(Editor's note on Thursday April 13. Yes, blog reading friends--We are still alive! We have been out of the loop, no internet, no cell service, no phones and disconnected!!!! We are now in the most beautiful, gated RV park in Mission, Texas for 4 days and we may never leave it!)
Sunday, April 9: At 6:30 this morning it was 54 degrees outside and 58 degrees inside. A Grackle grackling loudly was our alarm clock. The air was heavy with “Roswell, N. M., Dairy Capital of the World”—cows close by!
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| We left McDonalds at 8:45 stocked up with lots of drinks for the hot day ahead of us. First we passed pecan groves. I drove the first 75 miles on the divided highway. There was a stiff wind. We passed through fogs of feed lots, then smells of gas and oil from increasing oil wells and large refinery at Artesia, N.M. |
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Paul drove the rest of the way on a two-lane road, wind blowing. Carlsbad had huge adobe-clad motels, strip-mall arrangement, lots of cactus and some colorful flowers.
Then, on to TEXAS! Texas came with sagebrush and mesquite in gently rolling hills at first, then flat with oil fields and BIG TRUCKS, TRUCKS, TRUCKS and FAST PICK-UPS.
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Dust from trucks and heavy equipment often blew across the road. Pipelines ran alongside the road.
There was evidence of fracking.
(Editor's note: Much, much later in our trip, cousin Judy noticed that we went on that "terrible oil road". They usually take a longer route through much nicer country. We had no way of knowing! We won't go that way again.)
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We were happy to arrive at our RV Park at Ft. Stockton, Texas for the night at 3 pm. Showers, laundry, and trying unsuccessfully to stay cool spent the rest of the day.
AC still not working in the coach part—thank heavens it works in the truck for driving.
The RV Park was run by Texans. They meet you in 4-wheelers as you drive in and escort you personally to your RV site. Several people were kept busy all the rest of the afternoon escorting RV’s. It is a huge park, easily 200 sites, and mostly full. It is very well-kept and quiet. The swimming pool looked very inviting but we did not partake. They also have an onsite cafe serving up homestyle Texas food—closed Sunday afternoon. We got a small tree to perch under. Not everyone did.
Again, our RV park had the best birds of the day. Great-tailed Grackles are always putting on a show!
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White-winged Doves have amazingly colorful eyes and legs
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Today Our Noses Were On
cows, gas and oil
Today Our Eyes Were On
Texas, Finally!
Oil fields, refineries, big trucks, wind, white dust, white pick-ups, heavy equipment, gigantic cranes, construction of raised ponds (for fracking?), pipelines, all hurrying
And one beautiful century plant
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