Friday, April 8, 2011

The Texas Challenge


To paraphrase the title of a book by Bill Hogan, How Do You Eat Explore An Elephant Texas? One Bite Day at a Time!

I know some of you count on me to expand your knowledge so let me tell you, Texas is BIG! Yesterday we decided on a short driving day to get into Van Horn, TX early. Along the way we saw...



El Paso, TX which is as close to Mexico as I ever need to get.










Here is an agent and a sniffing dog at a Border Patrol stop...no they didn't sniff our rig, just big rigs while we were there.




This dust devil darned near blew us off the interstate...no kidding. Thank goodness Rich saw it coming across the wasteland lovely terrain of west Texas and was prepared.










Our plan for an early stop was to relax and make some decisions about what we want to see in Texas and how best to approach them from an RVing standpoint. We pulled out maps, tourist brochures, campground guides, and sought out weather forecasts. My grandpa had a weather rock like this...a much smaller version though!

Originally we had planned to visit Marfa, TX and Big Bend National Park in a southwest corner of the state. Listening to weather forecasts reported by real meteorologists, however, the idea of visiting that park in 100° temps with winds gusting up to 45 miles per hour did not appeal to us when there is so much of Texas to explore. Also, we considered the news that all National Parks may close at midnight tonight if there's no resolution on the federal budget debacle.

So now we are headed to San Antonio. Since it's a 440 mile drive, this will not be a short driving day unless we modify today's plan.
Lovin' Life ~~ And the Freedom to Be Flexible
Bev

2 comments:

  1. I think if all of our elected officials took a month without pay it would straighten the budget right out.

    Texas is huge -- and dusty! Although parts of it are green and gorgeous! I hope you get to see it all and anxiously await your sharing.

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  2. D & I laughed so hard at your blog post! We felt exactly the same way about Mexico. Our little blonde girl got some really strange looks while we got gas so we passed on food and drove straight out of dodge. The rest of Texas was enjoyable. Have fun!
    D, G & K

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