Backyard hiking, El Paso, TX

This afternoon the weather was really quite nice, so Paul and I decided to go hiking in the "backyard".
This picture is the view from his parents backyard.  Their property backs up to the Franklin Mountains of Franklin State Park. We took off, walked uphill for about an hour, until it got too steep to really keep going(there are no trails to speak of  back there), then we headed back down the mountain.....a relaxing afternoon.

I guess in general, all is quiet on the western front, as they say.  I just looked at my last post and I can't believe its been that long since I posted.  Life has sort of been quiet since then.
I took a 4 day trip to go see my daughter Jess in Muncie, IN.  I flew out spur of the moment, last Thursday,  and came back Monday night.  She's been feeling a little down lately so we thought it would be nice to have a girls weekend.  No Girls weekend is complete without a hot tub... but of course the hotel that I booked neglected to mention that their hot tub is not working, so after spending 2 nights there, we moved to a hotel with a working hot tub! We did have a relaxing time, and I got to spend some time with her boyfriend David, so it was nice to get to know him a little better.
I have decided that Southwest Airlines is my new favorite airline.  Not that I fly that much right now, but its been easy to book flights for the kids, knowing that if I need to change the dates, I won't have to pay a change fee. That's pretty cool!
Actually, Paul was nice,going for a hike with me  since he was probably itching to start on his truck project.  For his Christmas present he ordered a new Pioneer radio with GPS for the truck.  All the pieces finally arrived today, so I am sure he is anxious to get it installed.  Hopefully he'll get it done tomorrow, and we can test it out, although he also ordered a new oven and dishwasher for his parents, and the oven arrives in the morning, so he'll probably spend a good part of the day getting that installed too.  He is quite busy right about now.  Meantime, I am planning our trip to Vegas, trying to find a route that won't take us through snow.
I want to spend a few nights on the way there on "BLM" land.  BLM stands for Bureau of Land Management.  Basically its land owned by the federal government.  You can camp there for free in your RV, and we've never done it before, so I'd like to do it for  a night or so.  There is no hook-up (electric, sewer and water) so we have to use the generator if we want to use appliances etc.  Its called "boondocking" since you usually do it in the "boonies".