We. Have. Arrived.
The Bama Ed Aliner RocketShip has landed in Buckeye, Arizona in the western 'burbs of Phoenix. Got in about 215pm this afternoon. Glad to finally sit my big but down after setting up in a location that I will spend several days at.
Some travel observations first:
- In west Texas between Junction and El Paso along I-10, the speed limit is 80mph in the rural areas.
- In New Mexico and Arizona rural areas, the speed limit is 75mph.
- In west Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona along I-10, you will see symmetrical rows of trees in an orchard setting. They are pistachio trees and are smaller than the similar orchards with taller trees (pecan) along the Gulf Coast region. Pistachios like dry climates and hot summers (this is the place). But Caly grows the most pistachios.
- little known fact: pistachios are Bama Ed's favorite snack at Bama baseball games.
- west of Las Crusces, NM on I-10, ALL traffic is diverted off the interstate thru a US Border Patrol Inspection Station. The serious young man in green fatigues and a bullet proof vest looked into our truck, asked if we were the only passengers, and waved us through. Serious business. And I mean EVERY vehicle had to go through the inspection station.
- lots of BNSF trains with long double stacked container cars.
- paid $2.79 for gas in El Paso. Paid $3.29 in Arizona.
Enough yada yada - I bet you want pix.
At the Arizona Welcome Center along I-10, there are snow capped mountains to the south in view.
Most BNSF trains were creeping along at low speeds but I had a hard time overtaking one train of double stacked container cars. I was running 75-77mph and it took several minutes to move overtake the westbound train from the last car to the locomotives. Small wonder since there were 5 of those bad boys pulling about 70mph.
I am in a campground in Buckeye, AZ which is an Ohio reference to the legacy of Ohio here. The Cleveland Indians (and Cincinnati Reds) share a spring training facility in the town next door towards downtown Phoenix, Goodyear AZ. (Goodyear Tire and Rubber owned cotton fields in the area in the 1940s to supply cotton for their WW2 airplane tire manufacturing division.
Actually, few campgrounds to choose from. This one (Leaf Verde) has been here under various names for decades and the suburban sprawl has grown out and surrounded it. It has full timers, seasonal (winter) campers, and a few short-timer (LT 14 days) sites like what I'm on. Sites are close together but we are near the office/laundry/bathrooms.
Convenience are just on the other side of the playground.
The air is so dry and clear here, the mountains appear closer than they really are.
The free wifi here is surprisingly fast but woefully intermittent.
I listened to the Bama baseball game this afternoon and the signal would drop for a few seconds often.
BTW, we are in Mountain Time Zone here (1 hour behind our home Central Time).
However, we are not the smallest camper around. Across from us is a small fiberglass Casita trailer.
Made a shrimp scampi for dinner tonight while the sun set to the west beyond the Aliner.
Clear moon coming up over the Casita.
Got the EZ up out to cook under and do PC stuff. Will drop it down when we go to the game tomorrow.
Cleveland starts Spring Training tomorrow against the Cincinnati Reds at their shared facility at Goodyear Ballpark in Goodyear, AZ. Game times are mostly 1pm local time but we have one night game during our stay here. Three games at Goodyear, four games at visiting stadiums.
Let the games begin.
Bama Ed
PS - oh and for
@jbrostek if he's reading, I too had a birthday this week (as he recently did in the Chit Chat thread). I turned a milestone which I don't like but instead of saying I turned sixty after being
fifty nine, my claim is that I turned
fifty ten. And next year I will turn
fifty eleven. So I can with a straight face claim that
I am still in my fifties.