Crazy Weather

There certainly has been some crazy weather the last few days. Luckily, we’ve avoided any severe weather. But, we’ve certainly seen our share of rain.

While in Oklahoma two nights ago, there was a tornado in Norman about 70 miles southwest of where we were staying for the night. We had some strong thunderstorms with heavy rain, but that was all.

Last night we stayed at a very nice Passport America park in Carthage, Missouri called The Big Red Barn RV Park. They had over five inches of rain the night before we arrived and it rained again while we were there. In fact, it rained quite a bit this morning. Around 10:00 Kevin finally decided to go out in the rain and hook up. Luckily, it didn’t rain for most of the drive today, just overcast skies.

Tonight we’re staying at another Passport America park called Meramec Valley in Cuba, Missouri. This place is quite run down and neglected. We won’t stay here again. It’s been raining for four hours. I sure hope we can get out of here tomorrow morning. Here’s what the road behind us looked like earlier. There was literally a river rushing down the road.

We did manage to visit the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage yesterday. I had heard about this place from a friend and wanted to see it.

Samuel Butcher is the artist who created the Precious Moments figurines. He has a strong faith and wanted to create a place people could come and see stories of the Bible through Precious Moments art.

He had the chapel built and did all the paintings himself. It’s quite an inspirational place. The grounds are beautifully landscaped with many fountains and statues, as well as lots of pretty flowers. It’s all free, but there is a huge gift shop. I think it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area.

This is the main room of the chapel. He even painted the ceiling, laying on his back for many weeks to complete it. He’s 73 years old and still in good health.

As we were driving through Texas, I saw a sign that said the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere was in Groom, Texas. I don’t know what the story is behind it, but it certainly was huge.

Tomorrow we’re headed to Springfield, Illinois (if we get out of this mud hole). We plan to stay there for two nights. I sure hope it stops raining pretty soon!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

New Sites

Today we traveled from Carlsbad, New Mexico to Amarillo, Texas along highways 285, 70 and 60. This is a route we haven’t taken before and I saw some interesting sites.

Roswell, New Mexico had lots of aliens and spaceships. Even the Colonel is hanging out with aliens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hereford, Texas has a sign claiming it’s the beef capital of the world. There were several areas with pens of cattle as far as you could see. I was sure sorry when I opened the window to take a picture. The smell was horrendous!

I’m not sure what town we were in when I saw the biggest cowboy I’ve ever seen. The wall along the road was in the way so I couldn’t see what he was advertising, but he sure was big. I guess they’re not kidding when they say everything is bigger in Texas.

We stopped at a wayside to use the bathroom in the RV. Everything inside was fine. When we got to the campground, I had quite a surprise when I opened the door. The cabinet I keep our dishes in opened.

Our first year fulltiming we used plastic dishes. Last fall while working at Amazon I bought some Corelle dishes using our discount. They are supposed to be break resistant. Well, the eight dinner plates and six of the saucers didn’t break. However, two of the saucers shattered all over the place. There were tiny little shards all over the floor and counter. Pieces had flown everywhere. Here’s what the floor looked like when I opened the door, and that was only part of the mess.

I’ve now got a bungee cord so I can strap the cabinet door closed while we travel. We’ve only had one other instance of a cabinet door opening en route. That time some of our board games spilled on the floor with little pieces all over. I guess it’s one of the hazards to expect while traveling.

Kevin also noticed that the spring on the latch of our screen door was broken so he temporarily rigged it to work until we can get a new spring. Then he knocked over his beer. Luckily, it was already empty :)

I’m sure hoping that we used up all of our bad luck a day early since tomorrow is Friday the 13th! At least we weren’t in Amarillo yesterday. They had some massive hail in this area last night.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Storms

The entire time we were in Arizona this winter it only rained twice. It’s stormed three afternoons in a row here in New Mexico. They very much need the rain, but we’ve had some strong winds and heavy thunderstorms. I can do without those. It’s always a little scary. Today there were actually two tornado watches not too far from us. I didn’t know they even have tornados in New Mexico.

The pecan farm cannons were firing again today. They don’t fire anything out of them, just the sound is supposed to prevent hail. It’s the strangest thing, but we didn’t have any hail. The weatherman was talking about golf ball size hail in other areas so maybe they actually work. There was a beautiful rainbow after the storm today. Notice the puddles, we had quite a bit of rain.

This morning we went for a walk around the park. There are some cacti growing on some of the lots that have beautiful blooms on them. I don’t know what kind they are, but they sure are pretty.

We’ve encountered many RVers with pets over the years including all kinds of dogs and cats. But, today we saw a pet we’ve not encountered before. This lady is Annette and she’s holding her pet parrot, Calliope. What a beautiful bird. I don’t know much about birds, but this one was snuggling with her and sure did appear to be affectionate.

We’re leaving early tomorrow morning. Hopefully, we won’t encounter any bad weather on our trek back to Wisconsin.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Guadalupe Mountains National Park

We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. We spent the day at the RV park and then joined the members for an Easter dinner. We met some nice people and enjoyed the delicious meal. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures.

Yesterday we drove about an hour to the New Mexico/Texas border to visit Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

The peak on the left is called El Capitan. The peak on the right is Guadalupe Peak and is the highest point in Texas at 8,749 feet. There is no road to the top, only hiking trails. We were not up for an eight hour strenuous hike to the top, but we did find two enjoyable hikes.

The first was a 1/3 mile easy walk to what is left of the Butterfield stagecoach station.

The Butterfield route was a forerunner to the Pony Express and was the first overland mail route from St. Louis to San Francisco. It was a 2,700 mile journey that took 25 days. Coaches stopped at this location for about a year in 1859 and then a different route was used. I’m glad our coach has a lot more horsepower than the six horses they used in those days.

From what I’ve heard and read, the desert is not blooming much this spring due to a dry winter. I did find a number of pretty flowers growing. It’s amazing to me that these cute little flowers can survive in such a harsh, dry climate.

Our second hike started at the Frijole Ranch site. The site includes a 1906 ranch house museum, schoolhouse, bunkhouse, barn and springhouse. Unfortunately, all of the buildings were locked up tight.

We hiked the Smith Spring trail which was a moderate 2.3 mile loop trail ascending about 500 feet. Along the hike there are two springs which provided water for the Frijole Ranch. The first is called Manzanita Spring and was close to the house.

The Smith Spring was quite a bit further up the mountain trail. You would never guess there is a spring out there. Here’s what it looked like from a distance.

And here’s what it looked like up close. It felt like we were in the woods in Wisconsin with hardwood and pine trees and lots of greenery all around.

We found a nice setting for a picture.

We saw lots of these trees growing along a wash next to the trail. I don’t know what kind they are, but they have orange bark. We’ve never seen that before.

As I mentioned, it’s been very dry in the southwest and they are desperately in need of rain. Just as we were returning home, it started to rain and thunder. All of a sudden we started hearing very loud booming noises. They weren’t coming from within the park, but it was definitely close by. Very strange and annoying.

Our neighbor came over to tell us that it was cannons being fired into the clouds from the pecan farm a few miles away. Apparently, the noise from the cannons keeps hail from forming. That’s a good thing for an RV park as well.

He told us that there has only been hail at this park once in as long as anyone can remember. And, that was when the cannons weren’t working. That’s certainly a new experience for us. Who would have ever guessed that firing cannons at clouds can keep hail away!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Today we visited Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We got there about 10 am and watched an interesting movie at the Visitor Center about National Park Caves.

You can travel the 700+ feet into the cave by taking an elevator from the visitor center or by entering at the natural entrance and following a path for a mile. Both ways get you to the rest area down below where there are bathrooms, snacks and some souvenir stands.

We chose to enter via the natural cave entrance. There is a nice path that goes down and down and down for a mile. It is rather steep in a few places. I was feeling the arthritis in my knees, but it was doable. Its definitely not for everyone.

Once we got to the bottom we followed a self-guided path for another mile around the Big Room. There were a number of interesting formations to see. Both of these are columns formed when the stalactites and stalagmites meet.

Many of the formations on the ground look like coral, but they are not. They are mineral deposits formed from water dripping into the cave.

After we were finished with our self-guided tour, we waited for the ranger to guide us on the King’s Palace Tour. I had heard that tickets sell out for the ranger tours, so I had pre-ordered our tickets online. Good thing because the tours were sold out when we arrived this morning.

The ranger took us to the King’s Palace room of the caverns which is 830 feet underground. Lots of amazing formations in this area.

This formation is actually a very large section that broke loose from the ceiling many years ago. As the water continued to drip onto it, this flowing sheet of rock was formed.

 

This formation is called a drape. It’s forty feet tall but only one inch thick in the center which allows light to shine through it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At one point in the tour the ranger turned off all the lights so we could experience the total darkness of the cave. Then she let us experience cave fireworks. We all pointed our cameras at the ceiling and when she told us we all flashed our flashes at the same time. It was quite a cool experience.

Here’s one more amazing column formation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we drove the seven miles to get to the visitor center, we noticed a great deal of burned landscape. The ranger told us that there was a fire on the grounds last summer that burned over three-quarters of the park lands. The fire was caused by someone being careless. What a shame.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Carlsbad Caverns. My only regret is that we didn’t get to see the bats fly out of the cave at dusk. Thousands of bats make their home in the cave during the summer. Every night at dusk visitors are allowed to sit in an amphitheater outside of the natural entrance and watch the bats fly out of the cave. I would have loved to see that. Unfortunately, the bats don’t usually come back until mid-May. Here’s a picture of a picture I took to show you what it might look like.

We’ve been to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky and Jewel Cave and Wind Cave in South Dakota. I can’t say that I have a favorite. Each one is different and worth exploring. Pictures definitely do not do it justice.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

We’ve Arrived at The Ranch

Yesterday we arrived at The Ranch, an Escapee park in New Mexico. While working at Amazon we met Roger and Barb who are lease holders at this park.

Since we wanted to visit Carlsbad Caverns which is about an hour from here, we thought we’d spend a week here. They currently have a special price for first time visitors of $50 a week plus electric so it seemed like a good place to stop on our way north.

It’s a pretty small park with not too many frills. We haven’t met many of the residents yet, but that will change this afternoon when we go to happy hour. There is a very nice clubhouse, but that’s about it. No pool or any of those types of amenities.

The park is pretty isolated with the nearest town being about 15 miles away. The lots are nice and it’s quiet. I’m sure we’ll enjoy our time here.

While driving through New Mexico we saw an area with tons of yellow flowers blooming. I think they are called Mexican or California Poppies. It was like a carpet of them and was so pretty. So much of the desert is brown and boring, but every once in a while it surprises you with some beautiful color.

I didn’t realize it was a full moon last night. I was sitting on the couch watching TV and all of a sudden the moon smiled down on me through our little window above the kitchen area. It was perfectly framed in the window and so pretty. What an awesome site!

Today is opening day for the Milwaukee Brewers. Kevin is watching the game right now because we have 10 free days of MLB Extra Innings on DirecTV. Right now they’re losing in the bottom of the 5th inning. I sure hope they pull out a win for the full house crowd in Milwaukee.

Tomorrow we’re going to Carlsbad Caverns. I pre-ordered tickets for the King’s Palace tour. I’m looking forward to visiting another National Park.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

On The Road Again

We left Buckeye this morning and drove about 250 miles to Bowie, Arizona.

We’re staying at the Mountain View RV Park tonight. It’s a Passport America member park and is definitely a no-frills place. But, for $15 we have a FHU 50 amp site and that’s all we need. They also have very fast free Wi-Fi. We are very near the limit on our air card this month, so I’m liking the free internet and watching some Netflix.

As long as we can keep finding these inexpensive places, we prefer to have hook-ups rather than boondocking at Wal-Mart or someplace like that. We drive a few hours on travel days and arrive by mid-afternoon. We hook up, put out all the slides and are able to relax and enjoy dinner and watch some TV which works well for us.

Bowie is a small town out in the middle of nowhere about 25 miles east of Willcox. When we entered the office there were a group of five men sitting around chewing the fat. I felt like I was on an old western movie set with a bunch of guys sitting around playing checkers at the general store. At least they were all friendly and I didn’t see any six-shooters :)

We got here at 1:30 pm and there were only a few other RVs here which all looked to be permanent. As it got later in the day, a few more RVs pulled in. I happened to look out the window and saw a woman that looked just like Kevin’s aunt. He went out to investigate and sure enough, his aunt and uncle had just pulled in. We visited them in February at their RV park in Casa Grande. They are now on their way home to St. Louis and just happened to end up at the same place we are. What are the odds.

The weather continues to be warm. The last few days cooled off a little and were rather windy. That same front is what caused the tornados in Dallas today. I just saw video on the news of tractor trailers flying through the air. It’s a miracle no one was killed.

The forecast in Phoenix for Easter is in the 90s again. They were talking on the news about hiding the Easter eggs inside because they would melt outside. That made me laugh. In Wisconsin we almost never were able to have an egg hunt outside because it was always too cold, sometimes with snow still on the ground. I never really thought about what Easter would be like in a warmer climate.

Tomorrow we will spend the night in Las Cruses, New Mexico. The following day we plan to arrive at The Ranch, an Escapee park near Carlsbad Caverns. We’re staying there for a week. They have a weekly special going on for only $50 for a FHU site. Such a deal!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!