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Travel Journal
November 2005
Travel
Route:
Since we already knew that
we would be leaving Chimney Rock, NE on the 2nd, we decided to spend
November 1st checking out the nearest town, Bayard. There we discovered an overnight park for
RV’s, similar to that offered in McClusky,
North Dakota. In Bayard it was free electricity and water
with a nearby dumping station. There
were several hook-ups near a sports field, and although it was a bit run down
and in need of sprucing up, it does show how RV friendly some of the small
towns can be. However, with two
campgrounds nearby, one can’t help but wonder if this might be harmful to those
businesses.
As we were preparing to leave on the 2nd, the Rancher/owner
stopped by to visit. We had quite a long
conversation with him. He wanted
feedback from us about our visit, and if we had any suggestions for improving
the campground. It did not have
individual sewers, only a dumping station.
We were close enough to the dumping station that we were able to use our
special macerator pump with a long hose, but most people would have to actually
move their RV to the dumping station. We
suggested to him that he procure a Tote-along Tank on wheels that RVers could
use to empty their tanks without moving the RV.
He found this to be quite a good suggestion and it appears he will act
on it quickly. Shortly thereafter we
said our goodbye’s and left around 12:30 PM heading toward Colorado.
We made it as far as Limon, Colorado
where we spent the night at a truck stop.
On the next day we drove to Colorado Springs
where we wanted to stock up at the Fort
Carson commissary. The closer we came to the Rockies,
the stronger the wind became. In Colorado Springs it was
so bad that we saw a full grown, medium-build man holding on to the side
railing of a bridge. With his hands
clamped tightly to the railing, you could see that the wind was trying to take
the rest of his body into the air! A
weaker person would easily have been blown away. It was quite scary to drive in the wind and
we slowly crept along, arriving at the commissary and parking in the direction
of least resistance to the wind. There
was a power outage in the commissary because of the wind so we sat in the RV
for quite a while, fully expecting to be blown over. In the afternoon, the commissary regained
power and we went shopping. The wind had
died down enough that we decided to slowly make our way to Pueblo.
On the way to Pueblo
there was a tractor-trailer overturned in the opposite direction on the
Interstate. Had we continued in that
wind, the same could easily have happened to us. As we pulled into Pueblo the Interstate was being closed for
all “high profile” vehicles. We had
chosen a campground called Pueblo
West Campground & Horseman’s Arena.
The campground with full hookups was sparsely occupied. Around it were horse stalls, corrals, an
arena, and a training area with hurdles, etc.
It was somewhat dusty since it had not rained for quite some time and
there was very little grass to be seen.
The horses were well taken care of and hay was delivered daily. The Rocky Mountains could be seen in the
distance with Pikes Peak already covered with
snow.
We stayed until
November 18th. The weather
was mostly sunny with heavy wind on some days.
At night it dropped below freezing.
On the weekend, the cowboys (in full dress) came to ride their horses.
On the day after we
arrived, we drove to visit Helga (Renée’s cousin) who lives in Pueblo.
She lives on the 11th floor of an apartment complex for
senior citizens. She has a very nice 2 ½
room apartment with a balcony and a beautiful view. Lobo had to stay in the truck because Helga
said that dogs were not allowed in the building. This being the case, Helga would have to
visit us at the campground for the rest of our visit. Helga invited us to a Mexican restaurant
where she and Renée had Chiles Rellenos and Chuck had Flautas. Of course everyone had a Mexican beer.
During the first few days,
Helga decided that she wanted to buy a Laptop and printer. Buying your first computer is a little scary,
especially when you are 81 years old. We
spent a lot of time teaching and learning. After a few days, Helga asked the
caretaker if Lobo could come in the building and he granted permission, so we
spent most of the time at her apartment.
It was quite a show on the first day when the elderly saw Lobo. He was immediately friendly with all of them,
particularly a fellow who was confined to a wheelchair and loved dogs. We do believe that some of them actually sat
in the entrance hall and waited for him to arrive every day.
A lot of time was spent
teaching computer skills and learning that a computer will do exactly what you
tell it. So you have to be careful that
what you intend to do and what you do are the same. Helga now has her own email address and
corresponds electronically with her friends and family. We continue to provide help when needed via
email and phone when necessary.
On the last day in Pueblo, Helga cooked us a
fantastic supper with enormous T-Bone steaks that were heavenly. Afterward we took this photo with the timer
so we could all be on it.
Our last night in Colorado was very cold
but as we left at 12:05 PM the sun was out and it was getting warmer. We drove toward Kansas through the Comanche National Grassland,
formerly the hunting grounds of the Comanche.
In the late afternoon we reached Kansas.
Except for flatlands and
harvested fields, there wasn’t much to see and as we reached the small town of Syracuse, we stopped at a
truck stop to spend the night. Diesel
was $2.459 a gallon, the cheapest we had seen in a long time. Thirteen miles east of Syracuse we entered the Central Time Zone
again. In Lakin we headed south on
Kansas route 25 through the prairie and flat lands filled with fertile fields
or cattle grazing amid the oil rigs, to the town of Ulysses in the county of
Grant and further on until we reached Oklahoma.
Shortly before the state line, we saw bird-hunters in a field.
The rest stop in the above
picture was one of most disgusting that we have ever seen. Blood was all over the asphalt, but we didn’t
know it was blood until we returned from a short walk in the field with Lobo
and noticed in one of the uncovered trash cans that it was filled with heads,
feet and feathered parts of birds, as well as parts scattered everywhere on the
ground. This sight, combined with the
bullet holes in the welcome sign, didn’t leave us with a good impression of the
hunters along the Kansas-Oklahoma border.
The Oklahoma Panhandle
didn’t differ much from Kansas. We drove to Guymon and stayed overnight at a campground west of the town.
At 10:20 AM, November 20th,
we left on the way to Texas. It was 52° F, the sun was shining and there
was a light wind. We turned onto US 54 ,
where we would stay all the way to Alamogordo,
NM. On the right was the Southern Pacific
Railroad. Flat land, agricultural
fields, steer feeding lots and massive silos along with prairies and oil
fields, until we entered Texahoma, the border town between Oklahoma
and Texas. Looking back toward Oklahoma,
we found the Oklahoma
welcome sign without bullet holes.
As with everything in Texas, the welcome sign
had to be larger than any other we have ever seen.
We drove further through
the desolate countryside and hoped that in Dalhart, TX
we would find a station with Diesel, but there was none on US 54. The next station was 75 miles away and that
was in New Mexico.
.
We made it to New Mexico 
and
also made to the filling station. The
countryside switched from prairie to hilly and the typical southwestern plants
such as Yucca and bushy plants. We drove
on to Tucumcari and then toward Santa
Rosa. Between
these two cities, a piece of the old US Route 66 still exists, although most of
it has been gobbled up by the Interstate.
We followed the signs for the historic 66 and found ourselves on a
narrow road without any traffic that ran alongside the Interstate. It was
almost too narrow.
A
little tight, huh?
In Santa Rosa, US 54 went in a southwestern
direction toward Vaughn, where we stayed overnight at a truck stop. With a
cloudless sky and 55°F, we left at 10:45 AM on the last part of the trip to our
winter quarters in Alamogordo,
NM where we arrived in the early
afternoon at the campground on Holloman AFB.
We immediately discovered that some of the roads had been bumpier than
we thought. A couple of beer bottles
were broken, and under the sink a spray bottle had emptied its contents. The printer was also hanging by its cord but
was not broken. A lot of cleaning and
straightening up put everything back in order.
The monthly fee here is
$225 with full hookup, covered patio and cable TV with Deutsche Welle.
.
What else would one
want? 
(Maybe a few trees, bushes and a meadow. Well, you can’t have everything 
.) We
hope to be able to extend here. There
are only 24 hookups and if they are full and have people waiting to get in, we
will get kicked out. That would be rough
to handle four days before Christmas, but there are plenty of RV parks nearby.
On the first afternoon
here, a stealth bomber flew directly over the campground. Holloman is the home base for them.
We weren’t fast enough
with the camera but here is a few pictures from the Internet.
Since 1996, the German Air
Force has also been stationed at Holloman.
Approximately 755-800 and their families are stationed here. More info
can be found at www.holloman.af.mil/media/gaf.html.
We spent the last days of
November with settling in for the winter and visiting old friends in Las Cruces. We drove by our old house in Las Cruces and we were
quite disappointed at how run-down it appears.
In 1990 we sold it to a German woman.
A few years ago she married someone and moved to Arizona, rented out the house and doesn’t
bother with keeping it up. White Sands National Monument is
seven miles away and we go bicycling with Lobo there. The mountains above Alamogordo are also a nice place to go
walking with Lobo. On Thanksgiving we
went to a restaurant instead of cooking.
We have a post office box
at Holloman that we will keep until April so Michael doesn’t have to be
bothered with our mail:
Renée & Chuck Morton
PO Box 895
Holloman AFB, NM 88330
|
Mileage in Pueblo, CO
on November 18th:
|
27835
|
|
Mileage upon arrival in Alamogordo:
|
28572
|
|
Total Miles driven
|
737
|
To
be continued next month …………………..
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and
also made to the filling station. The
countryside switched from prairie to hilly and the typical southwestern plants
such as Yucca and bushy plants. We drove
on to Tucumcari and then toward 
(Maybe a few trees, bushes and a meadow. Well, you can’t have everything