Back In The Habit

For the first week of our summer trip we came to the Carlsbad NM area to visit Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  The Guadalupe Mountains (and Carlsbad Caverns) were once a reef growing beneath the waters of an ancient inland sea 260-270 million years ago.  During that time a tropical ocean covered portions of what is now Texas and New Mexico. Over millions of years sponges, algae, and other-lime secreting marine organisms precipitated from the seawater.  Along with lime, they built up to form the 400-mile-long horseshoe-shaped Capital Reef.  Eventually the sea evaporated.  As the reef subsided, it was buried in a think blanket of sediments and mineral salts.  The reef was entombed for millions of years until a mountain-building uplift exposed part of it.  Today this ancient reef complex towers above the Texas desert in the Guadalupe Mountains. 

After more than a year of inactivity, we were finally able to go desert hiking again.  To ease ourselves back into the heat and altitude, we took the Devil's Hall Trail, a short 4 mile, moderate hike.  The trail went up and along the top of a wash 

then down

and along the bottom of the wash itself.

The wash ends at the wall in the distance.  We stopped here and retraced our steps.

Along the way we saw lots of evidence of the ancient reef.  It was easy to imagine these rocks on the bottom of a shallow sea, with beautiful corals attached and colorful marine life crawling over them and fishes darting in and around them.

Interesting stuff we saw included a heart-shaped cactus, 

a little lizard soaking up the sun,

several beautiful Texas Madrones

and one ugly one covered with graffiti.

Several trees got creative with their roots.  When they couldn't go through a rock, they went around. 

One more hike tomorrow.

Louise and Duane

Still Traveling

We finished our trip from the Piney Woods of east Texas to our next rv park by traveling 200 miles to our new rv park in New Mexico.  We left I20 behind for US87 to US 180 all the way to Carlsbad.

This area of Texas was flat 

and produced food

and fuel (oil and gas)

New Mexico gained us an hour when we entered the Mountain time zone.
 

Here we found hills, curves,

and desert.

Yesterday we drove 350 miles to make this a short travel day.  We arrived at our home for the next week with plenty of time to get set up and have lunch before continuing our travels

50 miles south to pay a preliminary visit to a national park we haven't visited before. We had to stage in Carlesbad, NM because it was the closest rv parks with hookups.  With temps around 100d. we need to run the air.

We had planned to visit this park on 3 separate days to be able to hike the different areas.  Unfortunately, between the virus and wildfires, a lot of the trails were closed.

We were able visit one of the places on our list before we headed home.  We had visited another of these stage stops in the Davis Mountains and were happy to visit this one today.

The stop was huge for the area and time period.  One outside wall is on the left supported by braces, and extended along the front as evidenced by the rocks.  On the far right is another wall of another building.  

Tomorrow we hike.

Louise and Duane

Westward

The first day of our six-month summer trip was less than auspicious.  

The first 250 miles we drove through some of this 

and this

a lot of this

and way too much of this

and this

We stopped to fuel up here--diesel and lunch.

Only in Texas will you find longhorns grazing around the Flying J,

even if they are made of metal.

The last 150 miles was all this!  Fantastic!

In for the night.

Long trip today, short trip tomorrow.

Louise and Duane

One More Goodbye

 

Off to Kilgore this morning for one last breakfast with son Jeremy, granddaughter Allie and grandson

 Luke. 

Luke woke up enough to entertain us with flatware tricks while we waited for our food.

Back at their property Duane and I drove to the river for a view of the flooding. (This area has gone from drought to flooding in just a month!)  The Fishin' Shak is still above water, but not by much.

The flooded pond floated swing platform (at the far edge) onto the bank.  Receding water left it there.

The river level is still up 20 feet--even with the pond spillway.

At the house we collected the mail, a last round of hugs, patted the dogs one more time and left.

In the morning--Goodbye Texas!

Louise and Duane

Going-Away Party

No gloomy weather allowed at our going-away party!  A few of our pickleball player friends invited us  for some really good pizza, laughter, and fun.

John, Jay, and Andy on the left, Caroline (next to me) and Karen took time to gift us with their presence  

and their presents:  a road atlas, candied pecans, and a puzzle book for our travels, banana bread for breakfast, and pictures of John so that we can never forget him.

Forget any of you?  Never!

Louise and Duane

A Day Of Rain

 

Gray skies all day made us yearn for sunny weather.  We found some on a revisit to Yellowstone National Park.    

Ready to go back here this summer!

Louise and Duane

Going So Soon?

 

Yes, we're hitched up, but no we're not  leaving Texas yet.  Early tomorrow we have to take "the house" to a local tire dealer to get its bearings packed.

Still leaving on Monday.

Louise and Duane

Soaked

This month we have been bucketed with downpours.  The creek looked like this yesterday. 

Rain all night raised it at least a foot this morning.

This turtle must have thought it was drier on the other side of the street.

Our total rainfall for May--more than 8 inches.

That's a lot of rain!

Louise and Duane