Its been awhile but between lots of travel, poor wifi and a few curve balls thrown our way I haven’t been able to provide an update on our travels. We are now in Tucson for a month and we now have some time to get into a bit of a routine and while spotty, the wifi seems to be a little better.
We left Fort Stockton, Tx on Saturday, Nov 24 for probably one of the ugliest drives we have experienced in our 4 years of Snowbird travels. Very soon after our departure our 4 lane divided highway turned into a 2 lane with lots of much needed road construction. We were driving through oil country so there were lots of wells, drilling rigs, processing plants and storage facilities. The road was humming with trucks of all sizes, many were tanker trucks carrying either oil or water. When I found out about the water trucks it took me a minute but finally figured out the purpose for all the water. Hydraulic Fracturing. This process has rejuvenated lots of old oil fields and also raised lots of environmental concerns regarding possible damage to the aquifer. I won’t delve into that any further as it is a very hot topic, both here and at home, and I can honestly say that I have no idea who is right.
We drove through Pecos, Tx and if there is an uglier town I haven’t seen it. Pecos fit right in with the landscape we experienced. At its best its not a pretty drive but all the oil activity gives it a gritty and grimy feel. Not a place to stop and take pictures thats for sure. Lori asked me why we took this highway. The simple answer is that its the only highway anywhere close to get us from Boerne to Carlsbad.
With all the truck traffic and road construction on the 2 lane road I focused on avoiding potholes and large bumps which weren’t marked. At one point I thought the trailer was going to leave the road surface and launch into orbit. I’m sure I used every millimetre of travel on the trailers leaf springs. Mark, who was following behind with his motorhome had an additional challenge. That being dodging flying rocks. One of the passing trucks threw one into the middle of his windshield and left a big stone chip. When we got to Carlsbad it took him a few days to find someone who would fix it before it sent cracks across his massive (8 feet of curved glass) windshield. It being the Thanksgiving weekend meant lots of businesses were closed, even their emergency services were off eating turkey somewhere. He finally found a windshield repair place about 30 miles out of town. Luckily it was on the way to our next stop and he arrange to get in on Monday morning.
Since we have now left Texas behind, probably for good, let me provide a bit of a recap of our experience. The Magnolia experience in Waco was worth the trip at least from Lori and Jan’s perspective. Houston, nothing to go back to see there (keep in mind we don’t really like big urban areas and that describes Houston to a tee). Galveston was a neat little town but been there done that. Rockport and Corpus Christi was essentially a waste of time with our worst weather. San Antonio and Fredericksburg were interesting but again, been there done that. Our overall view of Texas, not that we covered it all and missed entirely the Snowbird capital of Texas, the Rio Grande Valley, is probably tarnished by 5 weeks of bad weather. We did manage to enjoy the food and essentially I feel like we ate our way through Texas. We ate out for lunch pretty much every day and ate well. We focused on local fare and avoided large chain restaurants and we were rewarded with excellent food and lots of it. We seldom had dinner when we got back to the trailer in the evening and that probably saved our waist lines. Both Lori and I managed to loose a few pounds (I’m sure we will find them again) by having a really big meal at lunch, a light snack for supper and going to bed early before the munchie attack started.
We have a 2 day stop in Carlsbad, NM to see Carlsbad Caverns and then a drive to Alamagordo, NM to see the White Sands National Monument and then we will hit Arizona. We are all looking forward to some typical Arizona weather. Sunny warm days, cool nights, very little rain. Repeat repeatedly.
Next up some pictures of Carlsbad Caverns. Lots of pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment