You clearly have to be a roughneck to live in West Texas, or maybe a road runner. The distances are vast, the country imposing, and the work rough. Oil derricks dot the landscape, many of which bob their relentless heads to draw the black gold from the ground. As Judy and I travel around, we always ask ourselves if we'd like to live in any of the places we visit. West Texas never makes the list, nor would Hobbs, New Mexico. It's also an oil town that had its latest boom about two years ago. It's reeling a little bit now, and most likely will return to its dusty dirty self before long. We stopped here because of our fanatical following of our beloved Zags. This RV park reported itself to have cable TV, which it did, but only an abridged package that didn't include ESPN. No matter, we call it "just the cost of doing business" as we eat up our Verizon data, which can qualify as the Dracula of data services. The good news is that the Zags held on to beat a very scrappy Santa Clara team. Tomorrow, we'll head to another town that claims the "black gold" for its main economic boost. Artesia, New Mexico is just forty-two miles up the road, so it will be a short jaunt tomorrow. Our plan going home is to stop in as many small towns as we can to get a sense for what makes people want to live in them. We'll see what Artesia offers. One thing I hope happens is that the wind lessens. Today, beginning long before we hit the road this morning, the wind roared at above 25 mph. During the day it gusted up to 35. Fortunately, even though the wind was on our beam all day, Frac held his line quite well. More times than I can count today, I saw gusts pull tractor trailers off their line. I felt some wobbles occasionally, but I never had any worries about being pulled off line. I think that's what makes Airstream trailers so expensive. We had planned on staying one more night in Texas at Monahans Sandhills State Park, thirty miles west of Odessa, but with the wind pulling the sand up into the air, the idea of willingly taking ourselves to the park seemed unattractive. At the time, we didn't realize the starkness of Hobbs. But all turned out well. We're safely tucked in here for the night, happy that our Zags won, and grateful (As always) for traveling mercies. Clearly, even in Hobbs, life is good, especially today.
The highlight of our day was finding Rosa's Cafe and Tortilla Factory.
Fresh, hot flour tortillas almost can flying off this corkscrew machine. Ladies plopped a ball of dough in the top, it was flattened by rollers, and then heated, puffed, and flipped. The finished tortillas then rolled out a conveyor belt to be stacked.
$2.39/dozen
We shared the soft taco plate with a few extra tortillas on the side. YUM!
Frac in his spot at site #10 in Hobbs.
This fifty square foot flag shows a little of the wind.
We topped the night off by finishing off our home made Chili Verde topped with a fried egg, avocado slices, and a corn muffin. No need to suffer, even in Hobbs, New Mexico.
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