Hot, tired and grumpy!

It's another hot day in southwest Texas. The cool front fizzled that was supposed to get here.
We had to go to Del Rio to take the motor home back in for some MORE tests on the refrigerator. The people at Norcold finally agreed that yes, we need a new cooling unit. A new one was ordered and will be in Del Rio in 1 week. So...one more week of living out of an ice chest (we hope). After frazzled nerves, we finally got back to the park and set up the motor home again. We're trying to get cooled out and bought a bag of ice at the HQ building so we could have a cold coke.
Oh, we also got our flu shots today (the influenza A shots). We've never had a problem with them. We're glad to get that out of the way. Of course, we are firmly convinced that we had the H1N1 variety this summer, but we'll still try to get the shots (if we're eligible) when they come out in November.
I drove the car in and Gary drove the MH in to Del Rio. On the way home, my mind went back to the first time I saw this country, about 12 years ago, and how I fell in love with it. I had to calm down a little and remember to be appreciative of the sights again. This area of southwest Texas has many paintings on the canyon walls which are mysterious and defy explanation. The early people who lived here eked out a difficult existence, and it's hard to imagine how they were even able to survive. There are some who think the Huichol tribe in Mexico are the descendants of the people who painted on these walls.
Tomorrow is another day off for us, so maybe we'll have some productive pictures for you!

Oops! Wasn't fall after all!

Cool weather's gone, rain's gone, back to the heat! It's supposed to get up to 94 degrees here today. Guess I was premature in saying I'm glad it's fall. A/c's working well, though.

This morning, we went down the trail to the Rio Grande to empty trash cans. That's always a pleasant part of our week, because really, I am going there to take pictures. I'm always looking for photo ops. We love going down the trail because when we stop the mule engine, all we hear is the wind and a few birds. We usually just sit for a few minutes and soak up the silence and the beauty of the country.

The first two pictures are some fossil imprints in the rocks on the rocky cliff above the Rio Grande (or Amistad Lake). At one time, this entire area was a shallow, warm water sea, and fossils abound.

We scared up a large buck and I tried to get my camera ready to take pictures of him, but by the time I could get him in focus he was already far away. We had taken a little road that splits off the trail and goes on down toward the river. Border Patrol uses this road to ostensibly see or capture illegals crossing in that area. Just as we were leaving, Gary spotted a ring of rocks by the road. As you can see, someone had tried to protect this beautiful, small white cactus. I tried to find the name on the internet but had no luck. I didn't touch it to see if it was soft! Doubt if it was.

The view of the lake, or river, that you see is looking east from the confluence of Seminole Canyon and the Rio Grande (or Amistad) where the river takes a large swing to the south. The land you see at the right of the picture is Mexico. The spiny green plants in the foreground are ocotillo (oh-ko-TEE-yo). We keep waiting for them to bloom so we can show you some pictures.

We're still having refrigerator woes. The temperature continues to climb and fall erratically (well, mostly climb). We are hoping that Bob Tiffin, the owner of the company that manufactured our motor home, will be able to get something done for us. It will be a whole month next Wednesday that we have been struggling with the Norcold company to get our refrigerator fixed. Well so much for "made in America"! Norcold fridges are made in Ohio. They've got lousy customer service. I'm glad we have the refrigerator up in the maintenance barn (about 2 miles away) to keep our frozen food, otherwise we'd have lost it all again.

But that's minor...we have our health and eyes to see and ears to hear, and a beautiful land to enjoy. What more can you want?

Fall has Fallen!

What a nice surprise. It turned cool yesterday and was 59 degrees outside this morning when we woke up. It started lightly raining about 2:30 am this morning and rained on and off until about 2 pm. Love the sound of rain on this roof.

Just got word that my Zune is over at the Comstock post office. I won it playing Club Bing games, such as Chicktionary and the crossword puzzle game on the site. It cost 38,500 points. I usually get 18-20 points for each game I play. I can't play chicktionary or Lexicon any more because I've played all the games. Anyway, we will pick up the Zune tomorrow. I'm excited to get it because I don't have an Ipod. I don't even know if there will be software to install the Zune or any accessories with it.

We went down into the canyon a few days ago and I took a couple of pictures. The water hole is at the confluence of Seminole and Presa Canyon. We saw a hole and I had to wonder what stays in it. Didn't reach in, though. This morning, I was sitting at the kitchen table and saw a Hooded Oriole outside. I wasn't able to get a very good picture of him but you can see how pretty his colors are. Had to take the pic through the screen.

We're having refrig. troubles again. Temperature is going up in the freezer and icebox. RatsRatsRats!

We have to go down and pick up the occupancy sheets for tonight...this is our last day off and it's back to work tomorrow!

Last day of summer(?)

Well, not to complain, but it's 5:30 pm and still 96 degrees! Whew, I wish someone would tell that cold front to hurry up.
We got some WONDERFUL rain last night! Probably between 1/4 and 1/2 inch. We had vivid lightning and the power kept flickering on and off. There were lots of little pools of water when we went down to the HQ building this morning. I'll bet the wild birds and animals loved that.
We did some serious trimming down by the HQ building today. There's an agave plant by HQ that has wicked, sharp points, and it gave birth to many little agave plants underneath its sharp points. I dug many of them out with a sharpshooter shovel. The head ranger really wants to get rid of the agave plants in the park because they're not native to this area. So I didn't feel too bad about digging the babies out. The rain we got last night softened the ground a little bit. Gary came and relieved me. We did some weedeating and used the nippers to cut back some blackbrush acacia (long thorns) that was beginning to grow up again. It doesn't need much water to grow, apparently. We cut mostly weeds which had sprung up. We cleaned the restrooms at the HQ building, then did our trimming, and came up to the campground to clean the sites that were vacated today. We cleaned our restrooms here in the campground, too, all in preparation for our day off tomorrow. Then back to the RV for showers, because a) we were stinky and sweaty, and b), the agave (century) plant gives off some kind of substance which causes an itchy rash. After a cool shower, we sank into the couches under the a/c. We are tired, but it's a good tired!
I see from my computer that there is some rain following the same pattern from yesterday, so we can always hope for a little more rain tonight.
Tomorrow...to Del Rio for grocery shopping and lunch.
I'm thankful that we are able to volunteer in this place that's so beautiful to us. We love the canyons, the scenic vistas, the roughness of the terrain and the vegetation, and the solitude and quiet.

Resurrection Plants and other pictures

Today was a hot day but fun. We took the mule down to the Rio Grande, or Amistad Lake (where it's backed up). The water backs up into Seminole Canyon at that point.

As promised to some of you folks, we took pictures of a curious plant called the Resurrection Plant, which grows in abundance in this particular area of the park. This plant dries up and withers in dry weather and transforms itself into a lush green plant when it gets some rain. In the third picture, you can see the green plant; the fourth picture shows the plant in its dried-up state. The fifth picture is another Resurrection Plant after some rain; the same plant is shown in the next picture. The tiny pink flower you see is at the tip of a very small cactus, which is about 1" tall. I also took a picture looking up Seminole Canyon to give you an idea of where we saw these plants. The rock ledge we were on is about 150 feet above the water's edge.

The first two pictures are the fishhook cactus, after the blooms died off. The blooms left "fruit". If you look at the pictures from Sept. 12, you will see the blooms. I wonder if you can eat the "fruit" after the spines are burned off.

On the way back, we saw the nest of a cactus wren. They build their nests in the most evil of cactus plants, which protects their nests from predators. Who wants to reach into those long, sharp painful spines? The cactus wren is a small bird, speckled, with a slightly curved beak. We saw one today hopping about on the bush which is right outside our dining room window.

I mentioned that we have seen evidence of digging of large holes here in the campground. While we were making our rounds yesterday, one of the campers stopped us and told us that about 8-10 skunks had awakened them about 1 am the morning before. They (the camper) had food in coolers in a zipped-up cabana thing, like a tent with net sides. The skunks were squeaking and making all kinds of noises trying to get to the food. Aha! Mystery solved. Skunks do dig. She wisely decided not to disturb them, as her family was sleeping in a tent. The skunks finally left. I think maybe Pepe LePew and his bunch are wandering around the campground due to the extreme drought we've had here, possibly searching for food or water.

BTW, there's plenty of water in Amistad (Rio Grande), but it has come from upstream. We're still very dry here.

That's all for now!

Sept 18, 2009

Nothing much new to report. It's been a fairly nice day today, weatherwise, with 6 or 7 campers coming in. We were asked by the head ranger to put the sprinkler out at site 20 for a while, and when I went to turn it off, scared up a large covey of quail. I think they were enjoying the water. We have to keep the water running through the lines because they put the proper amount of bleach in the water tank up by the wellhead, which is about a mile away from the campground, so we have to run it through the lines. We have a good well but it is hard water.

We noticed several wide and deep holes dug in the campground today. I tried to cover them. I don't think it's armadillos but probably either a skunk or a badger digging them. One particularly deep hole went under the concrete frame around a hose bib, so I really tried to cover that one up. Sure wish we could see the animal that's digging such a hole.

Today is Gary's birthday. Wow, he's the best-looking 63 year old man I have ever seen! He received many greetings on facebook and on the internet. The good folks down at the HQ building brought him a cake and some breakfast tacos this morning...we'd already had breakfast and were stuffed by the time we left there! They also sang Happy Birthday, or Feliz Compleanos. What a nice group of people to work with. We really enjoy them all.

We got some good news from DelTex RV in Del Rio today. They'd been in contact with Norcold yesterday (after being put on hold for hours), and Norcold has agreed to send us a replacement icemaker. I'm SO looking forward to that. I don't think I've ever put ice trays into the freezer w/o spilling. The replacement is supposed to be here Tuesday or Wednesday.

We're so thankful for all our blessings and for being here in this beautiful place. Hopefully we will have more pictures soon.

Seminole and Presa Canyon

We went down the trail this morning and went over to where Presa Canyon branches off Seminole Canyon. The first picture is a black scorpion that we found at one of the campsites. I'd hate to have him in my boot! The fourth picture is at the confluence of Presa and Seminole Canyon. The brush is heavy and thorny. The fifth picture is another "small" canyon that leads to Seminole Canyon. When we returned to the campground, we cleaned a few sites, and I caught this ?black swallowtail butterfly on a cenizo bush. It wasn't too afraid but was very busy going from flower to flower.

The weather has been wonderful today; no rain but a cool north wind is blowing. I know we have some more hot weather coming soon.

Gary has been working on his ham radio this afternoon but the band is not good today. I'm cooking a pot of navy beans for supper. Smells great cooking! Soon it'll be time to make some cornbread. There's only one other campsite in the park occupied today, so it should be very quiet tonight.

That's all for now!

Lazy Bones (me)

We haven't have much to report here lately. Just working and getting tired.

We had some welcome rain yesterday, intermittently, probably only about 0.01". But we'll take anything we can get because it's been almost a year since any rain has fallen here. Unfortunately there's not enough rain to lift the burn ban. The temperature has moderated a bit and we were able to sleep with the windows open and enjoy the breezes blowing across us.



The refrigerator has been doing OK since it was repaired. We monitor the temperature constantly with a remote thermometer that we formerly used outside. We are thinking of taking the RV back to Del Rio on Tuesday to get the ice maker fixed. When it fills with water, it overfills and about 1/2 cup of water runs out and into the icemaker bin, and also lands in the bottom of the freezer, creating a sheet of ice there. There is an adjustment but Gary's not too eager to tackle that.



We drove the mule down the trail to the Rio Grande this morning and found some beautiful barrel cacti blooming, which you see above. Looking at the pictures of Gary and me, you can see the Rio Grande (now Amistad Lake) in the background, and to our right is the beginning of Seminole Canyon. The water goes up the canyon quite a ways. It must've come from upstream because we've certainly had no rain here in a long time. We enjoy the peace and quiet on the trail. Some of the cenizo bushes are blooming (which I also call purple sage) and they are very pretty. The cenizo is probably the only bush/tree/plant in this area that doesn't have thorns.



We never made it to Langtry last week. We remembered that it was "washday" on our day off so we washed Tuesday and went to Del Rio on Wednesday. We are looking forward to seeing the new Judge Roy Bean Opry House, which was not there last time we visited. I'm sure we'll have ample opportunity to explore during our time here.



Gary's been working on getting his ham radio set up. Since his dad passed away, he's started wanting to talk on the radio again. He has to get the antenna put up first. I'm still picking away at the banjo and enjoying it.



Until next time...

Day after Labor Day

I thought I'd reach back and show you the sunrise on the way down here last week. I took these pictures out the front window of the RV while we were traveling. The third picture is an interesting group of mountains over in Mexico that I took this morning. They are part of the Burro Mountains. I opened the window and snapped the picture. Don't you just love digital photography.

Yesterday, all the campers left and we were alone in the park overnight. I love the quiet here. We are off today and enjoyed sleeping in 'til 7 am. That's late for us. We called DelTex RV in Del Rio and our part for the refrigerator is here, but we're going to wait until tomorrow morning to go into town so we can leave early. It's a 45 mile drive.

We're planning to go to the Judge Roy Bean center in Langtry, TX, today, so we should have some good pictures tomorrow. It's about 20 miles west of here. There is also a garden of desert plants that is interesting, and we enjoy seeing the familiar plants with the scientific and common names. Our friend left here to go work there so we will enjoy visiting with him, too.

That's all for now!

Holiday Weekend

We've had great weather today. It's been cloudy, and at times, we even had an occasional misty rain. There's a nice, cool breeze blowing from the south this evening. However, we can't see the moon rise tonight due to the clouds. Last night we sat out under the picnic shelter and watched the moon come up; it was big, orange, and beautiful.

We took the John Deere tractor with the shredder on the back down the Rio Grande trail today to knock down some of the weeds that have grown up on the trail. We try to be safety-conscious because there are ruts that can be hidden by the weeds, and someone might turn an ankle if they're not careful. Also there are snakes and we want folks to be able to walk safely.

When we returned, we cleaned the restrooms and then came into the RV to relax. There are several people camping in the park today, since it's a holiday weekend. Two gentlemen are from Germany. They came up wanting to pay us for the campsite but we told them they'd have to pay tomorrow at the office. We also met a couple from Fredericksburg, TX, and gave them some tips on what to see around here. We enjoy meeting people from all over the world who visit here.

The rock art here is 4000-6000 years old, and is not etched (which would be a petroglyph), but is painted onto the rocks. Of course, we can only guess at the meanings of the paintings. I have included a couple of them here. The first picture is in the Fate Bell Shelter, looking south out of the shelter, and the second picture is a painting in Fate Bell. It may represent a shaman, or medicine man. The third painting is a 23' panther, which is located at Panther Cave, at the confluence of Seminole Canyon and the Rio Grande. The next picture is a statue which is located at the headquarters building, and was inspired by the cave paintings. I will include more pictures later.

1st full day at Seminole Canyon State Park

Sure enough, the good folks at DelTex RV in Del Rio did a great job on our RV refrigerator. They diagnosed the problem and ordered the part. We had tried to disconnect the thermistor ourselves but the freezer part of the fridge would only get down to 46 degrees. Don't know how they did it, but they disconnected the thermistor and the fridge started getting cold. The freezer compartment now is freezing, and the refrigerator is cooling down. Sounds good, right? Well, unfortunately, the thermistor is a cross between an thermostat and a resistor, and the refrigerator will continue running and running, until it freezes everything in the refrigerator compartment, too. However, it's nice to have a freezer again! We will probably take the motor home in to Del Rio early next week to get the new thermistor put in. Then we HOPE the problem is solved. It's a small part and easy to replace.
Seminole Canyon is dry, dry, dry. The guajillo bushes are turning brown and dying. One good part about the drought is there's not too much mowing or brush trimming to be done, since nothing's been growing. It's mostly cloudy today due to Hurricane Jimena, but we've not received any rain. We enjoyed the quiet last night and slept good. We were glad to see our friends here at Seminole again, and looking forward to getting back into the groove and working hard once more.
Hasta la vista!

Leaving El Paso!

We got the RV back and went to Mission RV in El Paso, where there was also a service department for the Norcold Refrigerator (the one in our RV that quit working). Our hopes were soon dashed, as the technician (?) made it clear that he neither wanted nor intended to work on our refrigerator. To add to the misery, there was Wifi at the park, but the strength was so low our computers would not log onto it. Gary walked up to the office to sign on and get some phone numbers, and he only got three bars outside the office. The RV park was situated between I-10 and another very busy street, so there was constant truck, car, motorcycle, sirens...all night. Needless to say, this place doesn't get 5 stars from me! More like 1/2 star.

Gary had downloaded the service book for our refrigerator and went through all the trouble shooting checkpoints. We called a very nice company in Las Cruces, and the man said indeed, it sounded like the cooling system was ka-flooey. He clarified some points for us but wasn't too eager to work on the refrig. himself. We had also talked with the Norcold company and the service manager told Gary that it was closing time and he'd need to call back tomorrow!

Well, to make a long, boring story short, we called Del Tex RV in Del Rio, TX, and they said bring it in. They are an authorized repair facility (the fridge is still under warranty), and we're going to bring the RV in tomorrow and they will check it out and order the part for us. It will mean living out of an ice chest for a while, but there is a refrigerator and freezer at Seminole Canyon we can use. Whew!

We left as early as possible this morning and I was glad to see El Paso in the rear view mirror. We took US90 from Van Horn to Marathon, and I thoroughly enjoyed the mountains. Check out the speed limit! 80 mph for cars, 70 mph for trucks! We kept it between 55 and 60, though. This speed limit was on I-10.

Unfortunately, I forgot that the pictures would be in reverse order. The first pic is past Alpine, a part of the Davis Mountains. The second is also east of Alpine, TX. The third picture is where everybody stops to see the Marfa lights. We were there 10 years ago! The fourth picture is a drone that we saw in the sky and stopped to take the picture. It was the USAF TARS, which we assume means tethered aerial reconnaissance site. We think it's used to track illegal aliens, but who knows what it's for. Could be a weather balloon. We saw the station where it was tethered.

The next picture looks like it has a ghost but it's really my camera reflecting in the window. It's not always easy to find a place to stop a 40 foot motor home pulling a small car. So I take pix out of the windows. The next one...speed limits in west Texas. Last one is leaving El Paso, looking south toward Mexico and the Rio Grande. I keep forgetting that what the eye beholds is not necessarily what's going to come out in the picture. The mountains of SW Texas are indeed beautiful. The highest peak is in the Davis Mountains and is about 8260 feet high.

We're glad to be here in Marathon, even though the fridge doesn't work. The park is off the road and is QUIET. We're looking forward to a good night's sleep, then getting on the road tomorrow to go to Del Rio, then when we leave there, we'll head back west to Seminole Canyon, 45 miles away, where we're expected to volunteer.

Well, more tomorrow!

Not so fun

We're in El Paso, TX, where we stopped at the Cummins dealer to get some routine maintenance done on the RV. Had a small oil leak somewhere around the fuel pump area. Our appointment was for 8 am yesterday, and they didn't even start working on the RV until after lunch! Turns out there was a gasket that needed replacement and had to be ordered overnight. It was going to be a big hassle to stay in the RV, plus they could have pulled the RV out to a site beside the building, but we didn't feel it was very safe, so we went to a motel for the night. To sum it up, it was miserable! We were too tired to complain, though.
Also, Sunday morning we noticed the milk wasn't very cold, so we started looking, and the stuff in the freezer was defrosting and the temp in the fridge was 55 degrees (should be around 40 degrees in the fridge). We tried everything but the fridge is OUT. Gone. Nada. We lost a lot of stuff, tried to find dry ice but couldn't. We did put some stuff in a cooler, maybe it'll survive, but we've lost most of our food. When we get the RV back, we're going to Mission RV Park, close to where we're at. They have a Norcold refrigerator repair place there.
This is a hot, dry, dusty place, oh, I should add, crowded, also. The mountains in the distance are pretty, though, but I just haven't had the heart to take a picture of them. Hopefully we will get some good pix on the trip to Seminole Canyon.
Well, how was your day?