The Road West

Today was 72 degrees and sunny... this must be Arizona!

As we were cleaning up from mom's party last Saturday, Mike and I decided we should probably head the Jeep south yet that night. At 5:00 pm, even though the weather outside was nasty, freezing rain, we decided we would get a start and see how far we could get before the adrenaline and holiday sugar high wore off. Well, we made it to Branson at 4:00 in the morning. The road conditions did not improve until Des Moines, but by that time, we were too psyched to stop for the night.

When we got to Branson we slept for four hours, did the errands we needed to do, put my plants in the Jeep and hit the road south. Actually, we drove north to Springfield and hit Interstate 40 - no sense wasting time on side roads.

We only made it 215 miles before we decided it was time for sleep. Just so happened there was a casino handy - Cherokee Casino and Dog Racing Track just off the I44 in Oklahoma; not much of a place but the price was right - Free.

We traveled some miles on "The Mother Road". And found a town that is imitating Pisa, Italy... the watertower is really suppose to be like this.

When we hit Texas, we spotted the giant (40 feet tall) cross. Years ago when we were traveling with Rich and Anita, we stopped and explored this site, which really is pretty cool - you can certainly see it for miles.
And since we traveled a lot on interstates, I got bored. So, I added up all the shows we and our guests had seen while we were in Branson - I saved the ticket stubs just for this purpose. Seems our benefit of free entrance to shows was worth $1890! WOW!

On Monday, we stopped at Amarillo RV Ranch. We have stayed here several times and it is reasonably priced and easy to get to. The temperatures to this point were very chilly and freezing at night. I'm afraid all of my plants bit the dust except the one I had in the motorhome. I really didn't think it would get that cold in the car, but evidently it did. Hard to believe I am down to one plant... gotta find a nursery!

On our way through New Mexico, we drove past White Sands National Monument, which is one of the very finest natural sites I have ever seen. Since we were there just a couple of years back, we just enjoyed it from the road. It does look like snow in the ditches, doesn't it Bud? How could you not enjoy this, David?

This old wagon and noisy morning dove were close to our campsite.

Down the road, we stayed in Deming, NM because we wanted to visit the Rockhound State Park. We stomped around for several hours, but didn't really find any agates or quartz or anything. Of course, it would help if we knew what we were looking for... I did get a few pictures and we got some much needed exercise!

Any one have any idea what this creature might be? It hopped close to a spot where I was watching a bird and scared the bejebers out of me. It is about 2 inches long - some type of grasshopper maybe - sure has unique colors.

Mike was determined to find something...

Oh, gotta tell you about the place where we stayed in Deming - The LOW-HI RV Park. I choose it from the Passport America book because it was close to the state park. We both wondered where the unusual name came from. When we checked in we found out - Loners On Wheels - Headquarters International. Lots of fairly old men walking around... We are not too sure what kind of place it was, but both of us felt compelled to hold hands alot when we were outside!

We left LOW-HI early today and got to St. David, Arizona around noon. I did laundry and soaked up the sun while waiting for it to be done. This is our home WHR park and it sure is good to be back here. Tomorrow, we are off to get an oil change in the car and find a golf course or maybe a good off road destination...

Until next time...