The Good Old Days Revisited

 

Camping here in the Rio Grande Village down in Big Bend National Park is a glorious thing.  You can look out at any point and see mountains, some of which are in Mexico.  We are right next to the Rio Grande River which due to the lack of rain is so shallow you could walk across it easily…and many do.

 

Everywhere you camp there are warnings as to what happens if you purchase any of the Mexican artwork left along the trails.  They come over and deposit the goods with a note having the prices and a small glass jar for you to leave your payment in.  It’s a good system except for it being illegal trade.  Often you can spot someone sitting in the shade of the tree on the other side of the river watching.

 

The other crossings from Mexico to the American side of the Rio Grande are of the four legged variety.  On our first day in the “expensive” RV part of the campground we had a beautiful brown horse running through the park.  When I asked about this at the office he explained that the livestock often comes over for better grazing in the park and that one morning he was greeted to the sight of 15 head of cattle in the parking lot. 

 

We had started in that campground with full hookups for $33 a night and after one day switched to this other one, which is within walking distance.  With the Senior Pass for National Parks the rate is $7 a night.  There are no hookups however.

our campground is to the right of the foot bridge - that's Mexico on the left side of the river
 

So this means we are living off the grid with no electricity or water hookups.  But, with the generator we still can generate electricity from 8am to 8pm then it’s quiet hours and they must be off.  Our water tanks are full and I learned how to conserve water when living on the Indian Reservation in Canada (long story) so this is no big deal to me.  It’s harder on those wanting to watch football games at night.

we weren't sure at first, but yes...See-More did fit through the tunnel

 

We tend to go to bed when it becomes dark and hope for a breeze since there’s no way to run the fans.  But it’s only 91 degrees as I write this, so it’s bearable.  As they say, it’s not the heat it’s the humidity.  I say nay nay…it’s hot.  Hot is hot. 

Then we get up when it’s daylight.  I feel like such a pioneer woman, shutting down my computer at 8pm when the electricity goes off.  We take them with us on our daily excursions as the park offices have Wi-Fi hotspots that we can tap into.  Okay, I guess we’re not all that rustic out here.

Long Live the Queen of the Pioneers

Judge Roy Bean

On our way from the Seminole Canyon State Park to Marathon, we stopped off to see the Judge Roy Bean Museum and visitor center.  My thanks to the RV Goddess for her recommendation of this as it would have been real easy to miss it.  It is, of course, in the town of Langtry.

Judge Roy Bean was, well...a character.  He was known as the hanging judge but there is no record that he ever sentenced a man to be hanged.  He also imposed fines as there was no jail to hold anyone in, so justice was dispensed with swiftly.

But my favorite part of his many legends is that of his fascination with Lily Langtry, a woman he never met.  There are many theories on how he had seen her.  Some say he saw her peform and others that it was only a photograph.  Anyway, he was smitten. 

Well, smitten might be a tad too mild of a word to describe his infatuation.  Well, that's not really sufficent either.  He obviously had some compulsion issues!

He wrote to her many times asking her to visit the town he named for her. 

He named his establishment "The Jersey Lily" and went so far as to nail a sign on his home proclaiming it to be the "Opera House, Town Hall and Seat of Justice" in the hopes this would persuade her to perform there one day.

I'm just saying this man could have been really something with the ability to text  and send e-mail photos to her in his campaign of undying love...lust...obsession...whatever.

She finally accepted his invitation to visit "her town" and traveled to meet him. 

Unfortunately he died several months before she arrived.

She sounds like quite the woman and there've been many books written about her. 
But the lady at the visitor center recommended reading her autobiography and I'm going to try to find this on kindle.

The visitor center also has a lovely cactus garden and walking path that winds around the old windmill in the center.

They also provided us with mucho reading material on Big Bend, RV parks in Texas and Texas State Parks.

So, we've got lots to read up on tonight in preparation our our journey into Big Bend tomorrow.  It looks as though the ranch we'll be at has wi-fi so I should be able to blog each day to keep up.

Long Live the Queen of the Cactus

 

Marathon TX

Marathon TX is the gateway to Big Bend.  This is where we spent the night prior to going south and starting that adventure.




Our camping this evening is at the Marathon Motel and RV park.  We've noticed this is done often throughout the area and it just makes sense.

They have a beautiful little courtyard with a fountain and fireplace - very cozy.  AND they have good internet service.

The sunset that evening was just spectacular. 

All this with full hookups including 50 amp service for $25.   Actually, we used our Passport America card for 50% off, so it was only $12.50.

Now that's MY kind of place!

The downtown area is just gorgeous, small but very quaint and sweet.

We stopped at the Burnt Biscuit Bakery for some of their famous fried pies.  Left Brain had pecan and I went for my old standby, apple.  They were decadent and I don't even want to think about how many calories were in them!

We left Marathon with the plan to stay at the Stillwell Ranch outside of Big Bend and go into the park for day trips.



us at the Bakery

After navigating the long, winding, bumpy road we arrived at Stillwell and proclaimed "Hell No!"  This was followed by a quick U-turn and exit.  Sorry to say I did not even venture a quick photo, I just wanted to leave.

We settled into the park at the campground called Rio Grande Village RV with full hookups for $33.  I bit pricy but okay.  This morning I woke at 6:00 to go out and gaze at the stars - they are unbelieveable and I wish I knew how to photo them properly.  I'll try again later after reading up on it.

I've been waiting to see javelina, armadillo and roadrunners but a horse?  My photo card was still in the PC from downloading the other photos and by the time I got it inserted and out the door it had galloped off - the yippy yappy little dogs next door scared it off.




our site at Marathon

After Left Brain woke up we went for a walk through the "other" park, the one through the National Park Service.  They are much more scenic and we hiked the little nature trail.  Then we spotted what would be the perfect campsite, paid for our one night and left.

Now there is a catch to this move.  There is no electricity or water so we'll have to run the generators periodically to charge things up and the cut off is at 8:00 so it limits his TV watching, but that's okay.  We're hear to see nature, not watch TV.  The price for those old people with the Senior Pass for National Parks is $7 a night.  Hmmm.  That's math even I'm capable of.  $33 a night or $28 for four nights.

I've lived in northern Minnesota with no running water, I know how to conserve.  So we both made sure to take a good hot shower prior to leaving the full hook ups.

There is no internet (even with our Wi-Fi Ranger) but the park office has a Wi-Fi Hotspot that we can use.  So, we'll just come down here once a day and check email and I will be able to continue the blog. 

So, now I need to go and download todays photos for tomorrow's blog and sit in the shade with a marguerita.

Long Live the Queen of Texas

Seminole Canyon State Park

We've had a busy day.  Not a ton of miles, but a busy day. 

Last night we camped at the Seminole Canyon State Park where we had a 360 degree view all around us. 
This is the sunset we were treated to at the end of the day.

In the morning we took the guided tour hike to the Fate Bell Shelter in the bottom of the canyon.

The steps were all natural rock but thankfully they had guard rails during the worst of them.  It wasn't bad going down but going up was another story.

I'm more out of shape than I realized.  Time to get back into shape!

The main feature at the bottom of the canyon is the rock art done created thousands of years ago.

Unfortunately, the weather and vandalism has taken its toll and they are not as vibrant as they once were. 

But it was still thrilling to be standing where people were many years before.

I applied a sunset behind it to enhance its beauty

What I enjoyed even more was the sculpture that graces the gateway to the trail. 

It's of a shaman and I love the simple, primitive lines.  If I were still a dollmaker, I'd feel compelled to try to create something like this in mixed media.

The visitors center is beautiful in it's own right and hosts a lovely exhibition area of the history.

I took this photo as were walking down the canyon floor and the clouds had clustered together as if they were converging on the center.

Most of the beauty was just nature in her own glory.  I fell in love with this little shrub coming out of the side of the cliff.

Of course, I had to play with it and add other textures and filters to it, but I don't want to bog down the blog with too much here, so I'll keep going.

The other highlight for me during this walk was spying this little ribbon snake slithering quickly over the rocks in search of shelter from we humans.

I managed to get this one of him on the run and then our guide bravely lifted the rock and poked him to start him hissing and flickering his tongue in and out. 

You can get an idea of his size with his finger near the snake. 

He tried so hard to look threatening, but it's hard when you're so tiny and well, just so stinking cute!

Left Brain spotted these little flowers for me as we were walking back to the center.  It amazes me how flowers will work so hard to grow in such adverse conditions.

I will end this blog with my favorite photo.  It's of the Fate Bell Shelter that we hiked to, but I added See-More into the photo just for fun and then changed it to a sunset.  There's no possible way for a vehicle to get anywhere near there, but I was trying to imagine the magic of camping there for the night.  Now THAT would be boondocking!

Long Live the Queen of the Canyons
 

Crazy dreams

I'm sure if you can interpret dreams you'd have fun with this one.  There were many contributing factors to this dream, the possibility of joining the Elks Club (for cheap lodging), getting used to the Wi-Fi Ranger and having traveled through Arkansas, home of the Razorbacks.

While cresting a hill in my motorhome just at twilight I noticed a house with a swing set on the side yard and an elk helplessly tangled up in the swings.  Obviously he had been there trying to battle his way out for some time as he was frothy on his chest and panting and sweating.  His head hung downward as if he just didn't have the strength to lift those huge antlers one more time.

Since I'm the kind of person who jumps out to help turtles cross the road and guards ducks and ducklings in traffic I felt compelled to stop and try to assist.  As I slowly approached him I grew more and more apprehensive.  Man these creatures are HUGE!  Just as I was having second thoughts he looked at me and emitted this weak bugle sound and I just couldn't turn away.

Slowly I approached him and he seemed receptive to my being there.  I tenuously placed my right hand on his velvety nose.  No tremors or sign of fright.  After spending a few minutes talking to him about what we were going to do and making sure he was calm (he was much calmer than ME,that's for sure!) I started to untangle him.


Slowly, slowly I lifted the swings and their chains up and over his right antler.  So far so good.  Next I started to move the chains over his left antler and he snorted and tried to pull back.  But just a little, then he calmed again and stepped back forward and I proceeded.  

With the swings off I gently stroked his neck and told him he was okay.   He sighed heavily and blew a snort out of his nose.  

What the hell am I doing?  One sudden move and I'm sure to be gouged by these big honking antlers!  He put his head down and I thought, here it comes ...he's going to charge and I'll alter the appearance of the typical roadkill on this stretch of highway.  But he just pushed his head into my hands like he wanted to be scratched, so I obliged him.  OMG.  I'm petting a moose.  Do they enjoy being scratched behind the ears?  I'm a bit out of my realm here.

Then I felt inspired to care for him and announced we were going to get a drink of water.  I slowly backed up towards the hose and a bucket that were out by the garden.  Where are these people?  If they come suddenly running out are we all in danger?  He just stood there with his huge shaggy head hanging low to the ground watching me while I filled the bucket.

I lugged it back towards him and he seemed a bit afraid of the new element I'd added to our game, but could smell the water and after his battle of undetermined time, it appeared his need to drink outweighed his fear.  While he slurped and sloshed at his water I decided to go one step further and entered the little garden shed by the back of the house.  If these people are home I'm probably in more danger now of getting shot than killed by an elk.

Bingo!  They had a nice stash of bird and squirrel food.  I'm not sure what elk like to eat, but I'm thinking they might enjoy corn since deer and other hoofed animals seem to enjoy it, so that's what I served up for supper.  It looked a bit silly in a bird bath, but it's all I could find to put it in.  I certainly wouldn't want my new best friend to have to eat it off the ground like some kind of animal!

My guess was good - he hastily partook of the corn, gave me a nod, burped and turned to saunter into the woods.  That's it? No thank you?  No "let's keep in touch" and exchanging email addresses?  Hmph.

So, I climbed back into my motorhome, still wondering if I was hallucinating or what, but feeling very pleased and continued on.  Since it was getting quite dark now I pulled into the State Park nearby to set up camp for the night.

this is what it really looks like
 

The ranger at the entry office assigned me my campsite, took my money and I couldn't help thinking there was something odd about him.  Then it dawned on me that his emblem in the center of his ranger hat said "Wi-Fi".  I asked him if that was the name of this park and he said "you betcha" and winked at me.  How odd.  And after the deal with the elk, it's hard to shock me now.

All night long I could hear these grotesque squealing noises, and rumbling and snorting.  Man, the neighbors must really have the hots for each other or something.  The noise was unbearable and I finally had to close the windows and turn on the AC if I was going to get any sleep at all.

After packing up in the morning I noticed there wasn't anybody parked near me at all.  Then what was all that grunting and groaning and squealing about?  I decided to ask the ranger on my way out.  And sure enough, there he was again.

"Say, all night long I could hear this hideous squealing, grunting and groaning noise.  What was that all about?"  He grinned and winked at me again. What's with all the winking?  
"What you heard last night were members of the HOG rally" he explained.

"I've been around bikers before, but this was a first for me.  I could have sworn I was in a pig market." I replied.

"Well, you're partly right and partly wrong" he smiled and gave me another one of those insidious winks.  "Remember that you are in the home of the Arkansas Razorbacks".

Huh?  That meant nothing to me until I left the Wi-Fi State Park and saw the mass of motorcycles before me on the road.   No doubt about it, there was a HOG rally in town and stretched out for miles in front of me were thousands of Razorback hogs riding their Harley's in formation.

I've never seen such a sight in my life.  This made the elk encounter seem almost normal.  Then I woke up.  What do you suppose this means?

Long Live the Queen of Dreams