New State...Tucumcari, NM and Dinosaurs

Yesterday morning we left the Elk City/Clinton KOA in a fog. I mean literally in a fog.

 

 

It had rained the night before and we woke up to a foggy morning drive. We had about 265 miles to cover to get to our next campground in New Mexico. A new state for us. The fog lifted and we had a nice drive out of Oklahoma into New Mexico.

 

The landscape began to change with more rolling hills that changed to more elevation as we got closer to Tucumcari, NM....our destination. We got an early start and with a change from Central to Mountain time we were able to get to the Tucumcari KOA around 1 pm.

We got set up on our site and headed into town to check out the Mesaland Dinosaur Museum in downtown Tucumcari. We had seen many signs for this museum and decided we would take a look.

Entrance

 

T Rex

Raptors are actually smaller than portrayed in the movie

Jurassic Park

 

We spent about an hour in the museum and then headed to a gas station for Diesel in preparation for our travel today to Elephant Butte RV Resort. (More on that in the next day or so)

 

The terrain has really changed a lot and we really put the truck to work with the steep grades. Some of which were 4-5% grades. Again the exhaust brake did it's job. I kept a close eye on the radiatior and transmission temps and all stayed good. It was a long trip today of about 300 miles.  Just after getting off the Interstate I found a gas station that had separate Diesel pumps with easy in and out for a 39 foot RV and truck. This is where we really worked the truck on the secondary roads. It was nice to see more scenery and less traveled roads however the grades were a little more steep and curvy. We did get into some road construction which extended our travel time but the landscape views were worth it.

 

Lava flow remnants at Valley of Fire

Elephant Butte Lake

We finally made it to the RV park and got set up. I wish we would have known more about the park since we were given a pull through site in the middle of a row of 5th wheels and motorhomes that are sandwiched in like sardines. The lower level we found out later is more open. Fortunately we'll only be here a couple of days. Photos will be forth coming in the next post. We also met a couple riding their bikes around the park that are Heartland owners and noticed my Heartland Owners Club plaque on the back of the rig. They told us a few other members just happened to be meeting there and invited us over this evening for a get together. There are 3 other couples and one of them is just starting full timing like us. We had a good time swapping stories.

The guys are playing golf in the morning and invited me to join. Golf in the morning and some bike riding with Glenda in the afternoon. Sounds like retirement. I like it. Sunday we leave for Tucson and Justin's Diamond J RV Park for a week until our reservation at Canyon Vistas in Gold Canyon, AZ. Another long pull of about 315 miles. I don't plan on doing these on a regular basis in the future.