John & Armen On The Road

The Florida Keys

And then we headed down to the Keys. The Florida Keys are a string of tropical islands stretching about 120 miles off the southern tip of the U.S. state of Florida, between the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. They are 90 miles from Cuba, but worlds apart. The southernmost city is Key West and our ultimate destination before checking it off the list and turning around and heading back towards home.

As it turns out, just about all of Florida is booked solid during the winter months by snowbirds, a term for mostly retired folks who originate from the frigid northern US states and Canada. It’s nearly impossible to find a site even months ahead. Even the Elks Lodge in the Keys was booked solid for 3 months.

We were going to stay at an Indian Casino (because they allow RVs to dry camp for free in their lot) on the east edge of the park before driving down, but I was able to find a miraculously open site about halfway down on Fiesta Key. It was very pricey, but it had everything we needed (laundry, water, electricity, etc.), so I booked it and we headed down.

Driving thru the Keys is slow, as it’s a 2 lane highway, with no other route options, so it turned leisurely, allowing us to enjoy the turquoise blue waters on either side.

Once we checked in to Fiesta, we set out to get some much needed laundry done. Our neighbors to the right were sitting in their chairs at the edge of the road having a cocktail, and offered us their wagon to haul everything. When we got back, our neighbors to the left were bringing over their chairs. On one of our trips to the wash, I commented that it looks like it’s happy hour, to which John asked “what time is it?”

Happy hour is relative to your immediate circumstances, and it looked like it was well under way when we got done with the wash and wagon, so we asked if we could join them with our chairs. And then more neighbors came over and our spontaneous block party started spilling into the street. One of the newcomers said he happened to have a fire pit, and everyone else offered wood, so we moved the party into an empty space next to our camper- you know, for safety’s sake to get out of the road!

One thing led to the next and pretty soon the moonshine came out, the mini paper shot glasses came out, the potato chips and a package of hot dogs came out (cause no one had really had any dinner…). There were a couple of kids running around (reminded me of the old parties on our ridge with the bonfires and kids at large) and we had a good old time on Fiesta Key, appropriately named!

As we found out the next morning, some had too much of a good time, because margaritas and moonshine are never a good idea despite thinking it was a good idea at the time, and thankfully that wasn’t us!!

It was time to move down to Key West, where our old family friend, Robin, and his lovely wife, Laura, live and work. They work for a hotel and were able to get permission for us to park in a vacant overflow lot that is used for valet parking (cause like I said before, every RV space is booked solid). We were the only ones parked in the gated lot, with security. It was a block from the beach, and we were able to ride our bikes all over town easily.

Our own private parking lot in Key West, a block from the beach

We could even see the turquoise water from our kitchen window, kinda. I’m sure many hotels would boast “ocean view!”, right?

Both Robin and Laura took a lot of time with us, showing us around town, recommending interesting things to see, places to eat and recreate while they worked their different shifts.

It was really nice to finally be out of our winter clothes and in a tropical place! It was windy, and not quite warm enough to swim, but sunglasses and sunscreen and tank tops-finally!!

Sundowners at the Tipsy Rooster with Laura

One of their favorite neighborhood bars was only about 2 blocks from our place, so it became our favorite as well. There was a fun game/trick that people would try over and over again to conquer, but only the locals knew the secret. One showed it to John, and he used it to impress some drunk guys who were avoiding going to a wedding. Of course, he did not share the secret. The object is to unhook the ring, let it swing and hook itself back up. The drunk guys never got it, but we did get a free round of drinks out of them.

This seems as appealing as a cruise ship- sunset cruise on a tiki hut boat, no bladder relief options!

There’s a thing in Key West where folks gather at a place called Mallory Square to watch the sunset. It’s a bit of a carnival atmosphere, with entertainers doing crazy things like juggling on ladders held by the audience, or the creepy cat guy who has his cats do cool tricks, but he’s clearly spent too much time with them. Lots of action, and the sunset was quite pretty.

No RV parking, but great music and really nice folks

John and I left Mallory Square and watched folks dance to a salsa band, then rode our bikes back toward home. We were rolling along and saw this curious door to the Coral City Elks Lodge, and decided to stop in for a visit. We were definitely the only visitors, and had a drink while chatting it up with the bartender and a member. There’s only about 30-35 members to this lodge, and it was quite small, but they had great music and could not have been more welcome to us.

And you need to know the secret knock and handshake

Usually a long line to get closer enough for a pic, but we got lucky one night

Another attraction in Key West that we’d been riding past and not stopping for (because people were literally lined up to take pictures with it) was a buoy that indicated the southernmost point in the continental US. On this night, we happened by and zero people were there, so of course I had to stop and take a selfie, which looks like I have a weird tattoo on the side of my head….

Farmers market – pretty sure those peaches were not from KW

On our last night, the kids had arranged their schedules so we could take them out to dinner, and they had called ahead to this excellent Cuban restaurant to order paella. We showed up at the appointed time and had a fantastic meal. Since you have to call at least an hour ahead for the paella, folks around us were eyeing our meal with envy and we enjoyed it even more.

The finale for the evening was dessert, at Better Than Sex, an exclusive reservations only dessert restaurant that embraces all the innuendos and ambience you might imagine. It was creative and delicious, and we pretty much overloaded on sugar. We had such a fun last night in Key West, thanks to Robin and Laura.

On our last day, we packed up the RV and followed Robin up to Geiger Key for a farewell lunch on the water at a quintessential Keys eatery, watching boats come and go and just enjoying the vibe that Jimmy Buffet sings about. And then, we turned back towards home, cause there was no more road to travel down here.

Big Cypress & The Everglades

We ended up spending a fun and relaxing several days in both Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park. We stayed in a couple different campsites while we were there, Midway and Monument Lake Campgrounds. Big Cypress is adjacent to the Everglades, and both are located in the southern portion of Florida.

One of the most famous animals in these parts is the panther, which at one point in our recent past and memory, had been reduced to a handful due to adverse environmental conditions and the take by humans of their habitat. The Preserve and National Park ensure some areas to be left wild for these creatures. There was an attempt to bring the panther population back from the brink of extinction and inbreeding by introducing cougars brought in from Texas, and the population has increased with hopes for survival. Some locals complain that the Texas cougars bred the local panther population to be bigger and hungrier cats, consuming more of the local deer population and reducing their hunting opportunities, but that requires more research than we had time for.

Lots of activities included the visitors centers, biking, boating (swamp boats, kayaks), driving, viewing alligators, TONS of birds. We met some nice folks at the campgrounds that we’d love to remain in contact with, and swapped lots of stories.

Chico Bag at a National Park in Florida! They’re everywhere!

Jr. Ranger outfit, we thought would be cute for Andy 🙂
Don’t worry, Ryan and Christelle, we didn’t get it 😆

Right out our front window, croc on a rock (actually gator, but that didn’t rhyme). Dude sat there for the entire day.

Another lovely place to call home for a few nights!

One of the days, we went out on a private swamp boat ride into the grasslands, and it reminded me of Africa but with water in every direction. There was no one out there and it was really fun to be out on a boat, plus we got to see more alligators (haha, but this felt like we were really OUT there). We even saw some newly hatched baby gators- really cute.

Our boat captain told us that he grew up out here, and when he was younger, his parents would tell him that if he got lost out in the swamp, to identify the strands (strands of trees/shrubs/vegetation) and use them as landmarks to find his way back. Of course one of the first things he told us was that now that Google is ubiquitously in our lives, the boat guides have to be careful of their stories, because everyone can fact-check them. So some, all, or most of what he told us was probably mostly true.

Sadly, Mylar balloons do not magically disappear when they drift off into the sky. Please stop sending them up, there is no good end to them.

One of the days we went to go to an area that a ranger had recommended, Shark Valley. There was a paved 15 mile loop that we could do a bike ride on, and lots of gators and birds to see. Unfortunately, when we drove the RV in to the park entrance, we were told that there was no parking available for big vehicles, because there were several school buses and other RVs that had arrived earlier than us. So we got turned away.

Others told us later that you have to arrive early to get one of the very few parking spots at this area. The next morning, despite setting the alarm for 7:30 am so that we could get there around 8:15 to be in line when the gate opened at 8:30, we both woke up early, pulled the slide in, and headed out to be the very first vehicle in line at Shark Valley, and got there at around 7:20 (VERY early.).

The lovely thing is that we were alone, it was blissfully quiet and we had plenty of time to actually get dressed, have a little breakfast and coffee (cause we brought the house with us!), perform our morning ablutions, and prepare ourselves for an enjoyable morning in Everglades National Park.

When the gate opened, we presented our (John’s) Senior Lifetime Park Pass, got in for free, and rolled up to the first available RV parking spot. We got our bikes down, sun-screened and watered up, and set off.

Because we were one of the first into the park, we literally had the place to ourselves. It was gorgeous, we saw another 1000 gators and birds (possibly a slight exaggeration, but we’ve lost count on how many gators we have seen by now), and rode our wonderful ebikes directly into the headwind. We got to the lookout without anyone around, enjoyed looking down into a cool pond with huge gators and turtles (I saw a HUGE turtle just under the surface, but alas, no photos of that big boy), and watched a hawk struggle with a snake from tree to tree.

And then, a tram load of tourists arrived, with unsupervised children, and it was time for us to zip away…..

When we got back down to our bikes, a woman was taking photos of them, and of course we struck up a conversation. John smoothly transitioned into the ebike salesman he’s becoming, and offered her and her companions rides on our bikes. They had battled the headwind on their regular bikes coming out to this lookout, and a little breeze around on the ebikes had them enthralled. I swear, John should get a commission for future sales of these bikes!

We parted ways with those nice folks, and headed out, with the wind at our backs. Where we were riding at around 9-10 mph on the way out into the wind, we were being pushed at around 13 mph on the way back, with the exact same gears and settings.

Such a lovely morning out there in Shark Valley, and it was totally worth it to get up early and beat the crowds. Since we were early-ish in the day, we drove down to Everglades City, on the western side of the park, and had a nice lunch on the river.

On our last day, we had signed up for a kayak tour, so we motored down to the National Park HQ in Everglades City, at the southwest end of the park. There were about 10 of us and 2 ranger guides. It was fun getting out on the water, and it was a nice day except for the wind. We slogged for about an hour and a half along the shoreline, and after a little rest stop, made our way back.

We enjoyed visiting with a couple of women who are from Cape Cod but have been spending the winter near Ft Lauderdale helping with one of their parents. They signed up for the kayak trip to get a little break. We exchanged numbers when the trip was over and think it would be fun to visit them up in Cape Cod some time in the future.

When we were driving thru Everglades City, looking for a place to grab lunch, they texted us to see if we wanted to meet for lunch and a beer, and the place was right in front of us so we pulled in, parked our rig, and continued our visiting with them on a nice deck by the water.

When we got back to our campsite, our lovely neighbors came over to share the day’s experiences, and when he said they were out on a tour boat at the park HQ, I told him we were out on kayaks there. He pulled out his phone and brought up a couple of photos he took of our group! John’s in the red kayak in the center of the photo and I’m just to his left. What a kick that was!

We really enjoyed our stay at Big Cypress and Everglades, and even got used to the idea that a huge gator was lurking around every corner near water…..

This was the longest stretch of days we’d spent in any one place on the whole trip, and it was both fun and restful. We met several really nice folks, and saw some cool stuff. Highly recommend visiting both Big Cypress and Everglades!

More Florida

We had a long driving day and found a free place to stay for the night through the Harvest Hosts app, which led us to a sweet little island west of Ft. Myers.

The host was a palm (and other tropical tree) farm/nursery, located on Pine Island in a village called Bokeelia. It was breezy, but it was starting to feel like we’d left the chill behind us finally and were seeing more signs that we were getting closer to tropical!

Mature palm trees out the other side of the rig

It was peaceful, the host was really welcoming and gave us several ideas of where to go for a bike ride, drinks & sunset watching, breakfast the next day, etc. We parked in a pretty spot, took the bikes down and rode to a place called the Lazy Flamingo for a beer.

The next morning, we packed up, had good coffee and breakfast at the recommended hole in the wall, then set off south towards Naples, where we shopped for groceries before heading into Big Cypress National Preserve.

One thing that we’ve really been noticing all throughout Florida has been the plethora of churches. They’ve ranged from tiny one room shacks off the side of the road, to the full on mega churches with lit up billboards. The most remarkable and irritating thing I saw though, was when we were leaving Naples on a pretty substantial road, and a sheriff had stopped public road traffic and was waving a hundred cars coming out of one of the mega churches.

3 lane highway stops to let church traffic out…

As we left the populated areas behind us, we looked forward to the church of Mother Nature and getting to our destination of Big Cypress and the Everglades.

Alabama to Florida

Blink, and we passed thru Alabama with one overnight stay in Gulf Shores. The tides were too low to take the ferry from Dauphin Island to Fort Morgan, so we drove up thru Mobile and back down to Gulf Shores. It was really nice to be hugging the coast again! We were lucky to find a spot to park for the night, and even luckier that it was within a short ride to the Gulf Shores State Park, another state park gem!

There was a 20 mile loop with a perfect bike/pedestrian trail, and while rain threatened and had been pouring recently, we were able to avoid it on our ride. We saw a bald eagle and its nest, alligator, and pines and palm trees in the same forests. It was really beautiful.

We stopped to look at another alligator, and several other cyclists stopped as well, and before you know it, everyone was standing with their backs to the poor alligator, talking about our e-bikes, and then taking test rides!

Uneventful travel past here, except blinding rain and winds, all the way to Tallahassee. Since it’s high snowbird season in Florida, there are no vacancies anywhere for overnight RV stays. We knew this going on but decided to wing it anyways. Luckily, this Elk got us a spot at the Tallahassee Lodge, which also happened to have an open lounge and pool tables. John and I made friends, dried off, and got a break from the RV for a couple hours.

We’d really love to send some of this cold, windy, rainy weather we seemed to have stolen from California right on back to y’all. (See what I did there?) There’s a whole new language out here in the south, I guess it started in Texas and kept on going!

West Coast Florida

So as I mentioned, we’ve been bringing or chasing un-vacation-like weather. We’ve still been wearing our jeans, puffy jackets and SOCKS for crying out loud!

Since the weather was crappy, we decided to stick to the interstate for awhile before turning coastward on Hwy 19 toward our destination, Cedar Key, where we found a place that would squeeze us in for the night. Once we turned off the interstate and started driving right through rural northern Florida, we began to look for interesting distractions to stop for a lunch break.

We found a couple state parks close to each other, and pulled into the first one, called Fanning Springs. This was a sleepy little park, which boasted natural hot springs that fed into the Suwannee River, and was a natural attraction for manatees in the winter when the river is cooler.

Way down upon the Suwannee River, far, far away…

There was a big pool that people are allowed to swim in when no alligators are around.

Do not swim with alligators. That is all.

Fanning Springs going out to the Suwannee River

We enjoyed this spot and hardly anyone was here, so we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves!

Next stop was Manatee Springs State Park, not too terribly far away, and this was a larger park with a couple campgrounds and more activities like hiking, boating, and observation boardwalks as well as a similar natural warm pool as the one back at Fanning. We paid the day use fee, because when we called earlier to see if there were any open campsites available, they referred us to the website which said they were full.

So we went for some walks, saw a manatee out near the entrance to the river (same – Suwannee), and decided to head out after a quick bite. As we exited the park, John went into the ranger kiosk and found out that there was a cancellation (because some wimps didn’t like the rainy weather), so we changed plans and grabbed that site and decided to stay here rather than Cedar Key.

Since we needed to find a spot for the following night, and there was no cell service in the park, and we needed to re-provision food, fuel, etc., we went into town to do all that.

This plant, called Sparkleberry, is related to the blueberry, and the leaves and flowers show some resemblance to what we know.

This park was full, but super quiet, and we watched a mama manatee with a baby, did a few mile interpretative loop, and settled into our campsite amongst the trees.

Since it was cold, we opted for a Dutch oven lasagna that night and planned so that we’d have leftovers for future meals.

Each coal represents approximately 10 degrees of heat- some up, some under

We were sitting around that evening when the campground host came around, going to each site, to let everyone know that there was a freeze forecast for that night and to leave faucets dripping etc. Since we had power and water hookups, we managed just fine and didn’t notice the chill that seems to have left California with us and followed us across the country!!

Leavin’ Louisiana in the Broad Daylight

It’s just an ordinary story about the way things go, around and around nobody knows, that the highway goes on forever…. (Rodney Crowell)

We left Louisiana in the broad daylight, around noon actually. Our aim was to stay along the Gulf Coast, so we headed out on I-10E and veered off it back onto our good old friend, Highway 90, which took us closer to the Gulf. We turned again, and ended up at Buccaneer State Park in Mississippi, just west of Gulfport, MS. I swear, the state parks we’ve seen have been the biggest surprise on this whole trip. They are well kept, organized, plentiful, and in beautiful places.

It was foggy and drizzly, but it was also serene and quiet. We made our way the next day hugging the coast, a much slower but very nice drive.

John was looking for some fishing or casino action, so we ended up spending the morning at Davis Bayou which is a part of the very expansive Gulf Islands National Seashore, quite near Biloxi, MS. We’ve been getting distracted easily lately.

We were unable to get a campsite there, but we spent a couple hours hiking around the trails, looking at turtles and alligators, and had a nice lunch.

Apparently they coexist without one eating the other

We then went back a short way to Biloxi to a couple of the casinos, and found John a $3 craps table while I played some penny slots. Got that out of our system, and headed back on the road to find a place to stay.

We subscribed to an app (Harvest Hosts) that shows us farms, wineries, cultural attractions, etc., that offer a free place to park the rig for a night, with the expectation that you patronize the business. Sooooo, one of those places was not too far away, and we stopped for the night at the Gulf Coast Gator Ranch & Swamp Boat Tours 😁 (note: Gator is short for Alligator).

Gulf Coast Gator Ranch & Swamp Boat Tours

Not-baby Gators in the ranch enclosed area

We were a little late for the swamp boat tour, so we got situated for the night, met a nice couple who have been full-timers for 2 years, and have a YouTube channel with lots of interesting and informative videos. You can find them by searching Getaway Couple. Full-timing is a thing- many folks sell their residences and downsize all their worldly possessions and hit the road in their rolling homes to explore the country. We’ve met a number of other travelers who are doing the same thing, and although most we’ve met are retired, increasingly there are young ones who can work from the road (e-nomads) and this is their life.

In the morning, we were the first ones to go for a swamp boat ride, and our guide, Sam, didn’t disappoint. We saw about 5 alligators, from very young to very old, who were swimming or sunning in the morning light out on the beautiful swamp. He said this was a good day. He also gave us a fun ride through the swamp, going fast and spinning brodies. We had a great time and were done by 9 am, so after buying a couple souvenirs, we set off.

Spot (or some similar name – they all had names)

After Hurricane Katrina, which hit this place hard, many of the ranch-raised gators escaped and were retrieved (I think Sam said the ranch gators were chipped). One very old and large guy, Big Daddy, has eluded attempts to be caught and is still at large out there in the swamp. These guys can get to the ripe old age of 70-80 years old, and I believe Sam told us that Big Daddy was one of the old ones and around 15’ long.

This was our last stay in Mississippi, as the Alabama border was close by and next thing you know, we saw the sign “Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama”.

Goin’ to New Orleans

Well, we know we need to go back to New Orleans now, cause it’s a fun, interesting and beautiful city with so much culture! And, um, the food is amazing!

This was the only place we had reservations for when we left home, because we wanted to see Mardi Gras finally (well, we were a week early for the culmination celebration, but hell, it goes on for a month!!). The RV park we stayed at was within walking distance of the French Quarter and short Uber rides in either direction to other activities. Thanks to Dana, Ryan, Janet, Anna & Spragues, we checked a number of boxes off on recommendations for food, music, bars & attractions that don’t fit into any of those categories.

The first thing we did upon arrival was race down to the WW2 Museum to meet a curator we’d been corresponding with, regarding some mementos that we had of John’s dad from his service. They’re interested in soldiers’ stories, and after looking at what we brought and talking about Nic, she asked us to send photos of other things we have at home and she’d look at the whole package. As I mentioned earlier, John’s dad was in Patton’s 3rd Army, 5th Division, 7th Company. They saw a lot of action, well known campaigns such as the landing at Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, the Liberation of Paris, to name a few. We agreed to come back to the museum when we could spend more time.

From there we wandered on foot and ended up in the French Quarter. Of course there was a parade, and it was a smallish one-no floats, but plenty of characters. It was the Krewe of Cork.

If you need Emergency Thirst Aid, Call Wine-1-1!

Not really sure how The Dude fits in with this theme, but John had a few words for him and Walter

At one point, The Dude and Walter come walking by, and John yells out, “Hey, like, that’s just your opinion, man,” and The Dude turns around and says something like, you should tell that to Walter over here, then Walter comes strolling by, and John yells “You’re not wrong Walter. You’re just an asshole.” He got laughs from a bunch of folks around us and The Dude and Walter. If you need a reference, you should watch the film The Big Lebowski about 100 times, like we have, then you’d get it and think this was hilarious.

The legendary Bourbon Street, which is basically a 24/7 frat party

Most of this first afternoon was just wandering around looking and watching and listening. We retreated early by N’awlins standards and went back to our park for a soak in the hot tub. The next morning, we prepped for the entire day out and about and on our feet with sensible shoes and appropriate layers.

We ventured down to the huge line at the infamous Cafe du Monde for the requisite beignets and coffee. It was actually surprisingly quick for such a massive amount of people waiting, but next thing you know, we were seated and looking at a huge pile of powdered sugar with some delectable fried pastries buried underneath. They did not disappoint!! Check that off the list of must-dos in NOLA. I did learn that Cafe du Monde is open 24/7 in case you ever go there and the line is daunting in the morning!

There is powdered sugar literally EVERYWHERE

On the good side of the fence, waiting for beignets

We walked a lot, rode a trolley, checked out the craps tables at Harrahs (wayyyyy too much for us- who plays for $20 minimum bet? Not us!), and found ourselves at another parade, this one much bigger and with blocked off streets and lots of floats. And beads. So many beads! I think we got 20 lbs worth!

Just a little make-shift sound system in the parade

This is one way to recycle all those beads- turn them into clothing. You might need to zoom in, I left that option up to you.

Blue Man Group Float

We had early reservations for a wonderful restaurant called Clancy’s, located in Uptown, so we cleaned up and Ubered there. The meal was excellent and it felt like the clientele were locals, (thumbs up, Anna!!!) and it was nice to get out of the hubbub of the French Quarter. The drive took us through beautiful neighborhoods with stately homes.

Once done there, we crossed town to head to Frenchmen Street, an area that has a number of clubs with a variety of music. Most had no cover charges, so we were able to move freely around and enjoyed the different venues.

The only logical thing to do after a day on our feet was to return to the park and have another soak in the hot tub. We met a couple who are traveling the opposite direction as us, and had some great recommendations for us in the Alabama & Florida regions.

Another day found us back at the WW2 museum, this time for a visit. It’s extremely well done, and since it was pouring rain outside, we didn’t mind spending time inside looking at the exhibits.

After a mere 4 hours, we decided to get back outdoors and do some walking. We kind of followed a parade while we were walking, on our way back toward the French Quarter.

Back to home base, we cleaned up and walked back into the French Quarter to go have dinner at Galatoire’s, another thumbs up recommendation by Anna. John had to don a dinner jacket, because they have a dress code, but they also have a couple racks of jackets for guys like John. This place also seemed like it was mostly locals, even though it was right on Bourbon Street. It’s an historic restaurant, and total class. Loud, but we were ok with that.

Another walk down the FQ, a few stops along the way and it was a wrap for NOLA!

Creative performances -we have a platter just like the one to his right.

Would you ever use your dog as a prop to get
$$?? This guy was particularly cooperative.

I have to admit, the whole time we were there, I had a Four Year Bender song on replay in my head: New Orleans Lament https://youtu.be/nIgG5RlYNis – you should look it up and have a listen.

On the way out of town, we swung back by Clancy’s to pick up John’s hat that he’d left there the other night, and while we were in the neighborhood, had lunch at Franky & Johnny’s.

I Saw Miles and Miles of Texas

So as it turns out, our expectations of Texas were different than the actual thing. It’s a vast, huge state. There are so many different faces of Texas, and we’ve seen many of them. Also, we had a preconceived notion of the folks of Texas (based on previous associations in other lives). We were hugely surprised with Big Bend, we were surprised with the scenery along the way, we happily stumbled on the state park and the little towns along the way.

We stopped in a town called Uvalde, TX, to mail an important envelope. As I entered the Post Office there, a man exited with an armful of mail. I dropped my important envelope in the slot and left the building. As I was walking back down the street toward the rig, I saw John standing out on the sidewalk, stretching his legs. I also saw the guy with the armful of mail approaching him, and I noticed but could not hear a verbal exchange. Apparently, the guy saw our California plates and said something like “You picked a helluva place to camp” and John replied that “The bad news is that they’d only let us stay for 2 weeks.” And the guy said “I saw your plates are from California, isn’t that what you people do? Park on the street and camp?” And John said, “Yes I’m just another homeless person, with a 24 ft shopping cart.”

Which is when I showed up and they were laughing. So we got to visiting and this nice man asked us about our travels, and we asked him about his life here, and in the end, he said if we were going to San Antonio (which we were), he would leave us some passes at the Briscoe Western Museum where he was a board member, and also gave us some other useful information such as restaurant suggestions and other fun things to do in San Antonio.

Off we went to San Antonio. Little did we know that the San Antonio Rodeo (a very big one) was in town, and we were fortunate to get a spot at an RV park right close to the Rodeo. Also, we were right on a bus route into downtown San Antonio, so we were able to get in some sight-seeing. We went to the Alamo (an historic site right in the heart of the city), and walked on the River Walk, a touristy but elegant attraction along the river right through the heart of the city). We had a great dinner at a place our buddy recommended. The next day, we found the museum our friend had left us passes for, spent a couple hours there, then we embarked on a Verizon mission to try and get some phone issues resolved.

After a couple hours (no lie) at the Verizon store, with our issues resolved, we walked down the road to a BBQ place for a late lunch, and as it turned out, was a restaurant that had been visited by none other than Guy Fieri, of Diners, Dives, & Drive-ins. Of course it was excellent, and when we were done, we decided to walk across the road to another museum.

Guy Fieri’s signed poster in The Smoke Shack

After that, we walked back across and went into the meat market that was associated with the place we had lunch, called the Smoke Shack. We bought a few items and got an Uber back to the RV park to rest before we went to the RODEO!

Cowboy doing his thang

The San Antonio Rodeo is a real big deal, and cowboys & girls come from all over the country apparently. So we went up to our balcony seats and watched the show. It was crazy. I kinda felt sorry for the animals, and also for the cowboys who got beat up doing their things, but it was entertaining and much more so than the performer who followed up the rodeo with a concert in the arena. Also, it was good to see that some of the rough rides required the riders to wear helmets and protective vests either under or over their cowboy shirts.

We enjoyed San Antonio and would return again, hopefully when it wasn’t windy and raining (which it was).

I’d be remiss if I didn’t post a photo of roadside BBQ. We found a hole in the wall off I-10 somewhere in east Texas, it looked like truckers were pretty regular customers, and the ribs were sold out by about 12:15. Luckily, we got ours early and they were amazing.

Bypassing Houston, we opted to turn south and head down to the Gulf. We landed in Galveston, which I guess we really didn’t realize was an island. It is a quirky place with a lot to do, sandwiched between the Gulf of Mexico and a couple different bays. All the homes we saw were built way up off the ground; guessing they’ve learned lessons from hurricanes past.

Not really ADA compatible, but they won’t get washed away by tidal surges!

We found a park right on the beach, and even though it was pouring rain at the time we arrived, we were still able to sit in the rig and see the ocean.

The Gulf coast is much different than our rugged Northern California coastline, and life is much different here as well. People can drive vehicles onto the beach, you can also haul your rigs out there and camp. We decided to stay on pavement. We goofed around, and drove around the town, and wished that we had more time to spend in Galveston. They were getting ready for their big Mardi Gras celebrations, which sounded like a really fun time.

We went for a really long walk down the beach in the morning, and the rain had let up and it was really pleasant. One thing I noticed though, was that the air didn’t smell salty like I expect the ocean to. It smelled of petroleum and it reminded you that the oil refineries were just back up the way we had come down, and it took a little of the charm away.

Because we had to be in New Orleans soon, we needed to keep on driving, so we carried on and said goodbye to Galveston in an unusual way. In order to not have to go back up to Houston, there is a way to move on along the coast even though the land ends on the east side of town. There is a ferry, which runs every 30 minutes, takes many cars, trucks, and RVs! And the bonus? It’s FREE.

Exploring Ancient Communication at Seminole Canyon State Park, TX

Our next stop for the night was a town called Del Rio, Texas, another of the many border towns that we passed (with no sign of any wall….).

Before you hit town, however, you come to Seminole Canyon State Park, which has good reviews in the Campendium App, an app that people write reviews for all types of places to camp. When we pulled in around 3, they informed us that the campground was closed for construction.

Canyon in Seminole Cyn State Park, Texas

They did have a guided tour starting soon, that would take you down into a canyon, and where you could see some incredible pictographs and other evidence of native peoples in a cave they used for gathering. We signed up and waited for the guide. It was another hot afternoon, so we loaded up with water, and after introductions began the descent.

A sculpture that depicts many facets of Native American culture including the shaman, the tools for survival, the portal to another level of consciousness, the connection to the animal world.

One thing that is always amazing is how resourceful the people that were here before us were. Plants that seem so harsh to us, like cactus, were a source of food and tools, and healing to them. They made thread to sew with, pouches for carrying things, medicine, and used plant materials for weaving and even footwear.

We climbed up into a huge cave, one that the guide said could hold up to 100 people and saw evidence of fires, grinding stones, and as you looked out down to the river bottom from above, you could see how this place was the perfect respite from the desert heat or infrequent rains which create flash floods down in the canyon bottom.

The other remarkable feature of this cave were the pictographs throughout the length of the cave. They are estimated to be at least 4000 years old, and based on some reproductions that some people had done 60 years ago, time has not been favorable to these paintings. What we saw did not match the reproductions, and we could see the degradation. Due to flooding which had occurred in the nearby town, a reservoir was constructed for protection of the town, however the humidity added to the atmosphere locally began to negatively impact the cave paintings. Also, pollution has apparently contributed to the degradation of the paintings. The State of Texas only acquired the land where this cave lies in the 1970s and prior to that, many artifacts had been removed from the site.

So it’s a guess that the shaman would chronicle their spiritual journeys in these pictographs, as an interpretation of that journey, which was most likely aided by peyote, a psychoactive byproduct of a cactus found in this region. It is believed that the dots seen on this wall to the right of center indicate peyote doses, and it wasn’t clear to me if there were multiple journeys or this was how many peyote buttons were consumed in a joyride (which based on my research, I doubt, cause it sounds like one button is/was enough).

In addition to the human evidence of existence, there were many fossils to be found in this same area. Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember the name of these, but it starts with a T….

It is a pretty excellent cave. If I were anybody looking for a shelter, I’d definitely consider this cave.

Big Bend National Park, Texas

Wow, what a great place! Vast, expansive, peaceful, impressive. It takes some effort, mainly in the miles to get there, but once you arrive, you really feel like you have the place practically to yourself. It’s rich in geological features, there are many species of living creatures, the morning and evening light is gorgeous. We hiked and biked and drove all over the huge park.

Not quite full moon down by the Rio Grande

Upon our arrival, we checked in to the visitor’s center to see about finding a campsite. Because of location in latitude and the very hot summers when things shut down, this time of year is their high season and there weren’t any open campsites for the first night. We did reserve a backcountry permit for the next night, and tried calling a few of the RV campgrounds located outside of the park limits.

We drove down to the Rio Grande Village Store in the southeastern part of the park, and just for shits and giggles, went in to see if any RV spaces had by chance opened up. Yup, we got lucky and got to pick out a spot down at the end of the park, with a view to the west, unobstructed by any other rigs. Plus full hookups.

We were feeling pretty good about it all, in such an amazing place, literally camping along the Rio Grande, the river that separates the US and Mexico. Interestingly enough, no wall, and the only Mexicans coming across the river came to set up their little handicraft shops- on a flat rock, or on the ground under a shade tree, with a canister for the customer to place their money for their purchase. It was totally honorary, nobody was present but they were keeping watch from across the river.

Mexican handicraft shop on the US side of the Rio Grande

There is a border crossing right near where we were camped, called Boquillas, with the National Park staff serving as the Port of Entry staff. We took a bike ride down there to scope it out, and weigh our options for the next day- there were so many choices! We could come back with our passports, which we just happened to have brought with us, and pay a Mexican guy with a boat to ferry us across the river to the village for a meal or a beer, for $5 round trip. Or, we could get up early and go to the hot springs that were nearby along the river. Or we could go on a long hike. Or we could do some combo of any of those. Unfortunately, I forgot to grab my phone, so I didn’t get any shots of the border crossing.

We decided to get up early, drive the RV as far down the hot springs road as far as we could, park, and ride our bikes down to the abandoned resort.

Once we locked up the bikes, we hiked about another quarter mile up river, and were ecstatic to find that we were the only ones there. We’d heard that the springs can get so crowded that you have to wait for a vacancy.

Across the river is Mexico, no wall required.

Needless to say we wasted no time getting in. It was marvelous! Once folks started showing up and confirmed that our bikes had not disappeared, we headed back out and rode back to the rig, relaxed and refreshed. On the trail back to the bikes, we saw pictographs high up on the rock wall adjacent to the river.

Pictographs from those here a long time before we came

Fortunately, our bikes remained where we left them, locked up of course.

After we’d vacated our campsite at the Rio Grande Village, we headed to the visitors center and asked the rangers about hikes and other interesting things to see. We drove up into the Chisos Mountains, the only mountain range in the US to be wholly contained within a National Park.

A surprising number of animals live in Big Bend NP, including bears in them thar hills

One of the perks of driving a smaller rig is that we can go on roads that prohibit vehicles longer than 25’, like this one into the Chisos Mountains

Our next stop was a trailhead for the Mule’s Ears Spring Trail. A nice 4 mile round trip hike to see a natural spring in the middle of the desert. It’s a place where frogs live and critters come to drink. We started our hike around 2:30 in the afternoon, probably not the brightest idea, but we were feeling so relaxed and lethargic from our morning soak that we thought we’d better go get some exercise.

I have to admit, I was really glad when that hike was done, as I was hot, dehydrated even though I drank a ton of water, and my limbs were like noodles. Moral of this story? Um, do the hike BEFORE the hot springs….

Since we were on the western side of the park, we decided to keep driving and look at some cool geology. There also was a campground down there and even though we’d paid $5 for the other back country site for that night, it was clear back on the other side of the park, so we figured we’d just check on availability at Cottonwood Campground since we were here. The rangers we spoke with suggested telling the campground host that we were REALLY tired, and in the interest of safety, they found us a place to park the RV, which we did, and we were directed to come back at 6:30 to park in the day use site. That was a great hot tip!!!

Looking across the Rio Grande flood plain to the Santa Elena canyon where the river turns and heads west. Thus the name Big Bend!

While we were killing time, we drove to the Santa Elena Canyon Overlook to have some sundowners (cocktails) and appetizers. We saw a pair of coyotes and a javelina, and met a nice young woman who was a traveling nurse and on her days off goes to as many National Parks in the US as possible, with a goal of seeing all of them.

Full moon rising over Big Bend

We really enjoyed this park and only dented the exploration opportunities, and definitely would love to go back to see more. Highly recommended!!!

On to Big Bend National Park

After our morning soak at Faywood, we hit the (paved this time) road and made our way southeast toward Big Bend National Park, a huge park in southwest Texas.

Remember that storm we were watching when we were heading to the hot springs? Apparently we dodged a bullet and missed a big snow storm that we saw evidence of all the way from Las Cruces, NM to El Paso, TX and past there into Alpine, TX where we stopped for the night about 100 miles north of the park. There were also interesting highway billboards.

The one I didn’t get a shot of said “Git yer pyro on” and I’m not even kidding…..

Large metal sculpture of a roadrunner in NM

Snow in them thar hills!
Along Hwy 90 in west Texas

We were heading to Marfa, an artsy community in BF nowhere, and along the way on I-90 there is an art installation that I had heard about. I wanted to get a shot of it, but it snuck up on us, and John said, oh there’s the Prada Store! And we buzzed right by without stopping. I don’t have a photo, but you can Google it: Prada Store, Marfa. It’s a kick!

We drove around Marfa and the wind was howling and we didn’t really see anything that interested us so we kept on going and ended up in Alpine, TX, a sleepy little town that we found out at dinner had a small college. Who would have ever guessed! We got settled in to an RV park, walked about a mile and a half into town for a great dinner, and called the Tipsy Taxi for a ride home. We resupplied, did laundry, checked messages, and hit the road to the park.