rving – RVing With a Purpose

Petroglyphs, Ruins and Good Friends

May 12, 2026

We stayed the night at the New Mexico welcome center after driving about 1 mile into Mexico on Thursday April 30. On May 1, after a good night of rest, we headed on down the road with places and people to see. A short time later we began to notice that the temperature outside was dropping quickly down to 37 degrees and then there was rain mixed with sleet hitting our windshield. This was not in our plans for the day. Fortunately, by the time we arrived in Albuquerque the weather was nice again. We stopped at the Petroglyph National Monument and walked several shorter trails and visited the visitors center so we could get our Passport stamped.

We still had miles to go and left Albuquerque in route to Aztec, NM and our NOMADS friends, Shannon and Mariel. They were also in a new home. Seems to be a pattern on this trip. Anne might be getting a little jealous. We arrived at Shannon and Mariel’s in time for a wonderful dinner and visit. We then overnighted in BB at the municipal park. It was only five minutes from their house, free of charge with water and dump station. Nice.

The City of Aztec is kind enough to provide free overnight parking for RVs, complete with a free dump station and water fill. And it’s right outside the police department.

On Saturday morning we met Shannon and Mariel at the Aztec Ruins National Monument. Like the museum in Lubbock, this site is still being excavated and reminds us of our trip several years ago to Mesa Verde and they aren’t very far away.

After touring the ruins we drove around the area and ended up parking by the river to get caught up on some writing.

Sunday morning, May 3, we enjoyed church services with Shannon and Mariel and then got back on the road. Still lots to see and miles to cover before we land on Mingus Mountain, AZ in a few more days.

Jack Sizemore RV Museum

Monday, May 11, 2026

On April 30th, after a peaceful night in the Amarillo Visitor Information Center parking lot and another quick trip to Buckee’s next door, we drove to our next recommended destination, the Jack Sizemore RV Museum. Thanks, Dave for the recommendation. This museum was amazing! It’s a relatively small museum but has some real jewels, especially if you are an RVer. Definitely worth the time and there was no charge, although they do appreciate donations.

This motorhome was featured in the Robin William’s movie RV

This was our favorite motorcycle in the museum.

After our visit to the museum we headed west to New Mexico with a quick stop at the famous Route 66 attraction “Cadillac Ranch”.

On the way out of Amarillo we stopped at Braum’s ice cream for the first time since we worked in Muskogee in 2023.

The ten cars at Cadillac ranch.

We wouldn’t want to stay parked here very long for fear of getting spray painted.

Palo Duro Canyon

Sunday, May 10, 2036

On April 29th after saying sad see you laters, we left Lubbock bound for Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Canyon, Texas. We had heard it is a great place for hiking and Dave and Carol had given us some pointers. We arrived and checked out the visitor center which has several displays illustrating the history and geology of the canyon. It is the second largest canyon in the US. From there we drove down into the canyon to hike the most popular trail in the park – Lighthouse Trail. It is named after Lighthouse Rock (the destination) which is a 310′ tall erosion resistant spire in the canyon. The trail is about 3 miles each way and classified as “moderate”.

There is a very nice visitor center and museum as you enter the park.

A highlight of the hike was seeing this roadrunner on the trail.

After a wonderful hike we drove to Amarillo and spent the night at a Amarillo Visitor Information Center.

The Amarillo Visitor Information Center is conveniently located next to a Buckee’s.

We saw this sign in the visitor center and wondered if the streak was somehow related to the 80 mph speed limits in Texas.

Abilene and Lubbock

May7, 2026

Sunday morning April 26 we said goodbye to our sweet lakeside home at Johnson Creek and started a long drive across Texas. We made it to Clyde Travel Center, in Clyde, Texas a distance of about 340 miles. Because it was going to be very warm that night and we wanted to run the air conditioner all night, we spent the night in their RV park. It is much like the Love’s RV parks, but less expensive. The next morning we made our way to Abilene, TX, the “Official Storybook Capital of America”. It gets this designation due to its storybook character sculptures which you can find all over downtown. We had to stop to see Mr. Grinch and others such as The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who!, The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham Sam I Am, and Yertle the Turtle. It was a fun stop and a great place to stretch our legs.

From there we made it to Lubbock, Texas the home of two more dear friends, Dave and Carol. They had moved into a new house since our last visit. We did some sightseeing such as visiting Lubbock Lake Landmark, a national historic landmark. We had great barbeque and Mexican food but most importantly we sat out on their patio and just caught up with each other. A recent death of a dear friend has reminded us to not take any of these visits for granted. They are all precious. On April 29 we said our “see-you-laters” and continued northward.