Vado New Mexico -- A Day of Firsts

 

Western Sky's RV Park is one of those older parks, but it seems that management has a good handle on those people who are in the park.  The picture above is the office, and the handrail on the right has seen better days...hope they replace it soon before someone gets hurts when it breaks.  The office has Christian literature, and the bilingual manager was super nice.  It is a Passport America Park and cost $22 for a pull-through, 30 amps, water and sewer (although I did not hook up the sewer since we emptied two days ago).  Note: they don't have 50 amp.  This is our first stay here.

We left Sonora at 8:15 after filling up at a Road Ranger Gas Station, and got two coffees to go.  First time I had ever been to a "Road Ranger", just the same as any other gas station convenience store.

It was a 415 mile drive today, gaining an hour just past Van Horn.  This is the first time I can remember while "RV-ing" that we did not stop in Van Horn for the night, or at least for gas.  The gas in Sonora held us over to El Paso.  We also gained another hour passing into Mountain Time, but our cell phones did not change time for over an hour!  That's another first for me, never had it take an hour to change over.

After getting fuel at Flying J, we took the bypass route, Highway 375, north around El Paso.  I had read about others who had taken this route...but now the construction is nearly finished, and the entire route is clearly labeled as "North Loop 375".  It was easy to follow, and it was much easier and quicker than going I-10 through El Paso, even though it around 4 miles longer.  So taking the by-pass around El Paso is another first for the day.

Finally, we had only sat down for less than 30 minutes when the wind made a couple of thumps on the motorhome.  My first thought was the slide awning had ripped and was thumping against the top of the slide...but thank goodness that was not the case.  This is the first time that I did not bring our ladder, so it was hard to see up on the roof.  But when I backed up far enough I did see that the old (2005 ear) satellite dome had this huge intent right in the front, a little to the driver's side.  Apparently the high winds pushed the dome in, almost as if someone sat on it.  Nothing I can do...it is something we have never used and wish it was not up there, and I doubt it will blow away because it would have done that today in the high winds.  If I had a ladder, and had a Santa Suite, I would put a manikin up there and tie it down!

Tomorrow is a 300 mile drive to Tucson for a last Cracker Barrel overnight stop.