Indian Lodge, Fort Davis via Silver City & El Paso

Today's first rest stop was Silver City - it was once an Apache Indian campsite, later the boyhood home of the notorious gunslinger Billy the Kid, and more recently a silver and copper mining boomtown. Then onto Las Cruces where we saw our first roadruner (New Mexico's state bird) - a giant one! It was huge (20 feet tall and 42 feet long)and made entirely of trash - its belly stuffed with old shoes and other parts of its body sporting everything from office fans, to computer parts, to children's toys. Apparently this is the world’s largest roadrunner - Beep Beep!

Next stop - El Paso. This is a border town and very intriguing. We watched people streaming over the bridge back into Mexico after doing a day's work or a day's shopping in the US. Border patrol cars were everywhere and we saw the huge fence running alongside two deep canals - making it very difficult for anyone to jump the border. In fact a bit later we were pulled over by border security who wanted to see our papers and also used a sniffer dog to smell our car (looking for drugs I guess) - luckily we passed with flying colours and were allowed to continue on our journey.

We reached Davis Mountain State Park after dark and settled into our room in the Indian Lodge - great room with adobe walls and native-American style furniture. It was New Year's Eve but we were too tired to stay awake so greeted the new year the following morning - and what a beautiful new year's day. The sun was shining and the view from our room was great. Later we drove up to the nearby lookout where the views were spectatular and then continued around to check out the McDonald Observatory. Being new year's day the observatories were closed but we were able to enjoy the buildings and the views. McDonald Observatory is one of the world's leading centres for astronomical research, teaching, and public education and are located on top of Mount Locke and Mount Fowlkes which offer some of the darkest night skies in the United States.

Back at Indian Lodge we met a couple who were staying in RV Park - Terry & Lisa. We are still really keen to purchase an RV and drive around the US one day so were really excited when they invited us inside their 5th wheeler to check it out - very impressive. They gave us lots of information re buying the right van etc and have since emailed us more info which is really great. Hopefully we will see them on the road one day in the not too distant future........

Our time at Indian Lodge was far too short but is definitely another place on our 'return to' list.