Lost in the Desert

There are few things as worrisome when traveling than getting lost and your GPS basically saying it has no clue either. Add that to being in the middle of the Texas desert and it becomes the stuff of nightmares!

On Wednesday we headed out to our next 2 night stopover in Sierra Blanca, TX. The directions we got were to go 20 miles north of town, turn right at the overhead sign for Sunset Ranches, then follow the road around to the left past a house, go through the silver gate and turn right about 2 miles down the road. 

We saw the sign, turned right, and from there it was anybody's guess where we were. The road didn't turn to the left and there was no house, only a few RVs and trailers way out in the desert with "no trespassing" signs everywhere. It was the kind of place you could get shot just stopping to ask directions, if you could have found anyone to ask. There was no cell service, and when we found a place that showed 1 bar on the phone we tried to get GPS to tell us where we were. It basically shrugged its shoulders and laughed at us!

When hauling a 26' travel trailer behind you there aren't a lot of options when trying to find a place to turn around on a one-lane dirt road. Thanks to Jim's awesome backing skills we did manage to get going back the way we had come. As providence would have it, we met a car coming into the area that pulled over and stopped.

The man had long, salt and pepper, scruffy hair, a long scruffy beard of the same color to match, and ample empty spaces between what teeth he had left - the kind of person that you'd go out of your way to avoid if you met him in the suburbs. Strangely though, he looked like he belonged out here. Give him a pick axe and a mule and he would have looked like an authentic prospector. He was driving a beat up light gray clunker. Actually I'm not sure if it was supposed to be light gray or just the color of the thick dust that covered it front to back.

I'm not sure what clued him in that we needed help. Perhaps he's not used to seeing trucks hauling RVs through the desert, or perhaps it was the panicked and confused look on our faces, or maybe God whispered in his ear that we were totally lost. Whatever it was, we were extremely grateful. You've heard that men don't like to ask for directions, but thankfully Jim put his ego aside and decided to make an inquiry.

The man didn't know the address or people we were looking for but did say there were numerous gates all up and down the state road we had turned off of. OK, so maybe we turned in at the wrong one. We went back out to the state road and turned north to continue on a way further. To add to the confusion, Jim couldn't remember what the odometer had said when we left the town so he didn't know how far we'd come.

Several miles down the road we saw another Sunset Ranches sign and turned in there. This looked more like what the directions described. A short distance down the dirt road we saw a house and the road curved to the left. Another mile we came to a closed silver gate. I got out of the truck and opened it for Jim to drive through, then closed it behind us. The road was soft dirt and a slight wind was fortunately blowing the dust away from us. 

As I got back into the truck we saw a white F350 dually coming down the road toward us. At least I think it used to be white because it was that same shade of gray that the previous vehicle was. Our truck and RV were also now this same color. The driver pulled over and introduced himself as our host. He'd seen our dust cloud from his house (which was about 2 miles ahead, by the way) and figured he'd come get us. He did warn us to not honk our horn at the cattle in the road because it would have the opposite effect than what we wanted. Turns out that's how he calls them in to be fed. He drives to the top of the ridge, honks and they all come for the feed he drops off. Pavlov's cattle perhaps?

We followed his dust cloud to our camping spot down the road from his house. It was private, about a half mile away from his house, and not another house in sight. But oh, the dust and dirt! In English, Sierra Blanca means white mountain range, though I think it might be referring to the dust. The night sky looks like what you'd see at a planetarium exhibit, pitch black and blanketed with stars. He said there shouldn't be a lot of coyotes right now as he just shot about 40 of them. Good to know. Apparently, the state pays $20 a head but a neighboring rancher pays $50 each. I suppose that's a good side income and helps the ranchers out as well.

Sierra Blanca, TX

In this picture the buildings to the right are where our host lives. The small white spec to the left of them is our RV. As you can see, we were in the middle of nowhere. The vastness of the land is just mind blowing. Our brains can't comprehend how big the world is, but when we experience areas like this we are left with the feeling that we are but a tiny spec in the grand scheme of things. And yet, to God, we are everything.

Our neighbors in Sierra Blanca.
Our bikes on the front rack can double as cow catchers. Who knew?

Tree cholla

The road less traveled

The mountains in the distance are about 80 miles away

Soaptree Yucca

We're off-grid, or dry camping, while we're here, meaning no electricity or water hook-ups. We filled up the 60 gallon fresh water tank before we left our last stop. You'd be surprised how fast you can go through 60 gallons, so we conserve as much as we can. We use paper plates, plastic utensils, cook on the outdoor grill as much as possible, eat things that can be prepared without cooking, save the water that's used while waiting for the hot water to come through for other uses and take bucket baths. If we had to go longer than the 2 days we're here, the rule of thumb for the toilet would be "if it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down." Living without electric hookup means we draw power off the two 12 volt batteries and recharge those when necessary with the generator. Fortunately, we got the battery system repaired while we were in Apache Junction.

We'll be here till Friday morning. We've been invited to our host's house to see his off grid system. He'll also show us how he installed a diesel heating system in his daughter's RV, which is supposed to be much more efficient than the propane furnace we now have. One of the benefits of RVing, besides all the memorable adventures, is all the interesting people you meet and all the things you learn from them. 

But the evil troublemaker in me has a strong desire to honk the horn!