A Dusty Morning But It All Cleared Up

Of course, we have all the time in the world to get home, but yet we were up one hour before daylight filtered through the blinds. The night at the Walmart in Riodoso was a quiet one so we had a good night sleep.

Getting back on Hwy70 we suspiciously eyeballed the sky. It was hazy but no wind to speak of. And the little we had was a tailwind.

Old Adobe-style house at Hondo

As we moved up from the Hondo Valley reaching the high country we got more wind. Sometimes it was blowing sideways, sometimes we had it from the back. But now the wind was kicking up an awful lot of dust. It really made for a hazy outlook.

Slightly dusty today…

The NM towns of Portales, and Clovis, and in Texas Friona, Bovina and Hereford are cow towns. These towns are prone to high winds and dust storms.

Some cheap Real Estate available along the highway

We finally reached Amarillo. When we got in there we got in a congestion. It was caused by a real ugly accident. As we heard later in the local news a motor biker had been weaving in and out between the cars and hit several vehicles. His bike was flat on the road with his possessions spread out. He was admitted to a hospital in Amarillo.

Meanwhile, the sky had really cleared up. We were now on I-40 heading straight east. Since we had started the day early, we were both pretty tired and turned in at the Texas Welcome Center about 40 miles off the OK border.
When we rolled in, our van was suddenly attacked by many bees. Luckily, we had all windows rolled up, and proceeded to the far end of the rest area, where we were not followed by the bees.
We had either driven into a bee swarm or they had a nest in one of the dumpsters.

Doing long cross-country drives can sometimes be quite challenging. Especially weather-wise we have to take precautions. I want to introduce you to a fantastic weather site where both dates, hours and preferences like temperatures, wind speeds and directions and even wind gusts can be chosen.

http://graphical.weather.gov/sectors/conus.php
It really makes planning your route after weather conditions quite easy. Based on the next days weather forecast, we have f.ex chosen a more southerly route, plus that we will be “hanging around” down south a little longer, rather than experiencing freezing temps with possible snow and ice on the road. Quite important for us RVers is also avoiding high winds. With a wind warning coming up, you can hunker down in a good place, BEFORE being trapped on a highway.

Here’s a picture of the wind map;
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Thanks again for dropping by!