Woke up about 3:30 am to heavy rain.  Went back to sleep…Looks like it is going to be a wet day.  Everyone was up by 9am and the promise of snow was in the air.  Lots to do before we leave for El Paso, TX.  The dogs need to have their food cooked, tires need to be checked for pressure, water tank needs to be filled, dogs laundry needs to be cleaned and Ribbit needs gas.  I have to keep reminding myself that this is our life, not a vacation, so I still must do the yucky stuff like cleaning and laundry.   Found a great little diner, Fort Davis Drug Store.  We ate here several times and loved the food and the atmosphere.   By the end of the day it was snowing.  We drove to town to have one last meal at Fort Davis Drug Store and the snow was sticking to the ground when we returned to the LilyPad.

I Love this little town but it is a strange contradiction of styles.  You have beautiful Spanish style homes but only the main street is paved and many of the houses in-between are falling down.   A tiny grocery store but also a health food store that is almost as big.  John and I wondered how many people in this small town really ate health food.  The locals don’t like change but all the residents that have moved from Houston seem to fit right in.  Definitely more trucks than cars.  In any case, this may be where we put down jacks and hook ups for a few years.

Woke up early, drove to Davis Mountains State Park and decided, even if we didn’t get our money back, we would spend the next few days in this park.  Only 3 other RV’s in our section and it’s beautiful everywhere we look.  We took a drive around the town, not much to see, but this little state park is quiet, beautiful, has full hook ups, a few bits of snow on the ground and hardly any mud.  Only drawback…we are off the grid so no phone calls or computers.  Makes it a bit like “roughing it”.

Drove through the mountains to McDonald Observatory and plans are to visit tomorrow for the Star Party.  Love the cool weather but we’ll need a coat and gloves tomorrow night as the temperatures get into the 20’s at night.

10pm – Stepped out of the RV…pure darkness.  Couldn’t even see my feet!  Looked up and saw a shooting star!  The sky is so full of stars it’s amazing!   Reminds me of Garner nights years ago when we camped with the kids when they were little.  Tried for 20 minutes to get a shot with the new camera but I’ll freeze before I figure out how it works.  Can’t wait until tomorrow night to see the observatory tour and Star Party.

Living in an RV is less about adventure and more about acceptance.  The Serenity Prayer, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.” is something I have had posted in some form or other for as long as I can remember.  It is now on a cross magnet in our hall.  You would think that after 60 years, I would have learned, but noooo, I still expect to have the power to change things I don’t like.  My cousin Bob is always saying, “It is what it is.”  Living in an RV is what it is.

As our day began, John gave me an unpleasant bit of information, then he tried to kill Ribbit, our drive to Ft. Davis was long with nothing to look at, our next RV park was a sad looking mud pit and while looking down to keep from stepping in mud, I smacked my head on the side of the slide out…wow, those things hurt!.  Yep, it was just one of those unhappy camper days.

First thing this morning, John mentioned that the lake we visited yesterday was the one where that man was shot and killed as he and his wife were ski-doing.  Good to know…  Then we drove out to the office and hooked up our towed.  Then began the eventual plot to kill Ribbit.  John hooked up and I usually help with a second walk around but instead I stayed in the LilyPad adjusting the seat and wheel so I could drive.  When I pulled out I heard a “thud” and looked back but Ribbit was still there.  I had missed the fact that the rock guard was missing…and, unknown to me at the time, so were the tow bars!  When I pulled across the two lanes to the middle to head in the other direction I felt a hard jerk and looked in the rear camera to see our poor towed swerving all over.  I slowly put on the breaks so nothing would smash together and stopped in the medium.  Yes, I was cussing.  No, I didn’t get pictures.  Yes, John quickly got out and remedied the problem in the medium of the highway.  On hind sight, not the best place to be hooking up.  It didn’t take long and then we were our way.

The drive was long and the scenery never changed save for a few mountains when we drew near to Fort Davis.  We passed our RV Park the first time due to a broken down sign with letters missing.  That missed turn resulted in unhooking the towed on the side of the road and me making a 3 point turn in the center of the two lane highway in the RV.  At least we know it can be done!  Pulling into the park, I cried for the first time in weeks and then proceeded to run over the orange cone that marked their sprinkler system.  All I saw were a few older trailers, mud, wet snow and more mud.  We were too tired to look for another place so we set up camp and went to bed.

On the road again.  Stopping in Del Rio for the day and overnight.  Stayed at Trav L RV Park.  It was OK but so many prickly weeds that we had to find the city park to walk the dogs.   Not the greatest of neighborhoods, bars on all the windows and gang tags everywhere.  We stopped at a large, almost dried up man-made lake in Amistad National Recreation Area and when we drove to the top of the ridge, you could see Mexico.  We spent the night relaxing and prepping for our drive to Fort Davis the next morning.

I keep forgetting it’s 2013.  I can’t believe another year has come and gone.  Started off the day with breakfast at Magnolia Pancake Haus…yummy again!  It was raining so we did a little driving around and then got out and walked around King Williams District to look at the mansions.  Some of them are amazing.  Some of them desperately need work done.  We were surprised that so many of them were up for sale.

Stopped at a little Italian restaurant for soup to warm us up then back to the LilyPad to get ready to leave in the morning.

Another chance at doing something fun today.  Somehow the fridge fixed itself when John wiggled and banged it around to try to take it out of the frame for repair so we cancelled the repairman.  Fed the dogs the BRAT diet and went to breakfast at Magnolia Pancake Haus.

YUMMY food and very reasonable.  I sure hope we will be doing other fun stuff besides eating as this RV living life is causing my clothes to shrink.    Walked around San Antonio and I got in some practice with our new camera.  Too many buttons and switches on it but at least it will keep those bear and moose a good distance away.

Visited Mission San Jose and Mission Concepcion.

Drove through the King Williams District and ate lunch at a local Mexican restaurant that we couldn’t get into the last time we visited San Antonio a few years back.  I took a picture of the lighting fixtures.  They reminded me of the old Denny’s décor where I ate when I was a kid.  The food was good but nothing special.  Glad we didn’t wait through the long line the last time we visited.

Just before going on the riverboat ride, we stopped at our favorite snack restaurant, Boudro’s on the Riverwalk, for made-at-your-table guacamole.  Sit outside and you get a poncho to keep you warm and a fun little show if your waiter is in a good mood.

Went on a riverboat ride at night and enjoyed the banter of the driver.  He was a cross between a smart ass and a comedian and we spent the whole ride smiling.  It was John’s turn to experiment with the camera and he took the pictures while we were on the boat so if the pictures suck, it’s his fault!

Got our flu shots last month, got our pneumonia shots just before that, keeping Halo spray in our mouths so we would side step airborne germs.  Feeling healthy and ready to enjoy San Antonio tomorrow.  I woke up at 3:30am with a migraine, smelled something foul and followed the trail to Millie and KatieBugs crates.  Both dogs had diarrhea. Went to the fridge to get some water for a headache pill and everything was frozen on both sides.  Thought it was time to wake up John and tell him the news.  So, the best laid schemes of mice and men, aka, shit happens!  Today will be spent cooking for the dogs, shopping for a small easy to use vacuum, cleaning up poop and trying to keep the fridge stuff from freezing solid until the repair man gets here tomorrow.  The silver lining?  Wait, I’ll think of something…Oh, how about the day isn’t over yet?

Seems a good swift kick or a firm pop with a hammer is the best tool for repairs.  Have mentioned to John several times that his four tool chests better get some action or they are going to drop off the RV a little at a time.  Twice all we needed was to smack the broken part with a hammer and it began to work.  Good to know when you are headed for the Bureau of Land Management property in Quartzsite, AZ with no hook-ups and nothing around for miles.  Can’t do much if something happens so I’m certainly glad that tools are necessary.

Finally a tiny silver lining for the day.   Dined at a great little hole-in-the-wall tonight.  Organic and locally grown, The Cove was a nice way to end a stressful day.  We sat down to eat and slowly watched a full 10 piece band come in and set up.  It was a great jazz dance band and very enjoyable.  Several generations of ages were all enjoying the food and the music and we stayed for over an hour.  Most of the workers looked like they came from the old Whole Foods store…lots of extra holes, colorful hair, piercings and unusual haircuts but very friendly and a good time was had by all.

Another day in Kenedy visiting the middle of nothingness in south TX.  Miles and miles of flat land with scrub bushes as far as the eye can see on every side of the road.  Everywhere are huge drilling rig sites and rows upon rows of trailers housing the workers.   We passed through Goliad to get to Kenedy and it is a quaint little town with lots of TX history.  For the last two years Kenedy  has been a booming oil area with huge fast moving 18 wheelers hauling oil, workers driving trucks and hundreds of oil field workers living in trailers but little else.  We turned onto one highway and there were 14 trucks at the stop sign.  I counted 10 more before I saw a car, and that was a jeep so it hardly counts as a car.

Our “resort” required payment in full up front with only a 10% refund if we did not stay and now I know why!  Yucky, moldy, dirty bathrooms, no hot water in the showers and washers that groan when they spin. The grounds were crushed cement and no matter what you do, that darn crushed cement dust gets inside and adheres itself to everything you step on.  We put down our levelers but it did little good.  I still felt like I was standing on a hill inside the RV.   Earlier today we saw a line of trucks towing damaged trucks away to the junk yard.  All along the highway there were signs advertising attorneys that handled oil field accidents.  Guess the 12 hour days these guys put in 7 days a week fills their pocket books but the drawbacks, tired drivers and lots of accidents, is a definite downside.

After breakfast we headed to Goliad.  It was run down but had a beautiful government building.  Seems every Podunk town in the country has money to build beautiful government buildings and supply funds for their upkeep even in a bad economy but the rest of the downtown square has certainly seen better days.

Yucky salty lunch, bumpy long drive to another place in the middle of nothing and pains shooting up my spine almost the entire ride home.  Stressful day but I’m sure I’ll laugh about it in a year or two.

We had dinner with Josh at an upscale restaurant in Cuero.  The  Eagleford, owned by John’s former boss, was nice but the chef had problems with my meal.  John says it’s the sign on my forhead that says “give this lady rotten service and screw up her order”.  It is what it is.

Our adventure actually began this morning as we said farewell to Liz and Derya at breakfast and took lots of pictures before driving off.  Our next stop was Kenedy TX where Josh is working at an oil rig site.

The air is filled with dust flying and flairs from the dozen or so drilling sites surrounding this little slice of parking lot with crushed cement, old trailers and pickup trucks.  If this is a resort…well, the pictures say it all.  Yes, it is an oil town in every sense of the word and our LilyPad and Ribbit looked very out of place.   We took Josh home to his trailer after dinner.  Oil drilling sites are very scary looking places.  Flags telling you if it is safe to come near, all vehicles must back into the parking spaces just in case an emergency occurs and a huge fiery flair just a few feet from the trailer where they sleep, burning off the natural gas that isn’t profitable enough for them to build a gathering system .  Josh’s site is still flying a green flag so it is OK to come near.  Scary as I think this place is, the flag is green and he does make good money.  Back at our “resort” the site is so tilted that the front wheels are off the ground and if you set a can on the floor, it rolls and smacks into the front of the RV.  Ah yes, the adventure has begun.