Good-Bye Texas, Hello New Mexico- Tuesday March 19, 2013

This morning before 9am (Central Time) we pulled out of Midessa Oil Patch RV Park in Odessa, Texas. After reading a blog a couple days ago by Nick Russell about an alternate route of travel to Las Cruces, New Mexico we decided to give it a try. I-10 swings south and then goes right up through El Paso, Texas into New Mexico. The route we took skirted along the northern border of Texas going along the Guadalupe Mountains National Park and then catching up with I-10 north of El Paso for the last 40 miles. Today like yesterday started with travels through the oil drilling areas of Texas until we started climbing the hills leading into the Guadalupe Mountains. The time changed from Central time to Mountain time so we gained another hour. We stopped at the Visitor's Center for the Guadalupe Mountains National Park and watched a short slide show about the mountains. Leaving the mountains we passed through salt flats. Salt Flat Cafe had been pointed out to us at the Visitor's Center as a place we could get lunch. After nearly passing the cafe we did stop and had a lunch of burgers that were very good. The last leg of the route getting us to I-10 north of El Paso had detours that caused some anxiety in both of us until, by luck, we caught up with the route we needed and knew we were on the right track. At 3:25pm (Mountain Time) we pulled into the Coachlight RV park for the night after 332 miles.. 

  The weather continues to be very pleasant with temperatures in the 70's during the day and dropping down in the 50/60's at night.