Jen’s Journal – November 29, 2019

Day 153: Brantley Lake State Park, NM

Cloudy, windy and chilly.

Well, using the mobile hotspot on the last night of our plan did not work, because our plan is still on Michigan time. So we watched movies until midnight, but the plan changed over at 10 PM, and now I’ve already used 25% of my next month’s hotspot allotment. Bummer. Now we know.

We went to Blake’s Lotaburger. I’ve seen them in most cities here and didn’t think much about them, until I read somewhere that Blake’s is a New Mexico chain that features cheeseburgers with green chili peppers from Hatch, New Mexico. Last Saturday we had our first green chili cheeseburger in Capitan. I wanted to have another while in New Mexico so Blake’s was the best spot. They make a good one.

We drove south to Texas to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. I didn’t realize this park existed until we were at Carlsbad Caverns and saw Guadalupe in the same mountain chain. The highest peak in Texas, Guadalupe Peak, is here, but that is not it in the picture.

On our drive into Texas, we passed a lot of pieces of cotton along the road, which spread for miles. I suppose a truck, or several trucks, drove through here and little pieces flew off from the load. I picked up a piece to see what it was like. If I had a few days, I think I could’ve picked up enough to make myself a sweater. We passed a couple cotton fields in New Mexico as well.

The wind is fierce again today. We did one short hike to see a stagecoach stop on the Butterfield Trail. This stagecoach took 25 days to deliver passengers and US mail from St. Louis to San Francisco from 1858 to 1861.

It is supposed to be windy with gusts up to 70 miles per hour all through the night.