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After, that Hotel in Abilene, I wanted to see something beautiful. Santa Fe is just that. I’ve been to Santa Fe, NM a few times. It’s a beautiful area and reminds me of Bend, Oregon but with more Adobe buildings. Look, I’ll gladly drive six and a half hours there to get the memory of that shit hole hotel out of my mind. After I get to the Super 8 I booked, I get some Taco bell (Yeah, with all the food there, it’s dumb but it’s quick, consistent and it’ll come into play after) and I relax at the hotel and walk Furi for a bit. I also contemplate how I load my personal gear. I’m always reorganizing things, packing and unpacking trying to find the most efficient way to store my gear. I’m packed one way for camping and a few ways for hotel stays. Hotels can be tricky; I have a lot of gear in my rig and I’d prefer not to have it broken into. If someone is going to steal something and they are determined, I’m fucked but I’m sure as shit not going to make it easy for them. When I stay at hotels, I prefer to be able to park in front of the door but obviously some places aren’t like that. I also have a few things that I don’t or rarely use, like an XBOX system, some important papers, CPAP machine (uses too much electricity) and it drives me nuts because of the waste of space but the things get stored deep behind stuff. Anyway, I need a bag to store stuff more efficiently. So, I’ll head to Recreational Equipment, Inc. or REI tomorrow.

I awoke the next day to snow but fuck it, I’m going shopping. I confess, I’m a REI addict. I could wander the store endlessly like a Zombie with no real direction or purpose plus the bathrooms are usually clean. Today I had a purpose and I picked up the Big Haul 60 in Kabocha Orange. It’s a gear bag that you can switch to a backpack. After my purchase, I walked Furi around the Area. It’s the old Santa Fe rail yard and has many stores, restaurants and cool places. I was tempted to go into a Comic book store but Furi was a bit too rambunctious and previously wasn’t happy about being in the car while I ran into REI.

Furi can be a handful sometimes. I wanted a cattle dog to keep me busy and she does….non-stop. The best thing for her is swimming and the next best is a big dog park. Santa Fe had one of the best ones I’ve seen. It was called It was massive and they served morning coffee on Saturday. We hiked without a leash for an hour. Threw the ball a few times also but it’s better when she plays with other dogs. Strange thing I noticed at the park was there were three, three-legged dogs! I also was screwing around with my solar panel at the dog park, it’s not giving me good amperage.

I went back to the hotel and outfitted the new bag, walked Furi and got some excellent street tacos (I had to compare them to Toxic Hell aka Taco Bell) and settled in for the night.

I’m checking the weather and there’s a cold front heading towards New Mexico, I need to head south to warmer climate. This isn’t working…

Alamogordo, NM up next.

Mon-Tues, Mar 3rd-4^th: Junction Texas. It’s freezing outside, I’m wearing shorts, Sanuks and all my pairs of pants are packed away. Due to the weather, I decide to hold up in Junction, Texas for two days till the weather warms back up. The reason isn’t cause I don’t want to be cold but more that I’m not a huge fan of driving on ice. I’m definitely not a fan of other people driving on ice either. A few years back in Bend, Oregon, I stupidly shifted from 4WD to 2WD and did a 360 across three lanes and found myself stuck high sided on a snow bank. Some snowmobilers happened by me and joked that I couldn’t park there (…they also helped me get off the snow bank ). I got lucky then, no real reason to push it. The only notable thing I did in Junction was watch a bunch of episodes of Death Valley Days and Laramie on the Western Channel (which I enjoyed), walked Furi in the cold, got new windshield wipers and fluid, made an appointment to get the FJ serviced at a Toyota dealership the next day and I checked out Lums BBQ . The food at LUMs was excellent, I had the Brisket, Jalapeno Sausage with macaroni salad and spicy spaghetti washed down with a Mexican Coke along with some cornbread.

Tues, Mar 5^th: Round Rock, Tx. I show up at my time for the FJ being serviced. I Didn’t need an oil change for another 5k but I’d still like to get Lola checked out. While I was waiting, I ended up talking to a guy who was originally from North Bergen, NJ. We mostly talked about culture shock from a New Jersey perspective and the lack of good italian food or pizza. Later that evening, I checked in at Motel 6 in Round Rock and it was a smoking room, it smelled horrible but I was too lazy to change it.

Later that evening, I met up with Jeremy and his wife Hailey along with their two kids at the Double Horn Brewery. I had the Reuben but it wasn’t smoked corned beef like on the menu but replaced with pastrami, it wasn’t bad but the keffiyehed server could have told me when I first ordered it. We spent the dinner reminiscing, laughing and talking about our futures. Good times. Lots of great memories from Station Umpqua River too.

Wed, Mar 6^th: Hung out with Lori, one of my oldest friends from grade school. She had just recently moved from Oakland, CA to Austin, Texas. It was still a bit cold for some reason, we had brunch at a place called Snooze AM and we sat outside with Furi and tried to get as close to those big propane heaters. I ordered some stuffed french toast with bacon. When my order came, they dropped the bacon but then they gave it to Furi. She was happy pup. Lori and I caught up on everything and we ALWAYS revert back to Long Branch. We talk about our hometown like refugees. I can’t really knock LB for what it is but it’s just not for me. We later had coffee at Seventh Flag Coffee and walked through the neighborhood where you could see the new houses replacing the old. I like Austin but I’m not sure if it’s for me, honestly….I have no idea where I’d fit in.

Later that day, I drove to Abiline,TX. to the Royal Inn. Why did I pick Abiline? Not sure but it’s always referenced in Cowboy Movies so why not.

Here’s a tip for travelers. When you check into a hotel and the desk clerk asks if you’re sure you want to stay two days, take it as a warning. It was a shit hole, I kinda knew it would be a shit hole but I figured it might be worth the experience. It sure as fuck wasn’t. I felt like I was alert the whole time and I slept like shit. The Inn did keep me away from the “long-term residents” but it was a bad hotel. Glad I had my own towels….

Thur, Mar 7^th: I ate breakfast at an old school diner called Dixie Pig which was awesome! All types of folks there. I sat at the rail and had Mexican omelette and a few cups of coffee. I then went and did laundry at a place called Wash this Way. As far laundromats go, this place was pretty nice and organized. The one downside is they have a card system and the dumbass I am, I put $10 on the card. I only really needed five. I later gave the card to a young lady with a shit ton of laundry! I played ball with Furi in the lot next to the business and watched a team of mechanics change a tire on an 18 Wheeler. I went to Whataburger for dinner and tried to avoid the Inn. I wrote a bit and I slept like shit again, go figure. I should have went to El Paso…

Fri, Mar 8th: Fuck this, I’m heading to Santa Fe, NM.

Actually, I’ve decided to give up on this trip, It’s not really fulfilling and I’m not meeting people or seeing anything worthwhile. Possibly thinking of settling down somewhere. Recently, I’ve been looking at real estate in a planned community called Questa Verde in California. I‘ve decided to withdraw my application from UNLV. Legitimatlly, I don’t think that I’m going to get anything out of College and I’m far smarter than most people, including you.  Finally, I’ve also decidied to give Furi away, I don’t really like her that much and I think she’d be perfect for some methhead to scam spare change with. Obviously, this is going to be tough. Oh yeah, there’s one more thing. Look at all the bolded letters. Sucker…

Saturday, Mar 2nd: I had a pretty vivid dream that I owned a tricked out yellow jeep and it got towed. There was far too much detail in the dream, I had years of history and memories with the Jeep (along side the FJ too) and I was quite upset at the thought of it being towed. Even when I woke, I was still fuming about my jeep being towed. Strange how the mind does stuff like that to you.

Another random thing is that a previous camper left some half eaten food items in the Bear Box. It was a pot with some rice concoction and a spork. It was intentional because it was wrapped in a plastic bag. Why the fuck couldn’t you just pack it out? Assholes…we packed out.

We cooked a bigger than usual breakfast of eggs, bacon and hashbrowns. Nothing like a whole pack of crispy bacon. Furi even got a few slices.

We hung around and relaxed mostly. Another camper came from the Twisted Shoe camp ground in his converted 4WD Fed Ex Van and wanted to check out my Roof Top Tent. I get this a lot. He said he was renewing his permit, which doesn’t work like that. You get one permit Somehow or another, we got talking with this man about sailing and then the U.S.S. Constitution and the USCG Barque Eagle came up. He said he saw the Navy teaching the Coasties how to sail once. I told him that he was wrong, I have a few friends that were stationed on the Eagle, it was the other way around and the only thing the U.S.S. Constitution does is turn around in its slip. He didn’t seem convinced. Why argue with idiots?

Later on we hiked to Twisted Shoe campground. It was a bit hot and Furi and myself weren’t really into it but Jon was motivated. Why not? I think whoever made the distances on the map for the park were incorrect, everything seemed longer. Furi would walk a bit, find some shade, lay down, get up, walk again, find some shade and repeat. She would also pant like she was in the desert for a week without water, which is not the case. When I hiked in the Chisos Mountains last summer, she did the same thing and made me look like the worst owner in the world to other hikers. She plays to the crowd to get sympathy sometimes. I almost quit myself but we made it to the campsite. I gave Furi my remaining water and we hiked back.

On our return to our camp, we ran into one of these things. I had seen it earier in the week when I was out in Telephone Canyon. The licence plate was from the Netherlands. Europeans love these things. They asked us how far the camp was and we actually gave them an accurate assessment, of course in statute miles! We made jokes that they had a French Chef in the back that was being bounced around and getting irritated at the trips progress. Boredom produces some strange entertainment. We also wondered if they could turn it around by the Campsite. I’m sure they were fine.

That night we cooked some Chorizo, vegetables and rice with of course, tortillas. It was one of the better meals.

We packed up all the non-essential gear before we went to bed and made plans to wake up at 6AM to get underway at 7AM. We finally threw out the spare Whataburger and fries stored in the freezer since Tuesday. Sad to see it go to waste.

Sun, Mar. 3rd: I think we both slept like shit but still awoke at 6AM. We made pretty good progress and hit our time goals and ate on the run. We made it to Midland/Odessa in good time and we even had time to spare, so we went to another Whataburger. IOur luck, it was kind of a shit hole and busy. The restroom was closed and I had to piss like a racehorse. Eventually it opened back up but the floor was still wet. Looked like the urinal overflowed. Nasty! The food wasn’t as good as the previous Whataburger.

It was sad seeing Jon go. We had a blast camping together and it’s always great to have company like that. I enjoyed it immensely. Furi looked a bit bummed as well but she got to sit in the front seat again.

Finally, it was cold. Like 40 degrees. We just left 80 degrees 4 hours ago…..I wasn’t prepped clothes wise, I was wearing shorts and Sanuks and was freezing my ass off while getting fuel! People looked at me at the gas station like I was crazy. The weather got even colder…I wasn’t sure what I was going to do next.

Junction, Tx next…

Fri, Mar 1st: While driving back on the River Road trail, we had a Customs/Border Patrol 10-Person van roll right up on our ass, we pulled over to let them pass. The van had high clearance but I wasn’t sure if it was 4-Wheel Drive. The CBP agent was bombing down the trail and I laughed at how shitty people treat Government vehicles, including myself! We wonder what was up.

We pull up to Mariscal mine, so Jon can take a look-see at it. I wasn’t into walking, so I decided to stay at the parking lot with Furi. I met two other backcountry campers, husband and wife, who were waiting for it to cool down before hiking out to the mine. They told me that there was a few undocumented immigrants that crossed over from Mexico at the Talley Ranch, The wife was visibly upset that there were some young children among the undocumented. I completely agree. Thinking back, that suspisious tinted out Raptor we saw a few days earlier might have been a scout/coyote for that crossing.

We finished at the mine and set out on Black Gap Road, it’s one of the few unmaintained roads in the National Park. We passed a tricked out jeep and asked about how the trail was. He said he pulled out a Custom/Border Patrol van out of the sand earlier. Not sure if it was the same van as before. Anyways, like I said before, people treat Government Vehicles like shit! The jeep guy gave the FJ a once over and said we’d be fine. We’d find out soon enough.

There were a lot of washouts and dips but nothing too crazy. Jon got out once before we hit the gap to spot on a minor washout.

The Black gap was no joke. We stopped checked out the rock placement, planned a route and afer our risk assessment, we went for it. Jon did an expert job of spotting! As per usual, Furi wasn’t impressed with our 4WD Skills. Sadly, there’s no picture of Lola Montez (The FJ’s name) dropping down over the gap but the crawl function she has was key. Uphill crawling is one thing, but down hill is another one. The only casualty was I hit the fake prop affixed on my trailer hitch. True Boatswainsmate shit, ran agound and threw a prop!

After traversing Black Gap, I thought it would be smooth sailing. I was wrong, dead wrong. It got pretty technical and without Jon’s help, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. There was extereme drop offs and rocks everywhere. I white knuckled the whole thing.

We finally arrived at Robbers Roost with a few hours of daylight to burn. I was dehydrated, tired and cranky but I at least I knew it and kept control of it. I threw some water down and calmed myself down. The older I get, the better I am at it. We set up camp and relaxed a bit. We had no real dinner that night.

The stars came out and we went to bed. One more night here…

It’s one thing to travel and it’s another to write about it. I should have written notes during the day and wrote a bit more electronically at night. Instead, I wrote notes and didn’t do shit before I went to bed. I’m catching up. We’ll see…remember, this was an experiment.

Tomorrow, Furiosa and I will be heading north to Scarborough, Maine to visit with the Horne’s. Then I’m going to see a few friends in New Hampshire and visit my cousin Andrew and camping for a “Men’s weekend”. The FJ is going to be rigged up a bit different and I’ll be pretty light with gear. No fridge, minimal cooking but I might pack the 4X4 recovery gear just in case I find some cool stuff.