Mustang Island TX to Victoria TX

Tuesday November 17, 2009

We got away from Mustang Island Campground by 8:45. The sun was shining and the wind had died down significantly. We headed north through Port Aransas and crossed over to the next island and to Aransas Pass via a ferry. The ferry ride was the shortest I believe we have ever taken – maybe 200 yards. The reason for the ferry is the need for large boats to go back and forth at this pass. As soon as we crossed the ferry; we saw a tanker and a container ship pass by. There were at least 4 ferries that each carried about 12 vehicles. One of the ferries even had a school bus on it!

We purchased gas in Aransas Pass and then headed up the coast through Rockport-Fulton until we reached the side road to the Aransas Wildlife Refuge and took it to see what we could see. The road continued through remote farmland until we reached the Refuge which was playing host today to 3 bus loads of 3rd graders. We got a stamp and headed out on the loop drive in hopes of seeing a whooping crane among other things. We climbed a 40 foot observation tower and also took a boardwalk out to another viewing site. We heard the cranes first and then when we looked up saw the pair flying overhead. We also noted white tail deer, an armadillo, an alligator, and several other birds that Ben identified. Jane was disappointed not to see a Roseate Spoonbill but such is life. We ate a picnic lunch before we left the Wildlife Refuge.


Ben Viewing Birds

Armadillo at Aransas Wildlife Preserve


Heading back towards the main road we stopped to ask a local farmer what their main crops were – he said corn, cotton, and milo. The fields were in various stages of plowing. The farmer told us they planted the main crop in February. There were also oil and natural gas wells periodically along the roads. We continued on our trek to Goliad.

When we reached Goliad we toured the Presidio La Bahia (The Fort of the Bay).


Presidio La Bahia

This fort is a National Historic landmark and considered the finest example of a Spanish frontier fort; this one established in 1721. The fort was a participant in 6 different battles in the Texas wars for independence. The most famous being the 1836 Palm Sunday Goliad Massacre where 341 men and their leader Col. Fannin were executed after their loss of the battle of Coleto Creek. This happened shortly after the battle of the Alamo. The chapel of this fort was original but the presidio itself was restored to the style of the 1800’s. The location is owned by the Catholic Diocese of Victoria and was authentically restored in large part by one lady, Mrs. Cathryn O’Conner, a descendent of a participant in the early battle.


Chapel at the Presidio


After viewing and photographing this wonderful structure we continued on to Victoria where we found an RV park with internet for the night! Jane cooked tilapia tonight with a very good salsa. The evening is going to be watching NCIS and catching up on internet and the blog. Tomorrow we hope to reach Galveston if we don’t spend too much time along the way!

Mustang Island

Monday November 16, 2009

Today was going to be a down day – rest from traveling as we are ½ through our trip. We got up to stiff winds and very gray skies. We turned on the TV weather to find out a front was passing through and the cloud cover should be gone by early afternoon but the winds would remain through the day and night.

Our Campsite at Mustang Island State Park

We had a slow start morning with Jane making toast and then frying the bacon she brought when cleaning out the refrigerator at home! Making biscuits was just out of the question since cooking partly outside was impossible in this wind. The news said the wind at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi which is about 10 miles from our location was 35 MPH. The winds were 20+ in most locations in the area.

After breakfast we drove north on the island to Port Aransus to see what was there and find some shrimp for supper. We found it and looked around in several shops and galleries. One gallery had several multi-media pieces made from numerous sand dollars. Never seen anything like them – the sand dollars were strung together in patterns by fishing line. Very unique. Another shop had very nice high end Mexican pottery. There was lots of looking and no buying for us today. If the weather improves tomorrow we will come back this way when we leave tomorrow; if not maybe we go back through Corpus Christi since the only way off this island to the north is on a ferry.

We went back to camp for lunch. After lunch Jane spent time reading and Ben napping. Mid-afternoon we ventured south little way in the park to the beach camping sites. No one was camping here, in fact the road was covered with sand, they were pumping water out of some ponds that had formed inland due to the high water they had here in the recent past.

Sprinter on Beach at Mustang

The wind was blowing the sand across the beach in waves; there were a few birds, many jelly fish, and some assorted trash washed up on the beach after the storm. We could see 15 oil platforms in the nearby gulf. After walking for about 30 minutes and taking a few photos we started back to camp.


Ben Walking on Beach


Sandpipers and Heavy Surf


We noticed numerous P34 planes flying over (well Ben knew they were P34’s) today. Jane had photographed an orange Coast Guard helicopter early this morning. The news tonight said a Navy plane from Naval Air Station Corpus Christi was lost and they have been searching for it. Today they found it but were unable to recover it due to the high winds and poor visibility in the water. That explained all the air traffic.

There are Canadians camped all around us. The folks next to us have the map on the side of their camper that Jane has been wanting. We hope to stop at a few camper stores in Houston and San Antonio to find one. They have never come out of their camper when we have seen them to ask where they got theirs.

Jane cooked a rather ambitious dinner tonight – rice with lemon shrimp with green beans, squash, onions, and water chestnuts. It was very good. Another quiet night of blog writing, photo editing, reading and TV. We also have been reading the travel books to determine what we will do in the Houston area. There is a Chili Cookoff on Saturday and we want to visit the USS Texas and the San Jacinto Memorial. Ben will visit 3 of his inspection clients and Jane wants to do some looking if not shopping. We also want to go to Galveston for a short time.

South Padre Beach TX to Mustang Island TX

November 15, 2009 Sunday

We woke up to rain on the roof of the Sprinter. That sound always puts me back to sleep – when we got up about 8:00 the rain had stopped and it was just cloudy. After the usual morning routine we were on the road by 9:00. Jane took a photo of the Statue to the Saint of the Fishermen which was standing watch over the entrance to the harbor at Port Isabel.

Heading north on US 83 was interesting. There were palm trees and oleander planted in the median and along the sides of the road. The oleander was blooming which surprised us. The crops in this part of TX are varies –still some citrus trees but primarily sugar cane and cotton. The cotton crops have been harvested but some of the sugar cane still is awaiting harvest. There are also large ranches which seem to be raising cattle of several types.

Before we reached Kingsville we were stopped at another Border Patrol Checkpoint – this time because of the amount of traffic we had to wait in line for about 5 minutes for our chance to be “inspected”. They have yet to ask for proof of citizenship when we have been stopped but they certainly do give you a good visual going over. There was a dog at this stop sniffing each vehicle. I assume they are looking for drugs as well as illegals.


Another Border Patrol Stop


When we reached Kingsville we found the King Ranch Visitor Center and watched the introduction video. The ranch began in the 1850’s and is still family owned. It began as a cattle ranch and had an interesting history through the US Mexican War and the Civil War. The horses were a significant part of quarter horse history and this ranch had the only Triple Crown winner from Texas. The King Ranch now has 850+ thousand acres of holding in TX and an additional 100 thousand in Florida. They have diversified their ranching to include cotton, sugar cane, citrus, and significant wildlife causes. It remains a privately held business today managed from corporate offices in Houston. There were tours but we were too early for the one this afternoon.


King Ranch


We had been seeing numerous “taqueria’s” as we drove throughout south TX over the past week – so today we stopped at one and had lunch. It is really a simple Mexican restaurant. We had tacos and they were pretty good. Then we were on the road north to Mustang Island where we were planning to stay two nights at the State Park.
We passed just to the south of Corpus Christi on a Farm Road. It was interesting to drive through the back country. There were continuous fields in various stages of cultivation. In several areas the farmland was dotted with oil wells and holding tanks. The plowed fields did not seem to miss a row! These people were certainly getting good value for their land!

When we arrived at Padre Island we headed south towards the National Seashore. The dunes were very similar to those on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Lots of sea oats were holding the dunes in place as well as two very prolific yellow flowers. The surf was as rough as we have seen on the Atlantic coast numerous times. The volunteers staffing the visitor center said it was lower than it had been since the hurricane stirred up the gulf – we did not even know there had been one- guess we have missed more news than we thought! We stayed a while viewing the beach. Most of this park is only accessible by 4 wheel drive vehicle. There is a 50+ mile beach road south to the end of the island. This area is known for saving many sea turtle each summer.

Padre Island National Seashore


View of Gulf from Padre Island National Park


Continuing about 20 miles north on Padre Island we crossed to Mustang Island and quickly found the State Park we had been looking for. We have a campsite that is just behind the dunes from the gulf. We can hear the surf but due to the dune can’t see the water. Tomorrow we will go explore. This afternoon we just got out our chairs; and sat in the shade to read and rest. Jane cooked pork chops and heated the leftover red potatoes from our dinner last night. We also had nice salads. Tomorrow we will search for seafood to prepare.

We have 10 excellent digital stations on TV with Ben’s homemade antenna. It is time to download today’s photos and get this blog ready to load next time we have internet.

MissionTX to South Padre Beach TX

November 14, 2009 Saturday

It was a beautiful clear warm morning. We knew we did not have to go far today but had to decide if we were going to stay in the South Padre Beach/Brownsville area or head north to Mustang Island near Corpus Christi. We also knew we had to spend a couple hours washing clothes in the next few days. Decision was to wash here where there is a very nice laundry area. Jane visited with a woman from Ontario who was in the laundry area working on a quilt. They have come here several winters but this year are going home first of December because her daughter had twins and they wanted to be there for their first Christmas. The laundry tasks were accomplished with no problems (unlike last week when the water pressure was so low in Ft. Davis) and we were on the road by 10:45.

Our first location to visit was Palo Alto National Battlefield National Park. This site about 6 miles from the Mexican border was the scene of a decisive battle in the US – Mexican War in 1846. It had been written about extensively in Michner’s TEXAS and we also wanted the passport stamp. GPS Lady really screwed up this time as she took us to a location south of US83 which was about 10 miles from the location. Jane found the address in a travel book and put the new location in GPS and it took us to the right location. It is unusual for their system to screw up but it really did today. When I mentioned it to the ranger he said yes other people had had that happen too.

We had a picnic lunch and then toured the visitor center learning more about the history of the area. They had one very good display that showed the changes in the US boundaries from before the time of the American Evolution until it was finalized after the purchase of Alaska from Russia. They were having a memorial ceremony at 5 PM today but we could not stay that long so were on our way to Port Isabel and the lighthouse. Along the way we made a stop at Wal-Mart. This area is urban sprawl with fields of sugar cane, orange groves, and other agriculture thrown in. We arrived at the Lighthouse about 3:00 and Jane got her photos.


Port Isabela Lighthouse

After some discussion we decided to stay here tonight and move on to North Padre Beach/Port Aransas area for 2 nights. We are ready for some down time. It is about 150 miles of driving tomorrow with a stop at Kingsville for the King Ranch.

We checked into the Isle Blanca Park and have a site one row back from the gulf. We got out chairs and sat in the sun for about an hour. We walked over to the pavilion and enjoyed watching the gulls, pelicans, waves, children playing in the surf and sail boats. Jane then enjoyed watching the couple in a large RV nearby set up to stay for the winter. They must have been on a shopping spree with a new light post, outdoor flower arrangements, and recliners.


Surf at Isle Blanca



Statue to Protect Fishermen


We drove down the road a short distance to the Shrimp Haus – with 25 different varieties of shrimp plus many other seafood entrees. Jane could not resist the coconut shrimp and Ben had Pecan Shrimp. Both were excellent. We did go early- about 5:45 but there was only one other group in the huge restaurant so we were a bit unsure of the situation……but the food was outstanding and we had excellent service.
Back at camp we enjoyed a quiet evening of TV, blog writing, travel book study and reading.

Laredo TX to Mission TX

Friday November 13, 2009

We had a good night at Casa Blanca State Park. Miss GPS led us through Laredo to find the old part of town. The art museum we had hoped to visit did not open until 11 instead of 9 as our travel info said. We are finding that this is not the high tourist season so some things just close down. We visited the Cathedral which was lovely and the Museum of the Republic of Rio Grande. It was very interesting to read about this Republic – it was composed of a sliver of what is now south TX known as “the strip” and some part of northern Mexico. The Republic of Rio Grande only lasted about 3 years from 1840-1843 approximately. The Treaty of Guadalupe between the US and Mexico finally settled on the Rio Grande as the final boundary and the Republic was gone. The museum was in the building that served as the capital of the Republic.
Next door to the museum was the Hotel La Posada – very old and interesting. We were able to walk through their garage to get a good view of the International Bridge and a huge Mexican Flag on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. The traffic was almost 95% Mexico to US…and the blocks surrounding the old plaza was 100% stores catering to Mexican customers. There is another International Bridge west of town that is probably used for trucks etc. as the traffic on this downtown bridge was mostly cars and small trucks. In fact had we not known we were in USA it appeared as if we were in a foreign country! Most of the advertising was in Spanish with only occasional English signage. We enjoyed the old architecture in the area very much. We found our way back to the Sprinter and began our journey out of Laredo. We found US 83 south and headed toward Mission TX our goal for today.


Museum of Republic of Rio Grande


We passed through agricultural area, ranches, and oil wells. The towns were larger than in west Texas. We drove through the old town part of a couple of the towns. We stopped in Roma at a What-A-Burger for lunch. This is a TX and southwest chain and we felt compelled to eat there at least once. It was a good hamburger and fries. The waitress asked if we wanted a side order of jalapenos. We watched as some of the folks got an order of jalapenos in a small Styrofoam cup which they poured out on papers and ate on their burgers and just popped them like popcorn! I like jalapenos in cooking and on nachos etc but not straight!


What - A - Burger

We continued east listening to our current book – Divine Justice by Baldacci. We finally arrived at the Bensen-Rio Grande State Park and World Birding Center. They had hourly tram rides throughout their multiple acre park for birding. We took the tram out to the Green Jay area and got off to hike the ¼ mile to the next tram pick up location. We viewed several water birds at the first site and then hiked down to a bird blind. Sitting in the blind we viewed and photographed several javalina who were digging and resting near a pond. We also saw green jays come in to feed and fly about in the trees. The Rio Grande Vally is the habitat for this jay. It was striking green with a black head. We also saw lots of chakalaka.


Green Jay


Javalina


There was a very nice gift store where we did some shopping – in fact bought our first Christmas gift!

Across the street from the park entrance was an RV Resort with WIFI, TV, electricity etc. so we just pulled in to see if they would let someone like us – in a 21 foot conversion van stay along with all the big rigs…I guess our money was just as good as the other folks. Almost all of the folks are staying all winter. While it is an interesting lifestyle; not so sure it would be for us.

We had very good Chicken Pad Thai for dinner if the cook does say so herself. We did not have a cable long enough to reach the cable hook-up so we just tried Ben’s antenna and we have 42 channels to choose from. Last night in Laredo at the state park we also got a choice of several stations…of course half are in Spanish! I hope the WIFI is strong enough to load the blog. There are over 300 sites in this park so it may be too busy.

Maybe tomorrow we will make it to the gulf coast. Weather is great 87 and clear. The temperature tonight should be in the 60’s. You need long sleeves early in the morning and in the evening and short sleeves the rest of the time. We are near the mid point in our trip - time flies by and it is hard to know what day it is when traveling like we are..

Del Rio TX to Laredo TX

November 12, 2009 Thursday

The morning was spent drinking coffee, watching Fox and Friends (not much though as it is over at 8 AM here), downloading photos as Jane had 4 days worth on the camera and is saving them by day to keep track of them by location. We also made a stop at the Wal-Mart as we left town. This was one of the nicest RV parks we have ever stayed in – in fact we considered staying an extra day – but will save that for an extra day at the beach!


Broke Mill RV Park

The trip south and east to Laredo was rather boring. It was 240+ miles of flat farm land, a few small towns with the only one of any size Eagle Pass with 20,000 people. There was an area where every ranch grew pecans. We stopped and bought 5 pounds which we will have the joy of cracking when we get home. Ben really wants to make a pecan pie. He has been trying for years to make one “just right”.
We stopped at a picnic spot for lunch and passed through an area with oil wells again. There were two border patrol stops before we reached Laredo. One of the boys from Ben’s old scout troop works for the Border Patrol in Laredo but we did not see him at the stops. They are well equipped with all sorts of vehicles, dogs, and camera equipment. We have our passports so have not had any problem at any of the stops.


Border Patrol Stop


Laredo is the largest inland port in the US with numerous trucks entering everyday with goods from Mexico. We passed one of the largest Truck Stops that Jane had ever seen. It had at least 100 tractor trailer trucks parked around it if not more. We passed around Laredo on the north bypass to find Lake Casa Blanca State Park where we are stopped for the night. We have a nice site and are doing nothing this afternoon. Jane is catching up on two days of the blog since she listened to music instead of writing last night! Tomorrow morning we will visit a fort, church, and a museum in the old section of town before we travel further east. The temperature is 88 and we will see what the night has in store for us. The humidity is back up in the 60% range so our heads are feeling normal again.

Chisos Basin Big Bend to Del Rio TX

It was cold this morning – temperature 44 when we got up. We were not cold in the night as the sleeping bags do their job but it was chilly outside until the sun began to warm things up. The resident Canyon Towhee was at work staking her turf – she came inside the Sprinter while Jane was eating her cereal and explored around the front seat as well. We had other visitors this morning – two beautiful deer. They were about 4 feet tall, yet had antlers so they were full grown. They were very close to our camp.

Our first stop of the day was at the Basin Camp Store and Lodge Area where we hiked out to the “Window” area for the view and some photos.


Jane at the Window area at Chisos Basin

Then we found a pay phone that worked for Ben to call his office and Jane to call her Mom. We headed down the mountain from Chisos Basin to Panther Junction. From This major junction in all park roads we headed north toward the northern park entrance, Persimmon Gap. When we stopped at this last visitor center we got the last Big Bend Passport Stamp. Right outside the park boundary we took a side trip south to visit the Stillwell Store. This was the home of Hattie Stillwell, a lady who homesteaded here until her death. She has written several books about life on a west Texas ranch.

We then headed directly north to the small town of Marathon. We thought Marathon might be as nice as Alpine but it was much less of a town. They are only 25+ miles apart and Marathon was billed as the jumping off town for Big Bend but it had little to offer besides a neat looking hotel and nice RV park/motel that was for sale. We saw the French Grocery that Jane had read about on the internet – thinking it might have good sandwiches we went in and looked around. The two sandwiches the lady offered us were ham and swiss cheese – which we had ourselves. The grocery did have a nice selection of high end groceries and wines. There was a bakery that looked promising – Burnt Biscuit – but a sign on the door said closed for two weeks….so we just parked under a tree and had our normal picnic lunch!

We then began a long drive east across Texas ranch land. There were a few very small towns, ranches but not many cattle within view. We were stopped at another Border Patrol Stop mid afternoon. We had one interesting stop at Langtry TX. This was the small town just west of the Pecos River settled by Judge Roy Bean. His saloon/courtroom have been preserved and a short video tells the story of his “West of the Pecos Justice”. The Community he named for the lady he thought most beautiful – Lilly Langtry. He wrote her letters for many years about the community and she finally visited after his death.


Ben at Judge Roy Bean Bar and Courtroom


Flags at Halfstaff due to Killings at Fort Hood


We continued east crossed the Pecos River where it joins the Rio Grande. There is a dam on the Rio Grande and the area is a huge lake and sports fishing area. We finally arrived in Del Rio about 5:00 and easily found the Broke Mill RV Park that Jane had selected for having everything we needed to regroup after our days in West TX. We had cable TV, WIFI, electricity, showers (really nice ones) and we were only 5 miles from a Wal-Mart. Not that we like Wal-Mart that well but they do tend to have everything you need in one stop!

When we checked in we found they were having country music in their recreation hall at 7:00 and got a recommendation for a Mexican Restaurant – so our evening was planned! We checked email for about half an hour and then drove to Memo’s Restaurant By the San Felipe Creek. This restaurant was established in 1936 by the parents of Blondie Calderon who was pianist and musical arranger for Ray Price. When his parents died Blondie took over the management of the restaurant. He had photos of all the country music stars on his walls – Minnie Pearl, Ray Price, Reba Macintire, Waylon Jennings to mention a few. The atmosphere was great and the food really good. We did not linger too long as we needed to be back for the music!

It should be noted here that the Tri Cities has a tie to Del Rio since the Carter Family came here to play on the huge radio station that had been set up in Mexico where there were no restrictions on the broadcasting. They were heard over a huge part of the US. Can't remember when this was...30's maybe.

Tonights band was the owner of the RV Park and 5 of his buddies. Wednesday night is their practice night and the residents of the park get to attend and listen. They were really quite good and played many Texas Country songs. We stayed about an hour and a half listening and visiting with some of the others staying in the RV Park. This was a winter destination park for most of the others there. The couple we talked with longest were from northern Colorado and have stayed here from November to April for the last 5 years. We will begin meeting more and more of these folks as we continue east along the south TX. From reading blogs of several other full-time RV folks most do not arrive until into December.

We watched a little TV and continued catching up on internet communications until time for bed.

Big Bend National Park

Tuesday November 10, 2009

View of Mountains at Rio Grande Village Campground


Our Campsite at Rio Grande Village


Ben near Rio Grande Village

We got up and broke camp quickly. We ate breakfast – Jane as usual eating her cereal and Ben had the last of the carry out biscuits from the Indian Lodge. No gravy this morning! Our plan for the day was to retrace our path back to Panther Junction and head to the furthest west point in the park – Castolon and the Santa Elena Canyon. We would then head back towards the middle of the park and climb to the Chisos Basin to spend our last night in Big Bend.


The drive back to Panther Junction was about 20 miles and just as mind boggling as it had been yesterday – the high jagged mountains and the wide vistas of desert between the mountain ranges. We stopped at Panther Junction and headed on west with Jane as the driver. While Jane can drive in mountains she does not like to so we thought this would be less mountainous than the afternoon drive up to Chisos Basin

It was much as yesterday until we turned south and began to climb. When we reached the top of one range of mountains the view to the west was breathtaking. There were numerous mountain ranges to the west and to the south the mountains in Mexico that are the south side of the Rio Grande. There was a slight haze this morning so the view was not as clear as it might have been. One of the rangers told us the haze is from pollution of factories along the river in Mexico. Jane drove on to Castolon. Here was a ranger station, small store in the original store from when the area was a small community. We talked with the rangers and got our passport stamp before heading on to the Santa Elena Overlook and Trailhead. We stopped and took some photos at the overlook.


Jane at Santa Elana Canyon Overlook

This canyon is 8 miles long, at places only 30 feet wide, and 1500 feet deep. Quite a lot of carving for a river to do! Rafting trips begin where we camped Sunday night in the Big Bend Ranch State Park or in Lajitas all of which are on the west side of the canyon. We then drove down to a very nice picnic area and hiked across the sand flats to where the Rio Grande comes out of the canyon. From that vantage point the 1500 feet is very high! We took some more photos and ate a picnic lunch before heading back to the east.

Ben at Santa Elana Canyon

Along the trip back we stopped at several overlooks and enjoyed a clearer view of the mountains as the haze had burned off. We turned off the main road to head up to the Chisos Basin. Very soon after turning south we began to climb. The terrain was quite different. We decided it reminded us of Mordor from Lord of the Rings – The mountains very rugged and foreboding. Since the sun was behind them they were dark and looked like castles. We climbed and wound our way up and came into a basin right in the center of a ring of the strange mountains…it was so very different from the rest of Big Bend Park. There are trees turning yellow and a few red among some evergreens. There are still yucca and cactus; but they are not the predominant plants.


Strange Jagged Mountains on Road to Chisos Basin

This is by far the most beautiful area of the park – well the canyon earlier today was striking but this area is just beautiful. Reminds us of Zion National Park, where you are down at the bottom of the huge rocky mountains. The camp hosts arrived a week ago and will stay until February. I asked her about snow and she said it seldom got below freezing and if it did snow –it was quickly gone. They love it here – I can see why but it is certainly remote to stay for 3 months.


Campsite at Chisos Basin

At Chisos Basin there is a lodge with numerous rooms and a restaurant as well as a ranger station, store, and this 60 site campground. This will be night three in a row with no electricity but we are able to keep the refrigerator running with the extra batteries and charge camera and computer as we drive. So I guess we are not totally without electricity. We will have lights in the Sprinter and enough power to make coffee tomorrow….the important things!

We have read, hiked around the campground area, and cooked supper. All in all this was a very restful day. The most interesting thing about this campsite other than the fantastic views – is the birds - juncos and canyon towhee must feel this is THEIR campsite. They come right up to us while we are sitting at the table or in a chair. The camp host was here and told us one ate cereal out of a woman’s bowl last week! They are indeed not afraid of us.

Big Bend Ranch State Park to Big Bend NPark

Monday November 9, 2009

It was a perfect silent night. The stars were even brighter than at McDonald Observatory. There was not one sound and it was totally black all night. We could just barely make out the mountains on either side of us. The morning sun was welcome but it did not ever get cold. The temperature at 8 AM was 60+. We broke down camp, ate breakfast and were on our way. The generator made the coffee !!!

We continued on to Lajitas. The trip along the Rio Grande was very interesting. The River Road as it is called generally follows the river as it makes its way east. The terrain is very hilly with many curves. We got some excellent views of the river below us. They had some serious flooding along this road last year but we did not run into any problems. 95% of the water of the Rio Grande is diverted for water for towns and irrigation of crops. We did see some of the crops yesterday afternoon near Presidio but this land is mostly park land and has none flat enough for crops. We passed one area Contrabando that had been used as a movie set for several westerns. They had built several adobe buildings, a church, etc.

We finally came to Lajitas – a small community that was being restored and built as a resort area. They had a very nice campground but we decided to continue on since we were only a hour on the road and knew we could come back here if we needed to tonight. We found the State Park headquarters which had a very nice museum and desert garden. We viewed the exhibits and paid for our night of camping and continued on.

We continued on and came to Terlingula, a ghost town resurrected. Each year it has a huge chili cook-off and it was this past weekend. It is now an artist colony with several galleries, a restaurant or two, and some other shops. We stopped at one of them that had been the “company store” for the Chisos Mining Company. There were 10-15 folks sitting about on the porch. They all seemed to be in good spirits…one guy fell flat on the ground when he tried to walk. I think the group had had a bit too much partying over the weekend. We got a couple things in one of the shops and continued on to Study Butte and the National Park.

There were some campgrounds at Study Butte also but we wanted to find out what was available in Big Bend National Park and then plan our next few days. We continued on 20 miles to the Panther Junction Visitor Center through very open desert with more mountains to either side of us. Most of the vegetation was cactus – even more types than we had previously seen. We studied the park maps and found there were sites available at all three of the campgrounds. In national parks few if any sites have electricity. Information indicated 25 sites at Rio Grande Village did have electricity so we thought we would try it for tonight and then go the Chisos Basin Campground tomorrow night – it is higher in the mountains. Then we would leave the park on the third day staying in the area of Marathon.

We drove to Rio Grande Village to find we would have to choose between electricity and bathrooms. The area with the electricity was really for self contained RV’s and while we have a portable toilet and can be self contained, we prefer to use the campground facilities. The electric sites were also just a large open parking lot….so we opted for no electricity and are in a lovely grassy site with trees and table across the street from a bathroom.

We decided to explore this area a drove on a non-paved road to the hot springs. The road was passable but very rough. The middle section was divided one way roads – there was not much room to spare but our Sprinter took to bad road like the truck that she really is! At the end of the road was a bath house with a palm tree and a hike of about ½ mile. The rangers were building a new bridge and continuing on would have meant going down the steep dry river bed and climbing back up the other side – we opted out. For Ben the fun had been driving on the bad road anyway! We saw many new varieties of cactus along this road.

Our next adventure was to Boquillas Canyon Overlook. The 6 mile spur road took us to an area where we could look down and across the Rio Grande to see Mexico and the village of Boquillas. Some of the Mexicans had put their wares (hiking sticks, painted rocks, animals made from wire) on some rocks with a sign nearby to help the children. It is illegal to purchase items from Mexicans in this National Park – I am not sure about in the rest of the state. The views of the river and the stark canyon walls were outstanding. We took several photos.

Next we visited the Park Visitor Center to get Passport stamps for this area before returning to our campsite. Ben is reading. Jane is typing this blog entry. We have lots of photos to download but that will have to wait for a night with electricity.
Supper will be opening a few cans tonight! This campground seems to be about 1/3 full. It is a 100 site campground. The volunteer camp host just came by and told us they will be full to capacity for Thanksgiving weekend. We expect to see javalinas here. We did see two crossing the road today somewhere along the way. One of the rangers told us they are known as suicide javalinas since they seem to love crossing the roads in front of cars.