Sunday we got up before the sunshine to peel out. We were super stealth because we had not disconnected Henry from Nitro, so we were up and gone before anybody knew what even happened at 7:30. Sunrise wasn’t even until 7:45. 😏. Well, I did make some coffee in the percolator before we left, brought in Nitro’s’ slides, and then we were gone. But the problem with perc coffee and our really well insulated cups is that it takes HOURS for it to cool off enough to drink!🤷♀️. I usually let the pot cool a bit before pouring it, but not today. So I think we were in El Paso before Kenny drank any coffee.
Our first stop was a local truck stop in Ft Stockton at the interstate to fuel up, and Kenny wanted to buy a breakfast samich. They only had egg tacos. Desert Cowboy country, remember? He bought two and they were so messy to eat, he only ate one while sharing the falling ingredients on a bumpy interstate freeway all over his lap. He said he’s really out of practice with eating truck stop food and driving. HA! I had grabbed a yogurt and some granola out of Nitro. My advantage was having two hands for eating. 🤲🏼
This was the weirdest thing. This is just one example of many “triple trains” that we saw, with a lead vehicle towing a flat tow vehicle, then towing a car dolly. And none of the vehicles were in good condition. We figured there must have been a big auction somewhere. Kenny said “alright – which one runs, and we’ll make it the tow vehicle-hook the other two behind.” We saw a bunch of these – on the I-10! It doesn’t seem legal, but what do we know?
We had a total mileage journey of about 340 miles. Even though we left early, we were still fighting a westerly wind most of the drive. So that means it was either in our face or hitting us on the driver’s side, and Henry gets really crummy fuel economy in the wind. We generally travel at about 65 mph on the freeway – both for sensibility in towing a big behemoth, and for better fuel economy. Kenny said the wind adds up to 20 pounds of boost to the diesel engine, and with a 15mph wind, Henry thinks we’re going 80. Henry does not like it! And the wind was stronger than that today. Since we might not make it the full day on a tank of fuel, I found a place along the way to fill up again before leaving Texas. Prices appear to be higher as we move west. We stopped in Fabens TX for some $3.64 diesel. Also noticed that somewhere along the way we crossed into Mountain time Zone, so we gained an hour. Then we had the pleasure of driving through El Paso. It actually wasn’t terrible, but I suppose that might be because it was Palm Sunday morning. OH! And we actually had to pull over at a wide spot because the steps on Nitro had come open. 🙀. I told you it was windy!
Just a few miles out of El Paso, we entered into New Mexico. We were welcomed. 👍🏼
I-10 turns west after Las Cruces, and there is a big rest area on the east-bound side… with this HUGE bird statue. You can’t tell how big it is in this picture, but (I looked it up) it is 20’ tall and 42’ long! Now THAT’s a Roadrunner that would really give Wiley Coyote a hard time!
Not much farther, and we had to go through a Border Patrol station. Now remember, we are just traveling on I-10 from Texas into New Mexico. But ALL vehicles must pass through the immigration inspection station.
We didn’t see anybody get stopped. You just have to slow down like you’re going through a toll-booth. But there are LOTS of cameras at all kinds of angles.
We saw several orchards in the area, and billboards for both pecans and pistachios. Maybe these are ‘snachio trees?
After our 334 miles, we arrived at our winery destination. Les Combes has several locations in New Mexico, and they grow all sorts of grapes for their wines. They’ve been making wine in New Mexico since the family immigrated here in 1981 from France.
They have a huge parking lot, and will host up to ten RV’s for Harvest Hosting.
This was a cute old truck just waiting for a picture.
I wandered around and thought these doors were great. The handles are even wine glass shaped.
After a little bit of rest, we went in to sample some of their creations. Kenny had a red flight, I had a sweet flight. I liked all of mine, but I’m not a fancy wine drinker. Kenny said his reds seemed young, that he liked more body. I laughed and told him that’s why he’s not married to a skinny wife. Then he said he likes them more robust. I cracked up and said woah, woah, woah! I’m trying really hard not to be robust! We both had a really good laugh.
I was just playing with my camera.
The winery had a lot of wines that were not on the tasting or ‘by-the-glass’ list. I told the gal that we were disappointed that their Heritage Petit Verdot wasn’t available for a glass, because that is a wine that Kenny usually really likes. Well what do you know! She looked and she did have one open, so he ordered a glass. He said it was really good, it had body and good legs, 🤭 (those are real wine-ology terms!) and we bought a bottle. Plus a bottle of one of my wines. PLUS, a bottle of Port dessert wine that was really yummy.
We had a really fun time visiting with the other RV’ers. There was about eight couples here and they were all fun to talk with. There were three rigs from Minnesota and two from South Dakota, and they were all dragging their feet to go north, because it keeps snowing up there!
By sunset, the wind calmed down and it started cooling down outside. We might even get chilly tonight with a low forecasted of 37 degrees! Good thing we have a propane furnace. It was a pretty sunset too.
Tomorrow will be really windy in the afternoon again, so we will get up and go early. Sunrise here is at 7:00, but we’ll probably shoot for 7:30 again. We’ll gain another hour tomorrow when we cross into Arizona, so we should get to our destination before noon.