I sit in the low key but very pleasant college library here at Portales.  We stopped to use the Internet and to find out how we can see any Clovis artifacts despite the excavation site and museum being closed, closed, and closed.  We will probably get to see a few but only after lots of jawboning.

February 14 - Little Rock AR

Day One.  Awoke to a cold gale which made last minute packing and assembling the somewhat frozen rig for take-off difficult.  We had to review procedures to make it all work but were very happy when slides went in smoothly. 

We kept forgetting things and made three trips back to the house before taking off down the mountain.  The wind slowed us down.  Cheaper gasoline was welcome in Virginia where we made a shopping stop at Camping World and Gander Mountain in Roanoke. 

February 17, 2017

I’m writing at lunch time, but it is an hour later for you.  Besides, I won’t be able to send this note until we have WiFi again somewhere.

We’re camped at Waurika Lake in Oklahoma.  Except here the folks thing of themselves as living in Texoma.  I never heard that term before.  Not sure how widespread an area over which it is applicable. 

No, it was not planned.  We were supposed to begin our thousands of miles voyage by land, sea, and air yesterday.  But, an unexpected snow storm prompted us to remain in Brooklyn for an extra day.  That way I got to shovel snow in two states.  It also gave us another day with Elley and Roman.

I have not posted in too long a time.  Still, this forum is probably a good place to provide news from this spouse of lovely Anne as we embark on a long land voyage, possibly starting a week from tomorrow.  All guidance suggests one never report on travel on-line, but our home security must depend on something other than the world knowing we are mostly not there.

Our motor voyage draws to completion.  We pray for a fair wind to bring us home tomorrow afternoon.  This final pause in the greening mountains of the East reaquaints us with the moist climate of home.  What a contrast to the dry lands of west Texas. 

The sun is shining and the wind is shaking our rig.  The sky is gray and the sage, acacias, and many herbs are in bloom providing a blue, green, and yellow mosaic of color across the plateau flat and the canyon walls.  Spring is here.

We retired from Laredo yesterday and moved north to this point at the edge of the Texas Hill Country north of the South Texas Plains.  We knew the weather would be cooler and welcomed the cold front that blasted past us last evening bringing wind, heavy rain, and a bit of medium-sized hail. 

Our rig is parked below a Texas Ebony Tree in the campground of Falcon State Park in southern Texas.  This weekend has brought a crowd of mostly fisher families to enjoy the grand reservoir above the Falcon Dam.  The old town of Falcon is long submerged along the old banks of the Rio Grande River.  The new town of Falcon is a bit east of here.  It has never recovered from its relocation.

We leave Mission this morning.  Once a sleepy town on the Mexican border, Mission is now part of the popular Lower Rio Grande Valley.  This includes walled and well watered communities that are similar to gated communities in southwest Florida, shack communities of recent immigrants, vast farms where the corn is now in some places a foot tall, grazing lands, salt scrub, and a miles long commercial strip along US Route 83.    Between Brownsville and Mission there  are about five miles between each Walmart.