Saturday, March 20
Got to David and Amanda’s around 9:30. Amanda was working. Ari and the boys (and Mac) were glad to see us. It turned very cold and windy--we were accused of bringing the cold weather again. Played with the boys, had pizza and watched UP.
Sunday, March 21 First day of Spring, Madison’s 5th Birthday
Went to Woodlands Church again.
Still friendly, good sermon, still loud music, hard to sing with.
Watched Harry Potter 2 in the afternoon. Still cold.
Monday, March 22
Said goodbyes to all, got the boys off to school. Helped with the wash, cleaned bathroom, printed boats for Michael’s blanket, packed up. Bruce got the car serviced, had more that needed to be done than we expected. We took off about 1:00. Very nice day. The scenery was very pretty--lots of flowers, rocks, cacti, &c. Stopped at a rest area for supper, then found a Walmart in Ferrville.
Tuesday, March 23
Took off after breakfast in the camper. The flowers were replaced by cacti patches, yucca and sage brush. The land is rocky with some beautiful passages through the rock hills, sometimes hilly, sometimes flat. Old fashioned windmills are stuck randomly throughout, and every once in awhile we came upon a windmill farm. There are occasional oil wells, some working, most silent. There were some flocks of goats and a few sheep, and even a few horses, but no cattle. (We did see a herd later). Also, lots of trains running parallel to the highway.
We met a couple at a gas station in the middle of nowhere--southern Baptists from Houston )”We give ‘em heaven every week.” They were heading for Big Bend TX where he paints landscapes with a friend. He said it was beautiful--wide variety of terrain.
Eventually mountains started poking up out of the horizon and gradually became more prominent . The wind came up very strong, so we stopped in Van Horn around 5:00 at an RV park. It was a nice place--even had a pet playground, wifi, and TV hook up. We slept good and left around 8:30 a.m.
Wednesday, March 24
We saw more mountains and desert. There were cute wagon wheel shelters or teepee shelters at the rest areas. We finally arrived in New Mexico. We stopped at the visitor center and had lunch. It was really a neat place with adobe style picnic spots, various cacti plants, a fountain and very warm drinking water. We drove through more mountains and desert, but also saw a HUGE dairy farm. We went through a border patrol check point and were asked if we were citizens. I refrained from saying “Si, si, Senior.”
We got to Arizona around 2:15 p.m.. After Tucson everything was much greener and we saw more and more beautiful flowers.
In Phoenix, our Garmin led us to a Go-Kart place owned by WalMart and we got permission to stay there. It was near the airport and airplanes were flying over. It was also very near the train track which blew it’s whistle when going through the town. Other than that it was fine.
Thursday, March 25
After breakfast we headed visit Harold and Alice Wieland in Peoria (a suburb of Phoenix). We had a nice visit with them and they even gave us lunch. Ari liked them, too. We left around 2:00.
The flowers were gorgeous because of all the rain they’ve had. We finally got to see some of the tall skinny cacti.
