Gunning for Texas, Clear Skies, Strong Tailwinds

Today is Thursday, Mar. 23^rd and we pulled out of a very full lot from when we pulled in yesterday afternoon. To be expected so even though a reefer parked right beside us sometime through the night, we slept quite good with ear plugs.

The sky is clear and blue so it looks like a great travel day. Our goal is Texas today, we’ll see where we end up for our overnighter. We’ll check somewhere along the way at free sites.

Love their overpasses in New Mexico

I read a little tidbit from back home this morning which brings my daughter’s ‘real’ world into focus. Bridgette has sold her house in a small town, Ontario, and gets possession of a ‘new to her’ house on April 1^st, in a city about 3 hours east of where she started. She is the Operations Manager of Regency Fireplace Inc. which has relocated from London, On to Guelph, On.

Funny how I was just talking about Bridgette and on the left in this picture is a Mini Cooper
Which she drives.....in a different colour

Quite the uprooting of a settled lifestyle for her and her sons. I wanted to mention her here as I know she reads my blog. Now that the company stuff is in order I’m sure she is very excited with the prospects of her new home. We are thinking of her with this transition and can’t wait to see her pretty home in person. Pictures to follow at a later date for sure!

We actually walked in for one thing and walked out with only that one thing. Amazing!

We detoured off to the Camping World at Albuquerque to pick up a water filter, our last purchase this trip. A quick in and out and back on the highway at 10:20 before pulling off at exit 153 to top up fuel at Flying J. Not as good a deal as our last fill up but easy in and out at least.

Not far down the road and we see the sign for Tijeras and the Zuzax gas bar. This is where we went into Hidden Valley RV Resort on the way down for 2 nights. We remember it well, trying to find it and then the tight spots. It was pretty though and no regrets, we met a nice couple from B.C., Jill and Mike. We are now travelling the part of I-40 we came down on, seeing familiar things.

Hidden Valley RV Resort is up on the hill behind the Gas Bar

By 11:30 we needed a break where we could open our slides, make a coffee and a sandwich. Seems like a lot of little pit stops but each one is worth it for various reasons and each one refreshes us. After a half hour stop we can carry on. The temperature is sitting around 68F and there are gale force winds making it hard to open and close the truck and rv doors.

Texans are nothing if not original

Driving along and just before Fort Sumner, exit 277, a tractor trailer driver honks as he is passing us, pointing to the back of our unit. Oh no, what happened? We couldn’t see anything in the rearview camera but pulled over immediately just before the exit. Bill saw what the problem was and thank goodness, it was minor.

Clemson sleeps with his seatbelt on

It is nice that others help out. The strap that goes over the bikes on the cargo carrier had come loose and was flapping out behind us. Not yet was it concerning that the bikes would fall off, they were secured pretty good. This was a quick fix and we are soon on the road again.

These are beautiful and well cared for

We are seeing more rolling flatlands dotted with green trees, all the same kind, and then fields very congested with wolf cholla cactus. I don’t know if they flower at all but they are looking quite brown. The temperature has risen to 87F and we are at 4093’ elevation. Beautiful day to be travelling even though we are experiencing 37 mph winds.

Stopped near Tucumcari at a Flying J to top up fuel again from a half full tank. We wanted to look at our park status too since we realized that we won’t be out of ROD’s membership system for a full week (which is required before going into another ROD park) so we hope we can use AOR at Eagle’s Den. Should be able to do that and we’ll call them in the morning.

as Bill was refueling, I noticed my car up on the top rack

We first wondered if we would cut off at Tucumcari onto Hwy 54 up through Kansas. Rv’ing friends have suggested it as an alternate route to the interstate with good roads and no tolls. If we couldn’t have gotten into this park in Oklahoma, we would have probably done that. Kansas does not have a membership park for us to take advantage of so this original plan still works. We hope.

Beautiful horses not concerned about the wind today

Are you kidding? I have been enchanted from the moment I left home

Clouds have moved in or rather we have moved under the clouds and the temperature has dropped to 84. 

Okay, so now that we are in Texas I won't expect to be enchanted anymore

Winds are behind us so we have a great tailwind but boy is the dust ever blowing around!

We soon came to the smelly cattle fields, they are packed in there like sardines and how lovely that the wind is blowing our way. Not! Never seen so many bovine in one place before!

Next thing I know Bill’s arm comes across my line of vision pointing out my passenger window. There is the Cadillac Ranch we stopped at on the way down. I still think it is so cool!

If you wish to hear more about this historic marker check out my post here

So, with the strong winds, we are glad to have arrived at 5:19 pm at the Texas Travel Information Centre on exit 76. Pulled in on as much of an angle as we could as there is a storm approaching from the south. It is hot, still registering around 80F and we are being bounced around quite a bit. You can’t help but be a bit on edge with the winds gusting to 60 mph, so we are keeping an eye on the weather.

This tractor trailer had us concerned, look at his back end blowing in the wind

Not deterred, he passes others

There is a building here that is open 24 hours with washrooms to provide us shelter in the event we need to make a run for it. By 7:00 the biggest and blackest cloud to our southwest has moved on to the north. The sun peeked through briefly before being swallowed up once more. If the winds keep it up through the night, which no doubt they will, we will probably pull our living room slide in.

San Jon water tower

I had planned on sausage on a bun for Bill tonight as it is something I can cook inside. For me, I wanted to follow Lori’s instructions on how to heat up my leftover calzone without a bbq or an oven. It worked! Mostly, I either added too much water or overboiled it as seepage made the bottom bread soggy. Ooops! Surprisingly, I was hungry and the filling and top crust still tasted darn good.

Tons of turbines but it is very hard to see them with the blowing dust/sand

I’m going to post this and settle in with my book and try not to notice the winds. I hope you have had a fantastic day.

This is after the black storm clouds started moving to the north
It is only 6 o'clock here

Thank you for reading, we have had a great travel day. I love receiving your comments.