Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Notions

Las Cruces KOA —
  A Hilltop RV Park

We arrived at our campground today without incident. We drove straight through the planned route and stopped only once in Alamogordo to take on fuel.

We were pleasantly surprised that our campground RV park is elevated above the southwest end of the city of Las Cruces – actually a pretty big town in this region of New Mexico. In the image above, you can see our rig parked with the mountain ranges in the distance and the urban sprawl below.

Later this evening, Damsel and I took a walk down to the front of the park where there is an overlook of the area. I used my S23 Galaxy phone to photograph the city lights:

In the above image, you can dimly see the mountain range beyond the city we crossed coming here today. We also crossed the Rio Grande River, which flows through the area on its way to the Big Bend and thence to the Gulf of Mexico, where we were just a few days ago.

Click on either image to open the image viewer.

17 Apr 2024 by Notions Retirement Travel Wanderlust

Camping Carlsbad

We’re camped in Carlsbad, NM this evening, not to see the Caverns, but to just camp overnight. We wanted to make it to Artesia, which is another 20 minutes north of here, but the local RV campgrounds were (a) unavailable and (b) shabby, so we stopped at a nice, clean KOA on the north side of the Carlsbad area.

Tomorrow, we will continue to the west, eventually arriving at Las Cruces, NM for a couple of nights. We need to have a rest from the road, get a good shower, shave, etc. and plan the next phase of our return to the Arizona mansion.

16 Apr 2024 by Notions Travel Wanderlust

Camping — Junction, TX

We’re camped in Junction, a little town just off of I-10. The town is located a hundred miles or so west of San Antonio. It’s a pleasant rural-ish RV park alongside the Llano River. We’re staying here for a couple of nights just to relax for the weekend. We have already had our dinner and are settled in watching TV and surfing on the internet.

The ride out of San Antonio was even more of a nightmare than the arrival last night. It took us a full hour to just get of the urban area and head west on I-10. Traffic was backed up horribly due to freeway and other construction. The departure was very annoying and tedious. I recommend staying out of San Antonio until they finish their road projects.

On Monday, we will continue west and probably stay another night in West Texas before heading back into New Mexico. We’re going to have to be home by late in the week to take care of some appointments, etc. there.

We thank the Lord that we have been safe thus far, and pray that He will continue to bless us.

13 Apr 2024 by Food & Dining Notions Retirement Wanderlust

San Antonio

Just a quickie to let you know that we’re in San Antonio at the Alamo KOA. The trip here from Port Lavaca KOA near the Gulf Coast was pretty good except for the last few miles on I-10 Westbound where there was massive road construction underway. All that was exacerbated by some heavy traffic, making for a tedious final approach to the off-ramp.

We’re here for tonight and will be continuing westbound where we’re booked in for a couple of nights in Junction, TX for some needed R&R.

When we leave in the morning from here, we will do a drive-by at the Alamo in the morning for a photo-op (perhaps).

12 Apr 2024 by Notions Retirement Wanderlust

Eclipse Day

What we anticipated to be a dismal forecast for the weather on Eclipse Day, turned out to be not so bad, especially during the totality phase. Clouds passed between us and the sun often, but then opened up for partial phase glimpses and during totality, most of the four minutes of darkness, we were able to see the corona and in the image below, a couple of prominences at two-thirty and five-thirty on the disc. The 5:30 prominence was huge.

I wasn’t very well-prepared to take photos given the woeful forecast, which affected my motivation, but I was able to attach the big 100-400mm telephoto lens and shoot bunches of photos hand-held (no tripod) and had a few fair results including the one above. Damsel had similar results and captured the “Diamond Ring” at the end of the totality show:

As I’m blogging this, we are getting some moderate to heavy thundershowers with lightning and thunder, but, Praise the Lord, no tornadoes. The precipitation knocked out the satellite TV a few times, but it is up and running now.

We’re here until Wednesday and then off to other parts of Texas south of us towards the Gulf of Mexico and thence via westerly routes heading back to Arizona over the next several days.

08 Apr 2024 by Astronomy Environment Notions Science Wanderlust

2024 Total Solar Eclipse

The (clickable) panel below shows the details of the eclipse as expected here in our RV campground located near Waco, TX. I cropped the image from a screenshot taken from the Time and Date website.

The right side of the panel shows our approximate location in the RV park (green area), The left side of the panel shows times for events associated with this eclipse. It also shows the expected weather of overcast with scattered thundershowers. That’s sub-optimal for eclipse viewing, of course, but we’re optimistic that we will see some of the spectacle, regardless.

At a minimum, the daylight will diminish to darkness if overcast, and I may be able to take a video the lunar shadow as it approaches our site at 1500 miles per hour. Likewise, four minutes later, I may be able to take a video of the shadow’s departure.

We just learned that there is a tornado watch for this area after the eclipse. We probably could use some prayerful help with that. Stay tuned.

07 Apr 2024 by Astronomy Environment Notions Science Technobabble

Sunset Clouds & Travel Preps

Damsel snapped this photo of an alto-cumulus cloud formation this evening. We were enjoying a bit of rest after a busy day (and busy week thus far) getting ready to roll in the motorhome for the Solar Eclipse in a couple of weeks.

We had to do quite a number of chores getting things organized and ready. The list includes shopping, preparing the RV holding tanks, stocking the fridge and pantry, washing the clothing, towels and sheets we keep in the RV and so forth.

I had one major item that needed attention; the latch on the door to the RV had been acting up and come to find out that it had a broken doodad inside of it which turned out to be a common failure for this type of RV door latch. I ordered a replacement latch which arrived today and installed it this afternoon. Suffice to say it was a little bit of a pain getting it done, but it is installed now and works fine.

We also did some food prep. We will be on the road on Easter Sunday and we pre-smoked our turkey breast dinner entrée today. It will be re-heated in the RV microwave on Easter.

We’re looking forward to the excursion and I’m sure all the preparation activities will have made the effort worth it in the end. We will report on our trip progress as we arrive at our various destinations.

20 Mar 2024 by Arizona Notions Wanderlust

Categories

Archives