#160 Roswell, NM to Indio 11-3 thru 11-16-09

We parked at the Roswell Elks Lodge again this year. It’s been two years since we were here. We brought Franks little battery powered air plane so he and our favorite bartender, Pete, could fly their “toys” together.

Pete wasn’t working the first two days were there so, we started out to visit the museum where the first rockets that Dr. Goddard designed and flew were on display. It was also an art museum, and had a small planetarium.

Above is just a few samples of his first rockets that are on display.

This is a quilt that was hanging in the art gallery. It is all made out of silks and shiny fabrics. I thought it was really unique.

By the time we were about ready to head back, Frank informed me that he was feeling strange and losing control of his right side. So off we went to the ER.

Thankfully it was just down the street a few blocks and near where we were parked with the RV. When we arrived at the ER, he was dragging his foot a little and had a hard time signing his name. They did all kinds of tests on him. Ultra sound, CT scan, and X-rays. They couldn’t find anything wrong with him and sent him home. By that time, he was feeling fine and walked out and we had dinner at the bar in the Elks.

During the night, Frank suffered a severe cramp in his calf. When he got up in the morning his entire right side was acting strange. We did the normal at home tests for stroke, and he smiled with both sides of his mouth, held his hands out straight and talked without a slur. But, because his foot was dragging and he had a hard time getting the spoon up to his mouth with his right hand, we took hem back to the ER. This time they did an MRI. Still nothing showed up, so the ER DR. told him to take a baby aspirin each day and make an appointment to see his primary care physician. So the next day we headed towards CA, with Dixie doing all the driving!

Day one for Dixie driving. About 138 miles to Alamagordo, NM. We stayed at the Elks for a couple of nights. We were going to go to the White Sands National Park, but it was quite a ways out of town, and entailed a lot of walking. So we will have to save that for another time. Instead we drove across town and went to the museum.

Above is the side of the museum, reflecting the beautiful mountains. The outside display of rockets is to the right above. Below on the left is the testing area for the “G” force. They use this to adjust the seats for the astronauts, based on their size. Below right is a mock up of one of the satellites.

About 146 miles to Deming, NM. Nice easy day for second day. We stayed at the Escapee Park, Dream Catchers. As always it is welcoming, it was sunny, and Frank felt well enough to park the rig. We only spent one night, but did have time to go downtown and buy some groceries.

Fall has arrived in New Mexico. The foliage was beautiful. The picture below is a little blurry, but you can see blue sky, mountains, and the trees in their bright yellow foliage. We are driving about 50 miles an hour when we took this picture.

Next day Dixie drove a little further. About 151 miles to Wilcox, AZ where we spent the night at the Elks Lodge. Really nice RV facilities, but right next to the RR track. Didn’t keep us awake. Frank is busy getting better and better and Dixie is tired from driving and trying to help Frank with the hook-ups.

Next stop was Casa Grande. Another 150 miles or so. We went to the RoVers Roost Escapee Park and just spent the night.

Dixie had made a dentist appointment in Algodones, MX to have a crown fixed that had come loose. So we had to be in Yuma by Wednesday. This was the longest day of driving. Dixie drove 176 miles—give or take a few miles. We arrived in Yuma around 2 p.m. and stayed at the Kofa Ko-op Escapee Park. We have been there before and really like it. It is located a little far out of town, but it is quiet and the people are all very friendly. The weather is so nice!! Sunshine and warm. We even got our shorts out. We planned to stay at least 3 days, but ended up staying the entire weekend.

We celebrated Veteran’s Day by putting out our “bunting” for the front of the RV.

We made two trips into Algodones, MX and got Dixie’s tooth fixed and refilled our stock of medicine and had our shrimp tacos. It was a very good stop, and much needed rest.

I think the sunshine is fixing Frank!! He is walking better and is doing a much better job of shaving in the morning.

On Monday, Nov, 16 we headed to Indio, CA. Our home Elks Lodge is the destination. Frank’s Dr. appointment is on Wed., Nov. 18. So we had a day to spend with son, Ray, Nicole and grandkids.

#159 Clovis, NM 10-31 thru 11-1-09

We arrived in Clovis on Sat. afternoon. Just about the time we were setting up Sarah called and asked where we were. Here in Clovis at JC Campground right around the corner from their home, so we joined them for lunch at a wonderful Mexican restaurant. Ah, I was really ready for a fix. Great fajitas and tacos. And Salsa and Chips, my tummy is really happy!

Now tonight is the night that we change our times back to standard time. We remembered that, but we forgot that we crossed into Mountain time. So we gained a couple of hours.

We headed off to meet Sarah and Joe and the family for church Sunday morning. We got there at 10:30, remembering to turn our clocks back, but it was only 9:30 am Mountain time. So we decided to go find a McDonalds and have a mocha coffee and read the paper for an hour. Boy did we feel silly not knowing what time zone we were in!

After church we all went out out to The Cotton Patch for a late lunch, then home to take a short nap. Joe, Sarah, David and Melissa came over to the coach a little after 4 pm and we visited and later Joe got Rebecca from here afternoon meet and we all had some sandwiches for dinner. Worked out fine and a lot of fun to catch up with their family. David who is 10 and Melissa who is 7, both remembered our visit two years ago and were really happy to see us (and especially Gidget).

The RV was full of us as you can see below.

Melissia on Sarah's lap. David on Joe's Lap. Rebecca in front, Joe in back..

Sarah and David on the couch. Frank with Melissia on his lap.

After our dinner of BLT sandwiches.

We had beautiful sunny weather, with only a slight breeze. I even got to wear a short sleeve shirt. The campground had nice big spaces. It is a new campground and there aren’t any big trees, but the spaces are level and the interior roads are wide and graveled. It is a good place to stop. It’s a Good Sam member, so we got a small discount.

#158 Amarillo, TX 10-27 thru 10-30-09

We arrived in Amarillo with sunshine on our shoulders! We thought this would be a nice stop and a place to get warm. We stayed at the Elks Lodge and had 30 amp hook-up with water at the site.

The site isn’t much. Just a back lot against the fence around the swimming pool and volleyball court. This must be a busy place in the summer. It is pretty deserted now.

Below is the “Porta Party” that was parked by the RV sites.

Quite a party trailer! Only in Texas.

The next day we woke up to clouds and rain showers, so did our grocery shopping and hunkered down in the RV to wait for nicer weather. Guess that was not to be, because on Friday night it turned really cold, froze our water hose a little bit and it was just plain miserable looking outside. We looked at each other and said—Don’t think we want to go sight seeing in this kind of weather. Good thing we didn’t, because right after we had lunch we looked out the window and below is what we saw.

THAT IS SNOW! WHERE DID THAT COME FROM? Brrrrrrrrrrr. Turn up the heat, and put on more clothes!

Well, the weather forecast says sunshine tomorrow and warmer, up to the 60’s. So we stayed another night!

The morning dawned sunny—not real warm, but at least the sky was clear, so off we went to the Palo Duro Canyon. While we are this close we have to check out the “grand canyon” of Texas.

Our first glimpse of the Canyon. Can you see the hoo-doo on the left side of the picture?

The colors of the rocks and walls are really pretty.

The nice thing about this canyon is that you can drive through it. There are lots of camping areas and places to picnic. There weren’t too many campers now. Too cold.

Because of the rain and “snow” the past few days we did have to ford a number of places that were subject to flooding as you can see below.

We even saw some wild life on the side of the road. Can you make her out? She walked off into the brush right after we took this picture.

The colors of the trees and leaves against the background of the canyon were amazing. We were really glad we spent the extra couple of days in Amarillo waiting for some sunshine.

Looks warm and inviting. But looks are deceiving. We were still in our sweatshirts and jackets. I even had my ear muffs on for a while. The air was very crisp and clear. We enjoyed our ride in the canyon.

On our way back to the coach we stopped and took a picture of the Texas longhorn, one of two kept in the park. One is named Biscuit and the other is Gravy. I’m not sure who is who.

The span between the tips of their horns can be up to 6’ wide.

We left the canyon and headed back to Amarillo. About 26 miles away. It was past lunch time so we started looking for a place to stop and low and behold we found a “Whataburger!” Can’t make it through Texas without a good ole burger. Now I feel like I am in Texas. One thing about their burgers, you don’t go away hungry. Dinner will be soup.

While we are out and about, we decided we would go check out the Cadillac Ranch. There are vintage cars buried half way in the ground in a row, pointing upward. People have painted names, and other stuff on them. They are out in the middle of a big field, and you can just open a gate and walk right out to them.

The wind was blowing a little and it was very cold in this field, so we high tailed it out of there after taking the pictures. Most of them I couldn’t recognize what year they were. They are completely stripped down and have so much paint on them they are almost unrecognizable as Cadillac's.

We’ve seen enough of the area and tomorrow we take off to Clovis, NM. We will visit niece Sarah and her family. It will be Halloween.

Happy birthday to Katherine McDonnell and Alex Martin, 10-31.