Liberal, Kansas....
We left the campground about 9:30 and made our way to the interstate headed North... I 25 goes up into Colorado from Santa Fe and we thought we were headed North, until I turned the GPS on.. Yep, going straight East...... and then South, around the mountains on our left side....
Its kind of a narrow pass at places and the train track is running along side of the roadway... We make it up to 7400 feet, but that wasn't much of a deal as we were at 6500 in Santa Fe. Eventually we turn back North and start to descend... It wasn't much of a pass, without any of those long grinding up hill grades that slow the motorhome down to a crawl.. But it was nicely picturesque with fir trees and mountains on both sides...
Since this is essentially the route of the Santa Fe trail, I couldn't help but visualize the wagons as they navigated this route.. How many of the folks that eventually inhabited the Southwest passed thru this same area on the Santa Fe trail? And then the railroad followed the same route, and now its an interstate highway.... Did it start as an Indian path?
About a half hours drive North of Las Vegas, as in New Mexico, not Nevada.... you meet the turn for Highway 56... It heads East and proudly displays signs that it too is the Santa Fe trail.... Its rather sparsely populated for miles and miles... Everyone we met was driving a pickup pulling a stock trailer...
We press on having lunch across from a police station in the town of Clayton, Nm... This town is on the corner where Texas and Oklahoma touch New Mexico... Again it is fairly small, and the police station is next to the fire house, and some of the city offices as well...
As we sit and eat our lunch, folks were filing into one of the offices at a steady pace. Cars coming and leaving. We decided that these folks must be going in to pay for some sort of utility, since it is the first part of the month.. They all seem to know each other, as they stop and talk on the sidewalk for several minutes before leaving.... Wonder what they thought of the big blue motorhome in the parking lot across the street... It obviously didn't fit in.....
Oklahoma is rather poor out in the very Western edge of the panhandle and many of the towns reflect this condition, as buildings are abandoned and tumbling down... Its beginning to be a hot one as well because my thermometer on the MH went above the 100 mark as we passed Boise City....
We eventually cross into Kansas, and things do seem to look up, as there were more fields that were irrigated with growing crops.... Temps were now 102.... At Hugoton, Ks the marque said 104 and the MH gauge agreed, the dash air and roof ACs were running at full bore and not keeping up.... The inside temp was 95 and climbing..... Enough!!
I changed directions and headed for Liberal, where I know there is a campground about 5 miles North on Highway 54... They have 50 Amp pedestals , and I need that about now... But as we arrived in town I turned back toward the South, heading for the Love's station that has less pricey diesel..... We both fill up... Ouch..!
So tonight we are camped in a rather large gravel parking lot with full hookups at every site.. No grass, no trees, just a couple of buildings for the bath house and laundry and some service buildings in the back.
And once we parked and started the ACs on the grid power, it took quite a while to cool things off.... We had both roof airs and the portable going, but as they labored the sky to the East began to have that dark blue color of a storm.... The clouds towered above us and slowly marched back West... Against the prevailing winds..... Uh, that's not good..... Remember Liberal is where Dorothy and Toto lived??
And in a mere moment of time the wind went to gale force, and I was rushing to pull in the big slide as the canvas topper was flapping so hard it about ripped off... Then the wind came even harder, and I pulled in the remaining slides as well. Then came the hail, and it sounded like being inside a drum...
Eventually things settled down and we went back into town for a sandwich, but it never stopped raining. I tried to put the slides back out when we returned, but the wind keeps whipping them, so the big slide will remain in for the rest of the night.... Just like it did last night down in Santa Fe....
Retired Rod
Oh, I didn't even mention the train track across the road, very busy......! Woo Woooooo.....
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Friday, August 3, 2012
A day off in Santa Fe
In a nutshell we spent the day driving around in Santa Fe… We drove up the main drag from the South end of the town and eventually arrived in the North end where the state capitol is located in the old historic district…
For those not familiar, the district is very narrow one way streets with Mexican style adobe buildings with the roof poles extending out from the walls… Some of the buildings are 150 years old, and others are just built like that to mimic the old look… The original buildings are not the least bit square, and the roofs are uneven.. But the modern day structures have a modern day frame within them and the outside surface only looks old style…. And they are square and straight…
Tenants in the modern structures are Merrill Lynch and banks and things, where the very expensive ladies shops tend to be in the old structures.. In the center of town in a town square, El Centro, where there were porches with indian folks displaying authentic wares… At least it didn’t look like made in China, but who knows…?
We spent some of the morning looking this old section of town over, but Loyce wasn’t too interested in the shops because she says it is dramatically over priced…. And that works for me…. We drove around the capitol building and some of the other government buildings and headed back to the South end of town…. Wal Mart!!
The rest of the day was hanging around the campground as it was 93 here in the middle of the afternoon….
We did have a momentary dust up this evening, as Loyce was out with Biscuit walking over to the dumpster and dog park… Seems that under our truck where I had parked it was an ant hole. A rather large one, and Loyce had the door open rummaging thru the stuff. And Biscuit was her playful self only the ants running all over the place didn’t see it that way, and began to attack her paws…. She let out a horrendous awk! and Loyce had to carry her back to the camper…
We looked for sticker barbs thinking she had a cactus spine, but couldn’t find one.. But then she would let out the bark again the second we put her down… She still had ants in her fur…. I spotted one on the floor and killed it.. Biscuit got an immediate bath which drowned the rest of the critters…
I carry a gallon of spray insecticide which was retrieved from under the front slide, and I was after a bunch of ants… Had to move the truck to the front of our site, and there they were…. With the trigger squirter they couldn’t get away…. I ran a deluge down the hole in the ground, and the the little buggers were doing their death dance as they kept going in and out of the hole… I hope we got the whole nest, but the ground is littered with ant carcasses, and after a while, all movement stopped….. Perhaps Biscuit learned something…..Nah… Everything is her buddy….
Tonight it is really raining and the wind became strong enough that it was rocking the MH and whipping the slide awning on the big slide. So that had to come in, and I think it will stay in even after bed….
Our high here was 93 today at 7000 feet. It was over 100 all around us to the South… Coming up here worked to get out of the heat.
Retired Rod
For those not familiar, the district is very narrow one way streets with Mexican style adobe buildings with the roof poles extending out from the walls… Some of the buildings are 150 years old, and others are just built like that to mimic the old look… The original buildings are not the least bit square, and the roofs are uneven.. But the modern day structures have a modern day frame within them and the outside surface only looks old style…. And they are square and straight…
Tenants in the modern structures are Merrill Lynch and banks and things, where the very expensive ladies shops tend to be in the old structures.. In the center of town in a town square, El Centro, where there were porches with indian folks displaying authentic wares… At least it didn’t look like made in China, but who knows…?
We spent some of the morning looking this old section of town over, but Loyce wasn’t too interested in the shops because she says it is dramatically over priced…. And that works for me…. We drove around the capitol building and some of the other government buildings and headed back to the South end of town…. Wal Mart!!
The rest of the day was hanging around the campground as it was 93 here in the middle of the afternoon….
We did have a momentary dust up this evening, as Loyce was out with Biscuit walking over to the dumpster and dog park… Seems that under our truck where I had parked it was an ant hole. A rather large one, and Loyce had the door open rummaging thru the stuff. And Biscuit was her playful self only the ants running all over the place didn’t see it that way, and began to attack her paws…. She let out a horrendous awk! and Loyce had to carry her back to the camper…
We looked for sticker barbs thinking she had a cactus spine, but couldn’t find one.. But then she would let out the bark again the second we put her down… She still had ants in her fur…. I spotted one on the floor and killed it.. Biscuit got an immediate bath which drowned the rest of the critters…
I carry a gallon of spray insecticide which was retrieved from under the front slide, and I was after a bunch of ants… Had to move the truck to the front of our site, and there they were…. With the trigger squirter they couldn’t get away…. I ran a deluge down the hole in the ground, and the the little buggers were doing their death dance as they kept going in and out of the hole… I hope we got the whole nest, but the ground is littered with ant carcasses, and after a while, all movement stopped….. Perhaps Biscuit learned something…..Nah… Everything is her buddy….
Tonight it is really raining and the wind became strong enough that it was rocking the MH and whipping the slide awning on the big slide. So that had to come in, and I think it will stay in even after bed….
Our high here was 93 today at 7000 feet. It was over 100 all around us to the South… Coming up here worked to get out of the heat.
Retired Rod
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Emergency Laptop surgery fails..!!
Santa Fe, Nm
We came here to Santa Fe this afternoon since it was hot in Albuquerque, and it is higher in altitude and cooler here. Besides we were tired of the same old route and thought this might be a nice change.
Neither of us has ever been here before and have no idea how to get around, other than what the GPS tells us to do.... and it has a four year old outdated map in it and it was purchased before new maps were free..... So buying a new map will cost more than a new machine will cost...
Oh, and speaking of a new machine, sometime between when we pulled off of the interstate at the route 66 casino to park and look up campgrounds and arriving here, evidently my laptop must have fallen to the floor in the motorhome, because the hard drive won't boot the machine....
And no it hasn't been backed up lately, been meaning to do that but my old portable drive is broken too.... And I never think of buying one when I'm at a store.... Now if I was in KC, I would go get a new hard drive and restore from the old original DVDs, but since I am not, the first thing I had to go find here in Santa Fe was a Best Buy store where I purchased the very cheapest HP laptop that they had... It has an AMD processor that is on the cutting edge of extinction, and a 500 gig hard drive....
But even then it is still much bigger and faster than the three year old machine that went kaput! Of course the keyboard is just slightly different and my touch typing is off so I am making lots or mistakes.....
I wanted to wait and get a new laptop with windows 8 on it, and just didn't make it... The one thing that I do like, was that I downloaded Google Chrome, using the MS IE that was loaded and defaulted as a browser. And then changing this default to chrome, all my settings and bookmarks were out on the cloud with Google.... Yea!
I signed in and bam! It was all restored from Mama Google..... Well at least something looks the same.....
We are currently camped at the Santa Fe Skies RV park South of the town of Santa Fe... It was out in the boonies to the East of the highway.. But the GPS found it.... I was loosing faith.
This campground is on the side of a hill with terraced pull thru sites.. It was about 95 here this afternoon and the roads and pull thru sites are all gravel and dusty.... Loyce likes her camp sites in concrete and without dust... But then again we haven't been here before. RV Parks reviews liked it!
I was too busy trying to frantically get the computer to read the hard drive....
But we are on a big hill looking down on the town and the satellite found its bird right off, and the Verizon signal is good.... I paid for two nights, but perhaps we might not stay if mama isn't happy..
Anyway, I have now resigned myself that a laptop is a laptop, even if it doesn't have all those dirty old files on it.... I will have to go on a scrimmage looking for old picture cards..... And the ones I put on the blog are still on Picasa Web Albums..
Hey, I had better go download Picasa can't go without that.....! I have a a lot of configuring to do.....
Retired Rod
We came here to Santa Fe this afternoon since it was hot in Albuquerque, and it is higher in altitude and cooler here. Besides we were tired of the same old route and thought this might be a nice change.
Neither of us has ever been here before and have no idea how to get around, other than what the GPS tells us to do.... and it has a four year old outdated map in it and it was purchased before new maps were free..... So buying a new map will cost more than a new machine will cost...
Oh, and speaking of a new machine, sometime between when we pulled off of the interstate at the route 66 casino to park and look up campgrounds and arriving here, evidently my laptop must have fallen to the floor in the motorhome, because the hard drive won't boot the machine....
And no it hasn't been backed up lately, been meaning to do that but my old portable drive is broken too.... And I never think of buying one when I'm at a store.... Now if I was in KC, I would go get a new hard drive and restore from the old original DVDs, but since I am not, the first thing I had to go find here in Santa Fe was a Best Buy store where I purchased the very cheapest HP laptop that they had... It has an AMD processor that is on the cutting edge of extinction, and a 500 gig hard drive....
But even then it is still much bigger and faster than the three year old machine that went kaput! Of course the keyboard is just slightly different and my touch typing is off so I am making lots or mistakes.....
I wanted to wait and get a new laptop with windows 8 on it, and just didn't make it... The one thing that I do like, was that I downloaded Google Chrome, using the MS IE that was loaded and defaulted as a browser. And then changing this default to chrome, all my settings and bookmarks were out on the cloud with Google.... Yea!
I signed in and bam! It was all restored from Mama Google..... Well at least something looks the same.....
We are currently camped at the Santa Fe Skies RV park South of the town of Santa Fe... It was out in the boonies to the East of the highway.. But the GPS found it.... I was loosing faith.
This campground is on the side of a hill with terraced pull thru sites.. It was about 95 here this afternoon and the roads and pull thru sites are all gravel and dusty.... Loyce likes her camp sites in concrete and without dust... But then again we haven't been here before. RV Parks reviews liked it!
I was too busy trying to frantically get the computer to read the hard drive....
But we are on a big hill looking down on the town and the satellite found its bird right off, and the Verizon signal is good.... I paid for two nights, but perhaps we might not stay if mama isn't happy..
Anyway, I have now resigned myself that a laptop is a laptop, even if it doesn't have all those dirty old files on it.... I will have to go on a scrimmage looking for old picture cards..... And the ones I put on the blog are still on Picasa Web Albums..
Hey, I had better go download Picasa can't go without that.....! I have a a lot of configuring to do.....
Retired Rod
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Heading out!
Gallup, New Mexico...
We just returned from Wal Mart, where we have stood around for the requisite amount of time watching our Pickup truck be worked on in the service bay.... Of course we can't go into that bay, because they have one of those rules about customers not being out there..
As we stopped for gas, Loyce noticed that her rear tire had a big knot on the sidewall, and came over to make me go look at it..... Yep, were done for the day I told her...
We found an RV park on old route 66 here in Gallup, Nm, called the USA RV Park.... It's an old KOA complete with the A frame building as an office and bathroom. But its price was back in the mid $30 range, not $45 like real KOA's.
Once parked on the wee little narrow site, where we are back to back and front to front with our fellow campers sharing the power pedestal with the camper to our rear.... we were off to Wal Mart to see if they might have a tire to match the Truck...... Its a 20 inch rim, and I didn't hold out much hope... But they did! And they installed it right away as well....
The manager actually came out and put it on for us as they only had one other fellow working tires....
But lets back up and remember last night..... We finished working on the Motorhome and went back to the house to pack up the rest of our travel stuff.... And in that process, I decided to walk around the outside of the house another time just checking out stuff...... That's when I saw it!
The AC condensate drip, was coming from the wrong pipe again....!! From the Emergency pipe meaning the safety tray under the entire AC unit and not from the piping on the furnace...... It was after 9 PM...... I just sat in my chair for a while wondering if we should extend in the RV Park and leave in a couple of more days....
But I made the call, and explained that the fellows had been out here to fix this before and didn't obviously get the task corrected..... And that we were leaving in the morning before breakfast, but that we didn't dare leave with this problem still uncorrected.... And that we couldn't just depart, leaving it that way when we wouldn't be back until October........
The service writer said he would have a manager call me before 10 PM.... And Joe did call almost at once... We speculated how this could be happening again, and he said he would find out if one of the Techs would come have a look even though it was quitting time....
This tech arrived and found that the furnace should have had a plug in one of the open drain holes, and it hadn't been installed.. So water was running out of the open hole and down into the emergency pan. Some was going into the correct drain and some was running out the wrong way too....
This technician spotted the open hole almost before he was up in the attic.... He turned on the light up there and said there's your problem right there.... What was wrong with the first guy?, I wondered under my breath.....
Well anyway it was after 11 PM when that got rectified, so our wake up came early this morning. Once packed into the truck and the house was locked with the security system set, we were off to the RV Park to get the RV folded up.... We just tossed our remaining luggage on the sofa and loaded the now cold fridge with food...
Having hook ups over night before we left worked well as the AC had run all night and so did the fridge... And by about 10 AM we were packed and driving... It was 97 as we left the valley and didn't cool off much until we climbed the White mountains West of Payson.. At the top of the mountain, we ran into a rain storm that dumped sleet, like it was snowing..... The temperature up there went down to 58, and water covered the road....
The Az highway patrol was stopping people and making them file thru the water single lane, but it wasn't much of a problem for our tall motorhome or the pickup that Loyce was driving either..
Again here tonight we are in a rain shower and it is in the low 60s outside and seems cold, after a month of 100s in Az...
Our gas tanks are full, and we have a new tire on the truck, so we should be good to go again tomorrow...
Retired Rod
We just returned from Wal Mart, where we have stood around for the requisite amount of time watching our Pickup truck be worked on in the service bay.... Of course we can't go into that bay, because they have one of those rules about customers not being out there..
As we stopped for gas, Loyce noticed that her rear tire had a big knot on the sidewall, and came over to make me go look at it..... Yep, were done for the day I told her...
We found an RV park on old route 66 here in Gallup, Nm, called the USA RV Park.... It's an old KOA complete with the A frame building as an office and bathroom. But its price was back in the mid $30 range, not $45 like real KOA's.
Once parked on the wee little narrow site, where we are back to back and front to front with our fellow campers sharing the power pedestal with the camper to our rear.... we were off to Wal Mart to see if they might have a tire to match the Truck...... Its a 20 inch rim, and I didn't hold out much hope... But they did! And they installed it right away as well....
The manager actually came out and put it on for us as they only had one other fellow working tires....
But lets back up and remember last night..... We finished working on the Motorhome and went back to the house to pack up the rest of our travel stuff.... And in that process, I decided to walk around the outside of the house another time just checking out stuff...... That's when I saw it!
The AC condensate drip, was coming from the wrong pipe again....!! From the Emergency pipe meaning the safety tray under the entire AC unit and not from the piping on the furnace...... It was after 9 PM...... I just sat in my chair for a while wondering if we should extend in the RV Park and leave in a couple of more days....
But I made the call, and explained that the fellows had been out here to fix this before and didn't obviously get the task corrected..... And that we were leaving in the morning before breakfast, but that we didn't dare leave with this problem still uncorrected.... And that we couldn't just depart, leaving it that way when we wouldn't be back until October........
The service writer said he would have a manager call me before 10 PM.... And Joe did call almost at once... We speculated how this could be happening again, and he said he would find out if one of the Techs would come have a look even though it was quitting time....
This tech arrived and found that the furnace should have had a plug in one of the open drain holes, and it hadn't been installed.. So water was running out of the open hole and down into the emergency pan. Some was going into the correct drain and some was running out the wrong way too....
This technician spotted the open hole almost before he was up in the attic.... He turned on the light up there and said there's your problem right there.... What was wrong with the first guy?, I wondered under my breath.....
Well anyway it was after 11 PM when that got rectified, so our wake up came early this morning. Once packed into the truck and the house was locked with the security system set, we were off to the RV Park to get the RV folded up.... We just tossed our remaining luggage on the sofa and loaded the now cold fridge with food...
Having hook ups over night before we left worked well as the AC had run all night and so did the fridge... And by about 10 AM we were packed and driving... It was 97 as we left the valley and didn't cool off much until we climbed the White mountains West of Payson.. At the top of the mountain, we ran into a rain storm that dumped sleet, like it was snowing..... The temperature up there went down to 58, and water covered the road....
The Az highway patrol was stopping people and making them file thru the water single lane, but it wasn't much of a problem for our tall motorhome or the pickup that Loyce was driving either..
Again here tonight we are in a rain shower and it is in the low 60s outside and seems cold, after a month of 100s in Az...
Our gas tanks are full, and we have a new tire on the truck, so we should be good to go again tomorrow...
Retired Rod
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
