Less in Tents

Tripometer –  14,795 mi

Gas Gauge –  1152.255 gal

Location – French Quarter RV Park, New Orleans, LA

Lodging – $105

Cans of OFF – 4

When she woke up this morning Kelly took all of 15 minutes to decide that in order to get back to touring this city she needed a back massage. Within a few minutes we had found a place not too far away with same day appointments if we arrived within the next hour. That sounded great and off we went!

Deciding to not return to the trailer, we sought out a lunch venue where Ranger could join us. It seems that Louisiana has some interesting rules about animals in restaurants. As long as the establishment has an outdoor dining location then pets are allowed to transit the main restaurant to get to interior courtyards or balconies. Additionally, even if the outdoor eating location can be completely enclosed during winter months (as many of the lower floor front balconies in the French Quarter restaurants had been) pets are allowed in. We had lunch in the interior courtyard of a cute little French café serving a variety of sandwiches on freshly baked French bread and croissants. During lunch we had quite a bit of time to appreciate the courtyard. During our travels we’ve seen courtyards in a variety of tropical destinations and have always found them to be an enticing architectural element, having the outdoors in the heart of your home has always seemed like a wonderful idea to both of us.

Walking slowly and cautiously along some of the French Quarter shops after we ate lunch, we had an encounter with Eric “Nappy” Williams, a singer and guitarist who worked with B.B. King many years ago. Nappy was interested in writing a song for us based upon our two favorite things about Ranger. We didn’t take him up on his offer and he was off like a shot looking for someone else to compose for. We later googled this fellow and sure enough he checked out. We now really regret not commissioning Nappy to create an Ode to Ranger. As he walked away from us we really wondered if old blues musicians just leak off the balconies in the French Quarter of New Orleans!?!

Shortly thereafter we returned to the trailer and had a mid day nap. Kelly’s back has been greatly rejuvenated by a back massage but as is often the case it also made her tremendously sleepy. We rationalized the nap by saying we would have a better time this evening if we were well rested. Whatever we needed to tell ourselves.

Waking well rested and eager to go, we Ubered into the French Quarter with the intention of finding a balcony to watch the goings on of Bourbon Street on a night when we wouldn’t be crowded out by hoards of people. It wasn’t quite 7pm in the evening so finding a prime seat on a corner balcony was pretty easy. We both ordered a drink and spent a couple of hours watching the comings and goings on New Orleans’ largest sin street. We don’t have anything crazy to report on, but let’s be clear: we had an amazing time watching and commenting to each other on the antics of the largely intoxicated crowd beneath us. By the end of the evening we had made friends with the family on the opposite corner of the intersection and had probably become the object of other people’s people watching. When in New Orleans we highly recommend this as a way of spending an evening.

Special Note: Ranger’s new name. Ranger gets a lot of attention from people, especially young women. We’re not sure if he is actually that different from other golden retrievers we’ve had in the past or if it is merely the fact that we’re walking him through tourist areas where people are a) more relaxed and likely to comment on a dog or b) people are missing their animals at home. Either way, we firmly believe Ranger now understands “Aww” to be his nickname. When driving down the street with his head out the window or walking down the sidewalk, the number of people who address him as “Aww” is significant. He simply responds as if this is his name. If he only knew how pretentious that makes him seem.

Tripometer –  14,788 mi

Gas Gauge –  1152.255 gal

Location – French Quarter RV Park, New Orleans, LA

Lodging – $105

Cans of OFF – 4

Kelly over did it walking the French Quarter yesterday and woke with an aching back this morning. We decided that a day of rest was in order and given that it is Sunday, we’d go off in search of a sports bar to watch the Sunday football games. We walked to a total of three bars before we came to a couple of realizations: 1) Tourist towns are not looking to drive customers to their bars via sports, 2) No one in NOLA cares about the Ravens game, 3) Kelly’s back won’t handle any more walking, and 4) We are both more interested in seeing more of this city than sitting in a bar watching football. We grabbed an Uber back the RV park and changed gears.

We grabbed the dog and the car and headed to the Garden District in search of lunch and some cool old New Orleans Mansions. Taking advantage of being in a large city we found a small Mediterranean restaurant along the main drag (Magazine Street) in the Garden district that looked promising. We have been so restricted in our eating habits over the past few weeks that it’s nice to add some ethnic spice to the mix while we have the chance. We sat outside the restaurant on the street with Ranger for our lunch of kebabs and hummus with an amazing cucumber and tomato salad.

Returning to the car we proceeded to take a car tour of the old Garden district knowing we would return in a day or so to walk amongst the most spectacular old homes we could find today. Our guidebook for New Orleans suggested a few streets in the heart of the Garden district as having the most spectacular old homes, but we found that a much larger portion of the garden district was home to some of the most spectacular southern style mansions we had ever seen. The tremendously old oak trees bedecked with Spanish moss overhung the roads creating a tunnel broken every half block by gorgeous homes of amazing complexity and beautiful old world charm. Once again we were completely dumbstruck at the sheer quantity of historic buildings here. Leaving the Garden District, we were even more sure we were coming back to walk amongst these beauties another day.

At this point in the evening Kelly’s back was flat out done. We returned to the trailer where she took up residence on the couch to ease her sore muscles. Paul secured take out from a local Thai restaurant for dinner and we passed the rest of the evening reading and watching the tube. We’ll make sure tomorrow is a better back day!

Tripometer –  14,775 mi

Gas Gauge –  1152.255 gal

Location – French Quarter RV Park, New Orleans, LA

Lodging – $105

Cans of OFF – 4

This morning we got Ranger fed, walked, and stashed comfortably in the trailer and then drove back into the French Quarter only to quickly come to understand exactly how lucky we were last night to get a parking space along the street in the heart of the tourist district. We realized the folly of our actions almost immediately and turned that bus right around. Dropping the car back in the RV park, we hoofed it back to the French Market at the south end of the French Quarter up against the Mississippi. The French Market is one of the longest standing fixtures of the French Quarter and is populated with restaurants and flea markets selling a tremendous variety of things from t-shirts to gumbo. We perused the market for a half hour or so until our bellies told us it was time to eat and then spotted a wine and cheese shop offering an amazing looking cheese platter and bottle of wine special. What better way to start the day in the French Quarter?

The vast majority of the day was spent walking through the side streets of the French Quarter looking into every little shop that caught our eye. We’ve been to quite a few tourist destinations over the course of the trip and this was perhaps the best selection of crazy little stores we’ve seen. If there’s a product that someone might like to purchase, we’re pretty sure this town has a store devoted to it. The most impressive aspect of the shops in this town are the antiques. Most of Royal Street (the street next to Bourbon Street) is devoted to antique shops. From thrift store level antiques to mortgage your home for a Louise XIV style couch level antiques we saw some amazing things, most of which we couldn’t or wouldn’t ever afford. Some of our favorite shops were those dedicated to Mardi Gras and Voodoo. Being New Orleans specific, these shops had an amazing variety of things that we’ve never seen nor imagined.

We checked on Ranger some time around midday, gave him a walk and returned him to the trailer in time to run out for dinner and drinks on Bourbon Street. It’s a Saturday night the week before Thanksgiving. Bourbon Street was crowded in a way that is probably only exceeded by Mardi Gras. We ducked our heads into a variety of different bars and restaurants as we worked our way down the street, most of which were tremendously old with really amazing stories. Several times we questioned the hosts or bouncers about the history of their establishment and were almost always rewarded with delight as they relayed what they knew of these old buildings. We were especially delighted in the light that the gas lamps shed on the street. The warm, soft flickering glow of the gas flames gave the entire area a cozy old world feel. It is very easy to slip into a ‘New Orleans frame of mind’ here.

Tonight was our first of many uses of Uber while in town. We found that an Uber ride to and from the French Quarter to our RV park was a little more than half the cost of parking the car in town for the day. That’s a rather freeing statistic. We’re going to get a lot of use out of that app after dark this week.

Tripometer –  14,763 mi

Gas Gauge –  1152.255 gal

Location – French Quarter RV Park, New Orleans, LA

Lodging – $105

Cans of OFF – 4

This trip has gotten to the point that 55 degrees is warm weather to us. The pack up and trip into New Orleans was uneventful. We both enjoyed the trip up the Bayou Lafourche from its mouth near Grand Isle to about 20mi south of New Orleans. The sheer quantity of marine infrastructure in Louisiana boggles the mind.

The French Quarter RV Park turned out to be as swanky as we were hoping it might be, and at over a hundred dollars per night it better be. Driving into the city you can tell that this is a rough town. The RV park is located in the shadow of the I-10 elevated roadway about 8 blocks from the heart of the French Quarter. As we approached the RV park, we noticed the underside of the elevated I-10 hosts a fair portion of the city’s homeless population, not exactly the neighbors we were looking forward to. The RV park is surrounded by a 8’ concrete wall with barbed wire along the top and has an electronic iron gate at the entrance to the park. The security staff (multiple) are on duty 24/7. All of this helped us sleep in a soft sided trailer about 100 feet from homeless city. Aside from these facts, we are by far the smallest rig in the park. Most of the RVs here are 30-45 foot long Class A bus-like rigs that probably cost more than our home. We are not a target on a robber’s list.

Not wanting to walk through the back streets into the French Quarter at night, we dropped the trailer as quickly as possible and drove into the French Quarter in search of dinner and drinks. As we crossed Bourbon Street, as if by magic, we spotted a street side parking spot and swooped into what would be the best parking spot during our entire stay in NOLA. We spent the evening walking shops in the Quarter and taking in the sights of the city. Being a Friday night, the crowds were fairly rambunctious and spirits were high. At some point in the early evening while Kelly shopped one of the little stores off of Royal Street, Paul and Ranger waited outside. Paul, patiently leaning against a light post and Ranger, lying at Paul’s feet. An older lady (70’s?) looking especially entitled walked by and in a tone that indicated she thought Paul was one of the homeless population in the city said ‘Oh, he looks so well taken care of!’. Paul has officially achieved full vagrant status.

At one point in the evening Paul stepped off the curb to grab a picture of a passing horse drawn carriage. The horse pulling the carriage was dressed in an LED adorned tack and harness to look as though it were in a Mardi Gras parade. The driver of the carriage pulled lightly on the reigns and yelled “Sic ‘em” at the top of her voice whereupon the horse stuck his nose about 6” from Paul’s face. Paul naturally scratched her chin and made cute noises to the delight of the horse, but Ranger was confused. Ranger proceeded to stare between the two of us and the horse with a curious look for the better part of three minutes as we had a lively discussion with the driver of the carriage. This dog has seen a tremendous variety of wildlife on this trip, but rarely this close and rarely on the same plane (He’s most often in a car when we see new wildlife). He was very calm, cautious, and curious about the whole thing. We’re not sure he knows what to make of horses.

Our first impressions of New Orleans are off the charts. We expected the beautiful old architecture, but we didn’t expect most of the city to look like it was transported here from the mid 1800s. The beauty and splendor of the French Quarter blew us away. So many of the historic cities we’ve been to have a historic section that is fairly small compared to the city as a whole. New Orleans seems to have retained huge numbers of the original buildings at least in the French Quarter district. Block after block of beautiful old hotels, shops, and restaurants line the streets, each beautifully cared for with intricate metal railings, decorations, and operational gas lights on many. The traditional 15 foot ceiling height is widespread throughout the buildings in the French Quarter and gives each building a feeling of old world grandeur. Despite the crowds milling around looking at their cell phones, you can still picture this town in its heyday with horse drawn carriages and finely dressed townsfolk.

We had dinner at a restaurant that welcomed Ranger in on the enclosed front area of the restaurant. Apparently the pet laws are a bit loose in New Orleans. Paul had a sampler aimed at tourists with crawfish etouffee, shrimp & anduoite sausage gumbo, and seafood jambalaya. Kelly had a muffuletta. The food was incredible and left us feeling as though we were about to gain some serious weight this week. When we were done eating and asked for a check, the waitress asked if we would like a to-go cup for our beers. Perfect.

We went to sleep tonight with the full sounds of a bustling city taking place around us. The traffic on the I-10 was not so much of an issue, but the rowdy traffic on the side streets speeding in between traffic lights with their revving engines and honking horns were what woke us up most frequently. Being a Friday night the loud drunkards stumbling home on the side streets were a nuisance from at least midnight to 2am. It’s all somewhat reminiscent of sleeping in the heart of Las Vegas.

Tripometer –  14,652 mi

Gas Gauge – 1135.024 gal

Location – Grand Isle State Park, Grand Isle, LA

Lodging – $25 ($100 total)

Cans of OFF – 4

RV Shut Ins

It has been unseasonably cold over the past few weeks across the entire southwest. Pulling into Grand Isle the weather forecast was calling for temperatures in the 40s-50s with rain for 3 out of the four days of our stay. The sun woke us on Monday morning, heating the trailer up to un-sleepable temperatures by 7:30am, and burned bright until mid afternoon whereupon we didn’t see again until Thursday morning. We set ourselves up early on Monday to become RV shut ins for the next few days. Our most valuable piece of equipment this week has got to be the trailer heater. With as little as we moved for the three days it rained and given the outside temperature, the authorities could well have had to remove our frozen corpses from the RV if we had not had a furnace on board.

Kelly is planning on taking some vacation the week of Thanksgiving in New Orleans, so her work schedule this week has been more intense than usual. Paul decided to spend most of his time stuck in the trailer re-reading the novel that first piqued his interest in New Orleans nearly 30 years ago, Anne Rice’s ‘The Witching Hour’. Ranger enjoyed a few trips to the beach during our stay here. We have been trying to find places for him to be off-leash and run or swim hard as we travel, but it has been hard for the past week as we’ve been moving from place to place. Most nights this week he fell asleep hard and early.

As we settled into our state park and the little island community, we reacquainted ourselves with life in more humid environments. It was a strange sensation moving from almost two months in the desert to a barrier island setting. Ranger was ecstatic to see so much water and he spent a full 15 minutes simply rolling in the grass when we first arrived. Every evening before we went to bed we had to towel condensation off the ceiling of each sleeping bunk, lest it begin to rain inside in the middle of the night.

On Thursday evening Kelly took Ranger for a swim and run along the public beach a mile or so down from the campground. While walking the shore waiting for Ranger’s energy to sap away, she passed her time gathering lovely little snail shells from the tide line. She brought her favorite three shells home with her and placed them on the dinette table where we quickly forgot about them. Several hours later, while reading and being relatively quiet in the trailer Paul heard a faint knocking sound that he could not explain (Kelly was under headphones). After 15-20 minutes of hearing a small sound and staring blankly in the direction of the sound (it’s a small place, an errant sound is generally easily identifiable, this one took forever to solve) he saw one of the shells making its way slowly across the table in Kelly’s direction. Kelly had inadvertently brought home a hermit crab friend for the evening.

Our only real complaint about Grand Isle is a marked lack of restaurants. We’re sure it has to do with the time of year and the fact that we’re here mid-week, but the food options on the island are extremely limited and the nearest off-island options are an hour away over a toll road. Especially considering our seaside location and spectacular introduction to Cajun food at Rabideaux’s on Sunday, we were also fairly disgusted at the food options available at the restaurants that were open. Almost all of the food available on the island was typical American fare (burgers, fries, pizza) and fried seafood (which Paul suspects was mostly frozen instead of fresh from the boats a mile and a half away). Neither of our stomachs can wait until we get into New Orleans.

The memorial at the top of the post was erected for the 11 people who died in the Deepwater Horizons disaster in 2013 very close to this site (relatively speaking).

Tripometer –  14,578 mi

Gas Gauge – 1135.024 gal

Location – Grand Isle State Park, Grand Isle, LA

Lodging – $25

Cans of OFF – 4

Knowing we were within striking distance of New Orleans we started the morning by making reservations at Grand Isle State Park as recommended by the folks we met at the gas station a few days ago. We set off this morning knowing that we would be relatively warmer by night fall.

While looking for a place to grab a bite to eat this morning Paul ran across a restaurant advertising itself as a ‘meat kitchen’. We’re always up for new dining experiences and there was no way we were going to pass up a Louisiana Meat Kitchen. Inside the restaurant we found the most amazing assortment of heart attack-inducing vittles we’ve ever laid eyes on. Everything in the restaurant was either meat or fried and many of the offerings were fried meat. So many of the food items were unfamiliar to us that we had to ask for help from the kitchen staff. The cashier explained to us that we were going to be eating what her father liked to call ‘Fat Boy food’. We ordered a smattering of items from boudin to crawfish pistolettes and were richly rewarded with some amazing new flavors and textures to experience. The most impressive item we ate was the Boudin (pronounced Boo-Don (don, as in Donkey). Boudin is a French style sausage traditionally made from pork and rice with an enticing array of herbs and spices. It was not hot-spicy, but rather deliciously flavorful and complex… surprisingly so. Looking back on Rabideaux’s, we should have stocked up on some of the sausages and pastries but we were simply too new to the area to appreciate what we had found. We may well place an order for shipment once we get home to share some of the flavors that we found here with friends and family back home.

Shortly after lunch we left the I-10 at Lafayette and headed South towards the river delta area along the Bayou Teche. Knowing we had a ton of time to get to Grand Isle and no real plans for the day we took several side trips from the main road through the area to travel along the older smaller road that runs along the waterway. This area was historically plantations and the associated small towns to support them. Most of the area was lower income with the occasional vacation home along the bayou, but the old little towns and plantation houses were still intact and gorgeous. What thrilled us the most about the area was the historic landscaping done when the plantations were in their heyday. Huge old trees lined many driveways and the main streets in the towns were dripping with Spanish moss, looking a bit like a movie scene from Gone with the Wind.

Travelling over the elevated roadways through the bayous and swamps in lower Louisiana presented a new difficulty for us today. The long stretches of concrete roadway were all similarly bowed so as to make the entire truck/trailer rig ‘porpoise’ down the road like an undulating snake. We could go faster than the harmonic or slower, but at the magic speed this effect threatened to throw us off the road into alligator infested swamps.

Arriving in Grand Isle late, we were thrilled with the warm temperatures. We set up the trailer this evening in shorts and t-shirts while swatting mosquitos (something we haven’t seen for quite a while). Ranger has had it. He’s grumpy and keeps throwing us dirty looks as we shove him around the trailer getting everything ready for bed. When Paul threw a load of blankets on his head this evening he didn’t so much as shift for the next 15 minutes. The poor guy has had enough car for a few days.

Special Note: Snacking is so much easier in the Southwest. An open bag of chips, cookies, candy, or any baked or sugary good goes bad in a matter of hours on the east coast. Chips become soggy and stale, candy becomes sticky and clumped. In the southwest we noted several times that a bag of chips left out over night is a little stale in the morning but honestly, quite fine relative to what we expected. We can recall eating several sandwiches in the desert where the bread started to get crispy on the outside by the time we were finished eating, simply from drying out. We’re back in the realm of humidity now and we learned that lesson via snacks on the way to camp today. We won’t be leaving the snacks on the center console as we drive any more. It was nice while it lasted.

Tripometer –  14,307 mi

Gas Gauge – 1120.241 gal

Location – A Plus Motel & RV Park, Sulphur, LA

Lodging – $37

Cans of OFF – 4

Journey from Taco-Texas to BBQ-Texas

A short distance down the road from the Roadway hotel where we had spent the previous night, we pulled into the little town of Kerrville to get coffee, a bite to eat, and Ranger’s gourmet freeze dried kibble (we found a small shop that carries his food here). We struggled to find parking because the Veteran’s Day parade route was closed off to traffic. With coffee and bagels in hand we strolled through a few shops on Main Street as we watched small-town Texas celebrate Veteran’s Day. We’re fairly sure that they enlisted every vehicle in the county’s budget to be in the parade. Even the maintenance trucks were in the parade and waving at the crowd like they were they mayor.

The dog food store was located on a side road off a side road on the outskirts of the little town right next to a big game butchering facility. As we drove by, Ranger got to get a nose full of several fresh deer carcasses hanging from the front stoop of the butcher. Ranger is certainly having the time of his life getting a tour of the most amazingly smelly places he’s ever been over the past few days.

During our drive today we saw dozens of signs for a truck stop called Buc-ees. The billboards were reminiscent of Wall Drug in SD or Bromo Seltzer. In some cases it doesn’t take much to pique your interest for a stop when you’ve been driving for 5 hours. There were quite a few things about Buc-ees that make it stand out against other gas station / convenience stores. First and foremost is scale. Neither of us have ever seen a station with so many pumps. There had to have been over a hundred arranged in two long rows along two sides of the central store. Inside Buc-ees was a convenience store, restaurant, gift shop, and junk food emporium. We spent entirely too much time wandering in this tourist trap stocking up the trailer with enough junk food to last us the rest of the trip. Our favorite find in the junk food section was Camo Popcorn. Leave it to the South to invent camo popcorn.

Driving through Houston after dark, we were blown away by the light show. Some of the large oil refineries light up the horizon as though the world is on fire. We had expected the natural gas vents burning like little campfires in the sky, but we didn’t expect the sheer size of the refineries to light up the whole area for miles around. The picture above was taken some 10 miles before we actually passed the oil refinery. We weren’t sure what it was from a distance and considered an alien landing to be a distinct and real possibility.

We left Texas and entered Louisiana at around 10pm this evening, making our transit of Texas in less than 36 hours. We stopped for the night at an RV park with the most original name we’ve seen – the A Plus Motel and RV park. Thankfully the park itself was in much better shape than its owner’s imagination.

Tripometer –  13,850 mi

Gas Gauge – 1065.271 gal

Location – Roadway Inn, Junction TX

Lodging – $71

Cans of OFF – 4

465mi and 63 gal gas in one day. (That’s a little deceiving. We fueled up shortly after we got on the road this morning and filled up three more times during the day including right before we arrived at the hotel this evening.)

Today was unquestionably a driving day. We had intention to make good time across Texas and spend a few days relaxing in one place before we hit New Orleans next weekend, but we made more miles today than we expected. We decided fairly soon after we left El Paso that we were going to try and make it to Louisiana in three days. To save time we would drive until we started to feel sleepy and stop for the night no matter where we were.

It was a very windy drive today. In places we had to slow down to 45mph just to feel safe driving down the road. Unexpected gusts of wind combined with tractor trailer traffic can push our rig six or more feet sideways before we can catch it and this makes for a really stressful drive. Our favorite stop on the road today was a truck stop called Road Ranger. Kelly was disappointed that they didn’t have any Road Ranger apparel. We both wish that they had a Road Ranger dog collar. During one of our many gas station stops today we ran into a fellow RV couple at the gas pump (not surprising). The couple was travelling from Cape Cod to home #2 in Tuscon, AZ and had recently stayed near New Orleans. As we parted ways they recommended a small campground at the southern tip of Louisiana, Grand Isle State Park. Looking further into their recommendation as we travelled down the road, we think we may look at staying there for a few days before we go into NOLA.

Keenly aware that we were leaving the region of good Mexican food, for dinner today we stopped at Chuey’s Mexican Restaurant. The meal was average and wouldn’t usually warrant mentioning except for the perfusion of John Madden paraphernalia all over the restaurant to include menu items named after him. When asked, the owner of the restaurant shared that John Madden used to frequent this little place in the middle of nowhere Texas when he was travelling through this area during his time with the Dallas Cowboys. We’re assuming the food was better in John Madden’s day.

During the late evening the wind died, and the roads flattened and became straight, beautifully paved interstate highway. We fell into a driving groove and stayed there until almost midnight. When weariness set in we were absolutely in the middle of nowhere and our only free camping option was a gravel parking lot at the end of an interstate exit. This sounded way too exposed. We decided to grab a hotel room for tonight and to get back on the road early in the morning.

Tripometer –  13,385 mi

Gas Gauge – 1002.257 gal

Location – El Paso West RV Park, Anthony, NM

Lodging – $40

Cans of OFF – 4

We learned more about our RV park neighbors this morning, they have 6 miniature dachshunds in their trailer with them. This couple is on their way to being legendary on this trip. This little RV park didn’t get any more attractive in the daylight. We’re not in a very affluent area and this RV park reflects the state of the surrounding community.

We typically don’t eat breakfast and a Mexican breakfast is almost unheard of on this trip, but the Mexican influence in this area is so strong we simply couldn’t resist trying a little local restaurant enthusiastically recommended by the employees at the RV park. Ernesto’s Mexican food served us the most flavorful breakfast that either of us have had in many months. Paul can’t say enough about the salsas used to make his breakfast burrito and Kelly’s huevos rancheros was phenomenal. We really enjoy patronizing local shops, even more so when the gamble pays off and we’re rewarded like we were this morning.

When Kelly finished work this afternoon we hopped in the car and drove to the little town of Mesilla, NM. Mesilla was one of the earliest towns in this area and was, at one time, the capital of the Confederate territory of Arizona. The town grew up around the intersection of two of the largest stage coach routes of the day, the Butterfield Stagecoach and the El Camino Real, at the time was known as ‘The crossroads of the southwest’. During its heyday this little town attracted visits from some of the biggest names of the old west such as Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, and Pancho Villa. When the Santa Fe Railroad was being planned, the residents of Mesilla wanted too much money for the land rights. The Santa Fe chose a northern route through Las Cruces and the rest is history. Las Cruces became a very large town and Mesilla didn’t grow much beyond that point in history.

Today the Plaza de Mesilla is a lovely little arts community sporting several restaurants, landmarks, and enough shops to keep Kelly busy for hours. Paul and Ranger quickly located a corner café that served good beer and chips with salsa and Kelly hit the town. We had a lovely evening enjoying fantastic temperatures and a delicious sun. Some of the older structures in town displayed the original construction used in the area, the classic adobe building techniques. We were fascinated by the rafters in a couple of the old buildings. See the picture above. The crossed branches on top of the rafters hold the roofing over the interior, mostly terra cotta shingles.

Our shopping haul for the day included a new picture to hang in the trailer and a couple of jars of local salsa.

Tripometer –  13,333 mi

Gas Gauge – 1002.257 gal

Location – El Paso West RV Park, Anthony, NM

Lodging – $40

Cans of OFF – 4

Our next destination is El Paso, TX. We were desperately hoping to see Beto O’Rourke win the Senate race to beat Ted Cruz yesterday. Beto is from El Paso and we’re sure we would have found some serious partying going on if he had won the election. Sadly, we are both somewhat deflated by the results last night and drove towards El Paso with heavy hearts knowing Ted Cruz is headed back to the hill.

We left Deming this afternoon and headed east through Las Cruces and then South towards El Paso. The selection of places to park our trailer with good cellular reception is extremely limited in this area, so we crossed our fingers and made reservations for two nights at a small RV park between Las Cruces and El Paso shortly after we left Rock Hound S.P. We hadn’t done much research into El Paso tourism but we were fairly sure it wouldn’t take us more than a day to take in the high points. In the early portion of our trip, before we had a chance to stop for a late lunch, we passed an active roadside brushfire that was being tended to by the local FD. The smell of mesquite burning by the roadside can be quite appetizing when you’re hungry… who knew!

Olfactory Karma: Beginning about 10 miles from our RV park we were accosted by the smell of the largest dairy farm that either of us has ever seen. The farm was huge, running for miles and miles along the highway, nothing but cow paddocks, milking facilities and storage equipment. The smell was astonishingly strong. As we approached the RV park we realized with absolute horror that we were due to spend two nights parked within 100 yards of the most awfully smelling place we have ever been.

Thankfully the wind direction kept most of the stench out of the RV park. Yes, the wind direction did change briefly and occasionally, but the amenities of the park ensured that we really had no desire to spend any time outside of the trailer. When we pulled in to our spot for the night our next door neighbor for the evening spouted the following sentence within 3 minutes of us arriving at the campsite: “I’m not racist or anythings, but all of the newspapers here are written in Mexican.” (‘Mexican’, not Spanish.) To more fully paint the picture: This man is sitting in his bathrobe, in a lawn chair, smoking what smells like a dirt-cheap cigar from a gas station in a Texas county bordering Mexico where 82% of the population is primarily Spanish-speaking! We’ve never finished the outdoor setup work so fast. We were in that trailer making dinner in no time flat. Gah!

While checking in this evening Paul asked the front desk group at the RV park where the tourist section of El Paso was located and did they have any information on local ethnic and historic attractions. The short answer was that El Paso was not a tourist destination at all. A short call to John, Paul’s work buddy who spent a few years in El Paso, confirmed the suspicion that we should have done some real research on El Paso before we arrived. The long and short of it is Paul had the impression that El Paso was more than it is and we’re stuck here for two nights. The good news is that Las Cruses has a ton of history and a flourishing artist community in the old town. That sounds like a wonderful way to spend tomorrow evening.

Special Note: Ranger has begun to talk. When Ranger was a pup, we worked for weeks to teach him to make ANY sound when he wanted to go out. His normal practice was to sit by the door and stare at us. Over the course of this trip he has become more and more vocal. At this point he routinely grumbles, moans, whines and snorts to achieve goals such as getting a window opened in the truck or getting us to understand that he would like to go outdoors and be placed on his line so he can watch the world go by. He also now knows how to tell us when he’s bored. Ut-oh.