it was a long drive today, but at least I'm warm now.

My boondocking spot next to the Rio Grande.

I drove about 270 miles today and for me that is a loooong drive. There's not many things that will make me drive that far in one day but in this case the cold and the wind made me want to get as far south as I needed to escape the bad weather.

I stopped at Elephant Butte state Park intending to spend a few nights there and for the first time in all the years I've been going there, my favorite boondocking area was full. I could've gone down to the beach area like a lot of people do but I've always been afraid of getting stuck in the sand down there. So I left and went a few miles down the road to the campground on the Rio Grande River where I stayed last Spring and found it much more to my liking because I'm the only one here.

I'm hoping that my favorite boondocking area being full at Elephant Butte state Park is not a sign of things to come, but my past experience tells me that it might be. But my winter travels have just started so it's too early to get pessimistic, I'll wait and get pessimistic tomorrow

Being here reminds me that I wanted to go visit the headwaters of the Rio Grande in southern Colorado last summer and never got around to it, but that's okay it gives me something else to do next Summer, and I think that would be a great trip in the little Bronco.

The Rio Grande, which runs through the campground, is in worse shape than it was last spring, if that's possible. Now the water is showing no signs of movement at all, and in fact is totally covered in some kind of scuzzy stagnant water plant.

I'm gonna stay here for two nights that should give me enough time to figure out where I want to go next. My eventual destination is Padre island near Corpus Christi Texas, and I was hoping to get there before December. But the brevity of my driving and my enjoyment of stopping and seeing things along the way makes me wonder if I can make it there by then. Remember my rule of thumb is "the trip should be just as much fun as the destination".

                                     theboondork

I've seen two Tarantulas today already, I didn't see any last time I was here.

If you look carefully you can see his fangs. I don't think I'll be walking around outside the camper at night. Think about back in the day when the cowboys slept in a bed roll on the ground, I don't know how much they got paid, but it wasn't enough.