New Mexico: Land of Enchantment

Sunday June 17

Today was another travel day. After laying over two nights at Thousand Trails Lake Texoma we considered staying over another night. After all, it's paid for; we could stay up to two weeks and it wouldn't cost us any more. However, it was raining, and we didn't figure it was a good day to stay in camp. We had walked the whole preserve the day before, and, unless we bought fishing licenses and rented a boat, there was little left to do. We decided it was time to move on.
After a hearty breakfast at Ruby's Roadhouse Cafe, we struck out at the crack of noon. I have to say that the rest areas in Texas are the best I have ever seen. The one on US 287 east of Amarillo looks like a wild west theme park. They even have wireless internet service. Cool!
We bought 94 gallons of diesel at the Flying J in Amarillo. At $2.649/gal it was the cheapest fuel we would see for many weeks. We got into the one and only RV lane pretty quickly, but I sensed right away that the pump may not be working correctly. I think the card reader hanging out of the console and dangling by its cable was a hint. Not to be discouraged I sent Dorcas into the store to tell the folks to turn on pump #15. She did and the pump actually dispensed the fuel rather quickly.

We had planned to stop at the New Mexico I-40 Welcome Center at MP373 to get some travel information and plan the NM portion of our trip, however the sign said "Welcome Center Closed, Next Rest Area 72 miles". OK, fine. When we passed it we saw they weren't kidding. If there had been a rest area there before, it had been razed and buried. They were apparently fixing to build a brand new one from the ground up. OK, on to the next rest area. Maybe they would have a highway map there. At the rest area at MP 301 the sign said "Rest Area Closed Due to Contruction, next rest area 50 miles". OK, is this some kind of joke? Do they expect you to hold it until you get to Arizona? When we went by, it looked perfectly functional to me. What's the problem? OK, on to the next one at MP 251. We had no expectation that it would be there, but the NMDOT surprised us. There it was. It existed, but it was nothing special. I quess we should be grateful, but I think Texas spoiled us. It was getting late so we decided to spend the night. I was afraid if we passed it by, we would never see another one. "Land of Enchantment" indeed.

We still haven't made a NM plan yet, but I think we might turn north towards Santa Fe and Taos. I hope we can find some information on the National Forests in northern New Mexico.

Myron