Well…sorry for going dark for a few days. Has been interesting. Last report had us heading out of Oklahoma to New Mexico with wild fires all around us. In fact, while driving away from our last OK campground, our route took us directly towards a raging wild fire in ferocious winds. Both our phones sounded sirens with warning message that the town we were heading towards should immediately evacuate. Having vast experience with wild fire behaviors, we threw caution to the wind and headed to that town, knowing our route would turn away from it after passing through. Happy to say we’re here to continue our blogs. Our trip towards our next destination in Angel Fire New Mexico took us briefly through Texas, just to pick up another state during our trip. It was an exhausting trip with high winds making it difficult to keep between the lines. As we were leaving the plains of OK and Texas we began to see the snow capped mountains of New Mexico. Not knowing we had picked an RV park on top of those mountains, we began the winding climb up the mountain, ears popping along the climb reaching 8500 ft, with surrounding peaks to 13,000. Once we crested the pass, the view opened up to a huge plateau (prob 30-40 miles across) and lake, surrounded by those snow-capped peaks. We arrived at Angel Fire RV Resort….beautiful 110-site resort with 2 clubhouses, pickle ball, horseshoes, putting green, hot tub, and daily waffle breakfast. View in all directions were stunning including the Angel Fire ski slopes. Temps in 20’s each night but 50’s during the day. We were 1 of 5 campers in entire park. The town was about the same. We had been warned of the one bar/grill that was open by several people to not go to…including some local firemen we stopped to talk to….we did not throw caution to the wind this time and instead had local gas station heat us up some frozen pizza they had in their freezer case…actually quite good! After 3 days there, we headed for our next stop in Monument Valley Utah….a 9 hour drive…ugh! Along the way we stopped at ‘Four Corners’, where you could put your foot down and be in 4 different states at one time. (CO, UT, AZ, NM). The views along the way were gorgeous of the old west. Felt like we were in the middle of old western TV shows. Also looked like the road where Forrest Gump stopped his running. ‘Monuments’ began to appear as we entered Monument Valley including the ‘Mexican Hat’ with a town named after it….population maybe 26. Once again the winds began picking up as we approached our KOA campgound. We could see the red clouds of dust all around us. we checked into our campsite about 5:30…from there the winds became ferocious…thought we were back on Hatteras during a hurricane. We could barely see the next line of campsites across the road. Winds increased through the night with gusts 60-70 mph. A sleepless night as I wondered what it was doing to all the electrical components of our coach. Winds began to subside around 5 am….red dirt and dust covered everything. However, we could see the amazing scenery all around us…we were right in the middle of incredible landscapes. We were supposed to be there 3 days, but that first night made us both say we have to get the heck out of here. That’s when my nighttime thoughts took on reality. 1 of our hydraulic jacks would not retract, our hydraulic steps would not retract, and we could not open the front compartment to access the mechanics. We were able to get customer service of our RV maker on the phone who helped us override the faulting hydraulics to get us road worthy, as the RV park owner came to assist us. I pried the jack back up using a steel pole found behind their office, and now had to pull myself up the 3 ft high access to the RV door with no steps. So we limped down to Camp Verde AZ, near Sedona where we found am RV spot ahead of our scheduled arrival 3 days later. We just spent our morning with an RV repair tech who helped diagnose our faulty hydraulic issue…now waiting on a replacement part. So we’re here for 3 days, then moving to the RV park next door where our original reservations resume. While not planned, we realized we’re here for our 1 yr anniversary. So we’re driving our SUV into Scottsdale for 2 nights and having our anniversary dinner at the same seafood restaurant our wedding group ate at last year….Oceans 44. Should be a great celebration. We continue our journey on the 20th heading to Indio CA and the USA’s #1 rated RV resort. Our blog will continue from there.

Hope all of you are doing well Cheers!