Hello from Hobbs, New Mexico

written November 2, 2014 

Great local breakfast hang out in D'Hanis, Tx

Bales of cotton near Hondo

 Hello again, this time we are parked in a field on the edge of Hobbs, NM. Nice small town in the middle of oil country without all the “man camps”, and continuous truck traffic. On the way to here we spent nine days in Hondo, Texas. 

The Alamo

Jim listening to self guided tour

strolling on the River Walk

Buckhorn Tavern in San Antonio

One of the days we took the whole day and experienced San Antonio. We got there early so to avoid the crowds taking in the Alamo first. I was there in 1964 while in basic training and after fifty years of “maturing” I still have to wonder “why” would all those guys give up their lives to defend it!! Looks like just a rebuild of a deteriorated old “rock” building that looks like just about every other old “rock” building that we had been seeing for the two hundred or so miles that we had driven through Texas. Oh well, it did make a great movie! We spent the rest of the day exploring San Antonio's River Walk. The walking path along the river is beautiful and unique. While walking we stopped and had a scrumptious authentic Mexican lunch outside on the walk as people strolled by, and boats drifted by. We then experienced a boat ride on the river and found it was as beautiful and unique as we had heard from others. 

Texas Hill Country

used boot racks in store in Bandero

Delicious Apple pie in Leakey, TX

spotted Axis deer - full grown in Texas

 

  Parked in central/southern/west Texas we took some little jaunts around Texas Hill Country having a ball sightseeing and acting like tourists. The weather was perfect and the cowboy/cowgirl theme is everywhere. Every downtown area has the square front buildings with weathered wood siding and covered sidewalks to provide the “old cowpokes” a place for just sittin' and spittin'.

The area is a mecca for "Roadkill Culinary Specialists'. We could not believe the great meat items just lying beside the road! We saw deer, fox, coyote, squirrel, skunks, opossum, raccoon, very large unidentifiable birds, wild hogs, lots and lots of snakes, and either the largest grey German Shepherd or wolf (or as they call them here, Lobos). I'm telling you, a road kill warrior could make quite the culinary spread. You do know how to tell if your roadkill is fresh – on the way to town notice any roadkill along the side of the road, and on your way back home if anything is new it is sure ripe for the pickin!!! Happy grillin.

Saw my first up close and personal road runner (beep beep). Was watching a deer in the side ditch when I looked up just in time to see the RR's head disappear below my hood, heard no thump and saw nothing writhing in pain in the rear view mirror – so I guess those little suckers really are quite quick! (Julie saw that it had made it across the road and disappeared into a nearby tall grass).

While in Hondo we experienced a couple of cool phenomenons that we have heard of but had never seen. The rear window of our trailer has been the battleground for migrating moths. Who new those flimsy dusty looking little guys migrate? They are the worst fliers, they are always bumping into things. It is a wonder they can get anywhere.

After leaving the Road Runner in our dust we traveled onwards and upwards. We carry an altimeter and we climbed from 800 feet here in Hondo to over 2200 feet in the hills and suddenly we are driving through a “flock” of Monarch Butterflies. This is their time for their migration towards Mexico for the winter. It was the last few days of the migration period but it was still very exciting to see them all.

On the way from Hondo to Hobbs we saw what we “Mid-Westerners” have always thought of as Texas. Ranches that went on for miles and miles, somewhere in the neighborhood of a gazillion oil wells!!!! However, something we hadn't planned on seeing was ranch after ranch of goats. Think West Texas is becoming the goat capital of the world. Julie “Googled” a couple of the ranch names as we were careening down the highway and found that the average cost of a goat is $1500. Wow - who'da thunk it!

Probably should tell you just why we are parked in a field. While we were still in Hollister, MO we started perusing the web to see if there was something we could “do” and we came across “Care-A-Vanners”. This is a group of RV'ing Geezers that get together for two weeks at a time to “build” houses for Habitat for Humanity. The six couples here now are set up in a field behind an empty house owned by the City of Hobbs that has electric, water, and sewer provided for us to use. There also is a washer and dryer inside the house for our use. Really pretty neat.

The houses are built from the ground up by volunteers, and the home we are working on was already under roof so we have been insulating, dry walling, taping, mudding and lots and lots of painting. Today we are scheduled to lay tile in one bedroom and the kitchen, as well as hang the upper cabinets in the kitchen.

Well, the clock on the wall is telling us it is time to “hi ho hi ho, it's off to work we go” so we will bring this to a close and get it sent off and let you know that we are thinking about you guys.