Short Tripping

My boyfriend, who lives far away in upstate New York, and his 12-year old grandson, recently came and stayed with me for almost three weeks. We really had a good time. While he was here we took a couple of short trips to visit some other friends in the area. We traveled fairly frugally, a new idea for me, and it worked out really well. We traveled east to Del Rio, Texas, on our first short trip and visited some friends who have a lovely home on Lake Amistad. We packed an ice chest with lunch things so we would not have to stop at a restaurant. Frankly, there isn’t much of anywhere to stop on the way from here to Del Rio so this had as much to do with expediency as frugality! This was my boyfriend’s idea and I went along with it. It never would have occurred to me to pack a lunch. We stopped at Langtry to see the Judge Roy Bean Museum, which is a neat little side-trip off Highway 90, and had planned to picnic there. When we arrived there was no place to eat so we visited the museum and pressed on. We found a wonderful place by a bridge over the Pecos River (locally known as the Pecos high bridge). There were several covered picnic tables overlooking the river and no one else was there. It was lovely and I know that no restaurant would have had quite the same ambience. We did go out to dinner in Del Rio that night at Wright’s Steakhouse, which has the best chicken-fried steak I’ve ever eaten, and spent the night with our friends. I normally always stay in a hotel when I visit someone but I was trying to be frugal and open-minded and agreed to stay in our friend’s home this trip. I have to say I was glad we did. We really had a nice visit. I don’t think I’d want to do it for a week but over one night worked out well. We saved money on a room and got much more time to visit with our friends.

A few days later we headed west to visit Carlsbad Caverns and Roswell, New Mexico. We again packed lunch in our ice chest and got underway. I was so enamored of our prior picnic on the Pecos River that, when I found a picnic table symbol on the map near the Pecos River outside of Mentone, Texas, I decided we needed to stop there, even though it was a couple of miles out of our way. Unfortunately we never did find that picnic table! We ended up sitting on the ground on the bank of a much reduced Pecos River. The guys were good sports and again had a nice, quiet lunch. We had booked a room at White’s City, New Mexico, for our first night. Having been to Carlsbad Caverns before I knew this place was pretty schlocky but it had a water park and I thought our young companion would think it was fun. It was fairly expensive ($84) and really horrible. If you go to Carlsbad Caverns I would highly recommend that you get a room in Carlsbad. It’s farther away but worth it! On our first evening we went to the bat flight program, which is free. The bat flight is really great. There are over a million bats that roost in Carlsbad Caverns. There is an amphitheater where you sit and listen to a ranger program and then, just at dusk, all the bats come swirling out and fly off. It’s really just the neatest thing ever! The next day we went on two back-to-back self-guided tours in the caverns. The cost for the three of us was about $20 with $3 for the little audio thing you carry with you. It was a fun adventure. After the caverns we went into Carlsbad and visited their Living Desert Gardens and Zoo. We drove on to Roswell, New Mexico, where we were again staying the night with friends. We wanted to visit the UFO Museum but didn’t have time. The next morning we had breakfast and then drove the 3+ hours to Midland, Texas, where I put the guys on the plane back to New York and then made my way back home. Two picnic lunches and two overnights in someone else’s home; both frugal and both fun!

These two little short trips were lots of fun and taught me to look at trip expenses a little differently and to be a little more open-minded about what I am willing to do. I am trying to apply these lessons to all the areas of my life!