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30 June 2013

Lost Alaskan RV Park. We stopped at Alpine, Texas. It was at the foothills of the Davis Mountains. It is a quaint small town that had a baseball team that competed with other teams from around the State. It is a jumping off place for all the tourist towns in the area and to the series of parks in Big Bend along the Rio Grande River. It remains 15-20 degrees cooler here than further south because of the elevation. Even though there are huge ranches around, it seems to be very tourist dependant.

1 July 2013

We continued our loop towards the south part of Texas without going to Big Bend. With the record heat we thought it best to start heading north again. The trip was one of those stretches where there was nothing by highway and arid open range and always mountains far in the horizon at a distance. It makes you think about the pioneers who settled this land long ago, and before that the native tribes that lived here before recorded history. We passed a sign that said “No Services for the next 76 miles”. Those services were at a crossing of two farm routes, at 96 miles we arrived at the next town, Van Horn. We stopped in Van Horn at Mountain View RV Park. It was drizzling on and off for a couple hours during the drive, and the temperature remained no more than 70 degrees, not quite the norm in these parts we were told. Kim and I decided Van Horn really wouldn’t exist if I-10 didn’t run through here. It is two miles long and two blocks wide. We are enjoying the weather; it has cleared up completely, but still cool and breezy. The sky is as clear as a bell and I expect to see the Milky Way again tonight. The last few days I’ve been lucky enough to be outside in the evening when the International Space Station transited our area. We went to dinner at a place called Chuys Mexican Restaurant, hoping it was the same as the Chuy’s we went to in Austin. The outside motif was old west, Route 66 and it looked inviting. We had dinner, it was okay, but nothing to write home about. I did have a McDonalds smoothie, and that was delicious. There were some Gambels Quail running around the park, they are beautiful birds.

2 July 2013 El Paso Texas

The distance between any size towns is getting greater. From Van Horn we travelled to El Paso, the sister city of Juarez Mexico. If it wasn’t for the small river between them it would all be one place. El Paso is quite a large city, very dry and hot. The traffic wasn’t as bad as Austin, but it had its stop and go. We stayed in an RV park right in the center of the city. It was more of an overnight parking place with water and electric. We had the new tires rotated and balanced at Sam’s club. We had to go shopping anyway, so killed two birds with one stone. We went to dinner at La Terraza a recommendation from a local, and it was good, but we’re still looking to have some of the amazing New Mexican food with green and red chili.

K-My friend Helen was right. El Paso is the armpit of the southwest. No need to go here my friends!

3-4 July 2013 Oliver Lee State Park, Alamogordo, New Mexico

We were worried about having a place over the 4^th of July weekend, so we headed to Oliver Lee Memorial State Park just outside of Alamogordo, New Mexico. The park is located right up next to the Sacramento Mountains. It is definitely Chihuahua desert territory. The weather was hot, and only two or three other campers were here. There was a very nice desert garden at the interpretive center, with humming birds and others flying around. Jack rabbits were running through the campground. We decided to hike up the trail of Dog Canyon in the late afternoon, since the temperature had decreased. We were rewarded with some great views of the broad valley below. You could see the long line of bright white which was the White Sands National Monument, and looking further south, large hangars with a huge dirigible. Even further south, about 70 miles you can see the pass from El Paso. Directly across were the San Andres Mountains.