Saturday, April 11, 2009

Today was another nice day weather wise but it looks like it might be the last one for a couple of days as there is rain in the forecast, oh well, we take what we get!

This morning we didn’t do a lot then this afternoon Ginny, Gil, John and I went to Erath, which is a town about 10 miles east of Abbeville, for their Cajun jam session. We thought a few people from here were going but when we got there just John & Terry were there so we sat with them.

It was an interesting place, the bar was in the front and the stage was at the back with tables between the bar and stage. At a jam session people just get up and take turns playing and when arrived there were a couple of fellows and a gal playing guitar, a fellow playing the fiddle and always someone playing a Cajun accordion (which is a special type of accordion) and someone on the drums.

The People on Stage When We Got There





John, Gil, John, Terry & Ginny



Ginny Enjoying a Dance With One of the Locals



At one point we noticed that a gal that had been wandering around was now on the drums and later Ginny & I talked her while waiting to go to the washroom and she said the one man on guitar (who was on stage all the time) was her father and she has just started playing the drums so she thought it was neat to be on stage with her dad.

There is a museum of Acadian music next to the bar and during the afternoon they had a little ceremony and inducted Larry Miller into their music hall of fame for his contribution to Cajun culture and music and one of the things he is renowned for is making the Cajun accordion. After the ceremony he played for a bit and man was he good.

Presenting Larry Miller with his Award



Even Ginny Joined In



The people around us were very friendly so it was a fun afternoon and the best part was at the end they served a free dinner, yes free, and there wasn’t even any place to leave a donation or tip – go figure!! The dinner was beef and potatoes in gravy on rice with peas and peaches for desert, pretty good for the price.

A Picture of the Bar & Museum



On the way home we had to stop at the grocery store as I had said I would make cesar salad for Sunday’s pot luck dinner and I needed romaine and it took us three stops to find some (Wal Mart had it but it was all limp and yucky). I was starting to think I wouldn’t even be able to find any at all.

When we got back Ginny brought her computer down as John had said he would be glad to partition it for her so she can use Microsoft as well as Mac. John also downloaded a copy of Streets & Trips on the Windows side for her so she was happy and now she can have fun with the Streets & Trips.

As always, today was another great gift of a day in the sunny, but windy, south and we look forward to another good day tomorrow.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Today was a hot, sunny, humid day but it was a real fun day. This morning we said goodbye to Birdie & Jean and wished them safe travels, Jean’s son is coming home from Iraq so she was excited to get home to greet him back.

Yesterday Martin, one of the fellows visiting the park, had come into happy hour quite late and said he had just won $38,000 at the casino – wow & double wow!!! We were chatting to Rick & Brenda after Birdie & Jean left when Martin came over, he had just returned from picking up his $38,000 at the casino – in cash mind you!!! None of us had ever seen that much money in cash and just as he was showing us Ginny & Gil came out of their trailer so of course we had to call them over to check it out, they were as impressed as we were!

Martin with his Money



Ginny Feeling the Goods



Yesterday at happy hour Rick & Brenda said they wanted to go to Suire’s for lunch today as they are leaving tomorrow. This is a typical Cajun restaurant, but is located out in the middle of nowhere and has been written up in the New York Times for its good food, so today 13 of us headed to Suire’s for lunch, Gil & Ginny rode with us and we thought we would do a bit of a tour around after lunch.

Betty at Lunch



Ginny, John & I had the plate lunch which was a shrimp stew with whole hardboiled eggs in it (and very spicy) served over rice, fried catfish, potato salad, a roll & a piece of cake for desert and Gil had the seafood platter which had all kinds of seafood on it - very good and the price was right as John and I’s lunch, including a drink, was $17.

After lunch Bill & Shirley heard us mentioning doing a bit of a tour around so asked if they could follow us – sure, no problem, so the rest of the group headed back to the park. Before leaving the restaurant Ginny & I were outside taking pictures





Ginny, John, Shirley, Bill & Gil



and I was standing in an empty parking space when all of a sudden I realized there was a truck waiting to pull in – guess he didn’t want me for a hood ornament – LOL! I apologized to him then moved on to take a couple more pictures but Ginny, bless her, started talking to him (turns out his name was Ray). He told Ginny that he had the property on the opposite corner and today was their big crawfish boil and asked us to come over and join them, Ginny said we had just eaten but he insisted we come anyways, he was just picking up some bags of ice and to follow him back. As an explanation apparently Good Friday is the time for all these huge crawfish boils and on the news last night they said there would be over 3 MILLION POUNDS of crawfish consumed today – unbelievable!

So, off we went following Ray and they had all kinds of parking in the farm yard and after parking he took us over to where they were doing the boil and eating the crawfish. What an exciting time and wonderful experience we had and everyone was so friendly and talkative.

Ginny & I stopped to take a picture of this fellow sitting & enjoying his crawfish & he insisted on showing us how to break them open, take out the vein then gave us each a couple to try - how wonderful!



Some of the little guys managed to get out of the bag so John picked this fellow up so we could take a picture.



Washing the Live Crawfish



Stirring the Boiling Pot (They cook them for 15 Minutes)



These are Cleaned & Waiting for the Boiling Pot



Dumping Another Pot of Cooked Crawfish into the Tub and Seasoning Them



Ray had mentioned that they charged $10 per person but wouldn’t take any money from us, and then he insisted on us taking some crawfish to try, right just a couple as you can see from John & Gil holding them.

Ray with John & Gil & Their Small Taste of Crawfish (They Did Share with Ginny & I!)




They were saying the crawfish are smaller than usual this year because of lack of rain over the winter and we noticed that they were much smaller than the ones we have had here the last couple of years, but they were still as good!!

We sat at a table with a woman (whose husband brought us another huge tray of crawfish) and when we said we were staying at Betty’s she said Betty was her cousin – so we made sure we got her name to tell Betty we had met her. They had a huge covered area set up with a band and they were just starting to play when we left, Ray wanted us to stay for the music but we are going to a jam session tomorrow so figured we should still do some touring around.

When we were leaving John & Gil insisted on giving Ray’s wife, Sis, some money for all the crawfish they had given us. Ray also insisted that we stop and check out the deserts – they had peanut butter/chocolate cookies to die for!

From there we drove down to Pecan Island then checked out a couple of side roads on the way back – pretty country. At one point there was a big turtle on the road and Bill & Shirley were ahead of us so Bill stopped and Shirley grabbed the turtle to get him off the road and the ungrateful turtle peed all over her – she said never again would she do a good deed for a turtle!! We saw a couple of large snakes dead on the road – one was definitely a poisonous one from the shape of his head but the other one was headless so we don’t know what it was. Bill & Shirley decided to check out another side road and they saw a huge alligator but it disappeared into the roadside grass and they couldn’t find it. We all decided that there is no way we would want to go out and wander on foot around some of this countryside!!!

A House on Stilts & So Is the Garage (We Only Saw One Like This!!!)



We saw this house on a bayou and thought the hollow tree was interesting



and we also saw these fascinating oil rigs of some sort.



And There are Some Real Pretty Houses



A Crawfish Pond




When we got back we went over to happy hour so I asked Betty is she knew Venola Broussard, Betty asked how on earth I had met her so we told them how we had got invited to the crawfish boil, boy were they jealous as they had all commented on how they wished they could go to it when they left the restaurant.

The bonus today was that we didn’t see the rain that they had called for and it was a beautiful day weather wise, can we be so lucky that this weather will continue?

Needless to say there is no dinner at the Hacking house tonight as we are still stuffed from lunch and crawfish.

As always, today was another great gift of a day in the sunny, but windy, south and we look forward to another good day tomorrow.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Today was overcast with sunny breaks, a good day for our long drive from Red Shoes RV park to Betty’s – a total of 135km (84 miles)!

This is a pretty cemetery we passed today



We arrived at Betty’s about 1 p.m. to huge welcoming hugs from Betty – a really lovely lady. We got set up and while John was getting organized Betty and I sat and had a long chat, she is also a breast cancer survivor so we had lots to talk about.

Betty was just busting to tell us when we got here that there were people here we knew and who we had recommended her park to, it turns out it was Birdie & Jean, a couple from Illinois who we know from Del Pueblo park in Yuma, and who usually stay at Poche’s campground in Breaux Bridge. Needless to say we were surprised to see them, apparently they made the decision to come here after they left Yuma. They are with a couple from Brighton, ON who have an Airstream so we were pleased to meet Peter & Linda.

After getting organized Gil & Ginny and John & I headed to Wal Mart for some groceries, we both took our own trucks as we are both short of room for extra passengers as well as bags of groceries.

When we got back we headed over for happy hour which was in full swing and as Betty said it was Canada happy hour as there were 5 couples there from Canada. One of the other couples, Brenda & Rick, we had met last year – they are from Elmira and summer in Port Elgin which is about 30 km north of where we are at Kincardine. Another couple were from Sudbury and own a campground there, so we all had a great chat as well as with the other guests. It is a really small world as when Ginny met Brenda and they got talking it turns out Ginny’s sister is in the same park in Port Elgin as Rick & Brenda.

We were glad to see Birdie & Jean as they are leaving in the morning to head home and their friends, Peter & Linda, are also heading out in the morning. Brenda & Rick are leaving on Saturday and heading to Gulf Shores for a bit so we might run into them there next week.

Tonight has been a quiet evening and it is now time for bed, John is sitting here studying the inside of his eyelids so I think he is ready to call it a day. We have plans for tomorrow so please come back to hear how our day went.

As always, today was another great gift of a day in the sunny, but windy, south and we look forward to another good day tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

I sure don’t know where the time has gone but I suddenly realized I haven’t updated my blog for a couple of days so thought I had best get at it. The weather has been nice, Tuesday was sunny but the wind was cool but today was a nice warm sunny day with a high of about 78F.

Yesterday we had a great drive

This Was Typical Scenery



and we are now at Red Shoes RV Park which is part of the Coushatta Casino complex. The park IS NOT well marked, we drove through the casino area first, got turned around and out, and drove down the road a bit and there was a little sign saying RV park – we almost missed it (and we didn’t feel bad as both Bob & Brenda & Ginny & Gil did the same thing!). Anyways, the park is really nice with big long sites and as we pulled in to our spot Brenda & Bob we out waiting to meet us and say hello.

We got unhooked and set up then went over to sit on their patio to get acquainted, they are a very nice couple from Chatham, Bob is retired and Brenda still works part time but takes 6 weeks holidays in the winter and they come to Apache Junction Arizona. They met Ginny & Gil in Oklahoma last winter on their way home and when they heard Ginny & Gil were coming here decided to meet up with them again for a couple of days as they are on their way home again – neat.

Ginny & Gil arrived around 5 and we were all sitting out waiting to greet them so after they got set up they came over for a late happy hour. I think it was about 7:30 before we had dinner and with all the visiting it was 11:30 before everyone headed home – guess we were all having a good time!

Brenda & Ginny



This morning I headed up to the laundromat to do some laundry and when I got back everyone was at our place visiting with John and waiting for me as they were going to walk up to the casino. John was busy doing some stuff and passed but I quickly hung up a few clothes, got some money and headed out with them for the casino. The casino was very disappointing as they didn’t have any incentives re meals etc. – the buffet dinner was $25 and we weren’t about to pop for that so we played the machines for a bit then headed back.

Bob & Brenda had come back ahead of us so on the way back Ginny & I decided we would do pork tenderloin etc. for dinner but when we invited Brenda & Bob they wanted to go out for dinner instead.

We went over to Brenda & Bob’s for happy hour then they headed into town for dinner and Gil started the pork tenderloin and we had a delicious dinner at Gil & Ginny’s. Brenda & Bob came in when they got back and it was another evening of lots of chatting and again about 11:30 when we got home –too late to worry about doing the blog.

Tonight's Moon - Notice the Haze Around It



Bob, Brenda & John



Gil



As always, the last two days have been great gifts here in the sunny south and we look forward to another good day tomorrow.

Monday, April 6, 2009

I didn’t do a posting yesterday as there wasn’t much to say. We had a very quiet day, John worked on our tax returns and I fiddle/faddled around a bit, talked to our daughter Nan, then sat outside in the afternoon reading and enjoying the nice weather.

About 6 p.m. the predicted “Canadian Cold Front” came through and the temperature dropped really fast, John had to put on long pants and a jacket to barbecue – tough eh!

Today has been sunny but much cooler and windy again, I am sure tired of all this wind – hopefully we will lose it in Louisiana.

John again spent a better part of the day working on the taxes (they are now e-filed) and I did some cleaning, spent time on the computer receiving and sending e-mails and just generally diddling around. I read for a while this afternoon and then went for a nice walk. John went for a bit of a bike ride and then late this afternoon got the truck repacked to head out tomorrow morning.

We had a nice chat with Mike this morning and I had an e-mail from a friend about a hockey game that was held in Beeton last Saturday. Beeton is where our kids grew up and Mike played hockey there and in his last year, before we moved to Kitchener, they played in the All Ontario Finals and lost in the final games but had a good run at it. Anyways, the team he played on had an exhibition game on Saturday, Mike went but didn’t play as he hasn’t had the blades on in a long time, but he said he had a great time seeing lots of his old pals and their parents. My friend, whose son played on the team, also said what a fun time it was, we are sorry we weren’t there for it as it would have been great to see all the kids, now grown up, and their parents again after so many years.

I also had an e-mail from Ron & Dee who we met at Green Acres in Kincardine last summer, they wintered in Texas and spent some time at this park on their way home, I had read it on their blog but had forgotten. They had said in their blog, and mentioned it again today in their e-mail, about finding lots of petrified wood behind their site here, which just happens to be right behind where we are, so I went out looking and also found some pieces, very interesting stuff. We saw lots of petrified wood at the Petrified Forest in Arizona but haven’t found it any place else so I was quite surprised to find it here – thanks Dee & Ron for telling us. We also agree with them that this is a really nice park and we also hope to spend more time here next year. Also, thanks for sharing the pictures of the snow you were getting at home today, we’re sure glad we aren’t there to enjoy it – LOL!!

I had an e-mail from my brother today and he said was checking out where Onalaska is on google maps and he went on the satellite view and could see the trailer park, he said it stands out very clearly – neat!

Tonight we went into Livingston and went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, it was very good and I also had a yummy Margarita. After dinner we went to Wal Mart and the need to pick up a couple of things turned into a $100 bill, how the heck does that happen????

Tomorrow we are meeting up with friends from Kitchener (Ginny & Gil who we met in Tucson, Arizona about a year ago now) and another couple from Chatham who Gil & Ginny met in Oklahoma last year on their way home. We have invited them all for dinner tomorrow night so we are looking forward to meeting Brenda & Bob and seeing Gil & Ginny again. Brenda and I have e-mailed back and forth so I feel like I already know her a bit. Ginny said she would bring desert and Brenda offered to bring a salad so Bob is making potato salad, I’m already really impressed with Bob!!!

As always, today was another great gift of a day in the sunny, but windy, south and we look forward to another good day tomorrow.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Today was a nice day with highs of about 78F, this morning started out cloudy but then the sky cleared off and it turned into a beautiful day but was windy (hey, we’re in Texas and it always seems to be windy here!!). This morning I talked to our daughter Kel and my sister Pat so got caught up on what is happening with them.

We drove over to Livingston to get fuel, filled up at $2.089 at HEB, which was a good deal as every place else was $2.159/gal. After that we drove back and up along Lake Livingston to Trinity and while there we checked out a park there that I had looked at in the directory and we’re sure glad I didn’t pick it, it was pretty crappy and the roads in the park were terrible – bone rattling to drive through! We did a loop back home and stopped in Onalaska at the grocery store to pick up a couple of things and checked out another park across the river from here on the way by. It is a new park but the sites aren’t as nice, the roads are very narrow and it is right on the highway so again we are glad I picked this one.

View of the Park from Highway



When we got back I went for a walk and John went for a bike ride, we talked to our neighbours for a while, and just took life easy.

The Lake Isn't as Calm Today



Our Trailer



Our Mexican Lantern



Cottage Next to the Park



As always, today was another great gift of a day in the sunny, but very windy, south and we look forward to another good day tomorrow.

Friday, April 3, 2009

What a difference a day makes – this morning we woke up to bright sunshine and no wind but the temperature was only 38F, pretty darn cold but it did warm up to about 72F by this afternoon.

We had a nice drive from Lampasas to Onalaska which is on Lake Livingston, it was mainly 2 lane highways but the roads in Texas are very good so 2 lanes aren’t a problem as there is always wide shoulders. Today we went from the Hill Country to the Piney Forest, as per the name there are lots of pine trees. We also saw many clumps of wild flowers along the side of the road – they are so pretty. I tried to take a couple of pictures but they were too blurry so just trashed them.

We are now booked into Northshore RV Park right on the shore of Lake Livingston and what a nice park this is, cement pads, full hook ups, good wi-fi and all for $98.20 for four nights – sure can’t beat that price. The previous 2 nights we paid $54 for nowhere near as nice a place but, when on the road, you have to take what is available!! There appear to be quite a few seasonal trailers here but they are all new and seem to be well kept and no junk all over so the park looks nice and so far it is very quiet. Here are a couple of pictures I took of the park, our trailer and the view.









We are looking forward to exploring the area, we just hope the nice weather continues.

As always, today was another great gift of a day in the sunny, but very windy, south and we look forward to another good day tomorrow.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

I had trouble sleeping last night so the last time I looked at the clock it was 2 a.m. and sometime after that I awoke to the sound of heavy rain and thunder – not my favourite sound in the middle of the night!!

This morning when we got up it was sunny but the wind was HOWLING and BLOWING like you wouldn’t believe, not pretty!! We debated about leaving and kept procrastinating but about 9:30 John went out to get ready to go and once outside he realized how bad it really was so we finally decided to just stay put for the day. While he went over to the office to pay for another night I called the park at Livingston Lake and told them we wouldn’t arrive until Friday. The couple beside us decided to leave about 10 and we wonder how far they got as shortly after they left a couple of motor homes came in and the one that took the spot beside us said he had been on the road for ½ hour and that was enough for him, this made us really glad we had decided to stay put for the day.

About 11 we headed out to find Wal Mart and HEB (HEB is the major grocery store in Texas) and a gas station. We found HEB and picked up some groceries there, went to Valero and fed the truck at a price of $2.099/gal. for diesel then to Subway for lunch. From there we went to Wal Mart and then home where I loaded up the laundry and headed to the laundromat.

The laundromat here in the park was really nice and I had it to myself and bonus, it was attached to the rec hall which was really nice and they had a nice lounge with very comfortable chairs so I settled in there while the washing was doing – tough!

While I was gone John oiled the hitch and did more work on securing the awning and then when I got back he got us hooked up so we are pretty well ready to go in the morning.

This morning I put spagetti sauce in the slow cooker so tonight was a comfort food night. Now it is time for a bit of TV or reading and we are hoping tomorrow will be a much quieter day weather wise. I think the high was around 69F today but the wind was cold so it certainly didn’t feel anywhere near that!

As always, today was another great gift of a day in the sunny, but very windy, south and we look forward to another good day tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

April Fool’s Day, how many of you got fooled!! We woke up this morning to sunshine but the wind was still a-blowing, sure do hate these Texas winds, especially when driving – it’s not bad if it is a tail wind but any other wind is not pretty!

Last night there were a couple of dogs who barked half the night, I could have gladly strangled them and have to wonder where their owner were, I can’t imagine they could sleep through the noise.

Our route today was to take I-20 east to Abilene then head south/west from there, well on I-20 we were being hit with strong cross winds as the wind was right out of the south and for some reason after about an hour I happened to look back at the awning – oh shh----t, all I can see is blue fabric blowing in the wind, not a nice sight at all. John pulled over right away and we determined that fortunately I had seen it before any damage was done but the trick was to pull it out and rewind it, not about to happen where we were sitting with the wind hitting us broadside. As luck would have it we were right at an exit so got off onto the frontage road (fortunately this happened in the middle of nowhere!) and fortunately there was an underpass under the interstate so John was able to get in there and stop and we got the awning re-rolled. Now, how to stop it from happening again, this is the second time we have had this happen in strong cross winds and we aren’t very happy with Mr. Zip Dee as on all our older trailers the awning had a lock on it so the wind couldn’t get under it and start it unrolling but the newer ones don’t have this locking mechanism, guess it is part of their cost cutting program. Anyways, we went slowly down the frontage road till we came to a small town with a Dollar Store (that was about all they had!) so John was able to get a roll of duct tape and tape down the end of the awning so hopefully the wind couldn’t catch it again.

The duct tape worked and we had no further problems with the awning but did have high winds most of the day. On I-20 we passed miles and miles of wind farms, sure was a good day for them with all the wind!!



You can see the dust in this picture



At Abilene we picked up some good highways that took us south/west to Lampasas where we are at the Boone RV Park for the night.

We are now in hill country and it was a pretty drive for the last couple of hours, this is one part of Texas we really like but figure we should check out other areas also.

When we stopped today I called a park at Lake Livingston and made reservations from tomorrow through Tuesday, it looks like a nice park and is another new area of Texas for us to explore, just hope we get decent weather and no bad storms.

We are looking forward to settling down for a few day – five days of travel is enough at a stretch!!

As always, today was another great gift of a day in the sunny south, even though it was a bit stressful, but we look forward to another good day tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Today is our son Mike’s birthday, again hope it was a good one Mike!!
Today we did exactly the same mileage as yesterday, 502 km (312 miles) and it was another good drive plus we didn’t have the winds of yesterday and Sunday afternoon. Actually, John did our mileage for yesterday and it was 16.4 miles/gal so we won’t complain about the tail wind, and that is actually figuring out the mileage rather than just doing the truck reading.

Today was all back roads and the drive over the mountain from Alamogordo to Cloudcroft was really pretty, a bit slow because of the hump over the mountain and the twisty, turny road, but once we cleared Cloudcroft it was clear sailing with good roads and very little traffic.

Tunnel Through the Mountain



After Artesia, NM we were on new territory for us and it was an interesting drive as after Artesia it was all oil land – over a hundred miles of nothing but oil rigs and transformer stations feeding the rigs. Then we were into farming country and it appears that most of it is cotton, as we passed about four cotton gins. There were some areas with cattle and all the way to Big Spring, TX there were oil drilling rigs but they had thinned out a bit from what we had seen earlier.

Just outside of Hobbs, NM we went through about 2 miles of land that was totally burned and it must have been quite recent as we could still smell the smoke, pretty devastating looking!

Burned Out Area





Entering Texas



Just as we got to Big Sprig we saw a huge wind farm on the horizon so guess they are harnessing the wind in this area, it is nice to see them taking advantage of the wind rather than using irreplaceable resources.

Today we lost another hour in time, yesterday we lost an hour as New Mexico is on Mountain Time the same as Arizona, but NM does daylight saving time so we lost an hour as soon as we came into NM and today when we came into Texas we went on Central time, thank goodness that is the last time change until we are almost home as 2 hours in 2 days is hard on the system. The one bonus though is that we are now only an hour difference from home instead of three hours.

Tonight we are at Whip In RV Park at Big Spring, not a great place but at under $20/night we can handle it for one night. I am not sure of our destination for tomorrow, that is my next job to figure it out so you will have to come back tomorrow to see what our day was like and where we got to.

As always, today was another great gift of a day in the sunny south and we look forward to another good day tomorrow.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Sunday was the day we left Yuma, sitting for four months is too long and we hope to do more traveling and less sitting next winter!! We were on the road by 10 a.m. and had a good, uneventful drive to Benson. The traffic through Tucson was really light – bonus!! We arrived at Cochise Terrace about 3:30 and to our dismay all their pull throughs were taken, wow, I didn’t expect this at this time of year.

When we got out of the truck we just about got blown away and when we went in the lady in the office said people were getting off the road because of the wind and that was why they had no pull throughs left, but not to worry, they had a site we could back into and not have to unhitch – perfect! The wind was brutal but it was a tail wind for us today so we hadn’t worried about it! Anyways, they put us in a site where we didn’t have to unhitch so we were happy and got all set up. John managed to barbecue but it was a challenge. Just after we got set up a couple stopped by to see where we were from, turns out they are from Niagara Falls, ON and had spent the winter at Cochise Terrace.

This morning just as we were getting ready to leave two women stopped and asked John if they could see our trailer as one thought they had had one like it (only smaller) years ago. Had a nice chat with them, one of the ladies was from just outside Port Huron so knew Sarnia well, a small world.

Today the wind was really brutal, but again it was a tail wind for us so not a problem, in fact we got really good mileage today so we were happy. The drive was great again with not a lot of traffic, the kind of driving day we like! The only time we got hit with the wind was coming down after crossing the mountains east of Las Cruses, we got the wind hitting us from the side and it was brutal, we were really glad we only had a couple of minutes of that!

I Love These Rock Formations Around Wilcox, AZ



Entering New Mexico - Goodbye Arizona!



White Sands West of Alamogordo, NM





Border Patrol Stop



We stopped at a park on the west side of Alamogordo, NM but it was $25 for a spot in the sand so decided to drive to the east side of town and check out a Passport America Park, turns out it was much nicer, the owners were really friendly and the price was right at $15/night – gotta like that. Passport America is funny, there are some really nice parks (like where we were last night), some nice parks (like tonight) and some really crummy parks, guess we just have to check them out to see what category they fall into – LOL! This park has Wi-Fi but it isn’t very strong here so I will wait a while and see if it gets better after most normal people have gone to bed!!

The temperature has really dropped – it was 59F when we stopped tonight so it will be interesting to see what kind of temperatures we get from here on, I don’t care about the temperatures so much, just keep the tornados away!!!

As always, the last two days have been great gifts here in the sunny south and we look forward to another good day tomorrow.