An Unexpected Free Day

We had originally planned to leave here today for Santa Fe.  We have been delayed by the wind.  With his regular check of the weather, Gene saw the “wind warning” (not a wind advisory, but a warning) before we hitched up this morning.  With weather.com advising against traveling along north-south routes, we decided it was in our best interest to stay right where we are until this wind storm passes by.  Wind gusts of 60 mph against a high profile 5th wheel are beyond our definitions of fun and adventure.  The wind in Roswell is not supposed to be quite as bad as in open areas and we are somewhat protected here since the campground is essentially “in town”.  It is certainly a whole lot better than being out on the open desert like we were at Carlsbad.

Peanut enjoyed his free day

So, what to do with this unexpected free day?  First order of business was to sip coffee a little longer than we would have if we were trying to hit the road early for a 200-mile day.  The next thing, of course, was to extend our stay at this campground.  With the number of people who pulled in last night we felt we were pretty lucky to get a spot for another night.  This is a great campground to hole up for an extra day.  We have super cable TV, great, free WiFi, and so many bars on the cell phone I can’t count them all.

Gene took advantage of the extra time to finish his work on the bank statements and I have flopped back and forth between knitting, reading, and photographing and transcribing my journal from 1999.  Having battled the wind for 3 months now, we were not interested in going “out” for anything.  I have also spent some time on the phone with relatives catching up on family gossip.

I also had the opportunity to practice my barbering skills this afternoon with Gene’s windblown hair.  I’m always a little nervous after the cutting until he has had a shower.  Only when he emerges from the bathroom with his silver locks freshly washed and combed do I breathe a sigh of relief (or run for cover as the case may be).

Although it has been a productive day, it has also been very relaxing.

Our weather forecast predicts the wind to die down this evening.  We should resume our trek northward to Santa Fe tomorrow.