Road Trippin’ to San Antonio

Posted 3 years ago by Mike

We had about 900 miles to cover between Tucson and San Antonio. Our first stop was Willcox, Arizona. The only thing I knew about this little town was that it was close to Chiricahua National Monument which our friend Andy said was worth the trip. Little did I know, Willcox grows over 80% of the grapes used in all Arizona wines. Surprisingly, Willcox wines do just as well as Napa Valley wines in competition. When in Rome…I had to sample some of these wines. Tastings in Willcox are only $10-15 and they give a generous pour. And yep they have some really good wine.

The gem of our Willcox stay was Chiricahua National Monument. They say it is the Bryce Canyon of Arizona and I see why. It is spectacular. The rock formations just incredible. We enjoyed a nice hike in Echo Canyon. Definitely one of my favorite places we have visited thus far.

After Willcox, our next stop was Las Cruces, New Mexico. We did a little walking tour of the New Mexico State University campus, visited a couple breweries, and hiked Dripping Springs. Dripping Springs had some interesting history — a hotel and a tuberculosis quarantine camp was built up in the mountain. You would have never known until we get way back into the canyon and some of the historic buildings are still standing.

Our next stop was Carlsbad, New Mexico. We like visiting caves/caverns and Carlsbad Caverns National Park has been on our radar. We have visited several other caves but Carlsbad may be my favorite. The size of the Big Room and the number of formations left me in awe.

I met an interesting young man also staying at the RV Park. He is only 21-years old but working as an oil tank welder in the Carlsbad area. He is from Illinois and had to leave his family behind to take this job. He drove to Alabama to apply for the company, Louisiana to take his welder certification test, and then Carlsbad to the job site. It is great to see someone so young dedicated to a career and making a better life for himself.

In Carlsbad, we experienced our coldest weather yet in the RV on this adventure. The temps fell to mid 20’s at night. Our water connection hose froze but thawed out during the day. We just made sure we had water in our fresh tank to get by. Still learning RV tricks 🙂

Next up on the journey to San Antonio was San Angelo, Texas. We knew nothing about this little town except it had a huge state park situated on a lake/reservoir. The lake’s water level was only at 6%, but it was still pretty big. We kayaked on a nice, sunny day and saw huge flocks of birds coming and going to the lake. We also saw the bison herd that the state park manages. Amazing animals. And of course, we had to check out a brewery in the hip historic downtown area.

And then we entered…Texas Hill Country…and San Antonio. Our home for the next month.