Day 198: Guadeloupe Mountains National Park, TX

We rode 55 miles due north from Van Horn, splitting the mileage pretty much evenly between the two of us.  From there we drove a short distance to Guadeloupe Mountains National Park.

We camped at Pine Springs Campground, which has primitive tent and RV camping ($8, flush toilets, no showers).  Most of the RV sites are simply lines painted on a parking lot, though we got one of a handful of sites with a separate parking pad and picnic table.  The odd design actually worked out pretty nicely, as it was a lot easier to meet other campers.

So we met a guy who had rented an off road teardrop from SoCal Campers, so I had a look at that.  It was a pretty basic design, but adequate for the two week trip that he was just wrapping up.  It is jacked up high enough that even someone six feet tall might have trouble closing the rear hatch in some circumstances.  And the rear hatch showed signs of some significant water damage, but that is probably more a symptom of it being a rental than an indictment on the quality of construction.

Next up was Mark, who had lived in Boise and had spent several months traveling around the country with his pickup camper and fishing boat.  It took us both a while to catch on that we both had Idaho "1A" license plates, which signifies both vehicles were registered in Ada County (where Boise is the county seat).  It turns out that we have a common acquaintance, Glenn Baker, who was also a member of the Les Bois Miata Club and an avid cyclist, though at the time I struggled to remember Glenn.

After setting up, we went out and did some exploring, and when we came back, a young man named Lewis had pulled into the site next to ours with his conversion van and touring bike.  It turns out he had done some touring in central and northeastern Australia at some point, though he has spent the past year traveling around the US and working here and there.  In order not to be the only living thing in his van, he has packed it full of plants and he ferments his own meade and sauerkraut!

Our galley cupboards were just about bare, but after taking stock of what we had available, we invited Mark over for dinner, who (thankfully) contributed bread and watermelon to make it a filling meal.  We shared a dish of steak, sweet potato, celery, onion and spinach, which we simmered in a sauce of tomato paste and red wine with a little Greek seasoning.  Lewis was already cooking his dinner, so we invited him over to dine with us.  He allowed us to sample his meade, which we all considered to have turned out exceptionally well.  We shared our wine with everyone.

Lewis (center) and Mark (right).

We had a pleasant evening swapping stories, finally calling it quits once we were all pretty well chilled by the night air.