The Wandering Camels: TX to AZ

December 19-31, 2021

We left Carrollton TX on a beautiful Sunday morning, light traffic and soon DFW was in our rearview mirror, though we couldn’t tell since the house was behind us. A 393-mile ride, our longest planned drive day for the rest of the trip, found us pulling into Out West RV Resort in Monahan TX. This is a brand new RV park and the nicest looking place for many miles. While I wouldn’t put it in the resort category it is very nice though for the larger big rigs this park's sites are just a little short. We unhook at every stop, to get diesel, so the sites worked for us no problem. I10 noise was minimal inside, a place we would stay again if we find ourselves in the area.

The next morning found us ready for our 308-mile ride to Leasburg Dam State Park, north of Las Cruces NM. This is our second visit here, for $18/night for W/E it’s a nice place for a layover. An early afternoon arrival gave us time for a walk around the park. We then headed into Las Cruces for fuel for the truck and us. We ended up at High Desert Brewing Company, Dave enjoyed his beers and the food wasn’t bad.

Site 19

No swimming

No fishing

No problem-No water

Of course there's always a Geocache to find

The next morning we had a slow start, our travel day would be less than 100 miles. We enjoyed a slow morning, with no motion detector going off alerting us of the customer. Our short drive day found us at Rockhound State Park in Deming NM. We enjoyed a 2 night stay there, getting out on the trail, getting some groceries purchased and a wonderful dinner at Irma’s. We were here 8 years ago, it’s still as good as it was the first time.

Another Geocache!!

Our 270-mile ride to Picacho Peak State Park wasn’t an uneventful ride. We stopped at a travel stop to get some fresh pistachios, when we tried to get into the RV the lock wouldn’t release. This is a new lock mechanism as we replaced the assembly while on the Christmas tree lot. We ended up using the bathrooms at the travel center. Soon after getting back on the interstate, our tire pressure monitor started going off, one of our tire's pressure was spiking, then we heard a pop, and the same tire’s pressure was plummeting. In the passenger-side mirror, Dave saw the fender flapping, we were soon pulled over on the side of I10, our tire had delaminated. Thankfully the issue was on the RV door side so Dave had space to work without worrying. I had to get a few things out of the basement on the off-door side so I had to watch the traffic while getting the bar to lower the spare tire, thankfully most pulled out to give us (me) space to get into the basement. 25 minutes later we had the tire changed and we were back on the road. Our spare tire is an original tire so it was 8+ years old, thankfully it held up and we made it safely to our destination. We got set up, thankfully no hydraulic lines were damaged, regrouped, and then headed over to our friends Curt and Glenda’s new home. After our stressful day, homemade dinner, a beer or two for Dave, and cards with these great friends were just what we needed.

Just what was needed after that day

Christmas Eve was a sweatpant day, we went for a walk on the trail alongside the park’s main road. It was a nice relaxing day, getting a few things made for Christmas day, watching shows without being interrupted. Christmas Day started with family phone calls, and just got better with dinner with great friends and some fun card games.

Since then we’ve seen our friends Steve and Cathy who we first met on our Alaska trip in 2016. They have purchased a home in Green Valley, south of Tucson. We’ve seen them around the country over the years and this is as close to them we’ll get this winter. They, like many new homeowners, are waiting for the arrival of their furniture, they did have a dining room table and chairs so we were able to get a card game in. We’ll check in on them again when we come through here at the end of March.

We stopped in at Discount Tire to see about new sneakers for the RV and to scout out their location. We set up an appointment for Wednesday morning at 8:00am though they suggested we get there before 7:30. Here at Picacho Peak State Park, there is only electricity and no place to take on water in the park. So Wednesday morning became dump and take on water morning too. When setting up the appointment Dave inquired about the possibility of taking on the water there, the answer was yes. Score, no need to find another place to stop while out with the RV. We now have 5 new tires for the RV, we should be good for a while. Now to keep an eye on the small hydraulic leak Dave found evidence of when inspecting the tires on Tuesday. The manager of Discount Tire found Dave a pace to get new hydraulic lines made if we end up needing one. Still to be determined but we appear to be good for now, no evidence of leakage since we brought the RV home from Discount Tire.

Meanwhile, we’ve been enjoying time with Curt and Glenda, though the weather hasn’t cooperated much, it’s been cold, gloomy, and rainy. None of that AZ sunshine to be found for the time we’ve been here so far. One day we wandered around an RV dealer lot, afterwards, we ended up at Barrio Brewing Company where Dave and Curt enjoyed beer and we all enjoyed some good food.