Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

We find ourselves in a quirky little town tonight, if only briefly, but it has been a memorable visit so far... Seeking out some hot springs to visit (it's hot, dry work traveling through the desert) we learned that Truth or Consequences changed its name from Hot Springs in the 1950's to capitalize on a popular radio show of the day. We further learned that the town was located next to the Rio Grande River (which we'd enjoyed so much at Big Bend National Park) and that there were lots of places set up to exploit the hot springs. We're at the Artesian Campground tonight. We're paying $6/night for dry camping (no water, sewer or electrical hook-up). But for an additional $6 we were able to secure a private hot tub for a 1 hour family soak. After each session they empty the water, wash the tub and await the next patron. The 5' x 6' tub is 3' deep and has a huge pipe bringing 108F naturally heated spring water into it when the faucet is open. We inserted the "plug" and turned the tap. Water poured in and filled the tub in just a few minutes. A cold water shower is situated above the tub to cool off and/or rinse under. For the next hour we soaked and splashed in our private hot tub. Very cool! We spent the previous 2 nights in Alamogordo, NM (somewhat of an armpit place) as the winds whipped up to 30-40 mph with 50-60 mph occasional gusts -- a little intimidating for an 11' high van to be out driving in. When Monday mellowed out a little we enjoyed a short hike around the Three Rivers Petroglyphs about 30 miles out of town then escaped to the movies to see, "Monsters versus Aliens". This morning we checked out of Alamogordo to a sunny day and spent a few hours scrambling about on the extremely white gypsum sand dunes of White Sands National Monument before heading to Las Cruces for a delicious lunch (double thumbs-up from the whole family) and a 2-hour trek up to Truth & Consequences. Tomorrow we head south-west again and into Arizona (a state that does NOT observe Daylight Saving so our clocks get tweaked once again). In the later part of April and early May we'll do more touring through the northern parts of New Mexico, including Albuquerque.

Near Carlsbad Cavern, New Mexico

We spent last night near "the top of Texas" at Guadalupe National Park. Tonight we're 20 miles outside the town of Carlsbad in New Mexico (and now into Mountain Time).

On our way to the Guadalupe Mountains we did a fascinating tour of the MacDonald Observatory just outside Fort Davis, having spent the night at a very cold and windy Fort Davis RV park. Unfortunately the cold weather persisted and stopped us from going to the Star Party in the same evening as we did the MacDonald Observatory Solar program. It was blowing 25-30 mph on an already cold day that didn't go above 40F. Night temperatures were predicted in the low 30's - which they reached - so we were happy to miss the freezing weather (hiding out in the van) after loving the 90's we'd been experiencing just a few days earlier.

Today the girls completed Junior Ranger programs for both Guadalupe National Park AND Carlsbad Caverns National Park. This afternoon we were 790 feet underground exploring the cavern. Fantastic stuff!

Internet access remains patchy. This update is being sent from Doug's cell phone.

Big Bend National Park, Texas

When you want to “get away from it all”, then Big Bend National Park is a place you should consider. We arrived here on March 21st after spending three days in San Antonio and a day traveling to get here. The contrast could not be starker. The enveloping quietness of west Texas, produced in part by large open spaces and very few people, carries into the park. Nights are astonishing for their brilliant star display and the total quiet that surrounds the campground. Days are warm – getting to 95F near the Rio Grande River but a little cooler at higher elevations. Evenings cool off pleasantly and are nearly completely bug free (at least at this time of the year). We’ve been sitting outside for dinner and leaving the windows open on the van to let in cool, refreshing evening air while we sleep. Big Bend has proven to be one of those places where a photo cannot do justice to the amazing 360 degree vistas. It is seemingly impossible to capture the true impression of a 1,000 foot canyon wall, or the winding Rio Grande River, or the 5-6,000 foot spires that surround the Chiso Basin campground, or the magnificent sunsets that paint fire on the clouds and redefine the color of sky blue, or the constellation of stars seemingly within reach because they shine so brightly… Big Bend is definitely a place you experience by being here. While we’ve stayed at campgrounds easily accessible in our van it’s apparent that 4WD camping inside the park would give access to some incredible back country experiences. We’ll save those for another day. We have made the most of some shorter (less than 4 mile) hikes enjoying the abundance and variety of cactus plants as well as seeing and hearing some of the more than 450 bird species that frequent the park. Our favorite is the ever present Road Runner. Fortunately, rain that fell in the park two weeks ago combined with the shift to springtime has brought blooms to some cactus – much to Denise’s delight. Our favorite hike: the Window Trail. For nearly 2 miles we descended from our Chiso Basin campground at 5,400 feet elevation basically following a water course that wound its way through an ever-changing terrain – from open grass lands with cacti, into treed forests and further down into rocky, high-walled canyons – where the ancient water course had scoured away the sides of the canyons and large boulders to a smooth, polished finish. The water course is the only way water escapes from the high mountain basin. At the end of the trail, the small creek cut through narrow canyon walls (the Window) and emptied over a 200 foot sheer cliff drop. Upon arrival Ruth ran off to see where the creek ended. Luckily we were able to convince that she should stop (IMMEDIATELY). Hearts in our mouths, Ruth stopped. Then she realized that the next few yards of her run took here over the cliff – something we’d noticed but she seemed to have missed. After a short stop we began our climb out of the valley and back to our campsite. The girls loved the Window Trail hike. Other hikes have taken us along the Rio Grande to a natural Hot Springs where we spent some time soaking in the late afternoon. We also explored a few canyons carved over thousands of years by the Rio Grande. Apparently the Rio Grande flooded wildly back in September last year when hurricanes in Mexico dumped a deluge of rain inland that made its way to the Rio Grande. There were signs of silt and debris all on the river banks and around the lower campgrounds. In some places where the silt had not yet been cleared it was 6 feet deep. We were saddened to realize that a rich Mexican cultural experience that lies literally a stone’s throw across the Rio Grande has been made impenetrable from recent years of fear-driven policy to prevent border crossings. Small towns immediately across the Rio Grande thrived by supplying arts, crafts and authentic Mexican meals in their small village restaurants to Big Bend visitors. They are now dying off. In a bygone era the craft sellers (and restaurateurs) would ferry tourists across the Rio Grande in their small boats. Today they leave their goods displayed on the US side of the river, near main trails, with a payment jar nearby. We can see and hear the Mexicans moving about on the other side of the river – even singing and chatting - but no physical contact is permitted. If we were to cross the Rio Grande, an easy wade in some places, a US citizen runs the risk of being barred from re-entering the United States. Correspondingly, any Mexico national from the nearby villages caught crossing into the US would be fined, jailed and eventually returned to Mexico. As an arbitrary means to enforce the invisible wall, all Mexican made arts and crafts purchased by Big Bend visitors are declared contraband – with fines and loss of property imposed for anyone caught with them. (So much for the US-Mexico free trade agreement). The irony is that, in an area where plants and animals don’t recognize this artificial border, a very porous border relationship has successfully existed for more than 100 years allowing trade and services to flow freely between those who live and work in the area, on either side of the border. This has now ceased. Overall, this unusual situation is quite at odds with what we saw along the shared US-Canadian border. We celebrated 7 months on the road here at Big Bend National Park by lashing out on a “room” and dinner at the Chiso Mountain Lodge. Our room is one of the Roosevelt Stone Cottages. These small stone buildings were built in the 1930’s for officers of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Apparently there has been some very famous people stay here, including Lady Bird Johnson and Franklin Roosevelt. Our cottage has 3 double beds and a spectacular view looking toward the west from high within the Chiso Basin, and toward The Window. The thick stone walls keep the room cool during the day and warm at night. The 3 foot high stone wall railing that forms part of the verandah has been worn smooth over the years from the very many people who did just as we did yesterday – sit on the wall and watch the sunset. Given that we’ve been camping every night since leaving San Antonio, we were most appreciative of the shower and fresh towels! Today we head onward to Fort Davis and for a “Star Party” at the MacDonald Observatory on Friday night. Our travels take us into New Mexico over the weekend and another time zone change – to Mountain Time. Internet and cell phone coverage remains sporadic on this part of the journey.

Heading toward Big Bend National Park

We're checking out of the Crockett Hotel in this morning. We originally planned to spend more time in San Antonio now that Doug has completed his work commitments but the timing for a visit with friends did not work out. Instead we've decided to head for Big Bend National Park today. We'll shop for groceries on the way out of town and hope to make it part way along the 450-500 mile trek to the park. We're uncertain how available Internet connections will be as we head into west Texas so updates might be sporadic over the next few weeks. We're hoping to spend a week at Big Bend then hit Fort Davis with the night sky observatories on our way out, plus Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands in New Mexico, then head to Tuscon and Phoenix in Arizona. From Phoenix we have a side-trip planned back to Florida (by air) April 13-20 before continuing on our road journey through the south west. San Antonio has been fun but exhausting. We're simply not used to so many people or so much noise. The Riverwalk is a jewel in the heart of the city. We've enjoyed our walks and people watching along the route. But we're all eagerly looking forward to the quiet and solitude that the west Texas desert will offer us.

San Antonio, Texas

We pulled into the Crockett Hotel mid afternoon and quickly discovered that our room overlooks the Alamo, with views down toward the Riverwalk. This large Texas city is full of people due to Spring Break and various conferences going on. For dinner we wandered a few blocks from the hotel and ate outside, enjoying a warm evening and watching throngs of people wandering along the Riverwalk -- some very prepared to celebrate St Patrick's Day in full force. Doug must disappear for work over the next few days at an event in the nearby Grand Hyatt. Denise and the girls plan to explore the city.

Kerrville, Texas

We hiked the wonderful Enchanted Rock today. We were lucky to get into the park after being turned away on our first attempt because the parking lot was full (the state limits the number of concurrent visitors). Less than 20 miles from Fredericksburg, this is a very popular park to visit. The climb is short but vigorous and the views are very rewarding. The girls did great heading up the steep dome. Rose was drawn to the sporadic water features and enjoyed most of the hike in bare feet so she could enjoy splashing in the puddles trapped in small indentations along the way. As we learned:

• "The Rock is a huge, pink granite exfoliation dome, that rises 425 feet above ground, 1825 feet above sea level, and covers 640 acres. It is one of the largest batholiths (underground rock formation uncovered by erosion) in the United States."

It's not near as big as Ayers Rock (Uluru) in Australia but it is a fine feature inside a great park that draws enthusiastic visitors from afar. The day was all the more pleasant for the bright, warm sunshine that accompanied us all day. After hiking we headed south, closer to San Antonio, ending up in Kerrville tonight at a very nice county park right next to the Guadalupe River. Tomorrow, St Patrick's Day, we head to San Antonio where Doug has some work commitments and the girls get to hang out downtown in Crockett Hotel (yes, that Davy Crockett) next to the Alamo and the famous San Antonio Riverwalk. In honor of St Patrick and our Irish friends everywhere, the adults are planning to wear green tomorrow. But the kids want to wear purple so they'll get pinched by leprechauns and hopefully get to see them...

Fredericksburg, Texas

The sun is at last returning to east Texas where we are continuing to "hang out". Today we left San Marcos after some inadvertent power shopping at the famous Outlet Malls just outside the town. Then we headed a few hours northwest to Fredericksburg with the aim of hiking the Enchanted Rock here. The small town of Fredericksburg is one of the many areas in east Texas that was settled by Germans (and sometimes, Czechs). While it exudes the classic Texas small town charm it has retained it's German heritage. The main street has tons of restaurants as well as bakeries and candle shops (not sure if this is particularly German or just a local thing). There are also a handful of breweries, pubs and wineries -- with European-style outdoor seating. With the sun warming the pavement and Spring Break (school holidays) in full flight there was much activity in the town. A music festival seems to be drawing in many. Arriving in the late afternoon, we were content to settle for sharing a sweet German pretzel and large slice of Apple Strudel before heading back to our campsite. Tomorrow we tackle the Enchanted Rock hike (and perhaps sample another bakery or two).

San Marcos, Texas (between Austin & San Antonio)

After a wonderful few weeks in homes of generous Texans we packed ourselves once again into the small van and headed to San Marcos. We need to be in San Antonio by March 17 and were planning to do a side trip to the Gulf beaches area before heading to San Antonio. But we were put off by the travel time/distance to the beach area and the cold weather being forecast. Sure enough, after enjoying some balmy 80-85F days, cold and rainy weather has caught up with us. We're now cozying up in the van watching movies and hiding out from a 40F day while the rain hammers down intermittently throughout the day. (Local farmers are happy to see the rain). On our way out of Round Top we spotted that "Royers", the local (and somewhat famous) pie shop, was open. We’d been told we should try their pies so we stopped in. We debated for awhile - four pieces would be quite expensive so we considered buying a whole pie instead but couldn't decide on just one. Then we noticed "sampler plate" option on the menu. You get to pick 4 types of pie. So we ordered two sampler plates thinking we'd get a small slice of each of the eight types we liked. We assumed that it would be affordable while allowing us to “graze” over a wide range of pies. (Somehow no-one noticed the pricing for the sampler plate). Anyway, dinner size plates heaped with 4 pieces of pie and 4 scoops of ice cream were bought out! We had 8 servings of pie and ice cream!! The kids were in heaven and we all thought it was pretty funny until we got the bill -- $50. Yikes! We had to chuckle about what an expensive and basic tourist mistake we’d made (while all the time rolling around in piggy pie heaven). Of course, not feeling limited by one pie-ordering debacle, we also stopped at TWO places en route to San Marcos famous for their Texas BBQ. The whole family has taken to the wonderfully seasoned and prepared Texas BBQ -- but Doug has taken a real shining to it believing this to be a mark of his inner Texan.

Round Top, Texas - east of Austin

Arriving at a beautiful 40-acre property with its own guest house, lake and go-cart to drive around in has been quite distracting. We pulled in here last Sunday and have been totally soaking up the warm southern hospitality of Betsy and Harry who live in this wonderful, quiet oasis in the hills of Texas. Doug & Ruth go to the lake... ... to do a little fishing for blue gill perch. The girls enjoy the wild, blue bonnet flowers starting to cover the fields in early Spring. We visit the old renovated church in "downtown" Round Top that is the Children's Library with a picnic and play area out the front... And beautiful light and layout inside. We also visit the exquisite main chamber at Festival Hill where classical music is taught, demonstrated and enjoyed. With plenty of time for just one more go-cart ride...

Texas – we’re standing in it.

We arrived in Round Rock – just north of the Texas capital, Austin – yesterday afternoon and have been welcomed into the very comfortable home of Bill and Patty. To our delight, Bill has an encyclopedic knowledge of government, history, geography and Texas folklore that he is ever ready to share with us. On his library shelves are 140 books he has either written or co-authored including a special section of children's books. Bill is helpfully filling in the crater-like holes of our understanding about Texas. Everyone’s heard of Texas – and Texans love their larger than life portrayal and a certain mystique that is attributed to them and their state. What we didn’t know until we toured the historic Washington-on-the-Brazos museum was that Texas was once an independent nation. Sam Houston and a small band of Texas army fighters defeated the larger Mexican General Santa Anna’s army at San Jacinta. This came after Santa Anna had successfully pursued a devastating routing of the Alamo and Goliad in an attempt to put down the revolt by local Texas citizenry as they sought independence from Mexico. (Yes, at one stage all Texans were Mexican citizens). Knowing this helps us appreciate why Texans generally put their state first before their national identity. They fought and died for it. In fact, as Texas joined the Union (as the 28th state) they received agreeable terms in recognition that their “state” was an independent nation joining with the United States, the only US state to do so. In trying to explain some of the qualities of being a Texan, we read that “strength and individuality are admired”. Weakness is not. Texans welcome people who want to be Texan and, it seems, true Texans can’t understand why anyone would not want to be a Texan. One example of uniquely Texas-centric perspective comes from State Parks promotional material that can be found online (a very good site). It reads, in part:

“…The Rio Grande Valley is an ecosystem found nowhere else in the United States. It is a subtropical environment, which lies further south than any other part of the United States except Hawaii and part of Florida”.

Riddle me this. If “Hawaii and part of Florida” are further south, then isn’t it wrong to claim that the Rio Grande valley is “further south than any other part of the Unites States”? Apparently not in Texas. In continuing our cultural culinary experiences, we took the Blue Bell Ice Creamery tour and sampled their delicious ice cream. We also ate a chicken-fried steak and T-bone steak the other night. It is impossible to think what a large T-bone would look like since the small one we ordered covered the dinner plate! Again, the Texas mystique. Denise claims that our readers are not interested in the price of diesel – though we spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get the best deals. Absent a photo to prove it, we did a $1.86/gallon fill-up yesterday. A new record low! And in the past few weeks we’ve noticed occasionally that diesel is sometimes cheaper than the most expensive gasoline. As visitors we can’t help but chuckle when little towns we’ve passed proudly proclaim themselves as “XYZ Capital of the World”, where “XYZ” may be something quite obscure. Certainly in the vastness of Texas they have a lot to offer across a very diverse geography that includes beaches, mountains, rivers, open plains, deserts, hill country, and piney forests. And within all these regions are various legends and historic sites to add color and character to the land. We're looking forward to our nearly month-long exploration of Texas.