karenstark – Stark Adventures

4/28/24 Onward Ho to Washington

April 29, 2024April 30, 2024karenstark

Sunday, April 28, 2024:

Spending the night at: Pickett’s RV Park in Alamo Nevada
$36.32/night with GoodSam discount for nice level pull-through site #5 with 50 amp power, sewer, and supposed to be water, but apparently not at site #5. We didn’t complain since we actually have water in our tanks now, and it flows out of the faucets. Cool concept, huh?

Weather: Cooling down as we go north: Hi 74, low 44, Humidity Hi 64%, low 13%.

We left Stark’s Park around 9:15 or so and headed north. Our route took us through Las Vegas and into no-man’s-land of Nevada. There is a lot of that in this state! But first, we had to drive an hour and a half in California. Shhhh – don’t tell Kenny. He has no use for that state and their $7.00/gallon fuel prices. I texted our daughter, and she said “Does he need a head MRI? Does he know where he is? LOL”. She knows how much he dislikes CA.

4/26/24 Kawi gets to explore Quartzsite

April 27, 2024April 29, 2024karenstark

Friday, April 26, 2024

Still near Quartzsite Arizona
Weather: Not as hot (YAY!): Hi 83, low 59, Humidity Hi 39%, low 11% and wind from the Northwest. Much nicer for riding than the 95 degree stuff.

Since the weather was not as hot and Kenny was feeling better, today was a great day to go riding. Wanda didn’t go since it’s Friday and she already had a couple days off this week (she is still working). Paul rides here all the time – at age 86?! He’s pretty amazing! But Wanda doesn’t like him to go alone, so he hasn’t been out for awhile. Today he took us to an old abandoned mining site. There are all kinds of big and small mines in the hills around here. This one was the weirdest thing, because all of this equipment was still here, just left in place.

4/22/24 We made it to Stark’s Park

April 25, 2024April 28, 2024karenstark

Monday, April 22, 2024

Spending the next several nights at: Kenny’s parents new residence, Stark’s Park near Quartzsite Arizona
$0/night for nice level pull-through site with full utilities, directly adjacent to a patio with a hot tub. (However, we will pay them for the power we use in this hot weather!)

Weather: Toastier: Hi 96, low 62, Humidity Hi 27%, low 12%. … kind of a carbon copy everyday for the next few. This picture was a mess of desert yellow flowers, fuzzy little balls, prickly sticks, soft leaves, and a whole texture festival this morning when I went to the campground restrooms. (Remember – we only have water in a 1 gallon jug right now?)

4/21/24 A tail wind into Arizona

April 21, 2024April 22, 2024karenstark

Sunday, April 21, 2024:

Spending the night at: Picacho Peak State Park off of I-10 between Tucson and Phoenix Arizona
$33.20/night for nice level pull-through site #5 in Loop B with 50 amp power. No water or sewer at the sites in this campground. There is no water available for filling water tanks, but there is a sewer dump for emptying tanks.

Weather: Toasty again: Hi 96, low 62, Humidity Hi 33%, low 7%. It was very windy at the winery all night and still blowing this morning. I think it chased us all the way to Tucson, because Henry was getting really unusually good fuel economy today! Fortunately it wasn’t blowing on our side or head-on, so it didn’t seem that Nitro was difficult to handle.

We only went about 25 miles on I-1o and we got to go through another U.S. Border Patrol check point. They just waved us through this one and didn’t even ask us any questions.

4/20/24 New Mexico winery in Las Cruces

April 20, 2024April 21, 2024karenstark

Saturday, April 20, 2024:

Spending the night at: Rio Grande Winery in Las Cruces New Mexico, a Harvest Host.
$ FREE/night for a big giant spacious flat spot with no utilities. There are four other rigs here as well. We are just asked to spend $20 at the Harvest Host’s establishment to compensate for the nice parking spot. Probably not difficult at a winery.

Weather: better than the last few days: Hi 85, low 50, Humidity Hi 70%, low 19%. We had low clouds and some sprinkle this morning, but it changed to clear blue skies the farther north we went.
Sixty miles north of Terlingua was a Border Patrol stop for all traffic. I guess their infrared scanners could see we weren’t hiding any bodies in our trailer because they just asked our citizenship and wished us a good day.

4/19/24 Big Bend National Park

April 19, 2024April 20, 2024karenstark

Friday, April 19, 2024:

Spending the 2nd night at: Big Bend Station in Terlingua Texas near Big Bend National Park

Weather: hot and dry: Hi 89, low 67, Humidity Hi 69%, low 39%
Thank goodness it isn’t as hot as yesterday. As I’m writing this, the power is out, so we don’t have air conditioning unless we run the generator. It’s about 80 degrees this evening and not uncomfortable. We had a one minute rain squall come through and it cooled things down a few degrees.

This is a map of the Big Bend National Park. The green border on the bottom is the Rio Grande River which separates the United States and Mexico. The yellow lines are the roads that I wanted to drive today to see the park. The pink highlights are places to stop and see.

4/18/24 Terlingua Texas

April 18, 2024April 19, 2024karenstark

Thursday, April 18, 2024:

Spending the night at: Big Bend Station in Terlingua Texas near Big Bend National Park
$49.00/night for pull-through site #19 including 50 amp power and water AND sewer. We’re here for two nights.
Weather: baking sheet hot and dry: Hi 103, low 65, Humidity Hi 99% and fog!, low 5% bone dry.

FOG?! Way weird. So much for being in the bone dry desert. When I got up around 7:30 and looked outside, I couldn’t even see across the street. FOG! Right? I know! 99% humidity in the desert? Way weird Wally.

4/17/24 No camels in this desert

April 17, 2024April 18, 2024karenstark

Wednesday, April 17, 2024:

Spending the night at: Willow Draw Campground at Monahans Sandhills State Park west of Odessa Texas

$23.00/night for pull-through site #3 including 50 amp power and water. We’re on a bit of an uphill. Sites 10,11,12 are big and level pull-throughs. One of those would be a good choice for next time.
Weather- hot, dry, clear now but was a lil hazy getting here through Midland and Odessa:
Hi 93, low 58, Humidity Hi 20%, low 5%. Yep – it be DRY like a biscuit here!

4/14/24 Driving the herd in Texas

April 16, 2024April 19, 2024karenstark

Sunday, April 14, 2024:

Spending the night at: Cousin Steve & Carol’s lovely home in Springtown Texas, near Fort Worth
Weather- clear, warm & sunny, and not too humid today.

Free parking next to the house with 50 amp power! The only curvey driveway in the whole neighborhood, but my professional driver (remember that Paul James guy?) got this big rig in here.

4/13/24 Riding at Robber’s Cave State Park

April 13, 2024April 15, 2024karenstark

Saturday, April 13, 2024:

Spending the 2nd night at: Pines Trails Campground in Robber’s Cave State Park near Wilburton Oklahoma
Weather- clear & sunny. Hi 80, low 58, Humidity Hi 68%, low 29% A warm beautiful day!!

Around noon, before it got too hot, we took Kawi for a spin. But first, we changed out the windshield to the short one so we could get some air-flow. The full glass windshield is nice when the weather is cooler or if there’s some rain in the forecast, but we knew today would be too toasty for that. We set out to see what the trails were like, thinking we wouldn’t be gone long. This made me laugh… At he beginning of the rocky trail, there was the “Tent Camping” sign. Apparently you have to trek all of your stuff in by foot to tent camp here!!