Raton

This sucks!

We only have one more night on the road.

We had a comfortable night and a good dawn start. It was good start, after I got the hose disconnected. We’re back to freezing weather. 27 degrees last night. Judy gave me hot water to pour on the faucet so I could unscrew the hose. Two long sections of hose to reach the water hookup on the other side of the other camper here, a short section, and a water filter. The motorhome water lines are all fine, the heaters ran all night. It was that fifty foot white anaconda we had to deal with. Reluctantly, the hoses all submitted to disconnection, curling up in frozen coils, and stuffing into outside bins, to slowly thaw and dribble down the highway.

We drove north. We drove down off the hill, and north from Big Spring to Lubbock and beyond. North to Plainview. There is a town directly west of Plainview called Levelland. We were tempted to divert to Levelland to admire the scenery, but we resisted and continued north to Amarillo, two hundred fifty miles into our day. North from Amarillo to Dumas. Hang a left past the Krispy Kreme donuts, and head west to New Mexico, then northwest, right to the Colorado Border, but still in New Mexico. Raton, New Mexico. An easy two hundred mile day home tomorrow morning, pacing the impending storm. We’ll be home eating lunch, waiting for it to arrive.

We finally got out of Texas. Once you get into it, it takes a whole lot of leaving to get back out. Ooh. That could be the tag line of a country song. The hook. “It takes a whole lot of leaving to leave Texas.”

We’ve seen a lot of Bounders. We may have picked the most popular motorhome on the road to be our favorite. We may have picked the most popular Class A/tow car combination as well. There are an awful lot of motorhomes towing Jeeps. It’s a little unsettling, this “joining the majority”.

The people next to us last night were interesting. They’re in a pickup truck pulling a travel trailer, with two Harleys in the back of the truck. They’re from Michigan, headed for Arizona to ride for “a month or so.” Then they’re going to go to South Padre. Guess it’s true. When you ride a Harley you “live to ride”.

What is it with motorhome showers? When you shower in a motorhome, you take a “marine” shower. It’s efficient. You start the water, get the temperature adjusted just right, get all wet, then turn the water off at the shower head. You do all the soaping and scrubbing you want, then turn the water back on at the shower head to rinse off. IT’S COLD! It’s always cold. It always returns to the correct balance, but if the temperature is right when you shut it off, no hot water can flow, no cold water can flow, what changes the balance so it blows cold every time you turn it back on? Huh? Can anybody answer me that? Even if you just bump the switch inadvertently and switch it right back on in a second, it does it.

Nice sensible dinner. Krispy Kreme donuts and coffee for dessert. Okay. We didn’t actually drive right past the donut shop in Dumas without stopping.

A 450 mile day.

Got the dishes done, the showers over with, the water disconnected, and hoses put away. Tonight’s low is expected to be ten degrees. Tomorrow morning all we have to do is stuff one stiff cold cord back into its bin, and drive away.