DAY THREE, part one: Abilene, TX to Tatum, NM

DAY THREE, part one: Abilene, TX to Tatum, NM


The winds were whipping the RV like a bitch last night. Although unnerving to listen to, it didn’t seem to have any effect on our ability to fall and stay asleep. We were exhausted!! Everyone woke with our 6am alarm easily, though.

I decided to take a shower this morning. Let me preface this by saying that I consider myself to be a smart person. However, this is limited mostly to minutiae, babies, and eyeballs. But when it comes to mechanical or technical things, I am an idiot (and the ASVAB back in high school confirmed this). So I showered, alternately scalding myself and then soothing myself with frigid water. I don’t think I’ll blister. I’m pretty sure I did something wrong. : )

When we arrived late last night, no one was in the office. The rude man on the phone had even informed me of this when I asked him a question about availability. When I asked if I could give him our name and info to hold a spot, he repeated the sentiment loudly and rudely, punctuating every syllable: “I said I-AM-NOT-IN-THE-OF-FICE-MA’AM.” Like I know the layout of your park and what answers you may or may not know about your establishment, dude. He told me to park anywhere and check out in the morning. Well, office was locked in the morning with a drop-slot for cash payments. We don’t have that much cash on us. To use a colloquialism, “Karma’s a bitch, mother f*%&er.” (Ernie and Penny-If a bill shows up, we got it. But I doubt this Podunk place has any way to even know we were there).

With the sun up, the landscape around Abilene is beginning to look more Texas-y. We saw a bit of a mountain that was heavily peppered with large windmills for as far as the eye could see. In true Reagan fashion, he tells us “I wonder if that’s the Edwards Plateau. Its located in Texas and I-20 runs right past it. So does I-10.” That kid scares me. He did look it up in his Atlas, and this was not the Edwards Plateau. But we need to get this kid on “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” Or to the Prices house to provide Ken with more Texas trivia. For example, Sweetwater Texas is the wind power capital of the world.

We’ll be heading into New Mexico today to visit Roswell before stopping in Albuquerque for the night. I have to say, I am more anxious for tomorrow when we’ll visit the Petrified Forest and stop at the Grand Canyon for the night.

We started to see some glimpses of truly being in the southwest along state route 84 between Snyder and Post, Texas. I know we drove through the states when I was a little girl (4 years old) but I don’t remember what I saw. (In fact, Daddy, I only remember Grandma getting sick in Needles AZ). We pulled over and took some pictures. And the girls slept. We tried to wake them up, to no avail. It frustrates me that they aren’t wide-eyed drinking in every piece of this trip that they can, but I have to remind myself that we each will enjoy this in our own way. I liked the planning, John liked the prepping, Reagan, John and I are enjoying the journey, and the girls seem to enjoy the destination. Ava has enjoyed being in the RV and watching movies and eating snacks.

We were amazed by the sheer volume of cotton grown in the fields lining the roadway here. The trucks hauling the cotton leave a trail of “snow” in their wake that accumulates on the shoulders of the roads. Once, the fields looked wintry despite the temps in the 60’s. Further along and closer to the New Mexico border I saw tumbleweed. John even saw one blow across the road. I am determined to get a picture or video of that! We’ll see! (PS-an hour after I wrote that I got it!)