our cross country rv adventure

3/19 - Sunday

Jim & I & Frank & Charlene ‘hit the road’ at 9 a.m. last Thursday (Larry & Marsha will stay in Mexico another 3 weeks). Frank & Charlene are headed to California and Jim and I, New Mexico.
We would have made it to Lordsburg, New Mexico about 5:30 Thursday evening, but we ended up in a 3 hour traffic jam (caused by an accident) on I-10 just outside of Tucson, Az, so we spent the night at a little RV park in Willcox, Az.
Left the first thing Friday morning for New Mexico. The route we decided to take, brought us through El Paso, Tx on I-10. There we passed Juarez, Mexico, which is just on the other side of the Rio Grande (pics attd).
We arrived at the Wal-Mart in Carlsbad, New Mexico (our destination) at 5:30 pm.
On Saturday morning, we moved to the RV park where we planned to stay for 2 nights.
Sunday morning we went to the Carlsbad Caverns….we toured 2 areas…the ‘Natural Entrance’ and the ‘Big Room’ (pics attd). If you are 62 or older, you can purchase a ‘Golden Age Passport’ for $10.00. It is good for life and covers all the basic fees for all national parks for a married couple.
As I am typing this (approx. 4 pm on Sunday)..we are having a hail storm (one of those things we hoped we wouldn’t run into). It is really coming down hard and the hail is about the size of very large marbles! (pic attd)
The hail storm lasted about 15 min., the sky is clearing and the sun is coming out. Wow, it produced a beautiful rainbow! Spring has definitely ‘sprung’ in Az & New Mexico. Cornflowers & Petunias are in bloom, there are flowers & new foliage on the trees and Wal-Mart is selling bedding plants as well as tomato & pepper plants that are 6-8” tall!
I expect we will head out first thing tomorrow (Monday), but quite honestly I don’t know what our immediate plans are.

3/23 - Thursday

Well, we couldn’t head out Monday as planned, as we had very strong winds and it wouldn’t have been safe. We stayed at the RV park one more night and started out first thing Tuesday morning. We drove through Pecos, Tx. Didn’t see Pecos ‘Pete’ ( : but I did see Road Runners and (my 3rd set) of Javelina’s! We stopped at a Wal-Mart in Texas for the night (just north of San Antonio) and arrived at an RV park in Rockport, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico, (just northeast of Corpus Christi) Wednesday afternoon. Spring is well under way here. The trees have leafed out enough to produce full shade, the grass is greening up with Texas Bluebonnets, yellow and pink Sundrops and other wildflowers in full bloom. The roses and Hibiscus are in bloom as well, and the corn growing in the fields is already 12” tall!

3/28 - Tuesday

We have been ‘on the move’. We drove through Louisiana (the whole state is just a beautiful bright vivid green!). We didn’t go near New Orleans, but still, we saw several areas in which a lot of houses had a roof under repair. There is an 18 mile bridge between LaFayette & Baton Rouge, which goes over the swamps and has some spectacular views (especially near the LaFayette area). It is part of I-10, and I certainly recommend it if you are ever in Louisiana. We drove though Biloxi, Mississippi. There was quite bit of damage there…..while driving over a bridge we noticed house pieces and household goods, such as doors and blankets in the upper tree branches! We drove across the entire upper part of Florida. I couldn’t believe all of the bridges between Mississippi & Florida. We drove over miles of bridges, sometimes many miles for just one bridge. Several of them cross portions of the Gulf of Mexico….it’s a little disconcerting to be driving over the ocean and not to be able to see the land on the other side! (Not something I want to do too often).

We are presently in a campground in Port Orange, Florida and will be here until next Wednesday. At that time, we will leave here and head to Daytona speedway for a RV rally.
The rally will last about 5 days, and then we will start our trek back to Connecticut!

I do not have internet service here; I need to find the local library to post this. Don’t know when I will be able to post again. (Possibly not ‘til we arrive home).
Linda

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