13 - KERRVILLE, TX

After arriving at Kerrville-Schreiner State Park in Kerrville, TX on Friday, we had a very good Memorial Day Weekend.  We love our campsite – lots of shade from the Oak trees and the neighbors aren’t that close.

With the episode of the Jeep (see previous blog) and the tow hitch base plate problem, I decided (and told the folks at the Jeep dealership) to just leave the grill & bumper off the Jeep.  I want to replace all the bolts when I get home, so I just put the grill & bumper in the back of the Jeep. I’ll get it all put back together later.  Sure does look sad with the missing parts – almost looks like it’s been in a wreck.  At least, the base plate is tight and I’ll have easy access to check it all along as we head to Georgia.

Saturday was a GREAT & SPECIAL day – it was our 40^th Anniversary!  We didn’t do anything really special – after a nice breakfast, we went to the campground laundry mat and washed some clothes (how’s that for a 40^th anniversary celebration), then later went out for our anniversary dinner.  I was thinking, you know – maybe a steak or seafood restaurant, or even a Mexican place, but LaVerne wanted Chicken & Dumplings!  So, Cracker Barrel is where we went (I actually did get their sirloin steak!).

Sunday was a mixed day – we started by attending worship service at the Western Hills Baptist Church and really enjoyed it – great music, great message from the pastor, and a really friendly congregation.  It seemed that everyone talked to us and was interested in our trip.  After the worship service, we went to Billy Gene’s Restaurant for a ‘taste of the Texas Hill Country’. Even though it was a regular restaurant with lots of variety, we wound up getting our usual Mexican fare.  Good stuff!

A good part of the afternoon was spent at an Urgent Care Health Clinic – uuggghh! I had come down with a bad jaw tooth that had abscessed and had to get it seen about. The very nice lady poked a hole in there, drained it, and gave me a prescription for an antibiotic – which took a while to get filled at Walmart!  Hopefully, that will do the trick until we can get home and I can go see my dentist.

I guess you’ve noticed – there’s no bird/animal pictures.  We have had our feeders out, but there aren’t that many birds – no new ones for sure.  We’ve had several White-winged Doves, a few cardinals, a couple of hummingbirds, and a Summer Tanager.  That’s about it.  Something (probably a coon) came through last night and tore down one of the seed feeders and a hummingbird feeder.  Luckily it didn’t damage them.

Today – Memorial Day!  The day we give honor and remember the ones from all the branches of the military who gave the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we enjoy in this country. Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American soldier. One died to save your soul and the other to preserve your freedom!

We had a very relaxing day.  We went to Denny’s for breakfast, and then to a couple of stores for some shopping.  It was another hot afternoon, so we spent time inside in the A/C watching the Braves game – and yes, the tooth is much better today.

Tomorrow it is on the road again – we’re headed to Georgia. We still have one more night along the way in Texas, one in Mississippi, and one in Alabama before we get back into the Eastern Time Zone.  I will probably make one more short post later to wrap up the trip.

12 - LOST MAPLES - VANDERPOOL, TX

Wednesday 5/23, we continued our journey across western and into central Texas.  It’s amazing how the landscape changes after you cross the Pecos River.  On the west side of the Pecos is desert – once you cross the river, the landscape changes to hills with a lot greener vegetation and trees.  The trees start with scrubby Mesquite, Cedar, and Juniper, then you start seeing some scrub Oaks. They use the phrase “Trans-Pecos” here which is usually referring to the west side of the river.  It definitely is a big dividing line for the landscape.

Our destination for a couple of nights was the Lost Maples State Natural Area (really a state park) near Vanderpool, TX.  We got off of I-10 just east of Junction, TX and then it was a little over 60 miles of not really smooth two-lane to the park (Hwys 83, 39, & 187).  This is what is called the Texas Hill Country and we passed a lot of exotic game ranches with high fences.  Exotic game hunting is a big business here and folks pay big bucks to come and hunt big-rack deer, various kinds of antelope, sable, and who knows what else.  We saw some of the antelope and a couple of zebras.

We arrived in the early afternoon, got all set up with a couple of birdfeeders and some feed & seed on the ground.  It didn’t take long for the birds to come – sparrows, cardinals, hummingbirds, and finches. There were also a lot of Black-crested Titmice. We don’t have this species at home, but they are native to this area. We also had a couple of Western Scrub Jays that came for a visit or two.

Thursday was a complete day of rest which we were needing.  We slept in a little, had a nice breakfast, and did a lot of shade-tree sitting & watching the birds. Also of note, we were completely electronic free.  There is absolutely no cell service at Lost Maples, no internet service, no Wifi, no nothing. I guess it’s OK to get away from it from time to time, but there sure were a few things I thought of that I would have liked to ‘Google’, but nope!!  We did have the satellite dish set up for TV, but even the Braves were off.

Today, Friday 5/25 – we made the short drive (50 miles) through the hill country over more two-lane highways to our place for Memorial Day Weekend – Kerrville-Schreiner State Park in Kerrville, TX.  Due to the short drive, we got here fairly early (in fact, had to wait a little bit for the previous tenant to leave).

Here’s a tale of how God will take care of you.  I noticed while we were at Lost Maples that the tow hitch base plate on the Jeep had worked itself a little loose. No way to fix it there, so we prayed God would get us to Kerrville without the Jeep coming loose going down the road.  After we got here and got set up, we found the local Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealer and went to see about getting it fixed.  NO HASSLE!!  The service manager worked us right in! To get to the bolts that hold the base plate on, the grill & bumper had to be removed.  Found that there were three loose bolts, and one broken off!  Got it taken care of in about an hour and we were on the way - was billed a whopping $33!  WOW – God is Good!

AS mentioned above, we are here for the weekend, so will post more later.

11 - ROCKHOUND ST PK, DEMING, NM

Saturday, 5/19 we left Patagonia Lake State Park after 5 days.  Had a great time and would have stayed over the weekend, but they were having a big Mariachi Festival and the park was filled up – no room in the inn and we had to vacate.

We back-tracked to Benson where we hit I-10 east – then back through the Texas Canyon and all the rocks, crossed back into New Mexico, and had a good ride through the desert country.

It was a relatively short drive (247 miles) to our destination for the weekend – Rockhound State Park about 12 miles east of Deming, NM.  We have stayed at this park several times over the years we love the area & scenery.  The campground is at the base of the Florida Mountains and overlooks the flat desert area to the west toward Deming.

We got the birdfeeders up, spread out some scratch feed and sunflower seeds on the ground, and before long we had customers.  One of the birds we have been looking forward to seeing is the Scaled Quail – they are pretty comical the way they run around on the ground with their little topknots sticking up.  We had several pair that showed up and they hung around off & on the whole time we were here.  There were also a couple of other species that we enjoyed. 

Sunday, we went into Deming and attended worship services at the First Baptist Church. They had good worship music and the pastor delivered a very good message. We had been here before a couple of years ago and remembered that the pastor is originally from Birmingham, AL and went to college at the University of Alabama (I tried not to hold that against him). At least he got through the sermon without the dreaded RTR phrase (if you don’t know what that is, ask an Alabama fan)!

After church, we went to the “Si Senor” Mexican restaurant, had a very good lunch (our usuals), then back to camp for a relaxing afternoon watching the birds.

Yesterday (Monday 5/21) we took another day trip to Hatch, NM and to the City of Rocks State Park. To get to Hatch, it was a backtrack from the other day on Hwy 26 about 45 miles.  On the way, there is a community called Nutt – and us being birders, find it funny that Nutt & Hatch are this close together.

Hatch is a small town but bills itself as the Chile Capital of the World (that’s chile peppers). They have a world renown Chile Festival every Labor Day weekend and draw visitors from all over. There are several shops & stores that sell chilies, plus they also have lots of colorful pottery and other gift merchandise. We enjoyed visiting several of the stores. Wasn’t lunch time so we didn’t try the restaurant.

After Hatch we backtracked to Deming and then went about 25 miles out to City of Rocks State Park.  It is another park we’ve stayed at a few times and really like it a lot – especially all the rock formations. They have a section of more traditional campsites with electric & water hookups, but all the rest are situated in the rocks. It’s really interesting how they can nestle a campsite right up in a rock formation.

Today was moving on day – headed to Texas.  We left Rockhound State Park pretty early, hit I-10 east, said goodbye to New Mexico east of Las Cruces, and said hello to Texas just west of El Paso. You can’t get across Texas very quickly, so for the first night (tonight) we stopped at an RV Park in St. Stockton (a good 347 miles drive today). And today we gained back another hour - now on Central Time. For the rest of the week we’re going to stay a couple of nights at Lost Maples Natural Area (i.e. state park) near Vanderpool, TX and then on to Kerrville for Memorial Day weekend. 

So, until later ---------

10 - PATAGONIA - PART #2

We’re still at Patagonia Lake State Park – Thursday, 5/17 we took another day trip.  Madera Canyon is about 40 miles north on I-19, off at Green Valley, then about 12 miles east to the canyon.  This is a very popular area and it’s also very special to us.  Back in 1993 we flew to Tucson, rented a car, and went to Madera Canyon for our 25^th Anniversary (15 years ago and we’re now coming up on 40).  There is a lodge that has cabins and rooms and the whole place is pretty rustic.

They have a big area at the lodge where they have a lot of birdfeeders and a covered viewing area next to the office & gift shop.  We sat awhile and saw lots of birds!

There’s lots of other things to do in Madera Canyon – picnicking, camping, and lots of hiking trails.  Back in ’93 we took advantage of the trails and did some hiking – now we can’t hike much anymore, so we sat and watched the birds!

We are reminded every so often that this whole area is very close to Mexico and the Border Patrol is much in evidence.  On I-19 north out of Nogales there is a Border Patrol checkpoint and every vehicle has to stop.  They have the drug sniffing dogs that go around your vehicle before they let you go on.  If there’s anything suspicious, they pull the vehicle out of the line and check them out further. I wanted to get a picture coming through the checkpoint, but then I figured if they saw me doing that, they might want to check me out a little extra.  So, I waited until we were southbound.  I guess they are not too worried about folks headed to Mexico – there’s no checking in that direction.

Today (Friday 5/18), we went back to the Paton Hummingbird Center in Patagonia for a little while.  Saw a few of the same types of hummingbirds as before, plus a couple of extra birds.

The rest of the day we did some housecleaning and resting up.  We’ve been pretty busy the last few days and needed some “catch up” time.  Tomorrow we’re on the road again – starting to head back east. So, until next time --------