Wednesday, March 23, 2011

March 23 - Bottomless Lakes SP

I took this photo this morning while out for a trike ride around the park.  As you can see, our site is at the end of the row and is plenty roomy!  Today was a beautiful day with no wind for a change.  Winds here have been pretty strong the last couple of days and are expected to increase again tomorrow.  A number of Escapees rolled in today, early arrivals for a small rally starting next Tuesday.  We are leaving on Sunday so will miss the rally but will enjoy happy hours with them while we are here.

March 22 - Roswell, NM

We went into Roswell today to do some exploring, shopping, and geocaching.  See the bear at the bottom of the tree?  The cache is sticking up out of the ground directly behind it and why it hasn't been found by a non-geocacher ( a muggle) and taken is amazing.

A lamp post in front of the UFO Museum

A life-sized newspaper horse inside the museum.  The newspapers are all about the UFO.

A replica of an ancient door inside the museum.


March 21 - Roswell, NM

The Devil's Inkwell

We are now spending a week at Bottomless Lakes State Park about 15 miles from Roswell.  There are seven little "lakes" here.  The Devil's Inkwell is one of the smallest but most photogenic.  We are in site six at Lea Lake.  The water really is this color.  The lakes here are from 35 to 90 feet deep.

March 18 - Living Desert

We visited the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Carlsbad today.  It would have been better without the animals except for this fake bat.  :-)

This cactus is called the Hairy Starfish.


There are several geocaches in the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park and the red rock on the left is a geocache and not a real rock.



March 17 - Carlsbad, NM

We stayed several days at Brantley Lake State Park near Carlsbad, NM.  Since we hadn't been to Carlsbad Caverns in about 30 years, we decided to  go again.  It was pretty crowded because of spring break, but it was worse on the previous Sunday when 2800 visited the Caverns.





Our home at Brantley Lake State Park.  We got the last pull through and it was totally level.  The park is 20 miles from Carlsbad.  It was quiet and dark, and we had a great view of the stars and the Super Moon!  You can't see it well in this photo, but we could see the dam and the lake from our site.

March 15 - Fort Stockton, TX

Be careful what you wish for, especially on the ides of March.  I wished for a night in Fort Stockton to do a little geocaching and to get a photo of this roadrunner.  My wish came true only because our fuel pump died.  We limped into town, only had to be towed a couple of miles, got a new fuel pump installed right away and had the truck running in time to go geocaching and get the photo.  My wish cost $750 because in addition to the new fuel pump we replaced the original batteries in the truck with two new ones.  This cemetery is an historic cemetery.  We liked their creative use of the metal markers.

We spent the night in the yard of Hector Galindo, the man who got the truck up and running again.  His shop is in the background and his house is to the left of the shop.
Karen and the Roadrunner

March 14 - Ozona, TX

Our first night on the road after leaving Lake Corpus Christi was spent in the parking lot of the First Methodist Church in Ozona, TX.  We had a nice visit with Pastor Shott and discovered he knows one of our ministers at Coker UMC in San Antonio.

Ozona First United Methodist Church

March 11 - Lake Corpus Christi

I thought I'd better include a photo of the lake.

This building at Lake Corpus Christi was built by the CCC.

Friday, March 11, 2011

March 6 - Geocaching again

We'd planned to go out and find two caches this morning but the day was so beautiful and we were having so much fun we kept going until it was time for lunch.  We had an excellent lunch at the Sandia Cafe in Sandi, TX.
This stone in the Sandia Cemetery is so sad.
The Cemetery on the Hill
One of the coolest things about geocaching is the history you come across.
The Hanging Tree.  Note the narrow tree lined road we had to take to get to it.
Bob and France and their first geocaching find.  It is at a hanging tree in the area where an innocent woman was hanged in 1830.  The woman was pardoned long after her death.

March 6 - Mathis Methodist Church

Pretty little church and nice people.  The outside of the church looks like a castle but I didn't get a photo of it.

March 5 - Corpus Christi geocache

Galen looking for a geocache in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Corpus Christi.  A previous cacher said he noticed that he and the baby who is buried here shared the same birth dates but 65 years apart and it freaked him out a bit.  Yes, Galen did find it.  We found about half a dozen caches in this cemetery and a couple more at the cemetery next door.

March 3 -Snoopy's & Lake Corpus Christi State Park

The eight of us went to Snoopy's in Corpus for lunch on a beautiful day.
Our little section of the state park for a few days.  Janie and Bob, on the right, and Liz and Norm, on the left, rolled out first.  Frances and Bob, middle left, stayed another four days and we were left alone for one more day.  The park is wonderful!  It is so quiet and peaceful and there is a nice lake to sit by and trike around.

Feb 24 - Port Isabel Cemetery

Finally got a chance to visit this colorful cemetery.
We liked this.
However, the welcome signs on this stone were a bit disconcerting!
We stopped on the way home to grab a cache.  Galen does not normally wear his hat under his shirt.  LOL!  But it was a really, really windy day and he didn't want it sailing off into the Laguna Madre.  The cache is under the board where he is pointing.

Feb 9 - Leaky Pipes

We were told a different dredging company was used this year.
I wonder if they will use this company next year.  The South Padre Island was a mess.  There were places on the beach so washed out by the leaks, we couldn't walk across without getting our feet wet so had to backtrack and find another way off the beach.