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Big Bend completion

I had great intentions of posting the day after my last post, but the reception was just too bad. Here is the entire Big Bend completion, all in one fell swoop!

We stayed 3 nights at Stillwell store campground. We then moved to the NPS campground at Rio Grande Village. I had carefully checked the campground size, and the site was plenty long for us. However there were lots of overhanging trees and we couldn’t get in! The lovely camp host moved us to an overflow site that was very nice. We stayed there 3 nights too. During the week, we drove the dirt road to Dagger Flats, home to a large number of Giant Dagger Yuccas. They were impressive in winter, and they must have been amazing when they bloomed. The flower stalks can be 70 pounds!

Plants 10-15’ tall, flower stalks another 4-6’.

We also drove to the Chisos Basin twice, both times to eat in the lodge restaurant. The lodge isn’t one of the classic NPS ones, but the food was quite good. Of course it is the only place to eat in the park, so I am glad it was good. The views are lovely, and the Basin is up high in the mountains for a totally different experience than down in the flats.

You don’t expect colorful oak trees in the southern Texas desert!

The Chisos Basin is surrounded by spiky peaks

Looking through a gap to the valley. Sorry for the trash bins.

The third part of the park is the Rio Grande River area. The mountains on the Mexican side were tremendous. Our campground was a couple of miles from the river directly, and maybe 5 miles by road. There is an official Border Patrol crossing its you want to go across the river in a boat, but we passed. The Rio Grande also had some hot springs right on the bank. It had been a popular attraction, and there were a lot of relics left.

Lots of remnants from when the hot springs were a big draw

Palm trees always mean someone had a commercial establishment. This is the Hot Springs store.

Astonishingly we found a tree felled by a beaver someone ago

The Rio Grande isn’t very big this time of year, but the reeds show where it is during peak flow

The hot springs have pools with reclining backs built in

A very impressive colony of palms protected some picnic tables

The other big advantage desert mountains have is the quality of the light at dusk.

Just driving one of the backcountry roads and saw a hawk

We saw only one javalina this trip, but we saw lots and lots of roadrunners! They are obviously experienced camp robbers, but they found us uncooperative. One walked up fewer than 3 feet away from me! We also had a resident coyote in the campground that cruised the dumpster hoping someone was messy. He was always disappointed while we were there.

We left the National Park today, and we took a slow road west through Big Bend Ranch State Park. This place had incredible scenery! It also was very empty past the entry point. Most people use the road we were on for river access since it parallels the Rio Grand closely. There just isn’t much river running in mid January though! It was lucky for me we had such limited traffic because the roads were narrow, steep, and winding. With no one behind me (only 3 cats passed me in 25-30 miles) I could slow down and enjoy the ride and the view. The most challenging section was a 15% (yes, 15%) grade both up and down. The diesel motorhome took it slowly and steadily, 15 mph up and 12 mph down. I doubt I ever break that grade record.

We now are spending the night at Van Horn RV Park where we stayed last year. They have a cute little restaurant with good food, so no cooking for us tonight.

Big Bend Day 1

We spent Sunday night at the Abilene KOA, and we made it to Stillwell Store and Campground by early afternoon Monday. The campgrounds d where we are is just a huge gravel area, but there is power and water plus big sites. For $25 I won’t complain!

This will be a somewhat disjointed post since we have pretty bad WiFi at the Visitor Center, and no data on the phone at all most of the time. Tuesday we did a lot of driving – into the park on the main drive, then headed west to Maverick Junction and the dirt Old Maverick Road, the back to hard surface road to Sana’a Elena Canyon, Castolon, and back to the entrance road. It was a long day.

I hadn’t been to Big Bend since my senior year in college, so I had no memory of the scenery. It is Chihuahuan desert, different from the Mohave, Sonoran, and Great Basin deserts I am familiar with. Nice mountains. Lots of volcanic rock intermixed with old sedimentary rock.

The Chisos Mountains are the major backdrop. — It was very hazy

The park service has left more signs of humans here than in any other park I have visited.

This was the jacal (home) of Gilberto Luna. He farmed here for many, many years.

Below Castolon. Home to a cotton rancher.

Homer Wilson ranch house. The circular wooden corral is still there.

We saw a lot of roadrunners, but only one cooperated for a (poor) picture.

We also saw a few mule deer. This one was hanging out less than a mile from the Panther Junction Visitor Center.

There were actually three in this group.

I will post day 2 tomorrow since we are still on it!

And we are traveling again!

Between Christmas and the New Year we cleaned the house, put up the Christmas decorations, and tried not to bring too much “stuff”. We left Iowa on New Year’s Day, headed to Yukon, OK to pick up the coach. Everything we well. The motorhome refrigerator worked just fine, and the “penny on a cup of ice” was still on top of the ice when we got there. I do love solar! We spent the evening setting up in a rather boring campground (Mustang Run in Yukon) and putting away all the stuff we brought with us. We spent the next few days just stocking the refrigerator, trying to remember how everything worked (how could we have forgotten so much in 7 weeks?), seeing family, and doing some preventative maintenance. I didn’t take a picture of the campground because it was so boring. Nice long, flat spots with a picnic table, but no trees, no playground, and right next to busy I-40. The traffic was so loud and so continuous that it actually became white noise and didn’t bother us at all trying to sleep. It was convenient for what we needed though, so we will probably stay here again if needed.

Today we drove to Abilene, TX, spending the night in the KOA. It is actually fairly nice. It is next to the highway, but there are enough barriers that the noise isn’t bothersome at all. The campground has lots of long term residents, probably associated with the local oil industry based on the trucks parked in front of the trailers and fifth wheels. Housing is a real issue in the oil fields, and the ones living here are definitely luckier than many. The campground even has some trees and good spacing between the sites.

Long sites plus the mistletoe-garnished trees

We did a huge grocery shopping trip today since we are headed to the Big Bend area tomorrow. We have 350 miles to get to Stillwell Store and RV Park on the east side of Big Bend National Park. We will stay there until we head to our park reservation later in the week. I don’t know when I will have data service, but I will have pictures ready for when I do.

Christmas preparation and aftermath

The truffles were great, best I have made in a few years. The sugared pecans were a huge hit, and I have had to make two more batches. My oldest three grandchildren, 6 and 10, joined me for a cookie decorating extravaganza. I think I made too many cookies!

I made about 10 dozen cookies, way too many!

Notice the fully covered table and fully aproned cookie decorators

Our Christmas cantata at church was a roaring success. The choir sounded fantastic, and the instrumentalists (two violins, viola, cello, trumpet, flute, and a keyboardist filling in for an oboe) brought it to the next level. We might not do as challenging of music as the choir in Utah, but the sound was actually just as good. I guess it does help to be in a college town with a strong music program!

The two oldest girls also came over for a crafting afternoon before Christmas. We made Christmas ornaments with vinyl decorations, decorated multi-purpose boxes with vinyl, and used HTV vinyl applied to shirts they brought with them. We were busy for 4 1/2 hours, and I was exhausted! The girls really did have fun, and they were operating the vinyl cutter independently before we were done. Too bad I didn’t take pictures of the shirts or boxes. We even made a set for the younger brother who just wasn’t quite up to the afternoon.

Christmas was held at my oldest son’s house, and it was also a success. I had three of the four children there plus spouses and most of the grandchildren. Luckily my son has a big house, though we didn’t stay with them (we live only a few minutes away). My contribution to food was all the makings for a pot roast, made in the Instant Pot, plus carrots and red potatoes for roasting. It was delicious, as was the ham and sides made by my daughter in law on the previous day.

I also got some sewing done! The quilt I made for the motorhome shrunk more than I expected, and it was about an inch short on all sides, I added a new 4” border to make up for it. Of course I couldn’t find any fabric of the same design, but I found some that coordinates well enough. It was a real pain, but I have it done except for the binding. I always serge the edge of the my quilt before binding, so it is good for the bed now if I don’t get the binding finished. I plan on getting the binding cut and pieced tomorrow, but I may or may not do the top stitching before the trip. I’d rather spend the time cleaning up the house and getting the laundry all done.

The bad thing that happened was with Lily, our cat. We had planned a preventative ultrasound and a tooth cleaning, but the vet found a small mass with a sore on her leg while shaving it before an IV. The vet had removed a basal cell cancer from Lily’s neck earlier in the year, so she was concerned. They called me, and we agreed to excise the small mass while she was already under sedation. Luckily the mass was benign, but we had one very, very unhappy cat for the almost two weeks it took for her wound to heal.

She already looked like a bit of a bobble head doll because of the neck skin removed in her earlier surgery, but the cone rubbed off even more hair! She will fill it out in a few months though. She is somewhere between 11 and 14 years old, and she has started losing enough weight we have moved her off her diet food to a more traditional senior diet. She had gotten above 10 pounds a few years back, and she should be about 8 pounds. She finally made it to 8 pounds, 2 ounces so she can go back to regular food. She does like her food!

We are now packing up for the next trip. We leave Iowa on Wednesday, New Yearks Day, and pick up the motorhome west of Oklahoma City. We will stay there a few days visiting family and restocking the refrigerator. We have reservations at Big Bend National Park beginning 9 January so we have quite a bit of time to get there. When we were on our way to Iowa, i wasn’t sure I wanted another long trip, but I am definitely looking forward to traveling again.

Thanksgiving and preparations for Christmas

Be prepared for a long post since it has been so long since my last post. I just don’t seem to get around to putting a post together when we are at the “sticks and bricks.” When I last posted, we weren’t quite at Thanksgiving. We had dinner on Wednesday because my daughter worked on Thursday. I used the Alton Brown brining recipe, and it was phenomenal! Absolutely the best turkey I have ever made. Even the white meat was good, and that is from a dedicated dark meat person. I made too many pies, but I have finally mastered a good pie crust made in the food processor. I splurged last summer on a Breville food processor, and it is phenomenal. Mashed sweet potatoes with butter and just a touch of brown sugar, mashed white potatoes, and braised green beans in the Instant Pot finished up dinner for seven adults and four children. The baby wasn’t interested 😁.

I have also been sewing a little. I made some stuff toys for the almost 3 year old grandson, but I forgot to take pictures. I tried making the baby granddaughter a pair of knit harem pants off a free pattern. The baby is very long though, so they needed to be longer. I will adapt the pattern before I make it again. They were just a trial run made with scraps I had around.

I have also been doing some vinyl work. I made a onesie to go with the pants that said “The Snuggle is Real” (forgot a picture), and a tshirt for almost 3 year old with reindeer names on them, both with heat transfer vinyl. I also did some Christmas ornaments with Oracal 651, a regular adhesive vinyl.

I have an assortment of them with different designs, and I have more I am going to do.

Kevin was busy outside. Looks pretty good! He has also ordered a lighted nativity scene that will sit on the porch. Kevin likes his lights.

Lights on the house and tree plus some deer and trees

We have also had some challenges. Our cat, Lily, had her teeth cleaned and a growth removed from her leg. She had a basal skin cancer removed a year and a half ago, so I am worried. It will be a few more days before we get the pathology report. The other really challenging news is my son’s dog, Lexi, who used to belong to us, is in final renal failure. She will cross the bridge on Saturday. She had a good life at 15 years, and she only had serious health problems in the last year. My son is devastated. He has had Lexi as his best bud for a number of years beginning when he moved to Montana for grad school 8-9 years ago.

Enough of bad news. My kitchen is also preparing for Christmas. I also made about 120-150 rolled sugar cookies. My oldest grandchildren will be here Saturday to decorate them. I might have gotten carried away though! I made some wonderful sugared pecans and the chocolate truffles will be finished tomorrow. They are a multi day process. I haven’t decided if I will make pressed cookies too, but I am thinking about it. I have an interesting ginger recipe that I would like to try. The Christmas music is also going full bore. I have been to a number of rehearsals for our church Christmas concert on Sunday afternoon. It is a variation of the traditional Lessons and Carols service.

Kevin and I were lucky enough to go to a production of Cabaret by the local university. It was a very moving show, and the ending was shocking and disquieting. As we left in silence we walked by a container of shoes, a nod to the Holocaust that many of the characters experienced. I did not expect such a professional show by a mid-level college; my error!

I will try to be more regular in my posts going forward.

Home again

No pictures for this post. We spent Tuesday night in Albuquerque at the American RV Park. Nice place, but close to the highway. Luckily it was more of a continuous hum rather than intermittent jake brakes. Wednesday we headed rest of the way across New Mexico and all of Texas. It was long enough that Kevin got to drive some, a rare thing. We ended up at a tiny RV park 1 mile into Oklahoma called Double D. It was a very inexpensive park since we used our Passport America membership to get it half off. Otherwise I wouldn’t recommend it. There were maybe 2 spots that had the trees trimmed back enough for us, and they were having water problems so only an electrical hookup was available. It would be fine for most travel trailers or small motorhomes.

We got up early and headed to Yukon, a suburb of Oklahoma City. Maverick Run RV Park is quite nice with roomy sites and clear views. It was quite empty this time of year, but I understand it is really busy in the warmer parts of the year. We spent a full day getting the motorhome ready to go into storage. We are going to live dangerously and keep the refrigerator turned on, hoping the solar keeps the batteries charged enough. That mean cleaning out everything that wasn’t sealed, just in case. Kevin cleaned the tanks as well as he could, and I got the last 4 loads of laundry done. I even got the sheets and towels all washed! It will be nice to come back to a clean place.

Both of us were excited to head home, and we were up early on Saturday. Kevin and I winterized the motorhome, dropped it in the storage lot, and headed on the 600 mile trip to Iowa by a little after 9:00 am. We made it home around 8:00 pm The house seems huge, and Lily seemed quite impressed. She kept running up and down stairs, playing with the stuffed mice Kevin gave her. The housekeeper had come on Friday, and the place is as spotless as she usually leaves it. I doubt it will stay that way long!

So far we have gone through 4 months of mail (!), renewed car and utility trailer tags, had dinner with our oldest son and his family, lunch with the second son and daughter, and talked to our third son. I also picked up more allergy drops and got my Viking sewing machine looked at. Oh, and I had a birthday with a lovely dinner! Now I am in the midst of planning Thanksgiving dinner (planned for Wednesday) along with practicing for our church choir concert in a few weeks. Enough to keep busy, for sure!

A Grand Canyon detour

It always takes a long time to restore order in the motorhome whenever we have been in one place for a while. After two weeks at Furnace Creek NPS campground, it took us about an hour and a half to get ready to leave. It is amazing how much stuff gets pulled out of the storage bays when we are stationary for a while – grill, Dutch ovens, picnic table cover, chairs, mats, and even more. The inside was a mess too with dust and dirt everywhere. I do vacuum every 4-5 days so the tile floors don’t get scratched, but that wasn’t even close to enough. Wiping counters and other surfaces, dusting, vacuuming, and even mopping was the order of the day. We didn’t leave until just after 10:00.

Sunday night we stayed at Fort Beale RV park in Kingman, AZ – back to mountain time. Not a bad place, though we just barely fit in the big pull through we had. The Grand Cherokee is a big vehicle, and we didn’t want to unhook. We did do some serious thinking about the route back to Iowa though, and spent some time on various weather apps checking forecasts for later in the week. It is nasty in the central part of the country right now, but it is forecast to be much better by when we would be driving through. Therefore we decided to take I-40 instead of the longer (and more boring) I-10/20. The other major consideration is when we will travel through Albuquerque, the only big city on the trip. I much prefer going through any big city between 9:00 and 3:00, so that generally means staying close to the city one night, if possible. Balancing all of that, we chose to spend last night at Twin Arrow Casino that provides free overnight stays in their parking lot. And since it was only a bit over 120 miles from Kingman, we took a quick detour to the Grand Canyon!

I love this view because it shows the river

Even with the smoky haze blurring the view, the canyon is amazing.

We did get a bit of a surprise at the southern edge of the park with these horses.

They were just grazing at the side of the road.

A shy foal was hungry. Mom was keeping an eye on us.

Since they were right by a sign for a riding stable, we called the number, thinking they were escapees. Nope, they were wild horses the man responded. What a nice thing to run across.

We are now at the American RV Park on the west side of Albuquerque, a drive of about 300 miles. Nice place, and mostly empty this time of year. We have a huge pull through so no unhitching needed. Tomorrow we will be in Double D RV Park in Texola, OK, right at the TX/OK border. It will be a long day, 400 miles, so I may even let Kevin drive some! Then we will arrive in the OKC area for two nights, setting the rig up for storage. No more posts probably until I can recover at the house in Iowa.

Titus Canyon, Artist Palette, 20 mule team, and heading home

Folks, you just thought I had a lot of pictures in previous posts! Get ready for even more.

The most amazing thing we saw at this year’s Encampment was a 20 mule team pulling newly built borax wagons. The wagons are 2 years old, and carefully created by a wagon builder in Montana to the original specifications. They are huge! The Death Valley Conservancy paid for them, and they helped fund the mule team too. The mules are from Bobby Tanner, an outfitter and packer in the Sierras, and he is one of only a handful of people able to manage such a team.

See the FedEx truck? Yeah, so did everyone else! The road was closed, but he thought he could get past the NPS, CHP, and the Sheriffs. Didn’t work out too well for him.

This is Kevin’s picture, taken from a high hill so you can see the bigger picture. The wagon train consisted of two huge wagons for borax, a water tank, 18 mules, and 2 horses. Yes, the term “20 mule team” is a bit inaccurate, but that’s the way it was done historically. And the team isn’t driven from the wagon but through a “jerk line” wielded by Bobby Tanner in the blue shirt and hat on the horse in front.

And I got the most amazing video I have ever made! Click on the link to see it, and turn up the volume to hear the mule bells. Watch towards the back of the team to see a mule “jumping the chain” to change the wagon direction. The wagons had solid axles, and they had to be turned by brute force.

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We didn’t hit many of the standard places for Death Valley pictures because we have done them so often. We did make an exception for Titus Canyon and Artist’s Palette. Titus Canyon requires a high clearance vehicle and some confidence, but it is a lovely drive. It is one way on a very rough gravel/rock road with tight turns and steep climbs, but the views are well worth it.

You eventually drive down a wash with narrow walls

The town of Leadfield boomed for about 6 months and died. It was a hoax.

Someone didn’t believe the road needed high clearance. This resulted in a dead car and two days of the canyon shut down until they could tow the car out.

On the road into the canyon from Beatty.

Look at the layers curling more than vertical! That is an example of the stress the land has undergone

The Artist’s Palette is another famous section of one way road. The formations has different minerals that provide a wide range of colors. And no, the green isn’t copper.

It is pretty, isn’t it? I hope you now believe Death Valley is more than sand dunes and dull brown rocks.

We left this morning for the 1200 mile trip back to Iowa. We made it to Kingman, AZ at Fort Beale RV Park. Quite a change from the spacious spot we had at DVNP, but such is life. We did get rewarded by a fantastic sunset tonight though. Too bad it is the result of smoke from the fires in California.

Emigrant Canyon, Skidoo Mill, and the 49er Encampment

On Monday we took a 4WD trip with ten other 49er vehicles to Emigrant Canyon and Skidoo. We had a good time, saw cool stuff, and gave the Jeep a good workout! We started up Emigrant Canyon to the mines and mill remnants near Emigrant Spring. It was a fine gravel road.

Not much left, but this cabin is in reasonable shape

Not all mine shafts are closed. This is one near Emigrant Spring

We continued to the townsite of Skidoo, an important gold mining area in the mountains just southwest of Stovepipe Wells. There isn’t much left of the town, just some old roads and metal fragments.

Not much left of the mine either, and we had too many vehicles to get there

The mill is in great shape. Notice the fifteen stamps still in the frame

Many of the mines were covered with bay friendly covers

It was over a 20% grade. Jeep made it just fine.

Looking toward Mesquite Dunes by Stovepipe Wells

We spent the next few days just hanging around and doing Encampment stuff. I participated in the amateur night known as Coyote Howl doing the Robert Service poem “The Shooting of Dan McGrew”. It went quite well. The professional music has been good too. We spent time watching the blacksmith and chow wagon crews too.

The Dutch Oven demos provided cobbler samples. Yum!

Portable blacksmith shop was making things. They let visitors help too.

One of the highlights is the historical character re-enactment by Steve Hale. This year he portrayed Snowshoe Johnson who used some of the first skis in the US. AS A Norwegian, he had grown up with them, and used them to run the first mail route over the Sierras in winter.

Oh, and we had dinner with friends from the RV Forum.

I will save the posts about the 20 mule team, the borax wagons, and the wagon train until after we leave tomorrow. I should have cell service in Kingman where we hope to stay.

Death Valley

We tried to camp in Valley of Fires on Thursday, but the two rigs in front of us got the last two big sites. We didn’t win that specific lottery, but I will definitely come back another time. Yes, the rocks are really, really red.

We decided to push on towards Death Valley. The plan was to stay at Stovepipe Wells, but the NPS campgrounds was closed due to no campground host. The private campground was full, so we drove south towards Sunset Campground. It is a NPS campground that never gets full; if it is getting close, they just open up an overflow area! Lovely place with a great view of the Funeral Mountains to the east. We stayed there 3 nights than moved into our reservation site at the NPS Furnace Creek campground. Huge site, incredible views, and full hookups! I have tried to score a campsite here for years, but we got lucky this time with the reservation. We will try here until after the 49er Encampment is over on 10 November, then start working our way home.

While we were at Furnace Creek we got a huge windstorm. It came in with a blast at 4:00 am, and it was obvious many weren’t prepared. It was making the slide topper flap so loudly that we ended up bringing in both of the front slides. They are so long, especially the kitchen slide, that the wind can catch them badly. We saw the poor camp host picking up pieces of broken awnings and pop up shelters the next morning. The Texas Springs campground popular with tenters is closed due to no custodians (!!!), so the tenters are forced to stay in Sunset when Furnace Creek is full, which is most of the time.

One of the interesting things at Sunset Campground is the music provided before the Encampment formally opens. A few guys setup a complete stage with sound system, and people come to play and jam. They are always considerate, and the music stops promptly at 9:00 or before for quiet hours. I had a picture, but it was so blurry I am not posting it. They played every night we were there, and it was a pleasant evening listen.

On Saturday we went to Pahrump to eat at a really great Thai restaurant we visit once (or more) each trip – Chat Thai. We actually tried again today, but the were closed! We ended up at Qu BBQ, which wasn’t bad, but the Thai place would have been better. Kevin is making a big Walmart and grocery run while I am posting this. There is no significant data service at the campground because Furnace Creek has a private network, so I have to drive quite a ways to get any service at all. Voice and messages work find though.

We have been able to take some nice 4WD trips though. We visited Echo Canyon, going by Eye of the Needle, and ending up at Inyo townsite and mill. Warning: lots of pictures ahead!

I told you I liked rocks! Look at the itty bitty window at the top.

The washed away parts look like they left a waterfall of rock

Eye of the Needle is appropriately named

Eye of the Needle is actually about 10’ high

Contrary to the sign, the mine was up the hillside quite a ways. This is the remnant of the mill

Fascinating subterranean house in good condition

Lots of artifacts were collected on this table in front of another decrepit building

I can never have too much of the rocks in DVNP

Looking down from the canyon towards Badwater Basin with the Panamint as a backdrop

Today we visited Hole in the Rock and an old travertine quarry.

Rabbitbush is about the only thing in bloom.

My favorite cactus, the many-headed barrel cactus

The weathering looks like little goblin houses

The “Hole in the Wall” is between the light and dark walls, 40-50’ wide and hard to see until you are on it

The quarry where travertine was taken for the Borax Company headquarters in Los Angeles

This has taken way too long! Even in Pahrump I am on a relatively slow data connection, so I am now done. Well, until the next dump of photos from wonderful Death Valley!

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