Funmurphys: the Blog

Today dawned cold and hazy. We expected another clear day despite yesterday’s dust storm based on our experience in Alamogordo, but apparently the dirt is hardier here in Texas and doesn’t just fall out of the sky like it does in New Mexico. I hate to mention that dirt is as likely to fall out of the sky as water is in the Far SouthWest (for those keeping score at home we’ve had dirt twice and water once) and don’t get me started on how rare trees are around here – even including telephone poles. Speaking of which, we came across a line of them heading out to Rio Grande village, which is more like a visitor center, a store where I bought my souvenir shirt, and an RV park all rolled into one.

We journeyed to the far side of Big Bend National Park and completed the park symphony in three movements: the first begins in the west with the Rio not so Grande flowing out of a canyon and into the park, the second comprises the abrupt rise and fall of the Chisos Mountains, the third ends in the east with the Rio not so Grande flowing into a canyon and out of the park. Each is majestic but distinct from the other in scope and temperament. The first has the most varied scenery, the second is the smallest and most crowded yet the most dramatic, and the third felt the flattest but the most surprising.

One of the surprises was the presence of Mexicans. The Boquillas crossing used to provide cross border access so that Mexicans could essentially run a gift shop selling food and gift shop kitsch to the National Park visitors, but because of the current crisis, what crisis on the border the crossing is closed. However, the Rio not so Grande is not much of a barrier so the kitsch is placed in convenient spots, convenient for visitors and vendors watching across the river who cross over when either money is put in the jar or summoned for food. There was even one guy on horseback staying in the shade offering tamales and tacos. People have to make a living, and plenty of people commute across borders to work. We put a couple of dollars in Jesus the Singing Mexican’s (that’s what his sign sort of said) plastic bottle in part because we enjoyed his singing.

We had an early dinner at the Chili Pepper Cafe. MBH wanted to split a meal and I offered fajitas. She countered with Nachos Grande to avoid green peppers. I accepted saying “it won’t be the last meal I eat.” She countered with if it were, she would have a great story to tell at the funeral. I countered with let’s hope so. Ah, life on the road after almost 33 years together.

We then struck up a conversation with Nick, who’s a local musician who used to live in Alaska until he got cold there, works in the oil industry but is currently laid off, and has done all kinds of construction and has lived in the Terlingua Ranch area for the last 16 years and only uses the water from his roof catchment system. He also mentioned that most locals shower about once a week and the women are the backbone of the community. I’m pretty confident we’ve crossed this part of Texas off the list of places to move to after retirement.

And on that bombshell it’s time to end the post.

Tags: JTFSSW

Because of the forecast for an afternoon windstorm today, we decided to go to Big Bend Ranch State Park instead of Big Bend National Park and just follow the road along the Rio not so Grande. The views, unlike the water flow in the river, were spectacular, and the drive before we actually entered the park felt like we were on another planet. At the top of a 15% grade that went through a notch in the bluff the wind was blowing so strongly we worried the storm started early. If these posts had a soundtrack you would be hearing the foreshadowing music right now. We pressed on, stopping occasionally to admire the view (hard to do while driving on a twisty and steep road) and take pictures.

We eventually hiked the Closed Canyon trail, so named because before you make it to the end they put up a sign that says Canyon Closed, out of order. Maybe not those exact words, but that’s the gist. So we turned around and went back which we knew we were going to do before we started, but we thought we’d have a spectacular vista as the canyon opened on the Rio not so Grande, or at least something scenic, not just a sign saying none shall pass at the turn around. The hike was great and I highly recommend it if you ever have the hankering to drive hundreds of miles into a wilderness of desolation far from any semblance of civilization, get out of your car, and go for a walk between two towering walls of rock that could collapse and crush you like a bug at any second. That’s what I call a great vacation.

When we started the hike the wind was just a pleasant breeze, when we came back out of the canyon the wind was a howling menace. It was before noon and the advisory was for 1PM, but in retrospect the advisory covered a large swath of Texas and New Mexico so maybe I can cut them some slack with the timing. We were presented with a couple of quandaries: to go on or turn back, and to eat in the car or find a scenic spot. Having driven in a wind storm in Alamogordo, we decided to turn back and discovered that by doing so we were actually getting ahead of the wind. We wound up eating in a roadside steel tipi that had a pleasant view but did not look to be bolted down (yes I checked, just because I’m retired doesn’t mean I stopped being an engineer).

We then spent some time in the Terlingua Ghost Town, which might refer to some old stone ruins, but definitely has a couple restaurants and a spacious gift shop. Yes, that makes twice now we’ve hit a tourist trap in a windstorm. Where else am I going to find lotion with a bourbon, tobacco, and leather scent – still smells good, faintly, hours later. While resting in a restaurant and hearing of the travails they went through during the Valentine’s Day winter storm, including six inches of snow, frozen pipes and loss of power, the lights flickered several times – cue that music again. When we returned to the hotel, you guessed it, no electricity. Life with just 3G and no WiFi is just not civilized, I have no idea how I survived the first 40 years of my life. The length of today’s post is in part explained by boredom, mine and hopefully if you’ve actually read this far not yours.

Just to set your mind at ease, the power came back on around the time I was describing lunch.

Tags: JTFSSW

I took approximately a billion photos today. Certain parts of the world are photogenic, some aren’t. For instance, at any given moment more pictures are being taken in Venice than anywhere else in the world (that’s a completely made up statistic that is totally true) whereas in the past five years not a single photo has been taken in Pecos TX that wasn’t for a birthday or wedding. I guess I’m trying to say Big Bend is photogenic – it ranks up there with Bryce Canyon amongst National Parks.

We took the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive (that really is the name of the road) all the way to Santa Elena Canyon and the Rio Grande. I have to say the canyon was spectacular, huge, and impressive, while the Rio Grande should be named the Rio not so Grand. It’s no bigger than the Meramec River, but it IS an international border. The west side of the park is filled with mountains, bluffs, dry river beds – it’s in a constant state of altitudinal flux. We also drove into the Chisos Basin which is very impressive – surrounded by a ring of mountains except for a single “window” where all the water flows out and drops to the valley below.

Big Bend is our penultimate stop on the Journey to the Far Side of the South West. We have three more nights in the Motel Time Forgot before we move on to San Antonio and our final AirBnb. So far the two Airbnb’s with laundry facilities have been at just the right time to keep us going, but we may be forced to hit a laundromat in San Antonio. It’s one thing to get off the trail stinking and filthy, it’s another hit the trail that way.

And on that bombshell, it’s time to end the post!

Tags: JTFSSW

Everyday is Saturday now, not even a Sunday anymore.

Today was a travel day as we went southish to the Big Bend National Park area where we checked into a motel that feels like it’s been caught in a time loop and is stuck in the 50s. No flatscreen TV and actual keys. The cell service is 3G and the front desk puts the WiFi password in for you. Lunch was in Pecos at Chinese Buffet- that’s what the sign said in English, sadly I can’t read Chinese characters so I don’t know it’s name. I don’t know if the town is named after the river, or the river after the town, but the river runs through it.

We lost an hour but gained, well, a new appreciation for Texas. We started out in the Permian Basin which seems to be experiencing an oil boom. There are prefab worker housing compounds all over the place. The electrical grid seems haphazard as there are lines of telephone poles as far as you can see going in every direction, with sometime two parallel lines on both sides of the road, and the lines with the big metal towers going every which way, converging at substations in the middle of no where. When we got far enough south, just like that all signs of civilization, including oil tanks and power lines were gone. We turned on to Texas 1776 and the only man made objects in sight were the road and the wire fencing along it. I spent a good part of my day just looking at and for telephone poles. They were the only trees I saw all day.

Eventually we made it to Alpine TX which is a little town at the crossroads of two highways that seems determined to trap you in town since you are forced to make about five turns to get from one road to the other. But MBH and Siri kept me on the right path and we made our escape. Just outside of town was a housing development that consisted only of a gravel road down a valley and an impressive entrance with a sign that said “We sell tranquility by the acre”. I think they don’t know the difference between tranquility and solitude.

For some reason, the less I have to say, the longer it takes me to say it.

Tags: JTFSSW

We went to Carlsbad caverns today, twice. First, we got up at the crack of dawn and skipped breakfast so we could get there in time to get our timed entry ticket. Because COVID they recently decided to lima entry be selling only 1,000 timed entry tickets a day on an in person, that day only, first come first served basis. So it’s not like we were all bunched together in line, oh wait, it was exactly like that, for about 30 minutes. And they just announced they would be switching over to an online reservation system like every other place, including other national parks, starting next week. Missed it by that much. Then we drove back to town to get breakfast because nothing was open at the park and then we drove back out to the park to actually do in (down?) the cavern.

Some say the Grand Canyon is a big hole in the ground; I’m sure those same people would say Carlsbad Caverns is just a big hole underground. They wouldn’t be wrong, but they wouldn’t be right, either, as it is so much more.

Carlsbad itself is a small town at heart. I like small towns and the people who live in them except for one thing – they are slow drivers. The speed limits are ridiculous – 25 MPH through the main part of town, even on a highway with a 75 MPH speed limit outside of town (I’m loving the speed limits in the wide open spaces of the Southwest). And then they all go 5 under the speed limit, and ooze away from any stop, and sit at stop sign long enough to read War and Peace. They pull out in front of you and don’t accelerate, camp in the left lane, and in general act like taking all day to go anywhere is the fun of driving. Trust me small town drivers, driving well is the fun of driving, and driving more slowly than conditions warrant is not driving well.

And on that bombshell I’ll end the post.

Tags: JTFSSW

Location: Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA

Weather: outstanding.

Scenery: outstanding.

Our bodies: a little past their prime.

We hiked McKittrick Canyon in Guadalupe Mountains National Park today. This was the prettiest part of Texas we’ve been except for the Dallas Botanical Garden, and if something had been blooming in the canyon it would have won. Beauty around every corner, be careful not to step in any. Make way, hikers. I’m armed to the teeth and packing a hamster. Fellow hikers, you must gather your party before setting forth.

Breakfast at the Airbnb, lunch on the trail, dinner in town. Yum. Friendly people all day long.

Tonight: Laundry

Question: Minsc

Tags: JTFSSW

This morning the sun was bright and the air clear in Alamogordo, which made me wonder if I had dreamed the day before. Then I put on my sunglasses and the grit on them made the truth clear, woah, yesterday happened. So I could only marvel at how quickly the dust settled. And then we were off on the next adventure.

We drove up into the mountains (again) and tried to follow the Billy the Kid Trail – it’s a driving route, but the visitor center was closed, there are no road signs, so about all we had to go on was picture of a Google Map with stops marked but no legend. Good times, good times. At least we found a good place for lunch, the Oso grill in Capitan, where we had another chat with a struggling restaurant owner sparked by her giving a rundown of what was on the menu but not actually available. No soup for you!

The drive out to Roswell and then down to Carlsbad was distinctive for the lack of visible mountains – you could see them in certain directions way off on the horizon if you squinted hard enough, and for the near total lack of vegetation, just some sparse short dormant grass with a few yucca looking plants when we got closer to Carlsbad. The scenery got so dull MBH started reading a Poldark book.

The picture taking was so minimal today I added a couple of old ones just to refresh our memory of how pretty the desert can be.

Tags: JTFSSW

Today dawned bright and clear, or at least it was when we got up sometime after dawn. I’m just making an assumption about what dawn was like.

Another day, another suitcase in another hall. We adjusted to our new AirBnb last night and this morning. You know what to expect in any hotel room, although sometimes you are pleasantly surprised by something simple like a refrigerator. Every Airbnb is different, starting with the coffee machine (going in chronological order here) way beyond just Keurig or not, where are the light switches, how to operate the shower (the first showerer gives a briefing to the other even if it’s only what o’clock to put the lever so the water temperature is right), even what is in the kitchen and where is it. And just when we’re comfortable, we are on the road again.

Air still clear, we set off this morning for White Sands National Monument/Park (I’ve seen it both ways). Soon we were there and the wind had picked up. After a few walks, first on a raised walkway and then barefoot thru the dunes, the wind really picked up. After a stop where it was really hard to see or breathe we gave up on getting out of the car. We drove the whole loop, and there were a few spots on the way back it was like driving in a blizzard – white out plus sand drifting over the road, which isn’t paved for about half the drive – you’re just driving on sand, gypsum actually, of varying degrees of hardness.

Then it was off to lunch and the search for someplace open. New Mexico has really done a number on their restaurants with a long stretch with no on premises- indoor or outdoor – dining. After passing many closed restaurants we found a good local diner. After trying to help fix the front door (apparently high winds are somewhat common around which as you can imagine can put a lot of stress on doors) we had a nice chat with the owner. She is at her wits end and very stressed.

After lunch we engaged in a search for something to do in high winds & high dust. The Space museum is closed while they remodel their bathrooms. We started out to take a scenic drive in the mountains but the further north we went the worse the wind got and darker/dustier the air became, so we turned around and stopped off at Pistachio land. I know this may come as a surprise, but there is only so long you can spend at a pistachio themed tourist trap, but at least it was indoors. We then drove back into town where were going to while away sometime at a local cantina but it is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. As I write this back at the Airbnb, the sky is still a dusty white.

Tomorrow is another day.

Tags: JTFSSW

We woke up this morning in Arizona, and in a microcosm of the total trip, drove through New Mexico to El Paso Texas, and then turned and went north back into New Mexico and finally settled in Alamogordo, which the locals shorten to Alamo, which I won’t mention when we return to Texas. We went to El Paso to switch rental cars since the Sentra developed a hitch in its get along, or at least a leak in the transmission. I should post a picture of the rental car parking garage since we spent a good deal of quality time there because, according to the guy at the car rental desk, spring break had cleaned them out of cars. Somebody isn’t doing Spring Break right IMHO. But for your sakes I try to only post the most luscious photos, and even I at my craziest wouldn’t take a picture of a rental car parking lot. Just keeping it real in the Thrifty rental car lot.

Last night we saw a beautiful new moon above the picturesque hill out the front door of the Airbnb, but sadly the technology at my disposal was inadequate to capture the ineffable beauty of the sight, so until the Vulcan mind meld becomes an actual thing, you’re stuck with my puny and inadequate words.

On the subject of abject fails, we crossed the continental divide this morning in the flattest, most desolate plain which is no way to cross the continental divide. We did take a side trip to the City of Rocks (state park) but to be honest, our heart wasn’t in it with the car and our calls to Thrifty. So we had our picnic lunch courtesy of Subway, wandered around a bit, found an outhouse – the nice bathrooms were closed because COVID, the lousy ones are still open because when you gotta go, you gotta go.

We didn’t lose an hour Sunday morning like everyone else, we lost an hour this morning because (1) Arizona doesn’t do daylight savings time, and B. New Mexico does. Arizona really should change their state motto from the Latin for “God enriches” to “Ornery” or “like no where else” or even “live free or die” – that one may be taken but it’s a good one and seems to fit. If I was smart, when I retire I should buy a house in New Hampshire and one in Arizona.

Desolation factor for the day Maximum, beauty factor Minimum.

Tags: JTFSSW

Last night we took advantage of the remoteness to stargaze, until we got too cold and went back inside.

This morning dawned cold and clear so we visited Chiricahua National Monument which managed to be extra beautiful and not particularly desolate. Really stunning scenery.

Our week in Arizona has been filled with two lane backroads, some dirt, most paved; sunshine, hiking, and mountains. When we are in the valley, there are mountains all around us, and when we are on the mountain top, there are still more mountains, some close, some in the distance. The roads have either been super straight or super curvy. The food has ranged from surprisingly good to way past time to change the oil in the fryer, from Mexican to burgers, from picnic lunches to sit down dinners. Our current Airbnb even provided a basket of farm fresh eggs. The people have been super friendly, from locals to tourists. Tonight the manager (probably owner too) of the restaurant we picked dinner up from told a gentleman who ordered a drink with his to go order he couldn’t sell it to him since he was openly carrying, but if he concealed his pistol or put it in his car there would be no problem. Arizona has been fun.

Tags: JTFSSW