In this post, I have implemented a new photo viewer for the pics, so you can see more pics and it's a whole lot cleaner. So, just click on the links below each day and if you have any problems let me know.
Day 5 - Wednesday
We left Aunt Sandy’s around 9:30am CST and headed for San Antonio, TX. We got there in the early afternoon and dropped off the camper and went into town. First we went to El Mercado and did some shopping. Most of the vendors spoke Spanish. I felt like I was in Mexico. It was pretty neat. I bought a couple hair barrettes that were silver with inlays. They’re pretty. We left there and headed for the Alamo. We found a parking lot and paid $5 for all day parking and walked to the Alamo. When we got there it was 5:25pmCST and the sign said that it closes at 5:30! We had 5 minutes to walk, I mean run around just to see some stuff. Then we were run out of there and we had to go somewhere else. We thought about going to the IMAX to watch the documentary about the Alamo, but it started at 6pm and was 2-3 hours long. We wanted to see the Riverwalk and do supper still. So, we really didn’t have time to do that either. So, from there, we walked (and sweated…it was humid) to the Riverwalk and walked some of it. Then got tired and wanted to go back to camp. We went to the store and got food to make and some Blue Bell ice cream. We all got pints of the flavors that we wanted. I got orange and homemade vanilla mix (tasted like a creamcicle!), Joe got buttered pecan, Dad got peaches and vanilla, Mom got banana pudding and Alison got chocolate chip cookie dough. They were all good! Then we went back to camp and Joe made hamburgers on the grill and as soon as we got our burgers put together, the wind really picked up and sent us packing to the camper. We got slammed by a storm and had to close up the camper for most of the remainder of the night. That poor camper took a beating from the wind. Between storms, we heard sirens and Joe and I went to find them because they were really close. We went to the boat ramps and that’s where we found them. I guess some people went out on the lake and didn’t know about the severe weather warning lights and stayed out on the lake. When they tried to get back to the docks, they fell off the dock and into the lake. There are a lot of water moccasins in that lake! I guess the guys were okay, but the squad was there checking their vitals just in case. So, we went back to camp and tried to sleep through all the wind and storms. It was a tiring night!
Pics from day 5, go to: http://www.photomax.com/web/mem_album_photo_slide_show.php?TrackId=1873425&RandomId=432117199
Day 6 - Thursday
We got up early this morning and packed up because we had to be out of camp by 8am. So, we left San Antonio, TX by 8:00. On the way to Del Rio, TX we saw a sign for the Alamo Village. So, we drove a little off the beaten path and went onto a working ranch to get to the Alamo Village which is the original movie set for the Alamo movie with John Wayne. It was really neat. They had a lot of real Alamo relics and artifacts there too. There were people dressed up and acting as the people in the village. The sheriff took Alison and put her in jail for chewing gum! (And because Mom told him to!!!) We spent quite a bit of time there and took a lot of pictures. We left there and went to the Seminole State Park and went to check in. We were lucky because we pulled in to check in and it was 4:35pm CST, they closed the offices and registers at 4:45pm! At that building, there was a young desert cottontail sitting beside a century plant. It was cute! They had wi-fi, which was nice, but we really didn’t have a lot of time to do any blogging. This campgrounds had no cell phone signal, but did have electricity and water hookups and wi-fi and showers!!! When we popped up the camper, we left the rest of camp setup for later and went on a hike. It was really hot and we took water with us. I took a cold bottle of water and by the time we had walked a mile, what little bit I had left in the bottle was really warm!!! Already!!! We made it to a covered rest stop on the trail and (I can usually walk a lot, but in the desert and beating down sun much closer to the equator, I couldn’t go on) I stayed there in the desert until the fam got back from where they were going. As I sat there, I saw a striped gecko run between brush and cactus…too quick for me to snap a picture. I took a couple pictures of some flowers on small cactus and some other flowers close by. There were, what I think to be millipedes everywhere! They’re big! About 3-5 inches long and ¼ inch in diameter!! Everyone else wanted to make it down to the Rio Grande, but it was a 3.5 miles (one way) hike. It was getting somewhat close to dark and there were really dark clouds with lightning in them coming upon us. So, they really didn’t have enough time to make it all the way. They walked as far as a mile from the actual river and had to turn around. Dad came back for me (he didn’t have to!) and we walked back to the vehicle. As we were walking, I saw (about 100 yards in front of us) a jackrabbit!!! It ran, very quickly, across the trail. At first I didn’t know what it was because it was huge! But it ran like a rabbit runs and the ears are really not proportionate to the body. We also saw some pretty birds along the way, but didn’t get pics either. We got back to the vehicle and waited a few minutes and everyone else caught up with us. We drove back to the camper and Mom & Alison went and took showers while I tried to organize the stuff in the camper. When they got back, I took a shower and Mom made hamburgers and hot dogs and we ate while the wind began beating our poor camper around…again. We cleaned up from supper and got ready for bed. We were all whipped from the hike and thirstier ‘n all get out! The rains came down and the winds blew and the rains poured down and the winds blew harder. Then it calmed down a little for the rest of the night. Mom threw out some old boiled eggs that she had brought that went bad. The skunks loved ‘em! When we got up in the morning, one was finishing off one of the last ones.
Pics from day 6 go to:
http://www.photomax.com/web/mem_album_photo_slide_show.php?TrackId=1873489&RandomId=305622572
Day 7 - Friday
We left Del Rio, TX this morning and on the way toward the Davis Mountains, we stopped by and took pictures of the walls of the Rio Grande. We never did get close enough to see the actual river, but it was pretty nonetheless. Then we stopped in Langtry, TX and went into see Judge Roy Bean’s Saloon. It had the real saloon on the actual site which, now is in the middle of town. They had his walking cane which was intricately carved and they had all kinds of other artifacts. It was really neat. They also had a cactus garden with different kinds of cacti growing. They are really pretty in bloom. I think this trip was the first time I ever saw a cactus out west blooming. They are all so pretty. We got to the Davis Mountain State Park and as soon as we pulled in, there were deer walking all around the campgrounds, even close to the people sitting out in their chairs outside. We left camp to go to the scenic overlooks. We drove up a mountain and walked around up there and took some pretty pictures. For supper, we went to this place that Joe had read about that said they served “Cowboy cuisine” called the Reata. (pronounced Riata). The food didn’t live up to the expense. Don’t get me wrong, it was good food, but really expensive and it wasn’t even REAL cowboy cuisine! It was run by a sissy boy that greeted us when we came in. He was dressed in western clothing, but he was in NO way a cowboy! A real cowboy would’ve beat him down! So, we spent way too much money, then went back to the campgrounds to finish setting up camp, went inside the camper and hooked up the laptop and watched an episode of F-troop, then went to bed. After we turned the lights out we got to laughing about something and Dad told me to snort (as I do sometimes when I really get to laughing), then we heard a real snort…or something that also sounded like an angry dog growling outside down at the campsite next to us. We all hushed and looked out with our flashlights and found that the campers next to us had ignorantly left out 2 coolers and a trashcan full of stuff that smelled like food. So, the javelinas (wild pig-type animals from this area) were enjoying a free meal. They ransacked their camp…mostly got into the coolers, but they started fighting over some of it and one of them threw another into the side of their pop-up camper! Some of them were really fighting over that food! They moseyed down our way, but we hadn’t left anything out except the cactus and ferns that we had accumulated over the trip sitting in buckets and the toolbox under the camper. Joe went out and sat on the picnic table with his video camera trying to get it all on tape (not that good though…it was pitch dark) and I had my window open and I was laying on my stomach looking out. They didn’t really hang around our camp that much, but I saw them and a skunk up close. One javelina came up to the door after Joe came back inside and it stood there looking at Joe and Mom almost as if he were asking them for a handout! They’re so ugly they’re cute! I think it kinda scared the pee out of all of us (except Alison, she fell asleep!!) because we really weren’t expecting that kind of wildlife contact. So, after most of them had passed, Joe, Mom and I ventured out and headed to the bathrooms for one last trip. Because I wasn’t going to go back out after that until daylight! No sireee! Then we did go to bed. The first night we slept in the camper without wind. It did rain a little bit, but it was really just a sprinkle.
Pics from day 7 go to:
http://www.photomax.com/web/mem_album_photo_slide_show.php?TrackId=1873526&RandomId=1926699175
Day 8 - Saturday
We went to leave the Davis Mountains State Park and the javelinas came back for more. They were much calmer this morning. They just walked around the campground sniffin’ around. They really weren’t scared of us at all, like the deer when we got there. We did get to take some good pictures of them in the daylight. Joe tried to take some at night, but they really didn’t take that well. So, we checked out of the campground and Joe bought a walking stick made out of Sotol (a native plant from here) and a small metal tag to nail to his walking stick. He’s going to get one from every state park that we go to from here. He wishes that he would’ve thought about it at the start of the trip. Oh well. This campground is probably all of our favorite so far. It was pretty and we had a lot of contact with a lot of wildlife. We left around 8:30amCST this morning and just drove, and drove and drove….and drove. We took a lot of pretty pictures along the way. For lunch we stopped at a Mexican fast food chain in El Paso, TX called Taco Campana. It was okay, we thought it was going to be much better. The we drove and drove…and drove some more. We finally stopped at a free campground and set up camp. We cooked barbecued chicken on the grill and Mom fried potatoes and we had salad. It was a really good supper. Around 2:30am we all got cold and pulled out the extra blankets. I think it got a little colder than we anticipated. I wished I’d have put my long sleeve t-shirt on instead of the short sleeve one. We slept well, no wind, no rain. Yay!!!
Pics from day 8 go to:
http://www.photomax.com/web/mem_album_photo_slide_show.php?TrackId=1873531&RandomId=252264969
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