Travel to and arrival at Retama Village, Mission, TX, Aug 1-11, 2012

While staying at the Escapees’ Rainbow’s End RV Park making sure our washer/dryer unit worked and the Norcold refrigerator remained cold, Bob tacked another much appreciated, by me, job.  He recharged the A/C Unit in the Explorer.  After adding two cans of R34a we both were happy and cool.

On our way down to the RGV (Rio Grande Valley), we made two stops.  The first was in at the Dixieland RV Park in Carmine, TX, the next two night stop was at Goliad State Park in Goliad. 

Then on Wednesday the 8th we drove the last 230 miles to our RV lot at Retama Village.

Today, (Sat) we were doing a little gardening and trimming  when some new to us neighbors stopped by, Bob and Kathleen (plus their dog named Cookie.)  They spend their summers here and when they heard we were flying out on Tuesday, they offered to take us to the McAllen airport which is about 15 minutes away.  Thanks Bob and Kathleen for the gracious offer.

“Our bags are packed”, or mostly packed for a couple of days now.  Every day I keep adding a few items, so far so good, the zipper still zips. 

I have a list of tasks yet to do:  1) Suspend our Verizon phone service,  2) Suspend our Directv service,  3) Call the bank to increase the withdrawal limit on one remaining ATM card (the others have already been increased), 4) Backup the Quicken program on my computer. 

I have already taken care of our insurance renewals for the coach and car which come due during the time we are gone.   Have also suspended our internet satellite service, formerly Motosat, now through Real Time.  We have also called and notified the bank and our credit card company of our upcoming European travel so they don’t shut the card down for unusual usage outside the country.

I will not be updating this blog during our European trip, leaving out of here on Aug 14th and returning Nov 6th.  But we will be updating our travels on Bob’s Blog,  and will also be posting brief updates on Facebook.

Palo Dura Canyon, Part 2, May 31, 2012

This morning we hit the Lighthouse trail at 6:30.  It was barely daylight and we were not alone.

The Lighthouse Trail is a 6 mile round trip. 

Most of the trail is easy and level, but the last .1 mile is NOT.  It is UP HILL with los of loose gravel, not my kind of climbing.


A little ways beyond this area, I decided I could not go on, think when I slipped and landed on my keester help decide that  fact. 

Here I am working my way down the slippery slope I had just climbed up.  Why do photos never show how steep the trail really is?
Bob, aka mountain goat, went on up the trail to the top, to see the Lighthouse formations up close.


Below we were inspecting a creek bed, checking out the meeting point of the two layers.

Here is a close up of the demarcation line.

The following information is from the park brochure.  “The bottom layer, some 250 millions years old, belong to the Quartermaster Formation.   They are the bright red claystone and bands of gypsum.  Next the Tecovas Formation can be seen with its yellow, gray and lavender mudstone.  The sandstone and coarse gravel of the Trujillo Formation can be seen as you further ascent the canyon.  The next layer of rocks are from the Qgallala Formation with the sand, silt, clay and limestone.”

Bob spotted this 16” lizard, mostly tail, along the trail.  Don’t know what kind it is.

Tomorrow, headed to Borger TX where Bob worked for a few months back in 1969.

Palo Dura Canyon, Part 1, May 30, 2012

Our thirty mile drive took no time at all, soon the Canyon was before us.  I will have to admit I kept asking Bob if our exhaust brake was on and was it working during our mile drive down into canyon.  It was very steep!  See the road winding before us.

Our site #140 in Sagebrush camping area has great views of the canyon,

and we thought we would have great views out the front until, we our neighbors pulled in.

On our drive just before dusk, we spotted at least ten deer, including this one.

It was HOT in the afternoon after we arrived, at 5:40 pm it was 101.7 with humidity at 9%.

Today we left about 7:30 for an early morning hike before it got hot.  Walked about 4 miles today.  This is the sun just peeking over the canyon edge obscured by low clouds.  Was a nice 56 degrees.

On today’s hike we saw one wild turkey and several feral pigs.  Those pigs were illusive thus no photos, they did keep their distance.

All of the views were awesome.  Loved the prickly pear paddles reflecting the sun.

The painted cliffs area.

When we finished today’s hike the thermometer at the trail head registered 130 degrees in the direct sun.  We both agreed.

Tomorrow we are hiking the Lighthouse Trail, round trip 5.75 miles.  Needless to say we are leaving at sunrise when it is cool, so we can get back before we broil.

Close Encounter, July 24, 2011

With a 90 miles drive today to Fayette State Park, knowing we didn’t want to get there too early, we left Clementz Northcountry Campground, Newberry, just before their check out time of noon.  

When we arrived at the state park turn, a prior sign had said the campground was three miles further, so we did not turn, we continued down the road, seeing no more campground signs,  we had to find a way to turn all of US around.  Solution, turn off on a side road, unhook, back the coach up onto the main road and head back to the state park sign. 

Check-in went smoothly, then drive back to the campground with good directions. 

Our reserved site was a long pull through site, I drove the Explorer in front of Bob, pulled through the site, thinking there are a lot of trees close to the pull-through drive, this site will take some wiggling to get in.  So I parked at the end of the long site, got out to help Bob maneuver the coach in and I heard that fateful sound, of tree crunching.  One of the close trees angled towards the site and caught the bedroom slide topper cover.  Bob was able to back out, drive around and back into the site from the other end.  Just too many close trees.  One of our neighbors told us yesterday a fifth wheel took over an hour to get out of the site, even had the rangers helping him.  I have a good suggestion, cut down at least two trees would help.

See the angled tree, that is the one we had a close encounter with, notice the lighter color about 12’ up. [Sorry Roger, it was not of the Third Kind.]

The point of contact, glad it all still works though.

After we got parked Bob asked an excellent question, are we in the right site (as the sites are not numbered so you can see the number from the road), I said I think so, so he dashes out to make the confirmation.  By the way the site number is #30.

With a 1/2 mile hike from the campground, we are at the historical town site of Fayette.  All the buildings are open with displays, we looked around some, but will be back tomorrow for a town tour and more exploring.

Remember all those trees, well that means no internet or TV, but that’s okay, time to go through all the tourist literature we have picked up along the way.

Black Fly (Buffalo Gnat) bites aka red spot update:  bitten 7/21, this is day three, still swollen and itchy. Had to get up in the night and apply some Anti-Itch cream.  Here I am using alcohol to clean off the Anti-Itch cream to apply some cortisone cream.

Our Departure from Retama Village, April 6, 2011

I took a few photos of the window and door protection before we left this morning.  Even the screens are stored inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even the access for RV electric is locked.

After our good byes with Roger, Dianne, Chaplin and Bandito, here we are pulling out of our driveway.  We only spend four nights on our lot, but it sure did feel like home!

Check out this checkpoint sign telling everyone about the year to date seizures for drugs and undocumented aliens.  Check out Bob’s blog with a photo of when we drove by here in late February heading to the Dallas area, the numbers have changed quite a bit!

We were waved on with only two questions, how many people in the RV and are you US citizens.  I am sure the canine did a quick sniff too.

We arrived at Goliad State Park about 2:30, nice treed sites, even our internet satellite works.

Along the way to MCD, Feb 25-27, 2011

Since our arrival at MCD in McKinney Tx (NE of Dallas) was scheduled for Sunday the 27th, we had a couple of days to explore Fort Richardson Historic State Park in Jacksboro.  The drive from Hondo to Jacksboro was 325 miles, way more than we like to travel in one day. But we wanted to get their so we could see the sights the park had to offer.

As usual not many structures are still standing, but the powers that be have done wonders with what they have. 

 

The Hospital.

Inside with mosquito netting over the cots.

 

 

The Stockade with narrow accommodations.

 

 

The mess hall.

 

 

 

 

Indoor plumbing.

Bob noticed this biography of one of the Fort’s commanders, Col William Wood.  The war he fights in, “War of Northern aggression”, is known to us, born and raised in Ohio, as the Civil War.  With us now being domiciled in the “South”, guess we have to get used to this sort of verbiage.

The park also offers nice trails.

and our site offered trees and relaxing space.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we head off to MCD 100 miles away.