Gravel parking lots

Nov 3/18 Weather sunny 65, low 38 in Albuquerque, New Mexico  303 miles 
Invariably we always have a day of wind on I40 coming west.  Our day was a normal short day and it was a good thing.  The wind was gusty coming right into the drivers corner.  Not a lot of fun and not good on the diesel fuel mileage.  We have crossed into another time zone, dropped an hour.  As well we loose an hour tonight ~ Daylight Savings.  When you come down into Albuquerque be prepared for quite an elevation drop, have that engine brake on.  Our stop tonight is the All American RV Resort.  It is a tad noisy with the freeway but a very nice park.   Completely paved.  Your thinking so, it's paved, so what?  Well after tonight its going to get dusty; you'll see.

entering the All American RV Park

And then the days of gravel parking lots begins.  If you have never been to the desert, do not be surprised by the rv parks.  Sometimes you can hardly tell where your site ends and the next site begins.  Haha.
Nov 4/18 Weather sunny 75, low 55 in Las Cruces, New Mexico 241 miles.  Today we head due south on I25 and drop onto I10.  This route is better we find for wind and less elevation as we get into Arizona.  Our night will be at Hacienda RV Resort.  A very nice gravel parking lot.   Wow, it is very busy when we pull in.  No we don't have reservations....but they do have a few spots available.  Had to laugh at the counter the fellow said it is "all you Winterbirds".  I wanted to correct him that we are "snowbirds, not winterbirds".  Funny, I let it go. 

La Hacienda RV Park in Las Cruces

Nov 5/18 Weather sunny and hot 84/low 61 in Picacho Peak, Arizona 327 miles.  We are stopping so tomorrow we can get on I8 which is close by;  so this overnight is in the Picacho Peak KOA.   It is a dusty gravel parking lot and there are lots of trains going by too, at night it got cool enough we closed all our windows and put the fan on.  The grey noise of the fan seemed to drown out the road noise and we slept well.  Oh by the way did you notice an extra 100 miles???   Our body clocks were so screwed up with all the time changes, we were awake at 6:30 am this morning.  Our bodies think it is 8:30 am.  So we fell out of our 2:30 club today :)

Picacho Peak KOA

Crossing into Arizona from New Mexico on I10 is really pretty

Nov 6/18 Weather sunny and hot 82/low 65 in Quartzsite, Az 207 miles.  Ok this is the last sleep and tomorrow..... drum roll...... we will be in the Cochella Valley, Palm Springs area!  Yeah!!!  If you have never been to Quartzsite I guess you should come take a look.  A night, 2 nights, a week at the most.  It is a totally different kind of town.  Basically trailers conglomerated into a mini city in the desert.  Right now it is very quiet but come January it will be booming.  Flea Markets, Gem shows, RV's boondocking everywhere in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) desert.    For us a night is good at Quail Run RV Park.  Another gravel parking lot.  Pretty much.  To get here we came across I8, then headed north at Gila Bend on SR85 which pops you onto to I10 again.    We do this to avoid Phoenix.  Nothing wrong with Phoenix but I10 goes into it and out and the congestion is very heavy.  We figured this out the hard way a few years ago, it becomes a parking lot of stop and go, crawling through the urban sprawl.  The city center has grown so much in the last decade they need a bypass around this city.

Quartzsite Quail Run RV Park.  Like our cactus?  And what are those holes all around it?

Tip:  A couple of things, can you do this drive quicker?  For sure and that is why I put up the mileage.  Remember we don't make a reservation ahead so at 2:30 you have a good chance of a site, if you put 500 mile days in you better make a reservation and you might be coming in after the office is closed; you will want to have your after hours site package ready for you to pick up.
 

Winnnnnnddddyyyy

Oct 26/17 Weather high of 78 today but wind is on the way, by late today gusts could be up to 50 mph. The night is bringing cold down to 34 by morning. Ugh!  That will not be fun.  Across Oklahoma we kept thinking what reason is there to stay, couldn't find one so Billy decided a big day behind the wheel would get us across the state.  380 miles later with a strong front wind most of the day turned into a bit of a nightmare the last 30 miles. We stopped for diesel fuel before getting to our Elk City KOA campground.  It was actually wicked.   We saw a poor RV fellow on the side of the road with half of his roof flapping in the wind!!! Oh no.   He ended up at our campground and Billy gave him our staple gun to staple what he had left to the roof.  It was an older unit but still sad to see.  Then a brand new Redwood fifth wheel came in with half the underbody dragging behind.  No good things happen in that kind of wind.  We did not put any slides out since you are just asking for toppers to be torn off.  Many campers that night did the same.  Some have no choice to open because they cannot get to their beds or kitchens.  We are good with it closed, its just like a sailboat inside..... all inline living!!!  And we had no damage.

cotton fields in the panhandle of texas

Oct 27 & 28 /17  Weather high of 70 and night 35 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We wanted to stop in Amarillo, Texas overnight but no stopping allowed since the night was forecasted to have 11 hours below 29.  Yikes.  Keep going.  That means another long haul day.  Gosh feel like truckers.  453 miles.  I know - really???  Can we make it.  This is unheard of for us.  We belong in the 230 club.  230 miles or off the road at 2:30 pm.  Billy put the coach in high gear and kept on rolling.  Wind died down and it was cruising weather.   There is nothing in the panhandle of Texas.   You can see for miles.   Stopped at one of our regular nice spots in Albuquerque, New Mexico - American RV Park.  When we registered we asked to stay an extra night.   Rosey and Billy need an extra day for R & R.

red, red dirt in the panhandle - talk about flat land you can see forever

Carnivores Indulge

Oct 27/16  Weather sunny and hot, 82.  low of 53.
Amarillo Texas. 
For miles you see advertised -  The Big Texan Steak Ranch - 72 oz Steak Free.
What is all this about?

The metal Amigos that welcome you to Amarillo KOA

We got a nice campsite in Texas at the Amarillo KOA and found there was a free shuttle limo that would take us to The Big Texan Steak Ranch for dinner.  This is such a treat for us having them pick you up and take you back.  Why not? 

Okay Cowboy, that there is our limo shuttle

Billy is getting his appetite ready to go in

We can always watch someone try to eat the 72 oz of meat in an hour.  That is 4 1/2 pounds plus a roll, baked potato, shrimp cocktail; for $72.  You pay up front and if you eat it all in an hour you get your money back.   Over 9,500 people have done it!  Ah well no takers the night we were there, but the steak was mighty tasty.  That is our little 16 oz. ribeye.
Almost forgot:
Just had to show you what we found in the gift shop....  really a Texan pistol case?  Isn't that what everyone needs!!!

can't think of anything to say about that

Oct 28 & 29/16  Weather still warm 79, night 51


Next day we moved along to Albuquerque and parked at American RV Park  and the following at Holbrook KOA in Arizona.   Both good places to stop along the way west. 

Turquoise Trail

March 31/2015 Weather warm 80 and 49 low, riding through 5 to 6000 feet areas so we are dressing for it.  What happens is that when you stop in a little town to walk around you can't wait to get the black leathers off!  There are many TV shows, movies, series filmed in New Mexico.  Breaking Bad, Longmire, Wild Hogs to name a few.

When we were at the Rally we met Beverly from Blenheim and she told us we needed to take the Turquoise Trail if we stayed in Albuquerque.  She was right :)   It was a nice 50 mile ride north towards Sante Fe through little mining towns and rugged landscape.  One little town we spent a few hours in was Madrid.

Maggies Diner - Set built for the Movie "Wild Hogs"

And did you see the movie "Wild Hogs"? There is a building in Madrid that you will remember Maggies Diner.... but it really isn't -  it sells t-shirts and souvenirs.  We thought lets get a burger here,,,,  nope.  Madrid is a funky, arsty place. 

Some beautiful south western art, jewellery, handmade crafts in many house style galleries.

kind of a voodoo doll?

beautiful ornate crosses

Spirit in Art - storefront

Hand woven Native American blankets

And we happened to have the best lunch at a quirky looking place called The Hollar.  Excellent food, don't be scared off by the appearance.  The fence is made of sticks. 

The Hollar Restaurant - fabulous food

Albuquerque - Sandia Crest

March 31/2015 Weather 80 today and 49 tonight - clear and dry.  We are riding a section of Old Route 66 in Albuquerque hat then jumping on a road that will take us up into the Sandia Mountains.   Sandia Crest sits at 10,678 feet.   We can see the snow on the peak and know it will be cold on top.  Putting on the Leathers today! 

see the rusty red dirt on the snow

You can take the road to the top about 14 miles, its a really good road.  Taking our time with the altitude and the same going down.  Once we did a ride about this height in Maui and we came down too fast.   At the bottom both of us had tingling fingers and toes and a light headache. 

View about half way up

There are several reasons for the name and none are definitive...... Sandia means watermelon in Spanish which is popularly believed to be a reference to the reddish color of the mountains at sunset.  Also, when viewed from the west, the profile of the mountains is a long ridge, with a thin zone of green conifers near the top, suggesting the "rind" of the watermelon. However, as Robert Julyan notes, "the most likely explanation is the one believed by the Sandia Indians: the Spaniards, when they encountered the Pueblo in 1540, called it Sandia, because they thought the squash gourds growing there were watermelons, and the name Sandia soon was transferred to the mountains east of the pueblo."

View at the very top looking South along the range

Albuquerque from the top   - breathtaking

Stay Where You Know

March 30 - Apr 3/2015   Time to slowly move eastward now,  we plan on being in Ontario by the 3rd week of April.  Hopefully by then the frost will be out of the ground and the nights will not be below freezing.   Farmer's Almanac predicts a warmer than normal April.   Would be nice to go home to warm weather once.  In the last 3 winters we have not had the pleasure of staying warm and going home to warm.  Maybe the 4th one is the charm?    There is a bit of a trick to moving slowly across the USA as the Mid West is notorious for spring tornadoes and severe storms.   We have the Weather Network on frequently to determine our next landing spot.  We are actually going to stay in Albuquerque a couple extra days to avoid a big wind day of 50 mph and bad storms ahead of us  if we keep moving across.  It's better to stay in one place than drive into bad weather.

Weather Channel statistics

Our move for now is Albuquerque, New Mexico at the American RV Park.  A few years ago we traveled thru here and overnighted at this park.  I suggested another park about 30 miles in and to the north.  Just for a change of scenery.  Billy was thinking American RV Park was the place to stay but agreed we could try a change of scenery.  We drove 30 miles to a different park, couldn't find the driveway in and luckily a police officer flagged us down from entering the Detention Center parking lot!!!!   Oh Lola strikes again:(   (if you forget Lola is our RV GPS).  

Magellan RV GPS

Luckily we could make a turn and go around the block to the entrance to the Stagecoach Stop RV Park in Rio Rancho.   The signs to get to the campground are not visible enough to direct you in.  Terrible actually.   Once we found our way into the campground check-in lane Billy walked around and decided the lots were not very level and not very long.  Frankly we were not feeling the "love".   Bad experience. 
Long story short - sometimes it is much better to stay where you already know its good!  Oh yes, 30 miles backtracking to American RV Park and glad to be there.