Saturday July 11th 2020

Today’s 109 degree temperature was nearly twenty degrees above the average July temperature for the Amarillo area. I’m really finding some record high temperatures this year. Tomorrow’s forecast is a little cooler with an increased chance of severe storms at the end of the day. Monday and Tuesday are forecast to be similar to today.

The heat did a number on my ambition. I spent the day at home trying not to melt. My tentative plan to go grocery shopping was put off until Sunday or Monday. Instead I got a few tasks done around my RV home. I finished repairing the wardrobe closet door. The door is back on and operational, but I’m not convinced the problem will not reoccur the next time I travel on a rough road. The door is heavy enough that it could really use three hinges instead of two. That is a major change I’m not prepared to take on until it is absolutely necessary.

I took a break after writing the above two paragraphs. A heavy, not severe, thunderstorm developed right over the area. I’ve been watching the storm on my phone weather radar app and the impressive light show out my front window. The storm is moving slowly away from the area to the southeast. On the positive side the rain may wash some of the dust off my RV home and car. It’s the first real water either has seen since January or February.

Friday July 10th 2020

The temperature peaked three degrees cooler than Thursday, but when your talking about 104 vs. 107 it really doesn’t mean much. The humidity is in the mid thirty percent range and climbing. This morning there was some wind to keep things a little cooler. The first four hours of the afternoon were pretty much dead still. It was very uncomfortable. Almost on the stroke of 4PM a very strong wind out of the southwest arrived to stir up the heat. It has been blowing strong ever since.

One of the down sides of travel in this virus avoiding time, is there aren’t any inside tourist attractions to visit when it doesn’t make sense to visit outside attractions. Either the inside ones are closed or they represent a higher risk experience than I want to visit. That is the situation I found myself in today. My original plan was to visit the Palo Duro Canyon State Park, but the forecast temperature in the canyon was ten degrees higher than Amarillo. I don’t need heat stroke.

I spent the day working on travel planning and reservations. It is a real challenge in these uncertain times. Each state and in some cases each county is making decisions based on their own ideas of the best interest of their citizens. All of a sudden some arbitrary public health threshold is reached and they establish a new set of restrictions. When it comes to travel it is most often a quarantine of some sort. Every quarantine is different. You need to study the “guidance” or order carefully. In some states the executive order has the force of law and in others it seems to be much weaker. Either way, once they establish the rule, they don’t want me so I don’t want them.

Right now there are no travel restrictions on my intended path for the next few weeks, but it could change at a moments notice. While I was in New Mexico last week the governor decided travelers weren’t welcome. It could happen again. Once I leave here next Tuesday I plan to spend ten days in Oklahoma followed by a couple weeks or more in Arkansas. The reservation in Arkansas is too far out to be comfortable. I’d give the odds at fifty fifty on being able to keep the whole reservation.

Most of the RVs that stop at this park only stay a night or two. They come from all over the country. Many may be very new to RV travel. In addition to rental units there are many with temporary tags. I am seeing a lot of new things. This morning my neighbor got out a set of weights and proceeded to spend an hour with them. This was a full dumbbell set. He would do a couple of lifts at one weight then take a break before changing the weight and repeating the cycle. The guy didn’t look particularly buff. I wonder if his trailer was overloaded with all the weight.

Thursday July 9th 2020

It was a bright sunny day allowing the temperature to reach 107 degrees this afternoon. This is the third “heat wave” I’ve been in this year. This is pay back for last year. I experienced very few ninety plus degree days in the Pacific Northwest last summer. This heat is expected to continue well into next week. Most of the day I have some shade, but late in the afternoon the sun is bearing on the passenger side of my RV without obstruction. From five to seven in the evening the AC can’t keep up. It gets very warm in the RV. Last night the AC didn’t start cycling until after eleven.

I worked on chores and maintenance tasks around the RV today. The big repair task is the wardrobe closet door that broke off its hinge on the way here. First I dug out a couple of new screws to fasten the hinges. They were located in a plastic organizer inside a plastic storage tub in the basement of the RV. Somehow I remembered I had the screws, but to find the two little screws I had to empty one whole basement storage bin. It took close to an hour to empty, locate and reload things.

I haven’t finished the repair yet. I filled the stripped screw holes with glue and pieces of wooden match sticks, but ran into a problem reinstalling things. The door is heavy. I can’t hold it and fasten the hinges at the same time. I may be able to disassemble things a little to make it more manageable or I’ll have to make some kind of support aid. A jig or a carefully constructed pile of stuff to hold the door may be in my future. I’m taking a day to ruminate on possible solutions.

This afternoon I took a drive of exploration to the east. It was partly out of curiosity and partly to enjoy the concentrated AC in the front seat of the car. Amarillo ends just as abruptly as in the west. One minute you’re passing buildings and businesses and the next you’re surrounded by pastures and farm land. The common element was a lot of flat land.

Wednesday July 8th 2020

The triple digit temperatures have arrived limiting outdoor activities. Never the less, I did a few things today in the one hundred degree heat. It was a lot of touring in the car with a couple of excursions in the heat.

Amarillo is a large growing city and metropolitan area in the middle of the Texas panhandle. When I arrived on Monday the city crept up on me. There is an abrupt transition from open plains to industry and retail approaching from the west on Interstate 40. Today I found a similar abrupt transition to the north. I suspect I’ll find similar transitions to the south and east.

Historic route 66 passes through Amarillo. Many of the older touristy things date back to the hay day of the cross country road. I’d long heard about a road side attraction called Cadillac Ranch along route 66. It turns out to be here on the west side of Amarillo. I passed it without knowing on my way into town on Monday. I backtracked to visit it today.

The Cadillac Ranch is ten Cadillac automobiles planted nose down in a field pointing west. The unique artistry was first created in 1974 in a wheat field along the side of old route 66. Over the years the art evolved by condoned vandalism and graffiti. Today it is hard to tell the cars were once caddies, but they remain unique forms of art. In 1997 the ten cars were moved 2 miles west to their current location in a cow pasture along the south side frontage road for Interstate 40. As the city expands it is getting close to encroaching on the Cadillac Ranch again.

There were many people making the few hundred yard walk from the frontage road out to the half buried cars. Many people came prepared with spray paint to add their creative touch to the exhibit. The smell of paint was very strong around the cars. You had to be careful not to get caught in someones over spray. It was a fun visit, but I don’t have to do it again. Once you’ve seen it you can’t forget it.

Tuesday July 7th 2020

After yesterdays six and a half hour travel day, I was exhausted last night. I really needed a good nights sleep and a day of recovery. I took today as a day of recovery, but I didn’t really get the good nights sleep last night.

The change in time zone and late arriving neighbors conspired against sleeping last night. It was only a day more than a week ago that I was in Arizona following Mountain Standard Time. I was just starting to get accustom to the Mountain Daylight time in New Mexico when I moved on to this location in Central Daylight time. It is still light here after 9:30. In Arizona it was dark by quarter to eight. The bottom line is my body thinks bed time is after midnight.

Shortly after I got to sleep last night an RV arrived to occupy the site behind me. They were not quiet setting up sometime after 1AM. Why they arrived so late, I don’t know, but they left at 8PM tonight. Just a little odd. I got back to sleep quickly, but didn’t get to sleep late. The neighbor on my passenger side decided to depart around 7AM this morning. They weren’t very quiet either. I ended up beginning my day early.

While I’m in the middle of complaining, I might as well complain about the weather. After months in the dry desert, I’m now in a more humid area. It still isn’t humid by southeast standards, but it is enough to make today’s 90 degree temperature feel hot. The forecast is for triple digit weather starting later this week into the beginning of next week. My AC is probably going to get a workout.

My energy level was low all day. I finished setting up for my eight night stay and walked around the RV park a couple of times. Like many of the parks located at exits along Interstate 40 it turns over dramatically every day. The whole section of the park with pull through sites was full last night and empty by checkout this morning. I’m located in an area of the park that seems to be used for longer stays.

Monday July 6th 2020

Today was a very long travel day from Grants New Mexico to Amarillo Texas. I got on the road a little later than I’d hoped at 9AM. I made a stop for gas in the Albuquerque suburbs for gas about an hour into the trip and then the adventure began.

Following Interstate 40 east out of Albuquerque was an all new road for my travels. The climb out of the Rio Grand valley in Albuquerque was long and occasionally steep. It topped out well over seven thousand feet in a high plains kind of area. Eventually the road started to drop in altitude.

My biggest annoyance on today’s journey was my electronic gadgets. I usually play podcasts on my phone over Bluetooth to the RV radio. My phone didn’t charge overnight. The micro USB connector doesn’t stay connected with the slightest vibration, so I couldn’t stream the podcasts. I started out fine with the FM radio keeping me alert and entertained, but east of Albuquerque on the far side of the mountain ridge I lost all of the stations. After about an hour of silence with occasional fiddling with the radio, I found a place to stop. I dug up an old CD with an audio book to keep me entertained.

At that stop I also discovered a minor catastrophe in the bedroom. Somewhere along the way one of the wardrobe closet doors not only opened, but broke loose from one of its hinges. I took the time to remove the door from the other hinge and completed the trip with the door on the bed. Now I have to figure out how to put it back up so it won’t come open and off again during the next rolling earthquake travel day.

After six and a half hours plus a change in time zones I arrived at the Amarillo KOA Journey at 4:30 CDT. The city and metro area are bigger than I anticipated. Getting through Amarillo to the campground on the east side of the metro area involved navigating a lot of traffic. The campground is located on the north side of a rather large airport. I’ll be here for the next eight days.

Sunday July 5th 2020

Today was a little warmer day than the past several. The cloud cover was a little less dense most of the day and the wind of the last few days was gone. The temperature peaked a little above 90 degrees.

Fireworks in the surrounding area continued last night until after midnight. I could see a few of the air bursts, but for the most part it was just noise. Sleep didn’t come quickly, but I made up for it with a late start to the day this morning. Most of last nights overnight residents had departed by the time I got out of bed. The RV park last night, but it is making up for it tonight. The park appears to be full.

This is my last night here. Tomorrow I am heading east to Amarillo Texas. It will be a very long travel day, but additional stops in New Mexico don’t make sense with the current quarantine order for travelers. All I’d be able to see is the RV park from my campsite. I plan to stay in Amarillo for a little over a week. There are a number of outside recreational opportunities in the area. Hopefully, Texas doesn’t put a “stay at home” order or a quarantine order in place while I’m in Amarillo.

Most of the day was spent watching TV and reading. Late in the day I got most of the outside travel preparation tasks complete. The inside tasks are half complete. After breakfast I can finish the remaining tasks. I want to get an early start tomorrow.

Saturday July 4th 2020

It was another day with a lot of monsoon flow clouds. The sky dribbled on the earth for a minute or two in the afternoon, but overall it was a dry day. The temperature peaked in the mid to upper eighties.

The Grants New Mexico fireworks were visible from the RV park. The official town fireworks were a long way away, but there were many private shows around the area that also brightened the night sky. I really like taking pictures of fireworks. This time around the distance and the wind made it more difficult. The bursts didn’t last long before the wind blew them away.

Friday July 3rd 2020

The temperature got into the mid to upper eighties today. It was a mostly cloudy day. The monsoon weather pattern is bringing in high level moisture from the southwest. The cloud cover thickened during the day. Around the supper hour a few drops of rain made it to the ground, but if you blinked you missed it.

I spent the day reading and watching TV. It really was a normal stay at home day. The difference is knowing that a generalized government order directed at travelers from other states was keeping me home. I’m not the type of traveler that puts the local population at risk. The amount of interaction I have with locals is minimal to non existent particularly in these times. I really don’t want to be where I’m not wanted.

The RV park has really filled up tonight. I’m not sure how many will be staying for the weekend. My guess is that most will continue to travel in the morning, but unlike other nights this week, a few will remain until Sunday or Monday. Travel on a holiday weekend is best avoided.

Thursday July 2nd 2020

Today was a little warmer and a little more humid. A monsoon weather pattern is starting to move into New Mexico. It is bringing more cloud cover and humidity. So far, it hasn’t brought any rain to this area of the state.

Yesterday the governor of New Mexico issued new pandemic control measures. In addition to re-enforcing the mandatory mask order with a fine, she ordered travelers entering the state by any means to quarantine for fourteen days. I’m not surprised. This state has been very proactive fighting the virus.

Figuring out all of the ways I’m impacted is not very clear. Being out of the campground playing tourist is certainly not in the cards. The worst case scenario would mean I have to extend my stay here for another ten days to complete a two week quarantine. The most likely scenario is that when I leave here on Monday I have to leave the state.

To implement that plan, I’ve booked a stay in Amarillo Texas as my next stop. It means a long travel day of about 370 miles with one fuel stop. My original plan had two more stops in New Mexico, but what’s the point if I have to stay in my RV home. I doubt I would even be allowed to stay longer than one night anywhere in New Mexico. One place I checked with in an attempt to shorten my travel day was only taking same day one night reservations.

This whole thing is very fluid. I’d pack up and leave now, if it wasn’t a holiday weekend. Finding a place to stay in a state that is taking travelers on the long weekend isn’t easy. There have been several different interpretations of the Governor’s order on TV. The inn keepers seem to be responsible for implementing the order, but there isn’t any specific enforcement mechanism. Hopefully, things will stay in flux over the holiday weekend and I can escape the state on Monday.

Just like Tuesday and Wednesday mornings this park cleared out of all but the longer term residents by today’s 11AM checkout. Around 1:30 a new set of RVs started to arrive. There aren’t as many tonight, but I counted fifteen new arrivals so far. I expect all of them to leave in the morning. If they don’t it will be telling. I’m not sure what, but it will be telling something.