Snow, Steps, and Stars

 "The sun has risen, the sun has set, and here I am in Texas yet!"

The old Texas saying certainly holds true for our long-awaited trip to the Big Bend region - it was a loooong drive to get out here, and there's still more of Texas even further west than where we are! (602 miles we traveled, another 205 to reach the New Mexico boarder!) 

I'm thankful for the friends/colleagues who've sent me postcards over the past few weeks. <3

We left out the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, making our way thru Kerrville (a one night stopover at the Kerrville KOA Journey) and continued the long drive over to Davis Mountains State Park on Thanksgiving day. 

The route from Kerrville to Fort Davis is nearly a direct shot west on I-10, which made it a very easy drive, but be forewarned: you should fill up in Junction (even if you don't really need to) because there's only one gas station along that entire stretch of I-10 until you get to Fort Stockton.... and they happen to be closed on Turkey Day.

But I suppose at least you could phone a friend, if you needed to!

Also, it's super helpful when you're on those long, long stretches to carry your own bathroom with you! HA!

We drove into the park right at dusk on Thanksgiving and settled into our site - readying ourselves for what was expected to be a cold and snowy night.  Weather services were predicting 2-3 inches overnight so we bundled up, turned on the tank heaters, fired up the heated blankets and woke in the morning to.... nothing.

But that didn't last long!  At 28* outside, once the rain did start, we had snow!

LOTS of snow! (And yes, I was like a little kid, trying to catch the big snowflakes on my tongue!)

The entire park got a dusting of snow in the morning, which shifted us away from our plans of hiking the mountain trails on Friday; we made the best of the day by jumping in the truck and taking off for Alpine, stopping in at nearby Fort Davis first to see the Jeff Davis County courthouse.

Covered in snow, it almost looked like the background to a Hallmark Christmas movie!

We took the snowy roads south down to Alpine, which also happens to be a county seat (Brewster County) so we stopped over by the courthouse to get another picture, snow and all.

From there, we just went a few blocks over to our actual destination, the Museum of The Big Bend. 

They're undergoing construction for a large addition to the exhibit space, but in talking with one of the volunteers, Randy, at the front desk, we both agreed that it was a great thing that the main building, the only one on campus made with natural stones, was going to continue to be utilized.  In fact, the building and museum were dedicated in 1937 by Governor Pat Neff (who you'll remember, set up the initial parks in what would be come the Texas State Park System).

There were a number of interesting and interactive displays taking you thru the region from one era to another (starting with the dinosaur fossils found in the Big Bend region - including a pterodactyl!) 

"According to Indian legend, when the Great Creator made the earth and finished placing the stars in the sky, the birds in the air, and the fish in the sea, there was a large pile of rejected stony material left over. Finished with His job, He threw this into on heap and made the Big Bend." 

It was interesting to see the mock wall of the Tall Rock Shelter Pictographs as RDB and I have plans on the way home from this trip to stop at Seminole Canyon State Park and take a guided tour of another set of pictographs there.

I couldn't help but be impressed by the interior ceiling and roof supports of the building - between the rough hewn rocks on the outside and the curved wooden ceiling inside, the museum reminded me of some of the buildings on my old college campus.

We had finished walking around the small exhibits and were looking around the gift shop when we overheard the two volunteer staff talking about the McDonald Observatory closing because of the continuing snowy weather and that they may be closing down the road back north to Fort Davis.  We both looked at each other with a silent "uh-oh" and high-tailed it back to the truck to drive the 20-ish miles up to the campground.

I checked my email while we still had service, and sure enough, the reservation we had for a Star Party at the Observatory Friday night had in fact been canceled. Boo. But it was an outdoor event after dark and *checks weather again* yeah, that would have been realllly chill with a possible 8-15 more inches of snow!

Once back in the campground (phew!) we took a small detour over to the Indian Lodge and Black Bear Restaurant, just to check it out. We joked about how we weren't really roughing it (we aren't y'all, we have hard walls, a roof, and HEATERS) and the staff mentioned that we were definitely doing better than those in the lodge - they have no hot water this week!

We nestled in for the rest of the afternoon, cooking a really great SunBasket meal for a late lunch, and watching a number of Mel Brooks movies (thanks 3-in-1 DVD collections!).  Not only do we not have cell reception out here, we're also not picking up a strong signal for wifi, and even the local TV channels are coming in fuzzy.  All perfectly fine, seeing that we want to be outside this weekend!  Our fingers were crossed that we’d get to do some hiking on Saturday. 

So, that’s what “8-15 inches” of snow accumulation looks like in the early morning hours. Ha! I’ll be honest, as cool as it would’ve been to see that that level of snow, I’m actually glad it didn’t happen - we had LOTS to do on Saturday!  RDB said it best: we spent the morning looking at our feet, and spent the evening staring at the stars.  

The better part of the morning we were hiking the trails in the State Park.  I took so many pictures (and this post is getting long enough as it is!) that I've written up a separate post just about that here.  Our step count for the day was well over 14k!

When the Star Party at the Observatory canceled on Friday night because of the snow, I checked online to see if there were any tickets left for Saturday night, but it was showing sold out.  RDB and I went over to the Observatory in the afternoon anyway, general admission was under $10 for the both of us, and we could at least check out the exhibits.  After typing up the adventures we had there I realized that this post is getting _even longer_, so I moved that over to a separate post here. 

Sunday morning we woke up tired. All due respect to those who get up early, stay up late, and hike mountains somewhere in between, but we could tell by midday that we really pushed on Saturday to take it all in.  Good news was that there wasn't much on the agenda for the day.

We traveled into Marfa, the seat of Presido County, and home to the phenomenon of the Marfa Lights.  We could have come down this weekend to possibly see the mystery lights but rearranging the Star Party knocked that out of possibility.  The city has a nice rest stop/viewing area created for it, and you can tell the town was buzzing with activity, likely because the unsolved mystery attracts people to the area. 

One last neat stop on the way back to the park to do our Park-n-Drive video, we had seen this random tree curved over almost creating a bridge at a roadside picnic spot each time we drove into and out of the park.  When we stopped off to get a few pictures, we were treated to an even cooler experience with the rocks jutting out and creating a sort of slot canyon hidden right there beside the road. 

Of course, I'm assuming it's the local teenagers who take advantage of the rock walls to scribe their names, hopes, and dreams. (Interesting: when our ancestors wrote on the rocks, we call it pictographs and a historical site; when our young folks do it, we call it graffiti and damaging natural sites.)

As JBY would say: #facts

Hi Mom! <3

We took our time to pack up and make the drive further south to our next destination - the Big Bend State and National Parks - for the rest of the week. In part because we were watching the weather for the wind to settle down, but also because we were pretty beat.  When you pick the most challenging of the hiking trails on the map for your first adventure, rest assured that you will pay for it later!

We fueled up in Marfa and had a nearly full tank as we started the drive of just over 100 miles from Fort Davis down to Terlingua.  Once again, be sure you have a full tank of gas before heading into the desert as there is nothing except beautiful barren vistas between the two towns. 

Three days in the beautiful Davis Mountains felt like the tip of the iceberg (seriously, it was that chilly!) in this wonderful park.  RDB and I had waited years for this weekend to happen, and now I'm wishing we had done this sooner.  I could see us coming back again in Joy for a long weekend trip, staying at the Lodge, and loving every minute of it.

We were at Davis Mountains State Park, Site #59 (and technically Site #58, too.  When booking online they both appeared to be short (we need ~60 feet for the truck and camper, unhooked) so I booked them both.  We could have made #59 alone work, but honestly? It was really nice to not have any neighbors blocking the natural view this weekend.)  It's a 30am/W site, and though there are full hook-ups in the park, they were booked way quicker than when I got online to get our reservation. No surprise there, as I'm sure the snowbirds who know of this gem in the desert are grabbing those spots as quickly as they come available. 

Thursday is my Friday

I think we can all agree that there's magic in the air when you know you have a three day weekend coming up.  It's even better when I know that Thursday is my Friday because I'm taking an extra day off so we can go camping.  Oh! And add in that it's a camping weekend? Absolutely. The. Best!

We left out Thursday after work with the plan to get part way over to Kerrville for the Memorial Day Weekend, so we stopped at the Austin East Holiday KOA again.  This was the one with the really big Kamp K9 and, needless to say, Diesel was happy with the stopover, too.

We were pretty happy with it because it was close enough to leave the truck and camper hooked up and Uber over to Colleen's Kitchen for dinner.  Y'all, wow. The roasted squash and grits I had was DEVINE. It's like, if comfort had a taste? That would be it. I added two over-medium eggs to the dish and it was a perfect choice; a bit more protein and the runny yolk added a great richness that the pickled red onion cuts right through.

A quick tip: after the last trip (High Heat in the Hills) we picked up vehicle window shades and vent covers to help keep things cool and they made a HUGE difference this weekend; we could tell almost immediately when I put them up in the east facing windows as the sun set. Doubt that it'll extend our camping much into the summer (this is traditionally our last weekend camping) but at least we know it helps!

Friday morning we made the rest of the drive across to Kerrville, enjoying the changing terrain and hilly roads with their rocky walls and short, scraggly mesquite trees.  As we settled into site 210 on the riverside, I noticed another short, scraggly plant along the tree line: poison ivy.  A little creative placement of Diesel's dog run and we were good. (This wasn't anywhere near as bad as the poison ivy in our site at Caddo Lake SP; that still gives me the shivers!)

We set up camp, then went just a block into town for an early dinner, stopping in at Brew Dawgs and then making our way to Gibsons for a few random supplies and over to the HEB for groceries.  You'll remember Gibson's from our last visit to Kerrville this is the old-school general store where "If they don't have it, you don't need" applies. I picked up a new placemat for the camper table, along with a pink bandana for a craft I'm working on this weekend (more on that later), and a few other items. 

I had bought tickets ahead of time for us to go over to Old Tunnel State Park Friday evening. It's the smallest state park in the Texas parks system (only one staffer, everyone else is volunteers) and it's only staffed in the evenings from May thru October in order to facilitate people coming to watch the bats emerge. 

Just the view alone from the upper viewing area is breathtaking (yes, I want the vacation house that you can see above the tree line there!), but it's worth getting on site a while before the anticipated 'bat show' to enjoy the trails and have a chance to walk down and see the 920ft long abandoned train tunnel that the Mexican Free-Tailed bats have made their home. 

About an hour before the previous night's emergence (they keep track and list it on their FaceBook page) the volunteers being an educational program to introduce us to how the state park came to be and the bats who live there.  Bob was our guide and he did an awesome job of 'edutainment' for the evening!

But honestly? As neat as Bob's information was (did you know: the way they determine how many bats are in a colony is by bats/square footage? In this colony, there are about 3M bats at peak during the summer, that's 200 bats/sq ft!) truth was, we were all there for the emergence (did you know: that several of the bats colonies in south Texas can actual been seen on weather radar as 'clouds' during their emergence?) 

About 4 minutes after last nights' emergence (did you know: the time that bats emerge from their roost is heavily dependent on the weather and heat? The wetter it is, the later they emerge.) there was a sudden flutter and an audible gasp from those gathered in the viewing area as the bats came soaring out, spiraling in front of the tunnel to gain altitude, and then making their way off thru the trees to find the first of their evening meals.

In only about 5 minutes, they had all left the tunnel and were on their way and so were we, heading back towards our campsite in Kerrville in awe of the wildlife we share this amazing planet with.

Saturday morning we got up and I took Diesel for a walk while RDB showered - we were heading over to Fredericksburg for the day to visit the National Museum of the Pacific War and enjoy some of the fun that downtown had to offer. 

The Museum was nearly overwhelming with the amount of information and the depth of detail taken to document such a historic - and horrific - time in our world.  RDB and I walked thru the main exhibits (the museum has three parts) and spent over an hour and a half just in that section alone.

I couldn't help but grab a photo of the wall commemorating the USS Batfish, seeing that we had just visited the bat colony over in Comfort. 

The museum did an incredible job of varying the types of displays - from interactive tabletops and wall mounted screens, to timed short movies and audio sequences, and panels upon panels of information to read as you wandered thru the almost maze-like rooms.  Remnants of social distancing and safety measures could still be seen throughout the place.

It was an overwhelming amount of information, and before the section celebrating the surrender of Japan in 1945 marking the end of the war, the displays culminated with a replica of the Atomic bomb casing (on loan from the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History) that was dropped over Japan. 

To be honest, RDB and I were a little disturbed by the mom who posed her young daughter in front of it, smiling for a picture; we were humbled to be so visually reminded of the kind of destructive power that is still at our fingertips and as the fighting in Ukraine continues today, we can only hope that those entrusted with the power of massive death and destruction will wield it with the same respect and caution shown by those who fought our last world war.

We left the museum and strolled down Main Street in Fredericksburg, enjoying the sights and sounds and smells of the various stores, wineries, and restaurants, finding our way over to El Milagro 2020 for lunch. It was hidden back off the main street, down an alleyway, and thanks to the cool sounds of The Night Owls playing live music from the 70's, we decided that was the place to hang out, enjoy a few beers, and enjoy a bite to eat.

We made our way back to the camper, took Diesel for a few walks, and hung out the rest of the evening with no plans to set an alarm on Sunday - which was good, because I slept in way longer than I thought I would! 

Saturday and Sunday evenings I spent time working on the slow-stitch craft kit I had bought from Wattle and Loop.  I had been looking for something crafty that I could work on sitting on the couch in the evenings and I've recently developed a love for cherry blossoms, so this kit was a great fit.  

This is where that pink bandana from Gibson's was put to use - I cut small pieces of it to include as a reminder of this trip. I appreciated how the instructions in the kit emphasized the value of using the vintage cloth pieces, giving them second life, and that this was a piece of art that focused on the imperfections and uniqueness of the process.  Things that I can really relate to and am working on in myself right now, too. 

Monday morning we set an alarm so that we could go downtown to the Kerr County courthouse for a wreath laying ceremony commemorating Memorial Day.  The weather was windy, and cloudy, and honestly, just perfect for an outdoor ceremony on the courthouse grounds. 

The program included a reading of "In Flander's Field," a speech from a local veteran, the reading of the names on the citizens from Kerrville who had lost their lives in prior wars, and the presentation of a few dozen wreaths from various civic, community, and veterans organizations.  

Capping it off was a state trooper playing "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes, a bugle blowing taps, and a three-volley gun salute.  It was moving to see how this small community was memorializing those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms. 

After heading back to the campsite to check on Diesel, RDB and I went over to Save Inn for a late lunch (it was not as good as we remembered), then drove up to Ingram to check out Stonehenge II and the replica Easter Island statues.

The Hill Country Arts Museum was closed for the Memorial Day holiday but we still spent a few minutes wandering around the grounds and looking at the various art installations. 

The weather was absolutely perfect for an extra day away from work and stress; back at the campsite, we let Diesel out on his lead and set up the hammock and camping chairs to hang out and enjoy the shade, the breeze, and the last bit of the time away from the worries of the world.

Goofball always seems to get himself tired around everything and anything in his path.  Silly Dobie!

We were hanging out a bit later than usual, even with the 4 hour drive ahead of us, because the beautiful cloudy day we were enjoying also meant a fair bit of wind blowing thru.  I've said it before, you pay attention to things like that when you're hauling a 38' billboard behind you on the road.  

This is also why I buy the 'extra' night - so that we can stay late in the day and not have to pack up before noon and rush out of here, but also if we decide tonight that it's unsafe to drive because of the winds, we have a place to stay over; anything I have work-wise tomorrow can be moved from a Zoom video conference to a phone call from the truck.  (I _do_ love my job as the Director of _Virtual_ Education and Advice.) ;-)

We were at Kerrville-Schreiner City Park, Riverside, Site #210 with full hooks ups. The site was two legos un-level side-to-side and strangely, had the power pole and water on the door side of the site rather than the back side.

We really loved this location as a jumping off point to so much to do here in the Hill Country.  We definitely could see ourselves coming back again for another long weekend, or maybe even a full week in the winter.  This spot had great side shade, and the covered picnic table was much appreciated.  Only two downsides, though: there is poison ivy along the tree line and a significant amount of road noise throughout the day.