Ramada Limited Alpine

We woke up early on the 4th to do a zip line eco tour. Nothing like getting dressed up like a construction worker and flying through the trees at 9AM to get the day started. In all seriousness, we had a fantastic time and had two fantastic interesting female guides. One was on Survivor and the other is about to take off on a nomadic journey to South America. Really interesting and fun people, easy to trust with our lives/safety. Just a side note here, I hate doing group ...

... and 107 degrees. Too bad the outside air temperature is 100 degrees! I made a side trip to the Bouquillas Canyon and took a dip in the river. This is where the Rio Grande leaves the flat lands and carves straight through the mountains and forms the canyon. Standing in the river, I suddenly realized "Hey, 20 feet away is Mexico"! I took the Old Ore Road to the back country in the Eastern side of the park. I always ...

... bones from all the 'game' that the fellas shot including whitetail deer, Oryx, longhorns, horses, wild boars, antelope plus other critters nobody could recognize, lets have another beer. Inside, there are parts of bridles, harnesses, saddles, horse shoes, whiskey barrels, canteens, beer mugs, coffee cans, old beer bottles, crocks, canteens, posters and pictures donated by patrons. The place was full of regulars that quickly gave us a "Howdy, where y'all from, where ya goin ...

... enclosed a photograph of a typical Pemex station. In Mexico there is only one company selling gasoline, and they are well staffed, very clean, and found everywhere. I stopped at a vendor at the side of the road with an incredible display of the copper pans of all shapes and sizes. If only I had room to carry one home. I filled up one more time with cheap Mexican gas, and then converted all my Mexican paper and coins into American. When I arrived at the border crossing I ...

Today was an excellent day as it was only cool this morning as I pulled on to the highway. I had a couple of interesting experiences on the highway today. I was behind a large flatbed truck with a load of thousands of chickens in cages and the feathers flying off were so amusing. I was also behind a trailer with about twelve cows and I was very happy to pass them as I am never sure what surprise "gift" they might spray or drop on me as I follow ...

280 miles/450 km - 5.5 hrs quiet drive today on scenic US90 & US285 through a collection of creeks, canyons and mesas of various sizes, carving their way through hills and meandering over mountains up to altitudes of  over 3,500 ft/1,100 m, under a comfortable 70F/22C sunny ...

... at home one day! The only down-side to an otherwise wonderful hotel was its proximity to the railway line and the fact that the Union-Pacific trains that came through at several junctures in the night seemed to have a policy of tooting their horns very loudly all the way through the town, presumably to warn people not to suddenly decide to lie down on the tracks. But it was a small price to pay for an otherwise perfect stay - and the hotel did offer courtesy ear ...

Today was a long driving day, and nothing much happened, but we made some new friends. Most of the day was spent looking at the view in the picture entitled "Mostly what we saw today". If you look closely, I think you can see the Statue of Liberty in the background. About an hour out of Albuquerque, we came upon a parade of 11 vintage ...

Fort Stockton is on the range area in the western portion of Texas. It appears to be mainly a stopover for RVers with many pulling in at dusk and then leaving the next morning. This is what we intend to do as well. However, before we left Florida, we won a Sotheby's wine encyclopedia that lists all of the great wineries of the world by region. In addition to the various ...

... and get over to the Inspection Station in plenty of time for our appointment - and we passed the inspections with flying colors, so now we're set for at least anonther year. As (knock on wood!) has been the case with many of our little adventures - all's well that ends well! One other good (?) thing that happened today - we bought diesel fuel for only(!!?)$3.08/gallon - probably the cheapest we'll find for a while.