On the Road At Last

After a hectic several days, we finally hit the road today. By the time we got the house put-to-bed for the summer yesterday, it was well into Phoenix's Rush Hour. Driving the Saab in Phoenix during mid-day is bad enough. Dragging our 5th wheel (total length of truck/RV = 48 feet) through heavy traffic seemed too daunting, so we went back to McDowell Mountain for the night. It was a good thing we did because (a) we realized that we had forgotten to pack a lot of stuff, (b) our "wonderful" RV couch collapsed after dinner, and (c) the FM antenna was hanging at an odd angle when we awoke. So it was back to Marathon Drive for quick repairs, forgotten supplies, and use of our extension ladder. We were finally on the road about 10:00 a.m. and made it not quite to the AZ/NM border (we are actually in Wilcox, not Benson). The drive from Phoenix to Tucson is really uninteresting and not very pretty. The "highlight" of that leg was passing by Picacho Peak, which is the site of Arizona's only Civil War Battle (AZ went with the Confederacy....of course). Our family will remember Picacho as the place Dad and Georgia (my step mother) spent many winters. Their old RV park looked pretty good. Scenery on the leg from Tucson to the border improved and we started to see large hills strewn with huge boulders, many looking like they might roll down and crush passing motorists. AZ State Patrol cars were racing past us at mach speed, so maybe this did happen further down the road. Tomorrow we cross into New Mexico. There are large forest fires burning around Socorro, NM, which is on the main north-south highway. We can smell the smoke even down here at Wilcox. So we may divert from our original plan and head up through Alamogordo, see the White Sands National Monument, and the Trinity Site (where the first atomic bomb was detonated). We'll see "how the winds are blowing" in the a.m.

May 31, 2012

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