Stop Thirty

The wind that almost blew us off the site in Albuquerque followed us across I-40 as we headed to the Blaze-in-Saddle RV Park in Tucumcari, New Mexico for an overnight stay. I mean serious wind, where I did more steering left and right just to go straight, and I have the power steering dialed up to full strength. As the name implies, if you are traveling with your horse, they have three stalls where you can put them. All we wanted from this campground was a night off the road to break up the drive to Sayre, and that’s all we got. A dirt parking lot! Ratings: Kathryn 3, Paul 3, out of 10.

It feels like the GOAT Tour (Greatest Of All Time) has unfolded in waves. When we left June 14th, the first wave was the discoveries as we travelled up the East Coast. The second wave was visiting with family and friends in New Jersey and Pennsylvania during June and early July. The third wave was just sort of get across the country to the plans in South Dakota starting in late July. The fourth wave was the vacation/trip I’ve been dreaming about for a long time. From then to our last stop in Albuquerque has been nothing short of amazing! When I add a new entry to the Post Cards 2021 Page, I get to see the whole trip all over again. Thank goodness! How quickly you can forget. It does start to run together after four months on the road.

Albuquerque feels like it was the the peak of the trip and now we are in the final wave, “just get back to Florida.” Perhaps because we only have one and two night stays booked from here and not longer stays with lots of things to see and do at each stop? Before we left, my list of what I was looking forward to seeing and doing was very long. But Kathryn only had two things on her list. She wanted to see Mount Rushmore and visit The Silos in Waco, Texas of Fixer Upper fame. (like Chip and Joanna are going to be there to say hello) Her second wish is coming up in a few days. I hope it is not a disappointment.

When you were a kid in school, you always had to do a report “what I did on my summer vacation.” As we round this corner of a little more than 5,261 miles so far, indulge me if I take a moment to reflect on just what an amazing trip this has been so far, in no particular priority order:

Visited the National Parks – The Badlands, The Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, The Grand Tetons, Devils Tower, Arches, Moab and Zion. Also visited The Crazy Horse Memorial, Sedona, The Moulton Barn, The Hoover Dam, The London Bridge, The Eiffel Tower, Old Faithful and The Dignity Statue. Drove the Needles Highway. Went horseback riding in Montana. Hiked in Wyoming, Montana, Utah and Arizona discovering my new #1 favorite hike, The Cascade Canyon Trail. Discovered what is a petroglyph. Saw Pueblo ruins and cliff dwellings. Rode in an Amish Buggy, a gondola in Venice, drove a mini excavator, flew five blocks from eleven stories high on a zip line, stood on the corner in Winslow Arizona. And as if all that wasn’t exciting enough, flew on a small fixed wing plane over the Grand Canyon and over Albuquerque in a hot air balloon with more than 500 hundred other balloons.

On to Sayre, Oklahoma and the final wave!