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February 25 through March 3, 2005
Friday February 25:
We soaked at dawn; it was a cool and the ground was wet, but the soak was welcome. Around 9:30 I called the post office, and our mail was in, so I had a last soak as Claire prepared the RV for travel, and we left the hot wells around 11AM to get to the post office in Bowie before their lunch closing. The ATVers were having a ball, even in the cool cloudy weather.
The road out seemed dryer than it had been on the way in, but it had not rained since last night, and as we neared Bowie we saw BLUE sky! :-).
The well driller was busy trying to get more irrigation water for these fields. We quickly picked up our mail, and we were on our way to Las Cruces. We crossed a number of "dry" washes that were not dry this year.
This is such an interesting year to be in the desert.... :-) There were French Canadians parked in the Las Cruces Walmart ahead of us, heading west. We swapped a few stories, but the language barrier was real. We decided on dinner at the Golden Corral, even if Fridays are a slight premium. Our senior discount made up for it! We did NOT overdo the buffet this time! Maybe old dogs CAN learn new tricks? :-) We certainly needed a few tricks crossing the busy streets walking to the Golden Corral from Walmart's, though.....
Saturday February 26:
I was up around 2:30AM…it's NET TIME! I turned the furnace on as we had plenty of battery charge, and had the net business finished early, but I felt COLD … I really missed my morning hot soak… I went back to bed, but was still cold. When Claire woke, we put the heat up high and ran the generator. Soon it was tolerable to me with the fleece snow suit covering... Claire felt comfy, even WARM she said. I guess my morning hot soaks have accustomed my body to unrealizable expectations? :-) Claire shopped Walmart, where she found us a new "pet" she could not resist ....
The little cactus with a FLOWER did seem very appropriate to our desert wildflower winter. I was a bit concerned about our ability to keep him alive, but thought he would at least not be sat on. :-) We named him Spike, put rocks around his pot to keep him upright, and gave him the place in the sink next to Kermit the aloe when we drive. We will leave him outside the windshield curtain when we park, so he will get as much sun as possible. Kermit seems to do best and stay greenest in more shaded spots. We drove the short distance to Albertson's grocery store. Claire then shopped a nearby mall while I worked the neglected log and web page. Hot soaking took precedence over ALL at the hot wells! Mid afternoon we departed for El Paso. The drive was short, and in less than an hour we were parked in the visitors center at I-10 exit 1. The lady told us they had NO dump station, so that info from the net was wrong, but said we could park for 24 hours in any Texas rest stop. This one has 24 hour security. It seems quiet, the trucks are separated from the RVs from the cars, so we decide to stay. Claire cooked stuffed peppers, southwest style. The rice bean stuffing had jalapeno pepper in it, while the tomato sauce had hot green chilies. This was spicy, but delicious with a cold beer. Not sure how it would have been without the beer. :-) I finished and uploaded the webpage for last week, then was off to bed.
Sunday February 27:
It was 44 under the RV and the heat came on this morning again. It seems cooler in New Mexico and Texas than in Arizona! We drove towards Flying J to dump, but found a newly opened Camping World on the way. We decided to buy and replace our slowly degrading toilet with a new one IF Camping World would allow us to dispose of the old one after I installed the new. The Camping World employees on duty seemed to be unwilling to guarantee we could dispose of the old toilet with them in writing on the bill of sale. One said to just take it to a public disposal dumpster and throw it in. We decided we could do this "voluntary upgrade" somewhere else on our travels! We moved on to Flying J, fueled and showered after checking that the dump station worked. We then pulled into the dump station and I did the usual hookup, but then a FIRST occurred as I opened the valve. There was an unusual gurgling as black tank contents rushed into the dump hole, only to gurgle up a drain hole a foot away and fill the dump sump. I was stunned in disbelief for a moment, then hurriedly shut off the dump valve just before the sump overflowed. The disgusting brown pool was nothing I was prepared to deal with myself, and I could not just disconnect my full hose and leave either! I went to the Flying J desk and told them about the problem. They paged maintenance to the dump station. I waited, then found the propane service man and showed him. He said he could fix it, but it would take 30 minutes to get the equipment. I said I'd wait....not much choice in my mind, :-( Forty minutes later, after a number of folks had inflated their tires from the air hose we were partially blocking, nearly dragging the air hose through the dump sump, I went back in to see how much progress was being made. The propane service man then walked out the door pushing a large electric powered plumbers snake on wheels, and proceeded to try to snake the drain line. His cord was too short to reach the nearest outlet. Rather than wait another 30 minutes, I volunteered to plug the snake into my generator. We had action, and the guy tried to snake the drain.
He had no help to hold the drain open, and needed two hands on the snake.... The snake wrapped twice, then I volunteered to hold the drain cover open...and chose to do it with a rope from our collection, lest I lose any benefit from my recent shower. ;-) The drain opened and the liquid gurgled down. The maintenance man asked if I would use my hose to rinse it down....well...I guess from a distance maybe! This is my DRINKING WATER hose!
The residue rinsed down, but the drain filled again. Notice how business goes on just as normal a few feet away...oh well! More snaking, more rinsing, more snaking.... Finally as the very LAST end of snake went in the drain opened and took all the water I could flush into it from 10 feet away. I was asked to finish dumping, and it all went normally. We rinsed up, I washed thoroughly, and we filled water after carefully rinsing our hose! We wanted propane too, as we were going to Big Bend park where it would be unobtainable or at least expensive! After the maintenance man filled our tank, I thanked him for all the help and we went on our way to Sam's. We had considered doing laundry today, but much of the day was gone now, and we were exhausted. Laundry can wait until tomorrow! Sam's gave us permission to overnight in their lot, and we found one other RV there also. After dinner, when the store was closed, we moved away from the bushes at the edge of the lot towards the middle, for better security. There is time for one final check on email, and it's off to bed! Some days the hunter gets the bear...but today I feel like the bear got me! :-(
Monday February 28:
Claire arose early to do laundry, setting an alarm to be sure she awoke as planned; at 7AM we arrived and found the laundry dark with a sign it did not open until 8AM. At 7:30, I went to check again, tried the door and found it open, and the man in the back said we could start. By the time we got back with the clothes, he had the lights on. Claire was happy she was the only person there and could spread out using many driers. They were not very hot, but gave long run time for the money. We were finished around 9:45, and passed Sam's near their 10AM opening time. Claire checked for the boneless lamb leg she wanted, but it was not on display. We went on towards Big Bend park 346 miles away, passing near the river and looking into Juarez, Mexico almost as if we were there.
There is sure a world of difference in living conditions such a short distance away.... This is a LONG drive for us today! We pass a border patrol checkpoint after I-10 separated from the border, then refueled in Van Horn, where our route departed from I-10, figuring it would be cheaper here than elsewhere until we rejoin I-10 after the Big Bend visit. We do not want to be skimping on generator gas in Big Bend either.... :-) We passed through exquisite mountain scenery....
There are a few small towns, but mostly it is keeping the RV between the white lines, swapping drivers every hour, and enjoying the scenery. This tethered radar balloon surprises us, out in the middle of nowhere, but we've seen such a thing before, flying over the Yuma Proving Grounds thousands of feet up, watching our southern border with its highly elevated radar eyes.
This is the first one we've seen on the ground, though! We cannot approach it closely, but it is sizeable enough to be confused with a blimp at first glance. Only when there are no engines visible does it become clear what we are seeing. The military organization listed on the gate helps confirm our identification too... :-) We run along side a railroad, SLOWLY catching a train at our 62 MPH speed. Only when the train takes a longer path than the road do we get to view the locomotives....
There are different things to see out here. This ostrich was grazing in a pasture near the road.
We arrived at Big Bend north entrance (Persimmon Gap) around 4PM Central Time. We had not calculated the one hour loss from Mountain to Central time into our plans for the day, but had seen the sign, and knew we had lost a critical hour. :-( The ranger at the gate filled out the park entry paperwork and told us all campsites were full at Rio Grand Village 46 miles away, and had been since 3PM. Cottonwood campground 76 miles across the park had only no generator any time sites. He recommended the Stillwell Store commercial campground outside the park, 7 miles away. We were QUITE annoyed about there being no overflow sites at Rio Grand Village, as there were 3 years ago when we visited here. This place is so remote that it takes a day of driving to get here from ANYWHERE that it is legal to spend the night, other than at commercial campgrounds. It seems that the park service has changed the rules to FORCE us to subsidize the commercial campgrounds when we really do not need or want their electricity, water or sewer connections...GRRRRR! When we considered the economics of driving 76 miles to cottonwood campground, then 60 miles back to Rio Grand Village the next day vs 61 miles from here, it appeared the break even price of the campground was around $16. We tried to find the price of the Stillwell campground in our books, but it is not even listed. We drive to the Stillwell store, and I finally find the place to sign up. I ask for just a place to park overnight where we will not be disturbed, nothing more. The lady says the rate is $5, including showers. I tell her we will not need them, but OK.. That rate seems quite cheap to me! She runs the credit card for $10...I say we only need one night. She says the rate is $5 PER PERSON. Oh, well....I may not have heard the "per person" in her quote, as that is quite unusual in campground rates, or I might have been bamboozled....dunno, but it is still the most economical and convenient way we have out of this situation. I'm really glad I do not have a brood of kids camping with us!!! We are directed through a narrow gate to a couple roofed ramadas...the road proves narrow, and we decide to turn around before parking. I hear a distant shouted "nooooo" as we start to turn, but nothing more as we complete the turn, and head back. A bicycle approaches fast, carrying a young man with directions to park in front of one of the ramadas.....where we had been heading. I thank him and say we were just turning around, and intended to do just that. The place was suitably level, and QUITE isolated, although we could easily see the other RVs in the campground. I'm still puzzling over what this white rock signature on the hillside overlooking the store is.....
The scenery is pretty in the late afternoon sun, anyway. :-) Dinner is macaroni and cheese with broccoli, quite good! We found AM radio 1080 from Dallas was coming in quite well, and got the business news before turning it off. After dishes, we made the RV as ready to travel as we could for our planned 6AM run for the park, and ran the generator for coffee and furnace battery if needed. We did not even TRY for TV. The cellphone had lost service a while back, and I turned it off for the duration of our visit in Big Bend NP.
Tuesday March 1:
It was pitch dark at 6AM….the dim dawn I thought I was seeing shining through the closed overheads was the waning moon that had risen in the early morning hours. We did not delay, but drove out of the spot and reached the road easily. A few RVs had lights on and some folks were seen getting ready to start their day through open curtains...like they did not expect folks to be passing at this time of day. :-) The north gate was closed as we drove through slowly, and we were half way to Rio Grand Village before dawn started to break. It was pretty with the sun peeping up over the mountains.
We saw few vehicles, mostly government pickups carrying employees to their work sites. A couple RVs passed us going out; a good sign that we might find a place in the campground! We drove in, and saw a large motorhome leaving. We were looking for his empty site, when a trailer pulled out of a site into the road ahead of us...WOW...it looks OK for us! Claire checks, the slip says he is leaving today. We back in, it is level, and I walk to look for better sites. I find a few folks who are leaving today, but they are still in their sites, and the sites do not look better than ours. We have some shade that might be welcome in the afternoon. We notice a reservation sign behind the tag, but nothing is written on it. We sign up for 3 days. I go hunting for the 97 degree hot spring on my list that shows to be less than 0.2 miles away. The exact listed location is half way up a dry rocky hillside; I look around the area, and find a pool of clear water with tiny fish in it, surrounded by reeds, held there by a levee. It feels a bit warmer than the surrounding swamp water, but NOT hot. This is probably it...but the bottom is soft mud and the temperature decidedly uninteresting. Scratch off the 97 degree "Hot" spring. :-( The roadrunner I find possibly building a nest low in a tree seems very tame...
It's even willing to pose for the camera.... :-)) I decide to bike to the visitors center to ask about hot springs. They tell me about the 106 degree one we were in 3 years ago, and I see a display about little fish that were down to three specimens years back before restoration efforts on their warm spring pools brought them back from the brink of extinction. The photo of the pool looks exactly like the one I had found...oh well, that explains what is happening. The fish here now are all found to be related to the three that were used to start the restoration effort. We decided that two early starts are enough for us, and today is declared a day of rest! We bike 3 miles to the visitors center in the afternoon, and Claire finds her Audubon Western Wildflower book that was "Out Of Print" at Border's Bookstore. Geeze, what LIARS merchants are!!! GRRRR! Anyway, we buy it, even though we are now east of it's range. The firm notice posted that the border to Mexico is now closed here, with a penalty of $5000 for crossing is a disappointment, but it only makes sense from a security standpoint, as the old "soft" crossing really did not control who came across or what they brought with them. We had enjoyed our journey into Boquillas on the Mexican's poled flat bottomed boats 3 years ago. We bike to the hot spring trail head, preparing for our 2.8 mile hike tomorrow. We had noticed the fluffy dandelion like seeds floating about the campground....and suddenly noticed what was creating them.....
I had never connected the name of the cottonwood tree with anything before....but just look at those "cotton" boll like seed clusters which launch their dandelion like seed fluff from high in the tree and blow seeds for long distances. The ground appears covered with "snow" many places in the campground, such as this grass in front of our campsite which is frequently visited by the white winged doves locally abundant along the Rio Grand. I hear one old time camper remark "Just don't run your air conditioner when the cottonwoods are seeding, or the fluff will clog the condenser ruinously".... I think that makes HUGE sense...hope I remember it if we ever do run our air conditioner! :-) Dinner is Claire's GREAT chili....beans, ground turkey, and half a jalapeno pepper. It is just perfectly spicy and delicious! After dishes are done, and coffee made for the morning, we attend a Ranger's lecture on Indian Cultures in the Big Bend area, then return to go to bed. It is MUCH warmer here than we have seen at night in weeks....the benefit of being SOUTH! :-)
Wednesday March 2:
We hiked 2.8 miles to the hot spring. The flowers were outstanding, MUCH more numerous than they were 3 years ago. This Mexican Poppy may be slightly out of place on this side of the border...but only slightly! :-)
I must resist the urge to turn this webpage into an uninformed flower page...so will stop, but not for lack of suitable subjects or photos. The hot springs is as inviting as I remembered it, poking out into the Rio Grand....
I do think the river is much higher this time, and a few inches more water in the river would flow over the remaining foundation walls of the old spa and cool the clear 103 degree hot pool, as well as make it MUCH murkier. I soaked two hours, then looked for the "secret hot spring" in the middle of reeds at N29.182 degrees, W102.992 degrees. It was somehow on my GPS in the exact location as on www.soak.net. The GPS data base must have picked it up from the government list the soak.net website uses! The official hot spring 0.2 miles upriver is NOT on my GPS, nor on the soak.net database. The GPS said the spring was somewhere in the middle of the large mass of green reeds in the right center of this picture....
I was not enthralled with walking into such dense foliage in snake country, but when I got within 300 feet of the GPS location, I found a blocked off trail leading in the right direction. It soon entered the 15 foot high reeds in a decreasing height path, then opened into a small low hidden "room" fully covered on top with overhanging reeds. There were four fence posts on the ground, two lying touching each other on each side, seemingly as two low benches 4 feet apart, with some cigarette butts lying on the ground between the benches. The path continued, at crouch height, around a slight curve, and my GPS told me I was 139 feet from the hot spring location. The path degenerated to a dark hands and knees crawl tunnel to???? This is snake country, right on the border with Mexico, and I'm in swim shorts. Who knows WHAT is waiting in or on the other end of that tunnel? The hair on the back of my neck rose a bit, and all sorts of alarms went off!! This is the end of the search for me! I'm not crawling into that dark tunnel with bare legs, even WITH a flashlight! I disappointedly return to the main trail, and hear Claire calling loudly to me in the distance. I answer, and she approaches rapidly. She had heard the Mexican guy selling rocks on the far side of the river clear his throat loudly when I went toward the hot spring...was he a lookout for clandestine operations using that path? I'll never know, and do not want to, but I loudly called out to inquire if anyone was in the hot spring...several times and received no answer! I really did not expect one, but that path does seem like an easy route for drug smuggling or illegal alien traffic into the US...only a short wade into the reeds, then wait for a car to pick stuff up in the parking lot at hot springs...or walk the trail back to Rio Grande Village. I am not eager to make drug runners or illegal immigrants TOO uncomfortable with my presence here as we start our isolated 2.8 mile hike back to the campground. :-( This lecheguilla plant, with its needle pointed dagger like leaves that sometimes puncture tires on 4 wheel drive vehicles travelling the back country, seems somewhat sinister now.....
This same plant had not seemed unfriendly at all on the hike out. :-) Note the "asparagus like" flower spike starting from the center of the plant. It may reach 7 feet high, bloom, set seeds, then this plant dies. It only blooms once in its 15 year normal lifespan. We were TIRED at the end of this hike! The hike back had almost seemed like a BOTHER when it started after the relaxation of the hot spring soak, but after the questions about the trail in the reeds, it was comforting to be back where there are plenty of friendly folks around. Bed came quite early this night!
Thursday March 3:
Claire set her alarm to awake for a ranger led birding walk at 8AM. She asked if I was interested, so we both left without much breakfast, and hurried by bike to the trail head we had started from the day before for the hot spring. There were many rare "twits" of small birds flying back and forth across the Rio Grand, and the setting was beautiful.
Imagine how lucky these birds are to have such a large and beautiful bird bath.... :-))) I was interested in how ANYONE could recognize the calls of the birds, as the ranger and many of the birders appear to. One sounds different from another...but remembering what bird is associated with each sound seems beyond me! :-) We came back, showered, then drove to the hot spring road and biked from the large vehicle parking lot almost a mile away from the spring. This way was much easier, and there were different interesting things to see, such as these mud swallow's nests hanging under the cliff rocks..
I found the soaking was just as good today too. :-)
I was a bit late returning to the RV, after Claire had returned earlier to prepare dinner. She thought the tub was too hot for her on this warm day. As I was putting the bikes up on the rack, a guy I had been chatting with in the spring about skin cancer drove up and gave me a bit of home made arnica liniment. He had made it by soaking dried desert flowers of a specific type I do not remember in olive oil. I remember my grandmother using commercial arnica as a liniment when I was a boy. It had a strong unmistakable odor, and this solution had faint traces of that odor. She had lots of good things to say about it for aches and pains, but this guy said it would remove cancerous skin growths, even melanoma. I think I'll pay my doctor to cut those out and get them AWAY from me, though! We returned to the campground around 5:30, dumping and filling water on the way. Claire baked potatoes in the microwave. We covered them with left over chili, topped with grated cheese...DELICIOUS!! We have found that the Dallas AM radio station on 1080 KHz comes in here between 5:30 to 7PM, and they carry enough business news to keep me comfortable that we can still afford to drive home, even if gas prices are heading up again...life is indeed GRAND! :-))
PLANS: We will leave Big Bend Park Saturday and head toward San Antonio for their Irish festival next weekend, perhaps stopping in nearby New Braunfels Camping World on the way. The following week we will stop in Austin to see the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, then drift north into Arkansas, probably stopping in Hot Springs before continuing with the plan to be near Kansas City MO on April 1 for Claire's Taekwondo referee's seminar. Following that, we may return to Arkansas for the April 15 music festival weekend before moving smartly north to home.
Until next time....ENJOY! We are! :-)