Category: Personal

Day 2381

Wednesday, April 10th, 2024

Day 2 of our trek north

Dear Journal:

It was a cold night here at the Dancing Eagle Casino RV park, the thermometer sensor located outside of the coach was showing 39ºF (3.8ºC), that was why we sprung twenty dollars for a campsite so we could run our electric space heater over night so when I rolled out of bed this morning at five o’clock the coach was a balmy 60ºF (15.5ºC) in the coach.

Todays route will be eastbound on Interstate I-40, and the destination I have picked out is a visitor center / rest stop in Amarillo Texas. Of course every morning starts with a pot of fresh perked coffee and most morning there is a wee Irish blessing. We are in travel mode so we want to be on the road by nine this morning, and that should have us off the road by two in the afternoon. Ok I have a confession to make, this is the week of the Masters golf tournament in Augusta Georgia and I’m hoping to be stopped early enough each day to watch the coverage.

I have to make a stop this morning at the grocery store here at the casino as they carry a chip dip that is the best, it is made with local chili peppers and I have stopped to get some dip every time. And as luck would have it they had two containers left and they are now in our refrigerator. As we unplug and prepare to head east on I-40 the first major city is Albuquerque and we should be travelling through there at 10:30 – 11:00 which means traffic should not be too bad.

Todays drive through New Mexico has been reasonably uneventful, I will state again that the highways in New Mexico are shameful some of the worse that we travel, Our fuel stop today is at a TA truck stop in Moriarty NM and is part of the “Open Roads” discount program. The price of fuel in Arizona and New Mexico is too high but I had to get fuel as we do not carry enough to make it to Texas and more reasonable fuel pricing,

Lunch today was a gromet grilled cheese sandwich, prepared by Miss Laurie while in a rest stop on Interstate I-40 in New Mexico just 80 miles ( Kilometers ) west of the Texas border, the time is 12:40 Mountain Daylight Savings time. I mention the time because we will loose another hour at the Texas border as we will move into Central Daylight Savings time.

Let me say this Texas roads are so much better than New Mexico’s it is such a difference that I just have to mention it again. Amarillo is our destination tonight and with the lost hour because of a new time zone we did not arrive till 4:00 local time. And to add to the annoyance the AT&T cellular service here at the rest stop sucks. And now that I think back I remember that from last springs stop here as well. Next trip through Amarillo we will try the Cracker Barrel if the Service has not improved.

Speaking of improvements we are pleased to see there is a new Buc-ees’ being built at the interchange with the rest area, that is a big bonus as as much as we have never fueled Thunder at a Buc-ee’s I know that their diesel prices are very good. We had enough cell service to watch some television but there was considerable buffering.

This Visitor Center / Rest Stop in not easy access to or from the Interstate and we have found in the past that it usually limits the number of trucks that use it, making it one of our favorites and it is so flat that would recommend it. As we head for bed tonight it seems to be quiet, something that doesn’t happen every stay, but the temperature helps (no one trying to stay warm or cool by using a generator or running their diesel motors) to reduce the noise. It is nice not having to unhook the toad at night, as we would have to at the Cracker Barrel, but sometimes the quiet is worth the price.

Day 2 Stats: 340 miles (547 kilometers) solar harvest of 128 amp / hours $0.00 spent on accommodations, 66.82 gallons (252.94 liters) of diesel at a cost of $242.72 ($334.38 Cdn)

Day 2380

Tuesday, April 9th, 2024

Day 1 of our trek north

Dear Journal:

Lets start by saying today is going to be a busy day. Our planned departure time was eight o’clock and let me just quickly say that we failed to meet that first objective. It looked like I was in good shape for meeting our departure time but everything just seemed to take longer than I had anticipated. This happening doesn’t change our destination plan, it just means that we will be a wee bit later.

Because of tightness in maneuvering around the host camp area we have to pull into the RV lanes of the Arboretum parking lot to hook up our towed. This will be the first time I get to try all the improvements that I made to the towbar, the new safety cables seem great, the new power cord connector and having the power cord ran through the towbar is a real game changer. The chance of damaging anything has all but been eliminated, in the past I have cut up the power cord when it got out of position and I had damaged the safety cables a number of time probably to the stage of compromising their integrity.

With a quick check of lights we are pulling out of the Arboretum parking lot and heading east on highway US-60, this is the most direct route back east and although the Salt River Canyon is a challenge for any large vehicle. You work your way down into the canyon bottom with numerous switch backs and with lots of “Jake Brake” operation to cross the Salt River and start the climb back up the north face of the canyon. A terrifying yet beautiful journey, as we climb the north face we are reaching higher elevations and the temperature is dropping as we are climbing and the first town we pass through is Show Low and as we look north the clouds look as if they could be snow clouds.

This group of photos was from the Salt River Canyon as seen from the drivers seat, the decent and climb back up the northern face, there were even some Mexican poppies in bloom.

We will be east bound on US-60 until we have crossed the New Mexico state line. Our first time change as we move from Arizona Standard time to Mountain Daylight Saving time. We had driven US-60 last spring but we had taking it all the way to Interstate I-25, this spring we are going to head north on State Highway NM-36 to NM-117 which will meet up with Interstate I-40 west of Albuquerque. Our destination is a RV park at a casino in an area called Casa Blanca. We had stayed there way back in November of 2019, a small park with 5 pull through sites, full hook-ups for around $20 American. We are at around 6000 feet of elevation and expect the temperature to be low enough that a heater may be required.

As we move on eastward on US-60, the weather is turning a wee bit nasty with a shower with some snow flakes. it just happens that there is a rest stop a few miles up the road and we decide to have a late lunch and give this storm a little while to blow through. Lunch today was some left over pizza warmed up in the microwave. The temperature has dropped off as we have lost the sun and the temperature is now 48ºF (8.8ºC), after lunch I tried to laydown for a nap, but I was unsuccessful, so we started Thunder and continued east to NM-36. We have never been on this stretch of road before so it is a new adventure, and while NM-36 didn’t offer much when we hooked up with NM-117 that all changed, this had to be one of the most pleasant surprises that we have had for a while.

The photos above were pulled from the dashcam that is mounted on the windshield of our coach, the data line on the bottom records date, time, speed of the coach, and the last numbers are the coordinates from each photo. This camera is ten years old so not the best picture quality, but it is reassuring to have documentation is any issue should occur.

We made it to the Dancing Eagle Casino RV campground by five o’clock, and managed to get one of the pull through sites, I only connected the power cable as we had no need of the water or sewer connection tonight. We watched television and Miss Laurie made a curry shrimp dish on rice for dinner, there was a lot of light from the casino, truck stop and the grocery store, but overall the noise level was good and we were able to operate the heater overnight.

Day 1 Stats: 305 miles (491 kilometers) and the solar harvest was 132 amp / hours the cost of camping was $20.40 US or $27.90 CDN.