Casa Grande, AZ

We leave Las Cruces, NM at 8:00 am for the day’s trek to Palm Creek RV Resort and Casa Grande.  It will feel good to arrive in our old stomping grounds and see friends.  We’ll spend three nights here.  The day starts overcast and cool at 50 degrees and no wind, a significant difference from yesterday’s 39 degrees.  For the first time we encounter Border Patrol with two questions, “Just you two on board?  Are you U.S. citizens?”  A “Yes.” to both questions gets us back on the road again and we slip in front of an “over-sized-load” truck with two escorts that are required to stop in the truck inspection lanes.  That makes life easier for us!  “The Thing” billboard appears for a stop in Arizona 184 miles away.  What is “The Thing”?  Neither of us know-we’ve never stopped to see it.  To be continued, if our curiosity gets the better of us.  (Alas for those of you who really wanted to know, we did not stop to see "The Thing" and identify what it is but maybe we will on the next trip through!)

We pass Demming, NM and spy the first campground we stayed in upon leaving Casa Grande last year in April.  Vineyards are passing by us on the left while glimpses of sun are starting to appear on the hillsides in front of us.  We pass through the elevation of 4585 and cross the Continental Divide.  Snow is visible on the mountains ahead of us glinting in the sunlight while their foothills contrast the white with steel blue shades.  To our right a train engine sits idle with multiple cars of concrete rails for the crew busy replacing creosote oil-soaked timber rails just west of him. 

A few minutes after 10 am we enter Arizona.  The weather holds clear and I am on my second cup of coffee.  Puff is purring like Snoopy and has galloped through the mountains and over the Continental Divide like the Magic Green RV she has proven to be while Snoopy snoozes in the sun on his blue blanket.

By 2:00 pm we reach Casa Grande and Palm Creek.  Home Sweet Home for three nights.  We have made the complete circuit with Puff from here to the Northeast, then down to Florida and back across the South.  She’s done well and deserves a good pat on the back!  Instead we elect to give her a bath and a good hand wax tomorrow by one of our trusted Palm Creek vendor contacts.  After all the rain from the Panhandle of Florida to Austin, TX both Puff and the car look like we have been racing in one of those motocross dirt bike races in the mud.