New Mexico continued..

After going through Las Cruces and heading north, we had to go through border patrol....I guess we did not look suspicious because they did not even ask for ID, just told us have a nice day......

Percha Dam is a great place for bird watching especially this time of year.  We have seen , tanagers,  hummingbirds, nighthawks, house wrens, Bullock orioles and others we don't see in Florida.  A lot of people fish here and it is very quiet even though we are only a few miles away from I-25.  We hung a hummingbird feeder outside the RV and have been very entertained by the black chinned hummingbirds and others coming and going all day.   The next day we went north about 20 miles to Truth or Consequences....that is correct,   a town named after the TV show in 1951.  There were painted water towers and some interesting buildings in native indian motive. 

Close by was Elephant Butte State Park, named since the Butte looks like an Elephant.  There were a lot of RV parks in this area due to the large lake.  Not a bad place to stay, beautiful views. 

The following day we went out west thinking we were going to Silver City but it ended up being too far away so we continued on through part of Gila National Forest and on our way back we drove through a small town where there was a bed and breakfast and some houses on Percha Creek.  The real estate listing for one property was for three houses on the same land and was listed for $985,000...not sure what the draw was as this was in a town far from anything.  We then stopped at this little store in the town of Hillsboro and got a soda.  On the way back to Percha Dam we spotted two Golden Eagles soaring above the canyon.

New Mexico

We went through Carlsbad, NM without stopping at the National Park.......already saw enough bats!  We drove through a town called Artesia and the temperature was 85 degrees but low humidity.  Most of the drive so far (175 miles) was flat and and dry with  a lot more oil well donkey pumps. 

Less than one hour from Artesia when we got close to Cloud Croft, we drove into sleet and cars coming from the West had snow on them!  As we continued through the mountains there was snow everywhere and the temperature had dropped to 34 degrees!  What a difference from 85 degrees an hour before!  As we descended out of the mountains the snow became rain and we reached our destination, Holloman Air Force Base where we are staying at the FamCamp.  No trees around us but the mountains in the distance are beautiful but the as Bill says "the wind is winding" and the temperature down here is going to be in the low 40's...brrrr.....

                                                       This is across from our campsite

White Sands National Monument is 7 miles west of Holloman AFB so we went there for the sunset tour Friday night.  It was windy and cold but beautiful sights.  It is amazing what patterns the wind can make on this gypsum sand.  We were able to take TY with us and he loved it, wanting to just run freely but we couldn't let him off the leash (Lucky would not have liked  it so he slept in the car).  The sunset was pretty over the San Andros Mountains.

                                                

We went back to White Sands the next day and did a partial hike in the dunes.  The park allows sand boarding down the dunes which quite a few children were doing.   TYwas pooped when we were done hiking.  The pictures do not do this park justice, it was such an amazing place to see.

Later in the day we went to Oliver Lee State Park about 20 miles away for a short hike and to see the sunset.  We almost camped here before deciding to stay at Holloman AFB; I wish we had as they had an awesome view of the valley and it was located right next to the mountain and very quiet.  The hike there was 6 miles and took 8 hours according to the map; obviously we did not do that hike!  I even spotted a Kit Fox checking us out the trail.     We went back to camp and the next day left for Percha Dam, north of Las Cruces, NM.

Texas continued..

On Monday afternoon we went to Austin especially to see the bats flight at sunset.  They say there are 450,000 of them...what a site that was!  We walked along the Lady Bird Lake where a lot of people go to jog, bike ride or walk the 10 miles around the lake.  We only did a small portion so we could do some driving around the city.  This was a really happening city and I could see why it was voted one of the top 100 cities to live in the U.S.   The red building on the left is a bar that claims to be the smallest in texas...it was pretty small from the outside. 

 

On Tuesday we went to San Antonio to see The Alamo and Riverwalk.  There was some great architecture and lots of restaurants....they were also having their annual FIESTA, a 10 day event with food and music every night from April 15-25th; we did not stay for that since we were staying over an hour away from there.  

Texas

Tuesday we arrived in Magnolia, Texas to visit Jim and Bari Dubois that Bill had become friends with through email, who graciously allowed us to keep the RV in their driveway. They live in a wooded area on about 2 acres and they feed the deer, racoons, hummingbirds, bluebirds, black capped chickadees and many other birds. Wednesday Jim and Bari showed us around the Woodland area and Lake Conroe where we met up with Randy, another friend. The weather in the afternoon reminded me of Florida, hot and humid but the evenings cooled down There were a few sun showers that just appeared. We had dinner at a really good mexican restaurant called Fajita Jacks. On Thursday we met up with old friends of Bill's from the Coast Guard, Mike and Pam for dinner. It was a very enjoyable evening and Bill and Mike did alot of reminiscing.

Friday we enjoyed a breakfast with Jim and Bari, said our goodbyes and left for our next destination...Canyon Lake at the Fort Sam Houstin Recreation Area near Austin and San Antonio. We are at a lovely spot where we can see the lake and lots of deer and nice sunsets.

Saturday it rained alot in the morning but thankfully it cleared up for the most part in the afternoon so we took a trip to Neu Braunfels where America's first waterpark is located and started 28 years ago. We drove through downtown Gruene where they have Market days every 3rd weekend of each month. They had stores and restaurants on the Gruene River with lots of people milling about.

On our way back to the campground we stopped at the Canyon Lake Dam. There was a storm brewing so we did not stay long but there were hiking trails along the lake and you could walk out 1/8 mile above the Dam.










We went back to Gruene on Sunday to walk with the dogs and check things out.  It was a nice little town with music and alot going on.