April May West Texas

04/31-05/04

Odessa, TX

Mesquite Oasis RV Park

The only park that had space available thanks to the oil boom, it was a nice campground for 4 nights.  Space 98.  The only problem?  The local officer's dog(s) are outdoors, and bark throughout the night.  Not continuous barking, just enough to keep you awake - every 10 minutes from 3 am to 5 am.  (Eye Roll!)  And I'm fairly certain nobody says a thing.  I can't believe the officer and family can sleep through the racket.  Those poor pups, they looked so bored.  I'm pretty sure I never saw them out of their little cage.  

$35/night

Great shower setup ... although, town lost power one night, so the water availability in the shower was finite and running out quickly!  We were racing the tank storage, and the water to air output kept changing in a breathy direction.  By the time the shower was over, it was just dripping.

Spent some time with my in-laws.

The local community center offers yoga two days per week.  I decided to join and went in with fairly low expectations.  It was awesome!  ROming Yoga has great teachers.  Those classes were exactly what I needed, and gave me much needed stress relief.  

No organic produce at the local groceries.  The set-ups are weird, like a miniature Wal-mart.  So the "HUGE" grocery store (I'm looking at you HEB) ends up being much smaller than you thought.  

Ready to head out.

05/04-05/06

Monahans Sandhills State Park

Site 23

One of the deepest sites, nicely situated.

Nice shower for the ladies, very hot water.

Men's shower is not so nice, no curtains on the showers, so memories of locker room's past!

In May, you cannot do much outside from about 10 am to 7 pm.  I slept one afternoon away, probably fighting off some viral invader.

The pups and other half venture out in mid-day (the joys of producing much more melanin than others, or a protective fur coat). 

The pups go wild every-time they see, hear, or smell rabbits.  Walks are an interesting experience: each human holds one dog, each human gets pulled along by one dog (these canines are in the low to mid 20 lb/9 kg range), and each human gets a heckuva laugh as each dog hop lunges down the road on two hind legs and a collar ... no wonder those back claws are so short!

The dunes exploration gave us beautiful sunsets, tactile pleasures (the sand gets cool when you sink your feet down), and animal track challenges (what made that ... bird dragging tail).

Our produce is still running low, but no grocery store in driving distance has heard of "organic."  As a result, we are not restocking until our next trip.  While we did have to unhook the Jeep, we did not drive it anywhere.  All the park amenities are within easy walking distance of the campground.

I yoga'ed under the stars.  Sand as a mat stresses your balance.  My crow did not have much lift as the sand shifted!  :)