Driving under Overcast Skies, Change of States Again

Walmart, Van Buren, Arkansas

On Tuesday, Oct. 25^th we woke early. Not surprising since I was in bed at 8:30 with Gibbs and fast asleep by 9. He sleeps much of the day n the truck, isn’t getting to run around free, yet still sleeps all night too. He’s a keeper! ♥ Since we were awake at 6 and I was wide awake, I got up to make our lunch and work on my blog.

this look guy was so cute, waiting
for his Daddy trucker
Obviously a puppy

Bill was gung ho too, let’s get on the road early! We pulled out around 7:30 and because the Love’s Travel Centre was at the corner AND only $5.39/gal, we fueled up there. I say ONLY because usually the Love’s and Flying J/Pilot centres are so much more than the smaller stations like Speedway, Murphys USA and Phillips 66 and so we avoid them. Leaving Sikeston, we caught US-60W for yet another new route for us.

The day was windy and overcast with a high probability of rain most of the day so the sooner we move, the better. It was mild though at 65F/18C and likely to be close to that all day. As we drove, I finished my post from Monday and then messaged my sister, Gayle, and my Mat boss, Kaitlin, to wish them good luck on their day’s events. 😊

We drove through a couple of heavy bouts of rain early on but the skies seem to be clearing out by 10. I won’t say that too loudly though.  US-60 connected with/and or turned onto US-62 and we then caught US-67W. At Pocahontas, we lost US-62 as it veered west and we continued south still on US-67/AR-90. This road was 2 lane for a while, then 4 lane highway and now back to 2 lanes. We’re experiencing a few twists and turns but it’s all new and it’s all good.

We paid $5.39 at the Love's in Sikeston for the convenience
of it and down the road, on the wrong side of the road,
we saw this. LOL

At 10:06 Bill said “do you think it’s ‘bar’ time?” That threw me for a loop and I looked at him with a puzzled look. ??? Ha ha, he meant snack bar of which I was glad because I didn’t bring any of the other ‘bar’ things. 😊 Speaking of loops, we’d taken a loop-de-loop following US-67 which headed us in the direction of blue sky. Yay!

This is the kind of bar he meant 😂

Cotton fields in a blur

In between the rains

Driving into a quaint town called Tuckerman, AR (I missed the Arkansas and town sign!), we both loved it. It was clean, looked prosperous in comparison to what we’ve just driven through and had a beautiful main street. To add to the ‘sweetness’ of the town, Bill found an easily accessible Citgo station with a low price of $4.79/gal for diesel. Yahoo! We filled up. ♥

This was a beautiful little town
Tuckerman, Arkansas

Rick's Fuel/Citgo was a great deal!

A promise of blue skies?

We did the loop-de-loop and turned past this
county worker cutting in the ditches
I'm impressed!

Now under sunny skies with puffy white clouds, the day was looking up. The winds were also picking up a bit keeping our mileage at bay but we were happy, looking forward to the remainder of today’s journey. At 12:30 we connected in Conway with I-40W and were back on an interstate for the remainder of our day.

I tried to get a picture of the train behind the station
but didn't do a great job
Nice sky though!

Stopping in Arkansas for the night has dual purpose for us. One, it is a different route and we’ve broken the mold, so to speak. Two, we will be able to place another state sticker on our map. 😊 The rains came and went again but it is giving us a reprieve right now. We ate lunch on the road, not needing a rest stop yet. The rest of the drive was uneventful and mostly in the sun. Such beautiful views!

When we had our lunch, he watched
so he got some cheese 
He deserved a treat, he is so good on the ride

We arrived at a Walmart Supercenter in Van Buren, hoping to stay the night. I waited in the truck with Gibbs while Bill went in to check that it was okay. The owner of an American Dream motor home was not very courteous to others as they parked right in the middle of two parking lanes, leaving no room for another rv’er. We found a spot not far from them and Bill got the thumbs up to stay here.

Looks like the overpass is holding the clouds at bay

Entering the town of BeeBe, AR

After getting set up, by now it was 3 pm, I nipped inside the store for a few items I forgot last night. I filled our pill containers, repackaged the sausages, burgers and chicken thighs into freezer packs and put eggs on the stove to boil. Our batteries have improved since we arrived but no point in using up power with the instant pot. I also put the kettle on for my tea. Boy, a cup of tea sounds good!

Why we stay away from Love's

With that made, we discussed plans for the next 3 or 4 days and Bill and Gibbs had their snooze. I sat and worked on my blog post. I really try not to take so many pictures but get carried away. I don’t want you to be bored with a bunch of scenic photos that look the same just because I found them stunning at the time. 😊

Nice to see the children playing outside at recess

There were some pretty amazing views
even though we only reached an elevation of about 700' max

The tea WAS good and then I made egg salad and tomorrow’s sandwiches. For supper, we had my hamburger stew and shared a small pecan pie/tart for dessert. They were .75¢ in Walmart so I had to splurge and buy 4. ♥ 

Here we are settled for the night

We washed dishes by hand and when they were put away, Bill went for a walk across the lot to where the Murphy USA fuel station is. He wanted to see how easy it would be to get from here to there in the morning when we leave. The price is pretty good at $4.95/gal.

My boys having their snooze

Hamburger stew, mine on bread

This was a wonderful day, despite the rainy periods. We got an early start and got to our destination at a good time too. That gave me time to do the things that needed to be taken care of.

And a half a wee pie - yum, it was just enough
Good night!

I hope you enjoyed your visit! PS – Bill has also tried to keep up with our travels in his blog. Check it out at On Our Way.

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!

Quiet Night, Reefers, Cold Front, Jello Plans, Colorado

After settling down last night, we were checking the weather of our future destinations only to be disappointed to some degree. What I was reading on the way to Nebraska had changed drastically and now it seems a cold front is moving through to the west of us. I went in search of a campground in the area of Sterling, CO for tonight. We’ve made a brief contact with them and will head in that direction today.

Sunny but clouds ahead

We were in bed at 9:30 and it was my turn to go right to sleep while Bill read for a bit. He was awake around 6:15 with Clemson and stayed up. I followed minutes after. We were joined in the parking lot, not too close, by a couple of other rv’s and 2 reefers. Safety in numbers is our feeling. I slept really well. We did some more searching online but none of our membership parks are on our route or open. No worries, we have a plan.

One of the prettiest I've seen

It was 8:30 CT when we pulled out after breakfast and making drinks for the road. Clemson is getting used to this, he didn’t appear as worried this morning about our movements. It was 53F/12C when we got up which is pretty nice. On I-80 this morning we are noticing quite a wind from the north. Must be that cold front coming in. We are dancing a bit today!

Just about every EVERY field in Nebraska
had this irrigation system

And this is the first one we saw in use

We fueled up at York, Ne at a Petro. Nice and easy access, in and out quickly. We like that. Bill did the windows and had to grip his toes in so as not to blow away. 

At 11 we were cruising by Kearney, Sandhill Crane Capitol of the World. Bill said “what is this up here across the highway?” Interesting historical structure, the Archway Monument. Things like that impress me, things you don’t see back home. 

This monument stretched across I-80

The design and engineering challenge was determining how to erect a 1,500 ton structure that would cross 308 feet of the heavily traveled I-80, without impeding on traffic flow. It was concluded that the structure had to be built beside Interstate 80 and lifted into position. Since The Archway is to emulate a covered bridge, two towers were erected, one on each side of the road, that served as anchors for the archway bridge to rest. The concrete abutment walls are 60 feet long, 25 feet tall, and 2 feet thick.

You can read more about it here if you are interested. We didn't stop, obviously.

We passed one Rest Area that was closed and drove in and out of one west of Kearney that had no room for us. We aren’t desperate…. yet, so will try the next one. At the Walmart in Jackson, Mi I had picked up some Sargent Colby and Jack Cheese cubes for a snack. Are they ever good! And I feel good eating such a healthy fat snack like that. I’ll try and keep a stock of them for sure.

At 12 noon we found that we could get into the next Rest Area at Cozad, Ne. The problem we’re finding is that these R.A. along this part of Nebraska are only equipped to handle 8 trucks. Luckily there were a couple of spots opened up. The wind was so strong that I had to wait for a lull to open the door to the Suite to get our lunch sandwiches out.

I didn't take this picture because of the Firefighters, obviously
I took it because of the Red Metal Fire Dog out front

Back on the road at 12:15, relieved and full tummies, all 3 of us. Drove for an hour with a bit of construction. Guys fixing the already decent roads. Must have been a bad section. Just noticed that we’ve changed time zones and it is 12:53 AGAIN! Love it. We weren’t even thinking about that. It means we will be settled earlier this afternoon and have more time to relax tonight before another long day tomorrow.

Advertisement for the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles
It even had a red light flashing on the top

At 1:35 we were saying goodbye to one of the best Interstate highways we’ve travelled on. I-80 is highly recommended as you will see in Bill’s blog here. He is rating the highways across the states we travel.  We took Exit 102 onto I-76 and crossed into Colorado. Well, thank you very much for the welcome! Our first time in this part of the country.

We've travelled the I-80 for 2 full days
It's become part of the family, almost

We are still under cloudy skies but sometimes we see light at the end of the tunnel. With those clouds our temperature has been decreasing all day. Now it is sitting at 41C/5C, Brrrr. The good news is that we almost have the Interstate to ourselves. I like the wide expanse between westbound and eastbound traffic. The wider it is, the more I like it. I don’t know why, I don’t need a reason, just go with me here. 😊

I like the expanse between us
You go your way, and we'll go ours
Ne'er the two shall meet

I have been in contact with the owner/manager at Buffalo Hills RV Park in Sterling, Co. She/he and I have Messenger’d back and forth about a spot for the night and we have received personal directions so there is no guess work. She/he said they won’t be there when we arrive but we are to make ourselves at home and find a spot to our liking. Perfect!

Here begins the 'fun' things I saw today
First tumbleweed THIS year

So, we arrived at 2:45 pm and drove around the park until we found the spot we wanted. Bill did the outside thing after opening up our slides and lighting our Blue Flame heater. No point in both of us getting frigid, his idea. Once we were hooked up to hydro Clemson and I came in and opened up the last 2 slides and I turned our fireplace on. We filled out the Register slip and dropped it in their box with the payment.

Haven't been told this in a while!

It was 5 o’clock Priceville time so you know who was ready for his meal. Bill fed him tout suite without making him wait. He is such a good little travel pet. It was only 3 pm our time so we had time to settle, snooze and read a bit before our supper. With services including hydro and water here, we will be cozy inside. This has been a great driving day again and we’ve found a nice overnight location. Even though it is windy and cold outside, we are great indoors. I hope you have had a lovely day too.

And Clemson has his sweater on again, on top of my sweater and he's sound asleep

Thank you!

At 3 pm and we're in for the night

Before closing, I wanted to comment on how nice it is to hear from not only my regular followers, they keep me going, but also my blogger and non-blogger friends who have commented lately as we’ve begun this second year of travels. Maybe we’ll cross paths (again) this winter!

And here is what the sun looked like tonight in the WEST sky

And because I can, here it is in a Zeke format for fun

Thank you for reading and safe travels to our RV’ing friends heading south!