Indian Painted Rock petroglyphs & Joshua Tree National Park

 and the beauty continues!

Saguaro National Park West

Top picture is tonight's view from my lawn chair at Tucson County Park.  We spent today at the western part of the park.  Equally beautiful plus petroglyphs.

Tombstone and Saguaro national park

 Tombstone was a lot of fun.  Eldon relived his childhood love of westerns.  Saguaro is beautiful.

Bisbee AZ

Bisbee is an historic copper mining, wild west town. Our campground is on a hill overlooking historic Bisbee. Harry is showing you our view from the camper. There are lots of antique stores, so guess what I did today.

Comments from Eldon: Bisbee is a town of artists and young and old hippies. The walk around town was very mellow. A slogan on t-shirts for sale is Bisbee - like Mayberry on acid. Appears fitting.

Comments from Harry: Whatever.........just OK here for me.

Chiricahua National Monument

We had never heard of the Chiricahua's, but glad we know now. Reminiscent of Bryce Canyon in Utah, but not as colorful. We took the 30 mile gravel road through the park - it took us 3 hours! Glad we did it, but would I do it again? Probably not!

Comments from Eldon: After the 3+ hour adventure up and down the mountain, my adventure spirit has been satisfied for now. There is something to be said for asphalt! The "turtle" handled the road (?) great - see above pictures. While parked in a fork in the road, 2 border patrol trucks stopped to see if we were OK. Turns out both vehicles had illegals in the back of their trucks. Shocking to us, as we were 8,000 feet up and in the middle of nowhere and 70 miles from the border.

Comments from Harry: Where in the world were they driving??? It was frightening in my loft - stuff was flying all over.

Mesilla (Las Cruces) NM to El Paso TX to Pancho Villa State Park NM to Rodeo NM

Top photo: Eldon has his first audience
2nd photo: Fun in El Paso
3rd photo: View near our campsite tonight in the Chiracahua Mtns.
4th photo: Pecan trees
5th photo: View from our site at Pancho Villa State Park, Columbus, NM - in the background is Mexico

The fun continues. We had a nice time with Mike, Marissa, Sara, Daniel, Eddie and Dora & Robert in El Paso. Headed to Chiracahua Mountains National Monument tomorrow. Its just inside Arizona.

Comments from Eldon: Once again, I run into Pancho Villa. After another day in a museum about him, I'm still confused whether he was a good or bad hombre. He wanted to free Mexico but he was also a bandito and killed Americans. His stomping grounds have been interesting. He did move around. I immensely enjoyed my visit with Daniel and Sara; they are bright children. Mike, Marisa & Eddie are OK too! Still enjoying all the Mexican food.

Comments from Harry: Bonita siestas. I liked all the attention from Daniel and Sara. The geese in Rodeo are crazy.........don't like 'em.

Still in Truth or Consequences

We decided to stay in T or C longer. We are comfy here and the price is right. I'm blogging early today - we're going out for dinner and a movie tonight!  The movie theater is open Wed., Sat & Sun and only a couple blocks away - American Sniper is showing. Yesterday we took a mineral hot springs soak. Our RV park is also a spa/bathhouse and we get to soak for 1/2 price. There are 10 or 11 natural hot spring spas in town. In its heyday, people came from all over for healing (even the Apaches back in their day). In fact the town used to be named Hot Springs. In the 1950's, the town voted to change its name to Truth or Consequences for a TV show promotion. The spas are attempting to make a comeback, but there are quite a few empty buildings. The 3rd picture is Geronimo at the Geronimo Springs Museum. The others are just pics around town.

Comments from Eldon: The hot springs are artesian so there is no pump. You just open a valve and fill your tub. It takes less than 10 minutes to fill a very large tub - the water is extremely hot, at least 100 degrees. Maybe too hot - the cold shower after felt good! Imagine I might have sat in the same tub Geronimo peed in........

Comments from Harry: Hot springs must be good for cats. The feral cats around here are huge - or I should say enorme.

Roswell to Alamogordo to Hatch to White Sands National Monument to Truth or Consequences NM

Is it snow or sand??? White Sands National Monument was an unexpected delight. Huge, endless dunes of pure white gypsum sand. The top photo shows the snow capped mountains we drove through down to the white sands. They second photo shows the plowed road through the sand dunes. In the 3rd photo, people are sledding. It was like taking a beach walk without the beach! The bottom photo is our campground view of Turtleback Mountain in Truth or Consequences. We didn't find any aliens in Roswell but the UFO museum was interesting, believe it or not. Hatch is the chile capital of the country. I bought a five pound bag of frozen green chiles - another good reason to travel in a camper. Also stocked up on lots of dried, ground red & green peppers. We have seen an amazing number of pecan and pistachio trees too. Truth or Consequences is world famous for its mineral hot springs. We are trying the hot springs in our campground tomorrow - I'll let you know how we feel after!

Comments from Eldon: Billy the Kid roamed and committed crimes in this area. Smokey the Bear was born and buried near here.  Our campground neighbors in Hatch work in the pepper fields. Very interesting conversation - their English wasn't much better than our Spanish. Harry was the ice breaker - he is bonita to every one. Look it up if you don't know what it means. My phone translator comes in handy. Truth or Consequences, despite its corny name, is interesting. They should have kept their original name of Hot Springs. The Apaches, including Geronimo, soaked here.

Comments from Harry: Every time I go outside, some one wants to pet me. I'm soooooo bonita.

Fort Davis TX to Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Carlsbad Caverns National Park New Mexico

1.  Cholla Cactus, Guadalupe Mountains
2. El Capitan, Guadalupe Mountains National Park
3. Guess who
4,5,6 - Carlsbad Caverns
From Fort Davis, we did a quick stop at the McDonald Observatory on another scenic high desert drive. The Guadalupe Mountains National Park is pretty remote and undeveloped and beautiful, of course. There is not a road through the park. Only 40 some miles on to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Another awesome national park. We did the self-guided tours and the ranger guided tour. Very impressive.

Comments from Eldon: Carlsbad Caverns was more majestic than I expected. More mammoth than Mammoth Cave in Kentucky.

Comments from Harry: The roads have too many curves. Napping is tough at times. I think I saw a little prairie dog the other day. We were eye to eye when his head came out of the hole.

From Terlingua through Big Bend Ranch State Park to Marfa TX

Top picture: Texas Blue Bonnet
Middle Picture: Scenery like this all day.
Bottom Picture: Fort Leaton - one of the "smaller" wagons used to transport goods on the Overland Trail. Pancho Villa hung out there.

Another good day in the desert.
Comments from Eldon: Another spectacular drive - I love wandering.
Comments from Harry: All the curves make the ride exciting in my cubby hole by the bed.

Big Bend National Park