NOVEMBER 2001

On Thursday, November 1, we arrived at Hidden Valley Ranch in Mission, Texas, where we will spend the winter...until the end of March 2002.

Since we're in one place for several months during the winter, this is a good time to order items to be sent to us. We could, of course, order stuff at other times of the year, but then we'd have to pay to have them forwarded to us, whereas, in the winter, we can have them sent directly to where we're staying. We ordered some camping books on Oregon and Washington where we'll be traveling this next summer, books for Christmas presents, as well as the 2002 Trailer Life Directory.

Earl took the truck to the local Freightliner dealer for a front end alignment and, of course, they screwed up the alignment on the Safety Plus bar we have. Earl didn't notice it until he was driving home. The Freightliner dealer didn't know anything about how to fix it, so Earl called Safety Plus for instructions. It was really simple to realign and Earl was able to do it himself.

We changed cell phone plans from AT&T to Verizon...Verizon had a promotion going with 150 anytime minutes and 3350 weekend minutes. We'll probably up the anytime minutes to 400 when we leave here on April 1. I also got the Ositech King of Clubs cable and PC card so that I can hook up the cell phone to the computer. Now I can get online without a land line (the cell phone is used in lieu of the land line) in either digital or analog modes.

We found a great Mexican food restaurant...Las Canteras...not too far from where we're staying that we eat at a few times per month.