November 2000

El Paso(West of The Pecos)

To a person whose childhood was full of cowboy films and who is now a Country & Western fan, El Paso Texas conjures up a magical mix of memories. Instead of fantasizing (after leaving the local cinema in the 1950's) that I am riding the range west of the Pecos, here I am riding the highways in a Ford truck and I now know that "The Pecos" is a major Texas river.
El Paso sitting astride the Mexican border is a VERY busy city, and as do many US cities stretches like a piece of string along the motorway (I-10). We visited the old downtown area of El Paso but Marty Robbins was nowhere to be seen although there were many Mexican girls around Rosa's cantina to fall in love with. Linda's meticulous research had identified yet another Microbrewery so we called into Jaxon's Brewpub for lunch and a couple of pints - a proper lunch with food not just liquid!

Clint to Junction
The weather forecast for the whole of Texas did not look good so instead of meandering down to Port Aransas on the Gulf of Mexico we might as well go as quickly as possible. This would mean arriving earlier than planned but if we have to suffer rain it's better if its warm rain? We decided to drive 414 miles to Junction (this is the furthest we have travelled in one day), stop one night, then continue to Port Aransas where the weather looked decidedly better. Interstate 10 is another of those very quiet highways and now we are in a fairly flat Texas it can be boring. We were always looking for something in the distance to make the journey more interesting. We entered the Central time zone (GMT -6), watches and clocks back one hour. This is the farthest east we have been with the RV. All traffic travelling east on I-10 is passed through a border control checkpoint for illegal immigrants (not us we've got a Visa). Near Bakersfield we started seeing lots of "oil donkeys" nodding away in the scrubland alongside the highway. The oil had turned the owners of the scrubland into "Oil Millionaires" and the donkeys were a feature for the rest of the journey to the coast. As we neared Junction the clouds became thicker, it started to rain and the RV park we intended staying at was closed as the nearby river had risen over 5 feet in less than 24 hours. The owner advised us to try a truckstop, situated on a hill 8 miles further up the highway. We arrived just before dark, and the heavens opened once again. The electric hook-up didn't work on any of the pitches so we gave up, had an early night and planned on an early start the next day. Torrential rain, thunder and lightening throughout the night made us pleased we were on enough of a hill not to get flooded out. One clap of thunder was right overhead, the loudest either of us had ever heard and although neither of us is afraid of stormy weather we did get a fright! Neither of us slept well, thunder & lightening or noisy trucks on the nearby highway.

Junction to Port Aransas

We were on the road by 8.15 a.m. and passed through quite a few torrential rain storms on the way to San Antonio ("We're not going to San Antonio or Tuscon Arizona" - been to both now?). The weather didn't make the thought of stopping too attractive but we will return to visit the Alamo (where twa laddies frae Kincardine - Jim Bowie & Davy Crockett died like guid Fife heroes!), and other points of interest. The rain diminished as we approached Corpus Christi a city of 280,000 people about 25 miles from Port Aransas. The drive from Corpus Christi to port Aransas is a delight as the road crosses the causeways to Padre Island and Mustang Island, it will be no hardship to take this drive for major shopping or sightseeing trips. The temperature on arrival was a very humid 80+ degrees. What is this humidity? we have been used to very low humidity in the west, so this seems very tropical! Suppose we will just have to grin and bear it, there's no sense complaining. We are here until January 5th 2001, plenty of time to relax and make our travel plans for next year.

Port Aransas, Texas

A series of "sandbar" type islands runs almost the whole length of the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, sheltering the mainland from the open sea thus providing many safe harbours. Corpus Christi and Galveston (Glenn Campbell - "Galveston Oh Galveston") being two of the more famous. Port Aransas is situated on one of these "sandbars" called Mustang Island and is considered the Game Fishing capital of Texas, or so the locals claim. Our RV park is just a 10 minute stroll from a 16 mile stretch of beach and a 15 minute stroll from town. The beach is adorned with a variety of waders, seabirds and fishermen who try to catch the fish before the pelicans, gulls and herons etc.
As we settled in the high humidity became even more noticeable and we needed to open the moisture absorbing crystals for the wardrobes & clothes cupboards. We bought these on our arrival in the USA but have never had a use for them until now. The crystals are in a basket inside a plastic container and absorb the moisture. The moisture transfers to the plastic container and you simply tip it away - quite clever really?
The day after our arrival must be the wettest day since our arrival in USA, both inside (humidity) and outside (rain). Our first walk along the beach was most enjoyable despite the wind (warm) and high humidity. All sorts of seabirds & waders abound including Herons, Sandpipers, Terns, Curlews, Cormorants and both Grey & White Pelicans. The harbour has approximately one Pelican to each post with others flying in formation overhead or diving from a pier into the sea for a fish tea (minus chips of course). A further moment of excitement came one evening while watching TV. They flashed up a severe weather warning for the Corpus Christi area - a possibility of a tornado? The rain lashed off the RV and the wind was strong but we managed to sleep as the tornado never materialised although the RV moved about a bit.

Since we have completed more than half of our estimated three year holiday in America, and have our RV in a secure resort this is an ideal time to fly home and visit family and friends (cold rain?). We managed to get a reasonably priced flight from Houston to Manchester, with a change at Toronto. Ideal to visit friends in North Yorkshire, Chester and Scotland, but unfortunately not suitable for friends and relations in southern England - we'll keep our trip a secret from them until we return here.

The Trip Home

We decided to stay overnight in Houston as it is over 3 hours drive from Port Aransas. Drove the scenic route after exiting the island on the free ferry escorted by Dolphins, Pelicans & Cormorants. Followed the coast as far as we could before transferring to the Houston highway. Houston (another C&W song) is a VERY large, VERY busy city. We were in a traffic jam at 5.0 p.m. on a Saturday on the ring road. Checked into Days Inn not far from the Airport and as a bonus were able to watch the Portland Trailblazers (best Basketball team in the USA) beat the Houston Rockets on Cable TV that evening. The flights were all on time and on checking in at Houston were able to get seats by the emergency doors on the flight from Toronto to Manchester (more leg room). The travelling went very well but Toronto airport is not user friendly at all! They have even hijacked a lounge/restaurant which looked out over the airfield as a VIP lounge (the cost of our ticket means we are not VIP's?). The other surprise was the flight landing at Glasgow? en route to Manchester and being informed that on the day we were to return (a Wednesday) it was the other way round, Manchester first and then Glasgow? We had arranged to pick up a hire car at Manchester Airport and neither of us were looking forward to driving on our narrow roads with super fast traffic. Linda drove the car from the airport to Muker and when Wullie offered to drive to Scotland she begged to be allowed more time at the wheel. This was repeated for the first week of our trip so Wullie just gave up and became a wonderful passenger. It was strange to be sitting so low on the road in our nippy little Fiat instead of up high in the Ford pickup truck.

Muker in Swaledale - we spent 3 nights (Yorkshire Bitter is still the best beer in the world!) visiting with friends. In spite of all the rain they have suffered this autumn we even managed a couple of short hikes around the dale, quite lovely! We witnessed something outside the Farmers Arms in Muker that we have never seen in 21 months in the USA. A customer of the bar had tethered his horse to a metal ring on the Pub wall (no not John Wayne but a Hungarian horse dealer from Thwaite?).

Scotland - We had allocated 11 days but really needed more as everyone wanted to see more of us, but at least we didn't overstay our welcome. Linda took advantage of access to the National Health Service and visited the dentist. We spent most of our time visiting friends and relations (even managed a 60th Birthday party, no not ours!) although we took time to visit our little caravan (travel trailer in USA terms) and wonder how we will take to such a small house when we return? Suspect that the first time we take it along one of the Yorkshire Dale roads we will know it is big enough. It was terrific to be back amongst "Oor Ain Folk" once again and our one regret was that our best friend Dod had a terrible fall 2/3 weeks before we went home and had broken his elbow as well as smashing his face. When we arrived Dod couldn't be bothered with anything and was obviously in great pain.

To our delight he improved dramatically during our stay and was even joining in the singalong on the last night when the "house full" signs were up. Although he still has some way to go it was great to see the old spirit shining through the pain. Once again considering the amount of rain they have had we were very fortunate with the weather, although it was nearly pitch dark at 2.30 p.m. one day as we drove home from Perth.

Chester (a must visit city for all North Americans) Our friends had kindly offered us accommodation and since they are only 1 hour from Manchester Airport this was ideal. On the way to Chester we just had to call into the "Moffat Toffee Shop" for sweets (candies). If you are visiting the Scottish Borders try to visit this shop, it has the biggest & best choice of sweets we have ever seen (some we haven't seen since schooldays). We all met up with our Curling/Camping friends (The Pratts) in a local hostelery for a meal and a few drinks.Looked at John & Kay's itinerary for their holiday in the USA next year when we will meet up with them in Colorado.

Had a good but long journey home although Toronto airport and it's strange system struck again. We could not check our luggage all the way to Houston, we had to reclaim it at Toronto and pass through Canadian customs. After Canadian customs you deposit your baggage on a carousel and it is transported to terminal two where all USA flights depart. At terminal one we asked if we could get duty free at terminal two and were told yes alongside USA customs. At terminal two our luggage was waiting so we decided to go immediately to USA immigration & customs. After immigration and customs our luggage was loaded onto a carousel for transportation to our flight. The only problem is we then had no access to the duty free area as that is only accessible between immigration & customs, so no Cointreau for Linda this trip. On arrival at Houston we decided to drive (3.5 hours) back to the RV. By taking short turns at driving, singing along with tapes & CD's we eventually arrived 26 hours after we got out of bed in Chester.

A wonderful trip home, most enjoyable but really quite hectic. We needed to go for longer and that was just for the northern end. Had we decided to do the South as well we would have needed even longer. To all those we visited, thanks for your hospitality. To all those we didn't manage to visit see you next time.

Persona Non Grata in Oregon

Received a surprise in the post on our return, it seems our truck & RV registrations have been canceled as we don't satisfy Oregon's residence laws? A quick phone call to the DMV in Oregon gets us a stay of execution until the middle of December. The lady in the Oregon DMV is at pains to point out that Oregon is a friendly, caring state but the law is the law. We assure her that we have no hard feelings and will continue to support the Portland Trailblazers, the best Basketball team in the USA! The next call is to the DMV in Texas and it seems we can register here, which we will do in December. This is good news so we
can stop worrying and get as good a nights sleep as the jet lag will allow.

Miles travelled this month: 1,428

Accumulative miles: 38,620

Interesting Hyperlinks:

None this month. Port Aransas will be added to December's page

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