Today we left Los Alamos for Phoenix. We have 3 days to get there, so we’re just moseying our way down the highway. Our first stop was the Petroglyphs National Monument, on the edge of Albuquerque. There was volcanic action close to here, and that created large lava rock hills. Native Americans drew on the rocks shapes and animals, telling stories and such. We did a cool 2 mile sand hike checking out the different petroglyphs.

As we headed west, we came upon a sign for another national monument, one we had never heard of, and as we really did have time on our hands, we checked it out. El Malpais National monument was like the 3rd National Monument proclaimed, and full of gigantic lava rock formations and “lava tubes”. The tubes were like tunnels and the boys got to hike down into one, but not all the way into the tunnel and out the other side. (we’re such mean parents!)

Their sister monument was El Morro National Monument, a bit further down the road. There is a huge sandstone formation, that an early settler carved his name into it at the bottom. Subsequently, many others carved their name into the rock. Notably, near this rock was an eternal water source that native Americans and early settlers marveled at and used. This area is ridiculously dry, so I can see the novelty it held to keep you alive.

We are so close to the Wig Wam Motel tonight. You may have seen the teepee houses on Route 66 before. The movie Cars did a spinoff of them as road cones instead of tepees. I hope to check them out along with the Petrified Forest National Park. Further west though is Flagstaff. They are getting a ton of snow so we’re headed south tomorrow, and fast!

Yesterday (Sunday) started out fairly normal. Woody and I got up early to go to the grocery store so we could stock the camper before heading out of Los Alamos. On our way back we saw 7 deer on the mesa by the road but that’s another story. Back at the camper, as I was putting the ice cream into the freezer, I tripped a bit over the heater that was on the floor, tried to catch myself and was just fine. But in that instant, I became dizzy and nauseous.

This was totally vertigo and I was freakin out. I’ve had a couple of serious bouts of vertigo but not since I’ve had the boys! During rehearsal for our wedding 16 years ago, I remember laying down in the last pew of the church, and having my friend Nicole Richard fill in for me as the bride at the front of the church. Some say perhaps the wedding isn’t legit because I was on a ton of meds, but as soon as I started walking down the aisle, it all went away! Anywho, this hit me like a train wreck, and so I laid down asap.(not hard since my bed is 3 feet away!) I was the only one in the camper so I called jesse on his phone and made him come out.

Loooooong story short, we stayed an extra night in Los Alamos with the Haileys. The boys got to go to Albuquerque to see Seth Hailey and the International Hot Air Balloon Museum, Jesse almost finished our taxes and I slept for pretty much the whole day. Early evening Jesse actually gave me oxygen and an iv, I wasn’t nauseous anymore but I was still dizzy. Weird!

The devil caught up to us though, when we woke up this morning, there was SNOW on the ground! Yuck! I felt better though and we hit the road out of LA, leaving that altitude sickness far far behind us!

Back when we went to the George Bush #41 Presidential Library, a volunteer at the front door had our ears for about 15 minutes, telling us all the things we needed to do in SW Texas. He gave us so much great information about the area, he really gave us some knock-out tips!

One of the things he told us about that I had no idea of was the Davis Mountains, Fort Davis and The McDonald Observatory “Star Party”. We actually stayed at the Davis Mountain State Park, a park that was built mostly by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) in the 1930’s. Woody and I went to a ranger program about the CCC and it was very interesting, and there are super similar structures to State Parks on the North Shore of Lake Superior that we’ve seen. Except for a lodge in the park that was built, in the adobe – flat roof style of the south. It looked so cool in the park. Currently under some renovations, it would be awesome to stay at the lodge some time!

We took a fun 4-mile hike in the mountains one morning, starting right from our campsite. It was steep and rocky but with beautiful views. Gunner loved it all, it was like being on top of the world.

Later that day I dropped the guys and Gunner off at the top of one of the mountains. I was able to drive down the mountain, but the boys were able to hike down into Fort Davis National Monument. I met them at the Fort, and it was great walking around the renovated buildings, imagining how it was in the past. This was a main fort where Buffalo Soldiers were stationed. It was right on the historic El Paso to San Antonio road, and was actually never attacked. Woody has completed the Junior Ranger program at every national park/monument we’ve been at now.  It’s a great way for him to learn even more history about a certain place, and he enjoyed taking the oath at the end as well.

We made it back in time for the boys to attend a ranger program about snakes. Jesse and I didn’t make it. We actually don’t talk about snakes in this family much. They said something about touching the snakes and we made them take a bath and promise not to repeat it again😊< span style=”color: #000000; font-family: Calibri”>That night, we attended the “Star Party” that everyone around here talks about. The University of Texas at Austin has had an amazing McDonald Observatory here in the mountains of nowhere for about 100 years now.  And only about twice a year is the sky too cloudy to see stars. Well guess which night we arrived on!?!? Yep- a cloudy one! They had plenty of other things to talk to us about, they boys are just calling it a nighttime science class and we learned about constellations, color spectrums when it comes to solid, gas and liquid forms of light, and we were able to go out and see one of their big telescopes. But not their big big big ones(they have 3 of those, like 4 story high ones, 109” diameter telescope ones!) But still, it was very interesting. All 4 of us have come to the conclusion that we know nothing about stars, and probably won’t be taking up constellations as a hobby any time soon, but we enjoy looking at bright stars in the night sky anyway!<<<<
gt;<<<
><<
p>

Ever since the boys found out they could go to Mexico, they have made a big countdown. Initially there was some disappointment as we arrived on a Monday, and the Port of Entry was closed Mondays and Tuesdays. We had to wait until today, Wednesday, to make our trek there. First though, we were going to take a dip in the natural hot springs that was on the way. (All of this was still inside Big Bend National Park) We had to go off-roading for about 2 miles before we came to a sign with a turnaround that said NO RV’s, trailers or trucks with duallys. Soon we found out why. We were on a quick but scary ½ mile drive that was pretty much the width of Jesse’s truck. On one side, it was a sharp craggy rock wall that I was worried would scrape the truck the whole time, and on the other side was an immediate drop off. No railing, no shoulder, just a drop off. The road winded around corner after corner as well. I’m pretty sure none of us were breathing! BUT in true Tischer fashion, Jesse knew exactly what he was doing and did fantastic! Go Jesse!

From the parking lot, we had about a ¼ mile hike to get to the hot springs. We passed a couple of ancient buildings, houses and stores. All with a limestone wall backdrop on one side, and the reeds protecting the Rio Grande on the other. It was pretty neat when we finally reached the hot springs! It’s just right there on the bank, the boys jumped into the Rio Grande and then hopped back into the hot spring. The base of the hot springs was a fine sandy bottom, and though they said the temp was about 105 degrees, it was very easy for all of us to be in it, and it felt good on our hiking legs from long hikes the day before. The outside temp was at least 75 as well, dry and well, for January 31, perfect!

At the Port of Entry, there were two Park Rangers happy to see the kids and who wanted to describe to us what we’d be encountering in Mexico. No bringing back rocks, vegetation or skulls/bones among other things. But Mexican candy would be ok (all Andy has been talking about!) We walked about a ¼ mile to the river, and waved the row boat over. The boys were told they could actually walk across if they wanted, it would be very shallow, even though it was wide. But we all wanted the row boat experience!

On the other side, we went right over where the burros were, excited to ride those into town. Everybody did great hopping on and with the ride trotting the ¾ mile into town. Our burro guide was also our guide for the day and he took us to the Mexican immigration office, to the restaurant, and for a little tour of the town. The food was amazing, but the “best margarita in Mexico” was so good I had 2! We bought a couple of souvenirs, I noticed that they do all their sewing by hand. There were many solar panels in the town and we were told that many of them were given in part by the UN. We also saw where their little school, church and clinic were. After inquiring about Mexican candy (we still hadn’t found any!) we were told to go to the blue house at the end of the curve. That’s where the kids hit the jackpot and found what they wanted. They both really like tamarind flavored candy!

Back at our camper, I cooked up a big bowl of chili. Terlingua, which was very close to us, is known for their World Chili Championships. I purchased some local chili seasonings and made the best pot of chili we’ve ever had. Woody also did a ton of science experiments on the picnic table outside of our camper. He has been learning a lot about erosion, and he had a lot of prime examples to see in Big Bend National Park. This was a great way to road-school with the boys!

We finally made it to this amazing place, though I thought we never would with Jesse constantly pulling over to take another picture of the beautiful terrain we were driving into! We seem to be the only ones on the newly paved road, it was a total trek to get here and we know now that they mean it when they say to get gas any chance you can. With a big F250 pulling a 35′ trailer we rolled into one town with 10 miles to spare! Yikes! Gunner went to a kennel for a couple days. Unfortunately, most Nat’l Parks are not very dog friendly, so this was the best thing for him.

We’re staying in an “RV park” in Study Butte, just outside the park. It’s more like 4 campers parking in some dudes hobby farm parking lot, but that also seems to be the norm for the sparsely populated area were in.

Our first actual official stop was the Big Bend National Park sign. That’s a must for Jesse! We drove to Santa Elena Canyon, right where the Rio Grande is. On the US side, it was flat-ish up to the river, but on the Mexico side, were tall towering 1500′ rock walls for miles! We were giggling in awe of how amazing God’s works are. These are exactly the spaces we are happy about the government protecting!

We took a quick 2 mile hike into the canyon to see a different bend in it. The water was so smooth, reflecting the canyon until a solo kayaker came through with their paddle and made ripples. Someone on the trail told us that the echoes sounded cool, so you could guess what we were doing for the next 20 min!

The Rio Grande isn’t all that big which was surprising to us. Of course, the boys thought it would be cool to swim over to the Mexican side and swim back. A park volunteer said they would have no problem swimming over, but if they tried swimming back, border patrol would come take them to an overnight stay in the klinker! Ok no thanks! We may have a chance to head to Mexico legally later this week though.

We found ourselves back at the camper with a bit of daylight left, so we thought we’d check out what was “in town” which is more like what’s spread across the desert highway. There was a sign for Terlingua Ghost Town that we followed, and it was here that we saw our first real signs of life believe it or not! The Starlight Theater, now a burger joint, was hopping! We later found out that it was locals night and that’s why there was so many gathered! While waiting for our table, we did a quick walking tour of the ghost town. Seems it was a mining community until the 1930’s that had about a population of 2000, now only about 20! Also, the purplish hazy sunset reflection on the mountains was dreamlike! Live music, Texas beer, prickly pear cactus soda pop(we saw lots of pp cactus today!) and a prickly pear margarita and a burger bigger then my head was on the menu; we were so happy we stumbled in after a great day in the park! (MT)

Having a home base in Texas now, we took a day trip to San Antonio. Jesse and I had been here already, but it had been 17+ years. I wanted the kids to see the river walk and the Alamo, and Jesse wanted to take us to a medical museum at Fort Sam Houston, which happened to be where he did his AIT to be a Medic for the Army National Guard.

After researching and calling ahead last week to see if we could get on base as civilians and learning that we just have to check in at the visitors center, we were ready to do just that. And yes, last week they told us what days/hours they’d be open and today was one of them! We got a little lost on base looking for the museum, but that was just a little bit of fun exploring. After parking and walking to the museum front doors, we were approached by an employee telling us that because of the government shutdown, they were closed. Argh! Jesse and I were kicking ourselves, of course we should’ve known that! Jesse was so incredibly bummed not only because he wanted to see what the museum had, I know he really wanted to show the boys everything too. There were a couple of outdoor exhibits we could see through the fence (helicopters, trucks, an a medical train car!) and one good looking statue in front that would have to suffice for now. Tonight it looks like the government is reopen so I’m chalking it up to bad luck.

With tummies rumbling, we parked downtown and walked to El Mercado, an indoor/outdoor marketplace. It wasn’t very hopping at noon on a Monday but we found some tasty tacos at Viva Villa!

San Antonio is such an easy city to walk, and before you know it we were at the Alamo. I liked seeing the boy’s genuine reactions to it, perhaps a little underwhelmed until walking up to it and then marveling at how old and important it is. The only problem was that we couldn’t find the basement!

We had a sunny day and the temp was about 68 degrees for the river walk boat tour. The kids were very impressed at how beautiful everything was and how close to falling in you could be at any moment. Luckily we all stayed dry.

There is a National Park trail to see more Missions in SA, and we drove that to see 2 more. We weren’t allowed to go into them because of the government shutdown, but we could see them from the car/parking lot. 2 other ones had the roads to them closed so no luck with that.

We ended the night at a BBQ joint in middle-of-nowhere Lockhart, the “BBQ Capital of Texas”. It was everything and more. But I think we’ll have to do more experimenting with BBQ joints this week! We just don’t need to eat anything tomorrow.

Warm Texas thoughts go back to those at home who had a snow day today!

I’m just going to start right in and say that these are the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen! (sorry Tom and Amy in Bermuda-you get a close second!) We almost didn’t even come here. We’re only here to say “hi” to some friends we know from Ottertail Lake. And from here we’re headed back to Texas. But man am I happy to see this place in person!

We had originally wanted to go out to eat last night after we settled in to the state park, but we were all exhausted and huffy after a stressful setup. I’m especially happy for new days-aren’t you?! Anywho, we had lunch at Pompano Joe’s, a fun seafood joint on the beach-we wouldn’t have even seen the view last night! God works in mysterious ways! We all had amazing seafood and Andy had oysters for the first time. You guessed it, he loved them!

Afterwards, we went out to the smooth sugar sand beach with Gunner. He could just run free and he was so happy-that made all of us happy too! He didn’t care for the salt water but loved running and digging. Even dogs love to feel the sand between their toes!

For the rest of the afternoon, we hung out at our friends Peg and Clancy’s house where the boys could pick oranges and grapefruits right off the trees in their back yard. Peg had a great juicer so we had tons of fresh juice! We visited with another couple from OTL, Nancy and RC, and it was just a blast hanging out. We ate 2 more King Cakes and Andy and RC were declared Kings for the night!(and have to buy the cakes next year!)

The weather was in the 50’s but sunny today so it felt good in my jeans and sweatshirt. 70 degrees would be perfect but I don’t think that’s gonna happen for us. One thing I know for sure though, I’ll be looking at Destin and the surrounding area for my next tropical vacation destination!(MT)

I forgot to say that Woody became a Floridian Junior Park Ranger today. He now has a challenge to be a junior ranger at as many parks as he can this year. All involve doing some research, filling out a packet of questions about the park, and some have him taking an oath.

Gunner here. I decided I wanted to be the one to tell you about our trip to New Orleans. First thing we did was drive over the world’s longest bridge, the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway Bridge. Our first stop in NOLA was my mom and dad’s favorite, Cafe Du Monde. Everybody but me ate something that made theirs mouths turn white! After that, we did a ton of walking. I think we passed Brangelinas old house, a voodoo museum, a good smelling post, pretty architecture, good smelling curb, 2(!) National Parks, a good smelling sidewalk, Louis Armstrong Park(they wouldn’t let me off my leash all day. I just wanted to run and sniff stuff in the park!) a good smelling street, a good smelling cemetery wall and a good smelling fence that overlooked the Mississippi River! I couldn’t go into many stores, but one store was made just for me! They had dog treats and millions of squeaky toys-doggy heaven!

My mom had talked about going on the streetcar and doing a walking tour to look at the pretty houses in the garden district. But she found out dogs aren’t allowed in the street car, and realized we can just drive through the garden district in my dad’s truck! Which by the way, he’s not so excited driving in the city.

My brother Woody could not stop talking about going to eat at a place he saw on Diners, Dives and Drives. Apparently Mahoney’s is famous for Po Boy’s. They got an oyster one, a shrimp one and a chicken liver one. Can you guess which guy got what?

I’m tired after putting on over 5 miles today. I was sniffing up a storm all day, I was a country dog in a stinky city dog’s world! (Gunner)

We arrived at our campsite at about 5pm last night. The temp was a comfortable 60ish degrees, and we were loving it! At about 8pm, the rain started, and it just poured all night long! I think we got about 2-3 inches of rain, and we woke up to our very own bayou in the morning! We were told by the park ranger that we probably won’t see alligators here, but we might see wild boar. AND WE DID! Tonight as we were coming back from the library, a large black boar and a bunch of baby boars(they were sooo cute!) ran across the road from us and just waddled into the woods. Both Jesse and I thought they were bear at first, this was just crazy! We now know that we really can’t let Gunner off his leash!

Our park states that they have wifi but actually they have “wifi”. Which we think is worse then nothing. Sooo slow and spotty. As much as we love nature, we need wifi for the boys schoolwork. So we spent the afternoon at the Mandeville public library. Shout out to the helpful librarians there-they were extremely happy to help the boys continue learning! Normally there is a 60 minute limit on the computers, but if you are actually studying or taking a test, they’ll extend the time infinitely. While they love to be a haven for kids afterschool, they were probably sick of kids playing games on the computers.

Another thing I spazzed out about today was the laundry facilities. We’d been wearing our NDSU gear 3 straight days in a row so we all needed to freshen up. Get this, the washers were free and the dryers were only $1. But as I was waiting for the last load to dry, someone came in and told me the dryers were actually free, just push the button and it’ll turn on! Soooo, I’m pretty sure we’ll be wearing clean clothes everyday this week-yippee! (MT)