Cody’s blog

Tucumcari/Route 66 KOA Journey
6299 Quay Road AL
Tucumcari, NM 88401

575-461-1841

August 4, 2021

I had meant to leave the previous KOA in Grants, NM early, but because of the time change, I was late getting started and had a long, stressful drive to Tucumcari. Mister had been getting more agitated every day in the truck, and we still had a long way to go. I gave him some CBD pet chews to try to settle him down, but it didn’t help and he continued to cry all the way, which of course got Davey complaining, too. Then Davey managed to unzip his carrier and came out and started roaming around the truck. I stopped at a rest stop after about two hours for lunch. Gave Mister another CBD chew and secured Davey’s carrier with zip ties and safety pins to hold the zippers closed. Put towels in their carriers so they’d have more covers to burrow in.

Then, soon after leaving the rest stop, we got caught up in a downpour and a huge stop-and-go traffic jam. Eventually came to a disabled semi truck in the left lane and out of the traffic jam — only to run immediately into road construction and more stop-and-go traffic. Fortunately, the kitties were calm through the traffic jams, probably because we were creeping along so slowly.

Finally arrived at the KOA around 4:30 PM. Then ran into another problem — couldn’t get the trailer off the hitch, no matter how high I jacked up the tongue. In desperation, I went to the office for some advice, and the host suggested checking the coupler, which I did, and found that, sure enough, the latch had fallen shut and was still attached to the coupler. So I finally got the trailer unhitched and leveled and set up. By then, it was nearly 6 PM and I was so exhausted, I just made myself some dinner and went to bed early. Can’t really say anything about the campground other than that it was there! I really appreciated how helpful the guy at the office was, though.

Grants KOA Journey
26 Cibola Sands Loop
PO Box 179
Grants, NM 87020

505-287-4376

August 3, 2021

Arrived at the Grants, New Mexico KOA at around 2 PM, after a drive made longer by road work on I-40. There were many slowdowns due to roadwork pretty much all the way across the country, but only a few that involved stop-and-go traffic and long delays. The cats continued to complain. One advantage of the road construction slowdowns was that Mister settled down when the truck was moving slowly and stopped yelling.

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Holbrook/Petrified Forest KOA Journey
102 Hermosa Drive
Holbrook, AZ 86025

928-524-6689

August 2, 2021

We arrived at the Holbrook KOA around 2 PM after a somewhat stressful drive from Seligman, AZ. I’d gotten the trailer hitched back up to the truck without too much trouble, just a lot of jiggling back and forth to get the trailer ball lined up under the hitch, and we hit the road. But my cat, Mister, would not shut up! He hated being in cages and the drive was stressing him out. I stopped at a truck stop to let him out and have some snacks, and he calmed down in the trailer but continued to complain once we got back in the truck. But other than that the drive was easy enough, with lots of pretty scenery.

Getting into my campsite proved to be a challenge — it was right near the camp store with a hard left turn to get into it from the entrance road. I cut the corner too tight and nearly clipped the water spigot on my first attempt. After some jiggling back and forth to get clear, I pulled all the way through and drove around the campground to come back at it from the crossroad, which was a much easier angle and I got myself parked and set up.

I was generally trying to travel 150 – 200 miles a day, which was usually around three hours on the road. Which wasn’t a lot, but since I was traveling every day, each day also included one or two hours of set up and break down and it was too exhausting and too hot to do much else. So I just kept going down the road.

The Holbrook KOA was near the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert National Park, and a short drive to the Grand Canyon, and serves as a good base camp for exploring the surrounding sights. But I didn’t take advantage of any of that, and found the campground itself to be a bit noisy and cramped. Probably would have been more comfortable in one of the outer spaces instead of right next to the camp store on the main entrance. But I was only there one night and it served its purpose.