.Arizona Wanderings

It's Mum (Josie) and we've finally established sufficient rapport with this lap top to get some more information into the blog. Hooray!

Thursday, February 7th. After quite a bit of messing about with the jeep and having to go back home to fix the tow, we made it across to James & Megan and had a wonderful evening because Joanne and Roman came across. Owen was a delight and even more delightful, went to sleep at the proper time. We told everyone we would make an early start next day and said bye bye.

Friday, February 8th. After an excellent night's sleep in the street outside James's, I was awakened by muffled thuds and shudders. It was quite dark and I could just see John, in the dark, dressing at the end of the bed. He said "You can go back to sleep, if you want, but the snow's started, so I think we should set off." I believe I mumbled "What's the time" and nearly got back under the covers when I was told it was a quarter to five. Well, I couldn't let that sacrifice go un-noticed, but it didn't take more than a few seconds to decide to get up. After a welcome, refreshing drink of cold water, in the gloom, we buckled ourselves in and set off. True, it had started to snow, tiny hard pellets of ice, but the hills in Stillwater were still dry and it wasn't too bad. We made it to I35E and set off south. It was still dark at Albert Lea, but ran into sunshine in Des Moines, where we sloshed through snow melt to get to Walmart for something essential, I've forgotten what.

We congratulated ourselves on the sunshine, made it through Kansas City and ended up in Topeka, KS, for the night - courtesy of Moaning Myrtle who took us on the northern route. Well, no doubt the inhabitants of Topeka love it, but we didn't. For a start, the road works didn't match the roads that MM was trying to use, but a toll booth attendant talked us through and we headed for the camp ground recommended by Woodalls Directory. Of course, being late in the evening, there was no-one to check us in, so we did it ourselves. One side was a grain silo, and the site seemed to be a converted parking lot. The water had been turned off because the temperature was in the region of zero and all the snow was frozen. Fortunately, one of the owners popped out and gave us the code to get into the bathrooms, so we had that luxury.

Saturday, February 9th. We crunched our way out of Topeka, headed for Wichita, OKC and then Wichita Falls, TX. The roads were superb, we made good time and the weather was warm and sunny. One new thing we noticed. Between the OK border and Abiline, hundreds of thousands of acres of scrub have been cleared. The creosote bush, grasses, cacti - all gone. So far as we could see, it was being planted with cotton! No doubt the subsidies that are ruining the cotton growers in the rest of the world are enriching the Texans.

As the weather continued fine, we hugged ourselves with glee and decided to head for Abilene, to arrive at a specific camp site about 6pm. Well, Moaning Myrtle did a damn fine job, through lots of different highways and byways. She kept saying "arriving at destination on the left", but after we had circled the spot several times, on unmade roads and past "for sale" signs, it was obvious that either that camp site had never been built, or had been razed to the ground some time previously. Mental note - write to Woodalls.

Anyway, there being no Walmart to beg for shelter, and NO OTHER RV PARK IN ABILENE, we decided to head east to Sweetwater, where there were no less than three RV parks to choose from. It had been a long day, we were tired and hungry, and decided that if we could find one, a bottle of wine would go down well with the spam sandwiches. Well, Sweetwater is on a divided highway which had more elevated spans than solid road, and numerous exits. Of course, we got off at the wrong one and found ourselves heading into the dark on a small road called Sweetwater Road - original, eh? It was obviously not Sweetwater, but some outlying hamlet, but with a very, very good liquor store, prominently lit and obvious. We had some super advice from the owner, who was very glad to see us indeed and he directed us to get back onto the main highway and look for the RV Park signs. We did, and after a few more miles of roaring along with the big boys, we came off and started looking.
Well, eventually we found all the RV Parks, all were tiny and full up. Dad decided to use the forecourt of a small shopping mall, all the shops were empty and boarded up, but unfortunately it was too narrow for him to turn, so I hopped out and demolished a log wall to let hm through. I was so tired and hungry I would have demolished a brick wall. Decisions, decisions ..... we went back under the highway, up the hill and begged leave to park in the blessed Walmart park. They were quite indifferent, so we joined the other RV in the same area, drank some wine, ate the spam sandwiches and went to bed. It was so lovely not having ice everywhere, we didn't notice the wind that had sprung up, but that was for tomorrow.

To be continued.