Day 2 - Carlsbad, NM

June 7, 2008 San Antonio to Carlsbad, NM - 522 Miles


Geiger's Third Postulate supposes that God isn't a mathematician. Why? Easy, He didn't make enough horse's heads to go around.

Latest proof is the people who checked into the two rooms adjacent to me last night in San Antonio. The first load, and I mean load, came in around 2:30am and emptied what seemed to be a 40 foot van out of a pickup crew-cab. The noise wasn't all that bad, it was the fact that it took four or five trips and, with each trip, they had to lock the truck's doors. And that was accomplished with that paragon of technology, the key fob...you know, the one that blows the damn horn to tell you it's locked. How obtuse can you be?

At 3:30am, approximately fifteen minutes after I'd finally been able to get back to sleep, the next caravan came in. They didn't lock their car doors after every trip, they just stood outside the door and talked very loudly for twenty minutes. This in spite of me opening the drapes and then the door and looking out. One lady looked at me and just kept talking. First class members of the Royal TOOP society. A TOOP? Someone who is The Only One on Planet.

Have I ever mentioned Betsy's pipes? Great pipes, loud Vance & Hines. Practically capable of breaking class if you rev it high enough, close enough. I didn't break their windows at 6:30 this morning. I came close though. Unfortunately, some innocents were caught in the action too, but that what happens to innocents, isn't it?

Pulled into Jim's Restaurant for the best breakfast on the planet. For those who don't recognize it, it's chili and eggs. I know it sounds terrible, but it definitely isn't.

Perhaps, in order to understand it, you might begin as I did. Go to Jim's about 2:30 in the morning after lots and lots of beer and/or young scotches (12-14 year olds). That works. And well. From that point on, it's the best breakfast on the planet.

Had to pass on the refried beans, though. They get a little intense down the road and generate terrible questions dealing with the various states of matter.


Pulled out of Jim's on I-10 about 8:00am bound west. Stopped in Sonora, TX to collect yet another courthouse.

Sutton County CH, Sonora, TX.


Note: Click on any picture to enlarge











I took this route for two reasons. First, I've been out the Ft. Worth-Amarillo-Dalhart route. And the Abilene-Lubbock-Clovis route. Needed New Road. Bad.

The other reason for this route is I wanted to see the Castle Gap area. I'm sure not many are familiar with this topographical feature, but it is a key location in early Texas history. The Castle Mountains are a north-to-south, low-ranging collection of hills west of San Angelo rising to heights of between 2,000 and 3,200 feet. Given today's road-building capability, especially thanks to Mr. Nobel, they are barely a technological gnat to our westward expansion fly swatter. But to early Texas settlers, the Spanish, and the native Americans before them, they were a serious blockade in any journey west and south through Mexico. Difficult even for a man on horseback, they were insurmountable by wagons. Between the towns of McCamey and Crane off highway 385 north, stands Castle Gap, a gap between Castle and King mountain low and flat enough to drive herds of cattle. It was the historic "roadway" for the Comanche in their raids south to Mexico, and the way of Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving in driving cattle into New Mexico to supply Indian reservations.

The usual route west was the Middle Concho River out of San Angelo. It peters out about eighty miles out, but points almost directly to Castle Gap. Unfortunately, no roads run this route these days, so I took Hwy 277 North out of Sonora to Hwy 190 West at Eldorado. This route parallels I-10W, but at least it isn't interstate. It was pretty easy to imagine cowboys in the 1880s driving herds through the area to Castle Gap and on to Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos river. It's pretty interesting history, but I'll leave you to that research yourself if you're interested. I can feel some going to sleep already. Turned north on Hwy 385 at McCamey.

Modern solution to the rising hills of the Castle Mountains.












Pulled into McCamey about 1:00pm. Folks do have a sense of humor out here.















Castle Gap











Yes, it isn't exciting. And I wasn't about to ride down six or seven miles of calieche road to see if it got more exciting. It's the history that happened around here that matters. And this was an important place in the history of Texas.



Betsy - on a drive through west Texas.













On many flights westward to New Mexico and California I'd noticed some rather strange looking features in this area. Having spent some time in Utah it looked almost like the storage bunkers used at the Dugway Proving Ground to store chemical and biological weapons. Each "pod" is a little site off by itself, but, from the air, it looks like a lot of empty housing plats. I obviously didn't think that's what this was, but it certainly looked like it. I had an opinion and stopped in Crane, TX for a late lunch and to prove it out.

This is how it looks from an airplane at 28,000 feet or so.

This is the famous Permian Basin and each little white dot is a "location." That's oil speak for a well. And with oil at $138 a barrel, you can bet damn near every one of them is pumping away.

After lunch I took Hwy 385 north to Odessa, then I-20 to Pecos, and then Hwy 285 north to Carlsbad. Got a little hot out here, but, as they say, "It's a dry heat." Yep...it is...and it's hot! Ran through a couple of small rain showers and didn't mind the minor relief.

Noticed a lot of dead animals off the side of the roads today. Don't understand why, but they're out there at night attacking bumpers. Couple of possums, two very large coyotes, and a bunch of raccoons. Must have been a big raccoon meeting last night and everybody tried to come. Quite a few didn't make it. Made me wonder if Ralph and Norton made it through the night. (If anyone gets that reference, drop me a comment.)

Tomorrow, Sante Fe and meeting up with Bobby J. who is, I think, there already. After that, we'll see.