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...

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

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

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.

On The Road Again ? - Oh, Oh, Oh, NO!

We got off to a good start - a little ahead of time! Traffic was o.k.; weather was great; R.V. was running good. We gassed up in Ellensburg and made it to McDonalds in Moses Lake in time for Heather to Zoom with granddaughter Scarlett for her German lesson. Roger was driving. 

As we neared Sprague Lake there was a violent explosion and the R.V. rocked. A rear tire had exploded. Roger knew immediately what had happened. The temperature was high 90's and the highway HOT. We were able to limp 3 miles to a rest area. It took 4.5 hours and many calls, including some scammers, for us to get someone to come switch tires (we had a spare). The entire process was very confused and almost did Roger in!! Once the help came (a local man who obviously a professional), it took only 20 minutes to change tires. Roger cannot change these tires. That's why we have roaside assistance and towing coverage. The spare weighs about 100 pounds and the lug nuts require an impact wrench

The explosion did damage to the R.V. which had to get fixed. He knew of the place that someone had recommended to Roger, so we carefully drove there. The owner told us to park and spend the night in the R.V., which we did. The temperature went from HOT to pleasant. First thing the next morning, they started work on the R.V. 

It took 3 1/2 hours, but they did a very good and complete job of restoring the wheel well - and gave us special rates! Roger checked the work!! However, this all cost us 24 hours and $. But we got four new rear tires in Post Falls, Idaho.

 We're spending the night in Butte. God is good!!

Oh! Heather got some real good deals on American made crayons and school supplies for the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes.