Seymour, Texas

We are spending the night in the Northside RV Ranch in Seymour, TX. The campground is essentially closed because they are redoing the electric system, but the owner said we could stay for free with sewer and water if we didn't need electricity. Works for us! We are almost to the Oklahoma border. Drove through quite a bit of oil well country today. Starting to see more trees finally.

A Day of Rest

We woke up this morning to feel the motorhome rocking in the wind. Looking at the weather forecast for today, we would have to fight a 30 mph head wind all day. Tomorrow's forecast looked much better, so we decided to stay here today. I took a short walk across town this morning and we just hung out here in the motorhome this afternoon. We had a good wifi signal from the RV park, so we used it to some updates on the phone, the ipad, and the sewing machine (yes, it has software updates too!). Tomorrow we should be back on the road again!

Van Horn, Texas

Another easy day today. Lost 2 hours due to time zone changes. We are stopped at the Wild West RV Park in Van Horn, Texas. Part of our drive today took us past the border in El Paso. Due to Covid-19, the interstates through the cities aren't busy so no slow downs there. Way more trucks than cars on the road and almost no RVs so far. No problem fueling at truck stops and so far no problem finding open RV parks. Grabbed some take out food at a truck stop for lunch today and otherwise just eating in the Motorhome.

Willcox, AZ

We left Quartzsite this morning about 11:00. Had a trouble free day and stopped for the night at the Sagebrush RV park in Willcox, AZ. Mostly desert scenery all day with a boulder covered area shortly before we stopped for the night.

Harquahala Mountain

Friday's Jeep trek was to the top of Harquahala Mountain. On the way, we enjoyed the desert in bloom again.

On the way to the base of the mountain, we stopped at an abandoned mine. I am not sure what was mined here. It was a large pit mine with some tunnels blasted into one side of it. It was interesting to wander through the tunnels.

 
Flowers at the mine.

More flowers at the mine.

Looking down into the mine, with the tunnels in the base of the far wall.

It was a short drive to the entrance to Harquahala Mountain. More flowers and cactus along the way. This one seemed to be watching us drive by.

We stopped here at the entrance to the mountain road for lunch.

From here it was a 10 mile Jeep trail up the mountain with an elevation gain of about 3300 ft.

At the top of the mountain is an abandoned solar observatory from the 1920s and a communications system for the regional canal system powered by a large solar array. To learn more about the history of the observatory at the top of this mountain, click here. 
This is a survey marker in a rock at the top of he mountain.

The communication system and solar array.

The abandoned observatory building.

More flowers at the top.

Part of the trail looking down from the top.

When we went to leave, we found out that our Jeep battery was dead. We jumped it off of one of the other Jeeps and made it home ok. New battery should be here on Tuesday. On the way back down, this gila monster crossed the road in front of the group.

Can you spot him in this picture?