Pushing Along to Albuquerque

April 16-21, 2025                                          Most Recent Posts:
Fredericksburg TX                                      Visiting Family in San Marcos Texas
Big Spring, TX                                              Four Days in New Orleans
Roswell, NM

Due to the roof incident (see last post), I had to stay 2 extra nights in at Pecan Riverside in San Marcos and cut 2 off of Fredericksburg which was my next stop.  But since the Bluebonnets were not making their spectacular display that turned out to be OK.

I stayed at Lady Bird Johnson Municipal RV Park where when I asked if the Wildflower drive known for Bluebonnets would be worth doing, she said honestly no.  Confirmation of what Amy had already told me.   But she suggested if I wanted to see Wildflowers that I go over to Wildseed Farms.

 

It’s a large wildflower nursery with all things wildflower for sale.

Including some great signs that I wish I had somewhere to hang.

Since I didn’t want to buy seeds, pots, plants or ??????   I found their pay to see them gardens out back.   So I did.

Poppies not Bluebonnets were the current plants.   Lots of poppies.

With a few other things mixed in.

Not exactly poppies as far as the eye could see but rows and rows.  Beyond this field of poppies were grapes.  Lots and lots of grapes.  This is also a vineyard.

Pretty close to as far as the eye can see.

This fella was hanging around on the fence.  I’m not sure who he was but his coloring was striking even against the white out sky.

From there I headed to the town of Fredericksburg itself.   I learned that it was founded in 1846 as a haven for German immigrants by the Adelsverein, the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants.  The towns architecture, traditions, even the dialect of long time residents known as Texas German reflect this heritage.

I had no idea there was a Texas German town and sadly I didn’t talk to enough people to hear what this dialect sounds like.   But the main street had plenty of 19th century buildings as well as wooden step up sidewalks.   Instead of hitching posts in front, there are parking spaces.

I have no idea why I did not wear one of my pairs of western boots when in downtown Fredericksburg.

Not sure you can make out the wooden sidewalk but speaking of boots…

I stopped in at the library of course and it was very traditionally lovely.

I stopped in for a late lunch/early dinner at Texas Sunrise which had dollar bills on the ceiling and a real Texas feel to it.

All the wooden walks had benches or chairs facing the buildings and many had folks relaxing.

A popular place with the locals I was told.

A local hero clearly.

I had 739 miles to cover between San Marcos Texas and Albuquerque New Mexico.
I’d lost two of the four days I’d booked in Fredericksburg to the roof delays so I headed on to an overnight in Big Spring Texas.  Don’t know if there was a spring there or not.   But the Texas RV Park of Big Spring did have full hook ups and a Prayer Garden.

I don’t know the story of the garden but this is clearly a Celtic Cross.  You can see it in the background of the picture above.

There was a short trail with benches for meditation I assume.   Very nice and unexpected in a gravel campground.

I’m logging more miles per day than usual so fixing dinner is not high on my list especially fixing for one.  The owner of the park recommended a local BBQ place and I haven’t had BBQ in a while and I am in Texas so…..

This signs and the flag below in the window caught my eye.   It was clear from the flag that I was definitely in Texas.

The lord, the guns, the beer the orange face.  Guess they couldn’t come up with anything beginning in Q.

I hit the road again the next day and finally exited Texas.   Next stop was Roswell New Mexico.   Finally New Mexico!    The Trailer Village RV Park aliens were there to greet me.

It appears that campgrounds in the west are gravel not grass.  But at least the ones I’ve been in are not dirt or mud.

I took a walk around the park and saw the pool closed sign so I peeked over the fence.

Don’t you love it!!!

Roswell is mostly an alien town.   And I’m not.  So I headed for guess where?

Jodee Gravel had told me not to miss the Tree of Knowledge at the Roswell library.   How great is this?

The tree, nearly 18’ tall, is a mixed media sculpture.  The branches and leaves are made of metal.  Some twist to form words like imagine, read and seek.  

But close up you can see the early 3,000 ceramic tiles that  wrap around its trunk to form a mosaic of “bark” engraved with authors’ names, book titles, literary themes and quotations.   The words and phrases are in English, Navajo, German, Korean, and other languages.

The plaque on the tree stump tells the story.  The tree commemorates the 100th Anniversary of the Roswell Public Library in 2005 and its roots in and importance to the community. The tree was created by artist Susan Wink. She designed, built, and installed the sculpture in 2008.

Leading to the Tree of Knowledge is a story walk where today I could walk along and read Max’s Chocolate Chicken.

Just to the side of the library entrance were these two lovely sculptures as well.   I was VERY impressed with the Roswell Public Library both inside and outside.  It’s community clearly loves it, uses it and takes care of it.

Inside, in the library entry way was a collage with a photographic history of Roswell containing vintage photographs from 1884 to the 1940’s.  Most were 1880’s to 1910.  All were numbered and identified in a key on the wall to the right.   Sorry for the glare from the window.

This is Lover’s Lane southeast of Roswell in the 1890’s.  Wish I’d had time to go seek it out and see what it looks like today.

An Alien greeted me at the door.  From the entry door to this greeter, the library slogan is clearly READ.

The library is as warm and welcoming inside as out.

Although I wondered if they were trying to keep out Aliens when I saw this Wait to be buzzed in sign on the door to the restroom.  I’ve never seen anything like this in any library.

There was an entire long 3 shelf unit dedicated to books for Book Clubs.  What a great idea to have multiple copies of books for discussion so readily available.

The library is ablaze in natural light.   A very different architecture from the historic library building I visited in Fredericksburg just a few days before.

I just loved these copies of the local newspaper from decades ago that were framed on the wall.  This one was from July 1947 and you can read the headline.  I wish I could have read all the front pages of all the papers. 

I also found it surprising that the staff were sitting behind a desk to the right that was glassed in.  Perhaps left over from covid nearly 5 years ago?   Are they expecting another pandemic?  Know something we don’t know?

At risk of not just too many pictures but WAY too many, I have left out the ones of the huge and wonderful children’s section which was at least half of the library floor space.   But there is a teaser picture as the headline on the Roswell Public Library Webpage

Roswell wins my vote for the very best library I have ever seen.

And finally my 739 miles were complete when I arrived in Albuquerque at Enchanted Trails RV Park.  David and I had stayed here on our trips west and liked it so I was happy to return.

I have very clear memories of how much he loved the vintage cars and trailers that they pulled which were on display in the park.

After all my long days of driving seemingly day after day, I was happy to be parked at Enchanted Trails for a week.  Even that is very different from my two week stays in the winter and months long stays in the summer since David’s death.  But I made it all 1570 miles since Falling Waters State Park in Florida.

The Gathering of All Nations festivities begin tomorrow.