To Texas & Back

So here it is. My last post of 2016. I’ve been meaning to give you guys an update for a few weeks now, but we’re actually having a winter. I mean, we’ve had more snow this last week, then we’ve had all winter last year. I’m dutifully shoveling the driveway every time it snows, & I haven’t had to do that in quite a number of winters now.

But first, I promised a recap of my trip to Texas for RV training. To be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to it. I’m not a huge fan of Texas (It takes forever to drive across & the city freeway systems are insane!) but I was looking forward to the drive. My route included some places I’ve never been before, & some places I haven’t been for a long time.

Here is the route I took…

It was a long few days on the road, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. There’s always new things to see & new places to explore. Unfortunately, when you crunched for time, you have to hope for something worth seeing along the way. The landscape rarely ceases to disappoint!

I’ve read online that some people believe that these giant rock towers are really ancient giant tree stumps that have petrified. Interesting…

(Hand of God)

On my way thru Albuquerque, New Mexico I met up with Jason of DrivenforDrives fame. Jason is a great guy, & I’m not just saying that because he treated me to some terrific BBQ while I was in town! His blog DrivenforDrives is one of the few blogs I tend to check in on.

The training itself went fine. During the training, we stopped by a local RV dealer to check out some of the New units & see the latest & greatest. But it was this old restored Spartan travel trailer that impressed me!

Before I knew it, I was back on the road again. On the way home thru Amarillo, TX I passed by the Camelot Inn. It’s where my cousin & I stayed during our first road trip across the country when we were mere teenagers. Awe, the memories. Of course, it was pink back then, but I guess it still has a certain charm to it.  On the outskirts of Amarillo, there were tons of huge cotton fields. Most of it had been harvested already by this time. It would have been cool to get to witness the harvesting, but further down the road I saw these ginormous bus size bails of cotton! I’ve never seen so much cotton in my life!

I was looking forward to seeing the Princess & Little Man again, but first, I wanted to stop & check out the Arches National Park located outside of Moab, UT. I put together a video of the short time I was able to spend driving thru. This is the first time I’ve done this kind of editing on my own before, so there’s a couple screw ups, but you can check it out here…

I enjoyed the 3-4 hours I spent driving around the park. If you’re ever in this area & have some time & $25 for the entry fee, I highly recommend checking it out. It was surreal & unworldly, which is what led me to the music choice for the video. I very much would like to bring the wife & kid down here for a whole day to explore. #bucketlist.

Here’s a few more pics from the trip spanning NM & UT…

The dash cam is already paying off as you could see from the Arches video, but here’s a little bonus for you…

Be safe out there! See you next year!