Epic Cross Country Road Trip Sept 4-5

 Sept 4  Saturday

It is a 4 hour drive to Shreport and we want to get there for lunch.  We get a later start than we had hoped- 9:30.  I do more embroidering on the travel tablecloth.  It's getting pretty impressive!  And still lots to embroider.  

Kristina and Gus meet us when we arrive in Shreveport.

  Kristina has ordered lots of food from our favorite Greek restaurant and Eliot comes over to help us eat it.  Really wonderful to see them and we're glad that we have more than just lunch with them.

Nick and I go to the CVS for our scheduled COVID test.  We're to go to the drive through pharmacy.  It takes forever!  Oh grief!  The low gas light comes on while we're waiting in line.  There is only one car ahead of us.  I think we'll make it.  Each car takes about 15 minutes as the pharmacy person is trying to cover the inside counter, and the cash register as well as the drive through.  Could be taking lesson on efficiency from the Chic filet next door......  1 1/2 hours later, we're through and go back to Kristina's.

Nick really likes a cajun restaurant near them, Marilyn's.  They have good binets and po boys.  Even though we have left overs from lunch, we get more.  I'm sure it will be eaten.  Eliot hasn't ever eaten at the restaurant and really wonders now why not as it is so good.  I'm sure he'll be back as well as we'll be back.

Sept 5 Sunday

Eliot comes back over to say good bye.  Kristina is out running when Nick and I get up.  Nick has some coffee.  We could easily linger but we have an 8-hour drive ahead of us.  We get going a little after 9.  We break our "No Fast food or chains" rule.  We get some KFC and eat it in the car as they aren't doing inside service due to a shortage of help.  

Cross the Mississippi. That is always a major landmark when traveling cross country.  We know we're getting closer to the end of the road trip.  

We call Andy to order some pizza to have when we get home.  Andy and the cats welcome us home.  

I end the day in the hot tub.   Moxie recognizes the signs when I get my bathrobe and she goes out with me. The crickets and frogs, a few stars are visible.  A great trip and it is nice to be home.  

Epic Cross Country Road Trip Sept 1-3

 

September 1  Wednesday

September!  Wow!

Big Bend National Park is near here!  We could add park number 12!   Hmmmm.  We have time to drive to the park but not really time to explore the park.  The drive just  to and from would be about 3 hours We decide that one is for another trip.

We hear that there is a really good doughnut shop in Alpine, which is about ½ hour down the road.  Sounds like breakfast!  When we get to the bakery, the shelves seem a little empty.  But, more will be coming out of the oven in about 15 minutes.  Sounds like it is worth the wait.  Get gas, locate the town park.  There is a pickup truck outside with Iowa, Polk county license plates.  While we’re waiting in line, I ask the people ahead of us if it is their truck.  Yes it is!  Oh, I grew up in Pella!  Well actually, he’s never been to Iowa, The truck has changed hands several times and the plates have never been changed.  HA!

We get the donuts plus some pigs in a blanket and take them to the local park to eat.  Yes, they are good and we have enough for a snack and breakfast tomorrow morning. 

Texas is a big state!We need a midpoint stop to get to San Antonio which is our next real destination.  We had planned to camp but the temperatures are in the high 90’s and low 100’s.  That just doesn’t sound appealing.  We wind a reasonable hotel in Del Rio.  A quiet afternoon in an air conditioned room to catch up on journaling, pictures, emails, sounds good. 

We take Hwy 90 which could probably also be called the loneliest highway in America.  At points, it goes quite close to the Mexico border.  We see border patrol vans occasionally.  The landscape is really uninviting.   Crossing here would be extremely difficult.  We stop at the Seminole Canyon State Park.  When we get out of the car the 100+ heat really smacks us.  They have a nice display of the ranching that went on in the area. 

Del Rio is near Laughlin Air Force Base so is quite large.  Sticking with our “No Chain Restaurant” policy, we eat at a little neighborhood place.  We were the only ones there but they did seem to be doing a good takeout business and it was a bit early for dinner.  The food was Americanish.  Along with my chicken nuggets, I had an ear of Mexican style street corn with lime, coita cheese, cilantro and crema.

Back at the hotel, the internet was a bit slow but I still got quite a bit done on the blog.  Only about a week behind now. 

September 2: Thursday   To San Antonio

More flat land and big sky but it’s a bit greener now.  

It’s still REALLY HOT!  Temperatures in the high 90’s with the heat index up around 112.  We certainly aren’t going to do any outside anything!  Museum!  That’s the ticket.  After reading various reviews of museums we decide on the McNay Art Museum which specializes in modern and women’s art.  Good choice!  The special exhibit is called “Limitless” featuring installations by Martine Gutierrez, Lettitia Huckaby, Yayoi Kusama, Sandy Skoglund and Jennifer Steinkamp. 

The rest of the museum was curated by topic rather than period.  I really liked it.  Some of the topics were “Sense of Place”, “Sacred Conversations”, “Powerful Women”. 

Our hotel is downtown near the River Walk.  There is road construction in the area and we have a hard time getting to the hotel as the street it is on is closed.  A phone call to the hotel got us there. 

Nick made plans with a person he has done on-line gaming with for several years.  We met Phillip at a local Bar BQ place.  Very good food and it was interesting to meet one of Nick’s gaming friends.  They were very good about keeping the conversation away from gaming. 

After dinner, Nick and I walked to the River Walk.  We got the last boat ride of the day which was relaxing and interesting.  After the boat ride, we went back to a little place that had a 3 piece jazz group playing.  Sax, bass and guitar.  All really good musicians.  We really enjoyed it!

September 3  Friday

We have 9:30 tickets to enter the Alamo.  Definitely wanted to go early in the day when the heat wasn’t as bad and there were a bit fewer people.  Well, I think the Alamo is a result of really good marketing through the years.  Of all the things we did during the last 5 weeks, this was the bottom of my list.  We had the self-guided audio tour which did give some good commentary.  I didn’t quite realize that the main issue wasn’t really about if Texas wanted to be part of Mexico or the US but that Mexico had changed to a more centralized government and the Texans didn’t like that.  Another war about state rights.  I think that the people fighting have been made into heroes and some of the current extremists are patterning themselves after that model.  Anyway, I guess maybe I was hot and cranky……

Time to move on.  We made hotel reservations at College Station which is really a pretty short driving day.  We want to get COVID tested in case we picked something up and are asymptomatic before we get back home and see little David.  We had planned to stay overnight with Kristina Haas in Shreveport.  But, they are being exposed daily while teaching. Hmmmm.  Rethinking our plans. 

We aren't able to make an appointment for a COVID test in College Station but make an appointment for Shreveport.  We consider just having lunch with Kristina and Eliot and then driving on home to Atlanta the same day.  Or getting a hotel somewhere between Shreveport and Atlanta.  Because of Hurricane Ida, there are not hotel rooms available along our route.  After talking with Kristina and the precautions that they are taking, we decide that staying over night with them really is the best solution.  

The George W Bush presidential library is in College Station.  Hmmmm.  We could go.  I guess we're really in the mindset of getting home rather than sight seeing.  We pass on the library.

We have a late lunch/early supper at a really nice restaurant called “Salt”.  Since this is our one meal for the day, we have soup, main dish and dessert.  Just had popcorn in our hotel room and it’s time for a shower and bed. 

Epic Cross Country Road Trip August 30-31

 

August 30:  Monday  To Carlsbad Caverns

We start the day with a special brunch at a French restaurant/bakery.  I have a crepe with carmalized bananas.  Yum!  Nick has a delectable egg dish.  We buy some treats to take with us.

Melodie had sent me a travel link of towns in the US with funky folk art. One of them is not far off of our way to Carlsbad – Madrid.  Yes!  It does have funky art.  There is some fine art, some true folk art some junk and some imports for tourists.  It was also on the tourquoise trail.  Many years ago, tourquoise was mined.  Now it is mostly gone. 

We are certainly in the part of the country where the best restaurant in town is Mexican.  We chose a well rated one. It is also a meat market. We have tacos pastor and tacos al cabon.  It is good!

We sure have seen a lot of flat land and clouds this trip!

The closest town to Carlsbad Cavern is White City.  We stay here so we can go into the park to view the thousands of bats that leave the cave at sunset to go out and feed for the night. 

It’s about a 15 minute drive to the visitor center and then a short walk to the viewing area of the cave opening.  A ranger is answering questions.  When the bats start coming out, we’re to be as silent as possible.  Photos of any kind are prohibited.  There are swallows swooping.  They share the cave opening with the bats.  The swallows are the day shift and the bats the night shift. It is coming to the shift change.  A few bats come out and then more and more and more!  There is a sweet musky smell of the bats.  When cupping my ears, I could hear the fluttering of the wings.  The bats came out in waves.  I said 1000s but it is actually hundreds of thousands.  The bats migrate to Mexico but come back to this cave where they were born each year.  Each bat has one pup and will only nurse their own pup.  All the pups are left in a nursery while the parents go out and feed. We stay for about half an hour silently watching.  When it gets too dark, you can’t see the bats against  the dark sky.  The next day we saw the ranger in the cave  who had given the talk.  He said that after everyone had left and it was really dark that another huge wave exited.  He couldn’t see them because it was so dark but he heard them. 

August 31: Tuesday    Carlsbad Caverns and McDonald Observatory

We have reservations to enter the cave anytime between 9:30 and 10:30.  We aim for closer to 9:30.  There are choices as to how to see the caves.  Take the elevator both ways, walk one way and take the elevator the other way, walk both ways.  Recommendation is to walk down and take the elevator back up.  That is what we choose.  It is 1 ½ miles to walk down.  We enter through the opening where the bats came out last night.  

The path is quite steep at times.  We leave the twilight zone which is the area that gets some light from outside. 

This place is HUGE!  I think that we’re coming to the bottom and it keeps going with more switchbacks.  It is cool inside but the humidity is high so I still find myself feeling quite warm.  Along the way, there are spotlights on various formations and informational signs. 

Eventually we reach the bottom where the elevators drop people off.  Here there is a choice of a short path or the 1 ½ mile path around this level of the cave.  We take the full, long path.  This is mostly on the level so is easy with lots of stops to read the signs, take pictures and admire.  Usually there are 2,000 to 4,000 people who visit the caves daily.  But during these times, the numbers are way down into the low hundreds.  It is really beautiful to not see or hear other people as we walk the path.  Some of the formations are huge and some are little inlets with hundreds of little baby stalactites.

  We entered the cave about 9:45 and left at almost 1:00.  As I said, this cave is HUGE!

Time to get in the car and head to Fort Davis where we will spend the night and is near to McDonald Observatory. 

There is another National Park nearby.  Guadelupe Mountain National Park.  It is mostly for hiking.  There isn’t a road that goes through it like most other National Parks.  There is a road that drives along side it though.  We take that and stop at the Visitors Center. I think we can count it in our National Park registry.  That makes 11 for this trip alone!

On to Fort Davis.  The scenery is more of the flat, dry, nearly uninhabited land.  Or uninhabitated by humans.  We finally get to Fort Davis.  What a charming little town!  We have reservations at the Limpia Hotel which turns out to be an old historic hotel across from the old courthouse.  Our room is actually across the street over their gift shop.  I walk around while Nick rests in the room. 

Side note – We’ve seen quite a few trains and they’re all really long!

We have tickets for a lecture tonight at the observatory but it is really cloudy.  Nick gets a text that the forecast is for it to clear and they are hopeful that they will be able to hold the lecture.  If we want to bail, they will refund the money.  Nope, we’re taking a chance that the couds will clear for us.  They do! Well mostly.  Some cloud cover near the horizon. 

On the way up to the observatory a huge longhorn sheep or goat crosses the road right in front of us!  Luckily, it wasn’t a closer encounter with it!   

When we get to the observatory, we can see that the parking lot is prepared for large crowds.  There are cars here but the parking lot is pretty empty.  We look at the exhibits and the gift shop until we get the instructions to follow the red lights to the amphitheater.  As it turns out, this is the last lecture that the professor is giving before his retirement from 30 years.  One of the questions in the Q&A was what was the most amazing thing he had seen in his 30 years.  He talked about a comet in 1996 which stretched across the sky.

He had a really strong lazer beam that he used to point out the constellations.  Between that help and the really dark sky, it was easy to see everything.  He pointed out how with the wobble of the earth tilt that over thousands of years, the star that points to true North has changed.  With that wobble, the zociac constellations no longer line up with the setting of the sun the way they did  when they were first recognized and determined.  Hmm.  Maybe I’m not really a Taurus…..