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1 to 15 April 2023 16 to 30 April 2023

Saturday, April 1, 2023.

This is not April Fool's Day. We are leaving.
Some more goodbyes to friends. One last look at the street in front of the MH.

We are almost ready.

Michelle and Gaétan are the first to come by and say goodbye.

Our goodbye to all our friends in Western Sands in Yuma. See you all in November.

Surprise, France and Michel came around too. We will see you next winter.

Of course, some people are along the roads to say goodbye.

We stop by Éric and Judith's place to see if they are ready. They also have a lot of Goodbyes to say.

We are on the road. The first stop is a few miles out of Yuma. We stopped to double-check we did tie down all the stuff and that everything is secure.

And we are back on the road, driving east.

We had never seen the desert so green and in bloom. It is very pretty.

We drove through Tucson. We will miss the mountains of southern Arizona.

Just a little wink to my mom. She passed away years back...

We are going up in altitude and sometimes down in valleys. Like here, in Benson.

The roads are nice, not wind, a perfect day to travel.

Even if we are very close to our destination, we stop at one of the rest areas because of the weird rock formation. This is "Texas Canyon".

Our MHs are at rest for a few minutes as we look around at the scenery.
We have gained 5,000 feet in altitude since we started this morning.

We will stay in Fort Willcox RV Park in Willcox for two nights.

We have covered a lot of miles today. It is time to enjoy the moments with a beverage, right?

We had a nice sunset to finish the day.

The blue line is the route we took. Do not go by the driving time on the map. In a MH, you drive much slower than the speed limit (75 mph).

Overall, we had a good day of driving. Things are working out with our friends.

Photos from Comox.
Natasha cannot hold her joy at eating cupcakes.

The best two girls in our lives.

Is she a ballerina?

Sunday, April 2, 2023.

We do not always choose our neighbours...

The view in front of our RV Park.

Coming into the RV Park.

We had a busy day today.
We visited the Chiricahua National Monument. It was not too far from here.
We go through the village of Willcox.

Willcox is surrounded by farms, wineries and other attractions, like this B-B-Q restaurant.

And we are on our way to the Chiricahua Nation Monument.
Hummmm, would look at that, snow on top of the mountains.

The road to go to the Monument is very nice. The things you can see along the way!

Here we are.

At this altitude, the vegetation changes as you go up or down.

Some of the wildlife we saw.

The travellers.

Be prepared, I placed a lot of photos.

The Monument is renowned for its rock formation.

Like here.

Éric is being funny.

It is so big, tall and majestic.

Our final destination, the Massai Point. It has a 360° view of the surrounding.

Along the way, we have seen various sceneries.

At Massai Point, the view is spectacular. Photos cannot do justice to what we are seeing.

This is a Mexican Jay, no kidding. They are used to people and know they will get food.

More photos from the Point.

What a weird tree. It grows in a twisting motion.

After our visit and on our way out of the Monument, we stop for a short hike at Bonita Creek Loop.

The same tree is viewed from different angles and from cameras.

Some of the trees are a weird bark, like this one. It looks like alligator skin.

Another weird tree. This one is burnt on the inside, all the way up to the tip of one branch, but the outside is not burnt?

The Bonita Creek with my pretty Michele. Éric is looking for small minnows. He found none.

The trail is wheelchair accessible, meaning it is like a sidewalk.

Here is "little dog". That is his real name...

We really enjoyed the Chiricahua National Monument.

Once again, the things you see along the way...
You can even see an arrow in the chest of the driver.

Back in the village of Willcox, we wanted to visit the Rex Allen Museum. It was closed.

These are the two blocks where things happen here in Willcox.

Michele with Rex Allen. You can read a little about his life.

Almost everything is closed in Willcox on Sunday.
We found this little plaza.

When we got back to the RV Park, we enjoyed the last sun rays. Just like in Yuma, when the sun goes down, it cools off quickly.
Judith is laughing at the two boys.

This is a Gambel's quail. We see a lot of them in the park.

Supper is at Judith and Éric tonight.

As usual, we laugh so much that our bellies hurt. The food was very good. Thank you, Judith and Éric.

We finish the day with more photos from Natasha.

A great day with good friends, what else can we ask for.

Monday, April 3, 2023

We are leaving Fort Willcox RV Park this morning.
A good cleaning of the windshield is required before we go.

We are still on Interstate 10 East.

On certain stretches of the Interstate, you can have dust storms.

They have placed instructions on what to do when a dust storm happens.

And maybe say a little payer?

We stopped in Lorsburg, NM for gas.

We are going to Deming and leave the I-10. Some photos of the scenery we saw.

At Deming, we get off the I-10 to take State Route 10 east to Hatch.

Now we know why it is not windy today. The fans are off!

You may wonder why we will stop in Hatch?

Main Street.

We parked the MH on a side street and walked the main street.

The village of Hatch is considered the Chili Capital of the world.

You have to have more than Chili to attract tourists.

Some old cars.

Aliens, cacti and cocopelis.

After about an hour, we drove out of Hatch. We took I-25 North.

Our destination is the town of Truth or Consequences (T or C).

Our new home will be at this RV Park for two nights. We had a strong wind at the end of the day.

This was a 5 hours driving day.

Tuesday, April 4, 2023.

We are looking at a few Thrift stores in town this morning. You can always find something unusual in them.

In the afternoon, Éric and I went to tour the Geronimo Spring Museum. It is named Geronimo because of the spring in town and not because of the Native leader.

Other than the springs, not much to see in T or C.
We did stop at the local microbrewery.
I took a flight of beer. They were good.

The scenery around T or C.

We have supper at La Cocina. It was OK, nothing more.

We ended the day with a card game in the clubhouse.

Our granddaughter, Natasha.

Wednesday, April 5, 2023.

The start of another day on the road.

We are back on I-25 North towards Albuquerque.

Imagine a foggy night, and you see a tree like this one?

It sure looks like the mountains are burnt.

Albuquerque is at the base of those mountains.

We switch to I-40 East.

The exit to our new home, Hidden Valley RV Park. It is another Passport America park, so we pay only half the price for five nights.

The sites are not very wide and pretty, but for only $20 a night. It is OK.

What do we do after supper? We play cards again.

Thursday, April 6, 2023.

Our first stop is at the Albuquerque visitor center in the Old Town. The lady giving out the information is excellent. She loves her city. She is selling it well. We will be busy over the next few days.
We start by touring the Old Town.

The founder of the city. It is an old city.

All the buildings are made the way they were made back then. It is mostly boutiques, restaurants and art galleries.
Here are the photos in no particular order.

The TV series Breaking Bad was filmed in Albuquerque and the surrounding area.
Éric and Judith bought some chocolate candies in the adult part of the store.

It is very "artsy" in Old Town. Many small plazas display the work of local artists.

Because of the Spanish influence, you see a lot of religious boutiques with the "celebration of the dead".

A nice snow cone to cool off.

The San Felipe de Neri church is the oldest in Albuquerque.

It has been in use since 1793.

And sometimes you see a nice older car. Even the man hole covers are ornate.

We had a good day.

Friday, April 7, 2023.

It is cool/cold this morning. Michèle, Éric and I are doing the Trolley Tour of Albuquerque. Judith is not with us.

It is a nice city, with hardly any graffiti We found the city very clean.
It is also a city with lots of murals.

Albuquerque is home to the "Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta", an hot air balloon festival. The event is the largest balloon festival in the world.

If you ever watched the movie "Windtalkers", the Navajo Indians were from here. The last surviving Native from the real "Windtalkers" is 101 years old as of 2023.

It is cold today.

Some of the houses used in the Breaking Bad TV series.

Route 66 goes through Albuquerque.

This is the Breaking Bad motorhome giving a tour of all the locations used during the filming of the show.

You want murals. You got murals.

At one time, Albuquerque was the place to overall steam locomotives.
Today, large buildings are falling apart.

Tourists like to take a picture with the statues.

Albuquerque has a very varied architecture.

Like those two weird houses.

Or this "Rock House" which sold for over a million dollars in 2022!

Mr. Valdés.

You see a lot of old cars in the southern states.

We take the old Route 66 to get back home.

We noticed this garage when we drove to the city. It has many older cars in the lot. We found the place.

Old trucks.

Some almost restored cars.

A Toyota Landcruiser. You do not see too many of those anymore.

Five older Pontiac Grand Prix. They are all for sale.

We decided to go to the top of Sandia Crest Mountain to look at the sunset and Albuquerque.

It is a very twisty road to go to the top. Surprise, we have snow!

This is the parking lot.

Us with the view of the east side valley.

Now the west side and Albuquerque.

The visitor center is closed for the winter. The snow is up three-quarters of the way up the door.

We are at an altitude of 10,678 feet above sea level. Our RV Park is at about 6,000 feet.

Waiting for the sunset.

We had some cloud cover to the west. We did not have a nice sunset.
We are still happy we came.

Saturday, April 8, 2023.

It is a day of "do what you want". Michele and I went to check out some thrift stores. Éric and Judith went riding parts of Route 66. They also went to one BIG Harley-Davidson dealer.

We were back home before them. We waited for the happy hour.

Can you see "Ti-Chien" ? He is in the bag in front of Judith. Ti-Chien loves riding a motorcycle.

It is snowing on top of Sandia Crest.

Éric prepared a super good supper. A Salmon Wellington with a shrimp béchamel sauce.
It was delicious.

Sunday, April 9, 2023.

We have a busy day in front of us.
This is the same village we are located in.

We are going to drive a circular road based on what the lady told us at the visitor center. It is supposed to be very nice.
Judith and Éric are with the bikes. We are with the car.

Another rider joined them for a few miles.

This is Sandia Crest we see.

We love the architecture.

It is the Rio Grande in the valley.

The sceneries are beautiful.

You always see some abandoned houses.

We have to stop often to take photos and really look at the rock formation.

The "Visitor Center" is on an Indian Reservation. It is mostly a place that sells crafts made on the Reserve.

Look at the red cliffs.

A reconstruction of a prehistoric house.

A beautiful mural in the visitor center.

Two very nice hummingbird feeders.

We had a nice lunch.

The overall goal of the day is to ride the bikes in two tunnels.
We have to drive on some back roads to get there.

We had a little surprise when we arrived at the tunnels. The road will not open until April 15.
We can still walk to the tunnels.

The crazy bunch!

The tunnels are not far from the parking lot.

The tunnels.

And we head back.

What a view.

We are back on the main road.
More photos.

Ti-Chien is one happy dog.

The road we should have taken back was close, and we missed it.
We will have to drive further to complete the circle.

What we did not anticipate was the snow!

The High Sierra...

We are heading toward Santa Fe as we come down the mountain.

Oops, we cannot enter the Los Alamos Military base. Do these houses look like PMQ?

Coming back home, eventually.

Judith started to have some back pain because of the bag and Ti-Chien.
We took Ti-Chien with us for the last hour.

It was a great day. A little long, but it is OK.

Monday, April 10, 2023

It is Easter Monday. The Comox military base has organized an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids.
Jeremy and Kristin sent us the egg hunt photos.

She is looking hard to find them.

She found quite a few of them.

Natasha is one happy little girl.

We are leaving Albuquerque this morning. We are heading to Amarillo, Texas.
I needed to really clean the windshield before we left.

A castle!

Interstate 40 (I-40) is really nice. There is very little traffic.

Goodbye, New Mexico.

And welcome to Texas.

The scenery does not change much.

We stopped in Santa Rosa at the Flying J to gas up. It is a terrible gas station for MH. We tried the Love's. It was not much better.
We ended up at the Phillips 66. It was much easier to drive the MH around the pumps.

We are surprised the store is closed, but the gas pumps works.
Since nobody is around, we have lunch.

Most of the overpasses are decorated.

The Texans are very proud of their State and Flag.

It is a cattle country.

We are getting closer to Amarillo. We are seeing more signs advertising The Big Texan Steak Ranch.
We will be having a steak there for sure. Not the 72 oz one.

Amarillo, here we come!

We saw the Cadillac Ranch from the Interstate. We will come back to visit.

We will come here too.

The Big Texan Steak Ranch.

Our campground for the next few days is an old KOA. Now you understand where the AOK comes from.

Let us say that for $17 a night with full hookups. We are not being picky. We can hear the Interstate noise, but it is OK.

The view in front of the MH.

It was a great day to travel.

Tuesday, April 11, 2023.

The view of the back end of the campground.

Mrs. Donkey is carrying a baby.

The future father is not happy I hang around his girl.

The entrance of the campground.

Our first stop of the day was at the Harley-Davidson dealer.

Our next stop is at the Cadillac Ranch. Everything is covered by graffiti.

Even the dumpsters are painted.

Cadillac Ranch is free to access.

There are 10 Cadillacs dating from 1949 to 1963.

You are encouraged to paint the Cadillac.

I always wanted a Cadillac!

On our way back to town, we stopped at the entrance of an RV Park. The name of the Park is RV Cadillac.

John Wayne's in his Cadillac.

Even Willy Nelson in his Cadillac is here.

The King, Elvis Presley, in his Cadillac.

Why the big cowboy?

Oh, the things we see. A tire store with a Tire tree in front.

The big stop for the day is at Palo Duro Canyon. It is referred to as the Grand Canyon of Texas.

We will have to be careful of the sun.

The State Park only covers a part of the actual Palo Duro Canyon.

It is huge.

The red colour of the rocks comes from the high iron containt in the soil.

They call this one the Mexican Dress.

The visitor centre was nice.

It is 30°C today. We did not walk too fast or far for our little hike.

What interesting formations.

We checked out the Park Campground. Nice! Some of the neighbours.

This is to let you know how high the water is on the road when it rains.

It is a very neat place to visit.

You can take a trail to go to the "Lighthouse". We did not do it. It was way too hot today.

Just as we got back to our RV Park, we saw this mini tornado across the field.

Another highlight of the day, The Big Texan Steak Ranch. We are having supper here today, but not the 72 oz one.

Godzilla with cowboy boots!

The sidewalk has all the branding marks on its surface.

The gang is ready to eat.

Everything is big in Texas.

The motel is part of the ranch.

The restaurant.

The limos.

The bar/waiting area.

This is what a 72 oz steak looks like. Remember, you must eat all the side dishes within an hour to get it free.

The photos change when you walk by them. Weird.

We are in Texas. You have to have a shooting stand.

The dining room. It is very nice.

This is my steak. No, not the 72 oz one. It is just 12 oz.

We had a full day today. The meal was a nice way to finish it off. A good meal with good friends.

Wednesday, April 12, 2023.

Judith loves horses. She used to own a stable.
We could not miss visiting the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame & Museum.

Even outside, with all the statues of Quarter Horse is interesting.

The American quarter horse.

Once you enter the museum, you are in a great hall. It has all the owners' names and the horses they owned. They were great contributors to the race.

Judith loves the place.
One room has all the paintings of great horses.

Judith explains how you are supposed to ride a quarter horse.

We had a great visit.
How do we end the day?

With good friends.

Thursday, April 13, 2023.

Today is Michele's day. We are shopping the thrift stores in Amarillo.

It turns out the thrift stores are not that great in Amarillo.
But you can still find some wonderful items. Like these sleepers Éric found.
Ti-Chien will be happy to see them.

Friday, April 14, 2023.

My pretty Michele taking selfies.

We are leaving Amarillo this morning.

What is different today? We are not travelling together.

Éric and Judith have to be back in Canada before us.

I have to say, we had a great time travelling with them.
They left a little before us. Goodbye, Éric and Judith. Drive safe.
We will see you next November in Yuma.

We returned to Amarillo to top up the gas tank.

A Boeing/Bell V-22 Osprey came flying just above us.

Coming back from paying for gas!

We will be travelling State Highway vs Interstate today.

We are in the Texas plains.

State Highways being secondary highways go through villages and towns.

It is flat, but beautiful.

We saw quite a few dogs travelling in the back of pickup trucks.

Why a photo of Liberal? Dorothy's house was here when the tornado hit. Remember The Wizard of Oz?

Trains are everywhere. They are long.

We drive around Dodge City. Yep, THE Dodge City from movies.
We will come back for a visit.

Our destination is the little town of Kinsley.

Those are old. They are not very tall.

Our new home for 4 or 5 days.

The office where you register.

This is where things got interesting.
I went into the office. I see a man down on the floor. I check his breathing and pulse, but nothing.
I come out, call for help and go to the house next door for help. At that time, another camper saw what was happening. He went to the office and started CPR. I came back with his wife. She helped the guy doing CPR. I ended up with the phone talking with 911.
The ambulance arrived less than 3 minutes after the call. They took over.
Things happen very fast.

We found our site and setup. We took a deep breath and relaxed.

Behind us is the patio.

About an hour later, we got news about the man. Sadly he passed. He was dead before he hit the floor. Major heart attack.
We are sad for the lady. She is a little bit in shock. What a life-changing moment for her.

This is how far we travelled today.

It was a beautiful day for travelling, not too hot and hardly any wind. The end of the day was surprising.

Saturday, April 15, 2023.

So, what makes Kinsley special?
It is located midway between the city of New York and the city of San Francisco.

Like almost all small western towns, you have an old steam locomotive.

We toured the town. From what we are seeing, this town was thriving in the past.
You can see big, old houses, but they are not well-maintained.

The grocery store is pretty good for a small town. You even have what I call a "mini-Walmart", the Dollar General store.

The internet is very fast in this Park. We can use our IPTV and catch up on our TV shows.

Until next time.

Life is good...