LOCATION: Santa Fe, New Mexico
WEATHER: HOT!!! The thermometer in the car read between 103 - 108 all day! Yikes!
We had called South Llano River State Park before arriving yesterday. The office person said she was leaving at 5:00 yesteday evening, but we could just come in, park and pay in the morning. We had all intentions of paying this morning, but we were ready to leave at 6:50 AM (an all-time earliest start for us ever) and the office didn't open until 8:00. So, we felt bad (well, really not that bad), and left without paying. We'll make it up with Texas State revenue some other time.
We stopped in a McDonalds for breakfast. We almost never stop in fast food places, but had a coupon for a free breakfast and wanted to use their wifi. After all that, we hit the road at 8:00 AM. The first several hours were on very boring Interstate 10. We watched the car thermometer steadily rise. The speed limit is crazy at 80 mph. At a sedate 62 mph, we were passed by virtually every vehicle on the highway.
Then, we got on a secondary 2-lane highway straight north. It turned out to be a road mostly used by oil rig trucks. Its speed limit was 75! We drove hours upon hours through oil fields, desolate miles of sagebrush and mesquite, oil refineries, dust, and happily, an occasional pecan orchard.
The gas gauge was looking a bit low. Then lower and lower. George wanted to try to make it to New Mexico, where the gas is supposedly cheaper. I hate it when this happens. All I could think of is that one of us would die of heat stroke walking to the next town, and the other one would perish suffocated in the truck. Miraculously, a town appeared when we had 5 miles left in the tank.
(Turns out that gas is not cheaper in New Mexico!)
It seemed forever to get through Texas. At the New Mexico/Texas border, the thermometer reached a scorching 108...
It's bad enough to travel through, but I can't imagine living and working in this heat. Among the oil fields, there were many RV parks and modular homes for the oil field workers to live in. How awful!
We had no intention to drive so far, but we didn't want to stop when it was still 100+. So, we kept on driving. We passed through Carlsbad, NM, home of the Carslbad Caverns National Park, which we had visited before, and Roswell, NM, of UFO fame.
We thought Santa Fe might be cooler, due to its higher elevation, so we kept heading north. Outside of Santa Fe, we called the RV park that friends in Retama had recommended. They were full, so we panicked a bit. We found this park, not far off the highway and tiredly pulled in. We drove a record 606 miles today!!
It started cooling off at about 9:00, and we were able to turn off the A/C and open up all the windows. So much better for sleeping.
DINNER: Last of the leftovers. Hot dogs wrapped in bacon and Mexican beans on the side. Grocery shopping is in order tomorrow!
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