walk in the campground we were in..... and after just a short while
passed three others also enjoying the morning air.. A healthy and
hearty "Hola!" and a wave jumped to my lips, but I held back and
instead floated them a more sedate and proper 'morning'. Well - what
happened next totally surprised the heck right out of me.... I was
totally ignored! I mean absolutely totally and thoroughly
ignored....... It was strange, but I did not take this personally,
but again had to bite back some words. How can people be so
incredibly insecure in themselves that they cannot even spare a
'morning!' in return?? Stunning. After our time in Baja where we
were almost constantly waving and greeting and smiling at everyone,
this really slapped my thinking cap right back on and I had to wonder
which is the more civilized country.
Anyway, I photographed the fake yellow flowers someone had stuck on
the cactus there - it looked really cute, and then we headed further
east. We tootled along the highway that was littered with other rv's
going in all directions and many of them parked as permanents in a
vast variety of campgrounds all along the way. It is quite astounding
to see this many rv's on the road. There are little colorful flowers
everywhere along the road, which is lovely and wide and the trucks
pass one safely at least three feet away from our mirrors - bliss!
The brush is small and dusty and there are a good many cactus plants
everywhere - and the road stretches like a never-ending ribbon over
the hills way in the distance in front.
We scooted through Arizona, through the Yuma Desert, over mountains by
the names of Gila, Growler and Sand Tank Mountains, north of places
that go by names of Why, Ajo, Gu Vo and Sells. We passed through
Tuscon, bypassed the Saguara National Park, over the Dragoon
Mountains, through the Coronado National Forest (did not see a tree
anywhere) and into New Mexico. Who names these places out here? Some
have the weirdest of names and I would just love to know how they came
by them, others sound simply romantic. The scenery here is definitely
not jaw dropping at all - mostly a few cactus of differing sorts,
mountains or hills that are brown up close but seem to be that distant
blue when far away. We drove along a loooong, straight section that
warned of blowing dust and zero visibility - but none of that
happened, thank goodness. The dust devils danced everywhere, but were
friendlies , not like the lady at the gas station who thought we were
taking way too much time to get and pay for the gas! It was funny
watching her - she stormed out of their vehicle behind us, glared at
me with pointed eyebrows as I sat patiently in the rv and stalked to
the store where Frank was paying. When she was about three steps from
the door with her personal little black cloud swirling furiously just
above her head, Frank waltzed out, receipt in hand. Boy did she ship
herself around so quickly that she almost lost that cloud...... ah
well, so it goes.
We stayed at a KOA Campground just East of Tuscon on Saturday night.
Campgrounds here are not like those we stayed in in Baja - these are
all well tended and customized to suit the camper in any way possible
- not luxury, just neat and .......... well, we are so incredibly
spoiled here, almost sadly so. It was lovely being in the basic
campgrounds in Mexico where the only power plug was waaaaay away and
the power cords stretched from every camper in the hope of getting at
least enough juice to recharge batteries. Some of the campgrounds had
wires lying open and we simply did not hook up then and early nights
were had. Not here - its all 'proper' and quiet and clean - almost
sterile. Like its missing something.....
We found a food store and stocked up on some much needed items and
many that were not needed at all, but we were hungry by then and
everything looked so good! We also looked for an rv wash place, but
the only one we found was not tall enough to get the rv into it. Ah
well. The wind blew and Frank fought the steering wheel for many miles
through vineyards, flat roads with no scenery at all and I fought the
battle against my closing eyelids. I have never slept for a single
mile in all our trips - but this road, well, its definitely something
else! We stop at a good few of the rest stops along the way, not only
for us but to let the doglets out to stretch their legs too, but its
cold and at one of the stops I could almost hear Sophie saying "you
want me to pee in this wind?? Not a chance!" as she ran full speed
back to the rv - and held it in for another 100 miles! Both doglets
also picked up a gazillion stickies - those tiny little thorns that
immediately imbed themselves deep into their fur and between their
paws.... it took a good 45 minutes to get them out!
Those jet streams created by the airplanes flying by, gently wafted
into each other creating what looked like proper clouds in the pale
blue sky..... quite pretty, but got me thinking about how much this
would change the weather etc - it was a long boring road. And then we
went through El Paso........ what a place that is! We could see the
huge Mexican flag flying high just on the other side of the border
fence, that separated the farmlands on either side. That place is
cram packed full of everything and everybody and going through there
is like being on a roller coaster - there is no way you can slow down
or stop, change direction or get off and you just know you are going
to die! Aaarrgghh....
Yesterday we went through a Border Patrol Checkpoint where they did
not even get us to stop at all, just smiled and waved us on and then
today the whole interstate was fed into one lane for yet another
check....... dogs walked around and again we were just waved through
like all the other cars and trucks - not one was stopped or looked
into - but I guess this makes our borders more secure or something?
And this brings me to another point....... after seeing how the people
live in Baja, if I lived at or really close to the border - there
would be a constant supply of water and snacks in an easily accessible
place! I am not saying its right to come across the border illegally,
just that I now have a much deeper understanding of why they do.
The one road sign made me chuckle for a good many miles....... it
announced two different towns just ahead...... "Truth or Consequence",
was the first and the next line read "Elephant Butte". Well, thats
like a question........ Dear, do I have an Elephant Butt(e)? The
answer is either the truth or huge consequences..:)
Last night, Sunday night, we stopped off early again, around 2.30pm at
a campground in Texas somewhere. We passed over mountains with lovely
names, but they are not mountains as in big and high, rather hills
that the rv does not even change gear to get up.... Some of the names
along this first stretch of Texas are Sierra Vieja Mts, Devil Ridge
and Wyle mountains - I have to admit to even looking forward to a bit
of a climb again and a screaming downhill, but no - just open roads,
smooth as a baby's butt(e) and wide as my mouth at times....... Boring
as heck but I have learned to be very careful about what I ask
for.... :)
Blondie is plugged up and working again - well, apart from early
mornings....... then she changes her mind about 10 times in 15 seconds
before settling on a direction that is normally incorrect. It's as if
she then grabs a quick slug of coffee and bingo - all is well again
and she will tell us that we are now on the interstate that we have
been driving down for a good few minutes already. Ah well, we forgive
her this as she has been excellent through the major cities - even
San Antonio at rush hour this evening - talk about a really insane
place with roads that look like a maze, cars that have people in them
all with neck problems as they totally ignored my frantic efforts to
get their attention by leaning half out of the window and waving at
them so that we can get into their lane! I swear everyone here has
an 'ignore code' that kicks in when they hit this part of town. There
was not even time to sweat, but my toes did curl.....
This stretch of the trip today was so incredibly boring that not only
was I fighting my eyelids again, but I had to make up things to pass
the miles away. My camera was mostly clutched in the vain hope of
something, anything, to take a photograph of, but it lay there, not
finding much at all.. So out came the crackers......... how many
miles can I make one last.....the first one took only 3 miles at 61
mph, the second 5 miles and by the 4th I decided that I should make a
change - there are only so many ways one can suck a cracker into
different shapes before it dissolves before too many miles have passed
by, so out came the clementines. One clementine can last a pretty
darn good many miles but the best was my bread roll with marmite that
took me 24.7 miles to eat! I should not stay on Texas roads too long
at all, or I should find a different game. These past few days we
have noticed a good many of the same vehicles either passing or being
passed by us again and again- so much so that at the rest stops we
greet each other and passing at the start of the day brings forth
happy waves and big smiles like old friends...... See? I told you it
was boring!
And so this evening, in the middle of San Antonio, aka Hell, we
changed interstates and headed almost directly south on Interstate 37
towards Corpus Christi and the beach on the Gulf of Mexico. Not being
a morning person at all, I surprised myself by getting excited about
the prospect of being able to see a sunrise over the ocean again!
Just what did Baja do to me?? There is a National Seashore, protected
area, right off the coastline here and its glorious. We were here for
just two days in 2003 in the sweltering heat and have always wanted to
come back again in more decent weather. There are miles and miles of
untouched white beach, littered with shells and floats and wood and
all sorts of stuff. One can walk all the way to the Mexican border
too - its a long way, but possible. And the weather is going to play
along beautifully this time with temps up in the low 80's during the
day and 60's at night. We are only about 100 miles away from the
coast tonight, so by lunchtime tomorrow we will have our toes in the
sand again and I know I will be humming as I do when I see and smell
that ocean!
Till then
love and light
Annie
http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09
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