September
15th, 2014 - Day 107
Well, the
big news (when we finally had a little television service), was of a
hurricane named Odile that was heading straight for Tucson, creating serious
flood threats for the hundreds of miles we were needing to travel through! This
was the first we heard of this storm! It’s great to be away from
television, but sometimes it is really important to “tune-in”!
The
problem was that we had planned a particular route that allowed us to check on
a piece of property Norm has owned for many years in a retirement community
near the Mexican border called Rio Rico - located about 50 miles south of
Tucson. Right smack in the path of the hurricane!
What to
do? (This decision was an easy one ).
RUN!
By examining where and when it was going to hit, it appeared that if we could
drive 8-10 hours each of the next two to three days, we should get ahead of
this mega-storm! Ugh, this was not going to be fun!
For the sake of speed, we decided
to drive the dreaded I-10. What a culture shock! Billboards, semi-tractor
trailers, and oh, so many speeding cars! We were suddenly thrust back to
reality, and neither of us was ready to go there! Many of our RV friends choose to
travel these multi-lane roadways exclusively, but up to now we had enjoyed the
solitude of the back country roads where often a day would pass with seeing
only a couple of cars. Now this! Ugh!
We drove
through Phoenix and Tuscon without incident, thanks to Norm’s expert handling of
this large motorhome and towed car.
Thank
goodness for my computer and the internet. I busied myself by creating
a blog site for the sale of the RV, working on this blog,
answering emails, etc.
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The drive was mostly flat with not much to see, then all of a sudden this appeared to rise out of the ground! |
The next few days will be all about driving. During these three years of RV vacationing, we
had managed to limit ourselves to no more than 5, perhaps 6 hours of driving
during one day. We had two days ( if you could believe the
weatherman ) to get to central Texas and avoid the predicted flood
zone.
To
complicate things, our friend, who had just driven this route the week before,
warned us that campgrounds with vacancies were nearly impossible to
find. Due to the sudden increase in oil production, workers with
campers where securing every site in the western part of the state. Hey,
did I just hear a challenge?
It took a few calls, and one place with room was absolutely horrible, but I did manage to get a reservation at Low-Hi RV Ranch in Deming, NM. Now we just had to get there.
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A warning sign posted at rest area. I bet dogs are kept on a leash here! |
After nearly 10 hours of driving, Norm and
I felt proud of ourselves for having driven a whopping 469 miles!
We would never make good "truckers".
September
16th, 2015 - Day 108
It had
rained the night before, and as we started to pull forward, water poured into
the RV from above the windshield! I’m not talking about a little water- it was
as if someone had taken a five gallon bucket and dumped it on the
dashboard! Oh, crap! It was the first rain we had experienced since
before Salt Lake City, so obviously our new windshield was leaking! Realizing
the amount of rain we could run into, we felt our incredibly good luck may have
run out.
I
immediately got on the phone and called the insurance company to find a place
to get this fixed! After several frustrating hours, and many phone
transfers later, we discovered that there is no one in the state of Texas who
was willing to check this out and fix it. This news gave us all the more reason
to avoid the hurricane- and hope for no rain at all!
We
dragged out the huge beach towels and lined the dash to keep damage to the RV
to a minimum. We needed this repaired, and the sooner the better! The
fact that we intend to sell this RV as soon as we get back, made it all the
more imperative. We don’t need any damage now, that’s for sure. We managed to
keep this RV in PERFECT condition up to now (well, yesterday).
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A - Sedona, Arizona B - Deming, NM C - Senora, Texas |
We drove and drove, only stopping for gas and a quick bite to eat ( I can use the restroom while Norm drives, and I am convinced Norm is part camel.)
I spent, while comfy in my passenger seat, way too much time trying to figure how far poor Norman could drive, and
which campground along our route may have a spare campsite. A good night’s sleep would be really
important to Norm since he was doing so much driving. I could have, and probably should have helped behind the wheel, but hey!
I hadn’t so far, so why risk an accident at this point? Right?
Beside, Norm loves to drive. And I love not to! For the last 25,000 miles
of RV’ing, our finely tuned system has worked real well for us.
We
finally found a place off the beaten path called Caverns of Senora, in Senora,
Texas. Sounds great, doesn’t it? In fact, when we called, we were assured
we would have the place practically to ourselves! There was a cave system
there that I knew Norm would love to check out, so it seemed like the perfect
place!
We
arrived a little past dinner time, marveling at this beautiful, out-of-the-way campground and were greeted by the campground
host. He told us the only a few sites had "somewhat reliable" electricity and that they were in a particular area and that we could pick anyone we would like! Fabulous! Well, we drove around the corner, and
low and behold, there were 3 other huge rigs, haphazardly parked, taking up nearly
all the powered sites!
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Campsites don't get much closer than this! |
Picture
this; a huge campground, with acres of sites, and 4 huge rigs parked a couple
of feet away from each other! We were really tired, but after we disconnected
the car and with some fancy maneuvering, Norm expertly squeezed between a
couple of RV’s where we spent the night. Turns out all the other sites had no
power at all, thus no interest. The host was very vague as to whether
there would be a cave tour the next morning, so we decided it would be best to
leave early and get further down the road and away from the predicted flood
zone.
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Internet photo of Senora Caverns! Said to be internationally know as on the the best show caverns on the planet. Then where is everyone, and why are they not giving tours? I sure wish we could have seen it. |
I was on
the phone today with our friends, the Cormiers, hoping to catch up with
them. They were having some trouble with their RV, and were delayed in
Austin, so perhaps it would work out. How terrific to end the vacation
with folks we started it with more than 3 months before!