Summer 2015 Week 2

After leaving San Antonio, we decided to get off of I-10 and started touring the area along State 90. The drive was great; lots of 4 lane roads but limited traffic.  Both of us enjoyed not seeing much traffic and the opportunity to travel at a slower speed and see more sites.  Unfortunately many of the sites we saw were ghost towns.

We decided to try a State Park for a campsite and chose the Seminole Canyon State Park, north of El Reyo, TX.  This State Park offered tours as it contains some of North America's oldest Native American pictographs and is one of the oldest cave dwellings in North America.  Shortly after getting to the campground, while looking out the window, I saw a roadrunner.  I ran outside quickly to let Chuck see it also.  He suggested I get my camera but the bird was moving quickly through the brush and I didn’t think I’d get a shot and figured we’d see more.  To date that was the only roadrunner we've seen.

During the days the temperature would climb in to the triple digits and overnight it would drop into the 60’s.  We spent 2 nights at the State Park and enjoyed our stay.  We also took the tour to see the pictographs.  The walk into the canyon was hot and steep but the images on the canyon and cave walls were fascinating.  While the art work was interesting, our guide who was a volunteer had too much technical information and also talked too much about another tour he was presenting later in the day.  The landscape and nature made up for all my issues with the guide though.  Spring in the desert is beautiful.

We did the canyon Rock Art tour, we decided to drive 20 miles up the road to the town of Langtry to see the Judge Roy Bean Museum.  The town of Langtry is listed as having approx 30 residents and was another ghost town.  They have a Visitor Information center which oversees the Judge Bean Museum.  There is also a Cacti Garden which was lovely with all the spring blooms on the various Cacti species.  Seminole Canyon Stae Park and Campground

 

After the heat of the canyon we continued exploring State 90 and drove to the town of Alpine.  Chuck chose the campground based on it’s name “Lost Alaskian”.  Again, the roads were empty and there we passed through many ghost towns on the journey.  This campground was chosen as an overnight stop; no sightseeing plans for the day other than those through the truck window as we traveled.  We had lots of strong winds as we rose in elevation to the west Texas mountains. The staff at the campground said the winds normally blow 10-20 mph but they were expecting gusts of up to 50 while we were there. Lost Alaskian RV Park

On Day 12 we headed on to El Paso TX and crossed into our third time zone.  Our original plans had been to do some sightseeing in the area but because we had already done several multi-night stops during the week, decided to make El Paso another 1 night in and out stop. Our campground was right next to highway frontage roads, but traffic sounds weren’t loud allowing us to get a good nights sleep. Mission Trail RV Park

Before we reached El Paso, our route had reconnected with I-10 and we left the State of Texas on the same road as we entered.  A short distance in to New Mexico, we took a right on to I-25 and had a beautiful drive north to I-40 and the city of Alburquerque NM.  We made arrangements to spend 2 nights in the area and on our off travel day, drove back to the “Old Town” to walk around and sightsee. 

At lunchtime we started looking at menus posted on various restaurants along the town square and kept finding the same typical fare; taco, rice & beans.  There was a sign indicating another restaurant down an alley and we decided to walk down to read their menu as well.  Man, oh man, are we ever glad we took that stroll.  

The restaurant was the Backstreet Grill and they advertise their food as Southwestern mixed with Baja.  The item on the menu that caught our eye was their shrimp cocktail - Tequila Shrimp with Avocado Cocktail.  As we were being seated, we saw some of the plates of food other diners had ordered and everything looked so fresh and inviting.  We asked our server for recommendations and then decided to have the shrimp coctail, a spicey beef burrito and a duck taco. For dessert we had a pumpkin maple cheesecake.

When the shrimp cocktail was served and we had our first taste, our taste buds were given a joyful experience of flavors.  The burrito was just as delicious and the duck taco was outstanding (wish we had ordered more than just one of those).  And the cheesecake was rich and creamy with just a hint of the pumpkin and maple syrup.  This was our lunch and we were so happy with the meal that we didn’t eat again until the next morning.

We now joke when we ask each other what we’d like for dinner “Alburquerque”? Backstreet Grill made a true impression on us and we want more.   Enchanted Trails RV Park

At the end of two weeks we’ve now traveled 2,142 miles.  There’s a lot more to this journey.