A New Day

Waking up in the desert is something most people don't know about, nor will they ever experience it.

In its intensity of an overall feeling it is comparable to waking up at a beach hearing waves rolling ashore.

There is the smell, the morning chill and the sounds or absence of such respectively.

I was up at 6am and the first curious look out the window was confirming that we would be having a glorious day of sunshine. The sun hadn't reached above the horizon just yet, but an orange glow had appeared announcing the sunrise.

I let Dixie out and I noticed that the air was quite cold. During winter months cold mornings are common in the desert. Within 1 hour I had thrown off my jacket. 30 minutes later we were already heading out on our traditional morning walk, down the camp ground and up again at the irrigation canal. By then I felt overdressed. Long pants were exchanged with shorts and the sweater came off as well.

First thing on today's agenda was a short drive to Holtville to get cash from an ATM and some drinking water. Of course I had to give in to the temptation and stopped at the Mexican Donut store. Their huge otherworldly donuts are worth every penny. And besides of donuts, they are also serving anything from breakfast sandwiches to full-blown dinners, also available as take-aways.  I also paid a visit to the local grocery market for milk, some vegetables and fruit. Then I dropped into a car wash to give the van a rinse as it was covered in grime from the day-long journey.
At the hot springs I filled another container with hot water which I later used to clean up the trailer with.

A check on the power gauge confirmed that our solar panels did what they are supposed to do - charging the batteries.

I started the inverter and we got 120V going right away.

Bea decorated our mini-Christmas trees and later I hung the solar lights.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing in the sun, listening to my favorite music which is "American Song Book".

I can receive radio channels on my phone and beam it via Bluetooth to the built-in stereo of our player.

After supper, which was chicken and rice, we went to visit fellow campers around the camp fire, where the most outstanding new travel stories were shared and most of the world's problems were "solved".

This is more or less a typical day in the desert, though there are also lots of other things we can do such as drives to a variety of local attractions, visiting flea markets, and attending events in the nearby towns.

An important part of camp life here at the hot springs is - the Hot Spring and its free use of hot shower or soaking in a hot tub. Where else can one do that?

Sorry, not many pictures today.

Dixie hoping for a "hand-out".

The Arrival

After a cold night, (-3C) we woke up around 6am in this beautiful rest area along the I-10.

Being a bit lazy, we weren't ready to roll out on the highway before 7:30. The drive towards Yuma,AZ was uneventful. Beautiful blue sky and bright sun was what we had been longing for.

Tucson

After well one hour we reached Tucson.

Pima Airplane Park

Traffic wasn't bad, probably because many people were still enjoying a Thanksgiving breakfast with family. The desert out here is almost lush green. 

Brittle Bush is blooming along the road shoulders.

At Gila Bend it was time for lunch. The local Shell Station also features a dump station, and although the holding tanks were far from being full, we emptied them right there. 

Now, I want to also say a warning to those who happen to drop in at this station for gas. 

Don't!!

Arizona gas prices have always been higher than in Texas, but this station orients its pricing after fuel prices in California. Today they were asking 4.79/gal. which is at least $1.40 above the price we paid in the Tucson area. Even as Shell in Gila Bend was the most expensive locally, other stations also charged way above $4.00/gal. We knew this when we got there, so we didn't have to fill up again. So, if you don't like to overpay for gas, just don't go there!

Cotton field along I-10

Yuma agriculture

After lunch we had about 2.5hrs driving left to reach Holtville. But we also wanted to stop by a Walmart in Yuma for some supplies. The latter proved to be dumb idea.

The foothills Walmart does not feature a huge parking lot and today was the day when absolutely no parking space was available. Not even for a single car! We just moved the rig along the building marveling about people being so incredibly in need of something that they would spend hours in a Walmart.

Before getting out of Arizona and entering California we wanted to fill up with fuel. Our App "Gas Buddy" recommended Loves Travel Stop with a gas price of $3.69/gal. 

When we got there we became witness of something I can only describe as pandemonium. Never in my life have I seen such a chaotic gas station. With our 32ft trailer and an overall length of 56ft, I could just barely make it off the road to get a place in line to a pump. People were losing patience everywhere, and I heard a lot of choice words. Mind you, people do behave strange when they eye a chance to save 5 bucks at a gas station. 

After getting what we came for, I was wondering how to maneuver the rig out of this melee. Then I discovered an opening towards the truck parking behind the station. I quickly passed across and over to that space and slipped through without a scratch. We then left the station in between the semis.

Less than an hour later we reached the Holtville Hot Springs LTVA, where we had spent quite a number of winters before. 

We said a brief hello to the host and found our old space still being available.

We felt a huge relief, and I swear I saw a big smile on Dixie's face. She immediately inspected the places where she had spent the previous     winter behind the   bushes.

We had barely finished setting up camp when the first neighbour came over for a chat. Gerald had escaped the bitter cold prairie of Saskatchewan and we had to catch up with one another for a while. 

It does get dark early here, and so it was time for supper, which Bea had prepared while I had been outside chatting with Gerald. 

Tonight, we will enjoy a super quiet night and we know that we will have a blue sky and a sunny day again tomorrow.

The Adventure Continues

The Escape

One could call it that, at least it felt like it.

Yesterday evening we were full of questions about just how long we would have to wait for better travel weather. The wind was having a good time with the tie-down of our solar panels, but we were tired enough to ignore the noise.

This morning it felt like a bad winter day, hardly any discernable day light, when I glanced out the window. Rain coming down on the roof. I checked the weather forecast. It looked gloomy. Snow across the mountains, but not much wind.

We talked it over and I think it was Bea saying: "Ok, let's go".

So we had a quick breakfast and got packing. Before I had the last jacks up, I was drenched. 

A short stop at the local gas station and away we went onto the I-10.

It's getting dicey

It didn't take long until we were driving in snow. But luck would have it that 2 semis were "plowing" the right lane for the following traffic, so we kinda hung on to them. The highest point turned out to be 4500ft. 

As we proceeded towards Van Horn the snow turned into rain, even though some still came down as sleet. But we had gotten across the worst part of the summit.

Cars and trucks waiting at a Border Patrol Check Point

It continued raining almost all the way into El Paso, where suddenly the sun popped out. 

Another hour up the I-10 and we were approaching Las Cruces. Looking east we saw snow covered mountain tops. But the I-10 turns west and towards Deming and Lordsburg. By then we had a blue sky and a bright sun.

We felt so happy, we could have started singing. The landscape was so familiar, how many times had we driven along here? 

The "not-so-grand" RIO GRANDE at Las Cruces

The San Andres Mountains at Las Cruces

Eventually, we passed the welcome sign of Arizona and as the sun had started its descent we pulled into a rest area where we found a great place away from truck parking.

From here, it is only 6hrs driving time left before we will be settling in for the winter.

Even Dixie must have noticed that mom and dad were more happy, at least she went all tail wagging along the rest area.

We made a couple of phone calls to dear neighbours at home, letting them know about the good outcome of our latest road adventure.

It Wasn't Really An Emergency, But It Could Have Been

He who travels can tell the stories.

We had an extremely peaceful night and I admired the near complete darkness outside. Oh and the smell and quiet of the desert....

Western Bluebird

Starting out at around 9am, it was drizzling again - at first. 

A stripe of hope

But eventually the dawn of hope appeared at the horizon. Was it an omen? You be the judge.

 

A T-Rex in town?

We had a nice rest-stop, took a few pictures and - and then I discovered that the rear passenger side trailer tire looked a little flat.

Checking with my gauge, I was horrified when it showed just 15PSI. That thing was almost flat.

What to do? 

Slowly, we drove on to the next little town, which was Sanderson just 2 miles down the highway. A gas station was closed and their coin-operated air compressor was out of order. Close by, we discovered an RV-Park. 

Waiting for help but scared of another T-Rex

We moved the rig in there, but nobody was around. I checked the spare tire, but it was low on air as well.

So we called our roadside assistance provider Coach-Net. After the 3rd time that they called us back, it became clear that they couldn't find anybody being open for business as on Thanksgiving just about everything is closed in this country. So we set up camp.

When entering the park I had seen a parked Highway Patrol car in front of a small building, but nobody around there either.

Suddenly a 2nd. patrol cruiser came in. I went over explaining the situation and the officer broke out a small air compressor. Would it work?

These 2 officers were our heroes today

He moved his cruiser over to our trailer and we started up the little thingy. It took quite a while, but eventually it showed 50PSI. 

These officers were so nice and I thanked them over and over for their help. 

We could pull out on the road again and drove 63miles to Ft.Stockton. There I checked air pressure again and the tire was down to 20PSI again. It appeared to have a small hole. On the way in to town we had seen what looked like an open tire shop. Going back to it, there was indeed someone busy there.

This small Mexican-style outfit repaired our tire and now we got back on the road again for the 2nd time.  

Meanwhile, Bea had found bad news for our further plans to get to Las Cruces. A winter storm coming down from the Northeast would bring strong winds, rain and even up to 6" of SNOW. I was petrified.

Ok, about an hour from Ft.Stockton is Balmorhea State Park where we had stayed years ago. We could make it over there and wait out the storm, right?

WRONG!

The park turned out to be "under renovation" and was not allowing overnight stays. Of course, this is just government employees who are not allowed to think themselves, cause there would have been lots of room everywhere, and, as I pointed out to them, we would not require any services.

Instead they pointed us to a number of RV-parks in town. Alright, we backtracked 4 miles through town and found a graveled site with a few sites with full hook-ups. Only one other rig was sitting there. Instead of a staffed office they had a phone # on a sign. However, calling the number was quite useless as they had an answering service in place, but you couldn't even leave a message as the mailbox was full. Good gracious!

Nevertheless, we set up camp, hooked up to power and water and started the furnace. Not a good site for Dixie has the area is full of spikey goat head seeds.

Now, the outlook for now is not good. Tonight the winter storm will start up, bringing rain and snow. As the I-10 runs up to over 6,891ft there could 6" of snow could accumulate, and it would be snowing all day tomorrow. So it looks like we'll have to spend a 2nd. and 3rd. night here in the town of Balmorhea, TX. For Saturday a strong wind (storm) promises an average of 40km/h speed, which will make it impossible to continue up over the mountains.

Sunday, however we have a chance to finally leaving Texas, which means spending 2 full days in this gravel paradise.

This odyssey is about getting to me. How much bad luck can there be in store for us?

Of course, as bad as it sounds, we are in a safe place, we have food, heat and a full hook-up, and so far not even anybody we can pay for our stay here. 

So rethinking today's happenings, I came to the conclusion that all of this could have ended in a real emergency, but thank to our luck, it didn't. Just the thought of being broken down along a busy highway with possibly no cell reception, scares the bejesus out of me. My next purchase will be one of these small air compressors.