We spent a couple of days in Las Cruces before moving on to El Paso.  Home cooking at Shawna and Steve’s, and a coffee stop at The Bean in Mesilla after catching Claudissa and Jonathan at her Valentine’s Day bake sale, where we indulged in a fabulous cheesecake and red velvet cookies.  But, the dread of every traveler plagued us.  First Judy, then Larye, came down with upper respiratory distress.  We kept it at bay a bit with nasal irrigation, cough drops, and over-the-counter remedies, but got worse over the days.  We still managed to get in dinner in El Paso with son Jason and Melissa, and breakfast with grandson Cage and Melly.

We ended up spending an extra day in El Paso, mostly sleeping, finally getting collected and on the road again mid-day on Monday, February 17.  We arrived well after dark in Sonora, Texas, and took the first likely parking spot at the fuel stop, which was sloped quite a bit.  We had a fitful but largely restful night back in the van again after several days of guest room stays.

Back on the road after breakfast in the truck, we ran into mist and light rain, though a warm day.  This part of Texas is characterized by sheer limestone cliffs formed by the freeway cuts through the rolling hills.  Not far down the road, we decided that it was best if Judy sought some medical advice and a bit stronger attack on the coughing and hacking.  This took us into Kerrville and a strip-mall urgent care center, which didn’t accept our out-of-state Medicare Advantage.  So, a couple of hundred dollars later,we left with a new stash of medication and a few groceries from H-E-B, where the pharmacy was located.

The GPS led us into a maze of freeways through San Antonio and out the other side into farmland and small towns, and eventually to the Goliad State Park by mid-afternoon, for a rest and electrical hookup in anticipation of the cold front moving in mid-week.  At least, the fuel prices have been lower than anticipated and much lower than at home, but the freeway speeds have eaten into our good mileage a bit.  The next few days promise to be on back roads.

And, the cold front did move in, freezing overnight and not promising to rise much over that through the day.  So, we registered for an additional day, took our laundry to the laundromat in town, and spent the day catching up on computing things.  Near the end of the day, we were entertained by a flock of buzzards swirling in the wind above the campground, disturbed by another camper hiking on the river trail. The next night was even colder.  The water spigot in our campsite froze, so we left without refilling our drinking water supply.  We did stop and tour the restored mission complex.  We had seen it two years ago when we stopped through, but it was always good for a second look, and we enjoyed the weaving, spinning, and natural dye exhibit.

We took the back roads from Goliad to Galveston, refueling on the way.  Through Galveston, we took the ferry to Port Bolivar and continued up to I-10, stopping for the night as darkness overtook us as we crossed into Louisiana.  With the cold snap still with us, we quickly bedded down for the night before the van temperature fell.  In the morning, we dressed and drove up the road to the next gas stop to get the van warmed up before breakfast and coffee.  Then, up US 165 to Alexandria, and east to Natchez, where we made lunch at the closed Mississippi Welcome Center before refueling at a local gas station.  Coming out of Texas, we noted the live oak giving way to cypress and southern white pine as we crossed Louisiana and into Mississippi.

We spent the next two days cruising up the Natchez Trace, enjoying the lack of traffic between cities, arriving in Tupelo after dark and finding our way north to the Love’s Travel Center, where we repeated our cold-weather drill to stay warm through the night in our cozy 15-degree Big Agnes sleeping bag, as the temperature inside dropped to 5 C/41 F and freezing outside.  We stopped at a supermarket for breakfast bars and a gallon of drinking water, stopping later up the Trace to make coffee.  The 80 kph National Park speed limit brought our gas mileage back up quickly, and there was little traffic on the parkway except near the cities, where the locals use it as a bypass.  As we moved North, the foilage changed again, to more cedar and hardwood forests, and rocky outcroppings of the Nashville Dome karsts and limestone as we entered Tennessee.

We arrived in Nashville mid-afternoon, to cruise down Broadway past honky-tonk after honky-tonk and the crowds gathering for Saturday night festivities, then out the other side to Matt and Darice’s house, where we enjoyed a warm guest room and a promise of warmer weather in the next week, but a frozen weekend.

One of the advantages of our continent-spanning travel is we generally know which grocery chains carry the food brands we get at home.  We shop at H.E.B. in Texas, which doesn’t, but it’s ubiquitous.  In Nashville, we found Kroger’s, which owns the Fred Meyer chain at home, but they were out of Judy’s lactose-free yogurt.  However, we know from previous trips that Publix does carry both lactose-free products, and we found both there.  Dinner out at a local brew pub was excellent, with a good selection for vegetarian for me and bacon-laced dishes for Judy, who still enjoys bacon and shrimp when available.

Once again,we enjoyed guest quarters, in a future rental apartment at Matt and Darise’s house, which the temperature plummeted below freezing outside at night.

In preparation for warmer weather, we cleaned, lubricated, and adjusted the tandem bicycle in anticipation of exploring the Music City bike trail that winds around the city from nearby.  We took a walk on the trail as the temperature moderated.

The weather cleared, and we drove to a nearby trailhead.  We zoomed down the hill and over the pedestrian/bike bridge to ride on the Music City Bikeway through Shelby Bottom along the river, exploring the many side paths and circling a small lake in a park at the west end of the trail.  Naturally, for us, we had to push up the spiral path to the bridge and again up the hill to our van.

On Thursday, we formed a two-vehicle caravan headed from Nashville to Maggie Valley, North Carolina, to open the kids’ Glamping tent for the season.  The trip took us on I-40 to Newport, Tennessee, where we detoured up US 25 to bypass the closed section of I-40, destroyed by hurricane Helene last fall.  The French Broad River along US 25 was also the site of much devastation wrought by the hurricane, with much of the lowlands along the river scoured of trees and structures.  The route twisted and turned, becoming tortuous as we departed the river, winding through a maze of country roads over the foothills of the Smoky Mountains.  One climbing set of tight curves knocked over our drinking water supply, which Judy hastily righted, but several liters spilled on the van floor, spreading in rivulets as the van shifted from side to side on the mountain road.  The spout broke, but the pump still works.

We finally arrived up the mountain, leaving our van at the tent site and walking the rest of the way up the mountain to the cabin, where we discovered the water pump had burst a seal, due to failure of the pressure shutoff.  Freezing weather is expected at this altitude nights this week.  Lots of repairs in addition to the usual pre-season prep, and the water system is a priority.

After draining the water system to keep essentials running, carrying water up the hill from the truck and the water lines, and Matt making several trips to town for parts, the water was back in operation.   Over the next few days, we helped out at the tent site with sanding and varnishing the picnic table, and a bit with installing the new sink counter on the outside sink.

Numerous trips hiking up and down the 30-meter elevation difference between the glamping site and the cabin is getting us in shape, if nothing else.  The weather is holding for now, with cool days and cold nights. The mountain proved to be a good place to observe the string of planets overhead as darkness fell on the last day of February.  At this latitude, the ecliptic is 13 degrees higher than at home, putting Jupiter and Mars almost vertically overhead.

As our visit drew to a close, we took a trip to Asheville, ostensibly to look for a bike trail while the weather held.  But, the trail along the French Broad River was still mostly closed and unsuitable for biking.  We did hike the trail along the river, observing the devastation to the Arts District across the river and the incredible height of the flood debris around us and above us, while the trail stayed well above the normal river level.

As the clouds and wind moved in from the early March storms, we decided to head southeast to the coast instead of following our 2023 path north into the worst part of the storm path.