February 28, 2005

February 28, 2005

Huachuca City, Arizona

Day 255

 

Today was very sunny and warm. So warm that I was able to work outside today without a shirt.

OW OW OW OW OW ! Now I know what poor Bo is going through. I had to lay down on the ground today to do some work, and I got poked in the legs, shoulders, and hands by these horrid Goat's Head Cactus needle clusters. They're everywhere, and invisible against the gravel ground. When I went to pick them off myself, I got poked in the fingers. My middle finger tip is still sore.

Today was a day mostly for rest. I puttered away at a bunch of maintenance chores, because our March schedule is fairly busy with travel and rally commitments, so I might not have much time for maintenance chores. I thought it best to finish up whatever was on my "to do" list. I unhitched the truck from the trailer, and worked on some paint touch up on the truck's fifth wheel tail gate. Then I lubricated the bed slide all over with silicone lubricant. The bed slide has been a minor problem ever since we bought Harvey. It binds on its way in while being retracted. I've taken it for service, but the service shop advised that the "cure" was worse than the problem. The problem seems to be that the rubber weather gasket around the bed slide is a bit too large, and a bit too tight. If trimmed, it increases the risk of water leaking in around the bed slide, so they recommended leaving the problem alone, and living with it. It necessitates having Joanne push on the outside of the bed slide when it's being retracted, while I'm inside the trailer operating the switch. Occasionally I lubricate all around the slide, and the gaskets, with silicone lubricant. Next I applied silicone caulking around a couple of small stress fractures in the fibreglass skin around the bed slide. Harvey is a 1998 model, and one of the first years that a bedroom slide was installed on fifth wheel trailers. I think some of the bugs had not yet been worked out of the design.

I spent half the afternoon sitting in a chair in the sun, reading, and the other half of the afternoon napping with Teddy and Bo. Late in the afternoon, as the sun was setting behind the mountains, we took Teddy and Bo for a walk in the sling carriers. We had not yet tried Bo in one of the sling carriers. It went just fine. Teddy has lost some weight since Toby died, since he can no longer wolf down his food then rush over and steal some from Toby’s dish. HA HA HA ... what goes around comes around. Now Bo eats faster than Teddy, and Bo rushes over to try to steal some food from Teddy’s dish. Anyways, Teddy now fits the smaller sling carrier that used to be Toby’s, and Bo fits the larger sling carrier that used to be Teddy’s. We walked them over to a section of the park where we were told there are no Goat’s Head Cactus needles, then took Bo out of the carrier, and did an obedience training session. By the time we were finished obedience training, Teddy was squirming and complaining about being in the sling, so we picked Bo up and returned to the trailer. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to take him out tonight and tomorrow morning for bathroom walks, so that he doesn’t get his poor little tender feet prickled. I guess I’ll have to carry him to the “clean” area.

Just before supper, I re-hitched Dee-Dee to Harvey to save a bit of time in the morning. We’re going to Tucson tomorrow.

DSK

February 27, 2005

February 27, 2005

Benson to Tombstone to Huachuca City, Arizona

DAY 254

 

Today was a very sunny, nice, warm day. Not really warm, since we're at an elevation of over 4000 ft. ASL., but warm enough to be outside wearing just a long sleeved shirt.

Poor Bo. Such an Alabaman "tender foot" out here in the desert. Today, for the second time, he got a cactus needle in his foot pad. A week or so ago, he stepped on a Dog Cactus. I think they're called that because they creep along the ground, and dogs step on them. That one didn't cause him too much discomfort. But today in Tombstone, he got a Fish Hook Cactus needle in his foot. It caused him quite a bit of discomfort. Maybe ! Or else he's a really big sissy. When we tried to examine the pads of his foot to see if there was something we could do to help, he howled and screamed and squirmed and bit. He's done that a few times lately, when we've tried to remove burrs from his fur, which doesn't really hurt. That's why I think a lot of his antics are anxiety and lack of trust, more so than pain. He won't let us do anything about the cactus needle in his foot, so I guess it will just have to work its way out on its own, like a sliver would.

This morning before we left Saguaro SKP Co-op we took Bo to the park's fenced dog run area. He and I went there last night to play with his tennis ball. Last night and this morning were the first times we've had him outside off leash. Well ... first times intentionally ! He has escaped from us a couple of times, usually by darting out the trailer door when one of us opens it. It was great to play with him off leash in a secure area.

We left Saguaro SKP Park, drove into town to visit the tourist information centre, and filled up with diesel. YIKES ! $2.24 a gallon ! And ... I had to back the rig out of the station ! We left Benson heading south on Hwy. 80, to Tombstone. "The town too tough to die" ! For once, our timing was fortunate. This weekend, yesterday and today, there were repeated re-enactments of the famous gun battle at the O.K. Corral between Wyatt Earp and his brothers along with Doc Holliday, against Billy the Kid and the Clanton boys. There was a "gun battle re-enactment" competition this weekend. There's a bunch of amateur historian groups, and amateur theatre groups, who provide regular "living history" in Tombstone. The main street of Tombstone is about half a mile long, and most of the buildings are original. The sidewalks are wood. The buildings are now occupied by bars, restaurants, gift shops, clothing shops ... all the usual commerce you would expect in a tourist attraction. It was a very interesting place to visit. On the edge of town is Boot Hill Graveyard, where all the bad guys are buried. We didn't actually enter Boot Hill, or the O.K. Corral. I didn't feel that the steep admission prices were warranted. We walked up one side and down the other side of the main street ... Allen Street ... twice, window shopping and watching all the various re-enactments that were taking place. There were so many of these "actors" in town, that half the people wandering around town were in period costume. We stopped at a bar and had a drink. We went into a western wear clothing store and I bought myself a cowboy dress shirt. Hey ... I told you ... when in Rome ... ! I almost bought myself a cowboy dress shirt a few weeks ago. So today I figured I might not have too many more opportunities to purchase authentic western wear.

We left Tombstone late in the afternoon, and headed north out of town on Hwy. 80, the same road we came in on. A couple of miles out of Tombstone, we turned onto Hwy. 82, heading west. we wanted to check out a couple of RV Parks along Hwy. 82. We had been told that there was a very nice RV Park along Hwy. 82, in the vicinity of Hwy. 90. We found 2 parks in our campground book, and didn't know which was the one recommended to us. We drove by the first one. It looked nice. We drove into the second one. This must be the one that was recommended to us. We are at The Caverns RV Resort, near Huachuca City. Very nice park, cheap !

We set up, then sat out on our folding chairs, eating cheese and crackers, washing it down with Bourbon and Diet Cola, watching the sun set behind the Huachuca Mountains. Nice work if you can get it !

We took Bo for a very long walk around the park, then Joanne made black bean burritos for supper. We studied maps and tourist guides, to plan out the next week or so.

DSK

February 26, 2005

February 26, 2005

Deming, New Mexico to Benson, Arizona

DAY 253

 

Welcome to Arizona. Today was a day of changing weather. This morning when we started out in Deming, New Mexico, it was cool and cloudy. As we drove across the southwest corner of New Mexico, and crossed into Arizona, it alternated between bouts of sunshine, and occasional little bursts of rain. The rain clouds seem to build up around the mountains, so every time we'd get close to one of the many mountains we're passing over, or going around, we'd get rain for short periods of time.

We had a bit of a scare with Bo this morning. Yesterday when Joanne took the truck to go to Wal-Mart in Deming, she discarded a small package of silica beads in the little garbage bin in the truck. You know, the kind of little package that comes inside every box of electronic equipment, to absorb moisture. This morning we put Bo in the truck a few minutes before we were ready to pull out, and while we finished our hitch up procedures, Bo ate the package of silica beads. I was really worried about whether or not it was poisonous, and how would it affect him. We watched him very closely for the next few hours, worrying, and hoping no harm would come to him. He seems okay. It's now late in the evening, so if it was going to have an effect on him, I guess it already would have. Close call ! And a lesson learned !

We drove west on I-10 from Deming, to the Arizona border, and on to Benson, where we are now at Saguaro SKP Park. It's another SKP Co-op, so the only sites available for travellers are those sites that are not currently being occupied by their owners. The Co-op's 15th birthday is very soon, so the park's owners / residents are mostly here. As a result, the park is filled to capacity. We are spending the night in their boondock / dry camp area. There's a waiting list of about 3 days to get a serviced site. We weren't planning to spend any more than a few days here anyways, so since it's full, we'll probably leave tomorrow, and head for the historic old town of Tombstone. You know ... Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, O.K. Corral, Boot Hill Graveyard !

When we passed from New Mexico to Arizona the topography changed again. The mountains, which appear to be made of gravel in New Mexico, seem to made of huge boulders in Arizona. I mean boulders the size of houses ! The desert plants changed again, also. Now we're seeing Barrel Cacti and Organ Pipe Cacti. No Saguaro yet, though. I'm eager to see Saguaro Cacti growing naturally. We must be getting close. This SKP Park is named Saguaro Co-op, and the Saguaro National Park is nearby.

We just returned from today’s social activity in the park. This is a large park, with about 350 sites, so it has a pretty active social calendar. Tonight was a toga party and dance, with live music. It’s rather amusing to see a couple of hundred old folks all dressed up in togas, looking like something out of Animal House, dancing away to hits of the 70’s.

DSK

February 25, 2005

February 25, 2005

Dream Catcher SKP Park, Deming, New Mexico

DAY 252

 

Well, the weather wasn't as bad today as had been forecasted, but we stayed here for another day anyway. I was really sick with a colitis flare up that started yesterday and got much worse today. The weather was cold and cloudy.

I spent the morning alternating between the bathroom, and at my computer desk, working on my investment files. Yesterday on Wi-Fi, and with a couple of phone calls to my investment broker in Ottawa, I retrieved all the updated information I needed to do today's work on the investments. They've done well since the beginning of the year. Let's hope for continued market strength. Since we started this adventure 8 months ago, our "nest egg" has grown faster than we've spent it. That's the way it needs to be for us to continue this lifestyle on a long term basis.

I spent the afternoon alternating between the bathroom, and bed. I was quite sick today. This colitis flare up is slightly worse than average. It started yesterday, so I started taking my Pentasa medication yesterday. When I start taking Pentasa early in a colitis attack, I can usually limit it to a 3 day duration, but since today was quite severe, who knows ? Hopefully, tomorrow will be better. My body couldn’t moderate its temperature today, either. I alternated between feeling like I was freezing, and sweltering. And as always, a colitis attack leaves me feeling very drained of energy. I read and snoozed with Bo a lot. Dogs always seem ready for a snooze.

Of course, in retrospect, I shouldn’t have aggravated Mr. Colon with that chili dinner last night. But ... you know ... when in Rome ... ! It was a good opportunity to experience a Southwestern specialty !

All in all, not a day for travelling. Back on the road tomorrow.

DSK

February 24, 2005

February 24, 2005

Dream Catcher SKP Park, Deming, New Mexico

DAY 251

 

Today was cold, cloudy, and very windy. The weather was the news topic of the day. Storms have blown in from the west, from California. The upper half of New Mexico is getting heavy snow. The lower half of New Mexico is getting such heavy rain that roads are being closed due to flooding. We're in the southwest portion of the state, with Mexico to the south, and Arizona to the west. We haven't had much rain today, but it is cold and windy. California has had a lot of rain in the last few days. We're going to stay here for a couple more days, until the weather improves.

We slept late again today. I did regular preventive maintenance this morning, then phoned my investment broker in Ottawa for the first of two times today. I was finally able to get connected to Wi-Fi, so I spent much of this afternoon working on my investment files. I read for awhile, and worked on repairing a broken shelf in the trailer. I copied a CD to send to my brother-in-law ( SSSSSHHHHH ! ! ! ). I responded to a bunch of e-mails.

Late in the afternoon we headed to the club house for a communal chili dinner. WHEW ! They sure do like their chili hot and spicy down here. After dinner, we spent the evening chatting with a couple from Pennsylvania who are travelling in the opposite direction from us, so they have just come from California and Arizona. They are "dog people" with a couple of dachshunds, so we mostly chatted about pets and pet issues.

We returned to the trailer to watch The Apprentice. It's forecast to be below freezing tonight, so after walking Bo at bed time I disconnected the outside water supply hose and turned on the "Artic ( sic ) Pack" system on the trailer, which heats the fresh water and waste water holding tanks, and "basement" storage compartments.

DSK

February 23, 2005

February 23, 2005

Dream Catcher SKP Park, Deming, New Mexico

DAY 250

 

Today was unusual, from a weather perspective. It changed hourly throughout the day. It started out sunny and warm, then it rained, was sunny and hot, had a thunder storm, was sunny and hot again, had a hail storm, was sunny and hot again, rained lightly, and so on.

Today was a lazy day of resting and chores. I slept late, then spent way too much time trying to connect to the park's 8 day old Wi-Fi system. I finally gave up, went to the club house, and connected by dial-up. I updated my blog, retrieved my MasterCard bill, then sent and retrieved a backlog of e-mail. After lunch, we went into town to do some shopping, and get the oil changed in Dee-Dee. When we got back, I did my daily obedience training session with Bo. He's progressing well, finally. I paid some bills, took care of some printing, prepared some outgoing mail, did some accounting, ... ho-hum ... boring stuff. This evening I was finally able to connect to Wi-Fi. Darn ! After I connected by dial-up for at least half an hour at 10 cents a minute this afternoon.

I found out why the ranches in Texas and New Mexico are so large. It takes between 150 and 200 acres of this scrubby land to support each head of cattle grazing. A 15,000 acre ranch is only good for 75 to 100 head of cattle !

There's a bunch of bad storms heading this way across Arizona from California. Maybe we'll stay here for a few days and ride it out, rather then driving into them.

DSK

February 22, 2005

February 22, 2005

Elephant Butte State Park to Deming, New Mexico

DAY 249

 

Today was sunny and warm, with a thunder shower in mid-afternoon.

This morning we hitched up to leave, drove over to the park's dump station, emptied the holding tanks, then drove into Elephant Butte to fill up with diesel. I'm a little paranoid about running out of fuel lately, when we're planning to drive across sparsely populated areas, like we did today. After filling up, we headed south on I-25 for about 40 miles to the town of Hatch. At Hatch, we got off the Interstate and onto Hwy. 26 heading southwest, to take a diagonal short cut from I-25 to I-10. Plus we just wanted to get off the Interstate. Driving the secondary highways gives us more of the flavour of an area than the Interstates do. At Hatch, the chile growing capital of the world, we stopped at a road side produce stand to buy some vegetables and fruits.

Hwy. 26 meets Interstate 10 just a couple of miles from Deming. At Deming, we stopped to fill up a propane tank, before checking into the Escapees RV Park here, which is where we are now. As soon as we got settled in here, I got to work installing the fifth wheel landing leg / front jack spring pins that I bought at Camping World in El Paso. I was finished and cleaned up just in time for 4:00 P.M. social hour. After social hour, I started work on all the photos I took yesterday on our ghost town outing. I downloaded, and captioned them all. After a late supper of fajitas, using the very fresh tortillas we bought today at the road side stand, we watched TV for awhile.

DSK

February 21, 2005

February 21, 2005

Truth Or Consequences, Cuchillo, Winston, Chloride, & Elephant Butte, New Mexico

DAY 248

 

Today was a nice, sunny, warm day.

This morning I unhitched the truck from the trailer, then did some more catching up on maintenance, including finishing the roof repair.

We spent the day exploring local "ghost towns". We drove about 42 miles up into the mountains, up and down and around and over them, to visit three ghost towns. The road we followed was a stage coach route about 125 years ago. It's easy to imagine riding a stage coach through this "old west" environment. We really like New Mexico, more so than Texas, which in some ways was a bit of a disappointment.

We started right after lunch by driving a couple of miles into Truth Or Consequences to fill up with diesel, and to check out a local RV Park that is one of the nine private establishments that has access to the local hot springs. Truth Or Consequences has been a local hot springs / spa retreat area since 1920. The hot springs only bubble up in 9 locations, and private establishments have existed over all of them since 1920. We were contemplating spending a night at the RV Park with the hot spring tubs, but after seeing the seediness of the place, and considering the price, we decided not to.

Out of town, we found the old road up into the hills. First ghost town, about 14 miles up the road, was Cuchillo. It was founded in the 1850's, and there's not much there today except for a chile farm, and a pecan grove and business. We stopped at the pecan shop, and while Joanne bought a pecan pie and some chocolate coated pecans, I went out back to see the pecan grove. Next town on the road was Winston. It was a decrepit old village with a bunch of old, deserted mobile homes scattered amongst the ruins of buildings from the late 1800's. But it did have a great old General Store that is still operating, looking pretty much the same as it has for many decades. The last, and best, was the town of Chloride.

Chloride started in 1879 when silver was found nearby. A mining town of almost 3000 sprung up within 2 years. The mine, and the town, pretty much died in 1896, when the U.S. Government declared gold to be the standard of monetary measurement. After the mine and the town died, eleven families remained, and the town is now inhabited by a few of their descendants. The town's current population is eleven people. What was once the town's general store has been slowly converted to a private museum. The old general store and some nearby buildings from the 1880's are on a piece of land that was purchased by a visiting New York couple in 1976. They moved to the town in 1995, and opened up the general store building which had been closed and locked since 1923 ! They found the inside of the store to be exactly the way it had been when abandoned 72 years earlier, records and merchandise intact ! They have spent ten years cleaning and restoring, and have turned it into a private museum. It was quite impressive. After seeing inside the general store, we wandered around the area looking at 1880's / 1890's buildings. In the centre of town is the "hanging tree". SHEESH ! As were driving out of town, we decided on impulse to go see the town cemetery. It was amazing ! The graves from 100 to 125 years ago are unmarked mounds of rocks. The cemetery is on a hill overlooking town. To get up there, I had to shift Dee-Dee into 4 x 4 mode, and drive up a narrow, steep trail that at one point is crossed by a shallow, swift moving stream. This was the second time today that we came to a spot where a “crick” crosses the road. A few miles before we got to Chloride we had to drive across a swift flowing stream, or “crick” as they’re called here, as it flows across the road. There are many arroyos here, which are dry creek beds, that only carry water when it rains and the rain water is rapidly flowing down out of the mountains. It has been raining around here lately, so the arroyos are filled with water, turning them into “cricks”. The arroyos are dry so much of the time, that the roads over them are built without culverts, so when the “cricks” run, they just flow over the road. The lady that owns the museum in Chloride said that the road continues on from Chloride, but she discouraged going any further. The road is crossed by “cricks” 118 times in the 11 miles of road beyond Chloride, and already today, a local resident broke an axle on his truck driving up that section.

When I see how necessary four wheel drive vehicles are to the people living in these kinds of areas, it makes me laugh to think about how many spotlessly clean 4 x 4 SUV’s owned by urbanites have never felt anything other than asphalt under their tires.

We left Chloride as the sun set, so by the time we got back to civilization it was dark. As we drove down out of the mountains, we had to stop to let 4 Mule Deer cross the road in front of us. We stopped at a small restaurant in the town of Elephant Butte, and bought some take home fried chicken, slaw, and beans. MMMM-MMMM !

DSK

February 20, 2005

February 20, 2005

El Paso, Texas to Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico

DAY 247

 

Today was a warm, sunny day.

This morning Joanne did not want to travel on the Interstate to Las Cruces. We departed the New Mexico Travel Information Centre and travelled local farm roads west for a few miles until we made it to Hwy. 28. Hwy. 28 is the old, original highway between El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, New Mexico. It runs parallel to the Interstate. It passes by pecan groves and chile farms. The valley between mountains is quite fertile. We got a little lost when we got to Las Cruces, and had to cross the city from Hwy. 28 to Interstate 10. After a bit of angst, we made it onto Interstate 10, and just a few miles later, onto Interstate 25, heading north.

We followed I-25 north from Las Cruces, travelling beside the Rio Grande River, and the Caballo Mountains. Joanne drove for awhile. She's getting better at it. We left I-25 at Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico, and immediately got onto Hwy. 187, backtracking south for 2 miles to Desert Haven Animal Refuge.

Desert Haven is a no-kill animal shelter here at Truth Or Consequences. About 13 months ago as we were planning this travel adventure, they advertised for WorkCampers for 3 month volunteer assignments, in exchange for a serviced site in their 8 site RV Park. I applied for a 6 week assignment for us, in January and February, 2005. They reluctantly accepted our condition of staying only 6 weeks. We and Desert Haven came to an agreement in January, 2004, and we were looking forward to working at Desert Haven in January and February, 2005. After we started this travel adventure, and had been on the road for a few months, Desert Haven sent us an e-mail late last summer. They reneged, and retracted their WorkCamper job offer. They decided that they couldn't offer us a 6 week opportunity. It was 3 months or nothing ! I was really annoyed ! They invited us to drop by for a visit, and maybe next year ( 2006 ) we might be interested in a 3 month assignment. Today we took them up on their offer, and stopped by for a visit / tour.

UGH ! It was not at all what we expected. We are so glad that we are not working here ! They are on 5 acres of land out in the desert. They have a very nice cat building, currently housing 22 cats. Their dog kennel currently has 10 dogs. They have a bird and small animal building with 3 peacocks, many doves, many pheasants, rabbits, guinea pigs, and chickens. The facility, the people, the RV Park ... none of it was quite what we would have wanted in a WorkCamper job.

We thanked them for the tour, and left. We had been planning to stay at least over night in their RV Park, but after the tour, we didn't want to stay. We drove a bit further north to Elephant Butte State Park, just a few miles north of Truth Or Consequences. Elephant Butte Lake is a reservoir lake created by a dam on the Rio Grande River. The scenery is astounding. This large lake is surrounded by the Caballo Mountains. The water level in the reservoir / lake is a bit low this year, so there is a huge expanse of beach around the lake. We are camped up high, overlooking the wide expanse of beach leading to the lake below, and the mountains beyond. Across the lake, we can see a house up on a bluff. The house, and the 40,000 acre ranch surrounding it, belong to Ted Turner.

After we arrived here, and got set up, I spent much of the afternoon working on some maintenance, particularly the roof repair I needed to do. Yesterday, while stopped for lunch in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, I noticed a tear in the rubber roof, about a foot long, right on the front edge where it wraps over the top and onto the side of the trailer. Yesterday at Camping World, I bought some of the supplies I needed to repair the roof. Some of the supplies I already had. Today I worked on fixing it, It will need more work tomorrow, after the first coat of rubber cement that I put on today dries.

We took a long walk with Bo on the sand before supper. He sure loves running in soft sand. And he chases gulls right out into the lake. He has no reservations about running into water.

It's almost 11:00 P.M. as I type this, and Joanne is asking me to go with her and Bo for a late evening walk, because the weather is so pleasant tonight.

DSK

February 19, 2005

February 19, 2005

Lakewood, New Mexico to El Paso, Texas

DAY 246

 

Today started out very foggy and cool, but the fog lifted and it warmed up by late morning.

We left The Ranch SKP Park this morning, heading south on Hwy. 285 to Carlsbad, then southwest on Hwy. 62 / 180 past Carlsbad Caverns, heading for Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Shortly after passing Carlsbad Caverns, there was a herd of a dozen or so Mule Deer on the side of the road. About 15 miles from Guadalupe Mountains National Park, as the road started to rise into the mountains, it got extremely windy. Ascending up to Guadalupe Pass, with a headwind of 30 MPH, was tough going for Dee-Dee. Climbing to the top of Guadalupe Pass at 5700 ft. ASL, she started to run pretty warm, and could only get up to about 60 KMH / 35 MPH up the steepest parts of the road. I guess this was a good trial run for the truck, as we head into more mountains further west, but it sure seems to be a strain for her to pull Harvey's 11,000 pounds up mountain grades, especially with a really strong headwind.

At the top of Guadalupe Pass, we stopped at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park Visitor's Centre. The scenery was spectacular. The Visitor's Centre is right at the base of El Capitan, the highest peak in Texas. We watched a 20 minute video about the park, then went back to the trailer to have lunch and discuss whether or not to stay there for the night. Their campground is unserviced, and the winds were so strong that it was uncomfortable, so we decided to move on. As we drove down out of the mountains, I stopped a few times to take pictures. Once down on relatively flat ground again, Joanne drove for an hour or so. It was her first time driving the rig on a 2 lane highway, and the first time driving it in the rain. It rained a bit, and produced a beautiful rainbow over the desert plains. We stopped at a road side rest area to change drivers, and struck up a conversation with a couple whose Cadillac had Ontario license plates. They were from Alfred, just outside Ottawa, on the east side, a couple of towns over from Cumberland where we lived. As we were standing in the rest area parking lot chatting, a herd of a dozen or so antelope came by.

Once Hwy. 62 / 180 crossed back into Texas, it turned straight west to El Paso. El Paso is in the west corner of Texas, where Texas borders with both Mexico and New Mexico. We took the bypasshighway around the main part of El Paso, passing only through the suburbs. To get from Hwy. 62 / 180 on the east side of El Paso to Interstate 10 on the west side, we had to drive over the large mountain that El Paso is built around. Another mountain pass ! This time up to 5300 ft. ASL. Tough, tough climb, but what a view of the city and surrounding area ! And coming down is quite a ride also. I had to downshift, and use brakes, to keep it under 120 KMH / 75 MPH.

Just north of El Paso is the bedroom community of Anthony. We have been planning for a month to be here this weekend for the grand opening of the new El Paso Camping World store. We arrived at Camping World at 5:00 P.M. and managed to shop for everything on my lengthy Camping World shopping list by closing time at 6:00 P.M.. The grand opening specials were not as good as I had hoped they would be. Buying everything on my list that I needed or wanted cost over $170. Two miles north of the El Paso Camping World store in Anthony is the New Mexico border, and the New Mexico Travel Information centre. By the time we arrived here shortly after 6:00 P.M. it was closed. We are boon docking in their parking lot over night.

DSK

February 18, 2005

February 18, 2005

Lakewood to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico & return

DAY 245

 

Carlsbad Caverns ... WOW !

Today was cloudy and cool, with a bit of rain late in the afternoon.

We left mid-morning for Carlsbad Caverns National Park. South on Hwy. 285 about 20 miles to Carlsbad, then southwest on Hwy. 62 / 180 about another 20 miles to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The park is up in the mountains about 4400 ft. ASL. It was quite cool, and in the clouds, so we couldn't see the scenery very well.

Carlsbad Caverns are the most amazing underground caves ! ! ! Exploration of the caves began about 1898, and development began in the mid-1920's. There is an elevator entrance, but we opted for the "Natural Entrance". It's a trail about a mile long, entering into a cave opening and descending about 750 feet down inside the mountain to the caverns within. At the end of the descent, we entered "The Big Room", the main cavern. We walked around "The Big Room" trail, about a mile and a half around this enormous cavern filled with stalactites, stalagmites, flowstones, soda straws, columns, draperies, popcorn, lily pads, cave pearls, helictites, and all the other forms of speleothem ( underground geological ) formations whose names I can't recall. It's jaw dropping awesome. It's like "Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom". Neither Disney nor Spielberg could dream up something better than what Mother Nature created over a 250 million year period. I hope my pictures do it justice. It's extremely dark in the caverns, so I was shooting most of the pictures "blind". By the time we were finished, our legs were sore, and we were pretty tired. We took the elevator back to the surface. We went up to the roof top observation deck. Couldn't see anything. We were in cloud. We wandered around the gift shop, then left.

From spring until fall, every morning at dawn, and every evening at sunset, a quarter of a million bats enter and exit the cave. There is an outdoor amphitheatre at the natural entrance to the cave from which to view this spectacle. At sunset, a cloud of bats is flying out of the cave for 20 minutes ! At this time of year, the bats have migrated to warmer climes in Mexico.

On the way down the mountain, we took the 9.5 mile gravel scenic route. It would have been a gorgeous drive down a desert mountain, if we would have been able to see anything. We were in cloud most of the time. On the way back to "The Ranch" SKP Park, we stopped at Wal-Mart in Carlsbad, and stocked up on groceries. We're leaving tomorrow morning for Guadalupe Mountains National Park. It's in a pretty remote area on the New Mexico / Texas border. I don't think there's going to be any grocery stores nearby.

DSK

February 17, 2005

February 17, 2005

Lakewood to Living Desert State Park, New Mexico & return

DAY 244

 

Today was cloudy and cool. I felt slightly ill all day with some sort of flu bug.

This morning when I took Bo for a walk, he fell into and got stuck in the livestock grate on the road at the entrance to "The Ranch". A livestock grate is a series of large pipes laid across a trench cut in the road. The pipes, maybe six inches across, are laid about 6 inches apart. They prevent livestock or wildlife from crossing into where they're not wanted, while still allowing cars to pass through. They are on every roadway through fenced land around here. When he walked across it this morning, both his front and back legs fell between the pipes, and he hung there with his belly laying on the pipes, his legs dangling underneath, flailing. Poor Bo. At least he learns quickly. When we came walking back into the park, he refused to step on the livestock grate. I had to carry him across.

We got a late start this morning, partially because I wasn't feeling well, and slept late. We unhitched the truck from the trailer, which we hadn't done yesterday when we arrived. We had an early lunch, then set out for Living Desert State Park, on the outskirts of Carlsbad, about 20 miles away. We spent the afternoon there. It is a zoo and botanical garden set on a 1.3 mile trail through natural desert environment. It exhibits many different desert plants, cacti, grasses, trees, etc., as well as an aviary filled with birds indigenous to the desert, a reptile house, and large fenced areas throughout the grounds housing animals found in the desert. We saw bald eagles, golden eagles, wild turkeys, a variety of owls, collared peccaries ( wild desert boars ), road runners, snakes, cougars, bobcats, mule deer, and more varieties of cacti than I imagined could exist. Most of the birds and animals came to them as injured or "domesticated" and could not be returned to their wild habitat. The cougar, for example, was raised as a domestic pet until confiscated by authorities. When we approached its pen, it came running over, purring loudly, looking for some interaction with people. Just like a big version of Teddy. The male bobcat made chirping noises similar to the "talking" that Toby used to do. Cats are cats, I guess.

I just came in from taking Bo out for his late night walk. There are coyotes howling just a few hundred feet away out in the desert. Kind of spooky. I guess they're waiting for the next rabbit to come by and be their next meal. Or maybe a cute little Yorkshire Terrier cross would taste nice !

DSK

February 16, 2005

February 16, 2005

Pecos, Texas to Lakewood, New Mexico

DAY 243

 

Today was cool, and partially sunny, with high, thin clouds.

We left Tra-Park SKP Park in Pecos, Texas this morning, heading northwest on Hwy. 285. The desert landscape changes slowly, but constantly. The terrain goes from flat to hilly to mountainous, and back. The vegetation is the most noticeable change. Every few hours of driving, what is growing on the desert changes. For example, a few days ago, there were endless Prickly Pear Cacti, and now there are none. No more tall desert palms, no palmettos, no yucca, no more aloe vera plants. There's a lot less grasses. There's lots of stuff growing out there on the desert, but it's not the same as a few days ago, or even what we saw yesterday. Starting yesterday, we've been seeing tumbleweeds rolling across the land, and the road occasionally. I hear music in my head every time I see a tumbleweed. I have fragments of many songs that keep coming into my head. I'm surprised by how many songs about Texas, and the "wild west" creep out of my memory. "Down in El Paso ...." We'll be in El Paso in a few days.

We crossed into New Mexico today. In a few days, we'll be crossing back into Texas for a couple of days, then back into New Mexico again. We're zigzagging northwest, then southwest, then northwest again. Shortly after crossing from Texas into New Mexico, we stopped in the city of Carlsbad to buy groceries and supplies, have lunch, and buy diesel. About the time we got to Carlsbad, I started to feel ill, and it has persisted all day. I think I have a 24 hour flu or something.

Once we crossed into New Mexico, we started to see road runners. Now we realize that those ostrich like birds we saw at Padre Island National Seashore that we thought were road runners weren't. I don't know what they were.

When we crossed into New Mexico, we changed from Central Standard Time to Mountain Standard Time, so we gained an hour today. It's going to be a bit of an annoyance, however, because we'll be crossing back and forth between New Mexico and Texas over the next few days.

We arrived this afternoon at "The Ranch" SKP Park in Lakewood, New Mexico. Like the SKP Park at Hondo, this is a Co-op Park. Each site is "owned" by an individual, and the sites not currently occupied by their owners are available for short term occupancy by travellers like us. There are a lot of little rabbits running around here. Bo likes it. Miles off in the distance, there is a large flame shooting up out of the ground. I think it's an oil well on fire. There were a lot of oil wells all along the route we drove today, in West Texas and Southern New Mexico. Good thing there's lots of oil in the ground around here, because this land is pretty much useless for anything else.

After arriving, we went to social hour, a daily occurrence at 4:00 P.M. at all SKP Parks. Each park's approach to social hour is different. Here it's very laid back, and actually quite "social". Not like Rainbow's End in Livingston where social hour was at least 30 minutes of structured, tedious, daily announcements. We ended up sitting and chatting for 2 hours with Bob Gambol, an Escapee whose membership number is in the low "hundreds". He's one of the earliest Escapee members still around. The latest membership numbers being issued are in the 89,000 range. Bob has travelled with his RV down though Mexico and into Central America, all the way through Costa Rica to Panama. We sure meet interesting people in the ranks of Escapees.

This morning there were flocks of honking geese flying over head, headed north. When we started heading south in mid-October, we were travelling along with the geese headed south. Now they’re headed back north already. Goodbye, little geesies. Have a safe trip. Too soon for us to turn north and join you. Or should I say ... y’all.

DSK

February 15, 2005

February 15, 2005

Pecos, Texas

DAY 242

 

Today was warm, partially cloudy, with a light wind. Apparently this part of West Texas is usually quite windy during the winter.

This morning after regular morning chores, I drove into Pecos to find the Post Office and buy some stamps. Pecos looks like an old town, with small, old homes. The population is approximately 7000. The lawns all look like Malcolm's family's lawn on the TV series Malcolm In The Middle. I guess it's pretty hard to grow a nice lawn out here in the desert. On the way back from the Post Office, I stopped at the Pecos Municipal Airport next door to the RV Park that we're in. I miss flying, and enjoy stopping by a small airport when the opportunity presents itself. The local municipal airport was previously a military air base, during the Second World War. The property that Tra-Park is located on was where the military barracks were.

After lunch, we decided to wash the trailer. It was an entire afternoon's work, for both of us. We had to hitch up the trailer to the truck, tow it over to the vehicle wash area on the edge of the park, unhitch, wash the trailer, hitch up again, tow it back to our site, and set up on the site again.

The trailer was extremely filthy, and I had just finished washing it very thoroughly while at C.A.R.E. in Livingston. First, we spent a few days along the seashore, right on the beach, during rain. There was a coating on the trailer from salt water spray from the Gulf Of Mexico. Then we drove across the dusty Chihuahuan Desert during rain. There was a sticky layer of dusty grime on top of the salt water residue. It took a lot of scrubbing, but the truck and trailer are clean again. And washing the vehicles in such nice weather was pleasant.

We spent the latter part of the afternoon sitting around our campsite, resting, me drinking a beer, both of us reading. Just before supper, we took Bo for an obedience training session. We've decided we should both take him on these obedience training sessions. He's been obeying me much better since I began formally training him, but he's been paying little attention to Joanne. Apparently he thinks I'm Alpha Dog, he's Beta Dog, and Joanne and Teddy are inferiors. HA HA HA ! Joanne doesn't think it's that funny, though.

While Joanne prepared supper, I downloaded and processed the photos from the last few days, that were in the digital camera. After eating supper, we watched TV for awhile, since we have a cable connection, and lots of channels. Teddy and Bo went to sleep about 9:30 P.M.. They both have gotten into the habit of going to sleep long before Joanne and I do. And then they wake me up as early as 6:00 A.M., wanting to be fed, wanting to go outside, wanting to be cuddled and petted, and worse of all, wanting to play. Bo ... I don't want to play tug of war with your stinky, monkey face dog toy at 6:00 A.M..

DSK

February 14, 2005

February 14, 2005

Fort Stockton to Pecos, Mexico

DAY 241

 

Happy Valentine's Day. Today was sunny and hot. When we arrived at Tra-Park SKP Park in Pecos this afternoon, the temperature was 92 degrees. With low humidity, and a light wind, it was very nice ! I worked outside wearing shorts and no shirt. I'm so glad to see the sun again after 2 weeks of clouds. I was already suffering depression from lack of sunlight.

This morning I discovered that in addition to running out of fuel twice yesterday, I also got a flat tire, and didn't realize it. First thing this morning, we drove from the Wal-Mart parking lot to a grocery store about a block away. While Joanne went inside to buy groceries, I re-installed the turbocharger shroud I removed yesterday. After I finished that, I did my normal daily preventive maintenance. On Mondays, that's checking the truck's tire pressures. Fronts ; 65, 65, okay. Rears ; 80, 80, 80, 0. Zero ? ? ? The inside rear tire on the curb side was flat ! That explains the strange "whooshing" sound we heard last night just before we ran out of gas for the second time. I just thought it was a noise from the exhaust due to water or dirt in the fuel from the bottom of the tank. < sigh > Unhitch the trailer, remove the spare tire out from underneath the truck, jack up the truck, remove the two curb side rear tires, install the spare on the inside, re-install the outside tire, lower the truck, put everything away, < sigh > hitch up the trailer. Big job. And tough to do with two burned finger tips.

We left Fort Stockton, heading northwest on Hwy. 285. The desert became flat again. But no more cacti. Just lots and lots of sage brush. And trash ! ! ! I stopped a couple of times to take pictures, and every time, out in the middle of nowhere, you couldn't find a 50 foot stretch of road side that didn't have litter. I'm really appalled at the amount of litter evident everywhere ! ! ! Service stations, road side rest areas, all along the road side ... everywhere ! ! ! Water bottles, aluminum drink cans, plastic bags, tires, wheels, ... litter, litter, and more litter !

HEY ... you Merkins ... CLEAN UP YOUR ACT ! ! !

About halfway to Pecos, I realized it was probably not a very good idea to be driving across the desert, in the middle of nowhere, without a spare tire. As soon as we got to Pecos, I stopped at the first tirerepair shop I saw, and had the flat tire repaired. WOW ... big nail hole ! After having the tire repaired, we checked into Tra-Park, the Escapees RV Park here. While having a late lunch, I noticed the thermometer on the trailer window read 92 degrees. I took off my shirt and jeans, and put on a pair of shorts. I spent the afternoon working outside. It was beautiful. I changed the tire ... again ! I wanted to keep the spare that I put on this morning as the spare. Changing a rear dually tire twice in one day is an awful lot of work. We washed the truck. We went to social hour. We trimmed Teddy's claws. We trimmed Bo's claws. Oops ! I cut the quick on one of Bo's nails. DAMN ! It hurt, and bled a lot. Poor Bo. His nails are black, so I can't see how far the quick extends into the nail. I won't trim as much next time.

Joanne made a great home made pizza for supper, and we watched TV. This park has a cable TV connection at every site. I just noticed on the TV news a story about a local land developer selling 10 acre parcels of this slightly useless desert land on the internet for $80.00. Eighty bucks for ten acres of gravel and sage brush ? Too much !

DSK

February 13, 2005

February 13, 2005

Hondo to Fort Stockton, Texas

DAY 240

 

Well ... what an interesting day, to say the least ! I stopped on the highway to provide assistance to an Ontario couple whose roof ripped and blew off their truck camper, and I ran out of gas in the desert ... twice ! ! !

Today was sunny and warm. Finally ... blue sky !

We left Lone Star Corral SKP Park this morning, heading west on Hwy. 90. At Sabinal we turned northwest onto Hwy. 127. At Concan we turned north onto Hwy. 83. At the town of Junction, we filled up with diesel and turned west onto Interstate 10. Shortly after leaving Hondo, the landscape changed from desert prairie to desert mountains. The ground changed from red, sandy soil, to ... well ... gravel ! Yesterday I was looking through some ranch land real estate guides I had picked up in Bandera, and noticed that most of the ranches in the area that are for sale are in excess of 10,000 acres. Now I understand why. There's not much for the cattle to graze on, on these desert gravel lands. I guess it takes a lot of land to earn a living as a rancher. As we continued west on I-10, the mountains changed, from typical mountains to rolling hills, with large, high, flat top outcroppings. I'm not certain of the terminology, but I think these flat top mountains are called buttes, and the flat tops are called mesas. The only things in these hills are gravel ... and oil. Lots of oil wells. Lots and lots of dead deer on the side of the road. Cattle grazing. Some goats. Some horses. More gravel and cacti ! It's very lovely scenery. I took some good photos. I think the landscape is going to look like this through the rest of West Texas, and across New Mexico and Arizona. This part of West Texas is very windy, with the winds blowing from the west, so we were driving into a head wind all day.

Mid-afternoon, we passed an entire camper roof on the side of the road, and a half mile later there was a truck with a roofless camper, parked on the shoulder. I stopped as quickly as I could, which still covers a lot of distance, and walked back to offer assistance. It was a couple from Barrie, Ontario, and the wind had peeled their camper roof back like the top of a sardine can. I gave the man some rope, and helped him tie the rope from one side of the truck, over the remains of the camper, to the other side of the truck, to try to prevent the walls of the camper from falling apart, and off. This whole exercise took about 45 minutes. Joanne waited in our truck with Bo, with the engine running, and the air conditioner on. This, along with the head wind, factored into me running out of gas, I guess. I followed the roofless truck camper slowly along the road to the next rest area, about ten miles further, to make sure everything was as okay as it could be.

We left them in the rest area, and continued west along I-10. We passed a lot of huge windmill farms. The winds were really strong. My fuel was running low. There were no towns for a long way. Finally, 25 miles out of Fort Stockton, while climbing a steep hill, Dee-Dee ran out of gas.

I knew from reading the truck owner's manual when I bought Dee-Dee that starting a diesel after running out of fuel is difficult. I poured in my 2 gallon emergency can of diesel, and opened the manual to the section on running out of gas. It explained that on a level surface, pouring in 2 gallons of gas should get the truck started, but on a slope, it may take as much as 5 gallons. Great ! We were halfway up a long, steep hill. The manual said to open the air bleed valve on top of the fuel filter, and crank the engine until all the air is expelled and fuel starts to spray out of the bleed valve. Fine. Where the hell is the fuel filter ? ? ? I had to flip through the manual, and try to figure out where to find the fuel filter, and bleed valve. I finally figured out that it's underneath the turbocharger shroud. I had to fish around in my tools to find the right size socket to fit the 4 bolts on the turbocharger shroud. When I finally got the right socket, I loosened the bolts part way, then tried to finish removing them by hand. I grabbed the first bolt, and burned the tips of my thumb and index finger enough to blister them both. Story of my life ! Once I got the shroud off, I found the air bleed valve, opened it, and cranked the engine until fuel sprayed out. Close the valve, continue cranking until the truck starts. BUT ... only crank the engine for 15 seconds, then let the starter cool for a minute, then repeat, and repeat, and repeat, until the engine finally starts. OK ... done !

I guess Dee-Dee gets 10 miles to the gallon while towing Harvey into a strong headwind, mostly uphill. Five miles from Fort Stockton, I ran out of gas again. It was just beginning to get dark. Joanne went inside the trailer to feed the animals, while I stood beside the rig, waving a gas can, hitchhiking. I didn't think it was worth calling emergency roadside service and waiting an hour or two for a tow truck to bring me fuel, when I was so close to a city. After about 10 minutes, and maybe 50 vehicles passed by without stopping ( assholes ! ) a beat up old car with Florida plates stopped. Driving it was a down on his luck, unemployed drifter by the name of DJ, heading to Las Vegas for a job that had been promised to him. A real scruffy dude ! He drove me the 5 miles to Fort Stockton, to the first gas station. I offered him supper if he would drive me back to the rig. He said he'd rather have $5.00 worth of gas. Fine ! I filled my gas can with 2 gallons of diesel, and bought him $5.00 worth of gas. He drove me back. While I was gone, a State Trooper had stopped at the rig, to check if everything was okay. Joanne told him we were just out of fuel, and I was gone to buy some. While he was standing at the door of the trailer, talking to Joanne, who was inside holding Bo, Teddy decided to leave ! Stupid ****ing cat ! The State Trooper caught him.

Once DJ and I were back at the rig, I poured the 2 gallons of diesel in, and worked on restarting Dee-Dee, while Joanne fed DJ a sandwich, and a beer, and gave him a bag of muffins and cookies to go. I think this guy is sleeping in his car, and probably not eating much. He said he was down to $60.00 to last him until Vegas. Good luck !

Once Dee-Dee was started, we drove the 5 miles into Fort Stockton, and to the same gas station. The attendant said that the State Trooper had stopped by to check on me. I filled the emergency fuel can again, and Dee-Dee, and we drove another few miles to a Wal-Mart. We're boondocked for the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot. We just ate a very late supper, and Joanne has gone to replenish groceries and supplies, while I work on today's journal.

HEY ... life's an adventure. I thought the day was quite interesting. And coping isn't too hard when the sun is shining brightly. Too bad Joanne is so pissed off at me for running out of fuel. Too bad my burned fingers hurt so much when I type.

DSK

February 12, 2005

February 12, 2005

Hondo to Bandera, Texas & return

DAY 239

 

Today was cool, and raining lightly all day. I'm suffering from a lack of sunlight. There's only been one day of sunshine in 2 weeks.

This morning we did some more catching up on chores. Joanne did a bunch of laundry. I did some more outdoor chores, including trying to clean the big grease stain I made on the cement parking pad we're on. Last night I used the barbecue beside the trailer, on the concrete pad. The beef ribs dripped so much fat into the barbecue, it leaked out the hole in the bottom, and made a big greasy stain on the concrete.

For lunch, we had wrap sandwiches because Joanne could not find fresh bread at any of the three grocery stores she went to in Hondo yesterday. I guess they don't use bread around here. She bought both corn tortillas and flour tortillas. She also bought some salsa and guacamole. WHOA ... they must have a version of salsa for turistas, and another for the locals. She bought the salsa for locals. WHEW ... can you feel my heartburn ?

After lunch, Joanne wanted to go to what is commonly known around here as "The Cowboy Museum". It's real name is The Frontier Times Museum. It's in Bandera, 9 miles east, and 28 miles north of here. Bandera bills itself as “The Cowboy Capital Of The World”. We drove east on Hwy. 90 to Hondo, then turned north onto Hwy. 173 to Bandera. As soon as we turned north from Hondo, we were entering the area known as "Texas Hill Country". The landscape changed from flat, scruffy desert, to lush hills with trees.

The "Cowboy Museum" was interesting, but not quite what either of us was expecting. After the museum we walked up one side and down the other side of Bandera's historic main street. Interesting old "Western" style buildings. Take down a few of the neon signs, and you could shoot a Western movie in this town. We went into a few of the stores and did some browsing. I chose a Western style shirt to buy, but changed my mind at the cash register when the cashier insisted that it was not on sale, despite signage that indicated it was.

On the drive back to Lone Star Corral RV Park, Joanne wanted to stop in Hondo and buy "Texas Barbecue" take-out for supper. We weren't really sure what all these barbecue ( Texas ) / barbacoa ( Mexico ) restaurants are all about. As we drove by McBee's Bar-B-Q in Hondo on the way to Bandera, we could smell a wonderful scent of barbecue. We stopped in there on the way back home. We bought barbecued brisket, barbecued fajitas, baked beans and potato salad. It was interesting to note that the "standard" barbecue side orders here are baked beans and potato salad. In Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana, they were baked beans and cole slaw. The barbecued briskets are similar to roasts, and the barbecued fajitas are similar to steaks. I guess they're meant to be sliced thin for heaping onto flour tortillas.

For the last few days, Joanne has had the radios in the truck and trailer tuned to a Mexican radio station. We don't understand a word, but the music sure is interesting.

DSK

February 11, 2005

February 11, 2005

Lone Star Corral SKP Park, Hondo, Texas

DAY 238

 

Today was warm, with thin cloud cover.

Today was a day to rest and get caught up on chores a bit. We slept late. I had been up very late last night. This park has free Wi-Fi, so I stayed up late, working on the computer. I downloaded and processed the photos that I've taken in the last week or so that were still in the camera. Then I updated my blog, and attached photos. After getting up late, we unhitched the truck from the trailer, and Joanne took the truck to go grocery shopping in Hondo. I dug the printer out from the "pass-though" storage area under the trailer, and printed some documents. I wrote a letter to Ontario's Ministry Of Transportation. I returned 3 Ontario license plates to them in August for cancellation and refund, and haven't heard anything back from them. I updated my investment files. The stock market has done reasonably well from December 31 to February 10 ! I printed and reconciled January's bank statement for our personal account. I did some outside chores.

At 4:00 P.M. we went to social hour, then visited for quite awhile with our new friend Jim Shelton. We found out today that not only is he a paraplegic, but he's had an ileostomy / colostomy due to colitis. I'm quite inspired by a paraplegic, with a colostomy bag / no colon, living alone and travelling full time in an RV ! Some people's determination is unstoppable ! He sustained the injury which left him crippled while he was bicycling across the United States. We took Bo for a walk, over to Jim's rig to see it. I did not know that a couple of RV manufacturers produce travel trailers and motorhomes for wheelchairs. Jim has a Ford van, with wheelchair lift, towing a 24 foot travel trailer that has a side door wheelchair lift, and all elements of the interior have been engineered for someone in a wheelchair.

Just before supper, I took Bo for our daily obedience training session. We're making some progress. Again tonight, I barbecued for supper. I haven't been using the barbecue much lately because of the weather, and short days. I barbecued big, meaty, beef ribs, which are more readily available here than we're used to finding. Texas likes its beef ! And barbecues !

Late in the evening we went for a walk back to Jim's. He had asked for our card with our e-mail address. I was just going to leave the card inside his van, buthe was still up and heard me slam his van door. He invited us in for freshly baked brownies. We visited for awhile, but Bo wasn't behaving particularly well.

DSK

February 10, 2005

February 10, 2005

Laredo to Hondo, Texas

DAY 237

 

Happy Birthday to my sister, Sharon.

 

Welcome to "The Wild Wild West". Today was cloudy and warm.

Joanne said she felt really safe staying overnight at the Texas Travel Information Centre, protected by all those armed Border Patrol Agents. The Travel Information Centre is like a donut shop for the Border Patrol.

We left this morning heading north on Interstate 35. The landscape has become endless Prickly Pear Cacti and Mesquite trees, with occasional Desert Palms, Yuccas, and Aloe Veras. Every few hours, we see a Falcon sitting on a utility pole or wire. The ranch gates are very interesting. Every ranch has an elaborate gateway. Think "South Fork" on the old TV show "Dallas". Grazing on all this scruffy desert are Texas Longhorn and Brahma cattle.

At Devine, we turned northeast onto Hwy. 173 for 21 miles to Hwy. 90 at Hondo. At Hondo we headed west for about 8 miles on Hwy. 90 to the Lone Star Corral Escapees RV Park. This is an Escapees Co-op Park. The lots all belong to members who make them available to a rental pool when they're not occupying the lot themselves. This is a really nice place. I could see myself spending winters in a place like this some day.

I barbecued tonight for the first time in about 2 weeks. Joanne prepared the nopales ... the Prickly Pear Cactus chopped up leaves, boiling them with onions, as per the package directions. They weren't very good. Especially since they secrete a stringy, slimy goo when cooked. Sort of like eating green beans in slime.

We're just west of San Antonio, which is sort of the beginning of the true "wild west". We might stay here a couple of days and go to a cowboy museum nearby.

At social hour tonight, after introducing ourselves as new arrivals, we were approached by Jim Shelton. He's a friend of our YMCA Of The Ozarks WorkCamping friend, Julie Hazlett. Jim knew who we were from Julie's e-mails to him. Jim is a middle aged single man, paralyzed, and in a wheelchair after breaking his spine in a bicycling accident some years ago. We've been told that we're admired for the courage it took to sell everything and live the lifestyle of full time RV'ing. We admire Julie for the courage it takes to be full time RV'ing as a single. Julie admires Jim for the courage it takes to be full time RV'ing not only as a single, but disabled, in a wheelchair. Hear hear !

DSK

February 9, 2005

February 9, 2005

LaFeria to Laredo, Texas

DAY 236

 

Today was cloudy, with a bit of rain as we drove. It started out warm in LaFeria, but was a lot cooler by the time we got to Laredo.

There were about a dozen noisy, small, bright green parrots on a utility wire over our trailer at LaFeria RV Park. We were told that they are paraqueets, in the same family of birds as budgies / parakeets.

This morning we hitched up and prepared to leave, then went over to say goodbye to the McGeachy's and the Schweyer's. We headed west on Hwy. 83, following the Rio Grande River and the Mexico border. We stopped at Rio Grande City to buy groceries at Wal-Mart, and tomatoes at a vegetable stand. I parked in the Wal-Mart parking lot next to a fifth wheel rig with Manitoba plates. When we came out of the Wal-Mart, their door was open so we chatted with them. They were from Killarney, Manitoba. It was their first time to Texas. They were travelling towards where we had just come from, and vice-versa. They left Manitoba on January 15, and will be returning on March 15. A long way to travel in just two months. We had to cross a 5 lane freeway on foot to get to the vegetable stand. Not that easy to do !

I wondered why so many people in Wal-Mart had black smudges on their foreheads. Joanne explained that today is Ash Wednesday. She knew that from being raised Catholic. HEY ... that means yesterday was Fat Tuesday / Mardi Gras.

We are always willing to try local fare, so in the grocery store we bought some Mexican cheese, which is somewhat like Feta, a Mexican dessert sweet bread with Pecans in it, like a nut bread, and a package of fresh nopales, which are "tender leaves of Prickley ( sic ) Pear Cactus" They are cooked and eaten as a vegetable. Okkkkkaaaaayyyyy ! ! !

West of Rio Grande City we left "The Valley" and entered the Chihuahua Desert. As we drove across the desert, it rained on and off. The truck and trailer are now filthy from driving through a dusty desert while it rained lightly. We stopped for diesel in San Ygnacio. Most of the signage along the Rio Grande River / Mexico border is Spanish. Down here, the GAP chain is Gonzalez Auto Parts. I'm not kidding ! The Rio Grande, the Mexico border, and Hwy. 83 all turn slowly northwest. At Laredo, we left Hwy. 83 and got onto Interstate 35 which runs north to San Antonio. About 13 miles north of Laredo, all traffic was routed offthe Interstate, and into a truck scales and inspection area. Every vehicle had to stop while border patrol agents with sniffer dogs circled the vehicle. I think they were looking for vehicles with illegal immigrants aboard. While we were at Livingston, I was following the newspaper story about the trial of a trucker who was charged with murder after 19 illegal immigrants died inside his truck while being smuggled across from Mexico.

We are stopped for the night "boondocking" in the parking lot of the Texas Travel Information Centre about a mile down the road from the border patrol inspection stop. The fifth wheel rig beside us is running power off a very small, very quiet, Honda 1000 portable generator. I want one ! I'm going to get one !

The local news seems too bizarre to be real. I was just reading tonight's Laredo newspaper while eating dinner. There is a story about a Mexican woman who was found on the Texas side of Laredo, drunk, with her hands cut off, newspapers and duct tape wrapped around the stumps of her arms. She was too drunk to know how it happened. HUH ? ? ? Another story was about the local 55 year old judge who was forced to resign because he was caught using a penis pump under his robes to masturbate during trials. WHAT ? ? ?

I've just returned from taking Bo out for an evening walk. WOW ... is it ever windy here in the desert at night.

DSK

February 7 & 8, 2005

February 7 & 8, 2005

LaFeria, Texas & Nuevo Progreso, Mexico

DAYS 234 & 235

 

Monday ; Today was sunny and hot. This morning when I went to register for 2 more nights in this campground, I met Ken Hammer at the registration desk. Ken and his wife Jean are members of Escapees Maple Leaf ( Ontario ) Chapter 18. We have met them twice before at the Maple Leaf Chapter 18 Fall Rally in September 2003 in St. Thomas and again at the Maple Leaf Chapter 18 Spring Rally in June 2004 in Kingston. Ken and Jean are here waiting for the start of the annual Escapees 3 week pilgrimage to Mexico called Mexican Connection. Ken told me that the McGeachy’s and the Schweyers are also in this campground. Small world ... again ! After registering for two more nights, I went over to say hello to Sandy and Peachy, and Harv and Louise.

Then it was time to head for Mexico. A few miles west on Hwy. 83, a few miles south on Hwy. 491, and a few miles west on Hwy. 281 brought us to Progreso, Texas, and the International Bridge over the Rio Grande River to Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. This is an extremely popular border crossing point for tourists. There are a couple of very large parking lots on the Texas side of the border where you can park your vehicle all day for $1.00, and walk across to Mexico. We parked the truck, and walked across the International Bridge. The pedestrian toll is $0.25 per person. The main street of Nuevo Progreso, Mexico is about 5 blocks long. The tourist area extends the length of the main street, and about a block in each direction off the main street, so the tourist area is about 5 blocks by 3 blocks. A nice long day of strolling ! The tourist area is comprised of about 1/3 dentists, 1/3 pharmacies, and 1/3 souvenir shops, bars, and restaurants. The many dentists’ offices have their prices posted on their shop windows. Extractions ; $10. Fillings ; $15. Cleanings ; $10. This is a very popular place for dental work and prescription refilling for the RV crowd. I have qualms about letting cut throat competition cut rate Mexican dentists into my mouth. We bought some gifts for Joanne’s little nieces. As I said before, every kid should have a rich, old aunt ! I bought some Mexican chocolate bars. We bought some $1.00 Margaritas. All along the tourist strip, bars sell Margaritas for $1.00, served in Styrofoam cups. Drinking while strolling down the street is permitted. At the end of theday, we walked back across the International Bridge, paying the $0.30 per person toll. Clearing U.S. Customs took about 5 seconds. “What did you buy today ?” “Twenty bucks worth of souvenirs.” “OK ... goodbye.”

We walked back to the truck, and drove back to LaFeria RV Park, and joined the already in progress Canadian Happy Hour at the Schweyer’s motorhome. Beer, wine, pizza, as a prelude to the RV Park’s wine and cheese party at 6:00 P.M.. At 6:00, we all went over to the Club House where many winery sales reps had tables set up for tasting their products. We spent about an hour and half tasting various Texas wines, munching on cheese, and socializing. We won a bottle of red wine as a door prize. I hate red wine. Just my luck !

We wobbled back to the trailer, had a late supper, and I fell asleep a few minutes after 9:00 P.M. as we were starting to watch TV.

Tuesday ; Today started out sunny and warm. It got cloudy around noon. I slept very late this morning. A week of driving, a day of walking, and an evening of wine will do that, I guess.

After lunch, we headed to the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. West on Hwy. 83, south on Hwy. 1015 to Progreso, west on Hwy. 281. We parked, went into and walked around their Visitor Centre, watched a short introductory video, then hiked around the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge for a couple of hours. The more interesting things we saw were ; Green Jays, Altamira Orioles, Great Kiskadees, Chachalacas, Snowy Egrets, and a Rosebelly Lizard. When we left, we wanted to explore the rest of "The Valley" by car, before returning to LaFeria. We drove west on Hwy. 283 until it ended at Hidalgo, then turned north on Hwy. 115 to the city of McAllen. We drove into, and through McAllen, then turned east on Hwy. 83. We drove through Pharr, San Juan, Alamo, Donna, Weslaco, and Mercedes, before getting back to LaFeria. We stopped for groceries in Pharr, and bought Popeye's Chicken ( similar to KFC ) in Weslaco.

We ate our fast food fried chicken while watching the 2 hour finale of Amazing Race.

DSK

February 6, 2005

February 6, 2005

South Padre Island to LaFeria, Texas

DAY 233

 

Today started out warm and cloudy on South Padre Island. By the time we got to Brownsville, it was warm, humid, and partially sunny. By the time we got to LaFeria, it was hot, humid, and sunny. Finally ! We've been travelling for a week since we left the C.A.R.E. Centre / Rainbow's End in Livingston, and the weather has been poor.

We weren't impressed enough with South Padre Island to stay, so we hitched up and left this morning. We crossed back to the mainland at Port Isabel, and headed west on Hwy. 100. We wanted to go to a rodeo which was being held this weekend at Los Fresnos. We had passed it yesterday while driving from Harlingen to South Padre Island. I wanted to stop, but Joanne was eager to get to South Padre Island. When we got to the rodeo grounds just outside Los Fresnos, shortly after 11:00 A.M., we found out that parking and admission would be $30.00, and the rodeo didn't start until 2:00 P.M.. We didn't want to wait that long, or spend that much just to get in, so we left. While passing through the little town of Los Fresnos, we stopped to refill a propane tank, then stopped again on the edge of town to buy tomatoes, from a truck parked on the shoulder of the highway. An old, Mexican man, and a young, Mexican boy selling the sweetest tomatoes we've ever tasted, for $1.00 a large bag !

We continued west on Hwy. 100, then south on Hwy. 77 / 83 to Brownsville. Brownsville is the most southerly point in Texas, and the U.S., I think. It appears on maps to be a bit further south than Key West, Florida. The Rio Grande River separates Brownsville, Texas from Matamoros, Mexico. There are almost as many Mexican license plates in Brownsville as Texas plates. We were planning to spend the night in Brownsville, and cross over to Matamoros, Mexico tomorrow for a day trip.

Our first stop in Brownsville was at the SAS Shoes Factory Outlet Store where I bought two pairs of shoes. I have been wearing SAS Shoes for about 17 years. Every few years, I would buy two or three pairs while in Florida, on winter vacations. They are very expensive, but very good. Their shoes fit my wide feet better than any other brand, and they last for years. I also bought some SAS dye, polish, and conditioner for the bone coloured shoes I wear. The shoes last forever, but they look like crap within a year, because I’m very hard on shoes, and I’ve never been able to find the right colour of polish, or dye. Next stop was a Wal-Mart for some groceries and supplies, then a Dollar Store for reading glasses for Joanne. She has finally conceded that she can’t read road maps properly and needs reading glasses. She’s been navigating with my pilot’s lighted map reading magnifying glass in her hand.

After finishing shopping, we drove to the two campgrounds in Brownsville that were in our Passport America campground listing. Neither one had space available. It seems that most of the campgrounds down here in “The Valley” are filled with seasonal campers ... Winter Texans. It was getting hot, we were tired, Dee-Dee needed fuel, so we decided to head west out of Brownsville, following the Rio Grande, along Hwy. 281. Just on the edge of Brownsville, we stopped for diesel, and to phone a campground down the road in LaFeria to check on site availability. They had space, so we headed out for LaFeria.

As we drove along the Rio Grande, which separates Texas from Mexico, we could see huge spotlights on top of huge generators, periodically set up along the banks / levees. I guess that’s to spot Mexican “wet backs” swimming across the Rio Grande. The Border Patrol is quite evident here, with a lot of marked vehicles on the road. As we drove along this road, we also experienced something new, which I surmise must be an “import” from Mexico. When passing, the overtaking car just pulls out, straddling the centre line, with no regard for whether or not there is any oncoming traffic. The vehicle being passed moves over part way onto the shoulder, and any oncoming traffic also moves over part way onto the opposite shoulder, so that as one is being passed, with oncoming traffic, three vehicles are abreast on a two lane road. After the first scare, it’s not that difficult to contend with, but that first one sure scared the dickens out of me.

At Hwy. 506 we turned north for a few miles to the town of LaFeria, where we are now camped at LaFeria RV Park. It’s a very nice private RV park, and we’re probably going to stay here for a few days and use it as a base of operations for exploring The Valley, and a day trip to Mexico. We’ve been driving every day for a week, and would like to stay put for a few days. We’re about ten miles from Progreso, Texas, which is across the Rio Grande from Nuevo Progreso, Mexico, a tourist friendly border town with “walk-in” access across the bridge. We might leave the truck on the American side, and just walk across to Nuevo Progreso.

Tonight Bo passed some red silk. It was certainly festive looking dog shit ! Olè ! Must be from that silk plant that he ate a few days ago after sticking his face into a jelly fish. Stupid dog ! As I was walking him, I picked tomorrow's breakfast from a Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit tree in the campground.

DSK

February 5, 2005

February 5, 2005

Harlingen to South Padre Island, Texas

Day 232

 

Today was warm and cloudy. I need some sunlight !

At 8:00 A.M., just after I had showered, but was not yet dressed, there was a knock on the door. I thought it was somebody from the Travel Information Centre coming over to express their displeasure at our having spent overnight in their parking lot. It was a man from Edmonton, who had just pulled into the parking lot, and was hungry for some Canadian company. I told him I would come to see him a little later. I finished dressing, and went inside the Travel Information Centre to get directions to the nearest RV parts and service dealer. After getting directions, I chatted with the old man, who was also inside the Travel Information Centre. His name was Keith, and he was born in Dauphin, Manitoba. He left Edmonton January 15 for two months in the south, travelling in a class B van conversion. His wife did not want to go along, so she's gone to Disney World with the grandchildren. We chatted for a few minutes and I returned to the trailer, eager to get going to the RV dealer, and get the toilet fixed. Another knock on the door. Keith again. I opened the door, and he walked in, kicked off his shoes, and sat down like we were long lost friends, and he was settling in for a nice, long visit. We had difficulty getting rid of him.

We drove to the RV parts and service dealer, not too far from the Travel Information Centre. It was a small business, extremely busy, and with great service. I spoke to the middle aged Mexican woman who was running the place about the broken toilet flush pedal. She said they never replace the broken foot pedal parts, because the parts kit costs $40, and after the cost of their labour to remove the broken parts, and replace the new parts, the cost was pretty much the same as a new toilet. She suggested I try to disassemble it and repair it myself, using the $40 parts kit. I went outside and began working on the toilet in their parking lot. I removed it from the rig, and began to disassemble it outside, to get at the broken parts. I got it about 90% disassembled, screws and parts all around me, when I encountered a couple of rusty screws that would not budge. The broken parts were badly corroded, as was a lot of the internal workings of the toilet. I went inside and bought a new toilet. I installed it, and we were on our way out of Harlingen by noon.

We drove south on Hwy. 77, then east on Hwy. 100 to South Padre Island. South Padre Island is heavily developed, like St. Petersburg Beach or Fort Meyers Beach in Florida. We are at South Padre Island County Park, called Isla Blanca RV Park, at the south end of the main road running along the island. They’re a bit of a disappointment, both the park and the island. I guess I had formed an expectation that South Padre Island was the next best thing to heaven. This very large RV Park was full, so we are in their overflow area, which is just a parking lot on the road across from the beach. No services, 15 bucks a night ! We unhitched the trailer, and drove into town, to try to catch the end of the South Padre Island Chili Competition, at Louie's Backyard, a large, local restaurant and bar. We were too late. We continued driving down South Padre Island's main street, all the way to the end of the road as it leaves town on the north side. On the large mud flats at the end of town, was the South Padre Island Kite Festival. We parked and walked around for awhile admiring all the kites, and the skills of the kite flyers. The largest kite had a main body that was much larger than a van, with about half a dozen streamer tails, each about 100 feet long. The kites were not kids' toys, and the flyers were not kids ! I particularly liked the double string kites, and their acrobatic flying abilities. We drove slowly back through town, sightseeing. We stopped at a liquor store, our first time at a U.S. private enterprise liquor store. I bought a half dozen beer, and a small bottle of Jim Beam Kentucky Sour Mash Bourbon Whiskey. It's good with Diet Coke !

We drove back to Isla Blanca Park, and went to check out the Recreation Hall, to see about modem access. They have a couple of phone lines available, so while Joanne prepared supper, I went online, retrieved e-mail and my January bank statement, and updated my blog. After a late dinner, I took Bo out in our "overflow dry camp" parking lot, and we did some obedience work. It's coming along very slowly, but he's learning.

This place lacks appeal for us, so I think that tomorrow morning we're going to hitch up and head out to a rodeo that's happening this weekend between here and Harlingen, then we'll head down to Brownsville, right on the Mexican border.

DSK

February 4, 2005

February 4, 2005

Padre Island National Seashore to Harlingen, Texas

DAY 231

 

HA HA HA HA HA ! Bo is afraid of the dark. When I walked him late last night, he refused to go any further than about 50 feet from the trailer, and then, only on the side of the trailer with a light over the door. It's completely dark on the beach, with no lights of any kind anywhere.

HA HA HA HA HA ! Bo can't pee on the beach. Last night, and again this morning, Bo refuses to urinate. There's nothing to lift his leg against. The last time he urinated was yesterday afternoon. We walked about a half mile down the beach, and he lifted his leg on the remnants of a sand castle. Since then, he's decided to hold it indefinitely, until we're somewhere where he can lift his leg. Stupid dog !

Today was warmer, with a thin cloud cover. The sun tried to peek out, but was mostly unsuccessful.

You know ... sometimes you've just got to take the risk. Call it succumbing to temptation. Call it opening the door when opportunity knocks. I thought ... if Dee-Dee and Harvey could make it all the way from Ottawa and Winnipeg to the beach on the Gulf Of Mexico, in Southern Texas, almost at the Mexican border ... they deserved to dip their toes in the water, so to speak. As we drove back along the beach to leave this morning, I veered off the beach and into the surf for a couple of seconds. WOO-HOO ! ! ! Just like a "LIKE A ROCK" truck TV commercial ! Same as when accelerating an 18,000 pound rig downhill to 140 km./hr., one has to do these sorts of things quickly before the "navigator" can holler and put a stop to it.

We drove back north along Park Road P22 until it crossed the Intracoastal, and became Hwy.358 entering Corpus Christi. Through Corpus Christi, west on Hwy. 44, then south on Hwy. 77 to Kingsville. Joanne wanted to take a tour of King Ranch, near Kingsville. King Ranch is the largest ranch in Texas. 825,000 acres ! ! ! Their headquarters is a small village. They employ 470 people, many of whom are "Kingeños", or descendants of the 120 Mexicans recruited to work the ranch when it began operations around 1853. They are housed, and schooled, on the ranch. As we drove around the ranch grounds in a small tour bus, we realized we had just made the transition from prairie to desert. Scrubby grass lands with Mesquite trees and Prickly Pear Cacti. While looking at a bird poster in the King Ranch Visitor's Centre, Joanne realized that those funny looking birds that we saw at Bird Island Basin on Laguna Madre on the Intracoastal side of Padre Island yesterday, that looked like ostriches, were road runners. BEEP BEEP !

After the ranch tour, we continued south on Hwy. 77, all the way to Harlingen. Harlingen is kind of the northern edge of "The Valley", as the RV'ers call the "Winter Texan" area along the Rio Grande River, which is the border between Texas and Mexico. We are "boondocked" tonight in the parking lot of the Texas Travel Information Centre in Harlingen.

Shortly after arriving here this evening, our toilet broke. There are two foot levers on the toilet. One flushes and rinses, the other refills the bowl. The refill lever broke. I'll take a look at it tomorrow morning, and decide whether to stay here in the parking lot of the Travel Information Centre, and fix it, or head out to South Padre Island. I'll probably need some parts, so it might make sense to stay here and get it fixed while I'm in a city.

DSK

February 3, 2005

February 3, 2005

Port Aransas to Padre Island National Seashore, Texas

DAY 230

 

WOW ... what a view ! ! ! As I look out the kitchen or living room windows to the right of where I'm sitting at the dinette table in the trailer, I see the Gulf Of Mexico surf crashing on the beach 100 feet from the trailer. As I look out the dinette window to the left ... OMIGOD ! ! ! I was about to look out the window, and type about the sea oat covered sand dunes to the left of where I'm sitting ... and there is a six point buck deer munching on sea oats on the sand dunes 25 feet from the trailer window. GEEEZZZ ... another one ! ! ! Two bucks eating sea oats beside the trailer ! ! ! Welcome to beach camping on Padre Island National Seashore !

Today was cloudy and cool, but a bit warmer than the last few days. This morning we drove off the beach at Port Aransas, and into town. Joanne encouraged me to buy some fresh seafood at a fish market she read about last night in one of the tourist newspapers of this area. We easily found the store, Oceans Of Seafood, and went in to buy, and learn about what seafoods are available locally, and how to cook them. This was my job, as Joanne doesn't like most seafoods. I bought half a pound of stone crab legs, 2/3 of a pound of fresh shrimp, and a 2/3 of a pound red snapper fillet. Gee, they grow their shrimp huge around here ! I learned why some shrimp in the barrel of ice were pink, and some were opaque. The opaque ones were caught in the bays, and the pink ones were caught out in the Gulf. They taste, and cost, the same. Both kinds were caught yesterday ! I got cooking instructions, and a seafood seasoning spice for the water used to boil the shrimps and the crab legs. The spices are in a mesh type bag like a tea bag. Just drop it in the boiling water, toss in the shrimp, seven minutes later toss in the crab legs. Wish me luck.

We drove out of Port Aransas, heading south on Hwy. 361, the only road on Mustang Island. We drove all the way down the island along the shore line, admiring the view. At the southern tip of Mustang Island, we crossed onto Padre Island. Once on Padre Island, the road became Hwy. P22. I think the P stands for Park. Most of Padre Island is a nature preserve known as Padre Island National Seashore, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Park Service. Thirteen miles into the park, along a paved road, at Malaquite Beach, is Park Headquarters, where we stopped to pick up information, and obtain our free beach camping permit. We had lunch in the parking lot, then explored Malaquite Beach around the Park Headquarters area. Joanne wanted to drive a mile back up the road, to the Grasslands Hiking Trail. We hiked around this 3/4 mile trail, with an interpretive trail map, through sand dunes covered in vegetation, mostly different types of grasses. Bo was very "up" for hiking. Bo seems to be very "up" for just about everything. After the hike, we were driving back towards Malaquite Beach / Park Headquarters, and decided to detour over to Bird Island Basin, which is on the Intracoastal side of the island. There were some campers on the shore line at Bird Island Basin. We parked at the boat launch, and walked around for a few minutes, observing the many different types of waterfowl that winter here. On the marshy mud flats, there were a bunch of very large birds that looked like, and walked like, ostriches. After seeing Bird Island Basin, we drove back to Park Headquarters, then a mile beyond.

A mile after Park Headquarters, the paved road ended. We just ... drove the rig the rig onto South Beach. I had some reservations about driving the rig onto the beach, but when I saw many other heavy rigs on the beach, I figured it would be okay. The information booklets caution that many rigs get stuck in the sand, and need to be towed out, which is expensive, and takes a long time for a tow truck to drive out here from Corpus Christi, but having come this far, I wasn't about to wimp out now ! Besides, Dee-Dee is a 4 X 4 ! I drove slowly onto the beach, and soon realized that a bit of speed was helpful in preventing the rig from sinking too deeply into the soft sand. The Park Ranger had said that it's probably okay to tow a fifth wheel with a 4 X 4 as far as 5 miles down the beach, at which point it definitely becomes impassable for RV's, or anything other than 4 wheel drive trucks. About a mile down the beach, I stopped and shifted Dee-Dee from 2 wheel drive to 4 wheel drive ( 6 wheel drive, actually ). That made it a bit easier. We drove another mile or so down the beach, and then just pulled over beside the sand dunes, like everybody else. There's an RV parked about every 200 feet along the beach. I don't know how far down they go, but they certainly continue as far as we can see to the south down the beach.

I wonder why a military helicopter just flew over the trailer at an altitude of about 50 feet ? It must be from the Naval Station that's somewhere near Corpus Christi, which is just across the Intracoastal, on the mainland, near where Mustang Island and Padre Island meet.

So ... here we are ! Camped on the beach on the Gulf Of Mexico. I mean ... really on the beach ! No water, no electricity, no sewer, but what a view ! I guess this is why we're self-contained.

Just before I started typing today's journal entry, Bo and I went for a long walk on the beach. Bo likes "beach combing". He finds interesting ( to him ) sea weed under the sand to dig up, birds to chase, etc.. Somewhat unfortunately for him, and a tad amusing to me ( although Joanne's not amused ), he stuck his nose onto a live jelly fish on the sand at the water's edge. I don't know whether it stung him, or just smells bad, or what, but he vomited twice within a couple of minutes of this misadventure. Then he came back into the trailer, and started to eat one of the silk plants. Dogs and cats instinctively eat grass, or plants, to make themselves vomit, to "cleanse" / purge their insides. We're both "in the dog house" with Joanne at the moment ! Bo for eating a piece off the silk plant, and me for "allowing" him to sniff the jelly fish. Hey ... it's not like he asked my permission ! I picked up a jelly fish information sheet at Park Headquarters, and I think this was a Sea Nettle jelly fish. Oh, yes, I see on the information sheet that jelly fish have "microscopic stinging cells". I guess sticking one's nose onto a jelly fish must be a bad idea.

I just returned from taking Bo for a night time walk. The lights of two offshore drilling rigs are visible out on the Gulf. I just remembered the Park Ranger's warning to us about Bo, because of Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes in the grassy areas, and coyotes in the dunes and on the beach after dark. Some campers' pets have met their demise because of both.

DSK

February 2, 2005

February 2, 2005

Matagorda Bay to Port Aransas, Texas

DAY 229

 

Today was cold and cloudy again, but at least it didn't rain. I had a colitis flare up starting about 5:30 A.M. so I felt sick and weak for most of today.

This morning we walked Bo along the shore line of Matagorda Bay. The beach was covered in oyster shells. Just before we left Bay Side RV Park, the lady from West Virginia, in the motorhome next to us, came over with maps and tourist information for the areas we will be visiting over the next few days. She and her friend are travelling in the opposite direction to us, and had just been to the areas we're going to.

We left the town of Palacios on Matagorda Bay, continuing southwest along the Gulf Coast on Hwy. 35. Between Lavaca Bay and San Antonio Bay, Hwy. 35 comes inland for a bit. The landscape changes to prairie. Longhorn cattle grazing in pastures. We stopped for groceries and lunch in Rockport. We missed the turn off to Hwy. 361 in the city of Aransas Pass, and went 5 miles too far, to the next town of Ingleside, before we realized we missed our turn off. We back tracked to Aransas Pass ( the city ), and turned east onto Hwy. 361. We took a small ferry across Aransas Pass ( the water, not the city ) to the town of Port Aransas on Mustang Island. As we crossed Aransas Pass on the ferry, we could see dolphins arching their backs / dorsal fins out of the water in front of the ferry. Looked like a scene from Flipper. Once on Mustang Island, in the town of Port Aransas, we headed for Port Aransas County Park on Magee Beach. The road is the beach ! WE had a choice between boondocking / dry camping right on the beach, or being in a serviced site behind the dunes just off the beach. It was cold, with a strong wind on the beach, so we opted for a serviced site behind the sand dunes. Once we got parked and hooked up, we went for a very long romp on the beach with Bo. He sure is "up" for anything ! Good thing I saw the dead jelly fish on the beach before he did ! Just as it was turning dark, we walked back to the trailer, and brought Teddy outside for a short walk. Teddy thought it was too windy, and didn't really want to be outside for more than a couple of minutes.

One thing I really dislike about the U.S. is the amount of garbage strewn about. It was bad enough out in the middle of nowhere in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, where I was constantly picking up discarded coffee cups, drink cans, water bottles, potato chip bags, etc., but on the beaches it's really unsightly ! There's a real lack of concern for the environment down here.

I spent part of the evening working on the photos I’ve taken over the last few days. Joanne made gumbo for supper. MMMMM !

DSK

February 1, 2005

February 1, 2005

Galveston to Palacios / Matagorda Bay, Texas

DAY 228

 

Another unpleasant, cold, windy day of rain. Tomorrow should be the same, then improvement.

We decided this morning to explore down back roads along the Gulf Coast, heading south. We left Galveston Island State Park and headed south on San Luis Pass Road towards, of course, San Luis Pass. We crossed the toll bridge over San Luis Pass onto the next island, Folletts Island, and followed the road along the beach until reaching the town of Surfside Beach, where we turned inland onto Hwy. 332. I don't know why, but the beaches / shore lines along Galveston Island and Folletts Island are much less developed than any other Gulf Of Mexico coast we've been at, in Florida and Alabama, despite the proximity of Galveston Island and Folletts Island to Houston. We travelled northwest on Hwy. 332 for a short time, then got lost searching for Hwy. 36. We stopped for lunch in a shopping mall parking lot in Lake Jackson. We stopped in a mall with a Petco, because we had never shopped in a Petco before. Petco is a large U.S. based chain of pet food and supply stores, on a par with PetsMart. We bought Teddy some Lap Happy, Bo some Greenies, and some training size little dog biscuits for both of them. Stupid cat now loves dog biscuits. Eventually we found our way to Hwy. 36, and continued northwest for a short time on Hwy. 36 to Hwy. 35. Southwest ( finally ) on Hwy. 35 to Van Vleck for diesel, then on to the town of Palacios on Matagorda Bay.

We have stopped for tonight at Bay Side RV Park on the outskirts of the town of Palacios on Matagorda Bay on the Gulf Of Mexico. We chose this park from our Passport America campground book, because the directions indicated that it was on the waterfront, behind the shrimping boats. We've never seen shrimping boats before. Well ... sure enough, we're parked on the Matagorda Bay waterfront, behind the shrimping boats. After getting registered and parked in our site, we walked down to the dock, and along the dock looking at shrimping boats. Joanne slipped and fell on the wet, slippery wood dock, and twisted her knee. All along the dock, there were ropes tied to the dock rail, hanging into the water. I wanted to see what was on the end of the ropes, so I pulled one up. WOW ! A crab trap. With 2 crabs inside. Are they ever interesting little creatures. Bright blue colouring on their claws. Eyeballs on little stalks that stick out of their head, and move around. We walked along the dock, me pulling up crab traps every so often to look at the different sizes and colouring of the trapped crabs. There were also oysters in the crab traps. I don't know if they were "trapped", or if they were in there as bait to catch the crabs.

This park has a pot luck dinner every Tuesday at 6:30, so instead of cooking supper tonight, we grabbed the dessert Joanne made last night, and went to the pot luck dinner. It was a wonderful dinner. We sat at a table with two ladies who were in the motorhome parked next to us. One was from West Virginia, and one was from Missouri. They each have a motorhome, but this winter are travelling together in the West Virginian lady's rig, for companionship. Apparently many of the RV Parks down here have a lot of these kinds of social activities, like pot luck dinners, because so many of the people in the parks stay for the season. We thought it was only the Escapees parks that have such a busy social calendar. It's unfortunate that we won't be here for a few more days. They have a casino junket. For $25, a bus ride to the casino, a room overnight, buffet breakfast, an $8 meal voucher, and $15 worth of casino chips. Pretty good value for 25 bucks ! The casinos down here seem quite motivated to get us RV'ers to their gaming tables. There was a similar casino junket from Rainbow Plantation in Alabama just after we left.

This park has a cable TV connection for each rig. This was the first time we’ve hooked Harvey up to a cable TV connection. We watched Amazing Race with a perfect picture. A nice change from the snowy picture we've had with just the roof top antenna, in Livingston. The 10:00 P.M. news has just started on TV. Tonight’s lead story is about one of today’s murders. We’ve been watching the TV news on Houston stations most nights for the last 6 weeks. Not a night goes by that there isn’t a murder in Houston. I kid you not ! The current story being reported, as I type this, is about a retail store employee who shot a customer who had shoplifted a cigar. God bless America ... and its constitutional right to bear arms ! HA HA HA ... I have to report on the next story. A man has been arrested for beating his elderly mother to death, after she flushed his marijuana down the toilet. Way to go, Mom ! Sorry ... I know that's macabre, but it struck me as funny.

DSK