Abilene to Amarillo 4 -11 - 4-17

We are still rattling around Texas 15 days after leaving Rockport.  We should make it to Spokane by May 4th, that is if we don't run into anymore thunderstorms.  

Thursday, April 11th we left Waco about 9 for our 200 mile drive to Abilene, Tx., population 120,000 - elevation 1726, arriving about 2.  Brother John and his wife Jackie live in Buffalo Gap, about 15 miles SW.  We are staying at Dyess AFB for 3 nights.  Last year our drive to Abilene was quite harrowing - the molding around our new windshield that was replaced in San Antonio was flapping in the wind.  Well would you believe we picked up a crack in the glass on the drive today. Maybe next year John and Jackie should come visit us in Rockport.  Carol and Al - Gary's sis and husband and nephew Chris and his wife Nancy arrived in Abilene last night about 8.  A rough day to travel with strong winds, Chris and Nancy have a 40 ft. motor home pulling a 24 ft trailer.  John and Jackie and son Michael joined them at the KOA , Jackie who is suffering from kidney failure had spent the day in dialysis, she was a little tired but in good spirits. We got there about 5, we ordered pizza for dinner.  It's always fun getting together with Gary's family, they're so much fun.  

Friday, April 12th the highlight of our day was a trip to the Commissary and  Exchange on base, then we just puttered around until about 5.  On our way to join John and Jackie at the restaurant we stopped at Fed Ex to get our taxes on their way.  The weather forecast for tomorrow is severe thunderstorms (again), our plans were to travel Saturday, we'll stay until Sunday instead.  We were told we'd have to change sites in the morning - what a hassle!  

Saturday, April 13th, Wow what a nasty storm!  We had to sign up for another night at 9 am, at least we have a place to stay but it does involve moving, pulling in the slides, disconnecting the utilities, etc in the storm.  We were so happy, we didn't have to change sites, they moved the incoming people to a different spot.  It was quite a storm, not only t-storms and wind but cold too!  it was 33 but "feels like" 28.  Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr  About sunset the winds died down. To amuse ourselves we played a little Yahtzee and read.  

Sunday, April 14th, What a difference a day makes - bright sunshine and no wind.  We left about 10 for Wichita Falls, Tx., we had to wait about 35 minutes for the Truck Gate to be opened. (Closed on Sundays)  We got to Wichita Falls, population 105,000, Elevation 946, about 160 miles NE, yes we are going the wrong direction again but Gary wanted to go there.  We're spending 3 nights at the Wichita Falls RV Park located next to the Wichita River at flood stage after yesterday's storm. Most of the rivers in Texas are usually muddy colored but the Wichita is red clay brown, the color of cocoa.  After getting set up we decided to check out the falls.  In 1878 a flood washed away the real falls, in 1987 the city re-established the falls, a 54 foot terraced cascade built downstream of the original falls.  The falls are at the edge of Lucy Park, just a short drive from the parking lot we ran into a 50 foot flooded section of the trail. Hmm, now what?  We ran into 4 Sheppard AFB airmen, they told us another way to get to the falls, we must have looked puzzled - they insisted we follow them.  What nice young people.  How crazy to see 54' of cocoa colored water cascading down.  They weren't exactly Multnomah Falls but interesting.  Later we went to the Mall to get Gary decked out for granddaughter Elishia's wedding.  Everything was on sale.  Bonanza!   We ran across a mini golf in the mall, Lunar Golf, it was dark and lit with black lights.  

Monday, April 15  Tax Day!  The Safelite technician is scheduled to arrive between 8 & 5,  luckily he arrived about 10:30.  Not so lucky he couldn't fix the crack.  Just great! Our third  windshield in less than a year.  Beside the cost it's such a hassle to replace, oh the joys of the RV life.  We had lunch at Bricktown Taphouse and Kitchen.  Yum!  In the historic section of Wichita Falls we stopped to see the world's smallest skyscraper.  In 1919, during WF"s boom years office space was very limited, a shyster from Philadelphia, claiming to be an engineer, sold them plans for a $200,000 project - after the papers were signed and money changed hands, construction began.  No one seemed to notice the blueprints were measured in square inches instead of feet.  By then the man from Philly and the money were long gone. 

Tuesday, April 16, No thunder storms, in fact the weather is in the 80's.  I stayed at the RV park while Gary went to the North Texas Historical Museum at the airport.  

Wednesday, April 17, a beautiful day for our drive to Amarillo, we left about 9:30 for the 220 mile drive.  Well it was, about 35 miles out of Amarillo we got caught in a nasty hail storm.  Gary pulled over, the hail, about  nickel  size, was smacking the windshield hard, with the crack in the glass it made us nervous.    Poor Luci, she doesn't mind t-storms but the noise scared the dickens out of her.  The skies cleared again, we got to Big Texan RV Park about 2:30.  T-storms started up again about 4.  Only another 70 miles and we'll finally be out of Texas.  We are going to get nosebleeds for sure, the elevation here is 3,672 and the population is close to 200,000. 

That's it for this week. Enjoy the pic's.  

TTFN,

Gary and Pam 

Gary with sister Carol and Brother John

Wichita River at flood stage

Wichita Falls

The World's Smallest Skysrcraper

Wee Chi Tah Sculpture near the river

Assorted photos from N. Texas Historic museum

Boots

Organ

Many hats

Sunset at Wichita Falls RV Park

Hail storm

Rockport to Waco, April 2 - 10

One week plus on the road already, only 3 more weeks to go until we get to Washington.  What a great time of the year to travel north through Texas, the wildflowers are in bloom, especially the Texas State Flower the Bluebonnet.  

Tuesday, April 2nd - Time to head back to the Northwest, we said our good byes to our friends, leaving the park about 10:30 for our 192 mile drive to Galveston.  Yes, it's the wrong direction but Galveston  is one of our favorite places.  Sandpiper RV Resort is just a sandy parking lot away from the beach and the Gulf of Mexico.  Miss L. loves it there and whatever makes her happy makes us happy.  First thing I did was walk to the beach while Gary set up.  We did see a new attraction - the Ashton Villa, built in 1859, the first brick building in Galveston, the 13 inch walls survived many hurricanes.  No longer open for tours due to flooding by a recent hurricane, it now houses the Visitor Center.

Wednesday, April 3, happy birthday dear brother, we had to do a re-match of our last put-put golf,  This time I prevailed.  Wah hoo!  We re- visited the Moody Gardens, the 3 pyramids feature an Aquarium, a Rainforest  and a Discovery Pyramid which focuses on science-oriented exhibits. Also on the property is a hotel, golf course, zip line and a water park.  We wanted to re-visit the aquarium which recently underwent a 37 million dollar overhaul.  Quite frankly I don't remember what it looked like before, it is quite an impressive aquarium showing each ocean region with their native fish and habitat.  The rest of the time in Galveston we just hung out and of course took many beach walks.  

Friday, the 5th, we are "sort"of heading the right direction.  We left Galveston about 10:30 for College Station, a 155 mile drive.  College Station, home of Texas A & M and George HW Bush Presidential Library, population over 21,000, elevation 385.  We're liable to get nose bleeds from the elevations we've been at sea level for 5 months.    We were last here 3 years ago, we came to pay our respects to George and Barbara at the George HW Bush Presidential Library.  

The morning of the 6th we had some severe thunder storms, about 10 the skies cleared we decided brave the weather.  As we entered the library we noticed chairs in the foyer, the new George HW Bush stamp was revealed.  Of the dignitaries there were Neil and Doro Bush.  We thought it would be a good idea to visit the grave site first in case the thunderstorms returned.  Walking through the beautiful gardens, a large pond (catch and release) then taking a bridge over a rushing creek down the path to the graves.  We overheard the Texas A & M Cadet Choir were going to be singing,  the same group that sang for GHWB's funeral.  I decided to stay, Gary went back to the Library.  A group of about 250-300 including alumni sang 3 songs,  they were more than fashionably late - 45 minutes.  It was worth the wait!   At 1:30 the Captain and 5 members of the crew of GeorgeHWBushCV77 were there to present the wheel of the ship to the museum.  Beautifully made!    We took a break for lunch, driving across town to BJ's Brewery, Gary's favorite, then went back to complete our tour.  

Sunday the 7th until about 3 was a complete washout with severe thunderstorms, the sky was so dark the park lights came on.  When the skies cleared we and everyone else in town went to HEB for groceries.

Monday the 8th, off to Waco, only 106 miles, we had to stop at the southern edge of town, the pesky giant slide was stuck in,  a little over an hour the problem was solved.  We arrived at I-35 RV Park about 1:00, we'll be here for 3 nights. Waco, population of about 200,00, elevation 470, home to Baylor University.  The Baylor Bears Ladies just won the girls basketball Final Four.  

Tuesday the 9th, if you're in Waco you must stop at Magnolia Market, it occupies a full city block downtown.  Owned by Chip and Joanna,  of HGTV's Fixer Upper fame.  We were a bit surprised at the size of the store, expected several floors of all kinds of decor it seemed small.  We wondered if we missed something but No.  The Bakery always has huge lines around the block - good thing, we might have picked up a little treat.  Visitors can play games on the lawn or have lunch, several food trucks are on the property.   Before heading back to the park we stopped at The Waco   Suspension Bridge the oldest in Texas. Larger then life size sculptures of cattle, horses and riders depicting a cattle drive lead up to the bridge built in 1870, it was the only bridge over the Brazos River on the Chisholm Trail at the time.  (A cattle drive through Texas to Kansas)  Not being much of a history buff, our travels have taught (or reminded me) of so much.

First thing Tuesday the 10th we took a tour of the Earle Harrison Paper House, originally built in 1858 downtown then relocated in 1967 to make room for the I-35 freeway.  Only a few of the families furnishings remain, thanks to the generosity of Waco residents it's furnished with period time pieces.  A Greek Revival Antebellum surrounded by almost 6 acres of garden.  After a quick lunch at Cricketts downtown we drove out to Waco Mammoth National Monument.  In 1978 two boys found a large fossil on a dairy farm, they were wise enough to notify Baylor University scientists who recognized it as a thigh bone of a Columbian Mammoth from 65,000 years ago.  Larger than Wooly Mammoths, they stood 14 feet tall with tusks and a trunk.  Most of the bones were encased in plaster and moved to Baylor, there are still several on site in the climate controlled building.  The remains of an elephant, saber tooth tiger, several mammoths, both adult and juvenile can be seen in the exhibition.  

Wednesday morning the 11th we drove downtown to the McClellan County Courthouse, an impressive building built in 1877, the county's fourth courthouse.  We took the elevator to the 4th floor for a closer look at the stained class rotunda ceiling, it's visible from the first floor, it just gets more beautiful the closer you get.   We peeked into the Court of Appeals, it was dark, as we came out, a "dapper" gent started talking to us, then took us into two courtrooms talking about the history, turns out he was the Chief Justice for the Court of appeals.  A super nice guy, acting like he had nothing else to do that day.  On the third floor we looked into Circuit Court, also empty except for the deputy, he told us more history but more importantly recommended a place for lunch.  George's - don't miss the place if you're ever in Waco - open since 1930.  Yum Yum!  The Texas Ranger Museum is dedicated to the history and lore of the TR, oldest state law enforcement organization in the US, they even caught Bonnie and Clyde in Louisiana.  After a 45 minute film we walked around the extensive exhibits.  I had no idea Crawford (home of George and Laura) was so close, only about 20 minutes southwestof town.  We saw two black Suburbans parked in front of a store but they didn't have government plates.  The town has about 800 residents, a typical small town, not much there.  

That's it for our first week back on the road, enjoy the pic's, some are shots in Rockport this winter.  

TTFN,

Gary and Pam

Pelican getting dinner  at pond on Fulton Beach Road

The eclipse

/Great White Egret and 2 juvenile Ibis across from our old site

Great white egret on broken Live Oak branch at our new site on the pond

Grave site

George's grave

Barbara's grave

New stamp dedicated at Library

Officers and crew with Doro Bush presenting ship's wheel to museum

Magnolia Market Waco Texas

Sculptures at Suspension Bridge

Earle Harrison Pape House

Entrance to Mammoth National Monument

Some of the fossils in exhibition

McLennan County Courthouse

Rotunda

Texas Ranger Museum

Mural on brick wall in Crawford, Tx.

 

Arrived in Rockport 10-30

At last, we arrived in Rockport on the 30th, we traveled 12,000 miles since we left here in April.  It's been very wet here, Rockport got 35 inches of rain in 2 weeks.  All the ponds overflowed onto the roads and flooded certain sites, ours included, it looked like we had our private pond.  

We really hightailed it from Arizona, stopping in Lourdsburg, NM and Van Horn, Tx.for a night  before arriving in Terlingua at the edge of Big Bend National Park, located in a remote part of southern Texas.  Big Bend NP roads end at the Rio Grande River, 245 miles of winding river.

In spite of the drippy weather (the remains of the hurricane that hit Puerta Vallarta made it's way into South Texas) we drove down the primitive Old Maverick Trail, in a few spots we had to engage the 4X4 to get through the mud to get to Santa Elena Canyon and the Rio Grande then along the Ross Maxwell Scenic drive.  Along the drive you have  a fantastic view of the Chihuahuan desert at the overlooks - if it's not covered by clouds.  We didn't see any wildlife except for a bunny.  In the spring it's a great place for birders and wildflowers.  Half of Santa Elena Canyon is in Mexico one of Big Bends most scenic spots.  All the recent rains have raised the river level , enough so we weren't able to cross Terlingua Creek to an overlook before dropping down to the river.  Well actually we couldn't because we had Luci with us and no dogs are allowed on National Park trails.  We talked with our neighbor in the RV park, they paddled the river that day, it's usually too shallow to go through the canyon, wish we could have taken the time to paddle our kayak the river.    
One of the National Park employees told us about the drive from Terlingua through Big Bend State Park, wow what beautiful scenery plus the skies cleared.  We continued the drive through the park to Presidio, a border town to have lunch.  Terlingua was once a flourishing mining town, now it's a ghost town and tourist area on the edge of the National Park.  We walked through the cemetery, founded in 1902 and still in use, it looks like most of the graves are above ground - not sure why.  The weather was much nicer, better color for pictures and you could see the peaks.  
We left Luci home our last day for our trip to the Rio Grande Village and Boquillas Canyon.  We drove down to the Hot Springs - the road was 4 X 4 in some areas, then we didn't get to the Springs thanks to my snake phobia, I refused to walk through the tall grass.  After a picnic in the Village we took a hike in Boquillas Canyon down to the river.  I put on my "Big Girl Panties" to walk through the grass down to the river, the entrance seems hidden because of the sharp curve.  Across the river we saw about 10 Federales coming down the steep rocks - we don't know what they were looking for but not us, they gave us a friendly wave. 
Off to Del Rio, Tx, the home of Laughlin AFB.  We did some bike riding around the base, I love my new electric assist bike, I can ride up hills and into the wind just like the big boys.
 It's great to be back in Rockport, it's amazing the recovery made in the last 6 months.  A few of the large hotels are still rebuilding.  The boat storage buildings are completely rebuilt and open, last spring they were still removing boats, all 4 stories of them. One of our neighbors had their boat on the 4th level, right on the corner by the highway and would you believe they got it out almost unscathed. 

That's it for a while, nothing interesting to talk about this winter.
Enjoy the pic's.

TTFN

Gary and Pam 

Visitor Center at Panther Junction

Terlingua's ghost tow

Kind of a funky area, old cars everywhere

Terlingua Cemetery est. 1902

Old graves build at ground level

Typical old grave

Beer bottles fill in top of gravestone

New grave, why chickens?

A much nicer day for a drive

Unusual rock formations

Looking west Rio Grand River and Mexico

 

To me these rocks look manmade

Mexicans bring trinkets and money jar on trails for sale

Hiking to the Hot Springs

Beautiful colors

Not sure who belongs to these nests

Woodpecker at picnic area

Road runner at picnic area

Paddlers on river

More trinkets for sale

The canyon overlook trail

River turning into canyon

The Federales

Gorgeous scenery everywhere