Mom's First Camping Trip!

My cousin Tina Young sent an invitation earlier this month to mom for a surprise birthday party March 30 for Dean, Tina's mom and my mom's younger sister. Mom wanted to go, so we began making preparations earlier this month. I was busy doing minor detail things to the bird, mom was busy figuring out what things she needed to take, although we were only going to be gone 3 days over the weekend. For one that hasn't traveled much it was more than she was used to, but she did a great job and we got everything ready.

Karen, my sis, and her husband Dean were going to go and take their 5th wheel. We had planned to park in front of mom's house and hook up to water and electricity. Unfortunately Dean was called to go to work at the last minute and had to leave for the rig. :( So we changed our plans a bit and we drove to Lubbock to pick up Karen. She was taking off at noon so we got to Lubbock about the same time she got home.

I got a call from Marvin Burrows right outside of Brownfield. They were headed for Lubbock also, so we ended up meeting them for lunch at Rosa's. We had a great visit  and finally got on the road about 2:30pm. We fought the wind the whole way there. We got to mom's house around 6:30pm...a little later than we wanted, but we had a good safe trip.

Luckily I had filled the fresh water tank about 2/3 full because we went into the house and the water had been shut off. The only thing I can think of is that the bills didn't get forwarded. Oh well, we'll have to deal with that soon and get it turned back on until the house sells. At least we had water for showers and washing.

Dean, mom's sister, called just after we'd got settled in front of mom's house wondering why mom hadn't answered her phone. As we were getting ready to have dinner, I told her that she was out eating with us and should be back home later. She said she'd try to call her later on. Little did she know that we were in town and would actually see her on Saturday.

It was pretty cool Friday night so we didn't have to run the A/C. We got up Saturday morning, had breakfast and just generally laid around relaxing until it was time to go to the community center where the surprise BD party was being held. We'd driven by the night before to make sure we had a place to park. I didn't want to get down one of Comanche's narrow streets and not be able to get out or turn around except by backing out. The cemetery was right across the street so there was a great place to park on the shoulder of the road next to the fence of the cemetery. Perfect!

Here's a few pictures of the trip and the party.

 Traveling Mama

Enjoying The Scenery

In the Bird

 Ready to Party

 Spying on the neighbors before the party

Ready to go

Mom meditating

Joy, Ann, Dora

Joy, Ann, Crystal

Birthday goodies

 Birthday Cake

 Crystal, Ann

 Bill, Dora, Joy, Ron

 Bill, Dora, Joy, Karen

Bill, Dora, Joy, Ron, Karen

 Bill, Dora, Mom & Karen

Dora & Joy

Joy & Tina

Robert & Pam

Pam & Robert

Tina leading Dean in...Dean is Surprised!

Surprise!!

The beginning of the story??

Somethings FUNNY!!

 L-R Bill, Mike, Pam, Robert, Tina, Tracy

 L-R Courtney's boy Samson, Tracey, Shelby & Daley - Rod & Teena's 2 daughters, Courtney & Haley, her daughter

 Mike & Rod

 Rod & Karen

 Tina showing Dean her cake.

Pam & Robert

Happy 80th

Mike & Alvin

Dora & Joy

June & Alvin

June & Dora

Reminiscing

Such a good picture

With her crown

 Dean giving her speech

 Shelby

 Karen, Mom, Dean

 Courtney, Bill

 Patsi visiting with Dora & Crystal

Karen and Tracy

 Crystal and Dean's friend

 Courtney, Haley, Karen

 Samson, Dean, Shelby

Shelby

Daley Cleaning up

We drove out to Bill & Dora's after the party so we could hook up to water. Four people in a camper use quite a bit of water with all the flushing and showering going on. I loaded about 75 gallons but by Saturday morning we were down about 1/2 way from what I loaded so I didn't want to take any chances. Bill and Dora have a nice farm outside of Comanche. They were in the midst of remodeling which is going to be very nice when they get through. They are getting close but still have a big job ahead of them. It's really tough to live in the house while the contractors are working, tearing things out and changing things up.

We got to visit with Rod, Tina and their daughters, Dean, and Bill and Dora. After Rod and family left Bill and Dora visited with us in the bird. 

At Bill & Dora's

New Kitchen...not quite finished

Tina caught unaware

Family pic

I'm gettin' sleepy

Visiting in the Bird

Visiting and munching

Got up this morning, had breakfast and Dora treated us to some just baked pigs in a blanket. We visited some more and finally was ready to take off. When your new to your motorhome it seems like you're always forgetting something and doing stupid stuff. Well, this morning wasn't any different. We got ready to leave, said our goodbyes and then everyone had to go to the bathroom. So we had to wait some more. I had started the bus so it would air up before I raised the jacks but then got distracted. So when we left Bill & Dora's drive there was this god awful scraping noise. At first I thought I'd drug the rear of the bus as we went across the low spot before we pulled onto the highway. I finally figured it out as we got to Comanche and realized I hadn't raised the jacks. God....I felt really stupid!! Luckily they just scraped the dirt and didn't damage anything.

So, other than stupid things, everything worked pretty well this trip. I might even learn how to operate this beast one of these days! LOL We had to fight the wind coming back, run the generator for the A/C. We filled up again in Lubbock and after doing the calculations we ended up getting 7+ mpg for the trip. Not bad fighting a head wind and side wind and running the generator half the trip.

Until next time.....

Overthehump