I also admired my lovely Collard Greens but didn't have time to harvest any. We are headed out to Massachusetts tomorrow for a week of Christmas festivities. If the hogs don't get to them, I've have a nice mess of greens when we return.
No more posts for a week!
Saturday, November 22
It was 42 degrees in the morning. I got to get me some warmer gloves. Bye!
Not close enough to Abilene to be convenient to I-20
But it was an okay state park, especially if you’re on your way to places farther south.
Our site surface was asphalt, once upon a time, but old and crumbly. It was really only long enough for the motorhome but we squeezed our jeep in by overhanging the motorhome at the back of the site. Water and electric worked okay.
There were lots of low trees on the roads in the campground, but they’d been trimmed back adequately. The sites were mostly full sun.
The was no campground host in our loop (Brushy Trail), but since it's November there didn’t seem to be a need for one. There weren’t a lot of people camping; it was very quiet except for a little traffic noise from the road running alongside the park.
The restrooms were nice, big, and clean enough.
The bird blind was stocked and maintained, but there weren’t any birds to speak of. Since it was November, the summer birds were gone and the winter birds weren’t hungry enough to be going for the birdseed. The park has a pretty nice little network of walking trails; they’re not marked very well, but since the whole park’s circumference is less than three miles, it would be hard to get lost on them.
TRIP NOTES:
Pack everything you want to eat; grocery stores are unreliable and a pain in the butt.
Go back to Catalina State Park sometime soon.
Be more selective about restaurants to eat at. Remember what I said about seafood in small cities away from the coast. But plan more breakfasts!
Friday, November 21
Still at Abilene state park. I scheduled two days at the park not because I thought there was anything interesting to do there, but just to give Ed a break from driving every day. And I was correct—there is nothing interesting to do.
There were lots of gray squirrels for Molly to watch. Six young deer moseyed by, not scared even when Molly ran full out to the end of her leash and barked. The big mamas were over by the bathroom and didn’t come that close.
There is traffic noise from the smallish roads outside the park. There are some
little trails in campground area, but the signage is confusing. Still it ended
up being a nice place to walk, partly because it’s so small that you can never
really get lost. The bird blind, very near the campsite, was nicely set up with
seeds and all. But no birds.
After a very lot and lazy waffle breakfast, we drove over to Lake Abilene to see just how dry it was. Answer: very dry. As in, completely dry. We walked on the lake bottom for a little while and saw nary a sign of any of the rain that had fallen on the day before.
In the afternoon I took Molly for a jog. We pretty much circled the entire park in about 45 minutes. Which included smell breaks. We were on trails/roads so we might have cut off some corners of the park. Starting at the dump station by the Brushy Trail camping area, we went southwest on the Elm Creek Nature trail (.9 miles) to the Buffalo Wallow Nature trail, I think, for about a quarter mile to Wagon Circle; then to the playground and then around the road back. Aha! We did cut off the corner of the park where the entrance station is. So I really don’t know how far we went, but I’d guess 2.5 miles.
We had to do some exploring around to make it the full one hour and 15 minutes jog time I wanted. Oddly enough, we discovered that from our campground, if you go to the restroom and then cut across one of the picnic areas, you end up at a set of stairs that climb to the swimming pool. It’s an easy walking distance for a young and active family.
Birds seen: Hermit Thrush, Black- capped Titmouse. Carolina Chickadee. Robin. Blue Jay. Blue bird. Lesser Goldfinch. Barred Owl.
Note from journal:
Tonight will get down in the 40s. And then tomorrow we head home to see what sort of damage the heavy rains did. So exciting.
Good-bye, lovely sand!
On to Lake Abilene State park, which is not anywhere near Abilene. Technically, it’s about 11 miles due south of the southern edge of Abilene, but that’s not the way we went. The trucker app took us on a couple of FMs way to the south and then back to the northeast to get there. It ended up taking us about 45 minutes from when we left I-20 until we got to the park. It should have been no more than 25. But I wasn’t planning the route so I shouldn’t complain.
It rained on us all day, mostly a gentle sprinkle. We had to wear raincoats to hook up when we arrived. Molly got really wet because I took her on a short “pee” stroll to the bird blind. No rain coat for Molly.
But an hour later ,at about 3:30, the rain had stopped and only the drips from the trees were making us damp. We went on a random walk around and among the various trails, ending up at the Buffalo Wallow trail. I don’t think it was a real buffalo wallow, but it was a low area in the ground where a couple of small ponds had collected. A Great Blue Heron too, but he de-collected as soon as Molly and I walked up. Sorry!
We ate a very early (at 4:58) supper at Galveston Seafood in southern Abilene. As feared, they had no idea how to make Cajun. And the coleslaw wasn’t very good, either, nor was the fried seafood entrée that Ed got. But it was edible, so we ate.
Add to trip notes: never eat seafood in Abilene Texas, or any small city that’s more than 200 miles from the ocean.
I made this note, right after the rain:
The thing I hate about West Texas is that something makes my nose run out here, but then the dry air hits and by the time I get around to trying to blow it, my nostrils are full up with hard, dry boogers.
Wednesday, November 19
It was quite chilly when I got up and walked Molly.
The Van Horn place wasn’t so bad, but I was still happy to leave it. We procrastinated on purpose so as not to get to the Monahans Sandhills State Park before noon. Check-in time is not until 2pm, but in the Texas State Parks that are less crowded, like this one, we’ve never had an issue with checking in early. I think possibly Garner was the only one that enforced the check-in time.
We had a nice, boring drive. I noticed we were going 80 mph a lot on this leg. There were many little segments of road construction, though, including one slowdown that caused us to brake hard enough that our brakes made that “burning up “ smell. They used to do that with every stop so I’m happy that it’s only on the occasional hard stop that they do it now.
Monahans was pretty much empty when we arrived. There were two other cars in the camping loop and there was one group of people in the picnic area.
I wrote:
It’s such a very nice place—I kind of love it here. I’m definitely happy to be back. Ed doesn’t remember it, oddly enough. Which is strange because I definitely remember us taking a walk together. And of course I remember being in a campsite meant for double occupancy, where we weren’t sure we could get out of our site on account of the people in front of us being a little too far back to let us maneuver around the power pole.
It should be very lovely and quiet tonight. Probably not a lot of star gazing because It’s overcast now (at about 2pm) and expected to be cloudy tomorrow. But we will see.
We all took a short walk to the top of the nearest dune and down to the day use area. The nearest one of the day use areas, that is—actually there are three of them. Climbing up the side of a 20-foot sand dune is the hardest walking you can imagine. The only thing harder than that is trying to walk through thigh-deep water.
After that it was only three o’clock or so, so Molly and I went for a long walk. We went on the road to one of the day use areas, climbed a dune and cut a short cut over to the restroom, then went on the road to another day use area. We walked for a little over an hour, seeing Loggerhead Shrike, lots of Scaled Quail, a small flock of Lesser Goldfinch, and some sort of blackbirds. Some prints in the sand look like lizards but I didn’t see any.
Scaled Quail
Then back, for supper and another walk and an episode of Suits on Netflix. Same old glamping life—got to love it. I went outside before bed to look around and listen to the sand. It was overcast outside but what little light got through the clouds bounced off the gray-white sand and made the world glow. Awesome. Does it ever get really dark there? I’m thinking not.
There is no city near enough to make a dent in the dark skyline. Monahans isn’t too far to the south but I couldn’t see it. The railroad tracks and I-20 were near enough that I could hear the traffic and a train going by. But otherwise the night was beautifully silent. When Molly and I walked the camping circle, only one out of the five campers had stupid, pointless outside lighting. They weren’t outside enjoying it, either, so I guess they just want to screw up the night for the rest of us. Luckily they were on the opposite side of the loop from us, so their idiotic lights didn’t shine in my window. But the glowing sand dunes did.
Tuesday, November 18
Bye, Rockhound!
Of course, getting up earlier won’t be so easy to swallow.
Luckily I had gotten up a little earlier in the morning because I wanted to give Molly a nice long walk at the state park before she was stuck in a RV park for the night. Which was good; I wish I could keep it up.
REVIEW: Southern Star RV Park Van Horn $42 site 11
Decent little parking lot by the interstate
There’s not a whole of the town of Van Horn, but they try. The RV park was more than adequate for an overnight or even a few days if you were working from your RV and needed a quiet place to park. The guy at the office was very nice and walked over to make sure we fit in our site.
We had a pull-thru with 50-amp electricity, water and sewer. The connections were all the way in the back of the site but our Class A has the sewer outlet a little past midline, so if we hadn’t had two extra sewer hoses we could add on, we’d have had to unhook the toad and park it in front. I’d guess it at about 30’ of hose we used. Also note that the sewer hookup is right next to the water spigot, which could be unsanitary if the last user was careless about his cleanup.
We had a picnic table but no fire pit. The park has a few pine trees around but is mostly bare gravel and would be dusty in a high wind and a little on the hot side in summer. In November, it was fine. Being close to the highway, there’s traffic noise of course but not too bad.
There’s a laundry, bathrooms (didn’t use), a clubhouse with a pool table, a basketball goal and little play area for kids, plus a fenced dog park, with poop bags and a trash can for the litter. It’s smallish and has bare ground—plus one big tree for shade—but it’s more than adequate. I don’t think there was a bench or any chairs.
Just down and across the street (Broadway) is a little park beside the railroad tracks. No playground or anything, but at least a place to let kids run around. There’s a Lowe’s market and a McDonalds all within a half mile.
Monday, November 17
Bird notes: Rock Wren, Curve-billed Thrasher, lots doves
Weather: Warm in sun at 7:45. 42 overnight.
From
journal:
There are times when I’m sitting outside or walking about, that I just feel
content. There’s no place I’d rather be than right here right now. I need to
remember that feeling when I’m feeling down—that there are places to be that
make me happy. In my garden...and here.
It was a lazy day today for us at Rockhound. I really like the place! And I don’t know why, other than the mountains, the space, and the lack of people.
There are probably lots of critters around but I’ve only seen one—a squirrel. Skulking halfway up the slope behind the campground. Two rock wrens checked out our campsite yesterday, and I saw and heard many more today.
Rock wren:
Quail:
There were doves galore; also a Curve-billed Thrasher, a Ladder-backed Woodpecker, one stinking House Sparrow, and a couple of Black-throated Sparrows. Something big and buteo-like went soaring over the cliffs at Spring Canyon but I didn’t get a look at it. And of course House Finches.
We did a pancake breakfast and then headed toward Spring Canyon in the Jeep. On the way we stopped at the visitor center and spoke to the two ladies there. There were nice exhibits—worth spending more time at, but we’d left Molly in the jeep and had to move on.
The drive to Spring Canyon included a 17% grade, aka, a really steep hill. I didn’t think they called a slope a “grade” unless it went on for a mile or more, but this was much shorter. Still it was a little scary.
And then we arrived at the trailhead for a very steep walk up, up and up the canyon, which is called a box canyon according to the visitor center ladies. We didn’t have to climb—no hands were needed—but we did have to do a walk that was not to be taken lightly. We went up about half a mile of the .9 mile trail, far enough to get some magnificent scenic views. But we’d not taken sticks to help us climb and Ed admitted—after I decided to turn us around—that he’d about reached his limit.
I would have liked to go on, but I’m not so good on the downhills and I knew it was going to be a challenge returning. So we went back. It wasn’t so bad, but with Ed’s hip the way it is we were probably better off that way.
Still, it was a lovely canyon and lovely trail. I lovelied it.
Back to our camp site:
Returning to camp, we just hung out for the rest of the day. Molly and I took three walks, each about 45 minutes or so. I went up the hill behind camp like I had done the last time we were at Rockhound, but this time continued on the trail to the north instead of veering off to the south and circling around. The trail didn’t climb all the way to the top of the slope (hill? Mountain?), but instead leveled off and went along the ridge halfway between bottom and top. There was a picnic bench for scenic sunsets and also a small pavilion too, both facing west.
Then the trail descended and dumped us out into a botanical garden and then the campground. The botanical garden wasn’t much, but had probably been nice once upon a time. Most of the signs were still intact but there weren’t very many of them. And a lot of the interesting plants weren’t even labeled. Oh, well. If I lived there I could volunteer to fix it up. But it’s a long way to home and I have my own garden to tend.
Great sunset, but I went inside too soon. I missed the best part! When I stepped back outside a half-hour later I saw that the skyworks were still firing.
Sunday, November 16
This was our last day at Desert Oasis, and I was rewarded with a gorgeous sunrise just outside my bedroom window. Their Dark Skies policy here meant that I could leave the window shade open all night, waking to the gentle dawn. I love that.
After that, same old travel day. We were headed to Rockhound State Park in New Mexico. Along the road the mileage signs all seemed to reference El Paso, even when we were back in Arizona. Are there no big cities along the I-10 in New Mexico? Because it really looked as if we were going to skip a state, getting on I-10 at around Willcox, Arizona and immediately seeing a sign saying it was 500-some-odd miles to El Paso.
But no, eventually we crossed the New Mexico line—here’s my picture of the welcome sign:
(oops, missed it.)
So indeed, New Mexico does exist.
And
then we crossed the Continental Divide—THE Continental Divide, not one of those
other continental divides—and we got off the highway in Deming to travel a very
bumpy ten miles to Rockhound.
Yes, we’d been there at least once before and I think this might be the place where we took the kids to pick up rocks, long ago on our Spring Break trip out west. I don’t remember the place from the day we spent here way back then. It was probably around 2002 or a little later. But I do remember we picked up a buttload of rocks that we hoped might be thunderstones and we still have the whole heavy bag of them in the garage back home. Waiting to be split. I think we gave a couple of the best ones to Bob. But I don’t remember him finding anything inside them.
Bugs in our campsite!
So Ed and I took that same walk, following the roundabout way this time all the way to the visitor center. (Notice I didn’t say “straight” to the visitor center—there is no straight on a trail like that. It’s a glorified goat trail—not even fit for a native American.) But it got us there and we returned. The sign said .5 miles, but it felt like more. It took us about 45 minutes.
FROM NOTES:
So now I’m sitting outside with my back to the setting sun, hoodie and windbreaker both zipped up tight. It’s 71 degrees or maybe a little less by now, but the gusty wind is making me cold. Not quite cold enough to go inside yet.
It’s been partly cloudy all day and that made for a pleasant drive, temperature-wise. But the wind made us suffer. I hope it dies down in a bit, but the forecast calls for windy again tomorrow. We’ll see.
Saturday, Nov 15
They weren’t what I expected—I’d hoped for real potato pancakes are made from leftover boiled potatoes, but these were basically hashbrowns with a little onion, refried and smashed flat. Try something else another time. But I also had a biscuit with gravy and the biscuit was huge! Twice as big as any biscuit I’ve ever had. Good gravy, too. And I had bacon which I gave to Ed, and applesauce which was a joke. About 1-1/2 Tbsp of applesauce (from a jar, no doubt) in a little plastic dish like they serve condiments in.
But still it was a very good breakfast. A little expensive but worth it.
Then we walked around Tombstone a little bit and I bought the most boring 1/4 pound of divinity I ever tasted. I don’t know what the recipe was, but I suspect it was made in a factory with some sort of sugar/starch substitute. And it was hard on top like it was old. Lesson learned—if you buy candy from a counter in a candy shop in a tourist trap, stick with the more popular varieties like chocolate turtle. Those kinds would at least turn around quicker and be fresher.
Sandhill Cranes
