Traveling to Mexican Hat, Utah 5-3-08

We had a long day today. We left Tijeras at 9:20, fueled up and hit the road. We took 40 west and in Albuquerque picked up 25 north. Going through cities makes me anxious and I’m not the one doing the driving. About 15 miles north of Alb. we picked up highway 550 north. It was a nice four lane highway with gorgeous scenery, but no good places to ever pull out to gawk at the views.

East of Bloomfield, NM we crossed the Continental Divide, it's elevation was 7,380 feet.

In Bloomfield we stopped and fueled up and Larry was ticked that $3.999 was good. He believes we shouldn’t be paying over $1.00 a gallon for diesel and the fact that when we hit the road four years ago it was under $2.00 and when it hit $2.00 he was cranky, so you can imagine how much I’ve heard about the fuel prices over the last four years! He’s right though. May of last year it went over $3.00 and in less than a year we were paying over $4.00. Just this year it went up fifty seven cents! We are amazed at how many people don’t realize the direct connection between the rising fuel costs and the rise in groceries and other things.

Any way, back to today, we picked up 64 west and checked out Farmington. There are a lot of oil fields here and that surprised us, so Farmington was very industrial with lots of businesses connected to oil, energy and hardware. It was bigger than expected and their Main Street was kind of cute.

We stopped at the Safeway there to pick up a few things. A homeless looking man asked Larry for some money…I carried on into the store and got started with the shopping. Larry came to the door and told me he was staying with the truck…so I knew something about the guy out there made Larry uncomfortable. I finished my shopping and as I head around the side where we parked the rig a Police Unit was stopped in the driveway. I wasn’t sure if I should continue on to the truck, but Larry saw me and didn’t indicate I shouldn’t keep going. The cop had a guy handcuffed and laying face down on the sidewalk….interesting.

After Larry refused the man any money the guy walked around our trailer and Larry kept an eye on him. The guy checked out a parked car and walked over behind our trailer again and picked up a big rock. Larry called 911 and while he was on the phone the guy leans nonchalantly against the car and then tries to break the window with the rock. I put the groceries away, Larry talked to the cop and then we headed on west! Farmington did not give us a warm fuzzy feeling!

There was an RV Park in Shiprock, but after scoping it out, there wasn’t anyone in the office, we decided to keep on trucking…not a warm fuzzy place either. The Shiprock formation looked more like a castle to us than a ship, I didn't get a very good photo of it, it was on Larry's side of the truck.

Most of the day we were at high altitudes, six to seven thousand plus feet. We crossed into Arizona and then picked up 160 west until we came to 191 north into Utah and then we picked up 163 south to Mexican Hat.

Mexican Hat is a teeny town next to the Mexican Hat Rock. The RV Park is small and behind a store/restaurant combo, but WOW, what scenery! It is just a short walk down the hill to the San Juan River. It is a big, swift river that flows into Lake Powell, which is the Colorado River damned up.

I took about two hundred pictures! Some were blurry of course taking them out the window of the moving truck, but most were good. Utah has the most stunning scenery, but then I love rocks! I also love flowers and there are a lot of wildflowers blooming everywhere.

We got into the RV Park at 5:30 and we had traveled 333 miles today. Our necks were sore with all the swiveling we did to catch sight of all the great scenery! LOL! Most of the first pictures are in New Mexico, but don't hold me to it! The lizards were here in Mexican Rock, Utah...they don't want to be thought of as New Mexican Lizards!

These last pictures are all here at Mexican Rock, one is of the RV Park from down below and the red/orange wall of rock is what I can see here from my window. The San Juan River flows at the base of those red rocks. It’s a good thing rocky scenery isn’t noisy or we wouldn’t get any sleep tonight!

Heading North 5-2-08

We left around 9:30. We headed North on highway 54. At Corona we headed North West on highway 42. At Willard we picked up 41 North to Interstate 40 West to our destination at Tijeras, which is east of Albuquerque. It was sunny and very windy. It is about 20 degrees cooler up here than down at Alamogordo. We traveled 189 miles. We had to take a 6 mile detour because of road destruction which Larry figured cost us about $3.00. We stayed at this park 2 years ago almost to the day. Most all of the countryside we covered was pretty boring and a lot of nothing. I didn't even take any pictures. Now I'm tired so this entry is pretty boring. We'll be on the road again tomorrow. G'Night.

Waiting out the Wind 5-1-08

We decided to hang here another day, maybe two because of the winds. The winds are very strong here and stronger yet where we were heading so we decided to wait for better weather. We aren't in any hurry and who needs the unnecessary stress?!

This sunset picture was from a couple days ago.

Last day in Tularosa 4-30-08

Yesterday we ran some errands and enjoyed the warm, gorgeous weather. Today was laundry day and then we’ve been holed up in the trailer with the a/c on all afternoon. It is in the low 80’s but the wind and blowing dirt are really, really bad. Something got my allergies yesterday and I spent a couple hours sneezing my head off and who knows what is blowing around in this dirt today.

We’ve gotten to see some bird types we’ve never seen before while we’ve been here. I heard a bird the other morning on our walk that reminded me of the Cardinal, but this bird was more brown when we finally could see it. I looked it up in my bird book and it is a Pyrrhuloxia, can’t even begin to pronounce that one! We’ve seen Thrashers, Orioles, Roadrunners, Nighthawks, Whitewinged Doves and Hawks.

This first picture shows the thickness of the Mesquite root. As the sides of the arroyos crumble some of these roots get exposed. Their roots are amazingly large and they are really deeply rooted to survive the dry conditions. This area is in a ten-plus year drought right now and they get most of their rainfall in the summer during the monsoon season.





The second picture shows a big crack where another piece of land is ready to fall into the arroyo and the tops of the much hated Salt Cedar trees can be seen, in other parts of the country they are called Tamarisk and they are considered very undesirable and pests. They suck up all the good water and just leave behind brackish yuck. They are pretty, but are invasive.




The last picture just shows what much of the desert floor right around here looks like.

Tomorrow we are headed out and heading north through New Mexico, across part of Utah and then to Fallon from Ely, Nevada. As long as we can get on the internet I’ll try to keep you posted! At one point today the dirt was so thick we couldn’t get a signal!

Since I first typed this draft, Larry checked out the weather north of here and it is COLD still, so we may take a warmer route back to Fallon....hate to give up this warmth before we have to!

Arroyo 4-27-08

Last night the wind rocked and rolled us off and on all night long. It was calm up until dark, we even got to enjoy sitting outside without wind and listen to the quail and watch the bunnies. Our noisiest neighbors are coyote and we don't even hear them every morning.

It was breezy off and on today, but mostly still. It was also cooler, the high today was 69. These pictures I took this evening in the Arroyo behind us.

Enjoying Spring in Tularosa 4-25-08

We have been enjoying the Alamogordo area a lot. The pace is laid back and the people are nice. The weather has been real enjoyable except for some wind every once in awhile. Yesterday was the worst....this picture was taken out of our door and that is dirt obstructing our great view. You can see a before picture if you scroll down to a previous post. The sun went down as an orange ball sinking into the dirt.

Day 2 in Tularosa, NM 4-19-08

The low last night was 52 and the high today was 79...at least here in Tularosa where our trailer is. It was in the 80's down in Alamogordo.

Today we did some laundry and drove around the backroads getting our bearings. We like the village of Tularosa...it has a nice mix of historical and tasteful new construction that fits the region perfectly.

After the sun starts to set the cottontail bunnies comeout of the woodwork around here grazing on the little bits of lawn at each RV site. The quail get really active then too, their sounds are sometimes comical.

So that is about all for us today. Fuel prices are still rising. Talked to my friend in Plumas County in California, she had most recently seen $3.75 for regular and today paid $4.09. I didn't even ask what diesel was! Those petroleum execs must be redoing their gold-plated bathrooms again...ridiculous!

Isn't this a wicked, mean looking cactus?

The first picture is a shot of the Sacramento Mountain range to the east.

1st day in Alamogordo 4-18-08

Today we went into town and drove through Alamogordo to reacquaint ourselves with its layout. We found the visitors center and came out with a pile of info. Then we stopped at Auto Zone so we could have the trucks computer read. They do it for free, where at the dealership it can cost from one to two hundred dollars. Nothing too terrible seems to be wrong, Larry got the wrench he needs to get the fuel filter off and once that is done we should be good to go. Some other thingy needs to get cleaned off and that is all. Took the guy about a minute, he plugged his handheld computer into the port under our dash and presto….we had our information. Very helpful, nice people in there.

The weather was in the low 70's and just a very light breeze....gorgeous. It is very quiet and peaceful at this RV Park. It has bathrooms and showers...

Hey, Uncle Gene and Auntie Bon, if one had a truck and camping gear, and if one had never been to New Mexico and if one's favorite Nephew and favorite Nephew's Spouse were hanging out for a week or two and one wanted to do some exploring...maybe one would take a road trip! Hmmmmmm...just thinking out loud. Tee hee....how's that coffee?

These pictures were taken from our trailer door.

Reached our Destination 4-17-08

We headed out at 8:10 this morning. The wind wasn’t as bad today. We took I40 east to Holbrook where I got this picture of the famous Wigwam motel rooms. Then we took 180 from there to Springerville, AZ. From Springerville we picked up 60 to Socorro, NM, then 25 south for a bit to 380 east and at Carrizozo we headed south on 54 to Tularosa, NM.

The truck gave us some grief for about 70 miles and then started working better again. Larry thinks it may be the fuel filter, but he’ll figure it out tomorrow and if he can’t then off to the Chevy shop he’ll go.

We stopped at a pull out near the VLA, Very Large Array…hey I didn’t name it, where Larry checked the trucks fuses and I got these pictures of the huge “satellite dishes”. From a distance they looked like flowers with their faces pointed at the sun, but as I watched them while Larry was busy they very slowly changed position constantly. The public is welcome there and one day we’ll have to stop in and check out what they are looking at out there in space! There were about 25 of them.

The pictures before the Array are in Arizona and the ones after are in New Mexico. Much of the terrain we covered today was at high elevations, five to eight thousand feet, it seemed like we would get over one mountain and have to climb another. It was cold, windy and mostly range land. Way more cattle out in that country than people! We crossed the Continental Divide east of Pie Town, NM and the elevation there was 7796 and we climbed some more after that. We didn’t drop down until we dropped into Socorro and its elevation is around 4605 feet.

We are now in Mountain Time and we landed here at Mountain Meadows RV in Tularosa, NM at 6:50 and we traveled 427 miles. Diesel here this evening was 4.059. We are away from the highway and the train tracks at least a couple miles, so it should be peaceful here….time will tell! This morning at 5:30 a Grackle...a very vocal southwest bird was outside our window announcing himself quite loudly.

Rocking in the wind, Meteor, AZ 4-16-08

The park was pretty quiet except for the rumbling of the train, at least it didn’t need to blow its horn. We got up this morning and got going. It smelled heavenly outside…Orange Blossoms…um, um, UM. There are so many orange groves the air was saturated with their perfume for miles! This is where we were last night, the Bakersfield Palms RV Resort. We were very close to our neighbors!

We hit the road at 8:05 heading east on highway 58. It wasn’t windy this morning when we started out. I just love the drive up the Tehachapi Mountains, they are just so pretty and there were lots of wildflowers. I like all the oak trees and there are many interesting rock formations. The city of Tehachapi spreads out in all directions in its valley that is rimmed by hundreds of windmills.

Around Barstow we had to take 15 north to pick up Interstate 40 east. Diesel was $4.219 in Barstow. Interstate 40 begins there outside of Barstow and goes all the way to Wilmington, North Carolina…there was a sign that let us know that it was 2,554 miles to get there!

I think a lot of people think the southwest is mostly flat…not true! We spent a lot of time climbing mountains today and at one point fighting a very stiff headwind…not good for the mileage. Bad winds most of the way east of Barstow. Gusting 35mph winds tonight when we landed east of Flagstaff at Meteor RV Park at 6:30. The wind made setup miserable and cold for Larry and we are rocking pretty hard off and on….we could get “sea sick”, at least we are pointed into the wind. We traveled 522 miles today.

We saw boring terrain, interesting rocky terrain, an area of gorgeous blooming Ocotillos, and snow patches around Flagstaff where it was very cold. We never linger around Flagstaff…they are not RV friendly so we just pass it on by! We also saw lots and lots of trains…you can’t hardly get away from them along the interstates down here. I hear ones horn as I type…at least it is a little farther away tonight!

On the Road Again! 4-15-08

It rained last evening, more than expected. We pulled out of the Ukiah Fairgrounds at 8:47. The price for Diesel fuel when we left today was $4.29 and when we arrived in Ukiah a week ago it was $4.15.

We stopped for toast at our usual place on the west side of Clearlake Oaks. It was windy today but clear. We took highway 20 to I-5 south. We stopped for potty breaks twice at rest areas along 5. We fueled up at Santa Nella and paid $4.21 a gallon. I’m doing this from memory so I might be off a tenth…we got 26.5 gallons and it was $115 dollars…and for us that is half a tank. We pulled around back to have some lunch and by the time we got back on the road…about a half hour…the price had gone up 2 cents. It is CRAZY!

So we kept on keeping on until we got onto Highway 58 east out of Bakersfield. We are staying at a “resort” and right now there is a helicopter whopping away above us, the train rumbles by about every 50 minutes and some rude people two rows over have that thunking loud speaker system in their truck….only one night…it is quieter in truck stops!

It was mostly still green everywhere, the hills to the west of I-5 are only green for a very short time. As we got farther south they became brown. The nut trees are all leafed out and loaded with nuts. Outside of Bakersfield were fields of rose bushes. I just never had a good photo “op” today.

We landed at 6:30 and we traveled 443 miles today. We are heading for Alamogordo, New Mexico for a couple of weeks.

Ukiah & The Wedding 4-14-08

It has been awhile since you’ve heard anything from me. Just day to day living in Fallon, not much exciting to talk about there right now.

Last week we headed over to Ukiah, California for a week. Traveling is an expensive endeavor with fuel prices right now. Diesel has more than doubled since we hit the road four years ago…ridiculous! It cost us $112 for 26 gallons of fuel on our way over here.

Ukiah is in Spring-swing right now and I have to keep stopping on our daily walks to admire something new! These pink flowering Dogwoods are huge and stunning. I didn’t have my camera with me today so I can’t share the long expanse of Wisteria in bloom that most people will miss seeing as it is behind the Library along a driveway and you pretty much have to be walking to see it.

We have been busy the last few days with our Daughters and our Grandsons. We had Ian on a sleepover one night and Seth over the next night…no we did not have them both at the same time….no, no, no…we are not that crazy! The trailer is too small for that!

Yesterday was our oldest daughter Andrea’s wedding. She and Will did all the planning and it turned out beautifully. The location was a lodge on a small lake, the food was excellent and instead of traditional cake they had an assortment of Cheesecake…yum. They were keeping to a budget and wanted to keep the wedding small and manageable and they did a great job. They should do well together.

Michelle and Seth headed back home to Oregon today, and we spent the day relaxing. Andrea and Will are on their way to Kauai for a week. Tomorrow we hit the road and we have decided to head to New Mexico for a couple of weeks so you might hear from me a little more often the next several days.

The weather has been wonderful the whole week, in the 80’s every day, but today it has cooled down, been windy and now as I type this it has started raining! At least it waited until after the wedding.

Enjoy the pictures!