Travel Day, Deming, NM

We were up with our watches set to New Mexico time.  About 7:30, so the Arizona neighbors all wondered why those nutty people on the next site were out breaking camp at 6:30.

Since we had changed our watches Saturday night before retiring, by Monday morning, we were becoming accustomed to the DST.  We had most everything ready to go, so our morning was mostly eating breakfast and me showering.

We were out the gate by 9:00 AM, New Mexico time.  Rob’s wife, Sissy waved at us from behind the curtain in the windshield of the gigantic class C.  Super nice folks  to be sure.  Perhaps we will see them again somewhere. 

It had rained most of the night, and the roads were barely dry as we made it thru the 5 miles of construction that has all the intersections closed in downtown Tucson.  The road is concrete barricaded, to lanes that are oh so narrow,  as you negotiate this gauntlet.  My palms were sweating on the steering wheel, as I constantly checked the mirrors to see that the trailer was in the center of the lane.

After a burger and some gas at a station with a Wendy’s, we were headed East for Benson.  The clouds became thicker as we climbed to 4,000 feet.  Benson was in 70 percent overcast with towering cumulus.  The sun, making its way thru in beams, lit the ground in eerie patterns.  The clouds had ragged bottoms and shafts of rain in between the sunshine.

We climbed to Texas Canyon, and its round oversized boulders balanced precariously on top of each other, looking as though they could fall and kill someone at any moment.  Reaching 4,900 feet, which is the high point of I 10 in that part of Arizona, we crossed into the high plains.

By now it was 2:00 in the afternoon, and New Mexico was in sight.  To the South we drove past Cochise’s stronghold of mountains, where the Indians hid from the Army folks that were after them in the late 1800’s.  The tops of the mountains were shrouded in clouds and rain squalls.  My mind thought of Geronimo standing at the peak, looking at all of the white men desecrating his land.  A train rumbled by on the track North of the highway.

For miles and miles, there were parked railcars along these tracks.  They were divided at the cross roads so the local roads would not be blocked.  They were all new car hauling rail cars.  All empty. They stretched out for miles. Parked and forlorn.  Since new car sales are at a standstill, the railcars are idle.  As an accountant, I thought about their owners and the money they most surely are absorbing as they sit without fares.

Tonight we are at Dream Catcher RV park, which is an Escapee park.  It is open to the public, but we joined the club last December, so we are discounted to an unbelievable rate for full hookups.  $12 plus electricity.

Deming has a Wal Mart, and a K Mart side by side, so shopping filled the evening.  We did not unhook the truck from the trailer, so packing up will be disconnecting the hoses and electric cord in the morning. 

Onward to Texas!

Retired Rod