We are currently in El Paso TX.  What happened to our planned stay in Alpine you ask?  Well, it happened, but the WiFi broadband was not wide enough to allow for long stays on the Internet or uploading of pictures; therefore, no blog posting.  That was the only downside of the Lost Alaskan RV Park.  The place was VERY clean with VERY friendly people and reasonable prices, especially with our Escapees Club discount.  So, let us catch you up.  We stayed four nights and then had to vacate the premises as there was no more room at any of the parks in the area due to the Annual Cowboy Poetry Reading Festival, which was starting on the 24th.

While in Alpine we had a great time checking out the local area.  Local, however, is a relative term out in west Texas.  Alpine has a population of around 5,500.  The nearest large city (i.e., more than 5,500 people) is El Paso, 220 miles away.  However, Marfa (pop. 2,700) is 30 miles, Fort Davis (pop. 1,000) is around 25 miles, and the Big Bend National Park is a mere 110 miles from Alpine.

Are we there yet???

We spent a day driving around, getting a feel for the place.  It is high desert, the Chihuahuan Desert to be exact, surrounded by the Davis, Chinati, and Chisos Mountains.  We went up to Fort Davis and spent some time at the Fort Davis Historical Park (the post was closed in 1885).  The fort was built in the mid-1800's to protect traffic along the San Antonio/El Paso trail from Apache, Comanche, and bandit attacks. At its height, approximately 600 Army troops were stationed there at any one time, mostly Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry after the Civil War.  This was also the fort where the Cavalry’s camel unit was stationed.  That's right, camels were imported into the Chihuahuan Desert in the 1800's as pack animals for the US Army.  Apparently the program was quite successful until the Civil War when the unit was disbanded.

Parade Ground in front of officers' quarters

Married officer housing

Officer housing

Later that afternoon, we went over to Marfa and wandered around town.  Unfortunately, it was Sunday and most of the art galleries were closed.  Seems that Marfa has become quite the artsy town, with quite a few artists moving in and galleries opening.  We did get to see the Chinati Foundation.  It's a contemporary museum and studio space on 340 acres in old army barracks and artillery sheds opened by Donald Judd back in the 70's.  It has installations by Dan Flavin, John Chamberlin, and Judd, along with other rotating exhibits by other modern artists.  It was a bit esoteric and abstract for us.  However, we did enjoy the aluminum installation by Judd.  Guess living in an aluminum tube has given us an appreciation for the stuff.

Aluminum installation by Donald Judd

That night we made sure to be in place at dusk to watch a terrific sunset, followed by the Marfa Lights up in the Chinati Mountains.  The lights are fun to watch, some say they’re reflections from auto headlights on the highway across the valley floor, others think they are due to atmospheric changes as the temperature drops after the sun goes down.  Who knows?  But they are quite the tourist attraction and the town has built a fancy viewing area with telescopes for your viewing pleasure.  

Sunset outside Marfa, TX

Monday we got up at 0400 and drove down to Big Bend National Park in time to see the sunrise over the Chisos Mts. and the Chihuahuan Desert.  Big Bend is 800,000 acres of desert and mountains bordered by 118 miles of the Rio Grande.  Across the river is Mexico.  We did some hiking along the Lost Mine Trail and the Santa Elena Canyon.  It was absolutely breathtaking, literally and figuratively.  Boy, we really need to work out more!  Between being out of shape and being at 6,000 feet elevation, we were pooped!

Sunrise at Big Bend National Park

Sunrise at Big Bend National Park

The Chisos Mountains from the Lost Mine Trail

Santa Elena Canyon and the Rio Grande, right side USA, left side Mexico

On our last day we lounged around the trailer for the morning, then went to eat in Alpine at Reata’s.  We had run across a cookbook at the Big Bend Park gift shop on Monday with some fabulous recipes and after buying a copy discovered that the original restaurant was in Alpine.  It is apparently a “destination” restaurant for the foodies out there.  I had Carne Asado with Cheese Enchiladas and Heinz had the Chicken with Mango Salsa, with a side of Jalapeno Cheese Grits.  Yummy!  But later that evening we had even better food up in Fort Davis for dinner at a little bistro called Lupita’s Place.  Actually, it’s a little trailer parked n the side of the main drag with some tables outside.  We had the Texas Tornado Burrito - melt in your mouth tender brisket with avocado paste, queso fresca, and green chile sauce and the Asado Burrito - super tender pork and a fiery red chile sauce.  Now THAT’S a destination restaurant in my book!

Lupita's Place, Fort Davis, TX

Along with eating our way across west Texas, we also took in the McDonald Observatory on top of Mount Locke outside of Ft. Davis (home of NPR’s StarDate).  During the afternoon we took in the Solar Tour that included a lecture on the sun and neighboring stars, real time telescopic images of the sun, and a tour of two of the telescopes, altogether a 3-hour tour.  That night (after that wonderful dinner at Lupita’s) we went back to the observatory for a Star Party.  This included a humorous look at the night sky narrated by an observatory employee.  I have never seen so many stars, with no night lights anywhere for miles around, it was phenomenal.  Following the talk, you got to wander around looking through various telescopes varying in size from 16 to 28 inches, each aimed at a different area of the sky.  We got to see the Orion nebula, the Andromeda nebula, Jupiter and 4 of its moons, among others.  The star party lasted around 2 ½ hours and there were around 100 people in attendance.  The workers told us that this time next week the star parties will have around 1,000 people each night due to spring break.  Wow, glad we got there when we did, telescope lines were short and no one minded if you took your time ooh-ing and ahh-ing into the lens.  If you ever make it down that way, this is bargain priced entertainment.  A total of 6 ½ hours for $20 each.

McDonald Observatory

107 inch telescope

Along the way we have continued to make all sorts of friends and wanted to share their portraits with you.

Wednesday we packed up and headed over here to El Paso.  We’re parked in the Fort Bliss FamCamp.  The past two days have been spent resting, doing small maintenance on the trailer, and scoping out El Paso.  With Juarez across the river, there is a definite Hispanic cast to the town.  Lots of adobe, lots of colorful tiles on the buildings, etc. 

Last night we took in a concert by Joe Bonamassa.  Wow, this was our second time to see him in person and we were blown away again by his skill on the guitar.  Now I know how the Deadheads felt all those years…we may have to start following Joe from town to town.

Tomorrow we’re off to explore Las Cruces and Silver City over in New Mexico and maybe do a little hiking in the Gila National Forest if there’s time.

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Recipe Corner... This one is adapted from Reata: Legendary Texas Cuisine by Mike Micallef.  We enjoyed his version, but added more cheese and jalapeno to suit our tastebuds along with using fast cooking grits to speed things along for RV cooking.  The original calls for cooking regular grits for 30-40 minutes.

Jalapeno-Cheese Grits (Serves 6-8)

3 cups water

3 cups heavy cream

3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

2 ½ cups quick cooking grits

4 tbsp unsalted butter

3 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Combine the water, cream, jalapenos, salt, and pepper in a large saucepan and cook over high heat until the liquid has reached a rapid boil.  Reduce the temperature and simmer for 5 minutes.  Slowly stir in grits, stirring constantly to avoid lumps.  Cook until grits are soft and creamy.  Remove from heat and add butter and cheese.  Stir until both are melted and thoroughly mixed into the grits.  Season with more salt and pepper, if needed.  Serve hot. 

Once again we are woefully inadequate in keeping up with the blog...worse than usual, it's been 2 months since we posted anything.  Mea culpa to all.  We are currently in San Antonio, TX.  We spent mid-December to mid-January with relatives in Louisiana.  My sister and brother-in-law put us up and generously loaned us workshop space to continue working on the trailer.  Their house was beautifully decorated and set the mood for Christmas wonderfully.

We enjoyed their Christmas Open House, a great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with family, New Year's Eve and Day parties, and meals out with the family.  You sure can't beat the fried catfish restaurants in the South, YUMMY!  We were also introduced to a couple of great restaurants in Shreveport that were new to us: The Broken Egg for breakfast: great omelets with crab, chorizo, or crayfish, and Superior Steakhouse: great steaks obviously, but also some wonderful Cajun seafood entrees.

We had a terrific surprise over the holidays, our Bird of Paradise that we've been nursing along for 3 years finally bloomed!  Turns out that the plants take 3-4 years before blooming for the first time.  Who knew?

Heinz got the fridge installed, and the pantry and kitchen cabinetry completed before leaving Louisiana... the storage space is coming along wonderfully.

We've been in San Antonio staying on Lackland AFB for the past three weeks and with access to the base wood hobby shop have continued to work on the trailer.  The propane and water are connected and we now have heat, hot water and a working cooktop.  It was exceptional timing as San Antonio had record cold temperatures for a couple of weeks and even had a light dusting of snow.

We also managed to get the closet, and TV cabinet and dining table mostly completed (pictures to follow later when they're done).  We now officially have beaucoup storage space!  All in all, we are settling quite nicely into our rolling home.

We haven't let the sights go by the wayside.  We did the "mandatory" tour of the Alamo and watched the IMAX movie on the battle (you were right Kathy, you DO tear up towards the end).  We also wandered the Mission Trail and got to hear Mass at Mission San Juan de Capistrano (built in 1731).

The pictures above are (in order): The Alamo, Mission San Jose, Mission San Juan de Capistrano (two pictures), Mission Espada, and Mission Concepcion.  The last one is the only mission that still has the original frescoes from the 1700's.

We've also taken advantage of some of the more fleeting events in the area.  We've caught a few movies, including The King's Speech and The Rite.  We have found the neatest little movie theater just a few miles down the road, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.  As you buy your ticket you begin to get a sense that this is not your usual theater, the ticket clerk hands you your tickets and tells you to present them to your server in the viewing room.  As you walk in the lobby you realize that there is no place to buy candy or popcorn, but there is a bar serving drinks and a gift shop selling movie paraphernalia.  Then you make it into the theater itself and you find that they have taken out every other row of seats and installed rows of tables instead.  A waitress comes by and you give her your order off the menu...pizzas, burgers, salads, chicken or fish and fries, a choice of about a dozen different beers, wine, cokes, and oh yeah, popcorn or candy.  If you order popcorn it comes in a big metal bowl instead of a paper bag.  Dinner with your movie.  What a blast!  

San Antonio is in the middle of the annual Stock Show and Rodeo.  It goes on for 2 weeks, so of course we went last Friday night.  Wow, what a spectacle!  The stock show was for both 4-H kids and adults.  The prizes for the top animals for the kids ranged from $1,000 and up for best in show, plus whatever the animals sold for.  There were some good looking animals on display.  There were all sorts of events going on all day, every day, but we only made it for the rodeo that night.  The rodeo was then followed nightly by a concert.  We got to see Train perform.

We plan to be here until Saturday and then move on.  Next stop will be Marfa/Alpine, TX and the Big Bend area.

Whoa, where did the time go? We've been in Kansas City for a month now and are starting to pack up to leave on Friday for Shreveport, LA. The past month has been filled with family time & laughs with Heinz's sister, brother-in-law, and extended family, along with working on the trailer.

There's been all sorts of work going on. We bought a new Dometic refrigerator and have it in place and bolted down. The heater and water pump have been installed, along with the radio. The bedroom is almost finished. Heinz built a bed frame with storage underneath, six large drawers and a bulk storage area. He's also got 2 nightstands almost finished. They're still missing the tops and doors, those are cut, but not stained and varnished yet - we'll finish them in Louisiana.

We've gotten the Vista window shades changed out and replaced them with all-clad aluminum with some cherry stained handles. We replaced the trim around the windows with almond colored molding used to trim up FRP panels. Following that we finished up all the interior riveting and re-hung the front curtain tracks. I've been busy making curtains while we've been here in Kansas, but haven't gotten the "G" and "T" slides attached, so sorry, no pictures yet. We decided to go with Roman shades in the bedroom and those are also made, but not mounted.

About a week ago, KC had the first snow of the season. Not much, roughly an inch, but enough to call it snow for this deep south-raised, ex-Californian. It's been cold here also, highs in the 20's and single digit lows. I'm looking forward to getting to Louisiana and temps in the 60's.

Last Sunday we went up to Heinz's aunt's house and helped her make Christmas cookies. I made a big pot of chicken and sausage gumbo with bread pudding for dessert and took it with us. We baked, laughed, ate, traded stories and mourned the Chiefs loss to San Diego. If you're interested, the bread pudding recipe is at the end of this week's entry. Enjoy and we hope you have a great holiday!

Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce

This is a "country" version of bread pudding and will not look like the nicely molded, "cake-like" versions you see in restaurants.

Bread Pudding:

One loaf of day-old French bread, cut into small pieces; 4 Cups of milk, scalded; ¾ cup of sugar; 1 tbsp of butter; ¼ tsp of salt; 4 eggs, slightly beaten; 1 tsp vanilla.

Soak bread in milk 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, mix well. Pour into 1 ½ quart baking dish. Place dish in pan of hot water and bake for one hour at 350 degrees.

Whiskey sauce:

½ cup of sugar; ¼ cup of water; 2 tbsp of butter; 2 jiggers of bourbon whiskey or to taste.

Cook first 3 ingredients until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add whiskey. Serve immediately over hot bread pudding.

It's happening! We're on the road...sort of. We spent the time from our last post when we got back from the wedding to a week ago going full force on the trailer. We managed to get most of the outside work done to get it ready to travel, including insulating the floor, re-installing the belly pans and banana wraps, getting the levelers and spare tire mount back in, along with scraping old seals out from around the windows and installing some temporary seals from Home Depot for the trip (appropraite seals will go in when the windows are overhauled).

Heinz spent a long Saturday grinding off the propane tank holder from the tongue and cutting angle iron for a battery box base. The next day he and Paul (a VERY helpful neighbor) spent a part of Sunday re-welding the propane tank holder, moving it forward along with adding the battery box base aft of the tank holder.

While they were busy doing that I spent the weekend prepping and painting the inside. It was a red-letter weekend in my book. Something completed that could be seen by everyone, didn't involve rivets (whoohoo!), and touched on the individuality of the trailer versus the grunt work. One morning went into washing down the walls and roughing up the old vinyl and new aluminum with some sandpaper, and the afternoon was sucked up by painting with primer (STIX from Ace Hardware). The next day was paint. If anyone ever tells you that Thai Gold is a good wall color...RUN!!! I put the first coat on and knew how a pumpkin pie feels in the oven on Thanksgiving Day! It was a warm day, I was inside the silver bullet, and the color was pumpkin orange - a bit severe. Needless to say, we went color shopping again. Day 3 was spent putting on two coats of Citrus Punch. I know that it looks a little overwhelmingly yellow in the pictures, but as we started loading stuff into the trailer it toned down. Another nice part of this color is that as the day moves on and the light changes, the tones change and it goes from a bright and cheery yellow in the morning to a warm citrusy yellow in the evening.

There was another red-letter day before we hit the road. We got the floor finished! This picture is of Heinz and I planning it out, sorry, don't have any of it actually installed. We got too busy trying to pack up what we needed in the house before the movers arrived to stop and take pictures of the installed floor.

But show up the movers did. They packed up the rest of the house in 2 days and rolled away with most of our worldly goods for storage. We finished packing up the remainder, loaded up the truck and the trailer, cleaned the house for the landlord, and rolled off into the sunset, or actually the sunrise.

First stop was Los Angeles to drop off plants for babysitting with our daughter and new son-in-law (welcome again to the family, Pete). Next stop, Kansas City and around a month with relatives for the Thanksgiving season. We made it in a marathon driving session from L.A. to KC in two days. The trailer pulled like a dream and is so smooth we almost forgot it was back there. We had great weather the whole way and some beautiful scenery in places.

The trailer isn't livable yet, but Carl has a full workshop in the basement. The bed is coming together as the rest of the work continues, so stay posted - updates will be coming.

Retirement is working out great so far. A person could get used to this really easily!

It's given us lots of time to work on the Airstream and we've taken advantage of the extra time.

The electrical system is essentially finished except for putting in the 12 volt outlets. The solar panels are hooked up and charging like crazy and the inverter is installed. Sun power is so awesome. We can power the ceiling fans now and have a little breeze when working inside. Heinz has the power installed for the stereo system and the front two speakers in, so soon we should have music without trailing extension cords for the portable radio.

We installed the sub-flooring last week also, then realized that the nails we used were about a 1/2" too long. Heinz is now outside grinding them down over the water tank and spare tire spaces. Luckily we figured it out before we had done the entire floor and switched to staples for the rest of the floor as no one in town had 1" flooring nails.

All of the interior metal is back up except for the strip down the middle. Sometimes I think that piece is never going back in, but Heinz wants to leave it open until the last possible moment in order to keep the electrical wiring open for troubleshooting.

Since the remainder of the walls were up I spent Saturday prepping them for paint: scrubbing, sanding, filing down rough rivets, filling in old holes and patches with Bondo, etc. Heinz spent the day with the electrical system as mentioned above.

And then the rain came, and came, and came. It rained all Saturday evening, all night and most of Sunday. A total of 1.2 inches.

We got out to the trailer on Sunday morning and found 5 damp spots on the flooring. Boos, hisses, curses and depression. So off came some panels and the depression lifted a little. None of the leaks were coming from areas of our repairs. One was from a still open air vent hole that had been simply taped over with painter's tape, the second was from the front curved window that we hadn't done anything with yet and knew had a leak (we had hoped we had put enough sealant on it, but sigh, no such luck). The third leak was by the door and access panel where we had removed the seals and not gotten around to re-applying it yet, one by a wheel well that needs more sealant and the last was from a combination of roof line rivets and side rivets that we had not replaced. We got the window and air vents taped over with good waterproof tape (Gorilla tape--truly a wonderful product!) and when the rain let up in the afternoon, we drilled out the rivets on the streetside outer wall and roof line and replaced them. I had been down a little because the painting and flooring hadn't been completed yet, boy, was I glad they weren't done since we ended up having to track down leaks.

Today I plan to sand down the Bondo'd patches and then maybe, just maybe, the ceiling strip will go in and I can paint the primer coat.

It's official. We've retired, Heinz from a total of 28 years in the USAF and Teresa from 34 years of nursing. We immediately flew to New Hampshire for Heinz's daughter's wedding. We spent around 10 days up there playing around. It was a new place for the two of us and we had a blast enjoying the changing leaves and New England coastline.

The colors were somewhat subtle down in southern New Hampshire/Massachusetts and quite brilliant up in the Green Mountains in the northern end of the state. Before the wedding, we took in the Franconia Notch and the flume, the Shaker Village in Canterbury and Strawberry Banke in Portsmouth among other sights.

It rained most of the week, but the day of Jess and Pete's wedding dawned clear and sunny, which was great since the ceremony was outdoors. Following the ceremony we enjoyed drinks on the patio followed by dinner and dancing until close to midnight, then a firepit and bar-b-que at the home of the groom's sister. The partying finally broke up around 3 am. Now that's a wedding celebration.

We had family in for the ceremonies from Kansas and Colorado also, so it turned into a mini-family reunion in addition to the wedding.

Following the festivities we drifted down to Boston and did the tourist thing: followed the freedom trail and spent some time in Salem.

Following our return home, we promptly went into self-imposed isolation with horrendous colds, so no work got done on the trailer for at least 3 weeks straight.

But now we're better and we've made some major progress in the past 3-4 days: end caps re-installed, air conditioner installation completed, and side walls replaced. Heinz is spending today working on installation of the 120 Volt/12 Volt converter, while I start going through some of the house separating out Goodwill vs. storage vs. going on the road items.

We're adjusting nicely to the concept of retirement so far. I really can't say that either of us is missing work even a tiny bit so far.