NOTE;  Our cellphone has not been working since Laredo, and Verizon says the number is not recognized in this market. :-(   If any of you have called and put messages in voicemail, we have not been able to get them, nor have we been able to update this website for two weeks.  Hopefully they will get the problem fixed by the weekend..... March 23.... so we can finally upload this.  Even the Big Zoo service did not work from the payphone here in Carlsbad NM, as it would not accept the 888 number.  It is like a big black communications hole...... and we have fallen in.   :-((

March 8 to March 14, 2002

 Friday March 8 dawned VERY windy.  The forecast was for 30 to 38 mph, and we could see dust clouds in the air as we drove out of Walmart's lot in Mission headed for Benston State Park about 10 miles distant to dump and take on water.  We also expected a nice day of exercise with the bikes and walking the trails in the park, and hopefully some new birds to add to our list.  We could smell the dust in the air; we switched to Max Air setting on the air conditioning, as that shuts off the outside air to the vehicle.  We were driving right along the border on a narrow paved road winding past small homes and lots of border patrol trails (some with the familiar white and green Border Patrol cars sitting there) leading to the riverbank; needless to say, we will pick up NO hitchhikers!  We arrived in the park and were greeted by this historical plaque.

We drove around the RV camping area and saw some unfamiliar bright blue birds feeding on feeders set up at camp sites; we found a place to park nearby.  This was reputed to be a birders paradise; looks like the reputation is well deserved! It was quite warm today, although the sun did not seem bright...ahhh, light dawns on marble head; DUST!  We were forced to open up and use the vent fan to keep the kitties (and us) comfortable in the heat;  it was not great to be pulling in all that dust, but.... what choice?  We decided to bike to the walking trails, as parking places outside of the RV camping area seemed scarce for a vehicle of our size.  The first trail led through land that was as close to original South Texas as exists now.  This land is HARSH, and never harsher than with dusty grit irritating your eyes, filling your nostrels, and coating your teeth.  I learned new respect for the people who first settled here; also now understood the cowboys on the TV of my youth throwing a hat full of water on their faces when they rode up to the water hole, and spitting out several mouthfulls before they drank......  The flowers were out here;  it's SPRING, and they are pretty.

but practically EVERYTHING growing here has big thorns on it's foliage. Some are downright intimidating!    Even my bristles seem insignificant...  :-) 

 I cannot see how a horse could ride through this stuff without bleeding to death; I sure do understand the heavy leather chaps the riders wore, but do wonder how they stood the HEAT wearing all that stuff.  It is not yet summer here, but we are wearing shorts and are quite HOT.  Lots of folks camp here for periods of time; some for months.  I asked several how often the dust blew like this day; they replied "often".  I silently questioned why they would stay.....but I guess dust is one of my least favorite things.  I recall farm work in dusty hayfields in my youth; and THRASHING GRAIN at the harvest!  YECH!  The root of nightmares for me.....I do not want to seem overly harsh in my appreciation of this park.  I think it is a wonderful place to VISIT; I just would not plan a long stay. Obviously my opinion is not shared by all; the campground is booked full.  We returned to the RV for a face wash, mouth rinse, and lunch followed by a short rest, then biked out to the start of the longer of the two hiking trails in the park.  This trail wound to the banks of the Rio Grande, and we could look across to Mexico.

 It is no wonder that this border cannot be patrolled thoroughly; the river is narrow, and it's banks thousands of miles long.....I know I would not want to own land along it, and be responsible for controlling illegal ativity.  We chatted with a man who stays here a month of every year, and regularly takes his RV to lower Mexico.  He reported that he and his wife had only gotten sick ONCE in 25 years of eating food in Mexico, from street vendors and all, and that was in a 5 star restaurant.  We were disappointed in the few birds we saw on the trails.  When we were about to leave we found out why; they were all concentrating on the feeders set up in the campsite area. :-)  We did enjoy the flock of NOISY Chachalacas that entered the trees of a feeding area near the dump site.  These are BIG chicken like birds that roost in the trees at night.

The wind had diminished somewhat too, as it was near dusk.  The park was much more pleasant now.  I really do wonder how often the dust blows as it did today.....  We headed out at dusk to a Super Walmart in Rio Grande City 75 miles west.  The driving was lonely, and some places we passed had barred windows, which is one indicator we use to determine "no stay" zones....however, when we arrived in Rio Grande City the brightly lighted Walmart parking lot appeared right on schedule, and we felt safe and welcome.  I noted the strong digital cellphone signal, and determined we would finish the website tonight and upload it before leaving here in the morning.

Saturday March 9 I awoke early and finished the net business before it got busy (usually before 8 AM) and slowed down.  We then proceeded toward Laredo, but on the way stopped at Falcon Dam.  This joint US-Mexican Rio Grande flood control, water storage and hydroelectric project was completed in the 50's.  We inquired before taking the RV past the customs station onto the dam if there would be any problem bringing it with our fruits and vegetables and cats BACK to the US; the answer was "no, just stay OUTSIDE the roofed area in the customs checkpoint; an RV hit the roof the other day".  :-)  We enjoyed the dam; it is truly a MASSIVE project.

 It appeared that the US hydro generating plant (leftmost of the two in the picture) was not operating today; most of the river flow appeared to be going through the Mexican plant.  We avoided the rattlesnakes we were warned about on the dam, and continued on towards Laredo. The Texas springtime with the wildflowers blooming is truly beautiful to look at; we stopped along the road to look at some up close.  

Aware of the rattlesnake danger, we stepped only in clear spaces between grass clumps, and I thought no snake could escape my peering gaze.  I was sure surprised when a small cottontail rabbit jumped out of a grass clump two feet in front on me; YIKES, if it were a snake it would have surely bitten.  :-) We continued to Laredo, snapping the HUGE vistas beautiful with blooming bush on the fly.

 This is BIIIIG wide open country; it is not possible to fully capture it in words or pictures.....  We found a Sams in Laredo before we found the Walmart we were looking for; we stopped there.  We were disappointed in the gas prices; $1.139, but we are prepared to continue to San Antonio without refueling.  

Sunday March 10 we drove to the city parking lot in Laredo next to the bridge, and found parking for trucks and RVs was $10 all day.  The driving was congested and the streets narrow for this RV, so we quickly decided to pay the price....  We paid the 25 cent toll each, and walked across the bridge to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.  Here the merchants were much more tourist oriented than in Reynosa, and more agressive; we frequently had to wave off offers of taxis or merchandise.  I was AMAZED at the conditions that would be unacceptable from a safety standpoint in the US which were ignored here; numerous small steps in the sidewalk or in business entrances caused us to almost trip, large open excavations in the sidewalk needed to be stepped around, and this electrical service was wired in the open ON THE SIDEWALK......with numerous footprints (but not mine) on it.

 I was hungry, so decided to get brave and try an ear of corn from a street vendor; I chose one IN the husk, and asked the vendor to open it for me, although he had some already waiting in the open on the cart.  He husked it, poked a wooden stick into it. I paid him the $1 price and sprinkled cheese on it and just a BIT of the red chile sauce.  It was tasty and I ate it on the sidewalk while Claire poked into shops.  We bought a few trinkets, negotiating successfully this time. :-) This market obviously wanted to welcome anglos; well, we know what they mean....  :-)

We also bought some candy; the best was described as "pumpkin".  I could not understand how it was made.  It was delicious, with a sugary outer "skin" and delicious SWEET transluscent inner "filling"; I could see the pumpkin fibers in the filling.  Well, some things just have to be enjoyed WITHOUT understanding....We turned back toward the bridge, and passed a man selling garlic woven in strings.  He hid his face when he saw I was about to snap his picture; no, I didn't intend to capture his soul.....but just in case, I'll set it free on the net. :-)  

There are some classy shops in Nuevo Laredo also.  We poked around in a few of these too.  This one had an appealing entrance display, and offered a chance to rest our feet.  

There was a large crowd entering US customs on the return trip; we showed our drivers licenses at the turnstile and, without stopping, replied that we were US citizens, and were back in the USA.  On the way to the Walmart for the evening, we stopped at a US importer;  Claire found something she liked, but was locked out when it came to buying; closing time.  We determined we would return on the way out of Laredo in the morning.  In the evening I tried to locate a place to have mail forwarded west of our location; Laredo was the last small place on our route that I could find Post Office locations in Street Atlas, so I determined to visit the Laredo PO to ascertain that we would forward our mail to a real existing PO.  Claire had a letter to mail too, so we had a series of chores lined up to do on the way out in the morning.

Monday March 11 we did the chores (they lined up quite nicely with the exit route) and headed north on the Pan American Highway (I-35) to San Antonio.  North of Laredo there were big rail yards, huge warehouse next to huge warehouse, truck yards; this must be the facilities for the largest inland port in the US. Pretty it is not, but necessary; YES.  We stopped at the big pink spanish style Texas Travel Information rest stop.  We did not expect  to find much new info, but DID find a brochure on the town we had picked out to forward mail to, and it knew more than the Laredo PO; it had the location of the Post Office on the town map.  We are SAVED again from asking directions.  It was also quite pretty with pleasant gardens and goldfish pools.  :-)  The highway was bordered by ranches, occasional oil rigs and miles of BIG sky.

We arrived in San Antonio and found the Sams we sought without incident.  Gas was $1.129; we should not have passed up the $1.079 on I-35, but that is hindsight......  :-)  We will pay the market price here, as we need it before heading west.  The Sam's security guard suggested we park on the lighted side of the lot. We settled in early in the afternoon, and decided to plan the rest of our trip.  We have again reached the point where we must march to a schedule, or risk not seeing what we want most to see;  our return home date is fixed firmly.  More on plans at the end, but I was amazed that we have over 4000 miles to go, and only 4.5 weeks to do it; YIKES!  We will surely be pounding some pavement soon!  We decided to eat out and picked Don Pedro's Mexican restaurant from the San Antonio guidebook. Local knowledge is always best, but the tourist guidebooks are all we have in San Antonio.  Don Pedro's is close, and looks reasonable.  We fight our way through rush hour traffic and find it, Claire squeezing into a tight parking space like an expert.  Don Pedro's is not disappointing; the food was excellent and the waiter was extra attentive and friendly, and earned a generous tip.  We returned to Sam's and retired for the night.  After closing time we noticed there was a lot less light in this parking lot!  We were on the brighter side. :-)

Tuesday March 12 we bought a few items at Sams and moved out towards the city center and Mexican market.  We milled around looking for a parking lot, rejecting the multi story garages we could not fit into. Two lots refused us before we found a city owned unattended lot with pay slots to insert your bills ($4 all day).  We found several spaces that would allow us to back in overhanging the grassy area and sorta fit in one space.  :-))  We opened up all vents and started the exhaust fan for the cats' comfort, stuffed our four bills in the slot, and proceeded to the Mexican market.

 This was a very clean pleasant place, but our opinion was that the stuff was the same we had seen in Mexico; the quality was sometimes higher, the prices also higher, and no bargaining was allowed.  "You break it you buy it" signs were prominently displayed in many shops; I have no problem with that, except these shops were so cluttered you could not safely move without bumping something fragile.  New sales technique, eh?  :-)

 We soon determined we would rather do the riverwalk. On the way out we bought some sweetbuns and candy at a shop; there we noticed recognizable candied sweet potatoes and right NEXT to them, something that looked vaguely familiar..... ahh, yes, the pumpkin candy we bought in Nuevo Laredo.  This pumpkin candy was clearly candied pumpkin, with some veins from the skin that had not been fully peeled showing through the outer coating.  We bought some to compare, and found it was indeed the same thing;  we tried to find out how they make it, but so far no success.  Some process loads the pumpkin flesh with sugar and results in a delicious candy.  We will continue searching for the recipe....  The riverwalk was extremely pleasant on this hot day; much of it shaded, along sidewalks built right next to the water on the San Antonio riverbank, and lined with shops on the land side.

 I wondered how they could have this sidewalk along the water with no railing; surely some folks would fall into the water....  Tour boats plied the river; one guide said "If you fall overboard, stand up; it's only waist deep" ; that explains it!  It also says the water is not very clear, as we never see the bottom. We noticed construction work under way on a section of the river, and the sidewalk there was closed, forcing us to walk a short distance up on the street.  The canal was indeed shallow.   The whole riverwalk area is a park, patroled by park rangers in boats. We emerged from the riverwalk to see the Alamo a block distant, so decided to tour that today instead of tomorrow as planned.

This was an very nice place to see!  Pictures were prohibited inside the shrine itself, but we enjoyed our brief stay inside; there were lines to see the museum, so we skipped it. The Mission is quite fully restored, although quite a bit of the stonework is not original.  We happened upon a speaker talking outside about the history of the place, and it's importance to Texas and Texans; the battle fought here in which all defenders gave up their lives bought Texas a month's time to prepare for Santa Anna's campaign to destroy the Texas coastal settlements further east.  As a result, Santa Anna was defeated and captured at the battle of San Jancinto; Texas became an independent republic, and joined the United States 10 years later.  These folks have earned their shrine, and it's easy to see why Texans are justifiably proud of them. The speaker spoke in front of these six flags that have flown over Texas.  

We returned via the riverwalk and the Mexican market, still looking for that elusive "cannot pass up" bargain; it never showed up. We had walked four miles; that was enough fun for one day.   We returned to the RV for refreshments before starting the rush hour drive to our selected Walmart (with gas) on the west side of the city. There were two other RVs parked next to us now; we do seem to flock together.  :-)

We decided to drive city streets to the Walmart, as the street we were parked on led directly to it; it did lead over narrow rough roads through some poorer sections of the city however.  Perhaps a different way would have been better, but we did see something not on the normal tourist agenda in San Antonio. Walmart's gas price with the gift card was $1.129...oh, well what did we expect?  

Wednesday March 13 we shopped for incidentals and noticed the gas price had jumped 2 cents from the night before.  :-((   We should have fueled earlier.  We then put money on the gift card for a fill, and left the lot without filling.  A loop around the ramp brought us back to the pumps.  A mind is such a terrible thing to lose, but TWO lost minds are tragic.  :-)   We proceeded to drive the 15 miles to the visitors center for the Mission Trail, at San Jose Mission.  There was plenty of free parking, and we walked to the visitors center without our hats or other sun protection, intending to get information, then tour the missions by bike, an estimated 10 miles round trip.  As we entered the visitors center a tour guide started a free tour of the San Jose mission, so we joined in.  

The sun was HOT, and soon we sought the shade at every opportunity.  The tour was interesting and we enjoyed it thoroughly. Water flows in the irrigation ditches again, pumped from an underground storage tank created during the recent restoration project. The water turbine gristmill has been restored and is operational; it was not running this day, as only a select few operators are trained.

 The mission has seen extensive restoration over the years; the dome at one time had collapsed.  Much of the stonework was restored in 1935.  We returned to the visitors center to watch the 20 minute film; the producer's name seemed familiar.  It may have been the same person that produced the film at the Acadian Cultural Center in Lafayette LA.  The styles were similar.  The theme was that the native hunter gatherer Indians were forced by attacking Apaches from the north to join the missions.  Their descendents live today in the mission area, some still worshiping in the congregation that calls the mission their church.  When it became time to bike, we agreed we did not have the energy to do it.  We determined we could still get to the bank on I-10 on our route west before closing time, and continue from there to a Super Walmart in Kerrville about 50 miles away.  We cut our refreshment time short and drove north through San Antonio; the freeway signs were sometimes confusing but we stayed on track and found our bank;  this was the first time we had ever seen it, and the parking area was definitely designed for smaller vehicles!  The guard pointed us toward a second lot, where we found a space perfect for us in the back; Claire backed the RV into a spot with the rear overhanging the lawn.  We fit so well the guard actually congratulated us on the parking job when I asked for directions to the bank lobby.  We soon transacted all our business, and picked up a BUNCH of bank by mail envelopes for the future when we would not be in this area.  The Internet works for most things, but not for depositing checks.  We headed out I-10 toward Kerrville and our first real view of Texas Hill Country;  it is quite attractive, and different from the areas we have been traveling through.

 Claire suggested we stop at a rest stop east of Kerrville in case they might have a dump station; we intended to visit the Kerrville State Park to dump before going to Big Bend National Park.  As we entered the rest area, there was a familiar sight in an unfamiliar setting;  our first dump station in a highway rest area!  The water was labeled for RV tanks, and it tasted better than what we had been using the last two fills.  We quickly decided to stop and shower before dumping, using the remaining bad tasting water before refilling.

 An hour and a half later we were on our way with no need to divert to the state park; and no need to pay for it either!  Devine payback for the extra cost incurred by delaying our fuel buying perhaps?  :-)  We lucked out on our choice of exit for the Walmart;  we had not plotted it on the computer, but found it within a block of joining the road it was on.  We enjoyed a delicious meal of tacos with the beans Claire had prepared earlier, and fresh shells bought at this Walmart.  We turned in early and slept well.

Thursday March 14 we discussed our plans further; 4000 miles is one HECK of a lot of driving in the next 3 weeks, and the Grand Canyon alone accounts for over 1200 miles of those.  Perhaps we should leave that for next time, and better enjoy the closer places, having more time to spend there.  Driving is just not the most fun thing about the trip; seeing places is!  We are both happier with that plan.  Claire shopped in Kerrville, then we looked for a laundromat, which appeared after 2 inquiries.  We squeezed the RV into the parking lot, then I removed the Max Aire vent covers, as they restrict air flow too much, and it NEVER seems to rain here. We can reinstall them in 10 minutes when we get into rain country.  We drove from 12:30 to 5PM, to the Walmart in Ft. Stockton, swapping off every hour. This drive reinforces our decision to cut the 1200 miles from the plan. The distances are BIG out here.  We drive through varying terrain, leaving the Hill Country behind and climbing onto and crossing a large plateau.  Along the north side of I-10 what appears to be hundreds of very large electric power generating windmills line the bluffs for miles.  The three bladed propellers all turn slowly in the breeze. I am curious as to who built and financed these, and whether they are an economically sound investment. Only when we reach Big Bend National Park will we find out from a volunteer information site worker there that they are owned by a commercial power comsortium that is continuing to add to them, and sells the power they produce to the grid; it is a successful commercial venture!  :-)  The Interstate Highway Exit Guide we bought is finally worth the price, as it led us directly to the Walmart when I forgot to plot a computer map.  Lots of friendly RVers are staying in this Walmart lot, including one couple with a "Norwegian Forest Cat" cat on a leash (they found it in a dumpster).  It looked similar to Purry in body shape and size. Both our cats enjoyed walking this place!  We are happy to note the digital cell phone service, but when I check net connection availability, it is not available from this tower.  :-((  Perhaps we can find a place to connect with a phone line before moving to Big Bend....anyway, we will try to finish this page quickly in case the opportunity presents itself.

PLANS:  

Right now we plan to spend several days in Big Bend National Park, then see McDonald astronomical observatory in the Davis Mountains to the northwest.  We will then head north into New Mexico, visiting Carlsbad Caverns before turning east for home on I-20.  We will then visit Big Springs, Texas and their rattlesnake roundup which is scheduled for March 23-24.  After that we will determine the intensity of the trip home, as we will be there by mid April no matter what!  We did over 1700 miles in two days returning from Dallas with the RV in August, so it is not impossible; it is just not a lot of fun that way. We shall see when the time comes.