Out West Adventure: Part 1--Crossing Texas, New Mexico and Arizona

January 28-30: (Monday) I had to get up to visit the bathroom at 7:00 this morning so Marv got up too and started the coffee. Therefore, we had an even earlier start than anticipated. By 8:30 we had eaten yogurt and bread with peanut butter and closed up the camper, needing only to dump the gray water before we hit the road. Going up I37 to San Antonio we got over 18mpg! San Antonio is at 700ft. altitude. Taking I10 west from there our mileage dropped to just over 15 as we rose to 3000ft. There is a whole lot of nothin’ west of San Antonio but there was little traffic and we listened to 2 disks of Jill Connor Browne’s Sweet Potato Queen’s American Thighs, and one disk of David McCullough’s 1776, both read by the authors. We also heard almost all of Earl Robinson’s last “Sports Talk” streamed live from WKAR on my phone, all the while wondering why he was taking his sudden retirement. Time passed fairly easily. We made very few stops only pausing to eat, to stretch our legs, and to fill the tank before we hit the stretch where we knew from last time there would be few gas stations. We saw gas for as much as $3.49 so were happy to pay $3.09 and $3.19 instead. Along the way we saw the miles and miles of wind turbines we remembered from that last trip. Sometimes they co-exist with active oil wells, which is an interesting mix.  Marv was very happy to make it all the way to Balmorhea, where we got snowed on in 2010. Today it was as warm as the low eighties as we drove along and was still in the sixties when we got to Balmorhea. There were only a handful of other campers there and the office was closed since it was after 6:00. After setting up without unhitching (we know we’ll only be here one night), we walked over to the Cienaga (Spanish for pond) and then to the spring-fed pool but it had closed at sundown so we couldn’t get in to it to feel the warm water. We’ll probably stop tomorrow on our way out. We had a late dinner of salad and the leftover Dirty Rice then journaled and watched our first “Northern Exposure” of the trip on the computer before going to bed.

Mesas in Texas

I10 in Western Texas

Wind Turbines

The Eastern sky at sunset at Balmorhea

(Tuesday) It got down to about 47° overnight with occasional strong gusts of wind but they weren’t consistent. Once the sun rose, the wind began to really howl. Marv made oatmeal while I took at quick shower. (And I do mean quick. The showers at Balmorhea are very draughty and they have one big button to push for 8 seconds of warm water. This makes it extremely difficult to wash thick, curly hair.) No sooner were we on the road than we started getting some light drizzle, which soon mixed with snow, and then turned into whiteout snow squalls. We were headed directly into 50mph gusts, the temperature dropped below freezing, and we were climbing eventually to 4700ft. so our mileage was a miserable 10.2 mpg for a while. Luckily there was very little traffic so we just kept plugging along. By El Paso the snow had stopped and the temperature was in the upper thirties but the wind continued to howl and visibility was nearly as low as in the snow, but this time it was a yellowish fog of sand and dirt obscuring everything. There were tumbleweeds blowing furiously across the road all along and we narrowly avoided one nearly 4 feet across. We got off for gas and lunch and happened to be right at a Sam’s Club so we got gas for $2.92, a few groceries, and a piece of pizza before getting back on the road. We had thought we’d go back to City of Rocks in New Mexico before stopping for the night. But conditions there looked even worse with the temperature at 30° and dropping to 22° overnight. Instead we opted for getting out of the wind and low mileage at Las Cruces, NM for a night in an RV park. We set-up quickly and didn’t even hook-up the water. We had put water in the tank, thinking we would be camping without electricity or water at City of Rocks. We wiled away the rest of the afternoon with email and some internet searching, enjoyed BLT wraps for supper, and headed to a local cinema to watch Lincoln. On the way back we bought a pint of ice cream to eat back at the camper after we took a walk around the large Sunset RV Park in the beautiful moonlight and fierce wind.

Whiteout conditions in the snow east of El Paso

Snow on the desert near El Paso

"Yellow out" conditions in the blowing sand and dirt west of El Paso

Sunset over the Black Mountains at Balmorhea
(This should be up with the other Balmorhea pictures but it won't let me move it!)

(Wednesday) As forecast, the winds died overnight and the temperature dropped into the twenties. But we stayed cozy with a wool blanket, an electric blanket, and a quilt bedspread. The movie the night before had gotten out too late for us to do some needed grocery shopping so we decided to take the time to get the oil changed in the truck and get groceries before leaving Las Cruces. We hadn’t made good use of our time there the day before and, as it turned out, we did no better today. We dropped off the truck for the Express Oil Change that was supposed to take fifteen minutes when they finished with the one car in front of us. So we walked down the road a couple of blocks to Dick’s to get some breakfast while they worked on the truck, thinking they’d call while we ate to say the truck was ready. Alas, no call. We walked back and waited about 10 minutes in the waiting room before Marv went up to see what the problem was. They said they were just finishing up. When we finally got the truck it had taken them an hour and ten minutes and cost over $40.00! Sheesh!! Oh well, it was taken care of. We went to a local grocery store to get a few items and returned to the camper, where we had a date to Skype with Analyn, who had requested talking with Boppa. After talking, making a picnic lunch, packing up the camper, and stopping for gas (at $2.99) we were finally on the road at 11:15, a good hour later than we had hoped. But today’s driving was as good as yesterday had been bad. Immediately west of Las Cruces we came upon several 15 mile long “zones” cautioning drivers of gusting winds and dust storms, with instructions to pull over and turn off the lights if caught in one. We could only imagine what we would have found had we not decided to stay the night in Las Cruces. The skies were crystal clear, there wasn’t significant wind, the temperatures climbed to and stayed mostly in the high 40s and the air was dry, dry, dry! We made good time across New Mexico and stopped at the first Rest Area in Arizona to eat our BLT wraps and stretch our legs before continuing on through the pass at 5000ft. where there are huge rocks scattered everywhere and then dropped about 1500ft to get off I10 and go south, eventually arriving at Patagonia Lake State Park, only about 10 miles from the Mexican border, just north of Nogales. Our mileage, which had ended up yesterday at 12.4, improved today to end at 15.4mpg. Patagonia Lake is a dammed creek forming a reservoir which attracts many birds and has even more this year because of the cold temperatures which are driving the birds even farther south than usual. Because the ranger had just shut down her computer we were told to take a spot and hope that it wasn’t reserved for the weekend. Moving would be a pain but this appears to be a beautiful park that we’re eager to explore over the next few days.

(Top 2) Rocks along I10 in eastern Arizona

(Bottom 2) Sunset at Patagonia Lake State Park

Out West Adventure: Part 1--Mustang Island

Exiting the Aransas Channel Ferry

January 26-28: (Saturday) My lips are salty, my hair is a wild curly ‘fro around my head, and I can hear the waves crashing through the window behind me in the camper. We are camping at Mustang Island State Park just over a dune from the Gulf of Mexico, and 10 miles north of Padre Island National Seashore. The island was named for the wild horses that once roamed the island in abundance, but had disappeared by the mid-1800s. We visited this area in 2010 but made a day trip of it, when it was sunny and 60°. Today it was close to 80° and sunny and windy. We had closed the camper and driven straight through from Houston, stopping only to eat our picnic lunch at a rest area along Highway 59. The GPS took us across the strait on the Aransas Ferry, which we had both forgotten we did in 2010, too. Since we made a reservation this morning we knew we would have a campsite in the mostly full, small campground. It has no trees and is just a very wide, paved lot with close packed campsites up each side but at least there is no one behind us and it is far from the road. Best of all, it is a short bike ride on the road through the dune and to the hard-packed beach where primitive campsites can be accessed by driving on the beach. We did a cursory set-up, during which our next door neighbor (from Missouri) came over to check out the camper. He has a big trailer and is looking at downsizing a bit. After that we rode our bikes over to ride a couple of miles on the sand and walked for a bit, too. We saw several large cannonball jellyfish and a 5 inch puffer fish and many small shells. When we returned to the campsite we found three nice shells on the steps of the camper. Soon the campground host, Jared, came to introduce himself and give us two more shells (he had left the others) and some literature about the area.  After making Dirty Rice and a salad for dinner and getting the first sunset picture of the trip, we played a round of dominoes (I lost miserably) and then rode back to the beach to walk under the full moon on the sand some more. As far as we could tell we were the only ones on the well lit beach. It was beautiful.

Peggy on the beach

The view from Marv's handlbars

Marv on the beach

Sunset over Mustang Island

Full moon over Mustang Island

(Sunday) It was a lovely, lazy Sunday morning of scrambled eggs and reading the LSJ from beginning to end while we sat in the sunshine and drank our coffee. There was a pretty stiff breeze so the high sixties didn’t feel as warm as it might have but it was pleasant none the less. We made a picnic lunch and drove the 12 miles to Padre Island National Seashore, thinking we could sit on the beach there and listen to the MSU/Indiana basketball game at noon. However, as we drove through the park we lost the signal. A stop at the Visitors Center found things much like they were three years ago when we visited. We reviewed what we had learned about the efforts to help the highly endangered Kemps Ridley Sea Turtles and then headed back towards the gate. But we turned into the drive to the Bird Island Basin on the leeward side of the island and found there a sail boarding Mecca with a few campsites, some picnic tables, several parked cars, and 6 or 7 people out enjoying the smooth water and stiff breeze. We ate our picnic on a table there and watched the entertainment and enjoyed the sun when it popped out of the clouds. After a while we decided to head back to the campsite and listened to the rest of the game on the way back. Sadly, MSU couldn’t prevail against the Hoosiers at home. L There was more sun and the temperatures had warmed into the seventies so we rode our bikes back to the beach and in the opposite direction than we had taken yesterday until we were stopped by the fish jetties. From there we locked up the bikes and walked up the beach and back for half an hour, watching the waves crash in and squadrons of pelicans flying overhead. As the afternoon waned we returned to our campsite and sat in the sun, protected from the increasing wind by the camper, to read until dinnertime. We had bean soup that we had brought from home, talked to Marv's mom for a long time on the phone, and got things ready for a quick getaway tomorrow so we can begin crossing the rest of Texas to the west and get to Arizona. 

Watching the sail boarders

Sail boarding on Bird Island Basin

Waves on the fish jetty

A squadron of pelicans

Mustang Island State Park beach from a fish jetty

Out West Adventure: Part 1--Houston

Herb and Betty Dorfan with Peggy and Marv

Galveston Beach

Pleasure Pier in Galveston

Jan. 23-26: (Wednesday) Our GPS took us right to the Lakeview Resort, where we stayed three years ago. It has several things going for it—it’s convenient to Houston, it has a pool and an indoor and an outdoor hot tub, it is safe and secure, there is free WI-Fi and popcorn, and there are not many people there at this time of year. However, we were placed backing up to the very busy access road to a freeway and it is near a busy railroad track so it is very noisy. But with earplugs to sleep we can make the most of it. We got set up and talked to my cousin, Betty Dorfan, about when we could get together and then found a nearby Kroger’s for groceries and a cash-only gas station where we could fill up at $3.09. After a dinner of grilled pork chops and red beans and rice we went over for a soak in the outdoor hot tub under the almost full moon, and then read and worked on the computers until bedtime. (Thursday) It was very foggy in the morning and things had dripped enough it looked as if it had rained. Our coffee maker isn't working well so it took a long time to get our coffee and we had to add more water to get enough. We had yogurt and toast for breakfast and then took our tablets over to the rec hall where we could have a reliable signal (and free coffee) to read the Lansing State Journal. I asked about a bike trail and a guy at the desk drew a rough map that synced with what Marv had found online. We made a simple lunch to pack onto the bikepack on Marv’s bike and drove to the Terry Hershey Walking and Biking Park. This is a really lovely parkway that runs along the Buffalo Bayou. It is all paved and has lots of twists, turns, and gentle hills. We parked near one end and rode to the other end and partway back before we stopped to eat our lunch on a park bench. It was breezy and mid-seventies and felt absolutely great. We saw some turtles sunning themselves but that was about it for wildlife. Not too surprising on what is really a very urban pathway.  And although we crossed many busy roads and even a freeway, we had underpasses the whole way. We rode 12.3 miles which seemed pretty good for our first ride of the season. The GPS on my phone showed us where the nearest Walmart was, where we hoped to find another Coleman coffee maker and/or an insulated French Press to replace our faltering one, but we didn't find anything. We decided to let it go for now since we can get our coffee at the Resort for the next two mornings.  From there we went to Betty’s, where we chatted and drank an excellent white wine while we waited for Herb to get home from work.  When he returned they took us to Lousie’s (the ex-wife of a colleague of Herb’s) for a really wonderful meal. Marv had seared tuna and I had Parmesan crusted trout with crab meat and it was all fantastic! We had such a nice visit and will go back to their townhouse tomorrow night for a home-cooked dinner. Back at the camper I blogged and Marv watched some TV before we showered and went to bed. 

Marv biking on the Terry Hershey Bike Trail

(Friday) After eking out a scant few cups of coffee this morning, I happened to see a small plastic piece in the sink drainer. It was a valve for coffee maker! Marv reinstalled in and we think we should be able to get some more time out of our drip coffee maker. Whew! We had a couple of Monica’s wonderful organic brown eggs for breakfast and then drove about an hour to explore Galveston. It was an easy drive there and the freeway ends and then dumped us right onto Broadway, which is the main street down the middle of the island. We stopped at the Visitors Center in the Ashton Villa and picked up a map and description of the walking/driving tour through the Historic District. The Mooney Mansion didn’t have another tour until 1:00 and we weren’t inclined to wait for it so we contented ourselves with walking by several historic Victorians on our way up to “The Strand”. What used to be a very questionable and crime ridden-part of town has been rebuilt and/or re-storeed with gas lights and upscale restaurants and shops. After walking the length of The Strand we jogged over to Harborside Drive but didn’t see anything that appealed to us so we returned to The Strand and sat outside to share a fabulous Mediterranean pizza at Yaga’s Café. On our way back to the truck we went to the Museum on the second floor of the Library and learned more about the history of Galveston. Of primary importance were the Hurricane of 1900, which killed between 6000-8000 of the 37,000 residents and wiped out three quarters of the structures, so what remains is only the sturdiest of buildings, and Hurricane Ike in 2008, which also was very destructive. The walk had been 2.21 miles so from there we drove to the south side of the island to the beach along the Gulf of Mexico. We easily found a parking place along the Seawall Boulevard so we could walk up the beach and back for 1.66 miles. It was sunny and eighty and the waves were crashing in so it was quite wonderful for us northerners! Since we were about in the middle of the Boulevard we drove nearly to the east end and then returned to drive nearly to the west end before getting back on I45 to go back to Houston. I quickly showered and washed my hair before we drove back to Betty and Herb’s for an amazing dinner of beef tenderloin with green peppercorn sauce. Betty is a wonderful cook and it was a delicious dinner and a good time to visit. Sadly, Betty wasn’t feeling very well, so we cleared the table, got a photo of the four of us, and then Marv and I went back to the camper to begin getting ready to leave tomorrow. It had been another really nice visit to Houston, (markedly different from our first, which was cool and rainy), made much nicer by the generous hospitality of Betty and Herb. 

Retreat Center owned by Univ. of Texas

Mooney Mansion

The Strand

Out West Adventure: Part 1--Setting Out

Ana with her Fisher Price Zoo

Showing her new Zoey Ballerina

Eli and Jordan at swim class

Jan. 20-23--(Sunday) We left Lansing soon after 9:00AM, a little earlier than Marv hoped but I thought we did pretty well since we had to pack the cooler and close down the house. We had no problems getting to Ken & Jen's in Fort Wayne, dropped off the orchids, and had a warm beverage from their new Keurig. Then we all got back on the road and stopped in Gas City for lunch at the world's slowest Burger King where they had run out of forks?!?! Luckily, we had some in the truck. We still made it to Carmel before Analyn was up from her nap. When she got up we did presents with her for her second birthday. Ken and Jen gave her the animals for the Fisher Price zoo they had given her for Christmas, which she began to play with right away. We gave her an apron with her name and a penguin that I made for her and a pair of Sesame Street characters (Rosita and Abbie Cadabra) that will go with her Fisher Price zoo and farm. We also gave her a stuffed Zoey Ballerina doll, which was a BIG hit. (She asked for it to take to bed with her and met us at her door with it the next morning.) After presents everyone but Craig went to the boys' swimming lessons at the wonderful Carmel aquatic center. We chatted and played with Ana as they swam. It was late when we finished so we went to a pizza place, where Craig met us and we all ate dinner. Ken and Jen left from there to go home, since they both had to work even though Monday was Martin Luther King day. The kids all went right to sleep after their big day. (Monday) We got up our usual time and enjoyed coffee and cereal and some time with the kids, who didn't have school because of MLK Day. Marv observed an interesting incident with Analyn. When she got downstairs with Zoey, he heard a knocking sound and realized that she was hitting Zoey's head gently on the edge of the desk, precisely where Ana had hit her head the week before, requiring 6 stitches. He said, "Oh! Did Zoey hit her head?" Ana solemnly nodded her head and looked concerned. What a wonder kids can be! We reluctantly took our leave before 10:00 in the middle of a snow squall that ended by the time we got to the southwest side of Indianapolis. From there on it was clear sailing on dry roads and sunshine, although it was in the twenties until Illinois and slowly got as warm as the high thirties. Half of the day we were listening to Public Radio coverage of the Inauguration of Barack Obama for his second term of office. We stopped every two hours for Marv to get out and walk around, including lunch at Subway and dinner at Wendy's in Arkansas. We made it all the way to Little Rock before we got a room at a Quality Inn and Suites. It was nearly 10:00 CTZ and we were interested to note that it was 4 degrees with a wind chill of 13 below at home!  

Double Lake Campsite

Hiking the Double Lake Trail

(Tuesday) After enjoying their hot breakfast at the hotel we checked out and drove to a nearby Kroger where we filled up with gas at $2.96. I30 took us to Texarkana on the state borders. We stopped at the Information Center to get camping ideas for Texas and headed down Highway 59 towards Houston. 59 is a divided highway that will eventually become I69. The only stop we made was at a Bar-B-Que spot where we each had their half chicken with two sides special. It was delicious!! With a little bit of frogging around we found our way to Double Lake Recreation Area in the Sam Houston National Forest about an hour north of Houston. It was a 400 mile drive and the temperature rose from the low 30s to 71 degrees along the way, with clear, sunny skies. We found a campsite, becoming one of four campers plus the Camp Manager and the Campground Host in the 60+ campsites. It's a lovely, wooded campground on a little lake with lots of greenery between campsites and a deer was wandering through as we picked out our site. Because we were still full from our big lunch, we could take our time setting up and transferring things between the truck and the camper and getting the back seat of the truck organized. We also walked around our camping loop to see what it was like and to pay our fee. Then we turned on Spartan Radio on my phone and listened to MSU's amazing basketball win over Wisconsin at Madison. We ate a light meal of canned salmon or peanut butter on crackers, and then read for awhile. Before we went to bed we walked around the loop again, this time to stargaze and admire the 3/4 moon in the clear skies. (Wednesday) After a simple breakfast of Cheerios we took the 1.69 mile Lakeside Trail around the lake. At some point they put a bit of money into this area and the whole trail was either paved or boardwalk and there were interpretive signs along the way. It's sort of falling apart now but it was still impressive. Back at the campsite we both read the Lansing State Journal on our tablets using the Hot Spot I can set up on my phone. Then we broke camp and drove to Houston, stopping for a quick lunch at Burger King.

Panoramic of Double Lake