Wednesday, January 16, 2008 - Bottomless Lakes State Park, Roswell NM

Thumper, near Brantley Lake State Park, Carlsbad, New Mexico, January 16, 2008

Thump, thump, thump

All day, all night, thump, thump, thump. Sounds like an old 2 cylinder John Deere tractor idling off in the distance. What could it be? Nobody runs those things full time. Certainly not out here in the desert. I'll find out - when I leave the park I'll head toward the thump and see if I can find the source. And find it I did, a couple of miles east of the park - a large two cylinder pumping engine; pumping what I'm going to guess is natural gas and I'm also going to guess it's running on the gas it's pumping. But then what's in those storage tanks? Crude?

Heading out

Farther west, eventually, but to get there I have to get around the mountins just west of Carlsbad. That means either a run around the south end through El Paso, TX or heading north to Artesia or Roswell, NM and from there head over the mountains to Alamogordo, NM. I'm choosing the later, mainly to stay avoid driving the interstates around El Paso. First stop: Bottomless Lakes State Park, Roswell, New Mexico, at least for the night.

Today's journey: US 285 north from Brantley Lake State Park, Carlsbad, New Mexico to Roswell, New Mexico then US 380 east to Bottomless Lakes State Park

Night camp

Bottomless Lakes State Park, Roswell NM

• Verizon cell phone service - Access is via Extended Network, roaming and the signal is weak
• No Verizon EVDO service - access is via the Extended Network and I've found service very slow.
• Go to Bottomless Lakes State Park website
• Locate to Bottomless Lakes State Park on my Night Camps map
• Check the weather here