First Snowbird adventure
I know, to many of you this sort of stuff is mundane, but to us first timers, everything is new and exciting! This is actually why we became interested in the first place.
We left east central Indiana last Monday at 8:30 AM. Just a half hour past stated goal, but that included a weigh-in at my farmer friend's house, I had not planned. It was 16 degrees, and headed down when we left. We did not get far enough south not to be frozen the first night, but at least we planned for staying winterized the first couple days. We generally like to dry camp for free, alternated with a paid for stay to get clean and recharge. Walmart is our friend for the free part and we found a lovely COE park in Waco, TX. So you can see we drove a bit more than the 350/day, I had planned. Can you spell EAGER? As in, eager to get to warmer weather. We got to the park at Waco Lake in the afternoon and the temp was near 70! Hallelujah! Free at last! Well, next morning it was about 40, so perhaps a bit early to rejoice.
Came on south on I-35. Please don't think you can't live without the traffic in Dallas/Ft Worth area. Worse than Louisville, KY! We were stopped cold for over 40 min and crawled off and on for the next 40-50 miles! I could not believe the level of construction going on in that area.
When we did pull off just to relax my white knuckles, we were following "Sally" or whatever the Google Maps girl's name is, and she wanted us to turn on a road that had been chopped off and barricaded. In my 68 year old brain, I saw the right way to go, just off to my left. I checked the passenger side mirror, took my foot off the brake at the same time I looked in the driver side mirror and immediately caught movement out of the corner of my eye to the left. As I slammed the brake, a blue blur streaked across the front of my truck. I later identified a Ford focus sedan traveling about 50, had swerved just enough to miss me! Had I been TWO SECONDS sooner, it was a trip ender, at least, and possibly a life ender for someone.
After my heart returned to its normal location from my throat, I prayed more fervently than I have in a long while, in Thanksgiving for being spared from that near miss! Lesson learned. Look twice before moving truck and camper!
Being ahead of the game, mileage wise, we spent another night with our Walmart friends in Las Cruces, NM. Since our reservations for Picacho Peak aren't until Sat, we took advantage of the delay to go off our planned route and stay a night at Leaman Dam State Park, nearby, overlooking the mighty Rio Grande River! We haven't walked around much, yet. But I'm guessing we are below the dam, or something is terribly wrong. I had more water in my basement this morning, that the raging river flow! Looks like what we call a "crick", in Indiana!
Had a leaky pump this morning that has been leaking, for a least a few days. Thankfully, I never leave fresh water pump under pressure while driving. Anyhow, the basement had to be emptied and fans out in place to dry the floor. In the desert, I'm guessing we can go from sopping, dripping to horned toad dry in about seven hours!
Had about a dozen quail visit us twice this morning. I figure they were on a Walmart run and then back to whatever bush in the sand they call home. They came right up to our chairs, nearly, and since our little Cairn terrier, Daisy, didn't bark, they didn't give her a second glance.
Well, that about brings us up to date on our virgin adventure. I will try to add more later, if anyone is interested?
We left east central Indiana last Monday at 8:30 AM. Just a half hour past stated goal, but that included a weigh-in at my farmer friend's house, I had not planned. It was 16 degrees, and headed down when we left. We did not get far enough south not to be frozen the first night, but at least we planned for staying winterized the first couple days. We generally like to dry camp for free, alternated with a paid for stay to get clean and recharge. Walmart is our friend for the free part and we found a lovely COE park in Waco, TX. So you can see we drove a bit more than the 350/day, I had planned. Can you spell EAGER? As in, eager to get to warmer weather. We got to the park at Waco Lake in the afternoon and the temp was near 70! Hallelujah! Free at last! Well, next morning it was about 40, so perhaps a bit early to rejoice.
Came on south on I-35. Please don't think you can't live without the traffic in Dallas/Ft Worth area. Worse than Louisville, KY! We were stopped cold for over 40 min and crawled off and on for the next 40-50 miles! I could not believe the level of construction going on in that area.
When we did pull off just to relax my white knuckles, we were following "Sally" or whatever the Google Maps girl's name is, and she wanted us to turn on a road that had been chopped off and barricaded. In my 68 year old brain, I saw the right way to go, just off to my left. I checked the passenger side mirror, took my foot off the brake at the same time I looked in the driver side mirror and immediately caught movement out of the corner of my eye to the left. As I slammed the brake, a blue blur streaked across the front of my truck. I later identified a Ford focus sedan traveling about 50, had swerved just enough to miss me! Had I been TWO SECONDS sooner, it was a trip ender, at least, and possibly a life ender for someone.
After my heart returned to its normal location from my throat, I prayed more fervently than I have in a long while, in Thanksgiving for being spared from that near miss! Lesson learned. Look twice before moving truck and camper!
Being ahead of the game, mileage wise, we spent another night with our Walmart friends in Las Cruces, NM. Since our reservations for Picacho Peak aren't until Sat, we took advantage of the delay to go off our planned route and stay a night at Leaman Dam State Park, nearby, overlooking the mighty Rio Grande River! We haven't walked around much, yet. But I'm guessing we are below the dam, or something is terribly wrong. I had more water in my basement this morning, that the raging river flow! Looks like what we call a "crick", in Indiana!
Had a leaky pump this morning that has been leaking, for a least a few days. Thankfully, I never leave fresh water pump under pressure while driving. Anyhow, the basement had to be emptied and fans out in place to dry the floor. In the desert, I'm guessing we can go from sopping, dripping to horned toad dry in about seven hours!
Had about a dozen quail visit us twice this morning. I figure they were on a Walmart run and then back to whatever bush in the sand they call home. They came right up to our chairs, nearly, and since our little Cairn terrier, Daisy, didn't bark, they didn't give her a second glance.
Well, that about brings us up to date on our virgin adventure. I will try to add more later, if anyone is interested?
