Checking In

[sharon]

Just a quick check in and let everyone know I'm ok and still on the road headed for Arkansas. I left Tues as planned and spent the night in Laughlin to have lunch with Evie (Pooker). Wed I headed for Snowflake Az to spend a couple of days with my sister. My niece is working up in Chinle on the reservation as a nurse and she drove down on Wed to have dinner with me and her mom. There's one rv park there, a PA, and unless you have a very small rv or are a really good backer, I wouldn't suggest you stop there...and if you do, make sure you have plenty of leveling blocks! I'll sure never stay there again. Made it to Albuquerque on Friday and stayed at my usual park. I really wanted to go a few miles down Central Ave to my fave mexican place to get some good green chile, but I was just to tired to un-hook the car, so settled for some cold chix and salad. And tonite I'm a few miles into Oklahoma at a real nice PA park, 14 bucks a nite, 50A strong power, level site and a nice shade tree. Not that I'm sitting outside, to dang hot! 104 and windy when I got here. I did about 400 miles today and could probably have gone further, but it was getting pretty windy, so I just pulled off. I really tried to keep my speed down to save on fuel and I did really good in Cal...of course the speed limit for towing there is 55 and there were about 4 HP on the prowl so I minded my p's and q's pretty well. Did ok in Az, kept it a pretty steady 60 and thru NM. I left this morning and said screw it, I've had about all of this I can stand and kicked it up to 65. We'll see what tomorrow brings....

Now I'm off to check posts and see what everyone else has been up to. Welcome to any new members I've missed and those on the road are having a great time!

[OregonLuvr]

Good to hear your trip is going well. It seems to me it is always windy on that stretch of the road. When I drove back to NC (in my Tahoe no RV) they had tornado warnings all over the place I guess. I had my XM radio on so I was just "fat dumb and happy" UNTIL I came upon a couple of semi's "tipped over". Boy I got off the road fast. Then found out I was in Tornado Alley....and they were having a record number of tornados. This was in November so I guess that is a big month for those things. I could never live there I would have to become a mole and live underground. I will take my chances out West here getting swallowed up by the ground LOL

What campground do you like in ABQ. When I went there for the balloon fest we stayed a couple of nights at Enchanted Trails off of I-40, then moved to the fairgrounds for the fest.

I also stayed at a campground in Grants......$13 for FHU's BUT the caveat is there are RR tracks right behind it and those trains went by every 15 minutes during the day it seemed like. I was there for 2 nights and guess I got used to em cause I would stay there again.

I thought about joining Passport America but the only problem is they exclude weekends alot around here, AND over at the coast they exclude MONTHS. Go figure. I think if I was on the road traveling more it might be worth it but since I still have to work a bit for a living and dog biscuits I will hold off.

Drive safe,
karen

[BirdbyBird]

Who is this Sharon person checking in? Anybody we know?

May the PoPo stay away from your trails...unless of course you need them. Glad to know that you are in motion again and heading east. We enjoy your visit out this way...unless of course we happen to be in Alaska and temporarily unavailable.....

[Rufflesgurl]

Sharon - sounds like your trip is going the way you want. Stay safe.

Karen - did you go to the NM balloon fest by yourself or with a group? How far in advance did you need to make reservations?
Thanks,

Linda

[Dawn309]

So glad you checked in and your trip is going well. Don't get to going too fast or you may blast by a Hiway Patrol you just didn't see in time. Has happened to me. Oops! Too late, oh well!

[Sandersmr]

I always try to stay below 65 when towing, not because of the po-po or because of the mileage, well a little because of the mileage. But the limit on my tires is 65 mph. I sure don't want a blowout, especially since I have a single axle.

Enjoy your trip! And I hope the wind dies down.

[OregonLuvr]

Linda, it was a GTG, there were 13 rigs and it was a blast. We had to stay in one of the RV parks overnight until everyone in our party got there as we had to go in as a caravan cause they park you as you come in.......all in a row. There were thousands of RV's there, we were parked in the fairgrounds right across the street from the Balloon fest. Balloons kept landing in our area it was sooooo awesome to watch. They had a shuttle to take you over to the launching area which was fun on day 1, but day 2 we were lazy and by golly if the balloons didnt come to US. We grabbed our cameras and didnt even care we had our pajamas on LOL So did alot of people.

One of the gals in our group arranged it and we had to pay her so not sure exactly how that worked,....heck I just got in line and followed the herd. There were all kinds of groups there however. Lazy Daze was just across from us, and then there were lots of other groups, we were a "heinz 57" group, from small to big.

This is us parked in a row.



These were the balloons we saw the second day coming right at us. This is the roof of my Motorhome.



karen

[Redwahine]

Awesome. I've just seen one or two balloons at a time. What a great experience.

[snowball]

glad to hear that you are doing well Sharon and on the road...take care and enjoy your son
sheila

[BarbaraRose]

Sharon, glad you are doing well on this trip so far. The last cross country trip you were on was full of problems I remember!

Karen, there are always 5 or 6 balloons floating around near where I live out here almost every evening if the weather is good for it. There is a landing area just across the street from where I was working and it was fun to watch them land there. I can't imagine, tho, seeing dozens of them all in the sky at once! Would think they would run into each other!

[Pooker]

Second try - lost my connection and now I can't remember what I said!

Anyway, glad the trip is going as planned so far. Sounds like you had a nice visit with your sister and niece. Mother Hen says don't overdo! Ya get overtired and the darn bugs are just waiting for you.

As soon as you said goodbye I was wishing I could have come along. Course, dragging the little old lady along would slow you down considerably! Enjoy the journey, GF.

Evie

[Rufflesgurl]

Thanks so much Karen. Glad you had such a great time. I would at least like to see the mass ascension (sp?), but I think I will meet up with others or a group - because most of the groups (FMCA, LoWs, etc.) go there for the fest. I live on the central coast of CA so will need to do some planning.

Linda

[carold]

Sounds like all is going well. One pic of you and Evie would have been nice Is the Blue Marlin on your agenda? carold