Everything is equal between me and Val once again as far as age is concerns, that is! J I posted our blog this morning as it seems our internet was a bit faster and I noticed that we have now reached 600 Post...Amazing! It is cloudy and a warm 52*F and the wind has returned in full force. I hope it simmers down before we leave!?
After packing, we stopped in town for breakfast then headed West for Presidio on Hwy 170. What a fabulous scenic drive! We followed the Rio Grande most of the way with the wind behind us all the way. There was one section where the grade was 15% which made the BEAST work but he made it, and we found a geocache here. We took quite a few pictures as usual. We stopped at this place where a few abandoned buildings were; this was a location for about 8 Western movies, two of which I’ve seen: STREET OF LOREDO, RIO DIABLO, DEAD MAN’s WALK and THE JOURNEYMAN in 2000, to name a few. We finally arrived in PRESIDIO around 1:15 PM, set up in LOMA PALOMA RV Park then went for a look around. We stopped at FORT LAYTON where a lot of history happened with PONCHO VILLA and we got another geocache. The Fort was NOT actually a military station but a trading post owned by the Layton family but it was built like a fortress and served as “Safe Heaven” for the locals and travellers. It was well worth seeing! This region did see of lot of action with the Apaches, Comanche’s, Poncho Villa and the civil war in Ojinaga, Mexico. We saw but never went into Ojinaga but did pick up our last geocache nearby. The valley is called the “RIO JUNTA” which means “Junction of the rivers”; Rio Grande and Conchos River out of Mexico.
It is sunny and it warmed up to 70*F.
We drove 64 miles (103 KM)
in one hour and 35 minutes @ an average 40 MPH.
N 29* 32.464W 104* 18.812
ALT: 2591 Feet
We fuelled in Presidio @ $4.10/Gallon
A cloudy and windy day from the South-East. I was up at 7 am feeling a bit under the weather due to a sinus cold that doesn’t want to go away. We were away by 9:30 PM and drove north on 170 then 67 to Marpha. The scenery was quite nice considering it is desert country and we had to go through the usual border check point just before Marpha. We even saw a rock formation that looked like an ELEPHANT and one that had the profile of LINCOLN, very interesting. From the town of Marpha, which was quite pretty, we were on Hwy 17 to Ft Davis where we found our campground, OUTLAND RV CAMPGROUND, a Passport member and we paid $16 a night for two. Even though it was cheap, I would not recommend this park! We had full hook-up but he wanted $2 extra for the Net and $5 for the use of the bathroom for each day...good thing we are self sufficient, it was also a dusty place (Just another parking lot). We were in Ft Davis by 11:30 and had lunch at the Drugstore/restaurant and hotel. The place was funky and we had a decent meal here. I was feeling so lousy that I went to lie down for a while and slept until 3:30 PM. We have cable here so we watched that and I just took it easy on my sinus cold. I called Casa Grande and made reservations for Saturday then I called VERIZON about my internet JETPACK and got that resolved. Unfortunately, the McDonald Observatory has a night show only on Tuesday so we missed it by one day. It also does it on Friday and Saturday but we will be on our way. We watched SURVIVOR on CBS.
We travelled 86 miles in
one hour, 45 minutes @ an average 48mph
N 30* 35.472W 103* 53.597
Alt: 4929 Feet
Cloudy this morning; it is supposed to be a mixture all day; temperature slowly going up; presently 53*F at 9 am. I uploaded my pictures to Picasa and I warn you! There are lots!!!
We were on the road of exploration by 10 AM. We first drove to the town centre where we visited the Chamber of Commerce and Val shopped at a funky store. I found another geocache while she was shopping. We drove to FT DAVIS and visited this National historic site. This is where the Buffalo (Blacks) soldiers were stationed for most of their career. It sounds like their life was quite boring with the odd excitement of chasing Apaches and Comanche’s. We then drove to the McDONALD OBSERVATORY. What an interesting place. We also had a great guide. It began with a short movie on the story then the guide took us on a tour of two of the major telescopes; there were about 6 or 7 of them on the grounds. We got a run down on the making and operations of these magnificent instruments. I even got to operate the movement of one of the telescope. Worth every penny! Even the drive up to this area was breathtaking. We finally got out at 4:30 PM, drove home after stopping at the grocery store andn got fuel @ $4.39. We had a drink outside where the temperature had gone up to low 70’s then it was time for dinner, TV and early bed as we are leaving early tomorrow.
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