West Bound

We made it to Arizona Sunday and are in short sleeves. This blog is about getting to Arizona.

We finally were able "to get on the road again!" We originally planned to leave December 28, but, we had colds and then rain. In a round-about way we will be continuing our trip that was cancelled when I fractured my wrist last September. 

A cold week, so we opted for the Interstate and hookups.

Monday, January 5 - Our first stop was Roosevelt State Park in Morton, MS. $13. We have stayed there several times.  It's okay and it has electric hookups.  We decided to leave on the coldest week of the winter and need to use our electric heater.

Tuesday – Minden, LA - Fairgrounds Free

Wednesday – Our planned destination was scrubbed when Dorothy realized she left her laptop at a Dairy Queen in Tyler, TX. We were an hour west when she made the discovery, so after reversing direction, we pondered how to find the DQ we were in – there are nine in town. We stopped at one of the Dairy Queen's and it was my hope to get the phone numbers of the others and call to see if one of them had found it.  The clerk didn't know her way around Tyler or the other stores. That's where my bad day turned into a great day.  A young man came in and said he would help us. He was with DQ corporate in Tyler. We described the store and he made a call, but it was not at that store. He had direct numbers to the store managers and they answer the phone when he calls. He called a second store, and sure enough, they had my computer.

We only made it back west one hour. Lost two hours travel time and $40 of gasoline. Stayed at a PA park in Canton, TX $20.

It was 17.6 outside this morning. Good thing for the point 6, otherwise it would have been really cold.

Thursday – Lake Sweetwater Muni Park $10. It looks much like the hill country east of here. There was snow/ice on the north banks along the Interstate west of Abilene.

Friday – Van Horn, TX There was a 10 minute edition of wintery mix around 6am, but it did not cause any problems. Not having wifi on board made it most difficult finding a propane dealer. To hell with the cost and our getting free of our addiction to surfing, we will order wifi next week. We are spending way too much time stopping for free wifi.

I have been informed: Walking can add minutes to your life. This enables you at 85 years to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $5000 per month

Saturday – There were a few short stretches of light rain as we climbed in elevation from Van Horn to El Paso. As we closed on New Mexico the sky showed faint traces of blue. We stopped at St. Claire Winery in Deming and stocked up on sweet wine. Found a delightful PA CG on the road to Rockhound SP. A few dollars more than the SP, but we got half decent wifi.  By 3pm, the sky was clear and the temp in the 50’s. Nice after weeks of rain, overcast and cold.

Gasoline was as low as $1.73 around Dallas. Unleaded is 87/88 octane until you get to west Texas where it changes to 86. A steady diet of that gives our Triton engine indigestion. So “out west” we have learned to pay up for mid-grade 87/88 octane. So while Unleaded is about $1.90, mid-grade is $2.15 or so. Still much less than last year.

Sunday, January 11 – We accepted Glenda’s routing from Deming, NM to Apache Junction, AZ [near Phoenix]. We were concerned about being The Old West Highway for some 100 miles. Where is that road on the map? It turned out to be US70 and it was a slightly scenic road, a lot better than the Interstate we had been on all week.

We passed through Stafford, AZ – a farming community – yes, there is water in this small area of the desert. We noted the town was quite prosperous. On the west side of the town we found out why, when we saw a Mormon temple. They know how to create and maintain wealth.

We landed in Adult [55+] RV park for the night. Friendly folks. It was shirt sleeve weather when we arrived and we took advantage of the hot tub. There must be hundreds of RV parks in the area and it sure is better than the Texas Valley to our way of thinking.

Tomorrow we make a short jump to Q for a few days and then to San Diego.