Manteca, CA:
The journey back had a scheduled stop in Manteca, CA at the Thousand Trails Turtle Beach for us to give the coach a once over. I changed the oil and planned on replacing brake pads on the rear brakes. Upon inspecting the pads I realized I needed to replace the calipers as well, which needed dot be ordered and would take two days to get in. We now had only 10 days to travel almost 2500 miles. In the meantime we did get to have dinner with an old friend of Sharon’s, Jeff. With whom she used to play volleyball with years ago. We met them at the HopYard Brewpub, of course. They had average food and good brews. And the town of Manteca had its own brewpub, Kelley’s. This was an extraordinary pub, the beers were excellent, the food was as well and the establishment looked great, really done well. One of our top brewpubs visited for sure. The calipers came in and we were back on the road.
Barstow, CA:
We have decided to drive at night to avoid the heat and traffic. All went well over the big hill on highway 58 out of Bakersfield, it was a beautiful drive actually with the full moon lighting up the jagged peaks of Tehachapi Pass. The hill did seem to go on forever as we crept all, but the Cruisemaster was the little coach that could and peaked over the pass like a champ. We stopped and dry docked at a small truck stop just outside Barstow around 3 a.m.
Lake Havasu, AZ:
First off, after getting 30 minutes down the road I realized I left my flip-flops outside the coach. Sllep deprivation is rough. It was so hot going through Needles into Lake Havasu City we thought we were going to melt. We checked into Cat Tail Cove State Park early so we could get plugged into electricity and get air conditioning going to cool off. But on a 30 amp there is only enough power to run one air unit so it never really cooled off. We went to the lake to cool off but had to carry the dogs so they did not burn their paw pads. We had a great time swimming in the cool clear water. Once we got down we headed out to a brewpub. Yes a brewpub. Are you surprised? Even they could not get the place cooled off it was so hot, we heard at 6:30 it was still 112º. This was the hottest place we have ever been. The water coming out of the tap was warm, we just could not get cooled off. We decided we would stay until around 7 or 8 then head out when it was cool, because we would not survive driving in the heat of the day, we would get too grouchy :)
El Paso, TX:
I was pretty tired leaving Lake Havasu but got a second wind and managed to drive to the other side of El Paso at around 2:30 a.m. We stopped at a truck stop (Flying J, our friend on the road) We awoke the next morning to cool air, it felt so good! Upon exiting the coach we noticed that when we pulled in we must have ran over a woman’s white heel shoe. I was excited, I had been traveling on such a time schedule I was unable to find solo shoes, but this time one found us!! But being tired and not of sound mind we ended up leaving before I got the SHOT!! #%^&*%*#&@!%!!!!! But I have an idea, I am going to do a re-enactment photo :)
Balmorhea, TX:
Back to our oasis in the desert, Balmorhea State Park. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here the first time so we figured it would be great again. And we were right. It was a perfect stop, we took a well needed refreshing dip in the spring pool. We snorkeled around the entire pool, watching the small fish dart everywhere around us. It was a gorgeous day out. We finished it off by going to the “cutest restaurant in Balmorhea” The Bear Cave. The girls working there work so hard and are so nice, we had a great meal. The dogs enjoyed having soft grass again to potty in.
Junction, TX:
This place seemed familiar, but we could not recall why for some time driving until it hit me. I photographed a shoe there during a night time drive in the rain on our way out. And a when we got off at our destination we realized it was the exit with the truck stop that scared us a little to eat at so we continued on. This time we were staying the night just a few yards down from that truck stop in the tiniest RV park (they advertise 14 sites, we counted 8). We had a check UPS’ed to us at that RV park, but it had a different address than in the book we had and ended up at the “shady” truck stop somehow. They were really nice and had been holding it for us. We and one other motor home were there. We went into town to check out the state park, but the recent onslaught of rain Texas has been receiving the South LLano River was flooded and angry so we could not get in past the low water bridge. Overall the RV park was exactly what we needed for just a night.
Columbus, TX:
Another place we thought we would not be back to again. It was nice though to see something familiar. We stayed in Thousand Trails Colorado River again. We ate at Nancy’s Steakhouse, they have great seafood dishes. We got a beer at Kristine’s, a must-do if you are at Thousand Trails. We met some nice people in there, the locals are very nice. Note: If you go there, have cash, they take cards, but you cannot tip using them :( We shared our bottle of Granny Smith apple wine with a neighbor over a campfire, it was exactly why we bought our wines, to share.
Beaumont, TX:
We started to think we were never going to get out of TEXAS! I had a bunch of work to do so i could not get as much driving in as I would have liked and we had to stop in Beaumont to stay the night at the RV park we stayed at on the way out. At least I did get to get more of the free Texas-shaped waffles for breakfast before heading out.
Milton, Florida:
Finally making it back to Florida we felt exhausted. Ou friend Brian had RV hookups at his house on the water in Milton so we stayed there. But we only had one day there before having to drive to Atlanta for the Miss Georgia American Coed Pageant of which I am the official photographer for.