Week 2: Utah to Texas

This will be brief. It’s been a long week.

Snow kept chasing us through Arizona and New Mexico. We thought we’d escape it once we were further south. Alas. The drive along Arizona state highway 89A, skirting the north side of the Grand Canyon, just to “highlight” one stretch, was treacherous. Highway and weather reports made it look clear but the winding, narrow, snow-covered highway proved them wrong. We knew it was going to be rough when the motorcycle in front of us slid a 360 and ended up facing the wrong way on the wrong side of the 2-lane road.

But we made it to Texas. All in one piece. Despite the new gray hairs I surely sprouted from the tough travel, there have been bright spots, too.

Somewhere in Arizona, above 5,000’

Highlights from the last week:

• Crossing the Colorado River at Marble Canyon, AZ. WOW.

• Indian Pueblo Kitchen in the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, Albuquerque, NM. The Indian taco with homemade fry bread and half-red, half-green chile sauce. YUM.

• Making it to Texas.

• Making it nearly across Texas to Dallas!

• Sunshine at Twin Coves Park Campground in Flower Mound, TX. Sunshine! Peaceful! Time with Adrian and Jodi! When we made it here, we felt like we had arrived.

Texaaaaaaasssssss!

Lessons learned:

• Propane doesn’t work well above 5,000’. So, if you have a propane heater, and you’re camped closer to 6,000’ its gonna be cold.

• State parks are the way to go for established camping. Spacious, uncrowded, less expensive, with open room to walk dogs, and dark night skies to look for stars. Our first experience with this was Homolovi State Park, AZ, which led us to stay at Santa Rosa State Park, Rocky Point Campground, NM next.

• Bringing 4 bikes when you only have a bike rack for 2 is ridiculous. The extra 2 ride on our bed, which means every evening when we stop, we have to take them out the tiny trailer door, and every morning before we leave they go back in. I should’ve brought more warm clothes and fewer bikes.

Twin Coves Campground, Flower Mound, TX. Sunny enough for an afternoon in the outdoor office.

Week stats:

GOOD THING | Fry bread and blue-corn fried pickles at Indian Pueblo Kitchen.

BAD THING | Snow, wind, and a lot of long miles

CRAZY THING | All the pokies across Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Poor dogs and their pokey-stabbed feet.

GRAND TOTAL | 1,872 miles (1,225 this week + 647 last week)

Twin Coves. Sunshine. Sunsets. Happy dogs.