Texas is really big .... and beautiful!

Howdy, Pardners!

One of the main things we've been impressed with in Texas is how BIG it really is. Texarcana is in the east (we passed near but not through there), and El Paso is on the western and southern border with Mexico and New Mexico, and we were told it is farther from Texarcana to El Paso (across the state of Texas) that it is from El Paso to Los Angeles! It is huge .... and we have put in many driving miles while here.

Finally, I have a mileage update for you:

BUSTER: from Gainesville, Florida on December 16 to Fort Stockton, Texas on January 5th:
1,203 miles

BELLA: same mileage check points: 2,540 (that was that big drive down

to South Padre Island!)

TOTAL: 21,019 miles!

State count: 33 Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexic0

Monday, January 4
We knew we were going to have a big driving day (but really not this big!), so we got an early start. Up and out the door of the Best Western by 7:00, samples of the free breakfast (worth exactly what it cost!) by 7:30, and then into the car for the 5+ hour drive back to San Antonio to pick up Buster at Katherine and Dick Hickman's. We had had our mail sent to Kingsville, TX, and it was easy to find the Post Office there. We usually pick small towns so there's no confusion about which Post Office it is, and it's usually easy to find. Then on to San Antonio, with an intermediate stop at Shepler's.

The Hickmans had introduced us to Shepler's the previous Saturday, when we went shopping for steer horns. For a number of weeks now, if not months, Gary has been toying with the idea of obtaining mounted Texas longhorns, and then mounting them on Buster, above his windshield. Buster has become increasingly humanoid in our thoughts and imaginings, and has taken on a rambunctious, boisterous persona. We have felt that steer horns would be very appropriate. So on Saturday, the 2nd, we shopped at Shepler's for the longhorns, and then returned today to complete the Westernization: cowboy hats and boots for all three of us. I don't have the right jeans, yet, but here's a glimpse:

So once we were outfitted, we stopped at the Hickman's to pick up Buster, repack up and take off. We had already driven over 300 miles/5 1/2 hours, but wanted to make it to Fort Stockton in order to optimize our timing and entry into Big Bend National Park. That was another nearly 6 hour drive, so we pulled into the Ft. Stockton RV park about 9:30 pm. It was a long day, and the principal driver, Gary, DID get tired, so I put in some time in the driver's seat, even though it was dark. We were on Interstate 10, and fortunately in that stretch from San Antonio to Fort Stockton that evening we didn't have a lot of truck traffic.

Tuesday, January 5

We entered Big Bend from the north, through Marathon, Texas. When we entered the National Park, we stopped at the ranger station to orient ourselves and encountered an incredibly helpful ranger. He told us our camping options, although we had already planned to go towards the western perimeter of the park at Terlingua. There were camping sites in the park, but no 50 amp plug ins with water. We did want to drive up into the Chisos Mountains on the way to Terlingua, so we unhooked at Panther Junction and drove Bella up to Chisos Basin. We began to experience some of the wonder of Big Bend: diverse flora and fauna. This is partially because the park marks the northernmost range of many plants and animals, while at the same time many Latin American species are at the extreme northern limits of their ranges. It is also felt that this area is really the southern terminus of two great mountain ranges in North America, the Rockies and the Appalachians.

We made our plans for the rest of our visit, particularly noting that some colder weather was possibly coming our way later in the week. I was driving ahead to the campground in Terlingua, and was so impressed when I looked behind me and saw the handsome Buster trailing me, I pulled over and took his picture!

Wednesday, January 6

I'm just starting to play around with my new Mac, and it is so incredibly easier to construct the blog and import pictures, etc. I can even add color to my headings!! Very cool. We had decided over the prior week-end to try to do a river raft trip down the Rio Grande. We looked ahead at the weather report, and learned that today, Wednesday, was predicted to be the nicest day, as far as weather goes, of the week. So we made a reservation with Big Bend River Tours and it did turn out to be a wonderful day. We met our guide Travis at 8 am, and drove with him and a young woman who was training that day to our launch site up to Colorado Canyon. This canyon is about 8 miles long and with the run in and out makes for a nice day's float trip. The rainy season is from August to September, so by this time of year, January, the river is not that high, so it is difficult to float through some of the other canyons. The most famous canyon in Big Bend, Santa Elena with sheer towering walls, takes two days minimum to float with an overnight in the canyon, and we weren't prepared to camp when it was going to get down to 25 degrees at night!! We had about four layers on when we set off in about 45-50 degree temperatures, but the sun was out and soon we were peeling off layers and really enjoying a beautiful day. It probably got up to over 65 degrees.

The Rio Grande, of course, marks the border between the United States (New Mexico and Texas) and Mexico. It is of intense interest these days to the border patrol. We learned that it is not safe to consider entering Mexico at many points, particularly El Paso/Juarez as there is much dangerous activity related to drug trafficking. The river's headwaters are in Colorado and travel down from Taos, New Mexico, into the plateaus and much is siphoned off for agriculture, etc. We learned that the water we were floating on represented less than 5% of the original flow of the Rio Grande.

We took many beautiful pictures that day .... here are a few (plus our introductory shot above):

There were incredible geologic stories to tell (see below), and Travis had all kinds of ecologic, historical and geologic information. He winters down here, and in May or so he will return to his home in Boothbay Harbour, Maine, where he owns a sea kayaking business. He loves the water!

He was a great guide, and was so nice to Liz. We stopped for lunch on the south side of the river (yes, we were in Mexico!!), and he and the trainee made us lunch: deli sandwiches, all kinds of pickles and marinated vegetables, and great cookies for dessert. After lunch, he gave Liz a rowing lesson.

All in all it was a wonderful day. We were particularly enchanted by all the turtles we saw in the river.

We were back in Terlingua by about 3:30 and decided to take the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive out to Cottonwood, and the Santa Elena Canyon Overlook. Mr. Maxwell was one of the early park rangers, and set the road to take advantage of many of the scenic elements that make Big Bend so unique and beautiful.

Even though we'd had quite a full day, Liz was still up for a "hike." Dusk was approaching fast, so when we saw the mouth of the famous Santa Elena Canyon up ahead, Gary said they could try to "trail blaze" over the desert to get there. They had quite a time getting through some underbrush (I was less afraid of scorpions as it was cool (60 degrees) and getting dark), but they did get a little scratched up. We just got to see the mouth of the canyon, but returning to Big Bend and doing a float trip through the Santa Elena is definitely on our to do list for a return trip. Cottonwood Campground is nearby, and we took a minute to drive through there. Gary remembers being in Big Bend with his parents and brothers in the summer of 1956 or so. He remembers sitting in the Rio Grande River with huge cliffs towering over (on the Mexico side), and thinking how easy it was to cross the border. Just wade across the river .... lots of people have had this same idea. He also remembers how unbearably hot it is here in the summer!

We drove back most of the way to Terlingua in the dark, and decided to take Travis' recommendation for a restaurant. This darling Mexican place was still decorated for the holidays:

Thursday, January 7

It started to turn very cold and we decided to try to become more expert at cold weather motor homing. We had had a few nights when the low was down near 30, but the prediction today was that it would dip to below 20 degrees. We were worried about our water tanks and lines freezing, and we had noticed that when the temperature got down in the 30's our heat didn't seem to work as well in Buster. Gary got out his manuals, and we also got some help from a neighboring motor homer in the Terlingua RV Park. He suggested that almost always in motor homes of our size and age that the compartments where the tanks are are generally heated. We confirmed this was so. We also learned that the reason we didn't feel as warm when the temperature dipped was that the electric heater is a heat pump and when the temperature is less than 36 degrees, it really doesn't work. So in that case, one should use the propane heater. We switched over to propane and things toasted right up.

We still were faced with a grim forecast: all over the weather channel they were predicting "arctic blast" and we saw lots of travel difficulty with travel north of us in Odessa (and many places around the country). So we decided to just stay put until the weather picture improved. I spent Thursday morning doing laundry while Liz and Gary focused on school. Mid-morning we drove the motor home a mile down the road to fill our propane tank .... we wanted to make sure that stayed full! By afternoon we were ready to do a little more exploring.

We drove over to Rio Grande Village, stopping to notice an especially brilliant colored Prickly Pear cactus.

We saw these towering bluffs in the distance (below left), and then as we got closer we saw that there was a break in the shorter wall we could see in the foreground. That is Boquillas Canyon, and is another site where the Rio Grande has carved its way through the rock. It was about a mile walk from the parking site to the entrance to the canyon (below right), but the trail was very uneven. I was so pleased I was able to do it. That is one of the last functions I've been looking for since my knee surgery .... being able to actually hike on a rough trail where you have to support your weight with your foot in different positions on uneven ground.

As soon as we started out on the trail we encountered a man on horseback (he actually almost startled us), and it turned out he was from Mexico and had crossed over to approach hikers/walkers on the US side. He sold walking sticks for $5 each (Gary and Liz both got one, seen in the picture above), as well as other little metal/wire sculptures: we bought a scorpion.

We figured this all out when we saw him gallop down the hill, enter the river, and simply cross back over into Mexico.

On the right, above, you'll see me in triumph after this challenging (for me) hike. It was also incredibly windy such that from time to time we would have to turn our backs and hold our ground to keep from being displaced. Those with the cowboy hats (Gary and Liz) had to take them off for fear of losing them.

On our drive back to Terlingua, we could see the small village of Boquillas, Coahuila, Mexico, as well as encountering some more pretty Prickly Pear.

Finally I wanted to share with you a series of sunset pictures .... it was beautiful.

Friday, January 8

The arctic blast prediction held true; from The Weather Channel it seemed the whole country was in the ice box. We heard, and saw on TV, cars sliding into other cars in the general direction we were going, so we decided to just stay put another day. We were starting to realize that some of our more optimistic plans of seeing southern Colorado and Utah might not be realistic for January. We focused on math (we're really working on times tables now) and reading and I spent a lot of the day working on the blog (getting the end of December caught up after Christmas!) There was an issue with AT&T sending me a message that way down there in Texas I was out of my network, but it turned out it was just a warning or something, as I was able to continue using my air card for internet connection. I made a meat loaf for dinner with baked potatoes; it was a very cozy winter day now that we knew how to stay very warm with propane heat. After school work, Liz wanted to play with her stuffed animals and with her bubbles (she's 9, but perhaps this interest is a little regression directed at the grown up behavior we've been expecting and she's generally delivered).

Saturday, January 9

By Saturday, it looked nice enough to pull up Buster's jacks (which help us level him)

and hit the road again. We took the road north up Texas 118 to Alpine, and then on to Fort Davis. This is a beautiful part of Texas and we did half of a scenic loop drive which included the MacDonald Observatory. This part of Texas really reminded me a lot of northern California near the wine country with the rolling golden hills and the junipers.

We stopped for lunch at Murphy's in Fort Davis. It didn't look like much from the front, and it was kind of place where you place the order at the counter and then they bring the food out to your table. Our table was in a screen porch-like room and had space heaters. But when they brought my chicken salad sandwich, it was one of the best ones I've ever had! Lizzie had a yummy pizza, and Gary enjoyed his as well. Fort Davis is quite charming as the pictures below reveal:

The MacDonald Observatory was very interesting. In 1926, William MacDonald, a bachelor and banker from Perris, Texas, left $1.1 million to the University of Texas to establish an observatory. Relatives contested the will, but ultimately $800,ooo was available to the University for establishment of an astronomy department. After some years an observatory was built, and the University of Chicago was contracted for their scientific and astrononic expertise. Locke Mountain (named after the woman who donated the land) was ultimately chosen as this site is one of the darkest (least exposed to light) places in the country.

The Visitor Center had a nice exhibit, and we were fortunate to have a very enthusiastic young astronomer who showed and told us all about sun spots. They have a camera (appropriately shielded) on the sun and we were able to see areas that were erupting and active in real time.

It was very cool, even though it was the sun!

Gary had a good afternoon driving, as you can tell from the picture below; he's really enjoying wearing his cowboy duds ... boots and hat!

This afternoon ended our time in Texas (except for a brief revisit to pick up our mail in Pecos on Monday, the 11th.) I'd never spent much time in Texas before, and I'd say I was quite favorably impressed and would have to grant some legitimacy to a Texan's bragging rights.

We spent tonight in New Mexico, just outside Carlsbad Caverns, and looked forward to seeing that Land of Enchantment in the morning.

See ya', pardners!

Julie, Gary and Liz