Date: Wednesday, May 08, 2002 5:05 PM

Subject: Northern Arizona

Greetings,

We arrived in Flagstaff Monday afternoon after a good trip from Tucson. The gas mileage from Tucson to north of Phoenix where got gas on Monday was 12 miles to the gallon. That's great while you are pulling the 5 ton load. Of course, that all changed when we hit the climb to Flagstaff. We changed altitude by 5000 feet so we were going up some pretty good grades. We also found that we had not removed the curse from the truck and trailer. The cabover of the trailer made contact with the truck bed sides somewhere along the line. We stopped for gas and lunch at a Prime Outlet Mall and the drive into the mall and the gas station was pretty steep. I thought I'd managed to negotiate them OK but now we have a small ding in the cabover. I suppose the curse is now officially lifted from both.

Yesterday we visited three National Monuments Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki. The Walnut Canyon National Monument has ruins similar to those we found at Mesa Verde. We took the ridge trail to see some of the ruins from a distance. The Island Trail took you down 285 steps and some 185 feet to a trail around a rock island. The trail was flat and the steps going down wouldn't be bad but the climb out was more than we wanted to try. Maybe the next time.

The other two National Monuments were connected by a loop drive. The Sunset Crater Volcano has an unusual forest floor. The whole area is covered by volcanic cinders. If you looked for dirt it wasn't within a couple of inches of the surface. Yet the Ponderosa Pine forest was thriving except for the current drought that this area is having. They've only had about 1.5 inches of rain since January 1. It's as dry in this area as it was two years ago when we were here. We even found a flower that grows in the cinder fields just like dandelions. It's in the mustard family. The drive around the volcano was beautiful but there was a little apprehension about when it might erupt again. This one is similar to Mt. St. Helens. From this NM you drive about 20 miles or so to the Wupatki and dropped us again in altitude about 2000 feet to the desert floor. The flora changes dramatically in that drop in altitude. The flora changes from Ponderosa Pine to Pinion Pine to Juniper and finally to the cacti on the desert floor.
The ruins at this NM were accessible by a short trail. We walked around them and noted that they two were similar to those we saw at Mesa Verde. Interesting archeological sites all over this area. These NM's are adjacent to the Navajo Nation Reservation.

Today we went back to the Grand Canyon to see the East end of the South Rim that we were not able to see the last time we were in the area due to a wreck on the road leading to Desert View. Mutt & Jeff made the trip today and were ecstatic about going along. Ginger saw a rabbit at Desert View and went nuts trying to chase it. Great views of the Grand Canyon today with full sun and clear skies. There was a haze over the canyon possibly from the early morning moisture (or as some indicate pollution). We had lunch in a Ponderosa Pine forest and had a Raven there begging for food. These birds seem to know that humans are messy and leave things. This bird wasn't afraid of us and just sat on a guard rail squawking at us. The dogs ignored him!!!!!! Pat talked to the volunteer in the museum and found that they have found sites all over the NP with relics from the distant past. They only explore them if they find complete remains of pottery, etc. I think we will need to do some more study on this area and its history before we return again. All in all I think we like the western high country better than the southern Sonoran Desert. However, I think Tucson would be a nice warm place to Winter sometime.

We will be headed east tomorrow. It will take us up to 10 days to get home as we have found that we like to break up the trip every couple of days to just take our time. Right now we plan to go back over I-40 but that could change depending on the weather reports that we get. From what we have seen on the weather channel it looks like Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and parts of Illinois are getting pounded by storms. We'll watch the weather and adjust the route as we go. The trailer will need some repairs when we get home so it will be of to Colerain Trailer for the Safety recall. I'll have to repair the dinning table electrical outlet as the plastic ears holding it in place broke. You know there may be one more trailer in our life. Time to get this on the phone lines if I can beat the computer and modem into submission. See you all in a couple of weeks.

Pat & Dave

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Subject: West of the Rio Grande

Howdy again,

Pat & I blew into Tucson yesterday in the late afternoon EDT and early afternoon MST. There is a three hour time difference between here and home so it makes it hard to do things on EDT and still have meals at a decent hour.

We left Carlsbad on Monday after a very nice stay there. We traveled over US 62 to El Paso where we picked up I-10 and headed west again. OK, so now we can say we were in El Paso but that's all we can say. From what we saw there's not much reason to visit there unless you wanted to cross the boarder to Mexico. The road (US 62) was nice and smooth with very little traffic. The pass at Guadalupe was a non event for trailer pulling since it was a descent for us. The rest of the trip to El Paso was essentially straight and flat until we actually got to El Paso. There was a twenty mile section that crossed what seemed like a very large salt lake bed. At least that was what the color reminded us of. When we picked up I-10 at El Paso we also picked up a lot of traffic that we hadn't had to deal with for two weeks. The wind started to pick up since it was after lunch and that's the usual time for things to get windy. Since these were west and south west winds they took a toll on the old gas mileage and handling of the rig. Monday night was a stop in Deming, NM. Another place not to write home about. I-10 was a decent road and we were only stopped once by the Boarder Patrol. These folks take things seriously! All west bound traffic was routed off the expressway and through the check point. We were waved on through since the officer saw our two hounds. I guess that they figured Ohio plates, two dogs and two old people weren't much of a threat for illegal immigrants. Another 30 or so miles down the road we blew into Deming for the night. Pat thought that "reservations" would be a good idea so we went to a local steak house. OK meal but you could tell it was range beef.

Since Tuesday was supposed to get very windy we left at sunrise as they say. The landscape changed some as we crossed into Arizona. The desert that we had seen cacti and little else turned into more low trees and even some fruit and nut tree farms. Still desert, mind you but with a little more green. The welcome station was just another rest area but welcome none the less. Those cups of coffee just seem to multiply as the wander through the body. Pat was walking the dogs but didn't see the sign that said the area was home to some poisonous creatures like snakes and scorpions. When I pointed that out she was not a happy camper (I guess traveler at this point). Guess who got to walk the dogs then. We stopped for lunch east of Benson, AZ at a quiet and cool rest area up in the mountains. The rocks here are different than the ones we had seen at Carlsbad. Much more boulder like rather than the flat rocks from southern NM. This was also the place we had to make a decision on where to stay. We originally had planned to stay in Benson rather than in Tucson. Cell phones are great. Here we are out in the middle of nowhere and called the Beaudry RV Resort in Tucson to see if they had space and what their rates were. Well, they had lots of room and the rates were going down May 1 due to the summer season. That clinched it, we could stay in Tucson for just a little more than we would pay at Benson. Little did we know when we decided to stay here that the place looked like a desert version of the Fort Wilderness Campground at Disney World. Not quite as much room between sites but very clean and neat. This is a resort! Pool, laundry, Cafe' and all the trimmings. Almost like checking into a hotel. Pat decided that since we had traveled a bit in the wind again that "reservations" would be nice again. I may have to get another job after this trip is over. We had salmon and halibut for dinner, which were very good. The place even has a little entertainment (singing folks, singing!). 

This morning I got to see the first Arizona sunrise in two years. It was 8:00 EDT but 5:00 MST. Oh, I forgot, Last night was a beautiful sunset. I hope the photos came out OK. I'll try to send it by E mail later. Monard, we thought that you had come out here. The guy who did the entertainment last night looked a lot like you, hat & beard. Today, we contacted Tabatha and she and Grant are to have dinner with us tomorrow night here at the resort. We found the necessary stuff this morning, that's food and a Wal-Mart. Tomorrow we will go to the Saguaro National Park, East Unit. We'll probably get to the west unit another day. Tabatha also suggested the Southwestern Desert Museum, so we'll get to that too.

Time to stop and put this in the outbox. We have phone service at the site. We just need to pick up a phone cord and figure out how to connect it up. Keep your heads down in the crummy weather you are having. Could y'all possibly get it out of the area before we get home?

Blessings - Pat & Dave

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Date: Saturday, April 27, 2002 11:10 AM

Subject: West of the Pecos

Greetings,

It's Saturday morning here and the sunrise was great. I saw a piece of it since Ginger notified me she had to go out or else. This is another day of high wind warnings in the southern part of New Mexico. Yesterday there were gusts to nearly 60 mph. I think Eddy County (that's where we are) was the only one to not have a high wind warning or a severe thunderstorm warning. It was still windy though till after midnight. Today the Guadeloupe Pass is supposed to have wind gusts to 70 mph. Just think, we have to go through that pass on Monday.

This week I spent some time working on my ham antennas for the trailer and managed to get the screw driver ant. to load on all bands except 17, 12 and 10 meters. I even made a contact with a station that was just south of the Oregon boarder in California. Well that means that I still have some experimenting to do in order to get the low bands ant. to work on all of them. The two meter ant. works just fine if you remember to attach it to the right ant. output on the transceiver. Maybe I don't do this often enough to get good at it. The local repeater is extremely quiet. The only sound you hear most of the time is the cw identifier.

I also spent some time checking out the underside of the trailer and adding fender washers to all the underbelly mounting screws I could get to. We don't want a repeat of last year and drag something for 50 miles. I wanted to add a couple of additional screws in some locations but I broke two drill bits in the process. This thing has tough steel for a frame. When we hit town today for some shopping I'll have to replace them.

Yesterday we visited the Guadeloupe Mountains National Park. This park is not very developed and has a visitor's center, trails and a couple of outside exhibits. We had lunch under the persimmon trees at the Frijoles Ranch. This ranch was settled around 1870 by a couple of brothers by the name of Rader. That perked up Pat's interest since she has been dabbling in genealogy. For those of you that don't know, Pat's family has a Rader connection i.e.. Mamaw and Dadoo. The brothers were there until the very early 1900's and then the ranch was purchased by the Smith family. They had gas lights in the house and outhouse (flush potties in this one) with the gas supplied by a gas generator using carbide and water. The acetylene could have provided a big bang I guess. The interpreter was out to lunch when we got there so we were not able to get inside the house to see the displays there. I did see three wood stoves and an old claw foot bathtub in the storage shed. Those of you that remember Six Gun Theater on Saturdays, are aware of all the wind sounds that accompanied the different scenes. Well, this location could have been used for some of those old western flicks. As we left the ranch we could see with the binoculars a wind farm on a ridge several miles away up in the pass. These folks are making good use of alternate energy. One other thing, in the storage shed were a couple of very old wet cell batteries so at some time during the 1870 to 1947 time span that the ranch was occupied they had DC for lighting.

The other spot we stopped at was McKittrick Canyon. There's just a small visitor center here with restrooms and a first aid station. This place is used as the jumping off point for several back country trails. We didn't think we were up to hiking 5 or so miles up into the mountain and canyon. What really clinched it was Pat saw a sign about rattle snacks. That was it no hiking where there are rattlers.

Today is domestic day again with shopping and cleaning to do. With all the wind out here you can imagine the quantity of dust that has accumulated on things in the last two weeks. Not to mention the Hannah fur that sticks to everything except Hannah. We plan to leave here on Monday at sunrise as they say. We are headed for Las Cruces, NM then make our way west to Tuscon. We aren't sure exactly when we will get there since we have gotten used to moving on when the spirit moves us. No schedules is great. After Tuscon we will make our way back home. That route is a bit uncertain as we plan to try and miss the wind and thunderstorms as best we can. We may go north through Colorado to Wyoming and head east through Nebraska. However, like I said the weather may dictate the actual route. The wind is again coming up so it's time to send this while I can connect to the Fuse server.

Pat & Dave

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Subject: New Mexico Sunsets

Greetings from the desert southwest,

Yes, I know I can't figure out how to spell desert. Well last night was a special dessert and treat. We were again treated to a New Mexico sunset. The sky went from bright yellow to gold to orange and then to all the hues of red and purple that you can think of. The clouds were streaked across the sky in fantastic patterns with all the coloration mentioned above. Wow! What a treat! I only hope that some of the pictures turn out.

Yesterday we took off with Mutt & Jeff to visit White Sands National Monument. This wasn't exactly a short trip since we went about 150 miles west over the mountains to Alamogordo, NM. The dogs liked being along except that the first 90 miles of road were not Ginger approved. She seems to think that all roads should be smooth as glass otherwise she can't sleep. The terrain was very interesting. In 70 miles we went from desert plains to Alpine forested mountain tops. While the desert has become somewhat uninteresting to drive through, the trip through the ski areas was a welcome change. The other side of the mountain went from 8550 feet in altitude to around 4000 feet in about 16 miles. Now that's a bit of a slope. We may decide to drag the 5th wheel over another route. There doesn't seem to be a way to avoid the mountain passes and the steep grades without going a couple of hundred miles to the north then turn west again and finally south to Tucson.

The sand at the Monument is gypsum rather than silicon. Believe me it is white! Even with a partly cloudy sky you had to wear your sun glasses all the time. The park road is 8 miles long and ends in an area for picnics and trails that you can hike. You might have thought there had been snow over night because the road was plowed just like after a snow storm. With the winds of the last week I can see why the roads needed to be plowed. We took the dogs up and down a couple of dunes and they had a ball. These dunes were a whole lot easier to climb than Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan. There you seemed to slide back a step for each two forward. At White Sands the sand was hard enough in some places that you could walk on top of it. As with all sand dunes this place keeps changing with the wind. There were several school classes there doing the sand surfing thing. Shoot, it's just like snow sledding. All the plants there eventually get covered with the shifting sand. Some of them grow fast enough that they can last for a year or so but normally all of them succumb to the moving dunes. The picnic area has tables under some metal shelters scattered over a wide area which made it nice to have a lunch. Mutt & Jeff like lunch! There is a warning in the NM map book that warns of losing your bearings among the dunes since once you are off the road they all look alike. Also, some of the dunes are covered in plants and some of them are just pure sand. A nice contrast and we saw the desert verbena in bloom.

We passed Holloman Air Force base and were reminded of the housing we stayed in during our tour of duty in Hawaii. The housing area looked a whole lot like the new housing we built on NAVCOMSTA, Wahiawa. It brought back some nice memories for me at least. The area that the White Sands is in is part of the White Sands Missile Range along with the AFB. It seems that a couple times a week they close the park and Hwy. 70 for a little shooting practice or is that missile tests. Fortunately we weren't there at one of those times.

The last of the rally folks left this morning except one. This place was Excel City for a few days. I had a chance to talk to several Duramax owners and to a person they said they loved them ( I didn't talk to the Ford folks). One family was from Alaska and on his first trip with the truck. He was so enthusiastic that his wife commented that you couldn't tell that he loved that truck. Another was from South Dakota and yet another from Texas. Yup, it does seem that there is a good reason to have a diesel truck for towing out here. (I would think the mountain we went across yesterday would confirm that!) Oh yes I will need to save me money.

Time to get this off and pick up the rest of the E mails. Tabatha, what is your address and where is it in Tucson?

Pat & Dave 

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Pat & Dave

P.S. We'll attempt some pictures with the next update.

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Date: Monday, April 08, 2002 12:18 PM

Subject: The Long Journey

Greetings from Bowling Green, Ky,

Mom & I made it to Bowling Green last night about 5:30. The wind was blowing pretty good yesterday but not as bad as today. The sustained winds today are at 30 mph with gust up to 40. It seems that we are supposed to get heavy rain tonight (like up to 2 - 3 inches). I think we made the right choice to sit out one day here to catch up on the de-winterizing of the 5th wheel. So far all systems are a go, knock on wood.

The gas mileage yesterday was not so hot with the wind and the hills. We are running about 8 mpg or a little less. We should be getting 9 or so. The good news is that we found gas in Louisville for $1.32/gal. and we filled up this morning here in Bowling Green for $1.21/gal. at a BP no less. Now if we can just keep in that price range, we'll be OK. Some of the drop in mileage could also be that we were sailing down the road at 65 mph. Tough on mileage with the big frontal area of the 5th wheel. Seems to me I remember something about that from Physics or Fluid Mechanics.

Mom picked up Post Cards this morning for the KOA and Bowling Green so Anneke's collection for this trip is started. Is there anything else you folks want us to be on the lookout for? We stopped by the original Camping World this morning. Not much of a place the ones in Michigan and Arizona were much bigger. I think that Colerain RV has more room. We found some of the lights that you were looking for Heather, the ones with the globes. It looks like they use a version of the bulbs that are on the Christmas lights. If you want us to pick some up, let us know and we will see what we can get at the next one.

Here's the plan for tomorrow, we hope. If the wind dies down tonight to the 10 to 15 mph, we plan to move on to Memphis. We might stay at the Memphis East KOA if it is decent. If not there is a Holiday Travel Resort about 25 miles west of Memphis that we will probably try. If the wind keeps up like it is now, we plan on staying here another day to let the weather pass. The forecast is much better for the middle to end of the week. From Memphis we will travel across Arkansas, through Oklahoma and Texas to New Mexico. When we get there we'll figure out the rest of the trip. Tucson is on the agenda.

Thanks again for taking care of the house and the Tuesday Dinners. Gretchen I hope you can make contact with Charles or Schlon better than we did. It seems they were home when we weren't and gone when we were home. We plan on picking up our E mail every couple of days if at all possible and let you know where we are. Check with each other to see that I have the right E mail addresses.

Mom & Dad

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