After fun family times in November, and completion of other commitments, we finally hit the road on Sunday November 24. We left on a sunny day, with temperatures in the 40s. Not too bad. But we didn't dare drain the anti-freeze from our plumbing in the rig, knowing that we had several days of possibly unsettled weather, with temperatures almost surely to dip below freezing somewhere in Kansas, Oklahoma, and maybe even New Mexico. At least we weren't trying to outrun the polar vortex, as we had in previous years.
The drive across Missouri and Kansas were fairly uneventful. We stayed in RV Parks along the way - first in Homewood at Homewood RV Park, then in Greensburg, Kansas, at Happy Camper RV Park. The two parks were like night and day: at the former, we were greeted with a freshly popped bag of popcorn; at the latter, we walked into a shop that was in disarray and greeted by a friendly enough, but somewhat disheveled man. The showers weren't great, and we only got 30-amp service, but the price was right at $20 per night. At Homewood, there were a couple dozen year-round visitors. There were only one or two other campers at Happy Camper RV Park.
The high-wind warnings that our weather apps were predicting, made us wary of how far we would make it on Wednesday. Following that, there were warnings of ice and possible snow at all of the locations along our way. Indeed, it was windy, but Ron drove on, and we made it to our desired destination in New Mexico: Tucumcari, where we stayed at a fairly decent KOA. Temperatures were expected to get into the 20s, but actually went into the teens, so, no running water, yet! The next night, Wednesday, was spent in Las Cruces, at the Hacienda Resort. Showers were clean, and the place was quite nice overall. That day, however, it rained all day long. This is the nice, gentle rain that is typical of winter rains in milder climes. The sandy soil had enough clay in it to create puddles and become slippery.
During the drive on Tuesday, I had been thinking about our early arrival in Tucson, as we weren't due until Sunday, December 1. We had anticipated a repeat visit to Whitewater Draw Wildlife Refuge, where we stayed for one night last year. It is a Nature Conservancy site where tens of thousands of sandhill cranes congregate every winter. I also recalled a place called Portal, on the east side of the Chiricahua mountains, which had been recommended as a great birdwatching site. We decided to check that out, so I looked for RV Parks near there, and found Rusty's RV Park near Rodeo, New Mexico, just a few miles down the road from Portal. I called and reserved two nights there.
It rained all day Thursday, as we made our way from Las Cruces, to Lordsburg, then south towards Rusty's. At times Highway 10 was so bad that the entire rig shuddered, vibrated, and rattled. The rattling was mainly from dishware, not from the rig itself, thankfully! Several items were jostled off of shelves, which usually just doesn't happen, sometimes to my amazement.
We finally reached our destination and learned that instead of having pasta for supper, we were actually going to have a full-out Thanksgiving meal, thanks to the owner of the RV Park, Rusty herself. It was a delicious meal, and was shared with other travelers and several members of Rusty's family, including her parents, daughter, and grandchildren. We were indeed thankful for the bounty of kindness and friendliness we had experienced that day.
Unfortunately, strong winds picked up later in the night, so we decided to sleep with the slides pulled in. It was somewhat quieter, and we didn't have to concern ourselves that the slide-out awning would be damaged. In the morning, Ron was greeted with a gorgeous 360-degree sunrise, while Mari was still deep in slumber. The wind was still blowing in gusts, and then the rain came. A pretty strong rainfall, not the nice, gentle rain that we had been having. Our hopes to see birds today are dwindling, although Ron saw two rock wrens playing on our patio this morning.
On the bright side, I have time to write this post! We already extended our stay by an additional day, so maybe we'll get a chance to spend time in nature before completing our drive to Tucson on Sunday. If so, I will let you know about it here.
---Mari
Here at Rusty's RV Ranch this afternoon I did laundry in a spacious room with a recliner, a sofa and several shelves of books. With 15 minutes left on the washer, I stepped outside to go back to our rig, but ended up chatting with a few folks we met at the Thanksgiving potluck. Valerie and Gordon, from Michigan, have bought land here and are staying here while getting their house built. As Valerie put it, "Where we live in Michigan there are as many sunny days there every year as there are cloudy days here." People come to this southwestern part of New Mexico for the climate and the birds. The busiest time of year for Rusty's RV Ranch is bird migration, Spring and Fall. We learned today at the Cave Creek Canyon visitor's center that there will be 11 species of hummingbirds here during the Spring migration in late March and April. Sorry we will miss that.
ReplyDeleteWe went to the Chiracahua Desert Visitor's center this afternoon, during a break in the rain (but not the wind). The displays of snakes, turtles and tortoises, spiders, and Native American artifacts was just amazing. We actually saw Geronimo's bow, arrows, and quiver.