Category: 2021, September San Juan River and SpaceX

Just kept driving. Ended up putting in a 15 hour day and got home at 11 pm. It was a good trip.

Got set up at the Will Rogers KOA near Claremore, Oklahoma at 6:15. Took a day and a half to get out of Texas driving in hard rain a good deal of the time. The Will Rogers Museum is nearby but I won’t have the opportunity to visit. Plan on leaving early tomorrow in order to get near Dubuque Iowa tomorrow evening so I can get home around noon on Sunday.

It will be a 22 day, 5400 mile trip.

Drove so many miles this trip I had to get an oil change here in Huntsville, Texas.

Picked up some great brisket at Walls BBQ. While getting my oil changed I asked a couple of the guys if Walls BBQ is good. They really lit up, “if you go there bring us some”.

Left South Padre Island one day early. Once I visited SpaceX there wasn’t much for me to do except stew in the heat and humidity. I’m camped at Huntsville Texas State park for two nights, then Tulsa, a south central Iowa state park, and home on Sunday.

South Padre Island seems to be strictly for tourists. I counted 19 businesses that rent fancy golf carts. If I had brought some regular fishing gear I would have used it. I’m surrounded by salt water. Saw many people pulled over on the side of the road and fishing, no, not from inside the car. I’m going to leave tomorrow, a day early.

Drove over to Boca Chica Texas to see the SpaceX Starbase and the SpaceX Launch Facility. Starbase is what you drive by first. It’s where the bays in which the Starships and boosters are assembled are located. A mile or two down the road is the Launch Facility. The Launch Facility is a couple of hundred yards from the beach. You almost drive through the Launch Facility. I didn’t notice a gate or a guard. If I could have stopped my truck, got out, and walked over to touch the arms they are going to mount onto the Launch Tower it would have been a walk of about a hundred feet. It would have been great if someone had been in my passenger seat taking photos. There is too much activity at that spot to stop your vehicle. I think there were three liquified gas trucks delivering to the tank farm.

There is a $10,000 fine for flying a drone here. They call it “Essential Infrastructure”.

Starbase

Turn around and…

Made it to South Padre Island. My campground is on the southern tip of the island. I’m between 3 and 4 miles from SpaceX. I can see it from my campground.

Another long day of driving. Left Roswell around 7:30 mountain time and arrived at Guadalupe River State Park at 6:30 central time.

Repaired two windshield cracks today.

Today and tomorrow I’ll be camped at Bottomless Lakes State Park just east of Roswell New Mexico. It was New Mexico’s first state park having been established in 1933. There are nine of the little lakes. They are not bottomless. The lakes are sinkholes that filled with water, cenotes, from the Pecos River. They range in depth from 17 to 90 feet.

My connection here is good enough to upload videos but not good enough for good resolution. When I get home I will try uploading and replacing these videos. I assume that is the cause of the poor quality.

Went shopping in Roswell. UFO and Alien stuff is everywhere. I pictured Roswell as a dusty intersection with a couple of UFO souvenir shops. It’s a city.

A little north and east of Roswell is Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Left Cottonwood Campground in Navajo Lake State Park in northwest New Mexico at 7:30 and finished setting up at Bottomless Lakes State Park in southeast New Mexico at 5:30. The first half of the drive from Navajo Dam through SantaFe was beautiful. The drive from Santa Fe to Roswell is pretty much short grass on not quite flat land. I have cell phone coverage, free WiFi, some television from Roswell, a pull-through site, and a full hook-up for $14 a night. New Mexico State Park Campgrounds are the best. I’ll be here three nights. Once the hot water heater did its thing I took a “Hollywood” which is a regular shower, not a navy shower.