RV Adventures

Over a week ago we left behind our favorite campground on the the Mississippi River to head further into Arkansas and make our way Westward. We have covered some miles since then.  We decided to try some cheap camping.

Our first day out we found a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) campground that was $3 a night if you have a National Park Senior Pass!!!! That included 50 amp power. Score!  If you are over 62 and don’t have one of these passes, you should.  FYI…I’m not old enough (yet) to have a pass. 

The name of the town we were in was Toad Suck. Yes, you read that right. The Toad Suck campground was right on the Arkansas River, near a dam. 

Arkansas River and the Toad Suck Dam, as seen from Toad Suck Campground.

And across the river from us was the Toad Suck lock for barges going up and down the river. Of course, we had to check it out. A barge approached and entered the lock. After watching it (through the chain link fence) for awhile, we realized that the barge train would not fit in the lock and that the tug was going to have to do some rearranging. At that point, I gave up and went back to the campground. Jim watched for another hour. It takes a tug about 4 hours to put two barges at a time in the lock, maneuver them through, and go back for more barges. It doesn’t seem efficient, but must be cost effective or they wouldn’t do it.

Barge train approaching the lock

Looking into the empty lock.

In my last post I showed a picture of all the screens we use to navigate.  Below is why.  Departing the next morning, Jim consulted Bing Maps and our Garmin GPS and he decided to take a small road to the highway.  Before I could consult Google Maps, he had turned down this road.  BAM!!  It was a dead end.  We had to disconnect the Jeep and Jim had to execute a K turn to get the RV turned around and off that road.  Google won that contest!

Executing a K turn in the early morning light.

We decided to use our Harvest Hosts membership (free camping at Wineries, Breweries and Museums) and see what lay ahead. We found the Stafford Air and Space Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma. That would work. We arrived early afternoon and checked in at the desk to get permission to stay the night. No problem there. We were also told since we were Harvest Hosts, admission to the museum was free! Wow!!!

The Blue Flame between a space capsule and a jet!

Thomas Stafford was an astronaut who grew up in Weatherford, Oklahoma. He was the commander of Apollo 10, the mission right before Apollo 11 and the moon walk. The museum was surprisingly extensive. We enjoyed ourselves for a couple of hours and then retired to the RV.

Corinne the astronaut!

Being the Geeks that we are, we decided to watch the movie Apollo 13 that night. We kept saying “Hey, we saw one of those thingees in the museum!”

Sunrise the next morning, with the moon still in view!

The next destination was near Amarillo, Texas. While driving down a back road (Jim’s preferred type of road), we got behind some sort of truck that was flinging stuff into the air.

This truck looked innocent enough…..

The result is our windshield and front of the RV looking like this. When we finally passed the truck, it said “Well Swabbing Service”. What the heck is that? It must be something related to the oil fields in the area. Regardless, the front of our RV is now a mess. Ugh.

Ewwww. Who is going to clean this????

Our free destination that night was another Harvest Host location, the Bar Z Winery in Canyon, Texas.  We got our choice of parking spots and a wonderful view. 

The Palo Duro Canyon, we camped right on its edge.

We were tasting wines when a herd of Mule Deer wandered past!

Sunset over the Winery.

Our next stop on our Westward trek was Albuquerque, New Mexico. My brother Jim and family live there. My father Jim drove in from Green Valley, Arizona to join us. My husband’s name is Jim. And thus the name of this blog post….A Confluence of Jims.

We enjoyed a long weekend with family.

It was good to see my Dad again.

The family checking out one of the trucks at my brother’s and sister-in-law’s new business, Gallery Painting.

My brother Dan’s son Harrison lives in Albuquerque too. So we had dinner with him one night.

We need to be in Phoenix by March 2 and had a few days to explore. The southwest was being uncommonly cool and heading to Phoenix by the northern route through Flagstaff promised snow…something we were trying to avoid. So instead, we took the southern route, expecting no problems. WRONG! Dust storms!

I borrowed this picture from the Arizona Highway Department website. We didn’t experience this fortunately.

I-10 from Las Cruces to Tucson was shut down for a 72 mile stretch due to a farmer tilling his fields in high winds.  The dust caused zero visibility and resultant accidents….thus, a detour.  Fortunately for us, the 110 mile detour went right by our campground, so other than having to share the 2 lane road with a bunch of Semis, it didn’t effect us much.  My Dad wasn’t so lucky the next day…he had to take the detour to get back home and it added at least an hour onto his drive.

Semi-trucks that would rather be on the Interstate.

So we are now at the Roper Lake State Park in Safford, Arizona, located east of Tucson.  We are having a few days of down time before we head to Tucson tomorrow.

It was really windy yesterday. We had dust blowing through the campground.

Roper Lake…not big. But it is a lake!

My view of Mt. Graham out my kitchen window this morning.

Tomorrow we are leaving for the RV Rally in Phoenix. Jim hopes to learn more at their RV classes. I’m meeting up with a quilting buddy from Spencerport and hope to hit some quilt shops with her….like I need more fabric!!!  So, our travels continue!