Trippin’ Around North America

Rolling Home...

November 15

Time to come home. Our extended road trip has been absolutely great. The people we have visited, the things we have seen and the experiences we have had have far exceeded our expectations when we were planning the trip.


After we left Lubbock, Texas, the only thing left on our wish list was Las Vegas. We have travelled the route up and down California to Vancouver several times, both on the coast road and inland. Looking at the weather in Nevada and some of the passes in California our options have been reduced greatly regarding routes home. Remember we are pulling a trailer.

Yesterday when we left Lubbock there was a mild wind storm hitting us head on for a few hours. That subsided as we passed into New Mexico. We detoured a bit for lunch and ate with Billy The Kid, [his grave actually], at the remains of Fort Sumner. I found out that Billy and I share the same birthday, November 26th.





Things are pretty quiet tourist-wise around here. There are not too many RVers travelling east to west as we are. Most are on the southern routes heading to warmer climates. When we pulled in to the KOA Camp the owner told us to disconnect our water before we went to bed because it was going to freeze, down to 18 F. That is about -8 C. We had both electric and propane heaters on to take the chill off the trailer.

We are on Interstate 40 for quite a distance as we travel west. Old Route 66 travelled in the same areas. We went on Route 66 for a bit. It is both neat and sad at the same time. Neat to see the old motels, cafes, gas stations and interesting shops that were bustling in Route 66 hay-days, the 50s, 60s.


It is then sad to see the crumbling and fading paint and old signs on buildings that don't seem to have any owners.

Some of the Motels have kept up and modernised a bit. They seem to be doing quite well, lots of cars parked in front. I wonder what the decor is in there? Velvet pictures on painted walls, with plastic laminate tables??? Who knows, an era gone by. Route 66 is sort of a modern day ghost town in the making. For us older folks it certainly brings a smile to the face and a good feeling of "simpler days."

The amount of trains and trucks rolling along this route is amazing. I suppose most of the produce from California and the containers from Asia move to the central and eastern states along this road.

We encountered mountains today for the first time since September. Actually we will cross the Rockies some time today, [it is called the Great Divide], the southern end, where they gradually get smaller and smaller. At some places as we were heading west the highway stretched out in front of us for miles as we came over a rise. There seemed to be an endless train of trucks going in both directions on this very wide divided highway. It reminded us of an army of leaf-cutter ants, a seemingly endless chain of little ants, each carrying a piece of green leaf back to the nest to feed and nourish the colony off in the distance somewhere. [We have lots of time to think and talk on a journey like this folks].

Not too many pictures, a driving day. I thought the one of "The Big Rigs and Us" was kind of cute, it puts us in perspective!

posted by Doug and Fellette @ 11:15 AM