Day 3 - Destination Raton, New Mexico

We left the campground around 9:30 and got to Littlefield, TX around 10:30. We needed gas but no stations were visible on the route the GPS picked for us, so we backtracked through town to the intersection of Hwy 385 and Hwy 84. We filled up at the Valero station, turned the RV around to park it out of the way, and walked across the parking lot for some breakfast at the Golden Arches. 

When we came out, John noticed we had a flat tire. Well, crap! First the battery in the Kia goes out, and now we have to get a brand new tire fixed. In. a. small. town. on. a. Sunday! 

While I'm on the phone making arrangements for a new tire to be delivered and mounted, John and a friendly small-town resident used his (the resident's) air compressor to fill the tire to see if it would hold air. When I heard the loud pop and felt the RV list further to the side, I knew they had over inflated the tire and it blew out. In closer discussion with them, I learned that they had over inflated the good tire and now we needed two new tires.  So, now I'm back on the phone to add another tire to the order.  Sigh.

Three hours and two tires later, we're back on the road. The nice young man who was sent to install the tires made short work of it and it was obvious he had a lot of experience. Notice the really large tires in the back of his truck - he changes tires on the big 18-wheeler rigs, too.

I checked the GPS and it told me that we'd be in Raton by 6:30, so I thought that wasn't too bad what with our late start.  What I forgot was that New Mexico is on Mountain Standard Time (MST), so we would actually arrive at 7:30 Houston time.  Still not too bad as it would still be daylight and much easier to see to get everything hooked up.

We didn't count on the return of the late afternoon storms.  We watched the clouds build up across the horizon as we traveled north, hoping that we'd beat the storm.  Luckily, we didn't get hit with the rain until after we crossed the border into New Mexico.  It rained all the way to the campground, not enough to make driving overly hazardous, but certainly enough to make it uncomfortable to have to drive in it.

The Raton KOA was all set for us and for the other ten rigs lined up to check in!  Not only that, but this is the first one where I've been able to post to my blog and download from my e-mail.  Plus, they have normal water hook-ups, so now we can fill the tanks.

We got set up and connected - in the mud, I might add.  Then it was time for dinner.  I was too tired to cook, so we went to K-Bob's Steakhouse for something to eat.  Imagine my surprise to learn that they were all out of the two steaks I wanted, so I had to settle for chicken fried chicken. Not too shabby a third choice as it included the salad bar. You know how some chicken fried (fill in the blank here) where the meat inside the breading is all shrunk and you get a lot of breading with little else? The cooks at K-Bob's know how to do these right - light and crispy on the outside, moist and tender on the inside with very little shrinkage. 

Now it's back to the RV to update the blog and get some sleep. Tomorrow is another driving day to Cheyenne, Wyoming.