Exploring Once More (08-28-21)

 

With "only" a month or so to explore before we head back to Arizona, we got out a map and looked to see where we could go that we had never been, but wouldn't be too far away. Glenwood Springs, CO fit the bill, so that’s where we headed.

In order to avoid the huge mountains, we took the long way there, which took us through Albuquerque NM, and Cortez CO. It seems like there is always something to look at while driving around in the southwest. Maybe because there are so few trees, we can see for miles and miles.

It always amazes me to see these kinds of things- it looks as if the sand is being worn away, revealing the monolith enclosed within it.

We had been through here before when we visited Mesa Verde National Park, but there was still plenty we hadn't seen, so we booked two nights in Cortez.

The lady at the Visitor Center was very helpful and mapped out a full day of exploring for us.

We packed a lunch and headed towards Canyon of the Ancients National Monument....with our first stop being Hovenweep.

Hovenweep was designated a National Monument in 1923, with the purpose of preserving some of the best ancient puebloan masonry in existence today.

The settlement we explored involved a two mile hike along a ridge, with remnants of ancient dwellings sitting both atop the ridge, and down below in the canyon.

 

Ancestral Puebloans moved to this area around the year 700, and moved on to new places in about the year 1230. No one knows exactly why they left, although there are several theories.

While here, they farmed, using a terrace method, planting crops down the sides of the canyon.

It was already getting warm when we started our two mile hike, so we were happy when the sky started dripping. The flashes of lightning and crackle of thunder didn't thrill us, but we survived it.

Looking across the canyon it was amazing to see just how many buildings there were in this small area.

These Twin Towers, although they maybe don't look like much, have a total of 16 interior rooms.

We were hoping to visit the Holly Tower area as well, but the ranger warned us that the road resembled a swimming pool after the recent rains. We went as far as we could, although one of us was convinced we could make it through to the other side with no problem.

Back on the paved road we made our way to Lowry Pueblo, where we had a picnic lunch before exploring the kivas. Kivas are special buildings that were used for ceremonies and community activities.

Lowry is known for the murals that were painted on the interior walls, which had 15 coats of plaster. Unfortunately, all attempts to preserve the murals failed.

Continuing on the loop road, our last stop of the day was the Anasazi Heritage Center. When nearby McPhee reservoir was created, artifacts were removed before it was filled with water, and they are housed at the heritage center.

I have been interested in dendrochronology since i was in 5th grade and at environmental science camp. While there, we drilled into a tree, and counted the rings to find out how old it was.

When comparing the rings of an older tree and a younger tree, the ring patterns for the overlapping years are the same on both trees, allowing scientists to establish a timeline.

Several wood beams from this area were sent off to the dendrochronology lab in Tucson where they have a master chart of tree rings, with known dates. Pretty cool.

California, Here We Come (08-14-21)

 

Having spent our last week in Texas helping Paul’s mom, we were ready to head to California. Before we left, we were treated to one hellacious storm, with winds apparently clocked at 60 mph- based on the damage we saw in the RV park-I can believe it.

Along the way we decided to make a short stop at home. We dropped off some stuff and fixed the irrigation system at the house.

Our original plans for California were thwarted by the lack of available RV spaces in southern California. We were going to start south and then head to northern CA, but ended up heading north first. We called our friends in Fresno and gave them the heads up that we would be arriving in a day or so. 

We haven't seen our CA friends in over 2 years, due to Covid, so it was awesome to be able to catch up on all the happenings. The week was full of group meals, including the night that Nancy and Bill came down from their farm to meet us all for dinner.

They brought with them boxes of fresh peaches and tomatoes. Wow. Peaches that taste like peaches, and tomatoes that taste like tomatoes. It’s one of the things I will miss about California- no where else in the country have I had fruits and vegetables that taste so good.

We were invited to a “zoom wine tasting” at Karen’s friend’s house. The winery shipped boxes that contain 5 small wine samples per person, and at 5 pm, the zoom meeting started, and the tasting began. We had technical difficulties with the TV we were using so our zoom ended up being a call on speaker phone. It was still fun.

As the night wore on, we made the switch to tequila, and more silliness ensued.

Once the weekend arrived, we headed up the mountain to Kirk and Karen’s cabin. We knew the 2020 Creek Fire came close to their cabin, and caused significant damage to the area, but it was awful to see the devastation and loss of property  first hand.

 

We heard that the fire moved so fast at times that the firefighters couldn’t save all the homes, so they made their decision based in part on who had maintained a “defensible space”. The structures that had all the debris and deadwood removed from around them, were prioritized. I guess it makes sense to do it that way, since not everything could be saved.

We had our usual fun time at the cabin, with the guys finding enough projects to keep them busy.

  And again, most of the fun seemed to revolve around food and drink. With the temperatures in the city reaching over 100 degrees, it was nice to be in the mountains and be able to eat outside.

After a little over a week, we said goodbye to everyone and headed southwest to Santa Barbara. We had discovered that our daughter had a week off, so she drove up to meet us and we spent a couple of days exploring.

Our day in Santa Barbara started at the wharf. 

From there we did a couple of wine tastings as we walked around town, and ended up back at the wharf, where we had dinner reservations. 

There were so many wine rooms it was hard to choose which ones to try, but we narrowed it down to two. It was a huge perk to us that we had Jess’s car, so we didn’t have to park the dually, and a huge perk for her that dad doesn't drink wine, and didn't mind being DD.

The following day we walked around Solvang, “the Danish capital of America”.  We had been here once before, but Jess never had been, so we made sure she tried Aebleskivers, a Danish dessert that is similar to doughnuts.

She seemed to enjoy them, just as she enjoyed meandering through all the stores.

Leaving Jess, we braved the L.A. traffic to make our way south towards Oceanside.  It was a bonus that because our visit was delayed, Paul’s brother was back in town, so we got to see them, as well as Paul’s niece and nephew. I didn’t manage to take a single picture!

This summer did not at all go as we had originally planned, and we had to be flexible and quick on our feet so to speak to keep up with the changes.

Now, instead of heading north, we needed to  head back to El Paso to handle some things for Paul’s mom.  Even that plan changed a bit.  We once again stopped at the house, this time so that Paul could replace the brakes on the trailer- doing it at the house was more comfortable than trying to do it in an RV park.

While we were in California, Paul's mom celebrated her 91st birthday.

The Big Bend of Texas (07-25-21)

 
Paul and I love this area of Texas, and have been here several times. Big Bend is one of my favorite national parks- but this time, we came for something else- Big Bend Ranch State Park.  We chose to stay at a resort that is closer to the state park than the national park. It has a pool, fitness room and restaurants. I guess part of the reason I have been choosing resort type places is because its so hot outside, we need things to do besides hike.

Anyway, our first morning there it was our intent to drive into the state park and do a hike. As we sat drinking our coffee, I punched it in Google maps and discovered its a 2 hour drive- mostly down a dirt road. Well, we had lingered too long over our coffee, so we didn’t make it to the park that day. I had forgotten that to get anywhere in this area is at least an hour and a half drive. We elected to leave very early the next day and make a whole day of it.

Instead, we took a short ride along the Rio Grande, enjoying the scenery.

Up early the next day we headed into the park. One of the things I noticed on the bone jarring ride down the dirt road, was a veritable forest of Ocotillo.  We are used to seeing one or two of these plants, but this was thousands of them. And there were “babies”, which we rarely see anywhere.

We stopped at the ranger station to get the scoop on what we should do, and she recommended Cinco Tinajas Trail, about 3 miles round trip.

A tinaja is basically a natural basin with water in it. We hiked as far along as we could without having to go IN the water, then headed up the side, to look down into the chasm.

Further along the trail we came upon a red tailed hawk.  It was really neat to see the mockingbird dove bomb the hawk repeatedly. He must have been near the bird’s nest but he sure didn’t seem to take the attack seriously.

He didn’t seem to care about us much either, showing his apparent disdain by ignoring us.

It was already getting quite warm by the time we finished that hike, so we elected to pass on the second one we were going to do, and just drove around the park, having decided that Big Bend Ranch State Park would be a One Day and Done kind of park.

On the way back to the rig, we stopped to do a short hike into Closed Canyon.  The walls of the canyon are so high, its partly in the shade, making it cooler in the canyon. However, it was 102* outside, and one of us thought that was a little too warm to venture very far into the canyon, so we took a peek, and headed back out.

Being gluttons for punishment, we were up and out the door by daybreak the next day, hiking up a hill adjacent to the RV park.

It was 4 miles round trip, giving us views of the surrounding area and the Rio Grande.

We were done early enough to spend some time in the pool before heading to nearby Study Butte for the 4th of July parade.

On the drive there, it became increasingly clear that there wasn’t going to be a parade, but we still had a great time watching the storm come through.

Not to be deterred, the following day we once again headed to Study Butte for the postponed parade, but it was not meant to be…another storm came through the area, and the parade was canceled again.

This time we skedaddled fast enough to make it to our favorite restaurant just ahead of the crowd.  Starlight Theater has excellent food, and live entertainment most nights. In fact, we ate here twice on this trip.

Our final day in the area we headed to Big Bend National Park.  Before we went, I checked a hiking map to see if there were any interesting trails that we hadn’t hiked yet. I didn’t think there were, and I was right.  We have hiked most of the trails that are under 15 miles…some of them 2-3 times. So, I picked my favorite trail, and that’s what we hiked- Lost Mine Trail.

On our way in to the park we were kind of happy to see the cloud cover hanging over the Chisos Basin.  Clouds would make the hike much cooler….as long as they cleared before we got to the top.

Luckily they did, and we were able to enjoy the fantastic views at the summit.

Once our stay at Big Bend was over, we headed to El Paso to see Paul’s mom.