Arizona, Mesa - Sunday, November 1, 2015 - Gallop, NM to Mesa, AZ

Pulling into Val Vista Villages RV Resort early this afternoon.  It is 84 degrees here.  When we left Gallup, NM this morning it was 21 degrees with a wind chill to 13.  We were ready to get out of there by 7:00 a.m., a whole lot earlier than our usual time!!

 

 

This is our home for the winter.  Our address will be 233 N. Val Vista Drive, #796, Mesa, AZ 85213.  We are in a different site than we were last year.  This one was a breeze to get into, last year was a real fight.  We didn’t have a patio last year, this year we have a double one which will allow us room to park the motorcycle instead of leaving it sitting on the sidewalk out front.  Our times are going to be off kilter from the kids again – three hours difference from our daughters and two hours difference from our sons.  I think our tree is an orange tree.

Before we left Gallup completely we waited in line at the Blue Beacon to get the motor coach washed.  The dust we picked up in Kansas became splotchy dusty yuck when we came through some rain showers – we were a mess.

I read yesterday that this part of New Mexico has at least 100 trains per day going through. 

We left Gallup on Hwy 40, this is just one of the many different mountain formations we came across on this trip.

Mountains entering Arizona look completely different.

A little touch of color.  Not sure what kind of tree the yellow one is, they really stand out.

As we enter Arizona there is a whole lot of open land, every once in a while we would see a cow or two.

As we neared the Petrified Forest area we saw yet another type of mountain formation.  These are smaller versions of what you would see in the Petrified Forest.

I don’t know the name of this mountain in the distance, but the snow on top was pretty impressive.  This is as close to snow as I want to come J. 

We took Hwy. 40 into Winslow, AZ where we picked up Hwy. 87.

I closed my eyes after I took this picture.  I don’t care if it said the height was over 14 feet, it didn’t look like we would fit.

Not a lot happening on Hwy 87.  It did occur to me that if you had a problem, there was nowhere to pull off.

We are entering Coconino National Forest.  I was expecting trees in a forest.

Found the trees and lots of sharp curves!!

 

 

More curves….

I tried to not look over the edge when there wasn’t a guardrail.  It did occur to me that a little guardrail probably wouldn’t stop a motor coach bent on going over the edge.

Not only were there lots of sharp curves, there were lots of steep downgrades.

 

Even though it was a little tense at times, the mountain views were awesome.

 

 

 

This is really something you don’t want to see when you are driving in challenging situations.  You know this person doesn’t have experience driving this vehicle and has no idea how it might react, plus they are towing another vehicle.  I was glad we didn’t have to follow them for long.

 

 

We knew we were starting to get close to our destination when we started seeing the cactus.

I’m told that the Saguaro cactus doesn’t start to grow “branches” until it is at least 50 years old.  These are some beautiful specimens.

A couple more shots of the different mountain formations before we got into Mesa.

 

 

 

 

New Mexico, Gallup - Saturday, October 31, 2015 - Tucumcari to Gallup, NM

Our trip through New Mexico on I-40 was filled with all kinds of mountain and mesa views.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although this looks like a pile of asphalt sitting along the interstate it is actually lava rock in the 3000 year old El Malpais (badlands) lava fields near Grant, NM.

 

 

 

We had to make a pit stop in Albuquerque because our “check engine” light came on several times as we were going up and down the mountains.  This happened last year so we knew where to stop.  For some reason the crankcase filter is getting plugged.  We need to find out why, but for right now the new filter will get us going.  We were able to get the filter at the Freightliner Service facility but they couldn’t get it installed until Tuesday.  They pointed us to a repair shop that was just one exit back.  Normally Greg would replace a filter but to replace this one you have to get into the engine compartment and crawl over the engine to reach it – it takes a skinny guy, luckily one was working today at the repair shop.  I should have taken a picture of the engine compartment.  The first guy that came out to look at it just said, “really?” and called over someone smaller.

 

 

Although they are few and far between there are a few touches of color out here.

We passed over the Continental Divide at exit 47.  I was busy taking this picture and missed the sign that gave the elevation, I think it was 7,263 ft.  I didn’t realize what the Continental Divide is until I looked it up.  Basically it is where the flow of rainfall divides.  To the west of the Divide the rain drains through watersheds to the Pacific Ocean and to the east it drains through a river system to the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.  It tends to follow a line of the high peaks along the main ranges of the Rocky Mountains.

We were pleased when we filled up with diesel out here - $2.32 is much cheaper than the $4.00 plus we were paying per gallon last year.  I tried to snap a picture of this sign showing $1.99 per gallon for regular gas if you paid cash.  It was flashing back and forth between the credit and cash number and all I could ever get was the credit number, which is still pretty good.

 

 

We are staying this evening at USA RV Park in Gallup, NM.  This is in the mountains of upper New Mexico.  When Greg looked at the expected low for this evening he found that it is expected to get into the low 20’s.  Definitely not staying here for more than one night!!!