The wind subsided during the night and Wednesday

we were up relatively early to find ourselves not

blown into the Land of Oz, happily, but ready to begin

our journey west. We got the Girls walked and fed,

and finished the final details of packing the truck and

getting the Bambi ready to roll. Terry checked the tire pressure using the Pressure Pro monitors … perfect … always good news. We swung around to the dump station and emptied the tanks before beginning the next leg of the trip, then headed out. We were on the road by 10:00 AM and headed west from Toyahvale on Route 3078 to Kent, TX, where we had originally turned south from I-10 when we headed to Davis Mountains State Park nine days earlier.

Our plan for the day was a flexible one. When we had come through El Paso on our way east we’d seen billboards advertising the El Paso Saddleblanket Company. We knew their products … Mexican blankets, “Indian” blankets, etc … and liked what we saw, but we couldn’t find a source in Tucson. So we had decided to stop there on our way back through … but only if we could hit El Paso before rush hour. So depending on how the drive went, we were prepared to either get to El Paso in time, or stop overnight at a rest stop just east of El Paso for the night and go on to El Paso the next morning. But we had gotten a good start so we were confident we could make El Paso by mid-afternoon. We stopped in Van Horn to gas up … when we’d stopped there a week earlier, when gas there was $2.359 … this time it was $2.459! Oh, well. While we were getting gas, a guy came up and wanted to know all about our Bambi. A few minutes later his wife showed up laughing … she said when she couldn’t find him, then saw an Airstream, she knew that’s where he would be! Too funny. They are in the market and wanted to know how we liked the 19’… We were good ambassadors for Airstream, as usual. (Do you think we can get a commission?)

We headed on west on I-10 toward El Paso and stopped at the rest area near Fabens, TX, to stretch our legs and let the Girls have some water and stretch their legs around 1:30 PM. This was the same rest area where we’d stopped for a break on the way east, but on the opposite side of the Interstate, of course. We were soon back on the road, and got to El Paso about 2:00 PM at non-rush hour

                                 (traffic was still bad), so we got off the interstate in town

                                      and stopped at El Paso Saddleblanket Company. It’s

                                        located on the east-bound access road to I-10, so we

                                         had too make a u-turn from the Interstate, but if you’re

                                         familiar with the road design in El Paso, the u-turn

                                        set-up is an easy one. The have a lane specifically for

                                         u-turns when you get off the Interstate and need to be on the other side going to other direction. We parked the Bambi in the rear parking lot of the store where there’s plenty of open space, put the Girls in the Bambi, turned on the fantastic vent fan to bring in some fresh air, and headed into the store.

It’s a wonderful place but a little overwhelming because of the amount and variety of merchandise. They do both retail and wholesale (for those who qualify). We spent about an hour and found several items to create yet another décor for the Bambi in a SW Native American feel … so keep an eye out for the new décor! It was a fun stop and we’ll definitely stop there when we come through El Paso again. We were back on the road again by 3:30 PM, and on to Las Cruces, NM, about 45 just north of El Paso.

Since we still had a few days before we needed to be home and we’d accomplished our goal of getting to El Paso in time to help the local economy, the plan was to divert ourselves north on I-25 to check out a few of the New Mexico State Parks along the Rio Grande. So at Las Cruces, we took I-25 north toward Leasburg Dam State Park, where we planned to stay one or two nights, depending on how it was. I-25 north from the junction with I-10 skirts the east side of town and really bypasses the main part of the city. Just before we left Las Cruces behind, we stopped for gas ($2.599) and a few groceries we needed (those groceries we were unable to get in Balmorhea!). It’s good we stopped when we did because that was really the last opportunity before we were out of town. Sometimes timing is just right.

Leasburg Dam State Park is about 15 miles north of Las Cruces and 1/4 mile west of I-10. We arrived about 4:30 PM. The office closed at 5:00 PM so we stopped in to get some general information and learned that the open sites in the reserveable loop could be rented for only 1 night at a time.

The volunteer can not guarantee that a site would be

available for a 2nd night if we were to chose to stay

another night, and if the site was reserved on line,

we’d have to move. Those sites are all pull-through

and have electricity and water. But never fear! There

is also a good-sized first-come-first-served loop, which

also has sites with electricity and water that had several

openings … most of those are back-ins (though there

are a few pull-throughs ... and just FYI, some sites in that loop would be very tight for larger units).

The volunteer at the office, a very nice lady, said we could go decide where we wanted to stay and come back and take care of paying for it and if we didn’t get back before the office closed we could self-pay at the kiosk at the entrance. Checks or cash were OK. We chose a site in the first-come-first-served area because we were not sure how long we wanted to stay yet. By the time we unhitched the office was closed so Terry took care of the rent by check at the kiosk and returned to the site.

The park has been recently updated and renovated. There is a brand new Visitor’s Center and restroom building (there didn’t appear to be showers), and all the sites have cement pads with charming adobe-esque shelters with grills and fire rings. It’s really quite nicely done. And the price is right … $14 for a site with water and electricity. Sites having sewer hookups in NM State Parks are generally only $18! The park is situated on bluffs/hills overlooking the Rio

                        Grande and an irrigation canal that is formed by water diverted

                                 by the Leasburg Dam. The loop we were in was across a

                                    ravine from another hilltop where the reserveable sites

                                     were, with the visitor’s center in between where to two

                                      hillcrests met. The odd thing is that we didn’t see any

                                    access to the river from the park unless we just

                                      completely missed it. To get to the river it was

                                        necessary to exit the park grounds, cross over the canal on a pubic road and re-enter the grounds on the finger of land between the canal and the Rio Grande. There were two day use areas on the other side of the canal on the river just below the dam…very nice areas, with ramadas grills and fire rings, right on the river banks. You could fish and swim in the river there. We both agreed that this would have been a much nicer place to have the RV sites! But then we thought that the area might be prone to flooding at certain times of the year since it’s right on the river. Perhaps that’s the reason.

We decided to stay just one night at Leasburg Dam… not because we didn’t like the place, but because we knew it was going to be very warm there the next day, and we were on an exploratory mission with the great unknown ahead. We did have a pleasant evening and a good night’s rest and the Girls enjoyed themselves with the new smells and sites, as usual. We didn’t fully “deploy” that night because we knew we were moving on the next day.

Thursday as we were getting ready to go, one of the volunteers came by to a neighboring unoccupied site to turn on the drip water system to the trees. Sadie felt he was “intruding” on her space so she was raising hell … she must have felt that way because there were no other camp sites around us occupied, so her “territory” stretched as far she could see. So Terry took her and Annie over to visit him so Sadie could say her hellos and make sure he wasn’t doing anything he shouldn’t be. (She’s such a little busy-body sometimes!) We had a pleasant chat. He wanted to know all about where we were from and so on. Friendly folks at this park!

We finished our packing up, got hitched up and headed north to check out Percha Dam State Park, the next park up the Rio Grande. It’s about 35 or so miles north, again just off I-25. We didn’t take I-25, but rather, Route 185 (which becomes 187). It parallels I-25 close to the river and passes

through a number of small farming towns along the river, including

Hatch, NM, the Chili Capital of the World. Hatch holds an

annual Chile Festival each year on Labor Day weekend. It’s quite

the gathering of chile enthusiasts! One of these years we are

going to make the Chilifest and see what it’s like! Along the route,

we saw miles of fields of onions, chilis, alfalfa, potatoes (with rows of gunny sacks filled with potatoes in the field waiting to be picked up), and several crops we couldn’t identity … as well as orchards that we think were pecans and walnut groves. We kept looking for a road-side stand selling vegetables, but we didn’t see any. The land along the Rio Grande appeared to be quite fertile and the perfect place to farm.

We arrived at Percha Dam State Park after meandering east toward the river through fields of onions … very much off the beaten path. It felt like we had taken a wrong turn when suddenly we saw the entrance sign … that said it was

a “recreation area” component of the Caballo Lake State Park (about 4 miles

                         north) … which was news to us. None of the literature or

                              research that we had done on the Internet indicated that it

                                was not its own park. Perhaps something has changed

                                recently and the signage is not current yet. The camp host

                                at Percha allowed us to drive through the park so we could

                                 check it out for future reference. Percha Dam State Park

                                   is along the river just below the dam. It has tall cottonwood trees along the river and some trees in the RV area, but most

of the sites don’t have much shade and it felt particularly hot and dusty to us

… not good at this time of year ... and it was virtually disserted.

We decided that we didn’t want to stay and decided to go on north to Caballo Lake State Park, (pronounced “ca-báh-yo”). The lake is formed by yet another. much larger dam on the Rio Grand. This park is larger and is a popular site for boating and fishing. There are three RV loops above the dam, two of which are “reserveable” sites and one which is first come first served. It’s a good hike or a short drive to the water from the campgrounds above the dam. We took a site in the first come first served loop for 2 nights. The site had a pretty good view of the lake and the boat launch which sat below the bluffs where the campgrounds were. After getting unhitched, Terry drove back to the ranger station and got us officially checked in. Again … great prices … $14/night for water and electricity, plus $4 for sewer in selected sites. He made an ice run to an RV repair/boating store/quick mart place on the main road outside the park and headed back to the Bambi. We’d run out of ice the day before … and it’s funny how you don’t miss something until you run out of it! We celebrated new ice with margaritas. Seemed fitting, somehow ... and we were glad that we didn’t have to hide the fact that we were having a cocktail outside in the open.

We had a good night’s rest that night. It was very quiet, even though 25 of the 30-some sites were occupied. Friday would be our last full day out before heading home. After getting the Girls fed we took a drive around the park to the lake and the other loops just to see what was what. The loop below the dam along the river (all reserveable) has the advantage that it is closer to the water (the river below the dam), and there are more trees, but they didn’t seem as interesting for some reason … those above the dam have walled shelters and fire rings and those around the perimeter (where ours was) look out into the desert above the lake. We also noted that below the dam we’d have to keep the dogs out of the “grassy” areas because they had cheat grass in them … never fun with little furry ones.

There is also primitive camping available with no amenities on the far side of the boat launch below the campgrounds. We saw several groups of tents and some RVs in an undeveloped area, and a few RVs had parked and set up housekeeping along the edges of the large paved parking lot near the boat launch. That didn’t look too appealing, but hey … if that’s what you want to do … suppose the price is really right!

Then we drove north about 15 miles, again on Route 187, hitting all the small burgs along the way to Truth or Consequences, NM, to see what had changed since the last time we were through this are (pre-Bambi). It looked somewhat depressed, but not any more than we remembered from previous times

through. We had to take a picture of a store front on main street named

“Loretta’s” in honor of our friend Loretta in Tucson. It looked like a

funky fun place ... befitting if you knew Loretta! We topped off the

gas tank for $2.599, while most gas stations in town were priced at

$2.699. We drove back to the camp ground via I-25 … and made the

trip in less than half the time (and a higher MPH).  By the time we got back to the campground the wind had really picked up. Good thing we’d put the curbside awning away before we left. And just after we got back while Terry was walking the Girls, the street side short awning decided to take flight… No damage, but an important lesson learned, and a word of wisdom to those with street side awnings … even as short as the street side awning is it can be a sudden victim of wind. Lesson learned. Terry put all the awnings away and put the camp chairs into the ramada so they would be blown around.

We had lunch and hunkered down inside the Bambi hoping that the wind would subside in time to grill chicken and shrimp! Pretty warm outside, too. Wish the sites at Leasburg had been at Caballo Lake … guess we can’t expect to have the best of everything everywhere!

As the sun began to get low in the ski Friday evening, the wind and temps began to subside. We took the Girls for a walk down by the lake where there boat launch and docks are … Sadie had her usual drink of lake water, wading in a bit, too … Annie declining to drink lake water, as usual. We don’t know why she won’t wet her whistle in creeks and lakes, but she won’t. The sun setting on the lake and mountains on the opposite side of the lake made for a beautiful site.  The mountains looked like golden velvet in the setting sun, and the colors and shadows on the lower hills were wonderful. We got some nice pictures of it all from different vantage points in the park … up on the bluffs overlooking the lake and down by the water.

We fixed a nice dinner of grilled chicken and shrimp cocktail for our last meal on the road … and when the sun had set we began a preliminary pack-up in the cool of the evening in preparation for leaving the next morning for home, hoping to get a relatively early start (for us).

We had excellent Internet connections via our air card at both Leasburg and Caballo Lake State Parks, so that was nice. It made our staying in touch easier … and letting our friends back home know where we were and when we’d be coming home.

Speaking of which, and while we’re thinking of it, we’d like to officially thank our neighbors in Tucson, Tony & Irma, and Tony Jr. for keeping a watchful eye

                     on our home whenever we’re gone … and giving Homer, our

                            Desert Tortoise, a good salad here and there ... and taking care

                              of our mail. We are forever in their debt for making it

                               possible for us to be gone without having to worry about

                               things at home. It’s a huge burden off our minds to know

                             they are looking out for us. So a big thanks to Tony & Irma

                                and Tony Jr. for all that you do for us! We are so lucky and thankful to have you as neighbors. We hope we can one day repay your kindness in some way.

We got up Saturday, fed the Girls and completed our pack-up process and were on our way within an hour. We got away from the dump station about 10:00 AM New Mexico time (9:00 AM Tucson time). We headed south on I-25 rather than taking the road near the river that we’d taken north …we came to Hatch, NM, and picked up Route 26 to take a shortcut southwest to Deming, NM, (bypassing Las Cruces) where we picked up I-10 and headed west to Lordsburg, NM and the NM/AZ border.

It was a pleasant drive…we had a little wind here and there, but the roads were good and the traffic wasn’t too heavy. It didn’t feel like a Saturday to either one of us. Guess that’s a side affect of being out for 12 days…we have to think about what day it is. We like that feeling … and could easily get used to it!

We got to Tucson in 5.5 hours, about 2:30 PM Tucson time. It was a long drive but we didn’t feel we’d overdone it for the day. We stopped only twice … the first stop was to stretch our legs and water the Girls at a New Mexico rest area between Deming and Lordsburg that, like those in Texas, had nice ramadas at which travelers may stay for 24 hours … quite inviting, actually, and even more removed and out of the way than those in Texas). The second stop was to gas up in Lordsburg (then up to $2.499).

We got home, got the Bambi put away and unpacked and settled

in for a quiet night of relaxing and shredding junk mail. The

house and yard were no worse for wear and we quietly slipped

back into the groove of being at home. We weren’t sure how

soon we’d be able to get out again. Summer was almost upon us

and with summer comes our slower camping season … we

have to go further and for longer periods to get our camping fix in.

But we had a great trip and an adventure to new places, covering about 1,350 miles, 1,150 of which were towing the Bambi. And now we can knowingly take exception to the comment that we hear sometimes that there is nothing to see in West Texas … we know that “just ain’t true!” We were out for 12 days. This was the furthest trip from home we’ve made, though not the longest time out. We were blessed with no trouble on the road and no problems with the Bambi, so we consider it another successful trip under our belts.

Enjoy our the pictures below of the New Mexico leg … you can also go back to the Texas leg by clicking on “West Texas” ... or to other travel logs by clicking on “Other Trips” at the end of the picture section.

We hope you have enoyed your visit ... and happy trails!