G2adventures

Spent last night in Natural Bridge Virginia … dumped tanks .. and hit the road .. we knew it was going to be a long day in that we planned to make it home today .. Sunday. Made several stops to break up the ride … Picked up some anti freeze for Travato .. will Winterize it tomorrow .. temps forcast for some mid 20/30’s at night. So .. after 6 hours of wheel time .. and approx 400 miles .. we arrived home at 4pm … As we were unloading Travato .. we saw BBL maint truck pre-treating roads .. expecting cold temps and an inch of snow tonight … and flurries tomorrow.

So .. we left on our adventure on Sept 21 .. almost 8 weeks on the road … we are glad to be home for sure. Many adventures along the way … mostly good ones 🙂 .. No issues with Travato .. other than sliding screen door that Riley tangled with … slow leak in tire due to a screw .. Shortend trip by a few weeks so that we could get home for Riley’s surgery .. No regrets .. we were ready to come home … 8 weeks in a small motorhome gets to be abit tricky !

Surprised that both Subaru and GMC started immediately .. I was sure one or both would need jump start after sitting idle for so long .. we did leave Subaru in the garage.. Another surprise was that all plants survived .. actually .. Christmas cactus plants all flowered .. I guess they liked the cool temps and infrequent watering. Rest of the year will be busy .. outdoor Winterizing ,, Riley surgery and post op recovery .. T’Day … several Dr appts that we posponed .. XMAS … and getting ready for our Disney trip in late Jan.. Travato mostly unloaded … will finish tomorrow .. going to take us awhile to clean it .. inside and out .. got alot of bug scraping to do ! Alot of laundry .. sort through our mail .. food shopping .. getting Riley ready for Friday’s surgery .. ie.. bath !

Captured alot of good memories .. week in Canon Beach .. week in San Antonio .. White Sands National Park .. Magnolia Mkt .. ALBQ Balloon Fiesta .. camping on banks of Mississippi river banks .. and many more … as well as fantastic scenery we encountered … coast to coast ! Not sure we would ever take a road trip of this length/distance again .. but .. it’s one we will always remember ! Next up .. visit with Mickey in Disney World !!

Last night we stayed in West Memphis Arkansas .. tonight .. Crossville Tenn. Had a unusual campsite in West Memphis (very close to Tenn border) .. Tom Sawyer RV Campground was a penninsula .. we were surrounded by Mississippi River and another river. Rundown campground .. but .. seeing tugboats push barges up and down the Mississippi was an interesting sight. Tugs were very close to shore line .. so we got a good look at them. This morning we caught a good Mississippi River sunrise. 300 mile plus later .. we are in Crossville Tenn .. Much to our surprise … KOA was all decorated for Xmas. Tomorrow we head to Virginia .. (and lose an hour due to time change).. Depending how we feel we might make it home on Sunday .. if not .. we will make one more stop in Western PA.

KOA in Crossville Tenn

Slogged 300 plus miles today .. ended up with us crossing border into Texarkana Arkansas (as opposed to Texarkana Texas) ! Not a smooth ride today … Texas seems to be doing ALOT of maint on their interstates… roads being ripped up .. new lanes being added etc … very messy around Waco area as well as other interstates… pulled off Interstate for our camping exit as well as to refuel .. campground was about 1 mile from Flying J gas station .. but .. WAZE thought it was a good idea for us to drive in the opposite direction … costing is an extra 30 min ;( It didn’t help us that campground did not have any signs indicating what turns we should be taking .. Drove non stop with one exception … a BUC-EE stop !! BUC-EE brisket sandwich and BUC-EE chips .. along with a few gallons of water.. BUC-EEs is a good stop for us … lots of parking .. gas .. green grassy areas for dogs .. as well as BUC-EE gear ! Hard to believe .. but .. I did NOT pick up any BUC-EE gear !

Plan is to be near Tenn tomorrow night … if it’s just a boring driving day .. we will skip tomorrow’s update ..

Magnolia day … had lunch at Magnolia Table this afternoon … place is very crowded .. people making reservations months ahead .. but .. they do save some seating for ‘walk-ins’… had a 30 min wait .. not too bad.. surprised we were able to get in at all. Restaurant is a few miles from other Magnolia shops and only serves breakfast and lunch.. as with all their shops .. very nicely landscaped and designed.

Spent the rest of the afternoon checking out Magnolia shops … quite a few of them in the 2 block area. Some retail therapy and walking around the area.

Silo Bakery makes tasty cupcakes 🙂 …. folks patiently waiting in long lines to get in bakery

Tomorrow we start heading North ….. making reservations as we go along … should be home on Sunday !

Left San Antonio this morning after having a week visit with the Davis’s .. It was a good week and time went by too fast. Todd & Chrissy have a very nice home in a nice campus atmosphere. Their dog .. Betty .. and Riley had a good time chasing each other (in a playful way) .. suprised how gentle Riley was with Betty (and kids) who is pretty small at 12 lbs (?) … Riley pretty much got along with everyone .. including some of the students.We went to visit downtown San Antonio Riverwalk and went for a ‘cruise’ .. and went to a downtown ‘Market’ .. both very interesting places to visit… Gia and AJ doing well !

Riverwalk Cruise

This morning we stopped Buc-ees in New Braunsfell … supposed to be largest gas station .. 100 pumps .. 1000 parking spaces and a very large shopping/food area.. Had a quick breakfast .. and picked up some Buc-ees gear 🙂 ..

After leaving New Braunsfell we headed to Waco .. our stop for the next 2 nights.. Arrived mid afternoon .. giving us enough time to check things out (we will go back tomorrow) then headed to our campsite that was only a few miles away .. but .. with Texas I35 traffic took us almost 30 minutes … Checked out Chip & JoJo’s Magnolia Market in the middle of Waco …We’ve watched the show .. but it looks much better in person

Random photos of Kids and the pups

300 miles and .. we are now in Fort Stockton Texas … another 300 and we will be in San Antonio tomorrow afternoon !

Nice view of sunset tonite ….

Decided to make some good use of our down day by taking some close by road trips … First we went to Cloudcroft .. a small town approx 20 min from our campsite.. What make Cloudcroft a tourist stop ?? It is the highest town in New Mexico .. 8,676 feet .. Roads were narrow and had several switchbacks .. Travato chugged along at 35/40 mph … At the top there where quite a few stores .. restaurants .. bakeries .. bars .. jewelry .. etc.. Town was set up to look like an old Western town .. wooden plank sidewalks.. etc .. After some shopping we headed down the steep mountain … half way down we get a ‘brake failure’ warning on dashboard !! not a good time to lose your brakes … but .. I had read somewhere that Ram Promaster chassis (Travato) has been known to get this error message when going down steep inclines and having auto transmission doing alot of downshifting .. So .. we took it very slow .. pulling over several times to make sure we were OK .. White knuckle drive down for sure … Made it down ok .. no further brake failure messages.

Next we headed to White Sands National Park …. got there late afternoon .. wanting to catch the sunset.. White Sand is actually ‘gypsum’ .. and it is like concrete when thousands of cars ride over the road causing ‘washboard’ terrain … Don’t think we’ve encountered washboard roads that bad for that long of a distance .. Travato taking another beating ! Sunset was worth the rough roads … very scenic to see sun set over mountains on to the sand …

Utah .. New Mexico have ALOT of desolated Interstate roads.. miles and miles… covered over 250 of them today. Will be in Alamogordo for 2 nights. On the way in to town stopped at 2 pistachio farms …. 99% of all pistachios are grown in 3 states .. Calif .. Arizona and New Mexico due to long hot Summers and cool Winters ..Temps up in mid 70’s today … might have to ditch the jeans and bust out the shorts tomorrow when we head to White Sands National Park. Riley getting abit bored with driving routine .. sat on TG’s lap for over an hour today (she is not your typical lap dog)… usually she sits/lies on floor by center console… I think she wanted to look out the window for awhile.

Long .. long drive today .. 330 miles seemed like forever .. Nothing tricky .. but .. boring .. isolated roads .. we went for hours without seeing much of anything .. ie.. towns .. gas stations .. nothing.. Temps did warm up to mid 50’s when we arrived in Bernalillo.. Heading to White Sands National Park (New Mexico) tomorrow …

Our view(s) this morning from campsite …

Relatively easy drive today … (compared to yesterday) … drove through Moab around noon .. lunch in Moab .. then pushed on to Monticello… Small .. no frills campground ..nice for only $20.20 ! We are still amazed at the changes in scenery … green mountains with snow on peaks … red rocky soil/mountains … gray barren landscapes that look like we are on the moon .. light snow on the ground .. fall colors on trees .. etc .. Moving into warmer temps starting tomorrow .. New Mexico .. then Arizona. Temps dipping into low 30’s tonight !