Florida to Arizona
The intent of our trip this time was to go out west to the Four Corners area and spend some time exploring. The trip to Florida to visit Linda and Al was added kind of at the last minute. It meant that we had extra miles to drive and less time to do them in. Hence, when we left Ft. Myers Beach on April 25th, we had to put some miles down with not a lot of time for stops (our deadline was a reservation at the Grand Canyon on May 6th). We did make a stop in Irving, TX to see a long-time friend, Kathy Runkel but, otherwise, we did a lot of straight through driving.
From Ft. Myers we headed north along the Gulf Coast to the Florida Panhandle. Along the way we went over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over the mouth of Tampa Bay. From a distance it looks a bit like golden sails over the bay.
From the Panhandle we drove west on I-10 and crossed into Alabama then quickly Mississippi (they both just have narrow feet that connect them to the Gulf) then into Louisiana and Texas. We crossed the Mississippi River at Baton Rouge. (FYI: Louisiana roads are the WORST).
We had to make a northward jog on I-49 in Louisiana west of Baton Rouge to head up to Irving in Texas to visit with Kathy and her boyfriend Paul (I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of them )-:).
After 2 nights in Irving we continued west on I-20 across west Texas. The land is flat and the wind was constant and very strong. It is oil country but it is now also home to alternative energy, namely wind turbines to harness the almost constant wind.
West Texas is pretty desolate looking. We rejoined I-10 and after a bit we finally could see some mountains in the distance.
We got to El Paso and then crossed into New Mexico.
We had discovered the night before that the house battery was not holding a charge so we had to stop in Deming, NM to have it replaced. The local NAPA store had the battery we needed and a shop down the street was able to put it in right away. Nice people in Deming.
We didn't even spend a night in New Mexico but went straight on into Arizona. In both New Mexico and Arizona there were frequent warnings of potential dust storms. The day we were going through on I-10 the winds were strong (20 - 30 mph) but minimal dust. There were signs set up like the old Burma Shave signs that told you what to do in case of a dust storm.
As I write this we are in a very nice RV park (Butterfield) in Benson, AZ. They even have an observatory here that we may go to the presentation tonight.
From Ft. Myers we headed north along the Gulf Coast to the Florida Panhandle. Along the way we went over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over the mouth of Tampa Bay. From a distance it looks a bit like golden sails over the bay.
From the Panhandle we drove west on I-10 and crossed into Alabama then quickly Mississippi (they both just have narrow feet that connect them to the Gulf) then into Louisiana and Texas. We crossed the Mississippi River at Baton Rouge. (FYI: Louisiana roads are the WORST).
We had to make a northward jog on I-49 in Louisiana west of Baton Rouge to head up to Irving in Texas to visit with Kathy and her boyfriend Paul (I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of them )-:).
After 2 nights in Irving we continued west on I-20 across west Texas. The land is flat and the wind was constant and very strong. It is oil country but it is now also home to alternative energy, namely wind turbines to harness the almost constant wind.
West Texas is pretty desolate looking. We rejoined I-10 and after a bit we finally could see some mountains in the distance.
We got to El Paso and then crossed into New Mexico.
We had discovered the night before that the house battery was not holding a charge so we had to stop in Deming, NM to have it replaced. The local NAPA store had the battery we needed and a shop down the street was able to put it in right away. Nice people in Deming.
We didn't even spend a night in New Mexico but went straight on into Arizona. In both New Mexico and Arizona there were frequent warnings of potential dust storms. The day we were going through on I-10 the winds were strong (20 - 30 mph) but minimal dust. There were signs set up like the old Burma Shave signs that told you what to do in case of a dust storm.
As I write this we are in a very nice RV park (Butterfield) in Benson, AZ. They even have an observatory here that we may go to the presentation tonight.
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