BEEN SO BUSY WE'RE READY FOR ANOTHER HOLIDAY ALREADY!!

THE BIG SPRING CLEAN UP BEGINS

Well, I had better start this post off with another geography lesson for Al:((  Thanks to my good friend Jim G in Stratford, Ontario I found out the Blue Water Bridge between Port Huron Michigan & Sarnia Ontario crosses over the St. Clair River & not the Detroit River.  This is how it works....Lake Huron flows into the St Clair river which flows into Lake St. Clair which in turn flows into the Detroit River which then flows into Lake Erie.  The Blue Water bridge spans the St. Claire River portion.....Thanks Mr. G:)) 

Now, for another mistake I made which resulted in confusion for our good friend Dianne from Stormrunner here in Bayfield.  I had the sequence of events at our border crossing mixed up at the Blue Water Bridge on Wednesday.  The first line of booths we encountered is where you pay the toll for crossing the bridge.  We then crossed up & over the bridge & approached the second line of booths which is the Canadian checkpoint for entering into Canada.  It was at the Canadian checkpoint where we encountered the young fellow with all the questions.  In the blog I had said that after clearing the customs area we then crossed over the bridge.  I had my bridge in the wrong place.....we had already crossed it.  I will use the 'tired' defense in that case.  I really do think I should send a job application form to the The National Enquirer in the States though because with all the mistakes I have been making I'm sure they would just love to have somebody like me over there writing for them!!

It has been a really busy couple of days since we have been home.  Kelly's been on the phone for hours dealing with work related issues & family matters.  We don't even have the coach a quarter emptied yet.  I was out before 8 a.m. Thursday morning beginning the huge spring clean up & spent the majority of today with my nose to the grindstone as well.  It's always a big job because we have many trees around our place & with all the various flower gardens I have put in over the years it takes many days to get things ship shape again.  But, I'm not complaining.  I always enjoy the spring clean up because it's always so great just to be outside & doing something physical.  Temperature's were barely above freezing all day but the sun was out, early spring birds were in the trees, had the campfire going burning piles of leaves, tons of pine needles, & it just felt good to be getting back into the swing  of things again. But, getting into that swing is not as easy as it used to be!!

There is a downside to living two lifestyles like we do & it involves having to re-learn things upon either leaving or returning home.  Upon arriving Wednesday we had a list of things to do to get everything up & running at home again & after being away for 5 months I was totally out of the loop.  Throw in a big pile of 'tired' & the Gremlins were just waiting for me.  Couldn't get to first base on figuring out the 3 TV remotes & if it wasn't for Kelly I would probably still be sitting here in front of a blank television screen.  The music channels wouldn't work & that sent me into a tail spin until Kelly phoned the cable company & found out they were having problems with the feed.  Couldn't remember how to get the desk top on line & after Kelly did that I couldn't remember how to activate my favorite music channel.  I should have gone right to bed for a good night's sleep but I was being stubborn.  The Gremlins knew if I was dumb enough to stay up they would be smart enough to continually trip me up.  And so they did!!

They hid the leaf blower in the back of my van for 2 days knowing I wouldn't think to look there, & I didn't!!  Kelly found it.  They put a new lock on our carport storage door last fall & then hid the key on me.   They also hid the key to our neighbor's garage until Kelly found it in a 'Sucrets' box on the neighbor's sun porch.  Turned off most of the switches in our fuse box & got a big kick out of watching me try to figure out why the boombox in the washroom wouldn't work.  Kelly turned on the switches in the fuse panel to solve that problem.  You can see she's a darn good little problem solver you know.    They took one of the cables off my van's battery & howled as they watched me try to start the van!!  At this point I have no idea whatsoever where they have hidden all my outside light timers that I so carefully put away last fall in a safe place I would remember this spring.  Took Kelly nearly 40 minutes on the phone with some tekky kid in Halifax to finally determine our internet company had forgot to reactivate our internet.  My questions was......what's an internet??  And so it goes, & so it goes:((

Tomorrow I will put together some thoughts on why it's good to be back in the 'sticks & bricks' again.  Maybe got something to do with an endless hot water supply, large living spaces, speedy internet, & a real kitchen table.....D'ya think!!

Question about our house plants while away.  The one you saw in yesterday's blog picture background is plastic but we do winter a bunch of plants in our sunroom which a kind neighbor looks after during the winter months.  And a big welcome to new blog follower Robert Nilsen.  Keep your Geography books handy Robert because I'm sure you will have to be doing some checking up on me!!

And lastly.....with 3 computers I am dealing with 3 separate Live Writer programs so I may not have each one set up exactly the same as the others so there may be some little differences to the blogs appearance now & again until I can get them all looking the same..........hmmmm, what's a Live Writer anyway:((

KELLY'S SON BEN JUST SENT THIS PICTURE OF HIS 2 NEPHEWS LANGDON & KEENAN.....TWO OF KELLY'S 4 GRANDS:))

GROANER'S CORNER:((  I was walking home last night when I noticed an old drunk staggering along the road. He passed a woman who was walking a young child. "Lady", said the drunk, "that's the ugliest kid I've ever seen. Damn, that is one ugly child!." As the drunk wandered off, the lady burst into tears. Just then, a mailman came to her rescue. "What's the matter, madam?" he asked. "I've just been horribly insulted" she sobbed. "There there," said the mailman, reaching into his pocket. "Dry your eyes with this tissue, and here's a banana for the chimp."

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The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

SOOOOO GLAD TO FINALLY BE HOME

GETTING A LITTLE HELP WITH THE BLOG

It seems that 6th day of travel is the one that knocks me on my keister every time.  Bit of frost on the windshield Wednesday morning first thing but by 7:15 we rolled out of Cracker Barrel in Gas City, Indiana, fueled up & headed north on I-69 for Port Huron & the border.  Hadn't slept well at all the night before so I was kinda beat before I got started.  Figured we would make the border about 12:30 but I hadn't figured on an up coming wrong turn!!!!

HEADING OVER THE BLUE WATER BRIDGE BETWEEN PORT HURON & SARNIA

Traffic was smooth all the way to Lansing Michigan & that's where the road construction began.  Orange traffic cones had us down to one lane & I was stuck in a convoy of large trucks making our way through the construction.  Somehow I missed the sign that must have said highway 69 traffic exit right.  I stayed with the line of trucks until we were free of the construction zone.  It was awhile before it finally occurred to me that I had not seen any signs for Flint, Michigan.  I was beginning to see signs for Grand Rapids, Michigan though.  Kelly was on the computer in the back so I suggested she fire up Garmin Gertie our GPS system.  Well, didn't take GG long to figure out we were well on our way to Rapid City & not Flint, Michigan.  I can't even begin to tell you how upset I was about that as GG re-routed us off I-96.  I had inadvertently sailed us about 25 miles off course!!  Reprogrammed GG for a heading that would take us cross country & link up with I-69 far to the east.  I missed the first programmed turn off (nowhere to turn 53 feet around) & that took us another 11 miles deeper into the Michigan backwoods on a narrow pot holed paved road.  Luckily we stumbled across a major highway with an arrow pointing to I-96 west.  Another 10 minutes to reach 96 & then southeast all the way back to Lansing to begin our journey anew on I-69.  That whole fiasco had just cost us about an hour & by this time I had very little physical or mental energy left to deal with another hour added to the last day of our trip.  I had mentally focused myself for a 12:30 crossing & this really knocked the stuffings out of me.  By the time we got to the border at 1:30 I was pretty well toast.  And burnt toast with no butter at that!!

I answered the young border guards first 637 questions OK but then he asked me the motorhome's license number.  Good thing he didn't ask me a real hard question like my name.  But, I stumbled on the license number so pulled my little black book out of my shirt pocket where I keep that sort of info.  I have 4 separate license numbers listed in there & my fatigued brain would not tell me which one was the motorhome even though I had Damon written right beside it.  It was at this point I saw the guy furiously writing on a yellow pad.  I knew we were flagged for an inspection right there & then.  I did finally get the correct license number sorted out but by this time he had already determined I was a swarthy & suspicious looking character who had undoubtedly stolen the motorhome.  He handed me the yellow piece of paper with his list of bad stuff written in red & told me to pull over to the building with the sign that read...Hardened And Swarthy Looking Criminals Report Here!!

STILL ICE IN THE RIVER FLOWING SOUTH FROM LAKE HURON

As we dejectedly approached the large fenced in compound, two more border patrol officers quickly came out of a building pointing a rocket launcher in our direction.  Ok, so it wasn't a rocket launcher but the pen he had in his hand sure looked like a rocket launcher to me by this time.  The young fellow (they all seem to be young fellows these days) walked up to my side of the coach, took the yellow slip of paper, & asked a couple more questions.  Luckily for us this guy didn't ask me my name either.  He took a step back & looked towards the back of the dirt encrusted & road grimed motorhome, looked back at me with a look of pity in his eyes, waved his hand & said, "way ya go, have a good day."  I guess the combination of the rig & me looking like such a mess was too much for him & there was no way he was going to get his spiffy clean uniform all smeared up crawling around looking in dust infested motorhome bins.  Never did see where the second female officer went so can only assume when she saw us approaching she ran screaming across the parking lot, climbed the fence, & jumped into the Detroit river!!

I can't even put into words the feelings of relief we felt as we pulled out of there & headed up & over the big Blue Water bridge & down the other side into Canada.  We were back in our beloved country & safely on our way home only a short hour & a half away.  The roads immediately improved, traffic was light, & the sun was shining as we exited Sarnia heading for our first Canadian cup of Tim Horton's coffee since leaving exactly 5 months ago to the day.  Twenty minutes after our border crossing we had our faces buried in a couple pails full of Timmies in Forest, Ontario.  Kelly brought out a big apple fritter for me with a caramel filling inside.  With the first big bite I had caramel in my beard, on my hands, & all over the steering wheel.  But, who cares, we were nearly home.

HERE COMES THE CUSTOMARY COFFEE & DONUTS:))

The rest of the quiet country setting drive was uneventful as we just enjoyed the scenery along the way on this fine early spring day.  This is always one of my favorite parts of every trip.  That last bunch of miles heading home.  What a super great feeling that is to see all the old familiar scenery coming into view & knowing home is just down the road.  We drove into the village of Bayfield at 2:45 P.M.  Unhooked the car in town for the first time since hooking it up at the Lost Dutchman State Park near Apache Junction, Arizona.  Kelly went ahead the final 2 miles home while the furry kids & I followed in the rig.  For me, pulling into our driveway & rolling the big Damon 329 into it's own spot was akin to the astronauts landing the shuttle.  The 5 month mission to the big American Southwest was over for another season & we had landed successfully with the rig & all crew members intact.  The pilot was a wreck of course but the whole Bayfield Bunch gang was happy to be home for sure.  Lots of very happy wagging tails.

OUR FIRST COUPLE MINUTES HOME:))

I did change the mistake in Tuesday's blog from Indiana to Illinois in identifying the location of that large cross in Effingham.  Thanks to blog reader, Max for pointing that out & I will remain in the Geography dunce corner for one more day.  Looks like the 'blossom' debate continues so now I'm not sure what they were but in the one photo of all the dogs in the foreground in that post you can see the full blossom trees in the background.  And, welcome to new  blog follower, Handy Hammer.  I wonder if this person might be a carpenter of sorts.......:))

                        

OPENING THE DRAPES & THE PATIO DOOR

In Friday's blog I'll talk about how the Gremlins took advantage of a Al's tired mind after he got home!!

COME ON DAD, I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT

GROANER'S CORNER:((  And did you know a chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

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The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.

THE BAYFIELD BUNCH IS HOME.................

It has been a looooong day & I am just  too totally exhausted tonight to even think about putting a blog together but I will be back tomorrow...10-4

4 STATES TODAY....ARKANSAS, MISSOURI, ILLINIOIS & INDIANA

BRIDGE OVER THE FOGGY MISSISSIPPI

Seems the more tired people are, the less noise they hear.   That has worked well for us the past few night's in Wal-Mart parking lots.  Despite last night's train whistles, big trucks coming & going, kids with souped up cars peeling in & out of the gas bar next door & "welcome Wal-Mart shoppers" speakers on the Wally-World building, we seemed to drift right off till morning.  Well, I did anyway.

EARLY MISTY MORNING PIT STOP ALONG I-57

We were underway at 7:10 this morning & crossed the Missouri State Line 5 minutes later heading north on I-55.  One hour after that we crossed the fog shrouded blue/green bridge over the Mississippi river & headed east into Illinois on I-57.

A LARGE BRIDGE LOOMS OUT OF THE FOG

SOCKY GEEPERS CROSSES THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER

Weather was good today except for a few long patches of fog.  No traffic problems & everybody kept the rubber on the road.  Followed 57 north to Effingham where we picked up I-70 & swung east with Indianapolis in our sights.  Stopped at a rest area west of Indy & armed the rig with cannons & rockets in preparation for doing battle in the big city that hosts the Daytona 500.  (oooops, made a big geography mistake here...not to worry Movinon2, they haven't moved Florida to Indiana & the Daytona 500 is still in Florida.  Ray in Gleason says the Indy race is called the Brickyard 400.  I think Al gets to go to the corner of the room with a dunce cap on & geography book in hand)

Our strategy was to use the 465 southeasterly route under & around Indianapolis & that seemed to work fine as we caught the city napping & rolled right through guns & rockets blazing.  By the time Indianapolis knew the Bayfield Bunch had blown into town & could launch a confusing defense of misleading road signs & detour arrows, we had already rolled out the north end of Indy & were happily homeward bound singing jolly roustabout songs.  See ya later Indygator:))

KELLY'S ON THE JOB:))

Had figured on making it as far as Angola, Indiana where we have stayed at a Wally World a few times before, but then.............we saw a Cracker Barrel sign.  Kelly assured me Cracker Barrel allowed RV'ers to stay overnight in their parking lots.  Didn't take much arm twisting to get me off the interstate & into the CB parking lot right quick!!  This will be our last night on the road & we will be home in Bayfield sometime Wednesday afternoon.  What better way to celebrate the end of our great winter in the southwest than a yummy Cracker Barrel supper.  It will be many long months before we ever get back this way again.  Oh, & the name of the town we are in right now for the night is, Gas City.  That's right.......Gas City.  It is south of Fort Wayne, Indiana

MY 423RD EGG SALAD SANDWICH THIS TRIP.....OK, OK, MAYBE NOT THAT MANY:((

Going to have to dust off my 'blossoms' book when I get home too.  Seems those may not have been Cherry blossoms I was taking pictures of for yesterday's blog.  Janna from TIN TEEPEE says they were likely Dogwood blossoms.  Janna is from Montana & I am not going to argue with anybody from Montana, that's for sure.  Besides, I'm a man who knows better than to question a woman's judgment.......10-4!!

THE LARGE TRUCKER'S CROSS IN EFFINGHAM, ILLINOIS

Our first stop in Canada tomorrow will be in the little town of Forest.  It's on our way home & we stop there every year.  Why??  Tim Horton's coffee of course.  We have been 5 long months without our Timmy fix & we'll be stopping there for a couple pails full to go for sure:))  You may know more about grits & sourdough biscuits America but we Canadians sure got it all over you guys when it comes to a good cup of coffee!!

OUR LAST NIGHT ON THE ROAD......CRACKER BARREL IN GAS CITY, INDIANA

Blog readers Sue & Doug inquired a few days ago about what type of camera I use so I will refer you to this link I posted a few months ago while at the ranch in McNeal.  Scroll down in the post & check out the answer.........NIKON, NIKON, & CANON

GROANER'S CORNER:((    Every day a peddler pulled his cart of wool from his home to the village market. It was a long trip. He had to travel around the perimeter of a large lake that was owned by the town tycoon, a modern-day scrooge. One day during the winter the lake was frozen over. The peddler realized that he could cut off two miles from his trip if he crossed over the lake. He was spotted halfway across by the tycoon. Scrooge came racing out of his mansion and screamed at the peddler, "I'll be darned if I'll let anyone pull the wool over my ice!"

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The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.

A TOUCH OF SPRING IN THE TRAVELING AIR

THESE MIGHT BE CHERRY BLOSSOMS

The outside temperature on our thermometer this morning said 43F & I was relieved to see that because it meant we would not have to contend with black ice on our early morning start.  Noticed a fair bit of snow in the field beside us had melted as well.

PIT STOP FOR THE BAYFIELD BUMS

Rolled out of Bonham Texas onto highway 82 heading east at 6:50 a.m.  Little did I know it would turn out to be a 10 hour driving day taking us north of Memphis almost to the Missouri State line.  I'm writing this from a Lowe's/Wally World Parking lot just off I-55 in Blytheville, Arkansas.

       

One of the problems of early morning starts heading east is the rising sun & it sure did us a bad turn this morning.  Heading into Paris, Arkansas I totally missed seeing the the by-pass sign & drove right smack dab into downtown Paris.  Not only got onto some narrow streets but had trouble reading the street signs because of the sun in our eyes.  We got dragged right down main street through the business district.  The cloud of blue air inside the motorhome didn't help the visibility any either.  Kelly spotted a highway 82 sign with an pointing arrow & about half an hour later we were finally back on track & heading east out of Paris.  Two years ago this very same town literally ate us up & spit us out twice in less than an hour.  I have copied & pasted the 'Paris' part of that post I did for that day at the end of this blog entitled....."A Paris Repeat!!"

I-30 through Texarkana has been under construction every time we have gone through there these past few years & today was no different.  What a mess & what a miserable time we had finding Cracker Barrel again.  I think I had just better stick with my egg salad sandwiches!!

MORNING'S SUNRISE.....KELLY FIELD'S A WORK CALL OUTSIDE CRACKER BARREL....SOCKY GEEPERS ENJOYING THE VIEW

Weather was good, wind was no problem, & the traffic flow was rolling along well today so we just went with the flow & kept on going, & going.  Whenever we get that 'going home bug' or that 'heading for the southwest bug' we just focus on the objective & go for it until we reach our goal.  Right now my cushy recliner chair at home & a long hot shower are priority one!!

Today's cherry blossoms & dandelions were taken at a rest stop area along I-30 west of Memphis.  Sunset photo was taken across the Wal-Mart parking lot in Blytheville, Arkansas.

 

OUR OVERNIGHTER SPOT IN BLYTHEVILLE

Tomorrow morning we'll head east & cross the Mississippi River into Illinois before swinging northward up to Effingham & east to Indianapolis.   Indianapolis is our last major pain in the asparagus before reaching the Canadian border probably sometime late Wednesday or early Thursday.  We'll see how it goes..........10-4!!

TONIGHT'S SUNSET....LIGHT STANDARDS ARE IN THE WAL-MART PARKING LOT

GROANER'S CORNER:(( And did you know it's a fact, taller people sleep longer in bed.

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The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.

"A Paris Repeat!!"   November 18th 2008

Lots of construction going on in the city of Paris, Texas but we were able to thread our way through the traffic cones, around the workers, past the detour signs, & somehow remained in the narrow pot holed construction lanes. Nearly missed a turn at a particularly nasty intersection but we made it through & breathed a big sigh of relief as I watched Paris disappearing in the rear view mirrors. Next big town would be Sherman. Into a bit more construction & a couple sweeping curves to the left. The sun caught my attention when it appeared in my driver's side mirror. Odd, it should be high up on my left side, not in my mirror. More construction & congestion & before I could logically figure out the strange positioning of the sun we nearly missed a turn at a particularly nasty intersection. AWWWWWW NUTS!!!!!! It was the exact same intersection we had just bounced through about 20 minutes before. We had traveled in a complete left hand circle & back into the construction area of Paris. *!!#^>"+! How did this happen!! Watched Paris disappear in my rear view mirrors for the second time. I was beginning to see shades of Bill Murray's movie, Groundhog Day. What if we have entered the Twilight Zone & are doomed to repeat this route around & around forever & ever. We were totally glued to every road sign going by dreading the thought of making the same mistake again. Finally, there it was, a big green sign with the number 82 on it & an arrow pointing to the exit west. How had we missed that before!!!! Had it been any bigger it would have jumped out & slapped us in the face..................

==============================================

BAD WINDS, SLUSH ON THE ROADS, & COLD!!!!

 

A CONTENTED LITTLE TRAVELER

First thing I saw when I stepped out of the rig this morning was my breath. It was cold out alright.  There is electricity at this spot as well as water so we were able to use our electric heaters last night.  And use them we did!!  Didn't hook up to water Saturday night though because we didn't want to be froze to the water tap this morning & unable to leave early.

HEY MIKE, WENT BY THOSE WINDMILLS AGAIN THIS MORNING & CRACKED OFF A SHOT THROUGH THE DIRTY WINDSHIELD FOR YA:))

 

 

We left Coleman Park in Brownfield, Texas at 6:50 a.m.  Rolling east out of town the big red rising sun was sitting right square on the road in front of us.  Wow, talk about eye strain for awhile.  We were not too long on the road when I was aware of a vibration in the rig.  I could feel it in my seat but didn't feel anything in the steering wheel & thought that was kind of odd.  Took me a couple minutes to finally figure it out.  Before we left home last fall I had bought a foam seat cushion on sale at Canadian Tire.  It has 6 small massage motors in it for legs & back.  Of course I forgot to use it for most of the trip but I did remember to plug it in this morning.  And yep, that was the vibration I was feeling in my seat alright.  Oh, isn't this aging process fun!!!!

GONNA BE A COLD DAMP NIGHT AT WALLYWORLD IN BONHAM, TEXAS

We started out with light winds this morning but by 10 o'clock we were being blown all over the place again.   Nice sunny day but those nasty wind gusts sure made for some tough driving.  As usual there was very little traffic on highway 380 & it's the main reason we use this road coming & going to the southwest.  I first came across it a few years ago while pouring over maps & Atlas's looking for a route west that avoided large cities.  We use the section of 380 between Jacksboro, Texas & Tularosa, New Mexico.  Nice rest stops along the way, very little traffic, some sleepy western towns, & a couple of free overnight spots with utilities. 

I THINK WE JUST MISSED THE LOCAL SNOW STORM

The winds were really bad on the section of road heading north from Jacksboro on highway 59 to St. Joes just west of Gainsville, Texas.  Our gas mileage probably dropped to about 2 miles per gallon:((

Fueled up in Bowie, Texas about 2 o'clock & pushed on.  I wanted to get Gainsville behind us because I knew the traffic through there would be busy in the morning.  We were surprised by the snow in this area & slushy spots on the road.  Two years ago on our way west we did an overnighter at a Wally World in a town called Bonham so that's where we are right now.  Sure is cold here!!

Did a little browse around in Wal-Mart & picked up a few groceries.  We'll be out of here first thing in the morning & will spend tomorrow night somewhere in Arkansas before our northward swing up the Ohio Valley.  The rig is running good, dogs are fine, & Kelly has been pacifying me with egg salad sandwiches while on the run.  All is well in RV Ville...............:))  

AW COME ON MOM & DAD, LET'S GO BACK TO ARIZONA

GROANER'S CORNER:(( 

And remember ladies.....Beauty is only a light switch away.

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The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.

A CHRISTMAS FEELING IN THE APACHE PASS

SNOW IN THE MOUNTAINS  (to-day's photos were taken through a dirty motorhome windshield driving through the Apache Pass in the Sierra Blanca mountains in New Mexico...sorry about the splooches & bug splotches)

We were happy campers last night when the heavy wind gusts finally subsided around 7.  However, they were back again in the middle of the night & it was the  same old routine......... get up, get the slides in, & try to get back to sleep!!

THE ORGAN MOUNTAINS EAST OF LAS CRUCES...SAN AUGUSTIN PASS IS THE LOW POINT OVER TOP THE SILVER CAR AT LEFT

Well, we sure knew we weren't in the warm southern air of the Phoenix area anymore when we stepped out into the 40 something Fahrenheit temperatures this morning.  Throw in a wind chill factor & it was darn well cold!!   

 

ENTERING THE SIERRA BLANCA MOUNTAINS EAST OF TULAROSA

We had the wheels back on I-10 by 6:15 New Mexico time heading for Las Cruces.  Traffic was light & the early morning sun sat right on my eyeballs.  Last year we made the mistake of thinking it would be better to go through Las Cruces rather than around it.  We were much smarter this year & stayed on I-10 until it connected with I-25.  Picked up highway 70, climbed up Organ mountain & cleared the San Augustin Pass without any problems.

WINTER SCENES IN THE APACHE PASS (click to enlarge)

As soon as we cleared the long grade down into the Tularosa Valley, strong cross winds hassled us all the way across the White Sands Missile Range.  Picked up the Alamogordo by-pass & swung up into the Sierra Blanca mountains at Tularosa.  The morning sunshine we had enjoyed was lost to a heavy cloud cover in the mountains & the temperatures dropped.  Every car coming the other way had snow on it so we knew for sure we would be into some kind of weather.

 

We like this route because the Apache Pass is a reasonably easy way over the mountains & is not unduly hard on the motorhome for long periods of time.  Two years ago we saw snow in the pass on our way home & today we saw even more.  Roads were wet but bare, so no problem.  The landscape reminded me so much of Christmas with pine trees layered in coats of white.  Just east of Ruidoso it began to lightly snow & I had all kinds of Christmas Carols going through my head.  Same thing happened two years ago.

 

Coming down the eastern side of the mountains we could see patches of blue sky ahead in the direction of Roswell.  Didn't last long though & by the time we reached the renowned space alien city on the edge of the great plains country the skies were totally overcast.  Fueled up in Roswell & off we headed for the looooooong journey across the treeless flat tundra.

     

Our goal was Brownfield, Texas because we like to use a free little fairground park there that has a Wifi hotspot.  Sometimes we are the only one's here but not today.  We got the second last spot so there's about a dozen rigs in here.  Sun is back out but it's really cold so I'll be spending my time inside until we roll out early in the morning.

 

EXITING THE EAST SIDE OF THE MOUNTAINS ONTO THE OPEN PLAINS

Had a comment about, 'will I continue to blog once we get home' & the answer to that questions is.....yes!!  Last year when we arrived home I didn't blog for a few days but my blabbering fingers couldn't stay away from the keyboard & I was right back at it again & continued posting every day since then.  Started doing this blogging stuff about September of 07 I think.  If you look back in our archives to last spring, summer, & fall, you will find a blog every single day.  And photos each day as well.  I always manage to come up with things to write & photograph so if the interest is there I will keep the blog going again all summer.  And if it isn't there, I will keep it going anyway.  As mentioned in a previous post, I enjoy doing this blog & it gives me a focus & purpose for myself each day.

 

ROSWELL ALIEN ON A WALL NEAR THE MAIN INTERSECTION AND THE MILES & MILES & MILES OF FLAT COUNTRY WE HAVE TO CROSS

Welcome to our latest blog follower, Rick.  The southwest travel part of the blog may be temporarily coming to an end but hang in there Rick, there's more to come:))

COLEMAN PARK IN BROWNFIELD, TEXAS IS FREE FOR OVERNIGHTER'S.....FREE WIFI TOO:))

GROANER'S CORNER:((  A man went to his dentist because he feels something wrong in his mouth. The dentist examines him and says, "that new upper plate I put in for you six months ago is eroding. What have you been eating?"
The man replies, "all I can think of is that about four months ago my wife made some asparagus and put some stuff on it that was delicious...Hollandaise sauce. I loved it so much I now put it on everything --- meat, toast, fish, vegetables, everything."
"Well," says the dentist, "that's probably the problem. Hollandaise sauce is made with lots of lemon juice, which is highly corrosive. It's eaten away your upper plate. I'll make you a new plate, and this time use chrome." "Why chrome?" asks the patient.
To which the dentist replies, "It's simple. Everyone knows that there's no plate like chrome for the Hollandaise!"

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