Big Bend National Park

If you are wondering where the blog has been this past week, we have been in Big Bend National Park in Texas where there is no cell service which means no internet and no blog!

We've had a good time exploring the park.  We were camped at the west entrance for a couple of nights and then inside the park on the east side in the Rio Grande Village for three nights.  We had lots of wind on a couple of days.  Temps in the mid 30's early morning and high 90's late afternoon.  In the Chisos Mountains it was a cool 68 degrees at noon and then up to 95 in the lowlands an hour later! 

There weren't many flowers blooming yet but I took a few pictures of some of the ones we saw:

There were more trees on the Chisos mountain but it seemed odd to have a pine tree next to a cactus! It was definitely arid in the park.   There are such unusual rock formations.  Lots of rocks piled on top of each other like totem poles!  Different kinds of rocks from volcanic to sand stone.

The Rio Grande River is interesting. The parts we saw are not very wide, greenish and almost stagnant in some areas!  In the above picture the gorge between Mexico and the U.S. is amazing at over 1500 feet straight up!

We saw a bobcat, roadrunner, deer, turkey vultures, a possible rare black hawk  (they nest near the campground and another tourist thought it was the hawk) or it could have been a black vulture.  We saw a road kill Javelina (a wild pig).

We had a delicious dinner at the lodge in the Chisos mountains.  We had planned to sit on the patio after dinner to watch the sunset through "the window" the area in the bottom picture on the above collage.  The problem was, it was too cold!

From our campground there was a beautiful sunset with a full moon.  The Rio Grande River is in the lower cornerof the first picture.  One day we took a ride to the Boquillas Canyon.  The park had warned of Mexicans selling their wares on the U.S. side which is illegal.  In the picture you can see a horseman going back across the river and two in a small boat and a group on shore.  They left walking canes on the U.S. side.  None of us tourists went over to see them.  I guess they "trust" you will leave the money there for them.  It's amazing at how easily they can come across the river there, and there are border patrol everywhere!

Loving the national parks..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Hallelujah sweet cream pancakes!

This morning Ted took me to the Flying J for sweet cream pancakes!  They are sooooo yummmmmy!  I asked why they aren't making the batter for sale any longer and the waitress brought the manager over.  I think he thought I was going to complain about something when I asked about the pancake batter.  He went in the back and found one last bag that  had expired in January.  It hadn't been opened so I'm not worried about it being expired.  He also got me the name of the manufacturer and it is in San Antonio which is just southeast of Boerne where we will be going! 

After enjoying pancakes, we headed on down the road and are in Van Horn, Texas.  Tomorrow we will head down to Big Bend National Park.  We are going to spend two nights at the west entrance and then go over to the east side of the park for three nights before heading toward Boerne.

Hallelujah, sweet cream pancakes..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Almost good news - we are on the Road Again!

This morning about 5:40 a.m. the wind started blowing like crazy and it was starting to rain!  So we got our chairs put away before they blew away and got the RV ready to roll!  We were so early we stopped and had breakfast before heading to the RV Repair shop!  The RV service guy was working in a steady rain shower and found that we need a new rotor kit, caliper assembly and new pads for the brake that was wrecked when the bearing failed.  Of course it would be a week before they could get the parts shipped to them.  Ted asked them to cap off the bad brake and put fluid in to see if we would have brakes on the other 5 tires and then we can call ahead and order the parts to be shipped to Texas to have repaired there.   They did that and it worked!

We took off from there around 12:30 pm.  We went southeast and arrived in Lordsburg, New Mexico around 6:00 (lost and hour crossing into New Mexico).  It was a pretty drive through some mountains even though it rained most of the drive.  There were a lot of unusual rock formations.  I didn't get good pictures because of the rain but there were lots of huge rocks on top of small rocks.  It kind of made me nervous to think of them falling off on top of us!

Happy to be on the road again..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Happy spring!

Today was a "fate worse than death day" for Max!  He got a summer haircut.  It's getting pretty warm for him so decided it was time to shave him.  Looks like a different dog.  His legs are longer and he looks skinny!  He's got so many old age warts and bumps he looks pretty funny...but he's cool again!

While he was getting his shave we had lunch again at the Native New Yorker Restaurant.  They have good food and are right next door to the theater.  After lunch we went to  see Alice in Wonderland.  We missed the Imax 3-D showing but still enjoyed the movie. 

Tomorrow we are going to try again to get the brakes fixed and move on down the road.  We have an 8:30 a.m. appointment and hope to get them working again.  As before...will keep you posted!

A cool and happy dog..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Repair phase of our trip!

I guess we are learning that some times you just have to hunker down and be patient!  Another RV'er, Carol, mentioned that they were in the "family - visiting phase" of their trip and Ted said and we are in the repair phase!  We got to the brake place at 8:00 yesterday (no small feat) and they decided our rig was too large for them to work on.  We did go over to the tire place and get that done and we have an appointment on Tuesday to have brakes fixed.  It's an RV place and they know the size of our rig!

Yesterday we went to another shopping area and made an appointment for Max to get a haircut.  It's getting warmer and he's very hot with his cocker cut!  He'll look skinny and long legged again but he'll be cooler!  We also went to the movies and saw Green Zone.  I wasn't sure what to write about the movie.  I guess I would say if you belive there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq you would like the movie.  Matt Damon was good in it.  It was one of those kind of jerky movies and the theater was small so it made my eyes crazy!

Today we are just hanging out at the campground, catch up on blogging, do some chores, probably sit outside with a glass of wine this afternoon.

Sunny afternoons and a glass of wine..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Wishing & hoping & thinking & praying!

We "think, wish, hope and pray" that our slide-out is fixed so it will slide in and out without problems!  The RV repair guy finished up this morning.  Ted and I ran some errands so that if things go well with the RV brakes in the morning we can get on the road tomorrow!  We have an 8:00 appointment so will get the RV ready to roll tonight so tomorrow we can get up and get going early.  While they are working on the brakes we hope to take the new aluminum rim that arrived today, the new tire and the spare tire that's on the RV to the tire place.  They will put the new rim on the spare and put back on the trailer and put the steel rim on the new spare tire.  Ted explained that we will keep the spare on because it has some wear and will better match the other tires so that we don't get one tire doing the majority of the work!  Whatever...we just hope we can get it all done and maybe get out of here by noon!  Not that it hasn't been fun!

We are moving on down the road east and south toward Big Bend National Park in Texas.  It will probably take at least two days to get there depending on when we leave tomorrow!  Will keep you posted!

Tonight is bingo night!  Since we were so lucky last week we are not hopeful for any bingo's tonight but we will give it a good try!  They have good popcorn and homemade desserts at intermission (sound's like dinner to me)!

Hoping things will be all repaired by tomorrow..."Ain't Life Grand!"

St. Patty's Day!

Happy St. Patty's Day to all!  We are still in Apache Junction waiting for the service man this afternoon.  I had called so we would be on the schedule for Tuesday but of course, got bumped until today.  They do have authorization from insurance so that will help.  We will only have to pay $200 deductible.

They had a St. Patty's day parade in the park this morning.  It lasted about 15 minutes and was very festive.  We were parked on the parade route so got our chairs ready, a glass of ice tea, and a green "saran wrap" bow on Max!  We were hoping to see the leprechaun with the pot of gold but haven't seen a bit of his green self yet!

A day to enjoy Green Beer!..."Ain't Life Grand!"