Loud Loft

Texas Trip #5

Dennis and I got up around 7:30 or so and got our showers for the day and then had breakfast at the hotel. We headed out for the Cliff Dwelling Monument in the Gila National Forest. It’s about a 90 minute drive over some very challenging roads. There’s lots of elevation changes and curves and the road is very narrow. It was fun. We stopped once to stretch our legs and I looked back down the road we had just traveled to see a deer standing on the edge. I hollered for Dennis to come see and right after he got there another deer crossed, and then another, and then another. There was about seven or eight that crossed the road just a hundred feet or more from us.

We got to the visitor center, got orientated on what there was to see and do and made our way to the parking lot at the base of the  one mile hike to the cliff dwellings. From Silver City you have to commit about four or five hours to make the drive in, hike to the site, tour the cliffs and drive back to Silver City. More people should make the commitment. The dwellings are from around 1250 to 1275 AD and about 80% of the structures are still intact - including the wooden parts. It’s incredible to see and one of the only places where you can actually get in amongst the dwellings themselves. There were four or five park employees or volunteers stationed around to give details and it was a wonderful experience.

By the time we made it back to Silver City we decided to head straight for Glenwood and the entrance to “The Catwalk” (go ahead and run the a song thru you head and get it out of the way). It’s about 55 miles from Silver City and we were both hungry and getting a bit grumpy till we got to Glenwood and stopped at the Blue Front Cafe and Bar (the front was painted blue) and I had the absolute best burrito on the face of the planet.

We made the short drive to the Cat Walk which is a narrow canyon which used to have a mine at the spot where the canyon opened up. The mine owners had built a flume along the canyon walls to divert the stream to use in the mining operation. Once the mine had run it’s course the wooden flume was replaced with a wooden catwalk that run a little more than a mile up the canyon. Later the wooden catwalk was replaced with a metal one.

Again, the words incredible and breathtaking don’t do it justice. We hiked the entire mile up the canyon - which may not sound like much but there was a lot of climbing up and down over rocks and falls to get there. The trail was plainly marked and there were numerous bridges (both fixed and swaying) over the rapids but it was a whuppin’ getting to the end, but it was worth the exertion.

By the time we made our way back to the parking lot it was almost six local time and the sun was rapidly setting. We made the 55 mile drive to Resource (and saw three huge elk, as big as small horses) standing by the edge of the road. Luckily for us and them, they held there ground because hitting anyone one of the three at 60 miles an hour would have been devastating to us both.

We got a room at the Rode Inn in Resource at 7:15 and ate across the road at Ella’s Dinner. They roll up the streets at 8:00 around here (even on a Friday night) so it was eat then or wait till morning. I had another burrito (I was on a role) and, while it wasn’t as good as the one at the Blur Front it made up for it in quantity. Great Googly Moogly it was huge! I ate as much as I could and then we headed back to the room for a refreshing adult beverage and I began this post.

Tomorrow we head east for the first time of the trip. We will pass by the Very Large Array and stop there briefly and then continue across the top of White Sands thru Valley of Fire and then point the Honda towards Dallas. It’s going to be a very long day but Amy, Dennis’ wife is way past ready for him to be home (she misses him very much) and I’m ready to sleep in my own bed. Lisa is taking her own little road trip to the Marriot in Solana and spending Friday and Saturday night there so I will be able to decompress from the trip and see her on Sunday when she gets home.

We've not watched TV, listened to the radio or read any news since we left Dallas. I hear via twitter that some football team released a player or two and that the ICC indicted Sudan President Bashir. Well, I take that back on not watching any TV . . . the one in the Rode Inn lobby was blaring Fox News and it seems that the world we live in is about to end and we are all DOOMED! DOOMED I SAY!!  That's such an old drum I wish they would find another one and beat it . . .

More to come . . .

Texas Trip #4

It was a long day of driving almost 540 miles from Fort Davis to Silver City New Mexico by way of El Capitan in the Guadeloupe Mountains, up to Artesia, west through Cloudcroft to Alamogordo, White Sands, Las Cruces and Deming.

The highlight of the trip was White Sands. It was like stepping off the landing module onto another planet. The dunes are enormous and white as sugar. Once you drive back into the park, get out and start walking you begin to see the scale of it all. Some of these dunes are taller than five or six story building and they go on and on and on.

It was getting close to sunset when we arrived so we had a chance to see the sun go down behind the mountains in the distance and cast shadows across the rippling waves of sand. It was erie because there was no sound. At that time of the day the wind had stopped, we heard no birds or animals and the shape of the dunes along with the porous nature of the sand made it oddly quiet. It almost hurt it was so quiet.

We stayed out on the dunes for about an hour soaking it all in. Way off in the distance to the west the wind was kicking up huge clouds of the sand and blowing it eastward. The dunes move as much as 30 feet a year . . . so that’s a lot of sand blowing in the air. In fact, as we came down from the mountains of Cloudcroft, it looked like the valley was on fire from what looked to be smoke but was actually huge clouds of sand blowing up the valley.

We had walked over a bit towards the top of another dune and we saw in the distance upwind of us a huge cloud begin to form. In just a few minutes the wind hit us hard in the face and we beat it towards the car just before the cloud of sand hit. As we drove out of the park it looked like a snow storm with the visibility cut way down by all the sand in the air.  Again, the feeling of being on another planet began to take hold.

We left White Sands and headed west toward Las Cruces, on to Deming and finally northwest to Silver City. We pulled in for the night around 10:15 our time, checked in, got a quick bite to eat and brought it back to our room to go with our refreshing adult beverage.

Tomorrow we explore the Gila Mountains and make our way north and then start heading east towards the VLA (Very Large Array) outside of Sorocco. The plan is still to get back to Dallas on Saturday and we are in good shape to make that work out nicely.

It’s just after midnight on Thursday and Dennis has hit the sack and I’m just finishing up this post. Depending on where we stay tomorrow night will determine if I get a chance for another post before getting home.

More to come . . .

Texas Trip #3

We made the drive down to Study Butte and entered the park and drove straight to the Chiso Basin. We didn't’ really have time to do much sightseeing other than the short hike to view the “Window” which is a “v” shaped cut int he surrounding mountain ridges that form the basin. You are up over 5,000 feet and looking thru the Window to the desert floor below. It’s an amazing perch with an incredible perspective on two very divergent environments.

We had lunch at the Dining Hall overlooking the basin and then made our way to Santa Elena Canyon which is about a 30 mile drive. The views are spectacular to say the least and the change in scenery is incredible. You will likely hear spectacular, incredible and other superlatives through out the rest of the post :)

We drove as far as we could and then hiked about a mile into the canyon here it’s about 150 to 200 feet wide . . . and 1500 feet tall. Yeah, you read that right. It’s the most incredible place I’ve been in to date. You have to be very careful when you look up or it will be so disorienting that you topple over. Mere words and pictures don’t do it justice.

We left the canyon and drove on the dirt Old Maverick Road back to the part exit and headed over to Terlingua. We stopped in the Starlight Theater and drank a Shiner along with some chips, guacamole and salsa and then made our way over to Lajittas in search of two things - one which we found.

Just Jake is buried in the Lajittas cemetery. He was the significant other of the sister of a good friend of mine. Jake was known by another name in his home town of Chicago. He left to start his life over in Texas and wanted to go as far south and as far remote as he could - which describes Study Butte, Terlingua and Lajittas. If you want to start over with a new first name and no last name - it’s where you go. That’s how Jake came to be known as Just Jake. No last name, just Jake.

He died of cancer about ten years ago and is buried where he found a new life.

We were also looking for Henry Clay, the beer drinking goat who is the Mayor of Lajittas but couldn’t find him. I fear that the development of Lajittas may have done him in. A wealthy investor from Houston bought up just about all of Lajittas several years ago with the intention of turning it into a Palm Springs style getaway for the wealthy. Sadly it seems to have done more harm than good in my opinion.

Our plans were to drive to Presidio along the river road but that fell through with the sign telling us that the road was closed six miles shy of Presidio and only open to local traffic. We went ahead and did the first 12 miles before it moved further north away from the river.

And so began the drive back to Study Butte and then North to Fort Davis to camp out again. We made it into camp around 10:00, set up the tent, took showers and collapsed into the sleeping bags and slept like babies till about 7:30 the  next morning.

Breakfast was at the Chuck Wagon in Fort Davis and then off to see El Capitan on the Texas/New Mexico border and then on into New Mexico, Alamogorddo, White Sands, Las Cruces and the Gila Mountains.

More to come . . .

Texas Trip #2

After breakfast at IHOP we left Del Rio for Fort Davis. About 45 miles outside of town we stopped at Seminole Canyon State Park. it was very interesting and proved to be a great stop over. We checked out the visitor and information center and took a short walk down to the canyon. Imagine a canyon a couple of hundred feet deep and at least that wide that is dry . . . except when it rains. As the water rushes down the canyon at each turn it carves huge overhang in the canyon wall. People thousands of years ago began living in these overhangs to get shelter from the elements so there are tons of artifacts and whatnot along with wall paintings and such.

We drove a little bit further into the park and then hiked about 30 minutes back to an overlook where two canyons converged just before feed in to the Rio Grande. We came to the most amazing site. The walls are approaching two hundred feet tall and the cliffs are essentially straight up and down with huge boulders in the water below from where the cliff walls have collapsed over time due to the erosion by the wind and water. We stayed there for about a half hour just soaking up this incredibly beautiful site and then  made our way back to the truck and onward west.

The next significant stop was at the Pecos River bridge, which is the highest in Texas at 273 feet and replaced several much smaller bridges that kept getting washed away by the flooding waters of the Pecos. I first crossed this bridge on my motorcycle about ten years ago. You are driving along at 75+ mph, you enter a cut in the road that blocks your peripheral view and all evidence of what you are about to cross and when you exit the cut you find yourself on top of a narrow two lane bridge over a huge canyon. It’s incredibly disorienting and actually quite alarming the first time it happens.

On the bike it’s extra weird because you all ready have a sensation of flying on the bike and then when you burst out of that cut and find yourself on the bridge . . . let’s just say that it has a very high pucker factor :)

We stopped at the overlook first and took pictures and enjoyed the sights and then made the crossing over the Pecos. Next was Langtry and the Judge Roy Bean site.

There is actually a very nice visitor center which was not there when I came through back in 1998 and the actual buildings of the Salon/Court House/Pool Hall and Opera House are still there and in remarkably good shape.

From there we had to beat it to Sanderson, Marathon and Alpine and then into Fort Davis to get a campsite at Davis Mountain State Park. We had some really good BBQ at the Chuck Wagon in Fort Davis and then got up to the McDonald Observatory just in time for the Star Party.

The weather was great, the sky was clear and we got a great tour of the sky, the stars and the planets and then got to look at them again using the various telescopes their on the grounds. They ranged in size all the way from a 24 inch down to a set of tripod mounted, high power binoculars. They showed the Charles and Ray Eames short movie, The Power of 10 and it was generally a fascinating evening taking in some of the most wondrous features of God’s creations.

We got back to the campsite around 10:00, enjoyed a refreshing adult beverage and then hit the sleeping bags in the tent. I slept fitfully at first but eventually got some good rest. We got up around 7:00, struck camp, had breakfast at The Texas Drugstore in Fort Davis and headed off to Big Bend.

It’s been a great trip and we are both looking forward to one of the wonders of the world down on the Texas and Mexico border.

More to come . . .

Dallas to Del Rio - Texas Trip #1

Dennis and I left Dallas a little after 8:00 this morning and drove with Dennis to Washington on the Brazos. That’s where the Republic of Texas was formed on May 2 1836. The Alamo was under siege from Santa Anna and was fall four days later on May 6th. We drove from their to San Antonio, arrived a little before 5:00 and made a quick tour of this, the most hallowed site in Texas.

It was the first time I’ve ever visited either site and to do it on Texas Independence day made it even more rich of an experience. The Alamo itself is quite small but accounts for only a very small portion of the compound of the time. It is where the last stand was made after the walls had been breached by the Mexican Army.

It was interesting to see the different state flags that hung from the walls inside, each with a number of the men from that state who gave their life for the liberty of  Texas. I was surprised to see a James Buchanan from Alabama on the roster of the med who died.

I was also surprised to learn that the Alamo was 111 years old at the time of the battle. This place predated the American Revolution by quite a few years. I had no idea.

We walked across the street after the park closed and down into the Riverwalk and eventually settled in for a Shiner and some food. I had chicken Flautas and Dennis had cheese enchiladas and we both enjoyed the lengthy conversation before, during and after the meal.

Around 8:00 we headed back to the truck and after speaking with our wives on the phone, headed west. Surprisingly, we got all the way to Del Rio about 11:30 and landed at a Comfort Inn with two clean beds, a roof over our head and free wifi.

Tomorrow, we will head on west thru Langtry to Alpine, up to Fort Davis and eventually to the McDonald Observatory and the star party at 7:30pm. We’re planning on camping out tomorrow night and it should be brisk at that elevation.

I’m done for the day. I was actually done a while ago as a nodded off a time or two on the ride from Uvalde to Del Rio.

More to come . .

Ho. Lee. Crap.

Two hours sitting on the Tarmac in Panama City. 

The mother from hell, her two kids, a browbeat husband, her father and an unidenitfed male made for the worst flying experience in recent memory. Loud kids, totally out of control and a mother who considered the entire experience just the "cuteest thing ever".    

Another instance of someone who considers that the world revolves around them - but I really pity the husband and the children. Of course the husband knows better so its the little girls who are the real damage. 

Pray that they don't breed.