The Wheels Found 70 Degrees!

On Feb 22nd we departed from Coastline RV in Florida heading west to chase the nicer weather. Well today is March 1, and as the title says...the wheels found 70 degrees!!!  We started west knowing that there was a storm headed across the U.S. but we were confident we could stay below it on I-10.  We did pretty good until we decided to go north about 60 miles and visit our friends Randy and Retha in San Angelo, Tx.  We arrived there on Tuesday after making some terrific time across Mississippi and Louisiana on I-10.  But Randy and Retha are such gracious hosts, and they soon talked us into settling down and spending a few days with them.  The weather was pretty cool, and Retha was able to score some tickets to a real Texas rodeo for Thursday night....how could we say no.

We broke out the winter jackets and headed over to the San Angelo Rodeo and had a terrific time watching cowboys and cowgirls strut their stuff. The show opened with some great pyrotechnics and never slowed down.

 This young cowgirl displayed "the colors" as the National Anthem was played.  There was bronc busting and ropin', and even the little kids got in the act by riding sheep across the arena.

 It was a great show until the bull riding portion.  The first rider out of the chute took a nasty beating from the bull, and from where we were sitting, it looked like the cowboy was seriously injured at the least.  The bull stepped down on his back a few times, and the cowboy laid there like a rag doll.  Medical personnel were on him in an instant and the entire arena hushed and prayed as we waited.  Miraculously, we found out this morning that he suffered only a broken arm and was released from the hospital.  That kevlar vest and helmet definitely saved his life.
On Friday morning we woke to find everything covered in ice, and we flashed back to the ice storm of '98.

     It probably wasn't that bad, except Texans definitely don't know how to drive with a little ice on the highway.  Unbelievably, the speed limits are 75 on the side roads and 80 on the interstates!  Can't do 75 on an icy road.  State Police reported over 60 accidents on Friday, so we settled down in front of a nice fire, poured another cup of coffee and spent most of the day visiting.  Saturday was the same, with continued freezing rain.  But Randy and Retha did a great job keeping us entertained both days.  Although Retha seemed to be experiencing a little "cabin fever" yesterday afternoon as she casually mentioned that the road were "probably OK" and she and Debbie should get in a little shopping!
      Debbie and I are trying to keep to some type of schedule and move in a westerly direction, and by Saturday night we decided it was time to make a break for it.  The weather to the south was projected to be warmer than San Angelo which couldn't seem to break out of the 30's with freezing rain.  But it was time to see if Big Red could lead us into some warmer weather.  As we said our goodbye's to Randy, Retha, and Maggie, Debbie announced there would be "selfies in the 70's" by afternoon.  As we pulled into the Southern Star RV Park in Van Horn, Tx, the outside temperature was pushing 68 degrees and that was close enough for us.  Of course, Debbie was able to locate an RV park that associated with Passport America and our cost for camping tonight is only $15.00!  We definitely recommend Passport America to all of our camping families.

     The map below is a photo from RVillage showing all of our campgrounds visits on our Going to see America 2015 adventure.  We both agree that we are extremely fortunate to be able to pull this off.

     Two more weeks and we'll be in San Diego and Debbie gets to see the PGD!  Oh yea,,,Ben and Joanne too!  They had some big news a few days ago......they're buying their first house!  Welcome to the world of mortgages and property taxes!
     Next stop is El Paso, Tx for a few days.  Probably some side trips over to Alamogordo and Ruidoso, NM.  We've heard that it's some beautiful country.  Of course we'll stop at the Border Patrol Museum on Tuesday and we'll look up a few BP friends from Campo.  We plan to move next to Mesa, Az and do a little sightseeing and maybe some baseball.  We just hope we can stay in the warmer weather!