Overnight in Willcox, AZ

We parked in the Sagebrush RV Park and Mobile Home Village last night.

 The past several nights we have stayed in RV parks just so we could have power for our rooftop air conditioner. We have noticed that these parks have a lot of permanent guests living in RVs. Our guess is that it is ultimately less costly to own a towable RV, park it semi-permanently in an RV park and just pay monthly or annually. All costs are covered.

By the way, we ended up driving into the sunset to get to Willcox. It is not a  preferred situation. The RV has a very large front windshield and the sun can be pretty intense. There is one aspect that is nice...seeing the sun lighting up the clouds ahead.

Another stop before leaving El Paso

We learned that the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agency has a museum on the outskirts of town.

 Such a great and important role these folks play in controlling the flow of illegal drugs and human trafficking. Although officially renamed in 2003, the actual functions of protecting us from individuals illegally entering our country began in the 20th century. People are always looking for backdoors to get into this God-Blessed country.

After the museum tour we ate lunch in the RV. 

El Paso to AZ

We had a comfortable evening in the Mission RV Park in El Paso. Plugged in for air conditioning! We started another puzzle in the evening but didn't finish it until Friday morning. 

We don't travel unless everything is secured. Unfinished puzzles would become less finished from all the  shaking on the roads.

Last evening there was a brief wind storm all the surrounding areas became blurry...probably from sand and dust. After that came the rain which went on softy through the night. It cooled off enough that we didn't need air conditioning at all during the night. Very pleasant for sleeping.

Heading West from Odessa to El Paso

We parked in Odessa, TX, Wednesday night, but before parking for the night we attended a church in town thinking it would be a typical evening service. It turned out to be taco supper and the associate pastor sharing his testimony of how Jesus saved him out of a violent gang lifestyle as a teenager and young adult.

Our air conditioner froze up during the night. We let it thaw out this morning, which didn't take long in this climate. Lots of melted ice poured off the outside roof, and some dripped into the coach. We used a towel and buckets to catch the water.

 

The temperature has been so high since leaving Branson that we have paid for overnight parking just to have power to run our rooftop air conditioner. We usually "boondock" in Love's travel plazas where RV's are welcome for overnights and have no hookups.

We also keep our speed down to 65mph to keep the engine a little cooler. It's not happy pulling us uphill in 95+ degree weather. In our many thousands of travel miles we've seen a lot of "roadkill"...deer, raccoons, armadillos, etc. On this trip through west Texas we see lots and lots of tire fragments along the edge.

We've become more aware of blown tires since it happened to us on our first day out on this trip. Check our previous posts.

We are now parked in an RV park in El Paso, TX, for Thursday night. Because of the high temps in the region we again wanted power to run our air conditioning system. We also needed good wifi so Heather could teach her regular Thursday afternoon Zoom Good News Club.

Continuing on...August 20

We arrived in Sturgis and parked at our son Josh's place. All seemed well until Roger went to get a tool out of his storage. Lo and behold, he discovered more damage from the blow-out. The steel belts from the tire also cut a gash completely through the bottom of our power cord storage compartment.

We hope to get that fixed tomorrow at our son Alan's place in Rapid City. It will require a metal plate be installed. The weather here has been hot. Today was 99. Amazingly, we are not too uncomfortable. And when we get too hot, we go into Josh's place. He keeps it super cold! We can't stay there too long... Granddaughters Jazmin and Scarlett are here. We've had a little visiting. Jazmin has her baby Callaway here, too. He's 10 months and super cute!

Silver Dollar City, MO - August 26

We had a good trip to Silver Dollar City - a Christian-owned theme park. The roads were smooth and the traffic light. The R.V. a/c has worked well. Nights have been pleasantly cool. Until the last hour today, Roger has slept (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and 1/2 of Wednesday shaking off whatever hit him on Sunday) and Heather drove. He's much better now and took a turn driving. We are looking forward to 4 days of Southern Gospel music - the music of our hearts! It is still HOT here (in the 90's every day). However, there's a breeze and some buildings are air conditioned. Ice water and water sprays are everywhere. We're meeting a cousin (with family) of Roger's here - great fellowship.

From Sturgis to Rapid City - August 21

Scarlett got her chocolate chip cookies baked (they were all gone a couple of days later - she didn't share much!!). Then she made prize winning butter tarts. That was a little more challenging, but she said they are good! Grandma was needed primarily for providing ingredients, since her mother doesn't buy sugar. Arriving in Rapid City, we went to Alan's house. He offered to help Roger fix the damaged storage area of the R.V. Alan did a great job riveting and sealing an 1/8" thick aluminum plate. Roger was pleased.

I had a visit with Galina and got food ready for the weekend. It was plenty warm so Alan's family came over for a swim, both Friday and Saturday. On Sunday Roger and I walked about 1/4 mile to a Baptist Church down the highway. We have been there before. The weather was perfect for a walk. However, Roger wasn't feeling 100%.

Maybe too much swimming with grandkids? Sunday School - studying Ruth - went o.k., but by the time church started, Roger was shaking. He went outside to warm in the sun, but that wasn't the problem. A deacon gave us a ride back to the R.V. Roger slept most of the rest of the day and all night and woke up feeling much better. We decided to proceed with our trip plans. It took all day Monday to get across SD. We met Heather's cousin in Sioux Falls, SD, for dinner (taco dip that didn't get eaten in Rapid City!). It was nice to see Kyle again - he's doing well.

 From there we headed to Sioux City, IA, where we are spending the night at Love's.