8:45AM MST

11 May, 1999

Hi all,

We're at Cataract Lake campground this morning, just outside of Williams, AZ. We've got a nice little spot right next to the lake, under the ponderosa pines, with an elegant view of the opposite shoreline. It's a nice little place, and for $8 you can't go wrong... ;-) Does make me wish I had my fishing tackle and an AZ license though.

We made slow progress yesterday, partialy to taking it easy on the new engine, partially because we have a habit of finding things to do. We're working on finding things to do that we can do while we drive. ;-) The drive to this point was largely uneventful, just a straight shot accross the CA desert, and up the hills to AZ. The bus has performed well, managing about 18mpg for the most part. I'd like more, but I can settle for that right now. Of course, the uphill stretches killed both our mileage and our speed... One thing you can say about the climate: cold. It was down in the mid 40's last night, which is much cooler than I had anticipated. Brr. We had a small fire to help, but it was one of those nights where one side is always cold... This morning it's starting to warm up, but it's not exactly comfortable just yet. One major problem: the percolator we got at WalMart doesn't work. One could safely say we are not pleased about this development. I finally gave up on making it work and just dumped the coffee in the pot it self. We'll do the old boil and strain thing. Yuck. Wish I'd brought my portable drip setup. Oh well...

The plan for today is to mosey on over to NM, then down through Roswell to the vicinity of Carlsbad Caverns. The original plan was to camp there and check out the caverns, but at the rate we're going I'm not sure we'll have the time. We shall see. On piece of advice when doing a trip like this: don't have a deadline to get home, it makes the trip a bit less enjoyable... :-( I guess that's it for now, we need to hit the road...