An Eventful Trip-State of Travel 8-27-2021

Donna and I have continued to travel some during the past couple of months and we have encountered some more challenges this summer mainly due to the extremely wild weather that has been going on across the United States.

An Eventful Trip

A few weeks back we were scheduled to travel to Puerto Rico for the first time but after monitoring weather conditions in Puerto Rico that was forecasted to get hit by a tropical storm we decided to cancel our trip to Puerto Rico. We have been stranded in places in the past due to unexpected weather issues so we are working to be even more cautious and prudent when it comes to possible weather issues. With possible flight cancelations and not really being able to go out and do much due to the storm it was the right call to not go.

We still wanted to travel that weekend so we looked for any last minute deals. We were surprised that a few cities had some great rates so we decided to go to El Paso. We did our normal checks before booking the airfare by checking are hotels a good prices, are rental cars a good price and what does the weather like. All the prices in El Paso and New Mexico were good and the weather was showing moderate chances of scattered storms that for us is not a huge barrier for travel.

We arrived in El Paso to a mostly sunny day and visited a nice overlook in the most mountainous major city in Texas that looked over all of El Paso and over the border into Juarez, Mexico. We went to a museum that told the history of El Paso and had a memorial to the deadly El Paso Wal-Mart shooting. We decided to drive up to our next stop of Carlsbad, New Mexico. On the drive we could see some pretty heavy rain off into the desert on this very desolate drive to Carlsbad. A sign read in El Paso “Next Services 118 miles” (or close to that amount of miles) and we really did not see much of anything until Carlsbad in that regard. There were emergency phones along the route since cell phone coverage was not available. We stopped at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas. Its home to the highest peak in Texas (Guadalupe Peak). We visited a historic ranch and admired these very rugged and desolate mountains. We got to Carlsbad with no problem and went out and got some great New Mexican food famous for its Red and Green Chile.

With Covid rates going up we have decided on trip and at home to start taking to go again and eating at home or in our hotel room to be cautious. While at the hotel on the news we started seeing reports of a flash flood emergency in El Paso and in areas on New Mexico. The scattered showers had become a major flood event for the area. The desert dry ground cannot absorb much water so flash floods do happen with amounts of rain that in Houston would not be a big deal. With seeing a unusual new forecast with heavy rain where we were going the next day in Ruidoso and White Sands we decided to once again change our plans and Hilton graciously canceled our hotel past the cancellation deadline in Ruidoso due to the severe weather situation.

The next day we visited the UNESCO World Heritage site Carlsbad Caverns and toured the massive cave and then headed back to El Paso with a quick hike at Guadalupe Mountains National Park. We asked a ranger at Carlsbad if this is normal weather and he said it had been raining for months when Monsoon season isn’t supposed to start until September so it was very wild for them. The next day in El Paso after seeing a city just North of El Paso near New Mexico under water and dealing with mudslides we decided to stay in the city area. In El Paso we visited the El Paso Zoo after trying to get to one museum could not happen due to a rock slide closed the road to it. There was no rain but the Zoo was quiet and the animals were more active than we had seen in most zoos. We had the chance to visit Chizamal National Park that is right at the border with Mexico and celebrates the ending of a over 100 year old border dispute where the land the park was on was given to the US from Mexico in the 1960s while the US gave some land to Mexico due to changes in course of the Rio Grande. We could see the old international border and we took a look at the border wall near by. While from the hotel we could see heavy rain falling in Juarez and El Paso we thankfully had a pretty good day.

Heading Home

We had a great trip even though we had to make many changes for our weekend plans but the weather was not done with us yet. We got out of El Paso just fine on the way to a stop in Austin. We flew very far South over the Mexican border and back into the US near Del Rio. This was to avoid more severe thunderstorms in Texas. As we landed in Austin it was pretty bumpy but I had no idea what was in store for us. When we got to the gate the wind was rocking our huge 737 back and forth and after we got into the airport a huge deluge hit the airport full of lightning. We could no longer see the air traffic control tower. On all the cell phones emergency flash flood warning were blaring. The Texas State Capital near by was being flooded. Our flight got pushed back and all planes started to be diverted away. The storms left but headed to Houston so while flights were moving ours got canceled and we had to wait until Monday to come home. We booked a hotel near the airport and waited until the next day when we got home with no issues before more storms hit Houston. We had travel insurance where our unexpected meal and hotel stay was covered.

Moral of the Story

While every summer there are tropical systems and thunderstorm this year continues to be far worse than I have ever seen it. Even in the desert there are severe storms and flash flooding. On this trip we had issues with a tropical system, flash flooding in the desert, and the severe storms in Austin and Houston. The weather continues to be abysmal around the country much more than usual. Its been causing delays and cancelations beyond those caused by crew issues. Keep a an eye out for weather issues the rest of the year as they will continue to be bad until hopefully the fall calms things down a bit. Even watching for bad weather is no guarantee things will go well so be flexible and have travel insurance. Even though we had a lot of issues we still had a good trip and saw new things as I had never been to El Paso.