Arrived near White's City, NM......

Our Location: BLM,  White's City, NM

 

A chilly start to the  morning in Crosbyton, TX but the sun came out and warmed everything quickly. Not a hot day but not a cold one either. We finished our chores, garbage, money in the drop box, hooking up, etc all before 8 am this morning. We were driving through the small town of Crosbyton, TX by 8:03 am. We headed west on US 82, which joined with US 62 near Lubbock. We took this the entire way to our destination.

 

Still in Texas.

 

We drove steadily for the morning, stopping only once. The fuel economy on the Big Dog has increased back to it's normal rate due to the fact we had no head winds today. We had steady side wind that continued to pick up as the day went along. Once we turned at Carlsbad, NM heading more southerly I noticed once again the headwind playing havoc with us but only a few miles as our destination was close. We crossed into NM at 10:45 AM Central Time, which became 9:45 AM Mountain Time. 

 

Some of the signs we took in today.

 

We stopped at the Walmart in Carlsbad, NM to pick a few little items before heading on. Of course I took the wrong turn, going left instead of right but it was a nice little tour of the town before we once again got ourselves heading off in the proper direction. 

 

Christmas decorations in the small towns we went through today.

 

We located our desired destination near White's City, the BLM land at MM 10. Hmmm....only camping by the road, I think. It says no camping beyond this point and so we parked just in front of the sign. A fellow Ontarian pulled in just as we were getting set up and he too is parked between the road and the signs. Closer to the road than I would like but oh well, it is what it is. We parked here last year but much further back and why they do not allow camping I have no idea. I'll have to ask around to find out. Tomorrow we'll go back toward the Caverns and find another place to park or at least to check things out in a couple other spots we noticed. 

 

More decorations.

 

A call to my dad after we set up the Igloo for the night. Hunting season is upon them up there. Brother Rick managed to get himself a deer. No idea what kind, how big, etc but he got one. Nephew Jason says he could see one through the trees and dad didn't see anything. So I guess Rick was the lucky one, he seen more than the one he got. A call also to daughter Courtney to chat. Snow in Ontario, the Toronto area at least. Cold she says and more snow on the way. I do believe winter has come early this year in Ontario. I'm going to call daughter Bradey when I finish this post. 

 

The New Mexico country side.

 

So there you have it, our travel day. Not much exciting, but we like it that way. We travelled about 230 miles/ 370 KM today. The high temperature was 56 F/ 13.6 C this afternoon. A bit of wind if you step out around the Igloo but other wise it's nice. 

 

Tonight's sunset.

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your day. 

 

Until next time... take care, be safe, 

 

Deb

 

 

Our last day here in Crosbyton.....

Our Location:Crosbyton City Park, Crosbyton, Texas

 

A beautiful day today. Started off a bit chilly but warmed up nicely as long as you were bundled up and out of the wind. A quiet last day here at the park. We walked for a while this morning around the walking path. Came back inside to warm up.

 

I went back and snapped some more photos of the face in the tree.

 

We had Shepherd's Pie and a garden salad for lunch today before we headed outside to do some chores. Dump the tanks, disconnect the water, etc in preparation for departure tomorrow.  We also managed to put one of the cubbies back in order while putting away some hoses. It was a bit cool as it was out of the sun but still a hint of a cold north wind. 

 

Seen across the roadway from the walking path.

 

Another walk after putting everything away before we headed back inside to warm up again. We spent the rest of the day reading and watching a movie. We are rested from our long drives since leaving the park in Tennessee and are looking forward to moving on tomorrow. 

 

Some more interesting sights while walking around the walking path.

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your day as well, where ever you may be. 

 

Until next time... take care, be safe, 

 

Deb

 

 

 

A few pictures today....

Our Location: Crosbyton City Park, Crosbyton, Texas

 A cold blustery day here today. A quick walk, a few little chores and then back inside to get out of the cold. 

Campground, cotton on the road side, sign in campground and purple building behind the ball diamond.

Hope you all had a good day where ever you may be. 

Sights along the walking path here in the park.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit.

Lots of John Deere equipment here, and a very old tractor that has seen better days. 

 Until next time... take care, be safe, 

Do you see the face smoking a stick in the first pic? Lots of growths on the tree in the second pic.

 Deb

 

Windy, coldish day....

Our Location: Crosbyton City Park, Crosbyton, TX


We woke to a nice morning but the wind was cold. It stayed with us all day and made things much cooler than the thermometer indicated. It was a mostly sunny day with a few wispy clouds here and there but nothing that blocked the sun. The wind however has continued to get stronger as the day passed and is still fairly strong now as I write this post.

 

A Texas cotton field on our drive today.

We decided this morning to do some grocery shopping and to get a drink for the Big Dog. To do so we headed off into Lubbock. A pleasant drive, and in fact we’ll be retracing part of our drive today when we leave here on Tuesday. US Hwy 82 West goes through a portion of Lubbock and we’ll be taking that to points further west. 

 

Thanksgiving is approaching.

 

We managed to find all of the things on our list today and came home with a few extras too. We also managed to fill the Big Dog’s tank for $2.79 a gallon just down the road in Ralls, TX. Here in Crosbyton the price for diesel is $3.09. Quite a difference. 

 

Nice over passes in Lubbock.

 

The rest of the day was spent inside doing a few little things and watching a movie. The wind made it too cold to be outside even with the sun shining. It was a quiet, restful day for us here and we’re happy to have a half day of doing not much of anything.
 

Very modern looking Walmart store front.

 

A call to dad tonight, we chatted for only a short time. My sister and her partner were visiting dad so I didn’t want to keep him from his visitors. I’ll call him again in a few days.

Not all like the ones back home.

 

So that’s it, a quiet day. Still colder than we like but we’ve made some definite plans for the coming week and hopefully we’ll be sticking to them. I guess time will tell. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you had an excellent day as well. 

 

The grass blowing in the wind.

 

Until next time…. take care, be safe,

 

Looking down main street Crosbyton.

 

Deb

 

 

 

 

Crosbyton to Gainesville......

Our Location: 

Walmart, Gainesville, Texas

(1800 Lawrence Road)

 

 

A great night's sleep last night, I heard a few little noises but nothing much and I slept until just before 7 am, it was still dark when I started moving around and getting my room packed up to move. Shortly after 7 am I heard Miss Riley moving around as well. She also is aware it's moving day. 

 

Some of the landscape along the way....

 

All those turbines were just a few of the many we noticed.

 

The outside temperature was 29F/-1.6C and a very slight breeze made things feel colder still. The top of the Dogsled had a thin skim of frost. We packed up quickly, hooked up, dropped our donation and headed out. Riley noted 3 or 4 deer off in the field beside us as were pulling out. We seen another way down the road during our drive today which made us have a 4 or 5 count. The most we've seen since leaving Ontario. 

 

This is US 82 East...

.

 

We were on the road around 8:15 am CDT and managed to get things rolling nicely. To say the drive was boring would be accurate. It was pretty but there are only so many rolling hills and flat fields you can witness before finding them a bit ordinary. We stopped twice during our drive today. Both were just quick stops, less than 15 minutes each but we felt they were long enough. 

 

This is also US 82 East.... Love that Lone Star!!

We travelled approx 255 miles/408 km and had a side wind pretty much the whole way. Not a bad one but enough so that we knew it was there. We travelled approx 6 hours, stopped for less than 30 minutes. We travel at approx 55 mph/88km and used approx 20 gallons of fuel. We arrived here in Gainesville, Tx around 2:30 CDT and are parked at the very end of the lot nearest to the roadway. 

 

See the riders by the wind turbines? Those prickly pear cactus grow everywhere, see them among the bottom of the trees?

 

The temperature reached between 60F-65F/15C -18C but with the wind it  seemed cooler. We had beautiful blue skies and extremely empty roads. We travelled US 82 East the entire day. It was mostly a 4 lane road but at times went down to 2 lanes but only for a few miles. The road is in excellent shape with a few spots of construction but no delays. Many of the little towns were slow downs to town speeds but some remained at 55 mph/88km down from 70 -75 mph/112-120 km. Some were a town in name only and without any real 'town' visible, mostly just farms, houses and few little churches, or buildings. Very few had stop lights or signs for the east bound traffic. An excellent road to travel and I would travel it again.

 

Cows, horses, and a stone ranch house....

 

Fewer oil rigs in view, we even passed a horse training facility named 6666. It appears to be a very busy place with multiple stables and a number of horses in the fields. A lot less fixer up abodes as well. Many of the houses today were made of stone, a brownish tinge to the over look of the house. We noted one spot that had recently been visited by fire, came within a short distance of the house and out buildings. You could see where they had started a fire to make a fire break and keep the fire from spreading to the yard, buildings. There are fire bans in place all along this area due to high winds and dry conditions. 

 

 

Can you guess what highway this is? US 82 East....still....

 

We have been travelling in the rolling hills, similar to Tennessee, Kentucky and our own Ontario as well, for the last number of miles. Much less flat and more long sloping vistas as we approached Gainsville. 

 

Witchita Falls, Narcona, and a few other little towns that I can't recall the names of....

 

So there you have it, our travel day. Not too exciting but it's getting us closer to our longer stay destination of Hornsby, TN. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. Feel free to leave a comment. 

 

This is Witchita Falls, Texas.

 

Until next time... take care, be safe, 

 

Blossoms, and interesting things that caught our eye.....

 

Deb

Crosbyton, a quaint but dying little town....

Our Location: 

Crosbyton City Free RV Park, Crosbyton, TX 

The night was pretty long and sleep was pretty short as the wind whistling and rocking us pretty good kept our little peepers open and the sandman couldn't reach the Igloo. We put the slides in around 8 pm due to the extremely high winds. That meant Riley would take my bed, I would take the recliner and HRH Miss Kitty would find some place to call her own. That worked well until about 12:30 am when I woke up after having already had a few hours sleep. Riley was awake as well and we each tried to be quiet so other could sleep but finally at 4 am I headed upstairs to crawl under the covers and not just a fleece blanket as the winds had also now brought along a nice cold temperature with it and the downstairs was cooling off fast. 

Not a great picture but you can see the front and there is two more semi's in front of the white truck giving him a push.

By 4:30 we were both asleep and speaking only for me, I didn't hear anything else until after 8 am this morning. The winds are still pretty high but will be diminishing as the days goes on. As I write this around noon they are getting a bit less blustery but they have a long way to go yet. 

We put the slides back out in anticipation for the diminishing winds and for a while that seemed like a good idea but it wasn't for another hour or two that they actually became noticeably less. Now at around 1:30 pm, they are finally starting to be much less effective in their ability to rock us around although the wind gusts are still knocking us around pretty good. They are becoming less and less frequent and even their intensity has lessened somewhat. Hopefully by dinner time they will be a thing of memory and the sustained winds will be enough to cause the flags to unfurl lazily. We can all hope, right? 

  

While outside doing a few things this morning I noticed this massively long rig on the road going past. It was pulled by a big rig and being pushed from behind by two more. I kid you not, they were tight against the tail end side by side and helping to push this thing. It was doing barely a good running speed but I'm sure it must get faster out of the towns. According to the fellow in the trailer beside us, who happens to be a local, it is some kind of driving gear for something and it going from California to Canada, he didn't say where in Canada though and I never thought to ask. He says its the second one to go through in a month. I'm guessing it must be eastern Canada somewhere and therefore it's not a problem to stay to the south away from the busier areas. This thing must be a nightmare to move, it's massive. The picture isn't good, it was a really quick one and a very poor angle but you'll get the idea. The white truck is the spotter truck behind. 

 

According to the same local fellow who's staying here for a bit as they are renovating their house, the winds have been like this for at least 3 days already. He says he's lost shingles off of his business roof here in town and I can say on our little drive we also noticed a number of shingles doing the flipping and flapping thing. He claims it will warm up by Wednesday into the mid 80F/29C range. I think this fella has two rigs here, both travel trailers, one is using the full hook ups but the other doesn't appear to be connected to anything. They appear to have been here a bit longer than a couple of days once I had a good look this morning. 

After hot drinks and setting things back up again we both decided we'd head out to see the little town of Crosbyton, Texas. The Big Dog's bowl is only half full so he needs a drink anyway. We both love the small town appeal but there truly is a dying that's taking place here. Very little appears to be open and running, most are empty or in the process of getting ready to close from the looks of things. We found two fuel stations and one Family Dollar. A few other business locations that seemed open but didn't provide a name. We didn't drive to the ends of town so maybe we missed a few things but from what we've seen it's an ugly death happening here. 

Numerous old tractors, vehicles, etc were about and appeared to be simply left where they were last parked. Interesting area to say the least. A fire department, a county building, a school and the post office, along with a couple of museums (one of which isn't open Sun-Mon), and a number of homes, along with many, many closed businesses seem to make up the town. We did note that not far from us there is another RV place with metered hookups and only one spot full, approx 6 more were empty. I didn't see any office or indication of where to sign in but at least we now know it's there if necessary. An interesting note are the number of trees in blossom here, they literally line the residential streets, as do dumpsters. The blossoms add a certain small town quality to any place, a homey feel almost. It's a very pretty sight to see.

 

I chatted with a young lady from Fort Worth as we filled up at the fuel station. She mentioned that the wind is less further south, below Dallas/FW area. So perhaps we'll take that route next time. She also mentioned that further south had received snow this year, something unheard she said. Also something to keep in mind. 

 

We also left a contribution at the Family Dollar store where we managed to find a few things of interest. So we'll have left our hard earned Canadian bucks in three places here during our two day visit. Doing our part to help the local economy.

 

Back home we have noticed the wind is getting less and less gusty now at just after 1 pm. Hopefully it keeps just getting less and less until there is no more. That would suit me just fine. The rest of our day will be filled with reading and a few research projects. 

That blue/white motorhome is in the metered hook up area we noticed on one of the back streets. When you leave the little park we are in, turn left on the side road, and it's straight ahead a few blocks.

Hope you've enjoyed your Monday as well. If not, I hope it hasn't been too bad a day with a few bright spots at least. Never fear, it's now behind you so don't have to worry about another for a few more days. As of the addition to this post at 7:30 pm the wind has died down with only very occasional gust and those are few and far between. It's been a very quiet afternoon. On that note, thanks for stopping by. Feel free to leave a comment. 

Until next time.... take care, be safe, 

That's a big Texan needed to fill those boots!!

 

Deb

Crosbyton, Texas in the wind......but it's warm...

Our Location: 

Crosbyton RV Park, Crosbyton, Texas

 

 

This morning found me still asleep until just before 7 am. I had a hard time sleeping last night and a bad dream didn't help any and so from 2:15 am until sometimes after 4 am I was awake. The wind was blowing pretty strongly so I figured we'd be hanging out another day anyway. However when I rolled out just around 7 MDT there was no wind, not a breath, all was calm. 

 

Seen this fellow just as we were pulling out of the BLM land near Carlsbad Caverns, NM

 

Does this include us?  I hope not, cause I didn't stop, the sign further up the road said CLOSED.

 

We quickly pulled everything together, hooked up and were heading out to the roadway by 7:49 AM MDT. It took us until 8:03 am to reach the roadway from our site. We noticed a number of folks had parked after dark or late in the evening at least. Big turnover in the area. 

 

 

The beautiful Pecos River in NM. Such a wonderful sight to behold.

Oil rigs pumping, but not all were in operation, many sat idle.

On the road we debated about following my written instructions which would take us around Lubbock, TX or just following US 64 all the way. We pulled our Phoebe Girl (RV GPS ) out of her resting spot and asked for her input. She knocked off about 30 minutes by taking us through Lubbock. So we decided we'd follow her instructions. She was spot on today, knowing right from left with no hesitation. 

 

Wonderful sign!

As we crossed into Texas fuel prices were a bit better.

 

The drive was uneventful, the kind we like and we passed through too many small towns for me to remember their names. A few that come to mind, Hobbs - NM, Seminole - TX, Wolfforth - TX, Brownfield - TX, Meadow - TX, Idalou - TX, Ralls - TX and finally we reached Crosbyton. The flat plains of Texas and New Mexico gave way to the massive blue sky as they melded together far off in the distance, no matter which direction we looked. The landscape dotted with oil rigs, storage tanks, power lines, and scrub brush was for the most part the view we had for most of the day. Toss in a few horses, some cattle, a few goats, a rabbit or two, and the odd bird and that about sums up all the 'wild' life we seen. Traffic wasn't very heavy at all, and we were passed by numerous folks all in a hurry to get somewhere much faster than us. Not one single Ontario plate, nor did I see any Canadian plates today either. 

 

 

Semi's were the order of the day as they seemed to be plentiful even on a Sunday morning/early afternoon. A strong tail wind which at times buffeted the side of the Igloo also was an interesting addition to the day. What started off as a windless day was into full strong winds within about 45minutes of us pulling out on to the road. These winds continued pretty much the entire way, with only a small decrease for maybe 20 minutes. We travelled a bit under 250 miles today and used less than 1/2 tank of diesel, so less than 20 gallons. 

 

 

The little town of Seminole, TX. We hung a left at this corner.

 

We arrived in Crobsyton, TX to find the cute little park just as Shirley (Seeing America with Ken and Shirley) described it. Looks like full hook ups as I don't see a dump station as listed on the little blurb Phoebe gave us. There were two other travel trailers here when we pulled in and they appear to have been set up for a day or two. We took the second last spot from the end and only hooked into the electric. We just emptied the tanks a few days ago, we have a full tank of water and while we don't need the electricity it will be nice to have use of all things we may want. We'll leave a donation in the box when we pull out on Tuesday. 

 

Welcome to Lubbock, TX

 

The wind has picked up steadily since we pulled in and it continues to rock us like an unsteady drunk on the parallel bars. I hope we manage to find some quiet some time tonight, although I'm tired enough I may just sleep through it anyway. 

 

Some more of Lubbock, TX

 

We arrived and set up before 3 pm in a new time zone, CDT I believe we are in now. We crossed from NM into Texas at 10:20 MDT, making it 11:20 CDT. We did well to get here in such a short amount of time, considering I only drive 55 mph. I called my dad while Riley recycled some left over pasta into a one dish wonder with some help from a few veggies, spices and the stove. Dad was happy to hear from us, knowing we arrived safely. I sent him an email a day or so ago with our destinations, routes, etc so he could find us without too much trouble. Although we changed the route today, I don't see us changing it in the future as it's a pretty straight route to where we wish to go. 

 

And we are leaving Lubbock, TX behind.....

 

So after some lunch and reading, I edited some pictures, and started this post. I could go outside and take a few pictures so you can see where we are but I'll save that for tomorrow. Today's pics are just things we seen along the way. Hope you enjoy them. 

 

See the tumble weed on the edge of the pavement, we seen quite a few of those today.

 

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you had an excellent day doing whatever it is you wanted to do today. As I write this the temperature is sitting at 79F/26C and the winds are howling over, under, around, and possibly through us as I type. We traveled approx 250 miles/391 km today on very nice roads. They were all multi lane, well maintained roads with very few rough patches. The blowing dust wasn't much to contend with as it always seemed to be way off in the distance but I was prepared to get off the road if it was an issue. Feel free to leave a comment if the urge strikes you and if not, glad you dropped by anyway, come back any time. 

 

Love the blossoms behind this sound barrier....

 

Until next time... take care, be safe, 

 

 

Richard (my late husband) would have loved all these John Deere's!

A few fixer uppers along the way......

 

Deb