Sunday, February 20, 2011 (Travel Day to Caverns of Sonora, Texas)

I had a much better sleep last night, thank goodness! We were watching the forecast trying to decide when to leave. There were possibilities of drizzle before 9am so we wanted to avoid that...after a 6 hours job washing the trailer, we wanted to get at least one travel day before it got dirty!

We ended up having a fairly leisurely start to the day but were still ready at 10:00. After stopping to fill up with propane, we were on the road. Serena decided to take us on a strange route to Interstate 10 West...we really must get her updated but I haven’t been able to find a strong enough internet connection to do so.

Here are a couple more pictures taken as we are leaving San Antonio...

We needed to fuel up so once we got through west San Antonio, I found a Murphy Station in the town of Boerne. Murphy Stations are associated with Wal-Mart and have good diesel prices...or should I say better prices...$3.36 per/gal. The most expensive we have seen is $3.50 per/gal. For an oil state there certainly aren’t any deals here. We were just concerned whether we would be able to get in and out with the 5th wheel in tow...but as it turned out, we managed just fine. Every vehicle that pulled in had to talk to Steve about the truck...its nonstop... but as we have said before a great way to meet people.

Since there was a Wal-Mart right there, we decided to pick up a few things...there would be no stores anywhere near our next stop and we were out of fresh fruit and getting low on veggies as well. It was 10 minutes before noon as we were going through the check out...we had also decided to stock up with wine and beer...but on a Sunday, they are not allowed to sell alcohol before noon....sheesh! Well, thank goodness it was so close to noon...she (a nice young lady from Winnipeg!!) kept our wine and beer at her cashier while we took our groceries out to the truck. We would be back in 10 minutes for the rest.

After eating our lunch in the truck, we hit the road again. The countryside is much nicer as we headed west...rolling hills...very pretty...but would be much prettier if there were blue sky and sunshine!! We haven’t seen hills since last October when we left North Carolina.

At least the sun had finally decided to make an appearance...

The road into the Caverns....

We arrived at the Caverns of Sonora shortly before 3:30 p.m....not much of an RV park. But it’s really only there to accommodate those coming to see the caves...so basically one-nighters. We were going to stay two nights. There was only one other 5th wheel in the pull-through section as we pulled in. We actually got what we consider to the site...right beside a big tree. The rest are narrow sites in a gravel lot.

We didn’t need to unhitch from the truck because we were level front to back...and we wouldn’t be needing the truck to drive anywhere...so after levelling off side to side, we were good to open the sliders and unpack. Steve even thought he would try setting up the satellite dish. Unfortunately, we hadn’t looked up the co-ordinates for this location (on “Dishfinder”) and we also had no internet signal...well, not one that was strong enough to even bring up the internet...so Steve was going to have to “wing it” as far as pointing the dish in the right direction was concerned. After a lengthy try with no success, he gave up...truly an exercise in frustration! We would just watch taped programs tonight.

We had 3 more RV`s join us in the "parking lot" for the night. Ken and Corrine, next door (on the other side of the tree) are from Corpus Christi, Texas and are on their way to Big Bend National Park. They are going on the last tour of the caverns at 5:00 p.m. today and then are heading off first thing in the morning.

Lots of deer out for dinner...

And pheasant...