We drove into Manhattan to do grocery shopping and stopped at Staples to pick up some more card stock for our calling cards. A group us went back into Manhattan in the evening to have dinner at the All Chinese Buffet. This is one of the best Chinese buffets we've even been to, if not "the" best.
The rally was a rousing success! On Thursday night, the start of the rally, we all had dinner at the Sirloin Stockade in Manhattan, a rally tradition.
Friday started out with a welcoming talk by the new owner of Horizons, Phil Brokenicky, and a standing ovation for Harold Johnson, the previous owner and founder of Horizons, Inc. During the day, there were various classes held on several topics, including a talk by J.D. Gallant of RV Consumers Group. That night was the potluck which, because of the weather, we had to move inside to a building in Manhattan.
Saturday saw more classes and the hog roast that night...another rally tradition. The hog roast is graciously provided by Horizons, Inc., and is a big hit with both New Horizons owners and the employees of Horizons who also join in on the fun.
Sunday was a day for relaxing and the open houses...where those who want to, open up their rigs for people to see. This is a great place for "wannabees" to see a lot of New Horizons all in one place and to get some ideas about how to customize their own rig. That night, another group of us went back to the All Chinese Buffet for dinner.
Monday, 10/7
We moved over to the Horizons lot in preparation for our appointment on Tuesday. There were several other people there having work done on their RV's, too...Kirk & Gen were back because all the window awnings they were having put on had not arrived before the rally. We went to Coach's for dinner that night with them and with Nancy Moon, the editor of the "Horizon Herald," the NHOG newsletter.
Tuesday, 10/8
Horizons got started working on our rig bright and early, so we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast (always a good excuse!). We had a new day/night shade installed (the string had broken), had a louver replaced on one of our windows (which had gotten broken going through a construction area on our way to the rally), and had the wheel bearings repacked. After everything was finished, we went back out to West Rolling Hills, the COE park on Milford Lake where we stayed for a few days.
Friday, 10/11
Drove 181 miles to Pratt County Lake in Pratt, Kansas.
Saturday, 10/12
WE drove 185 miles to Angler Point, a COE park on Optima Lake near Hardesty, Oklahoma. Stopped along the way to do grocery shopping and fuel up both trucks (I followed Earl in the Chevy).
Sunday, 10/13
Today, we drove 165 miles to City of Canyon RV Park in Canyon, Texas. We stayed here for a couple of nights and took a drive through Palo Duro State Park, east of Canyon. It's a very pretty park -- sort of a small Grand Canyon.
Palo Duro State Park:
Texas Longhorns:
Tuesday, 10/15
Drove 112 miles to the Elks Club in Lubbock, Texas. We had dinner at Popeye's, filled up the Chevy with diesel, and stopped at PetsMart to pick up more food for Maxx.
Wednesday, 10/16
We drove 141 miles to Sweetwater City Park near Sweetwater, Texas. We stayed here for a couple of days and took a trip to Hylton, Texas. Hylton isn't much of a town; in fact, there's no town there at all -- just a Masonic Lodge and a cemetery. We walked around the cemetery and found 3 Hylton graves...two were presumably the founders of "Hylton" and we supposed the other was probably one of their children.
Hylton Cemetery and Headstone
Elisha Hylton, Aug 12, 1833 - Jan 26, 1901
Rebecca Hylton, Mar 22, 1832 - Mar 3, 1916
Hylton Masonic Lodge and Road sign:
Friday, 10/18
Drove 155 miles to Brownfield, Texas where we spent the night at the Coleman City Park. This is a free park (donations accepted) that provided water and electric hookups. It's just a large, dusty parking lot, but considering the price, it's OK for an overnight stay.
Saturday, 10/19
Today, we drove 140 miles to the Town and Country RV Park in Roswell, New Mexico. We had dinner Saturday night with Bill and Darlene Jones, friends we'd first met at the 1999 Spring Escapade. (Actually, we'd met them the night before the Escapade when we stayed at the same RV park, and then saw them after the Escapade when we once again ended up staying at the same RV park. Then later that year, they showed up at the same RV park in Spokane where we were spending a month!) We had a nice visit at their new house and then we all went to Tia Juana's for a wonderful dinner.
The remainder of the time spent in Roswell was taken up with grocery shopping, doing laundry, and buying a new tire for the fifth wheel (to replace the one that had gone flat previously).
Tuesday, 10/22
Drove 98 miles to Valley of Fires BLM Recreation Area near Carrizozo, New Mexico. This is a very nice park that has large sites with water and electric and a dump available. The park is located in the middle of a large lava field and has a walking path running through it with signs we assumed told about the geologic history of the area...it was raining and cold, so we didn't take the walk. This is definitely a place we'll have to come back to.
Valley of Fires National Recreation Area:
Wednesday, 10/23
When we left Valley of Fires, we stopped to see the VLA (Very Large Array) near Datil, New Mexico. The VLA is an astronomical observatory; however, instead of analyzing the light from stars and galaxies, astronomers here study the radio waves that are emitted by those objects. The VLA consists of 27 dish-shaped antennas that are connected together to form a single large radio telescope. The 27 antennas are placed in a "Y" pattern with each arm of the "Y" 13 miles long. The resolution of the array can be varied by moving the antennas along the arms of the "Y." Part of the movie Contact with Jody Foster was filmed here. However, unlike the portrayal in the movie, the astronomers at the VLA don't "listen" -- rather, the radio telescopes are another way of "seeing" the universe.
After visiting the VLA, we spent the night at Datil Well BLM Recreation Area where we dry camped. With our Golden Age Passport, it cost us only $2.50.
Very Large Array (VLA):
Thursday, 10/24
Drove 94 miles to the Casa Malpais RV Park in Springerville, Arizona. Stopped and had lunch at Lil Ranglers Cafe in Springerville and filled up one of our propane tanks.
Friday, 10/25
We drove 67 miles to the Crystal Forest at the intersection of US-180 and the road through the Petrified Forest National Park where we camped for free (with electrical hookups!). After setting up and unhooking, we went for a drive through the park.
Some 225 million years ago in the late Triassic Period, this area was a vast floodplain crossed by many streams. When the trees here would fall, they would be washed by the swollen streams into the floodplain and then would be covered by silt, mud, and volcanic ash. Eventually, silica-bearing ground waters seeped through the logs and replaced the original wood tissues with silica deposits which crystallized into quartz. The area then sank and was covered with fresh water sediments. Later, the area was lifted above sea level and over time, wind and water have worn away the layers of sediments, exposing the fossilized remains of the trees. There is readily visible evidence of human habitation in the area for more than 10,000 years.
Petrified Forest:
Petroglyphs:
(Note the frog in the bird's mouth in the second picture)
Saturday, 10/26
Drove 185 miles to the Elks Club in Clarksdale, Arizona. We stopped in Munds Park and had lunch at the Loan Pine Restaurant.
Sunday, 10/27 thru Thursday 10/31
Drove 138 miles to North Ranch in Congress, Arizona, one of the Escapees parks. The evening we arrived, we drove into Wickenburg to do grocery shopping and have dinner at Anita Cocina.
We took it easy, making a couple more trips into Wickenburg to do grocery shopping. On Wednesday, we took a drive to Prescott and had lunch at Zuma's Woodfire Cafe -- great food!
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