New Mexico

Sunday, August 7 - We left our very nice campground in Amarillo at 9:30 this morning, 81 degrees.  This campground is probably the best one we've stayed at as far as amenities, facilities, and people.  They lead you to your campsite, have a great indoor pool, coffee and donuts available in the morning and they visit with people as they sit in the club room, which is where the check-in desk in.  We would recommend this one to everyone -- Amarillo Ranch RV Park.

Yesterday as we left the Oklahoma City Memorial on I-40, we hit a traffic back-up, that we assumed was due to road construction, since we had seen sights about that.  But as we got to the exit (finally) to the outlet mall, we found out the traffic jam was shoppers taking advantage of the tax-free holiday weekend.  As soon as we passed that exit, we sailed right along.

Back to Sunday, we got off the interstate and took US 60 to New Mexico, and then US 70 into Roswell, where we spent the night.  In Texas, we passed through Hereford, proclaimed as the Beef Capital of the World, and from the smell of it, I would agree.  We saw lots of cattle feedlots right along the highway, and twice we saw cowboys riding through the lots, checking on the cows.

Grain elevators dotted the landscape, and there was some farming as well, cotton and corn we think.  This one was in Boniva, but we saw them scattered along for miles in this West Texas area.  I always enjoy seeing the feedlots, in spite of the smell -- reminder of my CSC/IMC days in Terre Haute.  I recall a lot of these town names from call reports we used to have to work on that our field salesmen would submit.

 We passed an abandoned gas station with the price posted at $1.39.  Joe thought he might just pull in here and wait for them to reopen.   The temperature held about 88 degrees across this part of Texas.  We crossed into New Mexico at 11:30 a.m., and the temperature had warmed up just a little --91 degrees.  We stopped in Clovis for groceries, fuel and lunch, we had right at 100 miles in so farm.

This New Mexico highway was a four-lane, with very little traffic, so Joe got the bright idea that I should drive for a while (so he could take a nap).  So I did.

But his plan to sit there and do nothing was not very realistic -- I wanted to give him a taste of what the co-pilot duties are.  So he looked for a campground, checking two different directories; he looked at the map to figure out where the campgrounds were; he had to take a couple of pictures.  I mentioned that I was thirsty and there was lemonade, but he just told me to take a sip of his watered-down soda.  And I didn't even ask for a snack, so I let him off easy there.  He did complain that he didn't get a nap in because I kept him too busy.

 Just before we hit Roswell, I pulled over and we switched back to our normal positions.  I can drive fine as long as I don't have to make any sharp turns, or heaven forbid that I pass someone -- who would I ever know when I had cleared them (I guess I would need a spotter).  But just after he took over, we hit strong wind gusts, and our awning came loose -- he had me stick my head out my window to see what was going on, and I could see a few inches of fabric hanging down, so we pulled over and got out the duct tape.  We knew one of the latches had not been holding very good, so he got it taped up and we were good to go.  I called several campground in Ruidoso, thinking we might just go on in one day early (he didn't think he could do this while I was driving), but they were all full, so we stayed in Roswell.  WE got in 230 miles today, and got off the road about 3:30 (we changed time zones again, so we gained another hour).  This campground had an outdoor swimming pool, so after we got set up we went over and swam for a little while.  This water was surprisingly chilly too.  One more day of driving -- and that is only about 70 miles -- then we get to stay put for a week.  Really looking forward to the mountains (and cooler temperatures) of Ruidoso.