Texas

Well, because of the difficulties that Bob had in breathing at the higher altitudes in New Mexico, we are heading for lower ground. We headed straight down I25 and then south and east on I10. The weather is not getting better. As we drove we watched the HUGE BLACK clouds. In New Mexico they were over the mountains and it was kind of interesting. Here in Texas, we drove right into them. We stopped at a KOA in Van Horn Texas. Nice enough for a KOA. It is VERY windy. I can only hope that the weather will get better soon.

When we crossed into Texas we stopped at the visitor center. OMG. A very nice man greeted us and gave us about 5 inches of literature. If we happened to mention that something interested us, we got a brochure and also other tangential info, like other sights in the area. So when we got to this KOA, we spent about an hour going through the literature and trying to decide where to go next. Texas does not seem to have a lot of state or national parks in the center of the state where we are. We thought about going to the Lady Bird municipal park, but the reviews on it were not great. (We have free wifi here so we have been looking at the campground reviews while going through the literature.) We are still thinking of going to Fredericksburg because it has some interesting sights. But we might decide to just go stay tonight at a rest area and then spend more days in San Antonio.

We decided to stop at the KOA because the weather is awful, we wanted the power so that we had heat, and we could use their free wifi. But, this is not my favorite place to stay.

Several interesting aspects to the trip here. We got stopped again by the border patrol while on I-10. I think that makes 25 times in three weeks. It is still the case that we pull up, they look at us, ask if we are US citizens and then wave us on. But waiting in line for all of the other cars when this is happening on an interstate is difficult. Bob says it is "pissy" I say it is just time consuming for us.

While we were going through El Paso, the Mexican border was so close. As we were driving I saw many very sad looking houses scattered on a hillside just to our right. I thought what a poor town El Paso is. Then I realized that those houses were in Mexico. They did not look like they had power or running water. They had not been painted, probably ever. Then you looked to our left and saw the houses of El Paso and they were what you would expect for middle class America. (El Paso is much larger than I thought.)

Finally, one interesting item. On the interstate while we were in New Mexico there were almost no roadside businesses at all. The minute we crossed the border into Texas, we were in an area with hundreds and hundreds of businesses. It was a stark contrast. It started at mile 0 of I-10 in Texas. Bob says it has to do with the business climate in New Mexico. Whatever, it was startling to see so many businesses after having seen so few for so many days.

I have to go now because Bob tells me that he is worried about the wind and wants to do more to stabilize the trailer. Bye for now.