Long Day

When we left OK City this morning it was pretty cold. The wind died some overnight, but it was still hard for the guys to drive. We knew we had a big day covering 540 miles to Santa Fe. About midday near the Texas/Oklahoma line, a tire went flat on Dennis' camper. They noticed right away that it had SHREDDED but luckily it didn't damage the camper when it blew. We drove slowly to the next exit to find a flat spot to change the tire. Rick and Ted did their best NASCAR Pit Crew act which they practiced last summer. In a short time the spare was on and the guys fueled up while the girls took care of lunch. Just so happened there was a Dairy Queen right there! I hate when that happens!

Back on the road, the wind eventually died some, but not completely. We passed many windmill farms capturing that energy flying across the flat land. (though not like this antique model!) Where I-40 crosses Oklahoma, Texas and into New Mexico, there are lots of cattle and miles and miles of...well, not much. Most of the areas are beautiful, but there's not much variation in the scenery. Esther and Janet read books and I watched a couple of movies to pass the time. After the flat tire incident, we were glad to have some monotony. The flat land then became more hilly, more rocky and more beautiful.

The last stretch of road from I-40 to Santa Fe is about 40 miles of 2 lane highway. We didn't know that about half of that was under re-construction. Some had been repaved, but about 5 miles of it was entirely gravel with very slow going. Several miles were single lane where we stopped completely for about 15 minutes to let traffic pass. We breathed easier when we finally arrived at the RV Park.

As the guys set-up, Janet made quesadillas and Esther and I chipped in dessert, vegetables and rice. We were all exhausted and very hungry. And now I'm going to BED!