Untethered

Looking back, we had a really rough time over Christmas and New Years, y'all.  But the great thing about time, though, is that it just keeps moving on; someday we'll sit down over a campfire and share all that transpired between the last camping trip and the roadtrip RDB and I are on this week, but for now, I think a quote from my favorite Martian is enough to sum it all up:

"Things didn't go exactly as planned, but I'm not dead, 

so I'll take that as a win."

What did go as planned was packing our bags, jumping in JOY and getting the first half of this year's 10th Anniversary PostCARds Across Texas Miata Challenge completed along the way to a destination RDB and I have been wanting to visit for years now: Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

We left out Saturday morning and got #3 on the list - Brenham - and opted to grab the "choose your own adventure" #10 - Austin - before stopping for dinner at Salt Traders in Zilker Park. If you find yourself in south Austin hankering for a REALLY good fish dinner, this is your place.  And for someone who doesn't normally like fish to say it was comfort food is saying something! (Click here for my full review)

Sunday morning we pointed the car towards Odessa to spend the afternoon with L&M and grabbed #2 - Oatmeal - along the way. Not exactly a postcard, but I didn't design the list, so I'm not complaining... well, not too much at least!

Y'all know I have a thing for courthouses, so I couldn't help but ask RDB to stop whenever we passed thru a county seat.  Especially on this trip where we were going to hit so many out west in Texas, knowing that we might not be camping in those parts of the state anytime soon.

San Saba County

Sterling County

Glasscock County

Monday mid-day we made it into Carlsbad, New Mexico.  With a few hours of daylight left we made our way up to the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park. 

It's a neat facility in that all the creatures there were either injured and rescued, unable to be rehabilitated, or were born in captivity and wouldn't survive in the wild.

We didn't stay too long, as the weather was turning cold and really windy.  Even the Bald Eagle was fluffing himself up to try to get some warmth!

Before we left, though, we did find one other fun thing - a geocache! Completely unexpected, I just happened to see the ammo box out of the corner of my eye and thought: I'd bet that's a cache. Sure enough, checked the app, and it was!

Tuesday, Valentine's Day, we made our way over to our main attraction: Carlsbad Caverns.  RDB and I have loved the other caves we've had a chance to explore on our camping trips, and a few that we've seen while not camping, but we always had Carlsbad on our list of must-dos. 

I'll tell you one thing - it takes the better part of a full day to really enjoy and explore the cave. From the mile-plus walk down the natural entrance, to the guided tour we took of the King's Palace, to the Big Room which is larger than SIX football fields(!) be prepared to stay a while.

The Natural Entrance and Main Corridor:

King's Palace Ranger Guided Tour:

The Big Room (Shortcut Version):

I have to give a BIG shout out to our tour guide for the King's Palace portion - Ranger Devan not only had technical knowledgable (a geology major in college) but he put an interesting spin on things (he also studied philosophy).  So, he took us on an adventure to look at rocks, and think things.  His story telling, and near theatrical performance at times, pulled us in and got us emotionally involved in the history of the cave, that destruction and beauty can occupy the same space, and the imagery of "water as paint, the rock as canvas, and Mother Nature and Time as the artists." 

Wednesday morning we started our trip back home, taking a longer northern route to get a few more of the postCARds for the Miata challenge.  This meant we had the chance to drive thru Roswell - and couldn't help but stop for a quick picture and lunch; the Mexican food place we found was out of this world! ;-)

Traveling along the dusty (and windy!) roads in eastern New Mexico was both beautiful and treacherous - you haven't lived until you've been in a tiny Miata trying to dodge tumble weeds the size of your car!

We happened along a two-fer when we drove thru the tiny town of Dimmit, Tx.  Both a beautiful postcard, AND the Castro County courthouse!

One more courthouse in Briscoe County before we settled in for the night at Hotel Turkey, a tiny Air B&B style hotel (we let ourselves in and found our key on the front desk) that boasts being nearly 100 years old (and being the only hotel even remotely close to our next postCARd in Quitaque.)

Thursday morning we got up and drove back over to Quitaque to grab a photo of the "welcome to" postcard. I'm telling y'all, at 35* and really strong wind, it was a COLD week to decide to take this road trip for these fun pictures!

Along the country roads heading towards our next stop, we passed another courthouse  - Childress County - right along the side of the road.  

We continued on down towards our last postCARd for this trip, in Decatur, Texas, and realized it was going to be another two-fer, too!  Both the mural AND the Wise County Courthouse!

Thursday evening found us in north Dallas at Ran-D's house for the night, along with a celebratory dinner at KAI for some excellent sushi.  The meal was outstanding and the service was second to none!

You might be wondering, What are we celebrating?  Well, last week I resigned from my job after 18 years with the company; it was an incredible journey and I know I made significant contributions to the business and to the people I had the privilege to work with.  And those of you following my blog for a while know that these last few months were some of the hardest with the restructuring of our business unit and the elimination of my leadership role; which lead me to looking for other opportunities...

Next week, I start a new position in leadership at another financial firm; I’ll have a physical office location to go to and coworkers to work alongside for the benefit of the clients we’ll serve.  I can't begin to say how excited I am to have this opportunity to continue to grow and to mentor and coach others again - something I absolutely fell in love with these past few years. 

This week, and this incredible roadtrip that RDB and I were able to take, was the in-between; I've felt untethered, mid-stride between my past and my future.

And it’s been ridiculously awesome.

The Weary World Rejoices

We made it in to Goliad State Park just as the last rays of dusk slipped below the horizon in the west on Thursday night.  The cute little park would be our home for the Christmas weekend - with several other campers already in place, decorated with lights and projections to ward off the dark night ahead.  I was tempted to say "dark and cold night ahead" but let's be real here - its south Texas in December and were currently experiencing the warmest Christmas week on record.

84* for Christmas y'all.  Ugh.  Forget passing out hot chocolate after your candle-light caroling, you're going to want fudge popsicles. 

Christmas Eve morning we all snuggled in bed for a while - and by "we all" I mean "all."  If you didn't know already that Diesel is the most spoiled pooch on the planet, then you obviously haven't been reading my blog.  In fact, he's just about as old as the blog is - turning 10 in February; it's hit us hard lately to realize he's in his golden years now.  We sure love this puppy. 

I mean, how can you not love that sweet face?  We left our little critter at the camper and made our way over to the Texas Zoo in Victoria for the afternoon.  It was a small zoo, with an appropriately small entrance fee, and we enjoyed wandering around the different enclosures.  We must have timed it just right, though, because it sure felt like it was nap time that the local zoo, what with all the animals snoozing around us. 

I mean, even the peacock jumped off of his perch and walked over to the rest of the flock, who were resting in the shade.

There were a few creatures that were awake and roaming - the fox and raccoons, and the jaguars. 

The ring tail lemur inside the main building kinda looked at me like: what did you expect? It _is_ the holidays after-all?  Everyone is taking a break!

We left the zoo and drove over to De Leon Plaza in downtown, directly across from the Victoria County Courthouse.   Both the plaza and the courthouse were beautifully decorated for the upcoming holiday, and being Christmas Eve, we practically had the center of town all to ourselves. 

We got back to the camper and received the royal sniff-down.  Lots of random animal smells and Diesel was all about checking us out when we came back home. 

Joining the theme from the zoo, RDB and Diesel both zonked out for an afternoon nap of their own, and I a (very short) drive into town.   Goliad is the county seat of Goliad County, and y'all know I have a thing for courthouses.  The town square was all dolled up like a Hallmark Christmas movie. RDB and I came back over to get a few night shots, too, and once again had the town to ourselves.

Back at the campsite in the late afternoon, we enjoyed listening to Christmas music and had lox for an early dinner. Then watched a Christmas special about celebrations all around the world.  I've been pen-paling with Grandma G since the pandemic started, and learned this past year that we have Scandinavian roots. Looking up the traditions from Sweden, I realized there were some we already did, like celebrating on Christmas Eve rather than on Christmas day. I partook in Advent this year, and kept decorations to a minimum (not just for sake of rediscovering heritage, but because I've just been, well, not in the spirit this year; work has taken its toll on me.)  It's been nice, actually, to keep things simple and focus on the light.  (Though, I am still trying to find a julbock.) 

Thinking of seeking the light, one of the main reasons I booked us at Goliad State Park for this weekend was their History in Lights event running thru the month of December.  Nearly 90 years ago, the Civilian Conservation Corp had rebuilt the mission that is located on the park grounds and over the holiday season the park uses displays with light and shadows to tell the story of the park and surrounding area.  With the sun setting in  the distance on Christmas Eve it was better than - more magical even - than I could have imagined.

Not a single filter or edit on any of those photos.  And it wasn't until I was uploading them here that I realized that second to last one - the one of the full mission from a distance away - actual has a faint 22* halo over it.  The blues and purples of the sunset behind the whitewashed walls of the mission... were truly magical.

Of course, we played around a little with the colored lights we purchased from Amazon, a tripod, and RDB's iPhone 13 Pro Max - it really takes stellar night shots. 

After walking back over to our camper, we settled down for the night, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. 

We set an alarm for (way too early) Christmas morning so that we could watch the live stream of the James Webb Space Telescope launch - a once in a lifetime opportunity to see this billion dollar piece of equipment sent over a million miles into deep space. What a gift! 

 

Right at the top of the launch window opening, the rocket achieved nominal trajectory and the birth of the next phase in space exploration had come. I am truly in awe of the power and ingenuity of human innovation, and that we can participate in this (literally from our bed!) from all across the world!  To add to the experience? There's a website up that tracks: Where is Webb? (as I type this, the telescope is 119,160 miles from Earth... and counting!)

After that early morning wake up call, we lazily lounged around the camper till lunch; I made a charcuterie board with some of the miscellaneous tasty tidbits we had in the fridge. Pretty proud with how this one turned out!  And no, Diesel, you can't have any!

We spent Christmas day mostly at the campsite, watching movies on NetFlix.  One of my favorites (The Christmas Chronicles with Kurt Russel as Santa), a few new ones that were interesting takes on the origin story of Santa Claus (A Boy Called Christmas, Klaus), a classic (White Christmas), and a typical "Hallmark" love story (A Castle for Christmas). RDB just jogged my memory that a few of those we actually watched at home this past week, but I'm bundling them in here anyway!

Christmas dinner was smoked steaks and some of our favorite side dishes: butternut squash with sage, roasted asparagus, and mashed cauliflower (yes, went went to H-E-B on Christmas Eve; yes, it was as crazy as you'd think it would be!) along with a bottle of cabernet from Rodney Strong.  We enjoyed a few glasses of eggnog (spiked, of course) to finish off the Christmas meal...  it was a perfect kind of laid back day!

Sunday we woke and enjoyed coffee and tea on the couch, deciding on how we wanted the day to play out. Wind speeds definitely play into it when we travel, and so we had our eyes on that.  That, and really? Neither of us really wanted the weekend to end!  So, we drove back in to Victoria to have lunch. 

The Pumphouse Riverside Restaurant and Bar was such a cool little local place to try out for Sunday brunch. Food was good and the view of the Guadalupe River from the patio was perfect; the service was lacking, but I'd give it another try at another time (would love to try their lunch menu).

On our way back over to the campground we stopped in to the newly renovated Visitor's Center set up in the Custodian's Cottage and had a chance to look around and understand a bit of the history of the CCC who, in essence, used the building of this cottage as a practice for the Mission de Espiritu they were charged with rebuilding.  The shell alcove over the window along with the log-hewn staircase were practice runs for the shell above the main door of the chapel and the staircase that led up to the bell tower.  

The camp host/docent at the Custodian's Cottage even invited us into the area reserved for their office while on staff - that being the dining room and kitchen of the surprisingly well laid out home.  I was so impressed with the incredible attention to detail that the CCC showed, even in the smallest things, like the clover carved into the top of the nailhead in the pantry door in the kitchen.  

I picked up a pressed tin heart from the park store to remind me of what a lovely time this weekend was.  Truly, a perfect Christmas that this weary heart needed. 

We were at Goliad State Park, Karankawa loop, Site #9.  It's a pull-thru loop of sites, but we made the decision to back in to this one, as the big tree to the right and the posts to keep you from running over the connections to the left were going to be a tight fit.  Though the reservation system online says this is a 50' site, it was plenty long for our rig and truck (we usually look for 60' sites).  Plenty of space between and behind the sites in this loop and so much to do at the park that we really didn't have a chance to do it all! (I'm already looking at booking another trip down here in the late spring next year!) 

We've been here once before: Going for Gold at Goliad

For more camping photos, go here.

And for a drive thru of the campground, go here (coming soon!)