Dec 28th - On to Deming, NM

We are in Deming, NM tonight. We arrived around 4:45 PM MST, we gained an hour changing time zones near El Paso. We plan on staying here at least two nights so that we can look around the area. No real problems, other than traffic in El Paso was HORRIBLE. It wasn't a problem for me, Kathy was driving then <grin>.

I told you yesterday that I would include a photo of the oil wells next to the campground we stayed at in Midland, TX last night.

We like to travel during daylight hours but after driving approximately 100 miles, some before but most after, Midland; TX, it wouldn’t bother me to drive through there in the dark if we come this way again. After the first 50 miles or so of oil well after oil well, all on flat desolate land, the novelty wears off. From Pecos, TX on west the scenery is much better.

The next photos are of the picnic area where we had lunch, near Van Horn, TX. That is our CRV and motorhome next to the sidewalk. Meals have been pretty inexpensive. Last night after pulling in to the campground I ate leftover potato soup (the kind my Grandma used to make, it is AWESOME) and Kathy ate leftover vegetable soup (it is also great). For breakfast I finished off the potato soup. For lunch we had leftover prime rib and potato salad, leftover from Christmas. Tonight for supper we had stuffed pork chops that we bought while in Lindale. I don't know what they were stuffed with but it was pretty spicy. I think I liked them but won't know for sure until the morning <grin.>

 I liked the narrow stone sidewalks, if that is what they were.

 The view to the north of the picnic area. You could see some snow on the tops of the mountains.

 Don't see many of these signs in the Midwest.

The view from the New Mexico welcome center.

 Snow at the welcome center. There were some larger piles, where the sidewalks had been shoveled. A couple of pre-teen boys were having a snowball fight when we were leaving the welcome center.

The Florida mountains to the south, at the RV-Dreams campground where we are staying in Deming. The top of Florida Peak is elevation 7,300. The campground is loosely affiliated with Escapees. Since we are Escapee members we can stay here for $12.50/night plus 12.3 cents/kwh for the electricity we use. Water and sewer are free.

 Sorry about the out of focus photo below. This is some of the snow at the campground. The temperatures here have been in the mid 50's during the past two days. Today's sunshine was brilliant. There must have been a LOT of snow a few days ago.



Above I mentioned our inexpensive meals. Other things aren't so inexpensive. The oil change in Dallas was $190. Today we stopped for fuel. It cost $364 to fill up. That should easily get us to Palm Springs, CA.

An interesting event occurred while at the Flying J getting fuel. The entry to the Flying J was very poorly marked. We followed the signs to the truck entry because we did not see the normal RV pumps near the auto pumps. We stopped in the truck parking area and I walked into the place to ask if we would still get the 3 cent a gallon RV discount if we filled up at the truck pumps. The answer was no. The lady pointed out the single RV fuel pump and told me that we had to get fuel there to get the discount. While there I noticed an RV, pulling a VW on a tow dolly, at the auto pumps. I walked back out, nearly a quarter mile, to our RV and gave Kathy directions on how to get to the RV pump. I told her that I didn't think that there was any way the RV at the auto pumps was going to be able to get out. I started filling up the RV and she went for a walk, before I had the first 25 gallons in (the pump was incredibly slow) she was back and told me that I needed to go over and help the people with the RV/VW.

The couple were certainly well into there 70's. He had pulled away from the auto pump and tried to make a U-turn to get back to the highway. It wasn't even close. His front tires were against a curb and he couldn't back up with the tow dolly. We ended up taking the VW off the tow dolly, unhooking the tow dolly and getting it out of the way so that he could back up and then complete his turn. We then hooked the tow dolly back up and put the VW back on it. They were nice folks on their way to Phoenix for the winter. They were very grateful and wanted to give me money to pay for supper for Kathy and I. I told him it wasn't that I was nice a guy, because I'm not all that nice, and that he needed to thank God for the assistance. Previously the lady had told me to go ahead and leave because they didn't want to inconvenience anyone. I had told her that she should consider that maybe God had put us both there for some reason that neither of us would ever know.

VW couple left quite a while before we did. When we stopped at the New Mexico welcome center they were just pulling out. We got to wave at one another. I was sure glad to see that they had made it through all the traffic in El Paso, and that the VW was still behind them. It was another 80 miles before we got off at Deming and we didn't see them again so they must have made it this far OK.