Its been a while since we have updated the blog, so decided it was time. We left Seminole Canyon Park and headed to Maverick RV Park in Lajitas, TX which is where we visited Big Bend National Park. It was spectacular and beautiful to behold. The RV park was really nice and the weather was cold at night and warm during the day. Sunsets were magnificent. We visited Terlingua Ghost Town in Texas. It was fascinating and understandable that it is called a ghost town. We met the “mayor” of Lajitas which happens to be a huge goat!! This area was right on the border of Mexico separated by the Rio Grande. One of the stops in Big Bend was right on the Rio Grande and some of the Mexicans had a small table in the middle of the river. On the US side there’s a path down to the river where you could order Mexican food and they would make it on the shore line. Once the food was done they would meet you in the middle of the river where you paid for your food. We unfortunately didn’t make the trip down to the river as the path was very steep much to Jane’s disappointment as she wanted authentic Mexican food.
Carlsbad Caverns
If you haven’t taken a trip to New Mexico to see Carlsbad Caverns, we recommend you plan a trip. It’s so amazing to see and walk down into. We decided to walk down into the caverns which by time we were done, the pain searing in our thighs was immense, BUT WORTH IT!! We walked down 800 feet in elevation. It was so amazing we went twice in order to see as much of the caverns we could. We stayed at a RV park that was right at the entrance to the caverns but the park was essentially a parking lot with full hook ups. That worked for us as we didn’t stay in the RV much due to our desire to hike, explore and geocache. The pictures don’t do it justice but wanted to post some anyway!
While staying in Carlsbad area we also took the opportunity to visit the Guadalupe Mountains National Park – we were too close not to visit. Our hope is to visit all the National Parks in the country. We have done a pretty good job so far but there’s more to go.
We left Carlsbad Caverns and headed to Las Cruces, New Mexico in hopes of visiting a friend who moved there about 20 years ago but unfortunately couldn’t find him despite our numerous attempts. We did have an address and drove by his house in hopes that he would be outside. We figured it would be creepy to stop in unannounced. So no luck! While in that area we visited the White Sands National Monument (White Sands National Monument is in the northern Chihuahuan Desert in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It’s known for its dramatic landscape of rare white gypsum sand dunes. Trails through the dunes include the raised Interdune Boardwalk and the Dune Life Nature Trail, dotted with interpretive exhibits on wildlife and other features. Dunes Drive is a looped road from the White Sands Visitor Center to the dune field), which proved to be another awesome venture. We also took a ride to Truth or Consequences, NM. Never did figure out why it is called this but it was a fascinating little town. In true fashion, Codey claimed the RV site his by taking over the picnic table.
From New Mexico we headed to Arizona. We stayed in Benson, AZ which was about 30 miles from Tucson. We experienced our coldest evening at 19 degrees. Thank goodness we have an all weather RV so we were toasty during that cold evening. We drove to Tucson and went to the Seguaro National Park (Saguaro National Park is in southern Arizona. Its 2 sections are on either side of the city of Tucson. The park is named for the large saguaro cactus, native to its desert environment. In the western Tucson Mountain District, Signal Hill Trail leads to petroglyphs of the ancient Hohokam people. In the eastern Rincon Mountain District, Cactus Forest Drive is a loop road with striking views of the desert landscape). We visited both the east and west side of the park. The tallest cacti we’ve every seen! We also visited two of our friends who now live in Tucson. Greg Polling (from Northern Virginia) and Jane’s former boss from the early 90’s – Jan Galvin. It was great fun! While having lunch with Greg we say a road runner – beep, beep. Great memories of the Road Runner and Wylie Coyote cartoon. Didn’t see the ACME company anywhere however. We did visit Tombstone, AZ which was a cool town that had western duels throughout the day.
We left Tucson and headed to Queen Creek, AZ (a suburb of Phoenix) to stay with Jane’s niece Jennifer and her family for a couple of days. After that we stored the RV at a local storage place and headed to Ft. Lauderdale (we flew and didn’t drive) to meet our BFF’s for a Caribbean cruise for 8 days. We had a blast. After the cruise we came back to our niece’s house where we house and babysat our great niece (5) and nephews (7) for 5 days while their parents took a well needed vacation! Needless to say the cruise and babysitting is a blog entry in and of itself. So after we catch up on sleep we will make an addendum to this blog to include the cruise and baby sitting! Until then, take care all!
JBs Joyful Journey 