Dust Storm


Yesterday West Texas was hilly.  Today it was anything but.  Today we traveled on top of a plateau for most of the day.  The elevation was around 4000 feet.  It was flat as far as the eye could see…admittedly that was not very far at times.  West of Abeline is cash crop country.  Its red sandy soil was just being planted.  As we drove through, we were unsure of what they were planting partly due to the fact that we could not see very far.  The light sandy soil was being blown by 50 to 75 km. winds.  We are used to driving in ‘whiteout’ conditions, but these ‘brownout’ conditions were something new.  It was a little spooky to not be able to see the sun. We were meeting trucks and RV’s and you could see that they were hanging on to their steering wheels for dear life.  This was a day we were glad we had our ‘little’ tent trailer.

With a little bit of research, we now know that they would have been planting peanuts and cotton.  Pecan growing is also big here.  However, oil is still king…West Texas Crude.  So, the West Texas’ economy is varied.  Ranching is big, cash cropping is huge, the oil industry is big, and the ridges are covered in Windmills (more than anywhere else we have ever saw the ugly things).

We entered New Mexico today.  One word best describes the terrain…scrub land…but valuable scrub land.  Sitting about 3200 feet below the surface is one of the biggest oil fields in all the United States.  The area produces about 500,000 barrels of oil a day and by the end of this year it is to double to 1,000,000 barrels a day.  Just like in 2010 when we rode through Southern Saskatchewan, every Motel and Campground in the area is filled with oil workers.  The population has doubled in less than a year.  One wonders if they are ready for such a boom.

We have changed time zones again, so we are now two hours behind.  I can only imagine what that will do to my wake-up time tomorrow morning.  Sue is not looking forward to that!

We are outside of Carlsbad New Mexico in a KOA.  We are plunked in the middle of a desert.  It is presently 32 degrees without humidity.  There is a breeze and we are almost cool.

Distance Traveled = 490 km.  Wildlife Sightings = Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Red Tailed Hawk, Eurasian-collared Dove, White-winged Dove, Great-tailed Grackle, House Finch, Curved-billed Thrasher, Bullock’s Oriole, Rabbit.


Red Sandy Soil


'Brown Out'


New Mexico Scrub Land

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