4 NIGHTS IN 4 LOCATIONS IN 2 STATES (NM)



MONDAY - After traveling 166-miles west we arrived at our first stop on the next leg of our journey in the town of San Angelo, TX.

We've been here in town once before when we spent the night at the local Walmart on our way to meet up with friends to watch the Total Solar Eclipse last year in April.

After posting our location last time, we learned from several of Tricia's aunts that her paternal grandparents were married in this town way back in December of 1943 during World War II.

This time around we learned there is a much nicer place to overnight for FREE in this town!


Just 11-miles southwest of the Walmart is a county park that will allow visitors to spend up to 3-nights for FREE. There are garbage cans and picnic tables, but not much else other than a slow flowing creek and some very noisy ducks.

Our late afternoon view out the large side windows of THE POD.

These 7 noisy ducks pitched a fit when they found out I didn't bring them any food.

Another cold night coming, forecast to still be 24°F at 10:00AM when we get back on the road.




TUESDAY - I woke up late, around 8:30AM, thanks to my generous and giving wife!

Just kidding, but she did share her sickness with me and I now have a sore throat and stuffy nose. It was only a matter of time before she did, right?


At 9:00AM I tried to make a second reservation at Glacier National Park, this time at the eastern entrance of the park in St. Mary, MT. The operative word in that sentence is "tried", because once again I was turned away with my first attempt.


I was however successful at finding the geocache hidden in the park and now once again have an "active find" in the state of Texas.


After another 153-miles traveling west by southwest we found ourselves at the Walmart in Fort Stockton, TX, which is located just off of I-10 Exit #256.

We arrived just after 1:00PM, way too early for a Walmart overnight, but this is a very popular location for overnight visitors. There were already 3 other RVers in the parking lot when we parked and 2-hours later there are now at least a dozen that I can see out the windows of THE POD. Plus there are two 18-wheelers that appear to be settling in for the night.

I sure hope we are able to get some rest tonight and have success with my second attempt at Glacier National Park reservations at 9:00AM tomorrow morning. At least it should be a little bit warmer tonight, only getting down to 28°F.




WEDNESDAY - Again, no luck with getting the Glacier National Park east entrance campground reservation this morning.

Before getting on the road we filled with gasoline at the Walmart branded gas station right here in the parking lot. Usually if there is a gas station on the Walmart property it is either a Murphy's USA or Murphy's Express station, neither is owned in any part by Walmart.

I guess Walmart is now getting into the convenience store/gas station business. At least their gas prices were still 10¢ less than most other stations in town.


Today we "plodded" across 159-miles of Interstate 10 Westbound through the rather desolate region of the Texas panhandle. There wasn't much of anything "green" to see along the route, most everything was a shade of brown.

We passed by three or four small towns with populations of less than 2500 each, which means there wasn't a Walmart in sight. Luckily we know of a great little roadside picnic spot with a view to overnight at because we stayed here once before last year.

Today we crossed into the Mountain Time Zone and will be spending our last night in Texas. That means we both get an extra hour of sleep tonight, right? Some how I don't think it's going to feel that way in the morning!




THURSDAY - Once again I was online this morning, this time at 8:00AM because we are now in the Mountain Time Zone, trying to secure a campsite in the St. Mary's Campground in Glacier National Park.

Unfortunately I was once again "too slow" to click the mouse to make the reservation, but to my amazement the person who beat me to it only booked one night. That means I'll get another shot at it tomorrow morning when Tricia and I both will be on our laptops to take a "double shot" at scoring the site.


Tonight we are going to be "plugged in to electricity" at the Leasburg Dam State Park in New Mexico. The forecast for tonight/tomorrow morning is for a low of 13°F which would tie THE POD's current "all-time lowest recorded temperature", which we experienced while at the Grand Canyon in April of 2023.

Either way we're going to have to turn off our electric space heaters about the time we go to bed tonight and turn on the propane furnace so that it warms the waste water tanks under THE POD's floors. The last thing we need is to freeze and crack a waste tank!

We are also going to be looking for a place to refill one of our 30lb. propane tanks which is currently at 34% when it was 100% full just a week ago.



FRIDAY - At sunrise this morning our temperature here at Leasburg Dam State Park in New Mexico dipped to just 10°F.

As mentioned before, that's a new "all time low temperature" recorded in THE POD. Well not in THE POD, rather outside THE POD, you know what I mean.

As far as we can tell the temperature record is the only thing we broke last night. There doesn't appear to be any leaks under THE POD and everything inside seems to be working just fine.

It may have been 10°F outdoors, but it was a relatively mild 68°F inside THE POD.



GOOD NEWS! We secured our second Glacier National Park campsite this morning and I'm thinking about pressing our luck and trying for a third reservation at another location in the park.

You are only allowed to spend 14-days total in the park and each one of our overlapping reservations are for 14-days each so we'll have to trim them down at a later date.

The third reservation would be back on the west side of the park on the opposite shore of Lake McDonald.



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