HEAD WEST YOUNG MAN

Well, Wednesday morning I hit the road.  I'm heading west to cross some things off my bucket list.  Here's a preview of what I will be blogging about.  Tucson, Sedona, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, southern Utah (Brice, Arches, Canyonlands, Moab), Durango, Santa Fe, Gallup, Colorado Springs, and Estes Park.  But first, we have to get there.  So, Wednesday morning, we headed out. 

Mr. W will tell you differently, but he turns into Mr. Hyde when we get ready to take a trip.  He always has and I've figured out that he always will.  Even retired and traveling much differently than we use to, he cannot relax or take it easy when we go.  He stresses.  He doesn't sleep.  He fixates on everything that could possibly go wrong.  He rushes me and himself. Here's one of our conversations.  Him - Are you through with the water? Me - I need to brush my teeth.  Him - OK, take your time.  I go in the bathroom to brush my teeth and there is no water.  He has already disconnected the water.  I can either walk back out and around to turn on the water pump or take a bottle of water with me.  I've learned to keep a bottle of water in the bathroom at all times. He doesn't hear anything you say even when he asks you.  I know he tries, but he can't seem to help himself.  So, I learned a long time ago to not say anything and don't offer suggestions or ideas because it only causes arguments.  Just go with the flow. It is really a wonder that I still travel with him at all.

So, we leave Tomball, TX Wednesday morning and we have a long day because we are travelling over 500 miles to Ft. Stockton, TX.  That is unusual for us.  Since retirement, we try not to travel more than 300 miles in a day.  I don't remember exactly where I took this picture.  It was somewhere before we reached Ft. Stockton.  You know, you just gotta love Texas.  The powers that be know that it is FOREVER to get across Texas, so they want to help you out as much as possible. God bless Texas.

80 mph speed limit - Pulling a RV and trying to get the best gas mileage, 60 mph is our limit.

When we get to Ft. Stockton, Mr. W realizes he has left his water connection splitter on the water faucet in Tomball.  See what I mean. 

We stay at a RV park named Comanche Land RV park.  It was $18 for the night.  If you wanted 30 amp electricity, it was $16.  We got 50 amp which was $2 more.  When you get out to west Texas, your RV parks don't have trees.  As a matter of fact, nothing has trees.  There is gravel and the sites are level.  This was a nice place to stop in and spend the night.  The price is right, the management was nice, and it was quick on/quick off the interstate.

Thursday morning we head out.  Our original destination was going to be Las Cruses, New Mexico.  What is amazing to me is the fact that we had traveled over 500 miles yesterday and still had around 200 miles to reach El Paso, TX.  No wonder I have lived in Texas all my life and never been to El Paso.  When we got to El Paso, the view of the mountains as you are traveling I-10 is awesome.  I took a pic from the truck as we are driving.  George Strait was singing, "Somewhere Down In Texas" on the radio and I was thinking about Marty Robbins and wishing I could go visit Rosa's Cantina.  A friend of mine was working in El Paso for a few weeks and actually did go to Rosa's Cantina (yes, it does exist) to watch the sunset.  El Paso is known for its beautiful sunsets.  I guess I'll have to save that for another trip. One thing I did not realize was that the border to Mexico runs almost right along I-10.  Traveling west, you look to your right and see El Paso and the US.  You look to your left and see Mexico and the neighborhoods there.  It is quite a difference.

Out in the West Texas town of El Paso
I fell in love with a Mexican girl
Night-time would find me in Rosa's cantina
Music would play and Felina would whirl

We stopped at the welcome center entering New Mexico.  It was lunch time by our stomach time but since we had entered mountain time before El Paso, the clock said it was a little early for lunch. But, what the heck.  As we left, we saw a roadrunner and a sign that said Beware of Rattlesnakes.  Yikes!

Since we got to Las Cruses so early, we decided to press on.  So the second night we stayed in Willcox, Arizona.  Two l-o-n-g days of driving.  This is something we don't usually do, but it made for a short third day.  One thing about it, Arizona does not participate in daylight savings time, so once we entered Arizona, we had to set our clocks back another hour.  Here goes my stomach again not knowing when to eat. Geez. In Willcox, we stayed at Ft. Willcox RV park.  It was $21 with tax using Passport America.  Again, it was a gravel lot but the sites were level.  The scenery was awesome. It is not far off I-10.  Pretty much easy off and easy on. I had read reviews and knew that they sold homemade pies.  When we got there, she was just putting an apple pie in the oven.  I told her that I would be back when it was done. Yum!  She also fixes complimentary waffles for breakfast each morning.  They were good too.  There is nothing better than having breakfast done for you on traveling days.  Below are pictures from our campsite.

Sunset

As we left the next morning

Here are some of the scenery we saw as we traveled from Willcox to Tucson.

We arrived in Tucson at around 1:00.  We are staying at Catalina State Park.  They have water and electricity for $25 a night.  They have dump stations but no sewer sites.  It is beautiful.  It is also a very well maintained park.  The restrooms are spotless.  Good place to stay.  We will be here for 3 nights.  We've got a lot to see in a short period of time!  Let's go!

View out my back  window

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