It Snowed and It is Snowing

Thursday, December 27, 2018

We knew it was coming we just thought we would get far enough South to miss it. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, when I published this morning, we got up to very wet snow. Not even good snowman making snow just really wet watery snow; the type that when the temperature drops turns to thick ice.

We began checking the New Mexico Road Condition's site but could not come up with anything concrete about our planned route.  So a little after 8:00 we decided to take off, keep checking, and decide how far we would go once we were on the road and saw how it was.

Driving through Tucumcari, NM this morning.

We have stayed in Tucumcari before but I do not remember
 seeing an airplane parked in front of a motel.

This is the RV Park we stayed at in the past. No frills  and you needed to be
self contained. It was the Cactus RV Park.. 

When we decided to follow the same route as last year I went online to check for some Passport America Parks and noticed the Cactus RV Park was missing. So I googled the park and found out that after 40 years the owners had decided to sell and retire. The sign was sold to an Albuquerque collector and was removed in October. The article talked about how the historical neon signs along Route 66 are disappearing and this is the second one this year in Tucumcari to be sold. The Motel that surrounded the RV Park opened in the 1930's and had closed in the 1990's  when the Patels converted the grounds into the RV Park.  The article mentioned that the motel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The property, it said, was being purchased by the O'Rielly Auto Parts chain.

As we merged onto I-40 it did not look that bad but the farther west we went
the more snow we saw. and there was some ice on the road.

I was still searching trying to find out the road conditions on the route we planned to take. I finally clicked on the right link and found out there were a couple of spots along the way that were snow covered and icy, though, it said the roads were being salted. We have taken this particular route twice before to connect to I-25 and avoid Albuquerque. We turn onto US-25 at Santa Rosa and at Vaughn we connect to US-60 which takes us to I-25. It is a two lane highway and, as we recalled, there a several good size hills to go up and down. So with any snow or ice on the roadway this was not a good option in our opinion.

We talked about staying on I-40 into Albuquerque where we could turn south onto I-25. Then we discussed the what "ifs". Having looked ahead at the weather we knew the storm warning extended down at least as far as Truth or Consequences what if the road conditions ahead were less then favorable how far would we get. What if we drove into snow would we be able to find a place to stay. I voted we stop and since Tom knew I was not happy with moving on he agreed. I am not sure he was totally on board with the decision at that moment but it changed once we got to the RV park. When he went in to register he asked the owner if he had heard anything about the road conditions. He said, he had heard there was at least one bad area on US-54 and that Belen had gotten quite a bit of snow. Belen is just off of I-25 and we would have been driving through there. So in the end the decision to be safe and not sorry we both agreed was the right one.

We are presently parked at the Santa Rosa Campground in Santa Rosa, NM and we will stay here until the roadways are clear. In the meantime, if our food runs out, there is a Restaurant here at the park called Western Bar-B-Q.

Our view out the front window when we parked this morning.
I feel like I just channeled Lorne, who writes a blog called, A Place Called "Away"

Maybe the roads would have been just fine by the time we got to any trouble spots being reported this morning. In the end it  was a "maybe" we decided not to check out,  If we were just driving the Jeep I know we would have kept going. We have driven through white out conditions more than once plowing through deep snow on I-75 in Michigan on our way to see our kids and grandkids but driving a large Motorhome in bad conditions is a whole different "ball game".  So feeling good about the decision we are not going to second guess it.

It is snowing.

So that was our day not what we planned but as we all know plans change 

and you need to learn to accept that if you want to enjoy the journey. 

Hope your day was a good one.

Friday, December 28, 2018

I just finished yesterday's post this morning. 

A Reflection on winter's past: We both spent 60+ winters in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We remember all the mornings we woke up to snow and sat by the radio anxiously waiting to hear those wonderful words...school is cancelled. In no time we were dressed and out the door playing in the snow and if we were lucky there where drifts to jump through then if the sun melted the snow just enough there were snowmen to be made. On really lucky days one of our parents would bring us down to Ludington Park so we could sled down the hill. Enjoying the fun of the fresh snow blowing up in our faces as we felt like we were flying down the hill. In those days Tom, has told me he was one of the enterprising ones and would go around the neighborhood shoveling sidewalks to make a little extra money. We were young and it was a beautiful day.

Then when we had our children I still remember waking up and being excited if the radio announcer said school is cancelled. Though on most days for our kids it was not always because there were large drifts of snow it was a combination snow and ice that kept them home. I loved those days, staying in our Pj's snuggled in our bed watching movies with them. Some days it was good snowmen building snow so outside they went to do just that. 

I remember so many days looking out the windows at the world covered in snow so white and sparkling in the sunlight. I remember the ice clinging to the trees looking like crystal with the sun shining through. I remember taking walks at night with big fluffy flakes coming down twinkling in the street lights. It was a beautiful world to live in.

As the years went by I still loved the snow but enough is enough. I love all the memories and Tom agrees. We want the snow to be a memory, we want to think back and remember, we want to enjoy pictures of snowy scenes. We do not want to be in it.

This morning and it is still lightly snowing.

Thanks for listening...:)!