Thursday January 19, 2012
The temperature was in the low 40's this morning when we got up but felt cooler. It is suppose to get to about 73 degrees today. The forecast calls for each day to get a few degrees warmer through the weekend.
I stripped the bed and washed sheets today and also washed up a few rugs. Basically bummed all day and mostly read while I sat here doing the laundry.
About 1:00 it got pretty warm so I sat outside for awhile. I let Ravin and Tucker out on leashes but Tucker is not really into being outside for some reason. He has always been the one that we cannot get to go in once you let him out. I think because it's unfamiliar to him here is part of his issues. Also we are in the pet area of the park which means we have several dogs around us. When they are being walked and come by our site he kinda freaks when he sees one. Raven doesn't seem to mind. Charlie can't get off the bed long enough to come outside very often but when he does, he seems to like being outside.
Our electrician showed up around 2:00 and worked on the wiring. He got everything working again but was a pretty easy job for him as Larry had already identified where the broken wire was. He was really a nice guy but was paid well for showing up. I think he charged $160 for his services. Oh well--just a bit more thrown into the deep dark money pit!!
We needed several items again from store but ended up going into Sam's and then stopped at Walmart for some other items. We have been buying gallon jugs of bottled water for coffee but I'm pretty sure there is a water station up at the Resort Club House so need to start refilling our jugs. It's $.25 to refill verses $1.00 to buy a new jug. We always refilled when we were at resort in Mesa. Just need to find our way around here in Yuma.
Gene called while we were at Sam's and said he got home from Florida. He and his daughter Debbie(my niece) flew down to visit Jason(my nephew)for a week. Debbie had posted this morning on Facebook that they were having some issues with their flight this morning, something to do with security. Gene said they never did find out what the problems were but a TSA guy boarded their flight and rode it back to Kentucky, where they flew into.
While at Sam's, which is at the Yuma mall area, we decided to have an In-and-Out Burger for dinner. They are absolutely one of the best hamburgers I have ever had--much better than Five Guys for half the price. They had an In-and-Out in Mesa where we ate last year alot . As far as I know they are only on the west coast as we haven't seen any very far toward the Midwest.
Came home and stashed our groceries, had my coffee and went to bed to read.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Arizona 2012 Wednesday(Jan 18)
Wednesday January 18, 2012
I worked around RV for awhile this morning and suddenly realized today is our anniversary. We have been married 37 years and like Larry, last year, I didn't even buy a card. After this long, does it really make any sense to buy cards as they are quickly read and thrown in a stack of papers that will eventually get pitched in the trash. How romantic married life becomes after this number of years huh!??!
Larry has been busy all day trying to locate the short in the wiring and finally found where a wire was cut outside in the storage area of the RV. He and one of the neighbors tried to remove a group of screws holding the wires but could not get them loose to free up the wire to repair. He just left to go over to the RV Supply to schedule an appointment for someone to come out and fix it. He called to say they will be here SOMETIME tomorrow, which means we'll set her waiting most of day. It will be good to get it fixed as it is all the lights over kitchen table and love seat area. Hard to see to eat and defiantly can't set on that side if you want to read at night.
The weather is about the same today with the bright sunshine. It is suppose to warm to 70 degrees today but so far not too warm. Since we have been here it has been in between 60 and 70 degrees but with a bit of wind it doesn't feel that warm. About 2:00pm it gets very nice and by 4:00pm it is cooling enough for a jacket. Guess for January those temperatures aren't bad.
Monday night when we went to Appleby's for dinner, we saw pictures that were part of the decor, that Yuma High School's mascot is a criminal.We both laughed about the fact they were called The Yuma Criminals. I was reading in the local paper this morning that they adopted this name in 1914 when the high school classes were held at the abandoned Yuma Territorial Prison. They later built the new school but retained the mascot. In the article it also said CBS found it intriguing enough that Julie Chen came to Yuma in 2006 to do a story as part of the show's 'Tour My Town' series. The mascot is decked out in blue and white prison stripes. Just thought this is rather interesting as I'm sure it's the only school with such an unusual mascot.
Mario, Pete's brother called Larry today to say he got the deer salami and wanted to know for sure how much Larry wanted of it. Larry told him whatever Leslie and Pete wanted plus some for sister Carol. Mario was going to cut it into smaller rolls and wrap it for freezing. Pete is in Seattle this week and Leslie was planning on going out to Mario's house after work to help him wrap the salami. I sent her a text message and told her to stop by our house and take the food sealer with her to use for salami. She called later and said her and Ava(the dog) went to our house and Ava got so excited when they went in and was running around looking for the cats. She saw my two wooden cats in the living room and kept trying to play with them. She's all into the cats but the cats are not that fond of her unfortunately!!! Leslie also said it was very cold at home and the wind chill was down close to zero. So as I said--not big complaints on our weather.
We scheduled a propane delivery for today so are waiting for the truck to show up. Again anything you need done is on someone else's schedule and they can never tell you a time so you can set all day waiting. The propane guy showed about 2:30. We thought we were getting really low on propane but when he filled our tank it only took 9 gallon. I think we have a 20 gallon tank so didn't use as much as we thought on our trip out. The going rate for propane is $3.99 a gallon, so like everything in the gas market not cheap!!
After the propane guy left we drove into Yuma to the mall. I looked around for awhile and then we went to Red Lobster for dinner. We had a very good meal. Larry got crab legs and I got two servings of shrimp scampi and we shared the two. Had a nice salad and vegetables. We saw they have a Sam's at the mall but when I looked online didn't see but two Costco's in Arizona--one in Tucson and one in Phoenix. Taylor and Kyle paid for a Costco membership for us for Christmas but we haven't been anyplace that has a Costco to activate. When we get to Mesa we have a Costco just down the street from the RV Resort so will use it then.
I worked around RV for awhile this morning and suddenly realized today is our anniversary. We have been married 37 years and like Larry, last year, I didn't even buy a card. After this long, does it really make any sense to buy cards as they are quickly read and thrown in a stack of papers that will eventually get pitched in the trash. How romantic married life becomes after this number of years huh!??!
Larry has been busy all day trying to locate the short in the wiring and finally found where a wire was cut outside in the storage area of the RV. He and one of the neighbors tried to remove a group of screws holding the wires but could not get them loose to free up the wire to repair. He just left to go over to the RV Supply to schedule an appointment for someone to come out and fix it. He called to say they will be here SOMETIME tomorrow, which means we'll set her waiting most of day. It will be good to get it fixed as it is all the lights over kitchen table and love seat area. Hard to see to eat and defiantly can't set on that side if you want to read at night.
The weather is about the same today with the bright sunshine. It is suppose to warm to 70 degrees today but so far not too warm. Since we have been here it has been in between 60 and 70 degrees but with a bit of wind it doesn't feel that warm. About 2:00pm it gets very nice and by 4:00pm it is cooling enough for a jacket. Guess for January those temperatures aren't bad.
Monday night when we went to Appleby's for dinner, we saw pictures that were part of the decor, that Yuma High School's mascot is a criminal.We both laughed about the fact they were called The Yuma Criminals. I was reading in the local paper this morning that they adopted this name in 1914 when the high school classes were held at the abandoned Yuma Territorial Prison. They later built the new school but retained the mascot. In the article it also said CBS found it intriguing enough that Julie Chen came to Yuma in 2006 to do a story as part of the show's 'Tour My Town' series. The mascot is decked out in blue and white prison stripes. Just thought this is rather interesting as I'm sure it's the only school with such an unusual mascot.
Mario, Pete's brother called Larry today to say he got the deer salami and wanted to know for sure how much Larry wanted of it. Larry told him whatever Leslie and Pete wanted plus some for sister Carol. Mario was going to cut it into smaller rolls and wrap it for freezing. Pete is in Seattle this week and Leslie was planning on going out to Mario's house after work to help him wrap the salami. I sent her a text message and told her to stop by our house and take the food sealer with her to use for salami. She called later and said her and Ava(the dog) went to our house and Ava got so excited when they went in and was running around looking for the cats. She saw my two wooden cats in the living room and kept trying to play with them. She's all into the cats but the cats are not that fond of her unfortunately!!! Leslie also said it was very cold at home and the wind chill was down close to zero. So as I said--not big complaints on our weather.
We scheduled a propane delivery for today so are waiting for the truck to show up. Again anything you need done is on someone else's schedule and they can never tell you a time so you can set all day waiting. The propane guy showed about 2:30. We thought we were getting really low on propane but when he filled our tank it only took 9 gallon. I think we have a 20 gallon tank so didn't use as much as we thought on our trip out. The going rate for propane is $3.99 a gallon, so like everything in the gas market not cheap!!
After the propane guy left we drove into Yuma to the mall. I looked around for awhile and then we went to Red Lobster for dinner. We had a very good meal. Larry got crab legs and I got two servings of shrimp scampi and we shared the two. Had a nice salad and vegetables. We saw they have a Sam's at the mall but when I looked online didn't see but two Costco's in Arizona--one in Tucson and one in Phoenix. Taylor and Kyle paid for a Costco membership for us for Christmas but we haven't been anyplace that has a Costco to activate. When we get to Mesa we have a Costco just down the street from the RV Resort so will use it then.
Arizona 2012 Tuesday(Jan 17)
Tuesday January 17, 2012
Decided it was time to do my laundry, so today was mostly devoted to catching up. I pretty much had a laid back afternoon and read most of the day while taking periodic breaks to change the laundry from washer to dryer. Larry worked on some items on RV to get whatever was not working--which is always numerous-- taken care of.
The weather has been a little on the cool side. Most mornings the temperature is in the mid 30's when we get up but by early afternoon recovers to around 65. I couldn't decide what I should be wearing today. I started out in long pants with a sweatshirt and changed early afternoon to capri's. At this time of the year it doesn't take long in shorts or capri's until it's cool enough to switch back to long pants. I actually changed back to pants and sweatshirt around 4:00. It was still a little warm with the sweatshirt but an hour later felt right. The sun was shinning brightly most of the day. The forecast shows about a 5 degree increase in temperature for the remaining part of week.
Around 4:00 we went over to an RV Supply and bought light bulbs, a new handle for the TV Antenna and a power tester. The lights on the inside of drivers side are not working for some reason so Larry is going to try finding the problem tomorrow. We made a trip to buy a few groceries and came home to cook dinner. This is the first home meal for us in awhile. I made several items and froze before Christmas so we had meatloaf from our freezer stash tonight. Wasn't bad but I am just very tired of my cooking as of late.
Decided it was time to do my laundry, so today was mostly devoted to catching up. I pretty much had a laid back afternoon and read most of the day while taking periodic breaks to change the laundry from washer to dryer. Larry worked on some items on RV to get whatever was not working--which is always numerous-- taken care of.
The weather has been a little on the cool side. Most mornings the temperature is in the mid 30's when we get up but by early afternoon recovers to around 65. I couldn't decide what I should be wearing today. I started out in long pants with a sweatshirt and changed early afternoon to capri's. At this time of the year it doesn't take long in shorts or capri's until it's cool enough to switch back to long pants. I actually changed back to pants and sweatshirt around 4:00. It was still a little warm with the sweatshirt but an hour later felt right. The sun was shinning brightly most of the day. The forecast shows about a 5 degree increase in temperature for the remaining part of week.
Around 4:00 we went over to an RV Supply and bought light bulbs, a new handle for the TV Antenna and a power tester. The lights on the inside of drivers side are not working for some reason so Larry is going to try finding the problem tomorrow. We made a trip to buy a few groceries and came home to cook dinner. This is the first home meal for us in awhile. I made several items and froze before Christmas so we had meatloaf from our freezer stash tonight. Wasn't bad but I am just very tired of my cooking as of late.
Arizona 2012 Monday(Jan 16)
Monday January 16, 2012
We left the Las Cruces KOA at 8:00am. We had the random 'quirky' issues with the RV -- this morning the stabilizing jacks would not totally retract which means the air bags also would not totally inflate. When leaving here last year we were unaware of this problem until we pulled out onto the road and hit a dip in the road. It felt like the bottom of the RV fell out as we hit so hard. This problem either occurs when it's been setting for awhile in the cold or possibly the jacks have a little rust from setting without use for months. Regardless, we had to stop and power down the jacks again and shut off engine for everything to reset before trying to retract again. After working with it for awhile everything reset and we left the RV Park and took RT 10 west toward Tucson.
We drove in rain and wind for about two hours but the farther south we drove the weather started clearing. I started looking for an RV Park somewhere between Tucson and Yuma so we would not have to drive as far a Yuma, which was about 515 miles from Las Cruces. Basically there is not much human life between Tucson and Yuma, just miles and miles of open land. The only places I found were about 30 miles east of Yuma so decided we were not saving much in mileage to stop at any of these RV Parks. We talked about where we wanted to call in Yuma for an RV site for tonight and decided to call Las Quintas, the place we have reservations for February. When we called they said they had a site we could have and we could decide if we wanted to start our time from tonight or just stay for a day or two. We talked about driving on to San Diego and staying somewhere there for a week before returning to Yuma. We told them at Las Quintas that we would tell them our plans tomorrow and they gave us our site number since the office will be closed when we arrive.
The weather cleared up and the sun came out. It got too warm driving so Larry opened the window on drivers side for some fresh air. We arrived in Yuma about 5:00pm and found Las Quintes RV Resort easily. We pulled into the park and found our site, stopped and unloaded the car and unhitched the car dolly from RV. Larry went back to RV and when he started to open the door it was locked. We had a set of keys in the car so I retrieved but found the key for door only unlocked one of the door locks. Well---this is interesting---who in their right mind would build a motor home requiring two different keys to unlock the locks on the SAME door!@!@??? We kept trying the key on both locks but nothing was working. The window on the drivers side was still open and we were able to slide it open farther to where we could get inside but we left home and forgot to load our latter. The distance from the ground made it impossible to get through the window. I told Larry to knock on someones door and borrow a latter but he kept trying to think of a way to get to window. He remembered the removable latter on back of RV used to access roof. He unhooked it and was able to lean it against window to climb up far enough to remove the keys from the ignition. These keys had an extra key that was for nothing other than that extra lock on the door!@! HOW STRANGE! We scored a lucky break but of course not before we saw 3 or 4 of the park residence standing outside watching the big event!! The 55 plus RV Parks are like living in a very small city as nothing happens that the entire park does not know within 15 minutes!!!
We pushed the car dolly onto the RV site. A lady that was setting outside with a group walked over and said she worked for the resort and could help guide Larry backing the RV into site. She showed us where to locate motor home on lot and Larry backed in. Her name is Cynthia and her husband is David. They are parked next to us and they were having 'happy hour' at the RV behind them so she invited us to come over when we got settled. I walked over later and she introduced me to Bruce, who is from BC Canada. I also met Joe and Cari from Canada as well. Doris, who owned the RV where everyone was gathered, is from Boise, ID. They were all very nice people. Cynthia and David are from Indiana and are permanent residence here at Las Quintas. I talked for awhile and gave my regrets about joining them as I told them we had not had dinner yet.
Larry hooked everything up and when water was hot he took a shower. We drove across the highway to Appleby's for dinner. It was packed, which is typical for a 'snowbird' city. Doesn't matter the day or hour of day every place is packed. We went into the bar and had a beer and waited for our table. They finally called us and took us to our table and we sat for 25 minutes waiting for a server to appear. We ordered our meal and another beer and sat another 25-30 minutes for our order. We asked for a couple of needed items when they brought our food but the server never appeared with them. We finished our dinner and waited forever for our server to bring check. What a ZOO--I'm not so sure our poor service was strictly because the place was busy or just that we had a poor server! Anyway our tip reflected our service!
We came back to RV and when I finished a cup of coffee, I was ready for bed. Tomorrow we need to decide if we are staying here or leaving again. I would like to call dentist and find out if she can see me before my scheduled appointment of Feb 2. If I can get an appointment soon, I'd rather stay and take a day trip to San Diego or even an overnight trip. It is only about 140 miles over to San Diego so we could make a few trips if we want but I would like to stay here since we are settled. I hate moving and reorganizing all the time---guess I'm just not a REAL RV'er as I like the secure feeling of a home base!
We left the Las Cruces KOA at 8:00am. We had the random 'quirky' issues with the RV -- this morning the stabilizing jacks would not totally retract which means the air bags also would not totally inflate. When leaving here last year we were unaware of this problem until we pulled out onto the road and hit a dip in the road. It felt like the bottom of the RV fell out as we hit so hard. This problem either occurs when it's been setting for awhile in the cold or possibly the jacks have a little rust from setting without use for months. Regardless, we had to stop and power down the jacks again and shut off engine for everything to reset before trying to retract again. After working with it for awhile everything reset and we left the RV Park and took RT 10 west toward Tucson.
We drove in rain and wind for about two hours but the farther south we drove the weather started clearing. I started looking for an RV Park somewhere between Tucson and Yuma so we would not have to drive as far a Yuma, which was about 515 miles from Las Cruces. Basically there is not much human life between Tucson and Yuma, just miles and miles of open land. The only places I found were about 30 miles east of Yuma so decided we were not saving much in mileage to stop at any of these RV Parks. We talked about where we wanted to call in Yuma for an RV site for tonight and decided to call Las Quintas, the place we have reservations for February. When we called they said they had a site we could have and we could decide if we wanted to start our time from tonight or just stay for a day or two. We talked about driving on to San Diego and staying somewhere there for a week before returning to Yuma. We told them at Las Quintas that we would tell them our plans tomorrow and they gave us our site number since the office will be closed when we arrive.
The weather cleared up and the sun came out. It got too warm driving so Larry opened the window on drivers side for some fresh air. We arrived in Yuma about 5:00pm and found Las Quintes RV Resort easily. We pulled into the park and found our site, stopped and unloaded the car and unhitched the car dolly from RV. Larry went back to RV and when he started to open the door it was locked. We had a set of keys in the car so I retrieved but found the key for door only unlocked one of the door locks. Well---this is interesting---who in their right mind would build a motor home requiring two different keys to unlock the locks on the SAME door!@!@??? We kept trying the key on both locks but nothing was working. The window on the drivers side was still open and we were able to slide it open farther to where we could get inside but we left home and forgot to load our latter. The distance from the ground made it impossible to get through the window. I told Larry to knock on someones door and borrow a latter but he kept trying to think of a way to get to window. He remembered the removable latter on back of RV used to access roof. He unhooked it and was able to lean it against window to climb up far enough to remove the keys from the ignition. These keys had an extra key that was for nothing other than that extra lock on the door!@! HOW STRANGE! We scored a lucky break but of course not before we saw 3 or 4 of the park residence standing outside watching the big event!! The 55 plus RV Parks are like living in a very small city as nothing happens that the entire park does not know within 15 minutes!!!
We pushed the car dolly onto the RV site. A lady that was setting outside with a group walked over and said she worked for the resort and could help guide Larry backing the RV into site. She showed us where to locate motor home on lot and Larry backed in. Her name is Cynthia and her husband is David. They are parked next to us and they were having 'happy hour' at the RV behind them so she invited us to come over when we got settled. I walked over later and she introduced me to Bruce, who is from BC Canada. I also met Joe and Cari from Canada as well. Doris, who owned the RV where everyone was gathered, is from Boise, ID. They were all very nice people. Cynthia and David are from Indiana and are permanent residence here at Las Quintas. I talked for awhile and gave my regrets about joining them as I told them we had not had dinner yet.
Larry hooked everything up and when water was hot he took a shower. We drove across the highway to Appleby's for dinner. It was packed, which is typical for a 'snowbird' city. Doesn't matter the day or hour of day every place is packed. We went into the bar and had a beer and waited for our table. They finally called us and took us to our table and we sat for 25 minutes waiting for a server to appear. We ordered our meal and another beer and sat another 25-30 minutes for our order. We asked for a couple of needed items when they brought our food but the server never appeared with them. We finished our dinner and waited forever for our server to bring check. What a ZOO--I'm not so sure our poor service was strictly because the place was busy or just that we had a poor server! Anyway our tip reflected our service!
We came back to RV and when I finished a cup of coffee, I was ready for bed. Tomorrow we need to decide if we are staying here or leaving again. I would like to call dentist and find out if she can see me before my scheduled appointment of Feb 2. If I can get an appointment soon, I'd rather stay and take a day trip to San Diego or even an overnight trip. It is only about 140 miles over to San Diego so we could make a few trips if we want but I would like to stay here since we are settled. I hate moving and reorganizing all the time---guess I'm just not a REAL RV'er as I like the secure feeling of a home base!
Arizona 2012 Sunday(Jan 15)
Sunday January 15, 2012
I am awake again this morning at 4:15. Guess my body does not need as much sleep as I think. I went back to bed with a horrible headache and kept telling myself to relax and finally fell asleep again but was short lived. When Larry got up a short time later, I was awake again.
The morning is beautiful again with temperature of 35 already. Must be much warmer here as I saw posting from friends on Facebook talking about the bitter cold at home. Guess coming South IS a better idea than staying in Peoria.
I have been writing my blog in a word doc on my little net book and had plans to post this morning. We have an access code to use for Internet from KOA and Larry activated last night on his laptop. This morning when I tried to log into Internet was abruptly halted because it only allows one device per access code!!! Since everything is on my hard drive will have to either ask for another code for access or copy over to laptop. What a pain in the butt! I brought a new USB flash drive with me but, of course, cannot locate it's resting spot in the RV yet. It makes me crazy when I am looking for different items and can't figure out where I put them--it's the age thing I think! Larry's memory is much worse than I as this morning he asked if I had seen Tucker and he was laying on Larry's legs. Hmmmm--can't wait to get there!! Only another four short years and I'll be old enough to be THAT crazy too!
I guess we are staying another night here in Las Cruces as we didn't take much time to rest yesterday. We debated on leaving this morning and moving on toward Arizona but I think we both need another day to kick back. I saw on Internet there is an Antique Show here today so thought we might check it out. Just another sign of getting old--in the past year I have gotten into browsing the antique shops. In years past, an antique shop depressed me. I so enjoy browsing and looking at all the things I grew up with! Too bad I didn't save, which is what everyone thinks when they see the prices on all the things from their childhood. We have been collecting milk bottles for a number of years so that is basically what we shop for. The next house we buy will need an entire room to devote to just the milk bottles. We only buy the ones of interest to us, not necessarily the ones of value so not really a big 'money' collection.
We showered and went to the Village Inn for breakfast. We ate many times at the Village Inn in Mesa and their food is always good. We talked to our waitress and she suggested we drive over to La Mesilla which she told us is just 7 or 8 miles from Las Cruces. It is an old town which use to be the capitol of the Arizona Territory and was the home of Billy the Kid. This is probably another wasted trip to a touristy area full of junk shops.
We found our way to La Mesilla and when we were coming into town it started looking familiar. By the time we reached the town plaza I knew we had been there last year. It is a quaint little place and they had vendors set up all around the plaza. There was a guy who made knives from fiber optic and flint and a lot of the knives were like one I bought from a friend at work many years ago for Larry. They were all unusual and some had cactus handles and other deer antler handles. He showed us how he carves the materials for the blades which was interesting.
We strolled through the other vendors and then through the little shops around the plaza and came up to a shop that I bought some wonderful Olive Oil last year. We went in and sampled several of the oils and bought another bottle. We talked a long time to the owner who was interesting. Last year I remember we talked a lot to his wife when we stopped. The shop is very nice and all they carry is olive oil, different flavored balsamic vinegars and several types of marinades.
We left La Mesilla and found an antique shop back in Las Cruces, which was in a class below a garage sale so we didn't spend a lot of time there. We went from there to the Antique Show that I had read about on the web. Larry bought a book which I think is on the Civil War and I just basically browsed through the dealer booths but found nothing I wanted. It was mostly dishes and jewelry which I don't get too excited about.
We went back up to the big shopping area and had soup and salad at Olive Garden since we had not eat since breakfast. After eating we made our daily run to Walmart for a few items we forgot last night and waited in line to check out for at least 30 minutes. The entire city was there buying groceries, etc.
While looking on the Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce website, I did see that there was a Hot Air Balloon affair here this weekend. We knew that because as I mentioned we watched the balloon's from KOA but when I looked for it yesterday on the web I did not see it. Anyway there seems to be a lot going on around this area but I would have no desire to live here. Actually most of the Southwest would not be in the running as a place to make my home. Illinois is not the greatest but I'll take the green grass and trees over the gravel yards and dust of the Southwest.
I am awake again this morning at 4:15. Guess my body does not need as much sleep as I think. I went back to bed with a horrible headache and kept telling myself to relax and finally fell asleep again but was short lived. When Larry got up a short time later, I was awake again.
The morning is beautiful again with temperature of 35 already. Must be much warmer here as I saw posting from friends on Facebook talking about the bitter cold at home. Guess coming South IS a better idea than staying in Peoria.
I have been writing my blog in a word doc on my little net book and had plans to post this morning. We have an access code to use for Internet from KOA and Larry activated last night on his laptop. This morning when I tried to log into Internet was abruptly halted because it only allows one device per access code!!! Since everything is on my hard drive will have to either ask for another code for access or copy over to laptop. What a pain in the butt! I brought a new USB flash drive with me but, of course, cannot locate it's resting spot in the RV yet. It makes me crazy when I am looking for different items and can't figure out where I put them--it's the age thing I think! Larry's memory is much worse than I as this morning he asked if I had seen Tucker and he was laying on Larry's legs. Hmmmm--can't wait to get there!! Only another four short years and I'll be old enough to be THAT crazy too!
I guess we are staying another night here in Las Cruces as we didn't take much time to rest yesterday. We debated on leaving this morning and moving on toward Arizona but I think we both need another day to kick back. I saw on Internet there is an Antique Show here today so thought we might check it out. Just another sign of getting old--in the past year I have gotten into browsing the antique shops. In years past, an antique shop depressed me. I so enjoy browsing and looking at all the things I grew up with! Too bad I didn't save, which is what everyone thinks when they see the prices on all the things from their childhood. We have been collecting milk bottles for a number of years so that is basically what we shop for. The next house we buy will need an entire room to devote to just the milk bottles. We only buy the ones of interest to us, not necessarily the ones of value so not really a big 'money' collection.
We showered and went to the Village Inn for breakfast. We ate many times at the Village Inn in Mesa and their food is always good. We talked to our waitress and she suggested we drive over to La Mesilla which she told us is just 7 or 8 miles from Las Cruces. It is an old town which use to be the capitol of the Arizona Territory and was the home of Billy the Kid. This is probably another wasted trip to a touristy area full of junk shops.
We found our way to La Mesilla and when we were coming into town it started looking familiar. By the time we reached the town plaza I knew we had been there last year. It is a quaint little place and they had vendors set up all around the plaza. There was a guy who made knives from fiber optic and flint and a lot of the knives were like one I bought from a friend at work many years ago for Larry. They were all unusual and some had cactus handles and other deer antler handles. He showed us how he carves the materials for the blades which was interesting.
We strolled through the other vendors and then through the little shops around the plaza and came up to a shop that I bought some wonderful Olive Oil last year. We went in and sampled several of the oils and bought another bottle. We talked a long time to the owner who was interesting. Last year I remember we talked a lot to his wife when we stopped. The shop is very nice and all they carry is olive oil, different flavored balsamic vinegars and several types of marinades.
We left La Mesilla and found an antique shop back in Las Cruces, which was in a class below a garage sale so we didn't spend a lot of time there. We went from there to the Antique Show that I had read about on the web. Larry bought a book which I think is on the Civil War and I just basically browsed through the dealer booths but found nothing I wanted. It was mostly dishes and jewelry which I don't get too excited about.
We went back up to the big shopping area and had soup and salad at Olive Garden since we had not eat since breakfast. After eating we made our daily run to Walmart for a few items we forgot last night and waited in line to check out for at least 30 minutes. The entire city was there buying groceries, etc.
While looking on the Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce website, I did see that there was a Hot Air Balloon affair here this weekend. We knew that because as I mentioned we watched the balloon's from KOA but when I looked for it yesterday on the web I did not see it. Anyway there seems to be a lot going on around this area but I would have no desire to live here. Actually most of the Southwest would not be in the running as a place to make my home. Illinois is not the greatest but I'll take the green grass and trees over the gravel yards and dust of the Southwest.
Arizona 2012 Saturday(Jan 14)
Saturday January 14, 2012
I woke up at 4:00am which seems to be my typical morning. Why I cannot sleep later is a mystery. I can understand the evenings I fall asleep watching TV but the times I go to bed late and I still wake up around the same time. I either lie in bed wide awake or get up and roam around. After two hours, I am ready to go back to bed but never seem to make it. By late afternoon I'm beat! Larry also woke early this morning so we are both on a crazy sleep schedule I guess.
The guy who is parked next to us came outside when Larry was hooking up the water and sewer and said he was looking for the Hot Air Balloons. They evidently were up yesterday and were to go up again today. It wasn't long until we could see several rising above the city skyline. There seemed to be a number of them. I got on the Internet to find out if there was a festival but found nothing regarding Hot Air Balloons here in Las Cruces. Albuquerque always has a huge Balloon Festival but I don't think we have been there during the festival times. The first few years Albuquerque was on our route coming South. I think we must have driven to Albuquerque and dropped down from there to Las Cruces but don't recall. Anyway the Balloons were pretty, as always, to watch.
I sat down and wrote on the blog until later in the morning when we got the water and sewer hooked up and the water heater running. I then started cleaning up the mess in the kitchen; dirty dishes from traveling without water to wash them. I took everything off counters and cleaned the winter dirt off the cabinets and walls. I cleaned the shower and the bathroom and mopped the floor in bath, kitchen and hallway. Larry worked on cleaning the closet mirrors and wiping down the wood and walls in the bedroom. He also ran the vacuum while I cleaned more in living room. It's almost like I'm home with all this cleaning routine! I'm suppose to be on vacation but as always I cannot relax until things are put in order. The motor home collects a lot of dust and crude setting for months at a time so was good to get it cleaned somewhat.
I finally got a shower and was surprised that the drain did not plug from washing my body after 3 days!I have had few times in my life that I have gone 3 days without a shower. I felt so much better after washing my hair and putting on some makeup. I dressed and we went into Las Cruces. On our way into town, the Balloons were going up again and we could see a number from our route into town.
We went to the car wash first as even though we somewhat washed it on Friday, it was full of dust and dirt from being pulled behind the RV. The wash turned out to be a very good job and made the car look so nice.
We left the car wash and drove a few blocks into a huge shopping area of town. We decided to stop at Appleby's for a late lunch/early dinner since we hadn't had a lot to eat today. I ordered the Parmesan Sirloin and Shrimp with mixed vegetables.It was the best meal I have had for a very long time! Since I am not a steak lover I was pleasantly surprised. Larry ordered the Garlic and Herb Sirloin and Shrimp and said his meal was also good.
When we left the restaurant, we drove across the street to a big shopping mall and I returned a jacket for Larry that I had bought sometime back at Ross and then I went into Marshall's as I realized when getting dressed I had only brought one long sleeve top with me. As I said, my packing lacked a lot of effort this year. As always, you can buy what you don't have and since I lost some weight, a couple of new tops were probably in order anyway.
We went back across the street and pulled into our friend 'Sam's' place -- WALMART!! Three days on the road and three trips into Walmart!! It is no surprise why the Walton Family are among the richest in the world, selling all their 'made in China-or wherever' goods! Poor Sam would not be pleased since he pledged to carry only 'Made in USA' items before he died. Anyway, our throw rugs in RV are getting pretty tacky looking so I checked out the rugs at Walmart. We ended up buying two that will work but wasn't so crazy about. I will maybe take a look tomorrow at Sears or wherever for different ones. Just didn't feel like fighting the traffic tonight to stop anywhere else. The traffic in this city can be pretty heavy at times and the roads around the shopping area were enough to make you crazy the way they are designed. It was a challenge just trying to figure out which street lead to what shopping area as they were all so sliced up and seemed to go nowhere--at least not where we wanted to go. We finished up our business at Walmart and headed back to KOA.
I woke up at 4:00am which seems to be my typical morning. Why I cannot sleep later is a mystery. I can understand the evenings I fall asleep watching TV but the times I go to bed late and I still wake up around the same time. I either lie in bed wide awake or get up and roam around. After two hours, I am ready to go back to bed but never seem to make it. By late afternoon I'm beat! Larry also woke early this morning so we are both on a crazy sleep schedule I guess.
The guy who is parked next to us came outside when Larry was hooking up the water and sewer and said he was looking for the Hot Air Balloons. They evidently were up yesterday and were to go up again today. It wasn't long until we could see several rising above the city skyline. There seemed to be a number of them. I got on the Internet to find out if there was a festival but found nothing regarding Hot Air Balloons here in Las Cruces. Albuquerque always has a huge Balloon Festival but I don't think we have been there during the festival times. The first few years Albuquerque was on our route coming South. I think we must have driven to Albuquerque and dropped down from there to Las Cruces but don't recall. Anyway the Balloons were pretty, as always, to watch.
Hot Air Balloons in Las Cruces, NM---(pictures taken from RV Park overlooking the city)
I finally got a shower and was surprised that the drain did not plug from washing my body after 3 days!I have had few times in my life that I have gone 3 days without a shower. I felt so much better after washing my hair and putting on some makeup. I dressed and we went into Las Cruces. On our way into town, the Balloons were going up again and we could see a number from our route into town.
We went to the car wash first as even though we somewhat washed it on Friday, it was full of dust and dirt from being pulled behind the RV. The wash turned out to be a very good job and made the car look so nice.
We left the car wash and drove a few blocks into a huge shopping area of town. We decided to stop at Appleby's for a late lunch/early dinner since we hadn't had a lot to eat today. I ordered the Parmesan Sirloin and Shrimp with mixed vegetables.It was the best meal I have had for a very long time! Since I am not a steak lover I was pleasantly surprised. Larry ordered the Garlic and Herb Sirloin and Shrimp and said his meal was also good.
When we left the restaurant, we drove across the street to a big shopping mall and I returned a jacket for Larry that I had bought sometime back at Ross and then I went into Marshall's as I realized when getting dressed I had only brought one long sleeve top with me. As I said, my packing lacked a lot of effort this year. As always, you can buy what you don't have and since I lost some weight, a couple of new tops were probably in order anyway.
We went back across the street and pulled into our friend 'Sam's' place -- WALMART!! Three days on the road and three trips into Walmart!! It is no surprise why the Walton Family are among the richest in the world, selling all their 'made in China-or wherever' goods! Poor Sam would not be pleased since he pledged to carry only 'Made in USA' items before he died. Anyway, our throw rugs in RV are getting pretty tacky looking so I checked out the rugs at Walmart. We ended up buying two that will work but wasn't so crazy about. I will maybe take a look tomorrow at Sears or wherever for different ones. Just didn't feel like fighting the traffic tonight to stop anywhere else. The traffic in this city can be pretty heavy at times and the roads around the shopping area were enough to make you crazy the way they are designed. It was a challenge just trying to figure out which street lead to what shopping area as they were all so sliced up and seemed to go nowhere--at least not where we wanted to go. We finished up our business at Walmart and headed back to KOA.
Arizona 2012 Wednesday(Jan 11-13)
Wednesday January 11, 2012
We have been packing up the motor home for the past two days preparing to hit the road for another winter in Arizona. The weather in Peoria is so beautiful the past few weeks that I'm asking myself why we are going South! The temperature today is to reach around 60 degrees but when listening to the forecast the past 24 hours it sounds like things are going to change in a drastic way later tonight.
I left this morning at 10:00am for my first of two appointments today. I'm wishing we could have left town this morning but need to keep these appointments and when I tried to change earlier in week, could not change to a different day.
They are forecasting 1-2 inches of snow and the temperature is suppose to drop drastically after midnight. I find the weather forecasters get a little hipped with the mention of snow and tend to exaggerate on the expected accumulations so who knows what will transpire.
I arrived home at 1:00pm and everything I heard about the weather during my running this morning is painting a pretty grim weather picture for tonight.Now they are saying possibly up to 4 inches of snow.I talked to Larry and suggested we step up our packing and leave later this afternoon. My thoughts were if we leave late, we might beat the weather and get far enough South to avoid the worst. He agreed and went over to RV Storage lot and hooked up car dolly and loaded the car. He drove the motor home back to house and we spent the next 4 hours loading the last minute items--which are numerous with personnel items, refrigerator and freezer food. It is a tremendous effort trying to plan for all the needed items. I decided this year to pack the obvious and what I don't have--Walmart does!! It is such a tiring effort hauling these items out and three months later hauling them back into house, so I cut back to the bare essentials.
I talked to Dr. Brown, our Vet, regarding Raven's 'anxiety attacks' every time we put him in the RV to leave. Each time we put him in the motor home, he becomes so evil no one--not even the other two cats--can approach him. He hiss's and growls and foams at the mouth so terribly, that it is all over everything! Dr. Brown suggested rather than trying to give him a pill as a tranquilizer, that it would be easier to give him children's liquid Benedryl about an hour before leaving. He said it should mellow him out and calm him down.At about 3:00 I tried to give him an eye dropper of Benedryl
and he went into a major meltdown the minute it hit his mouth. He ran through the house growling, hissing and yes---foaming at the mouth and it was like he was having a major fit of madness. Trying to approach him is not an option as he has clawed and bit me in the past. I stupidly though that getting it down his throat would be the worst part but after he laid claw marks on my legs getting off my lap, I soon found that getting the med's in his mouth was not the worst part. I'm standing there watching this fit of madness thinking -- and this is better in WHAT way?? I left him to his insanity thinking by the time we were ready to leave he would be mellowed out.The minute I put him in the RV he started all over again with the hissing and growling and--I'm not even sure if he did the foaming thing as no one could get close enough to him to see.
We decided at 4:15 we had the majority of needed items so we took showers and left at 5:00pm.
We drove until 8:00pm and stopped to fuel and eat at a Truck Stop near St Louis. When we left we drove another two hours until we found a Walmart about an hour east of Joplin, Mo. We parked and walked across lot to Walmart and the winds were gusty and the temperature had dropped to about 25 degrees. We came back to RV and started the generator and the furnace. The furnace made a rather funny noise for awhile before we went to bed. We turned on our electric mattress pad and about the time it heated up, the breaker kicked out. Larry tried to reset but nothing was working so decided to look at it in the morning. We went to bed around midnight.
Thursday January 12, 2012
We woke shortly after 4:00am and realized the furnace had quit running and we were freezing. We got up and could hear the wind beating at the motor home and it almost felt like we were standing outside. Larry found the service manual on the furnace and the power and was able to get it all working again. We walked across the parking lot to Steak and Shake for breakfast at 5:30 and when we walked back the wind felt even worse and it was horribly cold with about an inch of snow blowing around.
When we got back to RV we realized that something on the power source was wrong as our house batteries were being drained rather than charging. Larry went outside and found a reset button somewhere in the battery compartment so hopefully our problem will correct itself. The joys of owing a motor home are too numerous to mention. Seems nothing works right when it's hot, cold or raining! If you can find a beautiful sunny warm day to take a spin go for it!!!!
Larry called the Missouri State Police for a highway report. They said there was a terrible accident on outside of Joplin and traffic was stalled. We waited awhile and decided to try driving. The highway was iced in most places and the wind was blowing the snow like a whiteout and at times felt we were being blown off the road! It was very slow driving and we kept seeing semi's jackknifed and cars and pickups off into the median and side of road. I get very anxious driving in bad weather as we are packing a lot of weight with the RV and towing the car. It took us about two hours to drive the distance to the east side of Joplin where the traffic came to a halt. They were still working on clearing the accident site. We sat for about 30 minutes in traffic before we started moving again.
We drove until around 2:00 in the weather mess and suddenly, the sun peaked through and the roads started clearing more. The winds were still pretty gusty but it was getting better. We drove to El Reno, OK and opted for another Walmart lot for the night. When we went to bed the temperature was down to 19 degrees but without the horrible wind gusts, it felt warm compared to the rest of our day.
Friday January 13, 2012
What a change a few hours make in the weather pattern. When we got up this morning it was almost actually warm. Still in the low 20's but without the wind and no snow it looks to be a much better day.
We cannot de-winterize the RV yet so we are using bottled water for everything. This marks day two without a shower. My hair looked like I stuck my finger in a light socket--which is typical when I get out of bed most days! I heated some water and wet down my hair and washed my body. I dried my hair and when I got dressed I felt and almost looked human. This is the worst part of traveling in the winter is not having the comforts of home for a few days.
We left El Reno, OK at 6:30am and stopped in about an hour to refuel and get breakfast. After looking over the selection at the truck stop we opted to drive until we found a real breakfast menu. Basically our choices at the truck stop were fried chicken, pizza and something they called a breakfast sandwich. Looking at the sandwich I wasn't really sure what it was.I feel for the truckers as unless they carry items for their meals, it's going to be some fatty, greasy affair for food.
We got back on the road with our attention toward finding breakfast. We drove another hour or more and finally found a Denny's in Sayre, OK that looked to be an easy area to exit. We pulled in and had breakfast and when walking back to RV we noticed a truck wash across the road. It's hard to tell what color the motor home or car is with all the salt and road grime from yesterday. Larry wanted to do the honors of washing the vehicles. I told him it was too cold so I would not be helping. I'm such a B---- that way! I have been freezing to death since we left home. He pulled into the truck wash and it was basically a VERY over sized do-it-yourself car wash. He got out and sprayed everything down and it actually looked pretty good, considering the windshield and windows were so covered with dirt we couldn't see out before.
Since I stuck him with the dirty work, I guess he figured I could do the driving. I drove about three hours to Tucamcari, NM and let him take the wheel. I don't mind driving and feel confident driving this monster but I would rather set read and relax when I have a choice. He, on the other hand, enjoys driving. In that respect, we make a perfect duo.
We headed to Santa Rosa, NM where we would take RT 54S to Las Cruces, NM. Next thing I knew we were headed east on some deserted blacktop and realized we missed the turn. There was absolutely no place to turn this rig around. We kept driving and finally saw a road sign saying we were on RT 84--differently not the right direction for our destination.
We drove and drove and could still find no place big enough to turn around. Not even a side road that looked like it would hold the weight of the RV. We were well into 25 miles beyond our designated route so decided to continue driving and cut back across to catch 54S again. We drove at least 80 miles in a big 'U' to arrive in Vaughn, NM. To say this is the 'armpit of Hell' would be an understatement! We stopped at a run down dump of a gas station and bought 30 gallon of Diesel at $3.99 a gal. This was at least $.45 higher than anyplace so far. In looking around us, I was happy to get the fuel to assure myself we would not run out in this area. No one except the clerk inside the station spoke anything resembling English. We still were not sure WHERE to catch our route so talked to the clerk and she told us to continue through town and we would catch it on the other side.
We drove on into this poor,filthy, seedy little town and kept looking for our route as we exited the other side. We slowed at the only little road but it had no signs and looked like a cow path. We drove on and decided it was the only possibility so we cut thru a paved strip that was had a dipped area to the other side of pavement. Half way through the most horrible scraping sound occurred. I panicked as it sounded like we hit bottom with RV. Larry kept going and we made it to the other side and headed back to the road we passed. On this side of the pavement there was a sign indicating it was 53S. We turned onto the road and pulled over to check our damages. Lucky for us, we had only drug the extender on the bottom of the dolly hitch. No damage was visible.
We drove FOREVER on this deserted road, through a few mountains and curves and my ears were popping so I knew we were at a pretty high altitude. The roadway began to show drifts of snow from what was probably Thursday's storm and the temperature was getting colder. There was nothing but brown fields with tumbleweed and a few mountains. I prayed we would not have any driving problems as I could envision the Drug Lords coming out of the mountains as the sun began to set. This was worse than BFE!!!
We drove and drove and I tried using the navigator on my phone to find out WHERE we were and how far before we could get off this road. The navigator would just set and grind as I'm sure even the satellites were not hovering above this area! I had no Internet connection--BIG SURPRISE I'm thinking! A while later my phone rang and it was Leslie. I started talking and lost the call. I called Leslie seven(7) times before we could finish our conversation but at least I had a cell phone connection so we must be nearing civilization! We came out of this area into Las Cruces just as though we had been picked up and dropped back to earth.
We had not eaten since breakfast and it was now 8:00. The first McDonald's we saw Larry pulled in and we forced down our fast food setting at a table that had graffiti carved into the top. Again we are the only English speaking patrons in the place. The manager luckily spoke English to us but everyone else he spoke to in Spanish! Taylor, where are you when we need a translator!!! Anyway we were both so hungry all of this rolled off our back and we continued on into Las Cruces to the KOA. We have stayed here several times in the past 3 years. It is a very scenic RV Park and sets high above the city and you can see forever. We stop here each year as the weather is warm enough that we can de-winterize and take a few day of R & R before driving on to Arizona.
Las Cruces is a nice city but like all cities, it has it's 'hood' area. New Mexico must have more poverty than any other state in the US. Lesser people could not exist in the living conditions that the majority of the people live in. The houses throughout the countryside are no more shacks! They look like they would fall in on whoever opened a door! One of the requirements also, is to have at least 5 junk cars parked in the front yard. This state is just an extension of Mexico itself, regardless that it exists within the boundaries of the US.
We arrived at the KOA at about 9:00pm. We called for a reservation earlier in the day and our packet was waiting outside, since the office was closed. We found our site and pulled in, deciding to only connect our power tonight. We will finish hooking up tomorrow morning when it is warmer. It has been a VERY long day of travel. We did not plan to drive to Las Cruces today but with our misfortune of a detour through the 'blackhole of the earth', we had no options of anyplace else that we felt safe enough to stay. I think it is safe to say we drove close to 600 miles since leaving this morning. I think we will kick back for a couple of days to re coupe!
We have been packing up the motor home for the past two days preparing to hit the road for another winter in Arizona. The weather in Peoria is so beautiful the past few weeks that I'm asking myself why we are going South! The temperature today is to reach around 60 degrees but when listening to the forecast the past 24 hours it sounds like things are going to change in a drastic way later tonight.
I left this morning at 10:00am for my first of two appointments today. I'm wishing we could have left town this morning but need to keep these appointments and when I tried to change earlier in week, could not change to a different day.
They are forecasting 1-2 inches of snow and the temperature is suppose to drop drastically after midnight. I find the weather forecasters get a little hipped with the mention of snow and tend to exaggerate on the expected accumulations so who knows what will transpire.
I arrived home at 1:00pm and everything I heard about the weather during my running this morning is painting a pretty grim weather picture for tonight.Now they are saying possibly up to 4 inches of snow.I talked to Larry and suggested we step up our packing and leave later this afternoon. My thoughts were if we leave late, we might beat the weather and get far enough South to avoid the worst. He agreed and went over to RV Storage lot and hooked up car dolly and loaded the car. He drove the motor home back to house and we spent the next 4 hours loading the last minute items--which are numerous with personnel items, refrigerator and freezer food. It is a tremendous effort trying to plan for all the needed items. I decided this year to pack the obvious and what I don't have--Walmart does!! It is such a tiring effort hauling these items out and three months later hauling them back into house, so I cut back to the bare essentials.
I talked to Dr. Brown, our Vet, regarding Raven's 'anxiety attacks' every time we put him in the RV to leave. Each time we put him in the motor home, he becomes so evil no one--not even the other two cats--can approach him. He hiss's and growls and foams at the mouth so terribly, that it is all over everything! Dr. Brown suggested rather than trying to give him a pill as a tranquilizer, that it would be easier to give him children's liquid Benedryl about an hour before leaving. He said it should mellow him out and calm him down.At about 3:00 I tried to give him an eye dropper of Benedryl
and he went into a major meltdown the minute it hit his mouth. He ran through the house growling, hissing and yes---foaming at the mouth and it was like he was having a major fit of madness. Trying to approach him is not an option as he has clawed and bit me in the past. I stupidly though that getting it down his throat would be the worst part but after he laid claw marks on my legs getting off my lap, I soon found that getting the med's in his mouth was not the worst part. I'm standing there watching this fit of madness thinking -- and this is better in WHAT way?? I left him to his insanity thinking by the time we were ready to leave he would be mellowed out.The minute I put him in the RV he started all over again with the hissing and growling and--I'm not even sure if he did the foaming thing as no one could get close enough to him to see.
We decided at 4:15 we had the majority of needed items so we took showers and left at 5:00pm.
We drove until 8:00pm and stopped to fuel and eat at a Truck Stop near St Louis. When we left we drove another two hours until we found a Walmart about an hour east of Joplin, Mo. We parked and walked across lot to Walmart and the winds were gusty and the temperature had dropped to about 25 degrees. We came back to RV and started the generator and the furnace. The furnace made a rather funny noise for awhile before we went to bed. We turned on our electric mattress pad and about the time it heated up, the breaker kicked out. Larry tried to reset but nothing was working so decided to look at it in the morning. We went to bed around midnight.
Thursday January 12, 2012
We woke shortly after 4:00am and realized the furnace had quit running and we were freezing. We got up and could hear the wind beating at the motor home and it almost felt like we were standing outside. Larry found the service manual on the furnace and the power and was able to get it all working again. We walked across the parking lot to Steak and Shake for breakfast at 5:30 and when we walked back the wind felt even worse and it was horribly cold with about an inch of snow blowing around.
When we got back to RV we realized that something on the power source was wrong as our house batteries were being drained rather than charging. Larry went outside and found a reset button somewhere in the battery compartment so hopefully our problem will correct itself. The joys of owing a motor home are too numerous to mention. Seems nothing works right when it's hot, cold or raining! If you can find a beautiful sunny warm day to take a spin go for it!!!!
Larry called the Missouri State Police for a highway report. They said there was a terrible accident on outside of Joplin and traffic was stalled. We waited awhile and decided to try driving. The highway was iced in most places and the wind was blowing the snow like a whiteout and at times felt we were being blown off the road! It was very slow driving and we kept seeing semi's jackknifed and cars and pickups off into the median and side of road. I get very anxious driving in bad weather as we are packing a lot of weight with the RV and towing the car. It took us about two hours to drive the distance to the east side of Joplin where the traffic came to a halt. They were still working on clearing the accident site. We sat for about 30 minutes in traffic before we started moving again.
We drove until around 2:00 in the weather mess and suddenly, the sun peaked through and the roads started clearing more. The winds were still pretty gusty but it was getting better. We drove to El Reno, OK and opted for another Walmart lot for the night. When we went to bed the temperature was down to 19 degrees but without the horrible wind gusts, it felt warm compared to the rest of our day.
Friday January 13, 2012
What a change a few hours make in the weather pattern. When we got up this morning it was almost actually warm. Still in the low 20's but without the wind and no snow it looks to be a much better day.
We cannot de-winterize the RV yet so we are using bottled water for everything. This marks day two without a shower. My hair looked like I stuck my finger in a light socket--which is typical when I get out of bed most days! I heated some water and wet down my hair and washed my body. I dried my hair and when I got dressed I felt and almost looked human. This is the worst part of traveling in the winter is not having the comforts of home for a few days.
We left El Reno, OK at 6:30am and stopped in about an hour to refuel and get breakfast. After looking over the selection at the truck stop we opted to drive until we found a real breakfast menu. Basically our choices at the truck stop were fried chicken, pizza and something they called a breakfast sandwich. Looking at the sandwich I wasn't really sure what it was.I feel for the truckers as unless they carry items for their meals, it's going to be some fatty, greasy affair for food.
We got back on the road with our attention toward finding breakfast. We drove another hour or more and finally found a Denny's in Sayre, OK that looked to be an easy area to exit. We pulled in and had breakfast and when walking back to RV we noticed a truck wash across the road. It's hard to tell what color the motor home or car is with all the salt and road grime from yesterday. Larry wanted to do the honors of washing the vehicles. I told him it was too cold so I would not be helping. I'm such a B---- that way! I have been freezing to death since we left home. He pulled into the truck wash and it was basically a VERY over sized do-it-yourself car wash. He got out and sprayed everything down and it actually looked pretty good, considering the windshield and windows were so covered with dirt we couldn't see out before.
Since I stuck him with the dirty work, I guess he figured I could do the driving. I drove about three hours to Tucamcari, NM and let him take the wheel. I don't mind driving and feel confident driving this monster but I would rather set read and relax when I have a choice. He, on the other hand, enjoys driving. In that respect, we make a perfect duo.
We headed to Santa Rosa, NM where we would take RT 54S to Las Cruces, NM. Next thing I knew we were headed east on some deserted blacktop and realized we missed the turn. There was absolutely no place to turn this rig around. We kept driving and finally saw a road sign saying we were on RT 84--differently not the right direction for our destination.
We drove and drove and could still find no place big enough to turn around. Not even a side road that looked like it would hold the weight of the RV. We were well into 25 miles beyond our designated route so decided to continue driving and cut back across to catch 54S again. We drove at least 80 miles in a big 'U' to arrive in Vaughn, NM. To say this is the 'armpit of Hell' would be an understatement! We stopped at a run down dump of a gas station and bought 30 gallon of Diesel at $3.99 a gal. This was at least $.45 higher than anyplace so far. In looking around us, I was happy to get the fuel to assure myself we would not run out in this area. No one except the clerk inside the station spoke anything resembling English. We still were not sure WHERE to catch our route so talked to the clerk and she told us to continue through town and we would catch it on the other side.
We drove on into this poor,filthy, seedy little town and kept looking for our route as we exited the other side. We slowed at the only little road but it had no signs and looked like a cow path. We drove on and decided it was the only possibility so we cut thru a paved strip that was had a dipped area to the other side of pavement. Half way through the most horrible scraping sound occurred. I panicked as it sounded like we hit bottom with RV. Larry kept going and we made it to the other side and headed back to the road we passed. On this side of the pavement there was a sign indicating it was 53S. We turned onto the road and pulled over to check our damages. Lucky for us, we had only drug the extender on the bottom of the dolly hitch. No damage was visible.
We drove FOREVER on this deserted road, through a few mountains and curves and my ears were popping so I knew we were at a pretty high altitude. The roadway began to show drifts of snow from what was probably Thursday's storm and the temperature was getting colder. There was nothing but brown fields with tumbleweed and a few mountains. I prayed we would not have any driving problems as I could envision the Drug Lords coming out of the mountains as the sun began to set. This was worse than BFE!!!
We drove and drove and I tried using the navigator on my phone to find out WHERE we were and how far before we could get off this road. The navigator would just set and grind as I'm sure even the satellites were not hovering above this area! I had no Internet connection--BIG SURPRISE I'm thinking! A while later my phone rang and it was Leslie. I started talking and lost the call. I called Leslie seven(7) times before we could finish our conversation but at least I had a cell phone connection so we must be nearing civilization! We came out of this area into Las Cruces just as though we had been picked up and dropped back to earth.
We had not eaten since breakfast and it was now 8:00. The first McDonald's we saw Larry pulled in and we forced down our fast food setting at a table that had graffiti carved into the top. Again we are the only English speaking patrons in the place. The manager luckily spoke English to us but everyone else he spoke to in Spanish! Taylor, where are you when we need a translator!!! Anyway we were both so hungry all of this rolled off our back and we continued on into Las Cruces to the KOA. We have stayed here several times in the past 3 years. It is a very scenic RV Park and sets high above the city and you can see forever. We stop here each year as the weather is warm enough that we can de-winterize and take a few day of R & R before driving on to Arizona.
Las Cruces is a nice city but like all cities, it has it's 'hood' area. New Mexico must have more poverty than any other state in the US. Lesser people could not exist in the living conditions that the majority of the people live in. The houses throughout the countryside are no more shacks! They look like they would fall in on whoever opened a door! One of the requirements also, is to have at least 5 junk cars parked in the front yard. This state is just an extension of Mexico itself, regardless that it exists within the boundaries of the US.
We arrived at the KOA at about 9:00pm. We called for a reservation earlier in the day and our packet was waiting outside, since the office was closed. We found our site and pulled in, deciding to only connect our power tonight. We will finish hooking up tomorrow morning when it is warmer. It has been a VERY long day of travel. We did not plan to drive to Las Cruces today but with our misfortune of a detour through the 'blackhole of the earth', we had no options of anyplace else that we felt safe enough to stay. I think it is safe to say we drove close to 600 miles since leaving this morning. I think we will kick back for a couple of days to re coupe!
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