Langtry, Texas

After our guided tour at Seminole Canyon we decided to cruise on farther west over the Pecos River to the small town of Langtry.  Here we stopped at the Judge Roy Bean Visitor  Center.

As many of us know, Judge Roy Bean was the colorful and notorious saloon keeper/justice of the peace/judge in Langtry, Texas in the last decades of the 1800s.  Here he was the "law west of the Pecos".

This is the actual saloon building where he held court.

Karen tried to order a wine but the Judge wasn't around.

This sign hangs behind the bar.

The visitor center also has a beautiful cactus garden to roam.

Bill found these Horse Crippler cacti to be especially interesting.  The sign says, "large rigid spines harmful to hoofs of horses and cattle..."  Now he knows not to step on one in the desert.

Note to readers:  If you get down this way be sure to stop in Langtry.

A Day Trip Into the Wild

Friday was cool and overcast so we decided to drive west on Route 90 to see a few sights.  About 30 miles out we entered Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site.  Twice daily park rangers give guided tours of the protected canyon, so we paid our $8.00 fee (each) and joined the 10 AM tour.

The canyon was formed over thousands of years by a tributary flowing into the nearby Pecos River.

We walked down steep rock steps to get to the bottom of the canyon.  Here is our tour guide. You can see the visitor center above where we started our trek.

We were with a group of approximately 25 people and all made it back safely. (we think)

Here are  few of the ancient pictographs we saw under the overhanging cliffs of the canyon.  Visitors can only see them with the guided tours - to protect them from vandalism.

Broke Mill RV Park Near Del Rio, Texas

Big Bend National Park is one of our tourist destinations for this year's trip.  Rather than take busy Interstate 10 west and then drop down to the Park, we decided to travel old US Route 90 west across Texas.  Del Rio is on Highway 90 and we found this very pleasant RV park nearby:

Broke Mill is located about five miles west of town.  It is clean, uncluttered, has good cable TV, and also has a strong wireless internet signal.  (Note the windmill behind the sign)

 All the sites are level and they allow RV owners to wash their vehicles here.  That perk is rather unusual down in this dry country.

There are no tall trees for shade, but the best feature of the park may be all the healthy green grass.  The grass is at all the campsites, and sprinklers come out of the ground at night for irrigation.  The green grass helps make this one of the best RV parks we has seen in Texas.  We  bought a week's stay here to be in a good spot to watch all the Bowl and NFL games going on this weekend.

Go Blue - Go Lions

Here and There and This and That...........

A visitor to Texas can't help but notice the Prickly Pear Cactus that seem to be everywhere.  Many of  them  look ragged and sickly and the same visitor gets the feeling that they are a  delicate plant.   Then we find a sight like this - where the cacti flourish on a tiny strip of land along a busy highway at a concrete bridge.  They must love the nasty runoff?

At a Junction city park a wood carver did a nice job of turning this tall tree stump into a eagle instead of turning it into firewood.  (Like Bill would have done)

On Tuesday morning we hooked up and drove 120 miles south on Highway 377 to Del Rio, Texas which is right down on the Mexican border.  More to come on that tomorrow......

The Day After Christmas in Junction

We got another warm day in Texas with the temperature Monday rising to 72 degrees under mostly sunny skies.  A bicycle trip around parts of the town showed us a few more memorable sights.

Here is another unusual Christmas tree near the downtown.  It lights up.

Down here in Texas they say that football is king.  Here is the High School football stadium.  We think that it would be fun to be here on a warm night in the fall to see the "Friday Night Lights." Speaking of football - our Lions did not fare so well last night against the Cowboys.

We found this old cemetery.  Note all the Confederate flags.

 They still take pride in which side their ancestors fought in the Civil War.

Christmas Day in the Hill Country of Texas

The skies cleared and the temperature rose to 76 degrees on Christmas Day.  The RV park was not very full, and we were surprised that travelers continued to come and go throughout the day with their various vehicles.

This large blow-up display shows that Texans may lack snow but they are not lacking in Christmas spirit.  See Santa peeking out.

We took an afternoon drive through town and noticed this unique Christmas tree in front of a tire store.  It must be very pretty at night but we did not go back to check.

Our Christmas sight-seeing drive took us to a scenic overlook just outside of Junction.  Karen took this photo of Bill under the huge United States flag. As you can see - it was a warm windy day.  When we returned to camp Karen cooked a delicious Christmas dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing and cranberry sauce.  The papers say Michigan may break high temperature records on Monday so this weather is headed your way.

Christmas Eve

We got up early Saturday morning in Wichita Falls, Texas to complete our last 300 miles south to our trailer.  The fog for the first 1-1/2 hours of driving was so thick that Bill almost had to go to four-wheel drive to get through it on the secondary roads we had to travel.  Nevertheless, we made it to Pecan Valley RV Park shortly after lunch and hooked up.

Because we need cable TV to watch the Lions Game on Monday night, we pulled Edgewater back into Junction, Texas to the North Llano River RV Park.  The sky was overcast, but the temperature was 70 degrees as we unpacked.  We found the trailer to be in very good shape after sitting for the last ten months.  No signs of mice, snakes, or ants which was a nice Christmas present for us.

We had some business to attend to in Grayling Thursday morning so we only got to Litchfield, Illinois before stopping for the night.  The motel was about 50 miles north of St. Louis. Later the next day, to make up for lost time,  Bill had to give in and put a real speedster behind the steering wheel - as you can see below.

Soon we were flying past Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Lawton, Oklahoma.  She almost drove off the road when she saw the place below....

.....but Bill convinced her that there would be other casinos later in the trip.  We noticed that down in these parts the gambling establishments are run by Indian Tribes like Comanche and Apache instead of Chippewa and Ottawa.

So instead of ending our journey by driving into the sunset, we are starting this one by doing so.  This is what Texas looked like on our last section of driving going toward Wichita Falls where we spent Friday night.

Almost Christmas 2016 - and We Head South! (So Much said for Our White Christmas)

Yesterday, Wednesday December 21, the sun set far to the south on the Manistee River for the first day of winter.  With about 20 inches of snow on the ground we decided it was a very good time to pack up and head back to Texas to our travel trailer, Edgewater.  Note the snow on the Martin house.

With some recent heavy snowfalls, the frosted trees look beautiful in the northern Michigan woods Nevertheless, we decided that some dry ground and warm weather sounded fine as well.  The Chevy Silverado recently got an oil change, passed a 20-point vehicle inspection, and  received a new set of tires so it was ready to hit the road.  On Thursday morning we launched our 1500 mile trip back to Junction, Texas.

From Daffodils to Snowdrifts - We Make it Home

Spring flowers were blooming on Friday outside Memphis at this rest stop.

We just had to make a stop in Chicago on the way home to wish our youngest grandchild, Iggy, Happy Birthday and deliver some presents on his 2nd Birthday.  (He is a sweetie!)

On Sunday afternoon we arrived back at home near Frederic to find Old Man Winter still hanging around.  It is warming up and Maple sap is starting to run up here.

On this final post in our blog is a map of this years travels.  The green line shows our route south to pick up our trailer, the blue line shows our travels with our travel trailer, and the red line shows our path homeward.  We traveled 5,570 miles and we had a wonderful trip.

We are already looking forward to next year's journey.

Thank you for looking in on us as we wandered.

He Was the King

On our way back to Michigan we decided to take a route through Memphis to visit the home of Elvis Presley.  Neither of us had been there.

Graceland is a Mansion on the south side of Memphis that Elvis bought when he was 22 years old along with its 13-1/2 acres of land.  It is a real tourist trap now - $10 to park your car then $38 each to take the self-guided tour.  But hey - he was the King!

This was Elvis' den.  He got the idea from LBJ to have three televisions so he could watch all three networks (in those years) at the same time.  CBS - NBC - and ABC.

To take the tour through the mansion and grounds each visitor is given a tablet with headphones to go at his/her own speed as details are explained and shown.  It was very well designed and easy to follow.

The King had plenty of costumes.....

and plenty of trophies and awards....

and gold records....

and vehicles.  

LBJ's car collection could not hold a candle to Elvis.  Here is a purple Cadillac.  He even had some snowmobiles with wheels in front that he could run on the lawns at Graceland.

This is Elvis' grave.  He is buried here along with his parents and a grandmother.

We enjoyed Graceland.

We Head Northeast Toward Home

Central Texas has shown us pleasant temperatures, clear blue sky, bright yellow sun, sparkling rivers, and friendly people.  We hope it turns out to be a good place to leave Edgewater until we return next December to resume our travels westward.

Pecan Valley RV Park near Junction

The North Branch of the Llano River turned out to be as clear and the South Branch, but it was shallow.  When Bill went to check it out this is what he found:

It turned out that a "hippie" type couple were staying at the Park for a few days in an old Winnebago.  They liked to come down to the river where he played guitar while she rowed around in the small inflatable boat that you see downstream.   She usually had a beer and he was high on something!

Just across the river were the remains of this very old windmill.  It must have been put up at that location  because the banks were too steep there for livestock to get down to the river to drink.

On one of his bicycle rides Bill came across this little critter working next to the road.  The Armadillo is very much like an opossum with armor!

We Arrive At Our Last Destination Before Heading Home

South Llano River State Park fits us to a T, but we cannot leave our trailer, Edgewater, there so we moved on to this small RV park about seven miles west of Junction, Texas.

Bill found this park about a month ago while we were still in Florida and spoke to the owner.  She and he cut a verbal deal on a price to leave our trailer here in storage. (sight unseen!)

The tiny RV park turned out to be a real gem.  There are only about 15 sites under the huge Pecan Trees and the property is on the north branch of the Llano River.  It is quiet and peaceful with just one problem while visiting;  There is no cable, no TV stations through the air, only one radio station, and town is miles away.  You might say we "off the grid".  We have to come to the library in Junction to get on the Internet.  We are News Junkies so it is hard to adapt.

The park got its name for a reason.  Here is part of the huge, tidy, Pecan orchard that sits in front of it.  We had to drive through the orchard to get to the RV sites.  Last year more than 5,000 pounds of Pecans were harvested here.  Since we have arrived in Central Texas all we have seen are blue skies and sunshine.  

This is a good spot to leave our "baby"!