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!

Bingo spells bing, bong and boing!

Tonight, after a very productive day around the house with wheels, Maureen and I decided we needed a date night. Since we embarked on this adventure, we have not had a night to ourselves. As luck would have it, directly across the street from the handy dandy KOA in Alamogordo, lies the Eagles Airie #2019 with bingo on Tuesday nights!

For those of you who don’t know my habits and hobbies, bingo is not one of them. At least not “serious” bingo.

We walked across the street, hand in hand, ready for casual bingo without boys but maybe with an adult beverage or two. The sign said “doors open at 5:30-bingo calling starts at 7”. As we entered the lot, it looks fairly full, but there is no activity. We open the only door we see and….creek it opens with a slight breeze. We step into a room where bingo is already underway and we are new people. No bar, nothing but bingo daubers, bingo paper cards and cigarettes! Maureen and I are out of place from the start! We buy the minimum mega pack of nine cards each for each game. They are already three games into a ten game night. We missed the first three but paid for them anyway! Of course, we didn’t have the special daubers, so Maureen rushed up and bought some. She, of course, got the bright purple and I was blue!

For those of you who haven’t experienced competitive bingo, I will give you a little picture of what I saw:

-I was mildly challenged managing my 9 cards. Several people were playing with 60+ cards. One lady had at least 90 cards!

-If you are “of status”, you must arrive with special “bingo bags”. These bags have pockets for lots of daubers, pens, cigarettes, snacks, etc.

-If you intend to manage 99 cards, it’s best you have a plastic glove on one hand, a pillow on your seat and tape to hold all 99 cards together.

-There are “special” games that you buy in addition to bingo. If the caller says “this next game is Wonky Willy”, you best know what that means. Maureen and I started marking our cards, but we didn’t have the “special cards”. This meant that when we started “real bingo” again, we had to use different colors on the cards we had already marked…thankfully we didn’t win that round!

-“I26, I26. Mark it now because I26 doesn’t light up!”

-Proper bingo calling attire includes t-shirts. I really have nothing funny about wearing a t-shirt, unless of course the shirt says “Healthy Foods” with vegetables printed on the front…while she eats one of the largest ice cream bowls I’ve ever seen!

-Competitive bingo includes shapes and games which are unique. Small diamond with corner squares and wild numbers with nine blocks. Pay attention folks!

-During blackout bingo, when you only have nine cards to manage versus 99, boredom can set in. Maureen decided she would draw with her dauber. Finger painting while playing bingo is frowned upon! Our success at blackout was nil. Just look at all the space left on my card!

In the end, date night wasn’t a complete bust. We got out of the trailer, we had some fun and we saw all kinds of interesting! Here’s to many more nights of interesting!

This morning we got up at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park and saw U.S. Border Patrol special forces. They were ready to go on a hike with all their gear, it was super cool to watch.

Then we headed down the road toward Alamogordo, New Mexico. When we were driving through El Paso we pulled over at a gas station. There they had a fair amount of Mexican candy, things that Andy and I had been looking for like tamarind flavored candy. We also got a mango chili icee that was amazing. I like the flavors of the Southwest. We also passed Fort Bliss, an Army base that specializes in tanks and artillery. They have a ton of space to train in the New Mexico desert, and while we were driving in the middle of nowhere, we even saw some tanks and APC’s practicing and it totally look real! We also drove by Holloman Air Force Base where Germany trains some of their Air Force (we heard over 3,000 Germans are stationed here!) We saw a couple of fighter jets flying over us too, that was really cool.

We went to the first KOA we have ever been to in Alamogordo. The guy working there said that they have sleds for the White Sands National Monument that we could borrow. Just down the highway, WSNM is where you can sled on beautiful sand. When we got there we started looking for a place to sled. We found a perfect place and started sledding. We sled until we were tired of sledding. Here is a video of that: https://youtu.be/bV04_ZwOKZw

Then we started jumping down the dunes and rolling down the dunes. It was a blast and I think Gunner loved it the most! It was nice that dogs could come into the park. Then we went home and took showers and got all the sand off our bodies. Mom made a really good instant pot meal, she has been a great cook in the camper! (WT)

At Guadalupe Mountains National Park, the campground is actually the same as the hiking trail parking lot. We stayed for 2 nights and relied on our camper batteries and propane heater. Thankfully there was a bathroom nearby.

When we arrived on the first night my Brother, Dad, and I went on a hike called The Devil’s Hall. My mom didn’t come with because dogs aren’t allowed so she stayed with Gunner. On the Devil’s Hall trail we had to do a little bit of rock climbing on a dry riverbed to get to the beautiful Devil’s Hall.

The next day we went to Carlsbad Cavern where we hiked a few miles down the natural entrance to the cave system. I liked seeing the endless pit because it really looked like it went on forever. I also really liked seeing an old ladder that went down another seemingly bottomless pit. https://youtu.be/jkpLz6tfUSY

This morning we woke up to see a large group of CBP Special Operations Officers getting ready to train on El Capitan. These guys were probably from Fort Bliss, their headquarters. They had a bunch of climbing gear on so I bet they were either going to be rappelling or climbing up the hill. That was pretty exciting for us guys so that was a great start to our day.

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!<<<<
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We started the day off with a dip into the hot springs on the banks of the Rio Grande. The natural hot springs were very warm but because it was a warm day I enjoyed quick dip in the cool Rio Grande as well. After that, we drove to the border crossing/Port of Entry where two rangers gave us information about things we can and can’t do/buy in Mexico.

When we made it to the river there was a man in a rowboat that brought us across the river. After that, we got a ride on a burro to town. When we got to town we saw many people lining the street all selling bags, coozies, and wire sculptures. There were two restaurants, one on either street. We ended up going to the one on the south side which was named Boquillas restaurant.

For lunch we had tacos, tamales, and enchiladas. This was my first time having tamales and I can say that I will definitely have them again. We walked down more streets where we saw the school, clinic, and the many solar panels provided in part by the UN. Woody did his blog out on the balcony of another restaurant that provided a great view.

When we were about to leave we saw a Mexican Army Humvee come rolling through the town. Woody and I both thought that was super cool. We found a house that sold snacks and other food. We bought a bunch of candy and my favorite one by far was the soft chili tamarind candy. Our burro ride back was fun and when we got back to the U.S. side, at the Port of Entry there was a machine with a camera and a telephone that we used to call immigration officials in El Paso. I had a lot of fun during my first time in Mexico.(AT)

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!

Today (January 31) we started the day off with a bath in the hot springs right by the Rio Grande. When I dipped my head into the cold water of the Rio Grande, I immediately hopped right out and into the hot spring. It felt like pins and needles. Here’s a link to a video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5DPSPZE5wI&feature=share

We wanted to go to Mexico and so we drove to the Boquillas crossing. We then went to the border protection on the USA side. We took a boat across the river and after that we rode burros to the Boquillas village. My burro was a pretty one with white fur. For lunch we went to the Boquillas restaurant, one of the two restaurants in Boquilla. The menu was cheese enchiladas, tamales, and goat tacos. I got the enchiladas, my brother got the tamales, and my parents got the tacos. The enchiladas were the best I have ever had because of the sauce. I also made a video there: make sure to check my other ones out too.

Today was probably the best day I have had this year. (WT)