May 31 - “We’re baaack”

Well then. On our last night on the road we encountered by far the absolute worst hotel of the entire trip. Don’t stay at the Comfort Inn and Suites in Seguin, Texas. Here’s just a few of the issues we encountered: 

1st room - water all over floor. Literally, a flood. 

2nd room - sheet and comforter dirty. Trim in bathroom gone with nail protruding. Hole in bathroom door. 

3rd room - one plug by left side of bed didn’t work. Black hair on wall in bathroom. Something dripping from vent. Drapes dirty and ripped. Needed a dehumidifier in there. My cap was drenched in the morning after just sitting on the desk all night. 

We were too tired to change hotels or try for room #4. Should have. Chris was having trouble breathing by the time we got out of there. Did I mention “Don’t stay at the Comfort Inn and Suites in Seguin, Texas!”

To calm our nerves we drove straight over to the only local site worthy of seeing - the world’s largest pecan. 16 feet long. After seeing that two-story tall pistachio back in New Mexico, I feel accomplished in my own operatic rendition of “I’m a nut.” I feel certain that my musical career will continue. At least through our return to children’s camp in June. Are you ready, Columbus Avenue Kids? 

Interesting town name we went through. Concrete. Sounds … substantial. Concrete, Texas. Wonder what their high school mascot is? Concrete Blocks? Concrete Foundations? How about Concrete Clobberers? Or maybe, Concrete Conquerors?

Speaking of C-towns … We stopped briefly in Cuero, Texas, to see if Chris’ brothers were home. They were somewhere at work, but we did connect with Mark’s friend and caught up on them a bit. Maybe next time through, guys. 

We debated long and hard about switching things up and going all the way down to Brownsville for that last National Park stamp. It would only take a day or two. Practicality won out though. Well, that and a preference for washing clothes in our own washing machine at home.

It worked out that after a quick lunch at McAlister’s Deli, we drove through Chris’ old stomping grounds, Bay City. She snapped a few nostalgia photos of the house she grew up in, the high school she graduated from, and the gravestones of a few of her ancestors for genealogy purposes. 

That put us popping out on Hiway 6, not far from Nathan and April and Cailyn, as well as Kel and Christina and their kids (just back from Alaska). Well … why not? It was fun to pop in on them and say hi before heading to the island. And once there, we stopped at Randall’s to pick up a prescription for Chris and at Little Caesar’s for a dinner pizza. 

John‬ ‭16‬:‭13‬ says, When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.

Father, the island salt air sure smells great. Amen

May 30 - “Open. Open. Open”

We got on the road pretty early. Had to get started crossing this now-Texas barrenness at 80 mph. We decided to veer off to the south again and do our best to get the Parks stamp from a place called Amistad. We have been through there once before, back on our Big Bend trip, but the visitors’ center had closed about ten minutes before we showed up. So … reboot. 

The road from I10 down south to Amistad was a long, lonely highway. Sounds like a country western song, doesn’t it? I dozed again, and our only company was the occasional critter - a cow, a quail, a roadrunner, two or three border patrol agent trucks (just to keep us honest, I guess). We did make it, though. And better yet, the visitor center was actually open this time. We didn’t even have to stand outside the door and chant, “Open Open. Open.” Chris got her stamp and all was right with the world. 

After a stop at Chili’s in Del Rio for lunch (and supper, too, as it turned out. Those portions were huge!), we hit the road for the next leg of our journey … Seguin. Why Seguin, of all places? Tune in tomorrow for a full report. 

“Rusty Rooster Drive through - Margaritas to Go”. Never seen that one before. Innovative, if nothing else, Castroville. 

Gotta say, we were not looking forward to driving through San Antonio at 4:30 pm. But the traffic really wasn’t bad. We made to our hotel in Seguin before 5:30. Not bad at all. 

Psalms‬ ‭119‬:‭105‬ ‭ says, You’re ur word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.

Father, it’s beginning to feel like we’re almost home. Please keep us safe these last few moments. Amen. 

May 29 - “Slight flight plan adjustment”

We couldn’t stand it. We found out Jim and Kathy were just about 30 minutes away, so we made a slight adjustment in our flight plan. We headed back north a ways to catch them before they took off for their next adventure. I figured Texas would still be there a little later in the day. 

We met up at the office of the KOA where they were staying. We laughed and shared adventure stories over a cup of coffee and a cherry icee. We took our 8 or 10 pictures together, of course. Gotta document the important events.  Finally we headed on to our new route and they resumed on their way to seek out remnants of Jim’s long-forgotten Alien ancestry. Safe travels, you two. 

We took off on another side road to get moving. I fell asleep, but Chris told me the very first town we drove through was another of those eerie, nobody is home, not a soul in sight ghost towns. Now, entering the town she saw a colorful sign welcoming us to the local Methodist church. But in town? No sign of it. Once again, very sad. Oh! I forgot to mention the name of the town … Hope. Now that’s even more sad.  

As we drove through Cloudcroft (no snow, but we did see the ski lifts) and started down from the mountains, we were surprised with a gorgeous view of White Sands. Needless to say, Chris had me on camera duty. 

We drove right next to the Fort Bliss McGregor Range. Danger signs here and there, but all we saw out of the ordinary was yet another of those dust devil mini-tornados. 

Through all the drama we ended up in El Paso. There was a national monument there to the agreement back in the 1960’s as to the actual border between Texas and Mexico. And yes. Chris got her stamp. That just leaves two more in Texas that we still need. We may get one of them before we make our way home. Still under discussion. Oh, and we stopped for lunch at a place that came highly recommended by our friend Rita (a BIEP - Born In El Paso).  It was called Chico’s Tacos. Interesting, unexpected approach to tacos. Rolled tightly and fried really crisp, then sloshed in some kind of sauce and topped with a bucket of cheese. Definitely not like anything I have had before. So we have eaten the one culinary masterpiece that apparently defines El Paso. Check. 

Chris embraced the 80 mph speed limit outside of El Paso. In relatively no time we had stopped for gas and made our way back to Van Horn, Texas, and the very same hotel we stayed in last week. Time for some rest. 

Colossians‬ ‭1‬:‭13‬-‭14‬ ‭ says, For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

‭‭

Father, thank you that we managed a way to connect with Jim and Kathy. And thanks for the El Paso advice from Rita and Kelly. Bless them for that. Amen. 

May 28 - “So close, but so far”

We were back on the road again by about 8:30 Texas time. But this was supposed to be a trip of the tad bit more westerly persuasion. So … we headed back west again. Actually, our primary intent was to go back to Carlsbad Caverns and take the elevator down to catch the last part of that monstrosity of a hike we did last week. Apparently, we missed a spot. Beyond that we just weren’t sure. 

Well, “missed a spot” is putting it mildly. Those of you who have been there, “the spot” we missed was better known as The Big Room. Nothing less than the most spectacular site in the entire cavern system. So glad we made the return journey. And Kel, Josh, and Nathan … so sorry we never took you guys there. 

We took the elevator down to the starting point of the Big Room hike. That hike was a mile and a third, so not all that bad. Way easier than the one last week when we hiked our way from the surface to the point where this one began. We bailed then, but again, so glad we came back. The caves and formations and even puddles of water were stunning. We tried to take a lot of pictures, but I’m sure none of them really do justice to what we saw in person. If you get a chance … go!

We posted a selfie of us taken about 750 feet underground. At least that’s what the elevator reads when it finally stops. And who should respond to the post but Jim and Kathy White, some of our RVer friends from when they stay in Galveston. They were planning to stay at a KOA just outside of Carlsbad, and we were spending the night at a hotel in town. Now, how could we not get together for a photo op? However, sadly, we couldn’t work out the logistics. As Jim said, “So close, but so far.” Or to quote the indomitable Maxwell Smart, as he holds his fingers mere centimeters apart, “Missed it by this much.” Jim did piece together a conglomeration picture of the four of us with his great saying included. Not as good as the real thing would have been, of course, but it made us both smile. 

After checking into the hotel and crashing for a while, we made our way out into the 104 degree heat for some supper. And why not return to our old favorite, at least on this trip, McAlister’s Deli? Chris had a salad. I had potato soup. Good stuff. 

Last night we went back to the Caverns to see the bats’ exit again. But also they were following that up with a star gazing program. Two for one. Good deal, especially since both were free. And alas and alack, although the bats did come out, they waited until it was almost too dark to see them. And the star gazing was a real bust. They couldn’t get the big telescope to work at all, so the program amounted to a lecture about stars. I felt kind of sorry for the Ranger. She obviously knew her stuff, but the telescope debacle really had her flustered. They’ll get better. That was just the first show of the season. 

Proverbs‬ ‭12‬:‭25‬ ‭ says, Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up.

Father, please be with Jim and Kathy as they journey back northward. Amen. 

May 27 - “Way to go, Wyatt!”

We were able to hang out at the hotel for the morning. That meant we were also able to watch the Sunday service at Columbus Avenue Baptist Church in Waco. That was a big deal for us. Several reasons. Zak read scripture. Caleb played keyboard and sang in the youth praise band. Luke cheered them on. And to top it all off, AnnaGrace made public her profession of faith in Jesus. Baptism details to come later. And later in the day Caleb and Luke had a piano recital and of course rocked it. Quite the exciting day, to be sure. 

Shortly thereafter we had some guests knock at the door. Serena and Mike and Wyatt, along with my brother Jay, were here to hang out for a while. It was fun catching up with them. 

After they left we decided to drive over to a nearby Subway. We split a footlong, which essentially means we each had a totally different six-inch. Easy enough. Well, until we got in the car and were backing out to return to the hotel. Bump. Yep. Fender bender with the car parked behind us. Well, as it turned out, not so much fender bender as, here’s a tiny sample of my car paint for you to examine. Aaaand upon closer inspection, the other guy wiped off all traces. I offered my insurance card, but he refused. Couldn’t find any evidence to give them. Whew. 

About mid-afternoon we headed over to the basketball arena of Texas Tech University. Wyatt was graduating from high school along with six hundred plus of his closest friends.  My favorite name among all the creative names we heard, though, was actually a young lady named Natalie Rain Cloud. No idea if that’s how she spelled it, but it sure struck me as masterful. Way to go, Natalie’s parents. I wasn’t able to last the entire couple of hours sitting. I got up after Wyatt walked and made my way around the arena a time or two. I confess, I also kept track of the Astros game on my phone. So … victory on both counts. Way to go, Astros, and I’m proud of you, Wyatt. 

We closed out the night with some Mexican food with the family at Rosa’s. We’ve eaten at their restaurant in Waco before, so we were kind of familiar with it. We almost closed the place down just talking. But Wyatt had to get to his graduation after-party. And we have an appointment at 1:15 back at Carlsbad Caverns today, so we needed some beauty sleep. Probably didn’t help me much. Chris, on the other hand, is prettier than ever. 

Jeremiah‬ ‭31‬:‭25‬ ‭ says, For I have given rest to the weary and joy to the sorrowing.

‭‭

Father, thanks for you for Wyatt’s graduation achievement. Be with him now as he attacks his next level of studies, and guide his decisions for his future. Amen. 

May 26 - “IT WAS A WHAT??”

We pulled out of Albuquerque around 8:15 or so. After a stop for gas we hit I25 and headed to our next stop - that would be traffic coming to a complete halt due to a wreck. Two sheriffs and a city police car were already on scene, though, so the stoppage quickly became a slowdown. We were back up to the speed limit (75!) in no time. 

Our only National Park stop of the day was a place called Fort Union. On the way there we saw three or four antelope playing, as the song goes. Beautiful critters. 

The fort had been a sprawling bastion of a large military contingent built right on the Santa Fe Trail. All that’s left are ruins. Reminded me of Fort Davis, only much bigger in scale. As far as hikes go, this one was the hardest of all we have attempted. For me anyway. Why? Well, not because the trail was at all difficult. It was flat and only a little over a mile long. The problem was the wind. We were out on the prairie. Temp was 72 with a “feels like” of 68. Nice.  But the wind. Oh, the wind. Sustained winds of 22 mph. Gusts up to 39. That kind of sucks away all the moisture in your body. And of course we left the water bottles in the car. “Hey,” we thought. “It’s only a mile. What could go wrong?” 

Well, by the time we finished, I was feeling all in. My esteemed medical opinion  was that I by getting dehydrated. Maybe not that drastic yet, but I sure downed the water when we got back to the car. We went ahead and ate our leftovers for lunch. 

Fully sustained, we began the long trek to - believe it or not - Lubbock, Texas. Not that we are necessarily finished with New Mexico. It’s just that our great-nephew (is that what you call it? My brother’s grandson) is graduating from high school this afternoon, and we really wanted to be there. 

We did decide to take a scenic route, though. The fastest way is one we have driven many, many times over the years after camps at Glorieta. To be different we choose an alternate that added just 15 minutes to our ETA. But, oh, the places we did go through to get here from there. And the sights we did see. How about a sampling?

Wagon Mound (they had a gas station so we topped off the tank). 

Resting deer (an actual deer taking a rest. Head was up and watching the surroundings, though. Can’t have any unwanted altercations with lions or tigers or bears. Oh, my!)

Quail (the critter, not a town name. This little dude waddled right across the road like he desperately needed to get to the other side). 

Canadian River Canyon (not really in Canada. At least I don’t think so. And not much of a river. Just a puddle, actually. But quite the impressive canyon. Hence the name). 

Bunches of cows (OK, so not very exciting. But they were out there nonetheless). 

Roy (that one’s a town name. Two key things there. Well, three if you count that’s where we turned. One was an abandoned hotel named “Kilmurray Hotel.”  Spread the word. Murray, stay out of Roy. They are out to get you there. Finally, they had a very nice stadium there for competitions involving cowboys and cowgirls. That would make it ROYdeo Arena, wouldn’t it?). 

Solano (this town’s claim to fame was its cemetery that had its own road sign. No real town, but they had a cute little post office). 

Mosquero (NOT Mosquito. These guys were really on the ball.  They changed their speed limit so you’d have to slow down and take note of the actual human presence. At least so we thought. The town was actually very pretty. Murals on most buildings. Even a sign to public restrooms. BUT … there was not a single human being in sight. Anywhere. It was … The Twilight Zone). 

LEAVE US ALONE! (Whew! During one particularly long stretch of the winding road outside of Mosquero, we began to worry that the person in the car in front of us was falling asleep. It would drift first to one side, then back. Scary stuff when you are considering how best to pass them. Chris timed it perfectly, and took off. And as we passed I glanced at the driver to see if I could discern his condition. And IT WAS A LITTLE KID! Maybe 6 or 7 years old. He had to be in someone’s lap, but he had full control of the steering wheel. No wonder all the residents of Twilight Zone-ville were staying behind closed doors). 

Tumbleweeds (again, not a town. Just a New Mexico Thing).

San Jon (guess that means Saint John in Portuguese. We got gas there. That tropical storm force wind was a little worse). 

Grady (the place where we turned left and drove through a wind farm. Turbines were working overtime). 

Broadview (home of the running dog)

Texico (wonder if they’re just confused as to where they are as I am. Texas? New Mexico? I’m so confused!). 

Speaking of confused, we were in Texas, but almost immediately we lost the hour we gained last week. 

Glad we factored that into our hotel planning. 

Speaking of planning, we did some on-the-fly locating of a McAlister’s Deli, one of our favorites. We found one not very far from the hotel. Thank you, Texas Tech students for creating the need for such an establishment. 

Father, thank you for all the wacky things and places we have seen so far. Your world is just amazing. Amen. 

May 25 - “Reeking and Ranting”

Wow! Did that ever stink! No, I mean literally smell bad, reek, majorly offensive to the nostrils. The entire hallway of our floor at the hotel smelled like something crawled up and died and had begun to rot. Or more likely, someone tossed an especially dirty diaper into some remote corner and checked out without fessing up. I reported it, but all they could do was “tell maintenance to empty the trash when they get to work later.”  Fortunately, we couldn’t smell it at all in our room or we would have been forced to get out of there. As it was, I was never so glad to leave an odor behind. 

OK. Reeking and Ranting aside. Back on the road again …

After much pondering and observation of others of his kind, like the speedy versions we saw on our morning drive, Chris has come to the conclusion that the critter she grazed (trying not to use stronger descriptive words) a day or two ago was probably a much slower version of that character we all know and love - the Roadrunner. RIP (er - sorry for the mild bump) SlowBoy. 

Our first stop on this already full day was the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. There were actually three sites of Spanish mission ruins, plus a visitor center. We went to one of the sites, Abo (with the accent on the o). Then we went into town (Mountainair) and Chris got her stamps. 

Next we headed out through some private ranchlands. Each one looked like it could be the Ponderosa. Miles and miles of nothing. But all that nothing was carefully fenced off. Oh, and we added to our critters seen list:

Road runners

A really fat Llama

Horses (hey, I said it was ranch land)

Cows (see comment above)

On the other side of Albuquerque we found the Petroglyphs National Monument. That amounted to a couple of hikes straight up some volcanic mounds upon which some early artists had been quite active. On the pitch black rocks were scrawled crude images of animals, birds, and even people, as well as random symbols. I had two favorites. One was clearly a bird, but what made it stand out was the fact that an actual bird that kind of resembled that ancient one was busy just feet away, feeding her tiny ones in her nest near the bathrooms. Cool point of connection. Mama bird to picture, not to bathrooms. My second favorite was a symbol that looked like a pistachio on a stick. It reminded me of the sticks early Mayans used in their games like lacrosse with heads of their enemies as the ball. 

From there we took a quick drive down Albuquerque’s portion of Route 66. Sorry, New Mexico. I was way more impressed with Amarillo’s. 

We ended the evening with supper at Applebee’s. It’s been a long time since we’ve been in one of those. I actually had some fried shrimp. Hey. I was desperate. They weren’t terrible, but they certainly weren’t Shrimp n Stuff. Chris had a quesadilla salad. Hers was enough for two more meals in days to come. 

I was very tempted to just stay out here another day. When we checked in I met some young men who said they were in town for a huge basketball tournament. 250 teams were entered, and games were going on all day today and tomorrow. Oh well. There will be other basketball games. But not NBA. Nope. That’s just not basketball. Go Mavericks!

And later we learned that there was also a huge BMX bike competition in town as well. No wonder all the rooms were full. 

Psalms‬ ‭42‬:‭11‬ ‭ says, Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!

Father, please be with all the kids who will be taking part in the tournament this weekend. Keep them safe and healthy. Amen.