Saturday 01 May 2010

We left Deming New Mexico at 9:45 am (ET). We bought gas for $3.11 a gallon at Lordsburg New Mexico. A cup of coffee to go... not great, but perked our eyes up :-))

We passed more pecan orchards today along with walnut orchards. There were also vineyards. At times there was lots of vegetation off the sides of the roads and then there would be very little vegetation.

In the distance we would see mountains which were especially beautiful with cloud formations over them. Then we would go through some hills. In one spot there were some beautiful rock formations... we wondered how some boulders balanced upon each other. It was neat to see.

The train tracks were all the way from Deming to Benson and I imagine they go on to California. We heard them a lot last night and will hear them again tonight.

We arrived at Butterfield RV Resort, Benson Arizona at 1:15 pm (ET). This is really a resort... full hook ups, heated indoor pool, hot tub, exercise room, banquet room, library, pool tables, cable tv, laundry room and an observatory.. Yes! observatory.. we'll do a bit of star observing one evening when we can stay awake. This place has about everything.... everything but a playground. WiFi is for a hefty fee. Cost for our stay is $25 a night. That is summer rates.... winter rates are higher for the snowbirds.

The park has paved roads. Pull thru sites are paved and back-ins are graveled. We are in site 71. They advertise the sites as level. We had to use our two-board runners to level. We used all our boards to put under the jack stands. The back of the trailer is way up off the ground. We are having to use the bedroom door entrance. Even with our extra step it is too hight to use the steps at the kitchen entrance. This may be a resort... but I prefer our state parks back home.

After setting up camp we went and had the truck oil changed and new oil filter put in. For a couple of cold mornings this week the clock in the truck has reset itself back to 12:00. So battery problems. We could smell sulfur when Frank cranked the truck up to leave the lube place. So he raised the hood and looked at the batteries. One was sputtering acid, so definitely bad. Frank had the guys check both batteries and only the one was bad. So a new battery was bought and installed.

It had been a while since we visited WalMart so we did that and bought more than we had on our list.

Before we left Deming Frank looked up on the internet to see if there was a Ryan's in Benson. Ryan's site said there was.. when Ms Garmin directed us there it had magically changed into a Bank of America. So dinner plans changed. We dropped into Safeway which is right next door to the RV park and bought some deli chicken, potato salad, wheat rolls and some tuscany style frozen veggies. We bought a square of carrot cake for dessert, but it wasn't eaten.

Arizona doesn't do daylight savings time, so we are another hour's difference. Early to bed... yawn.

We traveled 177 miles today.