Blog #397 Look What Just Blew in to Tier Drop.

We were awake early this morning, Friday the 20th of October. We left the RV Park and headed east to see the sunlight and to get back to the connection to I 40 west.  We debated about ways to drive to the southwestern corner of Arizona, but decided to stay on major highways since it was going to be windy and we had 600 miles to go and we might need a place to stop before that.

We started out with good weather and clear skies and then we got into some pretty strong cross winds around Gallup, NM.

We crossed into Arizona.

That's about when the wind hit.  We watched to see what truckers were doing because they usually get off the road if they know the gusts are too strong.  We saw a couple pulled over, but most kept going, so we did, too.  Now the dust was starting to stir up.  We looked forward to turning south on I 17 at Flagstaff so it would be a head wind and not be bucking us around so much.

We pulled into a rest stop 15 miles south of Flagstaff.  We decided to rest a bit and see if we felt up to going the 267 miles that remained.  We could have stopped for the night, but both of us were ready to be off the road for awhile.

We jogged around Phoenix on Loop 303, to I 10, to 85 and finally to I 8.  The wind was letting up, but the dust was so thick it totally blocked the sun.  We kept going.

It had been 12 hours since we left Albuquerque.
Exit 30 to Wellton, Arizona

The Park doesn't look like much, especially in the dust, but it was so good to see it after a week since we left Indiana.

Several of the early arrivals greeted us and it was great to see them.  The Snow Birds will be coming in one by one now until the place is full.  Our normal spot had some work done and it still has a soft spot, so we moved to #17 until we decide what we will do.

We are now on Pacific Time Zone, but Arizona does not do Daylight Savings Time.  Whoo Whoo.

So, we are partially set up, (since we don't know if this is where we we'll stay), and settled in.  We had turkey and dressing that I had frozen from cooking it in Indiana.  We are truly thankful for the trip to be behind us and now we are ready to settle in for the duration.

I'm not sure how often I will be Blogging, but I will still be posting to Facebook.

Thanks again for all the prayers of support!!

Blessings,

Kathy

Blog #396 Aurora to Albuquerque

We arrived at our daughter, Tana's, house on Monday the 16th.  We saw them last at the family reunion time in the Ozarks in July. She checked with all of her neighbors to make sure that it would be OK for us just to park at her curb.  We JUST fit between the two driveways.

It was a nice night together with dinner and kids going in and out to work.  We woke up on Tuesday with the morning sky beaming at us.

Tana and Barry's home in Aurora, Colorado.

The Rockies were all snow capped and Mt. Evans was looming before us as we drove into town.

Our good friends Bob and Denise E. gave me some of the last rhubarb crop from their garden.  I had saved some to make some strawberry/rhubarb crisp.  It ran over in the oven.

Wed. night we celebrated Carter's girlfriend's 18 Birthday with some ice cream pies.

We don't normally travel in the dark, but we were up early and heading down I25 South to meet up for breakfast with the Lees.  

 The base is just south of Colorado Springs and we found an IHop where we could meet up and have a place to park the Whale.

They are Army and just moved back to Ft. Carson from a tour in Korea.  We knew them as newly weds and now they have two boys.  Steven was getting in-processed and wasn't able to come.  We had a short, but fun time getting to know Syler and Soren and catch up with Ali. They got a short tour of the Whale, we hugged necks and headed on down the road.

Spanish Peaks just before getting to the Raton Pass.

The Whale definitely prefers the flat lands, but you can't get through Colorado without grunting up and down a few mountains, one way or another.

The northern area of New Mexico on I 25 is pretty flat and it was pretty dry looking today.

It gets pretty mountainous again going through Sante Fe.  It's really a pretty area.  We passed "mowing crews" and as we passed one that was mowing the median, he threw rocks at the Whale and we now have two big chips in the driver's side window.  Craig called our insurance and someone will be coming to the RV park on Monday to see if they can repair them without putting in a new window.  We have $500 dollar deductible.  Craig then made a call to the New Mexico State Road Department and they have sent him a claim form to fill out, so we'll see what happens with that.  Here's a picture of one of the boo boos.

We have stayed in this nice Enchanted Trails RV Park several times over our years of travel.  We had dinner and are watching some football and we'll head on down the road tomorrow.  We are close to 600 miles away from Tier Drop RV Park where we winter.

We are looking forward to seeing our Arizona family!!

Blessings,

Kathy

Blog #395 Third Travel Day- Colorado Here I Come

Thankful for another sunrise. No rain during the night and we were getting ready for the last day of this first leg of our trip.

It was 52 degrees inside the Whale when we woke up.  We turned on the propane furnace for awhile to take off the chill.  We made some coffee and got things ready to head out of Russel, KS and the Triple J RV Park on down the road to our daughter's family home in Aurora, Colorado.

Driving through our own shadow.

West Kansas looks a lot like west Nebraska.  Lots of farm land, but not many trees, or cities or anything for that matter.

Crossing into Colorado on I 70 we saw mowing teams out on the roads and notice the brown look of winter months.

The first glimpse of Pike's Peak.  It's a pretty awesome thing to see after driving through prairie.  We always think of the first settlers in wagons seeing the mountains and thinking, NOW WHAT???

As we got closer the whole of the Rocky Mountain range with the snow caps got larger and larger.

We stopped and topped off the gas as we pulled into Aurora and then drove on to Tana's house.  We parked in front of her house and were greeted by Collin, Cooper, Tana and two dogs.

Collin and Cooper

The two older kids weren't home when we sat down for a nice dinner.  Carter came in for a half hour during his supper break from his job and we are still waiting for Kyra to get home from her job, so we can see her before we go to bed. We had our first time change from Central to Mountain and it's bed time for us... but yet, it's not.

After dinner we went to watch Collin work with his baseball batting coach.  It was pretty strange seeing him being coached in a basement, but his teacher knows his stuff and has helped Collin a lot.  Collin is a freshman and is hoping to make the High School Team. He is very talented.

Harper the Dog was hoping to get some sort of treat from me.  Cooper is in the background.  He had football practice tonight.

We are waiting to see Kyra who should be home in the next few minutes.

Thanks for all the prayers.  Our plan is to be here until early Thursday morning when we start the second leg of this journey to Wellton, Arizona, near Yuma.

Blessings,

Kathy