*Way Back Then and a little NOW*

Back on the 9th of April we were on the move from Del Rio on our way to Marathon, TX which is one of and the first intersection of roads that allows access down south to Big Bend National Park. This post is to fill in the gaps between now and then via a little narration and lots of photos. These pictures will hopefully and happily show and pass along to you the picturesque country side that filled our eyes with imagination and beauty as we made the trip westward.
We'll start with our stop in Marathon. Here we stayed at what has been the nicest looking and well kept RV park on our journey since we left Marathon Key in Florida in February. The day we arrived in the top of the desert the temp. was almost 90 degrees and the wind was blowing upwards of 30 MPH and didn't end for another 48 hours. Like idiots we tried to put out our awning to try to block that days late afternoon sun. Minutes later we were fighting to get it back to the upright position. It has only been out once since.

Marathon is the home of the locally and beyond famous Gage Hotel, This is a high class and high cost establishment in the middle of this desert town.

We have been incessantly dry since we arrived in the Hills, Prairies and Desert areas of Texas. (althought I don't specifically mean of the alcohol variety, this is true as well in this section of the no-woods) It has done nothing but increase in dryness over the past couple of weeks here in the desert. My hands need to be constantly dipped on water to feel refreshed. It doesn't last. So I am continually putting lotion on. It doesn't last. S0 I often find myself with a little undercurrent of frustration. It is just way dry and usually there is wind. Yesterday morning I walked out of the RV to put something in the dumpster and I noticed that something was very different when I was walking back. I stopped in my tracks to find out what was the thing that was missing. It was the wind. I guess I sort of got used to it but when it was not there it was real nice for a change. It was still dry. It got me to thinking about water. We have not had rain, not even the hint of rain since we left Lake Livingston on the 26th of March. Three more days and it will be a month. Man!
I don't like driving in the rain with this motor home but I wouldn't at all mind a rain day. I don't like feeling soaking wet usually. I try to avoid getting my head wet whenever it rains but the next time we have it we are going to do a family dance outside in the rain run around in ti and see how much our bodies can absorb.
Yesterday we took a another drive to Presidio, TX. This time embarking from Fort Davis not Terlingua. This time we also intended to go into Mexico. Into the town of Ojingua to see the place and see what medications really cost across the border. We found deisel fuel at only $3.00 per gallon and Tequila for only $15 per liter (better than half price off) but the meds were not cheap (if you have an insurance copay) if you do not have insurance then it is the place to go. Literally 75% off of the actually real price of meds if you pay by yourself in the US. Same meds lower price. Ah! Free Enterprise!
On this trip down we got completely off the paved road for over thirty miles as our driver and new friend from Fort Davis eagerly took us through the spectacle of Pinto Canyon. This is a county road but I have know idea what that means anymore. This is really a 30 mile dirt road, better yet, sometimes a dirt road but mostly a rock road that is passable only by 4 wheel drive and sometimes that is questionable. There are parts of the road that pass through creeks, through and over dry river beds, on cliffs where you are literally hanging on the edge of a single, narrow lane with the 300 or 400 foot drop off to your immediate left or right. There are cars or trucks or some mechanical means of movement left to rust on particular hill sides that leaves you to wander if they got there by accident or on purpose for a variety of reasons. I could well imagine doing this on horse back. It would have been easier on the body, if you can imagine. It also passed through some of the most spectacular formations of mountains and hills and valleys that we have ever seen. And knowing that only a very small handful of people living on this planet will ever visit this remote place (or even have the slightest desire to) makes it all that much more special. Not to mention the occasional Javelina or Road Runner crossing your path just for authenticity sake.
But it is hoooooottttttttt on the thermometer. We left Fort Davis, about a mile in the air(5280') and below 80 degrees at about 9:45 AM and descended towards Presidio at elevation 2851 and into Mexico on the Rio Grande. By the time we actually got off the Pinto Canyon dirt road (which by the way is one access road to Chinati Hot Springs and actual resort and retreat, like a tourist destination) and onto pavement in the town of Riudosa (population 14) and then drove the 20 plus miles to Presidio (pop. about 4000) it was about 1 PM and the temp was up to 112 degrees and did not get back into the high 90's until well after 5 PM. It is true what they say though. It certainly is hot. And you would not want to be stuck out in it walking through the desert, but it is bearable and not stifling like in the more humid climates. When in gets into the 90's you really do actually find yourself saying, "This is not bad out now."

Anyway here are some Pictures of the trip since the 9th of April. This first set was taken on the damn at the end of the Amistad Reservoir. The national line between the US is right in between the two eagles which sit right in the middle of the damns expanse. The other picture is taken from the middle of the damn looking down and out over Mexico and the third is of Japser handling Verizon, the drug sniffing Chocolate Labrador dog at the the border crossing station on the damn.

The pictures above are from the few moments we spent crossing the Pecos River. First by vehicle and then by foot in both directions. This bridge is.. (Kara or Steven I. - how far is it when it takes a small rock, dropped from the deck, 9 seconds to hit the water) at least 100 feet or so above the river and very dramatic to stand on. The river, as is the surrounding terrain, is refreshing and bold. And the bridge moves like crazy when the occasional car crosses while you are standing on it. Jasper would stop moving and hang onto the railing whenever a car would pass. Consequently he came back with hands coated thickly with silver paint that they used to coat the railings of the bridge. He thought that it was just great looking partially like the Tin Man. Notice the sign that says no jumping. Oh, Okay!

It was already desolate by the time we got to the Pecos River but from there on out it just got sparse. The next couple of pictures will show you what I mean. This is Dryden, Texas!

That's it! From 1988 to the year 2000 - Population....13

A little further along the way we came to the town of Langtry, TX. This town actually has a visitors center. Large town by all normal measures with the population standing at around 145 for the last twenty years. It promotes itself as the home of Judge Roy Bean. Originally a squatter on a piece of the tract of railroad right of way land and tent-saloon operator he became embroiled in a battle to stay with a local prominent railroad man of the town. His saloon drew many of the railroad workers and thus gave him a permanent place in the tent town. He was sort of renaissance man who was the Justice of the Peace, Bar keep, Boxing promoter and curator of an opera house that he had built in anticipation of a visit from a "beautiful English singer" that Bean had fallen in love with via a picture in the newspaper. She did eventually visit but it was 4 months after his death in 1904. The Saloon, the opera house and a general store/post office that was opened in 1884 still exist on the town site. This town sits on the top western side of a very deep canyon of which we could not determine the name. It, like many others in this section of Texas, has many abandoned houses and buildings, remnants of the past life and a ghost town in its present form.

We also were fortunate or unfortunate enough, as the case may be, to be just outside of Langtry at exactly ther right time to be witness to a train hold up by some old school outlaw of the wild west. I got the photos and turned them into the sherrif. Hopefully they'll catch this bad guy and his mom and dad will get a goods nights sleep knowing that he is in good hands.

The two pictures below illustrate what we consider to be the two best options we have for housing ourselves on a budget that we can work with in Western Texas. Which one do you think is the most likely for us. I like the windmill and we already have a motor home!!!

Mcdonald Observatory!

Happy Passover to all my Jewish friends. I hope you had a great first night celebration with your families and friends.

The past two days adventures have been focused activity that is really out of this world!

Friday after we arrived at Prude Ranch, a horse ranch, RV and cabin park just north of Fort Davis' main center on RT 118, we headed up to the real site of our interest and tourist draw in this location. For us, not only are the roads up to and all around Fort Davis on our list of the top scenic roads to drive in America but RT 118 also leads up to the place with literally, the darkest sky in Texas and the contiguous 48 states. It is also the highest mountain top in Texas accessible by paved road at 6700 feet above sea level.

With all that going for it, it seems that those characteristics make it also the most spectacular place for an observatory. Mcdonald Observatory, as built and designed over many years, as an extension of the University of Texas and visited and utilized by astronomical scientist, studying all varieties of celestial phenomenon. It is a renowned location for scientific research and is an outstanding place to visit and learn even more than you might think you know about the day and night sky that surrounds us.

On Friday we attended a twilight presentation at 7:30 that was the introductory portion of the entire evening aptly named "The Star Party". At twilight we learned about particular astronomical features that we would be able to see later in the evening through 6 different telescopes and view apparatus ranging in size and power intensity.

After the sunset, at 9 PM, we all headed outside to an amphitheater, and joined in (at least Jasper and I did) a skit (model) presentation that was intended to teach us about the relationships between the sun and the earth, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter (me) and their respective distances from the earth and their revolutions related to each other and the sun. Then we put the constellations (Jasper was Capricorn) all around us in the approximate positions in the sky. All of this was while it was still somewhat light and we were waiting for that huge night sky to darken around us.

As the sky grew darker the presentation moved into an visual illustration of the constellations using a high powered laser light to point out all of the major bright stars and the their positions in the constellations. All of this was very easily understood by us amateurs as they used the presenter used the big dipper to get us to the current north star, Polaris and then brought us 360 degrees around the sky pointing out each visible constellation. Maybe not the very most fun you can have sitting out top of a mountain in the dark but certainly one of the most exciting and informative learning experiences I have had in that environment.

By the end of this portion of the presentation, other presenters had already been busy setting up and aligning the various telescopes on the specific items we would be viewing. This was the high light of the program. We were able to view the planet Saturn, its rings and a few of its moons through a 12" telescope and it was just awesome to view. We also saw various age star clusters. Some just forming and some dying and some in such massive clusters that they appear as a cotton ball at the center. We saw M3 - a globular cluster of stars containing approx. 1/2 million stars that are about 33,900 light years away (1 light year is 5.8 trillion miles, you do the math) that shines with a brightness of 300 times that of the sun. This cluster is so large and bright that it can actually been seen by the naked eye under the right conditions and assuming we actually knew where to look. We also saw M35 (open star cluster only 100 light years away and can be seen by the naked eye and with binoculars-off the foot of Gemini. We saw this through two different powers of binoc's), Pleidies (the seven sisters) and the spectacularly beautiful new set of stars forming called Orion Nebula (see the picture to the right)

We also got two different views of our moon. Did you know that the moon is drifting away from us? It is, at the rate of about 1/2" per year. And I thought my night vision was just getting worse. Whew!

I enjoyed Saturn, Orion and M3 the most. Brilliant!.

Saturday we returned for the Daylight presentation that involved learning quite a bit about the sun and the tours of the the largest telescope on the property - 107" mirror (108" is 9 ') and the newest and largest in the US spectography telescope. All this and being on top of the mountains left us felling very..... tired, I mean enlightened in a celestial sense.

The presentation is very professional, with indepth detail and funny.

The guys presenting make it work and very accessible to all.

The Observatory complex is a city unto it self. It has a director who also acts as Mayor. There is housing for all of the professional staff, a school, medical facility and so on all self inclusive. Quite a remarkable operation and a real pleasure to visit and partake.

This first one From the bottom one up just above and to the right is the 107" telescope from the top floor, inside the observation building some 50 additional feet off the ground. The next one up is the newest spectograph scope.

Check out the radio telescope at the bottom of the pictures. Click on the sign describing it, to enlarge it and read what it has to say. This is wild to me!

Happy Anniversary!

Well, Whoo hoo, we made it this far!
(with a lotta help from our friends and family)
Today marks the four month anniversary date of our leaving home for our journey on the road.
It has been absolutely everything and well beyond what I anticipated. I really love life on the road. It is new and exciting everyday and we meet all of the every part of our worlds best people. There is hardly a negative with the one exception that we really miss the people we love at home. We teeter constantly about that.
Also, I guess cause it sure seems like, we are entering a new phase of the aspect of living full time on the road.
Believe it or not we are really tired right now.
We get up and go most days to a new place. That entails putting all the inside things in order and loading the car on the dolly, detaching from the water, the electric, the sewer, the cable, cleaning all those things daily and then there are the body adjustments. 103 degrees one day 32 degrees the next night. Oh, and then we have to find a place to live and call hoping thatthey have room for us. (So far no room issues to date). We are definitely on a holiday and we are authentically enjoying most aspects (well maybe not when we are not having cell and internet service in all the places where ever we are) but we just need to find a place to stop for a while and get all the business and financial items (taxes) completed, watch a few movies or Tv shows, do our laundry and rest for a bit.
On any given day after picking and loading up we drive between 20 to 150 miles to get to our next site and stop every twenty feet or so to take pictures or see some impassable site. The drives can take us up to six hours each day. Then we park and unload everything and get ready to live in this place, where ever that may be, for this night or two, then get ourselves in the car to go see the local attraction (museum, scenery, park, bird, mountain, pool, river, scenic drive, observatory....) that we came to this particular place to see. This is what it is all about and it is really good. If we lived like this at home we would for sure know our state and all of its interesting points and places inside and out.
We have just learned, again, or been reminded, that we need to listen to ourselves and our bodies and Jasper and stay put once and a while to catch our breaths.
This is also what this is all about and may be the gold.
We started out with the concept that we would only be active outside of the camp for four hours a day and then be around and recreate ourselves individually for four hours a day and then sleep and eat and do entertaining creative stuff together for the balance of our day. Now we have the vision and opportunity to do that reevaluation again and see how we want to design it. And we are and we will.
All types of opportunities continually present themselves on the road.
We just pulled into a really nice and well kept RV park this morning and met the really joyful Framingham, MA woman running the reception/check in desk. The place is clean and has just a real nice fell to it. (Believe me, you can almost sense it (the energy) from the road before you pull in after a while and you even get good at picking up on it on the phone when you call to reserve a spot) this place was good from the phone and proved good upon arrival.
But there is an interesting tweek to this place. Here's the scoop!
Megan went over to up our stay for an additional day and began talking to the two people that were at the front office and found that the owners were recently asked to leave by the bank and that the place is in some state of foreclosure or settlement with the bank. Those two, that megan was talking with, stay here free (separately, like not in relationship with each other) and care take the place for the bank with a limited time commitment required in exchange for there staying free and they run it joyfully. In the midst of their conversation they asked Megan if we would like to stay here for the month of May and take care of the place while the woman goes back to Mass to sell her house and help the guy who is helping out now and who is staying here by himself to run the place while Framingham goes back to Mass for the month. So we are considering it and even considering talking to the bank about what they might want for the property.
We are in Fort Davis, Texas. A small high desert town that is a little over a mile above sea level. The normal high temps for the summer are in the high 80's and the normal lows in winter is 30. It is not very green here grass wise but there are lots of varieties of green cactus, mesquite, evergreen trees and flowers. Who knows we will sleep on it and see what works for us. Jasper of course wants us to buy the place and run it. He already has designs of opening a trading post in the front restaurant and having a horse stable on the additional 6 acres to the west of the RV park.
The other really interesting part of this story for us is that we said we needed a break and a place to stop and rest, just yesterday and an opportunity arrives and presents itself the next morning. You may find this weird but we find it magical and as if we are tuned in like never before. This is what has been happening to us more and more frequently. We receive opportunity after opportunity within a very short time of discussing and talking about our options for what we have a desire to do. It is the miraculous part of the odyssey. We are very fortunate and happy as can be that life is working this way. I have many examples of these magical occurrences.
I am very certain that they are happening for all of us ongoingly, every day. But since we have been void of most of the usual business of life at home and focused on the events of our trip and living daily life, they are just very obvious and frequent. It is fun and fulfilling to know that is how life works.

Back Again! With a little ranting this time.

So where I left off was in Del Rio. We are now 350 miles west of that and have crossed a lot more ground than the miles show.

The state of Texas is just amazingly diverse and we have really only deviated a slight bit from a straight line starting in Beaumont to here in Alpine. We have spent the last week in the Chihuahuan (like the small yappy dog) Desert and on the border of Mexico along the Rio Grande where "The Fence" is being built to keep the Mexicans out of the US. Or is it us out of Mexico or just to try to scare us regardless of the reason

I know this is a touchy subject and probably more complicated than I could understand but I must tell you that standing on the US side of the very small and shallow, not so, Rio Grande River and talking to the Mexican people on the other side and knowing that if I go over the middle of the river and cross back that I am subject to a huge fine and/or imprisonment as are they, just doesn't feel right. I felt sorry, strange, trapped in my own country with a sense of not wanting any borders anywhere. I was told that if I offered them even water if I saw them crossing the desert that I would be fine, jailed and prosecuted. It made me feel sick that I could not aid another human being without risking my own freedom in the process. This country has fallen way away from the "great melting pot" mentality that I grew up being taught. Seems like we are supposed to be afraid of something all of the time. Like we are at risk of being invaded by poor people and the truth seems to be that we are risking becoming poor as a result of our own fear. Trivia question.. who was that guy who said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." (or was it the only thing we have to fear is the BUSH administration)

Our country was built on and draws people here only because and when we project the great possibility of being an American citizen. Not when we play hard to get and make our own citizens go thru military check points on every road that leads from another border. We went thru one yesterday that was 150 miles from the border. Surely this was for us and not to try and stop a desperate Mexican that could have gone anywhere in any direction by the time he got that far inland. This whole check point and pointless questions only bolster the internal fear of the political machine. If you could see the land that they or anyone would have to cross on foot to get to either side of the border you would certainly ask yourself who would go through the trouble. It is very rough country anywhere from Del Rio to Presidio and I don't think that I could make it more than a day or two at the max. Perhaps my drive instinct is not strong enough.

The Mexicans are still swimming across the border every morning and placing the trinkets that they make and sell on the US side of the river for us to buy if we dare. We did buy one, and risk the bullshit fine and imprisonment if for no other reason than to teach Jasper a piece of our personal human philosophy. That we believe that if we can help others survive regardless of imaginary borders in the middle of rivers and signs to scare people into not helping when possible or befriending another human whatever the color of their skin or their country of origin, we will and think that this is what we would hope for in return. Who knows, the way we are going we will all be in need of assistance from other people in other countries for our subsistence soon. Where would we all be if that's was the way it was when our great grand parents came from foreign lands to the US, the land of possibility, many years ago. I am not afraid of sharing the abundance of our country with people who work way harder for their bread than most of us. I made the acquaintance of Victor from Boquillas, MEX. A small suffering village in northern Mexico 160 miles from the next Mexican town via a dirt road. Victor used to be the ferry man who brought people across the river to his village from Big Bend National Park to buy trinkets and tacos. The entire economy of that village was based on tourism. About two years ago that crossing became illegal and as it was instituted a few unlucky Americans, I was told by the park people, were fined $10,000 dollars and sent to jail as examples of what can happen if you break the rules.

Victor now swims over in the early morning, places a cut open 2 liter bottle jug and a sign that reads "Victor the Signing Mexican." He sits on the other shore all day, in the desert and sings all day long for any tourist who walks way down into the Boquillias Canyon to see the rocks and river in this dry, arid and really hot desert climate, so that hopefully people will put money in the jug and he will be able to continue to support his family. This is not sad, we all have to do what we do to get along in the world but the possibilities seem limited from where I stood on my side of the river and I wished that we could go over to his side without the constructed fear of whatever it is we are supposed to be afraid of.

Back to Del Rio for a bit and then over to the desert. On the first night there I got an opportunity to sit in with a pick up band at the saloon on the property. While Jazz could not come in the bar he was able to sit on the back porch with Megan and watch through open double doors as I as playing and singing with the band. It has been quite a while since I have played with a full band and I must admit it was a blast. I am not sure though who enjoyed it more. Me on stage or Megan and Jasper watching me on stage. I guess as long as we all did it works out fine and I didn't have to stay till closing and help pack up the gear. First time I ever really felt like a rock star in my life. If you look closely you can see me in the right hand side of the picture and you will also see Jazz outside playing air keyboard on the veranda.

The following day we headed over to Amistad International Reservoir. The big time, elite group of professional fisher guys and perhaps gals (although I did not see any) were in town for the practice week before the $100,000 tournament. We saw a guy named John Crews and I went up and asked him to take a picture with Jasper. He was a real nice man from Virginia who travels around the country, with ESPN hot on his tail, fishing for prize money. We took the picture and wished him well and walked away amazed again at what is possible in this country. "Somebody has to do it", was the old saying he used as I walked away in disbelief that you can fish for your whole life as a career in the US and have sponsors give you new boats and cars and pay for your travel as you go around and fish. What a country we have here.

The life in Del Rio centers around the reservoir and US people going into Mexico for pharmaceuticals. So we chose to center around the reservoir and although we wanted to go in and see the Mexican iCiudad of Acuna (and see if I could get some drugs there) if never came to be. With Jazz's 10 birthday, buying him a new bike, swimming in the water, giving time to Jazz to connect with other kids at the water, saving a little boys life from drowning, talking to local fisherman, going to the movies, roping cattle (Jasper finally got to ride in Texas as a result of the kindness and connections of the RV Park owner Ratana), coaching and site seeing with the same owner of the same RV park, taking pictures of vegatation and animals we have never seen, walking across the Amistad damn to take a picture and crossing into Mexico breifly, we just didn't have the time or the real desire to go there. I think we saturated ourselves or poor towns back in January in the Dominican.

All that under our belts we headed west over the Pecos and on towards the BIG BEND.

Time to Catch Up!

We have been without service for the most part of the last three weeks and it is about to get more definite for the next week. The computer is acting like a dinosaur stuck in molasses due to this weak signal and I seem to lose service entirely and unpredictably and there is a lot to share. Those things don't make a good match so..... Here we GOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
First of all a big Happy Birthday to MOM!
I know we talked but I know I forgot to say it. I guess our business of entertaining ourselves and moving about the country had us become absentminded. Sorry for the no singing birthday call but know that we are sure remembering you now! We'll make sure to find you something special in Arizona, we know how much you love the southwest, and we'll send it along as a small token of our love.
On the last day of March we were still in Austin and returned to the city in the late afternoon. We had missed our chance to have pizza at Home Slice and I wasn't about to miss the opportunity again so we headed there for supper. Now you may be asking, why does it seem so important that he go to have pizza and what is so special about this place. Well the answer to both questions can be answered by your nose. As you walk down Congress Ave. anywhere within several hundred yards of this place you can smell the aroma of garlic and crust being cooked to perfection in a brick oven and wafting about all around the area. I love pizza but I am a sucker for brick oven pizza like that of Modern in New Haven. Now this was no Modern but it was close and they saved themselves but stating in the menu that their White Clam Pie is modeled after the New Haven style clam pie. We had one and it was just damn good. Literally the best pizza we have had since we left CT. Well worth the effort to get there!
We made sure we got thru with pizza just in time to head up to the Congress Ave bridge. Here, just at dusk, a million and a half Mexican Free Tailed Bats, who take up residence under the bridge, head out for the night. It is the largest urban bat colony in the country and it is quite the site to see. Once they start they just keep coming and their exit is very well choreographed and a bit weird. They seem to fly along the edges of the bridge columns and supports, jogging in and out between them until they get to a certain point where I guess they fell its OK to fly out and then they do, en mass. People come from around the world to see the bats and line up around and under the bridge in the park area and up on top of the bridge all along its edges. I pulled into a Firestone dealer just before the bridge and went in to ask the guy behind the desk if this was in fact THE BRIDGE? he smiled as he looked up and told me enthusiastically that it was and that I could park right there in his lot and "just follow the line of people going up to the bridge". Can you imagine though, that someone in a city, just offers up their parking lot for free and for fun. I really loved this city and its people. I often feel as though they come into our lives just for us! We just meet too many of them for this not to be true. If you look hard at the two bridge shots, you can see small black dots streaming upward away from the bridge just above the peoples heads and all along the beam of the bridge just below and all along where they are standing. Those are the bats or.... dirt on my lens. It was quite the site. I guess if I have to explain where they are that means that the shot wasn't that good. Oh well!!!
On Tuesday April-1, we entered the Hill Country Section of Texas and made camp outside of Johnson City in Perdenales State Park. Great Park, great site and Jasper met another home schooled boy on vacation there and they became famous together and inseparable and I caught a butterfly on my face while on a bike ride in the park. The two of them were so interested in rocks that they held an impromptu meeting of the Future Geologist of America, right there at the campsite. I was the staff photographer.
On 4-2 we visited Johnson City. This is the boyhood town home of President Johnson and two sites about 14 miles from each other have been donated and turned into national park sites. We visited both and it was much better that I thought it was going to be. Politically speaking I opposed the Vietnam war and so was not real happy with Johnson but I got to see the other side of the man at this park and it softened me a little. It is worth seeing a piece of our history from all perspectives. We saw his grandfathers house, which was the only house in the town in 1832 and we saw LBJ's boyhood home and we visited the Texas White House (LBJ Ranch) as well. beautiful areas and landscape and I learned a little more about what it is like to be president of these states to boot.
On 4-3 we traveled again and we stopped in a small town just 13 miles from the LBJ ranch.
Luckenbach, Texas - Population 3. If you are not a country fan at all or a Willie Nelson fan at all you may not have heard of this place. but he made it famous in a song and it is a legendary little place that I loved visiting, felt fulfilled for having visited, wouldn't have missed it and hope you get the chance to stop by here some day. This place is a bikers paradise and a musician's stomp. It feels like you are in a weird dream when you are there and yet it is so real at the same time. Too much!
Later that night, after a breathtaking ride thru those Texas Hills and as many stops as we could fit in as we passed many 5000+ acre ranches and not much of anything else, except of course wildlife in abundance and variety, like we were in Africa, we pulled into Lost Maples State Park in Vanderpool, Texas. Vanderpool - You will definitely miss it driving thru. There is a general store on one end of the town and a lawyers house/office on the other and that is it. It is about 24 miles west of Bandera, Texas. Big town, Population approx. 1,170. It is self proclaimed "The Cowboy Capital of the World". There was a "Thunder in the Hills", Bikers rally going on the weekend that we happened to take a ride in to use the phone and get grub so we got an eye full of bikes and other biker related scenes and circumstances. The next day jasper hooked up with two brothers, both younger, visiting on a three day holiday with their parents, from San Antonio (about two hours away to the East) We had the good fortune of meeting their parents, Christiana and Jim and we spent a lot of time together over the time we were there. It was a pleasure to hang with them and make sure that they did nothing of anything that resembled have too's. Hope to see you guys again soon!
On 4-6 we drove from the hills into the start of the desert of Texas. Moving from one section of the state to the next happens like turning a page and suddenly you are in the next chapter. It is like someone drew lines and said this is where this section ends and the next begins. It really is that dramatic. You can stand in one spot and look forward and backward and see the two distinct geographic illustrations. Okay, I know, you got it.
We ended up in Del Rio, Texas which is on the border of Acuna, Mexico. We came here so we could have some phone and computer access but it has been periodic and cuts out often. But it has cooperated this late night to allow me to post this. We have stayed at Buzzards Roost private RV park right down the street from the Amistad International Reservoir. This reservoir was created by a dam on the Rio Grande River as a joint effort by both the Mexican States and the US. The border crossing is in the middle of the dam. We walked out there on the 8th and took pictures from the center.
I will hopefully get to complete this and add pictures soon. We are heading out this morning for Marathon, Texas and will be there for two days before we enter Big Bend National Park for a week.

We left Livingston!

Today we left Lake Livingston State Park. We had a great week there and made friends with Mike and Patty from Oklahoma. It was nice hanging with them over the fire, playing guitar and solving all the worlds woes, yet again.
















We headed toward Austin via the back roads on the Piney Woods and into the Lakes and Prairies section that brought us through Huntsville, Texas. The blooming wild flowers all along the way were spectacular and made the trip more beautiful and also longer in duration.
We also stopped briefly to eat our lunch and to see the statue of Sam Houston in Huntsville. It is huge and supposedly the "largest statue of an American hero in the world" according to local legend. He was quite an important guy in the world of Texas during its time of its own sovereign country hood and his importance continued after they became an admitted state of the union.





For our supper that evening we stopped along the Barbeque Trail at the renowned Taylor Cafe in Taylor Texas. This is a True Honky Tonk that has been in existence for 52+ years and owned and operated by Mister Vencil who is now 84 (42 twice as he says it) and still comes in every day and prepares the brisket, beef, chicken and sausage meat in the pit . He graciously took a picture with us and gave us a copy of his newspaper write up and then allowed us to tour (which he directed without leaving his chair)his office and the pit area of his establishement after being prompted by one of the locals sititing across from him at the bar. What a sweet guy this Vencil is. While we were eating our supper, after a rousing game of pool between Jasper and me, we watched Mister Vencil fall gently asleep sitting behind the bar. Amongst all the beer bottles clanking and people talking and coming and going, he drifted off as if there was no one else in the place. He welcomed us personally and thanked us for coming and asked us to come back and visit him again.










back out on the highway we saw some bones in the road (who gladly posed and waited for my digital camera to get the shot before heading off).











We pulled into Hwy 71 campground just 20 miles outside and to the East of Austin at around 7PM. We set up and jumped in the car to head to the city. Before getting there though we stopped in to see the McKinney Falls State Park campground that we were going to stay at but decided to go private this time. It is directly within the city limits but it appears as though you are in the Big Thicket National Preserve. If you didn't leave the grounds, you would never know that you were in the city. There were masses of deer, everywhere and we even saw an Owl up close sitting on a speed limit sign right in front of our car. Spinning his/her head around, a couple of times, to check us out before flying away.

Austin is a great looking city and it seems to be completely safe. This assessment was made by us based on talking to folks who live there and by the number of single people walking and jogging thru the parks alone at night. The latter prompted the former. It is also a beautifully clean city and once again we find the people to be very friendly and welcoming. We found that "Shadow Kissing" is definitely encouraged!! What a nice City!









The Capitol building and grounds are the quality of the White House but you are free to walk around and view the place even at 10 at night. While there I went up to one of the State Police stationed at a gate in his car to ask him directions to the music clubs. He spent 10 minutes talking to me asking where we were from, welcoming us to Texas and explaining which clubs he thought would be best for a more mature crowd (he was doing real good up till that moment) and giving me directions and naming the clubs, before he wished us well and thanked us for coming to visit Texas. So, when was the last time you were formally and pleasantly welcomed to CT but one of our esteemed state troopers (sans citation)?

















Before leaving for the night, although we tried to have Pizza at Home Slice on Congress Ave.,it was 10:02 when we got there and they told us that they stop letting people in at 10. So we put it off until tomorrow and went up the road just a bit to have cupcakes from an airstream RV turned cupcake kiosk named "Hey Cupcake" we spotted coming in. The name and the Airstream RV are real attention grabbers on the corner where they are parked.



There we made the acquaintance of Katie who was working that night who had just recently returned home to Austin from LA, CA. She was extremely nice to us and extremely friendly. She couldn't welcome us enough or take care of us enough. She told us all the great things about what she called the small town city of Austin, where everybody knows everybody.We ordered two decedent cupcakes and she gave us six. She made sure we didn't leave without our very own "Hey Cupcakes" fridge magnet and then as a final over the top gift she gave us three logo screened T shirts as well. katie told us that the business has only be up and running for 6 months. When they started out the were selling around 200 cupcakes per week. Last week they sold 7000. Funny, people don't look FAT!
There are just great people every where we go.
We headed home at around 11:30 PM.
Another very cool day in the life on the road!