Faywood, New Mexico to Willcox, Arizona
Grande Vista RV Park
Distance: 165 miles
Cost: $40
Duration: 1 night
Weather: Humid and stormy
We woke to a cloudy morning with a storm brewing off in the distance. After checking the weather report, it looked like we were in for some wind and thunderstorms on our drive west. I walked around the park before breakfast, feeling sad that we had to leave such a cool campground. One more day would have been nice.
Another pretty view out our bedroom window.
Here comes the sun!
We hit the road before 10:00 and it was very windy! We saw lots of signs along the highway, warning of high winds and dust storms. We only had to travel 165 miles, but it was a stressful drive. We stopped for some beef jerky, but the rest of the drive was pretty boring (when I wasn't terrified of being blown off the road!).
Pretty ominous clouds in the rear view mirror.
Welcome to Arizona!
Dust beginning to blow on the left side of the highway.
Thankfully, we didn't have to worry about anyone slamming into the back of us in a dust storm! Phew.
Getting closer to San Diego!
We arrived at the RV park mid-afternoon and didn't do much of anything other than relax and read. The sky got very dark, but we only had a few sprinkles, although the temperature dropped quite a bit, which was nice.
Grande Vista RV Park isn't anything special, especially for $40 a night. Full-hookups, level gravel pads, showers, laundry, WiFi, picnic tables, but not terribly attractive. Good for an overnight, but I wouldn't want to stay any longer.
I'm always terrified when I see a bad storm as I'm driving. I can't imagine driving in a dust storm. I'm afraid I'd have to reroute.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many away-from-everything spots out west. I know I wouldn't want to live in one of those spots, but it certainly can be refreshing to visit them.
Deb, we were very happy there weren't any serious dust storms! Not only would it be dangerous and scary, but it would probably cause some damage to the RV.
DeleteThat drive sounds rather tense. I've never seen signs that say to turn your vehicle off.
ReplyDeleteThe fifth picture down is gorgeous - you need to frame it!
Kathy, we were lucky and didn't have any problems with dust storms. The signs were a bit confusing. Obviously, you turn your car off when you pull off the highway, but I don't know why you would keep your foot off the brake. Probably to keep your brake lights dark. I read this on Google: "After you are off the paved portion of the roadway, turn off your vehicle's lights to ensure other cars do not follow you off the road and hit your vehicle. Wait until the dust storm had passed before getting back on the highway. If you are walking or riding your bike, get inside quickly or seek shelter."
DeleteThank you for your nice words about the photograph. I may just do that!
I grew up with dust storms and had them in college as well. Both in western Texas - Lubbock and Abilene. You didn't get a pass for class just because the dust was blowing, though your hair did get yucky. I learned to walk with my head down - quickly. Growing up in Lubbock, the dust was so bad that you actually had to 'dust' the windowsills weekly or more often. That was my job. Red dust. When we moved to the Dallas area when I was 11, I couldn't understand why there was very little dust on the windowsills and why it wasn't red. Ha! Glad you guys stayed safe.
ReplyDeleteKay, I'm not a big fan of wind, so I probably would have hated living in west Texas! We didn't have dust storms in Nebraska, but the gusty wind there drove me crazy!
DeleteOh, I know that feeling of wishing we had "just one more day" in a beautiful place! It's helped a lot that we've slowed our travels to stay at least three days, and often five or more most places. But still...it's often hard to move on.
ReplyDeleteWe were in Rodeo, New Mexico the first time I heard a weather forecast for "blowing dust" and I remember thinking "What the heck??" We found out. :-)
Laurel, we had so many places (and people) to visit on this particular trip that we had the entire route planned and reserved before we left Oregon. We look forward to the day when we can just wing it and if we land in a great area and want to extend our stay, we will be able to do so without disrupting the entire trip. We got very weary on this trip with so many one-night stopovers and when we did get to a campground we enjoyed, we were sorry we had only booked 3 nights instead of 4 or 5. But now we have some spots we are eager to revisit. Speaking of which, we just got back from a week long stay at Friends Landing. As you know, we were there in late April. We enjoyed it so much, we decided to head back for another week. It didn't disappoint!
DeleteWe were in Palm Springs many, many years ago when a dust storm came through. Our brand new Honda Accord (black) was sandblasted and we had to have it repainted! Crazy!