We’ve been traveling on clear roads since Thursday. There’ve been traces of snow out in the fields but not on the road. So...it is time to free ourselves of the Michigan road salt we’ve been carrying around. Not such an issue for me but Kim has been looking for a truck wash for 2 days now. No truck wash in Tucumcari but there is a car wash. Kim checked with management at the hotel to see if we could unhook the camper to run down for a quick wash job...yes, we could. In the process of unhooking he realized that the side utility door to the camper storage area had lost a screw or two and now requires a fix so we don’t lose it entirely while cruising down the road. That brings to mind a Hansel and Gretel scene with an RV twist: Utility door comes off and we leave a trail of all the goodies we keep in the storage area...wooden blocks, extension cords, tools, fold down garbage container, sewer/water hoses and many more items that make camping easy. That scenario would elicit some swearing, for sure. 😏
But Kim says a stop at the local TSC should
provide all the necessary items to make the repair.
---------------------
What I’ve noticed
about the truck being dirty is that we’re not the only ones. We have lots of
dirty company.However, there is a difference between salt dirty and mud dirty. Local vehicles have been sportin’ a coat of
mud; we’ve been showing our Michigan roots for the last 1200+ miles. Truck is now clean but the camper is still
gritty with salt.
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A mystery has been
solved! Last year as we approached
Tucumcari I saw a sign for Q R AI. Did a
Google search to find out what it meant. W
as it a campground?...was it a local
bar?...was it a road?...what? I came up with absolutely nothing about Q R AI
but did find a reference to Pie Town, NM, which turned out to be a fun place to
visit. Yum! 😋
Well, this morning
when I enlarged the NM map to scope out boondocking opportunities I saw roads designated
with a Q R followed by various numbers.
Enlarged it some more to see that Q R became Quay Road. Oh, and I could
also see that what I thought was AI was actually AL. So last year I was totally chasing down the
wrong rabbit hole on my Google search. I guess getting it right makes a difference.
Then about 2 miles
off I-40 on NM 209 we came across a little town named Quay. Let me rephrase that...we came across a sign
indicated that we were passing through Quay but the whole of the town seemed to
be a single building which may or may not have been somebody’s house. And as we travel along 209 most of the roads
have the Q R designation. Now that I’m onto what Q R means if I had a signal I
would do a Google search on the significance of the word Quay in and around
Tucumcari....maybe later if I remember.
--------------------
While Kim repaired
the trailer utility door, I went to get some groceries so we can eat something
besides pretzels when we camp. He told
me later about his conversation with the RC guy.
A man in his mid to
late 30s (I’ll call him Bob) pulls into the hotel parking lot and starts
playing with a remote control car. A
good sized RC car which he was running out on the road. While the road out in front of the hotel is
wide and in good shape it doesn’t seem to be heavily traveled. So I suppose if an adult wants to play in the
road he can as long he’s willing to pay the consequences but it’s nothing that
I would have allowed my kids or grandkiddos to do. Anyway, the car gets out of range of the
controller and Bob starts walking toward it.
In the meantime a car stops on the road maybe or maybe not with the
intent to grab the RC car. Bob starts running runs down the sidewalk yelling
that it’s his car, etc. Back at the
hotel, Kim asks him about the car which is maybe 3 feet long. Bob builds RC cars and this particular car
can run at 130 to 135 mph...and this isn’t even his fastest one. But he also mentioned that the faster ones
crash harder. He used to compete at
tracks but doesn’t anymore and mentioned something about holding a couple of
national records before retiring.
Good Golly Miss
Molly! Can you imagine the mosquito
sounding whine of a little car zipping by at 130 mph?
--------------------
When we checked into
the hotel last night the clerk cautioned us that the wall unit heaters in the
rooms had been acting wonky but there are little space heaters in each room
that should take care of all our heating needs.
This morning Kim found out that the hotel recently had had an influx of
people from Texas who were trying to avoid the recent storm down there. And the extra heaters were needed because the
temperature in Tucumcari hit the lowest recorded since the 1800’s....a very chilly
-11o. The hotel didn’t seem
busy so maybe the Texans have returned home already and the temperature
certainly rebounded. We were marveling
at the balmy 55o temperature which awaited us when we got out of the
truck.
--------------------
Kim saw a ghost bike
outside of Portales, NM...the road was clear so he graciously turned around so
I could check it out. He knows that I
like to research and record the ghost bikes I find as a way to honor the memory
of the cyclist.
The article also included information about the charges brought against the woman who hit him:
Police have filed petty misdemeanor charges for careless driving against the woman who struck and killed a bicyclist early last month on the highway outside Portales.
Kimberly Potters, 43, of Clovis, faces a
penalty of “no more than 30 days in the detention facility and not more than a
$300 fine,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Stover told The News on
Friday. Stover said prosecutors directed state police to charge Potters with
careless driving because “no evidence of a reckless act” could be found.
“The difference between the two is careless
is when you are inattentive or imprudent; you are making a mistake,” Stover
said. “in order to be reckless you have to have a wanton disregard for the
safety of other people.”
Stover said that Potters was “very
cooperative” with investigating New Mexico State Police officers and shared her
cell phone with them — with “no evidence” of texting found.
Another
article states “...that a 2016 Ford F-150, driven by a 43-year-old female
from Clovis, drifted from the roadway, striking the bicyclist from behind. He
sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced deceased at the scene. The driver of the Ford was uninjured.
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Before I got back in
the truck I noticed that the camper utility door was open again. Ding Dang!
This time the siding pulled away underneath and on both sides of the
door so Kim is wondering if his earlier fix which involved securing the siding
with screws hasn’t created another issue.
Hmmm.... We’re keeping an eye
on it so we can stop if it opens again.
I’m sure his mind is whirling with what to do about it when we stop for
the night.
--------------------
Taking a different
route today....NM 209 instead of US 54 down to Las Cruces. Figured the point of travel is to see what’s
out there and we’ve never been this way before. US 54 runs through the Big Wide Open, not
many towns along the way and what towns there are have seen more glorious
days. NM 209 also runs through some Big
Wide Open but has a couple of good sized towns.
Clovis, NM clocks in with an estimated population of over 38,000 and
this is where NM 209 turns to Truck Route 70.
Portales (pop. 12,280) is a town further down 70, not as big as Clovis
but not as small as Grady, NM, either (pop. 107). 😎 Landscape in general is scrubby
rangeland. Perfect for seeing wildlife
but we’re coming up empty on that.
--------------------
We’ve decided to not
go totally off-grid with our camping. We
have the bikes to consider and camping in a free area where the public can just
come and go as they please (National Forests and most BLM areas) might not be
the safest environment for the bikes if we’re away from camp. So today we’re aiming for a BLM area that
charges a minimal fee near the Three Rivers Rec Area and has a camp host. Some
of the ‘fee’ areas have limited amenities which we’re not really concerned
about...we just want to provide as much safety for the bikes as possible
because they have to come out of the trailer in order for us to make it our
home away from home.
Update: We made it to Three Rivers Recreational Area just as the sun was sinking
behind the mountains. Talked to the camp
host to find out how to go about this.
Self-pay kiosk...$7.00 to camp in the rustic sites but discounted to
$3.50 because Kim has a National Park Senior Pass...bathrooms are heated AND
the toilets flush (he seemed very proud about that)...we can camp at any site
with a picnic table...we can park the bikes under the pavilion by the picnic
tables...generators can be run until 10 p.m. which is when quiet time starts;
Kim uses the generator to power his sleep machine so the host okayed it as long
as it’s not loud. If there’s a knock on
the door in about 25 minutes we’ll know that he considers it to be too
loud. We’re here for at least two
nights...longer if we want to extend our stay.
Tomorrow we plan to check out the nearby
petroglyphs...would like to hike there but have to find out how far away they
are....a couple miles is doable, 15 miles is not. The air feels mild with a slight breeze, there’s
no light pollution, the sky is dark and the stars are out. Been a couple of months since we’ve been able
to look up at night and see something besides clouds...how refreshing.
--------------------
On our road less
traveled route today we encountered a little town called Picacho, NM. Should have included it in my search last
night but simply didn’t think about it.
There are 4 places in the US
named Picacho, with 2 of them in
California. So that’s leaves Arizona and
New Mexico for the other two. We’ve now
been to 2 out of the 4.
--------------------
Saw a high of 76o today and because
we were heading south with the sun streaming in the windshield the AC was
eventually turned on. In the late
afternoon as we traveled through the mountains the temp dropped down into the
50’s and there was substantial snow out in the fields. Thankfully the temperature was on the rise again
and the snow had disappeared by the time we reached Carrizozo. In the mid-60’s when we pulled into our
campsite. 😎
 |
| Today's route...Feb. 20 |
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