We left Florence early on April 15th, and stopped at the Costco in Tucson to have new tires put on the MH. Total cost of $1600.00. The original tires didn't look like they had any wear at all, but they were 6 years old, and we're planning a lot of miles this summer.

From Costco we drove to Deming, NM where we stayed the night at the Escapees park. The country from Tucson to Deming and beyond was a sea of wildflowers. Seems like most are yellow, then blues, whites, purple and reds. Flowers everywhere.
Days drive = 302 miles, 10 hrs 40 mins, but over 3 hours spent in the Costco tire center.

After one night in Deming we went to Alamogordo, NM and took the time to visit the White Sands NM and the Missile Museum. We didn't get on the base to visit the museum because we were there on a Sunday, and it was closed. 3 nights in Alamogordo, one really big thunderstorm and lots of things seen and remembered. 100's of pictures, and some new friends. Days drive = 127 miles, 4 hours. Included stops for gas and Wal-Mart.

From Alamogordo we went to Carlsbad. Plan was for three days but we extended to 6. There was too much to see and do. We did 3 trips to the Caverns. First time out was Kings Palace tour and Big Room. Second trip was to watch the bats fly at sundown, and last was a walk into the Caverns via the Natural Entrance. Everything about the Carlsbad Caverns is awesome. Huge and beautiful. We're looking forward to more visits to other caves in the US. We took a couple of day trips around the area and did visit Sitting Bull Falls, (thanks Bob G.).
Days drive = 205 miles, 6 hours.

From Carlsbad we headed over to Tahoka, TX. Stayed in a cousins driveway plugged into 15 amp service. It's ok for a short period, but wouldn't want to do if for long. The country around there was impressive for it's flatness. :-) Lots of big farms and ranch's and lots of cotton fields. While here we took a trip up to Lubbock to the Ranch Heritage Center. It's a place where they have moved some of the old ranch building found in TX, and have them preserved, and on display. We also found a great Tamale factory and stuffed ourselves with Tamales.
Days drive = 186 miles, 7 hrs 50 mins, but included a stop in Carlsbad for an oil change and lube and a stop at the Cowboy Museum in Hobbs, NM.

Left Tahoka on April 28th and drove to Post, TX, a 27 mile drive that took 1 hr and 5 minutes from the time we left the driveway until we got to the RV park. Not an accurate statement because we had to stop in Tahoka for the safety inspection on the MH. :-) Another interesting little RV park. Run by an older couple but they were nice, the park was clean and they had 50 amp service and we got to dump the tanks. The water pressure was so low that we used the onboard water for showers.
Days drive = 27 miles, 1 hr 5 min.

When we left Post our plans were to travel to Jacksboro, TX and stay at Fort Richardson SP. They were full and sent us down the road to Perrin, TX to Country Pines RV Park. It's a great park, clean and quiet. At about Post the lay of the country changed from flat to rolling hills. Is this what they call the Hill Country? Don't know, forgot to ask.
Days drive = 223 miles, 5 hrs, 20 min.

From there we cut south to Weatherford, TX and picked up I-20 east. No real plans on where to start but we ended up in Marshall, TX . We wanted to pull into a Cracker Barrel for breakfast and tried to 3 times. Every RV spot was
filled with cars, and there were open car spaces in the lot. In one there was 1 car in each RV spot. Frustrating. When I pulled in the guy who was in charge of the park tried to get me to pull into a site that had tree branches hanging down to about 6 feet from the ground. He said it wouldn't hurt the rig at all. I told him no, that if that's the only site he had I'd go on down the road. He then remembered that he did have one other site that would work for me. <Snerk>
Days drive = 342 miles, 6 hours.

From Marshall, TX to Monroe, LA. We stayed at the Pavilion RV park and this was the 2nd Passport America park we stayed in. We're now ahead of the game on Passport America. We also got your breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Left Monroe at 11:30 am headed for Vicksburg.
Days drive = 139 miles, 3 hrs, 42mins.

Monroe, LA to Vicksburg, LA. We stayed in the Isle of Capri RV park and our 3 day planned stay wound up as 4 days. Visited the Vicksburg Battlefield, and Cairo Museum as well as the Old Courthouse Museum and the Biedenharn Candy Company Museum. The Biedenharn is the first place in the US that Coca Cola was bottled, and they have some really old Coke memorabilia. One of the very impressive things was that there were approx 10,000 casualties on each side during this battle. In the cemetery there are 100's, if not 1,000s of head stones that have only a number, or the statement "Unknown Soldier". It's a lot like Arlington.
Days drive = 78 miles, 1 hr, 25 mins.

This was the final leg of this portion of our trip. It is the west to east portion. We've seen a lot of new country. We've stayed in some nice places and some, well I'll just call them average places.

Total miles from Florence to Vicksburg, then back to Talluah, LA where we filled the tank = 1565 miles.
Total gallons of gas for MH = 243.32
Total dollars spent on fuel =$527.85
MPG = 7.064 after subtracting generator fuel usage of 13.5 hours at .6 gal per hour.

Please note that the total miles of travel and total miles driven per day do not add up because of where we filled at the start of the trip and the end of the trip. It's just book keeping using different start/end points.

Return to 2005 Travels
Pictures of the Trip