Seeing Green

Its good to see green again! After over three months in the desert areas of CA, AZ, NM and TX we started to see green grass and trees as we traveled from Big Bend National Park to Del Rio, San Antonio, and Houston. In Baton Rouge, QT seemed to be saying, “I remember this!” as she stretched out in the green grass next to the motorhome.

Our current campsite near McComb MS is nearly void of campers and is still covered with the brown leaves of last Fall/Winter but open areas are green, there are pine and hardwood trees everywhere , and wildflowers are beginning to appear. We are enjoying watching the squirrels and a couple of large red-headed woodpeckers.

One of the ways we try to keep in touch with what's going on in the world is local TV. Near Del Rio our campsite was in Amistad National Recreation Area and we received 5 stations, surprisingly all in Spanish. In Baton Rouge we had our choice of over 20 stations but our favorite, CBS, would keep breaking up—of course that was the one with the basketball games on it. Here, near McComb MS we get three PBS channels and two of them are identical, but it does include an evening BBC news broadcast. In Benson AZ I had to go buy a TV cable as it was the first time we had ever stayed where cable TV was available. Usually we are staying in campgrounds rather than RV parks.

Jim & Ora Lee Kirkham served with us in Malaysia

For the first time on this trip we parked our motorhome in someone's driveway. Carefully maneuvering it to one side of the driveway we were able to put out the two slides, almost to the roof eaves on one side and overhanging into the neighbor's yard on the other. Thanks to Jim and Ora Lee Kirkham's hospitality we were able to add 5 nights of zero $ campsite fees to help us as we work toward an overall average of $10 per night. We had a great time together visiting the Houston Space Center, the Sea Center Texas, their Southern Baptist mega-church, and hours of catching up on each others lives since serving at Dalat School together many years ago.

Amber Marshall, former student at ICA, Cote d'Ivore

While in Houston we were able to spend a short-time with two former students. Both of them were also on basketball teams that I coached, Amber Marshall at International Christian Academy in Cote d'Ivoire and Steve Livingston at Dalat School in Malaysia. Amber lives North of Houston where she is studying to be a paramedic. Steve Livingston lives with his wife Becky in Houston. Steve is head of a Christian private school in Houston and Becky, also a former student at Dalat School, is a nurse.

Steve Livingson, former student at Dalat School, Malaysia

Some Interesting Campsites:

The Amistad National Recreation Area near Del Rio TX is a joint facility with Mexico. The large reservoir has a string of buoys that mark the international border between the two countries.

Happy Valley RV Park near San Antonio TX is a regular RV park with rates higher than we want to pay, I was surprised to see a paragraph from the management on the Internet stating that they had an area outside the park that one could stay overnight for free. It was true. The lady was friendly and helpful on the telephone, asked us to call just before we arrived, and was there to meet us and guide us to our place to park for the night.

The Farr Equestrian Park is part of the Baton Rouge park system. Its a huge area with a hundred or more electric/water hookups located just over a levee from the Mississippi River. Very reasonable price and only a handful of campers there. Immediately adjacent to the RV section is an indoor arena, outdoor exercise area, and grazing area. We thoroughly enjoyed watching the horses and riders just a few hundred feet from our campsite.

This & That in Texas

Restored officer's quarters at mid-1800's Fort Davis

Things are picking up seeing animals. Coming down from I-10 to Fort Davis, Gertrude sent us on a wild ride—beautiful scenery but narrow, winding, steep road. Gertrude is the voice on the CoPilot GPS App we use on our Nexus 7 tablet. It was a good opportunity to test climbing ability and descending procedures with the motorhome on excessively steep portions of highway. Highlight was seeing four javelinas mosey across the road right in front of us. Leaving Fort Davis TX we saw a beautiful buck with a huge rack of horns and his harem in an open yard right at the edge of town.

The desert regions are known for the roadrunner. Up until our trip to Big Bend TX we had not seen a single one (except for the Roadrunner group at the Quartzite Alliance Church). Then suddenly they were everywhere. Even one at the campground that seemed to be a campground pet.

Pearl at Hot Springs, Big Bend Nat'l Park

At Big Bend National Park there were lots of birds, especially a little one with bright red head and reddish orange breast. We were told the park is known for birds migrating north and south. We were also told how to protect food and pets from javelinas which frequent the park but we didn't see any.

This morning camped at the San Pedro campground in the Amistad National Recreation Area we saw a herd of deer and Pearl saw a red cardinal. Still looking for our first scorpion, tarantula, and rattlesnake. Still not the kind of animal populations we are used to seeing elsewhere. When the scenery is getting boring while traveling I'll suggest to Pearl that she count antelope—with tongue in cheek of course as there are no antelope or any other critters visible. In Wyoming we would often not be able to keep up as they would be appearing by the dozens everywhere we looked.

Remote community in Mexico across from campsite in Big Bend

We've been roughly following the Rio Grande and the Mexican border since Yuma AZ. It was a special treat to spend a week in and near the Big Bend National Park. Unfortunately we didn't have passports so weren't able to wade the river, ride the burros up to the Mexican community adjacent to the campground and visit with the people—much different environment than many of the border towns. Both the Mexican community and Rio Grande Village Campground are many tens of miles from anywhere!

Rio Grande just a few hundred ft from campsite at Big Bend

We have become accustomed to Border Patrols everywhere. I believe Pearl said we have now gone through 6 checkpoints. Usually we just stop and they wave us on. At the most recent one we had to wait while the officer and his dog sniffed the baggage compartments on the motorhome. Actually I think it was only the dog and not the officer who did the sniffing. Apparently the sniffing was all for naught because they waved us on after a couple of minutes.

At the edge of the Park we spend three days at Stillwell Ranch. We picked it because of its reputation for a wide variety of jasper and agate. After three or four collecting trips when we kept emphasizing to ourselves, “Only the very best! We have no room for more!” we ended up with a hundred pounds. After further sorting I paid my $0.50 per pound for 48 pounds of choice agates, jasper and petrified wood.

Still working on keeping campsite fees down: $19 (hookups) at Stillwell Ranch, $7 at Big Bend National Park, $2 at Amistad National Recreation Area, and $0 tonight near San Antonio TX on our way to Houston TX on Friday.