While we climbed, the temperatures fell

Our campsite in Albuquerque

Today we did some major climbing. We left Tucson at elevation 2,400-feet and arrived in Albuquerque at 5,000-feet. Tomorrow we’ll arrive at 7,300-feet and then start down. The hills and grades were bad enough, but combined with a pretty stiff head and crosswind, the gas gauge got a workout.

When the road is flat and the air is calm, we average about 11-12 miles per gallon. But on days like today, we’re lucky to average 7-8 miles per gallon. As it was we averaged a little over 8 miles per gallon and made three gas stops between Tucson and here.

The scenery, as it has been most of this trip, was always changing and usually spectacular. New Mexico is a beautiful, if empty, state. We drove for miles on end without seeing a house or any sign of human life off the freeway. It’s at those moments that I pray we don’t break down.

Campground office

It was headed into the 90s when we left Tucson, but as we climbed higher and moved east the temperatures dropped into the high 60s and low 70s through New Mexico.

As we crossed the New Mexico border we lost an hour, which put us in later than I had planned to the KOA along I-40 just east of Albuquerque. We thought about contacting our friends who we visited previously, but because of the short notice and late hour decided it would not be in good taste.

Besides, we are not unhooking from the trailer so we can make an early escape tomorrow.

Tonight we are roughing it – no cable television in the park. Obviously, we do have Internet and I hooked up the small television to the exterior television antenna so we are getting a few local network stations.

The park is packed and although our trailer is pretty long, we once again look like the 5-foot-7 guard on a basketball team full of 6-footers. Some of these rigs are huge, like Greyhound bus huge.

After setting up, Joan cooked up everything left in the refrigerator and now that is pretty well cleaned out. Hot dogs, hamburgers, deli cole slaw and potato salad from Tucson made up our dinner tonight.

Tomorrow we have about a 3-4 hour run to Amarillo where we will drop the trailer and then head on to Oklahoma City for the night.

Mileage out: 80514
Time out: 8:11 a.m. (Pacific time)

Mileage in: 80961
Time in: 5:30 p.m. (Mountain time)