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| July 2 campground fireworks |
The owners of the campground we are at for the season put on fireworks display for the July 4 Holiday. Last night was the night, and there was a live rock band concert, too. This is our summer "lily pad" and it is our base of travel until November.
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| Nature provided a Waxing Crescent Moon |
(c) N. Retzke 2022
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| Some local produce available as of July 3 |
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| G at the farm stand |
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| Meanwhile - Green Flag at the Beach - July 2 |
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| Beach at 11:15am |
With the arrival of July, the beach is sunny and the water 70F. Local farm produce selection will expand significantly.
The farm stands are open and June vegetables such as Rhubarb, Asparagus and Spinach are replaced, and the list of available vegetables expands. It is early July, but as the month progresses the list of local farm stand produce will expand to include:
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| Sunset - June 24, 2022 - Raton, NM |
It has been a high travel month. June Summary:
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| Elephant Butte, NM |
We arrived at our final destination yesterday. We are currently in Southwest Michigan, at the shore of Lake Michigan. This morning we walked along the Michigan Dunes. We were at the shore early and so we beat the July 4 revelers. There is rain in the area, and it is a pleasant 81F.
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| Looking North, on the shore of Lake Michigan |
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| Looking South |
(c) N. Retzke 2022
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| Sunset at Voyager, Tucson June 11, 2022 |
We were at the Voyager Resort in Tucson and went to Fat Willy's, the independent bar and grill within the resort. As we exited after dinner this is the sunset that greeted us.
One could almost imagine those are pyramids in the desert.
(c) 2022 N. Retzke
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| Three Sisters Tavern & Grill |
We experience some pleasant surprises on our treks. For example, during a recent trek we decided to take a lunch stop near Colorado City. As I was pumping gas, G spotted a nearby BBQ. On the other side of I-25 there is another restaurant. We talked it over and decided to have lunch at the Three Sisters Tavern & Grill. Adjacent to it is a small gift shop.
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Booth seating in the restaurant
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| Three Sisters burger with fries |
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| Three Sisters So-Co Green Chile |
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| Gift shop |
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| View at Three Sisters |
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| Ready to continue our journey |
(c) N. Retzke 2022
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| Tucson Sunset |
It's June and that means high heat and the Monsoon Season is approaching. This time of year is called the Monsoon Tease. There have been rainstorms in the area, and they bring spectacular sunsets and the occasional rainbow.
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| Rainbow at sunset |
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| Fiery sky looking up and easterly at sunset, with the rainbow to my right |
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| A few minutes earlier it was a much less dramatic sunset |
(c) N. Retzke 2022
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| Elephant Butte Sunset |
This trek we took I-80 to I-76 to I-25 through Denver, but we also took highways such as NM 26. We were towing a trailer, estimated weight 1500 lbs. As a consequence, we generally travelled via the interstate highway system at 55-60 MPH, and I wanted to be on a main road with a good shoulder should there be an issue with the trailer. Ergo the trek through Denver, rather than via US 350, the old Santa Fe Trail.
I've included a few statistics in this post.
We did investigate the Colorado E-470 tollway which would have allowed us to bypass Denver. According to the online Colorado website our cost for a vehicle with three axels would have been about $35. However, if we pre-registered the toll would have been half; that's a significant savings. But there is a minimum "charge" to the account of $35 which goes in a digital wallet. We're not sure when we'll be going through Denver again. So, we saw no advantage to the pre-registration and leaving about $18 for future use in Colorado.
There were speed restrictions imposed by UHaul. They said the trailer max speed is 55 MPH. The trailer had new tires and we were towing about 1,500 lbs. I followed their recommendation.
We began on June 4 at 7:10am and arrived at our final destination on June 8 at 12:30pm local time. The trip was about 4-1/2 days. We spent four nights in a variety of campgrounds.
About every two hours we would stop for 30 minutes to stretch and get gas, etc. We also stopped once each day for a meal and that stop was about one hour. Sometimes our meal/stretch stop was a breakfast, and on other days it was a lunch. Our stop one day was a 1-1/2 hour lunch break which included some shopping. Other meals were with food we brought in the Roadtrek. The stops were more frequent than usual for us; I guess this is what Class A or Super-C owners may experience. I've spoken with a few and I was told that they generally travel about 300 miles a day with frequent stops each day.
One thing we observed on this trek was the difficulty of some RVs getting gasoline. I'd never thought about this, but many of the "truck stops" have one side with pumps for gasoline powered vehicles and the other for diesel. Getting in line at the gas pumps was clearly a challenge for some of the RVers.
Another thing we noticed was the Roadtrek seemed to travel more smoothly when towing. Some of that I attribute to the rear weight on the hitch. I usually trek with water only in the front tank. That's because I can visually inspect how full it is when the side drawer is open. However, after this experience I may fill the inside fresh water tank at the rear of the vehicle instead. That would put more weight on the rear wheels.
I suppose I could have the vehicle weighed at each tire to determine the actual weight.
Trip Summary - To Lordsburg, NM
This includes the portion of the trek up to and including Lordsburg, NM, which was our final gas stop for the 1,909 mile trek. To Lordburg was 1,760 miles. I didn't gas up when we arrived at the ultimate destination and so at the time I wrote this I was unsure of how much gas was actually used beyond Lordsburg. That final leg was 149 miles plus local driving. I used the receipts to calculate gas used, etc. Distance was per the odometer and our mapping software.
Daily Miles
We experienced some overnight rain in Alda NE and Ogallala, then smoke from fires as we proceeded west. There was a nice sunset at Elephant Butte NM. We didn't drive to the lake because I was towing a trailer. That means very wide turning radius and less than simple backups.
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| Iowa Storms |
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| Smoky Haze in the distance, NM |
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| Smokey Haze at sunset - Elephant Butte NM |
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| Sunset - Elephant Butte NM |
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| Rio Grande River near Hatch NM |
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| Entering Hatch on NM-26 - "Chili Capital of the World" |
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| At the destination |
(c) 2022 N. Retzke
