A Blog Post in the Making

"Hey, honey. Let's go down here and take a look at the Rio Grande a little closer. Too bad they aren't doing the river-rafting trips right now because the water levels are too low. That would have been cool."

"So this is where they put the rafts in for the river tours? Yeah, the water is kind of low. And stinky. I wonder what those people up-river are doing in the water? Never mind. I don't want to know."

"Eww. This mud stinks. I am NOT taking my shoes off. I might get my yoga pants wet. Y'all go ahead."

"We live very close to Mexico but this is much, much closer. I wonder if we can go over there? I haven't seen a sign that says we can't......"


"I know! I have a great idea for a blog post! Hurry kids, go across the river and I'll take your picture over there!"


"Good idea, Jerry, to test the depth and flow of the water. How is it? Sharp rocks under there, huh? Too bad. Maybe you can help the kids get across.

I know you love it when I volunteer you to do something both gross, heavy, and painful.

You're welcome."

"Good work, babe! Only the lightest kid left!"


"LOOK AT ME AND SAY "BEANS"!!!"


"Oooh. It looks like that's hurting your feet, Jerry. You OK?"


"From the string of profanities slipping out of your grimaced face I would venture that you are NOT OK."

"Yes. You're right. Let's go before I volunteer you for anything else that might take advantage of your height, strength, and willingness to help a blogger out.

Hey! I wonder what this sign over here says about crossing the river.........

Uh. Oh."

Santa Elena Canyon

See that cleft in the mountains in the distance? That's where we're going next. The Santa Elena Canyon.

The canyon was carved out of the mountain ridge by the Rio Grande River. On your left of the canyon is Mexico. On your right is America. Everyone say "hello, Mexico!"


The face of the mountain ridge is impressive. The front rises 1500 feet above the river, and according to the diagram Jerry is ignoring, the backside of the range gently slopes down to river level. Something about plates shifting and pushing up and out, like how your fingernails grow out of your fingers. However it got like that, it's pretty darn cool.


There is a nice hiking trail that leads as far into the canyon, on the US side, as you can go before there is no more place to walk and your feet get wet.


This is dry riverbed. The Rio Grande has been diverted, dammed, and all but dried up due to drought and mis-management. It's more like the Rio Pequeño.


There was a bit of steep climbing up some stairs to get into the mouth of the canyon. When Paige was a baby, she hated riding in a hiking backpack. Josh was OK either way, and Phoebe is a lazy biscuit and never wants to walk.

Birth order at work.


Once past the sun line, the temperature dropped by at least ten degrees. The kids had fun throwing rocks off of the ledge while I cringed and hugged the rock face. I don't like heights. At all.

There's the mountain from which I took the pictures of the Santa Elena Canyon in yesterday's post.


Another fun experience the kids got to have was listening to a true, and surprisingly loud echo within the canyon. They yipped and yelped, whooped and hollered. As did the people out of view both behind and in front of us. It was a cacophony of "echo, Echo, ECHO!"


There was a raven in there somewhere crying, "Nevermore, nevermore, nevermore." It was kinda creepy.


There we are in front of the yucky, microbe infested waters of the Rio Grande, er, Rio Pequeño. It was shades of brown, green, and something iridescent.

Look! Yoga pants! (To be fair, this was the same day as the last set of photos.)


Climbing back out the way we came was prettier than going in. The sun was beginning to sink faster as the afternoon drew to a close, and the cliff's shadow was moving fast enough to chase.

We hollered our last echo, the raven cried it's last "nevermore", and we headed on our way to another adventure.

World travelers debuts soon.......

Other Peoples Vacation Photos

We all have our own personal emotional history that we carry around with us, applying like a seasoning to the current events of our lives.

For example, when I was young, I was on occasion subjected to hours of looking at other people's vacation slideshows. Remember the old fashioned slides? The hum of the projector, the dark, sleepy feel of the room, the droning on and on and on of the narrator as they told you all about some exotic trip you were not a part of and will probably never do for yourself?

Yes. You remember.

As this post is all about looking at my vacation photos, I will try not to bore you to death with details about this type of bush, the name of that mountain, or look at how cute Paige is. I will try and be a bit more clever about it.


Look son! See that vague outline of a mountain way over there? That one. Right there. RIGHT there. Over THERE. RIGHT THERE!!! HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE THAT? IT'S THE BIG THING STICKING UP IN THE SKY!!!!

Never mind. Get down and go play.


A road. A well-paved, winding, empty, curving road. We are in a Suburban. Our Porsche is at home. The speed limit is 45 mph. Drat!


Mountains like this go on forever out here. As do the dry, desert brush. Imagine taking a wagon ride across that mess. I'm glad to have been born after the invention of the horseless wagon.


Another curing, well-paved, winding, empty road. The speed limit is still 45 mph. But the Porsche has a radar detector worth it's weight in gold. Mein Auto ist schnell.


I think Josh would be content anywhere if there are plenty of rocks and maybe a mountain or cliff to throw the rocks off of. Someone built an mini Stonehenge up here. Josh dismantled it, one hurled rock after another.


There's me. A rare view. Jerry tried hard to take pictures of me during this trip. What you may not see in this picture: 1. I am sucking it in for all it's worth. My guts are somewhere located around my kidneys in this photo. 2. At this point, I think those yoga pants had fused to my legs. That's all I wear. Every day. All day. Except to church. Maybe.


Josh may not have seen the mountain in the distance but Phoebe did. Paige was diligently marking off assignments on her Junior Park Ranger program we got for her. She loves learning and doing and details and school. I know someone else who is like that. Someone oddly enough with yoga pants as legs.


Tomorrow you'll get to see for yourself what is over that next horizon, where the distant mountains separate into a narrow canyon. Where Mexico and America flirt and dance with each other as the flow of the river changes with the seasons.

The Santa Elena tour begins tomorrow...........

Fun Anywhere

Yesterday I told you a little about Lajitas, a luxury resort and golf course located exactly in the middle of nowhere. Due west of Big Bend National Park. Due west of jack and well, you know.

But somehow, out of all of the RV places we've stayed, and we have been around I can tell you that, this RV park is one of my all-time favorites.

Why? The views. The open, flat spaces. The RV-use only bathrooms, community building, laundry facilities, and one heck of an awesome.....


pool!!!!!!!!!

You can be in the middle of absolutely nowhere, like here, and add a nice, clean, well-maintained pool and you've got yourself a class A vacation destination!


Hi, honey! Are you having fun? I like the mountain behind you. How's the freezing cold artesian* spring water? I wouldn't know. I'm on vacation and as such I try not to make myself miserable by swimming in freezing cold water. I'm enjoying watching you all play though.

*An artesian spring is an underground water source where the water is confined between two impermeable sediment layers, and when tapped, the water flows out of the well without the use of a pump. It is under enough pressure that it comes out without mechanical systems. Usually the water comes out straight through the well casings, and not through the ground at all, thereby decreasing the amount of contaminates with which the water comes in contact.


Nice hat, Jerry. Very nice.

This pool, though very much appreciated after a hot drive to nowhere, was a tad too cold. The kids lasted maybe 30 minutes and then turned purple and had to get out.

I only brought one towel to the pool. That's one drawback to RV-ing; not a lot of space so you have to limit what you can bring. Like only 6 towels.

But when you have a big sister with a maternal streak the size of the Milky Way, you don't have to worry about being mistreated or neglected.


Josh is lucky to have Paige. We all are. Except when it's your towel she stole.

True chronicling of the desert continues.......

Lajitas

In a land full of browns, there is one surprising swath of green stuck in the middle of the West Texas nothingness. A resort community called Lajitas pops up out of this nothingness, and to yuppies like us, it is a welcome site.


Driving west out of Big Bend National Park, past the nothingness, past the mining camps and mobile homes perches precariously amongst the rocks, you will go through a town called Terlingua.

Terlingua is home to the countries largest annual chili cook-off. Maybe you recognize the name from signs decorating the walls of the restaurant chain Chili's. Maybe only I recognized the name because I worked as a server at Chili's for two years.

Terlingua is a town of completely unremarkable dirt. There are mining outfits, tiny resorts for Big Bend visitors, and not much else.

If it's not chili cook-off time, don't bother stopping.


Lajitas was formed by rich people looking to build something ridiculous in the middle of a desert. They have five natural artesian springs allowing a miraculous, and from what I hear spectacularly gorgeous 18-hole golf course. In the middle of nowhere.

There is a hotel, a small outdoor main street with restaurants and bars, shops, and recreation outfitters. There are homes for sale, condos to rent, 4-wheelers to drive, and golf lessons to take.

Out here you can totally believe that the rich and famous come here to hide from the crowds, to play some golf on some beautiful links, and to unwind. There. Is. Nothing. Else. Out. Here.

Except Johnny Depp. Supposedly he and his crew are coming soon to film a new wild west movie. That's cool. Johnny Depp is cute. He'll bring something attractive to this land of dirt.


True, the mountains are spectacular. Like this one, behind our RV campground. Which is also an amenity of Lajitas.

(The campground was almost empty while we were there, but right about NOW, it will be full of people coming for the chili cook-off in Terlingua. And then it will be empty again.)


Look! There's the RV campground, behind the cemetery. I don't really like that. There's too much coyote howling and owl hooting at night to camp that close to an old cemetery.


But the nights were clear, there were no trees overhead to block the view, and the stars were close enough to touch. The Milky Way was our blanket. All in the middle of nowhere.

West Texas vacation continues......

Getting to Big Bend

Last week we took our RV on a proper RV vacation. We normally use it for living somewhere in between Air Force assignments, but finally we managed to use the RV for a destination vacation.

We packed up the kids, dog, food, and blankets and headed west young man.

West to wilds of West Texas. Prairies, deserts, mountains, tumbleweeds, dust devils, rattlesnakes, and javelina.

We saw it all.

Our first day was mostly driving. Leaving Del Rio the landscape changed from flat Sonoran desert, to flat nothingness, then finally to low, flat mountain ranges. Not much can stand for long with relentless sun, heat, and wind.

There's nothing for miles. Nothing for tens of miles. Hundreds of miles. It was good we were pulling a portable toilet behind us.


There's a quaint little town called Marathon (pronounced mare-i-thin, not mare-i-thon) (I don't know why that's important.) It has a nice, little main street with restaurants, souvenir shops, and an old-fashioned adobe style hotel. There's history here. Lots of history. I just don't know it.


Then we drove south, due south for another length of nothingness. I kind of like nothingness. Maybe I enjoyed it because Phoebe was napping and the kids were watching a movie quietly.


Finally we reached our first destination: Big Bend National Park. The least visited national park in the entire country. Did I mention it's in the middle of nowhere? When you go there, you go there on purpose. Period.


There are not a lot of full hook-up RV sites within the park so we drove through the park to get to a small town west of the park called Lajitas. It's a fancy oasis of upper-middle-class vacation amenities surrounded by nothing but dirt and rocks and sand.

More on Lajitas tomorrow.


There's our RV in the background, in front of a gorgeously striated mountain, but behind the children. The RV campground in Lajitas was awesome, and this brick wall near our RV was the kids favorite part of the trip. Not really. But maybe.


This is NOT our RV. Wow. That's fancy RV-livin' right there. A million dollar bus pulling a gas-guzzling Hummer.

I could buy an island in the Bahamas for that price.

To each his own, right?

More non-judgemental tour of Texas to be continued.........

Seminole Canyon Field Trip

One of the many perks of homeschooling is the availability to go on frequent field trips. Our co-op offers at least one field trip per month and when you live where we live, some of the destinations are just, dare I say it, amazing.

Last month, our field trip was a tour of Seminole Canyon to observe cave paintings, pictographs left behind by either the Comanches, Apaches, or other Native American people that braved to live in this area hundreds of years ago.

About 10 cars full of students, parents, and friends, met at the Wal-Mart and caravan-ed to the state park, some 30 miles north of Del Rio.

For an open-spaces kind of gal like me, the drive alone is worth the trip.


We met up with the park rangers, paid our fees, and split up into two tour groups: A tour for the younger kids, a nature walk through the Sonoran desert, and another tour for the bigger kids, a hike down into the canyon and up into the caves to see the pictographs.

Jerry came with us so we could go with the big kids. He's a good baby-carrying mule.


The canyon seemed so far away. But the weather was perfect, the kids in a good mood, and I didn't have to teach anything that day. Bonus!


Along the way our guide stopped at certain spots to teach us about certain desert plants such as this yucca. We learned that the root ball can be used as a natural soap, and if necessary, it can be boiled for two days and eaten.

I really wanted to take notes to add to my survival guidebook. But I resisted.


This metal dude is a sculpture depicting one of the pictographs we would see in the caves. Our tour guide went on and on and on and on talking about what each aspect represented. I think he was guessing.


Then down, down, down we went, following the path to the canyon floor below. We had no problem navigating the trail, even on the steepest parts. Later in the day as we made our way back up, our tour guide commented to me that we were the fittest group of students he had ever seen.

Yet another perk to homeschooling.


This wispy stuff is called Mormon tea. It has cardiovascular stimulating properties as it's main active chemical is similar to epinephrine. Ho, doggy did I want to write that down, too.

Think of the applications this plant could have in a survival setting! Treatments of allergies, heart conditions, fatigue, etc.

This one definitely goes in my survival field guide.


At the bottom of the canyon, we headed toward the caves that had the pictographs. I brought up the rear so I could take pictures for the co-op and because our Phoebe was the slow poke of the group.

The kids had fun running around the canyon bed, examining the grooves and impressions left by hundreds of years of flash floods. See the canyon roof to the left of the photograph? Last year when there was record flooding here, the canyon filled with water within 10 feet of the roof of these caves. That fact made me really glad it was a clear day with no rain in the forecast for weeks.


The first set of caves we looked at had these pictographs. They were quite high up on the walls and on the overhang above us. When one student asked how the native people got up so high to paint the designs there, our guide told us they used scaffolding.

It was then that I decided he was definitely making things up and I would no longer give him much attention.

(In truth, the canyon floods almost every year, and over hundreds of years the floor we were standing on had been eroded down to its current levels. At least that's what the book said about it. A book written by an archaeologist. I believed HIM. And the evidence of water erosion was everywhere. Scaffolding remains? Nada.)


Then we hiked up and around into the Fate Bell cavern, so named after the man who owned this land once upon a time.


The view looking back was quite beautiful.


We got to see some more pictographs and hear more made-up explanations. It was cool to see and even better to hear the kids come up with their own made-up explanations. They all sounded pretty good to me.

Except for the scaffolding thing.


Here are some dudes supposedly creating the earth. OK.

I didn't take a picture of it because it was gross, but the kids were most interested in a dried and fossilized pile of human excrement. Not the 500 year old cave paintings, but the ?? year old dried up poop.

I can imagine that when they are grown up and think back on this trip, the kids will forget the dudes creating the world and remember the fossilized dung. Like I can't remember anything else about a field trip on went on in elementary school to a 1800's pharmacy except the jar containing a real, preserved human thumb.

Your welcome for sharing that tasty trip down memory lane.


Here we are posing for the camera trying to waste time while our tour guide gave us an unnecessary chance to rest. Homeschoolers, remember? We were born ready!


Then we marched back up the way we came, Jerry fulfilling his baby-carrying mule duties very well. Thanks, honey!


Texas. Ain't it cool?