February 27, 2023
The one thing we enjoy most about our travels is that we are in no hurry to get anywhere. For years when our kids were young we rushed through towns and missed so many sights because we had such a limited amount of time to get somewhere and back home. Now that it is just the two of us traveling we can stop as often as we like, stay longer in a site if we want and even backtrack if we miss something. We truly enjoy being able to see our country and especially the National Parks.
2/20- We enjoyed our time in South Llano River State Park. Frank has an install going on so he had to work most of the day but when he has a lunch break or is done for the day we are able to go hiking and exploring. Today was President’s Day and most people had it off but Frank had to work to that limited what we could do. We started out our morning seeing wild turkeys foraging outside our RV door. What a great way to start the day.
At lunch time we took a hike along the Llano River. What was supposed to be a short ½ mile hike turned into a 2 ½ mile hike because apparently both of us where having trouble reading the map the rangers had given us. We detoured from our short trail onto a longer trail. We enjoyed seeing the many sights along the trail and were glad we had brought plenty of water and our hiking sticks. Along the river you could see the destruction that had been done by flooding in the past. We were glad the river wasn’t running very high at this time.
Then this evening we took another short hike around the campground and saw another armadillo. He turned his back on us and hurried away.
2/21- Today is our last day at South Llano River Park. Frank finished up his install and then we went on a trail to an old barn and homestead. The house was gone but the well and windmill along with the barn were still standing.
We really love the Texas State Parks we have been able to stay at. The cost per night is averaging around $25. But it is time to leave and go to a campground where I can do laundry and we can dump our tanks.
2/22-We headed out this morning planning to get to a big town and a campground with a laundromat. Unfortunately we hit some winds that slowed us down. It took us so long to travel a short distance that we had to stop in a rest area so Frank could work his 1 pm call. We saw that Sonora Caverns were just a couple miles up the road so we pulled in there for the night. We looked into hiking their caverns but the gentleman who checked us in said the humidity in the cave was 90% and the hike was 2 miles long with over 300 steps. We both knew we just weren’t up to that. I didn’t even get out to take any pictures at the campground and we both headed to bed early.
2/23- Sometimes travel is just boring day to day stuff. We got to Pecos today and checked into a campground that had a laundromat so I spent most of the day catching up on all the wash that had built up since we left Houston. We went out to dinner at Sonic and then to do some grocery shopping.
2/24- Since Frank had to work President’s Day he took today off so we could explore and have some fun. We headed out of our campsite bright and early to head to Carlsbad Caverns. I had booked 11:30 am tickets to hike the Caverns but I had forgotten that we were headed into Mountain Time so we ended up at the Caverns early. We went in and asked if it would be possible to change to an early time and since it was a weekday in the winter they had some availability and we were able to start touring the caves at 10:30 a.m. If you do go to Carlsbad Caverns make sure to get on the National Park site and book your tickets. I was told often they sell out and people arrive only to be disappointed and not able to enter the Caverns. https://www.nps.gov/cave/index.htm
There are two options to get into Carlsbad Caverns. You can hike in or you can take the elevator down 750 feet. We opted to take the elevator down and then back up. We spent 2 hours exploring the trails throughout the Caverns and to have the added climb in and out would have been too much for us. Carlsbad Caverns were discovered in the 1890’s by a teenager who climb in with a handmade ladder. It is massive with a number of named rooms throughout.
We could see why they limited the amount people in as it made it nice to actually view the sights while feeling at times that you were the only one there. It was quiet and we felt a reverence and a sense of awe throughout Carlsbad Caverns.After our tour we ate lunch in the parking lot in our RV before heading to our KOA for the night.
2/25- Today was about visitors from another planet. We drove into Roswell, New Mexico where we searched for ET and his spaceship. We didn’t find him but the town was full of little green men. We were happy not to be abducted and safely get out of town.
We had booked a Harvest Host spot in Alamogordo, NM tonight. We hit some winds on our way and we glad that it wasn’t too far from Roswell. The place we stayed was a kitty rescue. They had a nice level area for us to park our RV and the view around their place was beautiful with an amazing sunset.
Once we got the RV set up we had to head out to see the World’s Largest Pistachio. We got to sample all sorts of different flavors of Pistachios and tour the farm where they grow pistachio and now have a vineyard to make wine. https://pistachioland.com/
2/26- What a day! The rooster at our Harvest Host decided to start crowing at 4:30 am and continued to crow off and on until 6 am. So we finally decided to get up and get going. White Sands National Park opens it trails at 7 am so we hooked up and headed there. Once we got there we unhooked the Jeep and headed into the park. We were one off only a dozen cars there so early in the morning so we were able to spend over an hour having fun and exploring. White Sands has the world’s largest gypsum dune field. At times it is closed when they are having missile testing nearby so make sure to check before arriving. https://www.nps.gov/whsa/index.htm
We only had about a 4 hour drive to get to our Harvest Host campsite and figured we would be there by 1 p.m. But as we headed to Las Cruses the winds started picking up. We fought them until we were past Las Cruses and halfway to Denning, NM. By then the gust were topping 50 mph and shaking the motorhome. Then suddenly dust started blowing across the road and was making it difficult to see where we were going. We tried pulling to the side of the road but we felt like it was too dangerous to sit there. I saw there was a rest pullover less than two miles down the road so Frank white knuckled it while I prayed. We were able to find a spot at the rest area before it completely filled up. Everyone sat there for four hours while the dust storm ranged and shook their vehicles. We figured as long as the professional truck drivers didn’t feel safe to go out on the road we should stay put. Finally after about 4 hours the wind gusts calmed down to 30 mph and the dust settled and we once again hit the road.
We got into our campsite about 5:30 p.m. This Harvest Host had a $25 upgrade for electric and water and since it was supposed to be in the 20’s we paid for it. It was nice to have a place to calm down and relax after our stressful day. Even with experience such as the dust storm we are glad to be on the road and seeing all the places we have been.
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