Saturday March 4th 2017

Today was a beautiful sunny day with highs in the 80s and light winds. Tomorrow and Monday are not forecast to be as nice, so I took advantage of the weather to visit the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.

Road coming down Gates Pass

The museum is to the west of Tucson about 50 miles from my campsite. I got there off of Interstate 10 on a road clearly labeled for passenger cars only. It soon became clear why there were many warning signs. West Gates Pass Road was barely two lanes wide and twisted and turned up to the top and then steeply down the opposite side. It was surrounded by desert with many saguaro cactus. It was a fun drive in my CR-V, but the guy in the rental Class C motorhome that didn’t heed the signs may have needed to change his underwear. Then again he may not have been smart enough to be scared, since he didn’t believe the signs. I returned the longer way out to Interstate 19 south of Tucson. It wasn’t much longer, but more populated and a lot less scenic.

Overview of the area surrounding the museum.

The museum has a collection of plant life from all over the Sonora desert and representative animal life from the desert as well. Not all of the plants and animals are native to this part of the large desert. There are also a few exhibits that I can only believe are here to draw visitors. Why is there a stingray touching tank. They stretch the line by pointing out that the desert abuts the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California.

The remainder of this blog post contains some of the pictures I took today.

Desert squirrels run around the museum. They aren’t part of the exhibit, but provide a level of entertainment. The fur on their backs look like scales.

Mountain Lion hiding in the artificial cave.

Mexican Wolf

White Tailed Deer

Organ Pipe Cactus

More Organ Pipe Cactus

Agave in Bloom

Bighorn Sheep

Black Breasted Whistling Duck

Friday March 3rd 2017

I went to my first Arizona Spring Training game today. The Milwaukee Brewers played the Los Angeles Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium in Tempe Az. Tempe is about 50 miles north of my campsite.

Entrance to Tempe Diablo Stadium on the hill.

I arrived for the 1PM game around noon after about an hour drive. The stadium is right beside the interstate at the base of a butte. Parking was available beside the stadium for only five dollars. Security was tight at the stadium. They were searching bags and wanding everybody.

View from the area of my seat.

Warning signs all around the promenade.

Batting practice was over when I arrived. The grounds crew was preparing the field for the game. Diablo Stadium has one level of seating below the promanade with all the concessions. I located my seat in section 18 on the first base side. It was the first section beyond the dugout. Unfortunately, it was also the first section without real seats. It was a section of bench seating. I thought I’d bought a better seat than that. It was the primary reason I left after two and a half hours of game at the end of five innings. Sitting on that bench seat for three plus hours was too much.

Close up of the butte behind the stadium. The building behind the butte is the Marriott Buttes hotel.

I knew the names of many of the Angels starting players since they are an American League team that plays the Red Sox a couple of times a year. The only Brewers player I knew was Travis Shaw who played for the Red Sox last year. By the time I left for home, all of the players left on the field played were trying to make the big league team. Nobody knew who they were.

The game was very slow. Most batters took the count full and fouled off many pitches. Two Angels pitchers left the game with injuries and the replacements took their time getting ready. The Brewers got injured on offense. One batter fouled the ball off his foot and a base runner got hit in the head by the ball stealing second. In both of those cases the trainer spent a long time with the player before allowing them to stay in the game. The score, when I left, was tied at three. The Brewers got their runs via home runs. The Angels had to work harder for their runs and they took advantage of a couple of errors by the Brewers Right Fielder. The final score was Angels 6, Brewers 5. The Angels got a run in the bottom of the ninth to break a five five tie (according to the internet).

I got caught in Phoenix rush hour traffic on my way home. It took closer to an hour and a half to get home. Traffic went from stop and go to 80 plus miles per hour.

Thursday March 2nd 2017

Today started in the 40s but climbed into the 70s by mid afternoon. My focus for the day was getting familiar with the area and replenishing the refrigerator. I didn’t stop for groceries on my week long cross country trip, so I was low on everything.

I’m located in a valley south of the intersection of Interstate 10 and Interstate 8. Most of the valley floor is natural desert, but some of it has been cultivated. The only crop I recognized was the abundant area of Pecan trees. It was a bit of a surprise to learn that the desert areas of the south west are prime territory for Pecan growing. When I think of Pecans, I think of Georgia, but I’ve been passing Pecan groves starting in West Texas, through New Mexico and into this area of Arizona. The trees are kind of naked right now. They should start leafing out soon.

Saguaro Cactus on the side of the road. All the arms indicate it’s a senior citizen.

The natural desert plant life in this area is different from the desert areas in Nevada and eastern Arizona that I am more familiar with. This area has saguaro cacti. In this area there are a few out in the undeveloped desert land beside the roads. One of the places I plan to visit, is the Saguaro National Park in the Tucson area which features these tall treasures.

For grocery shopping I found a Super Walmart in Casa Grande about nine miles to the north. I take comfort in the similarities between Walmarts. There are several standard layouts that most of the locations adhere to. Even so, there are subtle differences that stand out. Most of these differences are driven by the local area. At this Walmart all of the signs describing the departments are in English and Spanish. Another difference is the first display rack in the produce department is filled with a selection of hot peppers complete with a chart describing their heat level. The ones they were selling weren’t that hot, but considering my tastes, I kept walking.

Visitor to my neighbor’s bird feeder. It was noisy like a rooster.

My refrigerator is now full of food. I clearly over compensated for being out of fresh food. I now have a weeks worth of meals waiting to be cooked and that doesn’t count the frozen dinners I added to the freezer. This is very unusual for me. I usually only buy for a couple of days at a time. The trick will be using the supplies before they go bad.

Wednesday March 1st 2017

It was in the 30s when I got up this morning, but it was clear and the wind was calm. I was packed up and on the road shortly after 8AM. I’ve changed time zones twice in the last week. My mind and body aren’t really sure what time it is. Today it worked to my advantage allowing me to get on the road early.

Arizona Welcome Sign through my dirty windshield.

I made it into Arizona by 9AM. The welcome center was full of overnight trucks. I’ll need to find another way to get welcomed to the state. I passed the welcome center without pausing. The road continued along through the area that had caused the road to be closed the last three days for dust storms. A farmer in the area has prepared the top level of ground for planting over a large area. This provides the fuel for dust storms when the wind blows hard. The Arizona Department of Transportation is not too happy with the farmer. There were no dust storms today.

I stopped in Benson AZ for gas. Unfortunately, I had not prepared for the stop by checking Google maps ahead of time. The station didn’t have enough room to easily get in and out with the motorhome. If it had been a little less busy I could still have managed, but the place was packed. I went around the station through the truck parking area. It was my best recourse to get out of the station, but it turned out to be a bad choice. Some unlevel ground caused the RV to wobble and shack badly. The closet doors in the bedroom popped open and stuff spilled all over the place. Worse yet the door flopped around on its hinges and cracked the mirror on the front of the door. Boo boo number two for my Rambling Home. I finally got gas down the road on the outskirts of Tucson.

Damaged mirror in my bedroom.

Tuscon turned out to be a wide sprawling city. The traffic wasn’t bad, but it seemed like I was in the congestion of the city forever. It was probably only an hour.

Site 344 at the Silverado RV Resort.  Picture taken into the sun.

I arrived at my destination for the month of March about 1PM. I’ll be at the Silverado RV Resort in Eloy Arizona. It is a large park with many parallel sites back to back. Most of the parks in Arizona have a similar configuration, large and regular. This one may have a little more space between sites than some. I think I’ll be happy here. The people in the office seemed friendly and everybody says hi as you walk through the park.

Tuesday February 28th 2017

When I got up this morning it was cloudy in the 50s and calm. Yesterday’s wind was gone. The overnight sprinkle of rain was not to be seen; gone leaving no evidence it ever happened. I wasn’t fooled. Checking the online forecasts turned up an alert from the National Weather Service. High winds and dust storms were forecast for this area and the area I was traveling into.

At 8:30, as others were getting on the road, I went up to the office and extended my stay for another night. I didn’t need to travel today. There was no reason to take the risk. Not being familiar with the area or the weather patterns, I had to take the warnings seriously. About 9:30 this morning, right when I’d be on the road, the sky darkened, the wind picked up and visibility went way down. The sky was brown with wind blown dust. I made the right decision to stay put for the day. Tomorrow has a much better forecast.

Most of the other overnight visitors to this campground did hit the road. I think only two others remained all day. The TV news reported the Interstate in the direction I was traveling was closed periodically for wind and dust. I wouldn’t have been a happy camper if I’d gotten caught in one of those closures. To add more grief to the mess, after covering everything with a fine coat of dirt, it rained briefly. Now all of my windows and outside surfaces are covered in quarter inch pools of dried mud.

The came out but the wind kept blowing.

Throughout the day the windstorms came in waves. It blew continuously all day, but every now and then it would pickup and blow harder for half an hour or more. Around 3:30, the clouds broke apart so the sun brightened the area, but the wind continued. The outside temperature never got much above 60. Inside I had the electric heater or the fireplace on to keep in toasty warm.

Tomorrow, I’ll get on the road early for the remaining 200 miles of my cross country journey. After six straight days of driving, I needed today off from driving. I knew I shouldn’t group lots of long driving days together, but I did it anyway. Hopefully, next time I think about one of these major relocation I’ll listen to my own advice.

Monday February 27th 2017

I timed my departure from Van Horn TX to arrive in El Paso TX, about 120 miles west, after the rush hour. Leaving at 10AM central time was perfect for an arrival in El Paso around 11AM Mountain time. The time zone change was only a few miles west of Van Horn as you climbed out of the valley.

The road wasn’t bad getting into El Paso. The hardest part of the journey was the climb out of the valley west of Van Horn. It seemed to be the longest climb I’ve made during this cross country trip. It starts to get congested and commercial long before you reach El Paso proper. This was a big change after all the miles since I last saw big box stores in the San Antonio area. Traffic was heavy but it kept moving through the entire city. The only down side was construction on the west side of the city.

Shortly after passing through the city Texas comes to an end and New Mexico starts. Traffic made it difficult to stop at the welcome center, so I continued on north toward Las Cruces where Interstate 10 resumes its westward direction. New Mexico is the first new state for me on this journey. Louisiana and Texas were new with an RV. I had been to both on business or vacation in the past.

The westward trip started with a stop at a Boarder Patrol Checkpoint. I was just waved through, but the backup was 20 cars or so. While waiting in line, I wonder if they would need to come into my home to look for aliens. Next up on the trip west were ominous warning signs about dust storms. “Exercise Extreme Caution Dust storm area”, “Do not stop in travel lanes”, “Zero visibility” were all on successive signs. At the same time I’m reading these signs I notice the wind is picking up. I made it through the warned areas without any incidents.

Site 29 at the Lordsburg KOA

Most of the way across the state so far has been pretty flat, high desert type terrain. At one point I passed across the continental divide. The sign indicated the elevation was 4500 feet and change. It may be the lowest crossing by an Interstate road. The elevation in Lordsburg, where I am tonight, is 4230 ft. Tucson, the next major city on my trip west, is 2388 ft. I think the flat level road is over. Two thousand feet over one hundred and fifty miles isn’t huge, but it’s a drop.

More interesting desert plants.

After about five hours of travel, I’m at the KOA in Lordsburg NM about 200 miles from my destination for the month of February. I may stay here an additional night. The wind forecast for tomorrow is 30 mph with gusts to 60 mph. If that’s still the forecast in the morning I will extend here.

Sunday February 26th 2017

I got started at 9:15 this morning in drizzly rain. It didn’t require more than a very intermittent windshield wiper pass, but it made things messy. After about an hour the sun broke through for the rest of the day. The temperature made it into the low 70s.

The road was pretty good. It became monotonous after I got west of the Texas hill country. The road climbed over a ridge then traversed the flat then up the next ridge only to repeat the cycle again and again. I was one of the slowest vehicles on the road. The speed limit is 80mph, but I maintained my natural speed. Without paying significant attention to speed I seem to settle in at 64 miles per hour. Cars, trucks and other RVs went by me all day. I only had to pass a few trucks and an RV or two.

Posted speed limit of 80

Climbing out of the valley.

Road cut through white rock. In the distance it resembles dirty snow.

Crossing the flat ground between the ridges.

The last one hundred miles or so were the worst miles of the day. I meet up with a strong wind out of the west. That means I was driving right into it. My first indicator was the need to add gas and the transmission down shifted to maintain speed. About that time I noticed the tall grass along the side of the highway was almost blown flat by the wind. There weren’t any trees with leaves to provide a better indicator. I was soon making many steering adjustments as the force of the wind varied and the direction moved off the front corner and back.

The wind made me use gas faster than expected. I stopped early for gas when it got below a quarter tank. At the gas station, I almost had to hold on to keep from blowing away. The TV news this evening reported steady winds around 20mph with gusts in the 30s. Tomorrow is only supposed to have winds in the teens.

Site F-10 at the Van Horn RV Park

Cactus replace hedges, evergreens and flowering bushes in this region of the country.

I arrived at the Van Horn RV Park after six and half hours and 370 miles. Van Horn TX is about 120 miles east of El Paso. The time zone transition to mountain time is between here and there so I’ll need to take that into account tomorrow. I want to pass through the city after the rush hour. My goal is a shorter travel day to around Deming New Mexico.

Saturday February 25th 2017

Yesterday afternoon the temperature was in the mid 80s, this morning it was around 50 and this afternoon the temperature is topped out at around 60. The sun is shining brightly but the weather pattern sure changed. I also change my travel pattern. After 3 days of hard driving for 5 to 7 hours I slowed down today.

I got on the road at 9:30 this morning from my starting point about 100 miles east of San Antonio. I chose to take one of the loop roads around the city to the north. Mileage wise it was a little shorter than the route through the center of the city. I also suspect the road surface was better than I-10. The down side is that it started off with a few traffic lights before it transitioned into a limited access highway. It also had more traffic than I had anticipated.

Once I was around San Antonio and back on I-10, I was solidly in Texas’s hill country. The road went up and down continuously. After several months in the flat country this was quite a change. When I’m driving in this kind of terrain I have a bigger problem with the trailer trucks. I can maintain speed going up hill better than many trucks, but they go faster on the flats. If I pass them going up the hill, they usually pass me before the next hill. On the other hand if I don’t pass them I loose momentum and struggle up the hill. So it is hopscotch time.

My research indicated that the campground choices along this section of I-10 were widely scattered. That meant I need to stop short or travel longer to find a place to stop overnight. When I started the journey this morning I was prepared to go the distance if necessary, but I was more inclined to stop early. I needed a break from the long days on the road. Full campgrounds or a perfect travel day (what ever that is) were the things that would cause me to go the distance.

Site 39 at the Kerrville KOA

Just before 1PM I found an available site at the Kerrville KOA. It was advertised as the last site by the check in clerk. I think that meant the last site she thought I could fit on, but I’m not complaining. I get to relax for the afternoon. I’m still on track for my March 1st reservation in Eloy Arizona with a night to spare if necessary.

This campground is in a valley with a stream running through it. If heavy rain was scheduled I’d be a little concerned. I crossed a bridge that becomes a ford during heavy rain to get here. The depth gauge beside the road measured up to 3 feet above the road surface. The campground would be flooded if the water over the road was that high.

Friday February 24th 2017

It was a great weather day with highs in the low 80s. To bad my travel day didn’t go as well. I am safely in Schulenburg Tx, about 100 miles west of Houston, after seven and a half hours on the road.

I got started a little before nine thirty this morning. The travel through western Louisiana was pretty good. The road passed through a lot of intentionally flooded fields. My guess is they were growing rice. The only obstacle to a smooth trip out of Louisiana was the city of Lake Charles. I took the interstate through the city rather than the longer beltway. The traffic wasn’t bad, but the road was horrible.

Texas Welcome Center

I arrived at the Texas Welcome center around 11AM. It is a very nice facility with a board walk into the Blue Elbow Swamp. I took a quick walk out into the swamp, but didn’t see any wildlife so cut the walk short and got back on the road. When I stopped for gas a little later I was reminded of Texas’s rather unique exit configurations. They make heavy use of frontage roads that parallel the highway. Exits are often between two cross roads requiring you to travel parallel to the highway on the frontage road to get to the intersection. I think it uses less land, but requires more driving.

Sitting in traffic for an hour and a half.

My plan was to pass through Houston in the early afternoon before the afternoon rush started. The highway gods didn’t like that idea. Sixty miles east of the Houston area the Interstate was blocked by and accident. Not being familiar with the area I had little choice but wait it out. Some cars and a few trailer trucks took off cross country on a gravel road through the fields. Without a navigator and not being able to backup while towing the car, it wasn’t worth the risk to me.
I waited for over an hour and a half before I got by the area of the wreck. It looked like a tandem trailer and a trash hauler were involved in the accident.

The delay found me going through the middle of Houston at the start of rush hour on a Friday afternoon. In my trip planning I had looked at options to go around Houston. The problem is many, if not all, of the roads around Houston are toll roads that require a special transponder to pay the toll. The traffic through the city was heavy. It only came to a crawl a couple of times. It was a very tense drive.

Site 49 at the Schulenburg RV Park

This duck is my neighbor.

Once I was clear of the city I started looking for a place to stay for the night. I stopped at the first rest area and made a few calls. I’m at the Schulenburg RV Park in Schulenburg TX. It is about 100 miles west of Houston and about the same east of San Antonio. Tomorrow is another travel day.

Thursday February 23rd 2017

It’s official as of 2:30PM I am west of the Mississippi River. The travel day began in Milton Florida around 9:30AM and ended at 3:30PM in Lafayette Louisiana. I stopped for gas in Alabama and at the Louisiana Welcome center. Other than that it was steady driving.

Crossing a marsh in Mississippi. Taken through the front windshield.

Most of the travel was in new territory. I had only been as far west on Interstate 10 as the outskirts of Mobile. The first new experience was a rather steep tunnel under the Mobile River. It very long but went down then up into the downtown region very quickly. Once I cleared the Mobile metro area it was uncongested travel into Mississippi. There was one long elevated area across a marsh that was a harbinger of things to come in Louisiana.

Louisiana Welcome Center

The Louisiana Welcome center was large and modern. It didn’t have free Orange Juice like Florida, but instead had coffee. I guess they want alert drivers leaving the welcome center. At the welcome center stop, I made the decision to head for the Lafayette or Lake Charles area if I got there early enough. Little did I know the worst part of the days travel was yet to come.

Long narrow bridges west of the Mississippi River on Interstate 10. Picture taken through the dirty front windshield.

View of East bound lane of the long bridge.

I avoided New Orleans on Interstate 10 by taking Interstate 12 northwest to Baton Rouge where it rejoins Interstate 10 to cross the Mississippi river. The Interstate 12 root may be shorter and it is certainly easier by avoiding downtown New Orleans. Shortly after I cross the river the road started to get interesting. For about 20 miles an elevated highway traverses a swamp. The road is basically two parallel bridges carrying two lanes in each direction. Occasionally you encounter a higher bridge to cross a levee, not a canal or river. It’s just the opposite of a dry land road. Of course there were two different vehicles broken down on this stretch of highway. It really slowed things down.

The road surface on the long bridge wasn’t too bad, but soon after the bridge ended the road got terrible. The concrete road sections used to pave the highway were all curved. The joints at about 10 foot intervals were all higher than the center of the sections. The RV developed a real rough porpoise like ride. I still have more of this rough road surface to travel in the morning.

Site 2 at the Lafayette KOA

View out the front of my Motorhome.

My neighbors

I am at the Lafayette LA KOA tonight. It is an older, but nice, park on the south side of the Interstate. My site looks out on a small pond with several families of ducks. The only indicator that I am now west of the Mississippi is the TV station call signs. They all begin with a “K” instead of a “W”.