Day 17: (2of2) Tuesday May 19th Update on the truck…..New Mexico

Good news in Albaquerque; the tongue on our trailer hitch is fine. It's a little tweaked, but absolutely nothing to worry about. Yay. We may need to replace the sway bar at some point, but only if it gets too annoying to take on and off since it is a little out of round and requires a little bit of hammer action to get it on and off now. But good to know we can keep on keeping on. Road trip adventures continue.

When driving through New Mexico, keep an eye on your gas tank. You don't want to get low because gas stations are very spread out. For that matter, everything is very spread out. A whole lot of not much to see, no towns, no breaks in any way, just driving in the flat dry brush lands.

We were driving on I-40 getting ready to turn off onto US 285 S and we figured we will get gas once we are on US 285. Mind you we haven't seen gas for a long ways and at this intersection there was a gas station. Oh hind sight.

We both thought there would be gas stations on US 285, but there was nothing. Not a town, not a stop, nothing. So we check our fuel remaining gage, 43 miles… okay, so where is the next gas? Well, the next town is Encino, 28 miles away. No problem, we can make that.

Unfortunately Encino turns out to be a thing of the past. It is a ghost town. What remaining buildings and signs are rusted out, windows broken, dark. Hmmmmm…… It doesn't help that we are hitting those long but slight uphill grades either. And just to remind us of our situation, the handy fuel gauge in our new truck tells us we have 10 miles left. Those hills are eating up our gas mileage.

We slow down to 45mph in a 65 mph speed zone and keep on chugging.  The next town is Vaughn, 16 miles away from Encino, so probably 14 miles from our truck telling us we only have 10 gallons left. Uh-oh. Let's make that 40 mph. Nothing we can do except keep on going, so we do, at 40 mph, sometimes a little less. Always letting the truck coast whenever it could.

The Truck has decided to quite being informative and just tell us Low Fuel. Well No kidding! We coast into Vaughn, to the only gas station open, to the only thing open in town, and fill the tank up with 24. 8 gallons!  We think we have a 25 gallon tank. Whew. That was close. I can hear my mom now. "Always keep your tank half filled because you never know where the next gas station will be." I knew that too. It's amazing some of the decisions you make after you have been driving for a long time. We weren't worried though, we have 3 different road side assistance programs we belong to so we figured at least one of them would be able to bring us gas. Besides we have our rolling home with us, so it would have been a cushy wait. ;)

Back on the road but when we finally made it to Brantley Lake State Park only just before midnight, we find out that the campsites are flooded and not available.  We had tried to call another camp site earlier but being so late already, there was no answer. So we looked up on Allstays for a another place to stay and found a city park that says you can stay overnight, however, when we got there, we saw signs that said you couldn't stay the night. So we pushed on, deciding to just bite the bullet and get a motel since we were not functioning on all cylinders at this point and just needed to crash somewhere.

Tomorrow Carlsbad Caverns.  Tomorrow during the day is the cave tour, and then in the evening is the bat exodus. They are not in their peak numbers right now, having only just returned in late April, but there are plenty to see, or so we have been told by other campers along the way. 

Day 17: (1of2) Tuesday May 19th, Painted Dessert/Petrified Forest

Today we entered  Petrified Forest at the Southern entrance and went into the  Museum which had an 18 minute movie that showed how this place was created. Then headed north and hit all the stops we missed the day before. Now that it is light out and not gusting 60 mile an hour winds it is quiet pleasant to walk around out here. Turns out there is a lot to see.





Newspaper rock with all it's petroglyphs, including one of the sun dials for the summer solstice. there is a crack in a rock that shines a sun beam right onto the center of this circular drawing at summer solstice.

Then there is Blue Mesa with it's 3 mile loop walk through the beautiful 'blue mesas' so called for their purple blue coloring. That was one of my favorites.

And the teepees,. They looked like big stripped pyramids :)

Oh and all the beautiful dessert flowers

and the menagerie of wildlife!

It took us nearly 4 hours to make it all the way through the park! And that was with already having stopped at all the Northern sites the day before. Definitely allow a day for this site, it's worth it.

That took us longer than we thought it would, but well worth it. We are still going to stop in Albuquerque since that is the only Camping world en route for awhile that we can get our trailer hitch looked at. 

Day 16: (2of2) Monday May 18th, Petrified Forest

It was a long (but beautiful) drive in and out of New Mexico, and Arizona to Petrified Forest In Arizona.

 

We made it there on the north end by 5:30 pm, before it closed. Welcome to the Petrified Forest :)

Even though we arrived late (ish), the ranger said as long as we were leaving the park by 7 pm no problem (Leaving, not left).  The drive from one end to the other is 28 miles and takes 45 minutes with no stops.


 That gave us enough time to see the north end sights,

drive through the park, and also stop at the Crystal Forest sight in the south, which had an amazing assortment of petrified wood. Man the colors.

It was mind boggling to see the wood, looking on the outside like real wood, bark and all, but then see the insides full of quartz and crystals. Then to feel it and know it is definitely not wood anymore.

The petrifying process takes millions of years and a particular set of circumstances: First you have to have a bunch of trees uprooted for some reason, in this case a flood. Then the trees have to be buried in sediment. Again, in this case from the flood they ran down the river and ended in a swamp, became so waterlogged they sank to the bottom and were covered in layer after  layer of silt and silica along with minerals like iron and manganese. Then you need time and pressure. Over time The silica slowly displaces the cellulose in the trees, cell by cell, calcifying it. With enough pressure, you get quartz.


The beautiful colors in the quartz  come from impurities such as  iron, manganese and other minerals I  don't remember the names of. 

The desert is amazing. There are two things particularly special about this desert: one is the eroding rock formations and mesas. Sure there are other places that have something like this, maybe different colors and what not, but here is the second reason, the Petrified Logs.

Again, sure there are lots of places that have petrified wood, it's not rare, but this is  the place with the highest density of logs, in the world.

So you combine the two and you have a pretty magical place. Oh and add in all the petroglyphs and you have a trifecta of a national monument.

We were able to stay that night at a free camp ground at the gift shop on the south end. No hook ups, but they have pull throughs so they were nice and level and we didn't even have to unhook the truck to camp, we just put the stabilizers down and we were good for the night. Our plan is to get up early tomorrow and go back through the park again, see the sights we skipped today and stop in  Albuquerque at the Camping World they have there so they can take a look at our tweaked trailer hitch tongue. We are worried that it might need repair from that unintentional 180. 

It’s like there’s something I need to remember…

I’m not sure what the traditional gift is for three years.  I think it’s something like depleted uranium.  We’ve backed the trailer up dozens of times now and are still married.  I think she’s a keeper.


Also, we’re one year closer to the great big giant 5th anniversary party.  Half the wedding (just the parts we forgot the first time) and twice the party.  If you missed the wedding, come to the anniversary in two more years.  If you actually made it to the wedding, you’ll be double invited.  That’s right, DOUBLE invited. Any more invited and you just might end up married.

Vegetarianism in the South

Well, suffice it to say that Daryl is in heaven. There are BBQ joints on every corner. You can get BBQ ribs, pork, Sausage; and Fried everything. By everything, I mean everything. If you can eat it, it can be fried! They have Fried Pickles out here! By the way, Yum! :)

As a vegetarian my diet is leaning way to heavily on the fried foods; French fries, Chips, Green Beans, Onion Rings; Quesadilla,  Occasionally Potato salad, and once even Broccoli soup! My stomach has been mildly on and off strike since about Texas. Alka-seltzer, and sometimes Pepto Bismal is helping. Sometimes it's a bit more painful than that when my gall bladder can't keep up.

Daryl and I have decided that we just won't be eating together out here. When there is awesome BBQ to eat, there isn't much in the way for me. I don't like coleslaw, Okra, or Baked beans, the potato salad is usually just ok, and every time I have seen green beans, they have either been fried, as in batter fried, or they have been cooked within an inch of their life so that they still sort of resemble green beans but they in no way taste like them.

When there is decent Vegetarian food, Daryl of course can eat something, but why when there are so many really really good meat dishes out here.

We were just in Memphis Tennessee and on our first attempt at this eating in separate places we stopped at a place called De ja Vu, for me. Turns out it is a renowned restaurant  know for it's good southern soul and vegetarian cooking. Go figure. I had the best Quesadilla there. Spinach and mushroom. Where neither the mushrooms or the spinach was overcooked.

In a written interview with the owner and chef he says his least favorite herb to cook with is dried Oregano because it's too bitter. So I asked him about that, letting him know I feel the same way, Oregano is too bitter. But he said, only the dried Oregano. He uses leaf oregano or fresh oregano you don't get the bitter taste. I'm going to have to try that at home now.

Ya Mahn (Friday June 5)

We called up the Vicksburgh Historic National park campground in Mississippi to see about getting a reservation for one night.

Me: Yes, I'd like to know if you have availability for a truck and trailer for one night.

Them: Ya mahn

Me: Excellent. Does it have full hook ups?

THem: Ya mahn

Me: So, can you tell me how long it takes to go through the park and see all the sights? We are trying to make sure we allot enough time to see everything.

Them: Ya, mhan, no problem mahn. We are two minutes walking from the entrance.

Me: excellent, and how long does it take to go through the park?

them: no problem, no problem. How many nights for you?

Me: That's what I am trying to figure out, Is the park something that you walk through or drive through?

them: ya mahn

At this point I'm having such a good time with this guy and he is making me smile, as is Daryl just listening to my side of the conversation that we go ahead and book one night for the hell of it.

Me: okay, we'd like to reserve one night.

Them: Ya mahn, no problem man. $25 full hookups one night.

Me; perfect

Them: ok mahn, no problem

Me: Do you want my name?

Them: Ya mahn,

Me: Fox

Them: No problem mahn

Me: Ok, is there a reservation number or a campsite number.

them: no mahn, you come in, all taken care of.

Me: okay, thank you

Them: No problem mahn

Okay, well, I think we have a reservation! heh. we'll see when we get there tomorrow night I guess.

So how would you like your potato today?

Eating vegetarian while on the road in the south is getting monotonous.
Mostly it's a choice of "How would you like your potato today"?

 I have eaten:  mashed potatoes, potato salad, baked potato, potato casserole, hash browns, and of course french fries. French fries with cheese, french fries with garlic, french fries with ranch sauce, French fries with mustard, French fries with cheese and Jalapeños (yum by the way).

Today when we stopped for lunch I was wanting anything that might serve up something besides potatoes. So we went out of our way to stop at a restaurant called McAlister's Deli. Serving up hot soup!

It took us three tries to make it into the right driveway and get parked. The only parking area big enough for the truck and trailer was in the back which happened to be up a hill. Check out this precarious angle! We chocked the tires just to be safe.

It was well worth it though. I got to have broccoli cheddar soup and pasta with cheese and jalapeños. Okay, perhaps I only traded one starch for another, but it was something different, and both the soup and pasta tasted awesome!!