Quick Hello from Big Bend National Park

Just a quick post while I have brief Internet access; a longer, more thoughtful post to follow once we get our access situation settled.

Arrived at Big Bend on Sunday evening and set up at our temporary camp site. Immediately saw some amazing Texas Jack Rabbits with really long ears and legs hopping around the site and nearby homes.  They were too fast for me, though. Couldn't get a good photo. A storm came in in the evening making it extremely windy and although no (much needed) rain fell at the Panther Junction area in the park, it did make for a great lightening show off in the distance. Rain did fall on some areas of the park which was much needed.

Like most of Texas right now, the park is experiencing a serious drought and this was very evident during our last day and a half out touring the park with the Ranger we are working with. Tomorrow we start actually learning the visitor center duties and expect to be in the visitor center for the next 3-5 days.  As I said, I will post more extensively in a few days. Here are a few photos to hold you over!  The bottom two are the Rio Grande and the other side of that river is Mexico. Because of the drought, you can see that the river is currently the Rio not-so-Grande. Amazing none the less. You are actually seeing a US/Mexico border right there.....

Walking a dry river bed with Ranger Rob

A few more random photos

Before we head into Big Bend today, I wanted to post a few odd random photos that didn't make it into either of our entries over the last few days. This morning we will shop for supplies here in Ft. Stockton (where we slept last night in a Sleep Inn) and do any last things we need to do before heading south and drive the last 100+ miles into Big Bend.

We've been in contact with the Ranger who is coordinating our volunteer work and we will be spending tonight in the Panther Junction area of the park, about 10 miles from where our regular assignment will be in Chisos Basin, because that site is still being vacated by the previous volunteer. We should be in our permanent site by Monday and will be "processed" for work on Tuesday and start our training. Looking forward to seeing our new 3-month home and learning what we will be doing.

Our mail has been forwarded to the park, so I already know we have a package of mail waiting which is always fun. If anyone wants to write or send anything while we are at Big Bend, feel free to do so. We will be getting our mail twice a week. We have been told that cell coverage is spotty and there is limited Internet, so we may be limiting our entries to once a week and/or whenever we have access to email. We'll have to see how it goes.

After over 10 weeks on the road, we have seen so many incredible places, experienced so many emotions, had so many great visits to people and places and we are about to jump into the next one that will no doubt be different than all those that have come before.  One of my goals was to never be bored, to be able to continue moving, thinking, learning and experiencing new things every single day and that has certainly happened. But it's not over yet. Not by a long shot.  On to Big Bend National Park......

Here are those few odd photos. Best wishes to all!

Fantastic Mexican Buffet we had in Del Rio

Just Before the Bridge over the Rio Grande at Del Rio Crossing

Tarantulas, Roadrunners, and So Much More

Since we left Pensacola, FL up to the Houston, TX area, (about 3 weeks or so) we have been following the Gulf and the Gulf landscape. Mostly shoreline vacation areas and small and rural towns inland a bit along 2 and 4 lane highways that parallel the Gulf. We have intentionally avoided interstate highways such as Route 10 to go at a slower pace and to see what was out here beyond the highway worlds that accompany interstates.

The trip west from Houston (where we first left the Gulf) to San Antonio, again along the 2 and 4 lane state road 90, was transitional. The Gulf was behind us, but we were not yet in what Laura and I envisioned ‘the real Texas’ to be. Lots of suburbs and the city of San Antonio, while certainly a city with a strong Hispanic presence and southwestern feel, could have been mistaken, if you squinted some, as another large US city.

Well, yesterday we spent the night in Amistad National Park along the US/Mexican border and the Rio Grande. (We had driven the day before about 100 miles due west from San Antonio – to the border town area of Del Rio, TX.) As is often the case, we went for an evening walk after dinner in our campsite in the park. It had been a warm day, low 80s, dusk was setting in, and the temperatures dropped into the 70s. Our campsite was deserted and beautiful – it looked like we parked right along an African Savannah and elephants would stroll by at any minute – none did!

Laura saw it first while we were walking. Black. About the circumference of a baseball. With lots of legs and a bit hairy. Yes, it was a tarantula walking in the gravel road ahead of us, about 8 feet away. And, it seemed right at home. Welcome to the west we thought – among other things, including a bit nervousness at the sight! There was more to be seen as we saw 5 or 6 more on the way back to the van, albeit a more cautious walk than before we saw the first spider. Then a couple more in the morning. Did we mention the many deer and rabbit that were running through the campsite?

As we drove away in the morning, just as you might imagine it to be, there was a roadrunner bird, sitting in the middle of the road. As we approached in the van, it did indeed run across the road, not fly!

We then spent one of our longer days in the van in a while – about 5 hours total driving, about 150 miles due west, including lots of stops. The land continued to dry out until we were fully in an arid, desert-like area. The elevation started to rise until we got to and stayed at 4000 feet or more – even 5000 feet at times, most of our time up to this point has been spent at or around sea level! Towns, if you could call them that, some as small as one gas station and a few houses, were 20-40 miles apart. And every creek or river bed (except the Pecos River, large river similar to the Rio Grande) were completely dry. Ranches were all to be seen and a very occasional car, truck, or RV on the road. We had found the west and this was the Texas we had imagined!

So, it was not a surprise when Laura suggested while we drove today that we play Lucinda Williams’ album West – one of her favorites and rather fitting – these are the last two stanzas, from the song West, last song on the album:

Who knows what the future holds
Or where the cards may fall
But if you don’t come out west and see
You’ll never know at all

Come out west and see
The best that it could be
I know you won’t stay permanently
But come out west and see

Deeper and Deeper into the Lone Star State

Over the last few days, Texas as I'd always imagined it began to slowly emerge. Here are just a few of things we noted as we drove route 90 over the last few days from Houston to San Antonio to the border town of Del Rio, where we are tonight.

Dry river beds
Horse tied to post outside house
Hill Country (Elevations up to 1100 ft after being at or around sea level for weeks prior)
Signs in Spanish as well as English
Oil Wells
Texas Longhorn cattle
Chaps, boots, shiny belt buckles
Rice & corn fields
Long trains moving chemicals, grains & livestock
Cow-catchers at train crossings
Polka music / Mariachi music
Poor cell phone coverage
Fast-moving trucks on long straight roads
In-town slaughterhouse with cattle waiting in the chute
Border Patrol vehicles and stations
Oil workers arriving dirty and tired at hotels after long days
Haliburton trucks all over the place
The Alamo

Here are a few photos from the last day or two.

The Alamo

Fiesta Celebration meets Church  (San Antonio)

Amazing Overnight Parking Spot at the Uvalde, TX Wal-Mart

Approaching U.S./Mexico Border Crossing in Del Rio

Bullet Holes in this Historical Marker at the Colorado River (??)

Gorgeous Cactus in Shiner, TX

Family Visit

After a great couple of days in Galveston, Andre & I settled back into the van on late Sunday morning and headed northwest toward the Houston area for a visit with Andre’s sister Anne and her husband Ray. It was our first visit to their Richmond, Texas home and our first look at the rapidly-expanding suburbs that ring the city of Houston, currently the 4^th largest city in the United States by population.

Over the course of our stay, we drove through a number of towns and cities including Richmond, Sugar Land (home of the Imperial Sugar Company), Rosenberg and others, and the evidence that the entire area was booming was undeniable.  New highways were under construction, retail and housing developments were being expanded and new luxury home communities were under construction and heavily advertised on bill boards.

We didn’t get into downtown Houston during this visit (we’ll save that for another time), but it was clear from news coverage that the ongoing growth and population boom was proving challenging for traffic patterns and lengthening daily commutes for drivers in the ring of suburban communities.  Andre & I noted that in the more than two months we’d been traveling through the northeast, southeast, south and coastal gulf regions, this was the first time we’d seen this level of growth activity. Quite a change from the struggling economy of our home state of Rhode Island as well.

We enjoyed two days of wonderful hospitality with Anne and Ray and thoroughly enjoyed their beautiful backyard and hot tub, breakfasts and lunches on the patio and dinner out at a great local pizza place on our last night there. We spent many hours talking and laughing as we caught up with family events, both ours and theirs, and reminisced about childhoods, weddings, and past times in Rhode Island (before Anne and Ray became Texas transplants). Here is a photo of Andre and his older sister Anne.

Thanks for a great stay, Anne & Ray !!

On Tuesday morning we said good-bye and headed out, bound for parts west (the Shiner Brewery and eventually San Antonio). Snapped this photo showing the 70 mph speed limit that we would enjoy all the way to San Antonio (theoretically, anyway – we still drive the van slower than that to conserve gas!).

Arrived in Shiner Texas in time for the Spoetzl Brewery tour at 1:30 and some free samples of the many Shiner beers.  Here are some photos.

Good-bye to the Gulf (Andre)

It’s funny, if you don’t have a plan, a plan develops whether you like it or not! Maybe it’s something like a void needing to be filled. And, or, maybe it also hearkens back to one of my favorite lines from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings when Bilbo describes the road outside his front door as one of the most dangerous things in the world – take one step on the road, he cautions, and you never know where you will end up. The road goes ever on, he further warns and encourages us all!

Well, Laura and I first stepped onto the shores of the Gulf of Mexico on this adventure about 6 weeks ago! We drove out to Pine Island north and west of Brooksville where we were having RV repair done. It was cold, windy, and the water was pretty green, actually approaching olive green.

Since then, we have visited, followed, walked in (not swam in yet), laid alongside, camped along, among other things the Gulf in central Florida, northern Florida, western Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and now Texas – we drove down to the Gulf in Texas and spent three days along the 12 foot seawall that was built to protect the town after the 1900 storm that largely devastated the area.

It’s been fun certainly. We fondly recall the many looks of the Gulf. It’s been more vacation-like than we expected, kind of like we have been voyeurs on others seasonal beach-side vacations – of course we do not mind joining in! It’s been informative – we have followed with interest the history of the Spanish conquistadors and exploration in Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi, and we have been enjoying and working to recall what we are seeing of the road to Texas independence and statehood. And, as we have been writing, it has been sobering at times to see the wide-scale and lingering damage that Gulf storms have had on the area. All the while, it’s been a bit staggering how we have come to be part of and experience something to some level of intimacy that we only previously peripherally knew and had visited. When you have lots of time, you can ‘stroll along’ and get a bit deeper!

Like Tolkien wrote, the road goes ever on, as does, it seems the Gulf!

As this post is titled, though, we now say good-bye. We will next turn west towards Big Bend, our home address for the next three months, and certainly far from the Gulf, the beach, and the road we have been upon the last 6 weeks.

By the way – and not that we are counting, we have started our ninth week and third month on the road! 

Galveston, TX

Just posting a few quick photos from Galveston. Have been here since Thursday evening and it has been an adventure weatherwise. It's easy to imagine this town being swept away in the great hurricane of 1900 as we arrived here during an extremely turbulent windy weather pattern and were in 30-35 mph winds for the first 24 hours. Camped out in the van one of those nights and it was like being on a carnival ride!

We took a long walk into the wind along the seawall on Friday morning and it was quite a challenge, as it was incredibly windy and also cold - about 52 degrees I think. By late yesterday, the sun found its way back into the good graces of Galveston and the wind had died down to your normal coastal breezes and occasional gust. This morning our walk was much nicer. Only slightly windy and really sunny and beautiful.  Here are a few photos from Galveston.

View from inside the van as we hung out by the seawall and enjoyed the afternoon sun

Pleasure Pier - an amusement park that juts out into the bay (on stilts)

Surfside Beach a bit down the coast

Restraint Paused (Andre)

Okay, while Laura has posted several times about things that surprised her northern sensibilities with phrases such as ‘we’re not in Kansas anymore;’ me, being the more restrained person, or so I like to think, have not so self-indulged.

Please allow me a moment’s rant. I apologize in advance and perhaps our ongoing travels will cure me of any future such reactive needs.

Scene: Polk County DMV

Small office, two people manning the office. TV behind counter, in full view of the public, on in the background, all day long. Channel? Fox News – in a government office!

Same office, calendar on the wall – picture on the calendar – Jesus Christ (again, this is a government office!)

Scene: Campground side of the road, route 98, Florida. (and then same scene repeated many, many times, in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas)

We are having a picnic lunch. Out of the woods, two young men, in prison jumpsuits circa ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’ (1930s) – one piece, cotton, black and white horizontal stripes. (green, orange, blue, and red some of the other colors of choice in other states) come towards the van to empty trash – human servants, public embarrassment, have we progressed no further than this?

Scene: Any store, restaurant, or corner, East Texas

First seen in a McDonalds – young man, about 20, actually wearing cowboy boots and cowboy hat as casual, regular clothing – and no, he was not fresh from the field. Then in a Walmart, then a bank, then most places – many people actually wear cowboy boots and hats as regular clothing – it’s not just what is shown on TV. Can they really be that comfortable?????

Scene: Virtually all stores, bars, restaurants, west of Tallahassee, Fl

Fox News is the only channel that is on as the default channel and source of all truth (at least prior to this part of the country, it was only the predominant, not only channel!)

Scene: Any small 2 or 4 lane road, in East Texas

(work with me for a minute on this one, as it may seem the faster the better) The speed limit is 70 and people do 75+. Think RI or MA routes 102, 138, 123, 118 etc. for comparison. And people drive this fast on all roads. Ride your bike on a road? Walk? Run? Good luck, and then there is the target practice aspect for out of place northerners that might have the strange idea to walk, run, or bike down a road

Scene: McDonalds(or any other restaurant, though it seems the most odd in a McDonalds)

Couple, usually older couple, order food, sit down, lean into each other, clasp hands, and pray before eating.

Due to political expediency, self-preservation, and deniability, this rant does not include other things such as gun shows and gun show signs, right-wing periodicals, political signs, prayer meetings in restaurants, other instances of excessive religion in the public sphere, and anything else we may need to recant.

Did I mention that Laura really wrote this?

Van Magic Prevails (Andre)

New Orleans was, despite the incident with the bikes, a fun time and an interesting town. I had been twice before, for Laura it was her first time. We did the usual, walked the French Quarter and the downtown area, saw and enjoy the sights of the city. We also took our bikes for part of a day and rode a bit wider circle around New Orleans. We were fortuitous in that we did not know that what is billed as the ‘largest free music festival in the south’ – the French Quarter Festival, was going on the weekend we were there. This just added to the fun and excitement of our experience and the city.

Although the festival continued through Sunday, we decided to head out on Saturday after a morning in the hotel catching up on ‘business’ on-line, cleaning up, and some re-organization. The plan was to head several hours west towards, if not into Texas – our ultimate, for the time being, destination.

Here comes the magic ….

As fans of Dave Matthews know, the Robert Randolph Family Band is a good time and a show not to be missed. (The Robert Randolph Family Band is a great, diverse band of siblings and cousins that often opens for and at times plays with Dave.)

We left New Orleans around noon without much of a plan. Baton Rouge is a bit more than an hour or so north and west of the city. We decided to head there for a lunch stop. As we pulled into the downtown area, right off Route 10, we heard music. Then we saw people in the streets. And we realized we stumbled into another event and party.

 

 

 

 

As it turns out, we left New Orleans and the French Quarter Music Festival only to land in the lap of the free, outdoor, Baton Rouge Blues Festival. Headlined by no other than the Robert Randolph Family Band. Suffice it to say we did not make it to Texas on Saturday night. The Robert Randolph show was great. Among other songs, they did a great version of ‘Papa was a Rolling Stone’ as well as several other covers, a bit of Black Water, I think, and originals including an Audette favorite – ‘Hip Shake Jam’.

The festival was a great little festival right in the downtown streets of Baton Rouge. It clearly was a point of pride for the city as many community groups sponsored the event. The crowd was diverse, friendly, and having a good time. We got to tour the historic capitol and learn more about the history of Baton Rouge and Louisiana. There was a great exhibit in the capitol focusing on the former governor and senator Huey Long, his rise to power, assassination, and role in Louisiana politics. We also walked out to the Mississippi that runs right through downtown and went onto a river boat that served as a floating casino where we had a bit of lunch before heading back to the festival.

We drove away happy for the stop and the many wonderful things we have discovered in our travels on the road!

TEXAS! TEXAS! TEXAS!

EVERYTHING'S BIGGER IN TEXAS (Even the Signs!)

 

Well we're finally here! After more than 7 weeks on the road, we crossed into our new home state on Sunday around 11 AM.  It was quite exciting and I milked it for all it was worth as you can see from the photos. Stopped at the Texas Welcome Center and put on my Cowboy Hat with a smile (Thanks all my friends at Hanover for the great hat!).

After spending some time at the welcome center, which had a great elevated nature walk over swamp-like land sporting Alligator snapping turtles, snakes and a variety of other not-so-cuddly Texas creatures (apparently we hadn't really left the bayou behind yet), we continued driving and made our way over to the Escapees RV Complex in Livingston to check in at the campground and get a look at our new home town. This park is the actual address where our mail is sent to and our true physical address. There is a mail center here where they take in all the mail, sort it, and then send it back out to members wherever they are throughout the country.

Spent today getting down to business becoming real live Texas residents. Got the Van inspected and registered here, surrendered our Rhode Island driver's licenses and became Texas drivers and also registered to vote and to be organ donors in Texas. Finally we opened bank accounts at one of the local Livingston banks.  Got back to the campground just in time to pick up our mail at the mail counter which closes at 4:00 and then spent another hour putting all of our official papers and documents that we'd been carrying around for two months back where they belonged. Finally, Andre took the old plates off the van and put on the new Texas plates and Voila! Texas residents.

 

View from the dash as we crossed the LA/TX line

 

 

 

 

Hamming it up at the Welcome Center

 

Andre's more subdued photo contribution...

What's the Opposite of Van Magic? (Andre)

So, a few days ago we posted an entry talking about the unexpected and pleasant instances of ‘van magic’ we have experiences along the way in our travels. I also posted earlier about the idea of hubris and the gods stomping silly humans back into their place for getting too uppity and all. Well, we are still ahead on the plus/minus meter, but we woke up to a rather unexpected and unpleasant surprise our first morning in New Orleans – let me tell you the story…..

When we park at hotels or parking lots in general, we always try to park off to the side as our vehicle is rather large and tends to stick out of regular spots. We booked a hotel room – our since first Tallahassee almost a month earlier – in Gretna, LA, right across the river from New Orleans. We got to our hotel early evening after a fun stop at Abita Brewing north of New Orleans. As is our tendency, we parked on the outskirts of the parking lot along a fence and out of the traffic flow and people’s way.

Well, we forgot or were not thinking about, the people who might like access to a van, parked right alongside a fence, and out of the main flow and sight of those on this side of the law.

I suspect you can see where this is going. (But, in the spirit of the George of the Jungle movie, in which the viewer is warned in the midst of a calamity that no one really gets hurt, no one, including the bikes really got hurt.)

In the morning, Laura went out to the van to get something. She hurried back into the room and said there was a note on the van to inquire in the hotel office about a missing bike tire and an ‘incident’ with the van. It seems, in the middle of the night, someone or someones, appreciated us parking our vehicle with decent bikes on a bike rack on the back of the van out of sight and along a dark fence.  Thankfully, hotel security heard a commotion and rousted the would-be perpetrators from their work. Security retrieved a tire from the individual(s) which they had managed to wrest from one of our bikes but they could not pry the bikes from the Thule bike racks – I guess that is a bit of an endorsement. (Thule, please send checks!)

This was not what we wanted to wake up to as we were busy anticipating a fun day in New Orleans. Beyond the feeling of violation, thankfulness that the bikes and bike tire were in-tact, we realized that one of the bike racks was missing a crucial part without which the rack was unusable. Here is where the good guys come in. We found a local independent bike shop – The Pedal Shop of Gretna, LA – no checks required for this endorsement, who did some quick and inventive work to repair the damaged bike rack.

As someone said – or wrote, ‘All’s well that ends well.’ The bike is fully functional. The bike rack is repaired for now and we are hoping the hotel insurance will cover a replacement – still working on that one. We only lost a couple of hours from our day in New Orleans. Our feelings of violation are fading. And, we learned and hopefully will remember to think of things other than traffic flow and being out of the way when selecting parking spaces! 

Random Bits from New Orleans

Arrived at the hotel in New Orleans on Wednesday afternoon after a great stop at Abita Brewing. Enjoyed their open bar and tour and met some great people, including a couple about our age from British Columbia who were on a similar extended travel tour and were also on their way to New Orleans.  As would have it, we ran into them again in the city a few days later. Andre really enjoyed the brewery tasting room. As you can see, they allowed you to pour your own beer samples right from the bar taps. The tour also included a short film and a walk through the brewery.

s

 

Next it was on to the hotel in the town of Gretna, just across the Mississippi and a short bike ride away from the Algiers Point Ferry, which we used on both Thursday and Friday to get into New Orleans.

 

 

View from the Ferry

 

Shortly after our arrival on dry land it started to storm and downpour, with occasional lightening thrown in for good measure.

 

Managed to tour a bit between the deluges and spent a few hours walking the French Quarter before heading back to the ferry to cross back over and ride our bikes back to the hotel while it was still light.  Here are some random photos from New Orleans over the two days including some great food we had (Jambalaya, Red Beans & Rice, New Orleans Chili, etc.), and also our trip to yet another brewery (NOLA).

 

Andre returns to the Superdome (1st time was the 1986 Pat's Superbowl)

 

 

 

Voodoo Anyone?

 

Andre at yet another tap!

 

 



 

Biloxi Blues? (Andre)

 

We certainly have been through many towns, cities, rural areas, and everything in between in our travels to this point. Some areas have been amazing. Some have been beautiful. Some have been less so. Some have been reminiscent of areas we have seen before and some even made us think of home in the northeast. Sometimes we just drive through an area. Sometimes we have planned stops. And as you can imagine, sometimes an area calls out for a stop even if none were planned. On some occasions, an area calls out for a longer stay. Such was the case of Biloxi, Mississippi!

While we did experience what we have come to call ‘van magic’ – see previous post, there was much more going on in this town that drew me in.

As you can see from some of the pictures, there are quite a few things going on in this small city of approximately 40,000 people. Clearly this area was still impacted by Katrina in 2005, nearly 8 years earlier. As we walked the neighborhoods, it was very common to see a habituated house, surrounded by empty lots, then see other houses that were abandoned, next to houses that were still in the process of reconstruction. Then you would turn a corner, and there was a large casino hotel with neon lights flashing and many people just enjoying themselves in the midst of this half-ghost town. Yet, turn another corner, and there was an abandoned high rise tower, fully dark and just abandoned!

Hurricane Katrina Memorial

 

 

 

The downtown area was equally interesting. A few stores, banks, government buildings, and that was about it. There were many traffic lights throughout the city, but most often there were no cars waiting or passing through the intersection. I ran Main Street, and this was not what one would think of as a Main Street. Mostly small residences, again some habituated houses, some empty and some in various states of disrepair, and many more empty lots. Then there was a train crossing that ran right across Main Street that had to be a least 6 feet elevated creating a large and daunting looking hump across the road.

We also found out that Biloxi has a shrimp boat fleet – think the scene from Forest Gump – that is another part of the local economy in addition to casinos and tourism. And, in part due to the shrimp industry as we understand, there is a large Vietnamese population in this town.

 

After leaving Biloxi I did a bit of looking on line and found the following to add to my observations. Prior to Katrina, the town had a population of 50,000, thus there has been a near 10,000 person drop due to the storm. It was estimated that approximately 90% of the buildings were damaged or destroyed in the storm. The town, state, and federal government are still working together to figure how and what to redevelop this area that so clearly was changed by Katrina.