Juarez, Mexico

Hail to the Redskins!  It's going to be hard not to gloat about the win while we are in Texas.

We walk across the Santa Fe bridge into Juarez, Mexico.  Juarez is the fastest growing city in Mexico with 1.2 million people.  It's also the most violent with over one murder a day.  The police wear all black and cover their faces with a mask.  Of course they all have automatic rifles around their neck

We tour their outdoor market and barter for unneeded merchandise.  It's only on the way back that I realize we are the only gringos I've seen today. The trip back through customs this time is very short.

Town Center

Beautiful church in Juarez

Peggy standing in the market

Mitch standing in the market

Leaving Juarez, Mexico

El Paso, TX

After an I-Hop breakfast we drive to El Paso where we take another RV site so we can watch the Redskins play the Cowboys tonight.  We stop at an old Butterfield Stage depot at the foot of the Guadalupe Mountains.

Carlsbad Caverns, NM

We return to Carlsbad Caverns.  After a short briefing by a park ranger we descend the winding trail into the huge natural entrance of the cave.  After a mile and a quarter we arrive at the rest area.  There are rest rooms and a cafeteria.  Here we meet a ranger for our guided tour through the "Kings Palace."  Peggy volunteers to be a "junior ranger" and takes up the end of the line.  This one mile trail goes through the Green Lake Room, the Queen's Chamber and the Papoose Room.  We are treated to beautiful formations that were created drop by drop beginning about 500,000 years ago.  Most of the Mexican free-tail bats have migrated to Central America.  So far they show no signs of the white-nose syndrome.

Peggy chooses to hike back out through the natural entrance while I take the elevator up 850 feet.  We travel to the city of Carlsbad for supper and RV site.

Walkway down to the natural entrance

Mitch at the natural entrance

Yes, it is paved the entire way

Whales Mouth, draperies and flowstone

Green Lake Room

Green Lake Room

More formations in the Green Lake Room

Column

Kings Palace

Papoose Room

Ceiling of Papoose Room

Queens Chamber

Mitch posing in the cavern

Green Lake, drip pool with a depth of 8 feet

Another beautiful column

Carlsbad Cavern Tourist Center

An official Junior Ranger

Guadalupe Mountains National Park, TX

We head north and visit Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  El Capitan is the highest point in Texas at 8,749 feet.  There are no roads into this park.  If you want to visit any of the peaks you're 'gonna hafta' hike in.  These mountains are an ancient marine fossil reef that formed 270 million years ago in a tropical ocean that covered what is now Texas and New Mexico.  They are the native home to the Mescalero Apache.

Our next stop is Carlsbad Caverns National Park.  I visited here in 1957, before it became a National Park.  We are too late for a tour today so we buy tickets for tomorrow.  We take an RV site in White's City.

Guadalupe Mountains

El Capitan

McDonald Observatory, Ft. Davis, TX

We return to McDonald Observatory, which is located on top of Mount Locke, for the daytime program. The McDonald Observatory is owned by the University of Texas. The Observatory operates four telescopes, the Hobby-Eberly, the Harlan J. Smith, the Otto Struve and a large format imaging telescope. We get to visit two of these enormous telescopes.

We then visit the viewing site for the Marfa Mystery lights.  We don't see any, but then it's still daylight. We return to the state park for the night.

Ft. Davis, TX

It's 21 degrees this morning.  I thought we came to south Texas to escape the cold!  At least we don't have any snow.  We return to town for breakfast and then Peggy shops Ft. Davis (all of 2 shops).  We spend the afternoon touring Ft. Davis Historical Site.  This out post was named for Jefferson Davis and built on the San Antonio to El Paso road in 1854 to protect the flow of people going to southern California.  It was garrisoned with six companies of infantry until 1867 when a company of cavalry was added.  These were the famous "Buffalo Soldiers" (negro) who contended with the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche and Apache natives who were trying to protect their homeland.

We visit the McDonald Observatory for a night program.  We get to look at Jupiter and the moon through high power telescopes.

Ft. Davis Court House

Ft. Davis Historical Site

Inside the barracks of the Buffalo Soldiers

Adobe and stone ruins inside the fort

Restoration in progress

Restored Ft. Davis Hospital

Ft. Davis Officers Quarters

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas.  All the dogs get new toys and Peggy and I get to celebrate another Christmas in a new place.  Actually we move to Mt. Davis State Park where we tour the Skyline Drive and explore the park.  We take one of their RV sites which even has cable!

Merry Christmas to our 12 year old boy, Cache la Poudre

Merry Christmas to our 3 year old girl, Sky Blue

Merry Christmas to our 6 year old girl, Dixie

Here is an oxymoron, old structure, new technology

Old stone pavilion on the Skyline in Mt. Davis State Park

Presido to Marfa, TX

We visit Fort Leaton which was a fortified trading post from 1854 until the early 1920's.  It is now a state historic site.

We resupply and refuel and head for Marfa.  This brings us out of the Rio Grande basin and onto the Chihuahua Desert.  In Marfa Peggy visits Wild and Woollies, a knitting store for a new set of needles.  We take an RV site in Ft. Davis.

Ft. Leaton

Mitch's curiosity as to what's behind those doors?

Replica of large cart used back in 1854

Inside Ft. Leaton

The fort was made up of adobe bricks

Restored room
 

Adobe remains of the town