Heading home. Got up this morning in a state park outside of Roswell NM and checked the weather forecast for the San Juan River near Navajo Dam NM, where I was to camp for 10 days. Around a low of 20 each night, one night 17 and not all that warm during the day. My trailer has a furnace but a couple of fresh water lines run under the trailer. So I blew my potable water lines out with a $54 air compressor. It’s ready for a Wisconsin winter.
The San Juan will be there next spring.
I was camped at the small RV site at Big Bend National Park. It’s a parking lot which holds 24 trailers or RVs.
Mexico is on the other side of the Rio Grande River
These are crafts the people on the other side of the river bring across the river and offer for sale on the honor system. It isn’t legal to buy them. I talked to a man who lives in the area. He said the rangers don’t remove these items. It’s not like it’s drugs.
Chisos Mountains
Chisos Basin campground. Beautiful spot full of young couples sleeping in tiny REI tents. A lot of hiking.
A serious young man
A hot spring. It’s about a quarter mile hike.
A photo from Gradalupe Mountains National Park just southwest of Carlsbad Caverns.
For viewing the bats.
Entrance for walking down 750 vertical feet to the “Big Room”. Fortunately there is an elevator to return to the surface,
Can’t upload photos so I won’t be updating this until the evening of the 6th
Early tomorrow I’m heading to Big Bend National Park. It’s a long way from anything so I won’t have a cell signal. I’ll be there for 4 days.
BBQ again today. Hopefully I’ll get out of here without a heart attack. Texas Monthly online has reviews of BBQ places. It’s downgraded some of the famous spots for their brisket. Sounds like they have become so popular that some take shortcuts. They sell so much brisket if they cooked it the traditional long smoked method, they couldn’t keep up.
Texas Monthly recommended a spot only 30 minutes from my campground. It’s called the Black Board.
Burnt ends, really good
This was in the bathroom.
Camped at Guadalupe River State Park. It’s a pretty river.
Drove around the heart of Texas Hill Country. Went to Fredericksburg where the National Museum of the Pacific War is located. It’s there because Admiral Nimitz was from Fredericksburg.
One of the five Japanese Mini Subs that were unsuccessfully involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor.
They re-enact a battle.
Waylon Jennings song.
The Salt Lick. A huge bbq place in Driftwood Texas. Some people such as Bobby Flay think it’s the best.
I was there at an off time
Beef ribs
Peach cobbler
Sunrise at Fort Richardson State Park.
Drove 5 hours straight south through Texas Hill Country, which is……….hilly, to Guadalupe State Park. Went through Johnson City where LBJ was from.
About 30 miles before I got to Guadalupe State Park, I went through Blanco. I searched for best BBQ and the consensus was Old 300 BBQ. Brisket was very good. The price is by the pound. You don’t have to order a pound. Least you can order is 1/8th of a pound. Creamed corn was great.
1/2 pound of brisket. Didn’t eat the fat.
campsite at Guadalupe State Park.
There are many things to see within an hour of here. I’ll be camped here for 3 nights.
Drove about 6 hours to tonight’s campsite in Fort Richardson State Park, which is not too far west of Fort Worth Texas. It was 84 degrees when I arrived at 5 pm.
Another very nice state park. There are other trailers and RVs here, but from my campsite I can only see two of them. 
Tomorrow I have a 5 hour drive straight south to a campground a little southwest of Austin, in Texas Hill Country. I’m really looking forward to it. Wikipedia has a page on “Texas Hill Country”.
Camped at El Dorado State Park about 15 miles northeast of Wichita Kansas. Very nice state park and campground.
Today I drove a section of I70 that is called the U.S. Submarine Veterans Memorial Highway.
As I’ve driven south from Milwaukee, there are more leaves and more color on the trees. Mostly yellow with orange starting to show up. The weather my first two days driving west and south has been beautiful, cool but sunny. If it’s sunny tomorrow as I head straight south, it might be a beautiful drive.
I haven’t had a bad experience with a state park, inexpensive, and I haven’t stayed at a bad one.
Tomorrow it will be a 5 hour drive to Fort Richardson State Park in Texas.
On my way to Texas Hill Country, West Texas, and then back to the San Juan River in the the northwest corner of New Mexico. I had this trip planned and canceled. Sunday night while watching Anthony Bourdain take one of his last trips to West Texas, the trip was on again.
Drove about 9 hours to get to my first campground in Nine Eagles State Park located in south central Iowa just a few miles north of Missouri. 9 hours is about 3 or 4 hours more than I want to drive per day while towing a trailer.
