Showing posts with label Monahans Sandhills State Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monahans Sandhills State Park. Show all posts

2/28/14

Homeward Bound!

 

Rockhound SP New Mexico

We leave Arizona feeling sad as it’s too soon to return to the cold.  But the mindless days of sitting in the sun and looking at the mountains are over for this winter.  Reality, in the form of doctors’ appointments and dealing with Medicare, calls.

Our first night on the road is at Rock Hound State Park in Deming, NM.  Lovely small park with a brand new bath house…which is not finished and not open.  The lights of the city are  twinkling through the windows.  Beautiful!

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We experience another gorgeous sunset.  Our thoughts turn to next winter and the possibility of spending time in New Mexico.

After another 350 mile day, we are in west Texas at Monahan Sand Hills State Park.  This is our third visit as it is so convenient to I-20.  The exit is almost the entrance to the park.  It’s practically deserted, maybe cause of a forecast of ice in the AM.  We decide to NOT get on the road in the morning.

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The wind howls all night.  I wake wondering if we are to blow over?  Our new stabilizers are working great but, infrequently, the gusts do make the trailer shiver.  The next morning it’s 30F for hours.  We wait until noon to shower and head out to the grocery store.  It will be another night in the sand hills.

Late in the day the sun emerges.  I take a quick walk…the wind is still bitter cold.  Oh! Missing those 80 degrees of last weekend!

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The wind makes lovely patterns in the shifting sand.

I stay inside reading for most of the day.  After dark, on my way to the bath house, another trailer pulls into the campground, proceeding cautiously.  A white gleam bounces off my flashlight.  It’s a Casita!  Heading back to our trailer I say “hi” to these brave souls coming in after dark in the cold.  They are shocked when I point to our Casita a few spaces away.  John and Gail have just  come from Rice with a brand new 16 foot Casita!  They appear overjoyed to have a knowledgeable(?) person to help with the set up.  I am feeling great to be able to help.   I fall asleep wondering if they will be able to get the furnace turned on.  Hope they will not be human popsicles in the AM.

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They are fine commenting, a bit, about the hard cushions!  I quickly give them info on the forums and we say “goodbye”.

Holiday Park Campground on Benbrook Lake, is our destination for Thursday night.  It’s a COE with hookups at a senior discount.

Benbrook Lake COE

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We take a walk, David grills chicken, then we both read until bedtime.  So nice to have electricity with heat and the cell phone charging!

In no rush to hit the road this AM as we must drive through Fort Worth and Dallas.  Wonder when rush hour will end?

Many emotions are being experienced.  Sadness at leaving the desert, dread of cold and/or snow at home but also a happy anticipation of seeing friends, reconnecting with loved ones and settling back into a routine.

Time to wake the hubby and head out!

1/8/14

Surviving the Freeze!

 

(We are on our way to Arizona!)

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COLD!!!! That’s been the word for the past 5 days!

We are able to get packed and leave last Saturday morning.  Not  a pretty travel day but not too cold.  Made it to a Meridian, MS Passport America park….not much there.  Just a gravel parking lot with a nice bathhouse and office.  Free chocolate candy!

The next day the forecast got scary with talk of sleet and snow but we pressed on driving through rain and wind and back into the sunshine….cold sunshine!  Got through all of MS and LA arriving at another Passport park in Longview, TX.  The predicted low for the night is 19 degrees!  (Need to stop here and remind everyone that we do not have a furnace….just a little ceramic space heater!)  We manage to sleep warm with our  comforter and a few throws.  I worry about our cat, Sylvester, staying warm.  I try to cover him and he does not cooperate.  Eventually he makes his bed on David’s stomach.

The next morning we have ice on all our windows….on the inside!!!!  It is 17 degrees that morning and I hope to never experience that again!  The freeze is predicted to extend another day and night but I’m not concerned as we will be camping inside Little House Customs’ shop that night. 

For the past two years we have had BAL stabilizers on our wish list for the Casita.  And it’s going to finally happen!

Tada!  The finished product!

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Since it has been way too cold to take any pictures outside….and thought it might be different to show what it’s like on the inside of a Casita. Not the pretty little doll house pictures that I see on Facebook and the forums but our version of real camping!

David reading (or sleeping)

David reading his Nook (or sleeping!)

Sylvester enjoys the heater!

Sylvester enjoying the heater!

David enjoys our makeshift supper

Supper….the leftovers did not fill us….second course, vanilla wafers and peanut butter.

It had been a long tiring day!

Baby boy staying warm.

Enjoyed our time at Little House Customs as Larry and Debbie are great hosts!  I stuck to Larry’s huge wood burning stove…it felt sooo good to be warm!

Lynne enjoying the wood stove at Little House Customs

The wood stove!!!!

A better view of this wonderful stove!  This is the main source of heat for his shop.

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Our Casita baby all snug and warm for the night!

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View from upstairs.

Writing tonight from Monahans Sandhills State Park (west Texas) ….last night was spent in Ranger, TX.  May be through with Texas by tomorrow afternoon….sure takes forever to drive!

The good news!!!!!!  It was 60 here today!  But 28 predicted tonight….still camping with hookups.

2/28/12

On our way home

We are on our way home.  This is our 3rd night on the road and we are currently camped in a Corp of Engineers park, Lake Benbrook, just south of Fort Worth.  The temp was 71 the last time I checked and the wind is whistling through the live oaks overhead.  I-20 E has been a struggle all day due to a ferocious wind.  But currently it is quite pleasant and not scary like last night at Monahans Sandhills State Park where the constant battering gusts made sound sleep impossible.  (I was so glad that we were still hooked up to the truck....thought we were going to be blown away.)

I am so sorry for not writing more but the isolation of the desert relaxed me to the point where I did not even want to communicate.  And the lack of internet access has helped me to break some of my electronic addictions.  Maybe on another day I will be able to describe what it felt to live in a canyon so close to nature and so far from the city.  Incredible  memories!