The Day After......

Here we sit, well fed and well entertained after all the festivities of a family (large family) Christmas celebration. It's nice and quiet in our RV this AM. It's also probably quiet at the Hernadez's as the boys went over to a cousins house last night. Christmas was a most pleasurable experience with all of Eddie's extended family in San Antonio. Seeing Eddie's Grand-parents again (the last time was at the wedding reception in San Antonio some 15 years ago) was one of the highlights of our visit. They add a new dimension to "graciousness and hospitality". The gathering at Al's parents house was full of energy and love. And food, I might add. Nobody goes hungry at a Hernandez or Ramirez gathering:) The family gatherings fill the houses with noise, love, laughter and, always, music. Grandpa Tony, Cecelia's father, is 97 and still very active and engaging. He played the guitar and sang with gusto as we sang the traditional Christmas carols. Later he & Eddie played some of the Mariachi songs & Grandpa Tony & Grandma Amy sang to them. Grandma Amy is also very engaging and makes a wonderful Pecan praline. An added bonus was getting to meet Cecelia's brother & his wife from Mountain Home, ID who are not usually present at these gatherings.
Today we'll take a breather and a ride out to the country and tour one of the recommended scenic routes from a National Geographic book that Cyndi and Eddie gave us for Christmas. We always enjoy those rides.
The picture is of Grandpa Tony, Aaron and Eddie playing the guitars and singing to lead the group in song.

Happy Holidays to all

Still here in Texas and following the weather reports back home with mixed feelings. We're glad we are not there but feel badly for those that are having to shovel in the very cold temps and drive in the snow. On the other hand, we will miss the beauty of a white Christmas (at least so say the local weather prognosticators). Another cold front hit us at 4 AM today with colder temps and high winds (low 40's and 30-50 MPH Gusts). I won't even try to calculate "wind chill" as it would still pale by comparison to the temps in Detroit, Spokane, Rockton and even the Portland/Seattle areas "actual" temperatures.
We have had a great time in San Antonio visiting with Al and Cecelia (Eddies folks) and touring the downtown Riverwalk. It was beautiful at night last week with Al & Cecelia and again yesterday AM when Lou and I went to see it before the weather system came to town. Pics attached.
Al and Cecelia have made our visit very pleasant. Lou has learned to heat tortillas for the lunch fajitas and Al showed me around the garden (that is a better term for what he calls his yard). He has a marvelous variety of plants, bushes and flowers in addition to the 3 pecan trees in the back yard. He has managed to collect some interesting plants like milkweed which is the favorite of the Monarch butterflies. One even came with a caterpillar that turned out to be a Monarch. Their graciousness and hospitality have made our visit to San Antonio a real pleasure.
We are now awaiting the arrival of Cyndi, Eddie and the kids from Detroit. They are scheduled to come in this afternoon and we are "patiently" waiting to see them. It will be a great Christmas here and we hope that it will be for you all also.
It was a bit warm in the RV when we returned from the Riverwalk yesterday so Lou took her sewing machine outside to do a little quilting work. No outside quilting today as it's very windy and the RV is rocking from the gusts.

Still Standing in San Antonio

We are now in San Antonio at a nice RV park just south of SA. We had a delightful visit and dinner with Al & Cecelia, Eddie's parents, at the Riverwalk downtown. The Riverwalk is lit up like a Christmas tree and looks beautiful. Our meal was very good and the company was even better.
We are seriously considering just staying here until after the first of the year although the weather system that came through last night indicated it wanted to move us further south. Steady winds of almost 30 MPH broadsided us with some really serious gusts that really "rocked the boat" kept us moving all night. And, it was a cold wind at that! It was in the mid-30s this AM and will be colder tomorrow AM. At least we didn't get any of the "white stuff" they had in the hill country north of SA.
We attempted to have some BBQ at the "Texas Pride BBQ" last night. It supposedly has "to die for" ribs. After driving 17 miles to get there, it was closed! They are closed Mon & Tues. So, we ate at Bill Miller's BBQ which is the local equivalent of Sonny's BBQ but not anywhere near as good. Oh well, we'll try again in a few days. I also want to try some of the Mexican restaurants here of which there seem to be LOTS of them around the area. I'm sure that Al & Cecelia can give us some good direction there.
Oh! And I've added some new stuff to the RV. We are now the proud owners of an RV with brand new spark plug wires. I'm so proud! It seems to have cured the latest ignition problem. Time will tell:) I'm also the proud owner of a new Mass Air Sensor in the Toyota truck as well. Oh Joy!
No pics today as I forgot to take the camera with me to Riverwalk. Next time for sure.
This looks to be a good day to spend in a shopping mall doing Christmas shopping (if there is a good day for that). It must be done, however.

Seminoles, Shamans and petroglyphs

We are at the Seminole Canyon State Park near Del Rio, TX. It's also close to Mexico but we won't be going any closer. The canyon is named after the Seminole Negros brought from Florida to aid in the battles against the indians. They were apparently excellant warriors.

The canyon has petroglyphs from the "Pecos Man" ancients that go back over 3500 years. There were many sites like this around the area until they flooded the Amistad Reservoir and inundated over 300 of the sites. In this area, water is more precious than history. The large caves where the petroglyphs survived are natural amphitheaters for the religious ceremonies.

The campground here is blissfully quiet. Very nice spot with a grand view of the desert and, in the distance, the mountain ranges in Mexico. Plus electricity, free WiFi and palatable water. Makes for some great sunsets!

On the road again tomorrow. We can't stay another night hear because the park is closing on Sunday for the deer hunt that begins Monday. Judging from all of the "deer blinds" I see all over the area, the deer won't stand a chance. The hunters apparently climb up into these "boxes on stilts" and shoot through narrow openings when they see a deer... or cow, or whatever. Doesn't seem sportsmanlike to me but based on the number of road kill deer I saw today, the deer population is in no danger of extinction.

Pics for yesterdays blog

Top Left - P-38 at War Eagles

Top Right - Texas 54 on the way to Carlsbad from Van Horn. The mountains are the Red rock mountains.

Lower Left - Mt. El Capitan, the highest point in New Mexico. This is in the Guadalupe mountains near Carlsbad.

Lower Right - Lions Tail stalactite formations in Carlsbad Caverns. I took a lot more pics but lighting and flash doesnt work well in a cavern that large.

Now, we're on the road again......

Trucks, Trains, Airplanes, Cattle and Caverns

We had a good day yesterday sharing Interstate 10 with every truck in the world. Traveling from Las Cruces to Van Horn, TX I had a pleasant interlude (for me) at the War Eagles Air museum in Santa Teresa, NM. It is a really nice museum with many of my favorite planes from WWII and Korea. The P-38 that was there had been a Reno Air Racer and was still glossy black with chrome props. It was very menacing in appearance. They intend to reconfigure it back to the original military color/markings when they come up with $10K for the paint job.
We then journyed through El Paso and all the cattle feed lots (whew!) and on to Van Horn, with a 200 mile long truck convoy just past the Time Zone change. We picked an RV Park that was convenient but was not well thought out on our part. It was next to I-10 and a railroad track. Instead of counting sheep, I counted trucks going by. I lost count at 65,128:) That was in addition to "many" trains that were too difficult to count as they all sort of blended into one giant train. It was sort of like disco music. Once you hit the floor, the songs were just continous without a break.
This morning we decided to go north to Carlsbad Caverns. A really beautiful drive up by the Red Rock mountains and views of El Capitan in the Quadalupe mountain range in our windshield . And no truck traffic or trains! Carlsbad Caverns was quite spectacular although we were both surprised as to how dry it was inside. The 10 year drought and the addition of an elevator and lighting has contributed to less moisture in the caverns. They said that years ago water was added to the pools to improve the effects of the caverns. Still very pretty, however.
I'll add some pics on the next blog. The WiFi here is not very cooperative:(

Boulders, Flowers, Thorns & Sunsets

We have exited the State of Arizona and have arrived in New Mexico. We saw a lot of desert and then came through what is called the "Texas Canyon" still in Arizona. The transition from desert to lots of very large boulders was quite dramatic. After we passed the Texas Canyon, it was all desert again. Shortly after that we crossed the Continental Divide. Still lots of desert and even more to go I'm sure.

We are now at a beautiful park, Leasburg Dam State Park, just north of Las Cruces. Really pretty in a desert setting. This is where the pics of the flowers, thorns and sunsets were taken. It was very quiet until a train came by (only one so far and NO horns).

Tomorrow I'll visit the War Eagles Air Museum in Santa Teresa, NM to see some WWII & Korean War era aircraft (always my favorites) on the way to Texas. Since we don't have a schedule of getting out of here and I don't know how long I'll spend at the air museum, we have no idea where we'll settle tomorrow night. Oh Well! I'm retired and we're not scheduled to get into San Antonio until Dec 20th, or so. Routing is variable also so we land where we land. Hopefully it will be in a somewhat civilized spot.