The Adventures of Reba

Our next stop was a visit to the Very Large Array (VLA), which only just reopened to the public! This telescope consists of 27 radio antennas peering deep into space from the middle of nowhere New Mexico. Each is 82 feet in diameter! They are arranged in a Y formation and sit on railroad tracks, allowing scientists to change their placement, and thus what they see, which they do every 3-4 months. Timed entry tickets can be purchased online for only $6, which gives access to an exhibit and short self-guided walking tour that gets you up close to one of the antennas. Electronic usage on site is very limited to prevent interference, though you may recognize the VLA from the movie Contact 👽 or from a Bon Jovi music video 🎸

While in Taos we visited the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge (beautiful views!), the earthships (self-sufficient off-grid homes made of natural and recycled materials, so cool!), and the Nicolai Fechin House (an art museum and the historic adobe home of this Russian-born artist, known for his Native American portraits). There’s a lot of Taos that we didn’t get to see, so we look forward to returning someday, but we left just in time as the snow arrived only a couple of days after we departed!

While on a tour in Marfa, TX we started talking with a woman and mentioned we live in an RV. “You’re not in that Unity, are you?!” We said “Yes!” She told us she’d considered ordering one but hadn’t seen one in person yet, so we offered her a tour of our RV. While we were showing it to her three other people from the tour also asked if they could see it 🤣 I offered the first woman my phone number if she had any questions, and she offered us a place to stay in Taos. We took her up on it and I’m so glad we did! We were just expecting a driveway, but we got a whole casita all to ourselves! It’s been so nice to have space for a few days to stretch out, defrost our fridge, and get all our bedding washed (it’s the little things). We’ve met some incredibly generous and interesting people over the past year of RVing! And many of these conversations with strangers have started because of a shared love of or interest in our RV brand 🚐

Last time we were in Alamogordo Beau had a very long beard and we boondocked at Dog Canyon Dispersed Campground, this time we got a spot just up the road at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park. We didn’t do a lot of exploring in the park since we were mostly there to go to the Trinity Site and White Sands, but we definitely enjoyed the sunset views!

Since we were in the area we decided to stop at White Sands National Park again (but the real reason we went was I wanted a shirt I’d seen last time, and Beau obliged so he could do a POTA activation - a ham radio thing)! You can see the park from miles away, a thin line that glows white near the horizon, it’s really remarkable. The last time we visited White Sands was in February and it had just snowed a day or two before. The white gypsum sand was spotted with snow patches, and the moisture caused it to cake on to the bottom of the RV. It took several washes to get it all off. This time, though, the sand was dry 🥳 I got my shirt and went for a walk in the dunes, and Beau got his ham time.

We did something you can only do two days per year! We visited the Trinity Site, the location of the world’s first nuclear detonation. Only open to the public two days per year, once in April and October, it’s free and relatively easy to do. We decided to join the caravan to the site, limited to the first 125 cars that show up, the caravan takes a route through the base that the general public doesn’t take. At the site there isn’t a whole lot to see, a marker showing the spot where it detonated and a small pile of rubble where a structure supporting the bomb had stood, another structure they’d considered using to encase the bomb but ended up not using, some informational signs and photographs. Much of the trinitite, glass that formed from the sand, has been removed and most of what remains is now hidden beneath a structure to protect it. You can take a shuttle to the ranch house where the core was assembled, but the line was very long and we decided not to go. As we left we encountered a group called the Downwinders, who shared information about the health effects residents in the region and their descendants have experienced, and I wished that their story were more a part of the day, instead of apart from. The effects of nuclear weapons have impacted millions globally, and Trinity is largely where it all started.

And then we went to Pistachioland 🤣🤷🏻‍♀️

This is our second visit to Marfa, Texas, one of the few places we’ve returned to (so far) on our travels. Formerly an Army base, it’s now mostly known because the artist Donald Judd purchased several properties here a few years before his death, and his two foundations continue to operate from here in an effort to maintain his legacy. We were able to take tours of his home and studios, and Beau visited the Chinati Foundation museum too. There’s several cute shops and galleries and delicious restaurants. There’s a Prada store art installation in the middle of nowhere. It’s hard to sum up Marfa: Part small town tourism, part hipster millennial hang out, part quirky artist community? Yes and no. We keep saying “Next time…” and “When we come back…” so, I imagine there will be a part 3 someday. See you then, Marfa!

Some more photos and a video from Big Bend.

Sam Nail Ranch

Can you see our new tarantula friends? There are two of them in this photo! 😳

Beau stopping to smell the flowers at Sotol Vista

Tuff Canyon

We took a rowboat and horses to the village of Boquillas in Mexico. I asked our oarsman how many times per day he crosses the river, he said he didn’t know, too many to count. All day, he said. We also had a guide for the horse journey and I asked him how many times per day he made that trek, he said only once, there are so many people signed up to do it that they try to rotate through everyone. We had lunch in the village and walked around a bit before returning.

Santa Elena Canyon

Our weekend at Big Bend National Park was crammed full of activities! We drove the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive to our site at Cottonwood Campground, stopping to see the sites like Sam Nail Ranch, Sotol Vista, Tuff Canyon, and Mule Ears. The next day we crossed the Rio Grande by rowboat and rode horses to the Mexican village of Boquillas for lunch! Then drove back across the park to hike Santa Elena Canyon.

The sunsets here were absolutely spectacular! We stayed at an RV park just outside of Big Bend National Park for several days before heading into the park. We were one of only a few campers at this campground. We enjoyed being in one spot all week, soaked up the quiet landscape, and got to know the farm animals 🐐🐓🦃🐈