Caught Commando...again!

This time it was Marty our UPS delivery man caught us sitting in the hot tub commando.

As he got out of the truck he said "Marlys you sure are hugging the side close."

So it goes when every evening is a Friday night.

This weekend we start Marlys dresser for the bedroom, by going out and cutting down a beetle kill Ponderosa Pine. We are going to mill it and set it out to dry, so hopefully by fall I can start work on it. It is already pretty dry since it has been standing as a dead tree for two years.

Pat

It's a slow day

Pinon Rock has now moved into the Y2K. We now have high definition TV in the house and satellite service in the shop.

These dishes are getting larger every day.

Even though it has been nice all week it snowed last night and is attempting to today.

We picked up a few more pairs of skis during our trip.

After we made a stop at a local thrift shop in Gunnison, we were lucky that there were no more stops on the way home as there was absolutely no room left in the camper .


We only needed four pairs for a project, but when going up to pay I noticed a sign that said "all skis and ski boots are free". I asked, and the manager said "take them all", so we did.

Along with one butt ugly snowboard in a faux ostrich skin finish.

Adding to the inventory of 4 pairs already in the shop, put us at 26 pairs of skis...and one butt ugly snowboard.


It also appears, from looking at these, that there once was a very purple era in ski color, probably toward the end of the last century.


What to do?


Any suggestions?

Sweet Home Colorado

We made it back to Pinon Rock yesterday afternoon.

Thought the trip was great, it is always nice to be home.

Even Dusty is very pleased, I tink the surprise of what would be outside the door every morning was wearing on him.

Saying Quartzite is the epicenter of RVing didn't do it justice.

After walking around town this morning, I think that I can arguably say that there are more RV parks and RV stores then anywhere else (no per capita qualifier) , and this is the low season. I find it hard to imagine what this place is like in January (high season).



The building code also seems pretty liberal here. In fact, it appears that the code requires that an RV be integrated into every residence somehow.



I also talked to a couple of city works spraying for weeds growing in the pavement and when I asked if they were using "roundup" they said no turpentine. It is a natural product after all.

The Naked Book Seller and Coprolites

Since leaving Sierra Vista we spent some time at Picacho Peak State Park in Arizona. This park is closing in June to due state budget issues, which is too bad because it is one of the nicer we have stayed at.

We attempted to hike to the top of the peak, but 2 miles in at what could only be called a crux we decided to turn around. not only did we not have enough water, but the the hike turned into a real climb and anticipating what it would take to get back down, we turned around.

Dusty was tired and looking for shade. He drank as much water as I did.

It felt good to get back and sit in the shade drinking a beer and contemplating the desert layed out in front of us. This is a real nice State Park.

We have started to set a time to return to Pinon Rock, mainly driven by a need to help Derek move sculptures. We will be back before the end of the week.

But being n no rush we headed to Quartzite, AZ. This is the epicenter of RVing...in January. This time 0f the year most of the road side vendors are shut down, but the ones that were open were memorable.

Our first stop was Oasis Books. They sell used and new books and can be a real treasure. I picked up a number of old road maps (will bec0me more rare with the adoption of car GPS's), some old wood working mags...oh ya also so Marlys could meet the "Naked Bookseller" . It was cloudy and cool so he was semi-dressed...he had on a fleece pullover. His junk is contained in a tied pouch, no thong for this guy. He is a great guy, knows his inventory. Picture a 70 something skinny, very tan man with a cowboy hat, big mustache and of course the junk pouch. What a great marketing idea for drawing people into the store.

We asked about places to buy turquoise and Bob told us to try T-Rocks. We picked up a number of different rocks that I will attempt to crush for furniture inlays.

I also bought a 20# coprolite for the patio.

Coprolite is dinosaur poop.

Marlys decided to call it Dino's Dung.

Sonoran Hot Dog

After visiting family in Sierra Vista Arizona, we were able (I was able) to stop at a stand in Tucson and get a few (more then two) Sonoran ((Mexican) Hotdog's.

This has been another item on the bucket list.

A Sonoran Hotdog is a lightly spiced hotdog wrapped in bacon with beans, relish, mustard and mayo served in a steamed bun.

It was very good. I had to have another.

The bill for three dogs and two Diet Cokes was just over $5.

After spotting our first stand, we now saw them all over.

Try one, if you get a chance.

RV Latte

Cool Whip in cup, then pour coffee over surprisingly good.

Back In New Mexico

Much has happened since the last update. After about 10 days in Texas we are now in Las Crues, NM.

When it is said that Texas is big, it is hard to get a handle on that statement until you drive around it. We

Stayed in many of the state parks which we recommend, a few RV parks, a National park, but so far no Walmarts.

A week ago we were in San Antonio. It was HOT and the Women's Final Four was in town. We found a RV park just south of downtown and jumped on a city bus to head to the Alamo and the Riverwalk.

The Alamo was enlightening in that I had no idea that people from so many different countries were there, even a soldier from Denmark during Santa Anna's attack.

Also the independence of the Texas region (which included our part of Colorado, if I read the map right) really came to the forefront.

The Alamo was one of a chain of Mission's during the mid-180's, but more on that later.

The Riverwalk was jammed with soldiers and there families from Lackland AFB and Final Four'rs. We walked the entire length (actually 3/4 quarters) on both sides. By then we were pretty crapped out and got a bus back to the RV park. BTW this was a nice park, except that we have never seen rigs parked so close together, but it was only for one night.

The next morning we visited another one of the Missions, This one named Mission San Jose. It was located just south of the RV Park about 3 miles from the Alamo.

These Missions are different from the one seen in California in that they were more fortified against attach and closer together (3 miles vs. 35) to provide support to one another.

Mission San Jose was the largest mission and is still and operating Catholic Parish today.

We finally got on the road to the coast. We were in search of a place called Magnolia Beach, that we knew the general where abouts of, but the directions were more of the go down this road make a right then drive until you can go no further....

We headed for a near by town called Port Lavaca and while out in the middle of no where saw a sign that said Magnolia and found the beach official name is Indianola County Park). There were a few hundred RV's parked along the shore, so we just found a place and plopped down.

It was humid, hot everyone around us spoke french and there were four oyster boats combing the sea bottom about 1000 feet off shore.

The price was right in that it was free.

On Sunday we headed for another shore front location at Goose Island State Park. We found that in the coastal areas it would be overcast and gloomy until mid afternoon then the sun would break through it would clear up and the temperature would soar.

At Goose Island we parked about 40 feet from the seawall. The wind was blowing 20+ the whole time.

We decided that we needed to get back to more arrid conditions on Monday morning, but we wanted to drive down some of the barrier islands outside of Corpus Cristie. To do that we needed to load the camper on a ferry at Aransas Pass for a short trip to Mustang Island which turned out to be much like Coco Beach in Florida, e.g. bright colors and t-shirt shops.

We ended the day in Loredo in a state park that when rated against what we had been in was at the bottom of the scale. It was a mess from the Easter revelers with confetti and broken plastic eggs everywhere. It was also located under the glide path to the airport. We were glad to get out of there the next day.

The next day up along the Rio Grande river we pulled into Seminole Canyon State Park, which by far was out favorite. We made a 6 hike down to the River to view some pictographs on the canyon wall. There was no one on the trail so Dusty got to run around a little, but as the sign said going in we had to be on the look out for rattlers.

This is Pecos River county and we had to stop in Langtry to visit Judge Roy Beans courthouse and bar. This is the original building (historical site). I was surprised it was still able to stand up, as there are not many trees in the area so when it was built in the late 1800's the framing practices were what I would call just enough to keep the roof up/

If you have seen the movie with Paul Newman, reading the materials on Judge Bean would indicate that he played him pretty true to the history.

Our last stop in Texas would be Big Bend National Park. Let me start by saying I didn't know that Texas had mountains, but this area would convince you otherwise. It had been 104 here the day before, but it was down to the mid-80s when we arrived.

The escarpments over the Rio Grande were gigantic. In looking at this picture everything to the right of the river is Mexico, actually this area is part of the Sonoran desert.

We took a eight mile hike out to a hot springs along the river. We did not have enough water, so by the time we got back, be b-lined it to the camp store bought a couple of beers and slammed them down.

From here up to El Paso and beyond in to New Mexico it seems much more Arizona like. I can also say that the US Border Patrol seems to be everywhere and watching them patrol is interesting in that they are looking at disrupted dirt roads along the fences, manholes and some time just walking in a field looking at signs.

There are chained up tires in places along the road that are towed behind their trucks to smooth the surface so that tracks become more apparent. The Air Force even had a radar blimp tethered out near Alpine Texas.

Enough for now, we are off to a hummingbird canyon in southern Arizona.

The accidential antique sale visitor and the bucket list.

Thursday started with a single purpose, get a piece of Royer's pie. Along the way we would hit Monument Hill and the Kreische Brewery. We planned to spend the night at Lake Sommerville State Park.

Monument hill is dedicated to the 17 soldiers executed by Santa Anna in the legendary "black bean" incident.

The brewery came into play when a German stonemason named Heinrich Kreische immigrated to Texas and maintained the Monument, over time he built the brewery to utilize the water on the site.

We left Monument Hill just after lunch and the drive to Round Top for pie was about 20 miles in length.

Little did we know....

As we came into a very small town called Warrenton. The lighted sign to be ware of pedestrians should have been a tip off.

As we came around the corner into town we were confronted by thousands of people and traffic backed up going both ways. There were booths and circus size tents set up on both sides of the road a couple of blocks deep selling antique.

We had stumbled on the annual 10 day long Warrenton Antique Festival. Only it went beyond Warrenton and all the way past Round Top. About 6 miles.

We of course had to stop, but with less then a week to spend here we could do no damage.

We did though find Royer's, and because of the Festival the Cafe was closed.

Lucky for us (me) they had a booth set up with an assortment of pies. The people there could not believe we had come only for the pie and did even know about the festival.

BTW, the pie is close to a 10, if it had been warm it would have been. Check it off the bucket list.

Next we head for San Antonio.

We made it to Inks Lake

By Sunday afternoon we had made it to Inks Lake State Park in Texas. Tom and Joy are Hosting there this season.

If it wasn't for the cactus this place could be c0nfused for Minnesota.

The wind finally stopped blowing on Monday and we went to a cookout that evening with all of the Camp Hosts. We may have to look into this for future years.

On Tuesday we went into a "off the main drag" catfish grill, which since Bart introed me to catfish it appears I can eat. The Texans down here swear it tastes just like walleye.

The happening though was going for pie happy hour at the Blue Bonnet Cafe, which is noted for its pies. They were excellent. I had two pieces, German Chocolate and Apple. On a scale of 1-10, they are a definite 8.5.

It was real nice to spend a few days in one place and our time at Inks Lake ended on Wednesday when we left for Austin.

Our plan was to get into a RV Park do laundry, wash the rig and get ready for the next loop to areas east of Austin.

BTW if you haven't heard this before the wildflowers blooming down here are pretty amazing. We heard it is due to the efforts made by Lady Bird Johnson back in the 60's. It seems as if every ditch and fields covered in color..

What pie rates a 10? Stay tuned as crossed an item of my bucket list on Thursday.