2026 - California Deliveries & "G-Suite" Initiation

I think this is our 3rd trip this year driving from Austin (Leander) to CA within a 3 month span 😳  We know this route like the back of our hands now - Ha!  Ha!  This time we are delivering 2 precious items to California...Luke & Curiosity...and then spending a whole week with our newest precious item - KIRA!!!

We headed out on a Wednesday, just a month after our last road trip out there.  Who turned us on to the baked chips from HEB!?!?  Was it Liz's hubby Jeff?  Anyways, they are really good!

We drove the Hill Country route out since we dropped off our car at Roland & Viv's, and made an impromptu pit stop at a winery we had been curious about - The Rhinory.  They are part of a breeding program for endangered rhino's, and make/sell wine to fund their work! We did a "crash" tasting since we had to leave Luke in the van.  All of the wines we tasted were from South Africa, and were very good!  We picked up a couple of bottles for the road!

Night 1: We stayed at our usual Best Western in Fort Stockton...chili cheese dog night!

We've been curious about Van Horn ever since "A" had that job at Blue Origin.  We stopped at the ONE nice hotel in town, Hotel El Capitan and learned that it was designed by the same architect as The Hotel Paisano in Marfa, Henry Trost.  

A rock hit our windshield just before Las Cruces...bummer, but we got online and found a Safelight in town to get it fixed before it got worse...amazing what these guys can do in just a matter of minutes!

We took a stroll around Mesilla Plaza and realized that we had been here on our very first drive out to Texas.  Still fun to walk around, and another strange thing happened.  My cousin Sharon had literally just texted me about a book she recently read (we occasionally share our mutual love for Asian themed books), and I found it on top of a pile of books in this small bookstore on the plaza that specializes in "books about the West, Mexico, Horses, cowboys, Native Americans & more"...go figure!  I had to buy it!

For this trip I only planned two nights in the RV.  It was so darn hot and I was worried about poor little Luke.  Also, we had the van stuffed with things we would be leaving in CA.

We thought we would check off a couple of "hard to get to" National Monuments on this trip back.  One of the volunteer rangers from our last trip told us Chiricahua is a must, and it truly was spectacular!  

Near the border, and a town called "Lukeville", we visited Organ Pipe Cactus NM. 

We had missed Uncle Rod's last birthday (again), so we made it a point to stop in La Jolla and have lunch with him.  At 93 he is just as amazing as my mom...he still drives periodically, but we decided to just walk to the corner Mexican place for tacos.

...and for our last night on the road we stayed at San Clemente State Beach - beautiful! 

...back to work...we needed to get the van registered right away since Coast Storage only accepts CA registered vehicles.  This time we were prepared to get our Smog Check and VIN check BEFORE our scheduled appointment.  We weren't prepared to pay over double the price for a regular vehicle since Curiosity is diesel 😳

I think Luke is going to like becoming a Cali Dog...especially this next month when he gets to be spoiled by Aunty Amy!

...on to our latest obsession, Baby Kira!

She quickly learns how to tire out Pops!

We may have to do something about Pops' beard! 😲

Pops & I took over night duty after the first two nights of re-learning how to change diapers, feed, etc.  So many new-fangled baby things now-a-days...diapers with wet indicator, countertop bottle washers, etc.  By the end of our stay Bryan & Sian said they think she got a "software update"...starting to react way more and her coos are so adorable 💖

We'll be back soon!

Sian's yummy banana bread while we wait for our flight!