I am going to try to make this short and to the point, but I think we all know how that works out. I am writing today from an RV park in El Paso, Texas. This was not our original intended route. What I didn't mention in my last post was that while we were driving to Marfa, an engine light came on. Damn engine lights. These are the worrisome things that happen on the road, and for those who really know me know I tend to fret over these things.
So we detoured a bit from our original plan, which is fine as our plan was really just some suggested notes we cobbled together when the weather was much colder back home. So we made contact with Mercedes-Benz of El Paso and drove straight there from Marfa. I had the OBD codes read, back in Alpine, by a nice young man at O'Reilly Auto Parts, and even bought myself a code reader. Diagnosing the electronics in todays world requires an electronic reader that know a while lot more than I do, that is for sure. The guy at O'Reilly said he could find no engine faults, had a green light, so I reset it. Cool, but then 20 miles down the road the engine light came on again. Drat! When we were settled in our campground in Marfa I used my new reader and it chatted with my iPhone through the appropriate app and ended up saying it is an exhaust issue of some kind. This is when I discovered that I really don't have a stinkin' clue about these things. So we made up our minds to head to the nearest Mercedes dealer where smarter people reside. Yesterday afternoon I was helped by Lori and Mike, both seemed very expert and competent. Mike was the technician who hooked up a really cool looking computer to the OBD port and began his scans. What he determined was that the faults were due to some wiring issues on a replacement part that we had installed before we left home - another long and complicated story here, which I will spare you from.
Memories of Marfa
So after fiddling with a few wires and crossing fingers the engine light disappeared and Mike said I was good to go. He also said if the light comes on, not to worry about it it is simply an exhaust thing and will not be harmful for the van to be driven. All is right with the world. We drove back to the park and got no light. I am also having a DEF issue, which is also related to the repair I had done before we left...but we have a work around for that too, so the journey continued with a much better peace of mind.
El Paso is a big town
It is hot here in El Paso and we both came to the conclusion that the wind always blows here in the west. And of course the wind blows too hard to have the awning out to block the western desert sun. Last night we walked over to a local restaurant, Julio's, and got great Mexican food for supper. Carol and I both though it was wonderful. We got it to go, so we could bring back here to the Doodle, as Julio did not let puppies into there restaurant and well, she's family, we couldn't leave her home, even in the air conditioning. We shared some of our supper too, Carol even had chocolate cake. My goodness did we eat too much. We even had local television to watch, that was a first for this trip. Due to time zone changes (we are now in Mountain Time) we missed the evening news. We both fell asleep watching a travel story on PBS.
Border patrol making a stop
El Paso is a really large town and right on the border with Mexico. Ciudad Juarez is just over there, right across the river. On our way here we followed the border for quite a while and saw lots of border patrol along the way. Even saw a stop right in front of us and as the officer was getting out of his truck he had his hand on his gun. I do not envy their job, but am grateful for their service.
Hiking in Franklin Park
This morning we disconnected from the water and electric for a tour around the area. We headed around the eastern bypass toward the Franklin Mountains State Park. We discover just how really big El Paso is, wow. The highway system is awesome. Back home we just don't have the space I guess. Here in Texas (where everything is bigger) when you take an off ramp you may go up 20 stories and sweep around a really large curve that would be measured in miles And they are all decorated with great colors and always a Texan star. So cool. We climbed up and up over the mountains and the an 8% grade down the other side. This is real mountain driving. The entrance to the park is not well marked and the exit to get into the park was NOT designed by the same people who make this long off ramps. The exit was a very sudden and sharp 90 degree turn. We made it OK but it made my heart pound for a minute. This is a great park, very neat and well kept and an extremely pretty desert area in the Chihuahuan desert.
The old man and his little doggie
We think Harper must have felt at home. We found a nice nature trail to hike. It was a fantastic trail in that it had placards denoting all the different variety of plants, all of which are foreign to us easterners. They even had a bird blind to watch birds up close. We sat in the shaded blind for a while and watched finches, humming birds, doves and quail, and af course birds we had no idea what they were. Along the trail we saw roadrunners and jackrabbits, and even a squirrel of some sort. After the hike Carol made lunch and we all sat in the middle of this exotic place and just enjoyed the view and the conversation.
Carol and Harper watching the birdies. . .
Our next stop was back in El Paso proper, the Chamizal National Memorial. Chamizal National Memorial celebrated the peaceful settlement of a dispute over the international boundary between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. The dispute was settled in 1963. This is a lovely large park, but all the building and museum was closed due to covid. But we had another great walk and Harper got to run free. Here at the park the border is always present, just over the road with a high fence topped with razor wire. This doesn't seem to be the best way to settle a dispute.
A place with fields for a puppy to run in. We had it to ourselves.
After the park we did some shopping, there is always shopping to do. One of the things we forgot at home was the hair clippers, and I am getting shaggy so we got a new cheap pair. We returned to the RV park and hooked back up and just chilled out. I got a haircut, did some maintenance checks and had lots of liquids. Two bottles of water and a diet soda in the past hour. We are both taking showers and getting set for new adventures tomorrow.
Well so much for short and sweet. . . .
This is just scary
Here is a gallery from the past couple of days
