The trip from Kerrville to Ft. Stockton, TX, and then to Carlsbad, New Mexico was astounding. Beau kept noting that any complaints of overpopulation seem ridiculous once you see these vistas.
After one night in Fort Stockton, we set off again in hopes of getting the heck out of Texas. Eventually, we reached the New Mexico border and we all cheered!
Just one note of frustration from Beau, about our Brake Buddy system, which links the RV braking system to that of our tow car. The stupid thing has been a nightmare the past week or so, with all kinds of issues. A few times we just disconnected it and towed the car "commando" -- ha! Beau finally got in touch with Roadmaster, the manufacturer, and they reprogrammed the unit. Still, we are not sure the damn thing is working. Aaargh!
So, about New Mexico...it is strangely different from Texas, and you understand that almost immediately. After crossing the border, the terrain looks less flat, with rounded hills like waves on the ocean. (Or was it my imagination...?)
Still, the same sense of endless land here -- and dry, dry, dry conditions with dust that blows into your face and eyes and mouth and nose nearly all the time. I love the desert, but the others in our party are less than enchanted with the Land of Enchantment's climate thus far.
But its stark and savage beauty is undeniable.
And so is the poverty. The drive to our KOA campground, which is a bit north of Carlsbad, revealed little smatterings of houses in the middle of nowhere, many of which were abandoned, wrecked, or otherwise in teardown condition. When a truck or car stops running here, it is left in the yard. So are washers, tractors, farm tools, and any other kind of junk.
And the severe drought has made the landscape a dry, dusty ocean of hardscrabble and prickly sage bushes. Some scorched patches show where wildfires have ravaged the land as well.
Check out the dead palms:
As for the Pecos River, well, it is a mere trickle in places now.
Our KOA campground is very nice -- we have had great luck with sites so far!
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| Our campground entrance. |
Surprisingly, there are plenty of oil rigs here in southern New Mexico. Out in the middle of nothing, you see them on the side of the road or far off, dotting the horizon. Some are active, some not.
We found out more about New Mexico's oil industry, as well as its cowboy history, via a drive through Artesia, just north of our campground.
Below, the statue in the middle of town called The Derrick Floor. It honors the key men and one woman responsible for much of the state's oil production.
Martin Yates was impressed by incidental oil finds in the artesian water wells in the state, and he was determined to find oil himself. Over time, his family's exploration efforts led to the development of Yates Petroleum Corp., Yates Drilling Co., and Abo Petroleum Corp.
His wife Mary was a gal of privilege but came as Martin's bride to homestead near the Pecos River. She was instrumental in finding wells using her "intuition." That intuition is memorialized in this statue, where she is pointing to a place where her husband should drill.
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| Martin and Mary Yates, along with their son. |
The oil roughnecks are depicted in the main bronze statue, shown below.
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| Dave is wearing the same magnet bracelet as one of the figures in the bronze statue in the Derrick Floor. |
The first commercial well in New Mexico was Illinois State #3, drilled in 1924. Over the years, Southeast New Mexico has produced approximately 3.9 billion barrels of oil and 21 trillion cubic feet of natural gas out of tens of thousands of wells. Who knew??
Also on Main Street in Artesia, we saw two (out of a series of three) beautiful bronzes celebrating the area's cowboy heritage. Below, The Vaquero, depicting a cowboy alerting his Trail Boss to rustlers on the cattle drive. Below him, The Trail Boss, a bronze showing the cattle drive boss reacting to the shot fired by the Vaquero. Just gorgeous works of art.
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| The Vaquero |
The Trail Boss -- these statues are huge, much larger than life.
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| Who are these good looking people? |
In a Cavern in a Canyon..
Today we went to Sitting Bull Falls. The drought has reduced the falls to a mere trickle, but the canyon and the drive to the canyon were breathtaking. We picnicked with sandwiches, grapes, wine, and lemon cookies. What a great experience.
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| Sitting Bull Falls -- tough to see, but there is some water flowing over the rocks, starting way up at the top. |
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| The picnic area at Sitting Bull Falls. |
Tex Beaudry and his buddy, Buddy
The falls are in a real-life box canyon, just like we used to see on TV westerns .
This internet connection was SOOOO slow -- we will post more/better photos over the weekend, of the canyon and its surroundings, as well as Carlsbad Caverns (we are going tomorrow).
Happy Easter and Passover, everyone!
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| A gorgeous New Mexico sunset... |
Tanks, Panky
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