Sand Sun And Spas

When last I wrote we were looking at land around Cornudas, a vast wasteland of desert and cactus with no water to be found on or below that dry land. Our travels took us east down Interstate 10.

We found a wonderful State Park just outside the town of Balmorhea. It was advertised as an Oasis in the Desert and was famous for its spring water that stayed at a temperature of 72 degrees year round. The State Park had a wonderful pool built, that was filled with the spring water. They also had fish, ducks and turtles swimming in the water. We stopped for the day, packing a picnic lunch, and enjoyed the great spring fed water.

After a day of picnicing and swimming we discovered the hot showers in the change room. That was almost better than the spring water. Ward and I both took an extra long time in the showers. After bird baths for the past few months the shower was an amazing treat that we both enjoyed very much.

The next day we took a motorcycle ride down to Fort Davis which included a scenic loop around the town and past the McDonald Observatory. We were told about the roads by a few people we had encountered along the way, and the roads did not disappoint us. They took us through the mountains and along some very twisty roads.

The trip took several hours, and neither Ward nor I were used to being on the Sportster for that long of a time, and we were both suffering a bit near the end. We stopped periodically at picnic areas along the way, giving our bodies a rest and replenishing fluids lost from the heat. We also stopped in at the McDonald Observatory along the route.

We were too late for any of the daily tours and too early for a nightly star show, but we were able to go up to one of the Observatories and have a look at the telescope.

Then we were off again, twisting our way down the road and through the mountains. At our last rest stop another motorcycle pulled in. The fellow came over and introduced himself. It turned out he was from Pecos, the same town we were staying in. He gave us his phone number and said to call him if we needed anything. Everyone in Texas is just so friendly. The trip ended up being about 200 miles round trip for the day, but worth the pain to ride those twisty roads.

While in the town of Pecos we drove over to the museum and found a replica of Judge Roy Bean's establishment. He was the law west of the Pecos River.

After leaving Pecos we headed to the town of Pyote and down another Farm to Market road to check out some more cheap land. This time it was 5 acres of desert scrub for $2200. Taxes would be $50 per year, but they had not been paid since '09. We found the land that was advertised. There was access from the farm road onto the section, but no roads on the section itself.

This adventure took us to another county courthouse, and led to another conversation with county clerks. We were shown the plat map for the piece of land advertised. It seemed fairly legitimate. I asked if there were any restrictions on the land and was told there were none. We could basically do whatever we wanted there and would not be bothered. I asked if I could get a deed for the 5 acre lot. The clerk said the lots would have to be at least 5.5 acres. That meant 2 lots would have to be purchased, not just one. I asked about the taxes owing on the land. I was directed to the offices across the hall. At the tax assessment office I found the taxes were fully paid. I also found they were only $28 per year, and the land was also only worth $300 an acre. Interesting. After getting all the information I could from the courthouse I sent an email to the person selling the land. I asked about actual road access to the lot, which was 1/2 mile from the road. I also asked if he would consider a lower price, considering the value of the land (according to the tax assessment). My emails sent have so far been unanswered. Either the person does not want to sell the land anymore, or he simply prefers to sell to those who don't know what they are buying. No worries though, we are enjoying the treks down country roads and conversations at county courthouses. This is all adding to the experiences we are having as we travel through Texas.

A few miles down the road we found another state park. This time it was Monahans Sandhills State Park. You could surf the dunes on rented metal discs. Unfortunately, the park headquarters were just closing when we arrived and one could not rent one of the metal discs so late in the day. I should have brought my own sliding device to surf the dunes. I tried to just slide down the dune on my butt. That didn't work. I didn't really move. If I tried pushing myself down the sand dune I would go more into it than down it. But I tried.

After playing on the dunes for a while we found the building with the showers. Oh ya!! Another long hot shower. I just love these State Parks. I'm glad I bought the season pass back at Palo Duro Canyon. It's come in quite handy.

There are many State Parks to discover in Texas. I am sure we can steer our way toward several of more them.

More interesting photos found along the way:

ruins inside old school house at Kent, Texas

Fort Davis State Park Ruins

Dry Riverbed at one of the rest stops along Ft Davis loop

Shadows on the dunes at Monahans Sandhills State Park

 

 

 

Pool Party in Cornudas, Bring Sunscreen

I have been looking for cheap American land for years. There are lots of companies that sell land and there are lots of "too good to be true" properties out there as well. My latest favorite on-line real estate site is landsoftexas.com. Each state seems to have a lands of dot com site, and I have been browsing a lot of them: landsofArizona, landsofNewMexico, Colorodo, Nevada, California, you name it. But Texas has a little town called Salt Flat. It is in the Big Bend area of the State, which is still "wild west"-ish and desert country.

Salt Flat was once a thriving salt mining town about a hundred years ago or so, but now has a single struggling cafe run by a woman named Shirley. It is situated a few miles from another unincorporated town called Cornudas. That is where we found our dream land. It was a small city lot sized piece of land for the small price of $400. The location was not land locked, meaning there would be road access to it, and there were no restrictions on the land, no time limits to build, and an RV could be parked on it. The only catch is that there was no water or electric to the site. One would have to put in a septic system and their own well once they decided to build. Sounded good to me, and a trip to the Salt Flat Cafe was an adventure my husband and I were both into.

We wanted to know what was up with the land and what the "catch" really was. It was an excuse for a destination, and we were headed to our dream land with eyes wide open.

Our adventure began in Carlsbad, New Mexico. That was the last real town before heading deep in the heart of desert country. We stocked up on drinking water, water for washing and cleaning, food and gas. I checked on nearby towns to see where food, gas and water could be obtained. Then we were off.

The drive through the Guadalupe Mountains provided great views.

The desert area that followed was quite nice as well. Then we came across Salt Lake, and the name says it all. It was a dry white salt bed with no water to be found anywhere near.

We did see a few cows grazing in the cactus filled rolling hills just past Salt Lake on the outskirts of unincorporated Salt Flat, Texas. Then we saw it, the cafe we read about on the internet. Of course we had to stop and have a meal.

After we finished our meal we chatted with Shirley a while. The conversation moved to the topic of land for sale in the area. We were warned about various scams and told stories of people who purchased. She said the land was purchased from a Rancher in the area, but not paid for, and the seller was getting money from people who were not able to get deeds to the property. We were told about one person who put a well in on their property. They had to go down 1600 feet and were only getting one gallon of water per hour from the well. She cautioned us to be careful.

 

 

 

We went further down the road, to the town of Cornudas, and followed the directions to our possible plot of land. The directions said to turn South on FM 2317 from Hwy 62 and drive 4 miles. The La Hacienda Estates was there on the west side of the road. Well, 4 miles took us to the top of a hill with no signs or break in the fence. There was just a lot of desert and cactus.

We finished our scenic drive down FM2317, then turned onto FM 1111 to loop back to Hwy 62. Our next step was to go into May's Cafe in Cornudas and see what she had to say. Oh sure there is land, she said. In fact she showed us a spot for sale, complete with a well. There was a mobile home on it, and it came complete with furniture, and food. It was only $23,900. I said thanks, but was more interested in the plots of land that were 10 acres, 5 acres and the ones that were advertised for $400 for 1/5 of an acre. We were told no land could be sold for under 10 acres, it was against the law. When I asked about people getting deeds to the land, of course they were getting deeds. I asked about the 1/5 of an acre lots that were being sold, which I found listed on the internet. May said "oh that Michael", but said nothing else. We thanked her for the information and headed out.

We knew the land was a scam, but the weather was great, and we had plenty of supplies to keep us going. Hwy 62 was a well travelled road that led to El Paso and had picnic areas along the way. We spent some time in those picnic areas enjoying the desert view.

A few days later we stopped in at the county courthouse in Sierra Blanca to see what they had to say about the land. Oh, and I sent the fellow selling the property an email. I said I followed his directions and found nothing except desert and fence. I asked if there was a road to the property, a sign, or any indication of where the land was. He told me to go to the courthouse and ask for the plat maps on the property, nothing more.

The folks at the county courthouse were quite friendly. They also had a sense of humor regarding the land we were referring to, or I think they did by the way they laughed when it was mentioned. We were told to go to the main office in the courthouse and ask for Virginia Doyal, and that is what we did.

Virginia had another lady at the courthouse look up the two plat maps of La Hacienda Estates, and we all had a look at them together. She asked who was selling the land. When I mentioned Kent Taylor's name, she laughed. Apparently she has had dealings with this man, a lot of dealings. She said he was not a nice man, and often swore at her on the phone, referring to her as Virginia - dot - Doyal, which is part of her email address. He didn't like the way the courthouse refused to process the land sales, and how she would tell people the lots could not be sold in sizes lower than 10 acres unless they had water and electricity on them. She may have even told people that there was no water available, even if you tried to put a well in on your property. We chatted for a long time with Virginia as we looked over the maps. I said there was no road into the Estate, not even access from the road or a break in the fence. She was not at all surprised. Then we saw it. There was a pool and recreation area marked on the plat map. We all burst out laughing. How could there possibly be a pool in the middle of a dry desert! And when I looked for the lot number that was being sold on the internet, it was at the far west side of the La Hacienda Estates. That just would not do. I asked Virginia what would happen if we purchased one of the lots. We knew there was no water, and we were pretty certain nobody else would purchase any or move onto the land as there was nothing there. She said we would not get a deed, but nobody would bother us if we parked the RV there. We would have a document showing we paid for a lot, and we would be left alone. The only problem would be if we had to put in road access, that would come out of our pocket. Virginia asked if she could come visit and use the pool, and we told her she would always have a spot waiting for her, just as soon as the pool went in. We thanked her for her time and said we would say hello from her when we emailed Kent Taylor.

I fired off an email to our new best friend Kent and asked if I could have a lot by the pool. There have been several emails back and forth, with Kent offering sites for sale, and me requesting a lot pool side. I also asked when he expects the pool to be completed. I don't have an answer on that yet, and don't think I ever will.

The sad thing about these land deals in the area are that some people purchase the land, spending thousands of dollars for their dream acreages and come out to find bleak, dry desert land. One fellow who had just left his wife, purchased land with his life savings and drove out to the area to find such huge disappointment that he put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

We came down to the Big Bend area of Texas because we were curious, and we read about Salt Flat, Texas on the internet. This was an adventure for us, with the added bonus of a land investigation to keep it interesting.

Pool party at Rae's Place, just as soon as Kent builds it for us!!

Winds Are Coming From The North West East, Say What?

Doppler Dan the weather man has been giving us weather reports since we pulled in to Amarillo. He talked about the weather coming from the north, bringing cold weather. Doppler Dan showed how hotter fronts from the south would be overtaken by the colder fronts. That was on the weekend when temperatures dropped to freezing at night. Then he showed how the area would be getting warmer weather as the Indian Summer moved in. Then on Wednesday we saw a cold front coming down from the north. Doppler Dan said there was rain coming in from the west coast area that would likely hit on Thursday and bring thunder storms on both Thursday and Friday. Then he mentioned another bout of weather coming in off the Gulf of Mexico. Great, three weather systems dropping in to the area all at the same time. There was talk of severe weather, possibility of large hail and tornados. I checked the weather.com website and saw Lubbock was on the outside edge of the severe weather, so that was enough to send us south. Well, after we dropped by the Historic Route 66 District of Amarillo.

We drove through the area, then decided to stop and look check out some of the antique shops, then go for lunch at a mexican restaurant.

Then it was time to go. We left Amarillo before the weather turned bad. We got a few drops of rain on the highway to Lubbock and had to fight the wind a bit, but got there without incident. It was too late to check out the American Windpower Museum, so we stayed overnight at the Walmart in town, close to the Statue of Buddy Holly and the Walk of Fame. We would check them out the next day before going to the museum.

We were parked just one block away from the park that housed the Walk of Fame and the Buddy Holly statue. The rain stopped around noon, so we headed out to get a photo of the statue.

There was no statue, and there were no walk of fame plaques. There was just a wooden sign. The statue and the Walk of Fame plaques had been moved. They were in the Depot district, where the Buddy Holly Center Museum was located. I decided we had enough time to make a quick stop there on the way to the Windpower Museum and would still be able to get out of town before the thunderstorms were expected to hit around 6pm.

The Buddy Holly Center Museum had a huge pair of black rim glasses outside, beside their sign. Ward got his picture taken beside the glasses. Then we crossed the street to the memorial park and got our pictures taken with Buddy Holly. A tourist couple from Pennsylvania were at the statue and offered to take our picture if we would take theirs. They were in town to catch a football game at the Texas Tech. We got our picture, and took off to the Windpower Museum.

 

 

I googled the Windpower Museum so I would know how to get there. As we were getting closer you could see the windmills. It would be hard to miss this place. There were over 60 windmills outside the building.

When we got inside, the woman at the museum told us they had 100 windmills inside. Most of them were used for water. That is what made this area of Texas habitable and allowed farmers to grow crops and have livestock. There were a few windmills that generated electricity, some built as early as the late 20s. You could buy a kit for the windmill, and it came with a radio as well.

There was even a Cushman motorcycle in the museum. Why? I know, it's a windmill museum. I was kind of wondering myself when I saw the motorcycle there. But it turns out that Cushman used to be called The Easy Manufacturing Company, and used to manufacture windmills back in the 30s. Hmm, who knew!

We finished looking at all the different windmills, then left town for safer skies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was windy again, but not too bad. So we decided to get as far out of Lubbock as we could. They were expecting severe thunderstorms, large hail, and possibly tornados. And it was going to hit around 6pm. The weather.com website showed the severe weather lasting at least 2-3 days in the Lubbock area, but New Mexico was only showing severe weather for tonight. We made the decision to head toward Carlsbad down Hwy 62.

We made it to Hobbs, NM by about 5pm. I checked weather.com and there was no mention of hail or tornados. It mentioned severe thunderstorms, but the wind wasn't to go about about 15 mph. That was good enough for me. So, here we are in Hobbs. The clouds are to the North of us and we are watching the lightning off in the distance. I am not sure what weather we will get overnight, but it is not supposed to be anything more than thunderstorms.

While watching TV tonight, our program was interupted by some weather dude. Apparently there were reports of tornados touching down in the county north of Lubbock. They also got hit with hail that was 2" in diameter. I am so glad we got out of there.

It's now 10:30pm and another bout of weather is here. The thunder and lightning are all around us. The curtains are open and we are enjoying the show from our gold fish bowl. That's what we call the back area of the RV where the bed is. It is surrounded by windows, like a gold fish bowl.

Tomorrow we are headed for Carlsbad.

Palo Duro Canyon, Oh My Gosh!!

Just 25 miles south of Amarillo is the Palo Duro Canyon State Park. It is a must see. Well, that is what we were told by a cashier at the Walmart in town when we arrived on Friday. After taking the short drive there today I would have to agree. It was well worth the drive.

The weather today could not be beat. It got to 83 degrees with a light wind. It was a perfect day for a trip on the motorcycle down to the canyon. The Palo Duro Canyon State Park has an outlook a mile in from the park entrance.

 

Then the road winds down to the bottom of the canyon. There are pull overs, rest stops, and several small camping areas. If one was energetic, there are hiking trails as well as horse trails. The park also has an Amphitheatre playing "Texas".

 

 

We stopped at the outlook for some pictures and a look in the gift shop / visitor center. While there we met a guy who works for the State Park Service. We had a fairly long chat about travelling, Texas, and the State Parks. We asked about the different areas of Texas, especially the El Paso area, and were given some good local information. He is from the San Antonio area and spent a fair bit of time in and around El Paso. He mentioned the Mexican side is quite rough, and to travel with caution, but El Paso itself is quite safe, one of the safest cities in the USA. That was very good information because we were seriously considering heading south to that neck of the woods. He also recommended some great places to visit when in the area.

There is a creek running through the canyon, winding under the road several times, 6 to be exact. The water is also known to flow over the road and can get as high as 5 feet over the road. During our drive the water was flowing over 4 of the river crossings that we were able to drive over. The road was closed where the 6th crossing was because the water was too high over the road.

While looking around the amphitheatre, I noticed a bug clinging to a door. It is one of those walking stick bugs. Now that is a sign that we are in foreign territory.

It reminded me of the sign I saw at the visitor center in Amarillo that warned about rattle snakes. Careful where you walk!

After leaving the State Park we went to the town of Canyon to get some gas. We also stopped at the local grocery store for a snack. Fresh hot corn dogs and potato salad, now that's a treat. After paying for the food we sat down at some tables set up in the store by the deli section to enjoy our snacks. The corn dogs were great. After eating, Ward sparked up a conversation with the grocery manager of the store. He was sitting at one of the tables watching TV. There was a news show on, discussing the US election, and Romney's comment on cancellling Big Bird and Sesame Street. We ended up talking for quite a while about politics and our adventure in the RV. He said it was his retirement dream to just take off in the RV. We hear that from so many people. After talking with him, he said we gave him a lot of good ideas. I think we almost had him convinced to hop in his RV tonight. Maybe we will see him down the road some day.

We rolled back into the Walmart in Amarillo, past a few RVs, and over to our home, just where we left it. This Walmart has about 14 RVs every day stopping in. Some stay a few days, others pull in for an hour or two. One of the more colorful visitors to the Walmart parking lot was an old converted school bus. It was here for a day and a night. Of course Ward went over to the bus, knocked on it's door, and started a conversation with the people in the bus. It turns out they were headed to the Emerald Triangle in California. Apparently the crops are ready for harvest.

 

 

These folks were not the only ones in the lot on their way to that location. It seems there is a migration of sorts to the area when picking time arrives. We met another group when they came knocking on our door to see if we could help with some problem mechanics on their older Class C model. The issues were beyond our scope, but that did not stop the conversation.

We seem to be meeting a lot of people along the way, from all walks of life. Either in a store, in the Walmart campground, at tourist attractions, or where ever. America is a friendly place, and we are loving it.

Good Morning Amarillo, Texas

It feels like the first leg of our journey is done. We are safely in Texas, parked at the Walmart in Amarillo. Our adventure landed us here early Friday afternoon, after a short trip from Pampa, TX.

When we were in Grand Island, NE we heard the weather was going to turn bad around Thursday, so we headed south Wednesday morning. That night we stayed in Great Bend, KS. The wind had picked up during the day and our thoughts were on Dorothy and her little dog Toto. Ward asked me if Tornado season was over. I wasn't up on that sort of thing, but thought it would likely run about the same as Hurricanes, and October was no longer a threat in that area, so I thought we were fairly safe. Besides, the sky was clear. Tornados are also called funnel clouds, and there were no clouds to funnel. So again, we must be safe. We also asked the fellow working at a gas station we stopped at, and he said we were safe. He said Tornados are generally a Spring event.

I am glad we got information on Tornados from a local before we stopped at Great Bend, KS. That night the winds picked up. The motorhome was rocking and the wind was howling as temperatures dropped. Neither Ward nor I slept much that night from the rocking of the RV, the cold temperatures and the howling of the wind.

Driving down the smaller highways, you get a better feel for the areas. In Kansas a new crop appeared in the fields. I was used to corn, grains, and beans, but this was something different. The leaves looked like corn, but it was too short. And growing out of the top was a tall cone shaped flower that turned a deep red when ripe. Ward thought it might be Okra, and I had no clue at all. I tried to get a photo of the crop, but had some trouble. And you could not pull over on the highways we were on. Most of them had less than any shoulder at all and had a drop right after that painted white line. So, I stuck my camera out the window and tried to get a clear shot as we drove past. I later googled cash crops for Kansas and found it was a Milo Plant, also known as grain sorghum. Hmm, who knew!

The next morning we headed south again, changing our course so the wind was at our backs. That meant we would not stop in Dodge City, but go straight down to Buffalo, OK then angle west to Amarillo.

We stopped in Greensburg, KS to check out the world's largest hand dug well. I thought it would be a big hole in the ground, and I am all about seeing the 'cheese' of America, especially if it is free. We followed the signs and ended up going into a round building with tourist information. The lady began telling us about the well and how we could walk down inside it or go up higher and see a view of the town. She said there was 10 feet of water in the bottom. Then she mentioned the town had been hit by a Tornado in 2009, wiping out the entire town. 12 people died in the Tornado, 9 locals and 3 who were passing through. I said that would explain why all the buildings looked brand new. The entire Main Street was new. It looked like the town was just erected. After a nice chat, we started walking toward the well and were abruptly stopped. There was a fee to see it. Being the cheap tourists that we are, the world's largest hand dug well could go without our donation, and we were happy with the conversation and tourist info we got there.

While heading South in Kansas along Highway 183 I noticed the farmers were using stone pillars as fence posts. Some fields used a chiselled stone pillar for each post while others alternated between more modern metal posts and the stone pillars.

Red dirt does something to me. I love it. I remember driving through New Mexico in 2009 on our way to get married in Las Vegas. I just loved that red dirt. Well, Kansas has some too. It was near the border of Oklahoma, but it was there. Oklahomo had that red dirt as well, around the town of Buffalo. And we found it in Texas as well.

Our trek through Oklahoma was a short 85 miles. It could have been shorter if we cut through the panhandle, which is only 35 miles from top to bottom. We missed that thin panhandle by 7 miles to the east.

About an hour into Texas we came across the town of Canadian. Well, we had to stop and get a photo of the sign welcoming people to town. Ward said he wanted to stay in Canadian for the night. It was starting to get later in the afternoon, and would have been a perfect time to locate a place to stop and begin thinking about supper. But after driving down the main drag, the place did not look all that inviting. We ended up leaving town, looking for the next best place to stop. We had supper in a park in the town of Miami, Tx, then headed for Pampa, where there was a Walmart. Sometimes you just feel safer in the well lit lot of a Walmart.

The next morning we had breakfast, and headed out fairly early (before noon). It was early for us. After about an hour of driving we were at Amarillo. The city of Amarillo is officially our biggest city of the trip. It has a population of just over 200,000. The demographics are about 60% white, 30% hispanic, 6% black.

I expected Texas to have a high hispanic population and was not at all surprised with Amarillo having a 30% hispanic population. The state borders Mexico. I have seen high hispanic populations in New Mexico and Arizona in the past as well. But what really surprised me on this trip was the heavy hispanic populations appearing as far north as Nebraska. We noticed it as we drove through towns as well as seeing the different people on the streets and in the stores. The food aisles in grocery stores were stocking a large selection of flour and corn tortillas, canned goods, and hispanic brands. The meat departments had a more varied selection with beef tripe (stomach), pigs feet, and carne piccado for use in making chili. The signage was also bilingual (english/spanish).

After stopping at the Walmart in Amarillo, we caught the news. Much to our dismay we found the cold weather had followed us. The weather man showed how a low was coming in and would bring low temperatures for Saturday and Sunday. It was expected to drop to freezing, with a possibility of some snow in Kansas that could reach Texas. We got the cold temperatures, but no snow. Saturday gave us a high in the mid 40s and today was in the mid 50s. It still beats snow though. And on the bright side, Monday is looking better. They expect warm temperatures for at least 3-4 days. The bike will be coming off the rack, and we will be doing some sightseeing in and around the area.

That's it for now.

Happy Thanksgiving Canada and Winnipeg.

Another photo album for my amusement:

An old farmstead in Kansas

 

 

Oklahoma State Line

 

First rest stop inside Oklahoma

 

 

Rest Area in Oklahoma

 

Countryside in Oklahoma

Texas State Line

 

Texas Scrub Brush

 

Rolling Hills in Northern Texas

 

Texas Savannah

 

Highway Off-Ramp just outside Amarillo