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I can't do any color other than gray today, though the day wasn't bad. We actually enjoyed our time here. It rained ALL day here! We began the day with breakfast over in the Rally Hall -- all-you-can-eat pancakes, eggs, bacon, and juice. Mmm! It was hot, freshly made, and delicious!
Then we came back here for some computer time, as we listened to the rain pepper down on the RV. Yes, we could have gone into town in the KOA shuttle, but it would have cost us $14 to the show area and $24 had we wanted to go to the historic downtown area. When I hear "shuttle," I'm thinking "free" or maybe a buck or two.
We did take a walk during a break in the rain and went to the Craft Mall. Here there are actual craftspeople showing their work, and there was good stuff! There was a Men's Area, where men theoretically sit on a couch and watch tube while their ladies shop. Well, Jack loves to shop, so we just chuckled about that Men's Area.
As bad as last night's dinner was, tonight's was that good! This was at Rails, a catfish joint known only to the locals... and us! The people were really nice, the service great, and the food was delicious with great variety. :)
We drove yesterday to Checotah, Oklahoma, to a beautiful little KOA campground on I-40. While it was wet, the campground was still lovely, with lots of thoughtful extras. This morning's breakfast we got at the campground's cafe, for example! And it was delicious.
After unhooking, we headed out, with Branson, Missouri in our sights. The drive was mostly uneventful, but we did have to wait for about an hour, while a head-on crash was cleaned up, about 1/2 mile up the road. The road was curvy and lovely, and I'm hopeful that the two drivers involved are patched up successfully and are able to better navigate this road again another day.
We got here at about 4, and got hooked up and level. Then we grabbed our raincoats, just in case, and headed to town to check out the sights. We walked about 2 miles to the outlet mall, where we bought Jack two new shirts and some other little things, and then decided to head back, grabbing some supper on the way.
That's when it started to rain. And it rained. And it poured. Sheesh. My pants were so wet that they stuck to my legs. My feet squished in my shoes. My hood wasn't enough to keep my hair dry.
We sloshed into Dockers, a place offering an all-you-can-eat buffet for $9.99. This place was not good. The food was mostly dried out. There were no sauces for the seafood. Variety wasn't even good. We were relieved that they didn't ask us how it was when we checked out.
It had stopped raining when we left there, but we were still wet, and now cold. We changed into dry things when we got back here, just in time for it to resume raining! Perfect evening for doing some blogging...
Today my friend Lynell picked us up at our campground, and we all went to the Dallas Arboretum. While the day was off-and-on rainy, the light was great for photos, and the arboretum was lovely.
We lunched at the elegant cafe and all enjoyed our meal. The gift shop was fine, with many interesting things, including a pretty pin for our collection!
On we went, back to pick up David, and then out to dinner at El Fenix. Tex-Mex is good food! :) Jack and I really enjoyed our day! Now it's pouring, but we're warm and dry, getting set to rest up for another big day tomorrow.
If you should find yourself in Midland, Texas, the hometown of George W and Laura Bush, looking for something interesting to do, check out the Petroleum Museum. Driving through the central US, you can't help but notice the zillions of "crickets," or gas/oil pumping gizmos operating in fields. These things up close are HUGE! We also saw and took pics of drilling rigs and .. just all kinds of oil-related stuff. Fun museum. There was even a fine gallery of paintings depicting the early oil-exploration and drilling in the Permian Basin.
After that, we found a grocery and laid in some supplies, so that we'd be able to have dinner tonight! A little further down the road (about 3 hours), we landed at the Abilene KOA, where we are tonight. A pretty little campground, this is one at which I've stayed twice before!
For those of you who are craving Janee-photos, here are some!
These are from Carlsbad Caverns:
Here are some shots from the Hubbard Museum in Ruidoso Downs, NM:
And here are some little green men from Roswell, NM:
and some other photos from Roswell:
Terlingua's Ghost Town offered some fun photography opportunities:
So.. whatdya think? Sorry about the graphic nature of the alien photos, but.. I only report what I see!
We awoke fairly early this morning, and, after a quick breakfast and unhook, we drove up to the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend. We parked in a fairly level spot in the overflow parking near the campground, and got set for our hike!
The hike was the Window trail, and it was fantastic! The trail was fairly level, with a slight decline going out, and a slight uphill coming back. And the scenery was extraordinary! Yes, photos will follow.
Tonight we're in Fort Stockton, Texas, having said goodbye to Big Bend after our lunch at the lodge. Temps in Big Bend, by the way, were up just over 100°. That's hot! Here it is not quite as warm, especially tonight.
We drove today from Alpine, TX down to Terlingua, TX, right down on the border of Mexico, in the Big Bend area of Texas. We visited the Terlingua Ghost Town, and it was very cool, with many ruins. The town was abandoned with the beginning of WWII, so it's a somewhat "new" ghost town. We had a great time, and got some cool photos! (I'll be posting these soon!)
We're staying tonight at Terlingua, in a pleasant, though loud, campground. It's hot, but there's a nice breeze. We're considering putting on the AC just to drown out the biker noise.
LOL I know I am way behind with my daily blogging, but I'm not going to try to catch up now. I will tell you what we've been doing, but photos will have to wait till another time.
We left our heroes in Roswell, NM at the Town & Country RV Park. What a nice place that was! Very neat and clean, and just what we needed. After I was finished with posting those bajillion photos, we collapsed, exhausted, into bed.
Monday we sort of took the day off. Well, almost. We did laundry and then headed downtown, to see the Roswell UFO Museum. They have this museum set up chronologically, and it's all geared toward convincing us that the "Roswell incident" actually did involve a spaceship and alien beings. Me? I'm not easy to convince. ;)
After that, we left the RV behind the museum and walked a mile north on Main Street to a fine Italian restaurant, where we shared a sandwich. The walk back was quite warm, but we were well-fed!
A maintenance stop at Wal*Mart, and we went back to hook up at Town & Country for another night.
Tuesday morning, we stopped at Fatman's Beef Jerky. Yep, you read that right! There, in Roswell, is a beef jerky FACTORY! This man used to be in the meat business, growing cattle and producing beef. Now he and his wife produce fabulous jerky!
Jack and I went in expecting just to buy some, but Rick gave us a tour, showing us the whole place. We went from the vacuum room to the oven room, and then into the freezer, to see the meat as he gets it (from a producer friend of his!) The whole experience was jaw-dropping. The place was spotlessly clean, and I've never had better jerky! And yes, we did buy a bunch!
We left Fatman's and drove toward Carlsbad Caverns. We stayed at the Whites City RV Park, which.. has seen better days. At least the electrical service was good, the sites were fairly level, and ... well, that's about all that was good. LOL!
We secured our site and then high-tailed it up the hill to the Carlsbad Caverns. We made it there just exactly at 2pm, and, wouldn't you know, the last entrance to the cave via the Natural Entrance was at 2pm!
What a fabulous time we had in the cave! The walk was easy and fun, and we each took lots of photos. Of course, with the very low light, we will have to review our photos to see how many will be worth showing to *you*!
After we came back out of the cave, we drove back down the hill to our camp. There was a restaurant across the street, and we opted to visit it. Other than being turtliciously slow, (amazingly, my computer thinks that "turtlicious" is a word!) the food was good, and we both enjoyed the people working there.
While we were parked there, I finished up the project of making window coverings for our front windows. They're slick and work pretty well, attaching to the window frames with industrial velcro, though their insulative qualities are not as good as the ones that I'd bought for the 2007 Navion. That is because I bought cheap car window insulators from which to fashion them. Oh well.. I can upgrade these if I want. I have nearly no money in these.
Today's drive took us to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, which we essentially drove past, though we did take a short nature trail there, and went to the Visitor's Center.
We arrived at Fort Davis Historical Site at 4:15 (since we'd lost an hour), and they closed at 5:00. At least Jack's National Park Pass gets us in free, so we took advantage of the 45 minutes we had!
On down the road a little, we stopped at the Lost Alaskan RV Park, and that's where I am now! We walked to town about a mile and a half, and had dinner at a barbecue steak place, and it was great!
Jack and I had a great time hiking around the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site yesterday. Between about 900 and 1400 CE, the Jornada Mogollon people created these petroglyphs by knocking the patina off of the rocks with other rocks. There are over 21,000 of these glyphs on the hillsides there. Jack and I hiked all over the mountain, and we both took lots of photos. Here are some of mine:
Many of the glyphs are of animals:
And there are animal tracks:
Some are representative of people or parts of people:
This one is a man ;)
Many of the glyphs are of birds:
Fanciful creatures abound:
Of course, I also love the geometric figures:
Last evening we stayed at Ruidoso Downs, at a nice RV Park called Circle B. Although we had a brief power outage this morning, we were still able to get duded up for church. We went to the First Presbyterian Church in Ruidoso Downs, and it was fun. They did a service in memory of the Holocaust. Parts of the service were read in Hebrew, and the pastor told us how evil stuff like tends to start out with small and subtle steps.
After the service we were invited to eat with the congregation at their Potluck luncheon! It was wonderful and we enjoyed meeting more of the people.
Then we drove on to... Ruidoso! LOL we did not get very far very fast! We went to the Hubbard Museum of the West, and it was very nice. They had lots of really fine carriages, horse things, Indian artifacts icluding neat baskets and kachinas, and many other things.
Since by now it was getting along toward 3 pm, we drove just to Roswell, where we are staying at the Town & Country RV Park. You can see us in the "Where is Janee now?" link over to the right!
