July 15th,16th and 17th

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Houses on  stilts

From Corpus Christi we headed out along Mustang Island, in a bit of rain (believe it or not).The houses are all built on tall stilts, in the hope that if a storm surge comes through, it is no higher than the bottom of the house. Even apartment buildings are on stilts. It's amazing how many people live here, hundreds of thousands. Pretty risky business! Not a lot to see today, but the guys were pleased to be able to drive out on a sandy beach. We saw another MG on the road and pulled them over for a chat. Spent the night in Clute, just west of Galveston.

 

 On the 16th we went into Galveston, in the rain again. There we did a 'train' tour of all the lovely historical houses and also saw signs of Hurricane Ike. They lost 40,000 old oak trees and did some pretty creative artwork with some of the stumps.

On the ferry out of Galveston, we met a group of bikers, who were veterans. They were on their way back from the funeral of a soldier killed in Laos 45 years ago. The Laotian government finally released his remains so the family could have a funeral. His 90 year old mother was there. Apparently these bikers and other veterans go to funerals all over the place at the invitation of the families. There is a group of war protestors who harrass the families of fallen soldiers, telling them it is a good thing their sons and daughters were killed, as they are evil to go to war. So these veterans go to the funerals and form a cordon around the family to protect them from the cruel things these people say.

Spent the night in the worst motel ever in Orange TX!!

17th, headed for Baton Rouge, crossing a lot of bayous, swamp and sugar fields.

18th, On our way to New Orleans, we did a tour of a historical sugar plantation from the late 1700s. Oak Alley was named for the 28 oak trees planted in two rows from the house to the Mississippi River. The guides were all dressed in period costums, and told some very interesting stories about the people who lived in the house.

Then in the pouring rain, we drove to New Orleans and the Maison Dupuy in the French Quarter. After a fight with the valet we were allowed to park our own cars.

July 13th and 14th

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Now we are heading east again for about 180 miles to Corpus Christi. Arrived at lunch time to find our pre-booked motel right on the beach. This was a pleasant surprise. After checking in, off to the pool, then the beach and back to the pool. The sea here is as warm as bath water. Richard wandered off to check out the USS Lexington, an old aircraft carrier.  Sheila and Linde are doing some (apparently much needed) shopping. This whole area is made up of sand dunes.

July 9th , 10th,11th and 12th

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Another day of travel along the Mexican border and really hot.Not much to see but many border patrol vehicles and several border guard inspection stations to stop at. After trying to book into several motels with no luck, we ended up at La Hacienda. What a beauty!! Probably the worst one to date. Oh well, just had to sleep there. On the 10th we headed off for south Padre Island like horses to the barn. Needed to get to the coast after two and a half weeks of desert heat.

Now, not only is it hot, but, also really humid.  About 98 degrees and the humidity factor. We decided to spent 3 nights here and rest up for a while.

Did some beach time. Went on a catamaran for a 3 hour snorkel trip, which was really great.Not much in the way of fish, as there is no reef. Lots of eating, some drinking and relaxing.

July 8th Happy One Month Anniversary

Today is a marathon day! Most miles in one day on this trip - 314, plus we had breakfast in Marathon TX. at a cute little diner. We also reached the 4000 mile mark of our trip. The views are much the same as the last two days, brush, desert, and bare blue mountains in the distance. We saw a few cattle, a couple of deer, and one buffalo. We also saw a few horses, especially one beautiful grey stallion that ran along the highway.



Who cares, my bathing suit is in the trunk

  Near Del Rio TX, we crossed the Pecos River which joins the Rio Grande very near here. Then we crossed a second bridge over the Amistad Reservoir. Just over the bridge was a beach on the bank and Linde and Sheila could not resist a swim.



Happy Monthiversay!

Trip Highlights so far:
Steve - winding roads, beautiful views, Cliff dwellings
Richard - the whole adventure
Linde - Sea World, Tombstone, Swim in Pecos River
Sheila - Spectacular views; Interesting and humerous tidbits we pick up every day about people, history, biology, geology, plants, etc; roller coaster ride at Seaworld

July 5th, 6th, and 7th

A small corner of the hole

 Hwy 80 out of Tombstone, through the historic town of Bisbee, down to the border, and back up to Lordsburg passes http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=211651657169317628289.0004a75bb01c7433ec030&msa=0 through some pretty rough and hot desert. The Valentine copper mine is just past Bisbee, and claims to be the 2nd largest open pit mine in the US. Prrrrettty big hole! The whole area here and into New Mexico seems to be a  big mining area as we saw a lot of them up in the hills. There also a few cattle around, though not as many as we expected.

 From Lordsburg, we did a small detour of 185 miles to see the Gila Cliff Dwellings. (pronounced Hila) These were adobe dwellings built in natural caves in the cliffs of the canyon by the Mogollon people around 1280AD. They were only there for one generation. The one mile hike was a partially  staired pathway with an incline of  about 180 feet, and the elevation (8000 ft) combined with the heat almost killed us, but was well worth it.  The last 40 miles to the cliffs and back out again, had the guys grinning from ear to ear. It was heard said "to hell with The Tail of the Dragon, it can't possibly be any better than this". Then on to Deming,New Mexico for the night.

Typical Desert View

Thursday, 7th, was a transition day, trying to get closer to the Rio Grande river and out of the desert. We drove along the Mexican border, and much of the time were the only cars on the road, except for dozens of border patrol vehicles. They have all kinds of surveillance equipment, and security checks along the highways complete with sniffer dogs. The guards were more interested in our cars than what we had in them. Then at the end of the day as we came back to our hotel from dinner, a Texas policeman followed us into the parking lot, lights flashing. Oh no!! what were we in for?? Our licence plate has a plastic cover which is illegal in Texas! So we said "no problem officer we'll take them off. Besides you have a big gun!" He said "not so big" and then felt embarrassed he had stopped us at all. Richard asked if he was getting a ticket too, and the officer said he didn't need to do the paperwork twice. He ended up helping us take the plastic covers off and then gave Steve a warning ticket. It was kind of fun changing this very serious, no nonsense cop into a regular kid we could chat to.   This all happened in Van Horn TX wher we spent the night.



Steve's Warning Ticket



July 3rd and 4th Tombstone

 What a place! Western characters walking around all over the place, horses, cowboys, gunfights (cheesy though) in the streets and bars, and also a lot of interesting museums, and stories. Though Tombstone suffered 2 major fires, a lot of the town was rebuilt during the silver mining days. The original buildings are still standing and used for museums, shops and restaurants. We took a stage coach ride, toured museums, watched some films about the history of Tombstone and saw a reenactment of the famous Gunfight. We ate and drank in the Crystal Palace Saloon, which has been in business for 130 years.

Richard and Celeste



Boot Hill

 





This man innocently bought a stolen horse, and was hung. Buyer beware!!

 

July 2nd,3rd and 4th Tucson to Tombstone

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Saguarro Forest

While in Tucson, we did some shopping and went to Saguarro National Park. The exhibits are excellent and very informative. You can see a lot of desert  and take pictures, but not really understand what makes it work and how the plants, animals and people interact until you see some of the films and read the displays.
On the way out of town on the 3rd, we drove an extra 50 miles to see Bioshere 2, Biosphere 1 is Earth. This was where 8 people lived for 2 years, attempting to live completely independant of outside resourses. The experiment was considered by many to be a failure as they did not reach their goal, but scientists believe it was a huge success because of all they learned from it about living in space. The 2 big problems were food and oxygen. They weren't able to produce enough calories to keep the people healthy, so all of them lost a lot of weight. They could have solved this by sending one person out, but no one volunteered and they all adjusted their intake. The oxygen problem could not be solved, and when they all started suffering oxygen deprivation symtoms, they had to have outside help. Later they found that the concrete inside the buildings, which was new, depleted oxygen as it cured. Back to present day-the Biosphere houses several different ecosystems, and is used by environmentalists to study the effects of different stresses on the environment.

Ocean and reef ecosystem

Rainforest



This is one of 2 giant 'lungs' used to equalize pressure inside the buildings to prevent the glass panes from exploding or imploding