Man, the weather is in charge of us!  We’re having a great time, but sometimes it doesn’t seem like it.

When last I wrote, we were headed to Los Osos to see friends, take care of business, etc. at the end of November.  All that got accomplished, with many thanks to Lynn and George Janeway for loaning us a car to get around in.  Motorcycles and wet weather don’t mix really well.  A plug, by the way:  one reason we came back to town was to go to a concert of the Cuesta Master Chorale at Mission San Miguel, a combination made in heaven.  If you are not a regular attendee at their concerts, give yourself a treat next time you see their ad (Their next concert is in May, I believe).  There is no better choral music being presented on the Central Coast.

Finally

, finally, we have now departed for parts East.  Our overall plan is to work our way to Texas, along the Gulf Coast to Florida and then, in the spring, move up the eastern seaboard.  We made a quick stop in Santa Ana (why, for heaven’s sake? -- yuck) to pick up a couple of things from the place where Rick gets the motorcycle serviced (heated hand grips are now part of the bike and GREATLY appreciated – stay tuned) then out through Palm Springs to Sun City.  Yes, I know, I’ve sworn I’d never do that again, but we gave Rick’s mom a quick hug and now we have our faces turned firmly eastward.

Destination:  sunny Tucson, to set up camping for a week or so, bask in the lovely weather and work on our camping skills.  NOT!!  We did get set up, in a groovy RV park with hot showers, a jacuzzi, great laundry facilities, etc.; no fools us!  We even set up the den for the first time.  We were quite a sight, among all those huge RV homes.  We had everyone in the neighborhood stopping by to ask “How in heaven’s name did you get all that stuff out of that little trailer.”  Interestingly, lots of admiring glances from the men, and “that’s okay for you, but not for me” looks from the wives. 

We were in great shape for the first two days, but boy was it cold.  Down to about 32 at night.  So ….. we decided we had room in the trailer for a little heater, and picked up a dandy.  So …… that night we settled down in our cozy home, nice and warm, and finally got a chance to crawl into bed wearing less than our entire wardrobes, feeling smug and snug.  And then …..the wind started to blow.  And blow she did.  We started feeling like the 3 little pigs (well, 2 of them anyway) being attacked by the Big Bad Wolf.  We made it until about midnight, then a stake for the den came loose, everything started crashing around, and we scrambled out of bed to try and rescue our home.  The tent trailer itself was holding up just fine but it was imperative that we take down the den.  What a struggle, but mission accomplished.  We survived the night, but the next morning, when the wind showed no sign of abating, and we were told we’d been lucky earlier in the week, because the wind blew most of the time out there (sigh, doesn’t anybody ever think to offer information ahead of when it’s needed?) we headed for a motel.  We had mail coming, so couldn’t leave town, and really did want to enjoy Tucson. 

But, typical:  then it started raining, hard, and we learned how to enjoy a motel for a couple of days until our mail arrived.  Never did see any of Tucson.  Bummer.  As Arnold said, “We’ll be baaaaack.”

The rain stopped, after turning to snow in the mountains, and we moved on to Las Cruces, New Mexico.  It was a cool (both literally and figuratively) trip.  We went through that “snow in the mountains” at about 36 degrees and cloudy, but BEAUTIFUL.  Sorry to say, it was too cold to stop and take pictures, and there was too much slush on the side of the road to safely stop anyway.  Kind of like a picture out of Arizona Highways (oops, wrong state).  But we proved our cold weather gear does the trick pretty well, and we’ll come back again some time when it’s warmer.  That stretch of road has lovely scenery, and we’d like to see it in the spring.

And now ,.,,,, Texas.  After slogging across West Texas for two days, I’m willing to agree with everything I’d ever heard about how yucky it all is.  Remember ‘The Last Picture Show”?  Tis true, tis true.  And El Paso wins the award so far as the most revolting city we’ve gone through.  The worst part is that as you ride through on the freeway, you can look right across the border into Mexico.  It’s all dusty and dirty, with unpaved streets and grubbiness.  Afraid I’m still a snob.  We’ll not be back if we can help it.

Pressing on, however, we reached our goal of the moment – the hill country north of San Antonio and southwest of Austin.  And a pleasant change it has been.  Pleasant rolling hills with lots of trees.  We stayed in Kerrville for a couple of days, outlasting a storm, with the Guadaloupe River running through.  The parks go down to its banks.  It’s much warmer (as promised) and we are happy to be in this area.  Once the rains stopped, we moved on to a state park along the river, and have been camping there for several days.  Rick is adding a picture of our campsite to this message, so you can get a general sense of what it looks like. 

This is the nicest area of Texas so far.  The countryside is similar to Paso Robles, but with some cactus to remind you of all the desert you’ve passed through.  It’s the small, flat round kind you see planted around the Central Coast (with lots of prickles).  We continue to provide fodder for the raccoons whenever we forget to bring something in at night, and have added an armadillo to our camp sightings (we named him Dick – think about it; you’ll get it yet.  Hint, hint:  the little beast was quite shy and RETIRING).  And the state park is chock full of deer.  Our arrival the first day was late afternoon, but not even dusk, and I lost track after counting at least two dozen of them.  Shy, but not frightened of cars.  This makes them even more of a hazard than usual, of course, so you have to be pretty careful.  But they were fun to watch.

We’ve been able to do a lot of riding in this area, poking around the little towns.  There are several enclaves developed by German immigrants, and the towns are neat and tidy; quite appealing.  And the clay in this area is light yellow, so many of the buildings are a very pretty flagstone.  Hard to describe; probably less than a coffee “high yellow”, but certainly not white. 

The roads are good, but Texans drive very fast.  They assume you will move onto the shoulder and let them  by, and they are already going faster than the too-fast speed limits that are posted.  So I’m sure they think we’re really poky.

My favorite accent story so far:  we were in Johnson City, making arrangements for some mail, and a fellow stopped us.  He said he’d seen us a few days earlier, in “Ahhzona.”  I assumed he meant Arizona naturally.  But noooo, he had spotted us in Ozona, a town back aways, having lunch a few days earlier.  Some day I’m going to find out the origin of the town of Ozona.  We had a yummy lunch in a little restaurant called “The Café Next Door” to the Texaco station.

Speaking of gas, the prices have been running about $1.00/gallon throughout Texas; sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.  We are pleased.

To bring you current, today (Saturday, December 22) we are in Austin, in a motel; it’s supposed to be raining, although that hasn’t happened.  But more importantly, the 49ers are playing Philadelphia this afternoon.  We aren’t very good at hanging out in bars to watch the game, but a motel room is okay.  Tomorrow it’s supposed to be lovely, and we’ll tour the capital area before an intended move on to San Antonio on Monday.

From San Antonio we’ll probably go to Corpus Christi and Houston before heading into Louisiana.  If you care about such things, you know that the 49ers play the Saints at home on January 6.  It may be that we’ll show up and see if any tickets are available.

Rick and I want to wish all of you the happiest of holiday seasons.  We are sincere in our offer to have you join us for a visit at any time you might be traveling in an area where we are nearby.  We’d love to see you.  Short of that, we appreciate your e-mail messages and wish more of you would keep in touch.  It would be great to get news from home (hint, hint).

Kathy and Rick

See more photos from 2002-2003

Return to Lower 48 Page                                Return to Home Page