Places Visited: Wednesday, June 15: Balmorhea State Park Balmorhea, Texas I-10 exit 192 east bound and exit 209 west bound. $20 -- 50-amp & water with central dump, cable TV & free wifi; paved interior roads and sites: N30° 56.675' W103° 46.965' This is the third day we have been out of California and each day we are realizing more things that we had become sensitized to when in California that is a drastic change from virtually everywhere else.
Rest stops along the interstate are interspersed every 80-miles or so unlike California. Rest stops are large and paved many if not most have rest rooms with running water, not porta-potties. In between Texas provides pull-offs and picnic areas where truckers and other drivers can pull off the interstate for a few winks or to stretch. This is a Texas rest area with no facilities just east of El Paso.
Interstates have exit numbers and mile markers unlike California. Signs along the interstate inform travelers of services available at each exit. I can't help but remembering how we wanted to stop and see Santa Barbara but did not dare exit the freeway for fear of not being able to get back on or not being able to find a place to drop the motorhome so we could explore in the Saturn. I suppose if you live there and know where everything is ---- signage is just an annoyance. Campground prices have returned to "normal". This is the fourth night we have spent in campgrounds out of California and we have paid; $14, $13.30, $13.30 and $20. And that is for 50-amps, cable TV and tonight we have free wifi. In California the state parks are charging $28 to boondock in a parking lot. The vast majority of private campgrounds & RV-parks only have 30-amp electrical connections and charge even more. Site spaces in campgrounds are much larger outside California. There is actually room to park your car beside your motorhome and, gasp -- extend your awning. Although we seldom if ever extend our awning it is nice to have some elbow room between RV's. Texas has good interstates and BAD interstates. I-10 through El Paso is abysmal, but then it becomes good for the next 100-miles. In Van Horn around mm-140 major work is being done to the west bound lanes. Both east & west bound traffic are now utilizing the former east bound side of I-10 so traffic is down to two lanes on a terrible section of I-10. This continues until the intersection of I-20 at mm-187. East of the intersection of I-20 interstate I-10 appears to be in good shape.
We followed New Mexico-28 south out of Las Cruces this morning choosing to slowly drive through the Rio Grand River Valley and agricultural area the river supports. This is our normal route to take between Las Cruces and the Texas state line around Anthony. Pecan orchards line the road for miles and miles.
The Pic to the right is of the "aquina-madre" or the "mother-irrigation canal". This canal is the main irrigation canal feeding water to much of the agriculture in the Rio Grand Valley around here.
For the most part onions have all been harvested and a new crop of chilies planted that are between 3" to 12" high. After the chilies are harvested cotton will be next crop. Instead of onions some farmers were growing cabbage.
The people inhabiting this rich agricultural area live in adobe or modified adobe housing as they have for several hundred years.
While these are still considered to be adobe buildings they have been modified. Adobe is a mixture of clay and grass/hay. Rain and the elements slowly wash away the adobe necessitating annual applications of new adobe to replace material that has washed away. In order to avoid onerous task owners have started substituting stucco type materials that are much harder and resist weathering. While the majority are updating to the new materials they have a downside in that they do not expand and contract without cracking. No matter whether he outside is covered with the traditional adobe material or a stucco mix they retain the traditional look. All the building on the left needs is to be painted an adobe color and the plaster/stucco will look like adobe.
Young chili pepper plants are emerging on fields that produced onions only a few short weeks ago.
Chops is a restaurant/bar on NM-28 just north of the Texas state line. It is almost in El Paso. Several books mention Chops as a place where locals like to gather for good food. We have been meaning to stop in to experience what all the books talk about. It just seems that every time we come by this way it is early in the day or so late that we are just trying to make it to our destination. One day we will stop by and see what the place has to offer.
As we near the Texas border NM-28 that has been taking us south abruptly turns east where we are facing the Franklin Mountains. It is those mountains that I-10 has to get around to continue heading east.
Just south of Anthony Texas we crossed over the Rio Grande River and made our way to I-10 at mm-6. That began our 880-mile trek across Texas on I-10. Anyway you cut & dice it ------- 880-miles is a LONG way.
When passing through El Paso on I-10 one sight that everyone sees is these twin stacks with the letters ASARCO. They look like stacks from a smelter but I really do not have a clue what industry they are associated with. However, they are as much a part of the El Paso landscape as the Mountains in the picture that are in Mexico. The Rio Grande River flowes from right to left between us and those mountains.
The Rio Grande River and Mexico are are less than a mile to the right. The mountains and houses on the right side of the picture on the right are in Mexico while the remnant of rock on the left is in the US.
Joyce took the picture to the left showing the southern tip of the Franklin Mountains as I-0 squeezes around them. Note that I-10 sweeps around the tip then heads north again and away from the Mexican border.
As we rounded the southern tip of the Franklin Mountains in El Paso Joyce noted that our elevation was around 3,660' indicating we had dropped about 200' in elevation from Las Cruces. As we head east I-10 gradually climbs until an elevation of 4,480 as we reach the small town of Plateau. Is there any wonder how it got that name? That is just 102' less than the elevation where I-10 crosses the Continental Divide in New Mexico. There is not much to say about traveling across West Texas except there is a lot of desert and not many towns, buildings or activity other than wind. Traffic was fairly heavy though El Paso but it thins out by mm-37. Although traffic through El Paso was heavy it continued moving at around 60-mph.
Not far east of El Paso on I-10 the border patrol has a station where they are checking all east bound traffic. This morning they are funneling all east bound traffic into one lane that eventually passed through the check point pictured on the right. We were waved through as were most vehicles. I can only wonder about what Latino's must endure when traveling through these checkpoints but that is another subject. Between El Paso and Balmorhea Texas topography shows a variety of different faces. There is still a limestone base as in the Hill Country but this area has been intruded in many places with volcanic activity. Ancient mountain ranges trending north and south seem to dot the landscape.
While some roadcuts are through exposed limestone others are through much harder igneous formations. This roadcut is obviously through limestone a sedimentary rock with layers that are easily recognizable.
In these pics there appears to be combinations of sedimentary limestone deposits in some areas with intruded igneous rock in others.
Because of the size of this picture it is hard to make out details but the roadcut in the center of the picture is limestone while the crumbled rocks in the roadcut nearest to us appear to be some form of marble --- where extremely hot molten lava comes into contact with limestone under tremendous pressure --- thus changing the limestone to marble or other similar metamorphic rocks.
It would be so educational to ride through this area with trained geologists to discuss and explain what we are seeing.
We stopped for the night in Balmorhea State Park. Balmorhea is one of our favorite stopping places when passing through this area. The State Park Campground has 50-amp connections with cable TV and free wifi for $20 plus the huge spring/pool.
We always enjoy sitting under the trees near the pool/spring where we can watch the abundant bird life. We were treated to a number of orioles, black phoebes, western kingbirds, numerous hummingbirds, vermillion flycatchers, night hawks, barn swallows, cave swallows, Eurasian collared doves, Gambel's quail & white wing doves. We normally see a roadrunner or two but didn't see one today. This picture is only one half of the pool. At the far end this pool dog legs to the left exposing another section of pool as large as the one in the photograph. This end is the deep end while the other is more shallow.
They call these things ground squirrels. They do look like the ubiquitous gray squirrel that has taken over virtually every yard & park east of the Mississippi River ------------- except for their color.
As darkness settled over the area we stationed ourselves under one of the picnic table roofs in the Campground where bats roost. These bats are known to roost in two of the campground sites. We asked one of the rangers which ones they were in so we would not be sitting under the wrong roof. However, we never saw any bats emerge. They have their own time table for emerging and may have held back because of our presence.
Even though we missed the bats emerging from the tile roof over the picnic tables the evening wasn't a total loss as you can see from these pics.
Until next week just remember how good life is. Mike & Joyce Hendrix
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The
remainder of the crops tended to be pecan orchards and alfalfa fields with pecan
orchards consuming by far the most acreage. 
