Perfect and Deep Love

It's birthday weekend and when you have Grandma Mail delivered before you head out, you not only take a moment to read it, but also make sure that you follow her instructions to a T.

"Have a lot of fun and create a lot of memories to last."  

I think we can make that happen!  I took several days off work on both ends of the weekend so that we could enjoy a long trip. The original plan was to spend the weekend at Huntsville SP, but they had just done a prescribed burn, and we didn't want to hang around with the possibility of smoke all weekend, so we jumped online and made reservations at our favorite hidden gem: the Texas State Railroad in Rusk.

We had a leisurely morning Friday, full caffeinated (not on purpose!), and enjoyed the easy drive up to the piney woods of east Texas. We got settled into our site, hooked up the water, and (do you hear the horror movie music yet?) found a leak fast-flowing into the basement. Oh, geez. NOT AGAIN?!

It's a good thing we purposefully keep a 5-gallon bucket down there just in case, as that caught most of the water while we worked to figure out where it was coming from.  We found a loose connection on the faucet in the bathroom, and after Rich twisted him self into a pretzel to fix it, we were settled in and looking forward to a fun weekend!

Saturday we fixed a great lunch in the camper, then took off for Tyler and several adventures to make those "memories that last" like Grandma instructed!  

Along the way to our first stop, we happened across an unexpected side quest.  RDB happened to notice an older gentleman making his way slowly across the sidewalk to the front door. "Probably going for a cup of coffee," he said. 

"At the post office?" I questioned.  

Come to find out the old post office had been transformed into a really nice coffee shop!

We enjoyed our cups of coffee as we made our way to our first stop: the Plantation Pines Christmas Tree Farm (yes, Christmas trees!) for their spring seasonal crop: tulips!

It was such a neat adventure, though I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I could have while we were there, I certainly have enjoyed looking at the boquet I picked here in the camper all weekend.

From there we went over to the Tyler Junior College's Earth and Space Science Center where the Hudnall Planetarium is celebrating it's 60th anniversary this year!

RDB and I both have the northern lights on our bucket list of travels someday, but since that's not in the budget for this birthday, we settled in for a showing of Extreme Auroras filmed in 360* panorama in Norway.

We were heading back towards the camper and RDB had a hankering for a steak, so a quick Yelp search had us u-turning back towards downtown. I'm telling you, sometimes we have the best luck on those u-turns and side quests  in our adventures, because we found ourselves dinning at the Petroleum Club's Prime 102 right across the street from the Smith County courthouse!

Not bad for an impromptu birthday dinner!

Sunday we spent the day relaxing around the campsite, enjoying my fresh-picked flowers, and watching local LAFF TV. 

As Sigmund Freud once said: "Flowers are restful to look at. They have neither emotions nor conflicts.” 

It was a perfect day, with perfect weather, for hanging out in the hammock and enjoying the quiet peacefulness of the park. 

Monday we did a little more exploring around Rusk - starting with a coffee and muffin at The Daily Grind, before heading over to the Rusk footbridge - said to be the nation's longest footbridge at 546 feet.

It also happens to be the home of the 75th geocache we've found along our adventures!

We did a bit of geocaching around the area - surprised that we hadn't done this before with as many times as we've been here to Rusk.  (And we can add one more to the roster, as we'll be back camping here again in April for the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse.  Tyler, just an hour up the road, is in the path of totality.)

This was a great weekend of memory making, and I couldn't help but notice as we went on our many adventures that there were hearts EVERYWHERE...

I'm pretty sure Grandma was sending her love along the way. 

We were in site #12, full hook-ups, at Texas State Railroad Campground in Rusk. The trains weren't running this weekend, but we still love this park. We had the entire place to ourselves with the exception of one other camper - who appears to be a long-term tenant, the camp host, perhaps?  A shift from the last visit - the park is no longer first-come-first-serve, now you can make site-specific reservations, which I think is great! But do me a favor: don't tell anyone! We still want this quiet little park all to ourselves!

We've been here several times before: Believe, Valentine's Camping, A Gift: Long Weekend, Long Post, Easter Weekend, and Blessed.

The Grass May Not be Greener, but The Skies are Certainly Blue

 

First camping trip of the fall season and I forgot to bring my laptop... so I'm photo dumping nearly a month later, and what I can tell you is that it was lovely, and it was nearby (Huntsville SP, Raven's Loop, Site #1 (F)). That I worked a half day and dropped off our fall food drive donations to the Montgomery County Food Bank. We took several walks. I've started using Dad & Bunny's Kroger's card and that made for a hilarious text conversation. And there's a bat colony over by the Walls Unit prison. (No, not that prison, this prison.  Yes, Huntsville has a thing for prisons.)

And it was beautiful, and wonderful, and all the things I love about camping.

Patience, Pictographs, and Peace

 

On the downhill side of our Thanksgiving adventure, we left Terlingua Friday afternoon, driving thru the northern section of Big Bend National Park, on our way to at Seminole Canyon State Park. We arrived after sunset and made our way to Site #27 for the night.

We went back and forth, back and forth. And back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.  Back and forth back and forth working to get the camper into our site.

Thankfully, the pad wasn't blocked on either side by anything so we had a wide berth, but the sharpness of the turn to back into the site was what threw us off. Needless to say, it took a fair bit of patience to get ourselves settled after a long drive over from Terlingua.  And again, I'm so grateful for a hubby who drives the long drives and knows how to maneuver our rig into the right spot.

We did the minimum needed to get set up, then called it a night.  Long drives after long days makes for two tired, but happy, campers.

Saturday morning we set alarms to wake up and go for a ranger-guided hike to the Fate Bell Shelter pictographs.  As we were unhooking the truck from the camper, I happened to look down and notice a twig in the shape of a wishbone (so fitting, as we're finishing up our #GobbleintheMountains annual Thanksgiving trip).  So, RDB took one side, I took the other, we made our wishes, and pulled.

I hope they both come true. <3

We arrived to the park headquarters about 30 minutes in advance of our hike time as suggested, and that gave us plenty of time to get checked in and explore the exhibits inside the building.

The view out the back of the visitor's center, overlooking Seminole Canyon and the somewhat dry creek bed that flows thru it, is not to be missed.

Our guided hike started with a meandering walk down towards the canyon, our guides, Jack and Jane, with the Rock Art Foundation, taking time to answer questions and inform us about the various plants in the area and how the natives historically used them.

We made our way across the canyon floor to two separate overhangs containing pictographs dating back 5,000 years. 

Jack, who's been involved with the Rock Art Foundation for over 20 years, mentioned that recently a Native American shaman had visited and provided the additional context that when you see dots in the panels, typically behind a shaman in the artwork, those dots represent the tribe, or community, standing behind the elder as a form of protection.

In the picture above, you can also see that figure has been sacrificially killed (the spear running thru it and up to the right), that they are holding two staffs (likely of the yucca or Coahuila, like our guide's walking stick), and that they are wearing a headpiece of antlers (a symbol of rebirth or resurrection).

The second overhang had even more incredible paintings, and Jane mentioned that one of the biggest adversaries of those paintings is the dust, which can erode away the pigments - so you'll notice there were mats for us to walk along in this section.

The last of the pictographs was perhaps the most impressive of those we could see (some are so faint now that the light has to be 'just right' to be able to view them).  Jane mentioned that because of natural erosion, it will only be another one or two generations who will be able to see these in their original habitat; eventually, they'll fade completely away. 

Jake pointed out several interesting items about this panel - including the fact that you could see the four individual's feet, which was uncommon among the other paintings.  Each person has their feet turned in a slightly different direction, with the winged shaman in the middle, making it appear that they are in a circle around the elder, possibly dancing. 

He mentioned as well, because of the natural structure of the cave overhang, that a person could stand where we were, speak in normal tones and their voice would be amplified thru the overhang area and into the canyon.  So if an elder were retelling the story of their civilization, they could use the images of the winged shaman amongst the circle of others to tell the story, or as Jack put it: "the purpose of these drawings was to tell you how to live your live in our society." 

And as he said at another point: "Simply put - we are still learning the stuff they knew."

We hiked our way back up the canyon to the visitor's center, taking plenty of breaks along the way "to enjoy the view." I joked with another couple, Bruce & Mary, who were also taking their time going up the steep slope, that this was what our friend from Denver always says: when you need a break, just 'stop to look at the view.' We had a great conversation with them, as they're heading in the direction we just came from.  (Hope y'all really do stop off at Long Draw Pizza, we promise, it's worth it!). They're two years into their planned ten year full-timing journey (we can't wait to be them someday!) and are wintering over in New Mexico this year.

On the backside of the visitor's centering, greeting you as you return from your journey into the past, is The Maker of Peace, a 14 foot tall bronze statue of a shaman inspired by the pictographs below. 

RDB looked at me as said, you want to do your pose?  I giggled, because with his arms lifted in the air, The Maker of Peace did look like the top half of how I hold tree pose (vrksasana).

I'll take with me the reminder that from this vantage point, with my arms raised in appreciation and one foot grounded below me, I can look out over life with peace. 

We made our way back to the camper and fixed lunch; the plan was to pack up and head to the Kerrville KOA for another night before finally making it back to Houston - breaking up the drive.  But we found ourselves settling in on the couch and putting on our favorite movie, and, well? 

The sun has set and we haven’t left yet. 

"Every day I go outside

and look at the vast horizons,

just because I can."

- Mark Watney, Space Pirate

Bruce waved when he saw me outside taking sunset pictures and walked over from their campsite to hand me their contact card (I had given them a blog card before we parted ways back after the hike).  We chatted for a bit about fifth wheels and diesel pushers, storage capacity and backing into tight spots (they hadn't seen the dance RDB and I did last night trying to get into this spot).  It's always such icing on the cake when we get to meet people who have a passion about camping like we do.

We were at Seminole Canyon State Park, in Site #27. Obviously a little tricky to get into if you don't get the angle right the first time, in part because of the 2-3' drop-off on the right side of the road and the really nasty thorn bushes (I was standing guide against desert pin-striping on the passenger side, and managed to step on one of those thorns - it went all the way thru my shoe and I could feel it with my toes!!)  If we weren't so tired, we'd have taken advantage of some of the hiking trails - perhaps, that just means we'll have to come back again. Oh, darn. ;-)

xoxoxoxoxo

(One last note: all our congratulations to our guides, Jack and Jane, as they were getting married(!) this evening at the White Shaman preserve.  They had family in town and wanted to host them on a tour in the morning and we just happened to join them!  You know we have a soft spot for getting married in nature, seeing that we also eloped on a camping trip. <3)