Amarillo, Texas - Day 2

Starting off today with a few shots of Fort Amarillo:

Front Entrance

Official Greeter

The park includes a small catch and release fishing pond.  There are lots of spots around the pond to cast a line or just sit and contemplate life.  The buildings are built to look like an old west style town.  I think they are used for a clubhouse, gift store, exercise room etc.

Fishing Pond

Pond Waterfall

Resident Ducks

So what do a couple of RVers do when they are not driving down the highway?  Why, they go to an RV museum.

Have you seen this movie?

Every self respecting RVer owns a copy. At Jack Sisemore's RV Museum and RV Dealership, they have one of the buses from the movie on display. Very cool.

Happy Max - The 1948 Flxble Bus owned by the Gornicke Family in the movie

Checking out the driver's seat

Camping Tableau - Love the picnic basket

Check out the blue appliances - even the shower was blue

1937 Elkhart Trailer - First style built in Elkhart - RV manufacturing capital of the world

We are spending two days in the Elkhart, Indiana area on our way home.  Lots of the manufacturers hold tours.  I think we are going to be able to tour Keystone.  Keystone made our RV.  Should be interesting.

1946 Tear Drop Kit trailer

These Tear Drop trailers were made out of surplus aluminum after the war.  Some of the wheels had bullet holes in them and had to be  repaired before use.

Cooking Kitchen at the back

Sleep inside

Just goes to show -  Everything old is new again.  The TAB is today's version of the old tear drop trailer.  Slightly bigger but the same concept.

Jack Sisemore original gas station mock up

Visiting the museum was a great way to spend the morning.  This museum is newly opened and well worth seeing.

Albuquerque To Amarillo

It's a Snowy Morning

Well what do we do now? Do we stay or do we go? The bad weather was supposed to be in the Sandia Mountains north of us heading towards Colorado. Since we are heading east, radar clear and forecasts along the route better than Albuquerque, we decided to go for it. Good plan except we didn't remember the foothills leading out of the city. Oops!

Leaving Albuquerque

After white knuckle driving for about 35 to 40 miles, the snow abruptly stopped. One side of an underpass was snowy and the other just wet. Very weird.

No more snow

Today was all about threatening skies and clouds.

Almost to Amarillo

Love these old windmills

Last year I almost missed the Cadillac Ranch.  Today I was on alert and got this shot.  Such a weird thing to do.  Why bury all these cars?  As per Wikipedia, it is a public art installation and sculpture created in 1974 and sponsored by a local millionaire.  This sculpture has been featured in movies and music videos.

Cadillac Ranch

Our Lakefront site at Fort Amarillo

Apparently it rained very hard before we arrived.  We have our very own lake on our site.  Good thing the site is very long.  This park has a small catch and release fishing pond complete with a waterfall.  Fort Amarillo has an indoor pool, hot tub and a gift shop.  I'll check them out tomorrow.

Between our late start and time change, we didn't get set up until about 6pm. So we went to a local steakhouse for supper.  The restaurant was recommended by the park office.  Good eats and very reasonably priced.

Oh, last night was our first access to cable TV for over a month.  What luxury!

To sum up our adventures today.  We're here, we're safe and we're staying until Thursday.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

This morning as we set off, we met up with an army convoy. The vehicles were staging at a gas station at the end of our campground road. One of the soldiers stopped to let us pass through the line. Thanks guys.

It's a Convoy

The first part of our trip was on a state road that saved us miles and avoided going through a large city. Highway 26 is a lovely road. We followed it for about 50 miles before joining up with Interstate 25. We have noticed that the interstates running in a north/south direction seem to be less busy than the east/west ones. Just a side note: north/south interstates end in an odd number and east/west interstates in an even number.

Passed this Solar Farm on Highway 26

Lots of beautiful scenery.  New Mexico is very hilly but the highway is not too bad.  No passes and only a couple of 6% grades.  Quite often we were on a plain with hills off in the distance both east and west of us.  The weather forecast was calling for scattered thunder storms.  We had a few drops of rain just after lunch but it held off  long enough for us to get settled at the Albuquerque KOA.  Right now we are getting some wind and hail or snow - ick!

We passed over the Rio Grande River several times today.  Do you know that this is the first water we have seen for a month?  Except in the swimming pool.

We passed by this town.  I was really curious as to how it got its name.  Visions of outlaws or severe weather ran through my head.  But no, when I googled it the real story is as follows:  In 1950 there was a radio contest.  The first town to change its name to Truth or Consequences (T or C as it is locally known) would be the site of a live radio broadcast of the Truth or Consequence show.  For 50 years since winning the contest, the radio host has come on the first weekend in May.  The town holds a fiesta.  By the way, Truth or Consequences was originally called Hot Spring.

Deming, New Mexico

Most of today's drive was through desert similar to that around Casa Grande. But as we headed east there were subtle differences. We began to see some dry grasses and different plants. There are no more saguaro cactus and wildflowers are blooming. We even passed a couple of cattle ranches and saw a few horses and alpacas.

Although most of the drive was flat  we did climb a few thousand feet but very gradually.  At certain points we passed through rocky hilly country.

Interesting Rock Formations

Lots of Rocks

These rocks looked as though a giant baby had tossed his blocks in a jumbled heap. Don't know how some of the rocks stayed balanced.

Lots of Trains

In true RV campground fashion, the train tracks are very close.  I'm not going to be able to sleep in Ontario without the constant train whistles and rumblings.

It is very windy here in Deming.  Thank goodness it wasn't too bad while we were driving.

Wildflowers As Far As I Could See

Odd Palms? - Maybe Cacti? with a Scraggly Xmas Tree Shape at Top

Looks Like Something From Dr. Suess' Whoville

Having done some research, I think these are yucca plants.  The top growth is the old flower stem.  The yucca is the state flower of New Mexico.

Adios Arizona

Today is our last day in Arizona.  Bright and early Sunday morning we hitch up and head out.  You know the old saying "Go West young man"?  Well we're not so young and we're heading east.

The last few days have been warm and relaxing.  We have been doing a fair bit of lounging around the pool.  Other than that just chores and packing up for our trip.

Yesterday, we walked down the road to Eva's.  A local Mexican restaurant.  Our meals were very tasty.  Wayne had a huge burrito and I had chicken fajitas.  We shared a bowl of nachos and dip as well as a huge and delicious dessert.  Ha ha - dessert in the desert.

I know, the sun is turning my brain to mush.  Checking ahead on the weather site, we should have warm and sunny days for at least the first part of our journey.  No rushing on this trip.  We'll drive for a couple of days and then stop for a couple of nights to rest and sight see.  We scheduled a couple of stopovers  in some of the same locales as last year.

We are staying two nights in Amarillo.  We have never stayed overnight in Texas before.  I'll get to put a new state sticker on my travel map. Two nights in Springfield, Missouri - the flagship store for Bass Pro Sports is here.  This is an amazing store.  We will definitely be stopping and shopping.  We are also spending two nights in Indianapolis.  Never been there before.  Our last two night stopover will be in Middlebury, Indiana - heart of Amish country.  Wayne's lips are smacking already.  He loves that Mennonite/Amish food.

We should be arriving in Waterloo on the 14th of April.  Hope to see many of you soon.  Keep watching the blog - I'll try to update daily dependent on Internet availability.

It's a Money Pit Day!

Three weeks ago, appointments were made and parts were ordered. Today was the big day. Pack everything up and head to the repair shop.  We weren't sure it was going to happen as the parts only arrived at the shop yesterday.

While getting ready for the big move, Wayne noticed that two of our trailer tires were badly worn.  He checks them regularly, so this has developed recently.  Apparently our plies are separating.  Okay we teed up with the tire place to install new tires while the rig was at the repair shop.

Bald Spot on Tires

New Tires

Now the main event. Loyal blog followers may remember all the problems we had on our trip west last fall.

Can you tell what's different?

We have never trusted the many and varied repairs to our landing gear.  Every travel day is extra stressful, not knowing if the legs will do their job.  So we bit the bullet and ordered new ones.

New Landing Gear - outside shot

Inside Shot

These legs each have their own drive motor and operating switch.  Each of the new legs will lift as much as the original pair of legs.  Also no cross bar is needed to transfer the movement as each leg is independent.
The change out wasn't without drama.  Within five minutes of starting the project, the technician says he can't do the job as the leg assemblies aren't the same size and the brackets don't line up.  He didn't want to do the cutting and welding required.  After some discussion with the front office,  the owner got involved and arranged for a welder and personally supervised the job.

Old Yucky Landing Gear

Six hours later we have success and headed back home to Las Colinas Rv Park.  But not to our original back in site.  We are now in a pull through site in a different part of the park.  Wayne had a splitting headache and didn't want to muck about.  The back in site was kind of difficult to get in.  It was actually designed for a park model.

An all day project

Sunset in the desert

Gaslight Theater - Tucson

Today's adventure included attending a play in Tucson at the Gaslight Theater. We also made a stop at Camping World and had lunch at Little Anthony's Diner next door to the theater.

Waitresses

Hostess

This couch is the backseat of an old car.

Gaslight Theater

Props outside theater

This was a melodrama.  Lots of booing and clapping.  Tons of fun and very funny.  The theater is set up in a cabaret fashion with chairs around small tables.  The storyline roughly follows a Zorro type tale.  Evil governor, trampled upon townspeople, damsels in distress and an unlikely pair of heroes.

This is a bump cap. Terry & Janet got it for me after I cut my head on a sideout last year. Its a hard plastic insert under a ball cap

This is Kim in a bump cap...... wait for it.

Kim striking a sexy pose, noooo, she hit her head on the post behind her. Oh, did I mention she hit the same spot as when she hit the airplane.  I love her dearly, but I see a hockey helmet in her future. And for the record I asked if she was alright first, then I took the picture & laughed.