All the way to Bisbee!

We made it!  We're in Bisbee watching the sun melt away last night's snowfall.  We drove all this way and it feels just like home with these temperatures.  Granted we're at 6000 feet, so that helps.

I'm going to have to dig deep to remember all the things we did since I last wrote all the way back in Austin.  Let's see. . . we left Austin in our cupcake coma to go to Enchanted Rock which has been on our list to climb forever.  I really liked the park, but you could say I was less than enchanted with the climbing.  Some days, I just don't feel like climbing and that happened to be one of them.  We did manage to do one pitch, but then opted for a nice hike up Enchanted Rock instead.

San Antonio was next on the agenda where we visited the Alamo and the four missions.  We realized afterward that we probably should have stopped to see a bit more of the town, but were so put off by the area around the Alamo and driving the Mission Trail itself that we were ready to move on.  Mission San Jose was definitely the best of the four, both for how much of it had been preserved or restored, but also in how much we could access.  NPS is doing some work on the missions that blocked off some big areas and really all of Mission San Juan.  We were most surprised by the fact that all four still held church services and Mission Espada still had friars living there. 

Front of the Alamo.  Impossible to not include people in the photo.

Alamo Barracks

Homes along the outer wall of San Jose

We camped out on Lake Calaveras just outside of town that night.  Other than the ridiculous amount of birds, the most notable thing about that campground was the fact that the bathroom stall walls only came up to my chin, which would have made for a rather friendly bathroom atmosphere if anyone else had come in while I was there.  Maybe I should have taken a photo of that too just for fun.

We made our way to Amistad National Recreation Area just outside of Del Rio.  We camped out there as a stopover on our way to Big Bend and unwillingly left behind warm weather, cell phone coverage, and data coverage for the rest of our trip here.  Not that I'm complaining.  About the weather at least.  Phone is another issue.

We had a long drive to Big Bend through a whole lot of wide open ranchland, stopping to check out the Pecos River as it meets up with the Rio Grande on the border.  We drove all the way down through Big Bend to the campground right on the river where we were pleasantly surprised with a hot springs just a few paces away from the Mexico border.  Not a bad way to spend my 30th birthday. 

On Monday, we hiked in the Chisos Mountains up Emory Peak (the highest in the park).  We're still used to Katahdin where when a mountain's elevation is 7000+ feet, you expect to hike all 7000 feet of that, but then we remembered we were already starting out at 5000 feet or so and we cruised that mountain.  The trail ended rather abruptly quite a ways below the peak, so we scrambled up to get a better view.

Casa Grande

Mexican Jay.  If you think seagulls are bad, you should meet this guy

View from the top

The temperature dropped pretty significantly that night while we camped out in the middle of the park, but thankfully we'd planned a driving tour for our last day in the park.  We drove all over the western half and stopped at a few places to hike.  The first was at Burro Mesa Pouroff where a river wash starts from the rain water off the mountain:

This gives you a better idea of the scale of it

We also hiked along the Rio Grande at the Santa Elena Canyon.  A beautiful spot and the trail wound along the river through huge boulders smoothed by the river waters.

We left Big Bend the next morning without a wildlife sighting to report, other than that pushy Mexican Jay.  No mountain lions, no bears, no javelinas, and of course no snakes or scorpions in this cold.  We headed due north for Guadalupe Mountains National Park and finally did see a few javelinas alongside the road.  At someone's recommendation, we went through this little town called Marfa.  I guess it's well know for it's art community and all of these great places to eat.  Can someone please tell me where these things are?  It was like a ghost town.  We actually wanted to stop and eat lunch there (you can only eat so many PB&J sandwiches before you need a break) but we couldn't find anyplace open!  No restaurants, no shops, nothing.  I don't know what all the fuss is about.  

Anyway, as we headed up into the Guadalupes, we finally got to see some snow!  Which of course means that I got pelted by a snowball as soon as there was enough snow for Curtis to grab.  We had planned on hiking Guadalupe Peak (highest in Texas) but some serious winds ruined my motivation.  Instead, we did just about every other hike possible in the park.  We did about 12 miles on multiple trails through Devil's Hall and along the foothills over to an old ranch and into some beautiful springs that you would never expect to find surrounded by desert.

El Capitan (of Texas)

Hiker's staircase on Devil's Hall trail

Hiking the Frijole trail

Looking back at El Capitan and Guadalupe Peaks

Manzanita Springs

We moved on a day early to explore Carlsbad Caverns, about an hour north of Guadalupe in the same mountains.  They were great!  And no King Tut's disease to speak of, which says wonders about how much nicer these caverns were than Mammoth Caves.  Cleaner, prettier, no graffiti, and we didn't need to go on a guided tour to see the caves.  We got to wander on our own, at our own pace.

One of the drip pools

Whale's Mouth

Cave Man

We drove into Carlsbad expecting. . . well, something more than there was.  Not much to the town so we headed out to Sitting Bull Falls in hopes of some hiking.  After driving 30 miles down a road that leads only to that place, we came across a sign saying the area was closed until further notice.  It might have been nice to put that sign about 30 miles back on the main road, but oh well.  We stayed nearby at Brantley Lake State Park which is now the recipient for my Worst Shower Award at any public campground I have visited.  And I've had some bad ones on this trip, so that honor is well earned. 

We visited White Sands National Monument the next day with the gypsum sand dunes glittering in frost and snow.  We didn't join in the sledding fun, but walked all around and slid down on our feet instead.  

Our drive that day had taken us through the Lincoln National Forest, climbing into the mountains with snow all around.  We even passed through a cute little ski town by a tiny little ski mountain.  It helped make it feel more like Christmas than when we'd been surrounded by desert.

We reached our 10,000 mile mark the next day as we drove over to Truth & Consequences, NM (known for its hot springs) and stopped into Hatch too so Curtis could try out one of the famous green chile cheeseburgers.  We camped in the Gila National Forest for our last (cold) night out for awhile.  We saw elk prints at our site, but never saw any.

On our way to Bisbee, we wound through the mountains and stopped by Silver City to explore the historic downtown.  Then finally we made it to Frank and Etta's house here in Bisbee and are settled in for the holidays.  I even got to decorate their Christmas tree yesterday morning before we headed downtown to see the sights.  There's a lot to explore in the area and all over Arizona so we're plotting our next move while enjoying our warm, cozy place to stay with family.  

So that's all for now.  I suppose I should get a photo of us here at the house, so I'll do that at some point.  This should hold you all over for awhile :)

A real post to come soon

We've wandered our way through western Texas, through San Antonio and it's missions, Amistad National Recreation Area, Big Bend National Park and on to Guadalupe Mountains National Park where we'll camp out one more night tonight.  I've got tons of photos to sort through and just realized that I have 20 minutes before the visitor center here in the park closes.  Not enough time to upload all those nice pics.  So I'll leave you with this, my delicious discovery all the way down by the border.

This one's for you Jan

We're off to Carlsbad Caverns tomorrow (hopefully I won't get King Tut's disease again from the caves) and then we're making our way across New Mexico to Frank & Etta's for Christmas.  I'll get all those photos up as soon as I can!

All the way to Austin

Austin is a pretty nice town.  A perfect spot to celebrate my birthday early before heading out into the wilds of western Texas.  We got in yesterday around lunchtime and found a hotel to settle into before heading out on foot to explore downtown.  We walked through the Capitol district and found this amazing little spot by campus with vegetarian wraps that were delicious!

Conscious Cravings.  Tiny trailer.  Big taste.

We walked back to get the truck to drive over to "SoCo", the downtown area with small, local shops.  We walked up and down South Columbus checking out the shops until we reached Magnolia Cafe--a 24 hour restaurant that serves breakfast all day.  We had a tasty dinner, but stuffed ourselves on the food and appetizers that arrived all at once.  At least we had the walk back to the truck to make ourselves feel a little better.  Here are a few shots from our stroll:

Here's a taste of some of the unique shopping opportunities :)

I went for a run this morning and happened to stumble upon a little BBQ joint within walking distance to the hotel.  Turns out it was Franklin Barbecue, voted best bbq in all of Texas with a pretty famous brisket.  You can probably guess where Curtis had lunch. . . 

We waited for about 45 minutes in a line along one wall, around the corner, and out the door (maybe this was my revenge for Twilight. . . hmm).  You can see the feast that he had while I munched on my leftovers from last night.  Texas BBQ is now officially crossed off the list.

We'd spent the morning at the Blue Genie Art Bazaar which was like walking into an Etsy store with bunches of booths with goodies from local artists.  Pretty cool.  And bonus points for Curtis for tagging along even though he had pictured an icky craft show filled with plastic canvas and doilies.  I think it was a pleasant surprise for him.  

Thanks to Tom's suggestion, we checked out Lance Armstrong's bike shop in town.  So many temptations in that store!

We ditched the truck to bike around town and on the hike/bike path that winds along Town Lake.  Unfortunately it's too late in the season to catch the evening bat flight, but we covered a fair bit of ground today anyway.  Even if it did seem like we walked and biked and drove in the same loops over and over again.  

My unofficial birthday dinner was at Matt's El Rancho Grande so we could sample the local TexMex before leaving town.  It was pretty darn tasty and we managed to get right in and served despite the overflowing parking lot.  

Without a doubt, the highlight of the day was our scrumptious little trip to Sugar Mama's Bakeshop after dinner.  If you want to drool a little, check out the website:  http://www.sugarmamasbakeshop.com/.  I chose the peanut butter cup(cake) and Curtis got the cherry limeade.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  I have never had such a good cupcake.  Thankfully we bought ourselves a couple little treats for tomorrow too.  I have a mint chocolate chip bar waiting for me in the fridge and Curtis picked out a pumpkin cheesecake bar.  It's taking some real willpower to not sample (or eat the whole thing) tonight.  

We're headed out in the morning for Enchanted Rock to climb for the day, then moving on to San Antonio, Amistad, Big Bend, Guadalupe Mountains, and Carlsbad Caverns before arriving in Bisbee on the 12th.  I'll be celebrating the official big 3-0 camping out in Big Bend National Park.  I'll update when I can as we truck along, but it looks like it might opportunities may be a bit spotty.  Hence the bonus post this week :)

Across the mighty Mississippi (did I spell that right?)

We've made some miles since we last posted.  We drove up the gulf coast of Florida stopping at Appalachicola National Forest to camp for the night.  It just so happened that it was the opening night of the next Twilight movie, so Curtis dutifully drove me into Tallahassee so I could keep with tradition.  I think he survived without too much trauma, although he may say otherwise.  When we got back to the campsite, we heard a rather large rustling above the truck and were surprised to find a big black bear up the tree.  We moved the truck so he could scurry down and run away, but we're convinced that the bears came back and danced around the campsite while we were sleeping based on the large amount of poo nearby.   Either that or we just chose to camp in that bear's personal toilet.

We stayed an extra day (at a different campsite) to check out the mountain bike trails nearby.  They were not at all what we're used to at home--no roots, rocks, dropoffs or general wet muckiness--but were flat and fast and had jumps and banks built in.  In other words, super fun.  Here's Curtis flying down the trail leaving me in the dust:

That was our last night Florida, sad to say.  We stayed in Alabama the next night, getting up early to get to New Orleans.  We spent the day wandering the French Quarter, stopping to have lunch at a nice little cafe where we had our first real sweet tea and listened to an older woman rocking out on the sidewalk with her little keyboard and laundry bag for tips.  We strolled down Pirate Alley, chose to not have coffee at the very crowded Cafe du Monde, and walked along the Moonwalk in the baking sun.  We didn't stay past sunset, so I think we probably missed out on a true New Orleans experience given the activity on Bourbon St.

Rockin old lady to the left

Best sweet tea ever

Just a sample of the many, many mardi gras shops

We found a campsite at a state park just outside New Orleans and I am very excited to report that I saw my first Armadillo!  And it was alive!!!  Turns out, they were everywhere in the park and couldn't care less about how close you get or how many photos you try to take.  Except, apparently if you fart near one they run away terrified.  I won't go into details on how we discovered that.  

From New Orleans, we moved on to Mississippi.  What to say about Mississippi. . . . other than I spent 3 days trying to find something nice to say about it.  We were camped out in Homochitto National Forest outside Natchez.  We went there because of a write-up in National Geographic Adventure magazine that raved about the road biking and mountain biking and all the other lovely things to do there.  Let's start with the campground.  It was pretty standard for national forest camping, but $7 a night where we've usually had free camping.  And when we do pay $7 it usually has a bathroom on site.  Instead of a mile away.  So that was manageable, until the campground host decided to come to our campsite at 7 in the morning and rub on the windshield, peering into the truck to read our permit number.  Keep in mind we sleep in that truck.  Even worse, it's a self-registration payment place and he is not even a park employee.  Just an old busy body who couldn't remember that we paid and gave him our permit number the day before.  At least he was nice enough to introduce himself to Curtis, but completely ignored me standing 2 feet away from him.   Add on horrible mountain biking trails, unsafe road biking, and a grocery store whose idea of "food" includes eggnog in a can and you can see why I did not take kindly to the greater Natchez area.  

BUT, this was cool:

These are Windsor Ruins, the remains of a old mansion that burned around 1890 leaving only the columns and the ironwork.  Unfortunately, the spiral staircase had been removed to be used in a building at a nearby college.  National Geographic Adventure almost redeemed themselves by recommending this spot.

So this brings us to Thanksgiving, where we stayed at the same campground and I cooked up a feast on the tailgate of the truck.  We had cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, stuffing, rolls, and pumpkin muffins for dessert.  Curtis stoked a rip roaring fire for us to enjoy all afternoon and evening, and we even shared our muffins with our campground neighbors :)

Round one: muffins and cranberry sauce

Round two: stuffing and sweet potatoes

The feast!  Not bad for the back of the truck

Please excuse the dorkiness here

We left Mississippi  yesterday morning (hooray!) and are back in Louisiana staying in the Kisatchie National Forest.  On the way, we stopped at the Cane River Creole National Historic Park to tour Oakland Plantation.  We timed our visit just right for a guided tour of the main house with two of their volunteers.  Curtis and I were the only people there so we had our own personal tour!  They were so nice and talked up the town so much, we decided to stay an extra day to see downtown Natchitochez (don't even try to pronounce it).  

So we're hanging out in a little coffee shop in the historic downtown now.  Curtis had one of their famous meat pies for lunch and we had hoped to stay for the fireworks show that they put on every Saturday night, but I'm thinking with the amount of rain falling outside that those fireworks are probably not going to happen.  Kind of like the "Snow Fest" sliding hill that they were supposed to have on the riverfront. I don't see that happening anytime soon.  So we'll wander the downtown here for a bit longer and find the Steel Magnolias house (this is the town where the movie was set) and then go find our campsite for the night and set up our tarp to stay dry.  On to Texas tomorrow!

P.S.  On a side note, the south has not been friendly to my skin.  In Florida, I was bit by something that left raised, blistered bites all over my thigh which still have not healed.  Then something bit my back and itched bad enough to dose myself with Benadryl just so Curtis could live with me.  In New Orleans, I woke up with my feet on fire, covered in bumps and itching like crazy.  It's manageable during the day, but every night I wake up with the feeling that my feet are in a boiling cauldron and then proceed to claw at them until I can fall asleep again.  The worst part is that itching doesn't make it stop.  It's slightly less horrible while you're itching, but then it's worse after!  Last night was the first night that I didn't actually have to scratch during the night, but I still woke up with itchy feet.  I think maybe it was chiggers, but Curtis is convinced I stumbled into some poisonous plant somewhere.  Either way, it's pretty awful.  Just thought I'd share.