Hatching a Plan
November 3, 2023 – Day 36
Today was a driving day. We’ve been enjoying the sunrise skies so we got up super early, right before sunrise. But we were also up early to get a jump on the day for the drive to San Antonio, NM. This was taken at 6:06 AM.
It turns out the desert sunrises are pretty boring a lot of the time. We were as surprised as you are. The lack of clouds means no colorful clouds in the sky. Only the horizon, as we see above. The camera didn’t catch the glow of the sun very well. What the sky lacks for color the surrounding mountains make up for it. They get incredibly beautiful.
The above photo was taken at 6:14 AM and the one below was at 6:40. The color had really intensified. It was almost as if someone flipped the intensity switch to 11.
Soon it was time to drive. There are only so many routes to drive to our destination. We’ve been on this section of road in our earlier trip with “Stuart, the minuscule travel trailer.” These crazy rocks are memorable. Some are as big as houses. They appeared ready to roll down onto the road and onto the highway!
We started see groves of pistachios or pecans. Susan suspects they’re probably pecans. They’re the 2nd biggest crop of New Mexico’s big crops. Hay is the biggest crop and chili peppers come in at #3. It’s kind of funny to think of hay being grown in a desert.
We’re on a northerly route now into more remote parts of New Mexico. Our destination, San Antonio, NM, is well south of Albuquerque. This part of NM is some of the most remote area we’ve driven through. Socorro County, in which San Antonio is located, is 6,649 sq. miles with a population of only 18,000 people. Only the western portion of West Texas, specifically the Trans-Pecos area along the I-10, is more remote. Both of these spots are places that when you see gas stations you stop and get gas because you don’t know when you’ll see it next. Help would be a long, long way away if you have the cell signal to make the call.
On the edge of Hatch, NM we saw a few Border Patrol vehicles. The officers were searching a pick up truck with a bed cover. It was pretty clear they were checking for human smuggling. We noticed a couple of people laying down in the bed of that truck, hands behind their heads and the CPB taking pictures. Just south of town on Rte. 185 is a check point that you have to travel through. A lot of field workers are migrants so it’s no surprise CPB has a big presence there.
The little village of Hatch is a bit quirky. They’re also best known as the Chile Capitol of the World. It holds an annual chile festival on Labor Day weekend at the Village of Hatch Airport.
Paul’s daughter and her fiancee spent time working in Hatch and have eaten Sparky’s. She really loves their lemonade. We wanted to stop for lunch but parking the RV is close to impossible in a lot of communities. We’re starting to realize that the lunch breaks that we enjoyed on our first trip are a lot more difficult and probably won’t happen too often with the RV.
In the space of a couple blinks of the eye the village of Hatch, NM was in the rear view mirror. Ahead lay more remote land.
It became hilly and twisty along with gusting winds. Paul was glad he was in the passenger seat! (susan here: I have a knack for getting the worst stretches of driving!) See the windsock at the far left? Many of the open areas on New Mexico roads have these. We did come across one that was fully extended, but fortunately, it was coming in at our back, not pushing our side. High winds from the side can push the RV into the next lane & nerve wracking when that happens. But, we’re becoming old pros at this RV thing and we’re able to do course correction pretty easily these days.
We pulled into our campground, the Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park. We were soon greeted by the owner, Billy who was quite the likable character. He made sure we got all setup and everything was working before he took our money. Everywhere else it’s money first. His park is the closest park to our birding destination, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. It’s perfectly situated being only about half a mile down the road and just about 5 miles to the main birding area.
Daily: 332
Return Total: 547
Return Overall Miles/Day: 274
Return Driving Miles/Day: 182
Overall Total: 3,683
Total Driving Miles/Day: 335
mpg: 6.6