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

Heading to 6 o'clock!

HELLO!

NOTICE: I am having significant computer problems trying to continue the blog. I think I have to get a new computer, and hope a MAC will work for this. I'll probably be working on this over the next couple of weeks and will try to catch it up. Cross your fingers! And thanks for following us!

The day after Christmas we knew we needed to head southwest, if for no other reason than to try to get out of the cold! It was just a little too nippy, though nothing like home in Rochester, but our plan has always been to be in the south in the winter. Whenever anybody asks us where we've been or how we constructing our route we always say, "We are traveling around the country clockwise starting, you know, at 12 o'clock .... Minnesota!" It's a little oblique but most people seem to get it, and it is largely what we've done. So now we're heading to 6 o'clock ...... Texas!

Mileage: no report until Ft. Stockton, Texas (where I remembered to write down the mileage!!)

States: 32 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, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas

Saturday, December 26
This was definitely a big travel day (nearly 400 miles I think), and a day we did some extra driving to collect a few more states (see our state count above!!). We are trying to at least put a wheel in all 48 of the continental United States. So in order to get Missouri we carefully scouted the weather report and saw that we could drive north from Memphis and go into the lower southeast corner of Missouri and then head back south and drive on into Arkansas. So we did. It was kind of an overcast morning for driving, but always pleasant up high in Buster viewing the world go buy. We did see a shocking billboard in North Memphis: "Chill. Don't Kill. He's still dead!" This was sponsored by the local violence prevention professionals trying to exhort hot heads to cool off before commiting murder!

We went to Dyersburg, Tennessee, crossed over to Clarksburg, Missouri, and then took Interstate 55 south again to ..... Memphis! Then we got on the main road we wanted to be on .... Interstate 40 to Little Rock. We drove a long day, and stopped in Brinkley before it was dark .... we had learned some lessons about stopping before dark in Mississippi. Liz spent much of the day getting acquainted with her new laptop.

Sunday, December 27
As I was reading in the AAA book about Arkansas (I have all the books for all the states, and it is a terrific basic resource), I recognized that we were going to go right by Hot Springs, and that that would be a great place to stop. Outside of Little Rock, in a pretty, hilly part of the state, there are hot springs measuring up to 147 degrees. This water percolates up through rock in many locations over about a 4 acre site. Hot Springs has an interesting history of visitors seeking healing and well-being through drinking and soaking in the water. Bath houses were built, and people would travel by train from all over to take the baths. Earlier it was kind of a rough and tumble place, but gradually the refined crowd took over and established nice hotels and restaurants. Because the waters were such a natural resource, the National Park Service has been the land holders for the last several decades. A number of bath houses still exist and are really attractive:



Unfortunately, Liz was not able to take a bath (you had to be 14), so she and Gary cruised the town while I had mine. I chose to dip into the "communal" pools (at the center bath house, the Quapaw*) rather than take a 15 soak in a private bathtub. The pool room was beautiful:

*they had the best body wash from a company called EO, grapefruit and mint! Yum!

Earlier in the day, we had parked Buster right outside the Park Headquarters Building where there is a water tap for anyone to come and take the water if they wish. While we were there many folks in SUVs and pick-ups and cars came by with multiple jugs and filled them up. Liz and I thought we needed at least a glass! (see top of blog!)

We also realized that Hot Springs is the boyhood home of William Jefferson Clinton, but his presidential library is in Little Rock. We didn't get a chance to check it out.

The next thing I learned from the AAA book is that you can look for diamonds in Arkansas, and if you find them, you get to keep them. And then we saw that Murfreesboro was right off our route to Texas. We were on our way. We found our way to Crater of Diamonds State Park, and scoped out what we would need. It was nearly 4 pm that day, so we found another nice state park campground, picked a spot, had the ranger knock on our door about 8 pm to pay, and dreamed sparkling dreams.

Monday, December 28
Crater of Diamonds State Park was a chilly 29 degrees when we arrived about 9 am. We each had about 4 layers on (we didn't bring our really warm Minnesota coats on this trip!!), and we had some thin gloves. Gary rented a framed screen so he could use the water processing facilities. But when he walked up to the troughs, the water was a sheet of ice. Needless to say, it was pretty uncomfortable sloshing dirt in freezing water, but he screened quite a lot of dirt. Liz and I dug some holes and kept supplying him with his raw material. We found a few pieces of calcite, but, I'm sorry to say, no diamonds. (Although we still have a 5 gallon bucket of dirt to screen that we are carrying around in the car!!) I decided on a spot, and was using a little shovel to look through the dirt, but quickly got very tired bending over. I decided to sit on the ground, even though I knew this was something I might be sorry about. I can't flex my post-operative knees enough to get up from sitting on the ground. Fortunately, my brain is still pretty good: I put my feet in the holes I dug, putting them a little lower than my bottom, and was able to get up! Yeah! Here are the diamond hunters:

They have found some nice sized diamonds at Crater of Diamonds. In 1924, The Uncle Sam, a 40.23 carat diamond was found here, the largest diamond ever found in North America. In 1956, the Star of Arkansas was found (15.33 carats), and most recently, in 1998, the Strawn-Wagner diamond was found. It was 7.28 carats, and was graded "flawless 0/0/0 by the American Gem Society ... called a "one-in-a-billion" diamond.

After about four hours of diligent hunting, we hooked up Bella and got back on the road. We saw that we could collect Oklahoma on our state list if we continued on down US 90, so we took advantage of that, and soon after turned south to connect to Interstate 30 running into Dallas. Our destination was Gary's niece, Terry League Poholsky and her husband Scott's home, in Murphy, Texas, just east of Plano. We arrived about 6 pm I think, and they had a delicious pasta and salad dinner ready. Terry is a pharmacist at an out-patient pharmacy about 20 minutes away, and Scott has a private head-hunting business which he is able to run out of his home. This allows him to hold down the fort at home, which he does admirably. He was largely responsible for our delicious dinner. Their darling daughter Ally, age 7, was excited to have us (read: Lizzie) visit, and we had such a nice time with them over the next couple of days.

Tuesday, December 29

We slept in a bit, and then took stock of what we errands and chores we needed to take care of. One of the strings in one of our accordian blinds in the "living room" had frayed and broken which doesn't allow the blind to be raised. It is necessary to raise in order for Gary to be able to see out to his right and behind him sometimes when he is driving. He spent some time this morning trying to track down some drapery or blind cord, or a service that could repair the blind. No luck; but our host, Scott Poholsky, came to the rescue with a resource that could order what we needed. It will be sent to Scott and he will forward it on to Gary. It was also hair day: Gary got his hair cut (never too much of a challenge!), and I got a recommendation from Terry.
It was actually at a salon within her fitness center, and the stylist, Chris, was excellent. We had fun chatting, and she did a great job evening out my color which had gotten a little too light. The cut was good, too. Always a great feeling to get a good hair-d0!

I got finished in time to take Liz and Ally to the promised Amazing Jakes! (Terry and Scott's son Ryan was in South Carolina visiting family so we missed him; but we heard he shot his first deer while hunting with his dad and grandfather, so it sounded like he was having a great time!) Amazing Jake's is a kid's playland inside a mall. It is all indoors: mini-golf, bumper cars, climbing walls, arcade games. We only had about an hour and a half before we were to meet everyone for dinner, but they did have a blast. See for yourself!

After the girls finished with the climbing wall, we met Gary along with Terry and Scott and had a delicious Mexican dinner. We had heard that there might be a repeat performance of the Dallas weather: it had snowed in Dallas on Christmas. In fact, as we drove home, we saw a few flakes and when we got back to their beautiful home on Wentwood Court, there was a lovely dusting of the white stuff. For a girl who is missing Minnesota, it was a dream. Even though there was barely enough for a decent snowball fight, they did their best, and had some fun!

Wednesday, December 30
Scott fixed us another delicious breakfast, and then it was time to say good-bye. We enjoyed our visit so much with the Poholskys, and it was so nice to seem them in their natural habitat. They are a highly functional family, covering all the bases and having fun doing it. Liz and Ally had a wonderful time together, and our visit with the Poholsky's was definitely a Texas highlight.

We pulled out headed for San Antonio, but first stopped in downtown Dallas (Highland Park) to visit friends/patients Barbara and Sterling Williams. They have been tremendous supporters over the years, and we share a love of all things Parisian! They have an apartment on the Left Bank, and I had the wonderful treat once to fly with a couple of friends to Paris with them on their jet. It WAS a trip! We parked Buster in the City of Dallas Park and Ride (it wasn't very busy two days before New Years!), and made our way to their beautiful home. Their youngest, Tiffany was visiting with her daughter Chloe (Tifanny, her husband Todd, Chloe and her little brother Luke live near-by), and after a little warm up period, Liz and Chloe had a really fun morning together. Chloe is a nice little piano player and a reader, and she shared some of her books with Liz including some volumes of The Sisters Grimm, The Twits by Roald Dahl (Liz already loves The BFG), and the visit volume of The Time Travelers. After a little fruit, sausage rolls, doughnuts, and delicious coffee, Sterling and Barbara gave us a little tour of downtown Dallas. The UT/Parkland Medical Center is ginormous! It appears to all have merged together. I have visited Dealey Plaza before and gone to the exhibit in the Texas Schoolbook Depository where the events of November 22, 1963 are recounted, which I found really interesting. But we felt it was a little much for Liz, so passed on this trip. Barbara and Sterling drove us by that fateful site. They favored us with two unbelievably delectable treats: a box of French Pecou (think the most fabulous large M&M's you can imagine and multiple by 1,000) and a tin of the most delicious sugared pecans I have ever eaten (Sweet Taste of Texas glazed pecans). Talk about addicting. They drove us back to Buster, and we were able to show him off a little bit. They expressed admiration, which pleased us as it does any parent!

We got a late start, but motored on down the road (Interstate 35) to San Antonio toward Dick and Katherine Hickman's. Dick is my dear colleague who succeeded me as Division Chair in Preventive Medicine in about 1999. He did a fabulous job, and both of us adopted the army slogan: It's the toughest job you'll ever love! Dick and Katherine have retired to San Antonio (Dick grew up in West Virginia, but Katherine is from the hill country (Bandera) just west of San Antonio and has a lot of family there), but he still comes to Mayo 4 or 5 times a year to work. Katherine held her delicious dinner of chicken with capers and rice for us, and it was so nice to sit down to the table with them. We had originally thought we might spend Christmas with them, but we just needed the extra week to see what we had mapped out from Florida to Texas. They, actually, had been a little under the weather, so the New Years' visit worked out just as well. We were thrilled that their daughter Kristina was home; she is taking pre-med courses at NYU, having served two years in the Peace Corps in Africa doing AIDS education work after graduating with a journalism major from the University of Missouri.

New Years' Eve, December 31

We only had a couple of goals for San Antonio, in addition to visiting the Hickmans, and that was to see the Alamo and to experience San Antonio's River Walk in all its holiday decorated splendor. The Alamo was inspirational. We re-learned the story of 200+ brave souls who struggled heroically in the face of overwhelming odds. The Texians and Tejanos had taken the Alamo (originally the Mision San Antonio de Valero) from the Mexicans in December, 1835. General Santa Anna vowed to retake it, and attacked the Alamo by surprise in February, 1836. General William Travis, the commander, sent couriers out trying to solicit reinforcements, but only 35 volunteers from neigboring Gonzales arrived. The Texans were under seige, and were overwhelmingly outnumbered. Legend holds that Travis drew a line in the sandy dirt with his saber, and invited any men who were willing to stand and fight, to cross it and join him. All (but one) did, and they all perished after a 13 day seige. Travis was one of the first to die. Among those who died were Davey Crockett and Jim Bowie. It is asserted that this distraction of Santa Anna, and the resources he had to expend to defeat the Alamo, contributed to the defeat Santa Anna just a few weeks later by Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto, and led to Texas' ultimate independence. There was an IMAX movie which was really well done (see the movie pic below of Santa Anna standing amid the destruction which I shot without flash in the movie!), as was the movie presentation within the Long Barracks which is presented by The Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

Dick and Katherine met us there at about 2:30, and it was just a short walk over to the River.

What a festive place! Beautiful winding river among the cottonwoods, shops, restaurants, hotels all with people enjoying themselves and having fun. Add beautiful holiday lights, and it was a joyous spectacle. We found our way to the "boats" ... about a 45 minute boat ride along the river and back with an interesting and humerous narration. We passed the Casa Rio, the oldest restaurant along the river (over 50 years old I think), and returned there for dinner. The Alamo Bowl was going to be played the next day, and the players and the bands were also on the river in boats, heading to a Pep rally. That added an extra element of celebration as we watched the Michigan State and Texas Tech fans face off!

Kristina was able to meet us for dinner, and it was so nice ... great food (and drink) right along the river. I indulged and had two margaritas .... I wasn't driving (Thanks, Gary!), and Dick asked a Mexican guitar group to serenade us. It was simply lovely and so very festive for a New Years' Eve.

We all wanted to make it an early evening, and so welcomed the New Year at the Hickmans home! Kristina's boyfriend, John Sabo, was there as well as his parents, GARY AND JULIE Sabo. Gary and Dick worked together in Air Force aerospace medical program days. This was the first year Liz stayed up until midnight, and, unfortunately, we missed the ball drop. We didn't remember to turn on the TV to see the Time's Square ball at 11:00 (Texas is on central time!), so when we turned in on at 11:03, we had just missed it. Liz was bummed. But she had had fun with Kristina experimenting with the food dehydrator Kristina got for Christmas: they made chocolate coconut macaroons that took 10 hours to "bake" in the dehydrator. Liz thought it was a blast!

NEW YEARS' DAY, January 1

This was such a lovely day spent just as New Years' Days should be ..... sleeping in, watching a bit of the Rose Parade on TV, and then tuning in for football.

For a little break, Dick drove us over to a local monastery where his brother-in-law, Bob Guelich(Katherine's sister's husband) had sculpted an exquisite freize. Mr. Guelich is known as a wildlife sculptor (Dick has one of his exquisite peregrine falcons), but he does other work on commission. This panel of priests on horseback if just lovely. They are a special order known as the Calvalry for Christ, and are charged with working with difficult missions. I loved it.

Saturday, January 2nd and January 3rd

We had received variable input regarding whether or not we should go all the way down to Brownsville/South Padre Island. Gary's parents had visited South Padre, and he remembered them saying it was something to see. Maybe, not so much. It was a long drive (5 hours SOUTH of San Antonio), so we elected to just take the car and leave Buster parked in front of the Hickmans, and their very tolerant neighbors! We booked our hotel reservation as we drove (with our mobile online laptop), and ended up at a Best Western and had a room right on the beach. It was great hearing the waves crash and seeing them. It is a very nice beach, but the community is very touristy and looks like a giant strip mall. We had one of the worst restaurant meals we've had at Blackbeards (what were we thinking?? part of the problem was finding a restaurant we could stand being in as they still have smoking sections in Texas restaurants). We did have some nice walks on the beach, and we were warmer than we might have been elsewhere, but NOT that warm. It was probably 55-60. On top of everything, I forgot my camera; Liz had the (we thought very) clever idea of taking a picture of a post card for the blog. Here you go!

But we had fun thinking that we had been gone about 5 1/2 months (we left on July 24), and that we plan to be gone about 11 months (returning between June 25 and July 1, 2010), and that South Padre Island would definitely be 6 o'clock if you superimpose a clock face over the United States. So we have travelled clockwise from 12 o'clock (Minnesota) to 6 o'clock (South Padre Island), with some lovely forays into the middle.

And now our adventure will continue, as we complete the Adventure from 6 o'clock back on up to 12 o'clock (our route definitely won't look anything like the half arc of a circle!!). I hope I get the picture function going .... I've got some good ones from Big Bend and Carlsbad Caverns!

Best of the New Year to all,

Julie, Gary and Liz