2017 Fall Trip -- Carlsbad NM

On Wednesday we moved from Rio Frio TX to Carlsbad NM. The original plan was to move to a dry camp area located off Dark Canyon Rd, but the drive has been horrible so we opt for a RV park just south of town. It rained, the van was running rough and we are going right through the middle of the oil and gas fields so trucks, trucks, and more trucks!! Wayne took a look at the van and got that taken care of, but we were both pretty stressed.

Rick and Linda were going to meet us here but the snow in the forecast actually came on Thursday so they decided to stay at Elephant Butte until the passes cleared.  They arrived on Friday afternoon. While we waited for them we spent Thursday driving around, verifying the campsite and checking out the snow level.  We also went into town and got the van washed.  We are covered in mud from the drive through Pecos.

On Saturday morning we moved the motor homes to the dry camp as the RV park didn't have room for us on the weekend. 

View from camp

Once the motor homes were level we headed up to Carlsbad Caverns.  We saw this herd of goats on our way.

 Rick, Linda, Me and Wayne

Carlsbad Caverns was first a National Monument in 1923. In 1930 Congress made it a National Park.

 In 1898, 16 year old Jim White is doing his job mending fences when he sees what he fears is a brush fire in the distance.  He sees the smoke and goes to investigate. But what he found was what he thought was "millions and millions" of bats leaving a large hole in the ground. These days from early spring through October you can come at dusk and sit here at the amphitheater to watch the Bat Flight. Jim was wrong, it's only thousands of Brazilian free tailed bats that take to the skies in search of food each night. If we had timed it better, I would have loved to see that!

 This is the Natural Entrance to the cave that Jim White found

 Instead of the wire and fence post ladder that Jim White made we get a bunch of switchbacks and a 20% grade for our access.

 One of the stunning formations

We made our way down trails lined with stalactites and stalagmites 

 These two almost meet.  When they do, they will be called a column

We did two self-guided tours.  We choose to walk down into the cavern on the Natural Entrance Trail even with the 750' loss in elevation in 1.25 mile. We then went through the Big Room, which is also 1.25 miles long.  It is 8.2 acres of wonderful formations. We returned by the elevator.  Remember, 20% grade...

 We saw more goats on the way back down to the highway.

 The big guy is keeping watch

It was so fun to watch them move around the rocks

 Because we could not get tickets for the two guided tours until Monday we decided to spend Sunday looking at other things.  We started by taking the Dark Canyon Rd west for 18 miles to the Queen's Highway, then on to Sitting Bull Falls.

 After the several miles of cavern trails it was nice to only walk about a quarter mile.

 Sitting Bull Falls is spring-fed, having water in it even this time of year.  The water falls 150 feet to the pools below

 Even with or maybe because of the snow from 3 days ago, it was a stunning view

 Such a cool place to come for lunch

We finished by checking out Brantley Lake and the dam on the Pecos River.  Water is a little low this time of year

On Monday we go back to the caverns for the two guided tours.

 We start with the King's Palace tour which also includes the Papoose room and the Queen's Chamber.  I didn't take many pictures as I found out on Saturday, camera's just don't do it justice.

 Our second tour was very cool.  It was by candle light in the Left-Hand Tunnel where they do not have any electric lighting.  We started by getting our lanterns.

 This is our group going down the trail in the dark

 We gathered at the turn around spot and blew out all the candles and sat in the dark to listen to the sounds of the cave.  Then we lit them all again and headed back to the real world.  On the return trip we could use flashlights to check out all the stuff along the way.  This was my favorite tour.  If you are going to Carlsbad Caverns, make sure you take the Left-Hand Tunnel Candle tour.  At $3.50 with your senior parks pass, it is well worth the time and cost.

What a great way to end our day and our Fall Trip.  From here we will head to Quartzsite, drop off the coach and catch a flight from the Mesa Airport to go to the PNW for Christmas. As usual when we are with family and friends in areas we have covered before, I'm not sure if I will post again for awhile.  Have a wonderful holiday and we wish you the very best for 2018!!

2017 Fall Trip -- Rio Frio, TX

Sunday we moved to the Park View Riverside RV Park near Rio Frio TX.  Here is the link to google maps.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=29.58103,-99.72933&ll=29.58103,-99.72933&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1 

 On the above map, the dark blue is the route with the motorhome, the yellow is day one and the pink is day 2 on the bikes.

 Once we got set up, the local wild kitties came out to visit. Aren't they cute?

Although I could bride them with food to get close, they were too afraid to let us touch them.

 The park is located on the Rio Frio

I can imagine what it would be like on a hot summer day

Look at the size of the trees

 Now that is an Odd Duck

 I love this tree

Look how large the trunk is
The next morning we got up and went for a ride.

The original route I had planned took us to Magers Crossing

 We had to check out the surface to see if it was slick

 The car made it look easy

 But the green slime had us deciding to go around on regular roads

We headed out past the town of Leakey to ride the Twisted Sisters, three twisty roads in the area

We stopped at a number of makers, learning about cemeteries, massacres and pioneer routes 

 Two of the  Twisted Sisters had these kinds of signs.  Yes it made us extra careful

 We stopped at one of the few over looks

 We were back on a fork of the Guadalupe River

We finished by coming in on the same roads we had with the coach the day before.

 Day two had us go south to Uvalde. We were definitely out of hill country.  Here was the flat sagebrush land that I think of as Texas.

At Uvalde we turned north and continued on our circle.  This is the last part of our Texas ride.  From here we are moving to Carlsbad New Mexico to meet friends and explore the caverns.

2017 Fall Trip -- Boerne, TX

On Wednesday we moved to just north of Boerne, TX.  It was only about an hour from where we were, but it gives us access to more area to the west and gives us an opportunity to get to a Costco.
Here is where we are now.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=29.88037,-98.80069&ll=29.88037,-98.80069&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1 

 We are staying at the Top of the Hill RV Park. A little more high end than normal for us, but the location is good

 And we fit in the sites

This was our route the first day

 Thursday we headed out to ride.  We headed southwest to Medina Lake

 We spent a lot of time on 2 lane highways

 While riding we often see Historical Markers.  It is much easier to stop and read them in Texas as they not only warn you that they are coming, but also how far away and what side of the road it will be on.  We also found more pull-offs available at the signs than other states give.

 We stopped for lunch at a city park in Bandera

 Crossing the Guadalupe River at Dam C Lake

And then crossing it again one more time before we got back to the RV

On Friday we headed back up towards Comfort.

 On our way home yesterday we saw this house in the distance. Today we rode by and discovered that it is part of the Stasis Project, home of Cryogenic Research and soon to have a storage facility called Timeship.  Hummmm.  It is on 650 acres with several huge houses and facilities, but when I went to learn about the property (because the house looks like it should have a story) I couldn't find anything.

We finally had a day of smaller country roads.  It was nice to get off the 65-70 MPH (yes 70 MPH) two lane Farm and Ranch Roads.

 We were back in LBJ country  so we did the driving tour of the Ranch.

 Saw the school he attended

 And "Air Force One-Half" the jet he used to get to the ranch

 Not quite our idea of an ATV

And the Texas White House

Then it was back to camp.  We spent an additional day in Boerne doing chores and making sure we had internet on Saturday afternoon.  

We needed the internet so we could watch, via Skype, the announcement that our highly anticipated grandchild is a boy!!!  We can't wait for Finley Ray to arrive in April!

Tomorrow we will move to our last riding area in Texas. We plan to ride the highly acclaimed Three Sisters ride out of Leakey!