APRIL 7 to 10, 2008

APR.   7,  Monday

 

Sunny and hot again today but blowing a strong wind in the afternoon so the awning went up. 

Today, I took the truck in to have the Jake checked.  It is OK but I do need the Y valve by the turbo replaced.  This is a 6 to 8 hours job I am told.  Something to do when we near home.

After this, I mailed the airbag that was replaced to Firestone for warranty purposes.  One more thing to wait for and keep track of.

Downloaded more pictures, and started getting ready to leave by packing the bikes, the BBQ and all the little toys.  Val called Kim about the dinner tomorrow.

 

 

APR.   8,  Tuesday

 

Our last day here!  Lots of people leaving today...going home I guess!?  I cooked my "famous" Shepperd Pie, french Canadian style, heh!  Put away the lounge chairs, loaded the kayaks then we headed to Sierra Vista for Val's chiropractor appointment.  Afterwards, we went to Kim and Tim and had our last visit with them.  The dinner was a success, I think, and we chatted for a couple hours then came home after saying our goodbyes.  We were home by 9 p.m.

 

 

APR.   9,  Wednesday

 

We hit the road around 8:30 a.m. and headed south on hwy 80.  Drove through Tombstone and Bisbee (places we have visited before) and then headed East to Douglas.  From there, it was Hwy 82 north-east, a very pretty drive and we saw the backside of Chiricahua mountains.  Turned east on I-10 and stopped at Lordsburg for fuel: 23 gal @ 3.85 at "Flying J".  It was soon after this that the sandstorm caught up with us.  Very strong wind but thank God, it was behind us which improved my fuel consumption tremendously.  The winds were gusting to 50 MPH ( learned that on the news later).  We arrived at Las Cruces and decided to stop here.  Visibility was down to almost nil and I-10 Westbound was closed to ALL traffic.  We parked at Coachlight Motel and RV for $15. (water and electricity only) and relaxed.  We have WIFI here so I was able to caught up to our Income Tax, skypped Steve and wrote a couple of e-mails.We moved our clocks one hour ahead (Mountain time) 

 

We averaged 34 mph with top speed of 64 mph on I-10 and 12.5 miles per gallon.  Great!!

 

N 32* 17' 34"                      W 106* 48'24"

Alt: 3939 feet

Distance today:449 KM

 

 

APR.  10, Thursday

 

Sunny this morning and already the wind is picking up again.  It's not supposed to be as strong as yesterday but none the less strong winds are forecast.  We left Las Cruces around 10 a.m. and already the winds are blowing up sand and dust.  We drove north on 292 to hwy 70, then east across town and up the pass in the San Andres Mountain.  It was a steady but easy climb to almost 6000 feet then over the top and what a view we got!  The whole valley containing the white sands opened up in front of us and we could see for miles although the air was a bit cloudy because of the sand blowing up.  We crossed the White Sands Park and the missile range and stopped at the visitor centre to take a look around.

We carried on north-east on 70 to Alamogordo, crossed town, fuelled up: 15 gallons @ $3.999 ( some places in town it is 4.12/gallon) and arrived at our park, the Edgington RV Park and Storage.  Paid $26. for two nights (Passport park) as we want to go back to the White Sands and explore a bit but not today as it is just too windy.  We now have winds gusting at speeds of 30-40 mph.  We set up and relaxed at home.  We have WIFI.

 

N 32* 57' 48"                W 105* 58' 34"

Alt:  4572 feet                Distance today: 122 KM

 

Average speed: 41 mph with a top speed of 63 mph