What is this white stuff?

Tonight should be our last night out, in Effingham, Illinois.

Last night in Texas

We are spending the night at Daingerfield State Park in Daingerfield, in northeast Texas.  It's got tall pines, on a pretty lake. Here is the view from our campsite.

Just up the road, we fueled up in Big Sandy, TX.  (Read closely, Bears fans.)

ABD

Another Beautiful Day.

The storms that moved across Texas last night and this morning were north of us.  Now it is going to be warm and sunny here.  Originally we had planned to make this trip to Arizona instead of Texas.  Here is a shot from Marana, between Phoenix and Tucson.

That is at the World Match Play Golf Championship tournament.  Postponed by snow.
Boy oh boy do we need to buy a lottery ticket.  We keep saying it, but haven't bought one.

Oh, a little fact about this state park.  They use prisoners from somewhere to do landscaping work.  They wear the old fashioned black and white beehive striped uniforms.  Never seen those before, and didn't know they were still used.  I couldn't bring myself to take a photo of them.

We are going to have a late brunch here and head for an RV show in Austin just to kick some tires.  Tomorrow we will head for home.  It looks like clear sailing, and we expect to be home Monday.

Texas BBQ, Round Two

It turns out that Lockhart is one of the best BBQ towns in Texas.  So we gave it another try.  We went to Smitty's Market, which is one of the "Big 3" of Lockhart BBQ.

Terry had pork ribs, which are big ribs, not the baby back ribs you get in Illinois.  They were not as tough as the other day, though.  And the flavor was very good.  I had beef brisket and hot sausage.  The brisket was tasty but too fatty.  Which I assumed.  Later an employee told me you can ask for a lean cut.  The sausage was excellent.

You buy the meat at one counter, in bulk.  Lots of the business is by the pound as carry out. They don't even give you a fork, so it's greasy fingers time.  Then in the dining hall room you buy your sides and drinks.

To finish it off, they sell Blue Bell cones for only a buck apiece.  Yum.

Golf spelled backwards is...

We are staying at Lockhart State Park just outside of Lockhart TX.  Its reason for being is that it has a nine hole golf course.  Our campsite is nice and roomy, with a view of the 2nd fairway.  So of course I had to golf today.

The Good:
The weather was warm enough to wear shorts.
The cost to play is only $9.  All day.
I got some exercise.

The Bad:
I should have gone to a practice range a few times before trying to golf.
I should not have tried to play so many holes.  Like an all you can eat buffet, it is not a good idea to try to "get your money's worth".  I'll be stiff and tight and sore tomorrow.

The Ugly:
Shanks.  Only a golfer knows the evil of which I speak.

Tomorrow it is supposed to rain.  That may be a blessing in disguise.
:)

Bandera: Bluebonnets, Beer, and Barbeque

We have spent the weekend in the town of Bandera in the Texas Hill Country.  People from states with real hills and mountains probably laugh a little when they get here.  But relative to the populated areas of the state, this is very hilly country.  It's also a major tourist draw, so we decided to find out why.

We don't have any photos to post.  That's a little perplexing but nothing jumped out at us.  And I've been putting off this post because I wasn't sure how to explain things.  So what is this place?  Well, it's a lifestyle destination, I suppose.  Based on cowboys, ranches, and western life.   It's not make believe, but then again it is a little bit.  Like any tourist area, the locals know what people want to see and do.

It's busiest in the spring, when wildflowers cover the roadsides and meadows for miles.  Mostly bluebonnets.  At that time, it's just like leaf peeping in the fall in New England.  The inns and bed and breakfasts are jammed, and so are the roads.

Beyond that is the cowboy thing.  And country music in bars and honky-tonks.  Bandera has two well known ones, Arky Blue's Silver Dollar, and the Eleventh Street Bar.  They are legendary, and authentic as a place can be while still being a tourist draw.  On nice days, motorcycle tourers are parked outside all the bars, eateries, and on main streets of all the small towns.   By far, most of the visitors are from Texas.

The towns are small.  Bandera is 950 people but feels a bit bigger.  There is plenty of space between towns, so there are lots of people living out in the country.   On ranches.  But not the Texas ranch of tens of thousands of acres you might  think of.  No, these are lifestyle ranches.  Ten, twenty, fifty acres.  Country living.  There is a big Wine Trail, especially on the north end near Fredericksburg.  We visited a couple wineries and bought some good vino.

Every town has a little restaurant that has a newspaper clipping declaring it to have the best BBQ in Texas.  Or the country.  Or anywhere.  Terry and I tried a couple, but we just might not be the right stuff.  We didn't care for it; must be an acquired taste.  It's a lot tougher than Chicago style BBQ.  Today we stopped in at the old fashioned soda fountain in the Bandera General Store.  I had a chocolate shake (Blue Bell ice cream of course!  YUM!), and asked the lady to make sure to make it with vanilla ice cream.  She was going to use chocolate.  This is a regional thing that varies around the country, I've noticed.  I plan to personally research this in all 50 states. :)  Anyway it was delicious made my way and I talked the proprietor into tasting it.  She had to admit it was pretty good.  By the time we left, I think I had her talked into adding it to the menu as a specialty and promoting it.  She wanted to name it after me but I hope I prevailed with my idea that a Blondie would be a more catchy name than a Don.

Maybe I shouldn't have messed with tradition.

Good weather continues, around 70 and sunny, and low 30's at night.  Monday we are heading to Lockhart State Park south of Austin.  It's not known for much except for having a golf course.  So I'm going to knock the rust off my golf game for a few days. Thursday we are running into Austin for a big RV show.  I believe we will head for home after that.

Back to civilization

We went hiking yesterday in the national park.  We hiked a nice long way, but only a moderate slope, up a mountain in the Chisos Mountains in the center of the park.  It's completely different up in the Chisos.  There are pine trees, and other plants reflective of the greater rainfall which occurs there.

This is the part of the park known to have black bears and mountain lions.  However, at a ranger program last night, we learned that the numbers of each are way down due to the persistent drought.  They did receive a lot of rain last month, and hope the food chain will rebound.

We both saw several roadrunners in the park. I saw an interesting duck that I haven't been able to identify.  It had a black head and gray back.  Our campground had a golden-fronted woodpecker making the rounds.  Picture from wikipedia:

Today we drove out to "civilization" in Del Rio, TX.  We made a resupply run to the Super Wal-Mart here.
:)   It is still part of the Big Bend region, and the Chihauhan Desert.  But it's populated and there is phone service.  It's laundry night for Terry again.  :(

On the way we stopped for lunch at Langtry, the place of the famous Judge Roy Bean .  The whole drive from Marathon to Del Rio is monitored by the Border Patrol.  At the museum I asked about the gravel roads that are maintained in great shape along the fences.  See what looks like sand to the right of the highway here.  It is a nice gravel road.  Turns out, the Border Patrol runs a drag over them every day.  In fact we saw one being done.  They use data from sensors out in the ranch land to see where to go look for illegals.  They look for footprints in the freshly-groomed gravel roads as part of their search.

Big Bend National Park

We are burning daylight, pilgrim, so I need to type short and sweet here.  We  have some hiking to do.
Right now we are at the campground store at Rio Grande Village, the campground at the east end of the park.  They have wifi.  :)

Here is a look down on our campground.  That is the Rio Grande on the left, and Mexico beyond it.

At various places in the park, Mexican entrepreneurs sneak (sort of) across and set up little honor jar trinket stands.  However, they do keep a close eye on them from somewhere in the brush, because they come out and greet you (and check to be sure you are paying).   

They come from this vilage across the river.  Notice the horseman down by the shore on the other side.  He may be one of the vendors, or maybe not, I don't know.  I bought a walking stick and our guy rode up on a burro.  He spoke reasonable English and was a nice guy.   Yes, it's a little disconcerting at first, but it's harmless.  We are all conditioned to think the worst.  The park and/or border people could stop this in a minute if they thought it was an issue, but they don't.  They do put up signs warning us not to buy stuff.  CYA for them.

The park is home to some defunct ranches.  At this one, the windmill still pumps water onto the ground, making for an oasis.

One of the most popular sights is the Santa Elena Canyon.  Mexico on the left, USA on the right.

Notice again how small the river is.  This is just a few hundred yards downstream from the canyon.  It's about 15 feet across.

Here is another shot of the village, known here as Boquillas Del Carmen.  The mountains in the back are the Sierras Carmen.  Our guy said the village name is not the same over there, but I forgot what he said it was.

So you want to downsize?

You can buy small acreage down here in the range of $200-250 per acre.  Probably a little more if you want to be on the grid.  So people buy 20 acres for $4000, and put some sort of rolling home on it.  That is the simplest living, and all you have to do is pay the property taxes of maybe $5 an acre.  You supply the water, electricity, sewage handling, etc.  Then as you can swing it, you step up to add solar and wind power, a tin shed carport to collect rainwater, a septic field of some sort, etc.  There are no zoning restrictions.    Many of these ventures seem to involve starting out with an old school bus.

 Then add from there:

 Wonder what happened to this dream?

Here is the latest thing.  You and I might call it a garden shed, but here it is a mountain cabin.  These are completely unfinished.  Just 2x4's inside.

The price tags on those two, from left to right respectively:

Or, you can just live on a sofa:

Big Bend Ranch State Park

By the time this is published Monday, we will be getting ready to pull up stakes and tow into the national park.  We have great wifi here at BJs RV Park, but there will not be much of that in the park except at the general stores.   Still I hope to put up something from inside the park.

We took a drive to the west from Terlingua.  First you encounter the "town" of Lajitas, which was bought up by a rich guy with a dream of making a first class resort and spa.  Now it is all new buildings, a fancy golf course, and fake old shops.  It's pretty goofy in its setting.

The state park is mostly just rugged mountains for hiking, and there is some ranching going on in it too.  I can't see how it is much good for ranching though.  There is nothing resembling grass.  Just little woody shrubs and cacti.  Although, maybe the ranch land we were observing was already grazed and was in a state of rest and recovery.  I would not be shocked to find they can only do one "animal unit" (mother and calf) per 100 acres.  A normal grassy ranch could be 10 times that.   Anyone living out there is a long way from anything.

Here is a shot of the Rio-not-so-Grande River.  You could walk across it just about anywhere here.

We took a short hike up this canyon, known as Closed Canyon.   It goes all the way down to the river, but we didn't go that far.  It's about as easy a hike as you could ever find.

One thing missing around here has been any sign of spring.  There were a few bluebells blooming though, and a nice sprinkle of yellow once in a while.  Desert Marigolds.

Terlingua Ghost Town

Terlingua is an unusual place.  It's known for a ghost town, but it's more than that.  It's a haven for people getting away from it all.  Hippies (the modern variety), doomsday preppers, corporate dropouts, and those who just want to live a very simple life for any other reason.  Sunday I hope to get out to grab some photos of some of the dwellings along the highway.  But first, let's check out the ghost town.   Let's start with some website info:

http://ghosttowntexas.com/
The gathering place is the general store.

The ghost town is not deserted.  Various buildings have been rehabbed as either homes or businesses.
Wikipedia summary of the town

The general store photos show the porch loaded with tourists.  But the two times we've been there, it has been locals hanging out.  Around sunset they get together to drink beer and play guitars.  Yesterday afternoon it was a group of young-twenty-somethings and their dogs.  Fitting into the modern hippie mold I mentioned above.  We were going to eat at the Starlight Restaurant, but after looking at the menu we took a pass.  We were not in that frame of mind, so we headed out down the dark road to the Long Draw for some good pizza.

There is quite a little music scene here too.  Last night a good act was playing at the Starlight, the other night the Long Draw was the place to be, and so on.

Our first day, we did wander around the ghost town a bit.  We snapped a photo or two; here is the best of the lot:

We had lunch in the ghost town at a little place called La Posada Milagro.  Terry had their chili, and I had a breakfast plate.  Plus homemade deserts.  It was all DELICIOUS.

Terlingua TX

Thursday we drove from Ft. Davis, through Alpine, where we stocked up on propane and fuel, and on down to the strange, cool town of Terlingua.  It is outside the western entry side of Big Bend National Park.

This was our lunch stop on the road down from Alpine.  We just pulled off the shoulder onto a gravel ditch.  At mid-day there was about one car every five minutes as we ate.

In Terlingua we are staying at BJ's RV Park.

Our first thought was, oh no, it's just a gravel lot.  Which it is!  But it's a great place.  The owners are Bud and Irene, probably oh 50-ish, and very laid back and friendly.  Which describes everyone here.  It's a small park.  Last night night everyone met up for a fish fry by the fire ring.  Bring a dish to pass, chow down and sit around.  The people building a house out of odd stuff next door are musicians, as is one woman here in the park.  They got out the guitars and entertained us with country songs, and we all had a great time.

This is the view out the back of the park.  There are many many folks living around this area in minimalist fashion, and often an old school bus is parked (permanently) next to the dwelling.  Or an old RV.  From what it appears, the vehicle is their starter home, and eventually they build something.

I'll have more to write about Terlingua as I sort through the photos of the past two days.

View from the top

Before we left Davis Mountains state park, we drove up the park's Skyline Drive to the top of one of the peaks.  Our family members will know that Terry is afraid of heights.  I told her I'd go by myself, but she decided to go.  Seeing this at the start didn't help her.

The road itself and the various rest room and overlook buildings were all built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Depression.  Actually I think the entire park was developed at that time.  Here are some photos from the top.  The photos always seem to flatten out the elevation changes, and I don't know what to do about it.  You'll have to take my word that it is a long way down.

View down on our campground.  Our site is marked by the arrow.

I realized we had not taken a shot together!  My little camera can't hardly stand on it's own on a table so we used Terry's.  I thought the wind was going to blow it off the tail of the truck.

Critters here at Davis Mtns

Reputedly, there are black bears and mountain lions here.  I haven't seen any data, but my impression from reading is that the cats are very rare.  I'm guessing you could live a long life here and never see one.

One animal that is easy to see if you sit in our campground is the javelina.  The real name is the peccary, and nicknames include skunk pig and musk hog.  They are weird creatures, and not to be confused with feral hogs. They have very poor eyesight, which is remarkable when you realize they live in an area with predators such as coyote, bear, and mtn lions.  They just amble along, munching on things.  You can be walking 10 yards from them and they don't even look at you. It's like they are in their own world.  They are afraid of dogs and if they encounter one they can react aggressively.  They have sharp tusks and can mangle a dog in a fight.  So here we have to keep a close eye on our dog.

Here is one piggy that walked across our campsite:

There are a number of black tailed deer hanging around the park.  We saw these while walking the dog.  Of course the old girl wanted to light into them, which I found amusing because she wouldn't even make it up the rock ledge they were on top of.

Speaking of the dog, she is living the good life here, on the lookout for those javelinas:

I spent a half hour or so one morning at the bird feeder station.  My camera is just a little pocket jobbie, not up to the task of shooting birds, but I did what I could.  Among the birds I saw:

Western scrub jay

Ladder back woodpecker

Acorn woodpecker

Others, photos found on google

Pine Siskin:

Black-crested Titmouse:

Cactus wren:

And here's a Pyrrhuloxia, or Desert Cardinal:

Apologies to the copyright holders of those photos, but at least I'm not using them for profit.

We are headed to the area of Study Butte and Terlingua for the next three nights.  It is the western gateway to the National Park.  We will be staying outside of the park.