Onward Through Texas and New Mexico
April 3, 2023
We continued our trek across the southern portion of the United States, marveling at the sheer size of Texas and how long it takes to drive from one end to the other.
Just before leaving Loma Paloma RV Park, Julie finally got a picture of the elusive resident roadrunner that had, on several occasions, been long gone before the camera could be turned on.
It may be more evocative of a Big Foot sighting, but at least a picture was taken! 😉
The drive on Route 90 through rural western Texas was quintessentially lonely, aside from the occasional art installation.
The "ghost town" of Lobo
James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor, who starred in the movie "Giant", filmed nearby in 1955. (Apparently not much else has happened since then.)
This roadside art exhibit cost $120,000 in 2005 and includes actual Prada merchandise.
We arrived at Franklin Mountains State Park (just outside of El Paso) in the late afternoon and set up on a very unlevel site. The view was nice, but we were a little concerned to have our front jack extended over 16 inches--almost the full length of travel. The next day, the weather report called for strong winds (gusts as high as 65 mph), and we got spooked about our jack and front stabilizers possibly blowing off their precarious towers of Linx leveler blocks and random rocks. It wasn't likely to happen, but when Rick was able to significantly rock the camper by merely pushing lightly on it, Julie wanted to move. We ended up getting permission from the park to move to a small parking lot adjacent to our site. We were able to re-orient the camper so that the nose was facing uphill rather than down. This was much more stable, and we survived the wind storm just fine.
Our first night with the deck set up
After moving to the parking lot, we kept the deck stowed due to high winds.
At night we could see the lights of El Paso in the distance.
Thursday and Friday were very windy, and we ended up staying inside most of the time. This was partly because of the wind, but also because Julie had traumatized the toenail on her left big toe during our last hike at Big Bend Ranch State Park. She's not sure exactly how it happened, but a slightly too-long corner of the toenail looks to have caught or rubbed on her (new) shoe, pulling and pushing the nail against the nailbed during the final downhill portion of the hike. So, she's been keeping off her feet and wearing flipflops until it heals.
Rick spent some of this time repairing some wood paneling and cabinet door track that had become separated in our tumultuous travels.
As we looked at the weather forecast, we found that there was likely going to be high winds again on the day we were scheduled to leave (Tuesday), so we decided to bug out early on Sunday and spend a couple of days boondocking in New Mexico to minimize the time spent towing in wind.
Don't want to end up like this! (Got this pic off the internet)
Another roadrunner sighting!
Lots of billboards for all kinds of kitsch
For all the advertising, there was only one car in the parking lot. Maybe it's more busy in the summer travel season.
And more billboards
Pretty yellow wildflowers blooming
We pulled in to a free city park in Lordsburg, NM. It wasn't a half-bad place to hang out for a couple of days (and let Julie's toe continue to heal).
During the move, Rick noticed that his bike back tire was flat. So when we arrived at camp, he pulled the bike out and discovered not one, but several holes in the back tire. The culprit? Goathead stickers!
He also noticed a big spine sticking out of the front tire. After pulling out the spine, that tire promptly went flat as well. He managed to remove a bunch of spines from the tires and patched up some of the holes, but he ran out of bike tube patches. (And he didn't even check Julie's bike yet.) So now we have some patches on order to pick up in Tucson (as well as some new inner tubes, just in case). Once the new materials arrive, all the tires on both bikes will need to be closely inspected for remaining spines that may not have gone all the way through yet.
Note to self: Riding a bike in the desert can be expensive and time consuming!
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