West Texas – January 8-20, 2019

Hwy 54 E from Alamogordo is as straight as a pin. El Paso is 80 miles in the distance and if we looked through binoculars I am sure we would see it. At El Paso we drove the Texas Mtn Trail – hwy 62 is a lonely high desert road that has mountains all around. Salt Flat is just a dot on the map now, but in 1877 was the site of the El Paso Salt War. The Flat has a huge salt deposit and the ground looks like snow. The poor Spanish farmers harvested salt and sold it in order to supplement their meager income. Some rich businessmen in El Paso wanted control of the flat for their own financial gain and went to war. Many lives were lost and now the land stands empty. All along the hwy are abandoned dwellings, many littered with old junk. There is even an old air strip and small scale model airplane, the reminder that there was call for air traffic.

In Fort Stockton we visited the Annie Riggs museum. She was married to Barney Riggs. We heard about him in Yuma. He was in the Yuma territorial prison for murder. He saved the life of the warden during a prison uprising – an inmate was stabbing the warden and Barney killed the inmate. Barney received a pardon. It is said that Barney “killed a man to get to prison and killed a man to get out of prison”. He moved to Ft Stockton and married Annie. But it wasn’t to be a long union. Annie divorced him. She bought a boarding house and built it into a reputable business. She was a force to be reckoned with as well – she wore a pistol in her apron in case any of her guests became unruly. She was noted for her great hospitality. Her family gave the boarding house to the city and it was restored. It stands as a great testimony to Annie.

Our next stop was Langtry. Roy Bean founded the town and named it for Lilly Langtry, an English actress whom Roy had a crush on. They had never met, much to Roy’s disappointment – he invited her many times to come. Judge Roy Bean was “The Law West of the Pecos”. His saloon, The Jersey Lilly, was his courtroom and his jail was a tree that he tied the guilty to. The community has planted a beautiful cactus garden at Bean’s property. We crossed the Pecos River where it runs into the Rio Grande. The beautiful green river runs through a deep gorge. There were lots of ranch entrances and we saw small herds of sheep and goats and were told that it takes 5 acres to sustain 1 sheep because the landscape is so desolate.

Falcon Heights County Park is a really nice park to boondock. We met people that camp there free for the winter. Border patrol station is right beside (looks like a barracks) and the Mexican border is just 2 miles down the road. We could hear gunfire and were told the patrol were target practicing.

Chimney Park RV in Mission was our next stay. It is an RV park for “Winter Texans”. The Rio Grande River is its border with Mexico just across. Again Border Patrol is a huge presence there. They have boats on the river, helicopters in the air, trucks patrolling the road and mobile towers along the river. Pretty serious to guard the border and they aren’t getting paid because of the government shut down. Many people cross the border for dental work, prescriptions and eye glasses. These cost a fraction of what it would cost in America, but we learned that the businesses pay the Mexican cartel “protection” money.

The residents of the park are very outgoing and there are lots of activities to take in. Almost everyone has a golf cart. The next door neighbor owns a 450 pound pig that acts like a dog. She got out the other night and wandered around the RV park. A couple of guys in their golf carts corralled her back home. Pretty friendly pig. There are a lot of different birds. Mockingbirds are plentiful. I read that they can emulate pretty nearly everything. A neighbor Rver was fixing something using an electric drill. The next day a mockingbird was sitting in a nearby tree singing like an electric drill! Amazing.

To close the week out we went to a Flea Market. Must be called a Flea Market because of all the animals that were for sale – sheep, goats, ponies, bunnies, puppies, chickens, roosters, ducks, pigs and birds. I wanted a puppy but wasn’t allowed! Fresh fruit and veggies were plentiful and so was a lot of junk. Tomorrow we are on our way to South Padre Island. The beach awaits!