My update this week won't be nearly as exciting as our previous adventures and those of you who are family know why. Last Saturday afternoon, Dean's dad, Leon "Stretch" Lowary passed away in Quincy, IL at the Illinois Veterans Home. He was 91 years old and had suffered a major stroke Christmas Day, 2006. During the last year he fought hard but continued to suffer small strokes and heart attacks until he just couldn't take it any more. Dean and his brother Tom are doing okay as they work on wrapping up his affairs while we are in Quincy.
This little trip north has reminded us why we are wintering in Texas. BRRRR. Yesterday we awoke to a real temp of 4 below and a wind chill of 13 below. I drove Dean's daughter, Deana back to St. Louis to catch her plane. As we were preparing to leave, the rental car clearly shuttered in the cold as well. It is supposed to warm up this weekend when Dean and I will take a quick trip to Chicago to visit old friends while we are "in the neighborhood."
We'll head back to San Antonio on Tuesday to pick up Molly, then will continue back to the Rio Grande Valley. We will rework our itineray when we get there and let you folks know where we will be during the rest of February. Meanwhile, we appreciate all the thoughts and condolences so many of you have passed on to us.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
Life as a "Winter Texan"
We have been in the Rio Grande Valley now for about a week and are enjoying the lives of "Winter Texans". We have always known they existed, but were not really aware of how big this community is getting to be nor how "the VALLEY" depends on them to stimulate the economy. I won't bore you with all of the daily trips, scheduled events, dining adventures etc. that encompasses these "seniors-at-play" - just note that we may very well work this into our future trips during the winter.
I do want to share one event with you - as most of you know that this is WAY out of my comfort zone! The die-hard shoppers down here love to go spend time at one of the many "Ropa Usada" stores here. I was intrigued by the description and comforted by the fact that we would only spend a couple of hours there, but I now can brag that I've done it (once) and am not especially looking forward to a second trip. Ropa usada means "used clothing" in Spanish and basically what you do is dig into big piles of clothes heaped up on the floor to look for treasures that are priced by the pound; like $.20 a pound in this case. For about $5.75 I unearthed a waterproof coat, a beautiful lined silk dress, a great jacket for wearing with jeans, a white blouse, a pair of jeans, two shirts for Dean, a rug for Molly, a cashmere sweater and a baby blanket for charity. All items have been washed or sent to the cleaners and appear like they are brand new. I've attached a picture of me in the store hanging on to my purchases. Like I said, this may be a one-time event!
I do want to share one event with you - as most of you know that this is WAY out of my comfort zone! The die-hard shoppers down here love to go spend time at one of the many "Ropa Usada" stores here. I was intrigued by the description and comforted by the fact that we would only spend a couple of hours there, but I now can brag that I've done it (once) and am not especially looking forward to a second trip. Ropa usada means "used clothing" in Spanish and basically what you do is dig into big piles of clothes heaped up on the floor to look for treasures that are priced by the pound; like $.20 a pound in this case. For about $5.75 I unearthed a waterproof coat, a beautiful lined silk dress, a great jacket for wearing with jeans, a white blouse, a pair of jeans, two shirts for Dean, a rug for Molly, a cashmere sweater and a baby blanket for charity. All items have been washed or sent to the cleaners and appear like they are brand new. I've attached a picture of me in the store hanging on to my purchases. Like I said, this may be a one-time event!
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Tales of West Texas
We have continued to wander about West Texas and are heading southeast to the Rio Grande Valley later today. When we last reported in, we were heading for Fort Davis State Park which is a wonderful campground in a little valley in the Davis Mountains. The wildlife is abundant there and even though you are not supposed to feed them, you can tell they are very used to mooching from campers. Molly has been around deer before, but she got several close-up views as you can see from the attached picture. There are also dog-eating javelinas (wild pigs for you non-Texans) who happened to be hanging around waiting for dinner. Imagine my surprise when we stepped down from the motorhome and saw four of them licking their chops as I started to take Molly for a walk that evening. Needless to say, we quickly retreated and waited for them to move on.
Next stop was in New Mexico at Carlsbad Caverns. I was there as a child but remembered very little of it. We did the walk-in route (instead of the elevator) so took about a 3 1/2 mile hike. It is absolutely amazing and we highly recommend you go out of your way to take in this National Park. We also recommend that you stay at a reputable place in Carlsbad, which we did not. We were taken in by a brochure advertising "Whites City" which is just outside the park entrance. This place was really neglected; most of the hook-ups were out of order; there was standing water (remember this is the middle of the desert, so you can only imagine the source of that water) and there were stickly-burrs which just jump into Molly's fur. It took us 2 days to get all the grass and burrs vacuumed out of the motorhome.
The best part was that we were able to spend time and dinners with some new friends we had met in Alpine at a New Years Eve party. Jo and Kevin were moving from Omaha back home to the San Francisco Bay area. Jo even made a berry pie from SCRATCH one evening! She also gave me motivation to get my galley a little more organized. We were able to enjoy their company for about 5 days as they moved on toward El Paso when we headed back to Alpine.
So we are off again. First stop is the Seminole Canyon State Park, then Brackettville (where the Alamo was filmed), Laredo, Falcon State Park and then finally arriving in Donna on Saturday to stay there about two weeks. For those of you who have worried about how much it costs for gas for this adventure now have something new to worry about. It has been chilly on this trip and the heat is generated by propane. We are spending about $50 a week on propane - who would have thought?? Let's hope South Texas provides a break in the weather!
Next stop was in New Mexico at Carlsbad Caverns. I was there as a child but remembered very little of it. We did the walk-in route (instead of the elevator) so took about a 3 1/2 mile hike. It is absolutely amazing and we highly recommend you go out of your way to take in this National Park. We also recommend that you stay at a reputable place in Carlsbad, which we did not. We were taken in by a brochure advertising "Whites City" which is just outside the park entrance. This place was really neglected; most of the hook-ups were out of order; there was standing water (remember this is the middle of the desert, so you can only imagine the source of that water) and there were stickly-burrs which just jump into Molly's fur. It took us 2 days to get all the grass and burrs vacuumed out of the motorhome.
The best part was that we were able to spend time and dinners with some new friends we had met in Alpine at a New Years Eve party. Jo and Kevin were moving from Omaha back home to the San Francisco Bay area. Jo even made a berry pie from SCRATCH one evening! She also gave me motivation to get my galley a little more organized. We were able to enjoy their company for about 5 days as they moved on toward El Paso when we headed back to Alpine.
So we are off again. First stop is the Seminole Canyon State Park, then Brackettville (where the Alamo was filmed), Laredo, Falcon State Park and then finally arriving in Donna on Saturday to stay there about two weeks. For those of you who have worried about how much it costs for gas for this adventure now have something new to worry about. It has been chilly on this trip and the heat is generated by propane. We are spending about $50 a week on propane - who would have thought?? Let's hope South Texas provides a break in the weather!
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Happy New Year from Alpine, TX
We have been staying in Alpine since Wednesday, 12/26 and are now able to say that we have fully explored West Texas. As the terrain started changing from hill country to desert during our trip, one of the first signs that we should change our priorities was a sign in a rest stop. I've attached a picture so you can draw your own conclusions.
On Thursday, my brother, Bob and his wife, Cindy joined us and made sure that we received the proper introduction to the area. Bob leads survey crews who lay out these great Texas highways so he knows the area well. We went to the McDonald Observatory and to Fort Davis (both the state park and national historic site). It was chilly but sunny for most of the day as you can tell by the picture I have attached of Bob and Cindy.
The next day, we went to the Marfa lights viewing area, but we are not sure we saw the phenomenom that is described there. I can tell you that the stars here are absolutely amazing. I thought we could see a lot of them at our place at the lake, but there is no comparison to what you can see here with a pitch dark sky! We also visited Big Bend National Park but were just a little disappointed that you could walk across the Rio Grande at that point; after all, I was expecting a roaring river! The Chili Capital is in Terlingua and we returned to Alpine via this little desert town.
Tomorrow, we will go back to Fort Davis State Park for one night so that we can attend the "Star Party" at the Observatory tomorrow evening. After that, we are headed to Carlsbad Caverns for a couple of days, then to the Guadalupe National Park. From there we will head south, staying one night each in Alpine, Seminole Canyon SP, Bracketville, Laredo, Falcon SP and finally stopping in Donna. We plan to stay there for two weeks to visit with Dean's brother, Tom and his wife Judy. So, we'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year and the best of health!
On Thursday, my brother, Bob and his wife, Cindy joined us and made sure that we received the proper introduction to the area. Bob leads survey crews who lay out these great Texas highways so he knows the area well. We went to the McDonald Observatory and to Fort Davis (both the state park and national historic site). It was chilly but sunny for most of the day as you can tell by the picture I have attached of Bob and Cindy.
The next day, we went to the Marfa lights viewing area, but we are not sure we saw the phenomenom that is described there. I can tell you that the stars here are absolutely amazing. I thought we could see a lot of them at our place at the lake, but there is no comparison to what you can see here with a pitch dark sky! We also visited Big Bend National Park but were just a little disappointed that you could walk across the Rio Grande at that point; after all, I was expecting a roaring river! The Chili Capital is in Terlingua and we returned to Alpine via this little desert town.
Tomorrow, we will go back to Fort Davis State Park for one night so that we can attend the "Star Party" at the Observatory tomorrow evening. After that, we are headed to Carlsbad Caverns for a couple of days, then to the Guadalupe National Park. From there we will head south, staying one night each in Alpine, Seminole Canyon SP, Bracketville, Laredo, Falcon SP and finally stopping in Donna. We plan to stay there for two weeks to visit with Dean's brother, Tom and his wife Judy. So, we'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year and the best of health!
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