We left Albuquerque at about 10 o'clock with a mild tail wind giving us a little push toward the east. The tailwinds, we've experienced, have boosted the motorhome's fuel mileage. We had another photographer's sky to begin our day. While climbing up the hill, east of town, we encountered a small section of very rough road. It was like riding on railroad ties for about 2 miles.

Dark clouds are forming ahead of us with rain streaking down to the ground. As we got closer we found that what we thought was rain turned out to be snow. The snow flakes swirled in front of us before hitting the windshield. As soon as the flakes hit they would melt.

Stormy looking clouds ahead

About 80 miles east of Albuquerque we saw a small herd of antelope; they were grazing near a small herd of cattle. It was about this time a car passed us that had, what I consider, an unusual license plate. It was an Osage Nation plate. I didn't know the Indian nations could issue their own license plates.

We left the dark weather behind at Santa Rosa, New Mexico as we drove toward clear blue skies.

Between mile marker 291 and 292, in eastern New Mexico, there is a small town by the name of Cuervo that puts questions in my mind. This town has a possible interesting story behind it. The buildings look very old with some still occupied, but many are abandoned. In some ways it looks like a ghost town. I would like to return to this place along the highway to find out the stories that have lived here.

We stopped for lunch at one of the last roadside rest areas in New Mexico. After lunch it was off to the Texas panhandle where we arrived at about 2:45 Central time.

As we drove across the panhandle, I took my usual picture of the Groom Cross while I was driving. Someday I may have to stop there and get a good picture of "The Largest Cross in the Western Hemisphere." When we arrived in Amarillo I found my way to the Flying J on the east side of town to refuel our motorhome.

Cross near Groom, Texas - Notice the motorhome in parking lot

The sun was setting behind us as we drove into Oklahoma with dark clouds ahead of us. It wasn't very long until we were driving on a wet highway with dirty mist being kicked up by the big rigs that passed us. We apparently were following a rain storm. Tonight we are supposed to have a full moon, but we may not be able to see it through the clouds.

When it was almost completely dark, I saw something next to the road in the distance. It turned out to be a deer right next to the road where the grass meets the concrete. I was concerned that it might jump in front of our motorhome as we sped toward it at 65 MPH. Fortunately, just as I was almost even with the critter, it turned and fled away from the freeway toward the fields. That was a nice relief.

We stopped in Elk City for our evening meal at Long John Silvers. While waiting for my order I talked to a woman who had been driving on I-70 outside of Denver earlier in the day when she hit black ice. She saw a big pile-up of cars and big rigs. She and her husband made it through without getting hit. They are team drivers of a tractor trailer rig. The story made the news on national TV.

As we got back on the freeway, the clouds opened up and the full moon shined through. This revealed a very thin fog across the countryside that was only visible in the moonlight. It was a strange site to see.

We arrived at the El Reno KOA at about 8:15, just in time to settle in and watch Monday Night Football. While we were watching there were occasional noise streaks across the screen. Kay asked about what might be causing the occasional distortion in the TV picture. Because we were parked in a campsite with trees overhead, I went outside to see if a tree branch was being blown against the TV antenna. When I shined a flashlight up at the antenna, FLASH - BOOM - lightning streaked through the clouds overhead. I went inside to tell Kay what I saw when we had another crash of thunder. For the next 30 minutes we had rain, wind, lightning and thunder, it was GREAT!!! It was a fun way to end the day and the football game was pretty good as well.