Farewell/Adios to Texas!

We spent 3 nights parked near the beach at Galveston Island State Park.  It was very windy on our first day, but the weather improved, giving us warm days and cool evenings.  We walked on the beach several times a day allowing Fergus the chance to play ball.  The water was too cold to enter and we were a bit dismayed with the warning sign about snakes in the sand dunes - but otherwise, it was a lovely beach and campground.  We were walking distance to a little gas station/grocery store and enjoyed the stroll to get a daily newspaper.  It was a very relaxing time until the day before we departed.  We forgot to go through our check-list and started to drive out of the park without unplugging our water and electric connections.  The water connection to the RV broke but fortunately, our electric cord was undamaged.  We lucked out and called a nearby Winnebago dealer who had a part that would fit.  The dealer's service department not only sold us the part, but squeezed us into their busy schedule and installed it - saving us lots of grief and time.  Aren't we lucky!  

As it was the Friday of the 3-day President's Day weekend and we had no reservations, we drove to Beaumont, TX, which is not a destination city.  On our way to Beaumont, we stopped at the fairgrounds in Liberty for a break and discovered it had been the site of a German POW camp during WWII.  It had housed about 800 German soldiers (Rommel's desert troops) who the local farmers used to help plant and harvest their rice crops.  It was an interesting discovery in the middle of no where.

In Beaumont, we found a rustic RV park and decided to camp there for 2 nights before heading to Louisiana.  We explored downtown Beaumont, which is along a river and had some nice old buildings with interesting architecture, however, the downtown was strangely empty with virtually no activity.  After a few efforts (I continued to take the wrong exits and/or directions trying to find our way around the town), we found the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum and Visitor Center.  It was sort of a sad, out-dated little museum that apparently sees few, if any visitors.  It served as an anti-climatic 'farewell' to Texas.  We were, however, amazed with the abundance of donut shops that popped up in this whole area of Texas. There were almost as many donut shops as Baptist churches! 

Overall, we enjoyed our travels through Texas, with the highlights being Big Bend National Park, Fredericksburg and the Hill Country, our visit with friends and Galveston Island.    On to Louisiana!  

Photos include a "moonrise" courtesy of a neighbor RV'er; a mansion along the beachside of Galveston Island; sunrise photos on the beach; our Tiny Tin parked and the museum in Beaumont.  

Out of the desert!

While we thoroughly enjoyed traveling through the deserts in California, Arizona, New Mexico and southwest Texas, we were ready to get back to green grass and less dust.  The desert is such a diverse and strangely beautiful environment.  We were extremely grateful the snakes and tarantulas were not around and that it wasn't hot this time of year.  

We selected Fredericksburg (FBG) as our next destination.  FBG is a small town settled by German pioneers in 1846.  It is in the heart of Texas hill and wine country.  There were more than 185 wineries in the vicinity of FBG, although sadly we skipped wine tasting/winery touring.  FBG is a popular tourist destination with lots of shops, boutiques, restaurants, cafes, art galleries, etc.  We chose, however, to spend most of our time visiting the National Museum of the Pacific War and the Admiral Nimitz Museum.  We'd both recently read the book, "Unbroken" so seeing this museum was timely.  It's an excellent museum and the entrance ticket was good for 48 hours - allowing visitors to spend up to 16 hours touring it.  War is horrible - no question about it.  

After our stay in Fredericksburg, we drove to Luckenbach, home to a population of 3. Luckenbach, made famous by a song by Waylon Jennings has only an old store/post office/bar and dance barn, but it was fun to see.  I was even serenaded whilst snapping photos in the bar!  Luckenbach still hosts dances and musicians on a regular basis.

We spent several hours touring the Lyndon B. Johnson Ranch, which is now a State and National Park.  While not initially on our list of places to see, we were glad we made the visit.  The still-functioning ranch, which includes LBJ's residence - the Texas White House-  is set along the Pedernales River in the beautiful hills of Texas. It was an interesting and informative visit - reminding us of some of the good things LBJ was able to accomplish while President.  

We next visited Georgetown (GT), home of Southwestern University.  GT has a wonderfully preserved historic downtown and was voted as having the "most beautiful town square in Texas".  From Georgetown, we made a stop in Lockhart, the heart of the "best Texas barbecue", according to a few websites.  We ate at Black's BBQ and left disappointed.  We think Olympia's Ranch House BBQ has them beat, hands down.  

On our way to Houston to rendezvous with friends, we went through several small towns, each with beautiful old courthouses & historic downtowns & homes.  We thought the main squares of either Lockhart or Gonzales could easily compete with that of Georgetown as having the most beautiful town square.  

Our combined failure to use our RV's navigation system, smart phone GPS app and Map Quest's poor directions caused us some aggravation as we tried to find our RV park near downtown Houston, but we finally managed.  Our ultimate rendezvous in Houston was with Kalika & Gautam Sinha (and their 2 delightful kids), friends we met in Romania.  Fortunately, Kalika's excellent Indian dinner, along with fun conversation revived us.   Now, on to Galveston Island.  

Photos include 7 from Fredericksburg; 5 from Luckenbach, 2 from LBJ's ranch; 2 from Lockhart followed by 4 from Georgetown.

Beware of javelinas - farewell to Big Bend

Although we're now in the hill country of Texas, we wanted to share more photos from Big Bend National Park.  They include Santa Elena Canyon, near the Rio Grande, some beautiful buttes and the magnificent Sierra del Carmen mountains, a Vermillion Flycatcher and a Road Runner.  We saw some javelinas near our campground, but didn't capture any photos.  We highly recommend Big Bend National Park - it was an amazing desert.

West Texas ramblings

Leaving New Mexico:  Shortly after we departed Carlsbad, New Mexico, we could see the Guadalupe Mountains ahead of us.  The mountains include El Capitan, a mountain that is reminiscent of Half Dome in Yosemite.  El Capitan is 8085 ft. and Guadalupe Peak, the highest in Texas is 8751 ft.  We stopped at the visitor center and watched a slide show that included highlights of the many trails showcasing the highlands, canyons and desert of this park.   There are no roads into the Park, other than to some trailheads and the visitor center, making it a paradise for hikers.  We admired the mountains and continued our way south into Texas on Highway 62/180, turning south on to highway 54 and then highway 90 with more mountain ranges and desert to admire.  

The route to Marfa was sparsely populated and had no services until we reached the little town of Von Horn.  About 40 miles north of Marfa, we saw another huge balloon similar to the one that flew over Huachuca, Arizona.  We learned these are called Tethered Aerostat Radar Systems (TARS), and this one was actually tethered.  They are part of the US Customs & Border Patrol's drug interdiction program.  Then about 30 miles north of Marfa, we passed a little "Prada shop", which was actually an artist's installation.  We missed a photo op, but bought a postcard.  It's quite famous in its own right.  When we arrived , the pink stone renaissance style county courthouse caught our immediate attention, as did several other buildings in the town. The hotel Paisano, a gem in this desert town was lovely - and had once housed many stars from the movie "Giant" (Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson & James Dean).  While we were intrigued by their mysterious lights in the sky, Marfa was 'discovered' a few years ago by an artist who purchased much of a closed Army base and created a foundation for the arts.  He specialized in "minimalist art".  

He also drew many other artists to the community.  As a result, many of the old buildings downtown, which were  empty and decaying before the new wave of emigres arrived, have been taken over/remodeled by artists for their galleries.  We peeked into a couple, but most wasn't our 'kind' of art, nor are we shopping for any.  

We stayed two nights in a quirky RV park on the edge of town, the "Tumble In" that is noted for being self-serve.  Our one effort to view the famous Marfa lights was a failure (we got very cold!), although we were glad we made the effort.  The first historical record of the lights was in 1883 and they've been seen by many on the horizon since then.  Google the Marfa lights for more information and photos.

Our next destination was Big Bend National Park.  Our route took us through Alpine, which seemed another delightful cowboy/artsy small town with great murals.  We stocked up with groceries and headed south to the border on the Rio Grande river.  After getting a permit and park information, we delayed our visit to the park and returned to view the 'ghost town' of Terlingua, which has subsequently been re-popluated with small homes and businesses.  We found a RV park in the nearby town of Study Butte (pronounced Stoody By-utte, according to some brochure) and enjoyed the warmer temperatures and mountainous desert scenery.  Besides, the RV park in the National park was full for the weekend!   

We ventured into Big Bend National Park and were delighted with the  views.  We drove a road south to Santa Elena canyon and admired the amazing geography.  We spent 3 nights in the Rio Grande Village and enjoyed a couple of short hikes near the Rio Grande, which isn't such a grand river these days.