May 22nd and May 23rd (from my journal)

Written in my journal on May 22nd...
"Last night we camped for free in the city park in a small town called Junction, TX. We parked the Bussy (Eurovan) under some large pecan trees and pulled out the bed instead of the tent since it was a city park and not a campground. Earlier in the evening we had foolishly tried to get a site at the South Llano River State Park without a reservation and ended up in the city park by recommendation of the camp host at the state park. Apparently you are allowed to camp there for up to two nights for free. It was a humid night and so we opened up all the windows... luckily there was enough breeze to blow away any mosquito's, however, our nice breeze soon turned into a stiff breeze and then into a howling wind later. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night knowing how brittle pecan tree branches are. Earlier that day for lunch we had stopped in Llano at Cooper's for our last Texas BBQ. The moist brisket was good, a bit on the fatty side, even for a moist "fatty" cut. If I am there again I might opt for the lean. (Usually we order the moist.) It was most certainly an interesting place, as most good BBQ joints seem to be. You pick your meat outside right out of the pit. You gesture with your hands about how big a hunk you want and they cut it off and dip it in a thin vinegary sauce (if you want it). Then you bring your meat inside to be weighed and sliced. You also pick your sides inside. The beans, pickled jalapeno, onion, and bread are all free sides. The sauce as I mentioned before was thin and vinegary, it seems all of the BBQ joints have their own take on what makes a good sauce; County Line (Sweet Mustard-ish Sauce), Kreuz (no sauce rule), Rudy's (thick and spicy sauce), Louie Mueller (thin and sweet tomato sauce). Anyhow, today we are on our way out of Texas and I am a bit sad to say goodbye to all the BBQ. Most days I ate it for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Rudy's makes great breakfast burritos... Felbie and I usually get the spicy chopped(brisket)/potato burrito. We took some of our favorite sausage from Kreuz to go and will be enjoying that for dinner tonight and most likely on somewhere on BLM land in New Mexico near the Carlsbad CAverns. That is the plan anyway. Well see what happens!!"

A photo on the way through west Texas... almost to New Mexico... at a rest stop.
Flowers outside the visitors center at Carlsbad Caverns. If you look closely you can see a bit of smoke in the background in the upper right. That's the fire in the Guadalupe Mountains.
The fire on the 22nd... as seen from the visitors center.
More flowers...
The fires as seen from where we camped on BLM land... (see nobody around for quite a distance).
The road through the BLM land... just drive in and camp anywhere.... :)
The spot we picked for the tent... the sun setting behind the tent and the fire still burning... (this is when it was still windy). A dust devil hit us while we were out here... luckily we were eating dinner in the bussy!
Our camp again...
Written in my Journal May 23rd...
"As planned we camped last night on the BLM lands just down the road from Carlsbad Caverns. There were many firetrucks and "Hot Shots" around because of a fire in the Guadelupe Mountains. The park was unsure last night whether they would be open or have to evacuate today because of the strong winds last night the fire got somewhat out of control. We just drove by some fire jumper vehicles. Anyhow, at sunset the winds died down for a bit and helped them get it under control. At dusk from where we camped we could see the red fire, during the day you just see a bunch of smoke. Today there is hardly any smoke or wind. As the wind died last night they were able to gain control of the fire and thus they didn't have to evacuate and we were able to visit the caverns. Yay! Currently we are heading north towards Albuquerque, NM. We are planning to camp in a National forest near Grants, NM. This morning we enjoyed the cool 58 degree temperature and the quiet of the caverns first thing in the AM after our desert showers. Since we had camped out in the middle of nowhere on BLM land there wasn't a soul in view for miles. We took advantage of that by using our camp shower in the sun!