February 17, 2006 at 7:34 am · Filed under Uncategorized
We’re leaving today. Emma is still sleeping, but Eleanor and I are prepping to go to our next stop, which is Del Rio, Texas.
We’re all a bit wiped out from the hiking. Yesterday I worked all morning at the local coffee shop (where I could get online) and after lunch we drove back into the park for a pair of hikes, 3.8 miles and 1.6 miles. The day before we did the same thing, taking Bert with us up to the Chisos Mountains for a hike until sunset. The weather has been spectacular (80 degrees and unlimited sunshine) and there hasn’t been much wind, which is essential in this dusty environment. We consume a LOT of water these days to combat the dryness, because if you get behind you’ll feel even more tired.
Emma the leader gives instructions to her troops on a Chisos Basin hike
The lack of telephone service and questionable Internet has been troublesome for me, and we need to get going if we are to make our scheduled dinner at the Salt Lick in Austin next Wednesday. Between then and now we want to visit Del Rio and San Antonio, and there’s 500 miles to cover along the way.
Sometimes people think that our lives on the road are without the usual challenges of day-to-day life. In fact, we’ve just substituted new challenges for the ordinary ones. For example, consider the fiasco that ensued when a component on the bike rack snapped last Sunday, forcing us to carry one bike in the trailer until a new part could be shipped in.
We called for a spare part (from a payphone) and asked for it to be shipped overnight. But FedEx doesn’t deliver here. USPS offered “Express Mail” service to the Panther Junction post office but failed to meet the delivery promise of Wednesday. By then, we were in Study Butte, 30 miles away.
It was hard to track the part because the Internet service at the campground went down daily. The wifi signal was borrowed from a nearby liquor store, apparently by some agreement. First the problem was the phone company, then somebody tripped over the power cable on the wifi router. Each time it went down I ended up on my hands and knees in the dusty back room of the liquor store, trying to diagnose the problem for the owner, who wasn’t too happy at my presence.
Finally I gave up on the campground wifi and started driving to the one other place in town where people can get online: the coffee shop. There, things were more reliable (I’m there now). The bike rack part has arrived now, so we’ll get it one the way through the park on our way north to Marathon. Then we can re-assemble the rack (in the parking lot of the post office) and proceed to Del Rio.
UPDATE Feb 2006: Carol McNair, general manager of the Big Bend Motor Inn and RV Park, informs me the entire campground will have wi-fi Internet next year!
But I am not happy with this Yakima roof rack. The “universal” connection method they use for the Nissan Armada results in a very wobbly rack, which is why the part broke in the first place. It’s also very hard to get a bike on the roof of this tall vehicle without (a) scratching the car; (b) killing one’s self. We need a better solution for carrying bikes with the Airstream in tow. I’m researching that now, and will report on it later.
Met this guy on a trail yesterday and he tried to sell us car insurance
February 15, 2006 at 10:12 am · Filed under Travel / lifestyle musings
It’s a rare day that I post twice, but Bert & Janie showed up with my camera and so I had to rush down to the coffee shop to upload photos of Big Bend for you (which you can see by clicking the Pictures link to the left), and to mention a few other things.
I have posted my essay on the plight of the people of Boquillas Mexico. You can find that by clicking the “Gather” link to the left. I think their story is interesting and I hope you’ll enjoy the essay.
Victor Valdez, lifetime resident of Boquillas Mexico, singing by his handmade walking sticks
The other thing is simply that we keep meeting great people and I want to mention some of them. Besides, David, who I mentioned earlier today (below), we have met the McLravys of Lansing Michigan, who are traveling in their Airstream Land Yacht. Yvonne McLravy is quite a good self-published author, who gave me two of her books. I was up late last night reading her account of traveling Alaska’s Inner Passage, a trip we plan to do in the next couple of years. She may contribute some writing to the magazine in the future.
We also met Carol McNair, who is the general manager of the campground we are staying in. She dropped by today to say she is a big Airstream fan and owner of an Excella herself. She is one of those folks who stopped in Terlingua for a visit (four years ago) and just never left. Carol is also a subscriber to the magazine, which always warms my heart…
So between the new photos and the Gather essay, there is a lot of content for you to browse today. Enjoy! Let me know what you think. We’re off for a hike in the Chisos Basin now.
February 15, 2006 at 6:29 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Are Texans extra friendly or are we just becoming notorious? We spent part of the afternoon visiting Terlingua, where we met a fellow named David, who runs a ghost town. It consists of the remains of a handful of dry-laid stone buildings and a few slowly melting adobe huts. On behalf of the owner of the land, David leases the buildings to artists and entrepreneurs and other such people, who are slowly rebuilding them into a new sort of community.
David and his wife also run an art gallery from one of the refurbished buildings, featuring local art. Their home is a 37-foot school bus. They have unreliable electricity, unremitting heat in the summer, little water, and few local amenities. For seven years, they have lived in the dusty surroundings of Terlingua Ghost Town, with the other quirky inhabitants, and they have loved it.
We immediately hit it off. When Eleanor mentioned that she lives in an Airstream, David did a double-take and said, “I think I’ve read your blog!” Since we hadn’t mentioned we have a blog, this was a shock. Keep in mind we were standing in a ghost town that is sort of a suburb of a tiny village that is literally the end of the line in southwest Texas. I can only get online by driving down to the Terlingua Springs Market and borrowing their wi-fi. Many people here don’t have telephones. And yet, this guy knows us!
But that’s how it is going now. People are writing to us from other parts of the country, saying basically, “I’ve read your blog. Come to our town and we’ll give you courtesy parking.” We love that. I expect we will meet a lot of people by courtesy parking in their driveways, and it sounds like a great way to spend the summer.
Today we are going to take most of the day to go hiking in the park. I’ll hopefully have my camera back tonight (still no appearance by Bert & Janie), and if so I’ll try to post as many pictures as I can. In the meantime, I can use Emma’s camera to document today’s trip.
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).
« Previous entries ·
Next entries »
