March 1, 2013 Pecos, TX to Carlsbad, NM

Heading out of Texas. Very flat in this part of Texas, no mountains, hills or even much of anything green. I think when it rains there are more green, but not much rain here. Took us 16 days to cross Texas. BIG state.

This sign is in the bathroom at the Escapee RV park. I am not sure I can stay somewhere were they need a sign about Depends.  I hung the new masterpiece, here it is pictured with the old one. Fits the spot better.

Also at Escapee RV park we saw this woman returning from the shower. I hope she disposed of her depends properly. You can really see in this photo how tight they packed the RV’s. I went to the city park looking for the zoo they said they had, but it was just empty cages. I talked to a park employee- a huge man whose nametag said  Chilli Bo. He told me that the zoo is closed and the mountain lion, llama etc. were all at a wildlife refuge now. He said the buffalo went to Taylor’s ranch out of town, lots of room for them to roam. I asked about the prairie dog village also supposed to be there and he said it is also closed, no mention of what they did with the dogs.   In the park I saw a sight I have never seen, a couple piñata poles.

A view of west Texas out the window. Texas is about oil and oil products. New Mexico state line! We entered a new state and a new time zone- mountain time.

John  at the low point of New Mexico- at the Pecos river on the 32nd parallel, which is the border between Texas and New Mexico. Also at the low point was this gas compression station. More oil well stuff. There were pipes saying they were CO2 lines. Guess they mine it too.

Downtown Carlsbad, New Mexico. Could be any small town big box store area. And Happy’s restaurant.

We are boondocked (free camping, no hookups) in the BLM dispersed camping area. All by ourselves so far. No lights, no sounds, just desert.

Cholla cactus  blossom, seeds on a bush, fossil, pink flowers, coral bean seeds. They have big red beans in them, I collected some to use in my pine needles, but looked them up and the beans are poisonous so I returned them to their native desert. Cockle burrs, yellow flowers and more fossils.

Yellow flowers, a question mark grass, a Perry’s lip desert fern, fossil, sotol and I think these last two are datura seeds, the last one opened up looks like it has a brain in it. They make a wonderful liqueur from the sotol. Like Tequila. Very smooth, very dangerous.