April 26 and 27 – Airplanes, Petroglyphs and Meteor Crater

We thought Kansas was windy? It’s a mild, gentle breeze compared to New Mexico yesterday. We pulled into Liberal, Kansas at dusk the 25th to spend a free night in the Mid America Air Museum lot. It was too late to tour the museum so spent a non-windy night and got this great shot of one of the museum jets at sunset.

This museum is well worth the visit and we learned a lot about aviation in Kansas and all the people like Cessna and Lear who started there.

The distance from KS to OK to TX is tiny in that corner of the states. We only spent 55 miles in OK and 90 miles in TX travelling down Route 54 which runs arrow straight forever.

OK was getting windy, TX was getting a big hard to handle and by the time we hit Tucumcari, NM it was downright frightening. Winds were sustained between 30 and 40 miles per hour with gusts 60-70. Even the 18 wheelers weren’t tracking too smooth. We found shelter at an excellent NM state park at Santa Rosa.

There is a dam and lake at the park. It’s pretty obvious how little rain NM is getting as you can see the water level on dam pillar.

Here’s the Chalet buttoned up against the wind. We closed one slider totally and one partially until the wind finally dropped. Met up with a couple from Florida travelling in a BT Cruiser who want a truck camper. Gave them information on the fall TC rally in Florida and hope they show up.

The Chalet is handling all we’ve been throwing at it so far. The wind has dropped out mileage from 11.2 to 9.9. Ouch!

April 27 –

Calm!!! The morning didn’t have howling wind, the sky had cleared from all the wind blown sand and we were ready to hit a calmer road.

We easterners aren’t exactly used to driving 75 mph which is the posted speed. The roads are so straight and visibility so good we didn’t worry about driving 60-62 and getting passed. In our larger eastern cities we would get “gestures”. Out here most people waved with all their fingers and smiled.

As you travel along, you are out paced by long train loads. The trains carry many hundred trailers usually seen behind a tractor. Keeps a lot of traffic off the roads and lots less energy. What a shame trains aren’t used like they used to be.

Our goal for the day was the Petroglyph National Monument, Rinconada Canyon in Albuquerque. We spent several hours walking back into the canyon looking at some of the 3500 glyphs. Unfortunately the photos didn’t come out but the rock art was fascinating.

Rest of the day was booking it along I-40 to Winslow, AZ to a commercial campground. Long day on the road but we had decided not to go up into Chaco Canyon this time. It is time to catch up on laundry, cleaning the camper inside and all the paper work life entails. Tomorrow is Meteor Crater, Sedona and the Red Rock Trail loop.