In need of an invention

  

The tools for cleaning the bugs off the bus windshield.  A brush on a stick.

 

 

A squeegee on a stick.

 

 

For most of the windshield, this process works just fine.  But around the edges, the windshield is round and the squeegee is flat.

 

There's the problem.  We can't really clean the water off the round-glass edges of the windshield and it dries spotted and messy.

 

The solution so far has been to put a microfiber cloth on the scrubber/squeegee and finish drying the glass with that.

 

Finishing the windshield that way works, but it's so improvised.  It doesn't seem like every motorhomer with a big windshield should be left to invent their own solutions.  This seems to be a situation crying out for a new standard tool!

 

 

 

 

Wednesday

  

Looking around the park.

 

 

 

 

Changed sites.  (Last minute reservations when we found we were getting here early.  We could only get one night at each site.)

 

This one doesn't suck either.

 

White pelicans in the pond.

 

 

And a car charger right in the State Park.

That's pretty cool.  Forward thinking.  And it's free!

 

Happy Birthday, Jesse!

 

Number two.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday

  

St Vrain State Park.

 

 

Charming, as always.

 

2021 Fall Trip Map

 

 

Straight to Becky and Brian's for our first visit.

 

 

There were lots of other kids (and Becky) there, but we got lost in the moment and forgot to take any more people pictures.

 

Gotta love that deck and yard though.

 

And Puff.

Yay Puff!

 

 

 

 

Monday

  

Texas Highways.  Gotta love em, right?

No shoulder.  Old asphalt.  Houses.  Driveways.  75 mph.  Well, at least it has a centerline.

 

There is one bird that has been seen all around us in Texas, but we missed it every time.  Our nemesis bird, the Mississippi Kite.  Well, just before we left Texas, all the way north to Wolf Creek County Park, we suddenly, just in time, found our Mississippi Kites.  Not just one or two, but we saw eight of them while we were there.  Bird number 404 for the year.

 

Didn't get a picture, but here is what it looks like.

(Not my photo.)

 

The last two new Texas counties for this part of the trip.

 

 

 

Along the way, at a Colorado Rest stop.

 

Petrified mud?

 

John Martin Reservoir State Park for the night.  No internet.

 

 

 

I swear there are other campers here.  You just can't see them.

 

For the first time since 2019, we drove the motorhome out of Texas.  We left the state!

 

 

 

 

Sunday

  

Wolf Creek County Park.  No internet.

 

2021 Fall Trip Map

 

 

 

 

 

Taking roads we haven't traveled before.  Racking up new counties as we go:

 

Start of trip.

 

Today.

 

Whittling down the list of counties still to see in Texas.  We'll have picked off 18 new ones after we get those last two at the top tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Possum Kingdom State Park

  

2021 Fall Trip Map link

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow, a little west, mostly north.  Somewhere along State Highway 70 up the Panhandle.  Don't know where.

 

 

 

Daytrip!

  

To Fischer, TX.

 

Fischer, TX map

 

 

To see Carolyn and Richie.

 

 

Some of us remember Carolyn from Island Woman in Port Aransas.

 

…and their new house.  Love the windows.

 

…and the view out back.

 

 

Then back to the current home base, Texas Custom Coach Resort and Spa!

 

 

The refrigerator laid on it's face on the floor all day getting its backside fixed.  It's back in place now, but we'll need to let it normalize overnight before we turn it back on again.

 

 

 

On the road again

  

This is it.  We're on the big trip of the year.  Drove from home to Texas Custom Coach in Pipe Creek to see our friends there.  We've just passed our 16^th anniversary in this coach and the refrigerator has aged-out.  We're going to get the cooling unit replaced so our fridge will be able to keep up with the hot weather on this trip.  They always take great care of us here.

 

2011 Fall Trip Map link

 

 

Parked for the night in their yard so we'll be right here ready for them when they're ready for us tomorrow morning.  50 amp service.  The Texas Custom Coach RV Resort!

 

From here to Oregon, then Edmonds, WA in August, Erie, CO in September, Phoenix, AZ in October, and back home in November.  We're 266 miles into the trip.  Only 5,920 miles to go.

 

 

 

Another bug

  

 

There on the side of the back porch steps.

 

A walking stick!

 

Walking Sticks are nocturnal herbivores.  They walk around and eat plants.  Their camouflage is to remain motionless and look like a twig.  Only one in a thousand walking sticks is a male, so good chance this one pictured is a female.  Inexplicably, she was out of her element, in the middle of the day, on a surface she didn't blend with.  Lucky us for the photo op.