A Mexican tent (house) on the other side of the Rio Grande! 

Mike at "the Window" in Big Bend 

Casa Grande, AZ

We arrived at Casa Grande, AZ on 1/21. We are at a park named Desert Shadows, about 45 miles south of Phoenix. We have been enjoying the weather and relaxing some. Dixie made a side trip to Houston for a medical procedure (neck steriod injection) and also spent time visiting with friends. We are heading further west on 1/28 - planning to spend the next 4 days at Quartzsite, AZ at a large RV Show. From what we hear there are several thousand of RVers there. We will take photos when we arrive and attach one!

Carlsbad Caverans & Fun on the Road

We arrived in Carlsbad NM the afternnon of Jan 18th. We spent the 19th in the Caverns - hiking some more. We did a self guided tour that took us over 2 miles through the caverns. It is huge and hard to believe that that a "cave" can be soooo big. The sites were awesome. At least most of this hike was going "down". We left Carlsbad on the 20th heading towards the Phoenix area but had more bad luck - we had "another" tire blowout in the middle of nowhere (not sure why this can't happen near a city). This time we were about a mile from a junction in the road were there was a tiny tiny cafe and a 1970's gas pump. No cell service but there was a pay phone and a guy who gave us a name of a tire shop in ElPaso. Well, once again we were off in our tow car for a 160 mile round trip to buy a tire (this time we bought 2 tires which will give use 4 new tire all purchased within the last 6 weeks). Once we got back to the motorhome we had to drive it 13 miles (OW) to a small town called Dell City to have the tires put on (another "spot"in the road - they don't see to many RV's and weren't real familar with changing an RV Tire- which didn't give us a warm fuzzy feeling). We were finally on the road again.. Needless to say we didn't get as far as we planned. That wasn't enough fun - when Mike went to check the tire air pressure the next morning he realized they had mixed up the dual tires when putting them on....this meant we had to stop this morning and have the tires switched around at a Camping World in Anthony TX (north of ELP). We were finally on our way around 11am. We are now at our destination in Casa Grande, AZ where we will stay until the 28th. It's time to relax!

Santa Elena Canyon & the Rio Grande 

Big Bend National Park

On our way to Big Bend National Park we spent 2 nights in Bandara, the Cowboy Capital of the World. We left there on Jan 15th headed towards Big Bend. Our route took use via Del Rio with a gas stop in Sanderson, heading toward Marathon for the night. Well, 15 miles out of Sanderson (the middle of nowhere) we had a tire blowout. We could do nothing but drive back to Sanderson. They had a tire shop but of course didn’t have the tire we needed. We parked the Motorhome in the one and only RV park and drove 130 miles round trip to Ft. Stockton to buy a tire (at a much hirer price that it should have been). The next morning the Sanderson Tire shop put the tire on and we were off again. We arrived at Big Bend at last. It was well worth the trip - It was spectacular! The views in the park are unbelievable and we would highly recommend it to anyone. We made several hikes - to the Santa Elena Canyon overlooking the Rio Grande, the Boguillias Canyon, the Lost Mine Trail, and the Window Trail (a 5 mile hike - the muscles were screaming). Well that’s enough exercise for a few days. There was no cell phone or internet service - you really become one with nature! Tue., Jan 18th we are off, headed towards Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.

Jan 11th

We are beginning to wonder if we will ever be able to leave the Houston area. We are still waiting for the "yellow DHL van" to deliver our computer internet card. We are packed and ready to go. By the looks of things we may be parking at a Walmart parking lot tonight! Hopefully the next time you will hear from us we will be in Bandera, TX.....or heading west somewhere.

Mike at Lake Conroe Resort 

Still in Houston

Well it's Jan 8th and we are still in Houston. We had to extend our stay as we are waiting for a part for our internet card (can't live without that). We are now at Lake Conroe RV Park and enjoying our stay here. We plan to leave on Tue the 11th going to Bandera, TX for a couple of days. We need a couple of things worked on our RV in that area. Then on to Big Bend National Park.