Warm Night, Long Day's Drive, New Destination, New State

I woke up first on Thursday, Mar. 7^th around 1:30. I’d left my window beside my bed open and the day shade pulled down so it wasn’t a direct chill. When I woke, I felt so uncomfortably hot so lifted the shade to breathe some of that fresh air and eventually cooled down enough to pull it down once more.

Checking the lights before we pull out
Hey, that's me!

The rest of my sleep felt invaded by dreams, stupid ones about war and other crazy stuff. Without watching tv and not reading any of that stuff, it struck me as very odd what our brains do in the midst of sleep. The next time I stirred, Bill was out of bed and it was 6:30. Holy! So, I stretched and got up, immediately slipping into the shower. Bill offered to turn the furnace on but I was very comfortable in the Suite temperature. It was a nice hot shower.

at the dump station in the park

We ate a small breakfast, toast for Bill and cereal for me before closing things up and joining Pat and Rob outside. We were heading to the dump station before 8 and out of there by 8:15. This was looking like a mostly cloudy day but warm. When we pulled out of the park, it was 49F and within 30 minutes, on I-26N I noticed it had jumped to 57F.

Leaving our favourite state park this morning
was bittersweet

Because we are travelling 350 miles today, it is hard to know what to wear so we prepared ourselves in long pants, shirts and brought along a jacket. I remembered to wear socks too. We travelled about an hour before turning at San Antonio, a little spit of a town, onto CR-153/US-380E. This is a pretty good 2 lane highway with wide open plains and free-range black cattle roaming.  Angus, I presume.

Such gorgeous scenery, every direction
We didn't have any difficulty with winds while driving

We are reading signs for the White Sands Missile Range and other historic markers. If we weren’t pulling, it would be interesting to follow the roads across those plains. Pat and I were keeping our eyes open for cowboys and Indians, since it was the perfect setting to transport us all back in time. Beautiful countryside and I took way too many pictures again.

Aren't the colours fabulous?
Aah, the southwest warms my heart

In my pictures, if I miss removing spots, I apologize. I’m aware of an ‘inner’ spot that we can’t seem to clean. When we get back home, I’m probably going to have to bite the bullet and pay to have it professionally cleaned OR I’m going to look for another camera body. Probably the latter choice is the cheaper route to go. We stopped for fuel in the Carrizozo area and snagged it at $2.99/gal. Nice! We enjoyed the highway, travelling at 55 mph mostly with the exception of school bus areas, hilly turns and small towns where we slowed down.

We came to Old Lincoln and we radio’d back to Rob and Pat to take note of the little historic town. It is the town of Billy the Kid’s last escape but I missed getting the sign this time. Interesting stuff. Just outside of town, we pulled off at a rest area that Bill remembered from last winter and had a piddle break. We all had sandwiches for the road so chose to keep moving and eat them as we drove.

Old Lincoln, the last place Billy the Kid escaped from

They look panoramic only because I've cropped out the sky
because of the dust specks
But actually, I like this look anyway

The wind warning of this morning has followed us and Clemson almost got blown away! We were back on the road around 12 noon and caught US-70/US-380. Back onto a 4-lane highway but not much traffic today at all. This route takes us through Roswell, another village that our friends haven’t been to. When we stopped, I changed my shoes as without the a/c my feet were very hot. No complaining though, it looks like our 71F will be closer to 82F at our destination.

Roswell
that little green martian was responsible for the temperature drop, I'm sure
I could hear him mumbling jibberish as we drove by
(Darn Canadians?) haha

Roswell is a very stretched out town, travelling down 380 and there isn’t much pertaining to the alien story of the town. Bill and I had stayed at Bottomless Lake State Park last year so it was touring around with just Black Beauty that we saw a lot of those displays, on the Main Street. Maybe another year, we will get back to show them Bottomless Lakes or they’ll be curious enough to see it on their own.

5 or 6 emergency vehicles raced by us today
some state troopers and other unmarked vans
No accident once we got close - they were looking for someone,
notice the trooper with the binoculars
(I ducked, in case it was me)

We passed through town with only one ‘weird’ thing happening. From 74F, our temperature immediately dropped to 64F. Pat texted and asked if we noticed the drop. As soon as we were 2 miles out of Roswell, it jumped back up to 74F. It was the strangest thing with no change in elevation, lower if anything. A-L-I-E-N-S. We also soon noticed that the mountains were completely gone and the flat plains stretched to the ends of the earth. Well, as far as our eyes could see.

Texas - lots of oil rigs working hard today
Brownfield, our destination

We stopped once more to fill up for fuel at Tatum and found an even better price at $2.93/gal. Leaving there, we drove and crossed into Texas at 2:45 MT and lost an hour. I texted Donna that she could now text me an hour earlier in the morning, instead of two hours. The temperature is hanging right around 73F and that is under solid clouds. I’m glad some of that New Mexico weather came along for the ride.

Red soil, cotton fields, falcons on poles
and fields of cattle

It was close to 5 pm when we arrived at the small village of Brownfield, Texas. On line at www.freecampsites.net, I had located Coleman RV Park, a town park, right in the heart of town. We found it easily from our gps’s directions and out of 12 available sites, there were 3 taken. We pulled into two, side by side and plugged into electric and hooked up to water. There is a box over by the dump station that says ‘donations’ and alerting us to the fact that it is a 5-day maximum stay. Bonus!

For two nights, we are thrilled and will be sure to leave money in the box. Online, it mentioned $5/night. No need to bother with our satellite dish, we have enough recorded shows to watch and no need for the Weber, I have some chili that was in the freezer for tonight. Tomorrow night, we’ll come up with something either in the IP or on the stove. I’m just breathing a sigh of relief that this is a decent place to stay, since I was the one who suggested it. Phew!

This is where we are
What towns do that? Only in Texas?

I took Clemson out for a short walk over to a grassy area while Bill made my tea in the Keurig. That was a long day driving made even later by losing an hour so my sweetie, and I’m sure Rob too, is kapooped. Clemson needed a bit of a bath but now is settled up on Daddy’s lap. I missed my walk this morning so might just take a short one now. We’re not hungry yet since our clocks are messed up but will be soon after I return.

Pat and I went for a short walk around the park area, up to the nice aquatic centre, past the do it yourself car wash and then back down into the main entrance to the park. The air was still warm so we didn’t need heavy jackets. It was around 68F. When we got back, we parted ways for the evening and I came in and read for a while beside my dozing sweetie. At 6:45 CT it was time for us to eat something so I warmed up the chili.

Here we are, set up for a couple of nights

After dishes, the remainder of the evening was spent with our books, in front of the tv and some blog writing. It was a great travel day, although long, and we arrived safe and sound. We will stay here for a couple of nights before heading further into Texas. I hope you enjoyed your day as well.

Thanks for the visit!