New Mexico to Oregon - Day 1

11:50am MT
After breakfast, a walk, tucking last minute things away, then dumping all the tanks... We are finally on our way!  May be later than we had hoped for... but it's still morning! 

1:15pm MT
We activated our XM Radio in our Chevy truck when we took off over a year ago, but I guess our subscription ran out because it stopped working awhile back.  With all this driving, the radio stations fading in and out is already driving us crazy... so I just renewed it and we have our satellite radio blastin once again!

2:45pm MT  -  Albuquerque

Taking I-40 West... Arizona here we come!

3:00pm MT
We need a break... this looks like a good place. 

$3.92 beats the $4.15 we paid in Elephant Butte!

4:20pm MT
On the road again... destination unknown.

7:15pm MT
Crossing over into Arizona. 

7:50pm MT
It's getting too dark to enjoy the scenery... I'm ready to stop for the night, but Jeff is still good with going further.

8:40pm
Stopped to get diesel fuel.  It was $4.02... we filled 'er back up for $80.
Hey this looks like a good place to stay for the night.  I confirmed inside that it would be okay, then we settled in to an open dirt lot beside the truck plaza.

I will get a better picture in the morning.
For those of you RV'ers traveling the I-40 in Arizona looking for a place to rest for the night... this is exit 292.  I will tell you in the morning if it went alright.

We didn't bother with the generator.  I warmed up food on the stove and we ate and came to bed where Jeff is reading and I am finishing up today's blog.

Should be no reason why we can't pull out of here early in the morning.
We drove 406 miles today... and that was with leaving at Noon.  So we should be in Las Vegas area tomorrow evening.

Good Night All!

Elephant Butte

We are now back at Elephant Butte State Park... where we were in May 2010.   We're in the same campground AND the same site!  It's so nice... the lake is so blue and the sun is so warm!

 

 

We left City of Rocks on Saturday, after a wonderful breakfast that Al and Phyl fixed for us... then we said good-bye.

  
Now let's go back to where we left off last post... It was last Thursday, and we were on our way to Silver City for the day.  The place really wasn't very exciting, but we enjoyed wandering, and we went out for Mexican lunch!

Friday we did more exploring and walking the park... got together for Nachos, burgers and games.  We've added Yahtzee to our game playing.


Back at Saturday...  

We weren't sure if we were going to stay at Caballo Lake or Elephant Butte.  Caballo Lake SP is just South of Elephant Butte.  We checked out the campground by the river, and there was one site left, but the campground was packed with weekenders, so we decided to move on to Elephant Butte... and we are glad we did.

Friends, Jim and Lori (not to be confused with James and Laura that we also met here last May), are staying in Truth or Consequences (which is next door to Elephant Butte), so its good that we ended up staying here.  We have been able to get together several times.  They came over Sunday, then Monday evening Lori made us green chili chicken enchiladas.  Last time we were here, she made us the most awesome burritos.

Last time we were here, we had our chopper with us...

so we rode together.

As usual, we have made plans and changed plans several times in the last couple weeks... even the last couple days.   One of the latest plans was to leave yesterday, and take our time getting back to Oregon... stopping in Albuquerque and Las Vegas.  But NOW the plan is to leave tomorrow (Thursday) morning, and put in 300 miles a day, getting us to our destination of Grants Pass, Oregon in 5 or 6 days. 

Its not that we are that indecisive all on our own... the problem has been the weather in Southern Oregon.  We have been watching the extended forecast, and adjusting our plans accordingly.  But the extended forecast changed drastically this morning, so we have given up on that being a deciding factor.  It will be what it is when we get there!

When we are there, we stay on our friend's property, and we dont want to be parked in mud... but we will figure something out. 

Our camphost jobs, throughout Oregon, start on May 1st, so we would like to be in Grants Pass for 3 weeks before we leave again.  It will have been 6 months since we left last time, so we have some catching up to do with friends and family.

We spent today packing up things outside and inside, and preparing quick meals for the trip.  We feel organized and ready to go first thing in the morning.

We're considering boondocking each night of the 1540 mile trip, but we'll just have to wait and see where we are at each evening, when we are done traveling for the day.

I may do a short blog post each day of our traveling, to let awaiting family and friends know of our progress and to share any interesting events or pictures of the days drive.  Besides, the TV in the living room is broke and I may need something to do when we stop for the night.  Or I may blog as we roll along!

Here's to our last night in a New Mexico State Park!

City of Rocks SP

Tuesday afternoon we pulled out of Rockhound SP and drove the 41 miles North to City of Rocks SP. 

Our friends, Allyn and Phyllis, had a week reservation at City of Rocks starting Tuesday.  They were there to greet us.

Actually, I think what I heard Allyn holler when we drove in was something like, "Oh No... there goes the neighborhood"!

We got together at our place Tuesday night, and had a great time playing games and laughing ALOT!

Ya thats me falling off the sofa and trying not to pee my pants!

Oh ya, forgot to tell you about our site.  City of Rocks SP has only 10 electric sites, 2 are reservable, 2 are camp hosts, so there are only 6 sites available on first come basis.  We didnt want to give up our beautiful site with electric at Rockhound, if we didnt know we had a site at City of Rocks.  So we called ahead to check on it.  They thought that someone was leaving one of the sites, but they hadnt yet, and they arent suppose to save sites.  After four phone calls, maybe they knew I was serious about wanting an electric site.  They told me on the fourth phone call that the people in E-5 had moved out and they had placed a "occupied" sign on the site... just for us! 

Yesterday (Wednesday) we did some walking, hiking and bicycle riding around the park.  This cluster of rocks is amazing.... its almost like a little City of Rocks!!

Last night we enjoyed a fire over at their site, complete with roasted marshmallows!

Today we are off to Silver City for the day.  Infact we are on our way now.  Im finishing up the post in the back seat.  We may be leaving tomorrow, heading back toward Oregon... but we will see. 

Oh ya... our television mysteriously quit working between Rockhound and City of Rocks.  We will have it repaired when we get to Grants Pass.  Fortunately it is under warranty.

Check back soon to see Silver City.