Some Thoughts From The Road To PA

A few interesting thoughts (to me, anyway) from the road.

We noticed in Oklahoma that the cows were smart enough to stay cool.  Wherever we saw a pond in the farmer's field, the cows would be standing in it.  Can't blame them:  it's been scorching hot every day through TX, OK, AR and TN.

Another thing we like was the fact that, since the wind seemed constant across OK and AR, they had installed hundreds of windmills to generate electricity.  Only place we've seem them more densely situated was in Coachella Valley by Palm Springs.

We got a site a a park in Little Rock which was right on the Arkansas River.  It was a pretty stark, wide open spot, but if you walked across the park a little ways, you got a great view of the river and the city skyline.

So, I went on Google to find the best Thai Restaurant in town and was told it was the Bangkok Thai Cuisine over on Clinton Ave, across the river.  So, off we went, and here is what we found.

Not only was it cafeteria style (not really a problem), but they were closed.  So, we went down the street and had fried catfish, really good.

The next day, we drove past Memphis and got a shot of that skyline.  We've toured both Memphis and Nashville before so we're just driving by this trip.

We got to Jackson TN and the park turned out to be 14 sites right beside each other on a large paved area.  As you can see, below.  But, they were full hookups, with WiFi available, so, it was great for an overnighter.



The other interesting thing about the park is the fact that it's also a Utility Trailer Sales business.  They had trailers for sale parked all around us.  They were very nice trailers.

We are now at The Bean Pot Campground in Crossville TN.  Our site is on Lima Bean Way and it is the best site we've had so far on the trip.  Trees, shade, grass, and only 81 degrees with perfectly blue skies.  Ahhhhh.

 

Crossing the State of Oklahoma

Well, we spent last night at a nice little site just of the interstate in Texola OK, at the milepost 1 just inside the border from the Texas panhandle.  Nice little park.

We drove down a little section of  Route 66 to the center of the "town".  One intersection, basically.  But, it was the intersection of Roger Miller Avenue and Sheb Wooley street.  They are both for this little rural area - if you're old enough to know those names.

We left pretty early this morning from Texola.  It was amazing how late the sun came up after travelling east and going through the time change to Central Time.  It stayed dark this morning a good hour longer than yesterday morning.

They on the way here to Sallisaw OK, we went past Yukon OK, birthplace and home of Garth Brooks.  And, at a little town just off the I-40, we passed the home of Troy Aikman.  Lotta famous Okies out there.

We had been seeing the news of all the rain in Texas and this area, and it sure shows in the incredibly green countryside.  And, the lakes and rivers are muddy brown and right to the tops of the banks.

Everything was green as far as you could see for 300 miles across the state.











And these people in Oklahoma take their crosses seriously.  Look at the size of this one!

When we got to our turnoff to the RV park down by the Lake, we decided we deserved some Pizza, and what do ya know?  A Pizza joint right there.  So parked and let them cook us a pizza to take with us for dinner.  Found a great parking spot and walked Jill while Yvonne ordered the pizza.

Another nice, shaded park, which is important at 97 degrees with 50 percent humidity.

We went down to the lake to check it out.  Very pretty.  And this Heron was about 5 feet tall.

Mommy and the dog.

These two pictures are about the same but the lower has more beautiful subject matter added.

                                                                                                                                                                 

Two More Nights in New Mexico

We had planned on going through Roswell (the extraterrestrial alien capitol of the USA) but decided to stick with the Interstates and go through Albuquerque.  We found a Coast to Coast membership park 19 miles east of Albuquerque called Hidden Valley.  Sounded good in the book but turned out to not be so hot.  

For one thing, it was Saturday and a large group of locals had taken over the pool and rec hall for some sort of picnic with a Karaoke singer (not very good) and a few dozen kids.  So no pool or rec center for us.  And, the spaces were the skinniest we've ever seen.  Oh well, what you get for $10.

When we had headed north from Las Cruces, the Mesilla Valley was on our left for about 60 miles.  The agriculture was continuous and incredibly green.  Plus, you can see how much Monsoon rains they've had by the color of highway median strip.

But, what was double-cool was that the Rio Grande was on our right side the whole way and it was green agriculture also.

Here's a kinda weird rest stop with little open-air buildings for picnics at the rest area.  There are some neat ones across New Mexico which are pretty adobe roof-covered picnic spots but this looks like a little prison farm.  ?????

Our site for tonight is at Tucumcari, pretty close to the Texas panhandle which will allow us to go all the way through Texas in one day, instead of the south route which takes 4-5 days.  Great site here in at the Cactus RV park which used to have a motel also but like most of the town, has sadly died.  More than half the businesses we saw were closed.  Very hard to see.

Here are some of the old motel rooms.  Looks like it was pretty cool.

One interesting story.  Only one grocery store/supermarket in town.  It's called Lowe's and they have a house brand called SureFine.  It's distributed by Western Family Foods, Inc., Portland, Oregon which I believe is Thriftway.  Another "it's a small world" thing.

Day 2 - On To New Mexico

We continued east on I-10 today, arriving at a beautiful destination - Las Cruces NM.  The view of the Organ Mountains coming in from the west is outstanding.

The scenery on this leg of the trip looked a lot like scenery all over Arizona and New Mexico.  Lots of long vistas to the horizon and many mountain ranges on all sides.  And cool rocks.

I cheated and got this pic off google images, but I love those mountains so much I had to do it!

We drove (only 1 mile) to the authentic, historical village of Mesilla (pronounced Mehseeya) and it felt like we were in Mazatlan again.  Ate a Andele restaurant which was awesome.

Of course, there is a cathedral at one end of the plaza.  I failed to get a photo of the narrow neighborhood streets, which made it feel like Mexico.

We just can't get enough of this type of architecture.  There must have been some sort of festival recently; notice the luminaries on top the one house.

Here's where we had a meal.  As you can see, Yvonne got a small appetizer nachos.

Day 1 - Casa Grande AZ to Willcox AZ

A very short drive (152 miles) to our first stop along the way to PA.  Willcox AZ is a little bitty town in southeastern AZ.  Here's where we stayed; I don't think our reservations were absolutely necessary.

It was a cloudy day and continued to get cooler as we went southeast.  We got as high as 5000 ft at one mountain pass.  Went through some beautiful scenic areas, including this rock strewn mountain near a rest area.

If you've ever driven Interstate 10 through southeastern AZ, you had to see about 50 billboards about "The Thing?".  Well, we stopped and guess what the main feature was.

I decided not to pay to see "The Thing?", leaving a little mystery in our lives.

Here's part of the view from our RV site.

Back on the road tomorrow - to Las Cruces NM.  There's a little Mexican village nearby we'll visit.  It is very authentic, we're told.  And New Mexico Mexican food is our favorite.  Hatch peppers, hmmmm good.

hEADING EAST - Destination PA

We've come home to Casa Grande to drop off our little car.  We're leaving this morning for a 12 day trip to the east coast.  Twelve days on the road!  It takes us that long because we have no reason to rush, so we only drive about 4-5 hours per day, then have the afternoon and evening to explore our local venue.
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I'll try to post at each stop, if I can, so you can see the country as we cross it, pulling our home along with us.  Fun.

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After 2 months up in Prescott Valley (by the way, pronounce that Presscut as they do here), it was nice to be back in our hometown area for a day.  But, we're glad we aren't staying in the triple digit temps - 105 yesterday afternoon, down to low 80's at night.

Your comments are welcome right here on the site.

I'll also be posting some pics on Facebook as we go along.