Yesterday morning we hooked up the car and after waiting out some severe weather that was north of Dallas, we jumped on I-635 and headed north.
Even tough it was after 9 AM the traffic was still very bad but we managed to get through it without too much trouble. After getting on I-35 we ran into very heavy traffic and a lot of road construction which slowed us down considerably. It was a mess all the way up to Denton but got a lot better when we turned onto US 380 headed over to Decatur. At Decatur we turned right and followed that through Wichita Falls and on up to Quanah, TX.
We are now at the Ole Towne Cotton Gin RV Park in Quanah. We got a large pull-through gravel site with full-hookups including fairly fast WiFi for $30 with our Good Sam’s discount. Since we are bumping against our 30 gig limit with Verizon it’s nice to have the Wifi.
Today we’re going to head up to the Elks Lodge in Tucumcari, NM where we will spend one night.
April 15, 2016
We pulled into the Elks Lodge in Tucumcari, NM about 2:30 PM after a fairly easy run from Quanah.
After getting setup in one of their RV parking sites we drove downtown to check out the sights on old U. S. Highway 66. We stopped at the visitors center and picked up a map of all the murals on buildings in town and also made a small donation in the gift shop.
In what I believe was 1959 or 1960, my parents made one of several trips from Fresno, CA to Bradford, TN, driving most of the trip on the “Mother Road”. Returning to California on one of those trips we broke down here in our 1957 Dodge station wagon.
On Wednesday morning we made the short drive to the Famcamp at Kirkland AFB in Albuquerque. We have stayed here several times but I have never seen the park this full.
Later in the evening our good friend Janice Railton came out to to have supper with us. Janice is a solo full-time RV’er who has been on the road for a couple of years. She drives a Dodge dully pickup and pulls a large Redwood 5’er. She is staying in the area to finish her initiation into the Elks Lodge.
Yesterday Joyce went to the Sandia Casino to make her donation to the welfare fund and I hung around the house doing some chores and watching the RBC Heritage golf tournament.
Our plan was to pull out of here today and make the run over into Arizona but the weather didn’t cooperate. The guesser’s are calling for very strong winds out of I-40, 25-40 MPG with gusts as high as 50. That ain’t good when you are driving a high-profile rig like ours so we decided to just hang here at Kirkland and see what happens on Saturday. At least the forecast is much better.
April 17, 2016
On Friday we took a drive up north west of Kirkland to the little town of Cuba. Even though the winds were blowing and there were thunderstorms in the area we saw some spectacular views. We then cut across the mountains on Highway 96 through the villages of Regina, Gallina and Coyote before finally making our way into Santa Fe.
Joyce wanted to get a haircut so we found a J.C. Penny’s and got that done. While she was in the store I looked around on Trip Advisor for a place to get something to eat ant found The Ranch House very close to the mall. The reviews were good so decided to give it a shot.
We order the barbecue sampler platter to share that we thought was very good. Since it was our first time eating here the owner comped a nice desert.
Yesterday I got a Facebook message from our friends Zan and Barbara Kushmaul, who we met at Sunflower RV Resort last winter, saying they were on their way to Kirkland. After they got setup in a parking site we went to Vick’s Vittles Country Kitchen for supper. It was really great to see them again.
April 19, 2016
We were finally able to leave Kirkland at on Sunday morning and head west. Our original plan was to drive to Winslow, AZ but we decided to run all the way to Williams.
We ran into some snow just west of Grants and then some pretty strong winds through east Arizona but other that that the drive wasn’t too bad. At 369 miles, that is the longest we have driven in all the years we have been full-timing in an RV. But, we want to make up some of the time we lost at Kirkland so it’s worth the extra time on the road.
After spending the night at the Canyon Motel & RV Park we jumped back on the interstate with the intentions of spending the night in Barstow, CA. But after talking it over be decided to run all the way to Mojave instead. If one long drive isn’t enough we did 391 miles on that leg. We sure don’t want to make a habit of driving like that.
April 20, 2016
We left Mojave about 8:30 AM and arrived at the Elks Lodge in Fresno, CA at 12:30 PM, stopping in Pixley, CA for fuel. Fuel here is The Republic of California is much higher that we have seen so far but at $2.25 a gallon it is still much lower than a couple of years ago.
Until next time,
Barry & Joyce