April 20 - Las Cruces, NM

It's time for the Spring Excel Rally. Each spring & fall, the Excel Owners Club of New Mexico has a big get-together for a weekend. Some of the owner will come early and stay later, if they can. We can, so we did.

We arrived on Tuesday mid-afternoon, got everything setup and unloaded the car. That's becoming a real crowd gatherer. The official time of the rally if Friday through Sunday, so there are only a few people here.

We were able to see our friends, Joy & the MacAlexander's that evening. It was a time to catch up on all of the happenings with each other. God my side hurt from all of the laughing. They are all a really great bunch.

Then our friends Mel & Karol arrived from their winter home in Arizona. It's always great to see them and share stories. Mel is going to be one of the seminar presenters this weekend on "tips & tricks" of owning and maintaining an RV.

Then we took a side trip to Deming, NM to visit the St. Clair winery. You can get wine there straight out of the cask into your own jug. We had them mix the wine and walked out with our own special blends. Now the best part is that there are no added sulphates in the wine. That means that Roseann can enjoy a glass every so often. Total cost of this fine wine is $3.25 / qt.

Thursday start to bring in more & more rigs. All in all 60+ rigs showed up and we had a great time. I spent a lot of time answering questions about our setup with the truck and car. People were really surprised to find out what bottom line costs were to do it the way we chose. Now that they know it's affordable, we just might see more big rigs on the road as rv tow vehicles.

We received some good news from our friends Daryl & Cindy this week. They are going Full Time in their rv after they leave the rally. They go back home, pack things up and move on down the road. We'll see them in early June as they begin their journey north to South Dakota to get their driver licenses.

I was able to get the truck washed and waxed while there. That's always a trick because the truck is 13.5' tall. Getting to the top and waxing it gets to be a challenge. A lot of people got their rv's washed and waxed while they were there. A company comes around and makes everyone a special deal. For a lot of folks, it's a lot easier for someone else to do it.

Monday came fast. It's now time for us to load the car and be ready to close up tomorrow for the move to our next stop on our journey to enjoy the sights and sounds of the U.S.

March 26 - Ft Sam FamCamp, Canyon Lake, TX

We sure are glad that we are retired and able to be very flexible with our schedule. Three weeks into our five week stay in Mission, TX, we received a call from our daughter Jean telling us that she was going to have surgery the next day. She had had previous surgery and there were some complications that developed from that time. Nothing serious but it was going to keep her down for a couple of days and needed some help.

Well, that afternoon we loaded up the Smart car in getting ready to move up to Canyon Lake the next day. Wouldn't you know it too. The weather was finally warming up really nice after a cold winter. Fortunately we were heading just a little north and there would be some fishing. I hadn't been able to do too much up to this point in Texas. It's just been too cold and rainy most of the time.

On our way to Canyon Lake, we seemed to have picked up a extra piece to our rig. Just on the south side of San Antonio, we went through a highway construction zone. We have no idea what happened but when we stopped, we found this piece of rebar stuck in the front of the trailer. I have no recollection of going over anything in the road. We were very grateful that it didn't penetrate any further because it possibly could have gone through a propane tank. I just perish the thought of the possible consequences of that event.

We were very fortunate to get a great spot at Ft Sam Houston's FamCamp at Canyon Lake near Jean's house. I say fortunate because it is a 1st come 1st serve facility. There are no reservations taken. Ada, Jim, Billie and their spouses and the rest gang were really great.

We also had a little more excitement there than we needed. Early Friday morning, I was sitting watching the morning news and I heard the fire engine sirens in the distance. I was thinking that they were on the main highway. Well the siren kept getting louder and louder. When I looked out the door, I saw it coming down the access to the park. I ran out of our rig and saw a bunch of my neighbors at a rig three doors down with fire extinguishers in hand and smoke just pouring out the side of the rig. Not what anyone ever wants to see. It seems that the refrigerator caught fire. It was due for a recall fix the following Monday. Needless to say they didn't need that appointment on Monday. Instead they had one with the insurance company. The rig was a total loss.

We made sure that Jean was well recouped and we had good times with our granddaughter, Jessica, and our grandson Mac & his girl friend Jennifer. Mac's a pretty good cook. He learned a lot from working at the Olive Garden. I learned that pasta is pasta and nothing else. Every time I used another name, I was reminded that we were having "pasta".

Fishing was good. I caught enough to have a good fish fry for us and the family and then still have enough in the freezer for about 4 more meals. The fish were crappie, large mouth bass, perch, catfish, & carp (I threw that back). Roseann finally said that we had enough and if I caught any more I had to throw them back.

We got to go to Austin and visit with our friend from Albuquerque, Sherry. She's doing very well and really enjoys Austin.

We also visited with our other FTing friends, Alan & Ann, who came down to Canyon Lake from their current stay in Austin. We always enjoy our time with them & sharing our adventures.

Everything is now OK with Jean. It's time to head out and go the Excel rally this coming weekend in Las Cruces, NM. We are really looking forward to that. We'll get to see our good friends, Mel & Karol, as they get back on the road after hunkering down for the winter south of Tucson. We have the Smart loaded and we'll leave in the morning, Monday.

As you can well see, Roseann sure has a big smile on her face when she is driving BigBit. She's actually getting very good at it. Shifting is still in need of more practice but time behind the wheel will cure the ills.