Gaining Elevation

Where Are We Today

Zuzax New Mexico

(click on pic to enlarge)

Today we are in Zuzax New Mexico near Tijeras which is just east of Albuquerque. Arriving at 5 pm, yesterday, after driving 426.8 miles we were right beside another Canadian couple, Jill & Mike, from Vernon British Columbia, who were just setting up. After supper we got together to exchange stories.

Back to our day of travel, we left Elk City Oklahoma at 8:30 am, under cloudy skies and cool a temperature of 52 F.  Right off the start we could tell we were climbing to higher elevations, continuing west on I 40, it would be a steady easy climb topping off just over 7000ft, with a few dips here and there, and finishing at 6638ft above sea level.

Navigator and Picture taker

Welcome to Texas

Shortly after getting started we had to make a quick stop for fuel and then carry on down the road. Crossing into Texas just after 9:00am we drove until we came to the first rest stop at 9:55 am for about 15 minutes. Still cloudy and only 51 *F at 3110 ft but beautiful scenery. On our way again across the Texas panhandle passing fields of cotton and cattle, we stopped at Cadillac Ranch to paint our names on and take a few pics of the Cadillac's stuck in the ground. An hour later we pulled into a picnic area to make some lunch, temperature up to 57* F and blue skies returning.

Rest Area in Texas

Cadillac Ranch

Sprayed our name on the Cadillac

The whole row of Cadillacs

Welcome to New Mexico

Passing into New Mexico just after 1:00pm and stopping for our second fill of fuel for the day at Russel's Truck Stop, exit 392, lots of trucks coming and going. With the cooler temps and higher thinner air, our fuel mileage is lower than our first few days, not by a lot and did expect it to be, so not a surprise.

At 2:30 pm, we were passing thru 4500 ft. near Tucumari and Montoya NM. with mountain ranges to the north and south and the temperature now up to 75* F. Moving right along we passed thru 7001 ft. at Clines Corner NW. around 3:00pm.

Speed limits along I 40 range from 65 to 75 MPH, I have our cruise control set between 60 and 65 MPH, not in any hurray, just a nice comfortable speed and I do enjoy driving.

Near Tucumcari and Montoya NM.

Near Tucumari & Montoya NM.

At exit 178, Zuzax NW. to state hwy 333, a short hop to our camp ground, " Hidden Valley" at  Tijeras NM. Here for two nights before we head on down that road to our next destination, where ever that may be.

I think we will slow down a bit and take in a few sights if see something we like and stop when we feel like it. So far, each day we have had a destination that we planned on getting to.

Thanks for following along, until the next time, take care and be safe.

Our route from Elk City Ok. to Tijeras NM.

Center of America " The Heartland"

Where Are We Today

Elk City Oklahoma

(click on picture to enlarge)

After three nights at Eagles Landing Campground in Grove Oklahoma, we are " On the Road Again" by 8:30, heading south then west. To avoid the I44 turnpike to Oklahoma City, we headed south from Grove Ok. on state road 59 to Alternate state road 412. Both these are two lane roads which twist and turn and go up and down some hills, but are quite nice to drive on. 

Our spot in Eagles Landing

State Road 59 S

State Road Alternate 412

State Road 69 S

From 412 we turned onto 69 south at Chouteau, stop at a Loves truck stop to make lunch.

 While we were there, I went across the weigh scale just to see what we weighed at the time. Here are the numbers. Front (steer) axle 4740 lbs., the rear (drive) axle 8540 lbs. and the two trailer axles 16400 lbs for a gross weight of 29680 lbs. To keep things in perspective, the trailer had a full 100 gallons of water, the waste tanks were empty and the truck had 3/4 of a tank of fuel. Pat and Clemson were in the truck, but as I had to get out and reach the buttons to call into the office, I didn't get back on the scale in time to include my weight. I will do this again when I have a full tank of fuel and with myself in the truck. I will also drop the trailer and weigh just the truck at the same time.

After that we carried on down 69 S to I 40 and proceeded west to Oklahoma City passing thru and around was a breeze. Continuing west we saw a sign that said we were driving thru the Centre of America. I 40 is a great road to drive on, lots of wide open spaces, gentle rolling hills and you can see for miles.

Paving on I 40

Oklahoma City

Rolling Hills I 40

Turbines and rolling hills

Open country

We have stopped for the night at a 24 hour Wal-Mart on Regional Dr. in Elk City Oklahoma.

It has been a beautiful sun filled blue sky day with a high of 84 F/28.8 C with a nice breeze, couldn't ask for a better day.

All set for the night

Company in the background

Thanks for following along and until the next time, take care and be safe.  

Sight Seeing

Where Are We Today

Grove Oklahoma

Today was a non travel day, not so much a day of rest as we did do some sightseeing. After breakfast, some computer reading and catching up on my book keeping we headed out to see some sights.

 On a suggestion from George, Our Awesome Travels we went to see Har- Ber village, which Pat is writing about Chillinwithpatsy and then on to see Darryl Starbirds national Rod & Custom Car Hall of Fame, great suggestion George, we really enjoyed them both. 

The following are some of the pics that I took. Not all the cars are his, some are from other designers and builders.Darryl Starbirds Hall of Fame

Entrance to Hall of Fame

This is the car that started his fame

Donna Starbird with Pat

After that we took a drive around to the other side of Grand lake to the Pensacola Dam between Langley and Disney Oklahoma. Spanning one mile across the Grand Lake, it is the longest multiple arch buttress dam in the world.

Pensacola Dam

Sitting in Cherokee State Park, looking at the dam.

Returning back to our camp site in the late afternoon after a enjoyable day that started out foggy until about mid day to beautiful clear blue skies with temperature of 74 F.

After supper, a nice walk around the park before retiring inside to write this post.  

Day Three

Where Are We Today

Grove Oklahoma

Today we traveled from Wentzville Mo. to Grove Ok. Our route took us on I 70 to Olive Creek road to MO. 109 to Mo. 100 West then onto I 44 to the Will Rogers Turnpike to U.S. 59 which brought us to Eagles Landing Resort Camp Ground at Grove Ok.

Olive Creek Road is a narrow winding and very hilly two lane road, the rest are all four lane roads until U.S.59. Missouri is very hilly in places with beautiful scenery and also running alongside the old Route 66.

Again, I must say how pleased I am with the truck performance. With tow haul mode, engine brake and cruise control all set, we climbed and descended all the grades without having to touch the gas or brake.

Olive Creek Road

Another shot of Olive Creek Road

Came upon this roll over early in the morning

A  second one not too long after the first

Filling up at Exit 179 on I 44

Very nice Rest Area, last one in Missouri

We came upon an accident near Miami Ok. moments after it happened. Although we saw it in plenty of time and stopped, others just can't clue into what is going on and came close to hitting us or the transport beside us who also was paying attention and had stopped. It looked like minor injuries so hopefully everyone is ok.

Accident near Miami Ok.

Our spot tonight looks great, but will check out the area tomorrow.

Thanks for following along and until the next time, take care and be safe.

Our camp ground tonight

Two days of Travel

Where Are We Today

Wentzville Missouri

We now have two days of travel under our belts. We left "The Ridge" at 9:00 a.m. on Monday morning. After stopping for propane and diesel fuel in Durham we were on our way towards Sarnia/Port Huron, crossing into the states at 1:00p.m. After about half an hour we were thru leaving some of Clemson's dog food because the customs officer said it had meat by products and he couldn't see where it was made.  I'm sure ifg he looked hard enough or let me find it, he would have seen it was made in the U.S. of A. We bought the same dog food here at a Walmart that night.

Walmart @ Ft Wayne In.

We arrived at and stayed in the Walmart parking lot at Apple Glen Blvd in Ft. Wayne In at 5:45 p.m. A total of 421.5 miles for the long good day of driving.

We purchased our Verizon Ellipsis Jetpack FE46, activated it and are all set for internet.

On our way by 9:30 a.m. Tuesday morning for another 400 miles arriving at another Walmart in Wentzville Mo. just outside of St. Louis.

That's a total of 822.3 miles averaging between 10.5 and 11.2 miles per galllon. Very pleased with the performance of the truck (Ford F350, diesel. dual wheels and the trailer) with the miles we have driven so far. Even though it has been four lane roads, there have been some rough areas, shaking things up in the trailer pretty good. Broke two door catches on the cupboard door to our control panel.

Tomorrow, Wednesday we are heading for Grove Ok. to one of our time share camp grounds for a couple of days of R&R.

That's it for now, thanks for following along, until the next time take care.

PS: the temperature when we got here tonight was 70 F. 

Projects and Changes

Where Are We Today

"The Ridge" near Durham, On.

As mentioned in my last post, I said that I had some projects on the go. One of those was, to make a shelf unit for in the basement storage area. We have a lot of open space, so I thought a shelf would help to store smaller items. The following picture is of the finished project.

Shelves with cargo net each side.

A second project was to find away to mount our flag holders to the pin box. On previous trailers the pin box stuck out more then on this trailer. It is too far back to be able to drill holes for mounting the holders.

Fellow blogger and full timer, Rick, from "It's About Time" has a unique holder for theirs, but after asking him where he got it, I discovered that he put his creative talents and skills from his working trade to use and made it.

So, my solution was to purchase a piece of aluminum angle iron from the local automotive supplier and a couple of new flag holders from Home Hardware, put them together and fasten to the front of the pin box. I will try this and see how it holds up over travels this winter.

Both Pat and I had been kicking around the idea of moving our car shelter so we could move where our trailer sits. The reason for moving the trailer is so we can gravel the other side of the corral. This would allow us to drive up that way and back into our spot without making a u-turn coming up the way we do now.

For the two of us to move the car shelter, I separated the legs and carried the bottom half of the legs, which are set in 5 gallon pails filled with rocks to hold it in place. After doing that,  using a couple of ropes, so we could turn it over gently, we could  then move the rest of the shelter in one piece to its new location. Once there, reverse the process, put the legs back on and voila, all done and it only took an hour.

Next was to re position the trailer. So we went about moving everything out of the way, hook up the truck and do a little jiggy jag, and there we are, everything back in place.

Definitely worth the couple of hours it took to do both tasks.

Before the move

Bottom half of the legs seperated

Moving the legs

Flipping the top half over

All set up in its new location

Original spot

Everything cleared away

All hooked

Backed into new spot

 We really like the change and it gives more area for maneuvering our trailer and anyone else that comes to visit.

So that is some of the things we have been doing around "The Ridge". Thanks for following along, be safe and take care.