The Drive

Howdy family, friends, and fans (the good f words).  I am typing this in Albuquerque, midnight (Mtn Time.)
We drove from our "winter home" where it was warm, to the deserts of SoCal yesterday.  We stayed at our friend, Janet's house and enjoyed the company of other Calico friends, Mary and Paul.  Jim had some fiends from LA drive 2 hours to the desert to wish Jim a belated birthday and a farewell for the tour.   Mami fixed a great Japanese dinner.  It was a late dinner as we arrived late because we left late and because California has a silly law about holding everyone up by making all vehicles pulling trailers drive at 55mph.  An 8 hour drive according to the GPS took 10!
Belle has a really bad habit whenever she meets up with Janet. Janet is the one who gave us Belle when Belle was 9 mos old. Anytime we visit Janet at her home or her shop the first thing Belle does is poop in the place. And we don't know why. She doesn't do it anywhere else.  Little Girl got to see her brother, Blue Eyes, while there too.
We stopped in Bakersfield and meet up with my childhood friend, Lloyd, and his family.  His son, Kyle is helping us with the show this year's tour.   He is from good stock and has proven to be a kind hearted gentle 6'7' man....though he could easily rip my head off with his black belt in karate if he so desired.  I am thankful he doesn't want to.
Janet fixed us a Belgium waffle b-fast with berries and fruit and whipped cream and eggs, and bacon. Well, fatten-up from her wonderful hospitality we with the road.  
Driving a class A coach with huge front windows is a different experience from the old RV.  We have lots of memories in the old one and look forward to memories in this one.  But we are still not settled in or used to it yet; driving or living. It is a total blessing as far as space.  But gas.....yesterday my best mpg was around 7mpg. Today, 9!  yay!
As I mentioned we are getting into colder areas. Tonight it will get near freezing and we haven't finished turning the little trailer into a bunk house to we have everyone in the RV.  That means all three slide outs have been slidden out. A bit of floor space and the recliner are beds tonight.  6'7" Kyle is in a standard double bed (couch by day) so I am sure his feet will get cold sticking out the bottom.
We have been blessed with good weather and only a tiny scare.  I saw a screw head sticking out of the inner dually tire while gassing up.  The station had a tire-bay so I took it over.  before pulling the tire the man took pliers and pulled out a 3/8" screw and sprayed soapy water on the hole.....no penetration. He didn't charge us. Phew!
We loose one more hour tomorrow as we head to OK City.  I hope is is OK (did you know that OK as a term of being good comes from a purposeful miss-spelling of All Correct ; instead of AC the coiner said OK as a joke that the Acronym is not the all correct way to say it. )
Forgive any accidental typos and miss-spellings (some were intentional). Hope to bring you pictures soon.