Alamogordo
On Sunday (3/7) we visited Alamogordo, NM, home of the New Mexico Museum of Space History. It took a bit over an hour to drive from Las Cruces to Alamogordo, via Hwy 70. US-70 passes through the White Sands Missile Range and the White Sands National Monument. Like most of the Desert Southwest, the scenery is bare ground, small shrubs and trees, and then, for a brief moment, sand dunes. Read the rest of this entry »
Another Saturday Night…
Had a lovely Shabbat. Started Friday night with candles, wine, challah and brisket. Got the brisket just right by cooking at 200F for about five hours. Did it with carrots and potatoes in the roasting pan. Also gefilte fish. We use the frozen loaf kind. I bought four of them, took a clean hacksaw blade, and cut them in half. Each half-a-loaf makes a fine Shabbat portion.
This morning, I went to Shul at Chabad of El Paso. Rabbi Greenberg has a fine Chabad House going. Had a good service, got called to the Torah, and we had a fine kiddush afterwards.
Returning home permitted a nice Shabbat nap.
We went out to dinner at Pullaro’s Italian Restaurant. It was very nice.
Monday we are moving on to El Paso.
Deming, NM to Las Cruces, NM (3/4/10)
Moving briskly along the State of New Mexico brings us to Las Cruces.
The ride along I-10 for the past day or so has been pretty dreary. Lots of open space, very little development between towns. Occasionally there is a store for tourists, usually preceded by 20 miles of billboards. New Mexico allows the sale of fireworks, but so far, I’ve resisted.
We were expecting mail at General Delivery, but the package was not there yet. A necessary evil of traveling and relying on mail forwarding. We booked into the Elks Lodge for the night, and possibly the weekend. I need to do some work, so we were not planning on traveling at all until mid-next week. Whether we stayed in Las Cruces or El Paso was an open question. Until I visit the post office, it remains open.
After the post office debacle, and a good lunch (love those green chili peppers) we booked into the Elks Lodge and then hit the Las Cruces Railroad Museum. The museum, I’m sorry to say, is pretty basic. The highlight is the two HO layouts. I have some photos, which will be added to this posting in the next few days.
We’ve reached quite a milestone. When we get to El Paso, either tomorrow or next week, we will have come more than half the distance from Los Angeles to Livingston, Texas.
Here are some stats:
- We’ve been on the road for ten days.
- We’ve traveled for six of those days, and stayed put for four of them. A few travel days were very short.
- We have stayed in two commercial campgrounds and four Elks Lodges.
- Our average cost per night is $23.70, compared with our budge of $20/night. We need eight nights at $15/night to get under our budgetary average.
- I don’t have fuel figures handy, but we seem to be averaging 12 mpg.
We plan to stay in either Las Cruces or El Paso until about Wednesday of next week.
Willcox, AZ to Deming, NM (3/3/10)
So… We spent a very quiet day in Willcox, and this morning, we “moved house” as the English say, down the road about 150 miles to Deming. This town is pronounced with a short E, so it sounds like lemming. On our way hither, we passed through Lordsburg, where I photographed the Masonic Lodge and the Telephone Building.
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Willcox, AZ (3/1/2010)
Not much to report. We did a day of driving, skipped a bunch of nice tourist possibilities, and are camped at the Elks Lodge in Willcox, AZ, where we will stay two nights. I have a day of work to do tomorrow, and we’d like to get some laundry done.
It was a frustrating day driving, with some road work, some mistakes, like getting stuck in an outlet mall instead of finding a freeway entrance, etc. I need to learn to take things easier.
Since this was a travel day, here’s a chance for me to share a photo of our home, rigged for travel:
Here's a shot of our rig, bicycle, truck and trailer and barely visible spouse, ready to hit the road.
I Like Purim a Lot
Today is Purim, the Jewish holiday celebrating the events of the Book of Esther. There are four mitzvot associated with Purim:
- Hear the reading of the Megillah — The Book of Esther.
- Give Charity
- Give gifts of food
- Eat, Drink and be Merry (I like this one :)
Challah!
By the time we get to Phoenix (2/25/2010)
We took quite a nice ride to day from Quartzsite to Phoenix (and on to Mesa) by way of US Hwy 60. Rather than staying on I-10, we performed what my parents taught me was “shunpiking“. We took Hwy 60 since we had better expectations of breakfast.
Tweeting
I sent out a few tweets this morning while traveling, though not while driving :) Follow me at KM6CG if you like.
Arizona, take off your rainbow shades (2/24/2010)
Well, we made Arizona today. After a home-cooked breakfast in the trailer, we left Rialto at about 8:30 AM.
We traveled east through San Bernadino all the way to Indio, where we stopped for fuel, a grocery store run, and then lunch at Panda Express — Roseann’s favorite. Then back on the road bound for Quartzsite, AZ. We chose Quartzsite since Blythe, CA seemed to have only a bunch of 55 and over RV “resorts.” We just wanted “a flop for the night.” I was also really jazzed about crossing the state line. At about 2:00, we did so, and I noticed that my cell phone now said 3:00. We changed our clocks and watches.
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