To the West Texas Town of El Paso.....

Saturday, we got up early and hit the road by 8:15. The day was chilly; we started at 47F and windy. We heard that there had been tornadoes near Fort Worth. Our goal was Van Horn or El Paso Texas.

The Texas Hill country is beautiful. It is rolling country, with low trees, junipers and mesquite. The whole area is very lightly populated. The county that Van Horn is in has less than one person per square mile.


We arrived in Van Horn before 3 PM Central Time, and stopped at an interesting junk store. The woman running the store wore a dirty railroad hat and a denim shirt. She loved it there, and was a fourth grade teacher who ran the junk store on weekends. There were sculptures made of junk in the yard. When Richard asked about who made the sculptures, she said that her husband loved junk. We bought a couple of old albums in mint condition. The store was right next to Chuy's Mexican restaurant, where John Madden stops to eat. We decided it was too early to stop, especially since we would gain an hour between Van Horn and El Paso, so we drove to El Paso.

As we got further west, it got more arid. We saw a few trailers out in the middle of the high desert, where people are living. Closer to El Paso, in the Rio Grande valley, we could see irrigated pastures and green fields.

We are staying at the Mission RV park, on the outskirts of El Paso. It was time to get out of the truck. We went to Saturday evening mass at a new church.

The guy in the next spot at the campground leads RV trips into Mexico for Tracks to adventure. He and his wife are full time RVers; they do not have a house, just a beautiful Class A motor home. Ray and Richard talked Mexico.

Marianne took the gulf shrimp from Aransas Pass out of the freezer, and we had a great shrimp dinner.

We are 475 miles from Sun City West. We will tour our way to there, and arrive Monday afternoon. Sunday is Gracie's birthday, tax day.

Richard and Marianne

Texas Hill Country

On Friday, we bid farewell to Brazos Bend State Park, and headed for Interstate 10. We are planning to take four days to drive from Brazos Bend (south of Houston) to Sun City West (west of Phoenix).

The Texas hill country is quite beautiful, especially with the wildflowers in bloom on the roadside.


We stopped in San Antonio for gas, and then continued west. Our destination was South Llanos River State Park, near Junction Texas. The park looked nice, but there was no room at the inn on a Friday night. We consulted our guidebook, which showed a KOA and a small RV park. We called and selected the small RV park, which turned out to be an excellent choice. The Pecan Valley RV park is on the North Lllano River, in a rural area. The birding was quite good; we saw an Eastern Bluebird, which was a new bird for us. We also saw Cardinals, Vermillion Flycatchers, and a Tufted Titmouse. The campground host feeds the deer at the park at 6 PM, and we saw a herd of 30 white tail deer come running for the corn he puts out. The Cardinals liked the corn also. We walked down to the river, which was bigger than we expected, and a pretty blue-green color. There was only one other RV in the park, so the place was very quiet and peaceful, although there was some highway noise from the interstate.

Saturday we will be continue west on Interstate 10 towards El Paso, probably stopping before El Paso.

Richard and Marianne

Alligators in Brazos Bend

We were going to leave Thursday, but changed our mind. We decided that we had been driving hard, it was time for a rest, and that it was very nice here in the park.

We took a hike around Elm lake in the morning. The signs warn of alligators, but we were not prepared to see as many alligators as we did. Some were on the bank, sunning themselves. Some were in the water, cruising around. Some were just lying in the water. It was amazing and spooky to walk within 20 feet of an alligator.

In the afternoon, we walked around 40 Acre Lake, and saw more alligators, including one who we saw walk from one pond to another. We climbed the observation tower, from which we could watch the alligators cruise the lake.


We also got in some good birdwatching. We identified a blue winged teal, a black-bellied whistling duck, and a little blue heron, beautiful birds, and new to us. We saw great blue herons, a great egret, male and female cardinals, and lots of coots, moorhens, and cattle egrets.

Walking through the dense forest, with Spanish Moss, it feels like the forest primeval, especially around dusk, when it is much darker inside the forest than in the clearings.


A beautiful and quiet park, at least during the week. This weekend there is a big Earth Day event, so the park will probably be full, but we will leave here Friday AM, starting our drive to Phoenix.

Richard and Marianne

Houston Museums

Houston Museums

We drove the 50 miles into Houston and headed for the Contemporary Art Museum. The special exhibit was a retrospective of the work of Sam Gilliam, a black artist whose career extends from the 1960s to today. His works were quite impressive, including many works with painted fabric.

Our next step was the Art Car Museum. This museum is an outgrowth of the annual Art Car event in Houston. We enjoyed talking to some of the artists. The car that looks like it has fish scales has a skin made up of metal strips over a wire armature. This is a street legal car, and he has driven it more than 6000 miles, including a trip to California.

After lunch, we headed for the Minel museum, a collection of largely contemporary art by the Minel family. There was a special exhibit made up of old cardboard boxes, which we thought was silly. The Minel was OK, but not our favorite.

Our drive home was slowed by a burned out car on the freeway, and we were happy to be back in the quiet at the park. A picture of our camper in our campsite is included.

Our plans have changed, and we are going to the Phoenix area to see Marianne's sister and husband before they go to Lourdes. We plan to take a leisurely four days to get to Phoenix.

Richard and Marianne

Beach to Brazos Bend

We left the beach at Port Aransas on Tuesday without ever seeing the sun. The photo of Marianne was taken on our morning walk, the first day that it was warm enough to walk comfortably. Of course, since we were leaving, the forecast was for improving weather.

We decided to take the coastal road towards Houston rather than the main highway. It was a bit slow, but very scenic.

We arrived at Brazos Bend State Park in the late afternoon. It is really out in the country, four miles from the nearest farm road. It is very quiet out here, until the sun goes down and we are serenaded by frogs. The park and campground are almost empty. It is very green, with Spanish moss on the trees. We are here because it was rated as one of the top 100 parks in the country, and we can see why.



I went into Houston to see my nephew Ryan, who I had not seen in several years. I found out on the drive in how far we are out in the country, about 50 miles one way. Ryan is twenty-five years old, and grown up. We had a nice conversation over a good dinner. His career focus is telling jokes in comedy clubs, and he is waiting tables to help pay the bills.

Family and Texas State Aquarium

On Monday, we hung around the camper for a while, and then headed towards Corpus Christi and the Aquarium. We ended up getting somewhat lost in Corpus Christi, and then decided that we would head directly for Ingleside to meet Richard's sister Diane and her son Patrick for lunch. Patrick's car died, but we picked him up, and headed for a Thai restaurant. Diane was able to join us. We had a nice chat with Patrick, and took some photos of Richard, Diane, and Patrick.

We went to the Texas State Aquarium, where we enjoyed a dolphin performance.


We headed back to the camper, as the weather deteriorated. The morning weather was warmer, cloudy and windy, but much better than Sunday. By the time we got back to the camper, it was blowing and raining. More bad weather.

Tomorrow we head to Houston, to have dinner with Diane's son Ryan.

Richard

Cold and Windy Easter

When we woke up this morning, the weather was cold, in the low 40s, windy, with occasional rain. As the day went on, the rain stopped, but it remained cold and windy.

It seemed like a good morning to do laundry, so that is what Richard did. Marianne stayed home and cooked. It felt strange not to go to church on Easter morning. In the afternoon, Richard went for a walk down the beach. The beach was full of seaweed and sandpipers. The picture is of the waves breaking on the beach.

Late in the afternoon, Richard's sister Diane came by with homemade guacamole. She then took us to the Sunday evening mass at her church, where she sings in the choir. A good sermon, urging us to be true to ourself, that we are all created in God's image, and that we can do what we need to do.

On the way back to the camper, we stopped by the the birding center in Port Aransas, and walked out on the boardwalk. We saw several new birds to add to our life list, a Summer Tanager, striking red, as well as a Prothonotary warbler and a Moorhen. We also saw several Roseate Spoonbills, always a spectacular pink. The last time we saw Roseates, we were in Florida.

The weatherman promises a nice day tomorrow, and we plan to stay here Monday and enjoy the beach. Tuesday we plan to move to the Houston area.

Richard and Marianne