Sunday in Hamilton TX

We arrived in Hamilton, TX Saturday afternoon and visited with our daughter, Mary. Her husband Scot died this past year from a sickness, but she continues to live with her mother-in-law, Anita.

We parked for the night at a local CEFCO gas station plaza.

Sunday morning after picking up Mary, we all attended the morning services at First Baptist Church.

After Church we we we back to Mary's place and Heather prepared a nice dinner for us.

We left Mary and Hamilton and headed East planning to spend the night in an RV park with full hook-ups and a good wifi for Internet. Sunday is big day for Zoom meetings. We ended up parking for the night at the Shady Acres RV Park in Cleburne, TX.

Saturday in Sweetwater, TX

Last night we parked at the Love's Travel Plaza in Sweetwater. We appreciate how they allow RV'ers to park by the pumps or by the trucks even when have a full hook-up RV park that you pay for.

Laundry is one of those necessary things even when traveling. Here we are, parked at the Sweetwater Suds laundromat. Profesional machines and reasonable prices.

We stopped for lunch (RV-made spaghetti dinner) at a rest stop. Roger does the dishes, Heather does her daily nap. That's our usual RV routine. She loves to prepare meals, Roger loves to eat...I mean he loves to do housekeeping chores.

We are parked alongside I-20. Lots of traffic. We see lots of trucks carrying huge loads. Like this one with four jinormous tires

Here's another. It's a giant mobile generator in a Walmart lot.

Leaving New Mexico today

Thursday morning Heather prepared bacon, fried eggs and toast. Roger brewed coffee. 

We shopped for supplies at the Edgewood, NM, Walmart and went into the nearby McDonald's so Heather could do a Zoom call with our granddaughter who is learning to speak German using Rosetta Stone software. Heather acts as her coach. They meet twice a week.

We asked permission from the manager at the Tractor Supply across town if we could use their wifi so Heather could teach her Zoom Good News Bible Club from the RV. They were very helpful and pointed out where the strongest signal was outside the building.

Later we headed to Santa Rosa, NM, to use the McDonald's wifi so Heather could meet with a friend over Zoom. They meet weekly to read the Bible. Following that we again used Zoom to host a Missionsfestseattle prayer gathering. 

Finally we drove across town to a Love's Travel Plaza for the night. I asked where to park our motor home overnight and and was told to park between the trucks out back...and so we did.

Friday has taken us out of New Mexico and into Texas along Rt. 60. We have non-stop trains running alongside our road. Some trains have 3 or 4 engines pulling with 1 or 2 near the middle or at the end. One train had 5 engines pulling plus one at the end. Do you ever wonder how much of our goods move by rail?

We stopped at a roadside rest for a lunch break.

Later, we drove past many oil wells (or maybe gas) pumping. There was a strong petroleum smell coming into the RV. We get used to various smells entering our coach as we drive along. I suppose I prefer the smell of grease and oil in-the-making than the smell of ice cream in-the-making when we drive through dairy farm land. The skunk smell has been quite common!

I "stole" these online images and also wanted to mention that many of the pumps we passed were located in vast cotton fields. However, today's fields had already been harvested.

On the road again...for real!

Wednesday started with the the R&R crew doing some final things under the RV. The owner then invited us to go on an extended test drive to a reservoir in the hills. He wanted to make sure the trans was working correctly as we had a lot of miles still ahead on our journey. The views at the reservoir were great. He had his crew make some final checks and adjustments on returning to the shop.

We left Aztec, NM a little after noon today (Wednesday) after a week-long transmission repair. We immediately drove across the road to DIY car wash. The RV had picked up a lot of dirty spray from wet roads and there were greasy hand prints along bottom of the coach where the mechanics touched while rolling their creepers under the chassis. Next, we drove across town the a city-operated free dump site and fresh (potable) water supply. After that we headed for the highway in the direction of Albuquerque. 

We stopped for a lunch break at the continental divide, and for Heather to nap and Roger to do the dishes.

We ended our travel day in Cuba, NM at a laundromat. We try to travel with nine days of clothing changes. Later, after laundry, we attended a Wednesday evening service at the Potter's House church in Cuba.

Monday and Tuesday in Aztec

The repair shop assures us that the RV will be finished today. However, the owner/expert wants to take it on a long test drive on Wednesday morning. So we will be sleeping in the stationary RV for another night. 

The R&R crew began reinstalling the transmission around 8:30am and have been working underneath the vehicle all day. The job required taking apart sections of the exhaust system to clear a path for removing and reinstalling the transmission. 

We moved out of the RV around 8am and sat in the waiting room. They gave us a loaner pickup so we could see the town. 

Yesterday we visited several places including the Aztec Ruins National Monument and the local history museum.

The Aztec Museum and Pioneer Village has an eclectic mix of local history memorabilia. We enjoyed seeing the David E. Lobato displays as he was the ancestor of Myra, our "local host", and was a prominent historical figure in the town of Aztec.

The shop loaned us a pickup truck to get around town. We drove to a park and walked around for an hour and then shopped for "on sale" items for Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. Then we drank some root beer at A&W. After that we met a friend at Wendy's and visited over Frosty swirls.

Saturday and Sunday in Aztec

Kevin and Brie, our airbnb hosts in Fruitland connected us with Cliff and Myra, their friends in Aztec. They invited us over on Saturday for some get acquainted conversation,  a game of Scrabble and a delicious supper. It's fun making new friends. Myra will be driving us to the ancient Aztec ruins Monday morning.

Today was great! We walked two blocks to the Animas Valley Community Church for their 8am teaching time and later for the worship service. That's where Cliff and Myra attend. 

The pastor taught on the need for Christ-followers to be "cruciform" in our lives...that is to live out Jesus in ways that show His work in our lives.

There's another church just down the road with a cool sign that shows up at night.

Here's what dusk looks behind our RV. Lots of clear skies in the area and only 10 inches of rain annually.

Our final day in Fruitland, NM

We decided to move back into our RV because our Matthew 28 Ministries friends had a very busy schedule this weekend. We certainly enjoyed staying in their wonderful airbnb cottage.

Every Friday (today) the Mission holds an "Open Shop" for community members to have mechanical work performed on their vehicles. Folks bring the parts and the Mission does the work.

Last night we slept well in our RV. The transmission shop supplied a power connection so we didn't have stay on battery or generator power.