Moving East

Tomorrow we start on the trek home. New Mexico is a nice place that we hope to see more of someday. On Wednesday we went to Roswell. Not sure what I expected but Roswell is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Roswell came to my attention quite a few years ago. Some of you might remember back in the late 40's on a ranch 75 miles outside Roswell something crashed in the desert. The descriptions given by the rancher at the time are very strange. Just before midnight July 4 1947 he heard a loud noise, different from thunder.The next day he discovers a debris field 300 yards wide and 3/4 of a mile long. The story has developed from there with the military declaring it was nothing more than a weather balloon. I remember my mother telling me she believed there certainly could be aliens visiting us. The universe is so large that almost anything could be out there and probably is. Whether or not they want to visit us is the question.

 Happy belated St. Patty's day. We had a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner here at The Ranch and today the folks here sang Happy Trails To You and wished us a safe journey. The Ranch is one of the friendliest Escapee parks we have visited. It does give new meaning to the phrase "middle of nowhere". It's a nice middle of nowhere. It's the people that make the difference.The plan is to spend a day or two in Abilene then on to Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas.
Be well. Talk to later.

Pat and Carolyn

Weather report

After several days of bright blue sky and warm temps (some days over 80F) we now have rain. The forecast says possibly snow showers and a little north of here I-40 near Albuquerque was closed due to snow.  We are presently in New Mexico at an Escapee Park between Carlsbad and Roswell called The Ranch. They call themselves the friendliest park in the system and so far I'd say they are right. They even ring a brass bell when a new arrival comes  into the park so nearby people can come over to greet you. The Escapee system has two kinds of parks, the Rainbow Parks and Co-Op parks. The Ranch is one of the latter. All the sites in the park are owned by individuals and when you visit you get to stay on a site where the owner is absent. I'd say about 20% of the sites are empty.

Yesterday, on the advice of one of our neighbours we drove into The Lincoln National Forest to Sitting Bull Falls. It turned out to be quite a nice place although a longish drive. Then the local camp host told us about a little town another 20 miles into the forest where a restaurant has a very popular smorgasbord every Sunday. So off we went and he was right, a great meal. Somehow the drive out seemed shorter and the scenery was spectacular.




Before coming here we spent a few days in Pecos, Texas at an Escapee Rainbow Park. It is not much of a park. Just a big gravel lot with RV's crammed together. OK for overnight I guess. It didn't help that there was a police officer shot while serving a warrant to a resident of the park. We were away for the day so we missed everything. Seems there was a standoff with the local swat team and the park was evacuated for several hours. And we missed it all.
Tomorrow we are traveling to Roswell the home of Area 51 and the alien museum. More later.

Hope all is well with you.

Pat and Carolyn

Fort Davis, Texas

We are currently sitting in our trailer with a fairly strong wind storm happening outside. The sky is blue and sunny but the wind is fierce. We plan on moving on to Pecos Tex. tomorrow but there is a small problem with our truck. The left front wheel bearing is failing and the new part will not be here til 9am tomorrow. The mechanic says we will be on our way by 11am but I guess we'll see. I'm just glad we found it here rather than on the road.

Yesterday we went on a scenic drive on a winding twisting  big loop that took us through some very pretty countryside. It also brought us to the McDonald Observatory where we spent an entertaining afternoon. The road up the side of the mountain is the highest paved road in the US. Almost 6000 ft above sea level. Did I mention that Fort Davis is the highest town in Texas? The pictured telescope is considered the 5th largest in the world and the mirror (in the middle of the second picture, you can see the bent reflection of the support structure.) is actually the biggest but only 80% of it can be used because of movement limitations, so there are bigger telescopes. The mirror is cleaned 2-3 times per week using carbon dioxide snow. Not really sure how that works but I was assured it does. We spent a pretty intense 3 hours learning things about our closest star (the sun) and our galaxy. Did you know that the sun is not on fire? It's really a ball of hydrogen gas being held together by it's own gravity and the pressure of the gravity creates a nuclear reaction. (at least that's the way I remember it. Luckily there were no tests.)

Before coming here we spent a week in God's gravel pit (sometimes referred to as Big Bend National Park) or as one gentleman we talked to said it was miles and miles of miles and miles. The park is in the Chihauhaun (like the dog) desert so its full of plants that are out to get you. Big nasty thorns and such. The Chisos mountains are completely encompassed by the park. We went on several hikes and learned more about this amazing place that most people in the 1800's considered worthless. The few that came here had a harsh life but they found that cattle and sheep actually liked it.(Something about the quality of the grass.) They liked it so much that the grass has all but disappeared due to overgrazing. So the park got started (65 years ago) to protect it from us.
The park gets its name from the big bend in the Rio Grand River which is the international border between Mexico and the US. There were many times on our hikes that we felt you could almost reach out and touch Mexico. It's a beautiful stark place. I'm glad we finally made it. I would like to include a map of our travels, but haven't figured that out yet.

 

Lunch after one of our hikes.

Hope this finds you well.

Pat and Carolyn