Road to Arizona

 2/27/23

After enjoying the night in a hotel, we had breakfast and I worked for a few hours while I had available WiFi (which was a treat)!

Just a lot of driving today, not much else!  We will be camping in Los Lunas and then hoping to get to Winslow tomorrow afternoon!

I WROTE the above yesterday morning!  Remind me to NEVER write about the day until it actually happens!

Mount Taylor in the background (11,000 feet)! 

We saw quite a few trains, I guess they really do exist!  I don't usually see trains like this in the Burgh!

This is a pueblo in the Navajo Nation!

We were going to camp at Joe Skeen campground in the El Malpais National Forest!

Would have been a great campsite!

However, Ernie checked the weather and the low was going down to 16 degrees!  He was worried about the pipes freezing in the camper!  We went to the closest Walmart we could find (about 15 miles) and bought some RV antifreeze.  Instead of putting in the antifreeze and just staying at the Walmart, we headed South to try to get into a little warmer temps!

Back through the El Malpais Forest.......toward Eagar AZ!

From giant rock formations TO.....giant fields of grass and fields....TO

SNOW covered roads (I said to Ernie, after it came upon us very quickly, IS THAT SNOW?  His reply, "It isn't sand"!  Our fuel was running a little low, we had 99 miles to empty, and not a car, or store, or ANYTHING in sight!  I'll admit, I was slightly worried!  We FINALLY came to a little ski town called McNary where we were able to fuel up!  WHEW!

Ok, so when we fueled up, Ernie asked .

 about the closest place we could get down off the mountain!  Well, that would be Globe, AZ about a 2 hour drive away!  We drove to another Walmart in Show Low AZ (I think I will buy stock in Walmart, we are there all the time) picked up the 2 of the last gallons of antifreeze they had in stock and holed up at the Walmart parking lot for the night!  It only went down to 27 degrees, so it wasn't too bad! 

2/28/23

Up EARLY (4am mountain time) and headed for Globe!  Didn't see much except a lot of winding roads through the mountain pass....THEN

Now, we are getting to the Arizona views I have heard about and seen on the travel channel!  I'm going to try to talk Ernie into riding in a hot air balloon. something he has always wanted to do!

            

                                

This is Canyon Lake and the road dead ends about 4 miles past here!  We are going to try to stay at Tortilla Flat Campground today (as long as I get cell service so I can work)!

           

Tortilla Flat (Population 6, YES 6!)

This was an original stagecoach trail back in the day!  Not much here except a little restaurant AND a campground, but looks like some great scenery!  VERY Cool!

I feel like I am in the old west!

Ernie is extremely proud of the perfection of the leveling of the camper and he wanted a picture!

Leveling of the camper has been driving me INSANE on this trip!  I have been doing a lot of eye rolling (don't tell Ernie that though)! :)

Ok, off to enjoy this beautiful place!

Later!

White Sands National Park

 2/26/23 - White Sands Day!!!

A few morning photos for your viewing pleasure, from our beautiful campsite at Holloman Lake!

A line from one of our favorite movies (Forrest Gump) "It was so clear Jenny, it looked like they was 2 skies, one on top of the other!"

White Sands National Park!!!!  I really have NO idea what to expect at this Park!

At first, I will admit, I thought to myself...doesn't look any different than the beach!  What's the big deal?

Then we get further into the park!  My mind changed, very quickly, to that of wonder!!!

This is the Alkali Trail (5 miles roundtrip)

Don't lose sight of the RED STICKS or you may be lost forever!

We even ran into our little friend, Abby...not positive if I mentioned her in another post, but she is a young woman, traveling on her own and we COULD'NT believe we ran into her AGAIN (I think this was the third time on this trip)!!!

You can kind of tell from this photo, in the distance, the sand is starting to blow as the wind gets stronger!

And stronger.......I really wish I could figure out how to turn an mov file into a png or jpeg (listen to me with all this technical jargon)  Some of the video I have shows some of the major wind we had today!  If you follow wherethebuckarethey on Instagram, I uploaded a few on there!  Ernie even pulled over to tighten the latches on the camper.  We were told the winds could reach up to 70 MPH!

Anyway, about a 1.75 miles into the trail, I could barely make it to the top of a large dune using my arms AND legs!  WIND WAS CRAZY!  We will be spilling out sand from our shoes for weeks!

THEN, something I have never seen jump onto my phone (kind of like an Amber Alert).  Our eyes grew a little larger and we started seeing the dust, tumbleweeds, and sticks fly through the air!

There SHOULD be mountains in the background of this picture!

Long story, short............we ended up stopping is Las Cruces, NM to get a hotel room (since we were reluctant to pop up the camper in these kind of winds)!  The winds are supposed to lessen later tonight!

Hampton Inn, baby!  AND Another HOT shower today!  I am getting spoiled!

We are going to start for the Meteor Crater in Winslow, AZ tomorrow!

Dinner at an Asian buffet next to the hotel, and then do my nails!!!!!!!!!

Night!