2020 year in review
104 Cities and towns.
331 Places
Posts
December 24-27: Del Rio
From Port Isabel we meandered to the border town of Del Rio, Texas (Amistad National Recreation Area). The Rio Grande constitutes the border in much of this area. No wall! We saw blue 55 gallon food grade barrels marked "AGUA" along the roadway.
Going home and passing the original Judge Roy Bean saloon. We spent a bit of the drive reading about him. He was a real character.
On the way back to Santa Fe we stayed overnight in Roswell, New Mexico. Then we continued home on Highway 285. Of course we needed to listen to the podcast: Tower 57:
If you drive past the lights of downtown Roswell, north on Route 285 into the darkness of the New Mexico desert, you'll run across a little radio station with a single tower. This is the home of WKLEN talk-radio, broadcast through Tower #57.
Aliens taking over a radio station? Maybe. Spooky? Definitely!
December 21-23, 2020: Port Isabel, Texas and SpaceX
From Junction we drove to Port Isabel - on the southeast tip of Texas - to meet up with Adam and Tran. Bodhi, our dog, was thrilled to see Adam again. (Roz, named after Roswell NM, contains her excitement.)
We were particularly excited to see the SpaceX SN9 roll out to the launch pad. It moves from its assembly bay to the launch pad using State Highway 4, so we followed behind in a slow procession.
Those two white vans again.
Here is the nose cone of SN8 laying were it recently crash landed!
Once SN9 arrived at the launchpad, they lifted it in place.
The SpaceX launch facility is at Boca Chica Beach. Adam's dog, Roper had to investigate:
Another one of Ron's famous crooked pictures:
Back in Port Isabel, our campsite was right on the water
We put up some Christmas lights.
December 20th: Sleeping under the lights in Junction, TX
Due to dog health issues we got a late start on our Christmas trip. Our first stop was Junction, Texas where we spent the night at Schreiner City Park on the Llano River. We slept, for free, under the Christmas lights:
It made for a magical sleeping experience...
Sadly, when we woke up there were no presents in the van.
December 10-12, 2020: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge
We decided to do a quick trip to Las Cruces. Our first stop was the amazing Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. Birds Galore. Deer, coyote and a bobcat.
After that we drove to Las Cruces to look at areas of the city as possible places to move. Then to La Posta in Mesilla to pick up green Enchiladas which we ate at our overnight spot at a Cracker Barrel (not too exciting). In the morning, we went hiking at the Prehistoric Trackways National Monument. In this picture you can see the Organ Mountains National Monument in the distance.
