The journey continues

As planned, we left Kansas on Monday and the weather was in our favor. We drove in very little wind that day but in looking out the window we saw what was to become an ongoing theme in every state–wind farms. Some turbines were turning but many were barely moving if at all.

Our first night out, we were in Burkburnett, TX where we ate dinner with Mike and Peggy Renfro. Several years back when Peggy was contemplating retiring from teaching, she was a weekend caregiver for my mother. Since then, LeRoy walked her down the aisle when she and Mike were married, Peggy is still teaching and she has taught in three different states after Kansas: Colorado, Texas and now Oklahoma. Every morning she drives from her home in Texas to her school just a few miles away in Oklahoma. Retirement is still in the future. Since the move to Burkburnett, Mike is the manager of a startup hardware store, a fantastic benefit for the small town. It is the backdrop for our selfie with them.

Long time blog readers will remember that we enjoy watching the different vegetation and terrain as we travel through otherwise “boring” landscape. It offends me to hear people talk about how boring and flat Kansas is, so I try very hard not to say anything derogatory about other states. As we traveled across Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico, we came across grassland, row crops, sage brush, cactus and cotton. Nothing boring here!

Our stop in Truth or Consequences was a very pleasant one. Last spring, we found LeRoy’s cousin Raymond in the hospital and we stayed until he got transferred to a rehab facility to regain strength. Raymond, like LeRoy and the generations before them, is just a little (?) stubborn and we weren’t sure how he would do in that environment. Either he would resist or he would throw all his energy into getting better. As it turned out, he did the latter and was home in his own apartment by summer. He is in better health than he has been in quite sometime and we had a very enjoyable visit.

As usual, when we were in the vicinity of hot springs, we spent quite a bit of time soaking. Riverbend Hot Springs has developed into a lovely resort over the past few years. Even though Truth or Consequences has quite a number of hot springs locations, the setting for Riverbend is unique. The pools all overlook the Rio Grande with Turtleback Mountain in the background. When we first started going there, there were five public pools and three private ones. They have added several of each since then, including a large therapy pool. None of those added pools were in operation when we were here in the spring.

Even the night view is magical.

All the pools have signs now that include the depth of the pools and the temperature range. This one is a little too dark to see that the depth is 2’1″ and the temperatures range from 105-107 progressing from the coolest pool to the warmest.

Even the original pools take on new glamour at night.

While we were there in their tiny RV park, our neighbor was a workcamper who just happens to fulltime in a bus conversion even older than ours, a 4104 GM bus.

We stopped for lunch on Friday in Hatch, NM for the best green chili cheeseburger in the country at Sparky’s. As a matter of fact, they call if the World Famous and even though LeRoy usually doesn’t share meals with me, we split one. We met our bus friends David and Lois St. John from Belen for lunch before we all headed on toward Arizona.

We are now safely hidden away behind Northwest Community Friends Church in Tucson. If you happen to be traveling in the area, stop and see us. We’ll take you out to eat!