First Half of November

It dawned on my during my preparation to head south that I'm not exactly sure when I will be back in Ontario in the spring and my truck is licensed commercial, which requires an annual inspections and "yellow" sticker.  Rather than having to be back by the end of May or driving with an expired sticker, I decided to have the truck inspected again, this time at Mt. Brydges Ford on November 2nd, before I left in order to get that sticker renewed.  The inspection is only $100 and the truck passed with flying colors as usual.  Now I don't have to be back until July, the month of my birth, when the license plate needs to be renewed. 

Saturday, November 4th, I attended my last Sabbath service of the season at Or Shalom.  I was enticed to attend because one of my childhood friends was participating in the service.  We had some fun catching up over the summer.  After the service I had another little visit with Shirley Kay-Cookson. 

Tuesday, November 7th I departed Silver Dove Estates, heading for Tucson, Arizona.  

My first night on the road I stayed at my first ever Walmart Parking lot.  It was in Michigan City, Indiana. I don't have a very good stay. The parking lot had bright lights and was at the corner of two busy streets, so traffic noise was constant.  I wore ear plugs but they didn't block out all the noise.  I don't really care for Walmart's very much, whereas other RVer's swear by them. The second night I stayed at the Love's Travel Stop in Hamel, Illinois. The manager was very accommodating.  He had me park near the curb at the front, instead of in the back with the big rigs, which made it considerably quieter.  He also put Survivor on the TV in the restaurant for me. In the morning I tried one of their shower rooms.  It was quite very clean and quite luxurious.

At this time of the year, there isn't much choice but to do this because the regular campgrounds are closed. 

On the way to my next stop I stopped that the Meramec Cavern for a tour, because I was a bit ahead of schedule for my next stop.  The Cavern has billboards every 10 miles or so for about 100 miles before you get there.  It was hard to ignore.  I don't regret making the stop.  I received a private tour (seeing as on one else showed up around the time I did).  The guide did stick pretty much to the script.  Quite a bit of walking and some stairs are involved in the tour.  Some of the formations were quite spectacular:

The next stop was a two night reunion with my former Loyola Coach Lisa Tinkler. She has space and hook ups for a couple of 5th wheels on her property, so it works out perfectly.  When I arrived 3 of the families horses were on the loose.  My rig helped to block the road while we all worked on directing the horses back to their corral. I was made to feel like one of the family as at the first dinner, her husband, all her kids and their spouses were there and the second night it was a girls night out. 

The next night I stopped at Sugar Creek Casino west of Oklahoma City, OK.  I was able to cross something off my bucket list.  They were hosting live MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fights, something I wanted to see at some point. 

View of fighters in the cage from my seat.

New Heavy Weight Champion

These weren't big name fighters, but I got enough of a taste of being their live and the tickets weren't very expensive.  They had hookups for RV's in a special part of their parking lot.

On the way to my next stop, I couldn't resist stopping for lunch at a well advertised Big Texan Steak Ranch.  I had seen the billboards for it last year and didn't stop, but this year I did.  The place was all decked out for the holidays.

They had a guitar player wandering around playing for tips.  If he'd have come to my table I would have asked him to play Amarillo by Morning, but he was working a different part of the room, though still within ear-shod.  I didn't take on the challenge of eating the ginormous steak.

That afternoon I drove on to Amarillo, Texas and stayed at the Cracker Barrel I stayed at last year.

The next night I spent at Santa Rosa State Park in New Mexico, the first state park I stayed at last year.  All that was left when I arrived was a back-in site, and I was supper stoked when I managed to back in on my own, without taking too many tries. The lessons I took in London have paid off! I had a great stay at this campground last year because of meeting a nice couple.  I didn't get friendly with anyone on this trip, so the visit wasn't as complete, but offered a good nights sleep.

My last stop before reaching Tucson was in Deming, New Mexico.  Registration at the campground I had selected was a little disorganized, but the stay was fine.  If there were more golf courses in this area, I would consider spending more time here as the rates are quite a bit lower than those in Arizona. 

I made the trip to Tucson in 9 nights this year.  In the future I could do it in 8, without really stressing myself by driving to far in any given day.