Small Home – Big Yard

NRA Whittington Center

Good morning from Raton, NM. We are camped at a somewhat unlikely, but beautiful location in the National Rifle Association’s Whittington Center just south of Raton. Located on 33,000 acres in northern New Mexico, the center boasts the most complete shooting facility in the nation. And, they offer their primitive campsites, full-hookup RV sites and rustic cabins to the general public.

We’re in the East campground where all the sites are arranged around a central building with restrooms, showers and laundry facilities. Most of the sites are arranged in rows except for two outer sites, #35 & #36 that offer more privacy and great views off the top of the bluff. We’re in site #35 with beautiful views of the nearby foothills, the valley below and the mesas and volcano mounds to the east. Sunrise over the mesas was beautiful this morning. After experiencing our share of noisy, city RV sites, this location is a complete contrast. The only lighting in the campground was around the central building last night making for a beautiful starry, clear night. The temperature dropped to about 30 degrees last night, so the furnace ran occasionally. This morning, the only sounds we heard were birds in the trees.

We’ll have some breakfast, pack up and head north on I-25 today for the short drive home. It’s been a great trip – things have worked very well with the camper and truck. We are still working out the kinks in our arrive/depart check-list. Yesterday when leaving Lubbock we needed to move the truck slightly to reach the gray-water dump. This one additional task seemed to throw off all the others – we forgot to lock the refrigerator, an overhead light was left on, and the propane wasn’t turned off. So, it seems even with a lot of practice in the last 2 weeks, we still don’t have everything down “just right”. But, hopefully with lots more practice this summer, we’ll become experts.

Thanks for reading about the Texas Road Trip 2010 – it’s been fun sharing and documenting our adventures.

1st Leg of the Return Trip

We’re back on the road! We’ve departed Harlingen and the Rio Grande valley headed north. It’s been a great time with friends and family, a fun trip across the border, a day at the beach on South Padre Island, a relaxing afternoon at Pepe’s on the River and other activities. As usual, there wasn’t time to do it all, but we’ve been away from home and work for over 2 weeks now and it’s time to get back to reality.

This morning in Harlingen dawns bright, clear and relatively low in humidity. We’re on the road by 10am, headed toward San Antonio and beyond to Kerrville for our first night. Our return will be more direct than the route down, instead of cutting across southern New Mexico, we’ll head directly to the Texas panhandle. We’re planning to overnight in Kerrville, Colorado City (near Abilene), and Raton, NM. On this first leg of the trip we’ll returning North to I-37 into San Antonio, then West on I-10 for about 100 miles before leaving the Interstates in favor of a more rural and direct route. In general, we’re headed for I-25 at Raton, NM. We’ll leave I-10 at Junction, TX; headed north toward Abilene, Lubbock and Amarillo. This is about the maximum distance that can be traveled across Texas, from the south eastern tip to the north western panhandle will be over 1000 miles before we leave Texas and enter New Mexico near Clayton. From there it will be a relatively short distance of only about 250 miles home.

This will be our second overnight near Kerrville. On the way down, our 2nd to last night was at Johnson Creek RV Resort. This time we’ll be stopping at By the River RV Park. Both are located to the west outside of Kerrville and both advertise either river view or riverside locations. More about By the River in a later review.

Across the bridge at Nuevo Progreso, MX

Monday we headed south of the border to the small town of Nuevo Progreso, Mexico.  This tourist town is right across the international bridge about halfway between Harlingen and McAllen, Texas.  As a testament to the expensive health care in the US, the majority of the shops along the main street are pharmacies and dental offices.  Mixed in are large department-style stores stocking everything from tequila to Mexican pottery and small street corner vendors selling roasted almonds, strings of garlic, jewelry, DVD’s (I’m sure they are legal copies) and blankets.  And, at the “medical spa”, I saw this ad: Landfill will plump up those lips for a sensual look.  Umm..maybe a bit of a language translation issue?

A few backyard cantinas are also nearby, allowing for a quick stop for a beer in between shopping.  Our favorite of these outside cantinas is the Rose Garden, a simple backyard location with plastic tables, chairs and cheap $1 beers.  Take a seat at one of these tables, order up a cerveza and wait for the kids to arrive.  Selling everything from shoe shines to jewelry, some of these kids have a real entrepreneur spirit.  If you have an appetite for Mexican food, many of the larger stores have nice restaurants providing good local fare at affordable prices.  At the height of the tourist season, many of these places offer dance bands to entertain the winter texans.  

Our typical Mexican shopping list includes cookies and tequila.  We also make a stop at our favorite pharmacy for an annual supply of allergy medicines.  (in Mexico, a year’s supply of Claritin, a typically over-the-counter allergy medication, costs about $30 – compared to over $300 in the US).  The bridge toll into and out of Mexico is about $4 per vehicle, or $.50 if you choose to park your car on the US side and walk across.  Re-entering the US, passports are required and the state of Texas charges about  $1 tax (depending on size) for each bottle of imported liquor.

The Canada Store & Garcia's restaurant

Main Street, Nuevo Progreso

Welcome to Pepe’s On The River

Yesterday (Saturday) we joined several friends at one of our favorite restaurants in South Texas, Pepe’s on the River in Mission, TX. The open air building with a large thatched roof offers a great location for relaxing next to the Rio Grande, enjoying burgers, Mexican food, beers and margaritas.

In the afternoons the stage often has country western bands and singers that get the winter-texan crowd dancing and toe-tapping.