Last day here.......REFERENCE POST

Our Location: 

BLM near Carlsbad, NM

I was awake around 6 am MDT but didn't get up. I was lazy and since there was no brightening in the skies I figured a cloudy day was in the offing. I grabbed my laptop and read blogs for a while. I can tell you that I finally closed the lid and turned on the water for a hot drink just shortly after 8 am. 

I don't think the clock works well....

I see a circus coming to town Matey......

We had plans this morning to find a place to rid us of our trash and to fill the Big Dog's water bowl. I can say we accomplished that feat within a few miles of our current location. Fuel was $3.19 per gallon and while I probably could have found it cheaper down the road tomorrow I am happy to have a full tank starting the day. 

On the way back home we checked out the other 'free' campsite area in this location. It's on Whites City Road and I can say that we wouldn't be staying there. However I will use this as a reference post again for future use or just information for others. 

Whites City Road is a hard packed dirt road (it may have been black top on gravel once) that is rough and somewhat washboard like, although not as ugly as it sounds. I would think after a rain it would be more muddy than anything else. There is a bit of dust but not much. We made note of two or possibly 4 spots that were okay sites for staying. The first two were best but close to the main road. The second two were further back but are currently being used by the construction company working/worked on the road. It appears they've buried something (possibly pipe lines but no signs indicating such) along the road. These two sites have been beaten up by the use of big trucks and we didn't see any fire pits there but all indications are they were once sites.  The other issue with this road is the quarry a bit further back. It's a working pit I would imagine the noise level would not be nice going all day. Numerous trucks of varying sizes are also visible. We went further back past the quarry but didn't see anything of interest although I'm certain there were other places further back. It would be too far off the main road on this less than wonderful road. So there you have it, not our cup of tea but definitely a couple of good over night spots if you could find some how to get level. 

 

Riley loves the Aliens...

She doesn't care what colour.....

We are parked at MM 10 on the east bound side of the roadway but there is no way to get to the road going west unless you go to MM 9 and make a U turn before coming back on the East bound road. Actually that's not quite true, there is no LEGAL turn road but many have simply crossed over the dirt median to get to/from the West bound lanes. It's a pretty big bump though and so you would need to be very careful. We did check out a well paved road just after using that LEGAL turn around over the median. I have no idea what it's called but it's between MM 9 and 10 east bound. There looks like a couple of spots that would be good for overnight but no signs of fire pits. If you think one of the side roads offers a spot, forget it, they lead to oil wells with no spots available. 

 

I believe this is a bat....

I think that one may be a chuck wagon...

So there you have it, our little tour of the day. We went less than 6 miles to get some fuel at a place that is between the roadway and the Cavern Parking lot. Multiple little things to see, an RV park there also, no idea the name though. 

Back home we noticed only ONE other rig, when we came back. There had been two when we left. The lone rig sits close to the road and is also a 5'er. Otherwise no one else is here, not a tent to be seen anywhere either. 

I'm guessing these are rental units. 

Tomorrow we'll be pulling out and making our way to a free overnight in Crosbyton, TX. We found this park courtesy of Ken and Shirley (Seeing America with Ken and Shirley) , so thanks for the heads up folks!! We'll actually be staying for two nights before getting back on the road as the wind is forecast to be pretty high and gusts will also be making life miserable for any drivers in the area from Sunday afternoon into Monday. Tuesday looks to be a great travel day.  Why do we not stay where we are located you may ask and I will say that we are heading toward Tennessee and that will be 250 miles closer for us. We hope that the two night stay will be a bit less rock 'n roll like as we will maybe have some protection from the town buildings, other RV's etc. Here we are out in the open with no where to hide. Also we're that much closer to getting out of the wind tunnel areas and flat lands. We will be on the road fairly early as the winds here are supposed to be minimal then, and be off the road by 3 pm hopefully before they pick back up.

So there you have it, thanks for stopping by. I hope you've managed to have a wonderful day. 

 

The Whites City Road location for free camping. See the quarry? That pile of gravel I believe is in one of the camping spots. The other picture is the road way, looks good but is a bit rough.

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

Deb