We left Las Cruces NM this morning, heading south on I- 10 to El Paso, TX. Then we cut over to highway 180, heading for Carlsbad Caverns back in New Mexico. (Harris thinks he'll get Judy to go into another cave...we'll see!)
We've been on this road before. Last year we went here to Hueco Tank State Historical site. But this year we went further into northern Texas.
That's one steep grade for Howie!
(actually, the road curves to the left)
We add another national park to our "done" list
We stopped for lunch at Guadalupe Mountains National Park. We didn't see a lot,as most of this park is best explored on hiking trails. We did do one short walk along a path that had many plants identified.
Texas Alligator Madrona
The path ended at some ruins from a stagecoach station. This was the Pinery Station of the Butterfield Overland Mail coach that ran from 1858-1859. Coaches moved mail, freight and people from St. Louis to San Francisco, a distance of about 2700 miles in 25 days traveling day and night. Pinery Station was the highest station at 5700 feet.
Remains of a stage coach station
Guadalupe Mtns. National Park has many different ecological "zones"...desert, riparian, and mountain. This picture is an attempt to show these zones.
Howie meets a fellow B class cousin--A Roadtrek named Leroy
When we came back from the walk, we noticed another Sprinter next to ours. We started talking to the owners...and ended up eating our lunch about an hour later!
Dave and Judi are from Baltimore and have been full timing for a year, traveling around the country. We thought it was interesting that they took a vacation from full timing by going to India for a wedding which they extended to a month long trip We had lots of fun talking about our two rigs, comparing places to go, and generally shooting the breeze.
Judi and Dave from Maryland
After lunch we headed toward Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We got there a little too late in the day to explore, so we drove on to the town of Carlsbad and found the Carlsbad RV park. We had a drink in the shade (it actually got over 70 today!), and Harris went across to talk to a man who was making nets. His name is Blackie, and he's from Shreveport, LA. He uses the nets to catch catfish, when he's back home. He's been here 6 months doing some welding work. Seems like we've run into a few parks lately that house workers, instead of the snowbirds we know we'll see in Florida.
Blackie works on a catfish fish trap
Total miles driven today = 210
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