Archive for February, 2006
February 14, 2006 at 10:26 am · Filed under Places to go
Let me cut right to the chase: you must visit Big Bend National Park. It is hard to do, and in this country where nearly everything is easy to get to, that should be reason enough to go. But Big Bend is so much more.
This mammoth park, located in a remote corner of Texas, is an incredible amalgamation of history, native culture, geology, desert life, and scenic beauty. Stretching nearly 60 miles from east to west, it is so large and diverse that you need two weeks to begin to see most of the highlights. Three distinct ecosystems are represented here. And really, the only way to see it is to get out of your car and start hiking.
For this reason, visiting the park with a recreational vehicle is a great choice. Ten years ago, Eleanor and I tent camped in the park for four nights. We had an unforgettable time in our quiet little campsite, two miles off the paved road and totally private. But I remember that after two days we were forced to drive to Terlingua (30 miles away) to recharge our video camera batteries, and it was three dusty days before we got a bath one night in a hot spring. In the comfort of the Airstream, we find we can enjoy the park just as much and still have light, heat, and a hot shower at the end of the day.
Sunset on the limestone cliffs near Rio Grande Village
I can’t tell you everything about Big Bend because it would fill a book. Suffice to say that anyone who enjoys a hike will never be bored here. That leaves out a lot of people, I know. Janie was in the little store by “Rio Grande Village” (not a village at all, but simply two adjacent campgrounds), when a woman walked in and asked, “Where can I go to see something beautiful?” The store clerk was helpful and offered a few suggestions. But Janie thought, “Just open your eyes!” Indeed, there’s almost nowhere you can turn in Big Bend where there isn’t something beautiful or at least interesting.
I am glad we brought Emma up from an early age to enjoy hiking. We took her on hikes Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. On Sunday we did three hikes, each about one to two miles. She was fun to have around, and interested in everything. Two months in the desert has given her a real appreciation for the amount of life to be found here.
Catching up after a day of hiking
It was a very full weekend. We saw two hot springs and hundreds of fossils, pictographs and petroglyphs, natural watering holes in stone (abajos), and limestone cliffs lit pink in the sunset. We met Mexicans from the nearby town of Boquillas del Carmen and listened to their stories. We shot pictures of swallows flying into their cliffside nests, roadrunners, and javelina. We saw a desert fox running behind our path, and listened to coyotes barking just 50 feet from our trailer. And that was just the weekend!
So do I have to say it again? You must go to Big Bend when you can.
Having done all the short hikes on the eastern side of the park, we relocated today to the nearest town, Study Butte (pronounced “Stoody Beeyoot”). Here we have full hookups, wireless Internet in the rec room, and we are closer to the majority of the best hikes. So I can keep you updated for the next few days as we continue to explore the park.
Unfortunately, I can’t offer much in the way of pictures today. Bert has my camera. I left it in his truck today after our last hike, and I hope he has noticed and retrieved it by now. He and Janie elected to stay one more day in Rio Grande Village so they could check out a few more of the longer hikes. They will meet us here on Tuesday or Wednesday, and then I’ll be able to download over 100 new photos for our online album. Until then, I only have about a dozen shots to pick from for the blog.
I will also be posting an essay Wednesday on Gather, after I get my camera back. There is a sad story involving Big Bend and the Mexican people who live just across the border in Boquillas del Carmen. Both Bert and I were so taken with the tale that we took extra time to photograph and interview some of the Mexicans and I’ve written up their story. On Wednesday or later, you can read it by clicking the link to the left that says “Gather”.
February 13, 2006 at 3:42 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
We are back in the Internet zone this afternoon. Big Bend has been amazing, as usual. I will be posting huge blog entries all about it as soon as I get my thoughts together, my 105 emails squared away, and my photos downloaded. Look for more on that on Tuesday.
Just a random thought for you today: We have been on the road for 135 days at this point, and it seems like absolutely no time at all. Eleanor and I were talking about this a couple of days ago. We have no sensation of time passing. Life “on the road” is so full, so exciting, and busy that we have to remind ourselves we’ve been at this for four months.
It feels more like a series of adventures. We don’t miss our house. We don’t feel “cut off” from friends or family. We don’t feel claustrophobic. If anything, the experience has been better than we ever expected it to be. I’m not sure if this is a symptom of our personalities, or simply the road speaking to us.
Sign of the week:
Says who?
February 10, 2006 at 9:00 am · Filed under Places to go
After a full day in the “office” I broke away to join Eleanor and Emma for a dip in the famous Balmorhea swimming pool. They say it is the largest spring-fed pool in the US, and the water is always 72 to 76 degrees and very clear.
Emma, ready to put on her mask and snorkel!
It was tough to get psyched to go in the water because it didn’t warm up much today (about mid 60s). So we took the added precaution of wearing our shorty wetsuits. But it was great once we got in — great viewing, and plenty of creatures to see. Dozens of friendly black catfish, schools of shiny little fish, turtles, and ducks. Have you ever watched from below as a duck swims? It’s pretty funny.
Eleanor and Emma meeting the catfish
At some points the catfish were so numerous, looking for handouts, we almost had to push them out of the way. And the water was as clear as my other favorite natural spring, Blue Spring in Florida. It’s definitely a great spot and I can imagine it’s very popular in summer.
Emma’s snorkeling is coming right along. She’s comfortable in water over her head, not afraid of undersea animals, she can tread water, give hand signals under water, and she can clear her mask without surfacing. We still need to work on a few skills, but we’re all very pleased with her progress at age 5 and a half.
Today we are heading to Big Bend National Park for the weekend. Our plan is to meet Bert, Janie, and their friend David, at Rio Grande Village, which is a campground deep inside the park on the east side. We’ll be very close to petroglyphs and a hot spring. I’m looking forward to seeing them again. Wednesday night we were up to nearly midnight telling stories and laughing!
I won’t be able to update the blog from Rio Grande Village, and our cell phones won’t work either. We’ll be gloriously cut off from society for the weekend. There are few services in the park and that’s the way people like it. So we’ll catch you up on Monday. Expect some good pictures!
February 9, 2006 at 1:12 pm · Filed under Travel / lifestyle musings
There are a lot of things I don’t get to talk about in this blog when we are traveling. The day-to-day experiences are enough to fill this blog, so I often skip little things. But today, since I’m parked in the bedroom working on the computer, I have no time to go play and I do have a bit of time to reflect.
One of the things I don’t get to talk about much is what I’m reading. Although you might not care, what I’m reading has a huge impact on how I see our surroundings, and hence what appears in this blog. A nice feature of the Airstream we have is that it has two bedside nooks, perfect for books. I like to read each night before bed, and so the nook is always full. Traveling also means learning about the places you visit, and one of the very best places to find books about local culture and history is the store at any national or state park.
My real problem is restraining myself from buying a half-dozen books at every stop. We just haven’t got room to store them all! So I usually only buy one every few stops. In Nevada I bought “Touring California & Nevada Hot Springs,” in Arizona I bought “Roadside History of Arizona” and “The Harvey Girls,” but these are more reference books than literature.
For this reason I was thrilled when Andy left me a copy of “Sailing Alone Around The World,” by Captain Joshua Slocum. Slocum was a a washed-up old mariner with familial, legal, and financial problems when in the 1890s he built a personal sloop and sailed off solo to adventure. His voyage, a sort of “Walden on the sea”, became famous, and Slocum eventually wrote this book about it. In the end, he emerged from the trip “ten years younger” than when he left Boston, and one pound heavier.
Slocum’s book is a remarkable bit of prose especially considering the author had no more than a third-grade formal education. The flow and pacing are beautiful, and the romance he brings to the mundane exercise of piloting a craft across featureless seas is inspiring. He manages to turn even a bout with food poisoning into a thrilling experience.
We, too, are sailing around the world in our own way. Like Slocum we are setting sail with only the vaguest of destinations, and letting the experiences happen as they will. This is part of our “post-modern traveling” philosophy, a deliberate lack of structure that encourages accidental discovery, unexpected turns, startling revelations, and the joy of true freedom.
With a rigid travel program in place, one can nearly eliminate the chance element. The risk of a bad hotel, a dull moment, uncomfortable surroundings, or becoming lost, disappears when one is bound by a pre-programmed schedule that has been carefully vetted by someone before you. But I think this is a false reassurance. Expecting that nothing unexpected will happen is paradoxically a self-fulfilling prophesy that you will be disappointed by something, however small. The world is not so cooperative and predictable, no matter what you pay the tour guide. Our philosphy is that it is best to accept that structure in travel is mostly an illusion, and embrace the challenge of constantly-changing circumstance instead.
Slocum had a tough life, in which he learned much about sailing and human nature, but seemed unable to apply it to his own circumstances until late. For that reason, his voyage around the world appeared to be escapism. But in fact he was finally running to his own true calling as a solo traveler and writer, most comfortable in his ship’s well-stocked library with Thoreau, Tennyson, Melville, Conrad, and Dickens. I am inspired by his ability to finally find himself after a lifetime of frustration and disappointment. It must have been hard to accept that his destiny could only be found by taking enormous risks into an unknown future. But his choice paid off, proving once again that following one’s heart is the best path.
So every night, I marvel at the similarity between the daily steps of his voyage of self-discovery, and ours. This is the stuff that great bedtime reading is made of. I’ll be sorry to finish the book, but glad to have met a fellow traveler such as Captain Slocum.
Sign of the week
What else is in my book nook today? “The World Is Flat,” by Thomas L Fleischman; “The Digital RV” by my good friend R.L. Charpentier (available through Lulu.com or Amazon.com); “His Excellency” by Joseph L Ellis (a biography of George Washington); and a pre-publication galley of “Mobile Mansions” by Douglas Keister (coming out in April from Gibbs Smith).
February 8, 2006 at 5:29 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
West Texas is so vast that it would probably be its own state if anyone lived here.
We decided not to push hard on the drive to Big Bend, so we came as far as this little state park. It’s the kind of place that defines “middle of nowhere”. The centerpiece of this park is a large natural spring, which forms a giant swimming pool that is 72 to 76 degrees year-round.
While I’m catching up on work for two days, Eleanor and Emma may gather their courage and go for a little swim, or even some snorkeling. Snorkeling in Texas? Yes, and if the water is clear enough we may even see some fish.
Bert & Janie arrived a few hours before us, but they are going to head to Marathon tomorrow to meet another friend. (That may be only an excuse, so they don’t have to go swimming!) We’ll all rendezvous in Big Bend over the weekend, probably in Rio Grande Village. Tomorrow I’ll take some photos of this Balmorhea State Park and give you a report.
February 7, 2006 at 8:11 pm · Filed under Places to go
Before I get into White Sands National Monument, I should tell you about our friends Bert and Janie Gildart, since they will be traveling with us for the next week or two. They are authors and photographers who work as a team to research and write hiking and nature books. Most recently they have published several books in a series for Globe Pequot Press on things to do in certain national parks. Bert also writes for Airstream Life magazine.
It’s great fun to travel with Bert and Janie because they are into hiking and photography (like us), and they seem to enjoy having Emma around. As I mentioned yesterday, they have a fairly new Airstream Safari 28 slide-out. They are parked just down the hill from us at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park.
This is a nice state park, and it’s a shame we are not going to get to explore it properly. Behind us is a line of ragged mountains with a canyon that is begging to be explored. Below us to the west is the wide-open expanse of the White Sands MIssile Range. The view is inspiring. This morning I watched pink light of sunrise illuminate the mountains 40 miles to the west, and slowly fill the valley’s playas.
But instead of hiking here, we headed to White Sands. This park is basically a collection of huge dunes made entirely of gypsum sand. The sand blows southeasterly from nearby dry lakes, and without a river to wash it away, piles up. Normally gypsum is water-soluble, so gypsum sand is very rare. But here conditions are perfect for it to accumulate in marvelous heaps with textures and designs made by the wind.
After a little orientation at the Visitor’s Center, we decided to go for the longest hike here, the 4.6 mile Alkali Flats route. Driving out on Dune Drive gives one the impression of driving on a frozen lake. The road and parking lots are graded white gypsum sand. The occasional buildings look like ice fishing shanties.
Hiking on the sand is difficult work. We were surprised that after an hour we had only managed to go one mile. But of course, we spent a lot of time paused to let Emma play in the sand. Every dune is a fantastic opportunity, for play (sliding down the dunes on a plastic sled is encouraged), animal track identification, and photos.
The hike took us over five hours to complete. By the time we got back, we were exhausted and my camera battery was dead. But I was satisfied with the photos I got, and I think Bert was as well. He shot several rolls during the hike. I’ve posted some photos on Flickr tonight if you want to check them. Click the link to the left that says “Pictures”.
Emma earned another Junior Ranger certificate, her third. She’s getting into it now. And we of course picked up another stamp in our National Parks Passport book. When I went to stamp the book, I was surprised to find we were last in White Sands National Monument on Feb 4 2000 — almost exactly six years ago. I hope we are back soon. There’s a lot more to do in this area.
February 7, 2006 at 6:17 am · Filed under Uncategorized
We are on the move again. According to Dr C., we have “done” Tucson and with his blessing we pulled up stakes and headed east on I-10 toward new and colder frontiers.
Sunday, as planned, was a day to catch up on a million little things. It’s important to have those times in the schedule or you start feeling overloaded. We got all the errands done, laundry, cleaning, re-arranging, etc., so we were ready to hit the road today.
We talked to Bert and agreed to meet up at a state park near White Sands National Monument. He and Janie were further north in New Mexico photographing bird migrations. For them it was only three or four hours drive time, but we ended up blowing the whole day between driving and stops.
One stop was to get the Airstream washed again. This time I tried a “self-service” wash designed specifically for RVs. Not great. I got the trailer clean “¦ mostly “¦ but I wouldn’t recommend it. The real truck wash service is still better, even at $40 versus $10.
We pulled into Oliver Lee Memorial State Park after dark, so we couldn’t get a photo for this blog entry. But tomorrow we are planning to spend the day out with Bert & Janie at White Sands and perhaps the New Mexico Museum of Space History, so I expect to come back with a pile of pictures.
From here on for at least a week, we’ll be caravanning with Bert and Janie. They have an Airstream too, a Safari 28 slide-out. (It’s sweet. Great space inside.) We are going to spend two nights here in Alamogordo, then head to Big Bend National Park in Texas for a few days. Then we’ll probably caravan together over to San Antonio. There may be some other stops as well. It should be great fun!
« Previous entries ·
Next entries »
