Keep on Truckin’

April 11, 2024 – Day 24

Route 66 To Go, Elk City, Oklahoma to Sierra Blanca Brewery, Moriarity New Mexico

Not much happened, except for the one unusual thing. We left Elk City not knowing where we would sleep that night. If we could make almost 400 miles we’d stay at a Harvest Host in Moriarity, NM. Otherwise, we could stop about 75 miles earlier at a state park. There just isn’t anything out here. So we drove and drove!

We saw windmills, lots of them.

At one time Susan, who was driving, said, “Is that a gusher?” Paul looked and he was also uncertain. When we got closer it became obvious. It was a row of windmills all in line and spinning in some crazy choreographed way that when they all spun it looked fuzzy. It was the most curious thing.

The town of Britten needs a new water tower.

We found the beginning of the highway system.

Hours had passed and it felt like we could make Moriarity, NM. The day would be something we don’t like doing, a 400 miler. Paul logged into Harvest Host and tried to book it. “Declined.” It wasn’t clear why. Susan thought we should just call them which Paul did. “Sure! Just show up.” they said, we have a huge lot. We questioned one of the employees about that. Her initial response was a laugh. It turns out that Harvest Hosts insists on you telling them how many people can show up but they have a limit of 15. However the space where we stayed can easily hand more than that given that it’s about 600′ x 200′ plus they have another lot somewhere. We didn’t find out where it is.

We’re glad we did. We pulled in around 3:30, which was 4:30 by our bodies, not our watches. And we parked next to a Tiffin, the same brand as our RV. We met the couple who travelled in that. Eventually went inside for a beer. Then we all retired to our coach’s for dinner, then back to the brewery for one more. It was a fun night. There were perhaps 16 RVs there, all types and sizes. Everyone had a grand time.

Photo courtesy Pat Pytlak. That’s our Tiffin to our right.

Wow, we are just flying now, trying to make up time. But, of course, our friends who have driven across the country in 5 days will just laugh and say, “posers.” It’s different driving an RV, especially across the plains. It’s windy. We’ve been encountering winds so we’re leaving earlier in the day, usually by 9:15 a.m. instead of our usual lunchtime departures. It’s easy to do when you’re overnighting at a Cracker Barrel or Harvest Host. Just start the RV and go.

Daily: 294

Total: 2,726

Driving Miles/Day: 273

Overall Miles/Day: 101

mpg: 7.1