Matt's New Mexico (Formerly Airstream) Adventure
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We’ve made it to Texas! Our site at Wright Patman Lake is pretty awesome. I’ll try to get some decent photos tomorrow. I love moving on to the next spot. I can’t imagine ever living in a house that stays put again.
I don’t expect there will be much to do here this time around. I’ll need to address a new leak we found that’s got the bathroom floor reading wet on the moisture meter. I suspect it’s the water pump. We’ll see.
We had to make some route adjustments yesterday as New Mexico is likely going to start turning away out of state campers soon. That means no Guadeloupe and no Carlsbad Caverns. Im a little disappointed but we’ll try to circle back around next year. From here we’re making our way down to Big Bend then up and over to Joshua Tree and the rest of So California’s Natl Parks. From there spring will be coming so we’ll head up to the Utah, Colorado, Wyoming area for the summer. Lots of great stuff coming.
Here’s a nice breakdown of the Natl Parks on a map. This doesn’t include monuments, historic sites etc, just the 61 proper parks…
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This needs to be the beginning of the new Grateful Dead tours. We all need to be a traveling band of Iron Heart Gypsies.
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We looked at all the options over the past 3 years. School busses, tiny house on wheels, vans. The Airstream spoke to us because of my appreciation for the finer things
and my experience I’ve liked the resale value :-X. I love the vans, in fact Airstream does one with a Mercedes that I quite like. I imagine a van is perfect for Europe. We haven’t ruled anything out for the future. Doing a van version of this through Europe is on the table. We have a lot of ground to cover here first. Europe may have to wait until the kids move out.Go sport is for sure on the itinerary.
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You're hitting a part of the state I don't have much experience in, so I can't provide too many suggestions. And you're pretty far from San Antonio, so a meet up would be difficult.
That said, when you go down to Big Bend, you should check out Marfa- it's a funky little artisty sort of town that should have a couple of cool things to see. In El Paso, you could swing by Rocketbuster Boots. They have a nice showroom/factory where you can see what goes into making custom cowboy boots. And it's Texas; you gotta do something boot related, right? Beyond that, you're driving through a lot of, well, not much.
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I couldn't do it. Someone, probably me, would end up dead.
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Thanks @Chris The most direct route to BB is unfortunately not the most exciting one, we know. Good tip for Marta, I’d like to check that out.
I definitely couldn’t live with my children in a van. I’m not sure what kind of people enjoy their families that much but I know I’m certainly not one of them.
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Route planning today. Fun fact about the southwest of the US… in the same city you can be at 500’ above sea level then drive across town and be at 5000’ above sea level. That’s important of you live in a trailer where all your plumbing can freeze overnight if you aren’t winterized. Glad we figured this out now. Some epic camping in the weeks and months to come.
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I love following this thread as a lurker. That said, I live in Northern Arizona and there are plenty of beautiful parks and things to check out across the state. Covid apparently doesn't exist here so you won't be turned away wherever you decide to check out. The weather is just now getting nice so you're in for a treat.
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Thanks @Palmer I’m happy to hear the great state of Arizona is COVID free. Or at least they think it is. I guess New Mexico thought that too at first which is why we now have to drive through it instead of spend time there visiting the parks as planned. All is not lost though. We’ll be getting to Cali a lot sooner and will get to see some great weather out there. We’re eying up some state parks that look just as awesome if not more so than some of the Natl Parks.
I’ll let you know our AZ stops later when my wife frees up from schoolin the children. I think our first stop there is Saguaro Natl Pk for some of this…
