29 September 2024 Birthday get together

 Cynthia and Felix were in Dallas to go to the SMU game, so we conspired together to drive over to Donny and Diane’s Sunday Morning with donuts to surprise Diane for her 80^th Birthday (and David’s 65^th). We spent several hours visiting. Everyone looked good and are doing well. After tiring them out with family gossip, we joined Cynthia and Felix for an early dinner at Mi Cocina’s before they headed back to the Woodlands and we headed home to Alvarado. Unfortunately, we forgot to take any pictures.

28 September 2024 Wichita Falls to Alvarado TX.

 As we expected, the traffic through downtown Fort Worth was crazy, even in the early afternoon. The 153 mile drive from Wichita Falls was uneventful. We decided to try a different RV Park this time to try and avoid some of the horrible traffic due to construction at I-20/I-820/US287 intersection. So we are staying at the Texas RV Ranch ($853 monthly rate including $200 electric charge ($28.44 per day)) on US67 in Alvarado. It’s about the same distance out of town as the Texan RV Ranch we normally stay at but has a more direct route into Fort Worth on I-35 or into Dallas on US67. We were placed in the older section of the park (There is a large new area further back from US67 that is really nice) in a pull through. The site is plenty long, all the hook ups work well, but the landscaping has been completely taken over by weeds that have not been mowed in a while. We also are having issues getting the WiFi to work. They have a pond, but it is not being aeriated so it stinks. It will work for a month, but we will probably not stay here again. 

Our site at the Texas RV Park

27 September 2024 Amarillo to Wichita Falls TX.

 When we were planning our route back to DFW, we decided to break up the drive from Amarillo to DFW. At 365 miles, it’s a really long day and the scenery along US287 is pretty boring on this stretch. At 246 miles, Wichita Falls seemed like a good stopping point. We stayed at the Wichita Falls TV Park ($54 per night with GSC) for one night. This is by far the most dog friendly RV park we have been to. They had a really nice leashed dog walking area with sculptures and simulated fire hydrants for the fur babies to enjoy. They also had a really nice fenced in dog park to let the dogs off leash to run around. The dog park had nice lush grass to be easy on the paws. We did not feel like cooking, se we picked up a great pizza and salads from Mia’s Italian Bistro near the RV Park.  

Our site in Wichita Falls RV Park

Keira in the leash dog park

The off leash dog park

25 September 2024 Amarillo Route 66 Historic District

 We have been to Amarillo several times but never explored the historic Route 66 district on 6^th street. First, we needed another Texas food stable, What-a-Burger! Yum! Then we drove down to the 6^th street historic district. We strolled through a couple of the large Antique malls where Leslie found a couple of Porcelain Dogs for her collection. The district is a bit run down. We wondered what it was like in its heyday.

What-A-Burger Fix

23 September 2024 Las Vegas NM to Amarillo TX

 We got hit the road early to Amarillo. We picked up US84 south to I-40 near Santa Rose and then east on I-40. I-40 follows the old Route 66. David had fond memories of the stories of his Great Aunt and Uncle that drove Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angles and back ever summer in the 1950s and early 1960s. We had stumbled upon a Route 66 roadside landmark while planning our route. We pulled off I-40 at Adrian Texas and found the Route 66 Midpoint marker. It is the midpoint of the distance between Chicago and Los Angles. We had hoped to eat lunch at the Midpoint Café but were disappointed to find out it was closed on Monday and Tuesdays. So we explored the nearby tourist trap gift shop before heading on down the road to the Oasis RV park outside Amarillo ($56 per night with GSC). This is our go to RV park in the Amarillo area. But it is starting to get run down. Pot holes in the roads. Landscaping is not being maintained and the dog park is overgrown weeds. After setting up, we were ravenous after missing lunch and had an urgent need for some real TexMex. So, we drove into town to Chuy’s and feasted on delicious spicy TexMex. Man we missed it! 

21-22 September 2024 Las Vegas NM Historic Square

 We had a series of thunderstorms coming through on Saturday, so we stayed home to keep Keira from going crazy. On Sunday we drove into the historic downtown area of Las Vegas NM. Parts of the TV show “Longmire” were filmed here on the square. We wandered through a couple of the antique stores that were open. Being a small town on a Sunday, many of the shops and restaurants on the square were closed. After filling up with fuel, we went to the Buffalo Hall Café for dinner before heading back to the Wanderer.

Sherifs Door from Longmire

Historic Plaza Hotel

20 September 2024 Colorado Springs Co to Las Vegas NM

 We got hitched up and headed down I-25 for 254 miles. We have more confidence in the new hitch after we came up on a single lane construction zone. As we rolled up to it, we suddenly saw there was a series of deep dips in the pavement. We hit the brakes to bleed off as much speed as we could before we rolled over them. The dips in the pavement yanked hard on the trailer in multiple violent chucking motions. Keira did not enjoy the ride! But we rolled through and the trailer, hitch and truck were just fine. If that did not pull the hitch out of the pucks, nothing would! Only a hundred yards up the road there was a moving van pulled over to the side with a car trailer attached to the back. All the tires on the car trailer were blown out due to the violent motion when they hit those same dips. We pulled off I-25 at US84. It was at this intersection 40 years ago that David and two of his friends and spun out and hit the bridge abutment while headed to Telluride Ski area in a blizzard. It brought back memories. Just past the bridge, we turned onto a county road to go to the New Mexico Las Vegas KOA ($58 per night with KOA discount). We were a bit concerned since we could not see the RV park and this road was basically single lane with no place to turn around. A bit farther down the road we came up on the RV park and pulled in. After checking in, they escorted us to our sight. The roads were really tight for our big rig and we ended up rubbing against some small tree branches. As we pulled into our site, the skies opened up and it rained hard. We waited for the rain to let up before getting out and unhitching. The water system in this park is gravity fed so it is only about 22lbs of pressure. We’re not going to get good showers here! Best word we can use for this park is “rustic”. But it will do for a couple of days.

Our Site in Las Vegas NM