Our return to the West

This blog entry will end our 2010 trip travelogue as we describe our trip back to the west. Even though I am posting this in March of 2011. We did this trip in October of 2010.

Joliet, IL

After leaving Elkhart, Indiana our next stop was a visit with our oldest son Tim who lives in Aurora, Illinois. Like all urban areas it is is difficult to find RV Parks in the area. The closest RV Park to where Tim lives was at the Empress Casino in Joliet, it is a water and electric only RV Park but very nice. They were winding down the season so they had plenty of sites. They did tell us as we were registering that they were turning the water off for the season in a few days. Such is the problem of RVing in the Mid-west during October as RV Parks start closing for the year. A new year bird for us were Chimney Swifts buzzing around in their batty flight over head at the RV Park..

We Visited with Tim and Allen for a few days, Raider was so excited to see his big brother! Allen makes a great barbecue steak that we enjoyed one night. We all played Rock Band with the Beatles on their giant TV system (6' high & 7' wide!). However, we had to start heading west, but we enjoyed the time visiting. We had never been to Iowa, Nebraska or Kansas, so we decided to head to Texas by way of Iowa, Nebraska and Kanas.

You know how people says that Iowa, Nebraska and  Kanas are just flat with miles and mile of corn growing. They are right!

Kellogg, Iowa
Our first night stop was one night at Kellduff RV right next to the corn fields. Just as we set up camp, out comes the farmer to harvest the corn. We had a ring side seat to watch it being done, very interesting. Cobs and stalks get sucked up into the combine, corn is cut off the cob then spewed into a grain cart driving along side the combine to catch it and the remnants of everything is blown out the back of the combine. along with a lot of dust.

 

Lincoln, Nebraska
Stayed just one night, didn't even unhitch.

 
Salina, Kansas

We stayed 2 nights at the Salina KOA; we had to do laundry and get groceries. Salina is at the crossroad of I-70 and I-135, No, we didn’t see Dorothy or Toto and No Tornado Watches either!

 
Enid, OK
After weeks of every RV Park being near an Interstate we decided to stay the weekend at Camp Away RV Park, In Enid which is 30 miles from the nearest interstate. A nice and quiet older park outside town, no trains or highways nearby. Or so we thought, turns out there is a train that goes though Enid every night. Shortly after leaving Enid, we had one tire go very low in just minutes. Called Good Sam Roadside Assistance & had the spare mounted in it's place. Barely 150 miles later, as we're pulling into the ONLY rest area for hundreds of miles the right front trailer blew apart, all that was left was the side walls, the trailer was sitting on the rims! We had to purchase another tire since the spare was in use on the other side. $250 and a hour & half later, as an OK storm came barreling near by. We were on our way to have all of the tires replaced, it couldn't have waited another 220 miles across the Texas Panhandle to Farwell, TX and Tire Country!!!

 
Thankfully, there was a cheap off the road excuse of a campground a few miles from the rest area, we stopped the night in Texola, OK, just one mile from the Texas border.

 

Clovis, NM
We buzzed through the Texas panhandle, praying no more tire issues to Clovis, New Mexico. It is just a few miles from Farwell, Texas where Tire Country is, our favorite tire store. Lonnie the manager would take care of us! Next day drove the short drive to see Lonnie, he told us of the long line of complaints against Goodyear Marathons, some were pretty scary stories! We had all 5 tires on the trailer replaced with Bridgestone and had the wheel bearings repacked on the trailer. Lonnie is an RVer with a 5th wheel of his own, so when he gives advise he knows what he is talking about. We had Lonnie replace all the tires on our first trailer before going to Alaska and from the beginning planned to have Lonnie replace all of the tires on this trailer. Unfortunately, the Goodyear Marathons died 250 miles too soon. If you are think about buying new tires, go see Lonnie and his great crew.!

If you have Goodyear Marathons on your trailer, do a Google search on “Goodyear Marathons tread separation”  then REPLACE THEM you will see that it is only a question of when they will fail not if they will fail!!!
Thunderstorms, rain and wind delayed us in Clovis for 2 days.

Albuquerque, NM
Finally, the wind stopped blowing and the rain moved east, we made a beeline for Albuquerque We were going to stay until Monday when we heard that there was a nasty storm system coming in with 45mph winds, we left Sunday instead

Saturday in Albuquerque, New Mexico, notice the flag blowing straight out!

View out our back window onto the desert

Along I-10 in New Mexico

Williams, Arizona
We were going to stay the night in Holbrook, AZ, but it was around 1 PM too early to stop so Grant mushed on towards Flagstaff. Just as we approached Flagstaff, couldn't help but see a very dark cloud system over the town! At nearly 7,000 ft. in elevation, rain could turn to snow. Grant didn't want to learn how to drive the trailer in the snow, he mushed on further to the Williams KOA, a few miles from I-40. Along the way we saw the Camping World outside Flagstaff. It was the one that had just been blown apart from the tornado a week before.  All of the tangled wreckage of new trailers were plowed into a fenced area, the store was still closed. The drive from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Williams, Arizona was our longest distance day since we have been full-timing. 370 miles!  We hunkered down for a few days for the storms to blow over. Got the laundry caught up just as the power went out!

Scenes along I-40

 

Strom clouds over Flagstaff, Arizona

Pahrump, Nevada
We were considering staying for a few days and going up to the Grand Canyon but, we awoke to 16 degrees and snow in the very near by hills. When the sun returned we boogied for Nevada, driving over the new bridge in front of Hoover Dam. Kathy was petrified of the thought: the bridge is 1,075 feet above the Colorado River! Grant was excited to get a chance to see the Hoover Dam. Beautiful new highway Arizona 93 is paved, we were on the bridge before we knew it! The side walls of the bridge are over 5' high, you couldn't see down, so Grant  still hasn't seen the Hoover Dam! lol
Taking this route saved us many miles, and they have high profile trucks and trailers travel down the left inside lane for stability. We were in Las Vegas in no time and it was a clear day! Made it through the maze of highways in the city and sighed relief when we were finally on the outskirts. Just as we climbed up the mountain towards Pahrump, there were 2 dozen Desert Bighorn up on the cliff looking down on the road. Happened too fast, no pictures sorry! Up and over the top, dropped down the other side to our favorite Escapee Co-op RV Park of Pair-A-Dice. They had room for us to stay a month and unwind from our adventures! YES!

Brand new highway, a joy to be on a fresh smooth road!

We're on the bridge and can't even see Hoover Dam, it's below the right side of the bridge!

Las Vegas on a clear day... note the snow in October on Mt. Charleston on the left.

The view of Mt. Charleston from Pahrump, Nevada. Las Vegas is on the other side on Mt. Charleston.

More pictures of our trip West on the slideshow:

Pancho Villa and Sonora Caverns

 

Caverns of Sonora

After two months in Arizona and one more storm, on a perfect day we left Benson, headed east on I-10 to Deming, New Mexico. I had once heard Deming described as a “windy desert town” and that pretty much sums it up. While in Deming 2 years ago we stayed at the Escapee’s Dream Catcher RV Park, because Escapee Parks are always friendly and cheap we stayed there again.

Entering New Mexico

Part of the reason for our stop in Deming was to visit the town of Columbus, New Mexico and the Pancho Villa State Park. Columbus is located about 30 miles south of Deming and only 3 miles from Mexico. On March 9, 1916, soldiers led by Pancho Villa attacked the military camp and the town of Columbus, New Mexico, killing 18 Americans. This was the only ground invasion of the continental U.S. since 1812. As a result of the raid the US sent Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing and 10,000 troops on a  500-mile pursuit of Villa into Mexico. Eleven months later the US entered World War I and recalled General  Pershing and his troops from Mexico for redeployment in France. In the 11 months in Mexico the US troops never encountered or even saw Pancho Villa. This expedition into Mexico is significant because it was the last use of the Calvary by the US Army and the first time the Army used airplanes, trucks and cars in the field. The Pancho Villa State Park has a small museum with a replica plane of the era and a few cars and trucks used in the pursuit of Pancho Villa.

1916 Four Wheel Drive Truck

 

1916 Armored Truck

After Deming we headed east. Back in 2008 we had skirted the northern part of El Paso and then headed north to Carlsbad Caverns. This time we drove through El Paso and headed east. Everything from that point on will be new country to us until who knows when.

Montana Owner friends Michael and Renee were traveling about a week in front of us and in an email mentioned that one of their stops would be the Caverns of Sonora. We had never heard of them and also can never pass up a cavern. West Texas is big and it took us a couple of days to get to Sonora, Texas. If you look at a map you will see that Sonora is pretty much out in the middle of nowhere; the caverns are 16 miles from town and really beyond nowhere.

The Caverns of Sonora is a “living” cavern. That means that formations are still being made, which makes it is warm and very humid inside. This cavern is privately owned and doesn’t have all of the rules that Kartchner Caverns had, so we could take our cameras. Also the tour group was only 6 people, one whom had last been in this cavern over 50 years ago with his high school caving club.  The Caverns of Sonora  can best be described as “intimate”. The “rooms” in Sonora Caverns tend to be very tall and skinny. We have never been in a cave where you got so close to the formations; you had to be careful in some spots not to brush them as you walked by.

 

As you can see in the above pictures the walls are encrusted with formations.

Some of the more delicate formations in the cavern.

Kathy says that this is the best caverns we have ever been in. I think that Carlsbad Cavern wins just by its enormity, but this is undoubtedly has the most diverse formations we have ever seen in a single cavern.

The slideshow below has many more pictures from inside the cavern.

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge – New Mexico

Our trip from Clovis to Socorro, New Mexico was along US 60, a road that could qualify as one of the “loneliest” roads in America. There are only a very few towns and most of them have more buildings boarded up than occupied. The trip is 250 miles of mostly flat arid land. 

Just before meeting I-25 the road drops into the Rio Grande Valley of Central New Mexico. It is still arid just not quite as flat. Our destination was the Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park. How cool is that: an Rv Park that actually has Bird Watching as part of its name. In reality it is just a very large gravel lot with hookups. However, after our trip to Alaska we consider anywhere where the power stays on and the water works all day as good. The owners are real friendly and give you choices of sites to stay depending on which direction is your preference. Full hookups at $20 a night is a good deal! Plus it is so quiet. After being near the highways at the previous campgrounds, this was a very welcomed amenity!

The area around the RV Park is miles off of the main highway and very quiet. The area around the RV Park is typical of rural New Mexico, mostly arid land with an occasional farm. The real beauty of the RV Park is that it is just a few miles from Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is as their website says “One of the Premier Birding and Wildlife Refuges in the World” Friends of the Bosque. The wildlife refuge was established in 1939 and is over 57,000 acres. It is the winter home to 25,000 Sandhill Cranes and over 20,000 Ross’s and Snow Geese. Every November they have a Festival of the Cranes. This major birding event attracts 8,000 to 9,000 birders each year and has had just about ever famous birder for the last 20 years as the keynote speaker at one time or another. As usual for us our timing is off and we won’t be here for the festival and most of the Sandhill Cranes and Ross’s and Snow Geese have yet to arrive. However, they have started to arrive so that although we haven’t seen cranes and geese in the thousands or tens of thousands we have seen them in the hundreds. We have seen waves of cranes and geese flying over in huge V formations. As with all wildlife refuges there are many other species of birds than just the species that the refuge was setup to protect. In our first two days of birding we saw 38 species on the refuge. The largest number of “other” species was various ducks. Our year list is now up to 244 species.

Western Grebe

Snow Geese

Sandhill Cranes

New Mexico is also noted for their very dark skies. There are few cities nearby and therefore there is little or no night time light pollution. We took advantage of this and did some star gazing. It is the first time we have had an opportunity to use our telescopes since we have been on the road. Since it had been so long since we used our astronomy equipment pretty much everything that uses a battery needed a new one and we had forgotten how to use some of it. Also we were very rusty at finding our way around the night sky. All that being said we had a nice time tracking down star clusters and a few galaxies. (Sorry but we don’t have any pictures from our astronomy session)

One final picture of fall in New Mexico

Albuquerque

We have had a miracle happen while here in Albuquerque - we have had two days of no wind! The weather here has been very nice mid-70s during the day and mid-40s at night. We are heading to Holbrook, Arizona to see Petrified Forest National Park tomorrow, so no doubt the high winds will be back.

The Rio Grande River runs through the middle of Albuquerque, going north to south and the town is built going up the sides of the valley, on both the east and west sides. Since the sides of the valley are fairly steep you get great views overlooking the city, in every direction you look. To the northeast are Sandia Peak and the Rockies. Albuquerque is very spread out and seems to be the land of never ending Malls and strip malls. I am amazed at all of the stores there are here.

We have been doing the tourist things like going to Old Town and domestic things like laundry and groceries. I even found a place to wash the truck. This is the first time it has been washed since we were in El Centro the first week of January. The trailer either needs to be washed or we need to have a serious rain storm. We haven’t been in a RV Park that allows washing of the trailer for a very long time.

I was only a Texan for two days and I had this overwhelming urge to buy a western hat (I don't think it qualifies as a cowboy hat). I am really worried that cowboy boots and country western music might be next. Those boots look like the most uncomfortable shoes ever made! I must admit I am starting to like the "It's 5 o'clock somewhere" song.

Geography - Wind - Mileage

Since we entered New Mexico via I – 10 we found that EVERYTHING in southern and eastern New Mexico is FLAT, this extends into Texas as well. The only mountains or hills we have seen were the Guadalupe Mountains where Carlsbad Caverns is located. This area seems to rise out of nowhere and from the top all you can see is FLAT! Apparently due to the flatness of the area the wind blows all of the time; the only difference is how fast the wind is blowing. Is it 5 to 6 mph or is it 50 to 60 mph. As we are now moving westward there is always a head wind. Once we got to I – 40 the terrain changed from flat to non-stop rolling hills. You drive up one hill then go down the other side and then drive up the next hill. This apparently continues all the way across New Mexico! As you can imagine this non-stop head wind and rolling hills combination is HORRIBLE for the mileage. Our mileage from Clovis to Albuquerque was ONLY 7. 5 MPG. That is the worst mileage we have every gotten!

Carlsbad Caverns Revisited

Carlsbad Caverns has 2 self-guided tours where you walk at your own pace and listen to a hand held wand and 6 Ranger led tours that go to other parts of the cavern that are either more fragile or more extreme than the self-guided tours. The 2 self-guides tours do not require reservations and are pretty much like any other nature hike except you are underground. http://www.nps.gov/cave/planyourvisit/cave_tours.htm

The 6 ranger led hikes vary from the Kings Palace tour which takes 75 people and depending on the season is done 2 to 4 times per day, to the Spider Cave Tour which only takes 10 people and is held once a week. The Spider Cave Tour has the following statements on the web page “Participants will hike a half mile down beautiful Garden Grove Canyon to get to the cave, where excessive crawling and climbing will ensue. Highlights of this tour include the Mace Room, Medusa Room, and Cactus Spring, as well as a stunning variety of cave formations and dirty cave crawls. This trip is not recommended for anyone with a fear of enclosed spaces, heights, or getting a little cave dirt in your ears.” and “Hiking boots or other sturdy shoes, 4 AA batteries, soft knee pads, cotton or leather gloves, long pants and water for the hike are also required. (The park provides hardhats and headlamps.)”

Here is a group we past beginning the Lower Cave Tour. The web site for the Lower Cave Tour includes this statement “Ladders at the entrance to Lower Cave sometimes cause participants to back out. If you have a fear of heights or difficulties with ladders, you may wish to consider visiting Left Hand Tunnel instead.” Note the rope the Ranger is holding; this is the rope used to get down to the ladders. They use this rope to lower themselves down to a passage at the beginning of the tour and then use the same rope to pull themselves back up the slope when they get back.

All of the Ranger lead tours require reservations and some of them are booked up months in advance. Since we came here on a spur of the moment decision and didn’t know what tours we might take and we didn’t get advanced reservations. However due to the Easter holiday we were able to get 2 spots on the Sunday afternoon Kings Palace tour with only three days notice. The drive from the KOA to the caverns is an 80 mile round trip but, it was a chance to see more of the cave. The web site for the Kings Palace tour states “You will descend to the deepest portion of the cavern open to the public, 830 feet beneath the desert surface.” and “Look forward to viewing a variety of cave formations including helictites, draperies, columns, and soda straws. Rangers frequently conduct black-outs during this tour, briefly turning off all artificial lights to reveal the natural darkness of the cave.” The Kings Palace tour was too crowded and the ranger talk was just a repetition of what we had heard on the wands a few days earlier but, the rooms and formations were even more spectacular than we had seen previously.

Since there are no more tours that have openings until next month we are planning to move on, but we will be back and will plan ahead next time.

These are some of the pictures that Kathy took on the Kings Palace tour. The pictures will enlarge if you click on them.