Hi there, welcome back. Our last
chapter concluded on Monday, September 21st with our
arrival in the little farming community of Goodlett, Texas. On
Tuesday we went out to do some geocaching and exploring. There were
no caches in Goodlett,which is a town of just over a hundred people,
but the towns to the north and south had some caches, so we went
there. We had a good afternoon of caching, getting 14 new finds,
along with a couple of DNFs. One of the finds was a milestone, find
number 7,400. One of the caches was in Childress, Texas, near a tourist shop. The cache was located near an old, 1948 Spartan Motor Home. The picture is posted here. At first glance it looks like a trailer, but it is a motor home, with the front end to the left in the photo. Quite a piece of work. After caching we went back to the coach and relaxed
the rest of the evening.
Wednesday, September 23rd,
we decided to have a stay at home day. Did a few little chores and
Jackie did some cleaning, other than that we relaxed for the day.
Thursday is yet another travel day. We left Goodlett about 10:30 and
continued northwest towards Amarillo, about 140 miles. We had a
little bit of light rain on the way and made a fuel stop, getting
into the RV park about 1:30 or so. After we got set up we relaxed
for the rest of the day.
Friday, September 25th, we
headed out after lunch to shop for the supplies I need to finish the
refrigerator project. We hit a couple of local lumber yards but were
not able to find what I wanted. We finally got the trim at Home
Depot. It was not precisely what I had originally wanted, but it
will work. We also did a couple of geocaches while we were driving
around town, two new finds and one DNF. Once we had the trim I
needed we headed back to the coach. I went down to the hot tub and
relaxed for a bit, then we had dinner and watched TV the rest of the
evening.
Saturday, September 26th, we
left the RV park about 11:30 or so and drove into Amarillo to go to
the Tri-State Fair and Rodeo. The tri-states are Texas, Oklahoma and
New Mexico and the fair was not nearly as big as the name would have
you believe. It was really more like a big county fair, with midway
rides, food courts, a couple of commercial exhibit buildings and lots
of farm animals. Today was the last day for the fair, so despite the
really nice 70 degree weather on a weekend, there were not many
people in attendance. A lot of the animals had left too, once the
judges look at them the owners take off for home. We did get to see
some kids with their cows getting judged, a lot of goats and rabbits.
We spent a couple hours walking around, had junk food for lunch, and
then left to do a little geocaching. We got two more caches and
stopped at Sam's Club for a few things before heading back to the
coach for the evening. I went to the hot tub again, then relaxed for
the rest of the night.
Sunday, September 27th, we
had our usual Sunday morning paper, coffee and talk shows. After
lunch we started on some chores, the most important of which was my
finishing the refrigerator project. It took me a couple of hours,
but I got the molding trim put on the refrigerator and now it looks
like a finished installation. It is not perfect, but I am pretty
happy with how it turned out. Jackie got some cleaning done and we
spent the entire day in the coach.
Monday, September 28th, we
left the coach after lunch and went out to do some geocaching. We
had a good afternoon, getting eleven new finds and one DNF. One of
the caches we didn’t find was on one of the vehicles that is part
of the art project, Cadillac Ranch. Cadillac Ranch is a piece of
public art put into place in 1974. It consists of seven vintage
Cadillac junkers planted nose first into the ground at an angle. The
project is only about a mile from the RV park where we are staying.
It had originally been put closer into Amarillo, but after a few
years it was moved to outside the city limits to avoid any problems
with the City of Amarillo. The public is encouraged to spray paint
the cars, and they are really wildly painted now.
After our caching we made a couple of
shopping stops. We stopped at Burlington Coat Factory outlet and got
some new pillows for the couch and I got a couple of pairs of shorts.
We then made a stop at Walmart for some supplies. After shopping we
headed back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the evening.
Tuesday, September 29th, we
left the coach after lunch to go geocaching. We had a great
afternoon, getting another eleven finds and one new DNF. We also did
a little exploring, which included driving northeast of Amarillo
about 17 miles to the Pantex Nuclear Facility. The facility is
located on 16,000 acres of Federal land and is only U.S. facility
responsible for the assembly, disassembly and repair of nuclear
weapons. Weapons are moved in and out by truck or train and some are
stored at the location. Of course, we couldn't get into the place,
but we were able to drive by close enough to see the buildings at the
site. There were probably enough nuclear weapons at the site today
to blow the entire middle of the country to ash. We also drove to
the little town of Panhandle, Texas, just a few miles beyond the
Pantex plant, where we did some caching.
After our caching and exploring we
drove to The Big Texan Steak Ranch restaurant for dinner. This is a
real Texas steak house, built in 1960, with all the cheesy
decorations to prove it. One of their trademark items is the 72 oz
steak dinner, which is free if you can eat it in under an hour,
including the potato, roll, and shrimp cocktail that comes with it.
The current record for time is a competitive eater named Molly
Schuyler who, in May 2014, ate the entire dinner in 4 minutes and 58
seconds, then ate a SECOND dinner in 9 minutes and 59 seconds. She
has vowed to return to eat 3 of the dinners in under an hour, a feat
never yet accomplished. There were no competitive eaters tonight,
but the steaks we did have were very good.
Thursday, October 1st, was
another travel day. We packed up and left Amarillo about 10:30 and
headed west towards Santa Rosa, New Mexico, about 158 miles. After
the first 50 miles we crossed the border from Texas into New Mexico
and did a little time travel as we moved into the Mountain Time zone
and got an extra hour on our day. Yea! We did a lunch stop in
Tucumcarri, New Mexico and arrived at the Santa Rosa RV Park about
1:30 local time.
We got settled in for our two day stay
and then went out to explore the town and do some geocaching. It
didn't take too long to explore the town as it is only four square
mile and about 2,700 population. Driving down the main street, which
is part of old Route 66, there are dozens of closed businesses. Not
a very vibrant looking town. The town was founded in the early
1900's as a railroad stop and is located on the Pecos River. One of
the interesting things about the town and the surrounding area are
the many small, natural lakes, all formed by sinkholes in the
limestone rock that makes up this area. One of the more famous is
the Blue Hole, a natural lake that 
nearly round in shape, about 60
feet across but 81 feet deep. It is very clear water and is a
popular place for scuba diving and training. There is also a cave
system connected to the bottom of the pool, but has been blocked off
by the city for safety reasons. At least four people drowned in the
pool in the 70's trying to explore the caves, prompting the action by
the city. We got one geocache at the pool, an earth cache, which
only required us to observe the pool and answer some questions by
email. There is also an actual cache which requires a dive to the
bottom of the pool. Of course, that one is a five out of five
terrain rating and we didn't get it. After caching and exploring we
headed back to the coach for the rest of the day. Friday we left the
coach after lunch and went into town to do laundry. After the
laundry was done we went back to the coach for the rest of the day
and relaxed.
Saturday, October 3rd,
another travel day. We had a couple of brief thunderstorms overnight
that dropped some rain but were otherwise non-threatening. We left
Santa Rosa about 10:00 under gray skies, but no rain. We were
heading for Albuquerque today, about 128 miles east on Interstate 40.
About halfway through the trip we went up over some higher
elevations, about 7,000 feet, and ran into some pretty dense fog.
Traffic was not too heavy, so it was not real scary, but it lasted
about 45 minutes and was a little tense. We arrived at the American
RV Park on the west side of Albuquerque about 1:00 or so and got
checked in.
We did the basic setup and then headed
out to do a Costco and Walmart run. We are here in Albuquerque for
the annual International Balloon Fiesta event. We will be attending
the event, starting on Tuesday for us, with the Monaco International
FMCA Chapter. We have been here twice before with Monaco, in 2010
and 2011. Both times we were volunteers, me helping with parking and
setup and Jackie with cooking and hosting. We are doing the same
thing this year, so we go in on Tuesday, a day early, to help get
everything ready. Our friends the Babcocks and the Bullocks are also
coming, but they won't be in until Wednesday. They are here in
Albuquerque already, staying out at the Air Force base. We are going
to have lunch with them on Sunday and are looking forward to seeing
them for the first time since this past Spring.
After we got back from shopping we had
cocktails with Harry and Sandy Hentschel, the wagon-masters for our
group. The regular wagon masters, David and Kay Piper, who have done
this rally for about 20 years, are not here this week because David
is very ill. We will miss them. The other volunteer couple, Dee and
Marvin Pitts, will be here tomorrow and then we will all get together
to be sure everything is ready for the rally. After cocktails we
went back to the coach and watched TV until bedtime.
Our arrival here in Albuquerque marks
an excellent point to close this chapter and get it published. Until
next time remember that when life gives you lemons, find someone with
a bottle of vodka and have a party! See ya soon.
