Posted on

Home again

 We’re back in South Texas. Final 2017 Summer Trip Map With a celebratory stop at Whataburger. We’re back to our comfy little house …after a grand adventure.  We were on the road for four months.  We traveled a lot of states (I tried to count them but I got confused).  Five Canadian Provinces (two we had never been to before).  Every U.S. time zone (four)(not counting Alaska and Hawaii).  Ten thousand miles.  We stayed in sixty-six different campgrounds.  Got visits with family and friends we don’t get to see very often.  We witnessed four full moons and a solar eclipse.  We got turned around by forest fires and smoke.  Our return to Texas travel plans got changed by the hurricane.  And some of us gained less than a pound a month.   It’s good to be home. Maybe I like this view of our trip the best.  J A wider view of the 2017 Summer Trip Map 
Posted on

Highway 285

 Between Carlsbad, NM and Pecos, TX.  The landscape has been totally raped by energy production.  It’s one thing to sit in a city and say we need more energy.  To drive through the countryside, viewing the cost of producing that energy is another thing entirely; the previously wild landscape transformed into a hundred mile sprawling city of oil and gas patches, drilling rigs and dusty roads, pumps, pipelines, gas flares, outbuildings, and sterile man-camps; roads clogged with, and ruined by, oil and gas trucks that outnumber passenger cars two to one, as if this West Texas high desert had no other purpose.  You can see from the sky on Google Maps:  It is awful.   The occasional desert resident has an impact on this land.  They put down roots, however shallow, in the dry desert soil.  They join the land in a battle with the elements; a struggle to survive.  Man camps sit on cement blocks above the bulldozed lifeless ground, with no commitment to staying, and no investment in the landscape or the damage done. My inner Edward Abbey is outraged.  We’re at the Fort Stockton RV Park tonight, an oasis. 2017 Summer Trip Map      It’s 90 degrees and clear.  We’re back in Texas and out of the smoke. 
Posted on

Port Aransas

 Has a special place in our hearts.  It was home base for years.  We wore out on Gulf Waters, the RV Park on Mustang Island, but not the little town on the north end. Port A is suffering hard times right now.  We’ve seen photos.  A lot of it blew down in the hurricane.  It got hit with 130 mph winds.  There still are no city services, water, sewer, and electric, restored yet.  Residents, with proper I.D. are being allowed in during daylight hours to sort through the rubble.  Pit barbecue teams, that’s a real thing in the South, have set up stands to feed everyone for free.  Judy just read a notice that there will be free gasoline distributed at Roberts Point Park tomorrow.  The outpouring of support is heartening.  People from all over the state, and beyond, are showing up to help.  In times of crisis we don’t live in the divided world we hear so much about recently.  The outpouring of support is heartening, but still….  The damage looks like so much deal with. We’ve been giving a lot of thought and conversation to our trip home to the Valley.  Judy’s doctor’s appointment is a week from Monday.  We could slow down the pace and arrive in Corpus the night before.  We could keep up our current pace, go straight home by the end of this week, then drive back up to Corpus for her Monday appointment.   Calling ahead to RV Parks and State Parks close to Corpus though, most of the places we might stay are busy hosting storm evacuees from the coast, so we’ll probably try to stay out of the way and go straight home. Tonight we’re in Carlsbad, NM RV Park for the night. 2017 Summer Trip Map     It’s still smoky out, but there are a lot of hotspots just in New Mexico, so we’ll have to wait a little longer for clear air.