2019-02-02 Sat Silver City NM to Bisbee AZ

Well, we made it!! Bisbee AZ is where we will park for a week so we are excited to be out of the car for a bit.
We started this morning from Silver City NM, which they told us was sister city to Bisbee. We walked around Silver City this morning and found a nice aging hippie coffee shop. Silver City (population 10,000) is twice the size of Bisbee and they both have the same crunchy, aging hippie vibe, just like a lot of towns back home, but bigger. Lots of art shops, yoga places, used book stores, you get the picture. They both have real downtowns with with old historic
buildings, sidewalks, etc, and both grew up from mines. Silver City was silver of course and Bisbee was copper. Silver City I think still has some kind of mine near it but Bisbee shut their mine down in the 1970's or so. So now they attract tourists and folks move to these towns for the quality of life and climate. So lots of retired, coffee drinking, art loving, aging yoga stretchers.
Another nice sunny warm day peaking out in the 60's with big flat stretches, but now with snow capped mountains in the distance. We are up in altitude anyway so the mountains are 10K ft or more which means snow. A couple great podcasts make the mile go by quickly. We stopped in Sierra Vista for lunch. Sierra Vista is

the big town near Bisbee where people go to shop. It has an army base which seems to be the biggest employer in town.
We got into Bisbee an hour before check in and wandered the street so catch up on what was where. We were here a few years ago and it seems to have not changed much. We finally walked our bags up the 95 steps (I counted) to our place for the week. Very nice place that we are looking forward to settling into for the week.

I gotta say, the last two weeks on the road have been fantastic. We have seen so many parts of the country we have never been to before. But now it's time for a little R&R.

2019-02-01 Fri Van Horn TX to Silver City NM

Super 8 on the Highway last night (Hmm, makings of a country song..) and crappy continental breakfast, but we did see our new best friends with the motorcycle in the back of their pickup from Minnesota again. Today's plan was to go north to catch Guadalupe Mountains National Park and then see how far west we can get. Kinda relaxed schedule since we do not have far to go to Bisbee AZ.
The road goes directly north from Van Horn and there is really nothing for 60 miles until you get to the park, but there is something pretty about nothing but dirt and rocks and scrubby trees and cactus. And it was "unseasonably warm" according to the local weather folks which is great. We hit 70 degrees today and it was clear and sunny (except some sprinkles in NM).
Guadalupe was free with my Senior pass (love it) , normally $5 a head, and it is a pretty small park (hence only $5). This area is where the old sea bed ended and the rocks are the reefs at the edge of the sea (I am sure it is more complicated that that but, heh, I'm an engineer). There looks to be about 2-4 people who run the place and there really is just the visitor center and a lot of hiking trails with remote campsites.
They said spring break is crazy with any kind of group who thinks about hiking showing up. It is also the time of year when anything that blooms, blooms.
The air is very dry and clear here, so we feel like we are really back in the west. Lots of sun and clear air. And we need to drink more since the dry airs sucks you dry out here.
We did a hike to a spring up on the side of the mountain and saw a lot of scat we did not recognize. Turns out they have Ring Tails, which look like a long skinny raccoon and coyotes (we stopped back and asked the nice visitor center folks and showed them our poop pictures).
After Guadalupe, we headed west on Rt180 (the only road west) and again spent a couple hours with spinning radio dial (no stations) and no cell service, but I have been downloading podcasts each night which are a great addition and make the trip go by quickly. Deb found a great (and very busy) Mexican restaurant in El Paso for lunch. El Paso is home to Ft Bliss Army base where 39,000 people work, so it takes up a good part of the city.
We continued west and decided we had enough time to end up north a bit in Silver City NM. We have been here before and it is an artsy town with a couple nice funky hotels right in town. We stopped and booked a room (at Super 8 prices..) and then wandered around town. We stopped at the used book store and a really engaging guy who owned the store (nice Scottish accent) gave us dining tips (the good, bad and ugly), got us up to date on the town's character, and sold us a couple used books of course. We found one of the places he recommended and had a nice supper with the locals. He ran out of the store on our way back through to make sure his recommendations worked out (they did).
Silver City seems a little more foo foo than last time we were here (for this redneck), but it is still pretty authentic. Back to our hotel, the end of another great day.

2019-01-31-Thurs Big Bend National Park to Van Horn TX

Woke up to pitch black outside even though it was 6:30 or 7:00. We must  be getting to the other side of the time zone. Walked to breakfast (in the dark) and had a nice B'fast, then back to the room. There is very little cell service here and the wifi works if you stand outside the visitor center (hot tip from one of the young folks who works here, "and they leave the wifi on all night!!")









After yesterday, I decide to download some maps of this part of Texas so I can use them offline. I also downloaded some podcasts which we have been getting into (Country Music history, I am slowly converting Deb..)
We decided to do an hour and a half hike this morning and then do another short hike along the Rio Grande. Overcast at first light so no nice sunrise pictures, but the sun came out while we
were hiking and we had a nice early morning hike down to "The Window". Deb is faster so we just set a time to hike out a trail, turn around and come back. Works great and we arrive back at the same time.





We drove down to the southern end of the park (30 miles or so) and parked near a short trail that takes you to the Santa Elena Canyon which is a narrow slot canyon that the Rio Grande cut through over the years. Short hike along the river and you quickly appreciate how small the Rio Grande is. The river is heavily controlled now and by the time the irrigation guys get done with it, there is not much left. We had heard that you can get a "ferry" across with a Mexican guy who rows you over (and sings) for $5, but now that I see the river, it must be a short song..
Nice little hike into the slot canyon with towering walls.
Then back in the National Park Assault Vehicle and headed north to try to get to Van Horn by dusk. We stopped for gas just outside the park (not taking chances out here) and then headed across the flat dry desert above the park with no radio
stations and no cell service.





The podcasts work great for making a long drive short. We are stopping a little more often for breaks which is helping my back issues tremendously.
Short detour into Marfa which we have been hearing is a quirky artist community. It does seem to have some vibe going on there, but we couldn't quite figure out what it was all about. All the buildings are painted nicely, even the empty one so there must be someone with a painting mission. We also saw signs for an Arts Festival, which must be an annual thing, and a couple references ti the Marfa Lights (they have a pull off on the road where you can watch them??). The waitress tonight made it sound like the Marfa lights are very mysterious (aliens??, Elvis??, pranksters??). Might be a publicity stunt. Gotta Google that one.






Nice road into Van Horn which is one of those interstate exit towns with restaurants and hotels. Met a woman driving from California to Texas to see her grand-kids and also chatted up a farmer from Minnesota and his wife with a motorcycle in

the back "escaping" from the Arctic blast at home.
Another full day.

2018-01-30 Weds - Kerville TX to Big Bend National Park

One of the nicer Super 8 motels last night in Kerrville TX. Conti breakfast was one of the better ones (eggs, sausage, etc) and even the waffle maker made waffles in the shape of Texas. Maybe there is a Vermont waffle maker??
The motels have been pretty cheap ($40 or so) probably due to the off season and we splurged in Galveston (bathroom the size of a ball room and doormen..) so we are thinking this trip is pretty inexpensive.
The Prius C gets 50 mpg so gas has been cheap, and gas prices are now down around $1.89 everywhere. The Prius is our Natural Park Assault Vehicle and it seems very comfy to ride in.

I am starting to wonder if my aching back is due to sitting in the car day after day so I'll hold judgment on the comfy Prius thing for now.
Today's goal was Big Bend National Park. We needed around 400 miles to get there since it is pretty far west of Kerrville (Jimmy Rogers lived there BTW) and also it is tucked way down in a pocket on the Mexican border so you need to go 150 miles down off the interstate.
So long day in the car with a nice national park for a prize.

The 2 hours or so before we got to the park is basically a desert with no cell service. The army actually tested camels out down here at one point.
We hit the friendly (and now getting paid) park ranger around 4pm. Got in free thanks to the Senior pass (getting old has its perks) and hit the visitor center where a nice lady gave us the overview. We still had to drive 35 miles or so inside the park to get to our bungalow.
This park is huge and it fully envelops an old volcanic mountain whose top blew off a gazillion years ago (apologies to any geologists out there). We checked in and the place ended up being about half full. Temperature was around 50 so very pleasant. Spectacular landscape.

We are up above 5000 ft so it is pretty green with maple trees and pines since there is more water up high. The sun sets at 6:30 so we decided to do a hike for an hour or so and come back to catch the sunset.
People are very chatty here and I made two new friends (Georgia & New Zealand) while waiting for a perfect light picture.
And sure enough the sun slid under the clouds and past the horizon to light up the rocks for a nice picture.
Then dinner at the only place here (there is no town). We sat at the bar and made new friends from Michigan, everyone talking about how cold it was back home. Turns out these folks knew a couple women that Deb knows from VBT. Small world.
Then back to the bungalow (I call it that because this place has the 60's feel, cement retro looking rooms spread around the site).
They also pride themselves on how dark it is here being so far away from any cities and they have lighting that keeps everything lit below but no above. So we really noticed how dark it was outside when we went to bed.
Another great day on the road..

2019-01-29 Tuesday Port Aransas TX to Kerrville TX

Today we left Port Aransas and headed toward San Antonio. Another long drive down the length of the island checking out all the public Texas beaches to the south and eventually turning inland and heading north.
We saw all the huge chemical plants here making who knows what. Lots of "man camps" which are small modular housing units with pickups parked outside each one. I am guessing you make good money moving down here and working your butt off. We saw signs for jobs so they must be looking for more help.
We drove by Corpus Christi which was not so spectacular looking, lots of chain stuff everywhere, billboards, etc, but to be fair, we did not drive into Corpus so we will call it a draw.
The big excitement today was going on the plant tour at the Toyota Tundra and Tacoma plant outside San Antonio. I went to their plant in Georgetown

KY which was wonderful a couple of years back. Toyota does what's called "Lean Manufacturing" and they do it as well as anyone in the world. I had originally made a reservation for Weds but we are ahead of schedule and also want to stop at Big Bend National Park (now that the parks are open again..). So I called this morning and they said they could get us in at noon today. We had just enough time to make it there by noon so we let "Lead Foot Deb" drive and got there with a half hour to spare.
Awesome tour. These guys employ 3000 people and produce about 500 trucks every 8 hour shift. Two shifts a day and 5 days a week. I saw a board that showed they had made 23,000 Tundras or Tacomas in the last 30 days. The employees all are dressed neatly, nobody looks stressed

out, and they all seem pretty darned happy there. These plants are like roller coaster rides for engineers. Awesome, awesome, awesome. We did the tour with a school bus full of 7th graders who had to give up their cell phones (or else!!). So it was Deb and I, another couple from NJ and about 40 7th graders. The kids did great and nobody had to escorted out.
The it was on to San Antonio to see the Japanese Tea Garden which the NJ folks had said we had to see. It was built in 1914 or so by a guy that made Portland cement and gave it to the city as a gift. When WW2 came along they re-named it the Chinese Tea Garden (remember that WW2 Japanese internment camp thing..) but they changed the name back to Japanese Tea Garden in the 70's.
After the Tea Garden it was on to the Alamo. This Mexico-Texas-USA thing is really confusing. Mexico was declaring its independence from Spain, and invited Americans to become Mexican citizens. Americans got confused with the Mexican civil war thing going on and decided to declare their

independence from Mexico, and the US was upset and also got into the act. So big mess over 50 years or so. If you controlled the Alamo, you controlled Texas, so the Alamo changed hands several times between Spain, Mexico and Texas. I need to find a good documentary to figure this out.
Chatted with the reenactors who kind of cleared it up, but not really. Mexico has its own version of what happened. So Texas was a republic for 10 years or so before it became a state.
Next up was the famous San Antonio River Walk. This is cool. It looks like in the 1940's, they decided to make a river in a U shape off the existing river using some streets in town. It is the

coolest thing. It's like what I imagine Venice is like with a small river running past shops and stores and restaurants. But done beautifully with lights and stone works and lots of trees and plants. A must see.
We stopped for coffee and tea to warm up (50's today) and decided to head west a little to get out of the city before stopping for the night. Since Toyota got us in a day early, we decided we could make it (we hope) to Big Bend Park on the way to Arizona. So here we are an hour west of San Antonio where we found a cute little city with a nice (and cheap) motel and dinner in a restored train station followed by coconut cream pie (my first on the trip) at another local place (Billie Genes). This morning seems like a week ago..

2019-01-28 Monday Galveston TX to Port Aransas TX

A day late posting this so I hope I remember everything. Spent the night in Galveston in a really nice hotel with a bathroom you could play handball in. We went to the place our friendly barkeep recommended last night for breakfast and it was great, way friendly host that gave us more info, where to go, etc.
Galveston is a pretty clean city and is the perfect place to spend a few nights hitting the beaches by day and clubs at night. Not many people this time of year, but since it is so close to Houston, it sounds like it gets swamped with overheated Texas folks in the summer. Nice city.
We stopped at a castle place Deb had heard about and then drove all the way down the end of the island past Mustang Island and turned inland at

Surfside Beach to head toward Corpus Christi. The entire Texas coast must be public land because there are tons of access points where you can drive onto the sand road that runs all along the backside of the beach. Some folks told us yesterday that you can park your camper or RV for three days right on the beach. Everything was very tidy so folks seem to keep things picked up.
Once you head inland, things get more rustic and a bit more gritty. We took the closest road to the coast that Google could find and got a snapshot of how normal folks live. Kinda like Florida back roads. And ever present off in the distance are the refineries. This morning at breakfast we could see all the oil tankers off shore which I suppose are bringing oil in, but maybe taking oil out?
We ended up taking the short (really short, not sure why they didn't build a bridge?) ferry over to Port Aransas. Another huge surprise at what a beach town this is and how much of resort town it is. Not glitzy, but very clean and well kept. No chain places but lots of beach houses and local places to eat.

This reminds me of the Outer Banks in North Carolina with endless houses on the beach built on stilts, mostly empty this time of year. We chatted with a lot of folks as we walked down the beach and this time of year the snowbirds come down to escape the cold. They all have their own angles on how they manage it. Some do the RV thing (big ones and small ones), some rent condos for a few months at a time. The motel we stayed in had some retired folks that just rent a block of rooms at the motel (big discount) and then entertain all their friends and families from up north for 3 or 4 months. Pretty happy bunch!
We hit the local popular restaurant (the retired folks know them all) and hit the shrimp night specials.
Back to the motel and crashed from the three mile walk on the beach and long day drive. Another great day with great weather. Tomorrow we go to San Antonio!!

2019-01-27 Shreveport LA to Galveston TX

 My back is still killing me so I finished the ibuprofen and we stopped for more this morning. Deb did all the driving today. I hate taking this stuff but it works.
Pretty much a "work day" since there was not much in Shreveport we wanted to see. We did get catfish last night so I guess that is our accomplishment in Louisiana.
We stopped in a cute town called Nacogdoches TX, which is the oldest town in Texas and they say it has been under 9 flags since it was first begun, not just the 6 flags of Texas. The Spanish and then French, then Spanish again, then Americans, etc.. Very quaint brick streets. Not quite back to full strength, but they have a lot of potential. Pretty town.
Then drove right through downtown Houston which is a giant sprawling metropolitan area.. Then south to Galveston. Deb scored a nice hotel right downtown (door men and everything) and she did a long walk around town (recon) and I had a nap and let my back heal a bit.
Then we walked to the bay side of the island (Galveston is an island by the way), and we found a great restaurant and sat at the bar and learned everything we needed to know about Galveston, hurricanes, rents, weather, tourists, you name it from the very friendly bar keep. Sitting at the bar and eating dinner is way more fun that sitting at a table. We also got some great leads on places to stay in Corpus Christi tomorrow night. And where to go in Austin TX if we end up there. Goldmine of information.
Galveston feels a little like the Keys. Hot Texans flock here in the summer. There were two cruise ships in the harbor and it sounds like this is a take off point for them and/or a stop. The whole coastline here is a beach and they have a trolley that will carry you around where you need to go on the island. January is a slow time of year but there are still lots of folks here on vacation.
We ended the night with a drink on top of the hotel building at the bar they have up there. Lots of gas lights for light and heat (not much).
The back is almost back to normal so maybe Deb will let me drive tomorrow.