June 10 - 17, 2021:
I’m back on the road, wandering with limited direction and mental capacity. My travel plan is to head east to New Orleans, then north along the Mississippi River via the “River Road” to Missouri, then turn west to rendezvous with Sue, Twinkles or Sushi (whatever alias she uses these days) in Boulder, Colorado for the month of August. I’m not feeling very optimistic about this travel plan as many of these travel areas will be congested, hot, humid and not as truly beautiful or exciting as the wild scenic west, but they must be explored ? That being said, I’m now in El Paso, Texas where I’ve been several times before. As I sit here sweltering in the heat, I am thinking about a Texas coastal area, I could enjoy a few beach days and possibly a cool ocean breeze.
So far, it’s all been a ride on highway 10 east across Arizona into New Mexico, (which I have done many times) through the ruins of Lordsburg (very sad, almost everything on the main drag is closed / boarded up). Deming, NM looks about the same as I remember it from my last pass through and then on to a fine overnight rest stop at the Walmart in Las Cruces New Mexico. Las Cruces seems to be doing a redevelopment of their downtown converting everything to a Santa Fe overly respectacle architectural style.
Next is El Paso, It’s big, somewhat decadent, dirty, scary, but I tend to like it. What I hate is the big city sprawl and the resulting horrible traffic volume which plague all cities. I have to give EL Paso credit though, they have spent tons of money redoing their traffic infrastructure with new or improved overpasses and ramps everywhere, it's quite remarkable. In spite of the improvements, it’s a horrible place to drive in, mostly because of the drivers, they drive as if they are on a Nascar racetrack. As someone who used to live off exit 8 of the NJ Turnpike, who drove into Newark often and all around the New Jersey metropolitan area, this should be easy, but it’s not, I’m older and slower now.
I would recommend visiting my previous blog post from 2015, it was truly great and covers most of what I repeated on this trip for El Paso, Texas.
http://travelswithtwinkles.blogspot.com/2015/04/el-paso-murals-and-missions.html
The Mission tour follows the original Camino Real road for about 8 miles along the Rio Grande River and the Mexican border. It starts at Mission Ysleta surrounded by one of the oldest settlements in Texas. The Tiqua Indian tribe built the mission under the guidance of the Spanish and have maintained a settlement there since that time and finally were granted tribal status recently. They appear to be making the most of that status, especially with their casino operation. it’s promising to see something good being done. I then followed the Camino Real to Mission Socorro and then to the Mission San Elizario Presideo Chapel. Missions Socorro and San Elizario were both destroyed by the flood waters of the Rio Grande River. In previous times, the Rio Grande would frequently flood and change its course. The changing course of the river has also created border line issues in the past, but not to worry it’s now channeled, can’t happen again, until the really “Big Flood”.
https://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/paso/index.html
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| Mission tour map |
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| Ysleta Mission |
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| Interesting mural near Mission |
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| Socorro Mission |
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| Socorro Mission interior |
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| Ceiling rafters saved from original mission destroyed by flood |
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| Artist rendering of Socorro Mission |
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| San Elizario Presidio Chapel |
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| Irrigation canal |
I also made a return to Chicano Park to see the murals there and found that new highway construction has impacted many of the murals. It appears that they tried to save as many murals as possible and that it will eventually be returned it’s former Chicano glory, like it or not ?
http://lincolnparkcc.org/history/
I spent a couple of nights at Cracker Barrel, across the street from the infamous Walmart where in 2019 a gunmen opened fire on people resulting in many deaths and injuries. They have strong police pretense there now with an actual police outpost inside the store. This Walmart does not allow RV overnighters there anymore, although I don’t see that they were involved in the shooting incident. The gunman was a deranged latino hater, white nationalist. Don’t get me started on the Texas gun love fest that rages with the current governor.
I visited the History Museum which had an exhibit on the Chicano low ridder car movement. They also had an exhibit on the 2019 shooting incident at a El Paso Walmart where many people were killed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_El_Paso_shooting
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| A memorial to all those killed |
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| A beautifully crafted ride |
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| Car club jacket |
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| Love to have this photo album |
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| They really look like revolutionaries |
El Paso has several impressive downtown buildings of architectural importance, I took several photos.
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| The Kress Building is amazing |
This heat is killing me, van life is not good in 109 degree heat ! That’s 109 degrees inside the van, the same as outside except that the van does not cool down when the sun goes down. All the ceiling and wall insulation I added is holding the heat in, which might be okay in a cold environment ? The ceiling fan is also mostly useless, the only thing that really works is opening all the doors and windows when there is a breeze blowing and that isn’t always possible, or safe in a place like El Paso. AC would be nice, but I enjoy the rugged “old school” look of the cargo van. This van dwelling life style is not for sissies !
In this same vein, I also visited the Museum of Art, enjoying the art and the air conditioning equally.
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| Indigenous bowls are art too |
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| Hard to imagine how they did such amazing designs |
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| I'm sure lofty thoughts are involved |
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Enough of El Paso, I depart on route 10 east but soon exit onto route 20 for a more country route going through old Mexican towns, pecan groves and farm fields. I am amazed at the network of irrigation canals in this area and the amount of water, agriculture is everywhere in this valley !
https://smartlivinglc.com/agriculture-in-the-mesilla-valley/
Heading east out of El Paso, In always detour through the small Texas towns of Sierra Blanca and Van Horn. I find Sierra Blanca especially interesting, but sadly as deteriorated as ever. I am sometimes OK with that as I wouldn’t like to see a corporate group come in and buy everything up and restore it into a western theme park. I just would like to see the current owners stabilize these buildings with even temporary repairs to the roof, doors and windows to prevent complete decay of these historic buildings. I was impressed in Silver City, Montana by a very wealthy man who basically spent his personal fortune to buy up properties, virtually the entire town and stabilized the buildings, leaving them in a mostly original condition rather than doing complete restorations.
I am heading to Pecos, Texas the stuff of western legend, but all I see is oil rigs, big pickup trucks, storage tank and pipelines. Actually when I get into the center of Pecas, there are a couple of blocks where the flavor of the old town shows through barely. The old Orient Hotel has been restored and is now the West of the Pecos Museum and across the street is the old Texas and Pacific railroad depot which is now the chamber of commerce. It was sad to see the old photos in the museum of the downtown in decades past when it looked so vibrant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecos,_Texas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecos_County,_Texas
Pecos claims to be the home of the very first rodeo, but I wonder how many other Texas towns dispute that claim. The rodeo remains a bid deal here, they have a huge impressive rodeo arena, but I wonder how many local ranchers or rodeo riders are left here. Pecos also claims to have the best tasting cantaloups, but I see no farms in this area, nothing but oil rigs, storage tanks and pipelines. I had to settle for the cantaloup jellybeans from the gift shop.
I ride out of Pecos on route 20 to Fort Stockton where 1st stop is the visitors center, a very nicely restored old train depot. Fort Stockton was situated here because of the reliable water source which had been used by the Indians for centuries before the coming of the white man. The early white settlers decided it was a good place for a town and the railroad followed shortly after. There is a dried up section of the original creek adjacent to the visitor center, the water stopped running decades ago as the water table was lowered by farm irrigation A sign indicated that there is limited flow returns during the winter when irrigation is stopped. It’s ironic that the very thing that made this a good townsite; has been virtually killed by the town.
The military post, Fort Stockton was built here, also because of the water and to control the “Indian Problem”, as you can’t have those irresponsible nomads interfering with the white mans manifest destiny. It’s also interesting how the US Army attracted recently freed black slaves to join these all black army outfits in the west to deal with the Indian problem. These troops were called “Buffalo Solders” by the Indians because of their appearance and courage, the name was a considered a compliment. I understand that these freed slaves needed work, any work, but I wonder how they felt about sort of enslaving another race of people, it’s not a comfortable topic. I didn’t visit Fort Stockton, I’m not into the military stuff, but I read that the commanding officer treated the black soldiers very well and was much liked.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Stockton,_Texas
There is an excellent museum in Fort Stockton, the Annie Riggs Museum. It chronicles the pioneer life of a strong woman, Annie Riggs, who overcame much strife in her life. The museum is housed in a remarkable original adobe building adjacent to the Fort Robinson. Across the road is a nice wine tasting establishment to partake after the museum. I had a good Mexican meal at Mi Casita, their sauces were created by grandfather Eliborio Pena, that sounds as authentic as you can get.
I next travel east on route 10 to an exit for route 190 for the town of Irran, which is sort of surrounded by a huge oil field. In the early 1900’s no one believed there was oil here, except for rancher Ira Gates. He had lived a hard life with many ups and downs and at a particularly desperate time decided to drill for oil. In 1926, the first well was a gusher which quickly drew many here to join in on the bonanza. It is the the 3rd most productive oil field in the US. The town name is a contraction of Ira's first name and that of his wife Ann. There is a small town park with a Dino monument and the side story concerning the Alley Top comic strip created by V.T. Hamlin, based on the geology of his area that is responsible for the rich oil deposits.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraan,_Texas
I exit route 10 for a side exploration on route 290, which follows the route of the “Chihuahua Trail” past Fort Lancaster and across a full flowing Pecos River (Quite a thrill to see running water). I stopped for lunch at a scenic picnic spot overlooking the valley. This road was a well traveled path of various Indian tribes for many centuries, the Spanish explorers, gold miners to California and the US Army when it became known as the Government Road.
Next stop was Ozona which I remember from my cross country trip from Hightstown, NJ to Tucson, AZ, in my 1938 Dodge in 2019. There are several nice historic buildings to admire, but no much else.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozona,_Texas
Last stop for this week is Sonora, Texas which is has a small downtown shopping area and very nice downtown core, but kind of lacking for restaurants, night life and entertainment. I ended up staying overnight at the truck stop which seemed to be happening spot in town.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonora,_Texas
Next stop will be Kerrville, Texas in the heart of Texas hill country, Slick
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