From bad to worse

Wednesday morning was cold in El Paso TX, but there was no snow on the ground as predicted, which made us happy. Benno got the truck warmed up and we were on the road by 7 a.m. We’ve come along Interstate 10 but from El Paso TX this highway continues about 40 miles straight north before it turns southwest again. 

Instead of continuing on the Interstate, Benno decided to drive on Country Road 9, which runs along the Mexican border. This road passes thru the town of Columbus NM, which about hundred years ago was raided by “Pancho Villa” the Mexican revolutionary who crossed the Mexican/USA border and shot up the town of Columbus. But he did not know that there was a small detachment of US Army soldiers with a machine gun stationed near by, who woke up from the gun fire and then alarmed gave Pancho Villa and his consorts hell, who quickly retreaded back into Mexico. When the US President got the news of the invasion from Mexico he gave the order of 10 000 US Army troops with General Pershing in charge to do a punishing expedition into Mexico. The troops arrived only a week after the intrusion by train in Columbus NM. With the troops arrived a sub lieutenant by the name of George Patton, who was in charge of motorcars and motor trucks. This was the first time the US Army used beside horses, motor trucks and a kind of armored truck (tank) and even an airplane. This was George Patton first touch with tanks and he did a very well job there and got promoted to lieutenant after the expedition. Benno wanted to take a picture of this tank, which he forgot to take 4 years ago when we visited the museum on our first trip to Arizona with our travel trailer.

The weather was absolutely lovely with sunshine and a blue sky. However, the further we got toward the tiny town of Animas the more overcast it became until we saw the first snowflakes. At Animas there was now snow everywhere and we made our right turn going north on Country Road 338, which would bring us back to the Interstate 10. For a moment we contemplated if we should find a place to stop for the day since there was more snow coming down than we liked.  I am glad we continued because once we were back on the Interstate the road started to clear and the further we drove the better the weather got.  

Just a few miles before the city of Tucson, as rush hour was starting, our right rear tire of the travel trailer blew up. It totally disintegrated and within seconds we were on a bare rim.  Of course we had to stop where we were by the side of the Interstate.  We have a spare tire on the back so Benno didn’t waste any time to start the procedure to get that changed.  Not much fun as traffic raced by at 75 miles an hour, especially when semis passed as they push a lot of wind that made our trailer shake while it was jacked up.  Now I experienced first hand why we always should pull over to the other lane when we see an emergency vehicle stopped by the roadside. 

After the tire change we continued driving on I-10 to Casa Grande as it started to get dark quickly but we made it to the Walmart in town and found us a nice parking spot for the night. 

On Thursday morning we were rolling out the parking lot around 8 a.m. looking forward to our arrival later on at our Winterhaven CA, RV Campground.  We needed to fill up with gas and I found a travel center on the road map on Interstate 8 at exit 119 in Gila Bend.  That gas station had quite a collection of Mexican artwork out front and inside the store there were more handcrafted souvenirs that I admired.  We filled up with gas and drove out to the street. A hundred yards further we turned back onto the ramp to the Interstate there was a cattle grate, which we drove over with a good bump and before we even came to speed Benno noticed in the rear mirror our rear tires full of smoke. Of course he pulled right over while we were still on the entry lane to the highway and out of the main traffic.  

Disaster! The first rear axle springs were broken and the trailer wheel well was riding on the tires. We were both shocked and had to think of our next move.  Benno walked back the ramp to the gas station and found pieces of our springs lying by the cattle-grate.  He also noticed other pieces of springs there of a different size and all kinds of car debris.   

I decided to go the gas station to see if they had any contact information for a spring service but they could not help me.  In desperation I talked to a guy in a pickup truck that seemed to be from the area and explained to him our problem.  He so happened to know of a local Auto and Diesel Mechanic that did 24 hour road service and he had his phone number programmed in his cell phone.  The guy said to me, “Pete can fix anything.”  He called Pete, whose name is actually Peteys and said he’ll be here in 10 minutes.  True to his word, 5 minutes later Peteys drove up and I hopped in his truck to take him to our broken down travel trailer.

It turned out that not only had we two broken springs, there were pieces missing and broken on all 4 springs.  Peteys got to work and dismantled one spring to take with him as a sample to purchase us a new set of 4 springs for both rear axles. For that he had to drive all the way to Phoenix and then back to us to disassemble and reinstall all 4 springs. We were parked by the on-ramp from 9 O’clock in the morning until Peteys finished the job at 6:30 in the evening.

Once the job was done and we had thanked Peteys and paid him for his work we only drove another 35 miles to a rest area to park for the night as we were emotionally drained and tired. 

Not only did it shock us that the springs had failed, because our trailer is a 2016 model and only 3 years old and has not been driven much through salted roads, nor is the trailer overweight and we pack light.  But as the springs failed in that short distance they damaged all our tires so that we now also need a set of 4 new tires for the travel trailer in addition. 

Midmorning on Friday we pulled into the Pilot Knob RV Resort.  We’d not finished getting set up when I spotted Rob. He and his wife Pat are also Canadians parked here and good friends with  Patsy and Bill from Canada. At the same time  George and Suzie, also from Canada, were getting ready to pull out, but we got a super nice welcome from all of them and later on sat in nice warm sunshine at Patsy and Bill’s site for happy hour to tell our story. We are planning on staying here for the rest of the winter season.

Happy New Year from El Paso, Texas

Wishing everyone a Happy Year 2019 from El Paso, Texas. Here is an update since my last post.

Our parking spot at the Walmart in Texarkana, Texas, turned out to be a quiet and peaceful overnight stay. We were well rested in the morning and after our breakfast and cleaning dishes we rolled out onto Interstate 30 to continue our travel. Benno has been doing all the driving so far and I am enjoying the scenery. However, I keep the road map on my lap and while there is not much navigating needed as we are doing long stretches on the Interstates, it is always good to know in advance where travel centers and rest areas are located.  The temps have been still pretty cool at night but yesterday’s day temperatures reached +16C, which was really nice. 

We mastered driving through Dallas and Fort Worth with no problems.  Lots of traffic in many lanes, bridges and overpasses, but hey, if you’ve driven on the Hwy 401 through Toronto, then this was a piece of cake. Fuel prices differ along the Interstates and the lowest we found so far was at Caddo Mills, Texas at a Pilot station where we paid US$ 1.71/Gal. for gasoline after our 5 cent discount we get with the Good Sam card.

On New Years Eve we called it a day at 4:30 in the afternoon and parked again at a Walmart parking lot. This one was located off I-20 in Abilene, Texas. Once we were settled we noticed that it was getting rapidly colder but it didn’t matter, because we had gotten our two propane tanks topped off on the way so we cranked up the heat and I prepared a New Years Eve meal. We dined on home cooked goulash, broccoli and potatoes accompanied by a bottle of sparkling wine.

Overnight the temps plunged and we woke up to -3C in the New Year. That was quite a drop in temperature and it got worse once we were rolling on the Interstate.  Instead of warming up while driving southwest the temps hovered around -6C with an overcast sky.  The stretch on I-20 is through flat farm land with tons of oil industry support outfits, oil refineries and scattered all over the area as far as we could see there were more than a few hundred of oil pumps, but not all of them pumping oil. This is Texas famous oil area.

When we were about 10 miles before where the I-20 merges into I-10 we ran into fog.  That fog was so heavy and with the freezing temperatures it became a slippery drive.  All around us the area was white with frost and the trees were iced up. Those conditions lasted for another 30 miles right though the Apache Mountains and we contemplated to stop for the day at Van Horn, the next town, because the road was icing up. However, just as sudden it cleared up, the sun came out and the temps started to climb up again to our relief.  

The rest of the I-10 into El Paso was nice enough and it even warmed up to about +12C.  We have changed now twice the time zones and are now 2 hours before our hometown in Canada.  Of course we have not quite adjusted yet and our poor dogs don’t understand why we feed them so late in the day.  

For tomorrow there is snow in the forecast for this area and lower part of New Mexico (and I thought we were driving southwest). So lets see if we are going to wake up to white stuff on the ground or the forecast has turned hopefully into fake news.  We’ll keep you updated.  Thanks for following along and comments are appreciated.

Hallelujah we are underway

I can’t believe it myself, but we are on the road heading southwest! At the time of this writing, we are parked at a Walmart parking lot right next door to Lowe’s in Texarkana, Texas. 

At my last update I indicated that we were down to one puppy, but that was a bit premature. We still had two puppies, but the person that had made the appointment to come to our house to get one didn’t show up. But then one of the two puppies left went to new parents on Christmas Day and the last puppy was picked up Thursday morning at our house by a mother and daughter who both wanted to bring him to their homes, so I guess they have to share him among themselves. It is a little bit heartbreaking to say goodbye to the puppies as we had grown very affectionate of all of them, but to see the delight and happiness as we hand them over to the new parents helps us to feel better about it and we do get pictures of them as they settle in their new homes.

So on Thursday late morning we found ourselves puppy-less. A very mild day was forecasted for Friday with temps around 12+C but with plunging temperatures for the weekend and even the possibility of some snow. So after digesting this weather forecast, Benno and I went into a packing frenzy so to speak.  All day long I made the trip from the house to the travel trailer and back to bring all the stuff that we think we need for the next few months, including a quick trip into town to get a few more items and to the bank for some US currency.  Boy did our Canadian Dollar ever go down in the exchange rate.  It sure hurts us big time. 

On Friday morning we were both up early to finish packing with the last of the foodstuff, draining our hot water tank and shutting off the water to the house and a few other tasks. By 9:30 a.m. we were rolling out of our driveway.

At the Ambassador Bridge, which is the Canadian Border crossing into the United States in Windsor, we encountered a HUGE backup of cars all wanting to cross over.  I don’t know why there were so many cars, but my guess is there must have been a game on that day.  We were prepared for a waiting time for at least 2 hours, but two border employees came walking up and they directed us to use the commercial trucking lane instead of the car lanes.  So we lined up behind a few big trucks until it was our turn at the border control booth and it only took maybe 5 minutes waiting time. After our passports and dogs vaccination papers were inspected and we were asked where we were headed and how long we were going to be away, we were free to leave.  The big bonus was that there is no tollbooth for the trucks to pay the bridge toll, so we saved some money.

Friday night we spent at a parking lot at a Flying J fuel station off I-69 in Marion, Indiana. It was -3C cold and windy which made it feel even colder.  We crawled under the covers and our propane furnace kept us warm but the noise from the many trucks that came and went all night long didn’t make for a good nights rest.  On top of it, our two dogs needed to go out in the middle of the night. Next day driving the road of the downtown bypass in Indianapolis, Indiana was so bad that the truck and camper shook and rattled so much that the brackets that hold our full length mirror on our bathroom door had broken off and Benno was greeted when opening the bathroom door by a broken mirror laying on the floor.  Overall there were quite a lot of potholes on the highways and the winter has not even yet begun so I wonder what they will be like in the springtime.

From Saturday to Sunday we stayed overnight at a Walmart parking lot in Sikeston, Missouri where the I-57 meets the I-55. The parking lot was ok and it was a big Walmart.  At around 2 a.m. a pick-up truck with a sweeper attachment started cleaning the surface of the parking lot and that noise woke both of us up.  He kept sweeping around our camper and vicinity for a long time but eventually we drifted back to sleep.

We left Canada with only some propane in one tank and one full 30 pound one.  Here in Texarkana we made a detour trip to a TSC store to fill the empty tank with propane only to be told that they are totally out of propane. Hopefully we will find another store tomorrow as the temps are still on the cool side.

I don’t know if I can post tomorrow, but Benno and I would like to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year.  

Puppies for all you Dachshund lovers

Today it’s just a week short of Christmas and we are wondering what became of our winter travel plans.  Have they gone to the dogs?  I hope not, but the travel budget had been shot to pieces by my emergency trips to Germany. 

The arrival of the 7 puppies at the beginning of October was perhaps not well planned on our side, but then who can see into the future. Anyway, those little pups were a delight to watch growing up in front of our eyes. More so in Benno’s than mine because I had to take the above indicated two not planed in emergency trips to Germany caused of the passing of my Dad and then again because of Mom’s difficulties adjusting her life and coping with the bureaucratic stuff.  

At 10 weeks of age the puppies were starting to be ready to go to new homes.  As of today, we have two pups left of which one is going to be picked up on Saturday.  The last one I’m not sure if the person that inquired is really serious about it.

Here are some of the pictures I posted on the Internet to find forever homes for them.  All of the puppies have touched our hearts and the longer they are with us the harder it is to say goodbye when they leave. Heartbreaking, really!

 

Meanwhile, we have been working at updating our home security at little bit. Has it crossed your mind that when you are away for the wintertime traveling somewhere south what is going on back home while you are away?  I mean if you still own a house there might be concerns about deep-freezing temperatures and ice rain causing power outages or even security issues. During my trip to Germany it was on my mind because of an incident I’ll tell you about.

Wherever I am, my iPad is usually not far from me.  I find it a handy tool and especially to keep in touch with my family and friends and it works wherever there is wifi.  Mom has wifi at her house and when I heard a ding tone in my iPad I opened it to check out the source. A notification from our “Nest” home security system informed me that the Nest smoke alarm had been activated back home but “that it was waved off.”  A “waved off” message means that the smoke alarm had come on but was deactivated by waving the smoke away from the unit.  I wondered what Benno had been cooking, so I fired off an email to him asking: “Schatz, what did you burn?”  When Benno read my mail he thought, “Shit, now I have to explain!”  Turns out he had attempted to bake one of those packaged dinners I had purchased.  The instruction said to place the food onto a tray lined with parchment paper and then bake it for 20 minutes on 450F.  Benno didn’t find any parchment paper in our drawer but thought that the wax paper would do the same job. After turning on the countertop toaster oven and placing the food inside he then went to see the puppies in the garage.  Somehow the time got away from him and he realized that the dinner must be finished cooking. When he came to the entrance door the glass was fogged up on the inside and he heard the smoke alarm (screaming) loudly complaining that there was smoke coming from the kitchen.  In panic he opened the oven and much more smoke came out, he ripped open the patio doors to let the smoke out and be able to see and grab the next dishtowel, to give the dishtowel a good workout at the smoke detector and wave the smoke away.  As to the wax paper, it had melted all the wax and then burned it off, creating a lovely mess. The dinner was bone dry and crunchy, but he ate it anyway! It was no Chef Ramsey quality.

I now think in the future we might be a little more at ease when we are traveling as long as all the technic gadgets do their job.

This litte pup is still hoping to be adopted

Thanks for dropping in again and please do the next time I'm posting. Have a great day everyone.

My trip to Germany

Last weekend I returned home from Germany. It is a long flight, as a matter of fact three flights for me. I flew from Windsor Ontario to Montreal, Quebec, then on a Boing 777 plane onto Zurich, Switzerland and from there on to Hamburg, Germany. The Transatlantic flight is 7,200 kilometers (4500 miles) and lasts 7 to 8 hours depending which direction the flight is. From Hamburg Airport I took two train rides and for the final stretch a taxi ride to my Mom’s house.  The time difference is 6 hours ahead in Germany. If you are wondering, yes, I was jetlagged both ways for several days until my body adjusted. My return flight I had booked from Hamburg to Munich, Germany and again on a Boing 777 plane to Toronto, Canada. For my flight to Windsor I had to wait at the Toronto airport 4-1/2 hours for the Puddle Jumper, as there were no other flights available. Once everyone was onboard the plane sat on the tarmac for 30 minutes before we got the ok for takeoff.  I guess the Airports are over capacity at certain times.  Needless to say I was so happy when Benno picked me up in Windsor and very tired when I finally got home.

The month of November is usually very wet and overcast in Northern Germany so I knew already what to expect. The sun peaked out so very little that I mostly missed its appearance, but we had a lot of the liquid kind. My Mom (91 years young) needed some assistance with bureaucratic paperwork, appointments and general runaround arrangements of various sorts that kept us busy. Mom doesn’t drive anymore so even getting groceries or other shopping becomes difficult for her. She uses a walker when outside and there are no stores close by her home which is located in a very nice subdivision with beautiful parks. She made arrangements to have a hot meal delivered once a day after my departure so she doesn’t have to cook a dinner for herself, with the exception if the feels like eating something else than what was brought. 

Mom lives in a small town close to the city of Hansestadt Stade.  A few days before my departure to Canada, the Christkindle Bazaar in Stade set up its booths and displays. Some snow and lit Christmas lights would have enhanced the ambiance, but when we went in the morning to have a look, it drizzled with a temperature of about 2+C. There were not too many people out in the pedestrian zone and the ones we encountered hurried on to warmer and drier places. Nevertheless, here are some pictures I took with my iPad.

The inner harbour downtown

There is a lot I have to catch up to back home. You won’t believe how much the puppies have grown up since I last wrote in this blog.  Next update will be pictures of them for all the Dachshund lovers out there. So stay tuned.