Monday: Bright and early this morning (6:00 a.m.), we were on the road. Our goal was to beat incoming weather to the west. For lunch, we stopped at Pilot Travel Center in Anthony, New Mexico, a few miles west of El Paso. The truck stop where we parked had a Subway and Wendy's, but we preferred Taco Bell. A short walk across the parking lot was a Taco Bell. That was an awesome truck stop with lots of pull-through big rig parking. We recommend it to all our RVing friends.
After lunch, I drove. We encountered some blowing dust west of Las Cruces, New Mexico, but visibility was still good. We wanted to arrive at Dream Catchers Escapees RV Park in Deming, NM, by 1:00 p.m. when rain and thunderstorms were predicted.
At 1:00 p.m., we pulled into Dream Catchers RV Park. The rain started as soon as we pulled in. Bob set up while it was sprinkling. As soon as he finished, the winds started howling, the sky darkened, and more rain fell. Our 5th wheel was quaking in the wind. At one point the wind was so strong, we brought in our living room and bedroom slide outs. A couple of hours later, the sun came out and made for dramatic photos.
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| Dream Catchers Escapees RV Park |
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| Dream Catchers Escapees RV Park |
Wednesday: Because high winds were forecast on Tuesday starting at 9:00 a.m., we decided to leave at 5:00 a.m. That meant getting up at 4:00 a.m. and eating breakfast at a restaurant somewhere along our route.
Many people had the same idea. I thought the roads were quite busy at 5:30 a.m. The rig got buffeted by the wind as we drove west on I-10, gusts were up to 29 mph.
For breakfast, we stopped at Denny's in Lordsburg. The truck stop had an RV parking area in front of the gas station/restaurant. This was much appreciated because very cold winds hit us as we briskly walked to the restaurant.
We left so early this morning, that we arrived at the Bar J RV Park in Tucson around 9:30 a.m. The owners, Gale and Bobby, were so welcoming. They told us to come on in. Talk about nice, gentle people: they are a prime example.
We set up our 5th wheel, paid for our nights, and set out on errands to Costco and Walmart. To return back to the RV park, we took a different route through Tucson Mountain Park over Gates Pass. What an awesome drive! The scenery is divine. (NOTE: If you go to this RV park, be sure to follow their directions; otherwise, you may end up heading for Gates Pass. Trust me, you do not want to take your RV into Tucson Mountain Park!)
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| Tuscon Mountain Park |
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| Balsamroot |
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| Gates Pass |
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| Mountains and shadows. |
We were so exhausted! We went to bed at 4:00 p.m., slept a number of hours, read, and then went back to sleep until morning. Tomorrow we will do a 10k Volksmarch in Saguaro East National Park.
We were buffeted by heavy winds all the way across Kansas on the last day of our ‘storage run’ from VA to CO. That was about four days before your winds. It was bad enough in a 20 foot truck ... I felt bad for all the RVs we encounteres along the road that day.
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