Roswell to Dublin (Texas, that is!)

Yesterday, Monday, we drove from Roswell all the way to Dublin, TX. We wanted to get over half the way to Whitney where we had a reservation to stay at the Thousand Trails campground from Tuesday until April 1. We had planned to stay at a Walmart, but as we were looking at overnight temperatures, we thought it might be a bit warm to stay overnight without hookups. I looked on Allstays for other options, and saw that Dublin, TX had a city campground and Allstays said the price was "$$" which would be $20 or less.

On our way east on US 380 from Roswell, we stopped at a rest area where we had stopped before and walked around a little.

After getting in to Texas, we decided that if we might need to use the generator in the evening for the air conditioner (if we were Wal-docking), we had better fill up. Our fuel gauge is flakey, but it appeared to be only about 1/3 full (at 1/4 full, the generator cannot get fuel from the tank so we cannot drain the diesel with the generator). As we were filling, the folks at the small station we stopped at in De Leon, TX were debating whether they would be able to pay for her fuel on one paycheck or not. They had custody of our credit card as Dwayne pumped.

When we got to Dublin, the address that Allstays had was for City Hall... and they were closed. However, Allstays also had GPS coordinates, so we followed those and found the campground. It was just 8 spots, only one other one was occupied. The description had said that it had pull thrus - maybe the one spot that the other rig was in could have been a pull through... but we had to disconnect. We couldn't get the electric to work, so we just boondocked anyway - ran the generator a little while to run the rear A/C. It wasn't all that hot (got down into the 60s overnight) but the bedroom gets pretty warm from the heat of the engine. Miss Kitty enjoyed stalking a squirrel when I had her out on the leash this morning.

Roswell means we (or at least, I) get to visit with friends!!!

Unfortunately, Dwayne was still fighting his cold this morning, and didn't want to share it with others at church, but I was able to go to First Baptist Roswell and see friends Nancy and Burton, Aaron and Krista, Angela and Chad, and others as well! I also got to enjoy their Sunday School class and hearing Aaron preach!

After church, the Hills invited me to join them for lunch with some other friends from church...

Alex and Angela with Alex's dog, Behr, a Belgian Malinois puppy - super cute and quite energetic! But also well behaved!

Alex, Nancy, Burton, Angela, and Chad

Many thanks to the Hills for lunch for me, and a dish to bring home to Dwayne that he is enjoying for supper!!!

A day at Midway RV Park

We're taking a relaxing day, just enjoying Midway RV Park. It is nothing fancy, but just the kind of place that we enjoy staying.

The dairy farm across the road... we're more upwind today!

We're parked so the bus provides afternoon shade for sitting. Miss Kitty went out for a few minutes and found the dust quite to her liking for rolling. (She had gone back in by the time I took this shot.) You can see our "landlord", or the manager of the campground, on his 4-wheeler heading by behind our rig.

I zoomed in and cropped the picture - can you see his "pal" on the 4-wheeler with him?

Here's another view... he has a little terrier-type dog that rides on the 4-wheeler with him all around the campground, or is in the office with him when he is there.

Our colds seem to be improving. We're hopeful to be able to attend church here tomorrow with our friends and maybe get to see them for a little bit.

Return to "active" status

Well, after a night at a "sketchy" Walmart (not sure why, but we both felt it was not completely safe, but there were a number of 18-wheelers in the lot with us, so we decided to stay), Dwayne woke up this morning with a full-fledged all-out cold - sneezing and stopped up... so... second string got moved back to first string and I drove from Grants to Roswell (actually, just south, near Dexter), NM. So, no pictures today, though it was another day of beautiful scenery as we traveled primarily through high desert plains - about 5000-6000' in elevation. We were on I-40 through Albuquerque and then south on US-285 to Roswell.

In some of the pasture land we saw cattle... at one point, I saw a group of cattle laying in the shade under a billboard along the freeway - I called my brother to tell him that would be a way to provide shade for his cattle and make revenue renting out the billboard too... he chuckled, I don't think he is going to implement it! We also saw goats, and maybe sheep (if they were sheep, they had been recently sheared), and in a few places, we saw antelope or something like that.

Near Roswell, there are a lot of nut orchards - I think they are pecan orchards. They are so beautifully kept - the ground is so clear under the trees. I am kind of surprised to think of pecans here - I think of Georgia for pecans, and this is a very different climate. But, I guess they can irrigate and maybe otherwise the ground and the weather are amenable!

It is quite warm - above 80s in the daytime, though still in the 40s at night. We are using the a/c because our campground is downwind from the feedlot or dairy across the road. When we have been here before, the prevailing winds have been so that we didn't notice, but today it was rather "impressive"!

We will be working on getting Dwayne back to health and me back to 100% and hopefully get to see our friends here in Roswell.

Repairs and Eastbound...

While Dwayne was away a couple of days ago, I glanced outside and noticed some water running at the side of the RV.... never a good thing... I went out and found that our fresh water hose had developed a leak about 3 feet from where it connected to the water supply. The fresh water hoses are very soft - they are supposed to be of a material that will not leach yucky stuff into our fresh water supply, but they crimp very easily. I turned off the water and waited for Dwayne to get home.

We have 3 fresh water hoses (all of this soft white hose material), so we swapped out one of the others for the one with a leak. We tried applying a patch onto the one with the leak, but that didn't work very well (it could have been a lack of skill of the applier - me!).

So, since the hole was rather near one end, Dwayne decided to use his ClampTite tool and put a new end on the hose.

Isn't it great when you have a valid use for a new toy, errrhhh, tool?

The cut off end - of course, it hasn't been thrown away, it might be useful for something else!

After doing the measuring as indicated in the instructions, Dwayne wraps the wire around the hose...

There is a specific way to get the nose of the tool in there - and it is a little tough when the hose end is constraining your access.

After tightening a little bit, he moved the two wires closer to each other on each side.

Ready to cut the ends off.

Ends are cut, need to clip them a little closer and bend into the hose.

Voila'! It is done! Hurrah!!!

 Our time in Arizona was finally coming to a close - after almost three months in the state! We packed up this morning and left Verde Valley Thousand Trails RV Park on our way north and east.

Since I'm on "injured reserve" or "sick leave" (my head is a bit fuzzy and I didn't want to drive), Dwayne did most of the driving today... I drove a short stint after we fueled and then gratefully went back to the passenger seat. But... since I was in the passenger seat, there are some travel pictures from today!

Heading uphill north towards Flagstaff

Passing 5000' elevation

"Chain-Up Area" - Oops, I hope we don't need that!

6000' Elevation

There were whitecapped peaks in front of us...

Getting closer...

And closer! We turned east before we reached them. From looking at the map, I'm thinking they might be part of the San Francisco Peaks in the Kachina Peaks Wilderness in the Coconino National Forest, maybe Humphreys Peak, the highest natural point in the state of Arizona.

GasBuddy showed a good diesel price so we stopped to fill up... unfortunately, when I went in to give them my credit card, they wanted to know how much to put on it... my fuzzy brain thought... hmmm, about 1/2 tank, 150 gallons, the price is 2.379/gallon... how about $300? It came close to filling her up, but not completely, and we decided it would be ok.

Beautiful scenery along I-40 heading east in the north eastern part of Arizona

The photos don't do it justice.

Big formations

Coming in to New Mexico...

Thank you for the "Welcome", New Mexico!

Continuing on in New Mexico

We've stopped for the night at a WalMart in Grants, NM. It seems to be pretty busy right now, but the information indicated it closes at midnight. Lord willing, we will head on towards Roswell, with about 5 hours of driving, tomorrow!

An interesting aricle?

Dawn, a friend on Facebook, posted a link to this article... I thought it might be interesting for the UPS tie as well as the retirement (or lack thereof) tie!
http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20170304/ups-driver-from-woodbridge-has-45-years-4-million-miles-on-job-without-accident

We are still in Cottonwood (leaving tomorrow, Lord willing),
still dealing with very slow / non-existent internet,
and I'm still fighting this cold, though I think it is getting better.

What time is it anyway?

When Daylight Saving Time comes in, and we're in Arizona, it always seems to cause some problems. Arizona doesn't go on DST, so our clocks/watches/phones should remain on the same time. It appeared to me that most of our clocks did as desired - I think Dwayne said his phone changed, but he changed a setting so it indicated no DST and all was well.

This afternoon, Tabitha came to tell me that it was kitty-cat-feeding-time (6pm) - she is quite good at telling time twice a day. Sure enough, I looked at my watch, and it was nearly 6pm - by my watch.... but all the other clocks on the bus say that it is only about 5pm.

Do you think Tabitha somehow reset my watch????

No pictures - I'm still fighting this cold, and we elected to stay a couple of additional nights here in Cottonwood until I'm feeling better... but the network is really bad unless we go up to the top of the canyon, and I haven't felt like doing that. I am feeling better, maybe will be closer to 100% by tomorrow.