Old Timer's Reunion - Arizona

We're back on the road again. The RV is packed up and we're heading for our friends' home in Glendale, Arizona and the Super Bowl. What a package! As usual, we take our time getting there, driving only a few hundred miles each day, and Angel (our border collie) appreciates that approach!

Saturday, January 31, we depart for Arizona, happy to leave behind the wave of icy weather the whole area has been experiencing. The final necessities are stowed in the rig, freeze prevention in place on vulnerable areas around the house and yard, bird feeders and water tubs topped off, and off we go!

A few hours later we pull into San Angelo State Park, one of our usual stops. The lake has been fairly low the last several time's we've visited, and there's not much change now. Texas is definitely in drought conditions.

The area we are parked in is dry brush and dust, pretty much what most people think all of Texas looks like, though we know otherwise! We pretty much have the place to ourselves, and surmise the blast of icy cold we're just coming out of probably caused a lot of cancellations. We do have neighbors though. Steve met them while they were out calling their cat. It seems they adopted the stray tabby at this park several years ago, and when they come down from their home state, Michigan, to get away from the cold, the cat comes too. He likes to prowl his old home, but he always comes back to camp! The cat probably lived here long enough to know how skimpy the vittles are, especially this time of year. I did find a bush with tiny little berries, and a few cactus that might be considered juicy by a rodent, but didn't see much evidence of anything a cat would be interested in. Since most everything in this landscape has thorns or stickers of some type, exploration was limited. 

February 1

Next stop, Balmorhea State Park. This lush oasis has always been one of our favorite stops, but it's been under construction for refurbishment for quite some time. 

Everything finally opened up, and they did a really nice job. The site shelters, campground roads and visitor cabins have all been improved and had a facelift. We didn't check out the spring fed pool but other campers mentioned it was in great shape too. 

Feb 2,  Rockhound State Park, New Mexico 

We love this park! I especially love it because it has few restrictions and they actually encourage people to pick up samples of rock here and there. The park is known primarily for geodes, but I'm always picking up things that just look interesting and then I add them to my cactus plantings or potted plants. The scenery is beautiful, as are the sunsets. This photo shows our view across the valley to the Little Florida Mountains. The mountains catch a lot of beautiful clouds as they float overhead. 

While at  Rockhound State Park, we took an extra day to visit Pancho Villa State Park, in nearby Columbus New Mexico. The little town hardly seems a likely place for General Francisco "Pancho" Villa and his army to attack, but Pancho had a bit of a grievance with not only the U.S. Army but a business in Columbus. It seems the Mexican Army had ordered some weapons/ammunition from a merchant in town and though the merchant had been paid, the product hadn't been delivered. Pancho was not happy. . . . If you've ever heard Willie Nelson's Pancho and Lefty, it was based (loosely) on this battle. You can read actual facts about the historic event, now known as "The Battle of Columbus", here.

We enjoyed watching a short video in the visitor's center that presented the story through photos and film taken of interviews of residents of Columbus who were alive when the event happened. There are several historic military weapons and other items on display too. This creation, below,  was the very first thing we saw, placed right at the entrance. It was an experimental vehicle known as a "tank".

More photos and notes in the album. 

Feb 4  

On to Picacho Peak State Park, in Arizona. We're getting into the really pretty part of the desert with this stop. There are beautiful mountains in the background and interesting plant life in the areas around the campground. This is a quick, overnight stop, and we head out for White Tank Mountain Regional Park early in the morning. 

Next stop is White Tank Mountain Regional Park, Arizona. This will be home for several days. We really like this park as the sites are generous and are spaced far enough apart that you can actually see and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. We're in saguaro country here. The birds love to sit on top of these towering cactus and sing their little hearts out. Well maintained trails are plentiful and most are fairly flat so easy to navigate. Angel and I enjoyed several outings across the desert, though I'm not sure she's looking for scenery as I am, she does a lot of exploring with her nose. 

The Ol' Timers Reunion - Glendale, Arizona

We started the event with a fish fry dinner at the local American Legion post, which our host and his wife are serving as post president and president of the auxiliary. Great food! and we met a lot of nice folks. Following days were filled with catching up with friends and some great BBQ. We were missing some of the usual attendees though. Unfortunately some last minute health issues cropped up and interfered.  

After the reunion we moved over closer to Tucson, taking up residence in Gilbert Ray Campground - Tucson Mountain Park  The sites are all surrounded by beautiful landscape and wide open sky. The stars at night are amazing, and often punctuated by what look like moving stars, but the sounds of aircraft gives away the truth.  After all, there is an Air Force base here, and an airport, not to mention wonderful collections of historic aircraft. We'll be exploring some of those too. 

We're right on the edge of Saguaro National Park -West , home of the giant saguaro. Conditions in this area are perfect for these giant beauties. They grow taller, and fatter, and in greater abundance than anywhere else. They won't be in bloom until later in the year, but they are still impressive even with no flowers. Many of these cacti are older than one would guess. They can live 150-200 years!

There's a lot to see and do in this park. We took one day to visit the visitor center, to get our bearings you might say. The Red Hills Visitor Center, just a short way up the road from our campground, has some very informative displays, including a cross section of an elderly saguaro, and a few facts about these amazing plants. If you can enlarge the photo you'll see a lot of detail, or go to the album where some of it is summarized in the photo notes. There are also photos of the area. 

They also have a great gift shop if you're looking for souvenirs. There are several short trails around the visitor center, and dogs are welcome on some of them. Most of the longer trails in the park are closed to dogs.  Only a few are open to dogs, so checking signs on the map is important

The next day's project was the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, easy to find on the map, it's just a short distance up the road from our campsite in Gilbert Ray campground. Their website invites visitors to "Turn your idea of a museum Inside Out!" Well, that sounds exciting, but we still weren't prepared for what we saw. This "museum" is like an interactive Disneyland for nature enthusiasts. 

Artistically designed trails and plantings wander around, in between, over and under naturalistic boulders, caves and pathways. Interspersed with informational signs and posters the displays are organized loosely by subject categories such as birds, cats, cactus, geology, wildflowers, reptiles, etc. There are live displays, fossils, hands-on activities for all ages, and all this is tied together by artistic plantings and sculptures. 

There are two gift shops, both offer a variety of really nice t-shirts by a local artist, and there are a couple of small cafes. If you still have energy left after rambling the trails, there are a couple of galleries to explore. The facility is well staffed with docents who are happy to explain the intricacies of displays, or landscape views from any of the carefully positioned viewing areas. All the docents are volunteers who have a deep appreciation for this environment and are anxious to share with visitors.  See the photo album for several shots from the museum.  Below is the entrance to the bee yard. I can only imagine these gardens in the spring when wildflowers are in peak bloom.

Feb 12

Pima Air & Space Museum is one of those places that has been recommended to us many times, and now we have time to tour it! There are several aircraft collections in the Tucson area, some are for maintenance and storage only, but this is a well maintained and beautifully presented historic and modern collection of a variety of types of mostly military aircraft. A portion of the displays are indoors, and others are outside. 

When we saw the size of the area covered we knew immediately that taking the tram tour as part of that would be sensible. We're talking several acres, outside, and a huge indoor space. There are several photos in the album, with captions on most so you know what you're looking at. It's way to much to take in unless one is an absolute aircraft specialist, but we enjoyed seeing it all, and best of all the displays was meeting Richard B. Bushong, a 102 year old WWII pilot. He was telling stories from his time in service and signing copies of his book. His photo is in the album, this location was so extensive it has it's own album! What a day! We went back to camp with our brains full!

Time to pack up and begin our trek east, back to home. We stopped at the same sites we stayed at on our way west, toward Arizona, in reverse order of course! In some cases we stayed in the exact same site. It was interesting to watch Angel hop out of the truck, take her usual survey of the surroundings, and then wag her tail as if to say, I recognize this place! For a dog who seems really set in her routines this trip has been a major learning experience for her. 

Feb 15

Our final stop before heading home, Pecan Valley Ranch & Farm.

This RV park is new to us. What a find! There's a warm and friendly farm type atmosphere, beautiful scenery, the entertainment of small farm animals grazing on a grassy field, a beautiful river flowing by, and friendly guests and hosts. Guests are free to wander amongst the chickens and goats, visit the small "country store" offering t-shirts and pecan treats, walk by the river or through the pecan orchard.  This beats most private RV campgrounds by a mile. We met the couple in the site next to ours and discovered we had a lot in common. We spent the evening sitting around their fire ring and chatting about all sorts of topics. In the morning we all departed, we for home and they for their new grandchild in Houston.  

Happy Trails! It's been a great trip!

Reunion trip to Arizona album

Pima County Air & Space Museum album

Click on the first photo in the album, then use the side arrows to page through the remaining photos. Most have captions. 

Holiday Greetings from Texas!

(please note, if you are viewing this on your phone, it's best if you rotate it to horizontal)

Better late than never!  I wrote this back in early January and then forgot to post it!!😁

We hope this little note finds you and all your friends and family doing well. We are all doing well, unaffected by many of the issues that made the national news. We live at the edge of “Hill Country” but are fortunate enough to live on a ridge, out of range of the devastating flash floods that struck the Texas Hill Country, particularly along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County. It’s been a really dry year in general, so who would expect that kind of flooding in July. This state is known for its extreme contrasts in weather, so we shouldn’t be surprised. So far, the tornados have missed us too!

Steve’s main hobby is maintaining and improving the RV, and we’ve made good use of it this year. We made the annual trek to Arizona for the annual “Say Hi before you die” reunion with his former coworkers from Orange County, CA, and enjoyed visiting several parks and museums along the way. It’s great to be able to connect again with friends from so long ago. 

Much of our spring was consumed with family concerns, helping Daph’s siblings relocate their older sister, Diana, to a memory care facility. She passed away in late October, just a few days before her 92nd birthday. Several trips to CA were required to assist with the sale of her house as well as the contents. Two siblings still live in CA so most of the responsibility fell to them. We will all miss Diana, but she had a long and good life, so no regrets. 

 Once the dust settled around all of that we turned our thoughts to another dog. Since we lost our other two last year things had been just a little too quiet around here. We found a “rehoming” opportunity for a 6 year old border collie that seemed ideal. She’s now part of the family. We adopted her in May and we’re still trying to figure each other out but she’s fitting in pretty well. She almost has us trained to suit her standards! She came with the name of Angel, and she’s pretty sweet and calm (for a Border collie), but definitely has her own idea about how and when things should happen. We tried changing her name but so far that hasn’t been too successful. 

We introduced Angel to camping in October and she took right to it, with long walks, an introduction to campgrounds and friendly armadillos, and lots of opportunity for sniffing. Her favorite activity is chasing a ball or Frisbee which is limited in campgrounds, but the exploring opportunities seemed to keep her busy enough. 

Kendra and the boys are doing well. 

Raylan is now 11, and though he hasn’t caught up to Jaxen yet, he is growing. Jax is now taller than Steve! And he’s only 14. To celebrate his birthday he wanted to go to NASA, so, off we all went, to Houston. It was a good trip, and we all really enjoyed the Space Center. 

The collection there includes an amazing variety of space vehicles, many of them very historic. Our generation grew up with the first moon landing and many other “firsts” but to the boys it’s all ancient history. They’re dreaming off into the future and seeing all the vehicles that have been into space and back really fueled their dreams.

Kendra’s health challenges continue. She became eligible for VA health care this spring thanks to the PACT Act and it has been helpful, as well as frustrating. As with all bureaucracies everything seems to move at a snail’s pace. When things finally happen it’s a real benefit. She just took delivery of a new power wheelchair, a process that started back in early October.  It will really make life easier for her.

So we’re all doing well and ready to start a new year. We hope yours holds good and exciting things for you and your friends and family! 

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! 

Happy Hanukkah! Happy New Year! 

Take your pick or celebrate them all!!

An Autumn Get-Away pt. 2 - South Llano River

 Oct. 23

We've been to South Llano River State Park many times before so it feels "like home". We've never stayed more than one night however, as we're always on the way to somewhere else, and the park is fairly close to home. This time we're here for three nights, leaving  us two full days for exploring and absorbing the park ambiance. The drive from Lost Maples to South Llano River is only 75 miles, so usually under two hours, depending on the route you choose. We can't arrive before the stated 2 pm. check in however, due to turkey roosting season regulations, so we took our time. . 

Our check-in time was 2 pm and we arrived at the locked gate at 1:45. It was locked... in a few minutes a couple of staff showed up and checked their watches, we chatted for a few minutes and when it was exactly 2:00 the unlocked the gate. It turns out, this was the official end of of one of the Axis deer hunting seasons, so it was due to that activity that no one was admitted sooner. It may seem strange to have hunting in a state park, but it's common in Texas as there is very little public land that isn't included in a park, natural area or wildlife management unit. Many TX state parks offer multiple hunting seasons, some for archery, some for firearms, some for specific species too, so hunters (and anglers) need to know their species!

The entrance to the park is a bridge over the river for which it's named, and the river was a welcome site. It has more water in it than any of the other rivers we've seen lately, though it's been higher in the past, at least there's plenty of water for the wildlife, swimmers and tubers. 

This park is famous for it's wildlife, especially birds, the feathered residents have high priority here.  Starting Oct. 1 through March 31 specific trails are closed to hikers from 3 pm. until 10 am so the wild turkeys that are gathering here for the winter can settle into the trees along the river in the evenings without being disturbed. There are bird blinds here and there along the trails for those who want to wait and watch for that perfect photo op, and so many trails to choose from it's hard to make a decision. 

We were settled into our site by 3:00 ready to relax and enjoy the scenery. The shadows were beginning to creep across the mesquite duff covered ground partially disguising the  little armadillo (video) that was starting to nuzzle around under a bush nearby. Soon another one showed up a short distance away. They are common here, and not especially bashful as they seem to know they are protected. 

One little guy came up to me and Angel as we were walking through the campground and would have climbed up on my foot if I hadn't moved!!

According to the trails map we received when we checked in there are several leading to the river, so on our first full day we decided to check them out. most of the river access trails are short and fairly direct from a parking lot, making carrying a tube or other equipment fairly easy. Unfortunately the shores are quite densely covered with brush in some areas. That probably changes with seasons so visitors need to scope out the situation before heading out with all their "stuff". If you just want to take a leisurely walk along the river check with park staff and they can point you in the right direction. I made notes on my map as we explored so I have it for future reference. 

In the afternoon Missy Angel and I walked from the campground over to Buck Lake, which is between the river and the campground. 

The little off-shoot of the river is named for the Buck family that owned the property before it was given to the park. The lake has a small fishing dock which is probably the best location to fish from as the banks are quite steep and brushy, especially this year. On wetter years the water level may be higher.  It's a beautiful secluded area with a totally different atmosphere than the actual river. 

The trail from the camp is clearly marked across from space 42, and they make the bird blind the most noticeable, on the signboard behind it, they list Buck Lake. 

The bird blind is about half way between the campground and the lake so it's a nice place to rest in the shade and maybe catch a few good bird photos. 

The trail continues on all the way to the river if one chooses to hike further.  The lake shows clearly on Google maps and if you zoom in, using satellite mode, you can see the trails available. 

We had spent so much time sniffing (that would be the dog's job) and snapping photos that we decided to go back to camp, noticing on the way in the powdery dry path we followed that we weren't on a deer trail, we were following a raccoon trail! Those cute little hand prints are unmistakable. I was glad I took the photo then instead of thinking I'd go back. . . because . . . it was all washed away over night. 

A boisterous thunderstorm kept made for a restless night, so we weren't feeling too energetic in the morning of our second day. No worries, this place is made for relaxing. A few short walks with Missy Angel were sufficient for her (she was up most of the night too - not too fond of thunder) and then, there's football! That kept the wagon master busy. 

We depart tomorrow. It's been another great trip!

There are a few more photos of this trip in the album

We were home in time to prepare for the Halloween adventures. Kendra and Raylan collaborated on his costume and his mask. He knew exactly what he wanted it to look like, and Kendra figured out the engineering. . . it's all made of polymer clay. 

Raylan's character is a warrior from the future, or another planet?,  a hybrid design with elements from from Dune and the Star Wars series. His light saber came in handy as a night light when he was walking around the neighborhood.