Saturday 11/26/11

On the road again! Headed out in a light rain Saturday morning on our way to our third winter in Arizona. Drove in light rain most of the way through St Louis and stopped for the night at the Country Hearth Hotel and RV Park in St. Roberts, MO.

Sunday 11/27

Got a fairly early start and hit the Cracker Barrel down the road for Breakfast. We had three options for Sunday night, eastern OK, OK City, or western OK. We stopped at the Flying J in Joplin, MO and filled up the truck and then headed across Oklahoma.

We stopped at the Cracker Barrel in OK City for a late lunch and decided to go to western OK, so we calledDouble D RV Park in Texola, OK to confirm that they had space tonight. They said they did, but when we got there at 7 PM they were full! And rude! They said “we told you it was first come, first served.” which was a lie. If they had said that we would have looked for a more definite place. So here we were, seven PM on Sunday evening and no place to stay. Tried calling campgrounds along I-40 to the west but no answers (big surprise). So we ended up driving on to Amarillo and spent the night at the Cracker Barrel - after getting there in time for a light dinner! So we had breakfast, lunch and dinner in three different Cracker Barrels today!

On the bright side we got two hours ahead of schedule and saved $12 in the process.

Monday 11/28

Had an early breakfast at the Amarillo CB and headed for Roswell, good weather and good roads. Go toTrailer Village in Roswell at 11 AM Mountain Time. Just in time to catch the end of the Formula One race from Sunday that they repeated on Monday.

In the afternoon we took a walk around downtown Roswell and picked up a few souvenirs, stopped at Target and then back home and relaxed for a few hours. Went to Pepper’s Restaurant for an excellent dinner (as usual), this make a nice relaxing interlude in the trip.

Tuesday 11/29

On the road by 8:30. Took a detour from our regular route on AZ 70 to make a stop at the Smokey Bear Park in Capitan, NM where the real Smokey Bear is buried, not to far away from where he was found as a cub clinging to a charred tree in Capitan Gap, NE of town. An interesting place with excellent exhibits on forest preservation and ecology and of course Smoky’s story and his gravesite.

Instead of backtracking, or going south to Ruidoso through the mountains, we went on west on NM 380 and picked up US 54 southbound, which connected back up with AZ 70.

Stopped at the CB in Las Cruces for lunch and continued on to Ft Wilcox RV Park in Wilcox, AZ.

Wednesday 11/30

On the road at 9 AM, just a short trip to Desert Trails from here. Stopped in Tucson and filled a propane tank and arrived at 11 AM. Excellent trip overall with good roads, good weather other than the rain on Saturday, and no problems with the truck or the trailer.

Got ourselves settled into our new space, M10 instead of M9, which is a lot more roomy and we do not block a walkway with our truck. A beautiful day today, 77 degrees and not a cloud in the sky! Supposed to turn cold and rainy by the end of the week - of course “cold and rainy” being relative terms, they are talking about 55 to 60 degrees for highs and maybe a 1/4 inch of rain over three days! Sounds good to me!

Got the trailer set up and the smart unloaded. We replaced our 2005 smart with a light metallic blue 2011 smart two weeks ago. Had to make a couple of minor mods to ramps and hitch placement to accommodate the slightly larger smart. We like the new one, it rides and handles a bit better and now we have a car with US dealer support and a warranty, that will be a new experience!

Made a quick run into town in the afternoon and picked up sandwiches from Beyond Bread for dinner - one of our favorite places.

Just relaxing in our home on wheels tonight.