We made our way from Big Bend to Van Horn Texas, and arrived at our overnight stop at the Desert Willow RV Park on Main St.  According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 2.8 square miles and a population of 1,900.

Desert Willow RV Park, Van Horn TX.

We didn’t see any sign of life when we arrived in town. It appears to be another instance of a ghost town.

It was a particularly cold and rainy evening as we headed to the only place in town to eat, the Hotel El Capitan. Our hopes were not high when we entered the restaurant, but the place was packed and hopping and our meal was delicious.

What we discovered was that we were surrounded by a team of geologists working in the area, testing underground space to house a 10,000 year Clock of the Long Now, there’s a 2 meter prototype of this on display at the Science Museum in London. Also there was a group of diners working at the space launch facility. Apparently, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and Blue Origin , has housed his space tourism company test facility just north of the city.

Due to the really poor weather conditions we decided to change our plans, and move further west, and hopefully better weather, which meant leaving Roswell, Carlsbad and surrounding area for another time.

Off to New Mexico