MAY 2002

Originally, we were going to go west across South Dakota and do some site seeing along the way; however, we decided we should go back to Junction City and go over all the changes we'd made in the preliminary drawings of the trailer with Horizons.

So, on Wednesday, May 1, we headed back to Junction City, spending the first night at Woods Landing, a Coast to Coast park in Yutan, Nebraska, just west of Omaha. After setting up and unhooking, we drove into Yutan to do grocery shopping.

We arrived in Junction City on Thursday afternoon, going into town to have one of our propane tanks filled and fueling up the truck, before driving back out to the free Corps of Engineers park on Milford Lake to spend the night.

Milford Lake:











Friday morning found us at Horizons going over all the changes with Howard and Frank, the person who does all the drawings. Afterward, we went by the local Chevy dealer, Jim Clark Chevrolet, and ordered a truck -- a one-ton with the Duramax diesel engine and Allison automatic transmission. They were willing to meet the 2% over invoice of the Chevy dealer in Moab, Utah, that advertises in Highways magazine, so we decided we'd rather order from a local dealer than one where we'd probably never meet the people. After ordering the truck, we went to Cracker Barrel for lunch.

That evening, we went to the Elks Club for dinner with Dallas and Audrey Smith, also New Horizons owners who were at the factory having some work done on their fifth wheel -- they're having the inside completely redone with new carpeting and cabinets. That's one of the nice things about a custom manufacturer -- when you get tired of something, you can go back and have things changed.

Saturday, we drove 230 miles to Methodist Cove at Harlan County Lake, a Corps of Engineers park near Alma, Nebraska. We stopped in Hays, Kansas, along the way and had lunch at Carlos O'Kelly's.

The next day, we drove 158 miles to the Nebraska National Forest just west of Halsey, Nebraska, stopping in Elm Creek to fuel the truck, and at the city park in Ansley to have lunch.

The Nebraska National Forest is a 90,000-acre forest located in the Sand Hill Grasslands of north central Nebraska. It contains large areas of planted coniferous forest. In fact, the 20,000 acres of planted trees on the Bessey District (which includes the Nebraska National Forest and the Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest), is the largest man-made forest in the United States. Some natural riparian woodlands occur in both units, as do shrubs in "sand hill thickets."

Rainbow:











On Monday, April 6, we drove through the heart of the Sand Hills of Nebraska. This is interesting country -- rolling hills of grasslands growing in sand (duh!). We were surprised at how much water was in this area -- from swampy wetlands to lakes. We were also surprised to see pelicans and swans at a lake in Hiannis where we stopped for lunch. That night, we stopped at Chadron State Park south of Chadron, Nebraska. This state park is in the northwest corner of Nebraska in an area of mountains called Pine Ridge, an arch-shaped escarpment some 100 miles long and up to 20 miles wide, formed some 65 million years ago when the Rocky Mountains and Black Hills uplifts began.

The Sand Hills:












Pelican:











On Tuesday, we went into Chadron to do laundry, grocery shopping, and fuel the truck. We also stopped by the Post Office to mail the ads to Highways and Trailer Life for the truck and fifth wheel.

Landscape around Crawford in the Pine Ridge area:












Wednesday, we drove 199 miles to the South Recreation Complex in Glenrock, Wyoming. This is a free camping area that includes a picnic area and rodeo grounds. We ran into some snow on this trip -- not very much, and it didn't stick, but it was still snow!

Thursday, we drove into Casper and had breakfast at the Flying J where I also faxed an ad for the truck and fifth wheel to the Escapees magazine. We continued on to Rawlins, Wyoming where we stayed at the American President's Campground, a Happy Camper park (half price). We stopped along the way to view Independence Rock. I had never given it any thought before, but Independence Rock is just that -- a huge rock jutting up through the ground, much like an iceberg in the ocean.

View along SR-220 south of Casper:

Alcova Reservoir:











Views along SR-220:

Independence Rock:











Earl & Maxx at Independence Rock:











Friday, we drove 199 miles to the Foothills RV Park in Kemmerer, Wyoming, the home of J.C. Penney and the site of his first store. We stopped at Little America first for lunch. We drove through some more snow and it was cold! When we got to the RV park and were putting out our big slide, the pin dropped out of the gear box again and we had to hand crank the slide the rest of the way out.

Snow along the road:











We drove 164 miles on Saturday, April 11, to the Elks Club in Pocatello, Idaho (after having to hand crank the big slide back in, of course). We had dinner at the club -- shrimp and boneless barbecued pork ribs. We ate at the same table with a very "interesting" man and his sister.

View along US-30:











On Sunday, we drove 235 miles to Boise, Idaho, and parked in the Wilson's RV Repair lot so that we'd be there first thing Monday morning to get our slide fixed.

Wilson's was able to get our slide fixed on Monday morning and we were back out on the road by about 10:30. We stopped at Costco to do shopping and then drove the 68 miles to the Simpson RV Park in Nyssa, Oregon. We had lunch at A & W, did grocery shopping, and stopped at the Post Office to pick up our mail. That afternoon, we visited with my Aunt Ilene and had dinner at her place. The next day I did laundry while Earl washed the truck and then we were back at Ilene's place for more visiting and dinner.

After driving by Ilene's place to say goodbye, we left Nyssa on Wednesday and drove 167 miles to the BLM campground at Chickahominy Reservoir west of Burns, stopping in Burns to fill up the truck with diesel and do grocery shopping. We took a walk around the campground after setting up...Maxx had fun trying to dig out a ground squirrel and chase rabbits (of course, he can't get very far on a lead!).

Sunset at Chickahominy Reservoir:











On Thursday, May 16, we drove 99 miles to Sundance Meadows, a Coast to Coast park just east of Bend, Oregon. This is a very nice park...we parked backed up to a pond and had fun watching a mama and papa goose with little ones swimming around. We also saw a Golden Eagle soaring high above, Osprey, and deer. We drove into Bend to check out a camper manufacturer, have lunch, and do some errands. We were really impressed with the campers manufactured by Host -- they have two slides and are quite spacious inside...we might have to rethink getting a travel trailer and a smaller camper and go with one of the larger campers instead.

The Three Sisters:

Mama & Papa with babies:











Deer:

Osprey:















On Saturday, May 18, we drove 40 miles to the Indian Ford Campground, a Forest Service campground, west of Sisters, Oregon. On Sunday, we drove into town for breakfast and to do grocery shopping.

We were going to go over the mountains to Eugene, but Greg Holder, who is going to do some work on our solar, couldn't get to us until the 30th, so we decided to go back to Bend and do some more exploring on the eastern side of the mountains. Therefore, on Monday we drove back to Bend and stayed at Sundance Meadows again, parking in the same spot as before. We drove into town to take another look at the Host campers and also stopped and checked out the Alpenlite and Northern Lite campers.

On Tuesday we left Bend and headed south, stopping and spending a couple of hours at the High Desert Museum. The museum has many exhibits on the region's people, cultures, animals, science, art, and history. It includes a 1/4-mile trail leading to animal habitats...porcupines, birds of prey (where we stopped to hear a talk about these birds), and an otter exhibit. Because we'd taken so long at the museum, we decided to stay overnight at Cascade Meadows RV Resort, a Coast to Coast park, north of La Pine...a trip of only 29 miles.

Wednesday we drove 103 miles to Hagelstein Park, a small park along US-97 about 11 miles north of Klamath Falls. It's located near a pond that was teeming with wildlife... while we were there, we saw several Double-Crested Cormorants and Forster's Terns. There were also Yellow-Headed Blackbirds, Northern "Bullock's" Orioles (we watched the female gathering nesting material), and a muskrat. All this and only $5 per night!

Pond at Hagelstein Park:

Yellow-headed Blackbirds:











On Thursday, we drove 89 miles to the Elks Club campground near Medford, Oregon. Warm weather at last! This is a really nice campground...just water and 20-amp electric hookups, but it's out in the country, quiet, lots of places to walk Maxx (although we learned to keep him out of the high grass or he'd come back with ticks), and a great view of Mt. McLaughlin.

Pelicans on Upper Klamath Lake:

Mt. McLaughlin:













Rouge River at Elks Club Campground:

Lizard on bench overlooking Rouge River:











While we were in Medford, we did shopping at Costco and the grocery store, did our laundry at a laundromat (since we didn't have full hookups at the Elks Club campground, we couldn't use our washer and dryer), picked up a pair of Levi's for me and a couple of t-shirts for Earl at Old Navy, and did other miscellaneous shopping. Earl golfed on Sunday at Eagle Point...the first golfing he'd done since we'd left Mission.

On Tuesday, May 28, we drove 121 miles to the SKP park in Sutherlin, Oregon, and spent the night boondocking (just $2.50). On our way out of Medford, we first stopped at Triple A RV Center to look at more Host campers (they had the large one in stock, which we hadn't been able to see at the factory) and also the Arctic Fox campers.

Wednesday night we stayed at Cascara Campground, an Oregon State campground (which one brochure we had said was a Corps of Engineers park) located on Fall Creek Reservoir east of Eugene. On Thursday, we drove into Eugene to have our solar updated and, since it was after 2:00 PM when we were finished, we spent the night at the Elks Club in Springfield. Since some of our mail didn't arrive by Friday, we decided to spend another night at the Springfield Elks Club and did shopping at Costco. We're probably going to have to find an RV repair center soon to have our refrigerator looked at...it's not working properly on propane (it keeps going to "check"). It's acting like it did when we had the board replaced a couple of years ago, so I don't know if it's a board problem again, or something else. Guess we'll find out soon enough.

APRIL 2002

Monday, April 1

In the words of Willie Nelson, we are "on the road again!" We left Mission about 10:00 AM after having breakfast at our favorite little Mexican food restaurant, Las Canteras. While tooling up U.S. 281, we hit a turkey that was walking across the road. They say turkeys are dumb birds, and I guess that must be true, because he (she?) was not even half way across the road (coming toward us from the left) when he decided to out run us...he lost! Guess we should have stopped and picked him up...we could have had roast turkey!

We stopped in Alice to have lunch at the Kettle Restaurant and then made our way to Smith's Trailer Village and RV Park in George West, a trip of 169 miles. We had stopped here on two different occasions last year...once when we went down to Mission, and again coming back. Last year, however, the price was only $12...this year it is $15 (weekly rates are only $80, though). It's not a fancy park, but it's nice...all the spaces are pull thrus which run parallel to the road and there is a lot of room between spaces.

Rig at Smith's Trailer Village:











Tuesday, April 2

We drove 149 miles to the Wildflower Inn in Johnson City, Texas. This park used to be called Pedernales Hills Resort and is a Coast to Coast (C2C) park. This is, it USED to be a C2C park...as we found out when we arrived, it isn't one any longer. Too bad. It's a nice park with lots of room to walk Maxx. The spaces have only water and electric, but the person who checked us in said that the owners were planning on putting in sewer next year.

View from our space at Wildflower Inn:











Wednesday, April 3 thru Monday, April 8

We drove 180 miles to our home C2C park in Whitney, Texas, Suncountry Resort on Wednesday. We like this park and the little town of Whitney. There's a brand new grocery store and medical clinic just down the road from the park and the park itself has lots of places to walk Maxx (always a consideration when we're looking for a place to stay).

On Thursday, we drove into Waco to do shopping...picked up some new filters for our Pur water pitcher at Home Depot, bought a new laptop computer at Circuit City, filled up with fuel at the Flying J, and had lunch at the Olive Garden.

Friday night, we went to dinner at Tres Hermanos, one of the local Mexican food restaurants. This restaurant has very good food...just as good as Las Canteras in Mission.

We did grocery shopping over the weekend at the new grocery store in Whitney, Brookshire's. It's a really nice store...a great improvement over the other two stores in town.

When our mail from Sioux Falls didn't arrive on Monday (we'd received our mail from the Escapees on Thursday), I gave Alternative Resources a call. It hadn't been sent out! This makes the second time in a row that they've screwed up and not sent our mail out when I've requested them to. I was absolutely livid! The Escapees mail forwarding service has NEVER made a mistake with our mail...not even once, let alone twice! I wrote an e-mail to Paul, who I'm assuming is the owner of Alternative Resources, and told him how very unhappy we were about the service we'd received to date. I've also written an e-mail to the Escapees' Boomers BOF (Birds of a Feather) to see if anyone knows of a mail forwarding service in western South Dakota around the Rapid City area. As much as I hate to send out ANOTHER set of changes of address, I've lost all confidence in AR.

Tuesday, April 9

Since our mail from Sioux Falls wasn't going to be arriving, we left Whitney and drove 155 miles to another C2C park...Indian Nation RV Resort in Thackerville, Oklahoma. We first stopped in Denton, Texas, to have a late lunch/early dinner at the Cracker Barrel and do some shopping at Camping World...we found the foot stool I've been looking for to use in the truck.

Interesting tree at rest stop:

Maxx in tree:











Wednesday, April 10 thru Thursday, April 11

Today we drove 205 miles to the Elks Club in Perry, Oklahoma. We stayed here last year on our way north. This Elks Club has 6 spaces with water and electric, plus a dump. We were planning on spending only one night here, but when we got up Thursday morning, the weather report showed strong thunderstorms in the area we would be traveling, so we decided to wait another day. We drove into town and filled up with diesel and then that evening we had hamburgers at the Club.

Friday, April 12 thru Sunday, April 14

We drove 189 miles to the Cottonwood Point campground at Marion Lake near Marion, Kansas, stopping along the way to have lunch at a Subway. This is another Corps of Engineers campground and we had a space right next to the lake...great! We decided to stay here three nights and drive into Junction City on Monday morning. We drove into Marion a couple of times to do grocery shopping and pick up the Sunday paper.

Sunset at Marion Lake:











Monday, April 15

We drove the 80 miles to Junction City, arriving at Horizons about 11:30 and found the parking spaces completely filled (we'd arrived unannounced). Ken said that they'd probably have space on Wednesday, so we unhooked, had lunch at the Cracker Barrel, then took the fifth wheel out to the West Rolling Hills COE park at Milford Lake where we spent a quiet couple of days (except for the thunderstorms!).

Wednesday, April 17 thru Thursday, April 18

We arrived at Horizons at about 9:00 and parked. There was another couple there that were at Horizons last spring at the same time we were there, so it was like old home week. We gave Harold our plans for the new trailer and then, since they weren't going to be able to start work until Thursday, we drove into town to do shopping at the WalMart Supercenter. That evening, we had dinner at El Cazador, a Mexican food restaurant. They have good food...not as good as Las Canteras in Mission or Tres Hermanos in Whitney, however.

The Horizons employees started work on our rig Thursday morning. We had several small items taken care of: a new black tank sprayer installed; the metal strip between the carpet and linoleum in the kitchen replaced (which had broken); the grates and two burners on the stove replaced (the grates had become warped and the burners had all the shiny black burned off); three whole new light fixtures put in the kitchen (we'd just wanted new plastic covers replaced on a couple of them because the light bulbs had burned holes in them); the broken day/night shade over the table was replaced; and, a cable was run from the satellite dish to the second receiver in the bedroom (we'd been running the cable thru the bedroom window).

Friday, April 19

We drove 186 miles to Fairground Park in Higginsville, Missouri. This is a nice little park located between the fairgrounds and the city park. Each site has electricity and water is available. The best part is the price...$7 per night. We stopped along the way and had lunch at Hardee's.

Saturday, April 20 thru Sunday, April 21

We arrived at Ron and Donna Monroe's place in Columbia, Missouri about 2:30 in the afternoon. Donna fixed a delicious casserole that evening...and a wonderful coconut/banana cream pie and a cheesecake!

Sunday, Earl and I went shopping at Sam's Club and had a nice visit with Ron and Donna. That evening, Ron barbecued some to-die-for pork chops and we had more of Donna's great desserts.

Monday, April 22

All too soon, we had to leave Ron's and Donna's. We stopped at a Country Kitchen to have breakfast...they had a breakfast special of 1 pound of ham with 2 eggs, hash browns, and toast for about $5.00. We had enough ham left over from our two breakfasts for ham sandwiches.

We drove 175 miles to the Island View campground at Rathbun Lake near Centerville, Iowa (another COE park). Camping at this park is free from late September thru April...no water is available at this time, but the sites do have electrical hookups.

Rig at Rathbun Lake:

View from our site:











Tuesday, April 23

We drove 266 miles to Woodland Camp in Little Sioux, Iowa, a Coast to Coast park. We stopped in Decatur City to fuel the truck and at the Flying J in Des Moines to have lunch.

Wednesday, April 24 thru Tuesday, April 30

We fought a strong head wind all the way from Little Sioux to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a distance of 132 miles. Earl drove at 55 MPH in fifth gear the entire distance.

We arrived at the Red Barn RV Park, which is actually in the town of Tea, a suburb of Sioux Falls, early in the afternoon. Decided to have dinner out at the Cracker Barrel.

On Thursday, we went by Alternative Resources, our mail forwarder, to pick up our mail and meet the personnel there. Then we went by the Verizon store where we tried to change our cell phone number to a Sioux Falls number. However, we were not able to do so without losing our 3,350 weekend minutes, since that promotion is no longer running. We could have changed to the America's Choice and received 4,000 anytime minutes, but that plan has roaming charges in certain non-Verizon areas. We were also given a new phone since we were having problems with the one we had. We then stopped at Schlotsky's for lunch.

Friday found us downtown getting our driver's licenses. We didn't have to take any written tests...just walked in, gave them our Texas licenses, had our pictures taken, and voila, we are now full fledged South Dakotans! Afterwards, we did grocery shopping and filled up a propane tank. Propane is expensive here...it cost us about $23 to fill up a 40 pound tank compared to the usual cost of $14 - $16.

It's been cold here at nights...below freezing! We've unhooked the water and drained all the hoses before going to bed, using the water from the fresh water tank during the night. One day, it rained the entire day and the wind really blew...we spent most of the day holed up inside the RV (at least it didn't snow!).

On Monday, Earl took the truck in to get an oil change and lube job. He stopped by the grocery store on his way back and did grocery shopping.

Tuesday we went to Carlos O'Kelly's for lunch (a Mexican food chain...good food, but nothing to write home about). We stopped at a truck stop on the way back to put diesel in the truck in preparation for our departure tomorrow.

MARCH 2002

I finally had my appointment with a doctor...an OB/GYN...and had my regular annual physical; however, she would not give me a prescription for Pravachol and suggested that I see a family physician, so I ended up seeing the same doctor as Earl! If I'd known when I made the appointment with her that she wouldn't write a prescription for a cholesterol lowering drug, I'd have seen a family doctor to begin with!

We ordered the Pravachol from a Canadian company...MUCH less expensive than buying the exact same drug from the states, by about half! We had checked the prices when we were in Mexico, but found that it was MORE expensive down there.

We purchased a new laptop computer to replace our desktop computer...it's a Toshiba Satellite 5005-S507 (PIII @ 1.1GHz, 512MB of Ram, 15" USVG screen, Windows XP). After getting it home, I found out that this computer didn't come with Microsoft Works already loaded on it, so we had to purchase a copy as well as a new mouse. This computer had Lotus Smart Suite loaded on it, but all my spreadsheets, databases, and word processing work is done with Microsoft Works and I didn't feel like trying to change everything over and learn a new system.

Earl made a trip to Progresso, Mexico, to get his teeth cleaned and a new partial. A dentist here wanted $800-$900 for a new partial...in Mexico, Earl got a cleaning and a new partial for $165! We both went back to Progresso the next week so that Earl could get an adjustment made to his new partial. After that was completed, we walked around town looking in a few shops. I bought a really nice leather purchase for about $25!

Earl washed and waxed the fifth wheel in preparation for our scheduled departure on April 1, I made arrangements to cancel the phone, power, and newspaper when we leave, we did some final shopping runs to Sam's Club and Camping World, and made a final pilgrimage to our favorite Mexican food restaurant. We also had more blood tests done to find out how our cholesterol is doing. Earl's was down a little from the last test (which had been his second test) and mine was down considerably! It still needs to come down some more, but it's greatly improved over what it was. We will have to find places this summer where we can continue to have our blood checked not only for cholesterol levels, but also to keep track of liver function, since these drugs can cause liver problems.

Can't wait to get back on the road again!

FEBRUARY 2002

Earl and I had blood tests taken and found that our cholesterol is high (which we knew). Earl got an appointment with a doctor right away and got a prescription for Pravachol...by the end of the month, when he had a second blood test, his cholesterol level had greatly improved. We started eating better, too (although we still made it out to Las Canteras once in a while).

We also started the process of changing our domicile from Texas to South Dakota. We were going to do so later this year, anyway, because we're planning on purchasing a new rig and the tax in South Dakota is 3% compared with Texas' 6-1/4%. However, last year, Texas passed what was touted as being a property tax "exemption" for trailers which turned out not to be an exemption at all but, instead, a new tax. Once the word got out that the public had been duped, all the politicians started back peddling real quickly saying, "But that wasn't our intention at all, the wording was poorly written, yada, yada, yada." There are efforts to get the new law rescinded, but since the legislature meets only once every two years, there may not be anything that can be done until 2003. Therefore, we decided to make the change to South Dakota prior to May when the first tax bills are supposed to be sent out.

We're using Alternative Resources in Sioux Falls. We got our mail forwarding address set up, I started the process of sending out change of address notices, and by the end of the month, we had our new South Dakota license plates. Now we have 90 days in which to make it to South Dakota to get our driver's licenses and register to vote.

JANUARY 2002

We left Phoenix on the 2nd, spending the night at the Escapees Co-op park in Benson, Arizona where we dry camped. The next night we spent at Cotton Valley RV Park in Clint, Texas. The third night we spent at the Lost Alaskan RV Park in Alpine, Texas. This is a beautiful area of Texas in the mountains north of Big Bend Park.

On the 5th we were back at the Elks Club in Del Rio. It just happened to be the first Saturday of the month (and my birthday), so we partook of the steak dinner again!

The next day we made it back to Hidden Valley Ranch.

It was a fairly quiet month...Earl golfed on Fridays at the golf course associated with the park where we're staying, we did our normal shopping, including trips to Sam's Club, and we did buy a new, small Sanyo vacuum cleaner and got rid of our large one that was so heavy and took up too much room in the fifth wheel.

DECEMBER 2001

We had the bedroom in our fifth wheel set up for a second satellite receiver because the reception of local stations here in Mission is so bad. Most of the channels that come in well, are Spanish language stations, but the networks don't come in well at all. We thought about getting cable while we're here, but the extra receiver only costs about $5.00 per month and we'll be able to use it even after we leave here.

We left for Phoenix on the 15th. The first night we stayed at the Elks Club in Del Rio, Texas. This Elks Club has water, electric, and cable hookups. We arrived on a good day, too...the first and third Saturdays of the month they have a steak fry...steak, baked potato, salad, and soup all for $10.00 each. Yum!

On the 16th, we stayed at the El Campo RV Park in Van Horn, Texas. This is the park we usually stay at when we come thru the area. The woman who runs the place recognizes us by now!

The third night out, we stayed at the Elks Club in Willcox, Arizona. This Elks Club also has electric and water hookups...no steak dinner, though.

The next night, we stayed at the Elks Club in Gila Bend, Arizona. This Elks Club doesn't have any hookups, just a large graveled lot...but it only costs $3.00 to dry camp here.

The next day, the 19th, we drove into D & R Family RV in Glendale to see if we could get our solar fixed. We arrived late in the afternoon and spent the night in the lot so that we'd be there the first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to fix the solar...it apparently needs a new wiring harness. The guy in Oregon who installed our solar system for us offered to send us a new wiring harness, but since he'll replace it for free, we decided to wait until this summer when we're in Oregon to have it replaced.

Cotton Lane RV Park, where we normally stay when we're in the Phoenix area, was full so we stayed at Sundial RV Park. It's located near Olive and 75th Avenues...not a great park and certainly not one I'd want to stay at for any length of time, but for the Christmas holidays it was near where we wanted to be.

What Christmas shopping we hadn't already completed, we got done once we'd arrived in Glendale. We visited with family and friends and Earl had a chance to go golfing with Buck. While we were in the Phoenix area, we went by Cotton Lane RV Park and made reservations to stay there next winter.

While on our trip to Phoenix, I had a chance to try out my cell phone and Ositech King of Clubs...it worked like a charm! Connection speed shows as 19.2, although surfing speed in analog mode is somewhat slower. But at least I can do some limited surfing which I really haven't been able to do except in the winter when we're in one place with a land line into the RV.

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.