www.cancermonster.net

7:20a MST
(Thirty miles from here it’s 8:20a CST.)

We made an early escape from the place where we stopped last night. We have been driving for about 45 minutes. We’re watching the Mexican hillside off to our right. (The kids and I are excited to SEE Mexico!) Yes, we just came through El Paso.

We didn’t get out of Las Cruces until close to 5:00 last night. The original goal was Stockton, TX.   250+ miles from Las Cruces.   Stockton being the next town after El Paso with an advertised RV park.

We, no Dan had to make a decision. Option One: Drive on past El Paso in the dark, trusting the repair shop’s handiwork, into the Texan Desert, knowing the next place to plug in was four to five hours away. Option Two: Stop for the night just over the Texas Border and take both El Paso and the desert beyond in the daylight.

It seemed a simple decision to Dan. I have to admit I didn’t see his wisdom at first and pitched a little fit. I wanted to get going! I was tired of waiting around. And the Camping World park we stopped at was under construction and had neither Wi-Fi nor Cable! However, because of that, it was cheep. And Cheep is our best price at the moment.

Dan fiddled with the old built in antennae on the roof. We have never been able to get it to go up with that crank on the inside. It just wasn’t a priority fix since we always had cable or satellite. (I suppose it would have been good in the Walmart parking lot or that night when we “no camped.”) I know that he would have left it alone still had he not been trying to settle me down.

“Look, Treese! Network Air Channels! We can watch Kid Nation AND Gordon Ramsey!”
“Yah, ok. But I still don’t have internet.”

I was in such a good bad mood that I didn’t want to give it all up at once. I’m such a brat. You know how that is.

We were smack dab in the middle of nowhere and nothin’. I really was surprised that there was any air channels at all.

I suppose I should back up a little more. Late yesterday morning, the correct part arrived and the mechanics got to work. Checkout was technically noon, but they gave us until 2:00p to vacate the suite. All that is recap.

2:00 came and the repairs were not complete. We loaded our belongings on a bell cart and rolled it down the hall to the lobby. Now what?

Haha. Dan made a tidy pile of our bags and pillows behind a chair that marked the border of the lobby and the continental breakfast room. There was a TV in there and I tuned it to cartoons and plopped the babes in front of it. I gave them “the look” that means “don’t even think about it.”

Dan left to sit vigil over Clyde. The very moment the motorhome was backed out of the repair bay, Dan would take possession and rescue the rest of us from lobby hell.

And I sat.

*********
I have to interrupt the story to tell you something that just happened. The exact reason we bought this class of motorhome instead of a pull behind version was that we knew we would at some point need space between us and the kids. These kids woke up on the silly side of the bunk today. They were just behind us on the couch singing the same silly songs over and over. We let them go as long as possible before sending them back to lay on our beds and sing ’till their voices cracked. Rob went back with them. He didn’t last long, though, before he was begging for them to shut up! Then he started wackin’. [And ruined the perfect story I was writing about them at the same moment! Grrr.] So he is back up here with Dad and me, enjoying the quiet with us.

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12:15p. Central

We stopped for gas in Van Horn and I made breakfast. A Mexican version of my Daddy’s Hunky Eggs (whatever is leftover in the fridge with eggs scrambled over it). Last night’s chicken with peppers, onions, and tomatoes made today’s Huevos Rancheros. Then I laid down on my bed with a “House” video on the laptop. We woke up at five mountain time this morning, which if I have it right is four pacific, so I fell asleep relatively fast. I haven’t ridden back here in the bumpy back end for a while. I feel alright, but I’m tired. My back is swollen with fluids too. I think I need to take it easy. Sleep a little today.

Oh, back to yesterday. . . Lol

The kids and I sat in the lobby of the hotel with all our things long enough to contemplate the plight of the homeless and formulate a plan for their rescue. Or so it seemed.

By this time all the staff knew who we were. One very nice lady, who had been helping us with extra blankets and garbage bags throughout our stay, asked me if the motorhome wasn’t done yet.

“Soon, they are just finishing up now.”

“Your kids are very quiet there watching TV.” She nodded towards the backs of three kids that must belong to someone else sitting glued to the breakfast room TV.

“They have been threatened.”
“Oh? Ah, haha. Over here, they are so quiet. . . Over there in the room they . . . Ah . . . Well, they are quiet over here.”

She was sweet. Yes, I know that back in the room, which was across from the housekeeping department, the kids weren’t so quiet. But they were quiet there sitting out in the open. There are certain times when kids know it would be dangerous to their happiness to disobey their mother. This was one of them.

Somewhere around 3:30, I happened to look up and saw good old Clyde pulling through the parking lot.

“He’s here! Dad’s here with the motorhome! It’s done!”

I think the hotel staff was just as excited for us as we were for ourselves. “Bye! Thank you!”

“What’s the damage, Dan?”
“The right part cost more than the wrong part.” He was spinning the answer to my question. That is never good.
“How much, Dan?”
“$589.27″

Ah geez.

The $425 that he first quoted us was an unbelievable number. And then Clyde tied up a bay in his busy shop for three days. And it is likely that the correct part from the manufacture would be more than the wrong part from the part store in Albuquerque. But that and the muffler and the hotel . . .oh man.

If we had known that this trip would be so hard, we would have made a different plan.

Because we hadn’t had them look at the battery problem (we knew we couldn’t afford to fix both problems), Dan decided to buy an extra starting battery at Walmart. If we get stuck somewhere we can switch out the batteries and if we don’t need it, we can return it in Florida.

By the time we loaded up, got the new battery and put our stuff back where it belonged it was almost 5:00. And that brings us back to the beginning of today’s post.

Now it’s 2:15p CST and we have been driving through the Texan Desert for about the last five hours. IT IS HOT OUT HERE! Nothing out here except wind and windmills. Thousands of windmills. And a whole lot of sun. And the six of us: Dan and the kids and me and Clyde.

Driving on.

I am so hot. I stink almost as bad as the cows back in California, I think. (Aren’t you glad I shared?)

And the cell phones are on roaming. If we make or take a call, it will suck out all our prepaid minutes. I didn’t post last night and we are not answering our phones. I know at least one person that is going nuts. My dear sister Anita keeps calling. I did try to answer once, but it didn’t go through. “Hold on sissy, we’ll find some civilization soon.”

Hey, Anita, that mercy flight is looking pretty good about now.

“You know I could just snap my fingers and be medi-flighted out of here, Dan. I am only sticking with you out of courtesy. I could be in Florida in a couple hours. You should be nice to me.”
“I’m always nice to you.”
“I’m hot Dan! I smell like a pig. I have to get out of this motorhome.”
“Point to the where and tell me why?”

Driving on. lol

We are about thirty miles out of what looks on the map like a decent size city. Dan promised we could get out of the motorhome and go inside someplace air-conditioned for a little while. I think he wants to keep me around. Gotta love the man for loving me.

Hopefully we can make some calls while we are there too.

*******

2:51p. CST

Who owns this land? More importantly, why do they want it? I think I am getting delirious. Robbie is not much better off than me. He is rolling back and forth on the couch chanting “When are we gonna get to a tooowwwnnn? When are we gonna get to a tooowwwnnn?” We are all losing it.

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7:30p CST

We are in a KOA in Junction, TX. About 130 miles out of Austin. This has been a crazy ride. The past few days have been expensive. Between the repair bills and hotel bills and gas . . . Anyway, we still can’t use our cell phones. I guess the Verizon Network Gang didn’t follow us into the desert. “Can you hear me now?” NOPE!

Had we known what we were getting ourselves into . . .

You know, I am finding it hard to believe this is my life. The programming of my world was pre-empted and somebody else’s life is now showing. (Poor Bloke) This is not real.

Only it is.

I am so sore. I am almost out of pain meds too.

A long, long time ago I was a Tae Kwon Do Instructor. Wonder what made me think of that? Maybe because I have never been so far away from that life.

Dan has dinner ready. I need to get this up so that you know where we are and what we are doing.

WE ARE PRAYING.

Tomorrow’s plan: We are taking 10 to 290. 290 will take us through Austin and cut off a bit of mileage. We will take 290 all the way into Huston. Early afternoon we are meeting up with Aunt Shirley for a short hug. And then we will find our beloved (gag) Hwy 10 again. We should be able to make it to Lake Charles, LA by dark. It’s too bad there isn’t more daylight this time of year. But we pulled in here tonight with the batteries on E. Can’t drive after dark.

Please, keep praying for us. We are still moving on only by the Grace of God. I have never been so beholden to everyone in my life. It’s almost too much to handle.

I should feel proud that God thinks so highly of us. Lol

The closer we get to Austin, the more chance we can use the phones and makeup the calls that we have missed today.

Love and Blessings to All,
teresa