It wasn't worth taking the chance...

Yesterday, we drove from Boise City, Oklahoma to a reservoir at the Queens Wildlife Conservation area just north of Lamar, Colorado. I had a few ideas of where we could park for the night, but there was a heavy rainfall the night before and many of the gravel side roads were still pretty soft.

We ended up walking in to what would have been a beautiful spot, but I was worried Sherman would get stuck!

As expected, that was an expensive repair bill...

Well, I had guessed the bill would be around $2,000 USD and it came in at $2,273 USD.

Of course that's hard to swallow, but it really becomes a lump in your throat because we have to pay for it with Canadian dollars... almost $3,000 Canadian dollars!

But, we have spent very little money on Sherman over the years so I suppose we were due for it.

Sherman is almost ready...

The first day they did the transmission service, tightened the power steering belt, installed new front wheel bearings, and new front brake pads. The front pads weren't terrible, but they had the wheels off anyhow so I figured why wait until they are terrible.

Yesterday, they installed the new inner and outer tie rod ends on the driver's side and had a look at the rear brakes. It's not easy with the rear brakes because there is only a little inspection hole unless you take the brake drums off. I told them to take the drums off so we could all have a better look. It's a big job because you actually have to remove the axles. I'm glad we did though.

Jack Sisemore's RV Museum

We left Sherman in the capable hands at S&L Auto and Truck Service in the east end of Amarillo and we took off in the rental car to do some exploring.

First stop was Jack Sisemore's RV Museum.

Into the city of Amarillo... and we picked up a couple of packages for you all...

We weren't in a huge rush to get into the city of Amarillo, but we did want to get there before the winds picked up. That would mean before 10am or so. We were a little later than planned because we filled up with water and stopped at the dump station before pulling out of Palo Duro Canyon State Park

Fortunately, the day started with a bit of a tailwind.

We took the detour, and it was worth it!

Woke up to the wild turkeys gobbling. We got up around 7am, and they were all outside, probably ten of them. The males had their feathers spread wide as they showed off for everybody.

I took some pictures through the window, but only one turned out half decent...

From one state park to the next...

We woke up at Caprock Canyons State Park, and went to sleep last night in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Yes, making as much use of our Texas State Parks pass as possible.

We didn't have a cell signal at the campsite at Caprock Canyons, so we drove over to the interpretive building where they have free wifi. But as with most campgrounds, the public wifi is either not good to begin with, or if more than two or three people are using it, it's almost not usable. But, from that location I managed two bars of Verizon signal, so between the two managed to get the blog posted yesterday and some internet work done.

We got a nice site in the horse camping area at Caprock Canyons State Park

We were up at 6:00am yesterday morning and on the road at 7:00am in order to drive as much as we could without the wind, which was forecast to increase after 9:00am. And the forecast was pretty accurate in that regard. The winds did pick up, but at least it was a head wind... not great for gas mileage, but at least it was relatively comfortable to drive in.

At least until we got to the town of Turkey. After that, we had a minor problem.

Heat warning on Thursday, wind warning on Friday!

We had planned on leaving Paul's place at 9:00am in order to beat the worst of the winds, but for some reason we were a few minutes later than that. We knew the forecast was calling for wind, but it was supposed to be from the south so we were hoping for a tail wind.

Instead, it came from the west and we had a nasty cross wind that got worse as time went on.

Boondockers Welcome

Woke up yesterday morning after  a great sleep at Foster County Park, free camping for the night. Nice little park by the river, and quiet during the week, although I've read that it can get busy on the weekends.

One of the things we love about the transient RV lifestyle is opening the windows in the morning to see where we are! Yesterday morning, we had ducks and geese and turtles to see!

No logic at San Angelo State Park

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise at Menard County Park in our spot by the river. Didn't have to get an early start, so we puttered around on the free wifi and took our time getting ready to go.

But by the time we did leave, it was getting windy. We should have left earlier!

A perfect day

What a perfect day we had yesterday. Perfect weather, and a perfect campsite by the river. If we didn't have more exploring to do, we might have stayed even longer but we want to see San Angelo State Park today, and we have a booking with a Boondockers Welcome host tomorrow.

Spent most of the morning cleaning Sherman. Then after lunch, we took the kayak out on the river!

Yup, this will do for a couple of nights!

Knowing that it's still winter in Canada, we made a conscious decision to stay here in Texas as long as possible where the temperatures at this time of year are more suitable for human habitation.  If that means we have a few long driving days in the last week of the month, then that's the price we are willing to pay!

But, we still did some driving north yesterday.

March Expenses

Okay, have to post this mid day to get caught up. If you missed the earlier post, you can read it here...

http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2018/04/not-thrilled-with-south-llano-river.html

We spent a total of $2,763 CAD ($2,200 USD) in the month of March. Yes, quite a lot higher than expected. Most of that was due to Sherman's breakdown, but we were also far higher in gasoline and toll road expenses than we would have preferred.

Not thrilled with South Llano River State Park

First thing in the morning, we drove over to the library in Junction, Texas to use their free unsecured wifi internet. I checked Verizon's coverage map... for some odd reason there is simply a huge gap in this area. Very strange.

But, at least we know it's not our device that's the problem.

Then, we did the short drive over to South Llano River State Park.