Fort Worth Adventure

Today we traveled into Fort Worth (and traffic and road construction). So glad we have GPS because without it we would have been lost. We started out at the Stockyard, mostly touristy but was interesting to see.

We strolled up and down the street looking at the old buildings.

We stopped in at Cowtown Winery and enjoyed their wines. Surprisingly their wines were pretty good, so ended up purchasing 6 bottles.

We looked into the old hotel and saloon and found where you can get Buffalo Butt Beer while sitting on a saddle!

They also have a long-horn cattle drive down the road.

After all the excitement of the Stockyard, our appetite needed appeasing. So we headed off to Angelos BBQ for some good-ole fixins.

Seemed like a pretty popular place since we waited in line to get our brisket meal along with a pound of brisket and ribs to go. You never know when you will get hungry on the road. It was pretty good BBQ, but didn't really have a smokey flavor.

After our stomachs were full, we headed off to Grapevine, TX (a suburb just north of Fort Worth). We wanted to check our a RV park there plus stop at a couple of wineries. What a construction nightmare this whole area is. Traffic backs up, detours all over, it's just a mess. But we finally found the RV park. A very nice park on Grapevine Lake, with lots overlooking the lake. Maybe in about 10 years we will take the RV their, but not now with all that road construction.

From their we stopped at a couple of wineries for more tastings.

We left Grapevine with a few more bottles of wine in the vehicle. But now it's getting to be 3pm and we need to get out of Dodge before the rush hour traffic starts. Our GPS guided us back to the RV, but with some stop and go traffic throughout. Driving in big

Next Stop

The service and the coach washed by 4:30 pm on Wed., we were ready to get organized to leave first thing Thurs. am. Thurs. at 5:00am we woke to a chilly 46 degrees but low and behold no heater when we flipped the thermostat. Couldn't figure out what was wrong, so had to wait till 6:30 for the service dept. to open up. It was a bit cool getting dressed.  Come to find out all we needed to do was hit the reset button on the Aqua Hot - that working, we set off to our new destination.

West of Tulsa we finally stopped for fuel. If you think you are paying a high cost for fillup on your vehicle, just check this out! And this is only one tank, this trip we will put fuel in 3 times. The cost of taking your home with you.

We had a pretty easy trip to Weatherford, TX where we are staying 2 nights. Arrived around 3:00pm, so after parked (more like squeeze in our lot), we went to discover Weatherford. Nothing interesting, just a regular small city. Weatherford is about 30 miles west of Fort Worth. Didn't want to stay in Fort Worth, so opted for this RV park instead and will just drive the Lincoln into Fort Worth to explore.

The RV park is nice, all paved with grass and trees, but the lots are quit narrow with trees that are a bit close. One of our slides comes right up against a tree.

When we arrived I turned on the AC but the thermostat was not working. We called Newell to find out how to fix, luckily it was an easy fix of removing the fuse for 20 minutes to reset the thermostat. Worked fine after that. Early evening I put a load of laundry in the washer and we tripped the power to our lot. Jim went to the office to get someone to fix, needed to wait about an hour before someone showed up. In the meantime, I started the generator and finished the laundry. Our coach is all electric, so we need to be careful in some parks, their power lines are not heavy duty enough to handle what we use.

After all the challenges of the day, we settled in for a glass or two of wine and BBQ ribs.
Friday's adventure to Fort Worth will be included in my next post.

Still in Bay 7

It's Wed. morning and we are still parked in bay 7 at Newell. Most of the repairs have been completed, but needed to wait for a part being shipped in today plus a few items still needing repair. Hopefully by the end of today we will be finished. Of course today's forecast is for rain (60%) so I'm sure once our coach is washed and sitting outside, the rain will commence.

At one point in our service/repair process it felt like the inside of our coach was in total disarray. Jim was helping in any way he could.

One of our ceiling lights didn't work and they had to take the valance framework off to get to the wiring to repair an imperfect wiring crimping job where the wires came apart. But all is fixed.

It's been quite boring just sitting around all day, but we need to be here to describe what we want completed so we are stuck waiting. We went out to dinner Mon. evening to Montana Mikes here in Miami, it's an ok steak place, prices reasonable. And last night we drove about 20+ miles to Downstream Casino and after playing slots for awhile we have dinner at their Red Oak Steak House, which is an upscale steakhouse. Steaks were good, wine was good and of course it all was a bit pricy.  

On the drive over to the casino, we started in OK drove into KS and through MO to end up at the casino building which is in OK. But their parking lot is in KS and the hotel building was in MO. Boy was I confused! I didn't know where I was! But we did make it back to our coach.

We plan to head out first thing tomorrow morning to destination unknown at this time, but will inform you when we get to the unknown. Until then, have a wonderful day.

Our Destination

And the winner is - Sandra! She correctly guessed that we were in Amarillo, TX. Her prize is a free BBQ dinner at our newly renovated back yard. Why were we in Amarillo? On our way to our destination - Miami. Miami Oklahoma that is, but why are we here?

This is where Newell Coach is located and our coach is needing a preventative maintenance service plus to fix a few items. So we make a 1200 mile trip to the NE corner of OK every couple of years. Let me tell you that there is nothing in Miami, OK, so the time we spend here is just waiting for the service to be completed. Luckily the weather forecast is good, so no tornadoes or rain.

We left Amarillo bright and early yesterday morning, watching the sunrise. Our trip only took us 7 1/2 hours with minimal construction along the way. To save about 100 miles we took a different route, instead of heading up I25 out of Las Cruces through Albuquerque to I40, we took a more direct route on a much more rural road Hwy 54. It worked out pretty good except for one section of construction, but with a savings of about $80 in fuel, it was probably worth it.

 Newell has spaces for people to park their RVs while waiting for service the next morning. Here we are all settled.

Here is a picture of some of the many service bays Newell has available.

Some of the used coaches Newell has on site for sale.

Work has begun, we are in bay #7.

Once they move your RV into a service bay, you can stay in your coach or they have a comfortable customer lounge. At night you stay right in your coach while in the building. They make it real convenient. The service will take at least 2 days if not more, all depends. Where we go from here all depends on when we get out of here.  I have a feeling it will take more than 2 days, so that won't give us much option on our route home. We will just have to wing it.

Where Are We At???

HOWDY FOLKS!!

We've been on the road for 2 days, so guess where we are at???

After a cool, windy drive we needed a refreshment (or two) before our dinner.

Then went to the dining room for our steak dinner. This is the 2nd time we have visited the BIG TEXAN and we have not been disappointed. Even though this is a tourist destination the food is still excellent. I even ate the whole plate full!! (Which is unusual for me.)

Heading out bright and early tomorrow morning to drive another 460 miles to our destination. If you haven't guessed where we are at or where we are heading, stayed tuned for the next episode.

Right now it is 8:27pm local time (6:27 Tucson time) and we better get to bed so we can get up early tomorrow am. (These time zones are challenging.) Until tomorrow! (Hopefully)