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Continuing our trend of cool weather with cool temps in Arizona.  We spent one night at Roper Lake State park, beautiful scenery although by Vt standards the lake was a pond!

The snow on the mountains was the first we have encountered on our trip. Better up high.

We came to Arizona for a captive insurance conference so Derick had the put on his work clothes!  We are in Tucson and so far it has been chilly, windy and rainy with a little intermittent sun. We are headed to our first RV group rally also here in Tucson where the forecast is looking brighter. Let’s hope!

 

 

After a night in El Paso, we finally left Texas . We belong to a group called Harvest Hosts that provide you list of places you can overnight for free. We did this at the Air Museum in Texas and this time we are staying at a winery! We went to Deming, New Mexico to St Clair Winery. They like you to throw a little business the hosts way so we had to go in and drink some wine!  The wine was great so our free sample turned into a flight then a glass .  Which turned into a delicious cheese platter, great service by Norma and 3 bottles of wine to take with us. That was the most expensive night yet!

 

We are heading west to Arizona but as Texas is such a big state, we have three stops before we are out of the state.

our first stop was the Caverns of Sonora in Sonora. The have an RV park with water and power and guided tours the cave. We made it time for the last tour of the day. It goes 150 feet below the surface, has 360 steps and over a mile of narrow trails. It is a humid 70 degrees so you leave your coat behind. This seemed like a bonus considering it was a blustery 50 out. It was beautiful!

The warm temps were only underground however and we had our first night well below freezing. We do have heat but our water line was frozen solid when we got up. Nothing was damaged and no harm done. Lesson learned .

We left Sonora and continued west to Van Horn , Texas  it was sunny and warmer which was a plus! Changing landscape as we enter the southwest .

Today we are headed to El Paso, our last stop in Texas . No more freezing temps in the forecast.  Happy Trails!

 

 

Woke up to 47 degrees, windy and no sun. Have not seen the sun a lot in Texas. Despite the weather we ventured into San Antonio to see the Alamo and have lunch on the riverwalk. Enjoyed both!

Deb has been reading Texas by James Mitchner so she had lots of interesting facts at the Alamo! She at least found them interesting.

All of that history made us hungry so lunch was in order. Table side guacamole and prickly pear margaritas hit the spot.

Tomorrow is March 1st and that means it is time to hit the road. We have had a good time but we are ready to see something new. Good timing as this area is huge spring break destination!

Some highlights of our month were:

The beach on South Padre Island

The shrimp and shrimp boats ( so Bubba Gump!)

The Sea Turtle Rescue

Sunshine and some great meals

Port Isabel is a nice town and close to South Padre Island. Prices for food and the park were much cheaper than in Florida. We met some nice people.  Winter Texans who summer  in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin and other points north.

The weather has been cloudy and foggy more often than sunny but it never snowed!

We will be headed to San Antonio for the weekend then west across Texas…. a several day trip. Next long stop is Tucson, Arizona!

Thanks for following along!

To find Port Isabel on a map, follow the Gulf of Mexico coastline of Texas south .  Past Galveston, when you get to Corpus Christi, keep going south!  Now when you are about to cross into Mexico, stop and you are there! Situated at the mouth of the Rio Grande is Port Isabel, Texas.  It is probably better known for the causeway to South Padre Island, a popular spring break site and a beautiful stretch of National Seashore.

We chose this park because it was cheap and close to the beach. It is south enough to have more tropical weather , at least in theory.  We seem to have more fog than sun and more temps in the 60’s than 70’s. But it is the things it doesn’t have that make it……no snow, no ice(except in a glass), no crowds and traffic and no where to be early in the morning!

Happy February!

We have been on the road for three months and we just had our first overnight of boondocking or dry camping.     This is when you are not hooked up to power or water. Their is group called Harvest Hosts that match RVers with museums, wineries,farms and breweries that will let you park overnight for free in their parking lots. They do not provide power and water or sewer so your rig must be self contained.  In in exchange for for free parking overnight it is encouraged that the camper makes a purchase of a tour to support the business.  For an annual fee, Harvest Host will share there network with you. We have just had our first overnight.

The drive from Houston to Port Isabel is about 7 hours which makes for a long day. So we found a spot in San Antonio that is a Harvest Host. We rolled into the Texas Air Museum just before they closed yesterday and spent the night. There was another couple there  from Illinois also spending the night. Because we have ftesh water, propane, house batteries and a generator, we were hardly roughing it. Got to watch Grey’s Anatomy on the tv while eating warm pizza from the oven. While Deb enjoyed the comforts of home, Derick worked hard to learn about the house batteries and generator!

We took a tour of the museum this morning, admission $3 each if are over 50!  This museum is on the second oldest airport still in use today and was started by female aviators. A great experience!

When we started to plan this winter’s adventure, Derick had to go back to Vermont in January for work.  We decided we would want to see our sons and their families since this was our first Christmas away from “home”.  FaceTime and Skype are great but hugs are better!

It was great to see everyone and spend some quality time with our kids. We do miss being in their region of the country, but the cold we do not miss. We have spent our entire lives in New England and never thought that living anywhere else was an option. We had jobs and families to be near. Occasionally we even enjoyed the cold winters, they do make you appreciate a warm home and a warm beverage. When we started thinking about downsizing and becoming mobile, we suddenly had an option not to be where winter is cold!

The polar vortex is making even Texas unusually cold this week but sunny and only a high of 50 we can handle. Wind chills in the negative numbers, not so much. On Friday we will head to the southern most part of Texas to try and escape the cold. Any farther south on the Gulf coast and we would be in Mexico .

Lots of people do live in places that are not as cold as New England and this year there are two more of them!  Stay warm!

When we were planning where we would spend this winter, Derick had to come back to Vermont for a meeting in January. Made sense for us both to go and see family and friends since we didn’t see them over the holidays.  So here we are back in Vermont just in time for a blizzard and record subzero temps!

We are having a great time indoors!  Spent a great weekend with our son Adam and his wife Emily. Lots of time to visit in front of the wood stove, watch Nailed It on Netflix and check out their progress on the nursery for our grand baby when she arrive at the end of May. We will be back by then and ready for cuddle duty.

Next stop was at Deb’s besties right down the street from our old condo! While Derick is working, the dynamic duo of Vicki and Deb are binging Grace and Frankie, dining out and catching up!

The final leg of our “Deep Freeze” tour happens this Friday when we head to Oneonta, NY to see our oldest son Nick, his wife Jen and our beautiful granddaughter Hannah!  Nana and Papa need their Hannah fix!

We will be back to the RV on Monday , Jan 28 and getting ready to head to Port Isabel, Texas for a warm and sunny Feb.

Thanks for joining us!

 

 

We are in Houston, Texas. The weather has been cool and rainy and they have so much traffic the overpasses have overpasses!  Deb’s cousin Jeff and his family live here so we chose Houston as a Texas entry point. Had a great family visit, thanks Jeff and Beth!  Even got to talk accounting with their son Michael and their daughter Katie made the best chocolate chip cookie we have ever had. Definitely worth fighting traffic and trying avoid EZ tag only thruways.

Our next big adventure is going back north for ten days!  Looking forward to seeing our sons and our granddaughter but not looking forward to the bitter cold and the snow storm coming this weekend.  Let’s see how Macy likes to fly!