Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Arizona/Florida Trip - Day 17

We left Las Cruces, NM at 8:30 am under sunny skies with calm winds.  Morning rush hour through El Paso wasn’t too bad and we headed east towards Fort Stockton, TX.  The road was mostly deserted: us, the trucks, another RV here and there and a few fast moving cars and pick-ups.

We had to stop at a Border Patrol check point near a town called San Carlos, TX.  All vehicles had to stop – trucks in one lane, buses in another and cars and RVs in another one.  As you approach the check point, your vehicle is scanned by a variety of sensors of unknown purpose.  When stopped, you are asked by a Border patrol agent if you are a U.S. Citizen, after you say “yes” you are cleared to proceed.  He didn’t ask for our papers, but on other trips through this checkpoint we have seen people pulled over and their vehicle searched by multiple agents with dogs and heavy weapons.

Just past the town of Van Horn we began to experience fog and accumulations of heavy frost on the desert landscape.  The road remained dry and although visibility was reduced the trucks and fast movers continued to zoom by us at the posted speed limit of 80 mph (or more).  It was a strange sight and the vegetation and ground cover all looked like they had been flocked.

The fog and most of the frost was gone when we arrived at the RV park in Fort Stockton about 3:30 PM.  We lost an hour on the trip and are now in the CST zone.  It is overcast and cold here (29 degrees) but no wind.  There is a small restaurant at the RV park advertising slow-cooked pork rib dinners for tonight.  We are planning to go there for dinner.

We will drive to San Antonio tomorrow.  If we get there early enough we may try and visit the Alamo and have dinner on the River Walk.  We are staying at the Fort Sam Houston RV Park run by the U.S. Army.  The weather forecast for the rest of the way looks good at the moment with no rain predicted.

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