where travel meets art
Friday, October 20, 2023: On our way from Carlsbad to Alamogordo, out in the middle of nowhere, we stopped for a few goodies at Tom & Pam Runyon Ranches, with its funky vibe and “non-gun-free zone.” We ended up buying pickled quail eggs since, according to Tom, they have health benefits such as reversing dementia! Read More
We’re finally on our way to visit parts of Texas and New Mexico, with a long stop-off in Atlanta, GA beforehand to meet our new granddaughter. Her due date is October 1, so we hope she’ll be in this world by the time we arrive (0r soon after!). We had originally planned this trip for 2020, but of course, like everyone else, we were waylaid by the pandemic. A year ago, we made reservations for mid-October at Chisos Mountains Lodge in Big Bend National Park; we had to reserve these spots a year ahead. We hadn’t planned anything else in the meantime; we figured we would build our trip around that stop when the time got closer. We certainly didn’t expect we’d be having our first granddaughter arriving!
I have been to parts of Texas before, namely Dallas (2016) and brief stops in El Paso and Abilene on my way back from my Canyon & Cactus Road trip in 2020. I have also been to the northwest corner of New Mexico, to Bisti Badlands, Chaco Canyon National Park, and the town of Gallup in May of 2018. All of the places we’re going this time will be new to us.
Our big hurdle this time will be the looming government shutdown after September 30. A handful of right-wing nut-job Republicans is vowing to shut the government down, which would include the national parks. Of course the whole showdown really pisses me off, as these extreme right-wingers don’t ever offer any solutions to the country’s problems, but instead thrive on chaos and hysteria. No matter, we won’t let them ruin our plans. If we can’t go to the national parks, we’ll simply visit towns and state parks. Either way, we’re going, but the trip will be a different trip altogether if we can’t visit the many national parks in these areas.
Our plan is to stay in Atlanta for over a week, visit Caddo Lake, TX, where we have arranged a boat ride, drive to Austin for a couple of nights and then stop in Fredericksburg, TX briefly to see the Hill Country and the German culture there. By a stroke of luck, we’ve found that the annular solar eclipse, which will be on October 14, will be visible in Fredericksburg on the day we plan to be there. Hopefully, we will be able to see the “ring of fire” when the Moon blocks all but the outer edge of the Sun. (See New NASA Map Details 2023 and 2023 Solar Eclipses in the US).
Then we will head to Big Bend National Park in west Texas; as it’s the first National Park on our itinerary, we’ll have to shift gears in transit if the government is still shut down at that time. After leaving Big Bend, we plan to go to Carlsbad Caverns National Park and White Sands National Park in New Mexico, which will both be closed if the government is still shut down. Then we’ll head up to Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Taos and finally Albuquerque, none of which should be affected by the shutdown, but visits to any surrounding national parks or monuments will have to be curtailed. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that even if the government does shut down, they’ll reopen by the middle of October, otherwise, we’ll need to revise our plans on the fly. The longest government shut down so far in history was 34 days in December of 2018, when Trump was president. Who knows how long these lunatics will hold the government hostage to their right-wing demands. I’m hoping for the best, but I truly don’t believe they will act in the interest of the American people.
Of course, as always, I’ve been reading a lot of books to prepare for our trip. Here’s my list of books set in Georgia, Texas and New Mexico. The books in bold green are books I own but haven’t yet read. The ones with star ratings and links are the ones I’ve read. Others are only suggestions. You can see my list of all books set in the U.S. here: books & novels | u.s.a. |.
Georgia
Texas
New Mexico
There are also endless numbers of movies set in these states. I won’t list them all here, but you can find them on my page: movies | u.s.a. |. The list below includes only the movies I’ve seen.
Georgia
Texas
New Mexico
Various resources:
As always, I hope all goes according to plan. And if there are surprises along the way, I hope they are good ones!
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