LAKE TEXAHOMA STATE PARK OK

Chuck and I left Floydada Texas on Oct. 20th and stayed on Highway 70 for 2.5 hours arriving in Crowell Texas to stay at Longhorn RV Park and Steakhouse. It sits 15 miles west of Crowell, entrance is next to a very nice state picnic area off the highway. We cut our day short because we knew the next day we would be heading to Lake Texahoma State Park. From Floydada it would have meant a 7 hour day on the road and we just don’t do those anymore! The Longhorn was a no-frills campground $15 for Full Hook Ups but no restrooms or showers available! We ended up staying 2 nights because I just didn’t feel real good.
We left the Longhorn at 10am Monday morning and drove 4.5 hours on Highway 70 out of Texas and into Oklahoma. Highway 70 is a wonderful east/west highway through the Texas Panhandle into and across lower Oklahoma and well into Arkansas! We don’t do Interstates except in short hops because I hate driving on them! But Highway 70 is very well maintained and very low traffic! We had a great day to be on the road passing huge ranches, cotton and cornfields, horses, cows and more than a few small and unique towns.
We arrived in Lake Texahoma tired, hungry and a bit grouchy! But oh my… this is still one of our favorite stops!

The folks across the road all line up for full hook-ups and no shade! 

While Chuck and I were all alone over in the Water & Electric only sites…. in the shade! That’s us on the far right!

Radar and DoogieBowser get to explore off leash and we get the shade from nearby trees!  Our site was $15 and next to the restrooms/showers! The hot shower felt great! The restrooms are a bit dated and could use a few updates but I really appreciated a good hot shower.  This morning I took the dogs for a walk off leash and they got to run around and act like dogs, even chased a squirrel up a tree! They loved it.

The lake is beautiful!  Of you strain your eyes a bit to the center of the picture, you can see a couple walking out to the point to fish. The lake is down a bit but it is still a great place to be. We decided to stay here 2 nights also. Guess we are showing our age, even just driving by the geezer 2-4-4 rule (200 miles, 4 hours or 4 pm) means it’s time to pull in! But we were ready to pull in after 3 hours! LOL!

One of the first things Chuck is going to do when we get to Florida is donate his hair to “Locks of Love”. He lost his mother to breast cancer and he wanted to grow his hair at least one time so he could offer it for wigs for the chemo ladies. “Locks of Love” will be getting one beautiful head of hair when his is donated! I would love to have hair like that, long, thick & curly!
Tomorrow we leave here and head for Crater of Diamonds State Park for a couple of nights. It is near Murfreesboro Arkansas!  We have been there once before and liked it. It will be another 4 hour drive for us. Maybe we will be lucky this time, a 14 year old girl found a big yellow diamond just last week! OUR TURN! 
Signing off for now from the crew of The MotherShip , Chuck, Geri, DoogieBowser and Radar!

FORT SUMNER NM–BILLY THE KID– FLOYDADA TEXAS!

After travelling from Truth or Consequences NM to Fort Sumner NM on highway 60 East, we pulled into a nice but no frills campground right off the highway. $20 a night for FHU but no showers or restrooms. Valley View Campground. Nice long spaces, plenty of room for The MotherShip and my Trailblazer!

Across the road was a great restaurant, FRED’S RESTAURANT where I ate the best ever blue corn enchilada and Chuck had a smothered burrito. YUMMY! One block east of the campground is the Billy The Kid Museum!

The museum was more than expected. So many artifacts of the old west!

Mr. Sweet is the owner of the museum and this man knows his history! His family has lived here many generations!

At the entrance, mill stones or grinding stones are displayed. I have never seen so many in one place!
                                   
Chuck pretending to be Billy the Kid!

There were cases full of spurs…. who knew there were so many differently designed spurs for different purposes?

There were rooms lined with all kinds of guns, one of them really belonged to Billy the Kid!

The museum is a lot larger than it looks! It spreads out through several rooms!


This case had nothing to do with Billy, but it interested me the most. Found in a cave in Silver City…  to me it looks like a dragon with wings but the sign below says:

Whatever it was, it was interesting!
We left the museum and headed back to The MotherShip. It was noon and we were ready to hit the road! We got back on Highway 60East headed to Clovis where we also picked up Highway 84S.
We also picked up the wind and the dark threatening clouds and the cold! It went from 60’s that morning to the 40’s within  an hour on the road! It was hell on wheels and no other words are available to describe it.  Wicked winds fighting our steering wheels the whole three 1/2 hours we were on the road!
We usually check the wind map that gives good solid information about winds on your route! We did not, but here is the link so you have it.
http://hint.fm/wind/
I keep it on my desktop ready to use, now I just have to remember to use it!
We followed 84South to Muleshoe Texas where we picked up 70 East which brought us here to Floydata and the great little city FREE campground!

From the west, you enter Floydata on Highway 70/North 2nd Street, the campground is on the right at Taft.

The Texas D.O.T. is right next door, just east of campground entrance. 


I apologise! Yesterday I told you that it was free here for 4 nights WRONG! It is free 2 nights and you can stay an additional 3 night for $5.00 per night!
But there is the 5 night stay rule and you must leave! No Showers, No Bathrooms. But the city of Floydata gives you water and electric and a dump station for free! It’s a cute little town and they want to show off. Folks who camp here seek out the restaurants, gas stations (there is a gas station and a propane station nearby) A good example is the family camped next to us last night, they came back with arms full of grocery bags and Dollar General bags! This nice little campground encourages the tourist dollar to stay and visit Floydada awhile! Certainly helps the local economy!


There were 3 of us camped here last night, and room for several more.

                  
There was frost on the ground earlier this morning, but Radar and DoogieBowser never noticed! Their noses were on the ground reading all the doggie news!
With all the wind and rocking and rolling we were doing yesterday on our drive here, we were not too surprised to find one of our cupboard doors had opened and dumped the contents out on the floor…..
INCLUDING 1/2 quart of honey that leaked out all over everything else that fell out and all over the floor!  It was cold and wickedly windy outside, everybody wanted to come in…. but I had to clean up the sticky mess as much as possible before we could let the dogs come in!
What a mess! We have decided to stay in Floydada one more night so I can finish cleaning up the sticky mess and so Chuck can fix our step on the MotherShip. The top bolt has come loose and needs to be replaced!
From here…..  still not sure what tomorrow brings…
there is a turn in the road that we are considering!


Happy Trails from The MotherShip and her crew. Chuck, pilot. Geri, co-pilot and our navigators DoogieBowser and Radar.

Leaving Truth or Consequences, NM

                      On The Road Again

T or C has been our home base since 2009. I started writing our blog in 2008. Chuck and I have visited a lot of beautiful places in our time on the road… we were not ready to give it up which made our decision to go full time living in our RV, The MotherShip!  But we could have not lived in a town that suited us better than Truth or Consequences NM.
 http://phunnyfarm.blogspot.com/2012/02/truth-or-consequences-new-mexico-usa.html
We are down to 3 days before take off! Emily returns from Kansas Tuesday. Wednesday 10/16/2013 we sign the papers turning the mobile home over to Emily.

Wednesday has come and gone! Papers signed sealed and delivered!  Emily now has a new home near her son, Jim! Her daughter, Juno, also seemed to like T or C very much… so just maybe we will see her leaving Kansas also for the uniqueness that is Truth or Consequences NM.

  We say goodbye to Jake, general manager and imagineer for the beautiful Riverbend Hot Springs.  Our favorite soaking place!

Jake provided us with our first workamping job and once here, we fell in love with Truth or Consequences!
http://www.riverbendhotsprings.com/

Thursday we got on the road headed east to Florida!  We don’t do interstate travelling very much.  You can’t see the heart of America from the interstate!  I will try to post every night and show you our camps. 
We drive by the RV Geezer 2-4- 4Rule, 200 miles, 4 hours or 4 pm.  Whichever comes first, we pull off the road. 10/17/2013 we stretched the rules  a bit.  4.5 hours, about 230 miles and we pulled in around 3:30pm. We landed in Fort Sumner NM, very close to the Texas border, near Clovis NM.  We left T or C on I-25 to Socorro and highway 60East joined I-25 for awhile the veered off the interstate and headed east. From the I-25, highway 60 meandered through ranches and desert roads until we came to Mountainair NM. A small town that looked like it would be fun to explore…  but we drove on! From there Highway 60 ran parallel to the busiest train tracks I have ever seen. Trains pulling endless miles of containers…. full containers headed east and empty containers headed west.  Some of these trains were following each other only a mile or two apart!
Highway 60 East from I-25 starts out as very good road, newly paved and wide shoulders. After Mountainaire we lost the new pavement and wide shoulders but the road was still very good and well maintained.  We encountered very little traffic and made good time, but we had to make 3 doggie rest stops along the way. No pictures, hard to drive and take photographs! I am driving my Chevy TrailBlazer loaded to the hilt leading Chuck and the MotherShip back east.
The campground in Fort Sumner is right on Highway 60 and impossible to miss. Large clean sites, nothing fancy but for one night very suitable and with Full Hook-ups $20 a night.
Today we will walk next door and visit the Billy The Kid Museum, located next to the campground . Billy is buried nearby and apparently created some history in this small town!  I will post some pictures tomorrow.
Today we are headed to Floydada Texas.  We will camp at our favorite FREE city park campground.

City provides  FREE full hook-ups for 4 nights!  They want you to visit and explore their town, eat at their restaurants, fill up your gas tanks, buy groceries and enjoy your stay in Floydada!  I will post more photos of the park later! It’s a very nice one!


I just wanted to post to let family and friends know that we are on the road and loving it!

So long from the crew of the MotherShip!  Chuck, Geri and our navigators DoogieBowser and Radar!
Happy Trails to you until we meet again!

Emily and Family Arrive !

Finally the day we have all been waiting for arrives!  Our mobile home is empty and clean waiting for the new owners to move in!
Emily and family are from Kansas and Emily is moving back to New Mexico where she was raised. They are meeting us at Walmart with a U-haul packed to the max!

I am excited as I see them coming up the hill, Emily at the wheel!


Emily and her housemate Jim peer out….


Chuck takes over the U-Haul as Emily rides with me. Jim, her son, follows with his car as Juno, her daughter follows driving Emily’s truck as we arrive at Emily’s new home on the hill! Chuck backs the U-Haul in from the alley. It’s a tight turn and uphill!


Housemate Jim relaxes under the Mulberry tree as Juno’s dog, Buster, keeps an eye on Juno!


Things are quickly unloaded!


Emily and her son take a break as he tries to locate the insurance company on his cell phone.


Juno takes the opportunity to relax on the futon.
She has decided to take this one back with her to Kansas.
So it’s all over now but the signing of the paperwork!


This is the RV Park where the MotherShip is temporarily docked.  Agua Vista RV Park in Elephant Butte NM and Elephant Butte Lake is in the background. Nice, small park with 30 roomy RV slots, friendly folks, most stay several months at a time. Rent is very reasonable at $200 a month plus electric!  Great big salt water swimming pool and showers and laundry!
Owner Mike is a super nice man and we have enjoyed our stay here. But we will be leaving as soon as all the paperwork is signed and headed to Florida to see family and friends. We are now truly full time RV’ers!

The water in Elephant Butte Lake has risen about 17 feet due to all the recent flooding here in NM. It all ends up in the Rio Grande and from there into Elephant Butte Lake where it is dammed up and released in the spring for the farmers. Colorado  got all the press and their flooding was  worse than what we had here, but there was loss of life all over NM. We lost 2 lives right here in Sierra County! They were calling it the 100 year flood!

Ralph Edwards Park sits next to the Rio Grande River and it was totally flooded! Downtown Truth or Consequences also suffered a lot of flooding but the worst happened in southern Sierra County. Ranches were flooded, homes were severely damaged or totally ruined by the flood waters.  However, all this water helped put a dent into the severe drought situation that has had a strangle hold on New Mexico for the past 5+ years!

Life goes on and so do we.  We will be leaving soon.  Chuck and I will miss New Mexico, but we will be back.  We are looking forward to seeing our daughter and Glorianne and her husband Chaz and our 4 grandchildren Kyle, Ryan, Annesley and Aubrey!

That’s the news from the MotherShip!  Signing off, Geri, Chuck and the K-9 Kids DoogieBowser and Radar!

Moving on out–Moving on in!

Whew, it has been a long hot summer! We have been busy packing up and moving out. We have sold a lot of stuff we will not need in the MotherShip… like a spare queen bed, a few recliners, medium format cameras, my collection of USA Pottery (all around circa 1950’s), gave away more than we sold. I gave away at least 100 empty picture frames all various sizes!  We both donated a lot of items to Paws and Claws, the local resale store that helps support the local Humane Society. Now it’s pretty much down to give away or throw away! We should be in the MotherShip in a couple of weeks and start the deep cleaning here so Emily will be moving into a new, clean home. For those of you who don’t know, Emily Ogle, a friend and fellow camper, has bought our home. She has lived in New Mexico before and her son lives in Socorro NM (about 100 miles north of here).


This is one thing I will miss!  I started this SW Bird of Paradise from a seed.  Out of 12 seeds banged around in a jar 1/2 full of water and a handful of pebbles and shaking the holy heck out of that jar every time I passed by for about 2 weeks, one seed bloomed into a real plant!  Now, almost 2 years later, I rejoice at the beauty everyday!  But God one upped me!  I worked so hard to get this lady going and He gives me 2 wild ones almost as big and pretty as this one!  He gets that last laugh!



Last summer, while RVSue was visiting us in Zion Utah where we were workamping, she gave me a small dish cactus garden!
Well, it outgrew that small dish! I put them in a big pot and they are loving stretching their roots and have grown even bigger since being planted a few months ago! Obviously, this is too big to come with us, so we will leave it here for Emily to enjoy!



Chuck has been busy too!  As you can see, we have no grass. Our yard is hardscape, all rocks and no mowing! But we have weeds that pop up anyway so Chuck takes his yard flame thrower and burns the weeds. Yep, that’s smoke you see on the left!  The baby yucca caught fire. First he took a pitcher of water over to it, nope! The he took a bucket of water over to it, nope! Finally he takes the hose over to it (5 feet to short) but yep, that does it! Fire out!



Radar pursues lizards into the bushes, his tail causing a mild breeze with it’s wild wagging in anticipation!  Of course he never catches one, but hope is still there!



DoogieBowser on the other hand looks at me like , “What the heck is that crazy Radar doing?  Nope not me! I’m staying on the porch in the SHADE!”
Moving is hard! I never want to do this again!  We have been packing, stacking, donating and tossing for at least 6 months now and Whew! I am ready to be done.  I would say that we are at least 90% empty in the mobile home and 90% full in the MotherShip!  We are down to the bare necessities here now. We have even sold our bed and sleeping on the 2 futons!
Parting with my “stuff” has been hard! I’m not gonna lie to you! Sometimes it even hurts real bad.  Al Bossence from The Bayfield Bunch blogged the other day that he was copying every slide he has ever made.  I considered that, heck I have done that in the past.  This time I just let myself get all melancholy as I sat and looked at each page of 20 slides and as a tears slid down my face, I tossed them, page after page until they were all in the trash! Same with old photographs. They all got tossed. I save some old family photos….  hard to let go of mom and dad even though they let go and passed on years ago. I have a small 3 ring notebook with a few plastic pages and my few photos I couldn’t let slip away.  Clothes too. Dang, I had 4 different sizes in my closet! After my lapband surgery I went from size 24 to size 16 before the band slipped and emergency surgery was needed to remove it!  So now I am back to size 24 with no effort on my part at all and a ton of smaller sizes I will never fit into again!  They left my closet easily! But even so….
 You know, once everything was in the trash and gone a few days, I was glad it was done and over with.

Gonna miss all the finches playing out front!

I am gonna miss all the flowering cactus too in our yard!


 
And I am gonna miss this beautiful purple flowering bush! Don’t know it’s name, but Oh My! It smells heavenly!



We have cactus living the left side of our drive way that were full of yellow flowers a few days ago! OOPS! Missed those!



And we have what we jokingly call “Lake Hajek”



It sits beneath the water spout and catches all the Monsoon Rain!  Complete with wooden duck! I’m sure Emily and Jim will enjoy sitting out in front of Lake Hajek !!!!

Ann and Bill Condron bought a new RV. Ann designs and builds stained Glass windows for the doors of RV's. When they bought their new RV, Ann made a new window for it and sold us their old window! We had it installed last week! This is as seen from the outside....

This is from the inside looking out!

 

We love our new window, it helps to make our RV our home!

If you would like a window for the door to your RV, please contact Ann, she does beautiful work, here is her link:

 

 www.littlehousestainedglass.com.

Well, that’s it for now. We have 7 – 10 weeks left in New Mexico before Emily gets here to officially take over and we head to family and friends in Florida! Thanks for dropping by and sharing a moment of this moving moment!

P.S. WHOA !!! HOLD ON A SEC!

Apparently I have given the impression that I am sad about this move!  NOT!  Absolutely NOT SO! I am really excitedly looking forward to seeing family and friends and Chuck and I are going to spend time exploring the wonderful Florida State Parks and we want to visit and explore GA, NC, TN and AR!!!  
YES I was sad about the PURGING as my friend Fay Cope called it in her email to me, but I am not sad about moving into the MotherShip and sailing off to family, friends and new adventures!
So PLEASE don't think I am sad or upset because that ain't so!
"Nuff" said?????  OK then, I am ok, you are ok we are all OK!