Freeloading across 3 states

When we last left the story we were leaving Arizona or trying to.  We traveled down 101loop to I10, taking I17 to skirt Phoenix as much as we could.  We took off on US60 to the east of Phoenix and up into the hills.  We were trying to avoid the 100+ degree heat we had in Sun City West.  Our departure day was very cool and temperate.  The plan was to make it just past Safford AZ and stay at the Hackle/Haekel/Haeckel BLM site.  On the way, we passed through some very interesting roads, terrain and numerous mines.  We ended up here for the night:

It was windy, cool, rain burst, big ants, spiders with reflective eyes, no one else and AT&T had 3 bars of LTE!  Who could ask for more?

Back to the road, hoping for Alamogordo, NM.  Yes, a new state!

We did make it to Alamogordo that night but the time changes really are messing with us.  Here are two perspectives of our spot at WalMart:

Can’t stay still right now, we still have mileage to cover.  Leaving Alamogordo we are heading for yet another state, Texas!  We were able to head into the hills outside of Alamogordo where you have a climb from 4000 feet to 8500 in 16 miles.  Truck did great.  The downslope into eastern New Mexico was nice and gradual but extremely windy.  Shortly outside of Hobbs, NM, here it was:

A few more hours of Texas driving to our destination for the night, Lamesa TX.  The city has a spot for visitors in RVs that have electric and water and a dump station.  No charge for the first 4 nights!  Score!

 

Later that evening there was another rig that pulled up which makes Roxie feel safer.  We talked to them the next AM and made some new friends of Bruce and Lori.  We mentioned our trip next summer to Alaska so maybe we planted a seed there.  We would love to have about 5 rigs going up together.  With ANOTHER time change and our driving schedule, we didn’t get out until around 11:30!  That’s OK.  We made it to Brady TX around 5 pm and found another city park with RV spots.  This one was $20/night however.

Tomorrow is Austin.  We don’t know where we are going to stay, however.  Time to figure that out.

Over 10 nights of camping we have averaged $10.91/night.