Melissa & Matt's Eclipse Trips

Gearing up for Iceland next year! We have accommodations booked in Reykjavik, but we’ll plan to head out to the end of the Snæfellsjökuls peninsula for eclipse day. Have a capable 4x4 rented as well:

Last leg - heading home from West Seneca, NY to New Hampshire.

Geodized clam shell

We’re staying at our friends Vince & Sandra’s place in Ohio for a few days. Camping in the driveway.

Now that I’ve had a full day to think about it, I can confidently say that Oklahoma has the least automated and most backward toll system in the nation.

All settled in at Tuscan Hills Winery in Effingham Illinois.

Came across this in a shop in Tulsa. Not nearly as cool as some of the crazy Japanese flavors (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_Kats_in_Japan), but it’s a start.

Stayed at a drive-thru restaurant on historic Rt 66 last night. Part of Harvest Hosts:

The Manzano Mountains are one of the easternmost north-south running ranges in this part of New Mexico. So, once you move east from there, it’s pretty much Great Plains from here across Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, etc. In other words, the next mountain range east of the Manzanos’s is the Appalachians. Put another way, our property, in the Manzano foothills, is right on the dividing line between the Mountain West and the Great Plains.

Bushwhacked on the property today, scouting out for a driveway route. I think we found some good options. Also had a machete with me on this trip. Huge difference getting past all those dead juniper bushes.

The second item is the kitchen side slide out. Working fine in Texas, failed to open in New Mexico. Took it all apart and found a broken plastic “shoe” that engages the track. Had to go to three different RV dealers in Albuquerque but LaMesa RV not only had the part, they just gave me two of them for free. I don’t know too many people living in Albuquerque and shopping for an RV, but go there.

We’re camped in Cedar Crest, NM, just north of our property and just over Sandia mountain from Albuquerque. Had a few maintenance items to attend to… First, we got a flat tire on the trailer at the last campsite in Uvalde. It was fine on the road, but fully flat after we’d been parked for a while. I’m guessing nail or barbed wire. We dropped it off at a local Walmart for repairs while we were doing the eclipse, but they didn’t fix it and also didn’t call to say they didn’t fix it. Thank you Walmart. Goodyear dealer in Albuquerque replaced it.

Staying the night at a vineyard in Brownfield, Texas. Over to New Mexico tomorrow.