We were a little behind schedule Saturday morning – not that we have a real schedule to adhere to. But we wanted a reasonably early start to our travel day. We set 9am as a departure goal, but as I said, I got a little behind and we left Springerville RV Park at 9:20am. We wanted to get on the road as we had about five hours of driving time ahead, plus we would lose an hour when we entered Mountain Daylight Time at the New Mexico border.

We headed back west through town and hit the junction with US191 after a few miles. This took us north past Lyman Lake to the town of St. Johns. Continuing north past St. Johns, the road surface suddenly deteriorated. We hit a 10-mile stretch of whoop-de-dos that were spaced at an interval that had the suspension of the coach porpoising violently at times. I slowed to 50mph but it didn’t seem to matter. Maybe 35 would have been better – the posted speed limit was 65mph! And poor Ozark the cat – despite withholding food and giving her medication for car sickness, she got sick in her carrier.

We hit I-40 at Sanders, Arizona and headed east. I made a stop at the last Arizona exit – Greer Road. We went to Speedy’s Truck Stop to top up our tank. This is the first time I’ve bought fuel since December. Speedy’s is on Navajo Nation land and therefore the fuel is taxed at a different rate. Normally, the state of Arizona taxes diesel fuel at a rate of 51.4 cents per gallon. The Navajo Nation taxes diesel fuel at 25 cents per gallon with no state taxes paid. We paid $2.09/gallon and filled our tank – that’s the lowest price we’ve paid in the seven years we’ve been on the road.

At Gallup, we left I-40 at exit 20 and took US491 north through the Navajo Nation. New Mexico requires everyone to wear a face mask in public right now. Other than that, we didn’t encounter any restrictions or checkpoints. US491 was previously designated US666. It became known as the Devil’s Highway, so they changed the designation in 2003.

The terrain was interesting. There were sandstone cliffs near the Arizona-New Mexico border. As we traveled through the Navajo Nation, we found sage brush covered plains. Then, as we got closer to Shiprock, sandstone formations and spires rose out of the surrounding plains, seemingly without rhyme or reason.

The road surface was fairly good through the Navajo Nation. The Colorado border marked the end of Navajo land and the road surface improved dramatically.

With the time change, we arrived in Cortez at 3:30pm local time. The owners of La Mesa RV Park in Cortez are also the owners of Springerville RV Park – Ames and Cherie. Cherie sent Donna a text with a photo of the park sign and entrance. It wasn’t hard to find. She told us to take either site 34 – a long pull-through – or we could drop the trailer in site 24 at the back of the park, which is wide and a little quieter. The office wasn’t open when we pulled in.

I didn’t like the trees at site 24 so we opted for 34. The pull-through made it easy and I didn’t have to drop the trailer. It turned out the trees by the office – about 40 or 50 feet away from us are interfering with satellite reception. Darn! We’re at an elevation of about 6,200 feet above sea level here.

We were set up and settled in by 4:30pm. I found a horror story in the trailer though. Remember the violent porpoising north of St. Johns? Well, the trailer must have been really bouncing around. The bins stacked in the frame toward the front of trailer were thrown about. Donna’s bike rack was tossed out of place, but the bike was still upright and the rear wheels of the Midget were bounced out of the wheel chocks and moved about eight inches to the left! We were lucky though, nothing was damaged, it was just scary looking.

I straightened out the trailer, then took a break and puffed a cigar. There were thunderstorms in the area with wind gusts at times, so I sat inside the trailer and read a book as I puffed away. Very relaxing. Donna had her weekly virtual happy hour with her family.

On Sunday morning, Donna and I did a little exploring. We drove Midget-San through town and found pickleball courts at Centennial Park. The outdoor courts are open for singles play only, no doubles. From there, we drove north on Dolores Road – CO145 – to the Canyon of the Ancients Visitor Center and Museum. It was closed. We continued on to McPhee Reservoir. This reservoir is the largest lake in the San Juan National Forest and the fifth largest in Colorado. It’s surrounded by mostly public land and offers camping, boating, fishing and many hiking trails. Donna snapped a couple of photos as we toured the area in the Midget.

The reservoir sits at an elevation of 6,930 feet above sea level. We also took a drive through the town of Dolores and found a scenic road that rises through the forest above town to some trailheads. There’s also a riverwalk trail along the Dolores River on the south side of town.

Later, Donna rode her bicycle to City Market – a grocery store affiliated with Kroger – a couple of miles from the park. There’s also a Safeway store and a Walmart supercenter in town. Plenty of grocery shopping options. Sunday afternoon I met Cherie and paid for a one-month stay here. The monthly rate is $550 plus electricity at 15 cents/kWh – so it’s about $20/day. Springerville was only $400/month but electricity there is higher at 25 cents/kWh. Our total cost there was $501 – or about $17/day.

We had a couple of brief thundershowers yesterday and last night. It looks like we should remain dry today and tomorrow, but the temperatures will be warmer than usual with upper 80s to 90 degrees in the forecast for the next few days. I’m not complaining though.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!