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Published: April 1st 2023
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Ok here’s something I forgot about 3 days ago. When I was coming across one of those big mountains on my way to Carlsbad, I kept thinking something’s different. Then I realized that I wasn’t on a desert mountain like the others I had been across. This was a mountain with tall deep green pine trees marching up the slopes. And they were all pines, no spruce or deciduous and it was cool and refreshing like being in northern Ontario. It put me in mind of the Black Forest in Germany where all the evergreens are of such a dark green that they almost look black.
I left KOA Carlsbad at 8 a.m. this morning driving past acres of pistachio orchards. Unfortunately it’s too early for them to be flowering because they are stunning pink in bloom. To the west in Alamogordo there is a tourist place that advertises the biggest nut in the world - they have a statue of a pistachio but I didn’t get to see it as my route led a different way.
Being in the area I had to ensure that I visited Roswell, NM - famous for the 1947 UFO crash. There are
UFO museums, etc. and of course replicas of the little aliens at many store sites. I had to visit McDonalds in Roswell because the original McDonalds building was built like a space ship. The original is still there but there has been a new building added to the side and a glass playroom added to the other side. So it has lost some of its original weird attraction. There are several silver aliens placed around to welcome you into the restaurant.
This morning I passed a farm that looked from the distance like one of those feed lots but to my surprise it was filled with baby holstein calves. Not sure whether they were being raised for veal or for farmers to add new cows to their dairy herds but there were probably a couple hundred of those calves.
Later I passed another place appearing to be a feed lot but this time there hundreds of holsteins and the sign at the gate said it was a dairy. So all those cows out in the lots must be milked every day. It surely didn’t resemble the factory farms we are seeing in Ontario where the cows are always
indoors and go into the automated milking stalls whenever they feel the need.
So today is a cow day. Somewhere along the road I crossed from New Mexico into Texas bumping up another hour in time. I started to see feed lots or yards with beef cows. And they are enormous, and enormously smelly. Just when I thought I had seen the biggest one another even larger showed up. They can be be several acres in size and the cows are all squeezed into many large pens covering several acres. Sometimes I couldn’t even see the end of the spread. All the industry in this area is related to cows - feed production, veterinary services, etc. And the two towns I went through here were named Bovina and Hereford. Very appropriate I guess.
I have come across some odd town names over the last few days - Truth or Consequences, Loving, Organ, Hope, Elephant Butte and my favourite Deaf Smith County. I have a county named in my honour!
At some place in Texas I saw 1/2 dozen female elk herd along fence line walking nonchalantly beside the highway. I suppose they are used to all the
traffic.
I am most of the way through Amarillo and at our not so fancy campsite for the night. It’s called Overnight RV park. I wouldn’t want to spend anything more than overnight here. It’s close to the highway so I can hear all the trucks and other traffic speeding past. Sometimes it pays to be deaf as I won’t hear any of it tonight. When I think of Amarillo my imagination sees cowboys with ten gallon hats slouched on their horses watching over the cattle herds. I know, I’ve watched too many Western movies. There is none of that - it is a modern big city with all the usual fast food and hotel chains, etc. along the highway.
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