Oh yes, driving up the coast road.  The trip from Monterey through San Francisco and over the Golden Gate Bridge was uneventful.  It is a beautiful drive and the route was straight forward and traffic was mild.  Carol got to drive through San Francisco and over the bridge as well as on into Sacramento.   We used Thursday night to get some work done as well as some reading. 

Friday We were picked up by Annalee and Jerry Braunstein.  We met in Vermont at a FMCA Rally and I got friendly with them especially on an American Volkssport Association walk in Burlington.  With them we toured the Capital – check off California.  Then Jerry wanted to take us out to the delta area and lunch at “Al the Wops” in a Chinese Town that was built in 1915 to house the Chinese after an earlier town had burned down.  The site provides some history of the Chinese in this part of California.

As five o’clock approached we returned to Gee 2 to prepare to drive to Davis to see niece Minda and her fiancée Will Fertman.   We had a lovely dinner in their small grad student apartment just off the UC Davis Campus.  We also spent Saturday with them.  They chose a route to Sonoma and Minda had chosen a wonderful restaurant “The Fig and the Girl” for dinner.  Carol and I treated and the cheese plate Will selected was wonderful – if a bit skimpy by his standards and the wine I chose was also pretty good.  We dined well and fortunately we had left the car a couple of miles away so we had a nice walk to recover from the dinner and permit me to burn off the wine to be able to drive.   As if we had not bought enough at the Davis Farm market before leaving for Sonoma, we had to go to the Sacramento Market and Minda joined us or the shopping on Sunday.  Then she had to get the car back to Will for his work and she needed to get some work done as well.

The weather was not wonderful so I spent a lot of time at the computer catching up with personal finances.  It is amazing how far behind it is possible to get even though I pride myself on checking in on this stuff daily.  I missed some things that will cause me some aggravation for a few weeks.  Nothing big, but I HATE to pay any interest charges.

We stayed on Monday and after yet some more grocery shopping, we went to the California State Railroad Museum.  It claims to be the biggest in the country and second biggest in the world.  I won’t argue.  I love the size range from the Front Cab 4-8-8-2 articulated monster with 6,000 horsepower at 40 MPH to the Z scale models (track gauge is 1/4”) it is all there.  Carol expressed doubt since the weather was chilly and the thought of a couple of hours wandering in a train yard was not appealing.  It is not like that, they built a Roundhouse with a turntable to support the exhibit and everything on display was indoors!  We loved the RPO (no not that RPO – Railway Post Office) with a docent “Jim” who had worked the line from Chicago to Sacramento for two years.  The sleeper was set up to rock like was going down the road and there were flashing lights and the sounds of rail travel as we talked with the docent on board.

Back to the coach for one of Carol’s very creative dinners and off down the road on Tuesday toward Mendocino, more twisty roads.  I got to drive mostly freeway, Carol took over the wheel as we left the 101 for 128 through the redwoods and up over the coastal mountains back to the 1.  We had both noticed that the engine was getting louder and as we started to mention it to each other, it began to roar.  Clearly something in the exhaust system has broken.  It remains to be seen what and how long the repair will take.  That is tomorrow’s project and we are set to stay in Mendocino on the beach for a week while we get that all in place.

We have great wifi and no phone service in the RV park. 

Among the many experiences I have read about on RV forums, driving the Pacific Coast Highway aka PCH aka 1 is an experience some chose to avoid and many relish.  We have driven from Los Angeles to San Francisco north on the PCH over the last week.  It is a wonderful experience.  We have driven through flat agricultural areas north of Monterey and we have driven rugged coast line through Ragged Point where I swear I was looking at the brake lights on my tow’d on the switchbacks. 

Although a mile here and a mile there are challenging driving, for the most part it is an exercise in paying attention to the road and keeping one’s speed in check on the descents.  Our time in Monterey was fun and there are hikes we did not take because of limited time.  We did two major undertakings in the one full day we had.  We went to the Steinbeck Center in Salinas and after lunch we drove down to Carmel and drove the 17 mile circuit. 

Approaching the Steinbeck Center the highway passes through several miles of agricultural land, all of it in production.  As the GPS announces we are two miles from the Center, there is no sign that the fields will ever end.  Then rising from the fields are the buildings of a moderate sized city.  The highway becomes Main Street and then the Center is blocking the road.  There is a forced turn into the parking garage and we were taken aback as we had our bikes on the roof and needed more than the promised 7 1/2 feet of head room.  Fortunately the first level of the garage was not very full and had plenty of headroom.  If you have ever read a Steinbeck book or seen one of his play/movies this is a must see history of him and his times.  If you have not read his work or seen his plays/movies this is a must see history of him and you will want to go out and read him.  The one real memento of his life is Rocinante, the pickup truck with camper mounted on it that he used for his 10,000 mile tour of the United States as he wrote Travels with Charley.  For RVers this is a must read, and better than the Long Long Trailer (but not as funny).

The 17 Mile Circuit in Carmel was established as a horse drawn in the early days and has been maintained to provide access to the private playground of the very rich that is Carmel.  The route along the coast includes the Lone Cypress and many other great overlooks and opportunities to walk down to the water.  We did it on our trip out here in 1980 and it does not seem to have changed in the least. 

Our route up the coast was driven by my desire to drive the motorhome over The Golden Gate Bridge.  This took us many miles out of the way, the Bay Bridge would have been a much shorter route.  I discussed this drive with some California RVers I met at the Monterey Elks Lodge and they approved of my decision suggesting that we keep to the middle lane as much as possible.  This is the most wonderful of the Lodges we have seen yet.  The fitness room was in active use all the time it was open from 6 AM until 9 PM.  The camping was comfortable along an edge of the parking lot with adequate 30 amp and water pressure and there is an on site sanitary dump as well.  I was greeted warmly in the bar and met several members and touring RVers.  If we are in the area again we most certainly will take advantage of their three day camping limit.  The drive was wonderful and Carol got to drive the coach over the bridge while I took pictures of the fog.

I last wrote and posted about all the failures we have experienced.  Since then we have had none of our own and the car windshield has been replaced and there is one small screw that needs to be driven back into place when I remember to do when not traveling down the road. 

We spent nine days in Dockweiler our least preferred RV Park both for cost and location under the LAX departure runways.  Its redeeming value is relative closeness to our son Yechiel’s home and its proximity to the beach.  We chose a space (#81) as far down the camping area as we could get from the entrance and the runways.  I am not sure how much it helped, but we slept, mostly.  After 5 days at the Burbank Elks it was quite a change.

The Dan Goldberg family flew in on Wednesday, late and we met them at the beach Thursday morning.  They played there until it school was out for the local family and then we had dinner at Miriam and Yechiel’s and everyone crumped.  Friday we took the Virginia family to Labrea Tar Pits Page Museum and LACMA (Los Angles County Museum of the Arts.  Then we settled in for Shabbat.  Saturday we gathered at Miriam and Yechiel’s for the day, with some time at the park to run off Shabbat Lunch.  Sunday was an expedition in two cars to San Pedro, the port of LA where we saw shipping and toured the museum and rode the Red Trolley and thought we wore everyone out.  True for the parents and grandparents, not apparent for the boys.  We wrapped it all up on Monday, President’s Day, by breaking the RVer’s myth of 6 for drinks, dinner for 4, sleeps 2.  We had 10 for play on the beach and drinks for 6, dinner was grilled vegetables.  I was at my new Weber Baby Q grill for 90 minutes grilling for the gang of 10 (and some burgers made from meat carried from Virginia for us carnivores).  It was too cold once the sun set to sit out so we all ate on board.  Lots of fun.  Oh yes, sunset in a clear sky on the ocean horizon treated us to a “green flash” (you could look it up or follow this link).  This was a first for Carol and most others, I had seen it many years ago from the top deck of our boat in the Galapagos.

One last item to report from the LA visit.  We stayed on an extra day to attend “Poetry Cafe” at the kids school.  When I tell you we sat through 125 kids reciting their own poetry and were disappointed only that it ended, you will understand how exciting an event this was.  Of course Avtalyon and Azriel were “performing” and they were divine.

The route from LA was north on PCH (Pacific Coast Highway), THE ONE.  We made our first overnight stop in Santa Barbara, actually about 25 miles out of town up in the mountains at Cachuma Lake Reserve.  It is a lovely spot worth more time to explore, but the weather was dreadful and we were spending time with Bob and Joyce Herman.  Although we know each other from Rochester, we have deepened our friendship with meeting at the extremes of the continent.  We actually ran into them at an overlook in Nova Scotia a few years back when I noticed a car with NY plates and the license frame was from Hoselton, a Rochester area dealer.  Then we saw them.  This time we knew they were in Santa Barbara and called ahead to make plans.  Several good restaurants later and one incredible party and we were on our way north again. 

For the record, Carol and I went to Solvang when we first got there and found our selves in looking for a decent restaurant among hordes of Greyhounds (the dogs were in town for a convention).  There were none at Root 246.  This is a superb dining place, not cheap!  The staff were wonderful and food preparation was beyond expectation, Bradley Ogden the Chef heard that Carol is a vegetarian and came over to discuss the menu with her.  I have never seen beef short ribs served without the ribs and with such wonderful sides.   With Joyce and Bob we had lunch at a wonderful Mexican restaurant in Santa Barbara and decided to put off dinner until after Shabbat service at Bnai Brith Cong.  Rabbi Stephen Cohen is the son of Jules Cohen who among other things was my boy scout troop leader back in the ‘50’s.  He is also a fine cardiologist.  Dinner was at Cold spring Tavern.  The meal was ok, the atmosphere was wonderful and the road was unspeakable.  We drove out on the mountain road that lead to the campground we were staying at and then turned off on Old Stage Coach Road, a left over from the stage coach days.  It twisted and turned down the mountain side and the rain and fog just made the drive more interesting.  I braced with a scotch before dinner to prepare for the drive back up the road and found the main road shrouded in fog for several miles as we continued to twist our way to Cachuma. 

We found that courtesy of the Hermans we had been invited to a party at Gail and Peter’s home up a canyon road.  The jazz trio was wonderful and the guests and host and hostess had all lead fascinating lives and we made several new friends who I hope we will see again when we pass this way in the next years.

Another day another hundred miles as we worked our way up THE ONE to Morro Bay where we stayed at Morro Bay State Park.  It is a lovely park with great surroundings and the State of California has made it almost unaffordable.  The senior rate for water and electric is $48 cash or check only!  and the final indignity was that a tree fell on the power line as we were setting up and the power was out from 1:30 to 11:30 PM.  Carol ad I walked into the town, about a mile and wandered through the shops.  This is a nifty town and in better weather the hiking and boating would be a lot of fun.  The next day we set off to Hearst Castle, a state historic park.  We took Tour 1 and it was well worth it, for that matter it was far beyond worth it.  The guide alone was worth the price of admission, she was wonderful and her tail gunner was also a lot of fun.  If you are coming this way, or even close, do miss this tour.

Now we are in Monterey at yet another Elks Lodge.  This one looks like a nice country club although you do want to follow their directions getting in, we got turned around and taking a left turn into the lot required that we disconnect the car in mid turn, never fun. 

I’ll post now and write more soon.

This trip has been characterized more than any other by a collection of problems ranging from moderate to trivial.  I will detail them here for my own record and for my amusement as well.  Most of these were not caused by anything either of us did.

DVD player – would not work when we sat down to watch a movie.  Tried all the available alternatives and could not get it to play through the TV as it had the day before and we had not moved or anything.  Walked across the street to Frys Electronics and bought a cable to connect the computer to the TV and while there picked up a Blue Ray Disk player, works great.  Oh plugged the “broken” DVD Player into the rear TV directly and it worked there.  Maybe my problem lies elsewhere in the distribution circuit that came with the coach, but it passes though Cable and Antenna and Satellite – see next.

Satellite – bought a DVR to replace the simple receiver we had so I could skip commercials and record ahead.  Although it seems to work fine I have not been able to line up on a satellite since connecting it.  I did rebuild the antenna base but I could not get a satellite before I did that either.

Carol’s six year old Lumix Camera – the screen went black and the camera would only take pictures of black.  Tried everything to no avail and the camera is due to be replaced anyhow.  Ordered a Canon G 12 for delivery on Friday, the Lumix resumed working!

Reading Light Paul’s Chair – the switch broke, they do that.  Found and installed a replacement

Reading Light Carol’s bedside – the screws that secure it to the wall jiggled loose.  Inserted wooden toothpicks for filler and reinstalled

CPAP Machine – a show stopper! When I went to set it up after moving from Burbank to Dockweiler it would not work.  Asked Kathy to go into our house and pack up the house CPAP and ship it to me at great expense – next day Fed EX.

Tail lights on Car in tow mode – endless problem getting them to work after we connect the car to the coach.  Much fussing results in making it happen each time.  I have tried many approaches, but jiggling wires seems to resolve it.

Broken windshield – took a stone in the car windshield while driving on US 95 north of Yuma, it extended in to a crack that I have not called in yet.  It is not in the drivers line of sight.

Slow leak left front tire car – I kept adding air to the tire from Big Bend to Yuma, finally pulled into a BigO tire place where they pulled out a roofing nail and patched the tire.  They did the work gratis and the guy who did the work got a nice tip.  He saved an expensive new tire for us.

Car horn – stopped working in LA traffic one day.  Had a mechanic look at it and he reported both horns were burned out.  I began search for new horns and was about to buy at NAPA.  In frustration I leaned on the horn button one more time, it is working (was working yesterday – haven’t been in the car yet today)

Vent for Furnace (screw loose) – just nonsense and the screw was installed crooked from the factory.

Propane Detector – It is currently disconnected as it was sounding off every time we stopped to set up for camping.  Not sure what the cause, but it certainly was not propane leaking.  I thought it might be engine gasses, but it is not supposed to be a CO detector and I have one of those that it not in alarm status. 

Latch on drawer rear vanity – trivial issue.  Had to remove the part on the drawer and turn it over.  Works fine now.

All of this says that if you want the pleasure of RVing you had best be a bit of a mechanic and be prepared to either fix things yourself or  wait to find someone who will do it and be prepared to pay.

Please be aware I am not complaining.  I suspect that if I added up all the trivial and not so trivial things I fix while in our house in Rochester the list would not be any shorter, just different.

Although we actually have been in California since we pulled into Senator Wash on February 1, we are in a very different place since we arrived on the coast on the 9th, 5 days ago.  Here is a recap of the situation in Los Angeles.  Our son, Yechiel, is in Massachusetts for training at his company’s home office.  Dan and family are headed to Los Angeles this week on Wednesday and Yechiel will return on Friday.  We came in to spend time with Miriam and the boys so she would not have a full week of coping alone.  We will all be together from Friday through Monday, Presidents Day.  We will disperse shortly thereafter. 

For the moment we are camping at Burbank Elks Lodge #1497 not far from Bob Hope Airport.  As I stare out the windshield I am looking at Yahoo headquarters just across the commuter rail tracks less than a block away.  This IS California and the lodge is nonsmoking, unlike the previous ones we have visited.  It also has a nice fitness room and decent showers so the lack of sanitary sewer where we are parked is not a problem.  I was concerned because they only have connections for three coaches and I assumed there would be a high demand for space.  Not so.  There is another coach that arrived after us and there has been an empty slot right along.  Who knew! 

We have spent much of our time with Miriam and the boys.  Sunday we all went to Santa Monica Pier to play in the sand and take in the activities on the pier.  As we got out of the car in the sunshine looking out at the Pacific a fog bank rolled in obscuring the ocean and the pier from view.  We ate our lunch on the sand, but the damp chill soon drove us and most of the beach goers to find an alternate place to play.  We went on to the pier.  I invited the boys to ride the Roller Coaster with me and Avtalyon agreed so off I went to buy tickets.  As we approached the line to board he decided the “brakes are too loud” and refused to take another step in the direction of the line.  Carol and I got to ride together, something that seldom happens as she generally finds the whipping motion too hard on her neck, this is a “gentle” coaster and we both enjoyed the ride.

Last night we went to dinner at the Hillcrest Country Club on Pico with our friends from the JDC Board Etty and Claude Arnall.  We are blessed to meet so many people in so many different ways and find wonderful friends along the way.

When we were at the Northeast Regional FMCA Rally in Vermont 18 months ago we met the Braunsteins and they gave us an audio book they were done with (12th Card – Deaver).  We sent along a thank you when we finished the book and now it looks like we may be joining them In Ashland Oregon for the Shakespeare Festival at the end of March.  The calendar fills even though we resist making plans too far ahead.  Somehow if you want to do some of these things it is necessary to actually commit way ahead.  Not real happy about having a schedule, but it it the only way we seem to get to some of things we want to do and some of the people we want to see.

To wrap up this post, today we went to the Huntington Library and Art Collection.  OMG!!!  We had four hours there and barely scratched the surface.  We will get back on future trips to the left coast.  Glad the kids are here so we HAVE to get here.

This has been some journey across NM in a day and then to an SKP Coop to Two Elks Lodges and on to Quartzite and then Senator Wash, both of the latter are BLM, thank you US taxpayers.

From Sierra Vista we cruised through El Paso and made a stop at Camping World at milepost 0 on our way out of Texas.  There we had routine service and rolled out to Walmart in Las Cruces, NM for the night.  With an early start we crossed NM and rolled through eastern Arizona climbing the Dragoon Pass on I 10 (you really must do this drive and stop at the rest area at the top – it is gorgeous) and descending into Benson where the Escapee Saguaro Coop is located.  We stayed there a couple of days so we could pay a visit to the Pima Air and Space Museum which has been growing on the eastern edge of Tucson for the past 10 years.  Too many planes, too many pictures, egad what a collection.

Onward to Casa Grande and the Elks Lodge there.  The plan was to meet Bob and Pat Hogg who were staying near by in a Western Horizons resort.  The lodge parking lot was fine.  There were no utilities, but we had come in expecting none and that worked out fine.  We could not spend any time in the lodge as it was very smoky.  We met Pat and Bob and had a pleasant Happy Hour at their place.  The next day they picked up up and we went to Boyce Thompson Botanical Garden where we spent most of a very lovely day exploring the grounds.  That night we went out to dinner at Eva’s Mexican to celebrate Pat’s birthday, a big one they noted.  After fond farewells and we will see you soon, who knew how soon, we set off on our separate headings.  We all knew we were headed for Quartzite, but without plans who could tell when. 

We drove the short distance to Phoenix, actually Scottsdale, where we settled into another Elks Lodge that offered water and electric and had a sanitary dump on site.  Site 6, where we landed by default, did not have a functioning water spigot so I connected across to another site with a spare spigot using my new replacement 50 foot extension hose.  Promptly at 11 PM the power went off and we were on battery again for the night.  As I thought about firing up the generator for breakfast power came back on by magic.  This was repeated a couple of nights later, although by then I had learned the location of the submaster breaker that was taking down half the sites.  It was cold and we were all running electric heaters and water heaters, oops!

We located Lennie and Judie Gross, members of Chavurat Yehudim chapter of FMCA and had a fun lunch with them.  By now we had contacted other Rochester people we knew in the area and between gallery visits and other sight seeing we had dinner with Judy and Harold Samloff after a visit to their home in Happy Valley and went to dinner at Tom and Mary Markusen’s home in Cave Creek, beyond the northern end of Scottsdale.  The views from both of these homes are exquisite.  Mountains, valleys, plains are all visible from these wonderful sites.  Watching the sun set from Markusen’s was a wonderful experience and the birds enjoying their natural setting were also a joy to see.  The dinner was wonderful and the company even more so.  

Back to Scottsdale Elks Lodge and a different reality for the night and then a day of shopping in Scottsdale old town before setting out for Quartzite.  I won’t trouble you with the history of the place again.  Suffice it to say we found a BLM short term visitor’s area 3 mile north of town (if you can call it that) on US 95 called Hi Jolly.  It is named for an Arab camel herder who herded camels for the US Army in the area.  The routine is simple, pull off the road and stop to pick up a registration form that can be used to track your time on site, limit 14 days.  Drive in until you find a place you want to stay, off the road – hard to determine really – and stop there. 

A call to the Hoggs located them in Rose RV in the thick of the action.  We went over for Happy Hour and agreed to meet in the morning to check out the vendors in the Big Tent a couple of hundred yards or more long and half as wide.  After that we gathered at our coach in Hi Jolly for – you guessed it – Happy Hour.  I will not document all the “stuff” we acquired.  I do have much more solar capability now than I had going in and some other items that are almost as important .  The solar is great!  I only run the generator to support cooking in the convection/microwave or toasting English Muffins.  Those resistance heaters will eat a battery in nothing flat.  Everything else runs off the panels by day and the batteries they have charged by night.  It is very quiet and very fuel efficient.

Onward to Senator Wash one of our favorite desert places.  We will stay here until the 9th or so when we head for LA and our family reunion.

I will post some pictures for this period later.  I want to get this up and the pictures are on my phone which is supporting my online activity.  It is propped against the back TV set which is the only place I seem to get phone service in the coach today.

We left Austin as planned on Thursday, January 13, with our sights set on reaching Big Bend NP in two days.  Our somewhat less then direct route lead us to an overnight in Sanderson, TX at the Canyon RV Park wedged between the Southern Pacific main line and US 90.  It is self check in, self pay and we never did see the owner/operator, but we got to top off the freshwater tank and drain our holding tanks before entering Big Bend where there are no amenities in our chosen campground – Rio Grande Village.  There is a full hookup campground adjacent but it is more than four times as expensive and is no more than a paved parking lot with hookups.  We are on a spacious site with glorious views and the sound of generators, our own included, starting at 8 AM and silenced by 8 PM.  Actually it is 9:15 as I write and I don’t hear any of them.  My solar panel is doing the work of recharging the batteries now that breakfast is over.

We arrived on Friday and after setting up we took a bike ride to get an overview of the area.  This park is huge.  It is 50 miles from our camping area in the east to the western extreme of the park.  Needless to say, we did not leave our immediate neighborhood in our brief bike ride.  After greeting some neighbors and sitting out in the sunshine to read for a bit, we sat with the guide books and maps to plan our activities.  Saturday morning greeted us with chill (40 degrees) and fog.  Not wonderful, but we packed up lunch and a variety of clothing in the car along with binoculars, hiking sticks, bird book and who knows what else and set out for Chisos Basin.  This is an area we had not explored at all in our trip here in 2005.  The road from the Basin Junction is only 7 miles, but it climbs a pass to drop into the basin where there is motel lodging and restaurants for those who do not choose among the variety of camping possibilities.  After wandering around a bit we retraced our steps to the Lost Mine trailhead.  By this time the sky had cleared and the sun was bright, the temperature began to rise.  We set out on this 4.8 mile round trip with gloves and three layers of clothing.  As we climbed, and this trail had no letup as we climbed 1000 feet in 2.4 miles, we got warmer and stopped a couple of times to remove layers.  As we neared the top of the climb I was regretting the jeans I was wearing, wishing I had worn lighter slacks or my pants with zip off legs.  We had lunch at the top of the climb with views of the rugged land all around us.  The traffic on the climb was light, we saw maybe half a dozen people descending as we climbed and when we reached the top there were only two guys having lunch.  As we descended we saw more people climbing and wondered if they realized that there was no way they could reach the top and return before the light was gone.  We spent about four hours on the trail including our lunch break.

We were grateful to return to the car and rest our legs.  We had not been on any strenuous walks in a while and for myself, my legs were tired.  We stopped at Grapevine Hills trailhead and after a few minutes walking in sand I begged off.  Even though it was only a mile in I was tired and the light was fading. 

Sunday morning dawned cloudy and chill.  We had decided we would take on the Mule Ears Spring hike.  It is a 3.8 mile round trip with a net elevation gain of 20 feet.  However that NET does not give notice of several lengthy steep elevation changes along the way.  We were still layered and had settled into hiking mode as we set out.  Before we got there we passed Burro Spring Pour Off and the short trail was too tempting so we stopped and hiked into this box canyon to see the waterfall that you don’t want to see if there is water coming down.  The canyon is a trap, once water starts flowing it will fill and there is no place to escape the flood.

All was dry!

Mule Ears gets its name legitimately, here is what it looks like from the trail:

We continued on to our target and began the hike into a spring that flows in the desert.  We made one stop to shed layers and eat our lunch on the way in.  We found the remains of the corral at a trail junction and followed around the wall to a short trail that lead to the spring which was flowing and had a population of frogs we could see and hear. 

We concluded the day by continuing down the road to Santa Elena Canyon and hike to narrow of the canyon.  This gap in the surrounding cliffs is cut by the Rio Grande River which is the border with Mexico at this point .  It feels so narrow that it seems we could touch both sides at the same time.  Although we had considered taking Old Maverick Road back to the main highway, the Volunteers had discouraged us and it would be dark by the time we got back to Gee 2 so we retraced our route and arrived at twilight. 

Monday we decided to devote to the eastern end of the park, primarily Boquillas Canyon which defines the point at which the river departs Big Bend.  We had explored this area thoroughly in 2005 when we last visited here, but felt it worth another trip in any event.  The river is shallow and slow at this part of its course and there are many “informal” crossing points.  These are used today by residents of Boquillas, on the Mexican side to set up little bodegas to sell their handcrafts.

They set them out on rocks with an honor jug and signs with prices.  Purchases are discouraged by the Border Patrol and any goods bought this way are subject to confiscation.  This does not seem to bother either sellers or buyers.  We were carrying no money and thus avoided temptation. 

After spending time along this beautiful canyon we retraced past the campground where we stopped for lunch and then went on to the Hot Spring.  I put on a bathing suit and we walked in from the parking lot and met a small crowd seated in the remains of the hot spring house enjoying the spring.  in 2005 the river was so high that the entire foundation was under water and it seemed dangerous to try to get on top of the vent.  Now, with the river several feet lower, we could walk to the foundation and pick our way to a seat in the spring.   Carol rolled up her slacks and joined me on the edge of the spring and we had a lively discussion with other travelers who had come to the spring. 

This ended our time in Big Bend.  In the morning we rolled out along the road to Study Butte and then we decided to take the road to Presidio.  It was a lot of work driving this rollercoaster of a road in Gee2, but the scenery was well worth the 67 miles of extreme hills (15% grades) and tight turns.  We stopped in Marfa long enough to pick up our mail and continued on to Sierra Blanca about which later.

Getting together with Leigh and Pat in Austin has become a regular event that Carol and I look forward to and plan on every time we pass anywhere near that delightful city.   We really enjoy their company and they do know the neatest places to see and tour in the city they both love.  Later in this week we will get to share our love of Austin with friends from Rochester, the Poleshucks, who we will be meeting here.

Yesterday, Saturday January 8, was an example of the diversity of culture to be had in this city.  We started at Flatbed Press, which is celebrating 20 years of fine art printing.

From there we went to the Austin Museum of Art where we saw many of the finished prints we had seen at Flatbed Press on display along with other interesting work.  We did find the labeling and references to audio on phone to be out of synch with layout of the images.  This was disconcerting to say the least.  In one case the reviewer starts with the image with on the label and digresses to an image that is in a different room and much further along in the progression of show.  Next stop was Arthouse at the Jones Center which was mostly about the newly reconstructed building which is a work of art unto itself.

This view is from the loft looking down on the second  floor gallery space.  There is a wall to the left (not seen) which is in sections and is hung from the rafters so the sections can be moved to create a wide variety of gallery spaces. We moved  on to coffee and then some sales galleries and finally to an opening of work where I lost Carol.  She was very struck by the first work she saw and immediately started talking with the artist about what she was seeing.  It was some time before she got past the first room of this extensive gallery.

Dinner was high end at La Condesa, which I would highly recommend.  The Duck in Mole was grand and the reports on the Scallops and other dishes were also excellent.  Service was friendly without getting in the way and the atmosphere is a delight.  We were sated and barely able to move so we decided to partake of the Austin scene in a neighborhood bar.

In addition to a good group of Texas musicians; Guitar, Bass Guitar, Pedal Steel Guitar and drums playing fun country western there were a lot of people playing a game of dominos that made no sense to us.

It is called 42 and we are going to have some instruction in the rules before we leave town.  The story is at some point card gambling was banned so this game was devised to get around the prohibition.

We left early – about 11 PM – to get some sleep to prepare for another days.

Weird wonderful strange News Years Eve in Texas. 

In the Escapee Campground guide we noted that there was a special four hour New Years Eve Show at the Liberty Opry in Liberty Texas, a mere 45 miles down the road from where we are staying.  Having not made any plans we thought it might be fun to try a very different experience.  I called for tickets and was able to get two.  The show started at 8 so we thought we ought to have a meal in Liberty. 

Checking the internet for restaurants I found a few chains and one interesting sounding Mexican.  When Carol called, she learned that they used lard rather than vegetable oil meaning there was no vegetarian option she could trust, not to mention I do not eat pork products.  That left McDonalds, Subway or Chili’s as the only choices.  So it was New Years Eve dinner at Chili’s, not our usual option, but we were able to find some reasonable choices and were not left hungry when we drove the rest of the way to Liberty Opry.  The people watching was super.

The show bill can be found at www.libertyopry.com/schedule.htm

Here is the brief listing from that website:

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2010 – 8:00 P. M.-Midnight *
“NEW YEAR’S EVE” SHOW
STARRING:
HEATH SPENCER PHILIP
DONNA B “The Ebony Cowgirl”
JABBO CANNON
Jay Cantu
John Ray Baxter
Rick Burton
Jim Cox
Larry “Booger Lee” Etheridge
Kenneth “Little Red” Hayes
Andy Lingenfelter
Jerry Locke
Mike Loftin
Aaron Marshall
Marcy Rae
Ray Sowell

If those names do not mean anything to you don’t be surprised, they didn’t to us either.  The top three are performers brought in for this show, and apparently many other shows during the year.  The remainder are the Liberty Opry Band who play every week! Actually Jay Cantu is one of the owners of the Opry. 

By 11 or so, as they were heading to the second intermission, the energy level was still rising.  The mix was Country, Western, Gospel, 50’s Rock and later.  Heath Spencer Phillips did Elvis and Roy Orbison and I can’t name the others.  He leapt off the stage, he cavorted and by the time he finished a number we were all exhausted for him.  Jabbo Cannon did a really great Johnny Cash as well as gospel (you could tell he was going to do gospel because he took off his hat).  When we came back from the second intermission at 11:30, they were running 30 minutes behind schedule and started changing the playlist to try to hit Auld Lang Syne by midnight.  They were only a minute or two late. 

Following a stirring medley of Dixie/Battle Hymn of the Republic and something I didn’t recognize we were all invited to a buffet (Big Ugly Fat Fellows Eating To much according to the comic who was one according to his own testimony).  It was 12:15 and we still faced a 45 minute drive home.  We left and talked about the experience all the way home.  The quality of the performance was incredible.  Many of the musicians are older performers who have come off the road and settled in east Texas and this is how they keep active.  Their years of performance showed in their presence and sound.  There is a regular show every Saturday night and we agree that the next time we are in this part of Texas on a Saturday night we will make it to Liberty, unless it is an all Gospel night which Carol says we might still consider.

May this year be a good year for all of us.

We have been reading, listening to news and stories and doing a little wandering since we got to Rainbow’s End in Livingston, TX.  We actually took the “official tour” finally after being here four or more times.  The postal setup is amazing.  As we were guided back through addition after addition Carol commented, “when do they build a second story” as she said that stairs appeared and we climbed up to the office area on the second floor, recently added.  It is amazing what can be built with volunteer labor which is how all of Rainbow’s End has been built. 

The name seems a bit trite, but it has a story.  When the first member of the original group that founded the Escapees agreed to stay here to run the operation, they parked their old trailer, which they called Rainbow for the last time, hence Rainbow’s End. 

We are using the DroidX to provide internet connection and it is fine for the most part.  Bandwidth is limited and Verizon’s 2 GB limit may turn out to be a hassle, beyond that it is really nice not to have to depend on what each campground has to offer in the way of internet service, so long as there is phone service.

The last time we spent time here we went into Houston and saw many galleries, but somehow we never got to the Museum of Fine Art Houston (MFA H).  I think we agreed there was no way we could do it justice at the end of a long day of many galleries.  Yesterday we arrived at MFA H at 11:10, just after opening.  We did not need our Memorial Art Gallery membership with its North American Reciprocal as it was a free day.  Some time after 4 we staggered out, unable to stand on  a gallery floor or to feast our eyes and brains on one more magnificent work of art.  The collection of gold artifacts from Indonesia was our starting point and the show of Latin American art, much of it on loan was amazing and eye opening.  The wonderful work by Fridah Kahlo and Diego Rivera seemed almost a second thought after seeing the more recent works by artists with whom we are much less familiar.  The collection of impressionist work was breathtaking and worth a trip all by itself.

When we walked into the Chinese exhibit we were greeted with a mural that covers all the walls of the gallery.  Check out this site to get an idea of what we saw.  We have never heard of gunpowder art before.  If you are near Houston, if you can find a reason to go to Houston, go to the MFA H. 

Tonight, New Years Eve, we have tickets for Liberty Opry’s special show:

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2010 – 8:00 P. M.-Midnight *
“NEW YEAR’S EVE” SHOW
STARRING:
HEATH SPENCER PHILIP
DONNA B “The Ebony Cowgirl”
JABBO CANNON
Jay Cantu
John Ray Baxter
Rick Burton
Jim Cox
Larry “Booger Lee” Etheridge
Kenneth “Little Red” Hayes
Andy Lingenfelter
Jerry Locke
Mike Loftin
Aaron Marshall
Marcy Rae
Ray Sowell

We have no idea what to expect, but it will be different from any other New years Eve we have spent. (no, none of those names mean a thing to us).  Maybe I’ll provide a review another time.