Marble Falls To Roswell, NM

We left Marble Falls on Highway 29 west towards Irran, TX.  Somewhere around Eldorado, TX we got Highway 190 and kept going west, paralleling I-10.  Much more interesting sights on the backroads.  Along the way we stopped in the little town of  Menard and fixed some lunch and took a short walk around town.  We took in the few sights, one of which was the old Mission.

After our walk we got in the MH amd headed west.  I couldn't pick up either of the football games today (Sunday) as we were just too far from any major TV markets.  In fact, there was few if any campgrounds along Hwy 190.  So, we pulled into Irran, TX, parked on a side street and settled in for the evening.  The one thing we noticed about this little town was the Shawn McMullen, a world champion calf roper on the rodeo trails, was from here, and was killed in an auto accident in 1996 when he was 27.  He was on his way to a rodeo.  Sad!  contractor.

We were awakened early Monday morning by a hustle-bustle of many day workers that were gathered across the street at an oil company dispatch office, apparently awaiting assignments for the day.  By the way, Texas is still a big oil/natural gas producing state.

 While in the central & western part of Texas and southern NM, we saw hundreds of these grasshoppers (oil derricks, or whatever they're called) and hundreds of 18-wheeler tankers along our route.

We left Irran and headed west and merged into I-10 for about 45 miles to Fort Stockton, TX and headed north on US-285 towards Roswell, NM.  Along the way, stopped in the little ghost town of Orla, TX.  Nothing significant about Orla, just a typical sight of many a small town that no longer was needed due in part to moving of major roadways, as well as developers and speculators for newer settlements supporting the oil industry.

Here are a few pics of the little crossroad-ghost town of Orla.

 I enjoy exploring old ruins.  I pretend that I am the first to ever see them. 

And guess where we landed next?  You guessed it!  I was born in 1947, and guess what happend in Roswell, NM the same year?  The aliens landed.  Also, a little reseach will reveal that there were many a person were born that year that went on to prominence in their lives. David Letterman, Stephen King, Farah Fawcett, Hillary Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenager, and many others.  And my favorite 1947 person who himself had an "encounter of the third kind", Richard Dreyfuss.  And here I am, in Roswell, looking for my long lost and scattered relative aliens. 

Here's looking at you kid.  Oh, that was another time.  Sorry!  Well, we drove around town after our dinner at Golden Corral, and I saw what I thought could possibly be descendents of the aliens walking around town masquerading as teen agers.  I just can't figure out what somne of these are thinking these days.  It was a beautiful evening of weather though, sunny and 70.

I've heard the old saying, "red sun at night, sailor's delight, red sun in the morning, sailor's take warning".  Well, take heed Joe.  Above pic was this morning from the Walmart parking lot.  We are expecting snow/rain mix today from Roswell to Alberquerque.  UGH!  I hate driving in the rain, much less snow.  Oh well, it is what it is!  We will go, and take in a few National Monuments in the area around the Albeq/Santa Fe area.  Till then, RVing Beach Bums.