Into New Mexico

 

Our ambition is to collect 7 more Elks pins along the way to take our collection to 200.

We’ll see how that pans out.

Not my picture, but this is the Texas Eifel Tower

Paris Texas is a quirky place famous for it’s Eiffel Tower with a Stetson Hat on top! Naturally we stayed at the Elks Lodge but unfortunately they don’t have pins and neither did the two other lodges that were in the area. We had wised up enough to call before we decided to drive only to be disappointed.

We’ve been to Paris several times as well as the other stops along the way and it’s like returning home somehow.

Rt 82 is 4 lanes most of the way but occasionally narrows down to 2 thru the few towns along the way. Speed limits are 75 thru most of Texas but watch out for the 25mph limits or even 20mph in some of the smaller towns.

We like to drive backroads and limit our daily drives to 200 miles or less and Rt 82 is laid out perfectly. Shreveport to Paris 160 miles, Paris to Wichita Falls 190 miles, Wichita Falls to Lubbock 220 miles.

Carlsbad or Alamogordo NM would normally be our next stop but we remembered that our friends Matt and Carol spend their winters in an Escapees RV Park in Artesia New Mexico. They had posted that they were back there already and so we diverted a little to go see them at the Escapees Original Ranch. We explored their park and went out for dinner in Artesia, great catfish!

Always fun when Matt and Carol are around!

Artesia may replace Carlsbad as a routine stop on this route as it stays within our 200 miles a day routine and lets us cut out a stop at Alamogordo because it puts Las Cruces Elks in that 200 mile bracket.

Thanks for a fun time Matt and Carol see you next time!