From Sunset to Albuquerque

After the fourth storm went through last night, that only had four of five hail stones hitting the motorhome, we ate our dinner and then there was this wonderful sunset.  We had one of our better nights sleep since leaving Florida, temps were in the low 60's, perhaps high 50's.  It was very quiet...almost too quiet.  We put one of our favorite DVD movies on (Secondhand Lions) to watch on the bedroom TV, and I was out within 10 minutes

We hit the road by 8 am, got through Amarillo without a problem, and we get back to the Texas Scenery. 

Not too long and we see a very large feedlot.  With yesterday's rain, and a good morning breeze, the fragrant odor was very tolerable.  Of course, a good rancher would say, "It is just the smell of money" ... they say the same thing about the smelly paper mills scattered around the south, including outside Pine Bluff Arkansas where I lived in the area for 22 years.

And then there is the Windmill Farm...hundreds of windmills.  I must say that I was impressed at how many of the windmills we have seen this trip actually were spinning.

In my last posting I talked about the many Picnic Areas that you find along the Texas Highways.  In other states, such as Arkansas, they just call them Truck Parking Areas.  Nothing fancy at all.

But at least most of them in Texas do have picnic tables.  No bathrooms though.

We finally hit "Mile Zero" and enter into New Mexico.  Had we stayed on I-10 and entered and exited Texas, it would have been a 880 trip. The route we took was just 600 miles.  No matter how you do it, Texas is one long trip UNLESS you enter and exit on I-40, then it is only 180 miles or so.

The scenery changes very quickly now that we are in New Mexico.  It makes the drive more enjoyable, and includes more picture taking.  Since entering Texas, we have gone up over 3,000 feet.  By the time we start heading down the hill into Albuquerque, we are at the 6,600 foot level.  We then drop to the 5,300 foot level as we come into Albuquerque.

We tried to find a park up in the higher altitude...but they were all full.  A few times we have stopped at the Enchanted Trails RV Park & Trading Post, just west of Albuquerque.  They had plenty of openings...but perhaps it looks that way because they are spacing the RVs out due to the COVID scare. I hooked up the electric, and nothing came on.  I knew I was having connection problems with the female portion that plugs into the motorhome, and thank goodness Camping World was right next door.  $65 later I have an adapter.  As I pay he asks me for my phone.  I give it to him, and then immediately said, "No, I don't want to renew."  I was really hoping to get to Arny's and order a new cord with the proper adapters, which would have only cost $45 through Amazon.  I will now convert the old cord to an RV Extension Cord, which will run another $15 or so.  Thank goodness I already had a 50' extension to go with the new overly expensive adapter that I just bought, so we were in business within 30 minutes of figuring out the problem.

NOTE: Since I have written a few posts about Enchanted Trails RV Park & Trading Post, I am not doing that today.  You can read about previous posts, and see the many vintage RVs and old cars if you wish by clicking here.

 

.

Enchanted Trails RV Park

At Enchanted Trails RV Park, Albuquerque New Mexico

We first came to Enchanted Trails RV Park in Albuquerque New Mexico back in 2016.  Our fuel pump had gone out in the motorhome, and we had to be in a hotel for a night while it was in the shop awaiting a new fuel pump to arrive.  It came in the next day, put in, and we decided to stay at the Enchanted Trails RV Park for three more nights because our tow service said that “if we broke down in the next four days, towing would not be covered.”  We felt the Passport America price for two nights, and the Good Sams price for the other night was worth it considering a tow for 100 or 200 miles could cost us hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

Back in 2016 I wrote a fairly extensive blog about this RV park, the owner Vickie, and the classic cars and trailers that she has here.  You can (should) read that blog by clicking here (it will open in a new tab or windows).

  

  

Above are the two Hudson’s and two of the vintage trailers.

Wednesday evening we had just started to eat our dinner and we hear this POP and sound of running water.  I hurry towards the bathroom and Immediately realize the water intake line had busted.  THANK GOODNESS we have a turn off valve (you can barely see it in the upper left of the above picture), so the amount of water that hit the floor was very minimal...one towel cleaned it up very quickly.  The Blue Arrow above shows what busted…the white intake line going into the connector had popped out of the connector.  After I clean up what water, I took off the white connector the arrow points to, and find this….

…the Compression Bushing between the pipe and the toilet intake, which was located in that white cap the arrow points to, had worn out so much that the pipe was able to pop right out of the cap.  Essentially, it lost its compression, and the water pressure popped the intake pipe right out of the cap.  Now had this happened while we were at Ryan’s graduation, or when we visited Cassie, or any number of times that we had left the motorhome for awhile, we ‘would’ have had a huge mess to clean up…water would have be everywhere.  Not only were we here to put an end to it very quickly…right next door to this RV park is a fairly new Camping World.  And they had a new bushing…only one left…for just over $2.  So Wednesday night and Thursday morning we used the shower to add water to the toilet as needed, and after breakfast I went and got the part…and it took longer for them to find the ONLY remaining bushing they had in stock (the computer said they had over 30 in stock, but they really only had one), than it took for me to install it.  WHY did it wear out?  Well, we had a shop replaced the toilet with a tall toilet, which required the new plumbing since the intake is on the back right instead of the back left of the toilet.  We did not like the height of that toilet, and I put in a short toilet later that year.  Then about 18 months later that toilet broke, and I replaced it again.  Just before we left on this trip I told Marcia I wanted to replace the toilet again.  During all of this, I NEVER replaced this bushing.  Frankly, I did not know a bushing was there.  MY BAD!   But thankfully, it broke now, at the right place at the right time.  

Spent the rest of the morning doing laundry, and had a relaxing day after that.  Tomorrow, we head to Phoenix, then to Yuma, then to the Sacramento area, arrive before Mother's Day if all goes well.