Grants New Mexico, A Hail of a Drive

So after our exciting night last night at Santa Rosa Lake State Park, I was hoping for a nice, easy drive to western New Mexico…so much for that.  As we left the park at 9:30, there was a light rain, no big deal.  The front right tire was down 9 psi this morning.  I have determined the spare (old) extender that I had them put on in Little Rock because they accidently broke the one on there, is the cause of a slow leak.  But I cannot have the tire pressure sensor on without an extender…  At Cline’s Corner I was able to boost the tire back up to 68 psi.  The front tires, according to the driver’s door label, are suppose to be at 60, while the back are at 80.  But I find it drives better if the front are at 65.  Of course, tire pressure changes as you drive, and also with overnight temps and elevation when you park at night.  So starting out at 58 was not a huge thing, but I wanted to correct it as soon as I could.

But our precipitation was not over in New Mexico.  In fact, it was going to change to hail shortly after we left Cline’s Corner.  In fact, as we were driving in a light rain and you see a good inch of hail along the sides of the highway…you realize that had you not stopped at Cline’s Corner, that is what you would have been driving through!  Yes, we did have some hail a bit later, but nothing like the poor folks in front of us faced.  We even came upon a small wreck, no injuries, of a truck and two cars which had passed us earlier.  We finally made it to Albuquerque, and the weather cleared up for a bit. 

As we get close to Grants New Mexico, I see a sign similar to this one, which provides the name of the RV Park (Blue Spruce) and the exit number.  Already expecting to stop at Love’s just a few miles beyond exit 81 where the RV Park is, I wonder if we should consider stopping here because we would have TV for weather problems should the pop up again.  So I decide that we will stop short of Bluewater State Park, which is around 20 miles beyond this point, and we forked out $19 instead of $14 and called the day’s travel done before 1:30.

    

It is now after 7 pm, and no one else has pulled in.  The park has a number of people who live her long term.  But the area near where we are parked is for the traveler…and most are pull through, some have 50 amp, and “full hookup” does not mean sewer, but a dump station is available.  Cable has over 50 channels, but like many parks, it is a bit snowy, but we have had worse.  This part of the park is far enough off I-40 that we see nor hear any I-40 traffic, but New Mexico Highway 53 also goes along the park, but not much traffic.  So far the storms have missed us here…we will have to see how our luck holds up on that.

Note:  I took the tire pressure and extender off the tire, and the extender has a bad seal for sure.  I have another older extender, but I am hoping Love’s might have one that I can purchase.  If not, I will just have to take off the tire pressure after each drive, or drive without it.  Already driving without one on the car…drat!