New Mexico

On November 28^th we left Fort Worth towards New Mexico, chasing the sun as we travelled through the Texas desert.   

Our first stop was the city of Carlsbad.   Carlsbad is located at an elevation of 3,295 feet (1,004 m).  One of our destinations was the Carlsbad Caverns National Park, located eighteen miles (29 km) southwest of the city but on our first day we drove up to the city of Roswell to explore the Aliens.  We started off at the Tourist Information Bureau where we got some great information and maps and a quick introduction to the tourist nature of the UFO incident, including having photographs taken with the aliens. 

Roswell is most popularly known for having its name attached to what is now called the 1947 Roswell UFO Incident, even though the crash site of the alleged UFO was some 75 miles from Roswell and closer to Corona.  The Roswell UFO Incident was the recovery of an object that crashed in the general vicinity of Roswell in June or July 1947, allegedly an extra-terrestrial spacecraft and its alien occupants. Since the late 1970s the incident has been the subject of intense controversy and of conspiracy theories as to the true nature of the object that crashed.  

We visited a variety of places in Roswell but one of the highlights was the UFO Museum and Research Center.  This is where we began to appreciate the alien eyes on the lampposts, space ship logos on local car dealer stickers, the city of Roswell logo and branding campaign including a space ship, and the great number of documentaries on the “Incident” and television programs with the Roswell name.  The museum has quite a number of displays on UFOs, sightings, abductions, history of UFO contact, a gift shop and several movie displays.  We walked out of there saying its hard to believe this happened, but it didn’t happen (did it?), why all the government secrecy over what was found there and why are there so many notarized statement from unassuming citizens who saw “something” the government strongly denies they saw.

The next day we headed off to visit the Carlsbad Caverns National Park.  Carlsbad Caverns includes a large cave chamber, the Big Room, a natural limestone chamber that is almost 4,000 feet (1,220 m) long, 625 feet (191 m) wide, and 350 feet (110 m) high at the highest point. It is the third largest chamber in North America and the seventh largest in the world.  The road up to the entrance was a real treat.  The road climbed up into the mountains and we saw some amazing scenery and plant life.

We arrived at the Park Headquarters and elected to take the Natural Entrance route, which is a self-guided tour.  

This one-mile route follows the traditional explorer's route, entering the cavern through the large historic natural entrance. The Natural Entrance route descends more than 750 feet into the earth following steep and narrow trails through a tall and spacious trunk passage called the Main Corridor. The route culminates in the underground rest area, near the elevators and the Big Room route starting point. We had quite a time navigating around Iceberg Rock, a single 200,000-ton boulder that fell from the cave ceiling thousands of years ago.  To walk past this boulder you had to stoop and take it really slow.  It was the only time we both felt a little claustrophobic.

Once at the bottom, we went along the basic tour through the Big Room Route, a one-mile, self-guiding, underground stroll around the perimeter of the largest room in the cave, the Big Room.  It took us about an hour and a half to go through this circular route, which passed many large and famous features including Bottomless Pit, Giant Dome, Rock of Ages and Painted Grotto.   It is immense and awe inspiring and we could certainly see why it is rated as a "must see" tour for all visitors to the park.

The next day we drove towards Las Cruces, a small city just north of the Mexican border.  Along the way we passed Holloman Air Force Base and then we stopped at the US Army White Sands Base and Missile Range.   There certainly was a lot of snow white sand around, so we could see why the Base was named as such.

This is a rocket range of almost 3,200 square miles (8,300 km²).  It is the largest military installation in the United States.  When seen from the hills, it is a massive territory for military testing of long and short -range missile guided bombs.    This base has a lot of history to it including on July 16, 1945 with the first test of an atomic bomb.  We visited the museum and the missile park displaying a variety of missiles and rockets tested at White Sands. These include everything from the WAC Corporal and Loon (U.S. version of the V-1) to a Pershing II and Patriot.

We were warned at entering the Base that we could take all the pictures we wanted to of the artifacts, however we will NOT take any pictures of anything to the West of the Main Gate.  With the very high number of Military Police on every corner and most of the roads blocked, we figured there must be a test of some sort going on that day.

We then headed on through the mountains and heavy snow towards the City of Las Cruces.  Coming out of the mountains and heading down into the valley below we saw some amazing and absolutely awesome views. 

After an overnight stay, on December 2, we left New Mexico and headed off towards Benson, Arizona.  After a day  in Benson, we'll head off to Yuma for a few weeks then up to the Phoenix area for three months.

TEXAS South

We left Bandera and the San Antonio area, turned south on November 6 and headed into the Rio Grande Valley.  The Rio Grande Valley, informally called The Valley, is an area located in the southernmost tip of South Texas. It lies along the northern bank of the Rio Grande, which separates Mexico from the United States.  As we approached the southern end of Texas, the landscape took on a different view again from what we had seen in the North.   The landscape is somewhere between green and dessert. There is no shortage of trees. However, large trees are not that common. The grass is usually patchy unless someone pays a substantial price in time or money. The best part of the landscape here is the sun and the moon. 

We stayed at Retama Village in Mission. Retama Village is located within the 2,500-acre Bentsen Palm Development Master Planned Community in Mission and has access to the multitude of ecological wonders surrounding this very special community. Located within walking distance are the World Birding Center Headquarters at Bentsen-RGV State Park (the top birding sight in the U.S.), the North American Butterfly Association’s new International Butterfly Park (the largest outdoor butterfly park in the world), and thousands of acres of state and federally protected pristine wildlife habitat including lakes, parks, and the Rio Grande River.

Retama is an interesting mix of luxury RV sites with cabana or upscale RV homes and regular homes all surrounding a large clubhouse and pools.

We went to the National Butterfly Center and also to the Bird Sanctuary, both were really interesting and worth while trips.  The butterfly park has over 5 acres of gardens designed to attract butterflies.  We got to meet several of the over 100 varieties of butterflies that routinely make the Valley their winter home.  

We also got to see some of the rare species of birds that are rarely found elsewhere, including one that we thought was right from the Jurrasic Park movie.   We tried to get some better pictures of it, but it was fast and elusive, especially when it ran up the trees.

After a week in Mission we headed east along the Rio Grande and then north to Corpus Christi.  It is the 5th largest port in the US and we routinely saw large tankers and freighters heading out to sea.  We had a great time playing on the beach and in the surf on Mustang and Padre Island.  One day we drove out to the beach with new friends we found in our RV park who were from Port Hardy.

We could see oil drilling platforms out in the Bay and the tankers heading out to service them.

Along the many marinas of Corpus Christi we found some very interesting and big yachts but also an actual replica of Christopher Columbus' ship the Pina.  This was built by the historical society according to the standards, materials and sizes that the original was built in 1492.  This ship was sailed from Portugal by the society to the "new world" and has now found a home in Corpus Christi.  It was unbelievable that a ship this small made it on one of the most famous voyages in 1492.

On our last day we visited and toured the USS Lexington which has now been permanently berthed in Corpus Christi, having retired from the Navy in 1991.  The Lexington is known as "The Blue Ghost" and is one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy.  The Lexington was given the nickname "The Blue Ghost" by the Japanese.  Part of the reason for the nickname the "Blue Ghost" was the fact that Lexington was painted dark blue, and was the only carrier not to wear camouflage. This aspect was used to demoralize the Japanese, as they could not sink Lexington since she was believed to be so heavily defended. The "ghost" portion of the nickname comes from the fact that the Japanese believed that they had sunk the Lexington no less than four times during the course of the war, leading Tokyo Rose to give the ship its nickname.  

We toured the entire ship including the hanger deck, Captain and Admiral's quarters, the Bridge and below decks.  Here's Susan on the Bridge.

And Kerry besides a Cobra Helicopter,

In the battle of Leyte Gulf, the Lexington was introduced to the kamikaze when a flaming Japanese plane crashed near her island, destroying most of the island structure, spraying fire in all directions and killing many sailors.   Today, a large Japanese flag hangs on the superstructure (to the right of the Bridge) where the plane struck.

We then headed back to Fort Worth where we caught a plane to fly to Mexico and the Mayan Riviera to visit Judy and Eric, Trevor and Shannon, Kyle and Mya.  We had a great time, the weather was perfect and the company better.

We also met some interesting animals, including the Lemur and the Iguana.

A great time had by all.  Judy and Eric are staying down an additional week, however we returned to Fort Worth to collect our boys and head off into New Mexico.  We've spent about a month in Texas and now we are making our move into the West.