Long Days Driving

The night before Easter we had a potluck with neighbor friends Chuck & Christina, Clayton & Debbie. Paul and Linda were to join us, but ended up with a last minute complication and they couldn’t make it. But Linda sent along two rabbits for the dinner… a veggie tray and a cake! Such fun. After we had all eaten our share, Paul & Linda did manage to come over for a very late dinner.

We celebrated Easter Sunday with a “Sonrise Service” at church – very nice. Music, a short talk, and a nice breakfast. Well done.

Sunday evening we went out to dinner with Clayton & Debbie. I told them it was to pay him back for helping me with an electrical modification I did on the motorhome, but maybe it was more that we just like them!

There are a lot of flowers blooming now, even in our park. Here are a few:

The sky was magnificent on the day we drove off – and the thermometer read 98 degrees! Here’s our home all packed up ready do move…

We were headed to Lincoln, Nebraska, and wanted to be there by Friday evening… so we planned on long days of driving. Leaving Tuesday afternoon, we drove till time for dinner, and ate well in a rest stop. Then on for a bit more driving.

Las Cruses, New Mexico is on the Camino Real. [El Camino Real was a road connecting Mexico City with Santa Fe, parts of California and even Florida] After the Mexican War, in 1849, the area was first settled. The name, “The Crosses,” comes from the marking of graves from an Apache attack.

Just outside Las Cruses, is a beautiful rest stop, with places for RV’s far away from traffic and noise. It also happened to have an awesome view of the city! We had a great night’s sleep, and no fear whatsoever of Apache attacks.

In the morning we could see the mountains beyond the town, some more pretty flowering plants, and…

… and a huge Road Runner! This guy must be 10 feet tall!

We rarely spend nights in rest stops, but with our new batteries we thought we’d give it a try. And not much point in paying for a nice campground if you arrive after dark and leave first thing in the morning. It went so well the first night that we thought we’d try again the second night.

We arrived at a stop outside Amarillo, Texas, just as the sun was setting, and it was really gorgeous. The sunset, that is. The rest stop was just a spur off the side of the highway. We heard plenty of trucks zooming by, seemingly just feet from our motorhome. We figured we were tired enough to sleep through most anything, but I guess we weren’t that tired. It was sort of a long night after a long day…

I tried to capture the essence of that rest stop in photos… maybe you can feel the screaming trucks!

So our third night on the road we decided we deserved a real campground. Wichita, Kansas hosted us with a nice enough spot. Full hookups and a nice area to walk around. Near the office was a little model – looked like a Mini pulling an Airstream. The trailer has its door on the wrong side, so maybe the whole setup is from England. Or Australia? The flag on the wall is a mystery to me, even though I can spot a resemblance to New Mexico in the center. Let me know if you recognize it!

When the sun rose high enough for these interesting shadows, we knew we had to move on… another day’s driving and we’d arrive in Lincoln.

5 comments

  1. Nice update ! Keep us appraised of surviving Nebraskan domestic issues . One more starry nites here in Rodeo then back to Tucson to prep for our departure North . Love to Cherryl .
    Chuck n Christina

  2. Doesn’t sound like a fun trip, but interesting things to catch the eye on the say I’m sure. We have never stayed over night at a roadside rest stop, but had some interesting experiences there such as a car flew over a railing above us and landed upside down and bounced about five times before coming to a stop. It was a family of four (two small children) and everyone was belted well and did fine…just shaken.

  3. The “screaming trucks” came through loud and clear! Looking forward to hearing what’s going on in Nebraska.

  4. It’s so good to see you both here in Lincoln for awhile! Glad you had safe travels!
    DeForest & Dorothy

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