A sampling of interesting restaurants.
South of Tombstone, near the border with Mexico, is a cute little historic town called Bisbee, Arizona. We went there for a drive and dinner.
An interactive map:
The historic Mule Pass Tunnel:
Entering Bisbee:
Bisbee buildings:
We had Mexican for dinner at Contessa’s Cantina:
Jenn’s dinner:
My dinner, stuffed potato:
Jenn’s dessert, sopapillas:
My dessert, Mexican deep fried ice cream:
More Bisbee buildings:
Back through the tunnel:
Sunset:
A cute artsy town; we quite liked it.
We visited Tombstone, Arizona, which has a few blocks of downtown devoted to an old west theme.
An interactive map:
And promotional map:
A classic old courthouse:
Wyatt’s saloon and hotel:
Horse-drawn mail coach:
Four Deuces Saloon:
Dirt road:
Ice cream parlor:
Good Enough Mine tour:
Library and railway:
Trolly tours:
We got some jerky and dried fruits from this shop:
Big Nose Kate’s Saloon:
Longhorn Restaurant:
More shops:
Hotel Tombstone:
Bird Cage Theatre:
Jenn enjoys her pressed pennies:
Crystal Palace:
The famous OK Corral:
We initially were going to have lunch at Big Nose Kate’s Saloon, but it was too busy:
So we headed to Crystal Palace, since they had outdoor seating:
A real touristy town.
We drove our coach 247 miles, about four hours of driving (and a couple of hours of stoppage), from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Tombstone, Arizona.
Here’s the map route, heading west:
An interactive map, with our stops marked:
We usually toad up (aka connecting the truck to the coach) by our site, but there wasn’t a great place to do that this time, so we went over by the office. So Jenn drove the coach, and I followed in the truck:
Toading up; hooking up the tow bar and cables, switching the truck transmission to neutral, disconnecting the battery (via a push button), and connecting the brake controller:
The brake controller:
On our way; there were lots of signs like these for several tchotchke shops:
Fireworks and tchotchkes:
Inspection station, with nobody staffing it:
One of several billboards for The Thing?
Our first stop, at a parking area (i.e. like a rest area, with no bathrooms):
Nice to see mountains:
Another tchotchkes shop, with a fun fence painted like storefronts:
Fuel stop:
A third of a tank (we actually paid less than this, thanks to the TSD fuel discount card):
Filling the Diesel Exhaust Fluid:
Then we parked at this truck stop for lunch:
Heading out:
Continental divide:
Lots of signs about dust storms; this one sensibly worded as “caution dust storms”:
Another sensible sign, “zero visibility possible”:
But “dust storms may exist”; yes, indeed, but kinda a clumsy way to say that:
Welcome to Arizona:
Another truck stop, just for a stretch and bathroom break (in our coach, of course):
An interesting and very sketchy-looking homemade trailer:
Benson, Arizona:
One lane roadworks:
Uncomfortably narrow for our coach:
St. David:
Our destination:
We drove our coach 504 miles, an epic eight hours of driving, from Abilene, Texas to Las Cruces, New Mexico.
We normally prefer two hour drives, and will go up to four hours when on an interstate (as they are easier and usually have regular rest areas). We had planned two four hour days, stopping in Pecos, but the weather forecast called for 60 MPH gusts along the route on the second leg. So we decided to push on through, doing it in one day.
Here’s the map route, heading west:
An interactive map, with our stops marked:
Leaving the Abilene KOA:
There were pretty much non-stop pump jacks along the route:
We stopped at several rest areas; this was the first:
An interesting water tower:
Wide load:
“It would behoof you to slow down”:
Road Ranger fuel stop:
We went in, and had Church’s Chicken for lunch (our least-preferred fast food chicken chain):
Back to our coach:
Sleepy Paladin:
A wind turbine blade:
More pump jacks:
As mentioned, we were originally going to stop at Pecos, Texas:
Paladin probably would have preferred that we stopped, but this was just halfway:
A nice rest area:
We were so happy to see mountains again, after spending months in flat Texas:
Lots of trucks:
Allegedly scenic viewpoint:
Entering Mountain Time Zone:
A busy rest area; we parked on the side of the road:
El Paso overpasses:
El Paso artwork:
An interesting RV paint job:
Goodbye Texas; entering New Mexico:
Mountains by Las Cruces:
Our destination, another KOA:
That was quite the drive!
We drove our coach 244 miles, about four hours of driving, from Gordonville, Texas to Abilene, Texas.
Here’s the map route, heading south then west:
Leaving the Thousand Trails campground:
A rather rough road:
Onramp to I-35, and interesting clouds:
Denton, Texas, “the home of happiness“:
Exit to I-35W:
Sleepy Paladin:
We never did visit a Buc-ees:
A big cloud by the side of the road; we thought it was a fire at first, but it appeared to be some roadworks thing:
There were a lot of roadworks; we don’t enjoy having a barrier so close to the edge of the lane, since our coach takes pretty much the whole lane:
Exit to I-820, marking the start of our westward migration:
Exit to I-30:
Exit 420; we didn’t take that exit, I just thought it was “nice” (unsurprisingly, the only sign was above the road):
We stopped for lunch at a truck stop:
Lunch at the Iron Skillet Restaurant:
We do enjoy breakfast for lunch:
Back to our coach:
Truck foursome:
A very empty rest stop:
Wide loads:
A rolling work convoy:
Another wide load:
Our destination:
All good things come to an end eventually, and such it was with our USVI vacation.
Driving (on the left, as was the style at the time) our rental car to drop it off:
A couple of cruise ships:
The buses on the island are open air things like this colorful example:
Vodka:
Passing by the end of the airport runway:
Rental car return:
The tiny one-terminal airport:
Some lunch:
“Last sip in the Virgin Islands” on the back of a coffee shop:
Our plane arriving:
Boarding the plane was a bit of a snafu; they announced general boarding, and everyone rushed forward, but they turned people away for not boarding with their group. Then everyone was lined up outside while the plane was still being cleaned:
Boarding:
STT to MIA:
A plane selfie:
A view of the cockpit:
Takeoff:
In the air:
We splurged on business class for this leg. and enjoyed the snacks and beverage:
And dinner:
Miami:
Miami airport:
Skytrain:
We probably should have taken the skytrain, but weren’t sure where it went; we ended up walking the entire length of this terminal; fortunately we had some time to spare:
MIA to DFW:
Another plane selfie, this time in premium economoy:
In the air:
On arrival in Dallas, we caught a taxi back to the hotel:
Hotel room:
The next morning, breakfast at the hotel restaurant:
Then we checked out and picked up Paladin from his hotel:
Paladin:
He was very happy to see us:
It was a great vacation. We’d love to visit there again in the future (and the third of the main Virgin Islands, Saint Croix).
I thought I’d do a post about some of the food we enjoyed during our USVI vacation. (More exciting activities coming in subsequent posts.)
One nice thing about our Airbnb condo was that it was a short walk from some restaurants, including Sun & Sea Bar & Grill, which was below the swimming pool, right on the water. Here are the one side of the drinks and food menus as a sampling of the offerings:
Jenn enjoying the view:
Beverages:
The restaurant:
A fun thing was there were a bunch of fish that hung out next to the restaurant, as staff and patrons would occasionally throw leftovers to them:
Our food:
A pelican on the dock:
For breakfast the next day we went to Picaso’s Coffee Bar, a few minutes drive from the Airbnb:
We brought the coffee and food back to eat on our lanai:
We got ham, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches on traditional “dumb bread” (kinda like a US-style biscuit or scone):
We went to a grocery store to get more food, including freshly ground coffee beans:
A lunch at Señor Pizza in Red Hook:
Heading to Margaritaville, one of the other restaurants an easy walk from the Airbnb:
Menu:
A cat wandered through, looking hopefully at diners:
Beachside beverages:
A rainbow; you can also see the Sun & Sea Bar & Grill restaurant (and its floating dock), and above that the Airbnb:
Food:
A cannon:
Back to the Sun & Sea Bar & Grill again another evening:
Someone arrived at the restaurant by boat, and a pelican enjoyed perching on it:
Back to Margaritaville again:
One thing I wasn’t impressed by with Margaritaville; they had an easy-to-miss notice that they automatically added an 18% tip to the bill, but also included a tip line; if one weren’t paying attention, it’d be easy to significantly overtip (as I did the first time we were there). I usually tip 20-25%, but this just seemed sneaky (I did still add a small tip to bring it above 18%, though):
(As a Kiwi, I still find tipping kinda gross, even after 22 years in the US. But it’s the system.)
On our last night, we made a dinner at our Airbnb:
A rare excursion in our winter of downtime: while staying at Lake Conroe, we drive 1.5 hours south to Houston to visit the Space Center there.
It was a rainy day up north, but I knew it was dry south of Houston:
Houston:
Minute Maid Park:
A space suit outside a McDonald’s near the Space Center:
Space Center Houston:
SpaceX Falcon 9:
Space Shuttle Independence atop a jumbo:
Space Center Houston:
We had lunch at the Food Lab food court:
Exhibits:
The Shuttle on a jumbo; the Shuttle is a replica, but the plane is one of two used to transport the Shuttles:
Exhibits in the plane:
We had wanted to do one of the guided tram tours of the space center, but their reservation system was being dodgy, so we weren’t able to do so, which was a little disappointing:
Inside the replica shuttle:
Gift store:
Selfie:
A few more pics of downtown Houston on the way home:
We stayed at Thousand Trails Lake Conroe RV & Camping Resort in Willis, Texas. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Another large Thousand Trails campground, also with a nice new area.
Dates:
Weather:
Noise:
Site:
Utilities:
Internet (in usage priority order):
Amenities:
Our review on Campground Reviews:
New premium sites
They seem to have a focus on selling vacation homes here, but they’re still making an effort to add nicer amenities for camping, too. We stayed in one of the newer sections with concrete pads and 50A connections, which was nice. Some of the sites in section B were a bit steep for a larger class A and we watched more than one large 5th-wheel have a hard time backing up a driveway. Our pull-through site had a short driveway with a hill, but the pad itself was perfectly level. We camped at Lake Conroe RV & Camping Resort in a Motorhome.
An interactive map of the RV park; our site was in the new section to the right of the entrance:
The campground map:
Our site was in a new section, with nicely paved roads and concrete sites; we managed to snag one of the best sites, a large pull-through:
Convenient water and power:
The sewer connection was threaded, but the thread seemed stripped, so I wasn’t able to screw my sewer pipe into it. So I added a water-filled weight over the top to make sure it didn’t pop out. Spilling sewage wouldn’t be ideal:
We used the griddle a few times:
Sunset:
A griddle kiwiburger (with pickled beets and egg):
There were several days of thunderstorms; here’s a screenshot from my weather app:
A couple of screenshots of the LightningMaps.org site, which shows recent lightning strikes, with circles for the thunder sound wavefronts:
A real-time GIF:
Rain:
A somewhat flooded road:
A fiver (fifth-wheel trailer) being backed into a site, almost scraping the rear and jacks — the sites have steep driveways:
Other sites:
In other sections:
New sites, not yet open:
Very close buddy sites; no thank you:
Bathrooms:
This Thousand Trails has several communities of permanent tiny homes; here are the Hidden Cove cottages:
The Reserve cottages:
New cottages just arrived for another expansion area:
Rental cabins:
The business office:
That’s were we went several times to pick up packages:
A food cart near the office:
Car wash and dump station:
Dog park:
Courts:
Lake Conroe boat ramp:
Lake docks:
We lucked out with our site. We’d stay here again, as they continue to expand the sites. Even the older sections weren’t too bad… other than the buddy sites!
The Thousand Trails campground was near a small town called Columbus in Texas. We drove though it to get some Whataburger drive-though, our first experience of that fast food chain.
Colorado River bridge:
Downtown Columbus:
Whataburger:
Not bad; we tried the Dr Pepper shake, which was interesting. The fries and burger were decent, but we’ve had better:
On another day, we went back to Whataburger for a second time, going inside this time:
After dinner we went across the road to the H-E-B grocery store, right next to the Walmart:
A fairly small store, and not as nice as others we’ve been in:
“If you hit this you’ll hit bridge”; a 14’ 6” bridge, which we went under on our way to the Thousand Trails (our coach is 12’ 7”):
