Monday. Got on the road early to head through El Paso on our way to Las Cruces. Going to have a short travel day and check in on work and do some laundry. Funny thing; you know how when you’re driving down the interstate and you get to a town, the speed limit always goes down? If the speed limit is 65, it will generally slow to 60 or 55 until you get out of town. Well, driving through Van Horn on the interstate, the speed limit is 80! Of course we only drive 65 regardless. The first thing that happens driving west from Van Horn is we’re now in the same time zone as our children. Called up the weather forecast and saw high wind warnings, 60mph gusts at Las Cruces expected on Tuesday. Another change in plans. Decided it would be better to cover more miles on Monday and hunker down on Tuesday. Called Rusty’s RV Ranch just outside Rodeo, New Mexico and she said she had room for us a day early, so that was our new plan. West on Interstate 10. A stop for lunch and provisioning at Deming. Continuing West on Interstate 10, we got within 15 miles of our exit (30 miles from our destination) when suddenly all traffic was diverted off the freeway. No explanation, must have been an accident or something, but the alternate route was well marked, with police moving everyone along at every intersection, and blocking any wrong turns. Where we live in the Valley, it’s not unusual to get shunted off the freeway and right back on at the next ramp. The alternate route headed off the wrong direction, not a good sign, back to the east from whence we came. Then it turned north. Then it just went on. And on. And on. With all of the truck, RV, and car traffic that would have been on the freeway if it could. North-west. The wrong direction for us. Judy called the highway patrol. There was a dangerous dust storm, zero visibility, on the interstate ahead of us at San Simon, Arizona, so they closed it, and sent us on a Hundred Fifteen Mile detour! We followed the scenic 2 lane highway 70 from Lordsburg, to Duncan, Solomon, and Safford. We finally got to turn south, back toward the freeway, on Highway 191. By then though, it was getting late, and almost a little bit cranky. The interstate was still closed, so even when we got back to it, we wouldn’t be able to go east to New Mexico where we were supposed to be. Another nother change in plans. Judy saved the day when we saw the sign for a State Park we’ve never been to and called them just before we got to the turn. They had room for us! We made the turn and set up for the night in a delightful little park with a lake. 2017 Arizona Trip Map We’re sheltered here in the foothills. A very calm comfortable evening. Saw a whole bunch of Common Mergansers. Tomorrow, assuming the interstate is back open, we only have another 95 miles to go to get back to where we meant to be tonight.
Change in plans
Sunday. Travel day. Our first interstate day. Straight down the road 260 miles past Sonora, Ozona, Fort Stockton and Balmorhea. We meant to spend the night at Balmorhea State Park, the place with the giant freshwater spring fed pool. (The spring is giant, and so is the pool.) But the State Park is full today; no room for us, so we drove on to the Van Horn KOA, another 68 miles. 
2017 Arizona Trip Map Suddenly we’re at 4,000 feet elevation, with a desert humidity of 11%! We have experienced a lot already this trip. We’ve been hot, we’ve been cold, we’ve been dry, and now we’re high! Good cell and internet. The first day we’ve been back in touch. We can catch up on trip reports and everything else. Saw two violet-green swallows.
2017 Arizona Trip Map Suddenly we’re at 4,000 feet elevation, with a desert humidity of 11%! We have experienced a lot already this trip. We’ve been hot, we’ve been cold, we’ve been dry, and now we’re high! Good cell and internet. The first day we’ve been back in touch. We can catch up on trip reports and everything else. Saw two violet-green swallows. Saturday, MOTS
More of the same. 
There is a lot to like about Llano. More walking trails than a person can hike in a few days. Four different bird blinds. Some of the birds are the same in every blind, like black-throated sparrows, they’re everywhere, but each blind is in slightly different habitat, and so attracts a few different birds. We have to visit each blind every visit; some more than once. Texas Hill Country scenery.
Some of it is even for sale.
Here is the listing. http://www.landandfarm.com/property/Whitetail_Springs_Ranch-2768774/ It’s got some nice photos of the property. Saw Pine Siskins and Spotted Towhees.
There is a lot to like about Llano. More walking trails than a person can hike in a few days. Four different bird blinds. Some of the birds are the same in every blind, like black-throated sparrows, they’re everywhere, but each blind is in slightly different habitat, and so attracts a few different birds. We have to visit each blind every visit; some more than once. Texas Hill Country scenery. Some of it is even for sale. Here is the listing. http://www.landandfarm.com/property/Whitetail_Springs_Ranch-2768774/ It’s got some nice photos of the property. Saw Pine Siskins and Spotted Towhees. Day Friday
How many cities did we drive through today? We turned left out of Lost Maples, drove a scenic road. Turned left at a highway intersection, turned right at the next highway intersection, and turned left when we hit the interstate. We drove 75 miles, and the first city we encountered was Junction. Junction, Texas. Our stop for the night. South Llano River State Park. 2017 Arizona Trip Map 
We spent some time looking for WiFi in town. Found a connection at the McDonalds, but that only worked for the computer. That’s a big deal, getting to catch up on email, but we want data on the telephone too, and that didn’t work. Not that life totally sucks without internet. It was so cold here this morning there was frost! We’ll spend the weekend here anyway. J Saw Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jays and Dark-eyed Juncos.
We spent some time looking for WiFi in town. Found a connection at the McDonalds, but that only worked for the computer. That’s a big deal, getting to catch up on email, but we want data on the telephone too, and that didn’t work. Not that life totally sucks without internet. It was so cold here this morning there was frost! We’ll spend the weekend here anyway. J Saw Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jays and Dark-eyed Juncos. Day III
No Verizon. The Camp Wi-Fi works for the news. We don’t really need the news. It doesn’t work for email. Not only does lack of Wi-Fi and cell service matter for work and email, now it matters for birding too. It never did before, but now we have digital tools. With the eBird app, we can make contemporaneous entries on our phone to record what birds we’re seeing right as we’re seeing them. If we’re not sure what bird we’re looking at, or what birds we should expect to see, we have diagnostic tools right at our fingertips when we have Wi-Fi or cell service; and we have Wi-Fi and cell service practically everywhere we go. Something we never had for all our lives, and now constant contact matters more and more every year. We have Alexa at home; the Amazon Echo, home helper. Every question or request has to start with “Alexa” to alert the machine to pay attention to what’s coming next. Want to guess how many times Alexa’s name has been called out already this trip? 
Saw Rufous-crowned sparrows.
Saw Rufous-crowned sparrows.