Showing posts with label Van Horn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Van Horn. Show all posts

Friday, April 7, 2023

Van Horn to Sweetwater.....

 

 

Our Location: 

Walmart, Sweetwater, Texas

 

We left the Van Horn rest area (MM 144 on I 10 East) this morning at 8 am, the sun was just breaking over the horizon as we pulled out. The stop was good, a bit noisy but nothing over the top. Cold this morning, 44 F/ 6 C or close enough. Windy today too, another headwind even though we changed directions. The Big Dog enjoyed the fuel while working at the forward progress. Our total mileage today was 297 miles/478 km. We used approx 27 gallons of fuel, we paid $3.79, and $ 3.99 respectively. One must pay attention as Loves/Pilot and such are over a dollar a gallon more. We've found Xpress Fuel has big spaces for rigs both at the pumps and at the truck fuel.  A good driving day for us. The roads were okay, a few rough patches, a few narrowing of lanes but over all good. We stopped a few times to stretch and freshen ourselves up a bit. We arrived here at about 1:30 pm CDT, so 5 1/2 hours, we can't complain. We hope to do one more day like this tomorrow and from there we will shorten our days a bit. 

 

The Snyder Field rest area had this interesting interactive display. 


 

This one is first.......



followed by a flight simulator of sorts.

Cute little picnic areas. Overall it was very clean and a good place to stop for the night if you wanted to.

What would a drive through Texas be without showing some oil derricks?


Thanks for stopping by, I hope you had a wonderful day. A note, Happy Birthday Joan!!! We hope you've had an incredible day. 

 

Until next time....

 

Take care, stay safe, 

 

Deb

 

 

Thursday, April 6, 2023

We are in Texas….

 

Our Location:

Eastbound Rest Area, Van Horn, Texas


Hugs and goodbyes yesterday after happy hour and this morning Riley and I pulled out at 6:30 am Mountain Standard Time, pointing the Dogsled eastward with the Igloo rolling smoothly along behind. Windy day, lots of sunshine and plenty of leg stretches in our 418 mile/673 km journey today. We crossed 2 time zones, Mountain Daylight Time into Central Daylight Time and are currently only one hour from our Ontario time so we lost two hours and still managed to be off the road by 4:30 pm Central DT, or 2:30 pm Mountain ST. A very long day but we are both happy to have accomplished this long haul. The dogsled had a couple of laps at the drinking bowl and with a head wind managed pushing into for a good part of the trip, he was able to sip about 38 gallons of fuel for the day or one complete tankful of fuel. I have no complaints.




Texas Canyon rest area on I 10 in Arizona is just ahead.



This rest area is in Texas at the state line between New Mexico and Texas.


Love the roof.

We crossed into New Mexico....


We crossed out of New Mexico.


We crossed into Texas and are still here and will be for a few days.


A beautiful rest area in West Texas has a separate spot for RV's and Trucks.

I don't recall the name but it is very pretty and we would stay here.

I'm sure we could find it again. LOL.

Love the gardens.


It is a stunning view. 




We left Quail Ridge RV in Huachuca City at an elevation of just under 4400' and passed over the Continental Divide in New Mexico at a little bit higher altitude at a little over 4500' and here in Van Horn, Texas we are sitting at 4042'. We will begin to drop in elevation quickly tomorrow and will remain relatively low until we reach the Tennessee/Kentucky area. The temps ranged from 44F/6 C this morning at 6:30 am to 74F/23C during the afternoon and when we pulled into the rest here it was a balmy but windy 64F/17C at 4:30 pm CDT.
 
Chatted with Dad, of course, to let him know we are off the road and settled for the night. Windy there too. Aw well, it's spring! 
 
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you had a fantastic day. 
 
Until next time...
 
Take care, stay safe, 
 
Deb
 
 











Thursday, October 27, 2022

Not as far as planned today....

 

 Our Location: Gage Rest Area, near Deming, New Mexico


Shortly after leaving our overnight at Van Horn, Tx we crossed into Mountain Time, which puts us 2 hours behind Ontario. I need to pay attention when I call!!

 

We can start to see the mountains off in the distance. New Mexico is over that way.

Closer now...

The stop last night was good for what we needed and expected. It's a rest area with traffic whizzing by on the Interstate just a few yards away, vehicles coming and going all night. I put in ear plugs and never heard anything until 5:30 am this morning. Considering I was sleeping before 9:30 last night, I think I had a good night's sleep. 


Yep, they are definitely mountains off in the distance...

If you listen closely you can hear them calling......

We pulled out at 8:38 am Central Time and within a few short minutes we were changing the clock on the dash to read 7:45 am Mountain Time. It made for a good but long day. The roads were good and we motored right along. Lots of traffic today, a few slow downs and even a couple of rolling stops due to construction and accidents. 

 

Welcome to El Paso, Texas. Yes that's dust in the air.

Lots of streets cross over the interstate and those walls need repainting I think.

We rolled through the heart of El Paso, TX before 11 am and entered the beautiful state of New Mexico around 11 am. We stopped at the Anthony Rest Area just to stretch and look around, a beautiful place to stop but few spots for overnighters or even just travelers. 


A massive Old Glory was starting to flap in the wind and the wind increased steadily from this time.

For Deb D.   The ocotillo are green here Deb!!!!

We had planned on reaching San Simon West Bound Welcome Center at the New Mexico/Arizona state line but the winds picked up considerably and we opted to get off the road as we were being pushed around pretty good. So we backed up to a little casita and put the feet down to help stabilize us in the wind. We put the slides out only enough to make getting around easy and will pull them in overnight. Hopefully the wind dies down before tomorrow. It's even hard to walk it's blowing so much.  We did pass by the Roadrunner shortly after entering New Mexico but alas he was on the other side of the interstate and too far away to get a photo with the phone



I believe this is an Agave plant. It's at the New Mexico Welcome Center.

A much bigger one near one of the casitas.
 

Talked to my sister today for a few minutes after we parked. Things are going well at her house, she was busy making supper and so I didn't keep her on the phone long.Called and left a message on my dad's answering machine but will call him again later. 


A staghorn cactus, I think. Also at the Welcome Center.

And yet another cactus at the Welcome Center.

Happy Birthday to Leah today as she celebrates. She is my nephew Jason's lovely wife and mother of the adorable Hudson. She is a very classy young lady with expressive eyes and a beautiful face. Friendly and social, she makes every room she enters shine. Happy Birthday Leah, we hope it's a fantastic day. 


Reminder to myself, everything is picky, pointy and sharp in the desert.

The little courtyard at the NM welcome center.

Temps are running between 50F/10C and 70F/20C today. Fuel prices are still running in the $4.69 to $5.40 range. The winds are high and running at about "blow me over" speed. 


More of the little courtyard.

The entire restroom/welcome area is in this adobe building with beautiful little arches everywhere.


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

 

The view out the living room window tonight.

A little further to the right.

 


Until next time..

Take care, be safe, 


Deb

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

We are moving right along....

 

Our Location: Mile Marker 144, near Van Horn, Texas

 

The morning dawned coolish in Brady, Tx and we turned the heat on when we got into the Dogsled to give us a bit of a warm up. We packed everything up, checked the tires, pulled in the slides and connected the Igloo and Dogsled, wheels rolling just a tad after 8:30 AM, CMT. 

 

Prickly Pear Cactus and a Century Plant along the roadside.

More Prickly Pear.

A very long and lonesome highway is Tex 190 West.

 
Course hard top with lots of well worn grooves make up Tex 190 West.

We continued along Texas Highway 190West for most of the morning until we reached I-10 near Iraan, Tx. The highway was good, only a very few rough spots and even then, not that rough but it was a long drive on a two lane course hard top. Some rolling hills, some flat land and again into the rolling hills. We found it very uninteresting and that has us thinking we won't be using it again. We would drop straight down from Menard to I-10 instead of following Tex 190 for such a long distance. 

 

You could build a house from all those rocks and have enough to build another one too.

Our rock cuts back home don't have prickly pear growing out of 'em.

A stunning view!
 

Fuel is running anywhere from about $4.69 to $5.40, with gas usually being between $1.50 and $2.00 cheaper per gallon than diesel.  We gave the Big Dog a drink at Murphy's in Stockton where he lapped up about 27 gallons of his preferred drink at $4.99 per gallon. Considering we had a bit of a headwind/crosswind in places he did well. Temps are running from about 45F/8C night time lows to about 78F/29C for day time highs. 

 

We are seeing the outline for far off mountains.

The rolling hills of Texas on I-10 West bound.

 

Our original plan was to stop at or near Fort Stockton (226 miles/364 km from Brady), but we opted to keep the wheels going since it was pretty early in the day to stop. We added another 100 miles/160 km to the end of our day which makes things easier for the next couple of days. We travelled a total of 342 miles/550 km, which is a long day for us.

 

 Much better than our morning drive views. See those wind turbine way over there?

Much of the land in this stretch looks like this.
 

Prickly Pear cactus has been evident for a number of days now and even the yucca type Century Plants are in abundance too. Lots of scrub land today, lots of oil being pumped out of the ground too, along with a fairly big number of wind turbines. In fact as we were just coming back from our walk we noticed a single blade for a wind turbine sitting on a very, very, very long joined trailer pulled in on the opposite side of us, my goodness but he's long!!!

 

Very artistic way to hold the dirt on the side of the overpass, don't ya think?

The view out our door tonight.

 

Birthday wishes go out to SIL Barb (brother Rick's lovely bride) who turns 29 again today. We hope it's been a fantastic day Barb even though it's cold and damp. I asked Dad to have a piece of cake for both Riley and I!! Also happy birthday to Hazel, granddaughter of Barb the birthday lady. They share the same day, Barb just had it first. Hazel however is not 29 but 4. Happy Birthday Hazel Beanerrrrrrrrr. Haha. 

 

Not a bad view when you turn your head either.

The picnic spots here at the rest area. They include a grill, garbage cans, shelter, wind break and table with benches. Sign says NO SLEEPING ON TABLE AND/OR BENCHES .

A chat with daughter Bradey last night, they are all fine and Auston is enjoying his swimming lessons a tiny bit, so that's good news. He's such a shy little fella. Lincoln is growing in leaps and bounds. A chat with Dad today finds their temps in the single digits, I think he said 7C/44F with dampness in the air and high winds. Seems most of the trees are leafless now due to the winds for the last couple of days. 

 

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

 

Until next time..

 Take care, be safe, 

 

Deb