Off to the zoo tomorrow, plus a boat ride up the Pecos River. Take care, and visit us often as we move along.
We spent about 3 hours this morning in the Big Room at Carlsbad Caverns. The drive up was beautiful, as we rose into the Guadalupe Mountains. Entering the caverns is a breathtaking experience, and I felt like I was in a sanctuary the entire time. The pictures cannot begin to do justice to what we saw, but of course, we could not stop taking them. We arrived fairly early, and missed the crowd that gathered while we were walking through. Since hubby has a National Parks Senior pass, the entire day was free! We had planned to picnic, but the wind was so strong, we ate in the truck! Off to the zoo tomorrow, plus a boat ride up the Pecos River. Take care, and visit us often as we move along.
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We had a short drive from Ft. Stockton to Carlsbad, NM but it was so interesting to see all of the oil drilling activity going on. We saw lots of flares, where apparently, they burn off the natural gasses. Trucks everywhere! Tankers and trucks bringing in equipment for drilling were all over the place. This traffic definitely takes a toll on the road, since there were lots of pot holes. Our camper storage techniques were tested due to all the bumpiness, but no problems were discovered upon arrival. Our campground is nice, if a bit crowded. Since we did not call until yesterday, we have a site without sewer hookups or cable, but we do get enough channels with our digital antenna to keep hubby happy. I am actually glad we did not get a full service site, since those folks are packed in elbow to elbow, with very little space between sites. We have a bit of green around us and more space between sites, which suits me better. We are having the stereotypical temperature ranges here, with low 40's in the mornings (BRRR!) and near 80 in the afternoons. The wind is disconcerting, blowing almost constantly, and gusting to around 30 mph at times. ARE big and bright in Texas! We experienced such a beautiful sunset last night, then the stars did come out big and bright. Looking forward to another pretty sunset tonight and we will try to be ready to snap pictures tonight. Poked around in Ft. Stockton just a bit, then wandered around the campground. Seems the word of the day is kitschy... The Visitors Center in Ft. Stockton is in the old train depot. We love the scenery, including the vistas and plant life in the area. Sunset was again lovely... Take care, and visit us often as we move along.
Not the destination, and today definitely proved that to me. My heart is so full of joy today as we are realizing our dreams of traveling through this part of the country. The landscape changes we saw were breath-taking and my eyes are tired from looking! Pictures cannot do it justice, nor can my poor words, but I will give it a try anyway. We traveled through the Great Plains section of Texas, which is sparsely populated at best. We passed very few exits on the interstate, saw little traffic (seemed like mostly RVs and trucks) and almost no billboards once we got out of the San Antonio area. One bit of excitement came when hubby realized that our bedroom window on the passenger side of the trailer was flapping up and down. We stopped twice to add tape to it (RED duct tape!) and crossed our fingers that the window did not rip off. We could not access it from inside the trailer, since the bed flips up and straps on that side of the bedroom. Anyway, once we got set up in our site, he realized that I had simply not closed it down tight the last time we had it open. So no harm done, thank goodness! We kept seeing signs about high cross winds along the interstate, along with the 80 mph speed limit signs, but the wind was not bad. The campground has a wind gage widget on its website, but things were quiet when we checked in. Not so much during the night. The wind picked up around 10 PM and blew hard all night and into the morning. Apparently, the wind is a BIG deal around here, since the campground has a sign in the office that says "Is is always this windy here? No, sometimes it is worse!" Plus they have a real-time gust by gust graph on their website. Tomorrow will be a quiet day, just hanging out. Ready for a day off to rest a bit. Take care, and visit us often as we move along.
After saying goodbye[again] to our new found friends this morning we meandered over to the Mercado area of San Antonio to go through the Mexican market area. As expected, it was full of bright colors and souvenirs. We picked up a few little things, and had planned to eat at one of the two restaurants there, but decided they were both a bit pricey. Since our erstwhile neighbors had highly recommended the little Mexican place across the street from the campground, we headed back that way and ate for about one-third the price! The food was yummy and I picked up an empanada for later. After lunch and a stop back at the campground, we headed off to the San Jose' Mission. What an interesting couple of hours we spent there, learning about the life of the missionaries and Indians who lived there in the 1700's. Nothing was crowded today, which we loved and it was cool and cloudy for much of the day. I think the trip to the mission was one of my favorite parts of our stay here. We met another nice couple (who also had a beautiful dog) this evening from Delaware. After chatting for a few minutes, we realized that they had been following us for a week or so and that we are all headed to the same campground next. They were very impressed with all of the renovations we had done. They are "newbies" to camping, and he had lots of questions for hubby about what he had done underneath the trailer. Perhaps the most satisfying part of RVing to me is meeting new people along the way. We also had an interesting rig move in across the street. It is all silver and has 3 horse stalls. The truck hauling it is a semi truck cab. HUGE rig! Tomorrow is a travel day, as we head NW to Ft. Stockton. Take care, and visit us often as we move along. Although we had some black tank issues early this morning, we still managed to have a nice visit this morning with our neighbors, who ended up at the same campground as we did again. We met them in New Orleans, saw them at the rest area in Texas and I ran into them again out walking their dogs early this morning. They came by the trailer and we had a nice chat after giving them the tour. NICE folks, we exchanged contact information in case we go to Orange County, CA or they come down our way in the future. We spent a few hours in San Antonio today, starting with the Alamo. The grounds are just gorgeous and we really enjoyed all the beautiful plants there. The Alamo itself was interesting, but so, so tiny for such a big amount of history! I am not a huge history buff, but the trip was worth it to see the grounds. After the Alamo, we walked down to the River Walk area, and it was so nice and cool. We almost got cold eating lunch outside by the water. We had Texas BBQ, including brisket tacos, beef ribs and smoked chicken. Yummy! The Riverwalk boat tour is a great way to see the area, and a super great bargain, at only $6 for us senior citizens. ;-) We took a similar tour in Oklahoma City and enjoyed this one just as much. Take care, and visit us often as we move along. Saturday was laundry day and a day to relax. I even took an afternoon nap after doing my chores! We were at Hidden Lakes RV Park in Beaumont, which had great facilities. Really nice individual shower/restrooms and a nice little laundromat. Saturday is obviously the day that the permanent residents do laundry, so I was glad I got mine in early, because it stayed busy all day long. We found the rest areas in Texas along I 10 to be more like Welcome Centers, and each was quite different. When we chatted with the attendant here, I asked him why it was such a big complex, and he said, "I guess they just had some money." :-) The last rest area we stopped at was in Guadalupe County and was very different. The interstate has lots of wildflowers growing on the shoulders and in the median, unfortunately, I could not get many good pictures, but I sure enjoyed looking at them as we went by! The speed limit in many areas was 75 and boy did we get passed a lot. We got settled into our campsite in time to watch the end of the Master's coverage today, then finally made it to a Walmart to pick up some groceries and other things we needed, plus fueled up the truck and hit the ATM for some cash. Then, back home for tacos and some TV. Sightseeing on tap for tomorrow! Take care, and visit us often as we move along. Had a fairly short day today, going from New Orleans to Beaumont, TX. Unfortunately, we hit rain and it seems we will be in it for a while. Really loved the Texas Welcome Center where we stopped for lunch. We are in a nice, clean campground with nice folks running it. Thankfully, we have no plans until Monday when we reach San Antonio. I did hear from an old friend, and we may get together, which will be fun! We have been having A/C issues the past few days. The system would run pretty much constantly, unless the thermostat was set to almost 90 degrees! We finally decided that the thermostat had probably gone bad, so off to Lowe's we went today after being down in the city all day to buy a new thermostat. I was able to find step by step directions on how to install it, since the old analog thermostat had more wires than the new digital one needed. Hubby has installed it and the A/C is running [and quitting] again! Praise the Lord for handy hubby and Google! Our New Orleans experience was OK, it was not our favorite place we have ever visited. I think we are learning that we want to be where nature shows her beauty, not in big cities. The campground is TINY and totally fenced in. The hosts/owners are quite lovely folks and we have felt very welcome here and the fact that they will shuttle you down to the French Quarter has certainly made our visit bearable. No way would we want to be driving our big truck down in all the traffic and one way streets. We thoroughly enjoyed our tour today, had a great guide who was raised here and he had lots of stories to tell. We enjoyed being down on the river walk as well, but the French Quarter did not do much for us. Too dirty, smelly and crowded. We are not partying people, so I guess NOLa was not the best choice for us. I did enjoy our beignets and seafood though! We are back on the road tomorrow, heading to Beaumont, TX for a catch-up day. We need to do some laundry and catch our breath a little bit. Take care, and visit us often as we move along. We arrived in Mobile Sunday afternoon in time to go out "to the country" to see much of my extended family on my mother's side. Going "to the country" is what my aunt calls going to my grandparents old farm property where my grandparents lived throughout their marriage. My cousin and his wife hosted an Easter get together, so I was able to see lots of family. Yesterday was spent visiting as well, including time with my 100 year old great aunt. Sadly, she is getting more frail as time goes on. I see a huge difference since Sept. when we were here for the birthday celebration. Today will be another day of just visiting with her and my aunt, before we roll on to New Orleans tomorrow. Take care, and visit us often as we move along. My Aunt Elsie and cousin Lisa, and views from Grandpa's old property. I spent many happy hours roaming around there as a child! |
AuthorI am a retired High School Science teacher, married to a retired mechanic and we are super excited to begin this new phase of our lives! Archives
June 2017
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