Monday, January 12, 2026

OTRA: The Samurai Returns Home

 We'd been watching the weather since Thursday of last week, looking for a window to depart Colorado through Raton Pass and into New Mexico.

This was two days ago, Friday, as a snow storm made its way through Southern Colorado:

Obviously, we didn't leave on Friday.


Saturday morning looked promising but it still looked icy:


Sunday, it looked good and so Martha and I departed the cesspool that is the Denver metro area at 9:00 a.m. and by noon we made it through Raton Pass, with no issues I am happy to report. The roads were for the most part dry, with the occasional wet spots where the snow on the side of the road was melting. 

6 hours total to the KOA at the south end of Las Vegas, New Mexico and an early night. 

We woke to a temperature of 23° F, but since we were at a campground, we had electricity and had run the electric heater all night to stay warm and to keep the pipes from freezing inside the RV. 

About 4 hours more of driving, we are now in Elephant Butte, New Mexico, having dropped off the Suzuki Samurai, with Mike and Laura. Mike is the Samurai Guru I met years ago, and he will be taken care of it from this point on. 

Tomorrow we head further south and west into Arizona.

2 comments:

RichardM said...

A little slow here. It took me a bit to figure out “OTRA”.

redlegsrides said...

Someday, RichardM, I'll get a personalized license plate with that.