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Saturday, December 12, 2009

Day 3 - Deming NM

We got up early in the dark, cool morning at our Walmart 'campsite' in Sweetwater, Texas.
Overnight, we were joined by a few neighbors.

Pam wanted to do more of the driving so she maneuvered us out of the parking lot and onto I-20. While she drove, I put in another good day of work online. For now, this beats workamping and the pay is good. :)

We ended up driving 513 miles and found some warmer weather. It was another gorgeous travel day.The drive was pretty easy along I-20 onto I-10.

We stopped outside of Midland, Texas - home of George and Laura Bush.
The Rest Stop had an historical marker noting the Marcy Trail:

Plotted in 1849 by a U. S. Army surveying expedition under Capt. Randolph B. Marcy. Guided by Manuel, a Comanche Indian, Marcy crossed the dreaded staked plains of West Texas, proving their feasibility for travel, and opening a new and shorter road west. Marcy's trail from Dona Ana, N. M., to Fort Smith, Ark., became a major road to the California gold fields. Later the overland stage followed it for about 125 miles and in 1881, Texas and Pacific Railroad built along part of the route.

I always find historical markers interesting. I remember driving around New Mexico with my mom, dad and brothers on one of our 'Sunday Family Drives' and we would stop and read a lot of them.

Later in the day we stopped at another Rest Stop and saw the interesting shelters and picnic tables.
We pulled up right behind the guy in the flatbed. I took a few pictures and almost missed his sense of humor. He has a 'Oversize Load' sign on his bumper and his cargo (Tonka Truck) is strapped down!

In this part of the country, during the mid and late 1800's trails were blazed and the railroads became a major part of the development of The West.
They still are today and we saw quite a few trains along our way today.

Driving west gained an hour and are now on Mountain Standard Time Zone. We pulled into the Escapees Dream Catchers RV Park in Deming, NM about 3:20.

We have been looking forward to seeing this place for some time. We wanted to see how this compares with the Escapees Rainbow's End Park in Livingston, TX. Earlier in the summer, when were were in Maynardville, TN, I went over to check out the Escapees Racoon Valley RV Park.

The campgrounds are not plush or extravagant and are a good value. It is very affordable at $12.50/night plus electric. The park here at Dream Catchers has 50 hookups with water and sewer.
The registration office and clubhouse looks good with everything clean and well maintained. We missed the 4:00 PM happy hour/get together but figured we'd join in next time. We had to hook up and drain the tanks and we wanted to check out Deming a little bit.
We did find out about the breakfast on Saturday morning so we will probably do that. $2.50 seems reasonable.

Our campsite was an easy pull-through.
It was supposed to get near freezing again despite the 65 degree daytime temperature so I unhooked the hose after I filled the tanks.

We drove over to the Deming Visitors Center and got a couple of items at Walmart before we went back to the site for dinner. Pam cooked stuffed bell peppers with mashed potatoes and salad. She did some reading after dinner while I stayed up and put in a couple more hours of work.

We should be in Tucson about noonish on Saturday and we are ready for some down time.

Thanks for viewing today and have a great weekend!

5 comments:

  1. So glad you had a safe and informative drive... That's a lot of miles in one day for full timers’ ☺☺☺ I like the 200 mile days... LOL Have fun & travel safe my friends!
    Donna

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  2. Good to see you're into some warmer weather. I liked the map as you are getting into areas that we will be going through next spring - i.e. Las Cruces, Deming and Tucson. That Escapee's park looks pretty nice and you sure can't beat the price!

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  3. If you get a chance, visit Pancho Villa State Park. It's an interesting couple of hours. Enjoy!

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  4. There looked like there was lots to do in Deming but we didn't have a chance this time to stop and check things out.

    We lived in Silver City in the mid '60's and I think we saw Pancho Villa State Park. I definitely want to go back and see it again.

    Also- we were passed the turn off for Silver City but didn't get to see it but it also is a place we definitely want to go and see.

    Thanks for your comments and notes!

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