Update Archive | |||
| Archive 3/4 - 3/14/2005: | |||
| 3/4/2005 - My water heater sprung a huge leak so I have to get a new one. What a bummer. I spent the day waiting for the repairman. The guy that came out to fix it was a peach. He fixed my roof too. He’s a popular guy, I met more of the parks occupants while I was watching him work than I had the entire previous week. All kinds of people came over to say hi. The park manager came over and told us a story about the guy in space 58 that committed suicide a couple of years ago. No one knew anything was wrong until people started complaining of the smell… it was a disturbing story. 3/5/2005 - I went into Camping World and picked up my new water heater and then Bob came back out to install it. It’s working like a charm! 3/6/2005 - There was a thunderstorm last night. Boy howdy was it a doosie. It was just as fierce as any I’ve seen in the Midwest. Tons of lightning that all but blinded me, and the thunder shook the camper. It was amazing. It even snowed in some places last night. Bob came by to make sure my roof didn’t leak. It didn’t. What a nice guy. It was a pretty stormy day. I didn’t go far. 3/7/2005 - I did some reconnaissance today. Beautiful day, as they so often are. 3/8/2005 - We went to the Rock Hound State Park today. On the way in is a road with a 17% grade… holy cow! There are tons of flowers on the mountains and hillsides. It is so obviously spring. 3/11/2005 - (5 hours – 222 miles) We packed up and left Deming today. We finally made it to Texas! WooHoo!! It was a pretty uneventful drive (except for the drive through the west Texas town of El Paso, that took forever and the traffic was horrific)… When we finally arrived I realized that the door to my trailer was wide open. I wonder how many people we scared the crap out of on the way here…. Can’t you just see it, you’re driving by this trailer and all of a sudden the door swings open. It’s funny in retrospect. Thank goodness nothing flew out. The KOA here is so nice. There is grass with a picnic table next to each site. It’s quiet and peaceful, more out in the country. 3/12/2005 - (137 miles – 6 hours - L:37F – H:82F) We’re in the Central time zone now… which kind of threw me off, so we got a late start. We went to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park, about 65 miles away. What a windy day. Steady at about 20 with gusts up to 60. I took the 2.3 mile trail to Smith Springs. They warned me at the trailhead that there was a mountain lion roaming around but that he hadn’t attacked anyone yet. So you can imagine how I kept freaking myself out, looking over my shoulder, check out treetops before I walked under them…. Imagining myself in a “When Animals Attack” episode. Even so, it was a beautiful day, kind of windy, but very nice. I like it here. 3/13/2005 - (361 miles – 12 hours – L:55F – H:78F) I can’t believe how windy it is!!! It’s steady at about 35 with gusts up to 60 here at the park. My trailer is rocking (from the wind, thank you very much) like a ship at sea. Looking outside it seems foggy… but it’s all dust blowing around in the wind. We drove to Big Bend National Park. It’s about 200 miles from camp. On the way we passed through Valentine, Marfa (home of the Mystery Lights – also where Giant was filmed), Alpine (beautiful college campus), and Marathon (home of the Gage Hotel – charming little town). It was a long windy drive. I had decided that I wouldn’t go to Big Bend, but I sure am glad I changed my mind. It’s amazing… well worth the trip. It’s also huge, ranging from 2,000 to 8,000 feet in 1,250 square miles. Thank god they sell gas in the park or I’d still be there. In 5 hours I only did a small portion of the driving trails - my left arm and the left side of my neck are now a completely different color than the rest of me. I’d like to go back and do a few of the hiking trails… they take you up close and personal to some of the more dramatic sites. And the flowers, wow, so many flowers! Yes, of course I took tons of pictures. On the way back, after sunset, there were deer, tons of rabbits, skunks and some kind of boar looking animal on the side of and in the middle of the road. It was like driving an obstacle course. There was also a border inspection station… boy is that weird. I saw 4 Border Patrol vehicles, a Homeland Security vehicle and had to stop and confirm that I’m a US Citizen at the inspection station. I never went into Mexico…. The inspection station was about 100 miles north of the border. We stopped at the Marfa Mystery Lights overlook. I don’t think I saw any of the lights… people say you know when you see them, so I guess I didn’t. They have a very interesting story: Marfa Mystery Lights Link The wind seems to have finally died down. Thank goodness, it was getting a little old. 3/14/2005 - (180 miles – 3.5 hours – L:36F – H:62F ) We drove to Pecos today, mostly to go food shopping. On the way back we ran into the beginnings of a thunderstorm. My first Texas thunderstorm! It was great!!! New Pictures: NM, TX | |||