Week 4; March 25 - April 1; Van Horn TX, Las Cruces NM and Willcox AZ

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Van Horn RV Park, Van Horn Texas - We left Ingram Texas on Monday - a beautiful sunny day, headed to Van Horn Texas - a 6 hour drive. We are averaging about 8.3 mpg and fueled up twice this week with diesel costing $2.81 and $2.99 per gallon. The little towns we pass are about 50-60 miles apart - Mark doesn't like the fuel to get passed half a tank. Once we got out of the Houston area driving down I-10 west has been an easy drive - totally flat and the territory basically the same... dessert one minute and hills the next... and all brown! Mark put the cruise control on 70 (most speed limits were 75 & 80) and we just sat back and enjoyed the ride. When we arrived we were a little surprised at what we found. Our Ingram Texas location was shaded with the pecan grove trees - Van Horn was totally wide open, no trees, flat dirt ground... did I say dirt - the wind blew constantly with dust devils and tumble weeds toppling across the landscape. Once we got into our spot, the steps would not come out... Mark found it was a loose wire and quickly fixed it! We were scheduled to be here for 3 nights, but decided two would be enough. We did venture out to see the town, it was quiet and I think only had one stop light. The grocery store was about as big as our convenient stores! I googled the closest Walmart - it was 47 miles away! Good thing I had everything we needed, lol. We stopped to inquiry what was around the area and the lady indicated that anywhere you look, in any direction, within 120 miles, was a National or State Park. A lot of people come here for hiking, bird watching, and just exploring the dessert - but a permit for your 4-wheel drive vehicle was required for entry by the park rangers. We did decide to head toward the Guadalupe National Park, but got about half way there and decided to turn back. Knowing that we could only see a very minimal part of the park (because of not having a 4-wheel car), what we were seeing along the road was what we would see once we got there - it was beautiful in its own way; but no color tone, beige and brown. The RV Park advertised it has a fishing lake/pond stocked with various kinds of fish. As you see in the pictures I don't think the 'pond' had anything to offer in quite a long time! We laughed at the alligator sign... at first we really thought an alligator was there - but it was part of the drainage system and just looked like a alligator head bobbling in the water! As I said, we left Van Horn a day early and extended our next destination by that day.

Sunny Acres RV Park; Las Cruces New Mexico - we left Van Horn on Wednesday and it was just a short 3 hour drive to Las Cruces NM... going through another time change and added another state to our map! After we passed El Paso, we saw hundreds of cattle - all black and white on various farms.. and in amongst the brown dry ground would be a patch of bright green fields - spotted across the land and the pecan groves were everywhere. I looked up on google 😊 what the crop was for this area and was surprised they were alternating between cotton and corn.. we did see some fields that had some cotton; however the fields all had been harvested. We decided our first outing was to go find out what these mystery fields were and to check out those cattle farms! Sunny Acres is a very nice RV Park... lots of snow birds staying 1, 2, and 3 months... we met several and all had wonderful reviews of this park. We were lucky to get a pull through end spot with a concrete pad... just the perfect spot for our 4 night stay. Late afternoon the moon appears- so bright & close you could see the dark areas on the surface... it was beautiful to see the white moon against the beautiful blue sky. Mom has been keeping our mail while we've been gone. She shifted through our mail pulling out the 'junk' and put the rest in a flat rate envelope for mom to put the mail in ... I had given her the address of the main post office here in Las Cruces... and picked it up on Monday. The postal lady said this is the most common method of getting mail while traveling! Afterwards it didn't take long to find the cows and those unusual green fields, we knew they were right next to the interstate. There were thousands of these black and white cows... some eating, some waddling around with their utters so full they were almost touching the ground! We found a farm where there was a guy working on the house. Mark went up to the house to inquire what these farms were (I could never have done this)... the guy was very helpful and kind. He told mark that there were over 14 dairy farms up/down this road. All farms are self-sufficient. The cows are all tagged - they do nothing other than eat and provide milk. After one week of feeding, the cows are taken into a refrigerated barn and hooked up for milking. The farms, being self-sufficient, grow their own cattle food - aka Alfalfa... aka those green fields!!! Both mysteries solved! While driving around there were also multiple pecan groves, funny to see how their irrigation system was set up - a car engine provides the muscle to pump well water across the fields flooding the groves... We stopped at one and bought some pecans (5 lbs for $32). Going down the road we ran across this one grove that had these warning signs 'pecan thieves will be prosecuted'... gotta watch out - these farmers mean business!! The next day we drove over to Old Mesilla - a historical town dated back to 1848, even saw the courthouse where Billy the Kid was tried and sentenced to hang in 1850! It was really a nice day walking around the courtyard and visited the quaint little shops that bordered the area. We also stopped and picked up a calendar for the refrigerator! I know you aren't surprised at how easy it is to loose sight of what day it is! The next day we rode out to Fort Selden which was really interesting. Surprisingly Douglas MacArthur lived here in his early years - actually it was noted that this is where he learned to hunt and shoot! The remains of the fort are visible along the path... the buildings were made from Adobe ... a mixture of soil and water dried in the hot sun... they had a station set up where you could make a brick and take it home (we took one that had been left). The ranger said it is becoming a full time job trying to keep the walls up from the strong winds and rains. After we left we continued our ride to Leasburg Dam State Park, the Rio Grande flows through this park. Here is where I put my tootsie's in the cool (cold) waters of the Rio Grande! 😊 The weather the entire week has been fabulous - during the days we ran the air conditioner, and at night the heater would come on for a brief few minutes. It was sad to have to leave.

Traveling from New Mexico to Arizona was interesting... We constantly saw large yellow signage warning drivers of the potential for high winds. If you were in New Mexico these high winds were referred to as Dust Devils and if you were in Arizona they were referred to as Dust Storms. The territory was very barren - we kept looking but never saw anything (darn it). We did get a picture of a tumbleweed... and saw some dust devils in some fields - but by the time we would get near them they would disappear. Also riding along I-10 we would see Border Patrol cars riding the roads... then we came across a Border Patrol Inspection Station... we thought they would stop us for inspection, but they only waved us through. I guess because we were so close to the border they would monitor traffic for stowaways or something. (and no, we never were in Mexico - only saw the border in the distance).

Willcox/Chochise KOA Holiday; Willcox Arizona - On Sunday, April 1st after a short 4 hour drive, we arrived in Willcox - ... Happy Easter! We added another state to our map AND went through another time change 😊 To our disappointment, the campsite is literally on top of the interstate - but fortunately in this area there isn't much traffic (especially during the night). The KOA is brand new - actually still under construction. The sites are on gravel, but very level. Gonna cook a roast for our Easter Dinner and just relax for the night... tomorrow the weather forecast is warning everyone of high winds (20-30 mph) in our area. So tomorrow will be laundry day 😊

Happy Easter to all... we are loving our trip!!

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