What the heck? I thought we were in Arizona?!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but this picture is the exception.  It's what you can't see that actually tells the story.  You can't see the wind that is howling at about 40 mph.  You can't see the mountains in the distance, that are there, and absolutely beautiful.  You can't see the snow, that has been falling for an hour or so now, and you can't see the temperature, which is in the low 30s and is expected to bottom out at 14°.  Welcome to Arizona.

We left El Paso Tuesday and hit the road for Benson, Arisona.  We are staying at  an Escapees RV Park here for a week.  The Escapees is an RV club that we belong to, a lot of whose members are full time Rvers, like us. My Escapees friends are the ones who usually post comments on my blog (Thank you!).  We arrived yesterday and I was so tired I actually took a nap.  We had gotten up early so we could try and get to Benson before the wind kicked up too much, and we did actually beat it.  

At happy hour, there was a Polar Bear Party at the clubhouse, serving frozen Mudslides.   While we were there we met Loralie and Lee, finally!  We've been pretty much following 2 steps behind them for the last few months, so it was great to be able to finally catch up to them for a bit!  I'm sure we'll be spending some time with them both here, and in Yuma in the coming weeks.  We were also chatting with another couple, discussing our recent adventures, and realized that they had been parked next to us while were were at Guadalupe National Park.  What a small world!  They like to hike quite a bit, so we are hoping to get together with them some day, and go for a hike.  If the snow ever stops.

Caves and Mines (El Paso, 12-23-10)



Hiking to the Aztec Caves

 



In the last couple of days Paul and I have done several hikes in Franklin Mountain State Park.  We hiked up to what's called Aztec Caves, but I don't know why they are called that.  Getting there wasn't too bad, a little steep, but once we explored the caves, Paul went around them, to go up the trail further.  I told him I might wait for him, which I did for a couple of minutes, then got bored and started to follow him.  Around the side of the cave was all rock, and really steep.  I managed to make it to the top (much to Paul's surprise- when he came back and found me there.) I thought I had gone the way he did, but it turns out the way I went was much steeper and more difficult. Oh well, no wonder why I was nervous the whole time.     

The challenge of a steep trail



Inside the tin mine



Yesterday's hike to the tin mines- supposedly the only ones in the U.S.- was much longer and more challenging. In the end, we hiked about 8 miles, and I can't wait to have my GPS so I'll know more accurately how far we hiked, and how much elevation gain we had. It was our favorite kind of hike- physically challenging without a huge possibility of getting hurt, with a destination of interest. There were several openings to the mine that we (he) could explore.   After leaving the mines, we made a big loop so that we returned on a different trail, which led us past several outcroppings of rock that contained a few fossils.   We were beat by the end of the day, but in a good way.

Today is Christmas Eve and Paul is fixing a few more things around the house before we head to the store for a few last minute items.  Its tacos and Margaritas tonight for a Christmas Eve celebration!









    





Eclipse

my best pictures of the eclipse last night.  We had to get up at 1 AM, but it was worth it.  The skies were clear and the temperatures were reasonably warm.

Hiking Franklin Mountain, El Paso, TX (12-18-10)

Since we've been in El Paso, I have been trying to stay active by walking down and back up the hill that Paul's mom lives on.  Its a 2 mile hike straight down, then 2 miles straight up. I try to find something I need to buy at the store, to make it feel like I have a purpose.


View from the ridge

   Yesterday though, Paul and I took off to go hiking in Franklin Mtn State Park.  The trails here are not that well marked or maintained, but we did make it to the ridge, which was almost straight up.  I felt like we were mountain goats, and there were a lot of times I didn't want to turn around and look down.  I just kept climbing.  Once we got to the ridge, we were supposed to walk along it to get to a higher peak.  However, within 3 minutes the wind had almost knocked me over twice, and the windchill factor was not at all pleasant.  We elected to turn back and head down the mountain.  In the end, we only hiked about 2 hours, but since it was straight up, I felt like we got a bit of a workout.   Once we left there, we did more more shopping, although we had already bought, wrapped and shipped the kids' gifts.  Paul already has his gift from me, which is one of those "does everything"  multi-purpose tools- apparently it saws, grinds etc.
My gift will be a handheld GPS, which we ordered but we have to pick it up in Tucson AZ.  I have been wanting to try geocaching and there are a lot of times, like yesterday, when I would love to know how far we hiked and how much elevation we gained.  Yes, its a toy, I guess, but it isn't big, and it doesn't weigh much, so we can have it in the trailer!   I really wanted the Garmin, but you have to buy the Topo maps separately, which for us, since we would need maps for most of the country, would be about a $1000 investment.
Delorme's GPS isn't as user friendly, but its only $30 a  year for access to ALL their maps.  So, we'll buy it and try it out and have 30 days to return it.

El Paso, TX (12-15-10)

    Well, we left Guadalupe Mountains a couple of days ago and arrived in El Paso and since we've been here, life has been a whirlwind of activity.  We actually had a list of things that needed to get done, so that we could do the most time sensitive things first.  We wanted to order several things online and since we'll only be here for 2 weeks, we had to do that early to make sure we get them in time.  Then of course we had to buy the kids' Christmas gifts so we could get them shipped.  We did that and shipped them yesterday.  My passport expired, so I renewed that today.   There is a lot of paperwork stuff that we have been working on, since we have great (and secure) internet.  Plus, Paul has started on the list of projects that his mother had ready for him.  He's working through the list at a pretty good clip.
   The day we got here was the most stressful. Although we got here early in the day, we are storing the Everest, so we had to empty the refrigerator, and take everything with us that we'll need for the next 2 weeks.  The trailer is having an issue, which is what stressed Paul the most.  In August, Keystone, the trailer manufacturer added some struts to one side of the trailer  because the floor was sagging, and we began to notice the same thing happening to the other side now- and its near the refrigerator, so that is sagging, as well as our main slide.  Hopefully it's a reasonably easy fix, and Keystone has said that they will work with us on it.
   We'll be here for Christmas and will head for Arizona a few days afterwards.

Guadalupe National Park, TX (12-11-10)

December 11, 2010




         We have passed by Guadalupe National Park, TX several times in our travels and this time I wanted to stop in and check it out. The “campground” is interesting- it’s essentially a parking lot with wide spaces. We filled our tank with water and we are running on battery while we are here. The ranger suggested that we take it one night at a time because the winds kick up pretty fierce here, up to 70 mph and he said that when they do, its pretty uncomfortable. Our first night here was pretty nasty, but luckily the winds calmed down by morning, and have been fine ever since.
       Since we got here early in the day Friday, we did a 4.5 mile hike to a place called Devil’s Hall. It was in a canyon, and there was one part that’s called the hiker’s natural staircase that was pretty cool. Other than that it was good exercise with some nice views. We found out after the fact that had we kept going a little further, we would have entered into the territory of the local mountain lion. Although we didn’t catch a glimpse of him, we have seen some elk, Javelina, and some mule deer- one of which had the biggest set of antlers I’ve ever seen on a deer.



sea shell fossil



We were using that hike to sort of gear up for Saturday’s hike, which was 8.5 miles and 2000 feet of elevation gain, and was challenging for a variety of reasons. First, the trail was loose rocks almost all the way up the trail, which is the most difficult terrain for my foot right now. Luckily I had pumped myself full of my prescription pain killer, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I am still ramping back up with the hiking, so I’m not in the shape I was before the surgery. On top of that, we forgot that we are at an elevation of 5000 ft- plus the 2000, so we ended up at 7000 ft by the end of the day. Our bodies are not acclimated to that so we were huffing and puffing a bit by the end. All in all we did ok though.

      Guadalupe National Park is home to a Permian Reef. The seashore was here 250 million years ago, and as it disappeared, it left behind a lot of fossils. We saw quite a few of them along the trail. It’s always nicer to do a hike if there is something of interest to see along the way.

      Today’s hike was 4.5 miles to an old lodge that was built in the 1930s. I can’t even imagine having such a remote cabin, but to each his own I guess. A park ranger happened to arrive just after we did, and he opened up the cabin and let us in so we could look around. He told us that in it’s day it was state of the art, and the owner used it as his “party house”. We had lunch on the back porch and were joined by another couple. While chatting, we discovered that they are full time Rv’ers as well, and have been for 9 years. It’s always interesting to hear people’s stories- if they full time, how they travel etc. Some people spend a long time in one place, some people move quite a bit, like we do.

        One of the things that Paul and I enjoy are the people we meet along the way. This morning we met up with “the guy from Wisconsin”. Paul met him in the campground yesterday. He is staying in his SUV- no tent, just the car. He has a small cook stove and a sleeping bag. He has some interesting theories about vapor trails from planes actually being something being sprayed down to earth. Anyway, this morning he had his binoculars out, and we stopped to ask what he was watching. It turned out he was watching some elk, so we spent a few minutes chatting with him and watching elk. The people next to us are also from Michigan, but they only travel a few months of the year.

       When we were in Monahan Sandhills we met a neat couple from Alaska. They were both young, and retired from public service jobs. She was a police officer, but I am not sure what he did. They were the kind of people that you click with right away and the conversation just keeps going. They travel about 8 months a year, to escape the long winters in Alaska. They are also avid hikers and she has a cool saying- “motion is lotion”- she likes to keep her body moving. While at that campground we also met the campground host- or should I say hostess. Her rig is bigger than ours and her story is sadder than ours. She and her husband were fulfilling his dream of full timing, but his cancer had returned so he has been back in Kansas undergoing treatment for months, and she is doing all the traveling, hosting, and driving, while she waits for him to return to her. She hopes that will happen in January. Everyone has their own unique story, but the common idea seems to be that they are all trying to live their lives to the fullest. Not a bad idea.




Hiking the Permian  Reef trail



Monahans, TX (12-9-10)

     The small town of Monahans TX,  population about 7,000 has a different problem than most towns and cities in this country right about now.  There are plenty of jobs here, but not enough housing. Jobs go unfilled because there are no available houses and apartments.  In fact, we checked, and there are only 3 houses for sale in this town.  I am not sure why no one builds more houses, but I guess there must be a reason.

    We are staying at Monahans Sandhills State Park, which has amazing sand dunes.  We have seen the most amazing sunsets the last two nights.  In fact, I heard that photographers come here from all over to photograph the sunset and I can see why. 
    This afternoon we went for a walk on the sand dunes.  Walking in sand is very tiring but fun, especially since the weather was perfect for it.  The Visitors Center has snow saucers that you can rent to go "sledding" down the slopes, but we didn't do it because the weather has been too dry lately, and the sand is not as hard packed as  you would need for a fast run.  It's similar to snow- if its soft and fluffy, you sink into it ( Paul's foot disappeared at one point!) but you'll fly down the hill fast if it's hard packed.

Where's Waldo

My version of "where's Waldo", or for us pre-Waldo folk, it's one of those pictures that has hidden pictures in it that you have to find and circle.   I was going to post this yesterday but didn't have fast enough internet.So the question is: how many deer are in each picture?

Internet- or lack thereof...



Sunset at Monahans Sandhills State Park, TX



Well, it took me about 15 minutes to upload this one picture, but I thought it was worth it. It hasn't been altered~ that's the sunset that we saw last night.  We have moved further across Texas and are at Monahans Sandhills State Park.  There isn't much in the way of hiking trails here, the ranger said, "Yeah, just climb as many sand dunes as you want."  We are going to head out and go for a walk in a bit.  The cat has been going a little crazy with all this sand around.  He keeps thinking he sees something moving- sometimes its the sand, sometimes its his shadow,so he has been chasing ghosts in the sand.  I got some cute video of him doing that and I might try to post it when we get better internet.

In the meantime, I did have some pictures to post, but those will have to wait, as well.



    While we were in Jacksboro, Paul and I went into the town of Loving Texas, population 300.  Its where his dad was born and part of the reason we came this way was so that Paul could visit the cemetary, where several of his relatives are buried.  The last time he was here was about 40 years ago and his great uncle had a store here.  The store is gone now, as is his great grandfather's house, so that was a little disappointing.



~38~

That's how many deer we saw this evening while driving through the state park we're staying in.

We are working our way across Texas, having left Hot Springs a couple of days ago.  We are trying to stay mostly in state parks, since we just bought the yearly pass and want to make sure we get our money's worth. Plus, I am trying to get more hiking done, and sometimes the state parks are a good place to do that.
Right now we're outside of Dallas, in a small town called Jacksboro.  Tomorrow we're going to a town called Loving.  Its the town that Paul's dad is from.

Hot Springs, Arkansas




walkway to the 7th floor of the Arlington Hotel

 

   Whenever possible, Paul and I have decided we love to adhere to the 2-2-2 rule.  That is, travel no more than 200 miles a day, finish driving by 2 pm, and stay 2 nights.  Once we left Memphis, it was a little over 200 miles to get to Hot Springs, and we got there early enough in the day so that we could do some exploring.  We checked out the National Park Visitors Center which is in a restored bath house and is a museum of sorts, giving people an idea of how the bath houses operated back in the early 1900s.



Yesterday was one of those absolutely perfect days.  The weather was perfect- about 65 degrees and sunny and everything went just how we wanted it to go.  We started off by hiking about 6 miles or so in Hot Springs National Park.  Basically we walked through the woods, over the hill and into the town.  This trail actually ends at the 7th floor of a hotel! The hotel is built into the hillside and at the7th story, there is a walkway.  That's also where the pool and hot tub are. If we had only known, we'd have brought suits. 



      We ate lunch in town (another strange thing to do on a hike) before trekking the 3 miles back over the hill.  Once there, we got the truck and drove it back to the Arlington Hotel.  By this time it was 4 pm and at 4:30 there was going to be Christmas caroling in the hotel lobby.  The lobby is huge and set up with small bar tables, so Paul and I ordered Margaritas and waited for the music.  The hotel really does it up nice, providing free refreshments- coffee, hot chocolate, cookies, etc.  The music was great- they handed out song sheets so everyone could sing along.

      After the music died down we headed outside.  The hotel is right in the middle of the town, where all the shops are and it was "Gallery Walk" night, which means all the stores stayed open later.  We strolled around the town, wandering in and out of stores, and also got to see the town Christmas lights light up.  We never did eat dinner that night.

So, Hot Springs is, of course, known for its hot springs.  They were used years ago therapeutically, mostly before the modern  medicines and antibiotics we have now.  The water, when it comes up to the surface from deep in the earth, is about 140 degrees and about 4000 years old.  Its full of minerals that are supposed to be good for you.  Obviously the water has to be cooled down to a usable temperature, but its illegal to cool it with non-hot springs water.  Many of the springs have been capped to protect them, and the government controls the water, supplying the bath houses and anyone else who wants to drink the water.  The bath houses are all in a row on the same street. Beautiful old buildings. There are also several dispensing fountains throughout the town, and everyone is free to fill up whatever containers they bring. 

      Our venture into a Bath House took place this afternoon, after going for a long walk in  a local state park.  We chose to keep it simple and just utilize the main "hot tub" rooms at one of the bath houses.  They have 4 huge hot tubs, all set to different temperatures and you can move from tub to tub as much as you want.  That really is the simple route.  The bath houses mostly cater to people who want private massages, tub soaks  and whatever, but I wasn't really interested in going that route.

The weather here has spoiled us and caused us to change our plans for our next destination.  Well, actually, the weather forecast for Oklahoma City did that.  The temperatures there will be in the 20s at night, with possible snow on Tuesday, so we are bypassing OK and heading for the Dallas area instead.

Memphis Tennessee



Duck Walk at the Peabody



   Day 2 of Memphis.  Somehow I was just as interested in seeing the "Peabody Ducks" as I was in seeing anything else in Memphis.  The Peabody Ducks ride down the elevator in the very sophisticated Peabody Hotel every morning at 11 am.  They run down a red carpet towards the waiting water fountain, where they spend the next 6 hours before repeating the red carpet run back to the elevator and up to their temporary (3 months) home.  We lined up, along with about 50 school children, to wait for the ducks to arrive. The Duck Master explains the history, then rides up the elevator to retrieve the ducks. He warns the audience to snap pictures as soon as the elevator doors open, because the ducks do not Walk down the red carpet.  They run. Boy was he right.  I took a movie of the "walk" and was barely able to blink before they were in the fountain. After the Duck Walk, a high school choir sang Christmas carols and it was quite lovely.

    Once we watched the 3 second show duck show, we headed over to the main attraction of Memphis.  Part of me didn't really want to go see "Graceland", just because. But I also figured it's a once in a life time experience.  And after seeing it, it will be.  Once in a life time, that is.

    There were two sort of opposing impressions that I got at Graceland.  My first impression was that  the house was not what I expected.  I was expecting a very fancy, huge mansion, and really, Graceland looks more like a home.  It is still decorated in the style of the 1970s, complete with shag rugs.  The rooms are big, but they aren't enormous. None of the private rooms upstairs are open to tours, but the downstairs and all the out buildings are.  Graceland sits on 13 acres and has a stable for the horses and a building just for playing racquetball, as well as other buildings. 
By the time we left, I was tired of the seemingly dozens of little museums with their attached gift shops. Which leads to my second impression.  WAY over done. And overpriced.  The house and grounds tour was kind of neat, seeing Lisa Marie's swing set, which looked like the same one I had growing up.  But there was one museum for his cars, one museum for his clothes, one museum dedicated to the year 1968, his two private planes etc etc.  It was all those added on features that were too much. 
Although there is not much information there that focuses on Elvis's private life (only one wedding picture that I could see), I still came away with a better understanding of him and the impact he had on his generation. I just missed the "Elvis" generation growing up.  Of course I knew who he was and liked his music, but I was more in the Rolling Stones/Beatles generation.
Yesterday we left Memphis and landed in Hot Springs Arkansas.

Memphis TN

Home of Elvis Presley, some of the best BBQ in the country, and the birthplace of Rock and Roll.  Oh, and the original owner of Piggly Wiggly lived here, although he didn't own the store for long.  He lost it and went bankrupt about a year after he opened the first store.

   I am not a huge Elvis fan.  I like his music well enough, but was never interested in all the hoopla about him personally.  And yet we will visit Graceland tomorrow.  Today we found Beale Street, which is "the" street in Memphis. A lot of the action is there, with lots of restaurants and live music. This morning we visited Sun Studios, where Elvis and Johnny Cash both got their start.  It was interesting to realize that Elvis was only 18 when he started recording songs here, although it would take a couple of years for his style to develop into something that caught on like wildfire.  As part of the tour they play recordings of some of the early recording sessions, back when they were live, and every band member was in the room together. Ray Orvis was among the people who recorded here. In fact, this studio saw many, many stars come through the doors over the years.  It is still used as a recording studio at night, and many big names like to record songs here, looking for the good "karma".   It was a small building with a lot of history attached to it.

        After strolling down Beale Street and eating lunch at one of the many BBQ places, we headed to the Pink Palace, a museum housed in a mansion originally owned by  Clarence Saunders, the owner of the original Piggly Wiggly.  There is a full scale replica of his first store in the museum.  I was amazed to see some of the brand names on the shelves: Procter and Gamble, Ivory Soap, Bertolli, Quaker Oats, Kellogg, and Lea and Perrin. Clarence never lived in the home, since he lost everything to bankruptcy before it was finished.  On Tuesday afternoons, admittance to the museum is free, so we saved $20 by coming today instead of tomorrow!