The Wilsons

Howdy, we are in Tucson Arizona at the Beaudry RV Park & Resort. We had a long drive today to go from Van Horn, Texas through New Mexico and on to Arizona. We plan to be here for a few days as we will probably spend all day tomorrow at Camping World or as I call it "the $500 store".

We seem to have a grease cap on one tire that likes to come off. The same problem we had in Lubbock happened again. But this time we knew what it was so we just kept going. We are going to have it looked into while we are here, but it is a pain in the butt to keep taking the tire off in order to put the grease cap back on.

Weather is nice and warm during the day and cool at night so I guess no complaints considering what you guys back home are going through.

All for now. Take care.

Well it's Saturday lunchtime and the rally is over. We are watching the mass exit of rigs leaving the park heading for their next adventure. We have decided to stay until Monday. This is a very nice park and we have enjoyed being here, even with the rain, wind and early morning coolness.

The rally itself was a blast. Lots of friendly people with similar interests - traveling around the world in their rigs and keeping in touch with family, friends and yes work through their MotoSAT Datastorm. I learned lots at the rally as they had several seminars that were internet or life based. They kept us fed and watered with breakfasts, lunches and dinners. There was lots of door prizes each evening.

The picking of the final grand prize was hilarious. It was a one year's subscription for satellite internet worth about $1000. The deal was everyone was eligible for the prize BUT you had to be in attendance to win. So the VP for MotoSAT was picking the winning ticket and wouldn't you know he pulled out the President of MotoSAT's name. Jim had already left the rally so nope - he didn't win.

He then pulled out the next ticket and he started to laugh again. The second winner was one of the MotoSAT's techs (who happened to be there). Kery threw the prize back in the pot and the third ticket pulled was out of the pot - and nope - not a MotoSAT employee but the winners were not in attendance so again another ticket was selected. Finally a deserving winner.

We are staying close to home today, catching up on the internet surfing, doing a bit a laundry and generally taking it easy.

One of the nice things about this rally is just about everyone in the park has a Datastorm dish on their rig and they all have blue lights on them. We were a little "dim witted" earlier this week as only 1 of the 3 were working, so they did get replaced. At night the park had this blue hue with all of the blue lights on. I'm going to try and add a picture that someone took so you can get an idea of what it looked like.

Good morning, well it's the first day of the Datastorm Rally. Allan is really excited about the 109 datastormers that are in the park. As far as the eye can see there are motorhomes and fifth wheels with satellite dishes on the roof.

I have made a carrot salad for the meet and greet tonight and then those of us that offered up our rigs for the "Tour of Homes" get to do the tour this evening. Should be fun. We have met all of the people around us and everyone is very friendly. I expect we will have a good time here.

More later.

We weren't sure we would get out of Lubbock today as I heard a rattle in one of the trailer tires so we were off to a tire dealer to have it checked out. Turned out to be the grease cap had come loose, so the cap was hammered back in place and the tire put back on and we were back on the road only 90 minutes later than usual.

We did make it to Kerrville Texas. What a great day! The sun was shining and it got warm - all the way to 19 C. Arrived at Buckhorn Lake Resort and let me tell you - WOW! is it nice here. Lots of rigs have already arrived for the rally. Met up with some former neighbours from Gleniffer Lake (Matt and Carol) and had happy hour over at their place. They have this absoluately stunning 40' Teton fifth wheel and a Freightliner truck to pull it with.

Oh well it starting to get late so I will say good night.

Phew! We made it to Lubbock, Texas and we had no weather to speak of. It was overcast for most of the morning and quite cool, but then by midafternoon the sun came out and it started to warm up. Wind was up and made things actually feel quite cool. One more day and we should be in Kerrville Texas for about 10 days. WOW! No more sitting in the truck all day. I can hardly wait.

All for now.

Hi everyone, well we have made it to Raton, New Mexico (Raton in Spanish means Rat). Very nice little town. Getting here is another story.

We left Calgary on Sunday and it was a little overcast, but the roads were basically dry.

Made it to Great Falls, Montana and it was close to freezing. In the morning it was raining and basically rained all day.

Finally made it to Casper, Wyoming and again it was close to freezing and threatening to snow. In the morning it was "fresh" lots of frost and a bit of snow. Tuesday was the day of extremes. Left Casper in the morning and the air was cold and the roads were a little wet. Then the snow came, white out conditions through Denver, Colorado, then ice pellets through Pueblo, Colorado and finally a downpour of rain through Colorado Spring, Colorado. Our truck and trailer weigh in at 26,000 pounds and we just about hydroplained the rig. Not a plesant trip today to say the least, but we made it to Raton, New Mexico in one piece.

It's getting late, so I will say good-night to everyone and take care.

Well - it's Friday, October 13th and this is the first day of our southbound trek. We are only going as far as Calgary today, and we still have lots to do here before we can leave.

See you all on the road.