Bits and pieces as we race towards the SUN

We are traveling east and will be turning out of Wyoming and going south soon. It is just plain cold, too cold to hang out in beautiful WY or NE...but we have been tempted. WY -, specifically Laramie and Cheyenne, we will return when it's a bit warmer to explore.

For those of you who read last week's post...here is a very short video Mike took of the Perrine Bridge (Twin Falls) Base Jumper....ENJOY!

Traveling into different states is really educational, fun, and thought provoking...I'm starting to pay attention to the differences...it's a cultural shift that rarely happens at home and once we get back into our winter-routine I find it again. One of those for me is discovering all the different fast-food joints that I will never, ever in a million years enter, let alone buy anything to eat from them. (Yes, I am a fast-food snob, but that is a entirely different blog and longer post, with a different audience.)

It's Chester Fried...found at a truck stop in Utah...do they serve it in buckets? I now wish I had gone inside to see if Colonel Sanders was wearing a cowboy hat and was clean-shaven.

 

Our overnight in Honeyville, at the Crystal Hot Springs, had a herd of sheep out our back window and....



a duck couple, laying eggs and being fed Jelly beans by the 2 small girls, next door to us. That's an egg just above the duck on the left....the next morning there were two eggs. The couple were resting comfortably when we left...both ignoring said eggs.

We left Utah for Wyoming...big, big mistake on our part we soon discovered. Wyoming is at a higher altitude, well not at the start, but by the time we reached Rock Springs, elevation 6388' we hadn't drank nearly enough water and having only just leaving sea level...we both were suffering from headaches and that tiredness that altitude brings on.
The mistake? Higher elevation = colder temperatures and did you know the wind blows at really high rates of speed here?

We found parking at the Sweetwater Fairgrounds (Sweetwater Fairgrounds)
via All Wyoming Campgrounds... the fairgrounds has 1200 parking sites! We 'guessed' closer to 500....this place is massive. Since it was just us and another trailer it was very quiet, even for a Friday night. Don't let the Sun fool you...it got really "crispy" come dark...so crispy that Mike unhooked us from the water line...."crisp" as in frigid/freezing. We were both really happy to be here for just one night. (I just wished that had been the end of the 'crisp air' story.)

Next on the trip menu... giddy-up Cheyenne WY. Little did we know that high winds AND more altitude was in our future. And according to the weather reports, some snow had dropped in on Cheyenne earlier in the week, but "not to worry, it was forecast to rain by Sunday". Yep, erm, right...not happening during our 2 day visit.

The highest point on I-80 is located at 8640" just outside Laramie, WY, and yes the wind was blowing where these photos were taken last Friday. The wind blew so hard and was so loud, we both donned ear plugs just to hear the radio.

Above...the remains of the snowfall days earlier.

Eight days out, 1550 miles through OR/ID/UT/WY and we are only half-way to our "we-can-start-to-relax" state of Louisiana. I know, we probably ought get to the 'start-to-relax' part now....it's just been too d**n cold up here in the northern hemisphere of the US.

While in Cheyenne we drove down to Ft Collins to meet up with friends we met while visiting Lake Louise 2 years ago, who drove up from Denver for lunch...so if you are visiting Ft Collins, treat yourself and dine at  Austin's American Grill  - the food was delicious, the company was marvelous. Thanks H & M!

If you are cruising I-25 to Ft. Collins, look for the bison up in the hills, you can see it for miles.

OK, I'll admit it....I am a West Coast woman...I have never seen signs announcing road closures at on-ramps - followed by gates that actually close the ramp...

this just boggles my mind....

 

Just as we are about to leave WY...Pine Bluffs rest area, right at the very edge of the state. High-Plains-Archaeology-Museum and a visitors center is conveniently located, more-like disguised, on the grounds of the rest area. The volunteer was kind enough to tell us a bit about the museum, open June - Aug... built on ground where Native American artifacts had been discovered.

and if you are a Cabelas fan, the photo below is their distribution center and store in Sidney, NE...left to right all Cabelas...it's gigantic.

and we witnessed another circle of life....like us, birds heading south.

We head towards Oklahoma over the next few days.
~Ciao

Departure is torture....are we having fun yet?

Escaping  our home in the PNW is pretty daunting. Five (5) pages of lists of things to pack, tasks to complete – both for the house/yard and for our house on wheels. Food to buy, pack and store; activity accessories (helmets, paddles, bikes, etc.) and clothes. Did we forget anything? You bet we did...well, I did. By DAY 3 of decisions, packing, storing, (never mind the things we have to keep within reach until the very last minute, ie hair dryer, toothpaste, "those" shoes...it's endless.), "do I really have enough socks/jeans/shoes?, my Barre 3 equipment/DVD's, how much freezer space is there? ,- I can not get out of the house fast enough. Well, it does feel that crazy...that  'up-track trek' on  the roller-coaster that never gets to the top kind of crazy.

This year THE cat, Lucy, decided she wasn’t participating and took to hiding. Not so different from previous years, however, we spent a good 30 minutes looking for her in her favorite hidey-hole places – behind the sofa and under the bed…only to be discovered crouched behind Mike’s computer desk…smart girl.  At least I didn't need the broom (which never worked anyway-she just let me poke her with it) and she finally came out to wait the inevitable...and just like the spoilt cat she is - mewed all the way into the house-on-wheels.  Get in line after me.

And we are out of here! (yes, we closed the slides first)

[Government shutdown, we aren't changing our plans - so please get yourselves together and get our campgrounds open...Corps of Engineers, National Forests and National Parks - we plan on using them along the way.]

In years past we have been, what we lovingly call, type A, goal directed in our departures. Where are we going and how fast can we get from here to there...thankfully, sanity was restored,  (Call it aging if you MUST) and it was determined that slower, gentler and easy was going to be our journey from Oregon to Louisiana.  Given our previous departure road was approximately the same this year I haven't taken nearly the photos as in years past...I-84 still looks the same, the leaves are changing colors right on schedule and so I picked up a magazine that I got back in July and began reading. I stopped when we reached Boardman...the Boardman Marina and Park is lovely. 1) on arrival; 2) parked; 3) out our back window at sunset. The Columbia River never looked better than it did on our first night out. (Oregon is pretty in the Fall.)

gorgeous day on the Columbia River

and it's sunset out our back window

Day 2 we are in search of a 'regulator'...for the propane tank. Apparently we have a leak in the 2nd tank.  Found one in Pendleton that replaced this bad boy. We continued to drive East and decided we needed a "rest" break starting Day 3, so only drove to Huntington, OR....so far, we are passing the slow/easy/gentle test on this adventure East. Out two days and still 30 miles from the Idaho border...<cough>"exhausted"<cough>.

  There isn't much in Huntington, OR...a couple of taverns and a "general store"...no gas station so Mike had to drive into Ontario (almost Idaho) to get gas. However, the Farewell Bend State Park, where we planned to stay for the night is lovely. It closed on the 15th...for the season. And was only $17/night, FHU too. Less than a dozen RV's...it was nice. It was quiet.

The Snake River is off in the distance in the shot below.  

 

This is a huge state park...so I'm guessing very busy during the  summer...Oregon Trail et al.

Next stop: Our "rest-days" in Glenn's Ferry ID, again Three Island Crossing State Park. The lower section is closed for the winter and the upper section closes at the end of this month. Another beautiful state park, which we visited last year. Has a museum next door and just down the street is the  Carmela Vineyard/Restaurant/RV Park...which we haven't visited and the RV park was virtually empty, but that may have more to do with it being October and past the grape picking/wine-making season, but it is beautiful and looks down on the Snake River. The restaurant must have fabulous views.

Today we drove the 50 mile into Twin Falls; primarily to visit the Shoshone Falls Park and were rewarded by noticing a group of base jumpers on the Perrine Bridge that spans the Snake as we drove across. Not ones to miss a photo op, we pulled into the Visitors Center (closed for the season) to take photos...

 Perrine Bridge from the Visitor Center (above)

Statue of Perrine himself...(and yes I have a photo holding hands with him) he was the banker who built the canals downstream.

 And there he goes....

 

 

 



One of a dozen base jumpers...(according to the sign the fall is only about 490') we witnessed jumping...so they pull their 'shutes  as they lean-in-to the fall. We are standing on a viewpoint that is about 50' under the bridge under-belly.

 

And no - the place was closed or I would have considered taking the class. Can't beat the 'rush' from a good fall out of the sky!

 

The circle is the landing target, which we only saw one jumper 'stick'!(below)

 

It's quite a ways down, and you can climb back up, hike back up or take a boat up river to a parking lot where your "people" can meet you and drive you back up, to do this all over again. No permit required, and the accents I heard were definitely not just Americans enjoying this sport.

 

Then we were off to Shoshone Falls, a mere 5 miles from town. The road down to the parking is narrow and winding...while we did meet a truck pulling a small trailer it was not truly wide enough and we had to pull WAY over to allow him to pass.

 

 Power plants and the dam....

The Snake River in all it's splendor...

 

The Sun was out most the day, but it was cold...what we in the PNW like to call "crisp". The thermometer hovered in the low 50's most of the day...but the views made it doable. 

The "fun" has definitely begun.

~Ciao

 

Author's note: As this goes to "press", it is with profound relief that I can report that the US Congress has agreed to put the US government back to work. As an American traveling this country I want to apologize to our international visitors who may have been inconvenienced by the temporary insanity that overtook our <cough>"leadership"<cough>. I do hope you will be able to visit our National Parks, for they are spectacular.

 

 

 

 

 

A Love Letter to San Antonio

The Alamo

Dear San Antonio……

We are rapidly running out of time to complete our winter itinerary. 

What we accomplished this year looks slightly different than what we had originally planned….OR-UT (Moab -Check)-Northern NM (Chaco Canyon-Check) - then into Texas, touring down from El Paso via Big Bend National Park to Brownsville to spend January. Simple, clean, adventurous in the exploration of historical sites, and then as we wandered back towards home, a few days in San Antonio, specifically to cross The Alamo off the bucket list.

We got side tracked with the holidays….yes, we know – Thanksgiving and Christmas come around each and every November/December. You can set your calendar on Christmas as it has the good sense to actually have a recurring date, the same date EVERY year…unlike that wishy-washy T-day with it’s third Thursday of November nonsense. Now that we are no longer working it’s hard to track them.  (Mental head slap here)

It’s Feb 1^st when we slide into Hidden Valley RVPark on the outskirts of San Antonio. We have NOT been to Big Bend, nor did we get further south than Del Rio Texas. We are on our way back West and have decided we can do this AND Big Bend NP. But we must stick to the plan, even if out of order.

We have 2 full days to see The Alamo/Riverwalk/some missions AND do our much needed Costco run. Yes, I actually insisted on a visit to Trader Joe’s, even though it was, hmmmm miles across town.  But I digress.

 

Upon settling in, Mike spoke to our site neighbors and was told about “the Tour”.  After discussing this for all of 5 minutes, we decided given our limited time in SA, that taking the tour would be a better idea, save us time and energy, and we would actually SEE more sites on the tour then on our own.

We are not “those” people, you know, 'tour' people. We are more casual in our “what are we going to do here” and then go do that.  That attitude lasted until we discovered that a nice man in a short bus would pick us up at the RV location promptly @ 8am, take us into town (12 mi), deposit us at the tour operator door  and return us by 5pm, another 12 mi drive. Yowser! And for the price of $49.50 per we would see 3 of the 5 missions in SA – (The Alamo included, it is after all, a mission), RiverWalk, the Farmers Market, The Chinese Gardens, and the Buckhorn Bar & Grill and the Texas Ranger Museum.

We returned from our day tour on this cute trolley.

 

Upon arrival in downtown we had to walk through the Cattlemen Stock & Rodeo set up....just prior to the running of the longhorns through downtown San Antonio...we missed it, we were on the bus. Apparently the San Antonio Rodeo began while we were in town....

 

Across the street from the tour ticket office is the beautiful and yet dark memorial to the Alamo. We were surprised to discover how small the mission actually is, Misión San Antonio de Valero-The Alamo battle is remembered for the sacrifices made for freedom, the lost so great.

Additionally we also toured Mission San Jose and Mission Concepcion....both beautiful examples of restoration efforts and historical value.

 Mission San Jose

 

Mission Concepcion

 

Buckhorn Bar and Grill...you could not pay me to eat under all these dead animals - the owners are not losing any sleep around that decision.

 

 

The Texas Ranger Museum

 

Someones 'loaned' collection of badges. However, I must say that the museum for the TX Rangers was informative, even if a bit heavy on the arms end.

 

We also got dropped at the local "trinkets for sale".... disguised as the original Farmers Market....yawn. This could easier be removed for another mission and it wouldn't be missed. Although we did stop at the Chinese Gardens, which was lovely and in bloom (it is February) I am delighted that we can say we have been there.  If just to say I saw the biggest KOI of all time here.

 

So, San Antonio, our day was filled with new sights, sounds and smells (RiverWalk dining) and we  absolutely fell in love with you. So in love, we plan to come back next year and spend more time
 



in your lovely city next year. The above photo is of the Lila Cockrell Theatre viewed from our boat cruise down the San Antonio River (part of the tour). The facade has some 400K tiles that were handmade and tells the history of San Antonio and was built for the 1968 SA World's Fair.

 

Our only regret is that we were not allowed to take any photos inside The Alamo....although a somewhat 'tourista' photographer was posted just outside the front door and as you approached you were stopped, told to smile, photo snapped and a young assistant handed you a card with your "special" photo number and you could buy it on the way out the back door. Seriously SA? Sad. Commerical. And really unnecessary. At least I thought so.

 

Meet David...our SA Alamo Tour bus driver. Native San Anton, has been providing service, history and laughs since the 1980's. Thank you....you made it so fun!

~ Adios amigos
 

Historical Del Rio, TX...not just BASS fishing y'all

We have spent the better part of 2 full weeks here in Del Rio, TX. Besides being across the Rio Grande from Acuna MX, Del Rio lies just south of the Amistad National Recreation Area - that includes a BIG , as in 50+ bass fishing competitions per year big, fishing hole.

We hadn't planned on being here this long, but a family illness/passing provided a very good reason to park ourselves. Once all that family business was tended to, we started to look around. Del Rio is interesting...

The Val Verde Winery was established in 1880, by Italian immigrants, it is the only oldest survivor of 25 original winery's in Texas, still held and operated by family on a street lined with very old pecan trees and fabulous Italian influenced homes.

And if you drive down Pecan street you actually come to the end of the road and the "FENCE".... and while much of it isn't shown here, we were stunned to see this stop short....so does one just swing around the end to immigrate? It is a source of some irritation for Mike - amusement and wonder on mine. "Let's build a fence - and stop short".

 

 

This gorgeous painting is located within the small chapel  at Whitehead Museum.

Whitehead Museum
 

Museum sign(s)

This beautiful piece is actually a fold-up bed - stunning.

 

 

A gorgeous Victrola...

 

Turn of the 20th century icebox...YIKES!

      

 

 

This is Pepe...he lives in the museum office, along with 4 other parrot ....apparently he bites.

 

 

No, we did not cross the border - even though it was a mere 8 miles away. We asked a number of people about "over there" and no one trashed it, but they didn't say - yes, you should do that. Most of the tourist shops no longer exist, restaurants are now inside Del Rio and while there are still dentists that provide good services, the Mexican Mafia control the town. They are the law. Thank you but I'll just spend my money here locally in Del Rio.

 

We are on our way to the Alamo tomorrow....giddy-up!

 

~ Adios

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A jewel in West Texas...canyons and pictroglyphs...

We discovered this jewel when looking for a place to park that was close to Del Rio....with a border town  just a short 2.8 miles to the West, you just would not know there were some of the best preserved pictroglyphs that we have seen during our travels.

 

 

Seminole Canyon, located on US 90, roughly 40 miles north of Del Rio Texas...high up on the rim of the canyon, the two nights we were there we experienced high winds. According to the park host...it is windy there much of the time. It was also on the cool side the day we decided to take the afternoon guided tour of the canyon pictographs.



 

The Maker of Peace

 While we were waiting for the canyon tour guides to appear we went for a walk around the grounds of the visitor center and came upon this beautiful bronze sculpture of the "Ancient Ones"...or how many of the pictroglyphs found in the canyon was incorporated into this art piece.  This photo does not do it justice for sure. It is so large that you can't get close enough to get a good shot of it.

 

sign says it all

 

The canyon hikes requires a guide, however there is a 7 mi /rt canyon rim trail that you can take alone and they also have volunteer guides that have scheduled hikes offered during the week.

Descriptive panels line the shelter trail

 The photo below is captured in the panel above....Paintings by Forrest Kirkland - "In 1934, Forrest developed his technique for copying the pictographs: careful measurement and scaling, pencil sketching, and then water coloring with matching colors. He didn't paint anything he couldn't see. His vision to preserve the rock art of Texas in watercolor became a mission. He would paint and Lula, his partner, would drive, scout, photograph, sketch, and cook. Lula performed most of the chores because Forrest's heart was weakened from childhood Rheumatic fever. "

 

 



 

 

With time, weather and early collectors of artifacts, the visual completeness of some of these pictroglyphs would be lost if not for Kirkland's artistry. 

 

The several shelters we were able to visit during our 90 min hike captures just some of the history of the "Ancient Ones" .... who actually traveled through this canyon and used has not been determined.

 

~ Ciao