As we drove west last night out of Las Cruces, we contemplated making the long drive all the way into Arizona and settle somewhere in Tucson. That would have been a really long trek and we would be missing a stretch of I-10 that we have not explored much in the past. We decided to stop at the town of Deming, New Mexico for dinner and stay the night at the Wal-Mart.
We finally made our way across Texas last night and landed in a Wal-Mart in Las Cruces, New Mexico. We have not been back here since near the beginning of our trip in 2010.
Our third day at El Cosmico is our last as we packed up our site and prepared to head back out on the road. We have a handful of places we still want to check out in town but we will do that on our way out.
Marfa is quite an amazing place to be this time of year. Something is different about the high desert in West Texas. We are only sitting at 4,600 ft in elevation but the lightness of the air and the special hue of blue in the sky makes you feel like you are much closer to outer space.
Our ordeal with the Texas Highway Patrol last night left me pretty riled and unable to sleep well for the rest of the night. If you don’t know what I am referring to, go read the end of this post and you will know what happened.
Last night we spent our first night at a Texas rest stop. Most, if not all, of the roadside rest stops in Texas allow at 24-hour stay. It stems back to the depression era when people were moving west to look for work and needed a place to camp for the night.
After our excursion in Austin yesterday, we actually found a Wal-Mart near the city that allowed overnight parking. At first glance, you wouldn’t think they would allow it because it is a smaller store. After we asked the manager inside, they gave us permission as long as we park in a designated area which we happily obliged.
Last night after we left Houston, we started to make our way towards Austin, Texas. At the town of Bastrop, 35 miles east of Austin, we passed the midway point of Ventura, CA and Key West Florida. We are now officially closer to where we started back in July 2012 than Hemingway’s polydactyl cats.
This morning Luka found a new past time in the Airstream. He found the toilet paper roll and decided that it was fun to unreel the entire roll on to the floor of the bathroom. Our sweet little boy is slowing turning into a little devil.
From New Iberia, Avery Island is just a few short miles away. Since our only purpose to come down here is to see Avery Island, we headed straight there as we got ready in the morning.
We wish we can stay longer here but because of the Super Bowl, this weekend is completely booked. Well, the fact that half of the campground was not open due to construction did contribute a bit to that I suppose. We talked to one of the grounds person here and he told us that 9 times out of ten, a request to dry camp there would not be a problem. We thought about it but decided to just push on. Even though we still have about a month left before we need to be back in CA, we like the idea of getting closer before slowing down.
Today the clouds dissipated and left us with pools of water once again in the low lying areas around the campground. Our stay here has been a little disappointing as many of the reasons why we liked this place last time were not quite the same. The facilities all seem a lot more run down than we remembered. Half of the campground was closed and slow internet has prevented me from getting a lot of work done.
