Big Bend National Park, Day 2

Mama here again :-)

Today we got a late start because of the wind storm last night. Things settled down around 6 am so we all went back to sleep until 8am. By the time we were up and around, got down to the cafe for breakfast, back to the RV again, and out the door, it was nearly noon.

We headed to the Terlingua Ghost Town about 5 miles west on 170. We stopped at the Trading Post to get a self guided walking tour. Terlingua was a mining town around the turn of the century. The town has capped off 70 mines for safety reasons right around this region. They had one for us to peer down into by putting a 8 x 8 metal grate over the mine entrance so you could still clearly see the shaft. The boys dropped small stones down the shaft and we all listened and listened and listened and then finally heard a slight "clack" as it hit bottom. Pretty creepy to be standing over a hole that deep!

We also saw the one room jail and the iron spikes they chained the "over flow" prisoners to when it became full. We were able to walk through the ruins freely and Daniel even found some home made soap someone had made in times past in a natural "bowl" in the rock. It smelled just like old lye soap.

After we were done there, Big Bend National Park was once again calling our name. We drove back inside and this time decided to take the scenic drive down into Santa Elena Canyon. Breathtaking scenery for all of the 18 miles to the canyon.

We parked at the trail head and forded a branch of the Rio Grande to get to the trail that led out into the canyon. The sheer walls of the canyon rose 1500 ft on either side of us. The Rio Grande, a bit muddy, snaked its way through the canyon.

Maybe this satellite picture will show you enough details to see what I mean.

We met up with a neat couple from near our home when we lived in Germany some 16 years ago. This couple home-built this unbelievable rig and are on a year long trip through Canada, the States and Mexico before heading home. In years past they have taken a year here and there to go to Africa and all kinds of neat places. See the size of those tires? They can easily go through three feet of water. They never need to "hook up" because they generate their own power and have large battery banks.

What was particularly neat for me was that I have read about them on the internet over the past couple of years, so it was kind of like meeting celebrities :-). They were a super nice couple and eagerly answered all our questions and were equally curious about our American lives.

On our way out of the park we saw a coyote who let us mess around and take a bunch of pictures and trail along as he hunted and "did his business" (like any other dog!). Unfortunately, the best picture was the one doing his business so that is the one I will share.

It was cool to see one of the animals that was making so much ruckus by our rig last night.

As we left the park a group of deer crossed the road which started Chaucey barking like mad. The deer bounded away up into the hills, white tails in the air...that sure is a perty sight!

Thus ends our second day in this unbelievably beautiful place!

Big Bend National Park

I guess it's mama's turn to contribute to the blog. I think I get to write about the best day yet!

We traveled from Alpine, Tx south on 118 to Terlingua and pulled into an RV park, got settled and headed straight into Big Bend National Park.

We drove through the main gate and purchased a week pass for $20 and got some maps and decided to drive the 25 miles to the main visitors site to get our bearings. Big Bend is one of the largest parks (over 800,000 acres) and the least visited park in the system. We agree: This is a Best Kept Secret and everyone should come here once!!

Having made the "upper west" trip three years ago (New Mex, Arizona, Colorado, Utah) we noticed that geologically, you find much of the same rock types, formations, colors, etc here in Big Bend as you get in many of the parks farther north. Of course, those parks (Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, etc) are NOT to be missed but you do get a taste of them all in one park.

It is simply GORGEOUS, MAGNIFICENT, GLORIOUS. Those are the words I would use, just to start. We haven't even begun to see what is here but already we are blown away. Today we took a hike through the Chisos Mountains to the "Window" (pictured). We saw deer and birds. Both boys are "birders" and chased the birds around quietly trying to get their picture to identify in our book later. It turned out the one we loved the most is a Silver Cardinal. The view was not to be believed and cannot be captured on our simple 4 megapixel camera.

On our way in we saw a pack of javelinas or piccary (wild pigs pictured). They are rumored to be able to tear up a man if they feel threatened. We sure saw a lot of them along the roadside. We hope we don't encounter too many while out on the trails!
In the literature it said that no matter where you are in Big Bend you are in the territory of at least one mountain lion. That is a little wild! Also, black bear roam freely here.

We capped the day by having dinner at the Chisos Mountain Lodge overlooking the canyon. This was recommended as a splendid place to have dinner and watch the sun set. Beautiful! We understand why the park is said to be "God's country and the devil's playground". What a wild and wooly place!

We drove back to camp and the stars began to come out. By the time we got back and stepped out of the truck we were all awestruck at the sight! We had purchased a star chart so we got it out, along with our red tinted flashlight (so it won't "ruin" your eyes to looking at the stars) & we did an impromptu astronomy class.

:-) "School" happens everywhere!

As we were preparing for bed we heard a noise -- coyotes! We rushed to the door and the dogs were barking and howling and carrying on. We could see around the park that lots of people were peeking out to get a glimpse of them but we never did see them. They were very close, though.

We were all awakened at 4am by a wind storm that literally rocked the RV for about an hour. (At breakfast our waitress said there were gusts over 50 mph). It reminded me of when I was a girl and we took boating trips to the Bahamas each summer and sometimes summer storms would pop up in the night and my dad would creep around making sure the anchor was holding and that all was well. I imagined that all the men in the park were awake and wondering if their rigs were going to topple in the wind! It was exciting!

We are LOVING this trip! Living simply in the RV, having our "home" everywhere we go, and being able to experience God's creation so up close & intimately has been such a gift to our family!!!

Ft. Davis, TX

Today (1/29), we left from our RV spot in Alpine to see a museum of the Big Bend National Park. The entrance opened into the gift shop, and the tour guide started us on our walk through the museum exhibits. At the beginning, there is a map of the surrounding area with push buttons that light up a named area in the park. Above our heads soared a life-size Pterodactyl (flying dinosaur) with 40 foot wingspan! We then toured the whole museum, watching movies about Big Bend and its history. There were movies and set-ups about how Pancho Villa used to come across on his raids from Mexico. They also had a couple of documentaries about how archeolgists excavate dinosaur bones and a huge, 17-foot wall of pictographs (which they had a replica in the museum). After seeing the whole museum, we went back to the gift shop and the exit. I looked in a book about road runners while in the shop. There was some amazing pictures.

After leaving the museum, we ate at an authentic Mexican restaurant called "La Casita" or "Little House," which is what it really looked like. Our bellies full, we started out on our 24 mile drive for Ft. Davis. When we got there, we also entered the gift shop (all these museums start in the gift shop it seems!). While cruising the shop, Joe saw something that he’d like to try out: a jaw harp. I had my eyes on a Monopoly game board with all the National Parks as property. I talked to Mom about it in the museum part, and she said, “I dunno, maybe you can split the price in half with Dad.” I agreed and asked Dad about it. He said he’d think about it, so I paid my attention to the exhibits.

We soon went outside to see the enlisted mens’ quarters and such. Along the way we found two old nails with their tips broken off. The were very old and rusty, so we knew they were authentic. But we had seen a sign in the office that said not to pick up anything we found, so after examining them we put them back where we found them.


After finishing around the grounds, we headed back to the gift shop and bought the Monopoly, with Joe twanging the jaw harp beside me. He is getting quite good at it. (Ed. note: Dad got a book about the fort because it told more about the history. It turns out that the first African-American West Point graduate served here. Also, General Myers ["father of the Army Signal Corps"] was stationsed here and it is believed that it is believed that he learned from the Appache and Commanche Indians how to communicate with fire, smoke signals, and wig-wag flags.]

On our way home, Mom got some great pictures of wild antelope.

(Blogged by Daniel)

Rattlesnakes, Mountain Goats & Astronomy

On Monday (1/28), we visited the Mount Davis State Park. On our way, we spotted a sign that bragged "World's Largest Rattlesnake Collection," so we just HAD to stop. This little lady snake got a little riled-up about seeing us, so we got a couple great action shots and a movie.
Next, we got to the park and saw a mountain goat perched on the tip of a craggy rock.

We found the trail up to Mount Davis that maybe a literal goat trail too! Mom hinted that we’d be going back soon (she hadn’t anticipated a hike; she only had sandals on) and stated that she’d go no further when we got to a really rocky part of the trail, the start of the real mountain.
Dad, Joe and I were adamant to get to the top, so we left Mom waiting for our return journey and started up the steep trail. Mom urged us to come back, but my Dad allayed her fears by telling her that he was always staying close to us to back us up. I came near the top and spied a diagonally climbing precipice. I immediately started climbing up it. I got to the edge (there was a jutting-out piece that kept me from falling down the three hundred or so feet) and started to slowly stand up. Joe and Dad just got level with me and realized what I was doing. Dad didn’t seem very worried at first, but Joe literally freaked out, yelling “Daniel, not a step closer, come back! Get down here right now!!!” I sat down again (it was too dangerous to look behind me standing up) and looked behind me. “Go back, Daniel!” Mom yelled far below. “I’m fine, don’t worry about me,” I replied. I went forward again, I stood up and howled a conquering war cry. The view was incredible! Down below, Mom looked as small as an ant. Dad took a picture of me, but Mom got a good picture of me standing up. I got down, and we started our climb down, which also afforded us some great views.


After getting back, we got in the car and drove out to the McDonald Observatory (not the hamburger restaurant! He was an actual person who left money in his will to build the observatory). We saw the observatory domes coming up the drive. We went inside, and after eating hot dogs and quesadillas we took a tour of the place. The first telescope we saw was a reflecting (107” mirror) telescope.

The tour guide moved it about using a controller, and asked if anyone would like to control it. He asked Joe, but he shook his head. Then he pointed at me. I shrugged, saying “I wouldn’t like to break anything.” Everyone broke out laughing. The tour guide beckoned me forward and said, “Let me show you how easy it is.” I walked forward and took the control from him. “See,” he explained. “you just move it about like a joystick.” I did just that, pretty much moving the telescope around the whole room before giving it back to him. Then the woman that had laughed most at my little “joke” asked, “What would have been the bill if he did break something?” The tour guide grinned and said, “Probably $50 million. Just send the check to me.” We all laughed.

We then checked out a new type of telescope now known as the Hobby-Ebberly Telescope, HET for short. It was ingenious in construction, revolving on a cushion of air like a hovercraft and using many hexagon-shaped mirrors to focus light on the tracker. So really instead of revolving the whole thing, motors controlling the mirrors (each mirror had three motors; the whole mirror was made out of lots of hexagonal mirrors to make one huge hexagonal mirror) would just move the mirrors to keep them in a parabolic shape, and can track pretty much anything across the sky without moving the actual mirror a fraction. It was really cool.
Well, we headed back down the road using the same road that we used in the opposite direction to see the Marfa lights. We stopped at the look out (see our earlier Marfa’s Mystery Lights post) to see if you could spot the lights in the daytime. It proved not to be possible, so I just rode my Hi-Tide around (I had brought it with me just in case) and soon Joe got out and took out his. He still doesn’t quite know how to balance by himself, but he’s learning fast.

It soon started to rain, so we got in the truck and left. It was a great day; I’d like to visit the McDonald Observatory again sometime.

Marfa’s Mystery Lights

(UPDATE: We have maps now! Checkout our older posts to see our route.)

Yesterday (1/27), we left San Antonio and started our eight-hour drive to Alpine, which is still another 110 miles from Big Bend National Park (one of our main goals). So you can expect there wasn’t much going on other than driving, driving, rest break, driving, driving, diesel stop, and so on. We arrived at an RV park that can really use some smooth concrete around the place (anyway that’s what I think; there’s absolutely no concrete other than a small bit of sidewalk by the office to ride my Hi-Tide on).

After setting up everything you have to at an RV park, we went on a drive in the falling dusk to see what Mom hinted vaguely as “mystery lights in Marfa.” On the way she described it more fully as mysterious lights that come on almost every clear night. It was reported by a cowboy in 1883 who thought at first it was just Apache Indian campfires. We thought it was funny because at the same time, the Indians thought it was stars that fell out of the sky! After about thirty minutes we came to a look out station where for the first time saw the mystery lights. Dad and I thought at first it was the headlights of cars on one of the roads, but we found that no road ran out there – it’s only desolate wilderness – no towns, roads, or radio towers – just nothingness. We knew they were really the famous “mystery” lights when they started doing weird things. First, they melted together, then split apart, disappeared and reappeared. We were able to see them very closely with our binoculars. Mom explained that park Rangers had gone out there and found nothing there, but they know it is not attributed to fire or smoke. There are many theories about why the bright lights are there: The majority think it may be either St. Elmo’s fire, static discharge, swamp gas, or the ghosts of gold miners. But the Rangers have gotten close enough to see that it wasn’t any of the above theories. Here's some more details you might find interesting: http://www.astronomycafe.net/weird/lights/marfa.htm


After a while, though, we got a little spooked by the dark and the unknown lights and Joe urged us to leave. We did, and we will never forget that experience. (Blogged by Daniel)

Remember the Alamo!

On Saturday (1/26), we got up at about 8 am and headed out to downtown San Antonio to see the Alamo. We walked to the Alamo and started exploring the grounds. In the buildings, there were exhibits of the certain equipment (musket locks, artillery shells, silver spoons, etc.) and little placards beside them in a glass case. In the gift shop there was a miniature replica showing the battle of the Alamo, including the explosions of the shells (constructed of cotton balls) and the little plumes of smoke from the rifles and muskets (trimmed down cotton balls).

Then we heard about the cattle drive that recreates the cattle drives that cowboys made from the plains into the city by the Chisolm trail. There were five horses, followed by about fifty longhorns going at a quick trot, followed then by another five horses. There were about ten horses at the rear, their riders carrying flags.

Next, we walked down by the old canals now known as “River Walk.” We ate at a barbeque place down there. I got the beef ribs while Joe got a pork. After we ate, we walked along the bank (300 people fall into the canal every year!) before we climbed the stairs back up to the road.

We walked a couple of blocks to get to the Market Square, sort of a series of outdoor shops (it kinda felt like we were in Mexico; we’ve been to Tijuana and know what it feels like). We went into the building in the middle of Market Square to see the stores in there. One interesting thing in there was paintings of people’s that if you look closely, you could see that there were people in the faces. Other than that there wasn’t much other than cheap souvenirs, so we came back out and found a woman selling wooden toys. I didn’t buy it, but my favorite of her selection was a rubber band Gatling gun. You would pull on a knob attached to a string to spin the barrels and shoot rubber bands at a machine gun rate of fire (each barrel had two bands, so when the string came round again it would fire off another volley). Joe bought a wood yo-yo with the Texas flag in its center and San Antonio, Texas in a fun font on the edge. She customized it for him by putting the name Joseph in the same font. Joe used to have yo-yos, but he fell out of practice. He soon picked it back up, though.

After wandering about a bit more, we found the truck and drove off back to the RV park. It was a really fun day. (Blogged by Daniel)

Missing time & pictures

(Daddy here) Ok, ok, so we fell a little behind the posting schedule so we'll try to catch you up with some cool pix we took while we were on Galveston Island, so we thought we'd give you some more details :-) We actually stayed in a big field to the left of the marker "Jamaica Beach" shown in the map above.


We are *sure* it's a beautiful place when the weather cooperates, but it was pretty rainy & cold for our visit. Here's a shot of our barefoot boys searching for shells. They'd rather join the Polar Bear Club and go swimming, but we had to draw the line somewhere....



I *tried* to cook eggs & bacon outside on our stove, but we had to finish up in the microwave...

Still, in the true Risler fashion, we made the most of it and found some cool shells and other interesting ways to track wet sand into the camper :-)

Home On The Range

Thursday we arrived in San Antonio and found a working ranch that doubles as an RV park. It is sixteen miles from the Alamo where David Crockett was killed defending Texas against the Mexicans led by the general Santa Anna. In fact, an old tree down by the river on the RV park property is the same that Santa Anna camped under before attacking the Alamo.Friday we went on a hike on the old road that was used to travel to San Antonio and the Alamo. We found a lot of flint in the gravel before leaving, and I added this to my collection. After getting back, Mom went to wash some clothes at the RV park laundry room. Joe, Dad and I started a game of pool and went out and set about giving the ranch horses a good petting and talking to. Once finished, Mom came and helped us to pet them. Joe made a quick friend with a big white quarter horse (he almost fell asleep to Joe's petting) and spent most of his time with him while Dad rubbed the mule. I visited every horse, giving everyone a general petting.

On our way back to the RV we looked in at the ranch chickens that lived in a spacious coop. Two were taking dust baths and others were scratching and pecking about, while one was sitting in the nighttime shelter (perhaps laying an egg). All in all, we had a pretty full day.

On the Road Again...

Yesterday we left New Orleans, but before we left we took a walk up on the levee behind the RV park. As soon as we topped the ridge, we were just about deafened by the sudden noise of the peeper frogs in the swamp below. The levee had blocked the sound, and the sudden exposure was startling. When we walked by the muddy water, you could see the frogs hopping into the water.

We found an old Coast Guard buoy down by the water that was half buried by a rotten log. We levered it off and were met by five or six beetles and four earthworms.

After getting back to the park, we quickly prepared the fifth-wheel for travel and hitched it up to the truck. We then put the things we wanted for the five hour trip in the truck and left. We have now arrived at Galveston, Texas by the Gulf of Mexico. There is lots of concrete to use my Hi-Tide on (I took full advantage of that) and a pool and game room. Written by Daniel.

The Big Easy

Today we left Bagdad, FL before ten 0'clock and arrived at New Orleans, LA at three o'clock. After unpacking the truck, my dad drove us out to downtown New Orleans to show us the restaurants and shops there (my dad as a software engineer worked in New Orleans and knew how to get to these places).

After eating beignets (pastries with powdered sugar) and drinking decaf "cafe au lait" at the Cafe Du Monde, we went exploring the streets and stores. After a couple of hours walking, we ate barbecued shrimp at Mr. B's Bistro. It was a very tasty snack.
We spent the rest of the day looking in antique stores and walking. We topped it all off with a seafood place where they served oysters. They were a quick favorite of mine (I ate twenty-one) and will always order oysters when at a seafood restaurant. (Blogged by Daniel)

YAM: Yet Another Museum

Today we went to Crossroads Baptist Church here in Bagdad (day two). We listened to a great sermon by Dr. Chuck Baldwin on the evidences of salvation. After the service, we went to get lunch at a Mexican restaurant and headed toward the Naval Aviation Museum.(www.navalaviationmuseum.org)
When we first walked in, my dad went to the front desk and found that guided tours are free, so we followed a former pilot around the whole museum. He showed us some of the first planes and fighters, mostly fighters. One of my favorite parts of the museum was the Top Gun Air Combat Simulator Center. It was a motion-based movie that you watch inside a pneumatically-powered cockpit that makes all the motion of a true mid-air fight.
Another favorite of mine was the Blue Angel. Joseph got a cap at the museum gift shop that says "Blue Angels" with a picture of a Blue Angel. I got a mouse pad to replace the one I have for my computer that depicts a Blue Angel air show, mid-air.

Joe says his favorite part of the Naval Aviation Museum are the Blue Angels. (Blogged by Daniel)

Live From Bagdad... FL

Today we arrived at a place called Bagdad, FL, and visited the Air Force Armament Museum at the Eglin Air Force Base. There were literally tons of airplanes, bombs and guns in the museum. The picture to the top shows Joe and I standing in front of the MOAB bomb outside. MOAB stands for "Mother Of All Bombs."
It was pouring rain, so we went inside first and looked at the planes and rifles on the first level. After studying the SFW (Self Fused Weapons) we went up to the top level, and watched a movie about air-to-ground missiles. After looking about up there, we went outside to see more planes and helicopters. One of the coolest airplanes was the Blackbird SR-71 that Pop (Mom's dad) worked on it in his engineering career. We read that it could actually go coast-to-coast in just over 68 minutes.

I asked Joe what his favorite part of the museum was, and he answered, "The MOAB was pretty cool, but I have to say the Gatling gun was my favorite. It had six barrels and shot 60 rounds per second." (Blogged by Daniel)