turning over the gate

We had a quiet night last night but I still got up a little after 5am! I need to get out of that habit and quick!

I made some coffee and surfed the web until Rudee was up and showered. I took my shower then and headed out the door to finish tearing down the 5th wheel. Yowzer it's cold outside. I guess I'm turning into a true winter Texan because the temperature was in the high 40's and I was freezing. Rudee finished the inside work while I did the outside stuff. Our plan was to pull out of the spot between 9:00 and 9:30 so we were out of the way so our replacements could pull right in. We had a few hick ups when one of the slides would not close but after a little persuasion it moved in and we were ready to go.

I pulled the 5er onto the front well pad to turn around and parked it there to be out of the way. We sat in the Dakota with the clip board in hand in case someone wanted in the gate. We were only there about 5 minutes when we saw Rudy and Deloris coming down the road. They have a really nice Keystone Raptor toy hauler and are towing it with a 2 tone purple Freightliner! Purple is our Goldwing chapter colors and this outfit would fit right in! Rudee wanted to take it home but I couldn't get them to trade :-).

We had already given them most of the information they needed on Friday so the changeover didn't take long at all. Hunter showed up so he could help them get settled so we decided to head on down the road. We made sure they had our phone number and told them to call with any questions or if they needed any help on anything. They will do a fine job taking over for us!

We headed toward Cotulla and it didn't take long to figure out I had a problem with the semi. I didn't have any power at higher RPM's and it would start missing as soon as there was any load put on the engine. This happened once before and the problem was a clogged fuel filter. I figured it was the same problem since I had been messing with the fuel filters a couple of weeks ago. Rudee remembered a truck repair place in Cotulla and I was able to make it there. Unfortunately they were too busy to change out the filters and recommended a place in Dilley, Texas 16 miles north of us. We hopped on the interstate and I was barely able to maintain 60 mph but we made it to Eagle Oil Services and met Joe. We told him our problem and I wanted them to change out the two fuel filters. He said "no problem" and pulled us into his shop and got a mechanic right to work on our truck. While they were working we ran across the interstate to Burger King and grabbed a sandwich to go. By the time we made it back they were putting the new filters on and as soon as I finished my burger they were all done, cool beans. They charged for 30 minutes labor and the cost of the filters, total bill less than $80 and we were out the door.

The new filters did the trick and the truck ran great. I could even accelerate going up the hills now :-).

We took state road 117 from Dilley to Uvalde which is a 2 lane road with little traffic. We did see a few gate guards "doing their thing" along the way. Once we got to Uvalde we headed west on US 90 for the trip to Del Rio. The traffic was pretty light and we had a very relaxing trip all the way.

Del Rio is a busy place and we are staying at Hidden Valley RV Park. This park used to be a mobile home community and the owners are making a very nice RV park out of it. They are a little hard to find but the managers are very helpful giving directions. We pulled into the park at 2:30 and the owner plus a few of the snowbirds met us in the driveway. We always draw a crowd with the "big truck". They showed us to our site and we backed in and got set up. The sites are long, long, long! We have the 5th wheel back in, the semi is unhooked in front of the 5er and there is room for the Dakota in front of the semi! Each site has 50/30/20 amp service, sewer, cable and free WIFI. The owners are working hard to make this place a great park. This is not a "resort" but they don't try to charge you an arm and a leg either. $20 per night and we will probably stay for a week and get the weekly discounted rate of $120. Once we were set up our neighbors came over to welcome us and we talked for quite a while. They are fulltimers here for their second winter. They gave us some tips for dinner as well as directions to get around town. I'll try to get some photos of the park and our spot tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow we called our friends Jerry and Kit Bertelsen and will drive over to their place in Brackettville tomorrow. They own an RV spot and are building a "bungalow" house on their site. We are looking forward to the "grand tour". I'll keep you posted.