Happy 12th birthday to my favorite boy, Auggie! Bob got up at 7:00 by accident. We set the alarm for 6:30, but I inadvertently turned off his phone, so luckily he got up all on his own. He was participating in a Co-op Board of Directors’ meeting at 7:30 (our time) via phone. We did a lot of our prep last night for our departure today and finished it up while listening at the meeting. At 9:20, we pulled out of the campground and headed east on I-40. We continued to listen to the meeting as we traveled. Traffic seemed heavier due to lane closures with construction.
Traffic thinned out after all the lanes opened up. The sky was hazy, but we could see out ahead of us quite far.
Leaving the Albuquerque area. the mountains disappeared and the landscape flattened out for as far as the eye could see.
We climbed in elevation and the landscape was suddenly covered in scrub juniper forest.
After about 100 miles, we stopped for fuel. Bob had done his research and found this station advertising diesel for $5.29/gal.
That’s the cheapest we’ve seen around, so we stopped for diesel and DEF fluid there. Things went well and we were back on the road in 25 minutes. We ate our lunch in transit as we had 286 total miles to go today and we still had 186 miles to go after fueling up. It was 89 degrees and sunny with a southeast wind at 11 mph which might decrease our gas mileage as we go east. For quite a few miles, we drove alongside a very long train being pulled by 4 engines with another engine in the middle. It went on and on forever!
The topography seemed to change every 10 or 15 miles. We saw more and more burn scars in different areas, but they were pretty small. We crossed the Pecos River in New Mexico before crossing the border.
As we headed east toward the Texas border, we saw more of these bluffs like fingers protruding onto the flatlands.
This bluff looked like it had letters spelling out something on it.
Upon closer examination, we saw that they were tailings from 8 mines in a row.
On the Interstate, we saw this tow truck which was cleaning up what was left of a mobile home that was demolished. We wondered what happened there?
Near Tucumcari (I love that name), this butte stood out distinctly from the flat prairie around it.
At 1:30, we left New Mexico and crossed over the border into Texas. We also changed time zones at the border and lost an hour. We were now in the Central Time Zone.
Bob enjoyed the drive on the Interstate today much better than on the back country roads we’ve traveled on recently, but it was a long drive and the open plains allowed the wind to play havoc with his driving. The temp kept climbing and so did the wind speed.
Near Amarillo, we smelled it before we saw it. It was a huge cattle yard with thousands of cattle waiting in their pens. We continued to smell it for miles afterward and so did Auggie.
We arrived at our campground, A-OK RV Park, at 4:00 Central Time for an overnight stay. It was a long, long drive.
It’s a no-frills park at $37 a night with self-check-in. We paid our fee in cash and put it through the slot in the door. We picked our own site, pulled in, and hooked up to electricity and water. We got the AC going right away.
This is an overnight stay, so we stayed hooked up to the Jeep. We noticed the pool as we pulled in. What a joke!
Auggie got some outside time and we all took some time to unwind. At dinnertime, we celebrated Auggie’s 12th birthday with a happy birthday song and a special doggie dinner of Ol’ Roy Cuts and Gravy, filet mignon flavor (doggie-style) and his regular kibble. He gobbled it down and licked the bowl.
It continued to be windy until dark. Bob took Auggie for his evening walk because I took Auggie for his morning walk during the meeting. He discovered some donkeys on the property and they were also supposed to have emus, but he didn’t see those. We all relaxed with some TV and turned in early for another long drive tomorrow.
Nice pool