Albuquerque NM

After visiting White Sands, we had a short overnight stay in Sunny Acres RV Park in Las Cruces NM. Here's Bill trying to get the picnic table to go for a walk:


Waiting in line at another Border Patrol Checkpoint, this one on US-25 about 15 miles out of Las Cruces heading to Albuquerque on March 13th.


Neat little overlapping hills and nothing but creosote bushes for miles and miles.


The closer we got to Albuquerque, the more variety we saw in the vegetation, with short trees and grayish plants (maybe sagebrush) taking over for the creosote. It was strange to see snow-covered mountains beyond the desert.


In Albuquerque, we stayed at the Enchanted Trails RV Park & Trading Post on old US Route 66. Pieces of travel trailer history and Route 66 history were scattered throughout the park. An old Hudson and matching travel trailer with our rig and Barkley (tiny!, by the picnic table) in the background.


Directional signs posted on our campsite:


Albuquerque was on our itinerary because Karen wanted to meet Jane Haley Clarke, owner of Morning Glory Antiques and Jewelry on the Internet and the Antique Connection on Central NE. We went to the Antique Connection on Sunday, March 14th, and found out that Jane's usual schedule in the shop is Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. (That sometimes happens when you're winging it and don't know where you're going to be when!) We checked out the shop anyway, and Jane's jewelry is fabulous! Although Karen doesn't collect bakelite, it was absolutely amazing to see the number and variety of bakelite pieces Jane offers. And then there's Vrba, Miriam Haskell, D&E, rhinestones, beads, Victorian, and on and on. As both a collector and a seller, Karen thought Jane's prices were fair. By the way, the rest of the antique mall is nice, too!

We returned to the Antique Connection on Monday and were happy to meet Jane, her husband John, and their friend and co-worker Sam, who took these pictures for us. It turns out that, besides antique jewelry, Jane and Karen share a passion for geneology (as does Sam!) and history in general. Jane and Bill also wondered if they are somehow related, as her Haley family is from Kentucky and Bill's is from Tennessee.



We've been wondering if we want something larger than our Catalina for the rest of our trip (six more months!), so we did some RV shopping in Albuquerque. We met two wonderful consultants: Mike Romero at Camping World and Frank Rogers at Rocky Mountain RV & Marine. If you find yourself RV shopping in Albuquerque, seek out Mike and Frank! Thanks to Frank's recommendation, we enjoyed a fantastic New Mexican dinner Monday night at Garcia's Kitchen, where the motto is "Help! Stamp out Gringo food. Eat at Garcia's Kitchen."

Barkley's ready to head out of town with a nice blue Hudson and Va-Ka-Shun travel trailer or a green Hudson rig:

East Texas

We entered Texas on February 19th, headed to Lake Livingston State Park, and found a site overlooking the lake. We spent several days in the park, where we enjoyed walking the trails together, Barkley met a Boxer named Bo from Houston, and Bill had fun building campfires.

Played out after playing with Bo, who could not stop boxing long enough to have his picture taken:

Anhingas taking a break from diving:

These wildflowers looked like the pink Spring Beauties at home in Pennsylvania, except that they were yellow:

There are some interesting buildings in the town of Livingston, one of which was called McCardell Cottage. Beverly Miller spent five years renovating the cottage and now happily hosts overnight guests there. When Beverly noticed Karen taking pictures, she invited her in. Beverly was super friendly and generous with her time. Had we not been hauling our home behind us, we would have been happy to stay there.

Livingston's Fain movie theater:



The court house:

We left Lake Livingston on February 22nd and headed to an RV park called Paradise Lake Resort, outside Nacogdoches. The horribly pot-holed lane leading to the park caused us to recall the back roads of southern Louisiana with fondness and longing.

After setting up camp, we headed to the historic town of San Augustine, where restoration and renovation seemed to be taking place everywhere to varying degrees. A restored caboose greets visitors to the town, and the buidings on the main street were wonderful.

Neither of us had ever seen a sundial on a building before, and this one was huge!

Imaginative use of a ravine at the side of a home in San Augustine:

More great old buildings, this time in the town of Nacogdoches:

The following day found us hunkered down inside, while it rained, sleeted and snowed all day long! Luckily, the park had a great Wi-Fi service, and we were able to use part of our snow day to catch up a little online. We also enjoyed reading Jay Leno's Leading With My Chin out loud and cracking up like loons while we did it.

As we were about to leave Nacogdoches on Wednesday the 24th, Barkley met a friend.

Back on the road, we headed to Kilgore to visit the East Texas Oil Museum. It was fantastic, but we're still at a lack to explain how the oil is brought to the surface.


Just a few miles down the road from Kilgore, we checked in at the
Antique Capital RV Park in Gladewater. The park is new and well
designed, with all pull-through spots, concrete pads for the RVs and
picnic tables, a fenced dog yard, a pond, and wonderful laundry
facilities. We were serenaded often by passing trains.

Gladewater is nicknamed the Antique Capital of East Texas, and we found lots of great shops there. Karen was especially happy to have met Katherine Bowen, the owner of the Pacific East Antique Mall and a fellow vintage jewelry collector. Katherine has gorgeous jewelry for sale in her shop and is expecting much more within the next month or so.



This historic home in Gladewater sold for $200,000 at auction last year! We're told it's in great shape after getting a $10,000 paint job.