Best of the Wild West Road Trip -Texas/New Mexico

/

Whenever we complete a trip, be it a passage on Nine of Cups, a long walk in Europe or a road trip in the USA, we like to take the time to recall the highlights of our travels and document them. At our age, we do this mostly so we can actually confirm we ever took the trip and didn’t imagine it. Did we go there? Really? We did that? When?

So, the highlights of our Wild West Road Trip…

Big Bend National Park

This was our second visit to Big Bend. The last one was cut short by a family emergency. This time we spent a week. I think what we like most about the park is its isolation. It’s so expansive and so far from any place. You really have to work to get there, so perhaps you appreciate it more. The highlights were our daily trips to dip our toes in the iconic Rio Grande, the wildflowers, the wildlife, and the birdlife, especially seeing the green heron night after night in his familiar spot patiently waiting to dart after a potential snack. Click on the thumbnails to make them larger.

Wildflowers

I’m not sure we’ve ever seen so many different wildflowers in bloom at one time, especially Texas bluebonnets. We counted at least 40+ different species, all blooming concurrently and all a joy to discover.

Texas State Parks

We really enjoyed exploring Texas’ state park system. It’s excellent. The parks were clean, reasonably priced, and offered good amenities. There was something memorable in each park we visited as shown below.

Guadelupe River State Park – the armadillo in our campsite

McKinney Falls State Park – the wildflowers, many of which are shown above, but the rarest find was the scarlet leather flower

Garner State Park – the campground was enormous… 500+ campsites and the Rio Frio was definitely ‘frio’.

Kickapoo Cavern State Park – porcupine, bats and summer tanagers

Lake Brownwood State Park – Scissortailed-flycatchers, northern mockingbird performing his mating dance and the sunsets

Abilene – Crazy cardinal’s romantic advances to Blanche.

Lake Colorado City State Park – Fiery Sunsets and suffocating heat

Traveling off the beaten path

As you’ll remember when we first headed out, this trip had no specific destination. We traveled wherever our whims took us. We really do enjoy getting off the beaten path and seeing what there is to see. I enjoy doing the research, collecting and reading brochures, sussing out the unusual and delighting in the unexpected. The standout finds this trip: a tour of New Mexico ghost towns, the Abilene scavenger hunt for storybook statues, the WASP Museum, the Devil’s Rope Museum, Judge Roy Bean’s old haunt in Langtry, and the American Windmill Museum.

Time to plan Blanche’s next upfit

Sometimes a road trip isn’t necessarily about what we see or do. It’s more about the journey and having time to ponder our next moves with none of the usual distractions and home chores to handle, e.g. yard work, household chores, repairs, doctor/dentist appointments, naps, etc. We’ve been back in Las Vegas for a couple of weeks now, and Blanche’s current upfit has moved along efficiently and expeditiously.

Some of the accelerated progress is because we’re working on van #2 and we learned a lot from upfitting Blue. But I also attribute the smoothness and fast pace of Blanche’s upfit to the time spent planning, being able to think through ideas at our leisure, and working out the kinks in advance of actually beginning the project. Once David discovered the CAD app, Morphi, he went to town laying out and designing Blanche’s ‘lounge’ area’ and ‘garage’. He figured how much wood he’d need, what hinges he wanted to use, how many and what type of drawer slides to order. He had most of the details worked out before we arrived back in Las Vegas. We always seemed to be under the gun with Blue… either get it done or we don’t travel. This time, we completed the essential basics in Blanche and then took off for 6 weeks. We were unhurried as we figured out what we needed and wanted and then prioritized the tasks. It has worked out well. We are quite pleased with the outcome.

David will give you the nickel tour of Blanche’s upfit in his next Blue View.


The only problem we have with travel? It’s addictive. The more we do, the more we want to do. So next time, a sneak peek at the next road trip. It’s right around the corner.