Movin' on

Tuesday was our last full day at Poncho Villa State Park and we wanted to see more of the "local" attractions in this area. We saw signs on the freeway coming in, and on the map, for City of Rocks State Park and Silver City to the north. I checked the distance to the park and it was about 80 miles. Silver Springs was a little beyond that. Distances in the western desert are very deceiving since the mountains you see on the horizons can be anywhere between fifteen and fifty miles away. So on we went.
After driving for an hour and a half we made it to City of Rocks S.P. This is the site of an ancient volcano that erupted 1000 times larger than Mt St Helens. The area is strewn with the weathered relics of that  eruption and some of the rock formations were truly awesome. Another thing the area is known for is being a dark sky area for viewing the night sky. We toured the campground and visitor's center, watched a filmstrip and hiked amongst the rocks. Later we drove to the top of a lookout and had our lunch.
From here we drove the next thirty miles north to Silver City. We were looking for an old mining town, but what we were seeing was a lot of modern development and urban sprawl. We stopped at the local Walmart to get a couple of things we needed at camp and asked about the old historical downtown area. The nice lady at the register told me that it was a bit further up the highway to the north. As we left Walmart I noticed a sign that said "Historical downtown area" with a sign pointing straight ahead! We found a parking area and walked main street to do some window shopping and get some exercise. Neat old town and lots of interesting antique shops, taverns and cafes.
As we were driving back to camp I realized this trip was no small ride, and we both decided that 220 miles was a bit much just to see the "local" attractions.
On Wednesday morning we watched the weather and they were threatening a strong storm with rain and high winds, possible dust storm and cold temperatures. We could see ominous clouds to the west and the winds were picking up. We decided to wait and see if it would be feasible to make our move to Patagonia Lake in Arizona. Soon the wind was howling and the rain started. It rained and blew for about two hours and then the sun  started peaking and the winds died down some. We decided to pack a lunch, pack up camp and make our move.
The ride was kind of windy and we drove through a couple of rain showers on the way, but the rain kept the dust from blowing. By four fifteen we were at Patagonia Lake State Park. They are promising temperatures in the seventies here for several days, so we are hoping to get the kayaks off of the roof!

Some pictures....

Nice camping around the rock formations.

Here is one of the rustic campsites near the rocks. Modern electric hook-up sites were in a separate area closer to the visitors center.

We walked through the rock piles. This looked like a great place for the old west outlaws to hide out!

Here was one guy hiding out in the rocks.

Catch me if you can.

Onward..

Downtown Silver city.

An end to an interesting Tuesday. (Storms on the western sky)

Rocks along I-10 in Arizona on Wednesday's drive.

More of 'em.

Mountains near Kartchner's Caverns, Benson, Arizona.

Old Mexico

January 8, 2018

We took a ride to Mexico today. It was a three mile drive from our campground. We parked the truck in a small lot on the US side and proceeded to the border. The border crossing was easy, just a walkway for pedestrians on the side of the road with a turnstile manned by a crossing guard, and gates for the vehicles to drive through.

All of the notices at camp suggested visiting the pink store, so that's what we did. They had a huge selection of Mexican stuff from jewelry to furniture to wall hangings to pottery and dishes and hats and clothing and all sorts of ornamental decorations and statues. We wandered around and picked up a few items and they took them to the counter for us and gave us a number to claim all of our goods to check out when we were done at the store. A hostess came around with a tray of Margaritas to sip on while we shopped. They don't do that at Lakeside Mall! There was a cafe in the store and we had lunch while a trio of Mexican gentlemen serenaded the tables in the restaurant. We had a coupon for more free margaritas to drink with our lunch!  This was a great shopping experience even for the guys in the crowd!

On the way back into the U.S. we walked through a customs building and presented our passports and walked back to the truck. No hassle, no one gets hurt!

The famous "Pink Store" in Paloma, Mexico

All kinds of artsy craftsy gifts for sale.

Who wouldn't want one of these?

A lot of decorations for the patio or deck...

They even had swith plates and outlet covers with decorative etchings

We had lunch in the cantina with free margaritas.

I liked this dog. Well behaved and no mess. I think I'll call him senor King.

Eerie!

A Columbus historical marker on the way back to camp.

Sunday, January 7

Today we did some exploring in the town of Columbus on our bikes. This is an old town with a small downtown area. It is basically the intersection of two highways. It has a gas station, a couple of restaurants, a grocery store and several small businesses as well as a bank and post office. The railroad used to come through here, but the tracks and rail station are now gone.

We went to the museum at Poncho Villa State Park and were surprised to see what this town is famous for. In 1916 a band of revolutionaries from Mexico invaded the town and robbed and killed some of the townspeople. They looted the village and burned several buildings to the ground. The U.S. Army organized a force of soldiers commanded by General Pershing to remove the invaders and to go after Poncho Villa (who may or may not have been part of the raiding force). Several U.S. Soldiers were killed and also a number of the Mexican revolutionaries died in the skirmish that ensued. A huge military troop was assembled and went into Mexico, but never captured Poncho. Soon after General Pershing and his troops were called to duty to fight in France when the US entered into World War 1. This was the first time the US was attacked by a foreign armed force on US soil.

Photos from the museum.

A local's car got shot up in the raid.

The toll of war.

Retaliating against Poncho

By land and air, trying to capture Villa's band of raiders.

General Pershing's 1916 Dodge touring car.

Day five

January 6

We got up at 5;30 this morning to pack up the camper and get moving. Sand Hills State Park was having it's annual fun run this morning and was closing the park road at 7 am. We had to be out of the park before they closed. We were on the road driving in the dark for the first hour and the trucks that work the oil fields were already on the road. We drove through oil fields for a hundred and fifty miles and switched from I-20 to I-10 northeast of El Paso. Finally we began to see mountains on the horizon and the desert changed to grasslands. It started to look like out west instead of so many oil fields. We drove through El Paso and on through Las Cruses and Deming on our way to Columbus New Mexico and Poncho Villa State Park. We are here for four nights.

New Mexico welcome center west of El Paso

Our camp at Poncho Villa State Park

Southwest US sunset

Day Four

January 5

We drove from Weatherford to Odessa Sand Hill State Park and set up our first camp of the winter. It gave us a chance to get things organized and open up the camper. The park has sand dunes reminiscent of White Sands New Mexico, but these dunes are the color of Lake Michigan sand. Plenty of beach but no water. Before we left Wheeler Road Mike's kids were sledding on the Sleeping Bear dunes on the snow. Here kids were sledding with saucers on the bare sand.

The drive here from the Fort Worth area was through oil fields, cotton fields, and wind farms. We saw hundreds of wind turbines on both sides of the highway for miles and miles. We saw several long trains stacked two high with shipping containers and pulled by four locomotives. Lots of freight moving to and from the west coast through the desert. The cotton was being harvested in some areas and there were huge wrapped bales on the ground. Other unpicked cotton fields were white and looked like snow.

We came into Northeast Texas on I-30 then changed to I-20 in Fort Worth. We change to I-10 before we get to El Paso on Saturday. (The stadium I thought was part of Baylor College was actually Rockwell High School. It was near a Baylor Medical facility.

Harvesting the cotton. They sure don't do this by hand any more.

Acres and acres of cotton fields.

Bales of cotton, wind turbines and oil fields. 

And again.

Day Three - Texas

Our third day on the road we left Arkansas and entered Texas. We came into Texarkana and drove through Dallas and on through Fort Worth. We are now in a Hampton Inn for the night west of town.
This is a populated area, but even in rush hour today it was nowhere near as bad as Atlanta, Georgia.
We hit Dallas at about four thirty and Fort Worth at five.
We have been driving with sunny skies every day since we left Michigan and today in Dallas it was fifty degrees for a short while. Gas prices have come down and we are now seeing $2.19 per gallon for unleaded. The driving has been fine with dry roads and not too much traffic. The trucks are running as usual, but so far they have all been behaving. I cruise at about 62 to 65 miles per hour and everyone works their way around me. Tomorrow night we plan on doing our first camping. By the time we stop we are hoping for sixty degree temperatures and want to get the camper organized and everything operating properly. We'll have to get those heaters working to get through our first camping night.

I-40 through Texarkana

The stadium at Baylor College

Water tower

Remember when we thought it couldn't get worse than George W.?

The Dallas skyline

A new Winter Road Trip - January 3, 2018

We had a great holiday season with the kids this year, a couple of days downstate and a week of family at Christmas up north. After everyone went back home we started packing up for our winter journey and due to weather and unanticipated issues we couldn't get underway until Tuesday morning, January 2nd.
We left with a window of opportunity for the best road conditions and no snow for a day. It was 12 degrees on Tuesday morning and after snowblowing six inches of snow on Sunday and another ten on Monday the driveway was still clear on Tuesday morning! We finished loading the camper and winterized the house and hit the road by 10 am. The roads were snow covered and icy and we drove through winter's wonderland so that the truck stayed in four wheel drive all the way to Cadillac when we turned onto US 131. At that point we could actually see the pavement. Temperatures hit 20 degrees as we drove south, but when we hit Indiana they were going down again quickly. We watched it go back down to zero and negative one and it stayed there all the way to our hotel south of Indianapolis. We got a good night's sleep and hit the road again at 9 am this morning. It gradually warmed up to 32 degrees today and we left the snow cover about two hours into our drive this morning. We drove from Indiana to Missouri and on into Arkansaw today. (Funny thing they have all the signs wrong here, they spell Arkansaw with an "s" at the end!).
We are now at our second hotel night west of Memphis, Tennessee and just west of West Memphis, Arkansas.
Tomorrow we are headed for the Fort Wort area and they are promising temperatures in the high forties! Onward and upward! (Glad we weren't headed for the Southeast states)!
Happy New Year to everyone.

A few pictures from the end of 2017....

We went to the "WildLites" exhibit  at the Detriot Zoo in December with the kids.

On the 17th we were at a Christmas Concert with the Traverse City Symphony Orchestra and Interlochen Childrens Choir. It was an amazing performance!

Front street in T.C. lit up for Christmas.

The grandkids on Christmas morning.

One of our special presents for Christmas was a grandson who is now a teenager! Happy birthday, Ben!

Getting out of the north country on Tuesday.

The Leland report says that there have been 116 inches of snow in Suttons Bay already!

And for a New Year's resolution - Next summer I am hoping to dig the boat out for more fishing and boating than we have done the past couple years.