It’s a new day and a new journey. The large rear window in the RV offers an unobstructed view of the mountain and meadow to the east. As I sit in my chair drinking a steaming cup of hot black coffee, I watch the sky toward the east start to glow.
It’s a cold, brisk morning in southern New Mexico. The tall meadow grasses are touched with frost. After a great nights sleep, Al and I sit in a toasty warm RV watching the sunrise. While we eat a breakfast of left over cherry pie, we wonder why anyone wouldn’t want to do this……I’m referring to the RVing thing but on second thought, why wouldn’t anyone want to eat cherry pie for breakfast while watching the sunrise? Pie and coffee with a beautiful view…..aahhh!
This was the perfect overnight stop. This is our church. It’s what renews us. We savor the morning; savor the view, the coffee, the pie. Life is good. No hurry this morning.
We’re tempted to spend another night, but it’s cold and expected to get even colder. Even Al is torn. Do we go? Do we stay? With a little warmer weather, I assure you we would stay another night, but with the cold temps we move on.
We reluctantly leave City of Rocks State Park near Deming, New Mexico with the promise to return for a longer stay in the not too distant future. (FYI for my international visitors or those geographically challenged – New Mexico is a U.S. State located between Texas and Arizona and not to be confused with the country of Mexico)
While traveling along the interstate through the sprawling city of El Paso, Texas, we glance to the south across the U.S. – Mexico border . The Rio Grande River acts as a divider between the two countries. We can easily see the city of Juarez, Mexico. It’s not a pretty sight and with a reputation of being the deadliest city in Mexico, we won’t be crossing the border here anytime soon, but being this close to the border we did encounter a random check point stop; not uncommon traveling the roads in the southwest.
All traffic is stopped. The border patrol officer looks through the window and asks, “Is everyone on board a U.S. citizen?” We respond respectfully, “Yes”. He says, “Have a good day” and waves us on. Al no sooner has his window rolled up when he comments, “Si, Señor”. I’m very grateful his sense of humor was not released sooner or we would’ve been pulled over. Even then, when pulling a RV it’s not unusual to be asked to pull over and an officer will board the RV checking for the harboring of any illegal aliens….no E.T. onboard in our rig. I don’t know why these stops always make me nervous, but they do. Geez, I’m not even crossing the United States border.
By noon, we are east of El Paso, Texas and are changing the clocks to the Central Time Zone. Looks like we just lost an hour. We have a 370 mile (587 km) day of travel planned today; from Deming, New Mexico to Fort Stockton, Texas. The drive should take us about 5 1/2 to 6 hours depending on fuel stops.
Since it’ll be a cold night, we opt to spend $25 for the night for full hook-ups and stay at the Hilltop RV Park in Fort Stockton, Texas. Tomorrow will be another 5 hour drive. Texas sure is a BIG state!
The drive allows us plenty of time to reflect on our journey the past couple of days. We love meeting fellow RVer’s and discovering hidden gems like City of Rocks State Park. So many of the rocks created unique shapes….. many of which I have chosen not to post since my blog is rated ‘G’. Although I can’t promise after a couple of margarita’s that I won’t do a post on phalluses. For now, I’ll stay with a Sesame Street theme and share the letter ‘d’.
Oh, and FYI….due to poor internet connection, I’m behind on posting. This travel day occurred Dec.29th. For the past 6 days we have been hunkered down in Rockport, Texas. The polar vortex has reached south Texas as well with freezing temps and rain/sleet. Warmer weather forth coming. To all my followers to the north, “Ya’ll stay safe and bundled up.”
Live Laugh RV 