December 18th

Our last day in Center Point we spent a few hours in the indoor hot tub and then flew the drone for some video of the campground.

Friday we left for Schertz. It was a windy day so I only drove 60 mph while the speed limit was 75. Any faster and the crosswind made it hard to control the rig. We arrived in Schertz at 11:10 am. Before we parked the RV in the driveway, we walked in on mom and asked if she wanted to go to lunch. Needless to say, she was surprised since she wasn't expecting us for a few more days. Marjorie was at the gym at the time.

When she got home we did go to lunch, then thru the car wash, as the car looked white from all the caliche that had been accumulating on it. Finally we drove to U-break iFix to have my laptop screen replaced. It was shattered about 4 weeks ago, and they were gracious enough to order the screen ahead of my appointment, which is not the norm. It took about 20 minutes to replace, and it is now back in action.

We had a strong storm this morning, with reports of hail up to 3/4" in size. Fortunately the hail missed our area. I spent the morning andpartof early afternoon working on a partial list of technology corrections for Marjorie. The rest of today and tomorrow will be relaxation days, so I probably won't have an update til Monday.

Today my son Chukk is 43 years old! Happy birthday, Chukk!

Pecos to Center Point

Yesterday we asked for and got a late checkout. We went to the West of Pecos Museum and spent a little going through the 50 rooms. The museum was originally the Orient Hotel and was built in 1896 of Pecos Valley red sandstone. It was a hotel from 1904 to 1946, across the street from the only crossing of the Pecos River for 60 miles in either direction, which made an ideal location for travelers on stagecoaches to stop and rest. Rooms rented for 25 cents a night with up to 3 people in a bed. Stabling of horses was free. After the hotel closed it became the museum. 

Some of the rooms were occupied by the town doctor (4 rooms), the barber (2 rooms), a church, and a bar, the original room in the hotel. There was a gunfight here and the original bullet holes are still in the wall.

Now the rooms contain memorabilia of the history of Pecos and the surrounding towns. They include the Texas Rangers, Sheriff's posses, Buffalo soldiers, gunslingers, and bank robbers. Local organizations like the Freemasons, International Organization of Odd Fellows, army and airforce posts, Hispanic organizations, Native American groups, womens organizations, local ranches and prominent personages that all made up the history of the area.

Afterward we returned to the RV Park, finished getting ready to depart and left at 11:27 am. We then drove 313 miles insuring cross winds and more beautiful scenery to Center Point, 63 miles northwest of San Antonio. Our GPS had us turn on a "road" which was used to be a road to our new RV Park, but is now an unused path leading to nowhere except a vacated barn in a field. We turned into it between two posts and realized it was wrong, but the path was too narrow to do anything but go forward, in the process getting the sides of the RV scratched by tree branches. We proceeded to the end, drove around the barn thru dips in the field, and continued in the direction we were going before we turned. Lo and behold there was a sign for the RV Park 1/2 mile further down the road.

We arrived after hours, at 5:20 pm (fuel stop included). The park has wide level sites, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, and an indoor hot tub,all alongside the Guadalupe River where campers go tubing in the summer. I was too tired to write anything yesterday and went to bed early.

Today we went to breakfast, The Coming King Sculpture Garden, had lunch, went to Lowes and Harbor Freight, and Nancy did some laundry. As we will be visiting with Mom (96 years young in 6 days) and Marjorie soon, and we've been traveling all over the country, we also had Covid-19 tests (negative).

Not much on the schedule for tomorrow and this is a long blog, so I will end it here.

Pecos - 2

Today we drove to Wink, TX, about 40 miles Northeast of Pecos to visit a one-room museum about this guy... any ideas who he is? This is his entry in the Wink High School yearbook of 1954.

and this picture might give you more than a hint...

If you haven't figured it out, the guy was Roy Orbison, 1936-1988. By the way, Nancy is wearing a real pair of Roy's glasses. Wow, are they thick!

The museum is all about Roy, from his elementary school life forward. He was actually born in Vernon, TX, but his family moved to Wink (a shortened name of Winkler County, where it is located) since his father was an oilfield worker. He was the graphic artist for his yearbook and started a group called the Wink Westerners while in high school with some friends who remained with him after he became famous. They later renamed themselves the Teen Kings and that is the group that first recorded with him on the famous Sun Record label in Memphis, Tn.

The museum is staffed by an alternating group of 5 volunteer women. We called before we left for the museum to make sure someone would be able to open the museum. Barbara was our host, and she gave us a lot of interesting information about Roy and his life. We spent 1-1/2 hours there and then drove home.

We will be doing a late departure tomorrow so that we can spend an hour or so at The West of the Pecos museum before heading to Kerrville. 

Pecos, Tx

Park. We left Carlsbad at 10 am MST, and arrived at 1:10 pm CST in Pecos. Kings Road is a HUGE RV park. The office is open 24/7, it is 300 sites, more or less, and every one is covered so the RVs are not in the sun. It has a gym, swimming pool (not in season now), and they provide recommendations for nearby eateries and RV service.

One of the things we planned to see here was The West of Pecos Museum, which has 50 rooms of West Texas memorabilia and history. We planned to go Sunday  or Monday, and as is our luck, they don't open until 10 am Tuesday,  the day we are leaving. I'm sure there are other things to do here (hopefully) so we'll keep you informed. 

Relaxation Day

Our plans changed this morning. We were awakened last night with 35 mph winds, and very frequent gusts of 55 mph that had the rv shaking and rocking like it was at a 60's sock hop. These continued all day until between  4 pm and 5 pm.  We knew this was coming and despite temperatures in the low 60s we decided to forego Sitting Bull Falls and stay home.

We read, ate our meals, and watched TV. We discussed and agreed to modify our travel plans. Instead of going to Marfa, which would take us south, then southwest, we are going to Pecos, Texas, which is southeast of Carlsbad and more in the direction of Schertz, which is our holiday destination. Marfa would have put us between two of our destinations, Big Bend National Park,  and MacDonald  Observatory near Fort Davis in the Davis mountains of West Texas,  but our time there would not have coincided with available observatory sky viewings. So we will add them to a future trip. It cost us our camping fees in Marfa which were paid in full and due to their reservation policy was non-refundable. But our route now is more in line with our original plans. 

The winds have died and should be only 6-8 mph tomorrow, much more suitable to driving. The sky is cloudless tonight and it seems that we can reach up and touch the constellations.  The temp will be 33 tonight and a more suitable 52 degrees during our drive, which will only be 2 hours.

The Caverns

Today we went to the caverns. We had made reservations last week, which are required. We had 11:30 reservations which meant we could arrive between then and one hour later. Any later than that and we wouldn't be allowed in. Our National Parks pass saved us the entry fee, $30. 

Nancy was on her electric scooter and we took the elevator down 750 feet to the Big Room. I am SO proud of her! She is claustrophobic, but down she went for the one and a half mile self-guided tour. We took dozens of pictures of the formations, then we were done. An hour and twenty minutes, and Nancy was fine during the entire tour.

When we left, we drove down a one-way trail that was 9.5 miles long, with a maximum speed of 15 mph, and at times 5 mph. We drove through canyons, along ridges and valleys, but again, the scenery was gorgeous. It took us 1-1/2 hours to reach the end of the trail.

Afterwards, we came home and let the dogs out. We drove back into town and had BBQ for dinner, then returned and ended our travels for the day.

Tomorrow we are heading for Sitting Bull Falls. 

Roswell, NM

Today we drove to Roswell, where in 1948 an UFO exploded and crashed 50 miles north. It created a defense department incident for many years, and was the basis for many movies, tv shows, and books.

It was a long 60-some mile trip north to Roswell, in the Permian Basin, in the Chihuahuan desert. The basin extends from New Mexico across Central Texas,  and is the home of most of Texas' oil wells. We stopped at IHOP in Artesia, 20 or so miles north of here.. Most of the towns, like Artesia, Roswell, Odessa and Midland owe their existences to the oil industry.

We spent some time at the International UFO Museum and Research Center learning the history of the UFO crash, but as far as a research center, even a museum, it was a dud. Most of the stores across the street and around the block sell "alien" t-shirts and souvenirs, but otherwise Roswell is a small city owing to their existence and a former Army Aviation Training Field, remade into Walker Air Force Base until 1967.

We then left Roswell and returned to the campground. Tomorrow we will be getting wind gusts of 35-40 mph, and Friday up to 50 mph. Fortunately the winds are expected to be a more normal  15-20 mph on Saturday,  when we leave here.

Carlsbad, NM

We left El Paso this morning and three and a third hours later we arrived at our next site, which we thought was in Carlsbad, but instead was 16-18 miles north, in a place called Seven Rivers, even though the campground is named the Carlsbad KOA. Unfortunately that puts us 55 minutes NORTH of the caverns.

We drove along the Texas Mountain Trail, which had us cross over the Guadalupe  Mountains and Guadalupe Mountains National Park, ascending to 6280 feet, then into the Chihuahuan Desert. It was 73 degrees when we arrived and will be going down to 34 degrees tonight.

After setting up the RV we drove back to Carlsbad for dinner and are now watching Designated Survivor, season 2, for the 3rd time thru the years. The campground is situated in an area where we have very good wifi signal; ours, not theirs. I think its the strongest wifi we've had on this trip.

We are about an hour or so south of Roswell so tomorrow I think we'll head there to see all the alien kitsch. Thursday we have a reservation for the caverns via the Big Room Entrance so that Nancy can use her electric scooter and an elevator to descend into it. The other entrance, the Natural Entrance route, is not wheelchair/scooter accessible and is too steep for her to go down. It is a 1.25 mile, 750 foot descent down switchbacks into the cave.

Friday we may visit Sitting Bull Falls, a 150 foot waterfall. Aside from that,  we don't know what we will be doing. Saturday we will be heading back to Texas where we will stop in Marfa for a few days.

El Paso

Thursday we took the pups to Banfield and they wouldn't take them. Here in El Paso apparently there are no walk-ins, only appointments. They couldn't be seen until December 20th, so we left.

Next we went to Wal-mart to pick up Nancy's prescription. On Wednesday the doctor had called in her prescription,  on Thursday we waited in line for 40 minutes to pick it up, only to be told Nancy wasn't in their computer (she IS in every other Walmart system, so why not this one?). So her information was added to THIS computer system, and then we were told it wouldn't be ready until Friday . We stopped at What-a-burger for lunch, then came home.

Friday I woke up with a killer headache and stayed in bed until after noon. Even with the headache we picked up Nancy's prescription, only a 15 minute wait this time. Then came home and did nothing.

Tonight we went to Cattleman's Steakhouse at Indian Cliff Ranch, which is about 15 miles east and 5 miles north of our campground. It is a 430 acre ranch situated in the Chihuahuan desert with a small zoo; partridges, ptarmigans, golden pheasants, fancy ducks, peacocks, long-horned sheep, bison, etc. 

Oh yeah, and fantastic food. We both had shrimp and filet mignon, baked potatoes with butter, sour cream with chives (Mark) and bacon chips (Nancy), sweet mushrooms, pineapple coleslaw, spicy ranch beans, bread and butter,  apple pie ala mode, and drinks, and it was considerably less expensive than that "ritzy" place in Truth or Consequences  whose food was tasteless and chewy. Cattleman's food was delicious! 

Here are snapshots of the ranch 

and the sky as we drove home

TorC and El Paso

Monday in TorC we drove around, scouted a few new RV parks for future trips, and visited Elephant Butte, a city next to a reservoir of the same name. The reservoir was created by a day on the Rio Grande and named for, naturally, a butte they say looks like a reclining elephant. But the dams explain the lack of any water in the Rio Grande to the south which our route to El Paso crisscrossed several times. We got back to our site and decided to forego another hot tub experience. They were very nice. Here are a few daylight pictures of those we were in.

Yesterday we moved to Mission RV Park on the east side of El Paso, a short 160 miles from TorC. The landscape in New Mexico is so beautiful! Then we hit the traffic in El Paso. Imagine I-295 in rush hour, then at least double it. But we made it to our site easily, set up, then did something we hadn't done yet on this trip: we went grocery shopping. We stocked up, got a prescription renewal phoned in to Walmart for Nancy, then had dinner at Peter Piper Pizza. Then we relaxed for the evening.

Today was a maintenance day for Nancy. She did the laundry, gave Cocoa a bath and me a much needed haircut, while I did ... well, nothing in comparison. The cable here doesn't seem to work, the wifi is intermittent at best, so we connected to the satellite dish. Lots of channels. That is, if you like shopping channels. We have maybe 5 TV channels to choose from. But we can get Netflix over the dish, so that helps a little.

Tomorrow is another day. We'll do something. I know you can't wait to find out what that will be, and neither can we.