Up for an Early Start, but..........

Coleman Town Park (forgive me, some of the pictures speak for themselves, I'm tired.) 😂

On Thursday, Apr. 4^th it was 6:35 when I woke up, with Gibbs snuggled beside me. He had already been out for his morning run with Bill and Bill was downstairs. It was a cooler night and morning, only about 41F/5C but the sky was clear. Bill had the furnace on and he was happy that our batteries got us through the night with flying colours. Now, we didn’t watch tv, nor did we run the dishwasher but everything else was the same. 😊

Good morning!

Of course, we were concerned since we switched over to lithium, but now we know. I turned the Keurig on for my tea and his coffee. He walked with Gibbs up to the office, which wasn’t open yet but this morning they had envelopes for us to pay. Last night, they didn’t so we thought we’d have to wait until  8:30 to leave. We are early birds and it’s no surprise that we were ready just before 7:30.

Goodbye Gayle & John!
Gibbs enjoyed the ride better today

We walked over to say goodbye to Gayle and John, who were also getting ready to leave the park. We drove around the corner and fueled up at a Shamrock station for $3.59/gal. Then we went back, past the park, and it was 8 am when we got onto the I-10E to carry on our journey. It warmed up quickly and by 9, it was already 61F/16C. This route took us to I-25 for about 6 miles to catch US70E.

The views along the way

There was a border control stop where Bill was asked his proof of citizenship and we were wished a good trip home. The White Sands National Monument/Park is always a stark difference in landscape and of course, I have to take pictures. 😊 On this highway, there are no rest areas as we know them and since we were driving through a missile range, we didn’t expect them.

We were going downhill here but the
gps, at 6873' kept rising to over 7,000'
Such a lovely drive

We pulled off at a Shell station with a big lot to take a nature break at Almagordo, NM. US70E was a really good road and although we’d lost visual of all the mountains by now, the flat lands were a change of scenery. The temperature had soared to 68F/19C and we found ourselves rising in elevation quickly. We love this drive, having come down this way before. It is like a different world with the evergreen trees in the hills and valleys.

It's funny that after reaching 6800’ we were going down hills and the elevation was still rising. We hit 7600’ before finally dropping down again to the 4000’ where the rest of our travels remained. Coming down, what I think is Buck Mountain, was the central point of our view and it was heavy with snow at its peak

I love the little trailer with Kokopelis
(note her license plate)
Trees are starting to blossom even at this elevation

Just before Tinnie, NM, we stopped at a Valero/All Sup for fuel and to make our lunch. It was 11:50 and 74F/21C and diesel was $3.89/gal here. We made ourselves sandwiches and took a 30 minute rest before hitting the road at 12:45. US70 splits off where it meets US380 at Roswell and we carried on the newly paved highway.

However, it wasn’t all fun and games as we were once more stopped for 20 minutes for construction. LOL It was hot waiting, 82F/25C, so we had windows down for a while before I had to put the a/c on. I was on the sunny side so was pretty much cooked! 😊 Listen to me complaining about the heat! At 3:27, we crossed the state line into Texas. Highways were good and traffic very minimal. Perfect!

Wellllll, so we thought. We were 15 miles west of Brownfield, our overnight destination when one of the Suite tires blew. POP! Oh no, you’ve got to be kidding. It was not a joke and immediately after getting out and checking the damage, I began thinking of the blessings. There usually are some, you know, ‘could’ve been worse’ scenarios that run through your head. We are fine. The Suite has a couple of small issues with cables and a hose but the most important thing is that we need to get another spare tire before we go too far. 

We were on the part of a 2 lane highway (US380) that had the passing lane and that was a blessing. We could pull over as far as possible and remain in the lane with vehicles able to get by us. Bill put the road marker out and the 4-way flashers on, wasting no time getting the trailer jacked, the spare tire out, the tire off and replaced. It was hard work, those tires are heavy! I couldn’t help much, other than ‘fetch’ and raise and lower the trailer jacks and spare tire jack when needed.

The traffic does NOT slow down and for the whole 45 minutes, no one stopped. I can understand that, as we seemed to have things under control. As we were putting things away and I was retrieving the road marker, a vehicle with two men passed, turned around and came back to offer assistance. That was a blessing too, even though we were done. 😊 That young fellow probably could have helped Bill tighten those lug nuts.

We were on the road 45 minutes later, dirty knees, shirts, pants and elbows. My hero did an amazing job! We drove the 15 miles into Brownfield and found Coleman Town Park which has a handful, actually more now, sites with water and electric hook ups. We’ve come here before but this time, we were later, it was 6:30, and the open sites were either taped up as ‘non-serviceable’ or on a very challenging angle.

We tried a couple of spots, as did the Class A motor home who just arrived but ended up more frustrated. They left but we pulled up along the side of the lot and will boondock/dry camp for another night. Two long days, both with delays of some kind or another BUT we are safe. There is some damage to the Suite which, although still safely usable, means we are canceling the route we’d previously planned. Bummer.

We will not be making our way to South Carolina this spring. We need to make our way home and take care of business. Sounds like last spring! The day started out great and we had a wonderful drive – until we didn’t. In Brownfield, it was 82F/25C and the sky was still clear. Bill went for fuel, a cheap price of $3.33/gal. and we had grilled cheese sandwiches for supper. Gibbs was the best little guy today, settling down quicker and for longer periods of time. He’s getting used to the drive, I guess.

Good night from Texas

Thank you for following along. Tonight, we will still pray for better days ahead.