Saturday, April 16, 2011

4/16/2011 On the Road….Finally!

On the road…finally. We were up and at em’ early this morning for no other reason than we wanted out of that parking lot. As nice as the technicians and office staff were, it was time to move on.


We couldn’t get anywhere near the dump station at the dealership so we went to the RV park nearby and asked them if we could dump our tanks there. Well, sure we could, for five bucks. It was five bucks well spent!


We decided we would go to Demming, New Mexico as our first stop.


Of course we passed through this area of rocks that just grabs my attention every time we come through here.


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Traffic was practically non-existent and there was no wind to speak of so Demming came quick. Too quick. It was still early, like eleven, much too early to come off the road. Yes, we wanted to visit Rock Hound State Park but it will still be there for another time.


We did get stopped by a Border Patrol checkpoint but it was only a matter of the officer looking at us and waving us on.


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We decided we were going to go all the way to El Paso, Texas to Fort Bliss. Bob drove more than 300 miles which is something we rarely do but with fuel prices so high and the reports of winds for the next few days we wanted to get someplace that would be inexpensive, safe and have things for us to do if we had to lay low.


I like how some states try to dress up their overpasses with decoration rather than just bland fencing.


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Fuel prices are high. We’ve seen prices for diesel from $4.08 to $4.49 through Arizona and New Mexico. We’re hoping Texas is lower.


As we’ve traveled this highway headed east we were afforded an opportunity to see well known landmark.


The Roadrunner!


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This roadrunner is made out of junk. The white underbelly is made most of cast off white sneakers. and the body is made from a multitude of things such as old children’s toys, a steering wheel, old fans, random pieces of sheet metal and who knows what else. This roadrunner stands about 15 feet high and I would guestimate at somewhere around 40 – 50 feet long. It’s said that people have started writing things like So and so loves what’s her name and Blah-blah was here but I didn’t close enough to look. There was a sign warning of rattlesnakes and that was enough to keep me away.


People who aren’t heading east and don’t stop at the rest stop only get to see this.


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We pulled into Fort Bliss Famcamp a little after three and were set up in no time. When we came in we noticed across the street from the Famcamp entrance was a Subway and it was determined rather quickly that that is where dinner was coming from this night.


I grabbed a much needed shower from the nearby camp showers. I wanted a nice long hot shower, I was tired of conserving water from our onboard water tank.


While Bob was taking his shower I drove over to get our meatball sandwiches from Subway. Imagine my surprise when I found out that they closed at five. A restaurant that closes at five???? A fast food place that is only open from nine to five???? On a Saturday??? Unheard of!!!! Of course this meant I had to go find another subway in an area I’m not familiar with. Not my favorite thing to do. Luckily, there was another down the main drag about 2 miles. Our meatballs sandwiches hit the spot!


We’ll decide in the morning if we’re going to stay here or not.

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