IT HAS BEEN A WILD WEEK

When we left Branson on Tuesday it was sunny and calm.  As we drove toward Lake Eufaula, Oklahoma it began to be a little breezy. On Wednesday driving on toward Elk City, OK the wind got breezier, on Thursday  toward Tucumcari, New Mexico the wind got to 25 - 30 mph. Friday toward Grants NM the wind was 35-50mph and today on the way to Holbrook Arizona the wind gusts were again as high as 50 mph.  The road is no place for a travel trailer, when the wind is this high,  It just blows you all over the place no matter what you do.

At Elk City there were tornado warnings, high winds and nickel size hail with thunderstorms.The underground storm shelters were pointed out. The next morning as we drove towards Tucumcari, the wind was so high that it  bounced and partically unwound the awning while on the highway and began to break the wheel fenders away from the trailer.

So here is the picture.....we are in a rest area - with Steve lying on his back under the trailer - fixing wire to the fenders to stabilize them so that they would not breakaway---while Rita is directing 18 wheelers away so that they will not run over Steve:).  Because the wind basically jammed the awning, it took quite some wiggling around to unjam it to get it to retract back up.  Then to hopefully prevent it from happening again the awning supports were taped shut and tied and the end of the the awning taped closed with Gorilla tape. so the wind could not get into it.  Each day the wind came at the trailer from a different direction so it was fun to prevent further problems.

Today on the way to Holbrook AZ I took the following pictures.

This area in western New Mexico and eastern Arizona is called the Red Rock area.

I hope you can make it out but the wind was so strong that it was a dust storm wind everywhere.

I am glad we made it in one piece.  It only took Steve 10 minutes to pry his fingers off of the steering wheel!!!

We get to Holbrook, AZ and it is colder here that it was when we were in Alaska.....you go figure:)