Kim has been out every night looking for heavenly
objects. He hasn’t been too successful
with the imaging, though. He’s had some
technical things to figure out but there’s nothing he can do about the clouds
that roll in. Even though they’re thin
clouds, they still mess with the brightness of the exposure. Time to pack up and head back to the trailer
when the clouds come in.
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Moving on to Carlsbad, NM, today. Rapunzel says it’s just over 300 miles and
the quickest route will take us south from Las Cruces into El Paso, east along
a highway in Texas for a bit and then back north to Carlsbad. Map shows that there’s lots of exploration to
do…and we’re both hoping for clear skies at night. I tend to get more frustrated about the
clouds rolling in than Kim does…he’s just happy to be out there tinkering
around.
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Last night while sitting at the picnic table, I saw birds
running in and around a cactus across the campground yard, then they ran over
to the goose pond area. Thought for sure
they were roadrunners because of the running.
Today I went over to look at the geese and movement in the area of the cactus
caught my eye. Had my camera with me, so
I zoomed in and saw a quail, not a roadrunner.
While I could take a picture from that distance, stability is required
for good focus so I walked over to see if they’d let me get a picture with less
zoom. Mission accomplished! But watching the movements of the quail made
me think that perhaps they were nesting in the cactus. So then I wandered over to the cactus and
started looking in…had to remind myself that this was not an ordinary bush
where I could just pull the branches aside to get a better look. These branches bite back! I didn’t see any nest but it appears to be a safe
haven for birds. Several kinds of birds
were in there, safely tucked away from nearby predators, squawking to warn
others of my presence. J
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It’s amazing how quickly we adapted from life in a 2,000 sq
ft house to life in a 10’ x16’ trailer with no windows. Of course, it might have been an easier
transition because I know it’s not permanent.
Which then begs the question could I could do this on a permanent basis? No, I couldn’t do it by choice…I’d need a
place to sew. Of course, if life really
threw us a curveball, I know I could adapt, but I’d still need my sewing
machines.
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El Paso, TX, seems to be split by a mountain…we cruised into
El Paso on I-10, then we needed to take Hwy 62 a.k.a. Transmountain Drive. Thought it was just a beautiful winding road
to the other side of the mountain.
Didn’t know we’d find some more of El Paso over there. And Hwy 62 could also have been named Auto
Salvage Blvd. I should have counted how
many salvage yards I saw…I was amazed that there’s a need for so many. Then as we’re a couple of miles out of town,
we see a sign that saying how many miles until the next rest area. As I was saying,
“Funny, you usually see that sign when you’re near a rest area….there’s no rest
area around here so how can you have a ‘next rest area’ when you don’t have a
current one?”, we encountered another sign that said “No services the next 128
miles”. Now wouldn’t it be beneficial to
post those signs while still in an area with services so a motorist knows to
gas up, go potty or whatever before heading out into the wide open frontier
where there’s nothing but pastures and deserted houses?
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And we discovered that ‘No services the next 128 miles’
included cell service also.
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| Headstone at the historical marker |
Mountains up in front of us turned out to be the Guadalupe
Mountains, home to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Drove through the foothills on our way back
into New Mexico. Stopped at a Historical
Marker near Salt Flat, which as far as I could tell was a deserted café and
motel. Turns out it was the site of the
1877 El Paso Salt War. This is the
information on the marker:
Over one
million years ago, a large, shallow lake occupied this area. Salt deposits left behind as the lake dried
up became an extremely important resource to the people of the El Paso Valley.
Salt was
considered sacred to the Apache and Tigua Indians, who used it in the tanning
of animal hides and as a condiment and food preservative. Hispanic populations depended on salt to
supplement their limited income from farming.
In the
late 1870s, the El Paso Salt War erupted as El Paso businessmen attempted to
take control of the salt beds from the local Hispanic and Tigua
communities. The short-lived war
resulted in several deaths and injuries, loss of property, and nearly caused an
armed conflict between the U.S. and Mexico.
Eventually the salt flats were claimed and Hispanic communities were
forced to pay for the salt they once collected for free. Today, only the wind blowing across the
barren flats remains to remind us of this turbulent time in history.
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Got to the Carlsbad
KOA, which incidentally is out away from traffic, at about 7 p.m. Set up the trailer and headed back into town
for supplies. When we got back, we
realized the dog play area we’re parked next to has a big ol’ dusk to dawn
light that just might interfere with Kim’s sky exploration. Otherwise we have a perfect site for the
telescope. Dang it!! After a quick, but late, supper we tucked
ourselves into bed.
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No miles ridden today
as it was a moving day
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