Whitsett to Pecos, Texas

We had originally thought we’d take two to three days to drive the 500+ miles from Whitsett to Roswell, NM.  But the day was clear and cool enough, so kept driving and soon found we were close enough to push on and make it to Pecos.  But it WAS a long day and we drove more miles than we ever have in one day…427 miles and it took eight hours.

The scenery through the hill country was beautiful.

   

The wild flowers were in bloom with the bluebonnets abundant.

We pulled into Pecos, TX and drove to Tra-Park RV Park which is an Escapee Rainbow Park.  There isn’t much to this park, but there’s hookups and for $15 is OK.  We were pleasantly surprised to find another co-worker from Campbellsville amazon.com fulfillment center working there as the hosts.  Alett and Tom Kern were stowers with me and we all lived together at Indian Ridge RV Park and car pooled together for a time.  It sure was nice to see them again and catch up on our travels.

As we were driving into Pecos we noticed all the oil rigs scattered around in the distance. As we drove through town all the motels were full with trucks from oil related companies (Frac Tech, Coil Tubing Company, etc.). We asked the Kern’s about it and they said that Pecos has been in a bit of an oil boom the last 2-3 years and it is waning and winding down now.  The RV park had put in about 40 new sites to accommodate the need from oil workers traveling in their RVs.  You could see the electric wasn’t put in underground but on newish looking telephone poles planted every 25 feet or so.  There were water available at every site also.  Interesting increase in town’s business.

We come to Pecos just to go to Alfredo’s Mexican Restaurant.  We found this little gem of a place four years ago when we were traveling with Bill Borger and Lesle Thomas. You can read about that visit here.********** It’s not a fancy place, in fact, it is housed in a converted Pizza Hut building. 

But Alfredo’s has authentic food with generous portions at great prices.

Jim’s 2 enchiladas, taco and chili rellano with beans and rice for $8.50

My 2 enchiladas, taco with beans and rice for $7.50

We were unable to get any TV on the batwing, so we just played on the computer and I put up a blog post and then we hit the hay. It had been a long day and we were tired.  With the 40 degree lower temperature it was a cool night and great sleep weather with the window opened.

Remember, you are loved.

 

Port Aransas, Texas (Part Two)

Being from the mountains of southern Colorado, Jim and I are always eager to see any body of water, but especially the ocean---or Gulf of Mexico in this case.  The beach is just a short walk/ride from our rig.  Although there was a sizeable amount of seaweed lining the waterline, the beach was very pretty with soft sand.  I had a hard time getting use to the idea of trucks and cars driving on the sand!!!

Walkway to beach	Jim and Chorizo
The Happy Couple	Seaweed and vehicles
Look towards the park	Nice ocean scene
Sand dunes	Walkway to the sand

As we walk along we even saw some jellyfish amongst the seaweed.

During one of our drives Peggy drove us to Portland, TX where we saw the USS Lexington

We drove around the aquarium but at $28 each it was too rich for our blood.  But the view of the bridge made for a pretty picture.

Then Peggy and I got in to a discussion of how we dislike going over high bridges…really dislike them. We tried to talk ourselves into “going for it”. We even said “come on let’s put our Big Girl panties on and do it”.  But we chickened out…

So as we tried to find a way around going over it (although it would be closer to cross it and go through Corpus Christie to get back to the park).  As we cut across here and there trying to find our way back the way we came, we found a little pier with some pelicans

                  

                         

We finally got back to the park and went out for dinner.  Talking about that, because of our gate guarding for two months, Jim and I haven’t been out for dinner that entire time, so on this vacation we made up for it, that’s for sure.

We said good-bye to The Barnes and Pioneer Beach RV Park on Monday morning and headed back to Whitsett.  I picked up our mail and our last paycheck then went to visit The Mossman’s.  Poor dears, The Mossman’s sure have had their share of woes.  A fierce thunderstorm that week brought a flash of lightning close to their rig and fried some of their electronics and appliances.  Read their blog for the details “Storm”, then “Update on Storm Damage”.  When we saw them Sunday they were living out of three ice chests and eating out a lot.  Luckily they are only 10 miles from town.

Next we visited Rita and Jerry Scarbrough at their new location.  Since they follow the same drilling crew they move every 4-6 weeks. Unfortunately one of their air conditioners bit the dust so they are limping along for another month when they will get it fixed before coming up to Colorado…where they will not be needing it up in the southern mountains.  We had a good visit as we always do.

Tuesday we head out towards Colorado. Stay tuned….

Remember, you are loved.