VE1BC Spud Roscoe

Friday, December 17th, 2010

Mitchell and Natasha gave us each a fantastic gift for this trip. This was the perfect gift for the trip. Natasha gave Joan a copy of the book “No Place Like Home” by Mary Higgins Clark read by Jan Maxwell. Mitch gave me a copy of “The Appeal” by John Grisham read by Michael Beck. Each book was on CD's that we played in the truck's stereo system. They were very interesting and we enjoyed them very much. We had to turn them off in heavy traffic around the cities but out on the open road it certainly made the trip more enjoyable.

There is little on the radio to listen to. A lot of religion here in the south. Lordsburg, New Mexico, has a large sign stating Jesus Christ is welcome in Lordsburg. We met an 18-wheeler today that had “Praise the Lord” in large white letters across his grill. I did not see his mud flaps but he may have a set like we saw the other day.

We were up at 0630 and the sun arrived at 0720. It was another beautiful day but I do believe we are dragging poor weather with us. Something like the little guy in Al Capp's comic strips. The one with the black cloud always over his head. I could not spell the name if I could remember it, but it rained yesterday and was cool in Arizona.

We went from Hacienda across the street to Sunland RV, a sales and service outlet. A great bunch highly recommended by Spud and Joan. We bought our water filter and had them install a new water inlet panel on the trailer.

This trailer has two bad faults that were on the drawing board before it was built. The steps and entryway are a pure pain in the butt. The steps should be back where the furnace is located with the steps inside the trailer. The other fault is the location of the fresh water inlet. It is above the hatch with the sewer hose and from lifting the hatch with the water connected, the water hose connection became defective. This is what was changed today. From now on the water will have to be disconnected before the sewer tanks are emptied.

We had a great time at Sunland RV Sales and Service. They were all trailer people and were fascinated with this trailer. They kept calling it a horse trailer so what the hell, it is a horse trailer. They put it that way on the paper work because they service a lot of horse trailers. Hell why not. It gets tiresome after awhile.

They all wanted to know the history of the company that built it and why it was built. They even guessed the cost of building it correctly and I told them if they wanted one built to contact them. They would love to build them one and are on the internet. They all agreed it was one well built machine.

We said goodbyes to our new friends at Sunland and got on the road at 1036. We pulled into a Rest Area 48 miles down the road at 1117 and departed at 1138. We had our final winter destination in Arizona programmed into the GPS and drove along at 60 MPH unless the posted speed limit was lower than that. There was a bit of cloud cover but that cleared off as the day wore on. The sun was hot but the temperature did not go to 60F. It was 51F when we departed Las Cruces and was 57F when we shut down at San Carlos, Arizona, at 1610 or 4:10 PM MST for those who have trouble with my naval time. The temperature hovered mainly around 54F all day according to the thermometer in the truck. That thermometer seems to be fairly accurate with whatever else we have run into providing the temperature.

We departed Las Cruces on I-20 and took the I-20 to Lordsburg, New Mexico. There the GPS sent us off on State highway 70 a two lane paved trail. We were still on State highway 70 when we shut down for the day at San Carlos, Arizona. We made a stop at Duncan, Arizona, for fuel at 1410 or 2:10PM MST. A neat little country store where everyone caught up on the village news as they made their purchase.

The Apache Gold Chevron RV Park with the Casino next door was in San Carlos. There were a lot of native Apache around. Like most native people they were a great bunch to talk to. The RV Park was a large one and all paved with each site in a painted line with lots of room. We were in site 21. The parking lot was a lot like the one at Cosco or Wal-Mart in Bayers Lake, Nova Scotia. It appears to be well designed and well built. They told us if we had any problem to come to the office and they would have their maintenance people take care of it. The only problem we had is that we could not get the internet to work but did not bother to inform them.


The 2011 Trip
*Part 18* Las Cruces, New Mexico, San Carlos, Arizona
Friday, December 17th, 2010 Mitchell and Natasha gave us each a fantastic gift for this trip. This was the perfect gift for the trip. Natasha gave Joan a copy of the book “No Place Like Home” by Mary Higgins Clark read by Jan Maxwell. Mitch gave me a copy of “The Appeal” by John Grisham read by Michael Beck. Each book was on CD's that we played in the truck's stereo system. They were very interesting and we enjoyed them very much. We had to turn them off in heavy traffic around the cities but out on the open road it certainly made the trip more enjoyable. There is little on the radio to listen to. A lot of religion here in the south. Lordsburg, New Mexico, has a large sign stating Jesus Christ is welcome in Lordsburg. We met an 18-wheeler today that had “Praise the Lord” in large white letters across his grill. I did not see his mud flaps but he may have a set like we saw the other day. We were up at 0630 and the sun arrived at 0720. It was another beautiful day but I do believe we are dragging poor weather with us. Something like the little guy in Al Capp's comic strips. The one with the black cloud always over his head. I could not spell the name if I could remember it, but it rained yesterday and was cool in Arizona. We went from Hacienda across the street to Sunland RV, a sales and service outlet. A great bunch highly recommended by Spud and Joan. We bought our water filter and had them install a new water inlet panel on the trailer. This trailer has two bad faults that were on the drawing board before it was built. The steps and entryway are a pure pain in the butt. The steps should be back where the furnace is located with the steps inside the trailer. The other fault is the location of the fresh water inlet. It is above the hatch with the sewer hose and from lifting the hatch with the water connected, the water hose connection became defective. This is what was changed today. From now on the water will have to be disconnected before the sewer tanks are emptied. We had a great time at Sunland RV Sales and Service. They were all trailer people and were fascinated with this trailer. They kept calling it a horse trailer so what the hell, it is a horse trailer. They put it that way on the paper work because they service a lot of horse trailers. Hell why not. It gets tiresome after awhile. They all wanted to know the history of the company that built it and why it was built. They even guessed the cost of building it correctly and I told them if they wanted one built to contact them. They would love to build them one and are on the internet. They all agreed it was one well built machine. We said goodbyes to our new friends at Sunland and got on the road at 1036. We pulled into a Rest Area 48 miles down the road at 1117 and departed at 1138. We had our final winter destination in Arizona programmed into the GPS and drove along at 60 MPH unless the posted speed limit was lower than that. There was a bit of cloud cover but that cleared off as the day wore on. The sun was hot but the temperature did not go to 60F. It was 51F when we departed Las Cruces and was 57F when we shut down at San Carlos, Arizona, at 1610 or 4:10 PM MST for those who have trouble with my naval time. The temperature hovered mainly around 54F all day according to the thermometer in the truck. That thermometer seems to be fairly accurate with whatever else we have run into providing the temperature. We departed Las Cruces on I-20 and took the I-20 to Lordsburg, New Mexico. There the GPS sent us off on State highway 70 a two lane paved trail. We were still on State highway 70 when we shut down for the day at San Carlos, Arizona. We made a stop at Duncan, Arizona, for fuel at 1410 or 2:10PM MST. A neat little country store where everyone caught up on the village news as they made their purchase. The Apache Gold Chevron RV Park with the Casino next door was in San Carlos. There were a lot of native Apache around. Like most native people they were a great bunch to talk to. The RV Park was a large one and all paved with each site in a painted line with lots of room. We were in site 21. The parking lot was a lot like the one at Cosco or Wal-Mart in Bayers Lake, Nova Scotia. It appears to be well designed and well built. They told us if we had any problem to come to the office and they would have their maintenance people take care of it. The only problem we had is that we could not get the internet to work but did not bother to inform them.

	Shortly after we left Las Cruces we ran into a Border Patrol Road Block complete with dogs. The usual interview and I asked them if they wanted a tour of the trailer and they simply said no and to enjoy our stay. Later we passed a compouned of their vehicles and there must have been two hundred or more of their vehicles in the compound. Most are Chevrolet Blazers. All are white with a green stripe and Border Patrol in Green. And of course they were looking for wet backs, illegal Mexican aliens. Bob was telling us that they are the only ones who will do the domestic type work in the United States today. The black folk and the poor white folk earn too much in welfare. A crazy world this and the reason the farmers in Canada hire the West Indian help.

	We kept running into signs warning of dust storms and the likelihood of zero visibility. These signs were bright yellow; first the warning stating the probable mileage up ahead, then to use extreme caution and this was usually the last one, warning zero visibility. Joan managed a photo of a small dust storm that behaved itself and did not come over on the highway.

	Joan was fascinated with these cactus that grow everywhere. We stopped on highway 70 and I took this one at the end of the trailer.

	An awful lot of the dirt alongside highway 70 looked like gypsum to me and I know there is a lot of gypsum everywhere from sailing with Gypsum Transportation Limited, Hamilton, Bermuda. Those white cliffs alongside highway 101 at St. Croix, Nova Scotia, is gypsum. Going through the daily take of photographs today I noted that Joan did not get a photo of this but here are a couple of rather nice ones taken along highway 70.

This was our day with a total run of 432 kilometres. We should be at our winter destination tomorrow and unfortunately these long runs will terminate until we leave around the end of April. We hope to come up with something worth recording on here in the meantime. There is at least one error in this exercise. In part two the mileage from Glenholme, Nova Scotia, to Lewiston, Maine is 841 kilometers. The error is in part eleven where I state the mileage of 717 kilometers from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to Bernice, Louisiania, was our longest distance in one day. The Glenholme to Lewiston is the longest for one day during the whole trip.

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