Another 340 Miles Down, 820 More to Go ... Another New Cane

 

With the wind dying down overnight, the drive through New Mexico and into Arizona was uneventful.  A bit of construction, and one long patch in which the construction appeared to be done, but they still had speed limit down to 55 mph, and only one lane open...saw NO WORK being down and a perfect two lane Interstate with new asphalt down and perfectly lined for the entire stretch...THAT is the type of construction which gets to me...construction which id done but a limited usage on the nicely finished Interstate.  Made it to Casa Grande, AZ around 2:30 pm.  Arizona is on California Time with Daylight Savings Time in effect everywhere except in Arizona.  And it was nice to not have to get up and go by 7:00 am.

One interesting thing...just a few miles before Arizona the West Lane was shutdown...we had to get off, and get back on again...we didn't even have to stop.  Why?  Because the overpass was being taken down due a wreck in which a vehicle hauling an excavator hit the bridge and did major damage to the overpass four weeks ago.  The bridge is being destroyed and will be rebuilt.  With little traffic today, there was not much of a delay...maybe 2 minutes.  The interesting thing is that the GPS wanted us to take a 20 minute detour...which, when I saw no cars or trucks taking the detour, I just stayed on I-10.  Thank goodness I did.

Online I found a cane at a Walgreens on West Ajo in Tuscon.  Briefly stopped there to pick up this adjustable Black Cane with a Brass Band just below the handle.  Personally I like wooden canes, so this will be the Camper Van Cane once I find and get a new wood cane.

Now, if Mom remembered more than she does, she would tell me...You will lose as many canes as you lost jackets while growing up.  I was one to leave jackets everywhere...it would be 55 degrees outside when school let out, and I would walk/ride bike back home and leave the jacket in the class room.  The next day she would say, "Go to school without a jacket today and bring that jacket that is there back home after school.  THAT did little good...the poor jacket would remain there at school until mom convinced the teacher to remind me to take it right as school got out.

Tomorrow we are meeting our GOOD FRIEND Laurie for Brunch.  Laurie is not one to leave comments, but I think she has read just about every blog I ever wrote.  

 

 

1,050 Miles Over Two Days

 

Sometimes I like to put in a lot of miles over two days to take it easier for the remainder of the trip.  Between outrunning and/or dodging storms (which we did), the second thing is we have a big chunk of the trip behind us now...the hard part...which means TEXAS!

Today we traveled from Kerrville Texas to Las Cruces, just like we had hoped.  The trip was much easier than yesterday when we traveled through Houston and San Antonio.  Very quickly the speed limit went up to 80 mph, and our Camper Van handled it very well.  About an hour later, the winds hit...I slowed to around 70, being blown all over the road.  Good news, another 60-90 minutes later the winds had subsided and I was able to get it back up to 80 mph.  Passed three or four police cars, two of which were Texas State Police, and instincts was to slow down...not only me but others around me slowed too.  The police did not even blink since we all were going the speed limit or under.

Stopped for gas at a Flying J where they just happen to be upgrading their pumps.  Had to go in and prepay, went back out and pumped gas, putting my cane against the pump...where I left it.  Did not realize it until I went in to Cracker Barrel to get dinner to-go.  Tomorrow we have to hit up a Walgreens to get another cane.

As usual, the winds really picked up near El Paso, and especially in Las Cruces.  Hoping tomorrow the winds will be fine early in the morning as we go across New Mexico and into Arizona.  It will be an easy day with only 338 miles.  And Friday we will have a leisurely "brunch" with Laurie before we head off to California via I-40, but how far we get will be a whole different thing...

Nearly 500 Miles

 

Today we covered nearly 500 miles, clearing both Houston and San Antonio and many miles of construction and CRAZY Texas Drivers.  Just before Texas we also had some construction near the boarder of Texas and Louisiana in the latter state.  Needing to have a quick stop, I pulled off of an exit, parked in the parking lot and used the Camper Van's facilities, and upon trying to get back onto the freeway I found that the westward entrance was blocked by construction.  Only option was to go east and make a U-Turn...which was 20, YES 20 miles away.  So add those 40 miles extra and we definitely drove over 500 miles today.

Other than that construction, the rest of the construction today (at least 100 miles of it) was not that hard to face.  While Marcia was taking a nap, there was one stretch where they worked on the Interstate and on the Frontage Road along side the Interstate.  This one older lady kept going over to the far right, nearly hitting the concrete wall once, and finally sees an area where she can go over to the frontage road on a dirt patch that connected the two (probably meant for construction use.)  Obviously she was a local and needed to get to her house.  Told Marcia about it later and added, "Where was she when we needed help getting through construction to get onto the freeway!"

I am convinced that Texas Drivers are the most impatient drivers in America.  Enough said about Texas Drivers...

Wednesday we plan to drive to the outskirts of Las Cruces, just over 500 miles...but no large cities to go through, even El Paso is by-passed now days.