10/22 - LAKE BROWNWOOD - DAY 1

Our day was spent relaxing. We never left the property and we both got some more needed hammock time in.   This park has the strictest fire ban we have yet to come across. Not only are campfires not allowed but also no charcoal grills or use of charcoal. If you notice in the pictures taken here only the leaves on the trees are green. Everything is so very, very dry and crispy here. 

Tim and I took a short tour around the park today. For the most part this park is almost empty. Our camping loop went from about half full to just three rigs. Then a few more arrived just before and right after dark. The other loops appear to only be lightly occupied as well.  Here within the park are some pretty nice structures built by the C.C.C. that includes cabins, lodges, meeting halls and a bunch of screened day use pavilions along the waters edge. During their busy season this place has to be packed with day users, fishermen and weddings.  

Yesterday another Airstream came in right after us. They are just two sites over from us. This couple lives in Texas and will be attending the same event as us later in the week. 

This evening after dinner Tim and I wandered over to their 1970 restored Airstream for a tour and an evening of good company. Discovering all of our Texas friends are acquaintances of theirs made for an evening of easy conversation. 

Tomorrow we plan to do some local ‘picking’. 

10/21 - LAKE BROWNWOOD STATE PARK, TEXAS

So super excited to be here! Lake Brownwood State

Park is beautiful. At least what we have seen of it. Tim and I just booked this site two days ago and I really believe it’s the best site in the park. 

The drive here from San Angelo, TX was easy. We saw a few more nodding donkeys and a gazillion cotton fields. There were times that the horizon was so low and flat you could see a hundred plus miles and notice the curve of the earth. Just spectacular in its own beautiful way. 

Our campsite is one of the nicest we think. The small scrub oaks give us shade in the evening and make for the perfect place to hang a hammock! Our plan is to chill and lay low here for a few days before moving into the Airstream event that begins nearby later in the week. 

My new ENO Hawaiian print hammock that I picked up in Albuquerque works perfectly and looks amazing! Kinda matches our new ENO chairs. 

Elevation - 1,480’

Temperature - 73* (on arrival)

10/20 - San Angelo, TX

I’m keeping it simple tonight. We have landed at Spring Creek Marina and RV Park in San Angelo, TX. There is grass, trees and water here! Jett is very happy!! She even got to take a swim!!!

This will be a one night stay as we are laying low here for weather to move through. Hopefully the worst will be north of us. There was nothing between here and Alpine, TX. Nothing but a few small oil towns, a few thousand nodding donkeys (oil wells) and a few hundred wind turbines. 

The marina has been a nice change for us from being in the desert. 

10/19 - ALPINE, TX

Luckily we had only paid for one nights stay last night.  The decision was made to depart and take the other route out through Terlingua. If we saw an RV park that we liked we would stop. We made it to Alpine, TX! We really wanted to go to a state park about an hour north of here but it’s the weekend and those are all booked. So The Last Alaskan RV Park here we are. 

Had we stayed in Big Bend it would have been ‘ruff’ doing anything. Dogs are not allowed on hiking trails there. I would not have taken her even if I could. In those temperatures the surface ground temperature can reach 170*. Can’t leave her unattended in the truck. Nor could we have left her behind in the Airstream with the extreme heat and no power. 

The plan is to stay here for tonight. We will decide in the morning if we stay another night in Alpine. Weather is moving into Texas tomorrow and we need to decide where we will be better off staying. 

Later in the week we have an unplanned event to attend. We have never been to one of these types of events before. There will be a few people we know there. And possibly some Texas friends that we aren’t aware of attending ... that will make it even more exciting! 

10/18 - BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK

Big mistake! 

I really don’t know where to start. 

Guess I can start with the really cool roadside art that we came across. We saw some in Roswell earlier in the week but didn’t get any pictures. Today I made Tim drive us out of the way to make it to the Prada store. It, my friends, is in the middle of nowhere! 

The nearest town is really Valentine but there is nothing there. Ninety percent of what you do see is either shut down, boarded up, non existent or just strangely weird. The next closest town was Marfa. LOVED Marfa. Super cute. Lots of cool food joints and would love to have spent some time there and in Alpine and Marathon. 

Next up was one of John Cerney’s roadside billboard mural art pieces. We saw two other displays that he did near Roswell. This one Tim barely got stopped for in time. I had to hoof it back a good quarter mile to get these pictures. Then as we approached the next roadside art, now keep in mind we were kinda looking for a grocery store, we were super excited to see the Target sign only to be disappointed but also laughing at the same time!

Now let me talk about Big Bend National Park. I’ll say that I haven’t sugarcoated anything in my travel blog nor will I start now. And I’ll also start by saying we came at the wrong time of year. So it’s really all our fault. 

Less than a week ago, we only realized that we could and would come here. So Tim researched the weather when he could and I researched the campgrounds in the Big Bend National Park. Tim found the highs there to be 89-90* and lows in the 60’s. That was doable. I decided on Rio Grande Village Campground on the Mexican boarder. They had some full hookups and no reservations taken until November because they never fill up this time of year. We also knew the limited full-hookups could be taken by the time we got there. 

Things just never felt right upon gate entry into Big Bend. The young Ranger at the entry gate couldn’t give us much information. Then the other Ranger at the Visitor Center was bothered by me asking questions and even more bothered by me confirming an answer. This young Ranger asked if I had paid my entry fee. If so I would have gotten a newspaper bulletin and basically didn’t need to ask her anything because all the information she told me was in it. THEN an attendant at the gas station was bothered because I asked him how much their fuel cost. We only needed the information for when we would exit the park. There were no street signs with the price and both sides of the single gas pump were blocked by customers. Ugh. 

Once we got to the campground, that by the way takes a huge effort to get to, over 100 miles of nothing and almost 2 hours to get there from Marathon, TX. It was HOT. One hundred degrees!!! That was over a 51* temperature change for us from N.M. to Texas.There were no electric sites available. No problem. We carry two small generators. Tim decided we could sit in the shade beside the Airstream to let things cool off first. Halfway through our beer is when the guy camping next to us cranked his loud contractor generator. 

When we went to walk Jett we discovered the entire place was covered with some thorns over a half inch long. The size of small nails! We could not walk her with out pulling thorns out or sand spurs. Campfires were not allowed but we smelled them anyway. It was so hot. Why would you want one? Vigilantes! 

Turned out to be our first time running both generators so that we could run our AC. We were able to cool interior down enough by the time we had to shut them off at 8 PM. That’s when the guys baby next door started crying. I get it. He needed to run the loud generator for the baby. But who brings a newborn camping with no power? The same guy who didn’t have a step to get into the back of his truck camper so he used the picnic table to climb up on (bench & table) to get in. Then Jett began barking at the baby. Then someone broke glass somewhere! We slept with the windows open and our Fantastic vent over the bed blowing in. It was a horrible nights sleep. 

On the bright side it was 65* inside the Airstream the next morning! Big Bend is a really beautiful and amazing place. The landscape was stunning. We were just there at the wrong time and at the wrong place. 

Elevation - 1,820’

Temperature - 100* (on arrival) 

10/17 - CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK

A M A Z I N G! Located in the Chihuahuan Desert of the Guadalupe Mountains lies Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Our journey down under today was nothing like we have done on this trip. It really seemed like an adventure to another world. Either that or Dr Seuss, Lewis Carroll, Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol all got together and created this magical masterpiece underground for us all to enjoy. This should be added as the eighth natural wonder of the world! 

Only 120 miles of underground passages have been explored and mapped. The deepest depth was recorded at 1,600 feet. That makes this the second deepest sandstone cave in the United States. Tim and I only did two and a half miles of them. We chose to walk the steep 1.25 mile self-guided natural entry passage in. This is where we observed the Bat Flight last night. Then we explored another 1.25 miles in the Big Room Chamber. The Big Room is an 8.2 acre sized chamber. Our return to the surface by elevator took us 750’ straight up! Just mind boggling that we were that far underground. 

The experience of exploring the steep paths and chambers, especially the Big Room, is very exciting. The amount of vehicles, buses and RVs had us thinking there would be crowds and hundreds of people in lines but not so. This National Park is so spread out between the natural entrance, elevator entry, museum, underground chambers and gift shop that you really don’t see everyone.  

Washington Ranch has turned out to be the perfect stop for us here with it being so conveniently close to the caverns. We had time this afternoon to explore the ranch some more. Again it’s spacious, beautiful and serene here. A splendid oasis in the Chihuahuan Desert. 

Tomorrow’s journey south from here will be a long one. I hope to get some high end shopping in and our next stop on this adventure will really BIG as well. 

10/16 - WASHINGTON RANCH

Allstays Camp and RV app did it again! Whenever we can’t find ‘the obvious perfect campground’ that app is our go to. Today it lead us to a little oasis in the desert. 

Camp Washington Ranch located south of Carlsbad, NM is where we have landed. The ranch is a beautiful oasis and home to those with development disabilities. The property is also home to some pretty spectacular wildlife. It’s very, very quiet and peaceful here. It’s isolated and out in the middle of no where with nothing nearby. I am so glad we made the decision to come here as opposed to the campgrounds with 50 - 100 rigs crammed into small sites. 

They hold weddings, conferences and even paintball events here. There’s even a tropical atrium! The accommodations include cabins, a bunk house and three campsites. Tim and I have the Airstream in one of those sites. We were told one of the other campsites would be occupied this evening. So far no one has arrived. 

Once we landed and got setup Tim and I took off for Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We were just going over for the Bat Flight Ranger Program this evening. As the crows fly is a four mile straight shot to the parking lot but to drive there it’s 15 miles and takes about 25 minutes to get there. We can see the Visitor Center at the National Park from our campsite here at the ranch. 

The Bat Flight was pretty cool. Thousands and thousands of bats came out of the cavern. These are Brazilian Freetailed bats. Every evening from May to the end of October they all take flight out of the cavern right at sunset in search of food. They then migrate south for the winter. It was a pretty amazing event to observe. I have no bat flight pictures. For safety reasons no pictures or electronic devices are allowed during their flight. The rangers make you turn everything off and tucked away. 

Tomorrow we will return to Carlsbad National Park to go into the cavern! I’m sure we will see where the bats all hang out. 

10/15 - ROSWELL - DAY 2

Today was another day of at least six hours of time lost. How does that happen? Tim and I discovered many more strange and peculiar things around town today. Roswell is described as ‘west of lost and north of nowhere.’ That is the truth! Roswell is much larger than I thought it to be. Current population is approximately 50,000. There is even a Military Institute here. Hmmmm! 

On July 4th, 1947 a ‘high-altitude weather balloon’ crash landed near Roswell, NM. Roswell was then destined to be known as the ‘mother icon’ of popular UFO sightings. It’s just as exciting here as it is in Jackson Center, Ohio at the Airstream factory (Mothership).  Conspiracy believers believe it was indeed an alien space crash. They claim the bodies and spacecraft were transported from Roswell to Area 51 by the military for further research and investigation. And by the way Area 51 is located over 800 miles away from Roswell, NM in Nevada. The incident has continued to be a subject of intense controversy ever since.  Not only around town are there paranormal and odd findings but there is so much to discover and read about in The UFO Museum and Research Center. There are many other UFO and spaceship shops and art galleries here ... there is something here for everyone!

Even looks as though they are trying to hide something up at McDonalds. Maybe another crash site? We can see right through that cover up! 

Tomorrow we will ‘hopefully’ be departing Roswell for parts unknown. The few days we have had here have flown. The food has been great. Amazing actually! More Pork Belly Tacos and Baja Tacos were found!!! Sightings have been kept undercover and it only gives us more reasons to return to explore the area for more findings. We may be off grid for a week or so. Not sure until we get there!