Last Day visiting the Priem’s

It’s nice to be able to keep up our relationship with Rich & Tracey Priem and watch their family grow. They have three boys, Cade – 8, Dane – 4, Finn – 2.

We went out to eat Saturday night with the Priem’s and Tracey’s parents to a new area of Western Houston called City Center. It is an area of hotels, restaurants and upscale stores all set outdoors similar to Crocker Park in Westlake but on a much larger scale.

Tracey is getting ready to compete in an Ironman competition in Tempe, AZ next Wednesday, http://ironmanarizona.com/ where thousands of participants from all over the world will compete. The grueling competition starts with a 2.4 mi open water swim followed by a 112 mi bike race and then a 26.2 mi marathon run. The pro athletes are able to do the entire race in just over 8 hrs. I would be lucky to do it in over 8 days. Tracey hopes to finish under 14 hours.

Our travel plan is to leave Monday morning for Harlingen, TX, get our FMM visas at the border and cross early Tuesday morning at Los Indios.

NATCHEZ, MS

We got a nice early start on our trip Wednesday morning. The past few years we made two long days to Houston stopping at a Wal-Mart in Jackson, TN for our overnight.

This year we decided to take three days and have a more relaxing drive down the Natchez Trace Parkway which starts about 15 miles West of Nashville and goes 450 miles to Natchez, MS.

http://www.nps.gov/natr/index.htm is a good site to view maps and information on the parkway. The cool thing is there are no stop signs or traffic lights for the entire distance. And at this time of year there is virtually no traffic. The speed limit is 50 mph but we averaged about 55. The Trace ends in the town of Natchez. There are 3 free campgrounds that  are nicely spaced along the way. We overnighted at Meriwether Lewis Campground on Wed. night near the start of the Trace.

We arrived early enough to visit the NP visitor center and take a walking tour around town seeing some of the grand old mansions.

Friday we will head to visit my Cousin in Houston.

Early Thanksgiving

Like the last few years we invited the family over for a Turkey Dinner before we head off to Mexico. Six couldn’t make it but we still had a good crowd since we have 4 children, 4 spouses and 11 grandchildren.

Dinner is served, Peggy making sure everyone has a full plate.

Leah. Peggy, Pam, Devan & Erika.

Joan. Brian, Meg and Jeff dig in.

.

The little kids eat in the kitchen. Jake, John, Jett and Sierra,

Erika, Devan and Leah relaxing after dinner

.

Our Four Kids – Pam, Meg, Jeff & Joan.

My new macerator pump just came, hopefully all will go well with installation this afternoon. 

We plan to visit my Cousin Rich, his wife Tracey and their three kids in Houston on our way to the Texas border.

Getting the RV ready to roll

Today was work on the RV and make sure all systems are go.

I took the RV to Sam's Club early this morning and had all 7 tires rotated and balanced. It cost less than $30. Two tire stores near me said they couldn't do it even though I'm under 10' high and will fit in their doors. A nearby truck place wanted $90 for the same job. So we drove over to Sam's in Elyria and after 2 hours we were ready headed back home.

Our next problem, I filled the water system and everything was fine, but when I tried to dump the water that I had put into my Grey water tank I found out that my Sani-Con Macerator Pump was rusted and would not rotate. It also blew the switch from the high current draw. So a quick phone call to the RV manufacturer who for only $250 will ship a new one out tomorrow. Hopefully a switch comes with it and installation goes well.

We installed a new window awning last month to give Peggy a little more shade in the bedroom.

The rest of the packing is going well.

On Sunday we are having the whole family over for a early Thanksgiving dinner since we hope we will be on the road by late next week and will not be back until we fly back for our Christmas vacation.

In between getting the RV ready we have been raking leaves which have been coming down like rain. Don’t want the piles of leaves to matt down and kill my grass over the winter.

One Month before we head South

Our plans so far have not changed. 2011-12 Mexico RV trip plans
I will post a map and description for each travel day as we move along through the trip.
Most of the trip will be through areas we have traveled before.
Our plans except for our airline reservations are very flexible. The weather and what we find when we get to each area effects our decisions of when we move on.
Feel free to post comments or questions.