We started out on I-10 after fueling at the Flying J, with our destination as either Van Horn (beep-beep) or Fort Stockton. As we traveled, we decided to hit a rest area for a few minutes walkabout, and encountered this really interesting rig traveling along I-10 with us.

Zainab and Domi, Traveling across the US in Herbie their Love Bug

These are Zainab and Dominik, from Austria, who are on a world tour, traveling with Herbie, their Love Bug and trailer. They tell me that they entered the US at Long Beach, and have been traveling east. Not sure where they are going or what their plans are, but I was pleased to meet up with them. Googling Zainab and Domi produced an article. It’s mostly in German, but there are more photos and a few paragraphs in English. The article tells us that it’s a 1963 Beetle, and a 1986 Qek Caravan, from the GDR — East Germany! The article is interesting, and pumped into Google Translate, reads very well. That night, at a Gas Station in Fort Stockton, I saw Domi and Zainab drive by. Not sure where they spent the night.

Domi and Zainab, if you read this, please leave us a comment and let us know how you are doing.

Sure is rural out here

I took this photo from the rest area as well. Trying to capture the sense of desolation. It’s not really that bad. Most of this land is in use. I’m told that ranchers can graze ten head of cattle on a section (one square mile) of land. Lots of times, we’d see signs of industry or agriculture in the distance, and of course, there were the ubiquitous railroad tracks and power lines. You never really felt alone — just out in a place where there’s more land than land-use.

We weren’t hungry in Van Horn, so we bought fuel and continued on to Fort Stockton. Arriving at about 3 PM, we hit McDonalds for lunch and decided we were done. We booked into the Comanche Lands RV Park, a field of white gravel and rocks carved into rows of RV sites with 30 or 50 Amp service, water, sewer and cable TV. This is our first Cable TV since we were on the road, and we’ve enjoyed some Syfy and other channels not seen on broadcast TV.

I took a ride into town for groceries, and happened upon a static display of a pair of Santa Fe cabooses (cabeese?) at the Depot, which is now the Chamber of Commerce office. Photos:

We passed a quiet night near the freeway, and will continue on tomorrow.

On our way back, we stopped at the U.S. Border Patrol Museum. Depending on your politics, you might have differing views of the Border Patrol, but it’s important to remember that lawmaking and law enforcement are two different things.  I decided to consider the Border Patrol as a valued part of the forces that protect ME.

The museum shows the history, both early and late, of the Border Patrol, through displays of confiscated items, enforcement equipment, photos and documents. We learned that the Border Patrol is 85 years old. It was originally part of the Department of Labor, later the Department of Justice, and now part of Homeland Security. Until 9/11, it was underfunded and under-respected.

Although most folks think of the Border Patrol as spending all their time sending Mexican border-crossers back where they came from, the main stated goal is the prevention of the entry of terrorists and their equipment and weapons.

I’ve also encountered the Border Patrol several times, as they run inspection stations along the freeway. In all cases, they asked me one question: “US Citizen?” When I replied, “yes”, I was waved through. The curator of the museum is the wife of a former Border Patrol agent, the man who developed their K-9 program. According to the curator, there are working dogs at the checkpoints who will alert to things that no human can detect. One never sees them, but they are there.

We really enjoyed the visit. Photos follow.

There’s a certain something to one’s first night spent in one’s new home state. We’ve stated that we are becoming Texas residents and on Monday we moved our trailer from Las Cruces to El Paso. We would have gotten our license plates, but Texas requires that you do that in your home county, so we’re unable, until we get to Polk County, where Livingston is located.

Although most of my time is taken up with work, I’ve been able to look around a bit. On Tuesday morning, I drive north on the “Caesar Chavez Border Highway” which is TXLoop  375. As I was driving west, the border fence could clearly be seen immediately adjacent to the freeway. Beyond is the Rio Grande and beyond that, the city of Juarez.  As I came into the downtown area, I passed under a large pedestrian/vehicle bridge that stretched from Juarez over the Rio Grande, over the highway, and into the US Border facility. It was about 8 AM, and the bridge was packed wall to wall with people, waiting their turn to enter the US.

We’re parked at the Mission Trail Mobile Home and RV Park, which islocated in the south end of town. The surroundings are noticeably Hispanic, which, for us, translates to good food. The park description made me a bit nervous, but it got good reviews, and when I got there, it proved to be a fine choice. Clean as a whistle. Nighttime security. about 15 RV sites, plus a bunch of single-wide mobile homes. I’d stay here again.

Yesterday, I had a knock on the door, and a man asked for my help. His front 5th wheel trailer jack was sinking into the mud, and he had no way to move it. I took my truck and towed him about a foot forward, provided a few blocks, told him how to level his rig, etc. His name is Eduardo, and I told him that two Eds were better than one. He needs a web site done, and he sells something I want, so we may find a more lasting relationship.

Also, yesterday, I drove up to the main post office at the airport, and, surprise, found my General Delivery mail waiting for me. So the second mailing took three days, while the first was still missing in action after ten.

Included in the package was a used Jawbone II headset. I was hoping it would satisfy me as much as my Jawbone 1, but it is disappointing. It won’t stay properly on the ear. A friend who works there suggests ordering their new earpiece, and I will. I also ordered a Blue Parrot headset. We’ll see how that does.

Today I got a call from the lady at the Las Cruces Post Office, and my missing-in-action package has arrived, so tomorrow we’ll be driving back to Las Cruces to get it. We’ll also try to eat at La Posta De Mesilla restaurant, as recommended by Angelle Le Marche in a previous comment.

We’ll be here till next Monday, then on to San Antonio. We have an alternate plan that, while out of the way, might be really cool. No comment until it’s decided or discarded.

The Space History museum was very good. One starts by taking the elevator to the fourth floor. Then one descends by ramps through three more floors of exhibits, ending back at the ground floor and gift shop.

We saw many models of spacecraft, artifacts of various kinds, including flags that went to the moon, flight suits, and the rather ubiquitous moon rock.

One outstanding feature is the “International Space Hall of Fame.” The inductees range from astronauts and scientists, both modern and ancient to NASA officials, whose names will be familiar to anyone who watched the various US space shots of the 60s and 70s. The earliest inductee, as near as I can tell, is Hipparchus, followed by Sir Isaac Newton. It was fun to identify folks I recognized and learn about those of whom I had never heard.

On our way back, we stopped at the White Sands National Monument. Though we didn’t leave the visitor center area, we got the sense of the place, and saw a bit of the crushed gypsum that makes up the white sands of the area. Since the sand is crushed gypsum, rather than quartz, it does not heat up in the sun, and it’s possible to sled on the dunes!

There is a museum and “Missile Park” associated with the White Sands Missile Range, but we were tired, and did not stop.

All in all, a great day.

This morning, I went to Shul at Chabad of El Paso. Rabbi Greenberg has a fine Chabad House going. Had a good service, got called to the Torah, and we had a fine kiddush afterwards.

Returning home permitted a nice Shabbat nap.

We went out to dinner at Pullaro’s Italian Restaurant. It was very nice.

Monday we are moving on to El Paso.

The ride along I-10 for the past day or so has been pretty dreary. Lots of open space, very little development between towns. Occasionally there is a store for tourists, usually preceded by 20 miles of billboards. New Mexico allows the sale of fireworks, but so far, I’ve resisted.

We were expecting mail at General Delivery, but the package was not there yet. A necessary evil of traveling and relying on mail forwarding. We booked into the Elks Lodge for the night, and possibly the weekend. I need to do some work, so we were not planning on traveling at all until mid-next week. Whether we stayed in Las Cruces or El Paso was an open question. Until I visit the post office, it remains open.

After the post office debacle, and a good lunch (love those green chili peppers) we booked into the Elks Lodge and then hit the Las Cruces Railroad Museum. The museum, I’m sorry to say, is pretty basic. The highlight is the two HO layouts. I have some photos, which will be added to this posting in the next few days.

We’ve reached quite a milestone. When we get to El Paso, either tomorrow or next week, we will have come more than half the distance from Los Angeles to Livingston, Texas.

Here are some stats:

• We’ve been on the road for ten days.
• We’ve traveled for six of those days, and stayed put for four of them. A few travel days were very short.
• We have stayed in two commercial campgrounds and four Elks Lodges.
• Our average cost per night is $23.70, compared with our budge of $20/night.  We need eight nights at $15/night to get under our budgetary average.
• I don’t have fuel figures handy, but we seem to be averaging 12 mpg.

We plan to stay in either Las Cruces or El Paso until about Wednesday of next week.

Lordsburg had an interesting reputation. If you got your info from reading traveler reviews, you would get the impression that driving by without stopping was the correct approach. I refused. I said that there must be a redeeming feature. In fact, I thought the place was delightful. They had a nice downtown, friendly people, and a good lunch at Kranberry’s Restaurant. The KOA Kampground seems to have a bad rep, and we didn’t visit it, but on the west end of town we spied a gravel field with hookups and a sign saying $20/night. This does not seem to be in any of the books or web sites.

On to Deming. We had stopped at the tourist info booth at the Lordsburg rest area and picked up a brochure for the Deming Luna Mimbres Museum. Built in the old Armory, this is a definite must-see, with collections of dolls, antique vehicles, military memorabilia, art, china, silver and household effects. It’s associated with the Customs House on the other side of the street, which contains an exhibit of the use of the building as a Port of Entry from 1852 to 1900 (or so.) The rest of the house is dedicated to showing antiques and artifacts of earlier times. All well worth seeing. Note, you’re standing in the middle of history. All this is part of the Gadsden Purchase.

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We’re camped at the Dream Catcher RV Park, run by the Escapees organization, of which we’re members. I met a family in the rec room that is traveling to Carlsbad with their children. They’re full-time on the road, and homeschooling. I recommended that school be in session at the museum tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow we’ll go get our mail in Las Cruces, and overnight, either there or in El Paso, Texas!

It was a frustrating day driving, with some road work, some mistakes, like getting stuck in an outlet mall instead of finding a freeway entrance, etc. I need to learn to take things easier.

Since this was a travel day, here’s a chance for me to share a photo of our home, rigged for travel:

Here's a shot of our rig, bicycle, truck and trailer and barely visible spouse, ready to hit the road.

]]> http://www.greenberg.org/archives/389/feed 2 http://www.greenberg.org/archives/337 http://www.greenberg.org/archives/337#comments Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:16:56 +0000 Ed http://www.greenberg.org/?p=337 Today is Purim, the Jewish holiday celebrating the events of the Book of Esther.  There are four mitzvot associated with Purim:

• Hear the reading of the Megillah — The Book of Esther.
• Give Charity
• Give gifts of food
• Eat, Drink and be Merry (I like this one :)

This is the second year that we’ve attended a Megillah reading at a Chabad while traveling. The first was two years ago, in Las Vegas.

We are in Mesa, Arizona, and we attended at the Chabad of Mesa, located in the home of Rabbi and Mrs. Blotner. The Rabbi and his wife were quite busy, so I didn’t get to talk to him much. I think they got about 50 people that evening.  Rabbi Blotner was in costume, a Chinese Food takeout container. A photo of him without the Megilla is in the album shown below. The large photo here is of the Rabbi holding the Megilla open to be seen. It’s a parchment scroll, made similarly to the Torah Scroll. There are five megillot. Esther is one, Ruth is another. Also, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. Each is read on a particular Jewish holy day.

We got started at about 8. The event was called for 7:30, so it started on-time, as measured by Chabad time :) Seriously though, the Rabbi chose to wait for several folks to show up who had been instrumental in putting the event on. Not only was there a Megillah Reading, but also a Chinese dinner and music.  The problem is that Chabad can’t go down to the Golden Wok down the road and get their Chinese food. This dinner was strictly kosher, and was prepared by volunteers. The food was fabulous. There was also a band, on guitar, mandolin, hammered dulcimer, recorder and drums. Jewish melodies were played, food was served, the kids played basketball. There was also a juggler.

The whole event was marvelous. I was made most welcome, had a fine time, and would love to get to know Rabbi and Mrs. Blotner better.