Georgia to New Mexico - Part 6, The End

Today is the day we reach our goal.  We should arrive at Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, about seven miles outside of Roswell, NM,  a little after lunch.  It has been a flawless trip so far.  We have slipped past the worst of the weather and have not had the slightest hint of a mechanical problem.  Until that is, this morning.

We did all the normal prep work for hitching up and were getting the truck lined up to hook up for the short trip to the dump station.  Eased back with the king pin slipping into the jaws of the hitch but instead of the familiar "clunk" of the jaws locking around the king pin, there was nothing.  Several more tries later and it was time to take a different approach.  The Binkley hitch head was taken off the towers and turned upside down to inspect the inner workings, which are really simple.  

The Binkley head shown with the jaws in their closed and locked position, which mine would not do.

This is the head mounted on the air spring towers in my hitch setup.

There was no obvious problem aside from a little dryness and very minor corrosion.  A bunch of WD-40 and bearing grease later the head was put back on the towers and given another try.  This time the desired clunk was achieved and a visual inspection showed the jaws to be fully wrapped around the king pin and locked.  A couple hours later than we planned, we were off.

Again, the road, Highway 380, was a dream.  Mostly very smooth with little traffic and long straight stretches.  Another very comfortable day of driving/towing and great scenery if you like the desert.  This region of Texas and New Mexico is where the Chihuahua Desert transitions to the short grass prairie.  There is a strong mix of cacti and yucca against prairie grasses and irrigated farms with mountains in the distant west.

 I couldn't get a map image to display directly in this blog so I have included this link.  It will open in a separate window and is interactive.  You can explore the the area.   Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge Map 

We knew that once we got to Roswell we would have to make a right turn and go north a few miles to get to the road that would take us to the refuge.  But we were surprised that our turn was onto Main Street.  Here we are, sixty feet long, thirteen and a half feet tall and wide as an eighteen-wheeler getting routed down a narrow-lane, busy, downtown street.  But it was only seconds before it was obvious that this was normal.  There were RV's everywhere of all shapes and sizes coming and going on this road.  We fit right in.

Bustling downtown Roswell, Main Street.
Check out the street light globe.
After a slow crawl up Main Street we reached the northern most stop light and turned east onto Pine Lodge Road.  This road is about five miles of rough, uneven asphalt with a not-so-well defined edge.  Nowhere near as bad as I-20 through Shreveport but bad enough to mention.  Crossing into the refuge was a marked improvement in road conditions and we glided into the residence section a couple hours before 4:00 pm quitting time.

We have arrived for our Spring volunteer gig.
The refuge has four RV pads for volunteers.  At the time of our arrival two of them were occupied by the pair of outgoing volunteers.  Both of these volunteers were on what would be called less than conventional RV pads as one of them was blocked in on three sides by buildings and the other was up against the outside wall of those same buildings. 
At first blush this doesn't appear to be a very attractive campsite.
But wind is a big deal here, this space would provide a little shelter.
The other two were concrete pads widely spaced and staggered, out in the open but they had one weird feature, the hook-ups were positioned in a way that would have RV's facing in opposite directions.  But on second thought this was a pretty good idea on the refuges part.  Both RV's entrance doors would be looking out onto a vast view.  Since both pads were empty we had our choice of which one we wanted.  Knowing that this was going to be a place with lots of wind I chose the pad that put my entrance door on the leeward side of the prevailing direction.


This gave us some protection from the brunt of the wind while getting in and out of the camper and view that looked to the east out over the marshes and distant bluffs.

Desert floor, alkaline marshes and red bluffs right out our window.
Not to worry about our co-volunteers.  While their door may face the wind, their view to the west is top-drawer.
Everything past the stack of pipe is beautiful
We are glad to be somewhere that we will be around for more than one night.  Our co-volunteers will arrive tomorrow and then we will all go through orientation/training together.  We know that we will be working three days a week.  We just don't know which three yet.

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