July 24. 2013 our dear camperfriend Pat visited us. She was en route from Yuma, AZ to Gladewater, TX - with her dog Queenie. We never miss an opportunity to meet, even though she gave up camping and sold her motorhome when her husband Sam died in 2004. It has been only for an evening, but we had enough fun to last a couple of months.... The blue behing us is the sky, not mountains. Thunderstorms were all around us. We hardly had noticed that Queenie wanted to be in this picture, too. When Dieter pushed down the shutter, she just had squeezed her head in between us.
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The trip from Deming, NM, to St. David, AZ, I somehow dreaded because of our cat Ellie. All she knows is Deming or the trip to the Vet, but she was going to be relocated, which is not so easy for a territorial cat. But it turned out to be a very easy and relaxing road trip. Our cat meowed a lot when we left our place in Deming, but further down the road she settled down in her carriage.....
We will stay in our Home Resort of Western Horizon Resorts for 3 weeks. http://www.westernhorizonresorts.net/index.php/st-david-rv-resort We are in lot # 157 and are surrounded by bushes in the rear, the end dead against an embankment with many holes in it. Our cat should be fascinated soon by all kinds of ground critters and also birds. Awww - no street noise, no Interstate noise, it is just wonderful...... I will take pictures from our surroundings as soon as possible, today I will only post some pictures I took driving through the "Texas Valley" of southeastern Arizona as well as one picture of our location up in the first level of heights within that resort. Curious rock formations......the landscape you will see in snippets, is located east of Benson Az ( Interstate 10). Driving Dragoon Road is recommended by me, we have been several times in this area throughout our travels, and we also visited the museum there....the pictures taken while driving with about 60 miles per hour cannot give you the right impression about this area, only a personal visit can. If you ever travel I-10 in southern Arizona, slow down and park in the rest area there and put your camera to work... It is not peak season and maintenance work is going on. The heavy rains let sand and dirt run over the streets here because of the 3-elevation level Resort. So I decided to skip the picture hunt and post pictures from here made by me in 2010. Thunderstorms all around us, with only a few drops of rain....Monsun Season.
Sun is setting......just a few seconds earlier I could have catched a big tree-like lightning! Getting those on film is pure luck...... Today we made changes in our Itineraries 2013 page... we want to leave much earlier here than initially planned.
There are several reasons for it but the most important is that we cannot sit outside because of the ever-present winds and high wind gusts, which prevent us from rolling our awning out. We cannot afford to have it damaged and we cannot sit out in the sun. The convenience living here and have Walmart one mile away does not make up anymore for us feeling alone here - no contact to other campers. I tried and introduced ourselves to several, but no response. Hardly anyone is outside besides people walking their dogs shortly. Most campers here are permanent residents and seem to be not interested in traveling ones. We want to be in St. David, AZ for 3 weeks ( it is our Western Horizon Resorts Home Park) and arrive in Florence, AZ on August 05. We pay our lease money there since beginning June anyway. We are aware that the month of August will be still hot, but it will be not more worse than here in Deming in June, where the temps reach their high. We are looking forward to seeing our old lot again. Thunderstorms are somewhere in the neighborhood and winds picked up.
Suddenly we spotted a big tumbleweed ..... I grabbed my camera and catched it showing also our RV in the background. A while later it was gone....... It is getting very warm here in Deming - but not so much as in Florence, AZ.
The difference is about 10 degr. F. Today we will have 102 degr.F., which is about 38 Grad Celsius. That is the shade temperature, of course. Dieter had the long awning out in order to keep the sun from the entrance side to help our air conditioning budget. We knew there were thunderstorms in the forecast with high wind gusts etc. In the afternoon the sky darkened and we heard distant thunder. Dieter was just finished to roll the awning back up and had secured everything, when we noticed that the mountains next to us were shrouded in a desert color.....the wind picked up and with it came the "brown-out", the yellow blizzard of sand. Those sandstorms are something else....we watched the cedars bending down in the howling wind and the visibility was almost zero. We just could see the outline of the trees and the clubhouse, our neighboring white RV's just disappeared.... when it started to subside a little, I took a picture from the entrance door. It can give you only a hint of what happened. Shortly after the rain started. Big drops ( in Las Cruces hail the size of golf balls ) and the sand in the air combined made everything real dirty... Dieter cleaned the steps this morning, a thick layer of brown sand was everywere. The truck got hosed down this morning and the trailer has to wait until the next rain comes.... This Resort on E Pine St is spacious and clean, has two entrances and a huge free area next to it. The ground is packed river stones instead of gravel, the entire place looks very inviting. Wayne in the office is very friendly and people-oriented, he even delivered our forwarded mail personally to our door yesterday.
The Laundry and Restrooms are immaculate, the Exercise Room has the basic machines and the small lounge is really inviting and has a book exchange. All rooms are air-conditioned. In front of the laundry is a wonderful cafe-like seating area.... The reason we are parked here and not in one of the many neighboring resorts is that the price is very affordable. We paid $ 170.00 for one month and our electric is metered. I think the price will go up $ 10.00 in June, but even that is still good. The campers are mostly permanent residents. The traffic noises from Pine Street and from not too far away Interstate-10 are subdued and not disturbing. Even the dogs don't bark. We like it! And for shopping one finds everything needed just around a couple of corners.... After having had a good night in Sierra Blanca, Texas, we reached Deming, NM, yesterday. We had crossed into the Mountain Time Zone and had smooth sailing through the "endless" city of El Paso, TX.
The Welcome Center of New Mexico on I-10 was a delight - Indian Flutes Music inside.... I made some pictures which will be posted underneath ...... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunrise RV Resort is clean and has wide lots. We set up our RV completely and this morning went shopping to Walmart. Next to Groceries we bought everything necessary for our future cat. We could not wait another day - you guessed it - we drove to the Animal Shelter after lunch. The friendly lady in the office showed us 3 cats which fitted our ideas about a cat. Our decision went to a one-year old Tabby who is already over half a year in that shelter, we left a golden tom cat and a jet black recent mommy behind. It looks like we have the same luck we had with our late Susi. Our new Ellie likes petting, she purrs all the time and leaves our Knick-Knack alone.. So far she did not drink or eat or go to the litter box. She has to soak her new surroundings in first...... In 2 days we have an appointment with the Veterinarian to give her shots, and on May 30th the spaying will be done. The picture I took today shows her on our bed, she turned around and stretched while I talked to her. The flash of the camera gives her clear eyes a gray film, but that is only technical...... Ellie gets her own page within this website: http://karinbartsch.weebly.com/our-cat-ellie.html This picture was taken today at the picnic area 12 miles east of Fort Stockton, TX, on I-10. Check-In Time in our RV Resort was 1:00 PM or after, so we had about 45 minutes to kill and decided to rather wait here than in the resort. We just had seated ourselves on the covered bench, when this man walked toward us to say Hi. He identified himself as a Long-Distance Hiker, and he told us that he is on his way entirely by foot to Florida. He had started in New Mexico. Wow - he is 75 years young and by now he walked and hiked all major US National Trails. He was asking to get some water, and we ended up having the most lively conversation while he enjoyed also fresh cool apples and a cup of hot sweet coffee. His Hiker name is NIMBLEWILL NOMAD. We felt very honored to have met this man and he has our admiration. There was an instant bonding in between us nomads in the trailer and him being literally on the road. Kindred spirits..... To give you the opportunity to know him better as a hiker and as a human being, here is his website: http://www.nimblewillnomad.com This is Paisano Pete, the proud Fort Stockton Roadrunner. Remember - everything is big in Texas!! We will stay here for one week, time to do housework and laundry, cleaning etc. The history of Fort Stockton is very interesting. You might google this city to learn about it. Here is one info site about this oversized desert bird: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/1256 The following pictures want to show all who do not know what a "Fifth Wheel" is, how it is connected to our towing truck. The trailer weighs at least 18000 pounds - we are satisfied with the performance of our Chevy Truck from 1999. It is a little slow in the mountains and needs more gasoline fuel as modern ones, but when we bought it in 2007, that was all we could afford.....
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AuthorMy name is Karin Bartsch. Archives
July 2015
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