And were off . . .

(So excited!  Limitless data and can use my phone as a hotspot!  I can blog to my heart's content!)

Getting the monster out of storage.  I've missed our "baby".
Haven't used it since Thanksgiving.

Pulled out of the neighborhood at 8:53 a.m. today.  There was a community garage sale going on so it was tricky squeezing between all the vehicles parked on the sides of the roads.  We seem to always miss the garage sale which is fine because I can't stand garage sales.  What we should have done is put all the junk we don't want at the end of the driveway and just put a FREE sign on everything.

It's been a pretty uneventful day which, of

We loathe this part of the process.  Loading everything.
Otis is making sure we have his toys and food.

course, is good when you are traveling long distances.  We did 377 miles and landed here in Lubbock around 4 pm.  The wind is howling and there is dust everywhere.  I looked on the drought map and I think we are in the area with extreme drought.  The fields are all bare and the dust is incredible.  Saw a number of dust devils swirling out on the horizon.  They make good use of the wind power in this area though.  Hundreds of wind turbines as far as you can see.

We are staying at a KOA and it just happens to be the one mom and the girls and I stayed at when we moved down here from Alaska almost 10 years ago.  Nothings changed - lol!  The KOAs are pretty much all the same but that is kind of nice - you know what to expect.  Some other RV spots KOAs always have a little store and I'm glad because I forgot to pack a toothbrush so I bought one here.  I told Jade I was going to use hers and she freaked (you'd have to know Jade to understand!)

Dust devils over the barren fields.  You can just about
see the wind turbines through the fog of dust. 

are not all they are advertised to be.  They say they can accommodate this monster RV and then we end up trying to navigate through tight corners and low hanging branches.  Not pretty.  Jeff's road rage (RV park rage?) comes out when that happens. 

Tomorrow we are headed into Santa Fe, NM.  We didn't get to go there first time we drove up to Alaska 5 years ago.  We had to detour because there was a fire near by so ended up going through Albuquerque.  This year is going to be a challenge with all the fires in Colorado and Utah.  We are supposed to go through Cortez, NM and stay at Mesa Verde National Park which is near Durango, Co and there is a huge fire just north of there in the San Juan Forest.  I looked at the fire map and I think it will be a zigzag trip up to Spokane.

Well, "it's 5 o'clock somewhere" and HERE so it's time for a beverage.  Got to wash away the dust in my throat.  We're supposed to have thunderstorms here tonight which would be awesome.  They desperately need rain and I desperately need a a Bud Light.  Cheers!