USS Lexington and State of Texas Aquarium

A very interesting Valentine’s Day spent touring the USS Lexington Aircraft Carrier Museum and Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi. Wow! From the tours and artefacts one gets an actual sensory perception of what it must have been like doing battle at sea in the Pacific during WWII. Awesome portrayal of life aboard such a huge ship! Neither of us had the stomach to try the flight simulator of a fighter plane. The tribute to Pearl Harbour was sobering. We did enjoy watching two IMAX movies. Fighter Pilot followed a young pilot as he learned the ropes of training for war. Lewis and Clark re-enacted the epic voyage of these two heroes as they explored the Missouri River to its source in order to lay claim to the surrounding lands for the United States. Interesting to note, they hired French Canadians for their crew and used a female native to help with interpretation.
We had lunch at Black Beards, a restaurant on the quay… local deep fried seafood promoting a sense of déjà vu to Platter House and Ship Wreck Point memories.
The Texas State Aquarium was equally interesting… lots of hands on visuals and glassed in views depicting different indigenous fishes including a twelve ft shark, leatherback turtles, moray eels, etc.!
The landscape close to Corpus Christi on the Gulf shore is dotted with miles of industrial oil refineries, pipes, storage tanks and all the associated supply services. The homes near the water looked like they had seen better days, no doubt a result of hurricanes. Pockets of poverty were everywhere. Nicer homes were either well hidden or near the cities.
It was quite a day and we were tired by the time we got back to the KOA RV Park.
This evening was prep time for departure early in the morning heading towards the Houston Space Centre.

Later….

We took it easy today (Feb 12) driving only 300 km to Balmorhea State Park, still in Texas. The sun was shining and it was fairly warm. All 300 km. was desert landscape with brown mountains off to the sides. At one point we had to drive through them but there were no steep parts – just a gradual grade up and down. Balmorhea State Park has a huge walled swimming pool fed by the San Solomon Springs at the rate of 22-28 millions gallons daily with a temperature of 74 F. when we went swimming. This 77,000 sq. ft. pool is one of the largest natural pools in the US. In early days these springs were important watering places for buffalo, Indians and pioneers. Today this area remains the centre of irrigated farming supplied by this watercourse.
This evening we lit a camp fire with two bundles of wood previously purchased in Nevada. We then invited two neighbouring couples, Jim & Eileen Hansen from Kingston, Ontario and Kent & Sharon Hoover from Minnesota. The Hoovers are full time RVers having sold their home in Minnesota. Once again it was a very interesting conversation comparing life stories, families and ailments.
From Balmorhea we drove to Junction and just slept over, without unhitching, at an RV Park so we could leave early morning. We finally left the wide open spaces of desert behind us. Mile by mile the bushes and shrubs grew larger and trees appeared. The air is moister and quite warm. Grass is turning green and some deciduous trees have their leaves. Last night the furnace did not come on once and today we had to use the air conditioner to cool off the trailer.
We noted numerous windmill farms dotting the higher bluffs, hundreds of windmills all swinging their massive blades.
We made it all the way to Mathis (Friday the 13th) booking into Lake Corpus Christi KOA Park. This lake is just north of the Gulf Coast. Lots of RVer’s here with the majority staying for months at a time. People were fishing and on our walk by the lake we watched a woman casting a net for bait and a catfish filleting process on the shore. People sitting outside their trailers were all sure to say hello. Everyone is really friendly and talkative. The couple next door from Ontario grill their meals outside on mesquite wood giving meat a nice smoky flavour. They along with others here are camp workers paying for their park fees in this manner. We enjoyed hearing stories of "beep beep" road runners (remember wily coyote) eating rattle snakes!

Later…..

El Paso, Texas

A snowstorm in El Paso!!!! That’s what the local weatherman called it. We called it light flurries. They didn’t even make it to the ground. We did however experience very brisk winds with lots of blowing dust and that’s why we stayed put for another day and night at the Mission RV Park in El Paso.
By lunchtime we were bored and set out to go shopping in the Golden Loop. That’s what the local merchants call it because one end is the entrance to and exit from Mexico. Mexicans come across the bridge to shop here and vice versa. After walking most of the square, we realized prices were cheap but so were the goods. We didn’t buy a thing.
We set the GPS on ‘local’ to go back to the Mission RV Park and had an eye opening tour of the city. The US government is erecting an 18 foot high, double mesh wire fence to stop Mexicans coming in illegally.
Across the valley below, we could see huge dust storms and were really glad not to be in it. We saw the homes of the rich and poor but it is evident that America is a rich country.
Paul has been astounded with all the industrial sites, business parks, and huge box stores along every through fare in almost every town and city since leaving Canada along with large scale residential housing developments. One has to wonder where does the money come from to support this massive infrastructure?

Later…..

Desert Museum in Saguaro National Park, Arizona

After leaving Williams and the Grand Canyon at over 7,000 feet we dropped down to 3,000 feet heading south on I-10 towards Phoenix. We eventually booked into Valley of The Sun RV Park in Marana, Arizona situated near Tucson. We stayed there two nights and visited the Desert Museum in Saguaro National Park on Sunday. This museum is very unique as 90% is outside depicting all facets of desert flora and fauna, very interesting.
Today we drove for five hours across mostly desert landscape, finally reaching Mission RV Park on the east side of El Paso.
While fuelling up Paul detected a sewerage smell and assumed the other RV at the gas was the culprit. Then just around the corner along the way there was a huge cattle feedlot, about 2 km in length with thousands of cattle. As they say in Texas…….
Noticeable since coming into US are very long freight trains, some of them double deckers. Tractor trailer traffic, bad as it is now, would be unbelievable if those trains were not in service.
We had to drive through horrendous El Paso four o’clock rush hour traffic but the necessary lane changes were easy due to plenty of notice on signs. This park has a heated swimming pool and hot tub jacuzzi so we were able to ease out the tension from driving.
The weather continues to be in our favor with sunshine every day and the occasional rain at night.

Grand Canyon, Arizona.

Toot! Toot! We booked into the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park in Williams, Arizona yesterday evening after driving all day through the mountain passes from Laughlin, Nevada. The climb hauling the RV really put the Dakota to the test but we were careful and took our time. An alert gas attendant, somewhere along the way, strongly advised we install new shocks on the rear of Dakota as the right side was blown so we had heavier shocks installed which caused a 3 hour delay.
This morning around 8:30 we picked up our tickets for the Grand Canyon Railway train. Prior to the train leaving at 10:00, we were treated to a cowboy show , including a shootout., with guys that looked like real cowboys. They perform every day except Christmas, weather permitting. No wonder they seemed authentic.
We boarded at the Williams Depot and two hours later arrived at the Grand Canyon Station at 12 noon. What a magnificent sight! We walked along the south rim trail about two miles, stopping to take many pictures, to an observation deck and spent time at the interpretive centre, gazing out on the canyon. A bus took us back to the El Tovar Hotel where we had drinks and window shopped. We also visited Hopi House which sold Native American products, but we had already spent our allowance for this stop. While we waited for the train, Paul enjoyed sitting in the lobby of the hotel near the huge stone fireplace which was aflame with real logs. He even nodded off for a bit.
On the way back to Williams, the same cowboys from the morning held up the train demanding cash, rings, etc. They were given token $1.00 US bills. One even had the gall to refuse a loonie being offered by a fellow Canadian traveler……but it was all in fun. Because we were so tired from the day, we ate dinner at the “world famous” Rod’s Steak House, “on Route 66 since 1946’ - as old as Faye. The steaks were delicious.

Later….

Gambling, Cowboys and Donkeys

We decided to bypass Las Vegas. There was just too much traffic zooming by and everyone seemed to be impatient to get somewhere else. We did stop at the Lucky Strike for lunch and a few minutes at a slot machine. It took no time to lose $10. Paul had a quick nap and we headed east. After climbing over yet another mountain pass, we booked into a pretty nice RV Park called AVI Resort & Casino in Laughlin, Nevada. Tuesday night we went to the casino. Faye really enjoyed playing the $2 blackjack table while Paul spent time on the 25 cent slot machines….and both quit after losing our agreed max of $20. The casino restaurants were offering prime rib dinners at $4.99 to get people in the door so that was payback time!
Wednesday morning, Faye did the laundry and spent about two hours listening to and chatting with four other women. They and their husbands all had a litany of illnesses and they were comparing doctors and treatments. Laughlin is apparently a good place to be ill. Wednesday afternoon we drove about 50 km through open range to Oatman, a small original cowboy and mining town up in the mountains. This town has recreated the cowboy gunfights and have wild burros (donkeys) running about the streets freely. Board sidewalks with hitching posts are on both sides of the short main street. There are old time saloons, and numerous authentic local craft shops with unusual décor and names. The whole place looks like a dusty rundown old town. Originally, it was a gold mining town and today serves as a tourist destination and holly wood movie site. The shops had everything marked down. The store clerks were desperate to sell and cut even the sale prices. Yahoo Faye!!!
Back at the park, our neighbours, Dan and Linda Olsen from Minnesota, dropped in for a visit. Dan is a retired boiler maker and a Viet Nam vet while Linda was a cosmetologist. We had an interesting evening comparing notes about our families and careers. They have a lot of RV experience and were happy to share it.
Today we drove all day to reach the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park in the historic town of Williams, Arizona. Tomorrow we take the train tour up to the Grand Canyon.

Later…..

Valley of Fire State Park is a very unique combination of desert and jagged rock formations rising to spectacular heights. There is plenty to see and study in the Visitor Information Centre situated in the park and in the museum in the neighbouring town of Overton.
We spent Sunday exploring the park by first visiting the Visitor Centre and then driving to see Mouse’s Tank which is the spot where a famous Paiute Indian outlaw hid out for six months from the law. He had killed two people in a conflict and ran into the desert. Six months later he was noticed in a local woman’s garden, reported to the authorities, chased down and killed. Then we drove to White Dome witnessing the awesome landscape along the way. Pictures may be worth a thousand words but cannot accurately capture the majestic splendour! We then drove into Overton to have a look at the museum and the guide told us about a wireless location at a very friendly café.
Monday Paul went into Overton to get the new tires (purchased in Calgary) installed and a slightly overdue oil change. Rear studded tires are rare here so created a little stir.
Our park is located adjacent to the top end of Lake Mead, the huge body of water backed up by the Hoover Dam. There are many side roads leading down into the lake with marinas and beaches. A side road into Callville revealed a huge marina with many house boats. On the way in Faye spotted a small herd of big horn sheep.
We then drove to Hoover Dam to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening, taking in the power plant tour. This mega project, completed in 1935, controls the flood plain of the upper Colorado River draining a land mass 1/12th the size of continental United States (Fred C. would love to be the watershed coordinator for that baby!) In addition to the Hoover there are five dams above and another five below, all controlling and distributing water into the fertile plains and valleys below. At present Lake Mead is only half full due to an extended drought. The lake was full in 1983 which is evident by the bleached water mark all around the lake.
We drove back to our RV site at Valley of Fire State Park via north Las Vegas through horrendous fast moving traffic and were pleased that the GPS unit was able to guide us safely back through some missed turnoffs!

Later….