Arizona and New Mexico are
both in the Mountain Time Zone but AZ doesn’t observe Daylight Saving Time and
NM does...so we sprung ahead an hour when we crossed the state line
yesterday. Let the confusion begin!
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It’s Easter Sunday. We saw a gathering of cars in a huge parking
lot in Alamogordo this morning...people getting creative about celebrating Jesus
rising from that tomb, the event that changed everything. A church was holding a drive-in type of
service. Celebrate Jesus’ victory over
death and stay isolated plus worship with others at the same time. Brilliant!
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On the road this morning
about 10 o’clock. At that time we didn’t
have a destination in mind for hunkering down for the night. Alamogordo is about 360 miles from Amarillo
and about 600 miles from Oklahoma City.
Kim thought Amarillo wasn’t far enough and I thought Oklahoma City was
too far. About 5 p.m. we decided that
the Elk City/Clinton KOA in Foss, OK, would be a good stopping point. Made a call, got a site and don’t have to
worry about where we’re staying tonight.
Kim was willing to forego
using his sleep machine at night if we needed to camp in a rest area or a
Walmart; a converter is needed to run it off the 12V trailer battery. I wasn’t willing to have him get a crappy
night’s sleep; he’s the driver and being well rested is important. We don’t have a converter; however, we do
have a generator which could power the whole trailer if we went for the dry
camping option. But we needed to iron
out a couple of issues if we were to use it in a public place: where to transport it to keep it accessible
and how to keep it from being stolen. Came up with a couple of ideas but they
didn’t address both of those issues. On
our last hot dog run back in Eloy, Kim saw what could be a solution on the
front of Alvarado’s van. A trip to the Harbor Freight in Casa Grande
resulted in the purchase of a handy dandy cargo rack for a 2” receiver. The truck happens to have a front end 2” receiver
so that took care of one issue and a decent size chain and padlock took care of
the other. Now all the bases are covered
if we have to dry camp...even if our rig looks a bit funny.
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Headed up US 54 to Santa Rosa
where we picked up I-40. It wasn’t a heavily traveled road today and it goes
through some wide open country. Saw a
coyote and several herds of pronghorn and even though my mom accepted the oryx
sighting yesterday in place of a roadrunner sighting, we’re still on the
lookout. We just are.
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I figured if any restaurants
on our route weren’t closed because of COVID-19 they would be because of Easter;
as it turns out there not too many towns or eateries along US 54. The town of Vaughn had an open gas station so
we popped in to buy bread, lunchmeat and chips. Raided the trailer for paper
plates, napkins, condiments and we were set to have an Easter picnic. The wind was pretty incredible so we had our
picnic in the truck.
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Cruised into the Central
Time Zone at the Texas state line. My
mind knows that we’re only 1 hour behind Michigan but my body still thinks it’s
on Arizona time.
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Back when plans were
finalized for Marilyn to fly out and ride back with us, I told Kim that if we came
through Amarillo at the right time of day that Cadillac Ranch should be on our
list of things to do. He agreed so we packed
spray paint just in case. It worked out
perfectly. Came through about 5 o’clock
and stopped beforehand to change into warmer clothes because the temperature
was dropping and the wind...well, it’s always windy in the Texas Panhandle. We had the place to ourselves at first; then 4
more people walked out.
Cadillac Ranch is 10
Cadillacs buried nose down in a field outside of Amarillo. Over the years the cars have become an ever
changing art project...and the paint is inches thick. Kim and I were told about it on our first
bike trip to Texas in 2015...told to bring spray paint and have some fun. This is our third or fourth time stopping. Today I painted a smiley face on one car and
then Kim painted a big red circle where we put our initials. The wind was ferocious and chilly but the
paint dried quickly. My mom just huddled
in her winter jacket watching us but made sure we got pictures with her
phone. She’d seen a snippet about
Cadillac Ranch on a TV show and is pleased that she can now say that she’d been
there. 😎
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It’s no longer shorts
weather....currently 40o with freeze warnings. Time to put the jeans,
long sleeves and socks back on and turn on the heater. Bummer!
Not a lot going on at the Elk
City/Clinton KOA. Don’t know what
Oklahoma has in place for COVID-19 restrictions but this campground isn’t
anywhere near 25% of capacity.
Had the bikes out and heater
running in less than 15 minutes tonight.
Time was of the essence because it’s windy and cool. No time to be dawdling!!😕
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Traffic was so minimal
today. Coming through the heart of
Amarillo there was no oncoming traffic to be seen for about a mile down the
road. Unheard of! Don’t know if it’s because of COVID-19,
Easter or that it’s Sunday. Whatever
the reason I’ll take it.
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