Heading Home To Texas

After the excitement of the Balloon Fiesta, we were focused on getting back to Texas. The grandchildren have been with us in the trailer for two weeks, and they really have had a great time. We think they love Airstreaming as much as we do. At Sumner Lake State Park, our last stop in NM, we had a beautiful lake view. The next morning we stopped in the town of Fort Sumner to visit the Billy The Kid Museum and Billy’s grave site. It is interesting how we as Americans remain so fascinated with a reckless, young outlaw who is known to have killed nine men by the time he was 21. Jack and Lincoln were delighted to see Billy’s Winchester Rifle.
Next we stopped for two nights at a private RV park in Lubbock, TX for shopping, doing the laundry, servicing the Tundra (10,000 miles since May 30), shopping, and playing the kid’s favorite card game, Rats. We arrived at our shady campsite at Abilene State Park in Buffalo Gap, TX during early afternoon, as this promised to be a wonderful place for the kids to run and explore. Along the way in our travels we stopped often for Mexican food, BBQs, Dairy Queens and more card games. The children seemed to be in no hurry to get back home.

So here we are in Buda, TX next to the Airstream dealer and Cabela’s. The children have been safely delivered to their relieved parents, having been properly toured, exercised, educated and fed. We have had devotions nearly every day, laughed a lot, and have learned that these kids are all competitive card players. They really love each other, and we hope they value us as much as we do them. They have been a great joy as travel partners, and they now know a lot about RVing. Lucy was a big help to Gloria with the “pink jobs,” and Jack and Lincoln assisted Jerry at each stop with hooking up and unhooking, connecting the water and electric, leveling the rig, and even draining the sewage (“blue jobs”).

Already, we are missing the chronic giggles (along with other unmentionable sounds), creaking and thumping of unfolding couches, great conversations, frequent questions, the reading of student journals, and competition for who sits where.

Tomorrow, we will attend church with the kids and their parents in San Marcos and then get the Airstream serviced at the beginning of the week.
There are wheel bearings to repack, a commode to replace, and minor repairs that are required after thousands of miles of bumping along the highway at 60 miles per hour. If a home had to take the abuse that an RV gets it would quickly become a pile of rubble. Sadly, Tuesday night will be our last time to see Stephanie, Steven, Jack, Lucie, and Lincoln until New Year’s Eve. We should be home in Hillsboro by Wednesday noon. It has been a wonderful half-year on the road.

International Balloon Fiesta In Albuquerque

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta lasts nine days, with 800,000 spectators, 650 balloons, and 1000 pilots and their crews. We arrived from White Sands and parked next to our Northern Virginia Airstream friends, Elaine and Lloyd, with reservations for three days. The children were awed by our great parking site right across the road from the Balloon Museum and Fiesta office. We were dry camping which meant no connections except for our Honda generator. Our fresh water tank was full and the gray, and black water tanks were empty. The refrigerator was well stocked to include homemade cookies. We left for an early dinner at Sweet Tomatoes; we needed to be on the field the next day by 6:30 A.M.
Saturday A.M. was dark and chilly as we walked to the Mass Ascension. As we crossed the street in front of the Museum, a pretty young lady stopped her large golf cart and called to us, “Hey, I have room for seven! But I do need someone to ring my cow bell.” Jerry readily agreed to the task. He really enjoyed ringing that bell at every crossing. Morning dawned and the balloonists were given the flying okay; excitement grew and the children asked permission to check out all the balloons and collect trading cards. They met a lady from San Marcos, Texas near to where they live. The big red Wells Fargo stagecoach, a huge, “udderly” beautiful cow, Mirabelle, and the largest balloon, a cathedral from Switzerland, drew large crowds.

Thirty-five countries were represented in the early morning hot air balloon mass ascension from a 72 acre field. The evening the balloon glows are magnificent. Hundreds of balloons all light up at one time when the signal is given. The after glow fireworks are extraordinary. Sunday morning dawned gray and threatening with a heavy cloud layer that soon opened and poured on us. Not to worry. We had had Sunday school in our trailer and the children listened intently to two Bible teachers on TV. Then we spent time investigating the marvelous International Balloon Museum. Jack, Lucie, and Lincoln all enjoyed flying their balloon on a computer, getting their picture taken in a balloon basket, building a flying machine, and visiting the gift shop. That evening we returned to the balloon glow and the after-glow fireworks.

Monday morning we were all back in the middle of the balloons as the pilots and their crews prepared to take flight. The sky was exceptionally blue and the balloons arose in mass. Our grandchildren once again were eagerly collecting cards from the balloonists. Kathy one of the pilots gave each of us a lovely pin, her card and an invitation to return to Albuquerque for a free hot air balloon. In late morning, we bid our friends, Lloyd and Elaine, a fond goodbye and departed in a southeasterly direction hoping to reach the Texas border by the end of the day. We are delighted to see that fuel prices are dipping.

White Sands National Monument In NM

Yesterday we bid, Ken, our ranger friend and Park Manager at City of Rocks State Park, a fond farewell and headed for White Sands National Monument near Alamogordo. We made a quick stop in Hatch, the green chili capital of the world, to get a package of frozen roasted green chilies. We parked the Airstream at Holloman Air Force Base Famcamp and drove to the dunes. The huge white dunes over awed the grandchildren. They were even more surprised to learn that the dunes are constantly moving and swallowing up whole trees in their path. We drove the eight miles from the Visitor Center to the heart of the dunes where the picnic shelters and pit toilets are located. While Jerry and Gloria unpacked our lunch, the three eager, agile children took off for the dunes, disappearing over the top. They soon reemerged to say the other side was more appealing for sliding. Alas and alack our cardboard sleds did not glide well on the gypsum. Nevertheless, our kids do not shrink from a challenge. They merely borrowed someone’s plastic saucer and took turns going down the dunes in various bodily contortions. We learned later that WD40, Pam, or olive oil would have worked on whatever we had used. Okay, next time we’ll know.

On a stroll down the boardwalk, we learned many details about how certain lovely plants and unique animals survive in the dunes. Most plants have roots that dip into the sand for many feet in order to survive. As long a part of a tree is above the gypsum, it can live.

We returned to the Visitor Center/Bookstore to watch an informative video and browse books. We learned about the formation of the great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand. They engulf 275 square miles of desert, and they have created the world's largest dune field. White Sands is truly one of the great natural wonders of the world.

Pancho Villa At Columbus, NM

Our three Texas grandchildren are home schooled, so every day we make a special effort to include educational content in their tour. Today, Grandma took a day off from traveling from our campsite at City of Rocks State Park. Jerry drove the kids 60 miles south to the Mexican Border in Columbus, NM. There they toured Pancho Villa State Park (PVSP) and the town museum. The historical focus was on the Mexican outlaw, Pancho Villa, who invaded Columbus and U.S. Army Camp Furlong in March 1916. Villa was out of favor with his own country and made a quick enemy of our country when he committed the only invasion of U.S. soil during the 20th Century. His band of nearly 1000 terrorists lost 200 men, while 15 of our soldiers and townspeople were killed. General John “Black Jack” Pershing arrived on the scene and chased Villa into Mexico for several months, but they never caught him (some things never change). Pershing would later gain fame as commander of our troops in Europe during WW I.

Military enthusiasts will learn at PVSP that Columbus was the site of our first Army airfield. An old bi-wing plane hangs from the ceiling of the visitor center. There is also a bullet-ridden old roadster which was hit by Villa’s raiders as the owner was escaping with his family. A couple of the original adobe buildings belonging to Fort Furlong still stand, as does an armored vehicle. Of tactical significance is the fact that this skirmish proved once and for all that mechanization would forever replace our famous horse cavalry. GEN Pershing would ride into Mexico in a Dodge touring car rather than sit in the saddle.

The kids and Jerry enjoyed a wonderful picnic prepared in advance by Grandma at PVSP and then returned to Deming to tour the recently restored Luna Membres Museum. The latter is one of the finest small-city museums we have seen. If you are driving through Deming on I-10, the museum and three, picturesque, unique state parks within 30 miles make it worthwhile to stay for a few days. There is an Escapees RV park just outside town next to the Holiday Inn. Regrettably, most travelers use Deming only as a stopover point.