Sunday, February 1, 2015

We are in Lajitas, Texas, and this is the view from my window:

Lajitas is between Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park on the Rio Grande River.

We got up Saturday morning to temperatures in the 50’s and gorgeous clear blue skies.  The plan was to drive east to the town of Marathon and then south to the Big Bend National Park.  The entire route was labeled as a scenic byway on the map.

Which was great for about 20 miles, when we drove into a dense fog.  I say fog, but I think it was really a cloud.  We were at 4400 feet and climbing slightly.  The fog was very thick and we slowed way down.  We made it safely to Marathon and stopped for lunch.  Urban spoon helped us find a good place,  Johnny B’s.  Apparently this is where the local ranchers come in for lunch.  There were about 8 there.  It was a tiny place, but the burgers were good, and Steve said the milkshake was, too.  I think the waitress made 3 for the ranchers, who were leaving, before she made Steve’s for the road.

The fog had lifted a bit by the time lunch was over and we found the turnoff for the road to Big Bend National Park.  I don’t want to say this is out in the boonies, but it is.  From Marathon to park headquarters is 43 miles.  We drive through desert grasslands.  I think we saw about 6 cows and two horses in 43 miles.  Ranching has got to be a hard life.

The clouds still covered the tops of the mountains we could see.

We saw a few ranches, but mostly what you see is the ranch gate and the dirt driveway, which disappears over a hill or into a valley.  In other parts of Texas, the ranch gates vary from very basic to very elaborate.  Out here, they are very basic, utilitarian.  Most do have the ranch name, but mostly they don’t even have mailboxes.  I assume they pick up their mail at the post office when they are in town.

We finally get to the entrance gate and flash our senior pass for entry.  (If you are over 62, you can buy a life time pass to the national parks for $10.  Best bargain ever.)  We still have miles to go to get to the visitor center.

The park covers 801,163 acres.  The geology, climate and landscape varies depending on where you are in the park.  118 miles of the Rio Grande form the southern border of the park.  The lowest part of the park is at the Rio Grande, 1800 ft. above sea level.  The highest peak is 7832 ft.  (Numbers from Wikipedia.)

Parts of the park were overgrazed before it was parkland and changed from grasslands to desert.  One of the places to stop was the grave of a pioneer.  Nina Hannold moved here by covered wagon in 1908 and she and her husband ranched here.  Her husband also taught school 8 miles away, so much of the ranching fell on Nina.  She died during her fourth pregnancy and asked to be buried overlooking the spring where she used to sit under the cottonwoods with her children.  Both the spring and the cottonwoods are gone.

We did finally reach park headquarters and picked up maps and information to help us plan our next few day.  We were now in the mountains and beautiful views met us in every direction.  We needed to head west to our campsite for the night.

There are several campgrounds in Big Bend NP, even one with full hookups.  But we also wanted to tour Big Bend Ranch State Park a few miles away, so Steve booked us into the Maverick RV park.  No trees, but a spectacular view and we can get both cell phone and satellite.  So we’re watching the Super Bowl as I’m typing this.

Today got off to a late start, as we needed to get more propane for the trailer.  While it’s much warmer here than elsewhere in the country, we still have been using the furnace at night.  And since we wanted to watch the Super Bowl, we decided we would do the river drive along the Rio Grande in Big Bend Ranch State Park.

I have 58 photos on my phone from that drive.  Picking a few to show you is hard.  Steve said this is rated one of the 50 best drives by National Geographic and I believe it.

The first surprise is the river.  The Rio Grande is not Grande.  The Wabash is a bigger river, at least in this area.  And right now, it’s not very deep.  You can tell that the water level is low.  We saw a few cattle on the Mexican side of the river shortly after we left town, but since there was a small ranch on this side, I suspect the cattle had waded across.  There’s a fine of up to $5000 for crossing into Mexico improperly, but I expect that the ranchers are allowed to round up their cattle.

The rest of the drive held a few surprises, along with gorgeous scenery.  We came across a movie set sitting right on the river:

It was built for a western in 1985 called “Uphill All The Way” and has been used several times since.  The buildings are adobe, which is still used a lot.

There are several camping areas along the road.  These are campsites with usually a picnic table and grill, period.  And most cannot be seen from the road and you should have four wheel drive to get to them.  Roger D., this one’s for you.  The Rio Grande is behind the line of trees behind the picnic shelter.

Most campsites or picnic areas have a shelter in Texas.  In the summer, it’s absolutely necessary if you are out for any period of time.  The shelters at the campsites were simple and rustic, but one picnic area had unique shelters.

There was a picnic table under each teepee and a grill next to each one.

I’m going to close with some shots from the road.  Enjoy:

More later.

Deb

Friday, January 30, 2015

We are at the Lost Alaskan RV park in Alpine, Texas, elevation 4,475 ft.  It’s on the way to Big Bend National Park.  A fellow RVer at one of our seminars recommended this place.  It’s nice and in a good location.

At Lake Mineral Wells State Park, I noted the stunted growth of the vegetation.  It reminded both of us of the vegetation on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  The brisk, constant wind from the ocean keeps the growth low.  It also bends all the plants inland.

But at Mineral Wells, the plants weren’t bent.  As we drove through more of that part of Texas, we realized that the plants didn’t get enough water to grow tall.  Western Texas is an arid area and there are no tall trees.  The farther west you go, the drier it gets.

We did start to see windmills, usually up on ridges or plateaus, thousands of them.  Eventually we started seeing oil wells, but while most of the windmills were turning, many of the oil wells were not pumping.

This picture also shows what the scenery was like – dried grass as far as the eye could see.   If you didn’t see any utility poles, there weren’t any oil wells.  Oil wells need electricity to pump oil.  (I kept looking for an oil well with solar panels but never spotted one.  I did see highway and railroad signs that were powered by solar panels.)

As we approached Midland, Texas, the windmills petered out and the oil wells became much more numerous.  Midland has been the center of several oil booms, but was originally just the midpoint of the railroad between Fort Worth and El Paso.  Much of this area was settled by the railroads in the 1880’s.  There is some farming of cotton and you’ll occasionally see cattle or horses.  But towns and houses are few and far between.  Towns were usually located on a railroad line where there was a source of water for the steam trains.

We stayed outside Big Spring, Texas, one night in a small RV Park.  When Steve was looking for places to stay on trip advisor, there were comments like “if you must stay in West Texas, this place is ok.”   It was.

We reached Alpine last night and drove about 20 miles to Fort Davis, Texas today.  This is an area of active ranching, but we did not see a cow or horse the entire trip.  We did see several cattle loading areas, with pens and ramps for loading but no cattle.  Thanks to my phone and Urban Spoon, we found a great place for lunch: the Blue Mountain Bistro. 

The Bistro is next to the Hotel Limpia and there is a lovely courtyard between the two:

The table was decorated with fresh rosemary, which gave off a delicate aroma throughout the meal.

We asked about the soups of the day and the guest at the next table leaned over and said the tomato basil was the best she’d ever had.  Unfortunately, it contained cream, so I couldn’t have it, but Steve said it was really good, as was his Panini.  I had the house salad with chicken, which was well seasoned, with their balsamic vinegar dressing, very good.  We’ll be staying at Ft. Davis State Park next week, so we’ll be back.

On the way back to the trailer, we stopped at Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Garden.  I bought a walking stick, as I occasionally have various problems and I’ve seen them recommended.  We’ve seen many walking sticks made of native woods before and they can be expensive.  Since I wasn’t sure how much I’d use one, the $17 price was more in my range.

It’s made from the bloom stalk of a succulent shrub, smooth sotol, which I’d call a cactus.  (It’s the tallest one.)

It’s very light weight and sturdy.  I can see why the stalks were used for building.  The rest of the plant is also useful, with the leaves used for mats and baskets, and the trunk eaten by man and beast.

I used my walking stick as we toured the botanical garden, where I saw the most beautiful cactus: Queen Victoria Agave:

Just gorgeous!

This is the view from the scenic overlook at the gardens.  We’ll be headed into those mountains and Big Bend National Park tomorrow.

Take care and keep warm! (It was a bit chilly here today.   It never got over 50.)

Deb

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

We are at Lake Mineral Wells State Park, west of Dallas, parked in site overlooking the lake.  At least we can see the lake through the trees.  Our big window is facing west and we had a great view of the sunset last night.

Sorry for the long silence, but it’s been a busy month in Dallas.  With 4 adults, an active 2 year old and 3 dogs, there was a lot going on.

In my last post, we were at Tyler State Park, east of Dallas.  We spent the night there and then headed for McKinney, Texas.  We were looking to get an automated blind for the rear window and there is a manufacturer there who will install them.  It’s almost on the way to Natasha’s.

We had driven for maybe half an hour when the tire pressure alarm went off.  One of the trailer tires was losing air pressure.  Those of you who know my husband know he is a gadget freak and when I first heard about the tire pressure monitoring system, I must admit I rolled my eyes.  But every safety seminar we went to mentioned that the majority of accidents with RV’s have something to do with tires, so we installed a system.  Mostly it annoys us by not recognizing that we don’t have the trailer attached to the truck.  But that day Steve could see that we had a slow leak.

Thank god for cell phones and the Internet.  I determined that there were two tire dealers in a town ahead on our route.  Steve was pretty sure we’d be okay until we got there and we were. 

The tire and brake place we pulled into was out of town a bit and had a newish look to it.  They weren’t busy and took us right away.  I was going to help Steve back the trailer, but the owner said he would and invited Obi and I to wait in the waiting room.

Now I’ve been in automotive parts stores and tire stores before, typically somewhat dingy places with lots of metal shelving.  That’s not what greeted me here.  The floors were polished and stained concrete, beautiful but no farmer was going to feel bad walking in with his muddy boots.  Two of the walls were glass as in most showrooms and the other two walls were knotty pine.  Fresh, clear knotty pine with cutouts along one wall displaying chrome wheels like sculpture.

The large service desk was circular with supports of diamond plate and panels of something that looked like pegboard only the holes were square.  The pegboard was blue and mounted with chrome bolts over a red background.  There were chairs facing a flat screen TV. The whole thing was perfect.  Decorated, but comfortable.

Turns out the owner was the decorator.  He said he’s helped a few people decorate, but only knows how to do red neck decorating.  He does it well.  I’d love to see what he’d do with a trailer.

As for the tire, we had managed to pick up a screw in the tire and they got it out and patched the tire for us.  Total charge $10.  So if you are ever near Emory, Texas, check out Emory Tire and Wheel.  It’s a great place!

We headed on to McKinney, where we met with the shade people and made an appointment to drop the trailer off on the 15^th of January.  Somehow replacing the rear window shade with an automated shade morphed into replacing 7 shades.  We had day/night pleated shades in all the windows and they work well, except in the back window.  It’s so wide (about 7 feet) that it doesn’t want to stay up and really takes two people to raise and lower it.  We made it even harder when we installed a desk in front of it, so I thought we should get a motorized shade for that window.  The new shades do look nice and Steve’s having fun playing with the remote control.

We arrived at Natasha’s that day and mostly got settled in.  Maria came home from her day care Christmas Party wearing the dress Natasha had made her.  She was always a bit shy when she first got home from day care, but it didn’t last long.

Our friend, Melinda, bakes wonderful Christmas cookies and was kind enough to send us some at Natasha's.  She also included a small tin of cookies just for Maria.  She thought they were special and didn't want to share.

Christmas morning brought presents and one of Maria’s favorites was Duplos, large blocks made by Legos.  She and Steve played with them a lot the whole time we were there.  Once I got it assembled, she also enjoyed the kitchen her Uncle John and Aunt Enza sent.  It came with a play cell phone, which I also had to put together.  She immediately took the phone and “called” her dad and talked about mommy.  She’s not quite talking, but very close.

It’s getting late and Steve wants me up early tomorrow, so I’ll sign off for now.

Take care, everyone!

Deb