Traveling from Arizona to Texas

Tuesday October 1st




We packed up and headed out, first stop Camping World to get our house batteries replaced.  We arrived about an hour early but they started our check in process by logging information and doing an inspection of Lily for damage that was already done, scratches, dents etc.  We had received an estimate that confirmed that the labor charge would be $30 so when the lady told us it was over $100 per hour I showed her the quote and she said that she hadn’t realized we had special sale prices, so it seems we got a good deal.  The batteries were on sale as well.  Bryan could have installed the batteries himself but for $30 it was worth getting them to do it in case of any problems.

They are dog friendly and so we took CoCo in the store where they immediately offered her a dog biscuit.  Hmmm – CoCo doesn’t accept food from strangers, we have taught her well, ha!! Ha!!.  She was a little bewildered as she doesn’t usually go in stores, so after a little walk around we decided to have a walk outside and ended up getting our chairs from Lily and sitting in the shade.  There was a lounge area in the store where we could have waited but we wanted CoCo to be as comfortable as possible and she seemed to prefer the outside. 

We saw them take Lily in to start installing the batteries and thought it would be about an hour from then.  After about 45 minutes Lily emerged and we went back in the store to pay.  I also bought a sunhat that I took a liking to.  I have been looking for one and this fit the bill. 

It has many wonderful colors and so will match anything

We left Camping World at 11:45am and started toward Willcox, Arizona where we arrived at Fort Willcox RV Park about 1:15pm.  We had a short trip today as we weren’t sure how long we would be at Camping World. 

The park is more of a mobile home park than a RV park but it works for a night. 

View from the RV at Fort Willcox RV park, Az

October 2^nd

We didn’t have to make breakfast or coffee this morning as this park provides waffles and coffee, so we headed to the office at 9 o’clock for our waffles.  These were provided in a small room next to the office and we were told to take our own cups. We stood and chatted with the owner while we ate. She is a lady who runs the park and travels in her RV on her own.  We discussed stopping in rest stops overnight and she told us that she does this and hasn’t had any problems.  Of course, she is always aware of her surroundings.  We had a nice chat and then left to finish packing up and were soon on the road. 

Bryan wanted to try and get to El Paso today.  That was 256 miles and ended up taking us 6 hours including a thirty minute lunch break and stopping for gas. The stop for gas took longer than it should have as when we turned in to the gas station they were doing maintenance on the surfaces and we found we could get in but wouldn’t be able to get out without reversing.  So, we had to unhook the car from the back and find somewhere to hook back up again.  It was quite the fiasco as everyone was having the same problems.  Have made a note not to use that Love’s at Lordsburg, New Mexico on the I-10 again.  Even if they hadn’t had the service station torn apart it would have been very difficult to get back out. 

As we entered Texas, we went from Arizona Mountain Time, which is actually the same as Pacific Time during the summer as they don’t change their clocks in spring or fall, to Mountain Time and set our clocks forward one hour.  El Paso is one of only a few west Texan towns that are on Mountain Time the rest of Texas is on Central time.We ended up getting to El Paso during rush hour and so the traffic was bad. 

It got worse than this

We are usually in our campground before 4 o’clock.  We arrived at the campground at 5:30. 

Our site was near to the highway and they were doing road construction so it wasn’t quiet.  Good job we’re only here one night. 

October 3^rd

We didn’t sleep very well last night with the window shut and the noise from the highway.  This campground is actually clean, has a pool and is quite nice but the location sucks.  It was the best we could find and was more expensive than we normally pay, maybe because it’s in El Paso.  Reviews for other parks here weren’t that good and so we picked the best we could.  We will try either not to go through El Paso again or at least not stop here.

We got on the road heading for Balmorhea, Texas and maybe going on to Fort Stockton.  We really want to get the traveling out of the way and get to Georgetown as quickly as we can so we can relax again for a couple of weeks.  There are some things that would be nice to see on the way but with the time constraints we have with getting to Florida by December we really don’t have the time, as we want to spend time with friends and family as well.  We will stop either in  Fredericksburg or Marble Falls for three or four days to do some exploring and catch up with cleaning before getting to Georgetown next week.

We stopped in Balmorhea and had some lunch and decided to head on to Fort Stockton where we arrived at 3:30 which was really 4:30 as we are now in Central time.  So, Mum in UK we are now 6 hours behind you, and Mom in Louisiana we are the same time zone, woohoo!!, we will be there before you know it.

We are in a small park again, one that is really a mobile home park with Rv’s in some empty spaces.  It will be ok for the night.

The batteries that we had installed on Tuesday are working ok and we haven’t had any problems with the electrics, knock on wood!!  So, we are pleased with our decision to replace the batteries and the good deal that we got.  Yahoo, something went right……..

October 4^th

I am writing this blog on the road on the way to Junction, Tx.  I decided to try out the inverter and cook a stew in the crock pot while we are traveling.  Hopefully it works or we will be looking for something else to eat tonight.  The electrics have been ok, we have had power for the fan to be running, the microwave works, and my computer has had electric while we are traveling so the crock pots should be good as well.

We just stopped at a reststop before Sonora, Tx to stretch our legs and let CoCo out and the crock pot is working so we will have dinner tonight. 

There are caverns at Sonora but we will have to see them another time.

The campground we had picked out for tonight weren't answering the phone and I left a message but they hadn't returned our call and we were getting closer to stopping so I found another campground, unfortunately it was more expensive but sometimes that can't be helped.

We arrived at the North Llano River RV Park and got checked in.  At least this time we definitely got what we paid for and this campground is very nice. There is a river flowing through it that we can just see from our site but doesn't show in the pictures. 

 There is a nice covered patio with a picnic table, rocking chairs, BBQ and fire pit.  

There are Pecan trees by the river and we had some ducks come by the site. 

Our stew was ready when we were and once it got dark after dinner we sat outside for a while. 

Bryan enjoying a cigar

Sue relaxing and enjoying the evening

 ^{CoCo joined us outside as well for a while before going for a walk before bed.  While they were walking Bryan saw fireflies.}

The campground that we wanted to book outside of Marble Falls didn't have any vacancies because it's the weekend and we couldn't find any others that looked Ok for the price we wanted to pay and so we decided to go straight to Georgetown tomorrow.  We will do day trips to Marble Falls & Fredericksburg from there.

That's it for now, until next time......