Final Blog for 2008 Trip : Aussies on tour - instalment #20

Although this wasn't the end of our 2008 trip, due to computer prob's and time constraints, no more blogs were written about our fantastic trip. We will try and improve our 'blogging' on our 2009 trip!:

When we arrived at Hot Springs we discovered that McDonalds besides having wifi, had a large parking area at the rear, after checking that it was ok to stay there overnight we setup. This was really convent as we could “Skype” home later in the evening, McDonalds had tables and chairs outside which was great, lovely warm night. Also convenient was the Laundromat over the other side of the road, which we made use of the next day. The only thing that was not so good was the lack of footpaths in the area. We walked to the local food store which we could manage for most of the way, through long grass on the verges, however when we had to cross the river on the bridge this did provide us with a challenge, I don’t think that walking is a favorite pastime in this area as the dual lane traffic was up close and personal. All around this area they lay claim to some relationship to former US president Bill Clinton he was born here, grew up here, went school here etc. The drive from Hot Springs to Little Rock was interesting despite the fact we were on a major highway. The road in parts was blasted out of the mountain creating mini canyons. We followed the 70 to little Rock through lush green country side. We bypassed Little Rock and found the Camping World store and stayed the night there; they were kind enough to provide power. We were trying to make up time to meet up with our UK friends Dave & Janet in Memphis, although we still did not travel on the 40, as per usual we chose a parallel more scenic road, this time we were on the 72. Although the drive was through flat country, it was green farm land growing mainly corn and rice; we came across a rice co-operative which was something we did not expect to see. Prior to reaching Memphis we rejoined the 40 and the hurly burly of the big trucks and fast cars. The border between Arkansas and Tennessee is the Mississippi River which has a large steel bridge at least half a mile long, we had to cross this bridge three times as we continued to miss the correct off ramp, and like all freeways in large cities once you make a mistake it is difficult to get back on track. We eventually made it across and to our destination, which was an RV park on Elvis Presley Boulevard, only two blocks from Graceland’s. Dave and Janet were in the drive ahead of us booking in. After setting up and catching up we went for a walk around the area. We came across a supermarket called Piggly Wiggly, we found out that they are a chain across neighboring states that started in Memphis, so not only did Elvis originate from here but also Piggly Wiggly. The following day we walked to Graceland’s. This is a huge industry for the area, we had no intention or desire to visit it originally, but since Dave was so keen on it had beer in their itinerary from the beginning and it gave us the opportunity to meet up with them again, we thought why not? It is so big, that I think perhaps I will leave it for our next newsletter to write more about it.
Until then Brian & Michele
We are currently in Cortez CO.

Aussies on tour - instalment #19

The next day’s drive was through to Mena on the 71 was lush and tropical and is the commencement of the Ouachita Mountains. The towns on this route were insignificant, but the scenery made up for this. We turned off the 71 onto the 80 and drove through a valley containing what must have been the poultry capital of America because they were all along the valley. There weren’t many pull offs along this road suitable for an overnight spot, so we finished up driving into Danville. We thought that we could perhaps find the local park to stay at overnight. We couldn’t find it but as we were driving around we noticed a man working in his garden, we asked him if he knew where it was. He scratched his head and thought for a while and said that we couldn’t be further away from it. He then suggested that we follow him and he would show us. We followed him across town and we arrived there we found a very large recreation area including baseball field where there was a game in progress. Our guide pointed to the different areas and facilities. He must have realized that we were going to stay there overnight, as he said that the police usually make sweeps through at night but if anybody asks, tell them that Alderman…………said it would be ok. The night was extremely hot so we left the door open. Sometime during the night we were woken up by torches shining in the door, a loud two way radio making registration checks, and the men in blue asking “what y’all doing here”. If I had been more awake I would have said “trying to sleep”. They eventually left saying that we don’t usually see people here at night and “Y’all take care now”. Haven’t been caught in a police raid for some time! After leaving Danville we drove along the 27 through mountains covered with tall Pine trees, once again picture post card country! Had lunch at one end of Lake Ouachita, which is a huge expanse of water covering many square miles, it was so nice we spent a few hours there. After lunch we joined the 270 and drove to a COE campsite on lake Ouachita, magnificent setting right on the lake with forests all around, power, hot showers, all life’s luxuries. We stayed there for two nights. Another great thing about the COE campsites is that they have a late checkout time 3.00/4.00 PM. We only drove a few miles down the road when we saw a sign for another COE campsite; we drove in to have a look. It was six miles in on a windy, but beautiful road. When we arrived we decided to stay the night here. This one had most of the amenities of a resort, including a restaurant. Once we had set up, connected power, water sewer etc, our neighbor came over and ask us which part of California we were from. After the usual explanation he was quite intrigued with us. Because it was hot he offered to take us out on the lake on his “barge”, he said we will “make our own breeze”. So after only having been there about an hour, here we were out on this beautiful lake with total strangers having a great time. Tomorrow we would leave and never see them again, not even an exchange of phone numbers. It’s amazing the people you meet on the road.
Currently at Charma NM
Till next time, Brian & Michele

Aussies on tour - instalment #18

The Wright Patman Lake area was created by damming a river to create a huge manmade lake. Where there have been projects of this type undertaken by the Corps Of Engineers( COE )they often set up areas for public use, which include picnic areas and camp grounds. They all have amenities, shower block, power, water, sewer hookup, at more than competitive prices. They are a gem, perhaps a hidden secret. It was then time to cross the border and enter Arkansas pronounced Ar Kansas by our good friend Ed in Albuquerque. Drove though beautiful lush green countryside until we came across Doddridge, there we found a small area that is used for an annual fair, consequently all the little stall shelters etc had power in them, which for us was fantastic considering the extreme heat that we were experiencing, this made for an enjoyable stay.
The next morning I telephoned HP to try again to resolve the computer problems. Because I only have the mobile phone and to talk to somebody, you have to go through a long and tedious menu for about 10/15 minutes, then you get through to India at a call rate of 15cent per minute and you can be on the line for an excess of an hour. We had to go to the Post Office that morning, I explained my situation, and asked if I could use their telephone as it was a toll free number from a land line. This was ok, however my problem was not resolved, the support person in India said, he wanted to see the computer connected to the internet and speak to me on the phone at the same time. Big challenge!! We headed towards Texarkana for fuel and called into a McDonalds to send out a newsletter, because of the number of recipients, I send them in three batches. After the first batch was sent the computer froze, it would not respond at all. I did the usual restart procedure without any luck. We then tried to find a Best Buy to see if the “Geek Squad” could help to resolve the problem. Once again with no GPS and a fairly large town the task was somewhat difficult. When we did finally find them, their first thoughts was how much to charge us to retrieve our data, fortunately we managed to talk them out of that and they did retrieve some of the data. The difficult one was all my email contacts; they assured me that if they backed up the entire program, they would be able to retrieve the contacts later. After about four hours they completed a system restore, so far so good, of course all the programs were gone, they then tried to restore my email contracts list, you have probably guessed by now, another hour or so, time for a shift change and there will be a “super geek “ here tomorrow. We spent the night in the Target parking lot close by to Best buy, for an early start.
During the night we experienced a storm with large hail stones, torrential rain and thunderstorms etc. We did have television reception that night and programs were continually interrupted with warnings of storms. Next morning after surviving the ordeals of the weather we went back to “super Geek” at Best Buys, another hour and a half later and much sweating from the geek informed me that they must be in there some ware, but he can’t find them, we decided to cut our losses and head out of town, and reinstall programs myself,and get the computer up and running again.
We crossed the border back into Arkansas. We found a great over nighter on a huge river system at a boat ramp car park, the only disconcerting issue was the sign at the water’s edge saying “beware of the alligators. After reading this notice ,when I walked by the long grass and heard a rustle it made me a little nervous. The next day we continued along the 71 , we drove through Dequeen,managed to picked up wifi at the rear of a local restaurant. We drove out to Dequeen Lake where we had lunch; this is another COE recreation area. That night we stayed at Vandervoort,a very friendly small town. The area includes their local ball park and recreation reserve. There was power and water here also. Made the most of some time out from driving and finished the wiring of the van to improve the coach battery charge, and also made the job easier being parked on nice green grass. During the night we were sitting outside and mystified by flashes of light all around us and in the trees, we figured that they must have been fireflies, which we had never seen before.We are so far behind with the news because of the computer problems and being a tourist as well so i will include where we currently are, at the bottom of each update.
At present we are in a National forest park just outside Taos NM on our way to Colorado.

Aussies on tour - instalment #17

The reason there has been a delay in sending out news items, is due to recurring computer problems. For this reason, I have a couple of recommendations if you are considering purchasing a computer.....

My recommendation # 1

Do not purchase anything from Best Buys as they have substituted the word service in the saying After sales Service with the word “money”. At the last Best Buys I called into which was in Charlotte South Carolina they said that it would cost me $190 to do a full diagnostic test on the computer, could maybe reduce it slightly because I had purchased it from them. I bought the computer on the 10th of April 08, and have had problems with it four days after purchasing it and have been to other Best Buy stores trying to resolve the ongoing problems.

My Recommendation #2

Never buy a Compaq/HP product. All problems are routed to a call center in India, it takes at least 15 minutes to go through the menu to finally speak to a person, and then of course there is the language problem. I have been on the phone for over two hours and three times I have been told that somebody of senior management would ring me back within 48 hours and it has never happened. When you are mobile like we are and only have a mobile phone at a call rate of 15cents per minute both incoming and outgoing. The option is to try and find a public phone if you can find one - I don’t know if you have tried to hold a phone in one hand, balance a computer in the other hand and try and follow instructions, which has involved turning the computer upside down looking for numbers, typing on the keyboard, while trying to hear what they are saying with all the ambient noise in a public place. I could go on but only makes me angry. I just can’t see why these companies can’t see the value in customer satisfaction. I will just continue venting to people I meet. Don’t you agree that customer satisfaction would be of paramount importance of any Company, as this is the cheapest and most effective form of advertising!

My Recommendation 3

Stay away from Microsoft Vista, as Best Buys blame the software, so they won’t fix the computer. Despite the fact that Compaq has sent me a new set of installation disks, the computer still has all the previous problems. I can only assume that both these Companies have a poor relationship with Microsoft and we appear to be the meat in the sandwich. They have a TV commercial running in the US with people from “Microsoft Vista anonymous” appearing in it, relaying their stories. I would appear in it for free and add to the stories.

Since my last news item all my notes have been lost yet again! which covers over a month of travelling, since then we have been to TX, AR, TN, SC, NC, SC, GA and back to TN. I am going to have to rely on my memory for the last months travelling, so some things and places may be missed thanks to the THREE companies written about above (plus all other software including our GPS mapping, Stock market trading data, photos, and other vital information)

Now for some news from memory ......
The day after leaving Gainesville the weather was still hot and the wind was still blowing. The countryside was lush and green; something that we are not used to, if we have 100 degree temperatures, the countryside is brown. Here it is still green; this meant that it was humid and sticky. There were a lot of horse properties which seemed to be doing well, by the looks of them. They appeared to be quarter horse properties . We called into a nice wooded area for afternoon tea which was under a grove of large old oak trees, which made it nice and cool ,a relief from the heat out on the road. We decided to make it a short day and stay the night there. It was too hot to cook that night so we bought a pizza, it was nice, and unfortunately for me it was the first and last one we have purchased. The following day was Friday and a lady walking her dog in the park told us about some garage sales around the corner. I went for a walk and had a look at nine of them, we later found out that this is an huge annual event along the 82 hwy ,” garage sale mania”. They have hundreds of them stretching for miles, for the next three days we drove past them, all with their goodies stacked up for sale in their front yards. Paris is quite a large town, however like a number of US towns it appears a little tired. The town was practically destroyed by fire early last century and was rebuilt, the most significant building being the government one for justice departments etc. We then left for the Wright Patman lake area.

Will be in touch

Aussies on tour - instalment #16

I must say that after almost three days of air-conditioned luxury at Carole’s, the open road in temperatures of around the 100 was a little hard to get used too. We also had to contend with extremely strong side winds, which didn’t make driving all that easy. The drive was through lush green rolling hills with a number of the horse style properties. With their white fences and really large houses, there seemed to be a lot of quarter horse ranches along the drive. The greenness of the countryside was quite unusual to us. We are not used to seeing lush green with such temperatures. Back home after a couple of days with this type of heat the countryside would be brown. We only made it as far as Gainesville and decided to seek some relief from the heat at Wal-Mart. We also thought it would be an opportune time to have a oil change on the van. This caused a bit of excitement as they said that the entry height to the lube bay was 10ft. As they were driving it into the building I climbed onto the back bumper, to eyeball the clearance, according to Michele, who was checking from a distance. My jumping on the back lowered the van just enough to clear the top of doorway. At least now we know that the van is 10ft tall. Of course we decided to stay the night. We had a visit from the security guard on duty. I would say that she was a mixture of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the three Charlie’s Angels combined. In between monitoring her two way radio, waiting to apprehend a couple of shoplifters once they left the store, she kept us amused with her stories, some of which we were sworn to secrecy so I can’t impart them to you, and I wouldn’t like to cross this lady. She was off when the villains were in the open “they’re mine” she said, through her head back, and let out an evil laugh. The wind was still blowing a gale, and it kept blowing the gas flame of the fridge out, we took this opportunity to turn the van around, next thing she is across our bow, with her hand up indicating a stop signal, she must have thought that we were going to do a runner, “you can’t leave now” she said. I would have to say that this was the first time that a security guard tried to stop us from leaving, usually it’s the other way around. She then came into the van, and continued with her stories. Her explanation of the strong wind was, as it was coming up from Southern Texas, through to Oklahoma, this meant that Oklahoma sucks. She also was not that impressed with this countries leader, she considered him more of a shrub, than a Bush. I had a cable hanging from under the van, from a temporary repair and she remarked that anything like that in Texas is usually shot. There were many more stories, but as I said “sworn to secrecy”. After she left we tried to sleep which was difficult due to the heat and the wind. We purchased an electric fan, which didn’t work all that well, latter on in the trip we purchased a larger one, which works brilliantly. Our new friend left after giving us here phone number, with the promise that if we had any problems, she would sort them out for us, Although this gave comfort, it was too hot to sleep, no photo’s this time, so have included ones not used from earlier. We are off to try and find cooler places………………..

Aussies on tour - instalment #15

The thing most memorable about the drive from Amarillo to Wichita Falls was the extreme heat, and the magnificent rest areas. The rest areas were well off the road, and the buildings were quite new, probably about two to three stories tall, with open vaulted ceilings, air conditioned, cool water and wifi. This was a welcome break after driving in extreme temperatures all day. Our overnighter at Memphis (not that Memphis the Texas Memphis) was alongside the large town park, on the outer edge of the town. A group of Mexican families were enjoying a party in the park, accompanied with loud music. They did not leave until after dusk. We decided to sit outside for dinner as it was still very hot in the Van. Whilst having our meal an official looking vehicle came in and started patrolling the area, he came to where we were and he enquired as to whether we intended staying the night. We said that we had considered it, he said that you have to obtain a permit from the chief, he then added” but that’s ok, because I am the chief”. During our conversation with him, he informed us that Mule Deer would probably come in during the night, young people as well, and wild pigs, weighing around two hundred pounds , with the warning not to approach them, as they are aggressive. After all that we decided to stay, it turned out to be a good night spot without any of the above being a problem. The following day we moved on down the 287, located and used another visitors centre and wifi, and to have a break from the extreme heat. We had lunch at Vernon, there was a lack of trees in the town, and as we were desperate for some shade, we parked in a church car park under a large tree, still hot but gave us some temporary relief, after lunch we continued on to Wichita Falls. We arrived late in the afternoon, and were greeted by Carole. We are just so amazed at the welcome we receive from the people we have met on our tour, we have been total strangers to them all, and yet we are treated as long lost friends. Carole was no exception. She soon had us settled in her back yard, connected to a special 30 amp power outlet; she also had a waste outlet there. trailers (caravans for the Australians), she had three on the go when we were there. Later in the afternoon, she was kind enough to take us on a tour of Wichita Falls. Wichita Falls is quite a reasonable sized city about 105000 population .The main city centre is like many American Cities, in that it has died, seems strange that they build new malls,” shopping centers” way out, and let the heart of the city die, Carole took us to the town lake, which is quite a large size, and I am sure helps with giving the impression of cooling things down, which was nice in the really hot weather. She also showed us the famous “Ant Hill”, where the athletes of the city train, as there are no natural hills in Wichita Falls, they simply made one. Visited an interesting Mexican pastry shop, and to the Wichita Falls, This is in parklands on the edge of town, a real credit to the city, acres of parklands, nice big trees, and walkways along the Red River. Apparently the falls have been rebuilt, after floods destroyed the original ones some years ago. We must say thanks to the generosity of Carole, supplying us with electricity, our stay in Wichita Fall was made a whole lot more comfortable, due to our extremely efficient air conditioner. I even found a hot spot at the end of her verandah. Had a bit of a downside when our TV stopped working, but once again thanks to Carole, who took me down to the local opp shop, found a replacement, actually an upgraded model for $10 Carols husband Eric returned from a business trip while we were there, so we had the pleasure of his company for a short time. But regretfully after a short visit the time had come to move on, we certainly hope this is not the last time we see Carole and her family……………….

Aussies on tour - instalment #14

The overnighter that was not so good where the last newsletter finished, but it did have a toilet, I was walking to visit it, when I struck up conversation with a guy who had a pushbike fully decked out for long distance cycling, he asked if we had any spare water, I invited him into our van. We gave him the water, and then breakfast, he had been on the road about the same time as us, and had traveled 4000 miles, and is due to finish his ride about the same time we finish our current tour. After about three hours with him we said our good buys. The route we took was breathtaking, followed a river down through a valley for the first part of it, a huge valley, with lush forests and windy road. We had lunch at an old part of the road, right near the river. (Perfect for a night spot). After lunch the magic scenery continued. We climbed over 10000ft; we had views that seemed to go forever. When we reached the top, we then had a steep decent to about 3000 ft ,we then drove though a number of small settlements. For afternoon tea, we parked near an old waterwheel flour mill, over 100 years old, no longer working but it was an interesting old building to explore, unfortunately I could only do this externally, however it did give some photo opportunities. We continued our journey to Las Vegas (not that Las Vegas, but the NM Las Vegas). It was raining when we arrived, and also late, we checked into our favorite RV park chain (the big W), this was the best one so far on this trip. They have a huge parking area, there were no other vehicles on the section where we parked, no trucks coming and going all night, fabulous. We also had television reception here, and once again the program was constantly interrupted by warnings of a cyclone in our area, and more particularly around Tucumcari. As it turned out that was our predicted destination, before Matt (the cyclist) paid us a visit in the morning, and in doing so, delayed our departure time by around three hours, so we watched as the presenter explained about funnels, eyes, hooks and other weird terms us, thinking how lucky we were to have spent an enjoyable time with Matt, otherwise we may have been in the middle of it. We don’t receive TV all that often, but when we do, it seems as though the weather is a problem close by. Next morning after our visit to the McDonald’s internet site, we went to the visitors information centre. This building is an impressive, significant structure, it was built when the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad arrived in 1879, along with this came a boom to the town, there are 900 buildings listed on the National register of Historic Places in Las Vegas. Can’t say we visited them all, but quite a few. The city is a little tired and could do with a revamp. The most significant building is Montezuma Castle; it has an interesting history, dating back to the railway of course. Today students from around the world matriculate through a two year baccalaureate program at Armand Hammer United World College of the American West, one of 10 United World College campuses located in countries across the globe. The building is closed to the general public, however the grounds are magnificent, and the exterior view of the building is outstanding. We left here in the afternoon and drove down through more mountains, at an 8% decline for quite a few miles; this gave us great views over the flat plains below. The weather was becoming extremely hot, not sure if it was the decrease in altitude, or the fact that we were heading south towards Texas. We found a road side rest area, but we didn’t get much sleep as it was so hot, even the nights do not cool down, it can be around 100 during the day, and then only drop to around 80 at night, although being a minor road the traffic didn’t bother us. The following days drive was fairly ordinary, open farmland, with only hills as a backdrop, not the mountains that we have had for the past few weeks. We thought that we would take a look at Conchas lake and have breakfast there, a very large lake, however there was no water access, all taken up with residential dwellings a bit of a disappointment, so we continued on towards Tucumcari, where we found a nice park with shade to rest at. Tucumcari survived the cyclone from the previous night, and all appeared well. From there we drove down the 40; towards Amarillo, it had been a long time since we had been on a major interstate, I had to readjust to the multitude of trucks and passenger vehicles and the speed at which they all travel at, nobody over here seems to drive to admire the beautiful scenery, only seems to be a contest to get to the next destination the fastest way possible. Just before we reached Amarillo, we stopped at the Cadillac monument. There ten Cadillac’s buried nose down in a paddock, people are permitted to spray paint the cars, why they are there? I have no idea, it appears a bit like “build it and they will come”. Amarillo is quite a big place 173,000 people, called into McDonald’s internet spot, and the visitor’s center, very friendly & helpful, we were introduced to the saying y’all ( “you all”) (“can I help y’all?”,” y’all come back soon”,” what are y’all doing” } etc, even when there is only one person in view, I am constantly looking over my shoulder to see who else is there. It was just a few miles down the 40 and we turned off and headed towards Wichita Falls, to see Carole the next contact that we have made, on our blind date tour of the USA………

Aussies on tour - instalment #13

We left Espanola late next day for Taos traveling via back roads going through Chimayo, Tuchas, and San Juan Pueblo which is a very old village. There has been consistent habitation there for many hundreds of years, and the buildings reflect that. We managed to find an overnighter at a scenic lookout at the top of a hill; it had the most marvelous view of the village, the valley and the mountains as a backdrop. We left late the next day, the view was so fantastic, and we were reluctant to leave. The drive to Taos was marvelous travelling through the tall pines of the Carson National Forest, stopped for lunch at a lookout, it was impressive, more push bike riders were there, high up in the mountains. We arrived late in Taos, the information centre was on the way in for information, and found that they had internet, even booths for you to sit in. Bridge was shown in the day’s end list, so we went out to investigate. It was twelve miles from town. At the Eastern end of the bridge, there were a number of venders selling a variety of craft and jewelry objects, as it was Memorial Day there were a lot of people around. On the Western side of the bridge is a rest area with a 24 hour time period, marvelous amenities. They appear to have full time staff working at New Mexico rest areas, which keeps them in top shape. The Rio Grande Bridge is an impressive massive expanse, several hundred feet above a rugged canyon, with the Rio Grande River way down. Before the bridge was built, which was only in 1966, people had to zig zag down the walls of the canyon, cross the river, then go back up the other side, hard to imagine doing this. We met an interesting guy here and spent a bit of time talking with him about some of his adventures, who was overnighting here as well. Next morning we looked out our bedroom window, to see a hot air balloon in the next paddock, this is a regular happening each morning as they take flights across the Rio Grande River gorge. After breakfast we walked part of the 9 mile rim trail, we then returned to Taos, stopping at a Pueblo village on the way. People have lived here for hundreds of years; unfortunately parts of the village were off limits to tourists. In Taos we visited Old town, and the square, taking many photographs. I was taking some of an old church, which turned out to be Couse House; there was a couple in the grounds at the time. We assumed they were tourists as well but I was photographing the front they came over and asked if we would like to look through. The front of the building was originally a mission church. A group of artists converted it and used it as an art studio. One of the artists was the grandfather of the lady who had invited us in. We were joined by a German couple, and we finished up going through the whole building, Most of the building is in original condition. The grandfather used to paint Native American Indians, and he often took black and white photos of his models, these photos are magnificent, they could be considered as art just the way they are, some of them have grid markings on them that he used for his paintings. One family of his models went through three generation with him. He had his own dark room; the chemical bottles and equipment are still there, everywhere you looked there were objects of interest, together with a running commentary by the man & woman. They all appeared to be quite innovative, back in the 30,s when things were obviously tough, one of this man’s sons was making a mobile workshop on the back of a truck, in a huge workshop on the property, that was full of all sorts of equipment including a giant lathe, I even spotted an electroplating tank. The whole property is mostly original as it was over a hundred years ago, it was a fabulous visit. They have set up a foundation in an endeavor to preserve the establishment, as it is the last of the original art colonies of this type left in the area. From this a huge art community has grown, basically making Taos what it is today , which is lots and lots of galleries selling all types of art, craft jewelry, souvenirs etc . A final visit to a very old mission church on the way out, and then on to find a night spot, we had to drive further than we wanted to, and the site was not the best one that we had stayed in, but it turned out to be interesting as you will read about in the next news letter……………….

Aussies on tour - instalment #12

We had a nice break at Rol’s and enjoyed the good company of Rol, Alan & Rebecca but with the oppressive heat it was time to push on for new experiences. Our first stop was Abique Lake for lunch, we parked in a rest area overlooking the lake. Marvelous views of the lake, with the mountains as a great feature in the background. Continuing on our journey we visited the "ghost ranch" which is a small village of people and adobe houses. We continued driving through marvelous coloured mountains. They were just the most unusual colours, mainly in the purple until we reached Tierra Amarilla. We fueled up and asked the attendant where we could park overnight.
Being a local, he had no idea, but suggested a small park near the swimming pool. We investigated, and it looked great. There were a group of workman replacing a roof at the swimming pool that had blown off during a storm. When asked if it was ok to stay overnight he said, "sure no problems, it is a parking area isn’t it?' They also had timber off cuts, which were just right to add to our leveling block collection. The next morning, we woke up to overcast skies. after breakfast it started to rain, which turned into hail, and then to snow. It was freezing cold,

who would think that two days ago it was unbearably hot - now snow, quite thick, covering everything. We gave thanks to the propane furnace. Not much point traveling this day, so we decided to sit it out, and wait for the weather to improve, unfortunately this did not happen. The next day we figured that we may as well make the most of a bad situation, and do the laundry. We checked with the local sheriff to enquire if there was one in town . I saw his car parked in the street and assumed this was his office, I didn’t realize that this was the court house, on a busy court day in a small town. Well I got scanned with a metal detector, and looked at oddly. We found out there was a Laundromat in Charma. We took a slow drive to Charma and the snow was still falling when we arrived at the Visitor’s center. This was the first time that I had walked in snow. Charma is quite a reasonable sized town, a few gas stations, a few restaurants, a fully functioning visitors information centre and a Laundromat. It is a snow resort place, so we were most surprised when we asked. “Where the grocery store was” we were told, that it blew down last winter, and to get supplies you had to drive 20 miles out to an Indian reservation to buy anything - seems like a great opportunity for someone. While in the laundry, I was talking to a man about going over the mountain to Taos the following day. He considered that the bad weather had passed, and considered there should be no problem (unfortunately I didn’t get his name). We left and found an overnighter back towards Tierra Amarilla, nice one with power. The next morning the weather did not appear to be as bad, so we decided to give it a go, and go over the mountain. It started off fine, however the higher we climbed, the more the conditions deteriorated. At about 10000ft snow was falling and it was difficult to see the

road. Everything was white, not used to driving in these conditions (no snow in our part of the world) - the decision was made, and we retreated, to take the long way around, via Espanola. We were amazed to see cars, and even motorcycles, driving up into the unknown. I don’t know if they continued, or like us, turned around. We unfortunately had to retrace some of the roads we had already driven but the scenery made up for this. Through the beautiful coloured mountains, called in to the Echo Amphitheatre for lunch, more great rock formations, and it did echo. Arrived in Espanola late, and once again took the easy way out and booked into the big “W” RV park chain. Tomorrow we will go to Taos the easy way……….

Aussies on tour - instalment #11

We arrived at Todd’s ranch, on the way to Rol’s ranch late in the afternoon, thanks to the detailed instructions given to us from Rol. Todd has humming bird feeders, and the birds were very active, they are a great sight to watch, the only bird in the world that can fly backwards. He also has several wild deer that come right up to his back door, which he feeds, you can get right up close - you wouldn’t think that they are wild animals. Todd has a fabulous house, a very old log cabin, which he has extended and is still extending. The house is full of antiques, and memorabilia of his and Rol’s days in the film industry, great house and lovely man. Another couple of wandering souls, Alan and Rebecca, came in with their big fifth wheeler. We all then proceeded to Rol’s ranch to stay the night. After our convoy drove the short distance to Rol’s ranch, problem number one occurred. Alan couldn’t negotiate the bend into the area we were to park, caused by over hanging pine tree limbs! But Rol, being a 'can do' kind of guy, soon had a ladder and saw and he soon had the situation under control. Problem number two, the slope of the land. Once again Rol was there with planks and leveling blocks for us. Meanwhile in the background Alan was practicing his reversing skills, trying to find a level spot. The ranch is one square mile, with rim rock ranges, beautiful wooded pine areas and open meadows. Rol is very much involved in the aviation industry, including being a Director of an Aviation Foundation. It is Rol’s intention to build an airstrip on part of the open land and invite people to fly in and to hike the surrounding areas. Rol then returned to his office after showing us where the water and power were situated. The weather was extremely hot and as the Motorhome was not totally level which made our fridge struggle to the point of defrosting all the items in the freezer. Next morning Alan, Rebecca and I (Brian) decided to take one of Rol’s suggested hikes. There were no trail markings so we headed towards the mountains, trying to remember where we had come from, just in case we got lost! Luckily the woman in the group came to the fore - Rebecca lead us on the right path! We found a beautiful valley which was like a picture post card setting of a Ranch, including a Log cabin. Later on in the day Rol came to check on us, and offered to take us on a tour of his Ranch. A most interesting four wheel drive experience (for city people), driving up the side of hills, on undeveloped roads that had been washed out with the rain, producing large ruts, however the end result was really worth the drive. A valley of magnificent rock formations and views over the surrounding area.

Rol returned just prior to dusk to take us to “The Valley Of The Moons” for a sunset tour. You won’t see this name on a map as it is a private name given to the area by Rol, Todd and others. If the name sounds exotic then the whole area matches the title. A valley of beautiful and interesting rock formations. I can’t understand why the government hasn’t claimed it and turned it into a National Park. I should be able to post more pictures on my Picassa site in the future, so you can gain a better perspective of the area (keep it a secret, as it is too good to be spoiled).
We thank Rol for sharing his property, and for the tours, and for the most interesting conversations we had with him. He is a most knowledgeable person, on many subjects, however the heat, and time were against us, so it was time for us to move on to our next experience.

Aussies on tour - instalment #10

After picking up supplies and leaving Albuquerque, we drove up the 14, towards Santa Fe, very scenic, we arrived late, and went to our favorite night spot - unfortunately it was not there. I went into the very large shopping complex and finally found the security, who said "no" we could not stay there. Back to our lists - another Wal-Mart in. We went over to this location, had hardly turned the key off, when a security guard appeared, and said that we could not park here, when quizzed a little further, he said we could park on the other side of the car park, so all was good!. Next morning after some shopping, we went to old town, once again with a square, the third one we have visited, they are getting better & better. The square is where all these cities originated. We visited the Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi, (pictures 1 & 2 shown), beautiful huge church, built in three stages, over a long period of time. Finished in 1869, it has beautiful stained glass windows, and it’s place at the end of the plaza, together with its size, makes it a really dominant feature of the whole area. We walked around the town for some time, went to the post Office, for stamps etc. The attendant there had been to Australia, as have many men we have spoken to, when they were in the military. Most have been to the east coast, few to our part of the world, on the west coast. We decided that we would eat out at a local restaurant this night, to sample some more New Mexican food, right on the square, which looked nice, as it become dark, and the lights came on. We had parked in a car park adjoining the center of town, because when we arrived after four pm, there was no fee, it stays light here until after eight, so this give you quite a bit of time to explore. The following day, we experienced our first rain on the trip, not heavy, but enough to keep us indoors. The previous wet patches we experienced, were at night, and didn’t affect our sightseeing, managed to park close to a shop with wifi, so that was good. The next day, we went back to the old town area. We walked & walked; saw the oldest church in the USA San Miguel Mission (picture 3 shown), the oldest house in the USA (picture 4 shown), the Loreto Chapel, with its magnificent staircase, once again interesting and unusual architecture for us. Many souvenir shops, galleries and the entire tourist type temptations, up alleyways, and all over the place. It is a great place to wander and explore. We thought it was time to get out of temptations way and head north, on towards Rol’s ranch……….

Aussies on tour - instalment #9

The next three days at Ed’s place was a marvelous experience, he is a great host, handy with the bbq, showed me the art of garage sale shopping on Saturday morning, and a tour to some of the scenic sights around where he lives, a beautiful part of the city, he took me to an area which he claims to be one of the top ten places to live in the US, not hard to see why! Included in the tour was a visit to Lowe’s and a couple of other hardware shops. Accents once again became obvious, Ed said,” we will go in the Celica,” he pronounced it, sell-ica, we say sill-ica, another car is quite different, is Hyundai, Americans say hun-dee, we say high-un-die, Nissan, we say Niss-an, they say Nee-sun. On Sunday he took us he to Old Town, up town, in fact all over town. We went to the museum of ABQ which was very much into the local history of the city and its surrounds, we also visited the old part of town, and the old square area. This is a great place to visit, fabulous old buildings, lots of jewelry, art and pottery for sale. For lunch we went at the Frontier restaurant, to sample New Mexican food, delicious. The whole area is rich in history and, for us unusual architecture, I would say, that for a few weeks holiday, this would be a great place to base yourself, both here and Santa Fe, with so many attractions close by, and great circular drives. Our visit was made even more special, by visiting Ed, with his generosity, and also for making us so welcome.

The time had come us to depart for Santa Fe ……….

Aussies on tour - instalment #8

Our stop over in Carlsbad at the big “W” RV park was quite an experience, the TV program’s were constantly being interrupted by cyclone warnings, we watched with interest as the dark red patches on the screen came closer, and warnings of hail the size of golf balls, Fortunately we only got the edge of the blast, however it was enough for the van to rock & roll for most of the night.
The Caverns were absolutely amazing, you can take an elevator down, for 750 feet, or you can walk down, which we decided to do, took about an hour and a half to zig zag our way down, we hired the talking guide, and this kept us informed of what to look out for. When we reached the bottom, we entered a huge impressive area; this is the entry point for those who come down by elevator. We continued on the large circular walk, marveling at nature’s artwork. We exited the caverns by elevator after about three hours underground. The only criticism we could make was that the lighting could have been better to show the structures at their best. Up on the surface, the whole area is being upgraded, with a new visitors center, and associated buildings, which is a major project. It was back to our overnight park again, and we watched, as the cyclone seemed to be pretty close to us, just heavy rain and hail this night. Next day we drove back through Artesia, and on to Roswell, a large town, which has a center, we have found many towns here do not. This night we stayed at Sams club, first one we had seen, large warehouse type store, similar to Cosco, nothing like it in Australia. Had more rain and hail during the night, more heavy winds. It was then onto Albuquerque, no we didn’t take the straight short route, but back to the mountains, and back roads, the scenery began to change from desert to wooded.
On the way came across an interesting town called Lincoln, another town where time has stood still. We saw a guide walking the streets with tourists, he was dressed in period garb, handle bar moustache, boots and the big hat etc. They have a Billy The Kid re-enactment once a year here, and have a special outdoor arena built for it. We were lucky enough to find a picnic area just outside of town, which made an ideal overnighter. The next day we drove onto Duran, virtually a ghost town, but we found a suitable spot next to an old fire station, great for the night. It was the on to Albuquerque via Climes Corner, a huge souvenir shop attached to a truck stop selling route 66 paraphernalia. The drive into Albuquerque via the 40 (ex route 66) was quite spectacular, despite a lot of road works, the highway followed a magnificent rock canyon, we seemed to go down & down, for ages, however we reached Ed’s place with no problems…………

Aussies on tour - instalment #7

We continue our adventure......

On The drive from Las Cruces towards the White sands Memorial, it was dead flat desert country, Still with the mountains alongside, the missile testing range ran beside the road, for what must have been 50 miles. The thing that stood out the most for me, was the power poles, they carry the main grid and would have been at least 100 feet tall, two by two they went for miles. They are all over the country, hundreds and hundreds of miles, I was imagining a desolate deforested area in some other place, it must have taken many forests to achieve what they have, I guess they stand out more in the flat desert environment.I guess we are used to seeing concrete and steel supports back home'
At the White Sands Memorial Park, we did the sunset walk with the ranger, it was amazing how one could spend over an hour talking about grains of sand, it was absolutely fascinating. Being the sunset walk, we stayed to watch the sunset, of course it was dark by the time we left the Park. We then drove to Alamogordo, and noticed that our favorite overnight RV place was there, the big W. We didn’t realize how large Alamogordo was, the lights in the distance indicated a large center, we subsequently found out that it is basically only a few streets wide, this made it look larger than perhaps it was. Alamogordo center was a fair way from the old original town, and most impressive. Had lunch in the town park , which on this trip we haven"t found many in the desert environment. After lunch we left and headed towards the mountains and Lincoln National Forest. It was a great drive up through the solid rock canyons--. From a vista point we had a view back as far as White Sands,about 30 miles away. We then drove through a tunnel in the side of the mountain, solid rock, quite a feat to blast their way through . At the top of the mountain was a very unique town called Cloudcroft, once a timber town, but when the railway reached here, passengers began arriving, and is now very much a tourist town, many bed and breakfasts, and various types of accommodation. It also has the most southern ski run in the USA On the edge of town there is a park and a walk that follows the old train track, down to the trestle bridge, about a 3.5 mile walk. The trestle bridge stands six stories high, made of timber of course, when passengers rode across in the train, they mentioned the way it swayed, while looking up & down at the canyon. When it was constructed, it was the highest altitude railway in the world. It was fortunate that we were here on this day, as the Park was closed the following day, due to a fire hazard. We made our overnight stop a few miles out of town in the forest.
The next day, after buying some supplies at the local store, which was like a bit of time warp. We continued driving through the forest, once again into a beautiful valley, and found a nice forest campsite. We had just set up for the night, when a Ranger appeared, the camp ground was to be closed, once again because of the fire situation, after talking to him for a while, he said that we could stay for the night
Next day we drove to Artesia, an oil town, in fact they have a refinery right in the town, producing jet fuel . We filled our propane tank directly opposite. The best thing in Artesia I think were the sculptures, they had quite a few around the town. It was then on to another SKP park called the Ranch, the reason it was given this name was because it is in the middle of a working ranch. On the way to the Ranch we saw many oil pumps in the paddocks, first time on this trip. We arrived at lunch time, reading the signs, we decided to park out side, and walk in. At the entrance there is a cattle grid, we decided to walk around it, on the edge, to steady myself I touched a wire, remember a cattle ranch, no fences, WHACK, an electric fence , I jumped sideways, and landed in a cactus plant. When they opened the office after lunch, they welcomed us buy saying “this is the friendliest Park in the club!!. It did turn out to be, once settling in At the happy hour we were introduced to the residence, together with an English couple, Dave & Janet. We had an great two days here, with them, and hope to catch up later in Memphis, if we can trust THE white board. It was now time to head to Carlsbad..................
Until our next saga Brian & Michele

Aussies on tour - instalment #6

A couple of day’s further on our adventure.....Just as we were leaving “Dream Catcher” SKIP park in Deming, we heard acouple talking with strange accents ,we all turned at the same time, andasked, are you Australians? Turned out that they were from Queensland,and are over here for five years, we went back to their fifth wheeler,and spent about four hours talking with them. By the time we left them ,and did shopping, it was getting a little late, so we spent the nightjust out of town, on a gas pipeline access road, near the Rock HoundState Park.On the entrance to Las Cruces, there is a rest area, which is more likea scenic lookout, which overlooked the city. There is a giant sculptureof a Road Runner, made completely from materials from the local tip(trash) sandshoes, computer bits, Cans, car hub caps, bits of wire,never seen junk look so good, maybe this could be taken on as world wideproject, may help clean up a whole lot of rubbish. While we were there Igot to chat to a fellow, who was working on the buildings, (hisgrandfather was an apache Indian he told me about the sculpture, andshowed me a newspaper article on the project, otherwise we may havemissed the significance of it. I also asked , what was worthy of seeingwhile we were there, he suggested that we go to the old original part oftown called Mesilla, as it happened it was Sunday, and this meant it wasmarket day in the town square which added to the appeal, it was as thelocal resident said, very old, very Mexican and very unique , the onlydownside was that we bought a coffee here, and we could not finish it.(undrinkable).We then set the GPS Organ, however I did not check the preferences. Wewere low on fuel, but we were heading towards highway 70, where onewould think that we would be able to fuel up. The GPS directed us to theshortest and possibly the most scenic, but certainly not the quickest.After leaving suburbia and the bitumen road ,still following directiongiven by the GPS ,we found ourselves in a National Park. The conditionof the road only allowed us to go at 10mph, over the really chunky,rocky road. Lack of signage didn’t help, plus our low fuel problem . Oursolution at that time was to stop and have a cup of tea , plus admirethe scenery which was quite magnificent. The mountains were so close itwas unbelievable. Pressed on after our break, decided that was all wecould do , to far to go back. We finally reached Organ, guess what! NOFUEL station in sight so we pressed on to the next town on the map,White Sands. Unfortunately we had to go straight up and over quite ahigh mountain range! Remembering the fuel, plus this mountain looming inthe we figured we would make it to White Sands. Coasted down the otherside admiring the view.( They say on a clear day you can see for seventymiles)Made it to the White Sands turn off, gas gauge toughing E, blackuniforms, guns on their hips, looking very intimidating . We weregreeted with “what are you looking for Sir,” Brian said petrol, thenfuel, and lastly gas. This got a response. “No gas here Sir ,this is aMilitary Establishment, and is a Missile test centre, Las Cruces is theclosest fuel centre.” Remember the Mountains we just crossed, rememberthe fuel gauge, but we had an ace. We had bought a 1 gallon gascontainer for times like this! Brian got it out, opened it up and lowand behold only half full! Brian discovered there is a right and a wrongway to put the cap on. Need we say more! We did make it back to LasCruces by which time it was getting dark. Took the easy way out , andchecked into the Wal-mart car park RV park!
Still hanging in here Brian & Michele

Aussies on tour - instalment #5

The first stop on our trip up the mountains from Lordsburg, was at the Tyrone Mine, where copper has been mined since 1860, so you can imagine how the area that has been effected, however they are doing a pretty good job of rehabilitation, although you can never return the land to the way it was completely. Next was Silver City, a large mining town settled around 1895,it is reasonably high in the mountains. Wal-Mart was the chosen overnight sight, and it did cool down over night. The next day we drove towards the Gila Cliff dwellings. (pronounced Hila) so when we told people we had been to Gila, they had no idea where we had been. For the first part of the drive we went through the Mimbres River Valley which was so scenic,with extremely high mountains but would have been even better if there had been water in the river, and the trees had all there leaves out. On this drive we crossed the Continental Divide, (we crossed over it four times in the next few days) you just can’t go to places up here, without many, many turns, the highest point we drove was 7432 feet, however one of the mountains, Mogollon Baldly was 10778 high. We had lunch at Lake Roberts, really pretty setting, people fishing, and out in boats, spoke to a group of young fellers who were fishing, they informed me that they were giving up the fishing, and going turkey chasing. Hadn’t heard of that before. It was then on and up, the up meant that at one stage our maximum speed was 20mph. However it does give you more time to appreciate the scenery .At the end of the road, there was an impressive visitors centre, and then a short drive to the cliff dwellings carpark, and a further three mile walk to the cliff dwellings. Built in 1280”s by the Pueblo people, however people have lived here from 100’s to 1300’s. The dwellings are in great shape, perhaps not as impressive as the ones we saw on our last trip at Mesa Verde, in Colorado, but still worth the drive and walk. We spent the night at one of the free forest camps, it seems a little strange up here, that some of the camps are free, and some you have to pay for, they have National Parks, National Forests, State Parks, all with different regulations. On the drive back to Silver City we had to drive over the same ground as going up, for about half the distance, but the second part was out of this world, huge canyons, pine forests, the road snaked down around and up, around very sharp corners and vista’s galore magnificent!! We had lunch at a marvelous lookout showing high mountains and very deep canyons, the sides of which are all covered with pines On this part of the drive, we passed a push bike rider in full racing gear(lycra), remembering we are over 7000ft up in altitude, at our next vista stop, he passed us, he had a grey beard, so he wasn’t a real young fellow, we passed him again, and the same thing happened a few times, must have been a fit mountain man. Drove to Pinos altos, (Tall Pines) this village was very interesting and quaint.(population about 10), Two hotels, and what Michele called a junk shop, but the locals called a museum and an ice-cream shop, which we enjoyed. The inside was like something from two centuries past, they had a Indian sitting at the bar, from the back you would think he was the real thing, (almost started a conversation with him) the whole thing looked like a movie set, come to think of it the whole town looked like that. We made our way back to Silver City, and it was getting late, so we spent the night at Wal-Mart again.The next day we drove up the other side of the range (Mogollon Mountains)This drive was very different to the other side, more desert type country, we had lunch at Gila, near their park, and library,(about the size of a railway carriage), it was Sunday, so it was closed, turned on the computer, and wifi. After lunch drove through what they call a wilderness area, quite different to our wilderness areas back home. On towards Glenwood, for an overnight in a forest camp, next morning we made our way to the “Catwalk”. This was a 1.2 mile walk through a deep canyon, with several waterfalls along the way. Not a lot of water in the gully but a great site all the same. The catwalk itself was in some parts bolted on, and in other parts hanging off the rock walls, being deep down in the canyon. It was nice and cool, and a special place to visit. According to the brochure all the parts were flown in by helicopter and then put in place. Overnight we stayed at Bill Evans Lake, another very nice place,(if I ever get a blog up and running I will be able to share images of these places, however it is a full time job doing what we are doing).The next morning we circumnavigated the lake, by foot ,had an interesting time with part of it, we had to slide down the spillway side wall, we were over half way around, so we couldn’t go back, could we? Time to depart so we headed back towards Silver City. But drove straight through, and onto the City of Rocks State Park. We arrived too late to go in, so we camped just outside, overlooking the Rock City. Rock City was formed by a volcano, way back, they state that it was 11 times more powerful than Mt St Helens, and having been to Mount St Helens and seeing the audio visual of their eruption, makes it hard to envisage. Hard to explain what it looks like, sort of the Pinnacles back home, Stone Henge, only about a 100 times bigger, spent a couple of hours walking around the park. The whole Gila area was great, I think that we could easily spend a month here, to do it justice.It was just a short drive then to Deming. We had a look in the SKP directory, and they had a contact there called “two crazy ladies” the two crazy ladies weren’t there, but they had left two deputies in charge, the title still applied, say no more. The next day we checked into the SKP park, right day as they had a hot dog, chili & sweet night on that night. Stayed two days, Michele caught up with the washing, I washed the van for the first time. There is always a temptation to stay longer at these parks, as they have things like ice-cream and cookie mornings, cook outs and the one that appealed to me was MEWS (men eating without supervision) . However we did move on towards the White Sands Memorial.To be continued……………….Brian & Michele

Aussies on tour - instalment #4

Our next enthralling episode ……………read on. We were advised that as we were in Casa Grande we should visit the Casa Grande Ruins, by Joan at the SKP Park. Once again we arrived at 5.15, the gates closed at 5.00, so we decided to spend the night over the road in the Safeway’s car park, straight opposite the entrance of the park, this gave us an early start in the morning. The ruins are in remarkable shape, considering that they are over 300 years old. The main building is four stories high and sixty feet long, made of a sort of mud, the mortar is in perfect condition, modern manufactures should copy their recipe. The village was build by the Hokokam people. There was a guide at the site who explained all there was to know about the site. I just could not imagine how they could build such a structure in the desert, without water, trees or any of the modern day equipment, we were left to fathom all that out. The weather was warming up, with the radio predicting the first triple digit temperature for the year.We decided that rather than take the I 10 to Tucson, we would go inland, towards Florence, and maybe see some state parks that were shown on the map. On the way we stayed over at the Tom Mix memorial site, I don’t know how many people remember the Saturday matinee movies, but Tom Mix was one of the cowboys that often featured in them. (so some of the older people have told me) Interesting to look at the silhouette of him and see how may gun shot wounds, and how many broken bones he sustained during his life, not much room left for any more. The memorial was constructed, because this is where he died. The short story is that there were road works here, with wooden barriers, he came down the road estimated at 80mph, hit one of the barriers, and rolled over several times. The workers saw him crawl out of his car, then a case he was carrying in the car, containing money and jewelry, fell on his head, and broke his neck, which killed him. Still it did make a nice overnight spot (thanks to day’s end),also took some nice photo’s at dusk of the Saguaro cactus which I think are unique to Arizona. Next day we drove into Tucson, once again totally different than 10 years ago, now a big city, not a sleepy Mexican looking village. Stayed long enough to have lunch and check the internet, at McDonalds, then eventually back onto what we thought was the I10 but it was a side road.Had to go through about 10 miles of road works, and all the entry and exit roads were closed to the I10 because they are rebuilding the it.We dove directly to the Saguaro SKP Park (straight past several shops including Wal-Mart) This Park is quite large about 350 sites, for the non Escapees I will try to give an outline as to what they offer. They have a clubhouse, which would be about the size of a suburban recreation centre, back home, inside, a billiard room with three full sized tables, a kitchen, two card rooms, a reading room, a library , a gym, Laundry, and a huge open area used for various activities, not to mention the self service fridge with 50cent ice-cream . The season had just finished when we arrived, so most of the activities had finished, but during the season, its all go, with just about every activity known taking place. After a two day stay at the SKP Park at Benson, we decided to move on to wherever we could manage to find a spot for the night. We left Benson rather late , after shopping, which is absolutely fatal when there happens to be a Wal Mart in the centre. I have found Brian’s weak link! Two hours later we left for parts unknown. The drive was fantastic, huge towering mountains on both sides of the highway, although they were covered by a haze which gave them a blue look, quite unique. The highway was inundated with trucks, mainly 18 wheelers ( very knowledgeable on the subject!) but they were all very big and long and going a lot faster than our little Toyota. Came across McDonalds, which made Brian’s day. Never go inside these places, only park there to get WiFi. Checked in on Libby, our daughter to make sure all was well at home(Western Australia), then had to find a night spot, low and behold over the Bridge was the local Information centre, and an Apple Pie shop(closed thankfully) on a large area , so here we stayed. Another one of the day’s end info.Up early to make the most of the day(didn’t work), Brian decided to check the voltage in the Motorhome! Doesn’t everyone! Well the voltage was down, so everything came out, volt meter, thicker wire etc. Well what does a woman do! Clean up of course. But being close to a truck stop he decided the truckies would have more tools, so we shifted 250 metres. Low and behold he found someone who lent him what he needed to fix the problem for the moment. Need stronger wire at some stage, but back on the road again. The day was freezing cold to start but became better as the day went by, so did the voltage! Back onto the I 10 ,went into Bowie for morning tea, Bowie is a town that looks like time has forgotten, so we decided to do the same, about all that was there was a Pecan grove ., It is the sort of place you could overnight anywhere. After this the scenery was bland, and the road straight, until we almost reached New Mexico. There is American history all around these parts , half a mile down the road Cochise signed the agreement with the US army, a few miles that way Geronimo was here, Billy The Kid, was in the area, Kit Carson was a teamster at a local mine, so it goes on.Arrived in New Mexico, and stopped at the welcome centre, this was the best rest area/information centre we have seen on this visit. The ladies here were most helpful giving us information of the local area, after this our travel plans altered, we were headed for the mountains, and Silver City………………….to be continued.

Aussies on tour - instalment #3

Our adventure continues......The trip from Joshua Tree, through to Blythe was an ordinary run down the I 10. When we got to Blythe it was a Sunday, not that you would know it, everywhere we went it was so busy. We replenished our supplies, and headed across the border from California into Arizona, just a stone’s throw away, to get fuel and Propane .We made it to the Flying J truck stop, and joined in the special queue set aside for RV’s, so with the dozen , or so that were there, we joined the confusion,with huge rigs towering over us. I don’t know whether it was being Sunday, or that so many “snowbirds” were heading home, or whether the fact that the gas prices are cheaper in Arizona, but after about half to three quarters of an hour we were on our way again. The GPS directed us through what appears to be minor roads on a map, but we have found out since being here that even minor roads are really good.We reached our destination at Ogilvy Rd, not far from Yuma, a well known BLM site, that boondockers use, to meet up with Ron & Gloria, who had been offering help and support via the internet, since our arrival. This is a huge area with a couple of military bases close by, it was very interesting, being in the desert, mountains behind, and groups of helicopters some with rockets attached flying together, fighter jets just a couple of hundred feet above the ground, and strange winged aircraft, which apparently have the ability to take off vertically, just needed a few tents and you could have thought that you were on a scene from M*A*S*H. In the distance was a railroad track I counted 109 carriages on one train, on our last visit here I counted 125.Our stayed with Ron & Gloria was for three nights, and during this time Gloria had medical attention in Yuma, they were kind enough to offer to take us with them, so this gave us the opportunity to go in to explore Yuma. Yuma is a little strange, as it does not appear to have a centre, but just large and spread out, growing in one direction, can’t grow south, because that’s Mexico, can’t grow east, that’s California, can’t grow north, that’ Indian country. Still it’s a nice size, with just about all one would require as far as amenities and services are concerned. Ron helped with information on our mapping software, and other pieces of advice such as avoiding cyclones, also had use of his internet wifi via satellite.It was then back onto the I 10 and headed towards Casa Grande, all was going well, until we went into Gila Bend to fuel up, McDonalds was there, so I checked whether there was wifi, yes there was , I then went to fill up the water tanks. Heard Michele make some comment about the computer, I kept filling, I then moved the van, went to log on, no lights, nothing, dead. This has been our main source of navigation, isn’t it strange how new things become the norm, and you cannot live without them, take refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, cars etc. We did make it into Casa Grande, and to the Escapees Park, at 5.30,the office closed at 5.00, as we had to rejoin the club we were turned away, come back tomorrow.Not a good day! No GPS, Casa Grande looked a lot different than it did when we were last here 10 years ago, nothing familiar at all, although the Skp park had not altered at all. We eventually found a school parking lot, which served the purpose admirably as an overnight rest area. The next morning, the staff began arriving about 7am, one lady was most helpful, giving us direction to computer repair and sales places. Being so early the only place open was Wal-Mart (open 24 hours), checked them out and then went out to Best Buys, they are more of a specialist retailer (knowledge gained from Ron), only to find out that they do not open until 10am.Had breakfast in the car park and looked at what other shops were open, waiting, waiting. After looking at the various options, the repair shop was now open. Problems with my computer, using XP, and all the new ones using Vista. Too long a story to expand on, (will respond personally if requested. Ha ha.) Two repair shops later, we went back to Best Buys and bought a new one.We then went back to the SKP Park, signed up and booked in for two days. It took nearly this long to get the computer running; the park did have wifi, but very slow, and weak. So downloading drivers etc took quite awhile. A lot of my programs I can’t install, because the original disks are home, however the GPS was up and running, no longer felt like a blind man.During our stay we met a lovely couple and as luck had it, the husband was using the same mapping software as us, and he had the day’s end (night spots) layer, right up to date, as he inputs the data each month from the club magazine, he also had the day’s end file in the same manner, most useful.After two days ( for those who do not know, boon docking fee is $5 per night, with the first night free, washers $1.00per load, dryers 25cents for 25mins) it was time to move on again.