Let’s do this again!

Corinne Boondocking, Family 2 Comments

We are on the road again!!! After a 5 month RVing hiatus to get Jim healthy, we have escaped the cold of Western New York!

Our escape happened a week ago. After a final doctor’s appointment for Jim, we got the OK to “get outta Dodge.”

This was the “Finally, the Jeep is loaded and ready to leave! Wait, we forgot the portable grill!!!” moment. What a lot of stuff.

A word on Jim….he is still on the antibiotic for the knee infection (last day for the antibiotic is March 1). Fortunately, all the infection markers in his blood work are now normal. The infectious disease doctor says that E. coli does not “stick to artificial joints.” So that doctor along with the orthopedic surgeon are all very positive that we will be putting that chapter behind us very soon. Jim will get blood draws a few times while on the road and the results will be sent back to the Rochester doctors…just to keep tabs on him.

Getting out of Rochester was easier said than done. All the routes to the RV were in the path of lake effect snow off Lake Erie. It was a white knuckle drive for a few hours. But that’s Western New York for you!

We arrived at our RV storage unit south of Cleveland, Ohio around lunch time and only took as much time as needed to get the RV started, hook the Jeep up to the tow bar, and hit the road.

The RV storage unit is empty, save for a few plastic totes and lots of munched-on mouse bait. We found one dead mouse on the storage unit floor, but none in the RV. We call that a total success.

It was a chilly day and our destination was the FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) Campground in Cincinnati, Ohio (free to us as members). Little did we realize it would be 16 F (-8 C) when we arrived AND dark. We had no fresh water in the RV tanks. Hooking up a water hose to fill said tanks in such a cold temperature is NOT fun! We had to contend with a frozen hydrant, frozen fingers, etc. Once we had water on board, we just tossed the very stiff water hose in our shower. There was no way we were going to coil it up in that cold weather. It could wait.

This is the FMCA Campground at daybreak at 12 F. This is also when our lithium batteries reported it was too cold for them and quit putting out power. We drove half the day with no power in the house part of the RV, the truck was fine. Around lunchtime the batteries warmed up enough to start working again. This is only the second time it has happened to us, and both times we were caught unawares. Someday we’ll learn/remember that lithium does not like the cold. Better yet, we should just avoid the cold!

It was time to make tracks southward. It just so happened that Jim’s brother Tom and wife Cheryl were at a state park in Mississippi. We could make this work! A couple of long driving days put us in the campsite next to them. That’s the beauty of RVing…you can run across family and friends almost anywhere.

Roosevelt State Park in Mississippi. Not bad!

After some time with the family, we then headed to Tickfaw State Park in Louisiana. There we met up with Dan and Amy, our 66-day-lockdown buddies from the Spring of 2020 (remember our three weeks in the desert hiding from the world?). The time was spent catching up, sharing meals, and us taking time to stow all the stuff we had in the Jeep back into the RV.

Tickfaw State Park was interesting. It’s a favorite of Dan and Amy’s, with its great hiking trails. Alas, that is not the current state. Hurricane Ida in late August, 2021 took a toll on Louisiana, hitting the coast as a Category 4 Hurricane and Tickfaw State Park as a Category 3. I give the park system credit for having the camping spots open so quickly. Unfortunately, the hiking trails weren’t. So we didn’t get to see any of the resident alligators.

The Comfort Station (bathrooms/laundry) had this sign marking a high water mark from a previous storm.
Trees were snapped off at the tops by Ida all over the park.
Amy set up her lawn chair at the edge of their campsite. You can see where all the fallen tree debris has been bulldozed away to clear the campsite.

We are now making our way westward.

Crossing the Mississippi River once again.

We spent last night at the 7D Ranch (a Harvest Host location) in central Texas. It was 72 degrees and sunny when we arrived. The RV windows were opened and the coats came off. Finally! Warm weather!

There we are, parked with a few other RVers spending the night. Boondocking was free. The ice cream and salsa I bought in their store wasn’t. But it’s a small price to pay for such a unique location.
I made a couple new friends, although they refused to tell me their names. A quick google search tells me these are miniature donkeys and they are sometimes “dressed up to carry party favors or pass drinks at a birthday party, rustic wedding or western themed event. Some people have called them wedding burros or even party donkeys.” Since this ranch hosts weddings, etc, I’m guessing that is exactly what the duo does. Who knew?
What a peaceful way to end a long driving day.

Now our destination is Las Cruces, or as I like to call it, “the scene of the crime”….my VERY bad joke about Jim landing in the hospital there. We have a builder to meet with, need to decide where to put the house on the lot, etc etc etc. Things definitely came to a grinding halt when Jim got sick. But once we get some of that process started, we will be free to wander around the Southwest with occasional stops back in Las Cruces to check on progress of the new house.

This is a TENTATIVE rendering of the front of the new house. Jim’s shop will be on the second floor. The large garage door is for the Blue Flame. The garage for the cars is behind the number 5…you can’t see the doors from this view.

So that’s how 2022 is starting out for us. We are thinking positive and moving forward!

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