Sept 22nd to 25th - TX, NM, AZ

Sept 22nd – Wed – Amarillo
We went to the Tri-State Fair this morning. We saw an ad that said admission was free before 1:00 so we went about 11. We expected a much larger fair and were very disappointed. There was one commercial exhibit building with half the vendors not there yet and the midway and most of the food booths didn’t open until 4. We left before noon and found a Dennys for breakfast. Even that was not a great choice as it took forever to get our food and it was just OK.
Back at the park, I took a bag of books and stocked up at the large book exchange. Then we just hung around, watched TV and watched as it started to rain.

Sept 23rd – Thurs – Amarillo
It was still raining this morning so after a late breakfast we decided it was a good day to scan some photos into our computer. We got about 350 pictures scanned, named according to their date and moved to separate folders. By this time the rain had stopped so we went just down the road to an attraction called the Cadillac Ranch. It is 10 Cadillacs all buried at the same angle halfway into the ground in a farmer’s field. We walked out on a dirt road that was still slightly muddy to take pictures of cars that were totally painted with graffiti – and with a lot of spray paint cans discarded on the ground. I figure they must get repainted regularly.
From there we went to a WalMart for a few groceries and then back to the rig.

Sept 24th – Fri – to Grants NM
We drove on a section of I40 that we have not been on before and still have not actually seen it – it was very foggy for nearly an hour. Judging by the scenery when the fog lifted, we didn’t miss much. We were only driving about 5 hours today so we stopped at the Sky City casino west of Albuquerque. Again, Terry went through his allowance and I was still playing. With my last $5 I finally started winning enough to give Terry some more money and we were there for hours before giving it all back.
Terry wanted to drive a while but we aren’t going to have a long day tomorrow and the sun was right in our eyes so I convinced him to stay at an inexpensive RV park in Grants, about 20 miles down I40. The drive-through sites are large and we did not have to unhook. We worried about traffic noise from the highway until the first train went by very close to the park.

Sept 25th – Sat – to Mesa AZ
We gained an hour yesterday so we were awake early and on the road by 8. Actually, we were awake half the night with trains going by every 15 minutes or so – and this is non-exaggerating Glenda speaking!!
We stopped at the Fire Rock casino just out of Gallup to have breakfast, get a new players’ card and try our luck again. We each got a T-shirt for signing up, I did OK on the slots and slowed the losses but there was no place there to have breakfast so we stopped at Dennys on the way back to the highway.
We left I40 at Holbrook and angled SW to Payson and then south on the Beeline Hwy to Mesa. The first part of the drive is on the Mogollon Plateau which is mostly very flat and empty. We climbed to 7600 feet and then descended the Mogollon Rim. At one point we dropped 1000 feet in 3 miles. Love, love, love the new Chevy and the exhaust brake! The scenery south of Payson is lovely and more mountainous than you would expect in the middle of Arizona.
We arrived at Val Vista Village about 2:30, having gained another hour as Arizona does not recognize daylight savings time. Even though the sites are quite large, Terry really had to call on his driving skills to wiggle back into our site as the roads are narrow and there are citrus trees just in the wrong spots. Our friends Bill & Laurie had called as we were driving and found out that we were arriving today rather than Monday as planned. So they showed up before we were set up, stayed to admire the new 5th wheel and took us back to their spot to show off their new motor home. They also made dinner for us so happy hour began early. We were joined by their friends (Larry & Julie) from Spokane who are staying here as well.
This area is having unusually hot weather. The forecast for the next week or so is above 100 so the pool will be our place of choice for a while.