One End To The Other

Sunday was a good day for driving.  The nice neighbors from Florida pulled out at 9:30, leaving me plenty of time to get packed up and on the road, missing the huge mud puddle.  I did have to hoochy-goo around a little, and stopped three times before my GPS would pick me up.  At last I was headed out on highway 26 to Hatch New Mexico. 

There's nothing like driving from one end of the State to another.  I have to say there's not much in the way of people out this direction, but Hatch's sense of humor made up for it.  I wish I could have stopped at one of the many chili stands, but alas, there was no room for big RV's.

 

 

 

There's nothing like driving clear across an entire state and I'm pretty sure my camera needs to be replaced.  Maybe it's just focusing on the drab gray skies.  It looked like this the entire trip as I continued my uphill journey.  Uphill means not so great fuel mileage and constantly fiddling with the gears to keep the engine cool, but at least it kept me awake.

 

 

Eventually the skies turned a little blue and the mountains made for some pretty scenery as I crossed huge gully after gully.  As you can see, traffic was at a minimum.

 This brought back memories of Idaho, where the gullies are three miles deep.  The signs warn you of wind gusts that can knock you right off the road.  This one is very deep and you can see the road (sort of) climbing up the other side.  Other than this, not much to see here.

 

 

There was this one huge solar farm for the biggest dairy I've ever seen.  Each of these panels is probably twenty times your normal solar panel.  As I headed North, I began to see small fields of green alfalfa.
 

 

 

About that time, I ran into this guy coming up behind me.   No biggie until I discovered he was TOWING the truck behind him with a strap.  I'm a relaxed driver, keeping it at about 60.  They passed me like I was standing still until they hit that big hill ahead.

I had to pass them, but it was just at the top of the hill.  Instead of letting me pull back over into my lane, they tried to pass me on the right.  Seriously?  I ended up going over 70 mph just to get around them before they passed me again going probably 80 mph ... TOWING!  Of course at the next hill, they were back down to 50.  Not a Trooper in sight, nor did I see one the entire five hours of driving.

 

 

 

Finally I headed into Albuquerque with a mass of traffic over the highest overpass there is.  I have to admit, looking over the edge of what felt like 100 feet made me queasy.  Thankfully my exit wasn't too far off and I made it to the Enchanted Trails RV Park where I'm staying for $35.

 

 

They aren't full to the brim, but there's a lot of people parked here.  Who should pull in about an hour later but the nice couple from Florida in that black truck, very far right.  Are you following me?  We had a nice long chat before I crashed in the rig.   I gave them some suggestions of things to see here before they head off to Alabama.

After stuffing every pillow and quilt I could find into the windows to alleviate some of the traffic noise, I hit the sack with the puppies.  This morning came too early.  It's going to be another five hour driving day as I head further North.   This next RV park is an "iffy" one.  One comment said mostly older permanent dumpy rigs right next to the highway.  The alternative is an eight hour driving day, so hopefully I fit right in.