Happy 104th Birthday in Heaven to Kate (1920-2013). This photo taken in July of 2013 a few months before she passed into her Heavenly repose. We miss her still.
Las Cruces KOA — A Hilltop RV Park
We arrived at our campground today without incident. We drove straight through the planned route and stopped only once in Alamogordo to take on fuel.
We were pleasantly surprised that our campground RV park is elevated above the southwest end of the city of Las Cruces – actually a pretty big town in this region of New Mexico. In the image above, you can see our rig parked with the mountain ranges in the distance and the urban sprawl below.
Later this evening, Verna and I took a walk down to the front of the park where there is an overlook of the area. I used my S23 Galaxy phone to photograph the city lights:
In the above image, you can dimly see the mountain range beyond the city we crossed coming here today. We also crossed the Rio Grande River, which flows through the area on its way to the Big Bend and thence to the Gulf of Mexico, where we were just a few days ago.
Click on either image to open the image viewer.
Camping in Junction, TX
Image: Llano River next to the RV Park – Click to enlarge.
We’ve actually been here at the Llano River RV Park since yesterday. We decided to have a more relaxing weekend on the road.
We had some good meals while camping here; we had grilled pork tenderloin on Saturday and grilled Filet Mignon steaks today. Not too bad at all!
Next, we will be headed to Fort Stockton, TX, where we will be doing some provisioning from the local supercenter. We also will be stopping here in Junction to take on Diesel for the RV.
We’re looking to be home by the end of this new week.
Eclipse Day
What we anticipated to be a dismal forecast for the weather on Eclipse Day, turned out to be not so bad, especially during the totality phase. Clouds passed between us and the sun often, but then opened up for partial phase glimpses and during totality, most of the four minutes of darkness, we were able to see the corona and in the image below, a couple of prominences at two-thirty and five-thirty on the disc. The 5:30 prominence was huge.
I wasn’t very well-prepared to take photos given the woeful forecast, which affected my motivation, but I was able to attach the big 100-400mm telephoto lens and shoot bunches of photos hand-held (no tripod) and had a few fair results including the one above. Verna had similar results and captured the “Diamond Ring” at the end of the totality show:
As I’m blogging this, we are getting some moderate to heavy thundershowers with lightning and thunder, but, Praise the Lord, no tornadoes. The precipitation knocked out the satellite TV a few times, but it is up and running now.
We’re here until Wednesday and then off to other parts of Texas south of us towards the Gulf of Mexico and thence via westerly routes heading back to Arizona over the next several days.
Flat Creek Farm Critters
Just across the creek from where we are camping, we saw a flock of sheep, two llamas and a sheepdog watching over them all. I took these photos just before sundown this evening.
Click on any image to enlarge.
Camping Day 12 — Waco, TX
Image: Flat Creek (left) and RV site 58 (right). Click to enlarge.
We didn’t post about our campsite last night since the internet connection was almost non-existent. (Note to self: next trip get Starlink and bypass crappy internet service.) At any rate. we had a nice overnight at Abilene, TX last night.
Tonight and for the next few nights we are where we expect to view the total solar eclipse on Monday. We’re all settled in and relaxing after another tedious driving day with gusty crosswinds most of the way from Abilene to here.
The outlook for clear skies on Monday for the eclipse isn’t looking too good as of the current weather forecast; mostly cloudy and possible rain. We are optimistic that we will be able to see some of the totality with breaks in the clouds possible.
Verna and I will be spending the weekend with our usual emphasis on dining, albeit on the road. The menu currently features entrees of Steak Salad (Filet Mignon, of course) and BBQ Country-style Pork Ribs. We hope y’all will eat as well this weekend.
