Doing What Needs To Be Done !!!

Rich - making things liveable 

Sue - keeping the circulation going!

We Made It !!!

We have arrived in the Dallas area, and it's only a little after 6:30!  I am being very honest when I say that I have NEVER experienced rain like this before!  The news said 5 inches in the last 6 hours!  It was crazy driving, and we saw that the locals drove with their emergency flashers on so they wouldn't get hit from behind.  Smart because at times you could not see too far past your front bumper.

After a few hours of that madness, we were coming up to our KOA, at least that's what we thought. According to Bob, our on board navigator (GPS), we were almost there!  Oh oh!  This just didn't look right.  We left the highway for a rural road, then onto a numbered farm road, then just a muddy stripe in the grass with deep rut from tires of some vehicle that past before us, never to be seen again!  Rich said there was no way that he was driving down that road, so we traveled about 10 miles to the first place that we could stop and called the KOA.  She laughed and said, "you aren't using your GPS are you?"  Seems like the system takes everyone coming here, no matter where they are coming from, 20 - 30 miles in the wrong direction!  With only an hour or so before dark, and a few minutes before the KOA office closed, I'm glad that we were able to get help.  Rich said, "no worries, we have plenty of food, and a generator."  Personally, 

I DON'T THINK SO! 

We are staying outside of Dallas in the town of Caddo Mills.  It is rural farmland, and very green with lots of creeks and marshes.  Most of the homes we saw are made of brick and quite large.  The schools that we past were also very expansive.  I guess they are right when they say that everything is bigger in Texas.  We head on to Mississippi tomorrow, so we are hoping for much better weather!

OMG!  Who would have thought?  Way out here, in the middle of Oklahoma, we have discovered the retirement opportunity of a lifetime!  The manufacturing and sales of  "Amphibious Recreational Vehicles!!!"  This is most definately the land of extreme weather.  First the gale force wind, and now torrential downpours with thunder and lightning.  We are just sitting inside the RV waiting for at least a slowing of the rain so we can go outside and unhook.  We are planning to make it to Dallas/Fort Worth by late afternoon.

Leaving Amarillo and heading to Oklahoma City

Yep - this is it!  Our campsite in Amarillo :)  Nope, the people weren't here either.  However, it was a very beautiful setting.  It started to get foggy about an hour before we arrived.  Looking out from the car it was really relaxing to see the cattle along the way huddled under the trees with the foggy mist all around.   We arrived around 7pm, and as you can see, we were lucky to get a spot!  Ha ha ha.  The wind really kicked up overnight. It was so strong that it really rocked the whole RV.  I just kept thinking, "Do they have tornadoes in Amarillo?" .

We then drove about 4 hours to Oklahoma City.  We took the opportunity to get more supplies at Walmart.  This is a really big city with a very sprawling, high rise business district.  Our KOA is about 10 miles outside of Oklahoma City in a town called Choctaw.  Once outside of the city, Oklahoma is as beautiful as I have ever seen.  Rolling ranch and farm land as far as you can see.  We stopped at a Subway along the way for lunch.  There were 7 men waiting to pay at the counter, and they all had cowboy hats!  

Santa Rosa, New Mexico

Amarillo TX

OK.  Where are all the people?  I have never seen so much uninhabited space at any time in my life!  I am pretty sure that 95 percent of the people in the United States, at least in the western half, live in California.

The physical road between Albuqurque and Amarillo is really nice.  It's smooth, no potholes, two lanes all the way and divided.  The scenery NEVER changes!  We still had a great time!  After a few hours on the road, we decided to get off the highway to soak up some local culture, and see something different.

We headed into Santa Rosa, New Mexico hoping for some authentic Mexican cuisine.  Remember when I wondered where all the people were?  Well, it wasn't in Santa Rosa!  LOL   But driving down the main drag was really fun.  This is on the original route 66, and the town was just as I have seen in the historical accounts.  It was our lucky day, and we did come across some open diners.  We chose to try the "Route 66 Restaurant".  FUN!!!!  We stepped back in time and had the best enchiladas and tacos ever!  

Next it was on to Amarillo.  Still very desolate and unchanging.  Almost as soon as we entered Texas, things began to green up.  We knew that there had to be people tending the cattle that we began seeing with increasing frequency.  Houses started popping up, and then some really small towns came one after the other.  Finally we saw Walmart, Target, Bucca De Beppo, TGI Fridays, and anything else we could ever think of.  Amarillo's got it goin on!!

We are changing up the plan a little, and tomorrow we will set out for Oaklahoma City.

On Our Way To New Mexico

Driving to Albuqurque, NM

Today we headed out for Albuquerque, NM.  Nothing but scrub and rocks FOREVER!  I never knew there was so much open space in this country of ours. 

Our journey took us through two of the route 66 hot spots ; Winslow Arizona, and Gallup, New Mexico.  Ha ha ha, they really were bright spots in the never ending desert!  We also drove past the Cholla coal-fired power plant in Holbrook, Arizona that Rich did work for when it was being built in the 70's.  Kind of cool because it was one of his very first jobs with the firm, and he revisited just a few months before his retirement.  

After a few more hours we saw a sign for the Petrified Forest National Park. We definitely knew we were ready to see something different.  I'm so glad that we decided to stop.  It was really very interesting.  The mineral deposits, where the tree wood once was, were really beautiful.     We also saw an ancient Pueblo that once housed about 1200 people.  We walked around and were able to find many petroglyphs.  The road took us 28 miles around the park.  

We still had a long drive ahead of us so we were ready to get back on the highway.   Even though the park loop took us within a few car lengths from the interstate, there was no access.  So we had to keep on the frontage road that took us through yet another park, The Painted Desert.   This detour actually turned out for the best.  It was like a little Grand Canyon.  The rich colors of the striations were striking the way they stood out from the drab greys of the surrounding landscape.  The pictures really don't do it justice :(    

Once back on the highway we passed through some of the largest Indian reservations in the area. We were getting close to Albuquerque, within 5 miles, and still barren scrub land as far as we could see.  You would think we should be seeing some suburbs or something.  As soon as we came over a rise, there it was, sprawled out at the bottom of a mountain.  We were excited to have finally arrived!  It was a long day:)

Pics from our hike yesterday

Here we are in our campsite in Flagstaff.  We are looking forward to a day NOT on the road :) 

It is extremely windy, but we decided to take a hike anyway.  Glad that we did!!  We took a 2 mile loop that went up another 1500 feet in elevation from our campground.  Lucky it was a loop cause the first mile was a killer!!  Took lots of little breaks and enjoyed the surroundings.  Great views of the valley below. We could literally see most of Flagstaff. Heading back down for the second mile was wonderful.  

We are eating in for most meals and learning to use all of our kitchen gadgets.  I thought that using this program was confusing, you should try to figure out the microwave!  

Planning on getting a good night's sleep and heading out early for Albuquerque, NM.  Hope the wind dies down a little, if not, we will poke along!

Greetings from Flagstaff, AZ. 

Our journey today took us a total of 350 miles.  We traveled through the Mojave desert, where the prettiest orange cacti were in bloom.  They were everywhere!  Just as we were leaving California we had a great view of the Colorado river!  It was a real surprise because we were in such a barren, flat and dry area.  Saw a few speed boaters that were most definitely having fun.  

As we continued further into Arizona,  it got a bit windy and the dust came up for a short while. It slowed us down a little, but no big deal.  We gradually began our climb into Flagstaff which sits at 7300 ft., and are now among the Ponderosa Pines and beautiful rock formations.  We could look back and see beautiful views of the valley floor that seemed to go on forever.  It honestly looked like a painting.  Ahead of us in the distance there is still snow on the tops of the highest peaks.  

Lots to see near our campground, so we have decided to stay here for two nights.  We are having a great time!

OK. I know that Trek has no "C" in it, but let's get past that! We had a few more things to get ready before we left this morning, so we got kind of a late start (are you surprised?). We stopped in Santa Nella for a quick lunch then hit the road for Barstow. We did stop in Tehachapi for some ice cream :) The canyon was gorgeous!! Our campground is just north of Barstow in the Mojave desert. The roads were clear all the way, not much traffic and beautiful weather. We might do a little hiking tomorrow, we'll see. I will also try to figure out how to add some pictures to this blog - ha ha ha, not very good at this yet :) Talk to you all again soon

Getting ready to head out!  We are very excited to start seeing the United States - one trip at a time :)  I'll do my best to keep in touch and share all the adventure!