Day 78 - Benson, AZ to Van Horn, TX
Photo: Heading in to the sand storm.
Woo-wee….what a day we had today. It was white-knuckle driving and zero visibility for a long stretch. We woke up this morning and the LuvMasheen was rockin’ and rollin’….all on it’s own! It was blowing a gale and we were wondering how some of the tent trailers around us were still on the ground!
We hit the road and decided that we were going to head towards Big Bend National Park, at the southern end of this portion of Texas. We’d been there a few years ago, and I’d taken some wonderful photos of the cactus and wildflowers in bloom.That was the trip when some rotten, stinking, dirty, SOB walked off with my camera and if I ever see ONE of those photos on the internet I’m calling the CIA, FBI, RCMP, CSIS, and every other organization in the alphabet! It’s okay though…I’m over it now.
As we were driving along, we saw this line of ‘cloud’ in the distance that went all across the horizon and we commented on how unusual it was…we’d never seen anything like it before. As we drove along we came to a wonderful spot where huge, mega-huge, boulders were piled on top of one another…some of them balanced so fine that I don’t know why the heavy winds didn’t send them rolling.
Further along the road, I saw some mini-tornadoes whirling the sand around and I think I used the word ‘cute’….yes, I definitely said, “Aren’t they cute?”…to describe them whirling and dancing around the desert. This was true desert we were in and 120 miles of straight highway through some of the flattest land we’d seen. As we got closer to the line of cloud we’d seen earlier, it started to look less like fluffy white clouds and more like dirty yellow fog. Within 10 minutes we were in the midst of the craziest sand storm we’d ever seen! Traffic moved at a crawl…or stopped completely...and it lasted for most of the next 4 hrs. The end result was that when we got to Van Horn, there was a layer of sand EVERYWHERE! It will take lots of vacuuming when we get home to clear it out.
When we pulled in to Van Horn, we decided that before hooking up, we’d go in to town and pick up some fresh food. As we pulled on to main street (there’s only one) I thought for sure that we’d found a ‘ghost town’ that wasn’t on the map. Every business has been closed, burned down, or abandoned…and yet there are 15 hotels/motels! I guess that where everyone must work because there’s nothing else going on in Van Horn.
Until next time, our love to you all. We are starting to realize that the ‘holiday’ is just about over. We’ll miss this freedom but are anxious to see all the people we love. xx
We hit the road and decided that we were going to head towards Big Bend National Park, at the southern end of this portion of Texas. We’d been there a few years ago, and I’d taken some wonderful photos of the cactus and wildflowers in bloom.That was the trip when some rotten, stinking, dirty, SOB walked off with my camera and if I ever see ONE of those photos on the internet I’m calling the CIA, FBI, RCMP, CSIS, and every other organization in the alphabet! It’s okay though…I’m over it now.
As we were driving along, we saw this line of ‘cloud’ in the distance that went all across the horizon and we commented on how unusual it was…we’d never seen anything like it before. As we drove along we came to a wonderful spot where huge, mega-huge, boulders were piled on top of one another…some of them balanced so fine that I don’t know why the heavy winds didn’t send them rolling.
Further along the road, I saw some mini-tornadoes whirling the sand around and I think I used the word ‘cute’….yes, I definitely said, “Aren’t they cute?”…to describe them whirling and dancing around the desert. This was true desert we were in and 120 miles of straight highway through some of the flattest land we’d seen. As we got closer to the line of cloud we’d seen earlier, it started to look less like fluffy white clouds and more like dirty yellow fog. Within 10 minutes we were in the midst of the craziest sand storm we’d ever seen! Traffic moved at a crawl…or stopped completely...and it lasted for most of the next 4 hrs. The end result was that when we got to Van Horn, there was a layer of sand EVERYWHERE! It will take lots of vacuuming when we get home to clear it out.
When we pulled in to Van Horn, we decided that before hooking up, we’d go in to town and pick up some fresh food. As we pulled on to main street (there’s only one) I thought for sure that we’d found a ‘ghost town’ that wasn’t on the map. Every business has been closed, burned down, or abandoned…and yet there are 15 hotels/motels! I guess that where everyone must work because there’s nothing else going on in Van Horn.
Until next time, our love to you all. We are starting to realize that the ‘holiday’ is just about over. We’ll miss this freedom but are anxious to see all the people we love. xx
posted by Lynne @ 6:26 PM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
As we were travellling along the highway it dawned on me that there were no fifth wheelers or any other RV's on the road. I wondered if the 18 wheelers were having fun watching our roadtrek sway around as they went by. I am certain there were no empty ones going by as I believe they would have toppled in the wind.
I slowed down as they passed to reduce the time they were in close proximity. That seemed to work well.
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