Hobbs is only a few miles outside of Texas but that few miles makes quite a difference. Hobbs is desert. Once across the Texas border, the view took on shades of green. The further we drive the greener it became. Vast fields of wild flowers are in bloom covering the landscape in colors of purple, blue, orange, and red. Finally, the southwest desert is behind us.
It’s interesting how the desert ends and the green begins. For the first 50 or so miles, cactus grows under the trees. The further we travel into Texas, the cactus gives way to grass, wildflowers, and more trees.
Texas doesn’t have many “Rest Stops” but every 30 miles or so we came across picnic areas with tables and trashcans. Thankfully we are in a fully self contained RV --- if you know what I mean.
Our first stop today was Abilene. The listing I downloaded from FreeWiFi.com has several places that provide wifi for the price of a cup of coffee. Java City, across from one of the universities in Abilene, is one such place. We each had decaf cappuccinos with our internet service.
Abilene has a historic walking tour that we took. The buildings, dating back to 1920, 30s, and 40s, have all been renovated but the outsides appear original. The historic district is located in a clean and well maintained section of the city.
We are staying the night at RL RV park in Ranger, TX. It’s a nice smaller park with the units spaced at least 20-feet apart. Our space rent was only $15 and an extra $2 for WiFi service. Mary is off doing laundry in the Free laundry facility. No supplies are provided and I don’t think they are available anyway. We always travel with a few Tide “blocks”.
We just had our first Midwest thunder storm pass over. Moderately heavy rains with wind, lighting, and thunder came down for about 30-minutes then it stopped just as quickly as it had started. That was fun...
Gas price in Abilene: $2.789
See more pictures on our Picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/WA6MUU/20070417HobbsToRanger
