From Sanderson Texas

March 20, 2008

Today Joyce and I celebrate our 44^th wedding anniversary. Would think for something like that we would eat a big meal, paint the town etc. When you are 40 miles from the nearest town of any size and 26 miles from a very little town with one gas station, not a lot of celebrating to do. But we made a good day of it. Went back down to the Pecos river. Weather much better today. Not cold, spitting rain etc. Checked for flowers, took the obligatory pictures.

Then on to the Roy Bean Museum. That was in Langtry, Tx. Roy claimed he named the town after Lilly Lantry, but the railroad begs to differ. They claimed to have named it after one of there engineers who the designed the railroad. Doesn't matter. This is the one gas station town I was referring to earlier. Regular gas is $3.45 per gallon. When you're the only game for 60 miles, you can charge what you want. But I will say this, it is the only place in town to get something to eat. And the BBQ sandwich was good. And not too outrageously price. Then we went to the Museum. Very nice. And free. The Texas Department of Transportation owns, maintains and operates it. Also they have a very extensive desert garden with the plants labeled. That made it easier for Joyce in some of her plant identifcations.

Next we went back down the Rio Grande Trail. Not as far as yesterday. I went a couple miles down while Joyce turned back earlier. Another view of the Canyon and cliff walls. It was ok, but the neat thing for me was finding a couple of rocks in the trail that had fossils embedded in them.

Tomorrow we travel on to the Big Bend area. Not sure of where we are going to stay, but once we get to an area with cell phone coverage will be able to figure it out.

March 19, 2008

Another busy day. First thing this morning we took a tour of the rock dwellings down in Seminole Canyon. These dwellings were where the rivers had undercut the limestone and formed overhanging rock that protected the prehistoric people from the elements. There is evidence that shows that these people lived here for over 9,000 years. One of the big attractions are the rock paintings they left behind. Quite impressive. Having never seen anything like them before, I was excited at the opportunity. Took lots of pictures. Joyce did too. She had been afraid that physically she could not handle the tour, but she did very well. The only aftereffects were her very sore thigh muscles. We were told there are 336 steps up and down to the dwellings. Then you have to retrace your steps. After lunch we started down the Rio Grande trail. At the end is the confluence of the Rio Grande and an unnamed, to us, stream that flows thru Seminole Canyon. Across the river(accessible by boat only) is Panther Cave. The attraction there is a 15 ft panther painted on the wall. We were able to get a decent view of it from the overlook. What I haven't told you about this trail is that it is a 6 mile round trip. Joyce was a champ. She made it the whole way and while totally exhausted and probably overheated never complained. I made sure that we took lots of rest stops and drank a lot of water.

March 18, 2008

Yesterday afternoon we arrived here in Seminole Canyon State Historic Park. About 88 degrees with a light breeze blowing. We are 9 miles from the nearest community and another 26 miles from Del Rio, Texas. This is part of the Chihuahua n Desert. Somehow, we managed to get the last site with electricity and were able to book it for 3 nights.

We set up camp and had dinner. After that we took a walk down the trail that goes to the Rio Grande. Went about ¾ mile down the trail. Very easy, but Joyce was having trouble with her feet and the hiking boots she was wearing. We are in the type of area where foot protection is vital. Many thorns and other noxious things. Hopefully we got the shoe problem fixed. I had her loosen up the strings so they were not so tight over the arch of her foot. After we did that she said her foot was much better.

The weather forecast had predicted severe thunderstorms, with lightening, strong winds and possibly large sized hail. We had considered moteling it last night but decided to take a chance that the thunderstorms would bypass the area. Well let me tell you, they did not bypass us. About 10:45 the first one came rolling thru and as advertised. The camper was rocking back and forth in the wind, lightening was continuous and the hail was deafening. We weathered that storm ok. About 1:30 the next one rolled thru. Heavy rain and lightening. No hail this time of which I was glad. Also the temperature dropped quite dramatically during these storms, and where I had the fan going in the heating/cooling unit, I turned on the heat. All told, we got 3.6 inches of rain. BTW, Joyce always carries a rain gage and thermometer.

I always thought that I could survive most places, but realize that I would have to learn a new set of skills to do so here. Even here in late winter this is an inhospitable place to those not used to it. I really felt sorry for the people in tents last night. Joyce just came back from the bathroom and tells me the family in the tent over behind us is asleep on the bathroom floor. Good for them.

March 17, 2008

Today is a travel day. A short 175mile trip to Del Rio, where we may stay in a motel. Lots of new flowers along the way for Joyce to photograph and identify. Saw our first Roadrunner. Still have not seen the rumored Armadillo. We do not believe there are any live ones, as the only ones we have ever seen are lying dead along the roads. We decided to go to the state park and hopefully get a campsite. We did.

March 16, 2008

Did the touristy thing. Went into San Antonio to the Alamo. Quite a bit of Texas history there. Toured the museum and the grounds. Listened to an oral presentation about the Alamo and why these men elected to die there. They knew they would not survive, and elected to fight anyway in order to buy the rest of Texas time to mount a defense against the army of Santa Anna.

Next we walked a couple of blocks and found the “famed” San Antonio River walk. What a mob scene. They were celebrating St Patrick's Day with a parade (Eight floats on boats going down the river). Had lunch at one of the riverside eateries. Then stood in line for 30 minutes or more to buy tickles for a boat ride around the downtown loop. That was nice. After that we left the River walk and back to our car.

Now in my life there have been events that called for a “mark on the wall”. Not many, but a couple. We wanted to go to flea market that we had heard about. Now back last fall, I bought a GPS unit for the car. Joyce just rolled her eyes and said a boy and his toys. Well on this trip I have been using it to get to places we would never have found except with a lot of bickering and angst. I mean, for most of the time, I have no idea how to get to these places. But put an address into the GPS, then follow them and in most cases you will arrive at your destination. Not 100% but certainly helpful. Joyce actually admitted that it was a good idea for me to have purchased it, especially if we were going to continue to do these types of things.

Found the flea market and while it was large, we were quite disappointed. Not at all like the ones we had been to in Florida and Tennessee.