The Great Winter Boondocking Vacation, 2012-2013

[ClydesdaleKevin]

So the verdict on what to do today is in...Patti is getting showered and dressed, and then we are going to take the pups on a nice long walk, then check out some of the thrift stores and pawn shops in town, and pick up some grocery items while we are out.


Might sprinkle off and on all day today, so we'll hit San Antonio starting tomorrow.


Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Went to the outskirts of San Antonio, Military Drive, and scoped out a lot of their thrift stores and pawn shops.  WAY overpriced!  Found a lot of stuff I REALLY would have loved to have bought, like a stainless Ruger Mini 30 and a Winchester Defender, but their prices were WAY over the top and they wouldn't bend on them.


I did score an awesome pair of size 13 almost new Cabela's Duck Shoes though, for taking the dogs out when its rainy and muddy, for six bucks at a Salvation Army!  I love my leather shearling slippers, but they take forever to dry out when they get soaked!

Had fun though.  Then went home to the pups.

Tomorrow, its the West Side of San Antonio!  Going to Market Square and that area!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

So it looks like its going to another stay in our jammies day...a surprise thunderstorm band is supposed to stay around San Antonio all day until late afternoon, so there isn't any point in getting such a late start. 

I listed the Rochester QJ and the stock air cleaner housing on eBay...lets see if I get any nibbles!

Tomorrow, who knows?  We'll either be going to Market Square, or the River Walk...not sure yet.

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Ah, what a lazy vacation day!  Watched the new Spider Man and MIB 3, and then went to the local convenience store which fortunately had Pedigree canned dog food in gravy...since the pups are on a diet, we mix a half can for each dog in with their one cup of Iams dry food once a day, and they were out of canned food.  If the gas station hadn't have had it, it would have been a longish trip in traffic to the nearest HEB grocery store!  (I have decided that HEB must stand for Hicks Eating Badly...a 200 lb kid around here is considered anorexic!  :)rotflmao ).


Our next door neighbor at the campground has a sweet old German Shepherd male dog who carries his toys around lovingly just like our Barnabas does.  And he's HUGE!  He's 9 years old and gets around a bit slowly (partially tore a ligament recently chasing a ball), but he's not overweight and weighs 118 lbs!  He makes Barnabas look small at 100lbs!


Tomorrow we pretty much decided (Patti could change her mind though) to go to Market Square and save the River Walk for Tuesday.  Wednesday we want to go see The Hobbit at a matinee while all the little booger pickers are still in school...lol!


We'll be here for six more days, and will have plenty of time to leisurely see everything, and then its back on the road West...next planned stop after this is Carlsbad Caverns!


Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

I had a funny thought today on my lazy PJ vacation day.  There are a couple of other Submariner and Navy folks on here that will appreciate this!  Probably Army folks too, but I'm not familiar with their warfare pins, and definitely Airforce, which have to earn their "Wings".  We need a Classic Winnebagos and Vintage RV Warfare pin! 


Okay...let me explain.  Whether you are on subs, surface boats, or air craft carriers, when you first get to the boat, you are dead weight...a NUB or Non Useful Body.  You are learning, but can't contribute anything yet since you are new to everything. 


As you progress and learn your stuff, you eventually earn your warfare pin.


We need one!


The Winnebago wings in pin form....lol!


How cool would that be?  Qualification pins, with the CWVRV emblem!  I'd wear it proudly!

Just a silly vacation thought since my mind is so unpreoccupied right now!


Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

OMFG!!!   


Another day in bed...but this time because I'm sick as a dog!  I think its food poisoning, but it could be just a 24 hour bug...but Patti isn't sick and we ate different stuff last night.


Threw up several times, starting about around 3am, and ending with the last one around 7am this morning.


Intestines are in knots, and of course everything is wrong in the runs department as well, although it seems to be letting up.


Muscle aches and fever too...I'm dyin' over here...oi vey.


I never get sick.  Hope I shake this off quick and that Patti doesn't get it!


Kev

[DonD]

"I never rarely get sick."   D:oH!  Feel better Kev.

[Froggy1936]

This may be due to weight loss ! seems overweight keeps a lot of the bugs away ! I hear a lot of people who have recently lost weight (or were never heavy) catch a lot of these guys !   Frank  hope you feel better soon no way to spend time wile on vacation !

[Wantawinnie]

Get well soon. One positive is that you can give a report on how the new composting toilet handles extreme conditions.

[tiinytina]

Was so going to say the same thing about the new Loo handling     as well...  sounds like food poisoning (check to see if your fridge is cold as it should be I guess...)...  if Patti keeps being fine it probably isn't a noro virus.. been there My mom gave it to Pat one Christmas Day, he got it that night 24 hours of  and then I got it 48 hrs after that..     Stay hydrated if you can.. watered down gatorade.. not full strength.... get electrolytes back in.... if possible....

Momma Hen,
Tina

[joanfenn]

I have great faith in the toilet.  Should do fine, just have plenty of peat moss on hand and you will be in the running. D:oH! whoops, sorry.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

LMAO everyone!  So far the loo handled the extreme doodie...I mean duty...usage just fine!


Probably going to have to change out the peat moss a lot earlier though...lol!


So except of a few muscle cramps in the abdomen area, I woke up feeling pretty good this morning and super hungry!  No more nausea, and the other side of things is pretty good too. 


Sipping coffee now and feeling pretty good, and Patti isn't feeling badly at all. My guess is that it was the wings I had at Denny's the afternoon before I took ill. 


So today we'll be hitting Market Square, and possibly go see The Hobbit this afternoon, although we might wait until Tuesday to see The Hobbit...we just want to make sure we see it while the kids are still in school so we can enjoy it!


Tomorrow is more than likely the River Walk.


Whew this bug kicked the crap outta me!  Literally!


Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Yesterday was a lot of fun!  We went to Market Square with its many many stores...but of course, once you'd walked into the first 7 or so, you'd pretty much seen everything that all the stores sold.  The most impressive prices on anything we saw were the hand tooled holsters and gunslinger belts...full rigs for 60 bucks covering calibers from .22 to .357 to .45.  Pretty nicely made and very fancy hand tooling done in Mexico.  Not nearly the quality of leather and stitching and whatnot as my Made in the USA Triple-K rig for my .357 Blackhawk, but pretty nice for the money!


We had lunch at a Mexican food place right at the market...I had 3 tacos while Patti, who doesn't like Mexican food, had a cheeseburger...and they agreed well with my poor tortured stomach.  In fact, I was craving carbs all day and even had pasta for dinner last night...guess my body really needed the extra carbs to heal all the way, because this morning I'm right as rain!  Back to low carbs now...lol!


Then, since it was early, we decided to go see The Hobbit...which was excellent by the way!  I thought it would be the whole book in one 3 hour movie, but it wasn't.  Peter Jackson is taking his time with this one, and its going to be stretched out into 3 movies.  Which is kind of funny, since The Hobbit was Tolkien's shortest book in the series, and Peter Jackson managed to cram the next 3 long books into 3 long movies (although a LOT of the story got left out).  Not disappointed at all though...its great so far, and we can't wait for the next one to come out!


Then back home to the pups and we took them out and played with them a while and then relaxed and watched the telly until bedtime.


Today we were going to take the pups to the Riverwalk...apparently its very pet friendly and a lot of the restaurants even allow dogs in the outside dining areas...but its the last unseasonably hot day for a while, supposed to be in the high 80s.  So we are going to save the doggie adventure down to the Riverwalk for tomorrow when its supposed to be in the high 60s, and Patti and I are going to go to the drive through Safari Park instead!  Maybe we'll get mugged by zebras again...lol!


I've got to mail out a couple of catapults on the way so they can get to where they are going in time for Christmas, and at some point in the next couple of days I've got to slip away long enough to go Christmas shopping for Patti!


Once our coffee kicks in its off to Safari!


Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Lots of fun at the Safari Park today, and Patti was delighted when the great big Longhorn with the underbite came up to her as if it remembered her and let her dump the food bag into his mouth...he even let her pet him!  She loves that beastie, and fondly named him George... :)rotflmao   His horns literally span the length of Jeep Wrangler!  He's a big fellow!


Most of the animals weren't all that interested in food today, the reason being all the alfalfa hay just laid out for them along the roadside.  But the mountain goats ate out of our hands with zeal!


The Zebras weren't all that interested either and they didn't mug us this year, but the Alpacas did!  One crazy Alpaca with big bucked teeth kept sticking its head in the window and was getting irate when I wasn't feeding it fast enough!


Good times were had by all!


We dropped the catapults in the mail along the way, and stopped at a little Mexican restaurant that had great enchiladas!  Patti had scrambled eggs and cheese...lol!


Tomorrow its puppy day at the Riverwalk!  We are going to spend the whole day there tomorrow with the dogs, maybe even into the evening to see the Christmas lights.  I've got to check to see if the pups are allowed on the trolleys and or ferry boats though...that's a lot of walking for Patti with her arthritis otherwise.


Then Friday morning I'm slipping into town to buy Patti her Christmas presents!


Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!


Someone turned off the heat and opened the freezer door!


Yesterday was a balmy 85+ degrees, and we woke up this morning to temps in the low 40s, high icy winds, and its only supposed to get up to 60 and stay super windy all day, and drop down into the low 30s and upper 20s tonight...brrrrrrr!!!


Decided to postpone the Riverwalk trip with the pups until tomorrow, when it will be warmer with no wind, so today I'm gonna go Christmas shopping for Patti, and we'll stay snug in the house with the pups other than that today.


What a huge change in temperature in one night!


Kev

[JDxeper]

Well, 700 miles north of you,it is in the 20's and blowing snow, with the same winds you have. Winter has arrived a day early.
Stay warm.

[HandyDan]

Yah! We finally have winter again.  Last year it was relatively warm all winter long.  Total snowfall was 4" when it should have been closer to 18".  Woke up this morning to a white blanket on everything.  It is beautiful.  Of course, I don't have to get out in it to go to work.  That would make a totally different attitude.  However, they closed the school district I retired from so I would have gotten to stay home, anyway.  I just pulled up the covers and slept in late.  Retired life is good!

[ClydesdaleKevin]

LOL Dan!  Vacation during "retired" life is good anyways.  Had another nice lazy day today.  Went and bought Patti's Christmas presents (gave her one early...a Microsoft wireless mouse since hers died), then came home and did pretty much nothing else, unless you can call updating virus and malware definitions and scanning the computer work.


Weather is supposed to be a couple of degrees warmer tomorrow with no wind, and only drop into the high 40s at night, so we are definitely taking the pups to the Riverwalk tomorrow!


Kev

[HandyDan]

Well, the mailperson doesn't get to our box until after 4:30.  Because of the snow he/she was later than usual.  It gets dark about 5:00.  The point is I was going to go out and get the mail and pick up the newspaper (I can't go to bed without doing the crossword puzzle).  I started out the door and got to the porch and discovered the end of the porch was covered with ice and so was the walk.  I couldn't even get to the snow on the grass without going across about 5 feet of ice.  My excitement about snow and winter came to an abrupt halt.  I decided that I would just have to wait until daylight to see how much junk mail I will be throwing away and read yesterday's news.  It still looks pretty, though.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

LOL Dan!  Snow it pretty...I miss going for hikes and mountain bike rides in the snow...but I sure don't miss the slippery roads, the road salt on my vehicles, and having shovel the snow and salt the ice on the porch!


Enjoy the beauty!


Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Last night in San Antonio!  Today is our Riverwalk adventure, and then tomorrow we hit the road West!  We should be able to make it to Fort Stockton by tomorrow evening to overnight at the same rest stop we usually go to, and then the next day we should be through El Paso and make it to the New Mexico border where we'll overnight at the Flying J in Anthony, TX.


From there, we'll try to make it as far as a rest stop or Flying J or campground somewhere not too far from Carlsbad Caverns, and go see the caverns either on Christmas Eve if they are open, or else wait a couple of days and see them the day after Christmas.


So after my coffee kicks in, I'll get some preliminary prep done on the RV...fluids, pressures, etc., make a garbage run, and almost ready to roll, then stop by the office and pay for one more night, and be ready to hit the road bright and early tomorrow morning.


The Riverwalk should be fun!


Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Another change of plans...lol!


Still going to the Riverwalk around 1pm for an all day adventure, but decided to stay at this RV park until Sunday morning...which means I have to move the RV over to the pullthrough RV slips...this one is reserved starting tomorrow for the Holidays.  No problem!  Our camp is set up very minimalistically.


We also decided to knock Carlsbad off of our itinerary for a few reasons.  One, we'd end up, no matter which way we traveled to it from San Antonio, end up on some very very steep mountain roads.  That isn't a problem from the rig's running standpoint, but its going to take a lot of fuel, and its a LOT of miles out of the way...nearly 400 by the time we got back to I-10.  So that's the second reason...we thought it was closer to I-10.  The third reason is that its bloody COLD up there at night...low 20s...and only low 50s during the day...not with Patti's arthritis!  And lastly, we took a close look at the tours and whatnot.  The only tour we could go on realistically with Patti's RA would be the self guided main cavern tour...all of the ranger guided tours require quite the degree of fitness, especially with all of their main elevators being shut down right now for renovations.  So that leaves the great big open cavern...which compared to Luray Caverns, VA, or Natural Bridge Caverns here in San Antonio, just isn't all that impressive except in size...the formations in the main cavern are pretty mild and bland compared to the caves we've been to already.  Maybe next year if the weather is better and Patti's arthritis isn't bothering her...the cold gets to her a lot!


So yep...we'll leave here Sunday morning and arrive in Fort Stockton Sunday night.  That will put us in Anthony, TX on Monday, Lordsburg, NM on Tuesday, and we'll arrive in Tombstone sometime Wednesday afternoon.  And that is with taking it easy and not being in a rush.  SWEET!


Already made reservations at the same RV park we stayed at last year, Wells Fargo RV Park:


http://www.wellsfargorv.com


Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

It didn't take us long to move the rig over a few campsites away, and then we went to San Antonio.  After hitting a few small shops along the way, we finally made it to the Riverwalk, and man is it awesome!


We were expecting a walking trail along the river.


What we found were amazing feats of architecture and engineering!  What a neat place!  And beautiful!  The ducks were funny...they were acting just like the pigeons, coming right up to you, pecking you on the shoe to get your attention for treats and handouts...too funny!


We walked around about half of it, and decided to get something to eat at an outstanding 4 star restaurant with dining right on the walkway on the water.  Its called Boudro's Texas Bistro and Patti said it was the best coconut shrimp she ever had.  I wasn't in the mood for anything heavy, so I had the fireroasted salsa, black beans, and guacamole that they make fresh right at the table for you...and it was amazing!  The tortilla chips were warm and made from organic corn in a few different colors, light and crispy.  Who woulda thought that chips and dip could be so yummy and a healthy meal?...I'm still full!  By the way, they make a Texas Tea that is a pretty good cocktail with a kick!


Then we rode the riverboats until nightfall and all the lights came on.  It was enchanting!  It was like a clean version of Venice...lol!


Not sure what we are going to do tomorrow, although packing things up to travel is definitely on the list.  Leaving bright and early Sunday morning to Tombstone!


Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

So today we have decided is going to be a fairly relaxing pre-travel day with the pups.  Some grocery shopping for the road of course, hook up the Jeep and do all my pressure and fluid checks, and get everything loaded up and ready to roll so that tomorrow morning all we'll have to do is unhook and go.


I'm going to test the new freshwater tank for leaks today while I'm at it, and then drain it of course...our next stop is a campground in Tombstone so no need to carry the extra weight just yet.


And I'm also going to clean our grill today...won't have another chance to clean it until the end of the AZ renfaire, so I'll get it all clean and sparkling today.


And of course, Patti is going to set up and decorate our little Christmas tree!...lol!


Sounds like a lot to do, but its only a couple of hours of work.


Kev

[joanfenn]

Kevin:  Meaning of Vacation.......... Definition of VACATION  1 : a respite or a time of respite from something .   Enjoy yourselves.