These hills are interesting, very often cropping up in the middle of flat land and all alone, other times there may be three for four strung together.
The Organ Range, when we arrrived at Las Cruces we had a better view, the range was named due to the jagged, irregular peaks resemble the different heights of a pipe organ.
We are fascinated with the various shapes of the mountains and rock formations along our route.
The rest stops in New Mexico were designed in the Mexican adobe style, some more elaborate than others.
The ever changing landscape of desert and mountains as we head towards Las Cruces.
Fields of chillies and peppers, these must have been harvested already, most we saw were very green.
After such a good trip, we had a little bump in the road, which made us more sincere believers.
We for some strange reason today we decided that we needed to change our planned campground stop. The campground we had planned to stop at today was in the bonies, 10 miles from anywhere on a gravel road and the closest town was a nothing place. This morning we decided that we wanted to be closer to shopping and services so checked out many RV parks and decided to stay at one in the city of Las Cruces, NM, now keep in mind we never choose to stay in city parks, we always at least stay a few miles out, but for some reason we choose this park in the middle of the city. We parked, very nice campground, while setting up Woody cannot install the wheel chock on one side, and the tires are too close together (wheel chocks we have fit in between the tires). He looks under the fifth to see what is going on and lo and behold, the weld has broken on the bracket that attaches to the leaf spring under on the fifth. Wow, the tires are now sitting ¾ of an inch from each other, so who knows what would have happened after travelling another hour down the road, which we would have done if we had not changed our mind on where to stop. So now what to do, we got out our information on the fifth regarding axels and wheels, found a recommended service in Las Cruces, cool, he calls them, they do not provide mobile service, so they recommend another place, same game, no mobile service, they recommend another place, no luck there either, so he goes to the campground office to get a phone book and search the yellow pages. He relays our story to the lady in the office, she says “oh just wait I will find you a mobile service”, flips through the phone book and makes a call, viola, she hands the phone to Woody and problem solved, Clay from Weaver’s Welding will come out on Monday to repair the problem (he would have come out tomorrow but way more costly). Now we are totally amazed at the events, we are here safe and sound after deciding for some reason to stay here and we are safe thinking what could have been if we had not changed our destination today. The best case would have been us sitting on the side of the road with 2 blown tires, the worst case, gone over the edge of some canyon, gully or coulee, which we passed many today in our travels, YIKES, so that is why I say this is a time when we don’t just mouth a prayer of thanks for safe travels but really in our hearts thank the Lord that we are safe. I know we will be checking out the undercarriage more often than we have previously. Clay said the weld should not have let go, he could see the bracket breaking if we had hit something significant but the weld should not have let go and will give us a letter to that effect for warranty purposes, so we will call our dealer for warranty. There is lots to see around here and will have a couple of days to sightsee while waiting for repairs, we called the park we have booked for the winter in Tombstone, AZ so they know we will be late, no problem. So all in all life is still good.
We for some strange reason today we decided that we needed to change our planned campground stop. The campground we had planned to stop at today was in the bonies, 10 miles from anywhere on a gravel road and the closest town was a nothing place. This morning we decided that we wanted to be closer to shopping and services so checked out many RV parks and decided to stay at one in the city of Las Cruces, NM, now keep in mind we never choose to stay in city parks, we always at least stay a few miles out, but for some reason we choose this park in the middle of the city. We parked, very nice campground, while setting up Woody cannot install the wheel chock on one side, and the tires are too close together (wheel chocks we have fit in between the tires). He looks under the fifth to see what is going on and lo and behold, the weld has broken on the bracket that attaches to the leaf spring under on the fifth. Wow, the tires are now sitting ¾ of an inch from each other, so who knows what would have happened after travelling another hour down the road, which we would have done if we had not changed our mind on where to stop. So now what to do, we got out our information on the fifth regarding axels and wheels, found a recommended service in Las Cruces, cool, he calls them, they do not provide mobile service, so they recommend another place, same game, no mobile service, they recommend another place, no luck there either, so he goes to the campground office to get a phone book and search the yellow pages. He relays our story to the lady in the office, she says “oh just wait I will find you a mobile service”, flips through the phone book and makes a call, viola, she hands the phone to Woody and problem solved, Clay from Weaver’s Welding will come out on Monday to repair the problem (he would have come out tomorrow but way more costly). Now we are totally amazed at the events, we are here safe and sound after deciding for some reason to stay here and we are safe thinking what could have been if we had not changed our destination today. The best case would have been us sitting on the side of the road with 2 blown tires, the worst case, gone over the edge of some canyon, gully or coulee, which we passed many today in our travels, YIKES, so that is why I say this is a time when we don’t just mouth a prayer of thanks for safe travels but really in our hearts thank the Lord that we are safe. I know we will be checking out the undercarriage more often than we have previously. Clay said the weld should not have let go, he could see the bracket breaking if we had hit something significant but the weld should not have let go and will give us a letter to that effect for warranty purposes, so we will call our dealer for warranty. There is lots to see around here and will have a couple of days to sightsee while waiting for repairs, we called the park we have booked for the winter in Tombstone, AZ so they know we will be late, no problem. So all in all life is still good.
The broken bracket.
Once the fifth was jacked up and the wheel removed, the next challenge was getting the bracket back in place.
With a little of Woody's ingenuity the task was accomplished and the repair made. The whole process took about 2 1/2 hours and most of that time was spent preparing for the actual weld.
While the repair was being done, I sat outside with both dogs, walked them and watched the process, another one of those times I am glad to let the men do their work, and provide the coffee and encouragement! The park owner came to check on the progress of the repair as did a neighbor who supplied the wood blocks you see in the above picture, RVer's are really great people.
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