Day 255 - Valley of Fires, Albuquerque

We woke up to a grand vista of the Valley of Fires. Our campsite was on the top of the hill and we we had almost a 360 degree view of the surrounding valley. After the howling wind of the night before, the morning was calm.

"Valley of Fires recreation area is located immediately adjacent to the Malpais Lava Flow. Approximately 5,000 years ago, Little Black Peak erupted and flowed 44 miles into the Tularosa Basin, filling the basin with molten rock. The resulting lava flow is four to six miles wide, 160 feet thick and covers 125 square miles. The lava flow is considered to be one of the youngest lava flows in the continental United States.

From a distance, Valley of Fires appears as barren rock but when you walk through the nature trail there are many varieties of flowers, cactus, trees and bushes typical of the Chihuahuan desert. Animals include bats, roadrunners, quail, cottontails, mule deer, barberry sheep, and lizards. It's also a virtual birdwatcher's paradise with great horned owls, burrowing owls, turkey vultures, hawks, gnat catchers, cactus wrens, sparrows and golden eagles." - BLM website.

After a morning of meetings, we took advantage of the accessible trail through the lava to see the formations up close. The lava had lots of tube, holes, and bucked flows. You could see in places where the sandstone had been cooked by the hot lava. By noon the wind had picked up considerably again. 

We decided that it was a close second to White Sands NP and it was amazing that such different landscapes were only a couple of hours driving apart.  The second best decision we made all day was an impulse stop because we (Stephanie) were tired of driving. (The best decision was going to White Sands NP).

We then headed on to Albuquerque. We had some hopes of taking the Sandia Peak Tramway up the mountain, but it was closed due to weather. We got rained on some more (bringing the rain from Florida with us through the desert as we go) and saw some lighting in the mountains. The wind continued to be impressive and there were a number of "wow" moments when we were buffeted by a sudden gust. The tumble weeds flew by in places.

While we were making our customary Costco gas stop (almost empty $125 to fill @ $2.73) we got restaurant advice from a friend who grew up in Albuquerque.  

Sadies of New Mexico was great, we had the Prickly Pear Margaritas and Stuffed Sopaipilla. The small bowls of chili that came with the meal were very tasty (and fairly hot). Sopaipilla with honey was a side with each dish. 

There was an announced hour wait, so Stephanie dropped the RV at the Balloon Park RV a few miles away and Lyfted back to the restaurant (so we could have margaritas). On the way home, we once again found the ride share to be hard to come by. (No Uber, and about 10 minutes just to get the Lyft assigned. This was at 7.30 PM.) 

Day 254 - White Sands, New Mexico

 We said our goodbyes to our friends and headed for White Sands National Park (formerly National Monument, the newest National Park).

Just like Tahoe in the winter!

It was really cool. The sand is really soft and cool, and we enjoyed the hike with our shoes off in the sand.

There was a good boardwalk hike that I was able to manage and a great loop drive that gave us a good view of the inner dunes. The children attempted to slide down the dunes on our boogie boards, but found that just rolling down them was a lot more fun (and effective).

We are spending the night at a BLM site, Valley of Fires. We love BLM sites and glad to be back where they can be found, There was a great sunset just as we arrived, having decided that enough driving had been done for the day and not relishing another hour before getting to the mix reviews campsite that we had called to determining that they had space, but didn't have a paid reservation.  

Day 253 - El Paso

 Had a very productive day at work, boys played video games, we had a lovely diner with friends with a great view of of the city outside. The weather was great. See yesterday.

We took advantage of the back patio to get a full, uninterrupted day of work accomplished. The kids did mostly as well, but I think Tyler got more video gaming done....

Day 252 El Paso

Now it is time to visit one of Stephanie's business school friends, so after a stop to provision and gas at Costco, we are met by her friend and follow him to his 5 acre ranch in east El Paso. 

Trains on the way to El Paso. Two engines in front, two in the middle.

We have an awesome visit, enjoy two nice restaurants and Tyler and our friend's son hit it off and request an extra night to play video games together. So we stayed an extra night and had great conversations. The children had a great time too.

Day 251 - More West Texas

We decided that since we had good internet, and needed to wait for the tyre people to come and fix the flat, we would stay at Hilltop another day, get work done, and get the flat fixed.

As you can see below, it was quite flat. Managed not to damage the outer tyre much. Whew.  I have ordered a mount and a cover for a spare. Given that we are two tyres down already, I think we should have one....

I had a great conversation with a family from Virginia who were on a similar trip, and talked to them by the pool about work/travel/school balance on the road.  At sunset I talked to three cousins (two retired air traffic controllers - one worked in Atlanta the other at the Memphis FexEx hub) and an Air Force widow) who were in the Class A next to us. They were on a three month post retirement trip. One of them had moved into the RV as "home", the others were along for the ride as long as they could stand each other.

Day 250 West Texas

 We left the RV park and headed into serious west Texas. It got drier, we started seeing more oil wells and a set of mountains that I didn't realize were there. In the later afternoon we stopped at Dairy Queen, my first time since high school.

Classic west Texas town

It had rained, there were a lot of wildflowers.

Dusty sunset

 After we had settled in to Hilltop RV park, and went out to look at the sheep and the sunset we discovered that we had blown the inner passenger rear tyre. We had heard a bang about 50 miles earlier, but after pulling over and inspecting the RV, we could not see anything wrong. oops. Calling Good Sam...  

Day 249 - Austin, horses

Maggie had some more quality time with the horses. We had fun conversations, and at last packed up the RV and crossed our fingers that the slide would come back in.

It is really raining. 

The slide came back in. We said goodbye, and headed off.

Not much further excitement. It was raining. We headed out of town. 

But first as stop at Ikea's as we needed to replace a chair that we left on a beach, and get a few storage unit supplies. Oh and we needed dinner. And some Swedish meatballs. 

Then we needed gas, and a quick trip to HEB for groceries.

Then our short one and a half hours to Brooks Hills RV park. Mostly to get a bit of distance in and make sure we actually got out of Austin. The rain let up as we drove around looking for our spot. It returned with a vengeance when we got out to hook up the water and electricity, At least the electricity got hooked up before the air turned liquid.