Someone said the drive from Lajitas to Presidio was worth navigating the steep 15% inclines and the winding roads you cover for the entire fifty mile trip. They were right! It was definitely worth it. All of the pictures you’ll see were taken from the passenger’s seat in the RV. The formation in the first picture is named Abe Lincoln. I couldn’t see it at all until I decided he must be lying down.
After completing such a spectacular drive, we stopped in Marfa to grab a bite to eat before continuing on to El Paso where we are now. I had called ahead to reserve a spot for two nights. It was a long day of driving for us because as you have probably noticed, we stop a lot. We changed from Central to Mountain time so it’s an hour earlier in El Paso, which helped. We’re going to stay here for two nights. If we want to spend a whole day somewhere, we have to stay two nights. If we want to spend two full days, we have to spend three nights.
We’re going to catch up on a few things, tomorrow. I found a big dog park where we will take the dogs in the morning so they can go for a good run.
I’m also going to look for a place to get my hair cut. I didn’t have a chance to get the usual bad haircut that I get before traveling so I’m going to get it tomorrow. Kip needs to pick up a few things and he wants to go up some hill to see where some trams that you can ride down the hill start from. I just read they are closed to the public until further notice…They’re probably nothing compared to the climb up the Santa Elena Canyon, anyway.
It should be a fun day. We’ll be headed for Cattail Cove State Park near Lake Havasu on Sunday. We’ve been there before and it’s another beautiful place with a different kind of topography.
After our long walk we went back to our cozy RV and I made a breakfast that would stick with us a while. Yes it was French toast, bacon and eggs. How did you know?
Today was awesome…We got up early and let the dogs run in an area behind the RV park that displayed the most beautiful sunrise. The air was crisp, but that even made our brisk walk feel better. It sure has been fun waking up to this for the last couple of days.
There are Christmas bulbs at the end of each spike. I could do that!
After breakfast, we loaded up the dogs, said goodbye to the sleeping cat, and headed for Big Bend National Park. We already knew the park wasn’t very dog friendly, but we were able to work with it and have a lot of fun, anyway. After looking at some of the sites, we went to the beginning of the short trail that leads to the Santa Elena Canyon. We left the dogs napping in the car and walked the trail to the spot where we could see the 1500 foot high walls of the canyon towering above the Rio Grande River. It was frightening to walk up the narrow stairs and rocky paths, but the views were totally worth it. In the first picture, you can see the opening to the canyon. In the second, you can see three levels of the climb. I was about halfway up when I looked down to take the picture.
Do I look afraid?I would feel safer in the canoe
It was an invigorating and fun day. We’re leaving tomorrow. I’ll let you know where we’re going as soon as we decide…
We were moving kind of slowly and didn’t make it all the way to the park, but we saw a couple of interesting things, today.
I had read about the Terlingua ghost town and it was just a few miles from the RV park. Terlingua was established in 1903 when mercury mining production began in the region. There are now remnants of old stone houses and a few touristy things in the town, but just down the hill there is an interesting graveyard which also began in 1903 when miners began to succumb to mining accidents. Beyond mining fatalities, the influenza epidemic of 1918-19 helped fill the graveyard. There is one grave with a hobbit theme. I saw another with a three foot statue of a Tyrannosaurus. I thought, sadly, that it must be a child’s grave. I looked at the dates and the man was seventy-eight.
Truthfully…I’ve never seen a more interesting cemetary. It made me think of the song the link below will take you to. You can listen to it and view the pictures below.
Here you go…
I spent part of the afternoon trying to figure out how to take a selfie that doesn’t make the words on my shirt look backwards.
Hey! I did it! Guess where I am.
I had to stop doing fun things for the afternoon and do 8 loads of laundry. I washed EVERYTHING!
Tomorrow morning we’re going to see Santa Elena Canyon. I read the canyon walls are 1500 feet high above the Rio Grand River.
We knew we had a lot of miles to drive today, so despite the 25 degree temperature, we accomplished our gots earlier than usual. We got up, got ready, got the dogs walked, got the RV ready to go, and we got out of the park at Sonora Caverns by 8:30. Our plan was to stop in Ft. Stockton which is about halfway to our destination . We were pretty sure there wouldn’t be a Walmart in Big Bend National Park and we needed to pick up some grocery items and other supplies.
It soon became a beautiful morning. The sun came out and it warmed up. It was a pretty drive and the highway was a good one…and then right before we got to Ft. Stockton, we heard a strange noise that sounded like something was bumping against the bottom of the RV. We decided the portable wagon in one of the outside compartments had moved and was banging around. We were making a left turn to cross the highway where the Walmart was and suddenly it became obvious that something underneath was now dragging on the ground. Neither of us said anything, but we were both thinking a lot. A wonderful trip can turn on you in an instant.
We pulled into the parking lot and Kip got out to take a look while I held my breath. When he came back in, his expression didn’t give anything away. “Thankfully, it’s no big deal,” he said.
That is really all I heard. Later I was talking to Gus on the phone and he was asking me all kinds of questions that I couldn’t answer.
“All I know is that part of a casing came loose from a fan and all it took was a longer screw and a hammer to fix it. I didn’t even see a screwdriver,” I said.
Kip crawled underneath and it was all better in no time. We did our shopping, filled up the RV, and stopped at a Subway for lunch before continuing on. We were really hoping we could still get to Terlingua before dark.
We did! We still had an hour or so of daylight when we pulled up to the Big Bend RV Adventure Park. Kip went into the office to claim our reservation. There was a problem. We didn’t have a reservation there. You see…yesterday, when we were trying to find a good spot, we were each looking on different apps. Kip made the call and reserved at the place he thought we had decided on. This morning I put the address of the place I thought we had decided on into the GPS. After we figured out where we were supposed to be, we drove another seventeen miles and we are now very happy at the Maverick Ranch RV Park and Golf Resort in Lajitas. Neither of us plan to golf, but that’s okay.
See? It all turned out fine… here are some pictures I took from the window on the drive. I have a feeling we will see some pretty amazing peaks and valleys in the next three days.
The first picture is called Elephant Rock…
Elephant Rock
I apologize for the doggie nose prints showing on some of the pictures. When Kip and I were both outside of the RV, Lilie Dale decided it was okay to jump up on the dash and watch what we were doing.
I didn’t take the last two pictures of the park. It’s really in a pretty setting. I’ll take some of our spot, tomorrow.
These pictures were taken in Fredericksburg, on the drive to Sonora, and inside the awesome Sonora Caverns. Can you see the Angel in one of the pics? The cave was discovered in 1905 by a rancher trying to catch his dog who was chasing a squirrel and fell down a hole. The cavern is huge. We covered two miles with a guide and she said it was about half the normal tour.
The watermelon water tower in the slides will be a fun addition to my collection. The kitty helped decorate for Christmas. It got down to 25 degrees last night. Gus is doing better and would to thank everyone for their prayers. We are on our way to spend three days in Big Bend NP. We hear that’s a good place to social distance…
…And of course, I have included pics of Lilie Dale modeling her new sweater. Sorry this is rather disjointed…no internet last night! We’re stopping in Ft. Stockton to shop for groceries right now. We hope all is well with all of you…
This is now day twelve of our odyssey and the last few days have taught us that every day can’t be perfect even if you’re on an RV trip.
When we left Galveston around 10:00 o’clock on Friday morning, the sun was shining and we were looking forward to taking the backroads to our next destination which was Fredericksburg. We like to avoid the interstate highways whenever possible and this particular route also allowed us to avoid San Antonio and Austin. The problem was that it wasn’t exactly, a large RV hauling a Jeep, route.
We had to stop and fill up the big fuel tank with diesel, which set us back an hour, and later, we stopped to make a sandwich which took another forty-five minutes. We also had to walk the dogs, twice. It was dark and I mean dark for the last two hours of the drive. The hill country is hillier and spooky at night. Our biggest fear was that we would hit a deer. We occasionally lost the GPS lady who kept wanting us to take a connecting road. We tried that once and it was not a good decision. We decided that no matter how hard she tried, we wouldn’t be convinced and she would just have to reroute…which she did six or eight times. We were grateful to finally make it to the RV park and get set up.
On Saturday morning, we woke up to pouring rain and a phone call from my brother telling us that Gus was sick. He had a slight fever ten days before and decided to get tested for COVID 19. He tested positive, but his symptoms cleared up and we thought he was out of the woods. When Billy talked to him Saturday morning, he was once again running a fever and was also having a little difficulty breathing. He sounded very weak and Billy and I were really worried.
Billy has been very careful. He has done everything he can to reduce his chances of being exposed to COVID. Two weeks ago, two days before Gus tested positive, Billy went to see him and they watched a football game together. They wore masks and distanced themselves from each other, but it was still a bigger risk than Billy would normally have taken. When Gus told him he had tested positive, he quarantined himself for fourteen days. He has just graduated from solitary confinement in a room downstairs, to being able to join my sister-in-law, Liz in the living room upstairs.
Bill and I, along with Billy’s daughter, Erin, have been offering advice morning, noon, and night. Gus, who is normally very patient and mild mannered, finally suggested we were calling him too much. We decided to coordinate our call times and update each other.
As of today, Gus is doing better. Let’s hope and pray that he continues to follow our advice. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that we also have a nurse and a doctor in the family. We got advice from them, too.
Today, was freezing, but we decided to see the Empty Cross exhibit in Kerville, TX. It was truly inspiring and beautiful.
The Empty Cross symbolizes the power of God
Jesus holding a young woman’s baby. The name of the sculpture is Hope…
Jesus washing the servant’s feet and The coming of Jesus sculptures
My photographs far from do justice to the coming king sculpture prayer gardens. “The Empty Cross”, is seventy-seven feet tall and is the most symbolic cross sculpture in the world.
Tomorrow, we’re off to see the Sonora Caverns. The drive is only a couple of hours so it should be an easy day. We’ll stay at the RV park right by the caverns. Let’s hope it’s warmer tomorrow. Today was so cold, Lilie Dale was shivering so we bought her a sweater at Walmart. It was only five dollars and wasn’t very warm, but she loved it. In fact she loved it so much, we went to a doggie boutique downtown and bought her one for thirty-eight dollars. She loves it more…The cockers have longer hair and they don’t like to wear sweaters…
We Wish you the gift of faith and the blessing of hope this Thanksgiving day! We are thankful for the family we love, the friends we cherish, and for the blessings that will come. Happy Thanksgiving…November 26, 2020
I decided that it isn’t really necessary for me to describe every minute of each day of our road trip. You don’t need to know about every time we walk the dogs or every morsel of food we eat. I’ll just hit the highlights of each day.
We’ll be in Galveston until Friday morning. As I’ve said, Jamaica RV is a beautiful place and it’s right across the street from Jamaica Beach, which is really nice, but not as crowded as most of the other beaches around here.
These kids were trying to teach a golden retriever how to surf. He seemed to be enjoying all of the attention.
We walked quite a distance this morning and we were at a place where we could take the leashes off the dogs and let them run.
Kip is sitting on one of the swings along the trail to the fishing docks
There are several good places to eat in Galveston. We picked two because they have outside seating. We had planned to go to The Sunflower this morning, but their outside area wasn’t open so we went to The Mosquito Bite. Strange name, I know…One bite does it. We both ordered French toast and bacon. Kip also had scrambled eggs and orange juice. We were sitting there enjoying the delicious food when a thought occurred to me.
“Let’s see,” I said. “We decided that we’re going to cook breakfast tomorrow, right? Didn’t we buy what we needed to make French toast and bacon?”
“Yup we did,” Kip answered. “We decided we were going to have it twice. Now we’ll be having it three times. It sure won’t be as good as this is, though.”
After breakfast, we went back to the beach. We were all in sort of a weakened state from all of the walking we’ve done, and maybe a little uncomfortable from all of the eating. After walking a short distance, Kip suggested that we go on down to the next beach access and then walk across to the RV park instead of going back to the cut-across we normally use. He said he didn’t think it was very far. He was wrong!
He finally decided to ask a little couple who was riding in a golf cart where the access was. “Jump in,” they said. “We’ll give you a ride.”
“We couldn’t,” I said. “We have these three dogs.”
“Nonsense,” the woman whose name is Dixie said. “Pile in and we’ll give you a ride. Hang on tight,” she said. “Mickie drives really fast.”
Nice golf cart
Mickie and Dixie got us to the place Kip thought would be relatively close to the park once we crossed the busy road. He was wrong.
“How far is your RV park from here?” Mickie asked.
“A long ways,” I offered.
“Come on,” he said. “We’ll take you back to the other access.”
We were very grateful not to have to walk all that distance and we told them so. They must have been able to tell that the three dogs were grateful, too. Mickie and Dixie were a hoot!
Since they were only able to take us as far as a line of posts, we still had a little ways to walk. We saw a couple sitting in a golf cart, who looked like they were somewhat distressed. Come to find out, they were out of gas. They had just arrived from Minnesota the day before and were so happy to be able to get out in some warm sunshine, they didn’t think about getting gas. They are staying at the Jamaica Beach RV Park, too. They are wintering here. There wasn’t much we could do to pay forward the act of kindness we had been the recipients of, so we walked with Jim back to the park to get his gas can. He had his own truck to get himself to the gas station and back to the beach to pick up Sandy, so he didn’t need us.
What a day! I still managed to find some time to fix up our patio a little. I’m a little disappointed because I never could locate my multicolored hanging lights. Kip must have accidentally lost them.
I only had a little sweet roll and a cup of tea for dinner
I can’t believe we’ve already been gone five whole days. I wrote five days yesterday, but I was mistaken. This was our fifth day out. At least we get to spend three more whole days in Galveston. We don’t leave for Fredericksburg until Friday morning.
It barely reached 71 today, but it’s supposed to be in the high 70’s to low 80’s for the next few days. They mentioned rain, but I’m ignoring that part of the forecast.
Did I tell you that we really love our spot here at the Jamaica Beach RV Park? We’re the last ones on our row so it’s pretty private. I didn’t get around to putting the table cover on or the lounge chairs out, today. We also have a little propane fake fire burner and a grill we probably won’t use at this stop. You should see how some people decorate their spaces… especially the ones who are wintering here.
I hope to spend some time relaxing on the patio tomorrow…after I decorate with my tablecloth, my fake candle and a lounge chair.Pretty house on the beach.
We did take the dogs to the beach this afternoon. Kip pulled the wagon we got to carry chairs, water for the dogs, and whatever else we think we’ll need. We took it this time in case little Pattie got too tired. She’s the same age as Sammie, but she has this thing about walking. She doesn’t like to do it. She’s short, but she’s a stocky little thing and there is no way we could carry her if she decided she was done. On the way back, we tried to give her a ride in the wagon. She didn’t like it and bailed out twice.
Too tired to change the channel
Man with wagonI love this picture of Kip and Lilie watching a beautiful sunset.Yeah I know. I forgot my hat.
Tomorrow, we’re going to our favorite place for breakfast…The Sunflower Cafe. We plan to come back to get the dogs and spend at least a couple of hours at the beach. We also want to play putt putt golf here at the park, but will probably skip the indoor hot tub.
So tomorrow is planned and it all sounds like fun to me. I’ll report back tomorrow night.
One more thing. We had to go to Walmart to get a prescription filled for Kip and I got new eyes for my Angel. She looks better don’t you think?
Sunday morning we got breakfast to go from our favorite Cafe in Onalaska. Jerry’s is less than a mile from the KOA and serves delicious home cooked breakfasts. Another of their specialties is a huge homestyle hamburger served on a homemade bun. It’s enough for two people even if the two are Kip and MG. For dessert, they offer every kind of pie you can imagine.
The dogs get a little taste of bacon.
After breakfast, we took the pups for a long walk before packing up and heading south to our next destination. Jamaica Beach RV is on the west side of Galveston and across the street from a beautiful beach.
On our way there, we got to enjoy a real treat. It’s one of the many benefits of traveling in a motor home. You can be pretty flexible and meet up with friends or relatives and stay a while without invading their home. You can also stop for a last minute visit while passing through.
When my cousin, Mark, found out we were going to be in the vacinity of a fellow Murdoite, he let us both know and we managed to come up with a plan to meet for lunch on our way to Galveston.
We met Portia Burns Eisenbeil and her husband Joe in Willis, TX. Portia and I had a blast talking about Murdo and the old days while Kip and Joe talked about…other things.
Those two are delightful and fun to be with. Kip and I hope there is a next time soon
We arrived at our destination around 3:00. It’s so beautiful here and we get to stay a whole five days.
It’s now Monday morning. Our plan is to pack up our canvas wagon with towels, chairs and a picnic lunch and walk across the street to the beach. The dogs love walking in the sand and watching the seagulls…pictures to follow.
1) Almost there. I can smell the salt air. 2) Dollie discovers she has gained the COVID lb’s.
Those 70ish Girls 