9/28/2010

September 27-28, 2010 Just Two Regular Days

I spent the last two days just getting caught up (bills, laundry, groceries, etc.) and taking it easy.  And I am feeling much better.   Andy spent the last two days cleaning the motor home and Tracker and also resting – so far he is doing well – he hasn’t caught my cold…

And now we are ready for the Balloon Fiesta.  We move to the camping area tomorrow.   We are so excited.  Stay tuned for lots of pictures – :-))).

Here is our site at Leisure Mountain:

09-28-10 Leisure Mountain RV Park 003

09-28-10 Leisure Mountain RV Park 002

My new window shades are in the above picture and I love them – during the day I can see out but you can’t see in (at night we still have to use the curtains).   I am going to try to find that material to make some for the other windows – hopefully block out the sun but let the air breeze in…   Speaking of making – I made the blue “bra or bug catcher” in the above photo – it is marine vinyl and easy to wash the bugs away.  The open areas are screen material.    Not too bad – :-))).  LOL!  

Until tomorrow.

 

9/26/2010

September 26, 2010 - Back in the South West

Our travels today continued thru more of Texas.

Notice the moon in the upper left:09-26-10 A Travel thru TX on RT 54 009

A huge feed lot – all those dark spots are cows – oh my:

09-26-10 A Travel thru TX on RT 54 002 

Notice the change in the country side:

09-26-10 A Travel thru TX on RT 54 015

And into New Mexico and another time zone change – Mountain time:

09-26-10 B Travel thru NM on RT 54 001

09-26-10 B Travel thru NM on RT 54 011 

That is Mt. Tucumcari on the left:

09-26-10 B Travel thru NM on RT 54 013

We are definitely in the south west – our altitude here was 3800’ – WOW!:

09-26-10 B Travel thru NM on RT 54 019

 

And we climbed even higher:

09-26-10 C Travel thru NM on US-40 007

Some where around here our elevation was over 7000’ – another WOW!

09-26-10 C Travel thru NM on US-40 008

I have missed these views of the southwest:

09-26-10 C Travel thru NM on US-40 010

09-26-10 C Travel thru NM on US-40 021

09-26-10 C Travel thru NM on US-40 032

We are staying in Tijeras, New Mexico at Mountain Leisure RV Park (a Passport America Park – which means half price – :-)).  We will be here until Wednesday morning when we head to the Balloon Fiesta.

The rest of the day I just rested.  I have come down with a cold and it is in full swing – :-(((.   So I am going to take it easy over the next two days and hopefully feel better by Wednesday.

 

Miles Traveled: 253 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Texas: US-54

New Mexico: US-54; US-40; SR-333

September 25, 2010 – Just Passing Through

 Travel day today so here are some sites from the road:

Kansas:

A stone farmhouse:

09-25-10 B Wilson Area 003

Pumping Oil:

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 002

Digging for Oil:

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 004

More of those plants – see the bottom of this post:

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 006

Dirt Roads exit from the interstate:

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 010

Nice little churches in the middle of the fields:

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 011

Neat little towns – stone/brick buildings and even brick roads:

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 015

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 018

Beautiful flatlands:

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 025

Trains along the way:

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 027

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 028

Another gem of a place for lunch – we could have camped here too:

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 032

The scenery changed here – wonder what happened geologically:

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 035

Harvest time continues:

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 050

We passed many granaries:

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 052

Mountains of grain/corn:

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 036   

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 058

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 056 

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 039

Train on a ridge in Kansas:

09-25-10 C Travel from Wilson Lake to OK Border 70-283-54 065 

Oklahoma:

Horses on a ridge in Oklahoma:

09-25-10 D Travel thru OK on RT 54 019

More farms:

09-25-10 D Travel thru OK on RT 54 010

 09-25-10 D Travel thru OK on RT 54 026

More oil:09-25-10 D Travel thru OK on RT 54 025

And into Texas:

 09-25-10 E Travel thru TX on RT 54 (7)

09-25-10 E Travel thru TX on RT 54 (16)

Check out the oil rig on the right of the windmill – what a contrast:

09-25-10 E Travel thru TX on RT 54 (6)

And another contrast – the small windmill on the right is a farm windmill – those white wind mills are HUGH!:

09-25-10 E Travel thru TX on RT 54 (11) 

09-25-10 E Travel thru TX on RT 54 (13)

And the road goes on and on:

09-25-10 E Travel thru TX on RT 54 (14)

We are camped at the Elks Lodge in DalHart, Texas where they had 4 nice RV sites with electric and water.  We had a nice evening at the lodge – great supper and great lodge members.  The only bad thing was the burrs – which we didn’t see and ended up spending time removing from ourselves (they hurt!), our clothes and the motor home.

Thanks to Jan, Ken, Bill, Shelly, Lynne, Fred and the folks at the Elks Lodge.  The plants from above and yesterday are sorghum (or milo).

Miles Traveled: 374 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Kansas: SR-181; SR-232; I-70; US-283; US-54

Oklahoma: US-54

Texas: US-54

9/25/2010

September 24, 2010 Centers and Twine

Kansas is one beautiful state especially when the skies are blue.  Between the fall colors of the fields and the farmstead, I could spend years just taking pictures.

As you can see from the pictures, we woke to a beautiful day with very little wind so decided to so some exploring.

This is Wilson Lake:

09-24-10 A Wilson Lake Area 001

And the Dam:09-24-10 A Wilson Lake Area 002

We are parked on the other side of the dam (hope it doesn’t flood):

09-24-10 A Wilson Lake Area 014

This area of Kansas is known for their stone Fence posts.  Here is some info about them:

09-24-10 A Wilson Lake Area 010a

And the posts:

09-24-10 A Wilson Lake Area 004

09-24-10 A Wilson Lake Area 006 

09-24-10 A Wilson Lake Area 012 

We saw many of the posts in use in our travels today.  They are still marking boundaries – neat!

One of our many scenes from the road.  The plants in the background are actually a beautiful brown/rust color.  We are seeing fields of them and do not know what they are.

09-24-10 B Lucas - Luray - Osborne Area 003

Another neat farmhouse – sorry to say but it was abandoned.

09-24-10 B Lucas - Luray - Osborne Area 006 

This was our first stop in Osborne.  We could not get to the actual spot due to the center being on private property.  But in Osborne, Kansas they have a replica marker and a little bit about the Geodetic Center of North America.   I had never heard of this but in doing research to find the Geographical Center, I came upon this – who knew!

09-24-10 E Geographical Center of Lower 48 - Lebanon (11)a

09-24-10 D Geodetic Center for North America - Osborne 003

09-24-10 D Geodetic Center for North America - Osborne  

09-24-10 D Geodetic Center for North America - Osborne 005a

Those of you who know my Andy, know this is his favorite sights… and now he is even taking pictures of them.  (Gas station prices – LOL!):

09-24-10 C Osborne Area 003

09-24-10 C Osborne Area 002

And here we are near the Geographical Center of the Contiguous United States:

09-24-10 E Geographical Center of Lower 48 - Lebanon (1)

09-24-10 E Geographical Center of Lower 48 - Lebanon (19)a

09-24-10 E Geographical Center of Lower 48 - Lebanon (2)

The actual site is near here but again it was on private property.

There was a cute little church by the marker:

09-24-10 E Geographical Center of Lower 48 - Lebanon (10)

09-24-10 E Geographical Center of Lower 48 - Lebanon (9)    

There was also the start of a little museum at the spot that listed the different centers of North America and the US.  Did you know that there is a Google Center from where Google starts their maps?  There is even a population center for the U.S.   More locations to visit for us – LOL!

In 2007, we visited Belle Fourche, South Dakota, to see the geographical center of the United States (all 50 states).  At their visitor center, we were able to get the exact location of the marker and off we went to find it.  It was in the middle of a cow pasture but exciting to stand by that marker.  Here is from the blog: http://thehitzels.blogspot.com/search?q=geographical+center

We were hoping to do the same with this but alas the exact locations were not given out.  We did try locating it with the GPS numbers that were listed on the plaques but that brought us to the replicas above…  Oh well!

And this was our next stop:

09-24-10 F Largest Ball of Twine - Cawker City 002a

Here it is – WOW!

And here is the story behind it: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/8543

09-24-10 F Largest Ball of Twine - Cawker City 005

09-24-10 F Largest Ball of Twine - Cawker City 007

09-24-10 F Largest Ball of Twine - Cawker City 012

The town, Cawker City – cute little place:

09-24-10 F Largest Ball of Twine - Cawker City 001

At the edge of town, a great little chicken place where we had lunch.  The fried chicken was GREAT!!

09-24-10 F Largest Ball of Twine - Cawker City 016

As we made our way back to the motor home, we took some back roads.  Notice the stone fence posts – these are the post rocks:

09-24-10 G Area between Downs and Sylvan Grove 002

Another farmhouse:

09-24-10 G Area between Downs and Sylvan Grove 005a

Some of the unpaved roads are in great condition:

09-24-10 G Area between Downs and Sylvan Grove 006

And more of those plants.  If anyone knows what they are, please let me know:

09-24-10 G Area between Downs and Sylvan Grove 008

09-24-10 G Area between Downs and Sylvan Grove 010a

We enjoyed a great campfire night.  Dusty also enjoyed the outdoors with us, especially catching (or trying to catch) the grasshoppers.

09-24-10 H Sylvan CG - Wilson Lake 001

Tomorrow we will be back on the road to New Mexico.