was closed due to a semi rollover, probably caused by the road condition! Anyway, our trusty GPS led us by another route, and we ended up at the Walmart in Brownsburg. We are shocked at the prices of groceries at Walmart here. The selection is poor, and prices are worse than in Edmonton. Can't wait to head west, where we can shop at the 99 cent stores again (hopefully).

This morning we rose early, and prepared for a busy day. First, we went shopping to be fitted with the remainder of protective clothing for driving the jet car, at Impact Race Products. Then we navigated our way through Indianapolis to the place where we were to drop off the Toyota for shipping on to Tucson. Then we washed the car, so it could be inspected (it was FILTHY). The drop off went well, they were prepared for us, and very professional. While at Hobbs Transport (the drop off) we asked about a truck wash for the motorhome, and were directed to the nearest one. We were also told to avoid the I465 north for a while, as a tanker truck had rolled and exploded. Traffic was apparently standing still for hours. What's with all these truck rollovers?? These folks were so helpful, what a pleasure to deal with them.

We met a fellow coming out of the indoor shooting range, an 84 year old country musician who claims to have been featured on Hee Haw! He was entranced by Ben, and had to tell us about his dog. Another really nice person.

We made it to the truck wash, and had a crew of guys hosing and scrubbing old Georgie Boy down. Looks great now.

Tomorrow we go to pick up the new trailer, and then to meet with Paul Stender and get the jet.

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Stay tuned...

We see the heartland of America...

When last we reported, we were in Fargo, North Dakota. After an uneventful night at Walmart we headed south. A long, mostly boring drive of 422 miles. We saw miles and miles of corn fields, and we wonder if this in response to the US subsidy of ethanol, because we saw several ethanol plants and found that premium gas (which contains ethanol) is actually cheaper than regular! Go figure. We passed through South Dakota, and a lot of Iowa before ending up in Council Bluffs, Iowa, which is right beside Omaha, Nebraska. We pulled into a huge Walmart/ Sams Club and found a nice parking spot for the night. There were a few others staying the night, including cars, vans and RV's. Grocery prices here were much the same as Alberta. In the morning we woke to a sunny day, but cold and frosty.

After a few hours on the interstate heading south, the temperture rose, and the scenery changed. Missouri is very pretty with the fall leaves, the hills, and the rivers and streams. Kansas City is HUGE. We had no idea. All the way south the interstate is being ripped up and rebuilt. Stimulus money in action. It's impressive to see several hundred miles of construction!

While on the road, enjoying the great scenery and the spotless rest areas, we decided to try to find an RV campground for the night so we could empty our holding tanks, fill our water tank, and spread out a bit for the night. Walmarts are O.K., but sometimes its just nice to have a quiet spot where we can open our slide-outs and cook outside. We found a nice place just 40 miles west of St. Louis, and only $25 for the night! Ben the wonder dog particularily enjoys the trees, pond and birds and crickets. There are people next door deep frying and entire turkey outside. Our dinner is bangers and mash, which we are cooking right now. Tomorrow we have about 300 miles to Indianapolis, our destination for this leg of the trip, where we will pick up our trailer and the jet car. Stay tuned!

On the Road Again

Well here we are on the road again in our trusty Georgie Boy. This is going to be a long trip, mostly business but some fun stuff too. Our first stop was Saskatoon, nothing much to report, as the Walmart was the same as any other. The drive from Edmonton was trying, with fog and rain most of the way. We had a good night, and left early for the long drive to Portage La Prairie Manitoba. If the federal government wants to spend stimulus money, they really should pave the entire Yellowhead highway from the Alberta border to Winnipeg. The road is ATTROCIOUS. Large chunks of pavement are missing, the heaves and cracks shook the motorhome until we thought it would fall apart. The weeds in the ditches are waist high, there are dead animals squashed all over the road, and no one seems to clean anything. It is an embarassment to have a major highway in Canada look like a third world road.

We did see some interesting things though: Huge flocks of birds sitting in fields, or flying around in circles; strange collections of rusted cars and equipment lying around; and wierd signs for businesses. Gas was expensive, averaging 99.9 a litre, which hurts when we only get 8 miles to the gallon!

In Saskatchewan we uncovered what may be a huge hoax! We passed a sign directing us to Kandahar. It's now obvious to us that we really have no troops in Afganistan, they are all really in Saskatchewan playing war for the cameras. :)

Portage la Prairie was just another town, and the Walmart was just another Walmart, except it had a particularily large parking lot which was great for us.

Today we crossed the border at Emerson, MB. The US immigration official was courteous, and really didn't ask many questions at all, but he did send us to the Agricultural Inspector who insisted on going through our food and making sure we weren't importing any Canadian lamb (we only have New Zealand lamb on board) or fruits. Surprisingly, she didn't care about our tomatoes, but she had to read all the ingredients in Ben's dog food to make sure we didn't have any lamb bi-products! Go figure.

So now we are in Fargo, North Dakota. A lot like Winnipeg but with more stores. The Walmart we are at is HUGE and is attached to a Sams Club. The driving in the parking lot reminds me of the driving on the Las Vegas Speedway. We filled up with gas (2.59 a gallon/ .63 a litre), and bought some stuff for dinner. Since it's Thursday, it's pasta night. We also hit the liquor store, and bought 1.75 litres of bourbon for just $26 and a 1.5 litre bottle of Lindemans merlot for $11. That's half the price in Alberta, and no bottle deposits either!

Tomorrow we head for Council Bluffs, Iowa, then to Rolla, Missouri, and then our final destination of this leg of the journey: Brownsburg, Indiana, where we will pick up our new trailer, and then the jet car. We already have the firesuit, and will pick up accesories in Brownsburg. Then we'll drop off the Echo for shipping on to Tucson. We hope to spend a couple of days at Paul Stender's place figuring out the jet, and testing it at the local airport, before we head out for the long drive to Tucson, Arizona.

There'll be more stuff to report once we get into the whole jet car thing, and we'll keep you all updated, so stay tuned!