Some Time with Josh and Chris

We don't get to see enough of Josh and Chris.  Because Chris goes home to Romania to see her mom and dad at least once a year, that doesn't give her a lot of vacation time for other things.  If you are spending that much money for airline tickets and going that far - you HAVE to spend a chunk of time to make it worthwhile.  Anyway, we've gotten to see them 3 times in the last 15 months now in trips to Tucson.  The last time we were here in October, her mom Delia was actually here for a visit and we got to see her too.

Josh is a vocational minister.  That means that he works full-time and preaches for a congregation "on the side."  He preaches at the Old Spanish Trail church of Christ.  He works for a company that designs high end luxury suites for airlines - ultra-first class - on airlines like Japan Air Lines, Air Dubai, etc.  He does the company's database upkeep and design.  I'm very proud of him.  His lessons are always sound and bible centered.  You can tell he puts a lot of time into them.

Chris IS a rocket scientist.  She works at one of the aerospace industries.  She's a quality control or assurance (not sure of the technical name) maven making sure vendors do what they are supposed to do.

We got in Saturday and went to dinner at a Sushi Place (previous post).  Yesterday at church they had a potluck dinner after morning services:  Good Cooks; Lots of food.  Then yesterday we just spent some time at their home chatting before heading back to evening services.  After that we took them to the Trekker to show it to them and watch the "Carnage in Metlife Stadium."  We had it recorded (it starts while we are at church here in the Mountain Time Zone) so we watched "Bruno Mars" and the Red Hot Chili Peppers halftime show FIRST so Chris could get home and get to bed.  Then we started watching the game.  By the time the recording of the first quarter was over Josh realized he could go home WITH Chris since the game was for all intents and purposes over by then. (We would have taken him home if the game had been better and he stuck around AFTER Chris had left with their car).

I've been having some problems with my iPhone locking up for no reason at all.  So I made an appointment to have it looked at at the Apple Store in Tucson today at 11 AM.  After that Irene and I played a game of scrabble.  This time I FELT like I was facing the Seattle Defense and wasn't prepared for the game.  She beat me by 150+ points - or, in our parlance a "skunk" (100 points) and a "thump" (50 points).  75 points is a "heavy duty thump."  Winning by 200+ is a "double skunk."

This afternoon Josh, Irene and I went to see "Jack Ryan:Shadow Recruit."  I thought it was really good.  We all liked it.  Chris Pine has some VERY blue eyes.

Tonight the 4 of us got together for dinner at Oregano's Pizza Bistro in Tucson.  If you are ever here, check it out.  It is PACKED and this was Monday night.  NO reservations though.  Excellent super-thin crust pizza and the calamari was some of the best I've ever eaten.  Irene also said it was the best she'd ever had.

Coming out of church last night the sky looked amazing.  The picture below doesn't quite do it justice, but here it is:

Preferences

To all Peyton Manning and Denver Bronchos fans:

OUCH!

On the way to Tucson

Arizona Territory

We got on the road this morning at about 9:30 after having a FaceTime chat with Maeda, Rowen and Junzo.  Thursday was Maeda's birthday and this was the first time we've had to talk to her since.

As you leave Las Cruces you have a period of climbing out of the Rio Grande river valley.  You next arrive in a "high plains" area.  Here are some pictures showing the grasses covering the ground.

After a while you realize that the grasses have disappeared and the yuccas have given way to what I would call a Chaparral type of environ.  Here's some pictures of it:

This area is in the "rain shadow" of the mountains you can see in the background of these two pictures.  The clouds dump most of their water on the FAR side of the mountains and there isn't much left over for this side of the mountain to get causing a drier climate.

As you continue on towards Tucson you get into that range of mountains.  These aren't the sandstone/limestone mountains I spoke about in yesterday's post.  These are basaltic/granite igneous rock mountains.  Here's a picture of one under the shade of a storm that was brewing in the picture below this one:

The rock formations below tell the story of the weather in the area:

These igneous (volcanic origin) rocks almost look like "giant bird seed" as our kids used to call them.  These cracks are caused by repeated rain/snow/ice freezing and thawing.  Once a crack starts the water "pools" in it and as it freezes it expands.  This causes hydraulic (literally meaning "water") pressure.  Water is one of the few molecules that actually expands and gets LIGHTER as it freezes.  That's why ice floats in your soda.  Hydraulic pressure exerts massive amounts of force causing a single large rock to crack and crack more and crack.  This causes a large megalith ("Large stone") to become a group of smaller stones still stacked on one another.  The wind then works on the corners rounding them off.  One day, given enough time the stones will fall off of one another and become the "Caution: Falling Rocks" you see signs about as you drive through this area.

Irene, Josh, Chris and I went to "Sushi Gardens" for dinner this evening.  It was some pretty good sushi.

When I got home I spent about 1 1/2 hours working on my Sojourner Presentation for Bible Class in the morning.  Irene vacuumed the rig and cleaning - except when she was saving my bacon by helping me find the cables I needed and the Sojourning DVD for the presentation!

A Beauty all its own!

Because no one else would want it??

We left Midland, Texas at about 9:15 (CST) this morning and stopped for the evening at 4:15 (MST) in the afternoon at Las Cruces (Spanish for "the Crosses" as in Jesus and the two thieves) making this an 8 hour driving day.

West Texas is unique there's no doubting that.  It is virtually barren.  Here's a picture that Irene took:

 The mountain on the left could be seen from about 100 miles away.  Here's the same mountain as we finally went around its face 2 hours after we first saw it afar off.

Much of the landscape is gypsum rock (along with sandstone and limestone).  We went across numerous washes that had white beds and white stones in them.  Here's a picture of the "lake" that is near Salt Flats, TX.  It is white from the gypsum rock. That is dissolved and turned to sand from the water.  Probably 9 months of the year this lake bed is dry.

All three of the primary types of stone - gypsum, sandstone and limestone are HIGHLY erodible by either water or the even MORE common cause - wind.  The wind was merciless today.  There were easily gusts in excess of 45 mph. The wind is the greatest contributor to shaping the landscape of the area from the Sierra Nevadas in California to the Rockies and from the Rockies to the plains.  With so little rain there is a dearth of vegetation and virtually no grass.  Therefore there is NOTHING to hold the soil as the wind howls.  Here's a picture of the types of mountains that you get from the relentless assault of the wind:

Notice the little "button cap," "nipple" or (South Afrikaans) "kop" that you get from the wind shown on the one mountain in the middle of the picture.  Last year Irene and I went to Monument Valley in Utah where the wind does this to the sandstone:

You can see the similar 45º angle at the base of both mountains.

As we approached El Paso the lower portion of the mountains were shrouded in brown dust.  Three times there were signs advising "High Profile Vehicles" (i.e. - US in an RV) to proceed with caution.  The Trekker dun real good though!  I mean, I could feel the wind pounding on the rig but it was the rarity for it to be moved even a couple of feet by the wind.

Guess what Irene is doing tonight?  If you read the family email #2 you might have guessed (hint: "rewearables")- she's washing the clothes.  It's been since Ocala, Florida that we had water.  We had to dry camp in Red Bay because they shut the water off since it was 11º at night and didn't want the water lines to burst.  Then we got into Camp Bee about 1 hour before Wednesday night Bible Study and didn't have time.  Last night we dry camped again in the Fairmont Park church's parking lot and only had electricity.  So we stopped at Las Cruces at 4 PM to have time to do laundry.  Since there is a fair amount we might be up late and have to leave a little later in the morning.

We will arrive in Tucson tomorrow afternoon.  We are looking forward to seeing Josh and Chris.

Our Phoebe Phix

We left Camp Bee this morning in Marshall about 10 AM and drove to Midland, TX.  For virtually the whole way here there was a 30+ mph wind blowing from the south and we were going west, so the wind was hitting us directly on the "broadside" of our rig.  Our rig was barely budged from its lane by all but the strongest gusts of wind.  It was a pleasure to drive.  Here's a picture of a HUGE flag we saw standing almost straight out from its flagpole looking like a starched sheet.

When we got to Midland we parked at the Fairmont Park Church of Christ.  It's nice because they have an electrical hookup.  Our Son Joel, His Wife Brenda and Our Granddaughter, Phoebe came over and we showed them the new rig "buttoned up" for travel.  Then we had Phoebe stand on each one of the slide-outs as we put it out.   She was very amused.

After showing the rig to the kids we went to eat at Phoebe's choice - Furr's Buffet.  It was pretty good.  Then it was off to see their apartment they moved into about the middle of December.  Phoebe, Irene and I played "go fish."  Irene ended up beating Phoebe by a single pair in the second hand.

Many have been asking for a recent picture of Phoebe.  Her's one of her holding a picture of a fish she painted that Irene took just tonight.

As I'm writing this I am watching the TV show "Elementary" on CBS.  Irene and I watch it virtually every week.   Thursday's are a pretty good night of TV with this show and "Big Bang Theory" on.  It is certainly the BEST comedy on TV at the present time.

Gonna hit the sack soon we continue our trek to Tucson tomorrow.  We hope to get to Las Cruces, NM tomorrow.

Hi, shorty!

Westward, Ho!!

This is going to be a short one.

We left Red Bay at 8:15 this morning to head for Tucson.  I have to give a Sojourners presentation at the church that our son, Joshua, preaches at on Sunday morning so we have to be there Saturday.  Therefore, this was a "make hay while the sun shine" kinda day.  Irene and I are TRYING, really, we are TRYING to S-L-O-W D--O---W----N as we travel.  Use the 2-2-2 rule: 200 miles a day, stop by 2 PM for the day and stay 2 days when you are stopped.  It hasn't happened yet.  Though we just stayed in Ocala for 2 weeks so we need to travel farther, faster and stay a shorter time at a couple of places to get our average back down. Right, Irene?

We were supposed to go from Red Bay to Memphis to Little Rock to Texarkana to Marshall according to our Garmin.  BALDERDASH!  Irene and I LOVE the Natchez Trace Parkway and take it every time we get a chance.  Today we could get on it in Tupelo and take it down to Jackson, MS and take I--20 from there to Marshall.  It's a beautiful drive along the parkway.  No commercial trucks allowed and in the middle of the week like today there is VERY little traffic of ANY kind on the parkway.

One of the amazing sights is the destruction caused by a couple of tornadoes that followed the path of the Trace in 2011.  Here's a picture of some of the trees as they now appear:

Notice how the top of every tree is just sheared off.  Here's another that Irene took today:

Once we arrived at Camp Bee  - the Campground/Headquarters for the Sojourners mission - in Marshall, TX this evening we went to Wednesday night Bible Study at Eastern Hills church of Christ.  The class was an excellent introduction to the Old Covenant Prophets.  Then we went to dinner at Chili's with Brenda and Dave Blair.  We had the Ribs (They aren't a good as Logan's but pretty good).  Brenda and Dave are among our closest friends.  Then we came back to camp and gave them a tour of the Trekker.  Last night it was Brenda and David Bott and tonight Brenda and Dave Blair. Hmmm, very interesting!

Tomorrow we are heading to Midland where we will stop for one night.  We will have dinner with Joel, Brenda and Phoebe - though Phoebe's been sick so we might have to settle for just seeing her at home.  That's it for this post. WRAP IT!

The Completed Cabinetry Modifications

REQUIRED SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING:

A DRIP PAN FOR YOUR "ENVY DROOL" IS SUGGESTED WHILE LOOKING AT THESE PICTURES

Happy Wife, Happy Life!

Well, we are all done the modifications to our cabinetry in our new rig.  They turned out great.  We have some pictures for you in this post

First off the cabinet that we had installed in our Living Area.  You may remember it like this from a previous post:

When TJ Allison first installed it, the doors that he ordered didn't look "good enough, so he reordered them and we went to Florida with it like it was above.  Today they installed the doors, so, here's a couple pictures of it - one with the doors open and the other with them closed:

Doors may be just "aesthetic" but they sure do add to the beauty and make this look like it's right "at home" between the TV/Fireplace Cabinet and the Dinette Cabinet.

The next item we had them replace was the overhead in the bedroom between the TV and the half-bath.  If you were REALLLY alert you may remember it looking like this in an earlier post:

The above picture - if you LOOK close at the top of the cabinet you can see that there is white "ceiling" in front of the cabinet above it.  That's because it was only about 8" deep as seen BELOW, after it was taken down:

Below is a picture showing the depth of the Overhead cabinet going into the same spot showing it is 16" deep.  We DOUBLED the storage space in this cabinet - HOORAY -storage is
E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G to people who full-time in there RVs.

Here's a picture of my hand and forearm fully extended showing the cabinet depth after it has been hung on the ceiling and walls:

Here's a picture of the newly hung cabinet empty:

And here is a picture of the cabinet with what we have kept in it to this time.  This amount of stuff used to FILL THE OLD CABINET to the gills. Now it looks SO lonely in the cabinet and I swear I can hear the cabinet screaming "FEED ME MORE STUFF, IRENE.  I MOCK YOUR PUNY ATTEMPT TO FILL ME!!"

Below is a picture of the cabinet closed and if you look above it you can see very little of the white ceiling because it's all INSIDE the cabinet now.

The third and final modification that TJ completed for us tonight was a makeover of our Main Bathroom Medicine Cabinet.  Previously it looked like this:

If you look closely at the cabinet you can see that the distance from the cabinet mirrors to the back of the sink is about 6 inches and that it doesn't even come out from the wall as far as the box of tissues sitting directly under it to the right of the 4-socket receptacle.

Below is a picture of irene measuring the depth of cabinet while it is still up on the wall:

You can see that is measures 3 1/2" from the back wall to the frontside of the center support behind the center face piece.

Here's a picture showing the depth of our new medicine cabinet:

Irene's NEW and IMPROVED medicine cabinet is a full 8 1/2" deep.  Almost 2.5 x DEEPER therefore it has 2.5 x the cubic footage the old one did.  The REAL advantage is that now larger bottles of medicine easily fit in the medicine cabinet.

Below is a picture of the medicine cabinet open:

In the above picture you can see the 2 ADJUSTABLE shelves (the old medicine cabinet had fixed shelving) which are deep enough to probably use one section of the top shelves to store folded washcloths in.

Below is a picture of the completed medicine cabinet.  The same mirrored glass doors that were on the old cabinet were reused for the remodeled, vastly improved NEW cabinet.

On another note, we spent about 3 hours today with David and Brenda Bott.  We FINALLY got that lunch eaten together.  We talked about our shared Winnebago experience at lunch and then after lunch they came over and we showed them our rig "buttoned up" for travel and then opened it up and showed it to them for use.  We also showed them what modifications we had done TO THAT POINT.

AFTER TJ was done with all of our modifications tonight we invited them back over to the rig - FULLY DRESSED out in all of its new found glory.  We talked for about 1 1/2 hours about the rig we have and the rig they have ordered that starts it's build TOMORROW MORNING at 6 AM.  HOO-RAY for them.

I end this post by noting that our time spent with the Bott's today didn't make "the cut" on their excellent blog "Outside Our Bubble."  Brenda had a long in-depth post about the excitement awaiting them with nary a mention of Jim and Irene.  SNIFFLE, SNIFFLE, BLUBBER :-(.  Where is the love?  Can someone get me a hankie please?!  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  Just busting your chops, guys.  It was terrific to see you again and spend the time we did sharing the RV "war stories." Your T-Shirt idea is ABOVE top-rate.  Have a wonderful 4 weeks watch your rig go from a bare chassis to the coach of your dreams.

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