Ursula Leaves the State, Day 1: Friday, November 16

While it is true that we hadn’t taken Ursula out in a few months, I think we made up for it this past week.

Lee and I finally went on a real vacation and RV road trip not involving a funeral or wedding! We had decided to re-visit New Mexico, which we had enjoyed on a much shorter trip in a rented RV in 2010—we used that trip to decide to get Ursula. I am writing this on the way home. To avoid long posts I will break the trip up by days.

Our plan was to leave Austin as soon as I (Suna) could get off work. That got delayed a bit, but eventually I got in. The, I had to take pictures of the progress on our back yard renovation.

Back yard awaiting a new fence

Had to.

Due to his stuff, which included issues with the lovely new subwoofer and a recalcitrant generator, (there were a few issues with our patio remodel to look at, too), Lee was just getting to the grocery store as I was getting home, so I went along with him. I got all the food loaded while Lee did the necessary, as they say in India (in this case it means he took a shower).

At least we were confident in the engine, since that had just been checked. Gosh, if only they had remembered to turn the propane back on when they were done!

Anyway, we played with the neighbor kids a bit, talked to our kids, etc., and finally got out a bit before sunset. Lee decides to take 29 out to eventually hit I-10. That is always a bit of a harrowing drive after dark, even more so in a huge RV. Luckily the deer were otherwise occupied and we miraculously did not kill the cute raccoon family that was crossing the road.

We drove and drove through the night until we finally found a rest area near Balmorhea (we think), wherever that is, and we stopped there. We could not put out the slides. All sorts of light blinking and sputtering occurred when we tried, so we decided to deal with it tomorrow and just zonked out. We realized at some point that the heater was NOT heating. And it got pretty cold! Hooray for blankets.

Lessons Learned: Just because you had the oil changed and engine serviced, it does not mean everything is hunky dory. Ursula has a near-infinite supply of systems that can go wrong!

Sunrise from the rest area in West Texas