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Published: December 26th 2008
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I know. I know. I promised to keep a travel blog then promptly vanished into a technology void. So sorry. But from this point forward I will be connected to the rest of the world via wifi and will try to do a much better job. So...this entry will be to try and get all caught up. We finished up our stay at Patagonia Lake State Park on December 1st. We thoroughly enjoyed our seven weeks in the park, volunteering for the Sonoita Creek State Natural Area, but it did feel good to be on the road again. Our first day of travel took us roughly 225 miles to Rockhound State Park outside of Deming, New Mexico. What a spectacular setting - and a very nice campground. The park allows you to take 12 pounds of rocks per person per day. Not a good idea when you're traveling in a motorhome! So, we spent our 2 days there enjoying the peace and quiet, hiking the desert, and watching the amazing night sky - not collecting rocks! Our next day of travel (12/3/08) took us to Alamogordo, New Mexico, a distance of about 135 miles. Here we stayed at the Elks Lodge,
which has about 10 full-hookup sites and is adjacent to a nice golf course. Unfortunately the weather turned cold (36 degrees) and windy so we didn't play golf. Instead we spent most of the day running around town trying to figure out what was wrong with out satelite tv setup. We've been without satelite reception since we left Patagonia. Bummer. On December 5th we headed for Carlsbad, taking Highway 70 thru Ruidoso and Roswell then down to Brantley Lake State Park - about 175 miles total. What a beautiful drive! We have friends who summered in Ruidoso last year and we can sure see why. That area will require another visit. We spent Saturday at Carlsbad Caverns. We did the two self-guided tours. Walking down into the caverns via the natural entrance is quite interesting. Very steep - you drop over 800 feet in less than a mile. On Sunday we visited the Desert Museum & Zoo State Park, ate dinner out, then took a boat ride - "Christmas on the Pecos" - to see all of the Christmas lights. Great fun and the weather warmed up enough that we didn't freeze! Our next travel day (12/8) took us out of
New Mexico and in to Texas. This day we drove about 125 miles - another tough day! You've probably noticed a pattern here... we think 3 hours in the car is just right... 5 hours is way too much! Our first stop in Texas was Davis Mountain State Park at Fort Davis. Beautiful setting and a nice park; our full hookup site included cable tv! That we liked since our satelite is still not working. We had planned 2 nights here but woke the next morning to 22 degrees and snow flurries! So we just stayed home all day then signed up for one more night. Wednesday we headed in to town and Fort Davis National Monument. The town of Fort Davis is pretty small and very much a tourist town so there were some neat little shops. And the Fort is well worth a visit. We spent several hours wandering the grounds. Many of the buildings have been completely restored and furnished, some are just foundations, and every stage of ruins in between. On 12/11 we drove south into Big Bend National Park where we stayed 4 nights. This park is huge! And almost desserted this time of year.
We spent 3 days just driving from one scenic area to another. The contrast between the mountains, the desert, and the lush river is fascinating. One day we drove out of the park on the west side to the towns of Study Butte, Terlingua (a ghost town), and Lajitas (a resort with golf). Very interesting and if we ever go back to BBNP, we'll stay on that side. Moving along (this is getting quite lengthy!)... we drove to Del Rio on the 15th where we spent 3 nights at the Elks Lodge next to the golf course. Once again the weather was cold, so - no golf. On the 18th we drove to Laredo - Lake Casa Blanco State Park. Nice park - big lake - lots of birds. We left the state park on Saturday (12/20) at about 9:30. We left Laredo at about 1:00! The interstate ends at the border and our turnoff for Highway 83 was just a couple of blocks north. It took us 3 hours to go 1.5 miles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaarrrrggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't think that is normal. I think we got caught in the Christmas vacation traffic. Long day but we finally arrived in Mission. We'll
stay here for a while! All caught up now and I'll try to keep this up better in the future. Check back in a week or so and I'll let you know how we like the Rio Grande Valley. And... Happy New Year to all!
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