The Stars at Night ARE Big and Bright

Tuesday February 10, 2015
Today we are in New Mexico again, and a lot has happened since my last entry, so to catch us up …

New Mexico Sunset

After the caverns, we spent several days on the road in Southern Arizona, where we visited Bisbee and Tombstone. The drive into Bisbee was an interesting drop into a red rock canyon. It’s a classic old west town famous for its copper mine and the turquoise jewelry made from the mine products. The streets of the old part of town are lined with shops and galleries, but in my opinion, the prices were way high and the merchandise targeted at tourists.

It did not help that the weather was grey and chill. The best thing to come out of that visit was the discovery of a writer of mysteries, JA Jance, whose character Joanna Brady is sheriff of Bisbee. I really enjoyed the book I found in an RV park library. Tombstone was also all about the tourists, but it was fun to stomp along the boardwalk streets, in front of the saloon, watching the desperados getting ready for the 3:30 shootout. On the way out of town, heading to a place to spend the night, we bought local pecans and pistachios from a good old boy nut farmer along the road.

The following morning we headed to New Mexico, where the sun came out illuminating the dry golden grass that lined the highway. We spent two days and nights at Rock Hound State park, high on a hill in a dry camp site. The first day and night were beautiful, the sunset took hours and was the most intense colors, with a backdrop of city lights from distant Deming. The second night a wind started to howl, buffeting the trees and our camper on the hill. So we headed out early -  Texas bound.

From that point on, the weather turned nasty. We entered Texas in El Paso, where, as in AZ and NM we passed border patrols. The air was polluted – making my eyes and nose run. 

In my opinion, Texas is just ok – or less. Though I enjoyed another trip here a few years ago, I did not love it. First of all, it does not know that it should be warm and sunny and have Florida-like beaches. Also, Texas is very big, which means long drives when traveling, and it has weird frontage roads that can make getting places, and getting back, very confusing. This approach does keep local traffic off the highways, and that is good, because in the cities, there is LOTS of traffic. This brings me to something else I don’t like about Texas highways. There are way too many animal corpses on the roads. Deer, (I counted twelve in one stretch,) skunks, wild boar, even an antelope. I wonder if the 75 mph speed limit has anything to do with it, or is it just a side effect of endless roads through empty, dry, mostly flat, country.


I love the colors in the sky

Also, (don’t tell H), but Texas has a bad political rep among some of my nearest and dearest. However, H’s sister Anna lives in Austin now, in a new house, and so was on our travel agenda (as long as we are traveling we may as well go to Texas.) And, she has a pool. So we traveled hundreds of miles through bleak weather and scenery to spend a week with her. The weather throughout the week was cold, rainy and lousy, the perfect time to be in a home, sleep indoors, watch lots of movies and eat great food. But I never made it into the pool. On the plus side, we were introduced to Central Market. In my opinion, hands down the best food store I have ever experienced. Let’s just say that we ate well (and often) in Austin.

Speaking of food, on our way to Austin, after a long rainy morning, we drove into Fredericksburg – the first sign of a ‘nice’ little city we had encountered. Instead of rocks, tumbledown stone houses and tumbleweed we found lovely shops, a wide main street and a distinctly German flavor. We had lunch in a German Cafe and bought pastries in a German Bakery. As we drove out, toward Austin, I was surprised to see that the road was lined with beautiful wineries and vineyards. Who knew Texas made wine?

Shelly in the Grove of Live Oak

I cannot talk about Texas food without mentioning BBQ, an irresistible favorite for H, (and my son and my son-in-law), but not me. The night before, road weary and hungry, and still miles from Austin, we had dinner at Linn’s BBQ. The sign outside says the world’s best. Maybe not, but the ribs were good and H liked the way they were served with pickles, onions and pickled jalapenos. I liked an impressive display of beautiful canned fruits, pickles, quail eggs and preserves. They gave me a downhome feeling – a Texas sense of place.

So does the friendly and gregarious way that Texans seem to talk to strangers, and each other. They (waitresses, camping receptionists, store clerks) call me “sweetheart, love, darlin’.”  It always takes me a moment to figure out who they are talking to; kind of creeps me out and charms me at the same time. One thing that surprises me here is how rarely I actually hear a good ole Texas drawl. Where did they go? I was about to find out.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

After a week in Austin, we drove north, a different route from the one we came in on (the mere thought of revisiting that drive made us feel ill.) As it turns out, the finale of our Texas trip made up for the rest. We camped at Friendship Park, on Hord Creek Lake in Coleman, in a grove of Live Oak, next to a lake, where herds of deer shared the vast gold grass fields. We had almost the entire, enormous, park to ourselves and it was 75 degrees and sunny, and peaceful and beautiful. The man who registered us was the quintessential Texas gent, hat, drawl, sunny disposition. With our senior citizen card (sigh), it cost $8 per night. And, as promised, the stars at night were … glorious.

My favorite part of this adventure however was our Sunday breakfast at Tiffany’s in town. Grits, biscuits and gravy, juke box, accents, sweet talk. It satisfied every appetite and made us both feel good.

On Monday, we were back on the road, and made it back into New Mexico (318 miles) in time to camp in Clovis, near the border. This town is home to stock yards and railroad trains – we left early (enough said about Clovis.)  Today, Tuesday, we are close to Santa Fe in Edgewood, at a great RV park. Tomorrow, we are going to the Georgia O’Keefe museum and I am so excited.  I’ll tell you all about it next time.

Caves

I have never been in a cave, and I am more than a little claustrophobic. In fact the idea of visiting the Colossal Caves Mountain Park, located in Saguaro State Park in Arizona hit several of my fear notes, (in alphabetical order) bats (which are park of the cave system,) caves and deserts. Other than that I was really looking forward to it. On the topic of fears, as I mentioned in the last post, we were camping, alone, in this desert park high on the mountain, with no services (read cell phone connections) in a locked campsite. However, we had committed ourselves, and  selected our campsite. There was lots of daylight left and nothing much else to do so we took the opportunity to spend the afternoon touring the  cave. However, before signing up for the tour, I verified that there would be no crawling through tight places (the very thought makes me panic). The experience was amazing, we walked up and down 360 steps, between the cave walls, awestruck at the shapes looming in dimly lit darkness, and respectful of the terrifying dark spaces that were just off the carefully maintained path. This adventure became and a precursor to an even more awesome cave on the following day.

These photos taken at Colossal Cave do not begin to capture the sense of time and earth I experienced under the ground. I am glad I went. I did not see even one Cave Bear, but our guide was knowledgeable and entertaining. I am now able to identify "cave bacon" on a moment's notice.

The following day, emboldened by the amazing and fascinating experience in the first cave, we headed down the mountain (me happy to have survived the night). After H's visit to the Air and Space Museum, we headed to Kartchner Caverns to "experience a stunning limestone cave in Southeastern Arizona that boasts world-class features. This “live” cave, discovered in 1974, is host to a wide variety of unique minerals and formations. Water percolates from the surface and calcite formations continue to grow, including stalactites dripping down like icicles and giant stalagmites reaching up from the ground."

We spent an hour and a half exploring this underground landscape. Photos are not permitted to protect the delicate formations. What an experience - we toured the Big Room, learned the amazing story of the how this cave was discovered and, for me, found an previously untapped interest in geology. Check out this video to get a sense of the cave. In my opinion, the video fails to express the sheer enormity of the space within the cavern.  This place came highly recommended as a MUST SEE. I agree. If you ever get the chance to  visit, do.  In addition, the campsite, where we spent two nights, was beautiful, and offered great desert hiking.

Other than the beauty of the stars in the utterly dark night sky, and the interesting shapes of the cacti, I cannot say that I see much beauty in the desert – at least not here, and not now. But I am fascinated by the history of these ancient places. Rock formations are millions of years in the making. Indian tribes lived on this land 800 years ago, and a huge saguaro hit by lightning will take more than two years to die, so, I am in no hurry to leave.

Today we are in Tucson. Tomorrow … we’ll see.