February 26, 2011 – Traveling in Texas

We left our little spot early this morning – actually earlier than we thought.   I thought we were in Central Time – turns out we were still in Mountain Time – oh well.

Our travels continued on I-10 thru some beautiful but desolate countryside.

 

From the mountains:

 

To the high plateau (4400’ here):

To more mountains:

And butte country:

 

Isn’t this strange looking…I would love to climb to the top of this!:

 

And Greenery – been a long time since I have seen so much green:

 

And even more greenery – WOW!   This was on SR-127:

We arrived at the SKP Park in Hondo, Texas and even though it was after 5 PM, they were able to put us in a full hookup site – how wonderful!   We got all set up, chatted with our neighbors, had a late supper and then hit the sack.  We have traveled over 800 miles the past two days and it will be great to sit for a week…

We hope to do some site seeing in San Antonio while we are here so stay tuned.

Miles Traveled:   480 miles

Routes Traveled:

Texas: I-10 Business, I-10; US-83; SR-127; US-90; CR-422; CR-5216

February 25, 2011 Traveling to and in Texas

We were up early this morning, got everything packed up and were on our way with…are you ready for this….ME DRIVING – :-))).   I figured it was about time I started doing more of it.. 

Anyway, 20 miles later on I-10, all these alarms start going off on our Pressure Pro (tire monitoring system).  I see 24 (psi) flashing and then realize it is our MH passenger back inside tire – Yikees!!!   So I slowly got off the road with out doing any harm.   We walked out the door and could hear the air escaping.  OH MY.  It turned out to be the valve stem in that tire.   Andy tried fixing it but we finally gave up and called Good Sam (heck, that is why we pay for Roadside Assistance).

They arrived about 1 hour later (From TA in Wilcox, AZ), fixed us up and we were on our way again by 11:30 – Andy driving (I will try again another day.   I figure it was enough excitement for both of us for one day… :-)).

So we said our goodbyes to Arizona – :-(((.   Well, not goodbyes as my friend Kay says but see you later – :-)).

And in thru New Mexico where we saw lots of different signs:

This is scary:

Use EXTREME CAUTION not just Caution – even scarier!:

Now this is the area where the dust storms occur:

What do these poor cows do when there is a dust storm:

Lots of signs advertising the Continental Divide Trading Post:

Wonder what kind of snake stuff (did not want to find out):

LOTSA Rocks – LOL!:

Just in case you missed any of the signs…here they are all together:

And here is the Trading Post – believe me, it is in the middle of nowhere!  How cute!  

We actually saw a number of these posts along our way today – all in the middle of nowhere and they all had pretty much the same signs – :-).

And the trains along the way:

Andy trying to out run the train:

Abandoned homes along the roadway:

Homes/Farms/Ranches with trees all around – protection from the wind:

And hilltops that just pop up every now and then (actually we are on a high plateau in these pictures):

   

And greeting us at the entrance to Las Cruces:

He was HUGH!

And Las Cruces – oh my! – talk about humanity:

We will be back:

And into Texas…. and El Paso.. even more humanity:

 

Andy did a great job of getting thru this traffic – while I was on pins and needles….

We made a decision to get to the east side of El Paso before we stopped.  And then since we were so close to the Mexican border, we decided to go further.   (For those of you who are wondering why, El Paso is across the border from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico  which has had quite a bit of problems and I would not feel comfortable – just me.)   So we are staying in a Passport America park, Vista RV, in Sierra Blanca, Texas ($10.00/night for full hookups).

We arrived in the dark which is very unusual for us and we stayed on the interstates, which is even more unusual.   Well, here is the reason.   When I plan routes I also take into consideration the weather patterns.  There is a huge storm coming in from the Pacific and will make its way across the southwest on Saturday night into Sunday.   Many of the areas have very high wind advisories and even snow predicted down as low as 1000’ feet.    In Benson, they were predicting snow and very cold temps for Sunday which is why we left.   In eastern Texas, the warnings were put out last Wednesday for Sunday’s storm and those predictions were for high winds and some gusts up to 80 mph.   We were trying to figure out if we should just buckle down somewhere and wait it out or go further east to get out of the winds – and that was our decision – keep on going.   Our destination is Hondo, Texas where there is a Escapees Co-op – their weather prediction is for a temperature drop but hey, on Sunday it will be 90 there and on Monday, it will be 79 – that is a no brainer…   So that is our plans and why we will probably stick to the interstate to outrun the storm.

Until tomorrow.

Miles Traveled:  359 miles

Routes Traveled:

Arizona: SR-80; I-10

New Mexico: I-10

Texas: I-10; Ranch Road 1111, I-10 Business

February 21 – 24, 2011 Our Time in Benson

February 21 – Monday
I spent this morning cleaning and vacuuming the motor home.   Love my new vacuum but I think the previous owners must have been in a number of sandstorms…you cannot believe the amount of sand/dirt I get in this vacuum.   Last week, I thought it was because I was in the desert for so long.  This week I am not so sure.  Anyway.. we are looking all spit polished and shining inside – :-)).   And Andy continues to work on the outside  - looking good – :-)))
This afternoon I went to beading and spent most of the time talking with Carroll.   I met Carroll in January 2009 at Quartzsite and we have kept in touch.  It was great to see her again and get caught up.  They now have a lot here – I am so excited for her and Byran.
Then we went to Happy Hour at 4 and Taco Night at 5 – met some great people and reconnected with others we met a few years ago…   Did I say how much I love the Escapee Club – :-))).
What a wonderful day.

February 22 – Tuesday
Another road trip day – :-)))
We headed south on SR-80 and saw this on the horizon..

Had to stop for a quick picture.  It is the Holy Trinity Monastery in St. David, Arizona.  Did not know much about it but here is a link to their website – sounds pretty interesting:
http://www.holytrinitymonastery.org/

We then made our way to the Fairbanks Historic Town site.   Fairbanks is one the few ghost towns in Arizona that still has some buildings.   It was founded during the 1880’s silver mining boom.   It began as a stagecoach stop on the way to Tombstone which was then one of the biggest towns in the West.  It was first called Kendall, then Junction City due to the construction of the Arizona and Southeastern Railroad, making it a major transportation hub.    It was finally renamed Fairbanks by Nathanial Kellogg Fairbank who helped finance the railroad and was an organizer of the Grand Central Mining Company in Tombstone. 
This is probably the best site that gives some history and pictures:
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/az-fairbank.html
The first two pictures are from different areas of the town site and the remaining buildings:

 
The stables: A house:
 
The School House and current Visitor’s Center and Museum:

The Commercial Building:

The town is now owned by the BLM and they, along with the Friends of San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, are trying to stabilized the building.
We walked up to the town cemetery..
This is the trail:

As we made our way to the cemetery we imagined what it must have been like back then, carrying a casket with family and friends following.  The cemetery sits on a hill and is in disrepair – how sad.   Some pictures:




Some pictures of the area from our vantage point on the hill:



The trees you see in the above two pictures are along the San Pedro River – probably why this area has so much vegetation.
 
We drove the loop back to Benson, had lunch at Reb’s Cafe (great!) and did a few other stops – including picking up our mail – thanks, Tina.   Back home we just enjoyed the nice warm weather – :-))).

February 23 – Wednesday
What a busy day!!
This morning I made a stop at the local bead store – oh my!!!   Had a great time chatting with the ladies but only purchased what I needed (aren’t you proud of me – LOL).  Then another stop at the local Safeway for supplies and back home.
This afternoon I went to beading and about 1 hour later, Andy came by to tell me that the laundry was going to be closed for major cleaning tomorrow.   Well, tomorrow was when I planned to do laundry so away we went and spent the rest of the afternoon doing laundry (my favorite job – NOT!).  In between we were able to get to Happy Hour and see some folks we met 2 years ago..   How wonderful.

February 24 – Thursday
This is our last day in Benson and we are just hanging out.  I was able to get some paperwork done and even made some bread and chicken rice soup – yum!    Also spent some time planning our route as we head east.   We are watching the weather and I want to be warm (storm front coming in here over the weekend and possible snow here on Sunday – Yikees!).   So Texas, here we come.
We have also been some experimenting with our electric usage.  With our Flair, we normally used 2-5 KW a day, depending on how much TV we watched or what heaters we used when we cold.  I noticed that when we left Casa Grande, I thought we used more than we should have but it was cold.  In North Ranch, we used 14 KW a day – WOW! but I explained it away with the amount of cleaning/organizing/fixing up that we were doing.   So we get here and our first day, we used 14 KW…  OK that is too much and we need to figure out what is using all that power.   And over the course of a few days, our energy hog is the refrigerator.   I like having the large one but WOW for 9 KW a day…  So we are keeping it on propane when we have to pay electric.   Everything else is ok.  Over the last 24 hours, we only used 2 KW – fridge on propane and small propane heater this morning.    Yes, I know that you have to add the cost of propane in doing all the calculations.   There is some interesting discussion on the internet on cost of electric vs. cost of propane.   And what I have found is that there is a calculation that you do.  Here it is:
Cost of electric (per KW) x 22 = z
If the cost of propane per gallon is less than z, it is cheaper to use propane.
If the cost of propane is more than z, it is cheaper to use electric.

Now there is a long discussion on where that 22 came from (discussions I have read go from using the number 22 up to 27) and I am not sure I understand it all but here is one of the links:
http://www.propane101.com/propanevselectricity.htm
There is a lot of discussion on many of the forum boards but for me 22 works..

Tomorrow we head east so stay tuned – :-)