Has Anybody Seen My Little Dog Toto???

We were warned.  We can't say we weren't warned.  We pulled into a neat little place named, "Rusty's RV Ranch" last night and immediately headed out for some more bird watching.  We were right next to some prime birding areas in the Chiricahua Mountain range.  Now the wind was blowing up a gale when we arrived and we knew there was a big storm headed our way but, I must say, until you have been blown up against your rig just trying to unhook the potty hose, you haven't really defined BIG storm.

Around 3 o'clock this morning, Barry and I were laying awake in the rig "discussing" whether we should pull in the sides or just wait and see if this 36' behemoth really could fly... I even got out my trusty flashlight and shined it at Wick's rig to see if they were "buttoned-up" -- they weren't.   So, we listened to the howling and shrieking for about 20 more minutes before Barry, leaps from the bed in his undies and declares, "I don't care WHAT Wick and Gwen are doing!  I'm pulling in the sides!  This is freakin' scary!!!" .....In go the sides......

We woke in the morning and braved a ferocious blow to walk (well, more like slog) our way to the camp office to see if they had any road advisory reports.  This is how it looked:

After a brief powwow (is that politically correct?)  - we raced around camp trying to get the rigs unhooked to see if we could make it to our next stop in Las Cruces, New Mexico.   You only had to look at the sky to know that it was going to be dicey at best.

We did okay making our way along Arizona 80 although the winds were something else.  It was when we drove past the D.O.T. vehicles with their revolving warning lights to get on Interstate 10 that things got really interesting....

Potty stops were fraught with peril.  The door served as sail every time it was opened and took all our strength to close.  You could talk but only if you stood on the leeward side of the islands that were our parked rigs.  You didn't dare smile because you were going to get a non-professional teeth polishing and it was worse than a teenage make-out session on the beach (not that I know about that) for sand getting into places that can't even be mentioned...just sayin'.

Window channels FILLED with gritty, sandy dirt!

It got darker and darker with less and less visibility and but we finally arrived in Las Cruces where we are hunkered down for the night like a bunch of escapes from a remake of The Wizard of OZ.  Wish us luck tomorrow...