This morning we pulled out of the RV park in Liberal, KS, and pointed the Villa southwest. In about three minutes we were in the far western part of the Oklahoma panhandle; about 90 minutes later we were in the far western part of the Texas panhandle; by noon we were in New Mexico…
These parts of Oklahoma and Texas look remarkably like Kansas…
At one rest stop there were these nice little picnic shelters… Mid Century Modern!… Nice, but a little beat up…
All day yesterday and all day today, until we entered New Mexico, we followed the railroad tracks. About every ten miles we came to a small town dominated by these giant grain elevators or silos…
The further we drove west the smaller and more distressed the towns were… Not being farming folk, we could not tell exactly what these facilities do, but we assume it is related to grain storage, food processing, feed production, or something like that…
By mid day we were at our campground in Tucumcari, NM.
And, for the record, New Mexico does not look anything like Texas, Oklahoma, or Kansas:
Happy Hours and a light supper ensued in the Villa; tomorrow we head towards Gallup, NM.
Friday morning dawned nice and cool, but the heat will be arriving soon. We pointed the Villa west, towards Albuquerque and beyond…
The drive was uneventful, as expected…
New Mexico looks like this…
At one rest stop we found this Scenic Historic Marker:
We weren’t sure what it meant… east and west looked pretty much the same to us. Yes, western New Mexico does has more hills. We rose to almost 7,000′ elevation before dropping down to 5280′ elevation in Albuquerque…
Then we went uphill again to 7,275′ elevation at the Continental Divide…
We eventually arrived in Gallup, NM, at about 6,500′ elevation…
The sky was beautiful, the sun was hot, but the winds made the 89 degree temperature bearable. By early evening we were able to turn off the AC, and by sunrise tomorrow it is supposed to be 48 degrees…
Happy Hours and a light supper ensued in the Villa; tomorrow we head towards Kingman, AZ.
Saturday morning dawned nice and cool, but the heat will be arriving soon. We pointed the Villa west, towards Winslow, Flagstaff, Williams, and Kingman…
The drive was uneventful, as expected…
Arizona looks like this…
We drove for about six hours, taking time for rest stops, fuel, and lunch… We finally pulled into Kingman, AZ by mid-afternoon…
Interesting note is that we stayed here almost exactly two years ago as our first stop after leaving Irvine on our 4 1/2 month trip, the day after Lynda retired…
Happy Hours and a light supper ensued in the Villa; tomorrow we head towards Palm Desert, CA.
Sunday morning dawned nice and cool, but the heat will be arriving soon. We pointed the Villa west, towards the California border…
The drive was uneventful, as expected…
We crossed over the Colorado River…
And we entered California!
We were met by some attentive uniformed people who asked us where we’d been, and if we were bringing in any firewood…
The California Desert looks like this…
For those of you who insist on calling places like eastern Oregon a “desert”, please stop! Rivers, grass with cattle grazing, and green leafy trees do not make a desert! See photo above for what a desert looks like!
We moved on to Palm Desert, where they have succeeded in making the desert green:
We spent the afternoon and evening with like-minded friends, sharing happy hours and dinner. Early Monday morning we drove the final hour…
We arrived home in Redlands; an enjoyable time was had by all…
Tally:
Miles driven: 8,379
Days traveling and camping on our own: 40 days
Days on the Cajun Country Caravan: 16 days
Days on the Springtime in Kentucky Caravan: 22 days
Total days living in the Villa: 78 days
Total number of Airstreams seen along the road: 211
Number of nights in the Villa over the past 24 months: 375 days (51%)
And one last photo of our girls…
Adventures in the Villa 