We stayed in Gilbert Ray CG outside Tucson for four days touring and relaxing with our friends Pat and Bob Hogg They are fulltimers from Alberta who, as I am sure I have mentioned, we met in an RV Park in El Paso two years ago. We hiked Sabino Canyon in the northeast part of town and we drove to Kitt Peak Observatory to tour several of the huge telescopes located there. We engaged in that all time favorite pastime of shopping in the RVer’s candy store, Camping World (magazine racks this time). We dined out a couple of times and a couple of times we had extended “happy hour” followed by light suppers on our own. One dinner was at the Bamboo Club, its location in a large mall adjacent to several other large new restaurants gave away its character as part of a chain. It is a new chain and it seems to be a copy of PF Chang. It is very good for what it is and I would go to another one if there was no local alternative.

The Hoggs travel is generally north to south and return while our route is generally east to west and return. They are members of an RV Park system and have to reserve well ahead to be able to take advantage of the investment, thus their itinerary is far more fixed than ours. We have found that we can more easily adjust our peregrinations to intersect theirs and for two years now it has worked out that we have met at this campground. They are thinking of coming east this fall and maybe we will get to entertain them at our “fixed base” in Rochester.

After four pleasant days in Gilbert Ray CG it was time to continue west. For anyone interested in the campground the images in the last post provide an idea of the nature of the sites. There is 30 amp electric only. Water and sanitary connections are centrally located (dry camping). The sunsets can be spectacular . Somehow it seemed that we just wanted to take the most direct route this time so we retraced a few miles to get on I 10 west bound to I 8 just south of Phoenix. We paused at Gila Bend for driver change and lunch. I note this for future reference as this is a reasonable stopping place and the rest area that is supposed to be at 223 does not seem to exist. We finished the day at Senators Wash LTVA. Actually we are in no mans land in a short term area that is adjacent to the LTVA (Long Term Visitors Area – BLM terminology for open land that is available for extended camping for a fee of $120/year). We have stayed on Mountain Time although we are a mile or two into California and are formally in the Pacific Time Zone. Most people here seem to do the same and call it Yuma Time.

We are dry camping on a beach next to a reservoir that seems to pulse with the rhythm of life as it fills and empties. It is a pumped storage facility. During the night when there is little electrical demand and irrigation requirements are minimal water is pumped into the reservoir. By day as demand for electricity and irrigation water rises the water flows out into the irrigation ditches through the same turbines that pumped it in during the night restoring most of the electricity that was used to pump it in to begin with. We awake each morning not knowing quite where the waterline will be relative to our location. We are camped above what is the long term high water mark, although it is clear that at certain times the water has gone higher. Also, the warning sign that says “Evacuate Immediately When Siren is Sounded” does give one pause. We are above the Imperial Dam and so not likely to be flooded rapidly.

The biggest disadvantage of this location is the lack of reliable phone service. For the 7 days we will have been here we have had to drive around looking for a phone signal. Connecting the computer is a joke. We will have to invest in satellite service for internet if we plan to do a lot of this. The hardware is $5,000 and the connection charge is $50/month or more depending on the service desired. I am not sure I can justify this for the week or two we are without service. Thus this posting will be put up when we get out on the road on Tuesday the 28th.

We have had the boat out on the Colorado River, I have ridden some bicycle in the sand here and we have done a fair amount of walking and hiking. Most of all we have sat and read and I have continued to do minor jobs and updates on Gee 2. The cabinet over the entry door which houses the slide switches, the battery cutoff switches and last minute items to grab as we go out the door such as flashlights, now has a gas strut to keep it open, why it wasn’t factory installed I have yet to figure out unless they just forgot it. I have hung the two magazine racks we picked up it Tucson. I have also made some other minor changes to improve comfort and usability. The next serious addition will be solar power and a couple of more batteries along with a more powerful central inverter/charger. Once these are in place I can begin to think about adding satellite internet. Who said a boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money? They never owned an RV with dreams of extended desert stays 

Today – Presidents Day, February 20 – we are in Tucson, AZ in the Gilbert Ray Campground which is adjacent to the Museum of the Desert and Old Tucson. As you can see it is really camping in the desert.

I have spent this morning being Mr Fixit. I had to tighten the rear medicine cabinet door again as the screws keep working loose. I may have stopped that with the infamous toothpick trick, we shall see. Our friends noted that I had a backup light that was out, so I replaced the bulb. In Falcon SP we had a bee problem. They invaded our Fantastic Fan (for the non RVers this is a very quiet, very powerful ceiling exhaust fan). I thought I had eliminated them by running the fan on high. It did get rid of most of them, but it left behind a fair amount of bee parts on the fan blades, also the I had not cleaned the screen, ever. All is now spotless. One of these days I will tackle the nonfunctioning connection to the running lights on the car. I have dealt with that by not running after dark and if I had to I turned on the car lights and ran the battery down a bit.

Retracing our route through Texas: we left Seminole Canyon Historic SP on the 12th and made our way to Davis Mountain SP just outside of Fort Davis and about 18 miles from McDonald Observatory which we visited last year. WOW! This park is located in a canyon with an amazing Inn at the far end, Indian Lodge. It was constructed by the CCC in the ‘30’s and after a period of neglect in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s it has been restored to the original standard. The campground is quite lovely with roomy, fairly level sites and all the hookups you could want.. The thing to see here is the Montezuma Quail. We never did see any, I guess they heard about Cheney and all went into hiding. We did see many other birds and the deer were in the campsites begging for food. We obeyed the law and did not feed them, although others were totally ignoring the law. We drove up the Skyway Drive and left the car at the top to hike on over to historic Fort Davis. The altitude changes were fairly significant and when we reached an overlook with this view we decided that it would not look any better from up close and turned around to return to the car. Along the way I had turned an ankle which is still sore, but not so sore asa to slow me down any.

While in Davis Mountain we learned that Dan Rather was coming to Marfa, 26 miles away, to pull the switch to turn on a new Public Radio Station, MPR (Marfa Public Radio) 93.5 should you ever be in the vicinity. We did not run down to that, but we did by tickets to a benefit concert being given by Willie Nelson in Alpine, 26 miles away, also 26 miles from Marfa. It was great fun although I am not sure why many of the people were there as they seemed more interested in hooting, whistling and generally being rude than paying attention to the concert, I must be out of date, I thought one went to hear the performer and enthusiastically cheer his performance.

The next day we headed on out toward Tucson, but with a planned stop in Las Cruces, NM. We called ahead to Leora Zeitlin and Stuart Kelter, Leora is Zvi and Marianna Zeitlin’s daughter, they are close friends in Rochester. After some wine and conversation with Leora and Stuart we went to dinner at Mix, a restaurant not to be missed if you are in the area and love Pacific Rim food. I raised the subject of Shabbat service at the synagogue and they very graciously invited us to Shabbat Dinner at their home. This was a great pleasure as we have not had anyone to share Shabbat with since we left our kids in Virginia. Leora and family, Thank you again, we really enjoyed the haimish Shabbat.

On Friday we drove to White Sands National Monument, about an hour drive. The sand is so white that it looks like snow and it is only when you get out of the car that you realize it is not a winter wonderland. We decided to begin a 4 mile loop hike. Before the hike we had a picnic lunch in a park shelter. I saw a Horned Lark near the shelter and tossed a piece of tomato near it. That became our lunch time entertainment as he worried at the tomato for the next 15 or 20 minutes. We did not plan to complete the loop as we did not have the time, we decided to go as far as we could in the time allowed and then turn back. About five minutes into to the hike we were overtaken by the Ray and Darlene who were camped next to us in Sunny Acres Campground. We enjoyed having another couple to hike with and were a bit sad when we had to turn back. Shortly after we turned back the wind picked up and began to drive clouds of the white alkali sands into the air. We hurried back and got in the car for the drive back to Gee 2 so we could shower and prepare for Shabbat.

Saturday morning, early, we moved on to Tucson to join Bob and Pat Hogg for a few days.

The drive to Seminole Canyon Historic State Park was uneventful once I pulled yet another screw out of a tire, the left front to be precise. No loss of air and everything was just fine. We arrived just before the office closed and after paying found our way to the campsite which, as we remembered, is situated on top of a rise subject to whatever breeze or wind may blow. Gee 2 is clearly visible for miles around, from US 90, from the visitor center and seemingly whenever we look in that direction. There is no digital phone service, no NPR and for some reason my satellite dish will not lock into satellite 119 so no news.

We came here first, a couple of years ago because it is as far as one would choose to drive in a day from Falcon SP. We stopped here for lunch last year, but did not tarry. We had heard that there were wonderful pictograms to be seen in a cave that is only accessible by guided tour, to protect the art from vandals and graffiti creeps. I guess that each of the last times we were here the tours were being given on some other day and we had reasons to move on. This year was to be different. Tours are twice a day Wednesday through Sunday at 10 AM and 3 PM, we got here on Thursday afternoon. Friday morning found us walking the mile from the campsite to the visitor center to join the tour, $5 per person. Eight or ten of us set out to follow Dean, the volunteer guide, into the canyon where we were enlightened about the possible sources of the pictograms and the natives who scratched a living from the desert as hunter gatherers. I have many pictures of this art, but the images are faint from exposure to the air and stress of water perking through the limestone substrate for the past 3,000 years give or take, so here a just a couple to whet your appetite. I have used some digital magic to make the images visible without distorting the color any more than necessary. As you can imagine the color changes with the light from minute to minute in any event.

As Dean talked he mentioned another cave with drawing not very far away that is protected by a private foundation. The images are reputed to be more vivid and the descent to the cave more difficult, ah ha a greater challenge for Carol’s wonderful new hip. We drove to Langtry. TX about 20 miles west of here, to see the site of the home, Saloon and office of Judge Roy Bean, “The Law West of the Pecos.” I will leave you to dig up the many stories of his antics if you wish. He had no jail so his only punishments were hanging or fines. He is said to have used both liberally. On the drive back from Langtry I spotted a sign for White Shaman Tours and pulled into the gate to get the phone number. There was no response, but during Happy Hour with Gary and Vicky Shrope aboard Gee 2 we learned that they were going and the tour was every Saturday at 12:30. We agreed to meet at noon and go together.

If you have any interest in the prehistory of this land, if you have any curiosity about the lives of the Indians of the lower Pecos, if you just want to see great rock art, go out of your way to visit this area. The art in this one cave is enough reason to come here. Combined with the art in Fate Bell the trip is worthwhile. It is just around the corner by Texas standards, Greg, the tour guide at White Shaman, and co founder of the foundation, drives in weekly from San Antonio, only five hours away he says. There are other caves and tours available and we will be returning to see them in the future.

For now here are just a few pictures of the art in White Shaman.

This is the route to the shelter

This last is the White Shaman

We have not rolled a wheel on Gee 2 in 14 days. Other than storage, this is the longest that Gee 2 has stayed in one place since we got it in June 2004. We never stayed anyplace longer than a week with Goliath either. We are learning to relax and take our time. Of course we have had so many things to do that relax hardly describes our average day. Carol is working on her seminar when she isn’t writing or struggling to get online. It’s that Mac thing; it won’t play nice with my PC and share my WiFi nicely.

A quick report on the tire issue that I started with in the last journal: The tire repair truck finally arrived and they spread out their tools, like a surgeon preparing for surgery. The leader marked the area of the bolt head in the tire and then extracted it with a pliers, here it is: it was all very anticlimactic, there was no whoosh of escaping air and it appears that the only result is an additional hole in the tread surface and no penetration of the tire body.

I will not bore you with a recitation of all the birds we have seen, it is well over 50 species. Here are pictures of a couple, the Green Jay and the Chachalacka. That is not a typo. Both of these birds are not seen more than a few miles north of the border with Mexico and not in many places along that border.

In addition to the javalina (peccary) wandering through the sites we have seen deer and tonight as I was reading email I looked out the window and saw a bobcat run from under Gee 2 to the Winnebago across the street, no photo, I could barely get the words out and it was gone.

We will most certainly come back here in the years to come. For now we are packing stuff away in preparation for a reasonably early departure. We plan to travel US 83 to TX 227 to US 90 in a northwesterly direction through Laredo and Del Rio and spend tomorrow night in Seminole Canyon State Historic Park on the bluff above the Pecos River.

That was the easy part. We have done a fair amount of birding and we are seeing many birds that have ranges that include this sliver of land north of the Rio Grande River and don’t extend more than a few miles into the USA. The most prominent are the Great Kiskidee, the Brown Jay and the Green Jay. There is a couple that has a motorhome on a piece of land next to Salineno National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). They have been feeding birds and welcoming visitors there for 22 years. We have been there twice and have added several birds to our life list of birds we have never seen before. We have also seen many beautiful birds that we know quite well. I actually thought about biking over there today, but with the temperature in the high 80’s an eight mile one way trip did not seen prudent.

As I write I am waiting for a tire road service truck to arrive. This morning as I was working around the camp site I happened to see something like a stone on the outside passenger side dual tire. I went to pick it off and noticed that is the hex head of a bolt with the thread extended directly into the tread. Not pretty! The tire is holding its normal pressure so it may not have pierced the belts. I am unwilling to attempt to extract it myself as the tore is carrying 88 psi at the moment (pushed up 3 psi or so by solar heating. Since we have been sitting still for a week and plan to sit here for another week I am not feeling urgent about the repair, but hope to have it resolved before I finish writing this.

Yesterday, Wednesday February 1, we took a rather long bike ride in the afternoon. There is a small town just across the reservoir from us, Guerro (well the name is longer than that, but it will suffice), and we wanted to see what it had to offer. We could not take a vehicle across as we have no Mexican insurance and there is no public transportation over this bridge so we road across, five miles to the dam (the same ride we took several days ago), two miles across the dam (at least) and then 2 kilometers to the edge of town (I know I changed measurement, that happens when you leave this quaint country of ours). The town has some lovely homes and public buildings. It does not have any people at 4 in the afternoon. There was no traffic and the only people we saw were a couple of construction workers and a pharmacist in her store. We biked on back and collapsed I was dehydrated and short on energy even though I have drunk a quart of water on the ride. The air is dry here.

Have I mentioned poverty yet? Much of this part of Texas would consider poverty an improvement on their lot. The housing is ramshackle, the roads verge on impassable and many times we have thought we had driven across the border by mistake. It feels like the worst of any Mexican border area we have visited. The only thing lacking is the broken bottle wall tops we have seen further south in Latin America around the houses of the well off.

Ah boating! As you faithful readers know we bought an inflatable kayak last summer. It has been riding around in the belly of Gee 2 until our arrival here. It is now in the back of the car and we have had it out on Falcon Reservoir a couple of days ago. As usual it was ten minutes from the car to the water. Then we paddled out into the reservoir and saw the many water birds and even more motor boats dotting the surface of the lake. This is an active fishing area and many people put out in every kind of imaginable small boat to catch fish. I cannot imagine backing a trailer down the very long boat launch ramp. The water is at the middle of its range which makes it 16 feet or so below its high. On our first visit here the water was below the end of the ramp.

Our entertainment has included Pickin’ and Grinnin’ at the recreation lodge, Carol sat in with her new mandolin with a group of mixed musicians playing country and folk. We have also had happy hour of one sort or another each evening and have gotten o meet several new people. I will especially note Daniel Markham who is on his own with a dog in a Ford Econoline and just headed out for San Miguel . . . about six hundred miles south of the border to see if he wants to settle there. We wish him a satisfactory and safe trip. Kay and Doug are just down the line from us in their Super Sport four wheel drive conversion van and many more to numerous to mention. Kay and Doug sold a large sailboat they had lived on in Florida and decided to try dry land for the time being. All in all we are having our usual fine time collecting sights, experiences and people. Speaking of collecting people, we just heard from the Hoggs and have may arrangements to meet them again at Gilbert Ray Park in Tucson mid February.

We have CNN on the satellite dish, wish we didn’t. We don’t have NPR down here, not sure whether I am happy or not, miss it, but what we see/hear on CNN is so disturbing that decent analysis might make me even more depressed about this great country I love so much. I am able to see more than I want about the uncertainty in the Middle East. The internet is available and I want to spend less time being absorbed, but I find it hard to let go. I will go to the JDC meetings in NYC in March and maybe I will come away with a better understanding, somehow I doubt it. The materiel everyone is sending is wonderful, but there are no tolerable answers in the offing, just more trouble. I shall turn my thoughts to the birds, the javalina and howling coyotes and try to let the greater world take care of itself since nothing I can do is likely to change anything anyhow.

On our way here we took a diversion through Fredericksburg, TX. This diversion took longer than planned due to an extended shopping trip. Last year our stop in Fredericksburg took longer than planned because of an extended visit to the Museum of the War in the Pacific. On our way into town we stopped at a KOA on the outskirts to top off the propane tank. Several cold nights had reduced the tank to just over half. As we drove away we considered whether we should have checked in and just used the tow’d to go into town, but we proceeded with the entire rig and found parking at the curb for all 60+ feet of us with room to maneuver. We actually parked across the street from tow other motorhomes with their tow’ds.

After a lot of time traversing both sides of the main street and visiting many of the lovely shops we returned to Gee 2 and decided that it was too late to go on to the next likely camping area, about 90 minutes away. Instead we drove to Opa’s Sausage Shop where after some difficulty parking (we used the parking lot of a closed restaurant across the street) I managed to buy a supply of excellent Turkey and all beef sausages. I had sampled them last year and regretted not buying more. We then decided to retrace our steps to the KOA which had seemed so pleasant. It is. There was a further surprise I learned as I was out taking a walk. The immediate neighbor is a game farm. I was really surprised to see these characters across the fence.

and

I was less thrilled to learn that many of these animals are sold to game ranches where they become the paid for targets of “big game hunters” in the confines of a Texas Ranch.

The next day, Thursday, was a road day. We followed TX 87 south to I 10 east to FM 1604 (that’s Farm to Market and in this case is a major outer loop around San Antonio) to I 35 south to ultimately Texas 83 south by east arriving at Falcon SP late afternoon and 350 miles from our start. We have registered here for a week and are settling in to relax a bit and do some things around the coach. Carol is writing and working on her seminar and I am trying to get my thoughts together on more formal writing than this journal. Friday I ended up in touch with my office and various clients and it felt rather like being at work, but staring out at very different scenery.

Today we got on our bicycles for the first time this trip and Carol’s first time since her hip surgery. The weather was conducive and we road out on to the Falcon Dam about 5 miles each way. There was one little issue, we had set off with out any identification and the middle of the Dam is beyond the frontier. Before we left US territory we stopped and spoke to the customs official and Border Patrol person and they did not have a problem with readmitting us after a trip to no place. The middle of the dam and the actual border are just that, no place.

There is another mile before one reaches the Mexican Frontier and everything is in plain view. However, I understand that this crossing is still pretty informal as there is no place to go once you cross on a bicycle and no commercial traffic is permitted at this crossing in any event. On our return they smiled and asked us for our drivers’ licenses knowing full well that we had nothing with us, they waved us through.

We did very little the rest of the day, well I guess that doesn’t count driving through Roma to Rio Grande City and picking up some essentials, food. In the process we passed two more bridges to Mexico. We will cross one of the bridges when we come to it again. Vanilla is on our agenda, we understand that it may be in short supply in these parts, hope we can find some to cart back with us.

All day Saturday the sky was grey and the wind blew steadily. It even rained, although this is the kind of rain you can walk in without getting more than damp. It is desert rain. We were promised great weather for Sunday and was it ever. The sky was clear blue and there was almost no wind and the temperatures rose into the low 80’s by early afternoon. We used the morning to get some work done and to get the motorhome clean again. I went over the entire exterior for the third time in ten days. It glistens. It does need a wax job, but I will find someone to pay to take that on. After lunch we decided it was time to get the boat out and see some of this park and reservoir from the water for the first time. It was great fun and we had a wonderful hour or so paddling around on Falcon Reservoir.

We have the boat stored in the back of the car for now so we can take advantage of any water we see that looks interesting. With the bikes and the boat we are definitely getting too many toys.

The coyotes are quieter tonight than they have been, The evening chorus and the dawn chorus have been something else. Last night I heard them in the middle of the night too. The first time we heard them I was prepared to call the ranger to quiet the rowdy party, I finally figured that any party making that much noise would have attracted the ranger themselves. Haven’t seen the creatures yet, I understand I may not see them. Did have a Javelina in our campsite this evening, they are not the sweetest looking animal and they make a skunk seem sweet smelling. Fortunately this one was alone not in the usual pack of six or more.

We stopped in Bryan/College Station for two nights on our way to Austin. The Marino Rd RV Park was very welcoming even if it is a flat field across the street from the airport and has little going for it in the way of amenities. It is Passport America which endears it to us – 50% off always makes me happy – and the staff people were quite nice and very accommodating. We settled in and Carol got to do the laundry and make dinner on board.

On Thursday the 19^th we set out to see the George H. W. Bush Library. His mother couldn’t choose among the family names so he got them all. This is the first Republican presidential library we gave visited. It has not really been intentional, it has just happened to work out that way ever since our family visit to the JFK library sometime back in the 70’s. This library is definitely worth a stop if you are anywhere near Aggie Town. If you didn’t know, College Station is the home of Texas A & M, known in these parts as the Aggies. A & M stands for Agriculture and Mechanical. I had surmised this but did not know and had to ask as everything in the area refers to A & M and we never did see it spelled out anyplace.

On Friday morning, with the coach and car freshly hand washed we set out through the drought stricken East Texas plains for Austin. Washing the coach did it, sort of. We had enough rain along the road to require a thorough wipe down upon arrival. We pulled into Austin Lone Star RV for our second time and were greeted at the gate and welcomed and guided to our site. We were also informed we had a package waiting, thank you Kathy. The weather was delightful, sun shining and temperature of about 80! I got out my clothes and cleaned up Gee 2 again, tempting fate. Then we showered and sat in lawn chairs and read until time to drive to Leigh and Pat’s new home. We had lovely conversation and dinner at a neighborhood spot that featured a longish wait and good food together with pleasant ambience, once past the noise of the waiting area.

As always Leigh had researched a wide range of options for Saturday and after Study Group and services at Temple Beth Israel we joined them for lunch at Ruby’s, famous for there barbecue. The chicken and brisket were wonderful; we wondered how we would ever eat dinner. We went on to the Umlauf Gardens, home of a collection of sculpture by George Umlauf. It was a wonderful stop.

Afterwards we toured several areas of Austin we had not seen and returned to their wonderful house in the city where Leigh prepared a wonderful meal the featured Soufflés and a Gratin Salad. Here is Leigh preparing to serve the soufflés.

On Sunday for something entirely different, we picked Pat and Leigh up at their house in Gee 2 in full travel mode. We had learned of a US Army Corp of Engineers campground not too far to the north on Lake Georgetown. The reputation of these parks is very good and this seemed like an ideal time to do some research. We found the campground with no trouble and there was plenty of room, it is winter here too. We drove around the loop twice looking for the ideal view and a relatively level site. The view is great, the slope is a bit much, both front tires are off the ground. We had lunch on board and then set off for the town of Salado, another 20 miles up the road. This little strip of a town has more shops per person than seems proper. We shopped until we dropped and then drove south to Georgetown where we had dinner at Wildfire Grill. It was very nice and then we took them back home in Austin and returned to Gee2 for the night.

Monday we hung around the campground most of the morning doing various things and at about noon we drove into Georgetown for lunch at the Monument Diner which was highly recommended. The recommendation was well deserved. The meatloaf was wonderful and the accompanying vegetables were excellent as were the rolls, Yum!

For the afternoon we went back to Salado to retrieve a gift we had bought that was being gift wrapped. We spent a lot more time wandering the shops and we had sent home a Mexican style dinner set for our own casual use, made in China. Saw a lot of other stuff we didn’t need to buy, but might have in another time. We returned to Gee2 for a fancy dinner prepared by Carol using our convection oven, still learning how to use that item. Today was another day spent in the campground through lunch. My practice was calling and I had to “go to work” for a bit. We also began to project the next phase of our wandering. Tomorrow, Wednesday the 24^th we will set out for Falcon State Park, not too far from Zapata, TX. If you actually have a map out, look to the south and east from Laredo directly on the border, just north of Zapata. We will pass through Fredericksburg, not on the most direct route, but more interesting and it takes through Johnson City. I expect it to take at least two days to cover the 350 to 400 miles to Falcon SP. The Verizon Wireless coverage map seems to project that we will have full internet service there. It remains to be seen.

As we have crossed and recrossed this country we have retraced many different routes from the Chisolm Trail to Route 66 to the route of the rout of the Texians as they ran from the Mexicans after declaring Texas Independence at Washington on the Brazos. As we crossed from Mississippi into Louisiana on L 6 we noticed signs bearing the shape of both Texas and Louisiana and the word Camino, Spanish for trail. This was the route of the Mexican forces as they explored this land from Mexico to Florida. It took us back to Nachitoches in western Louisiana, south of Shreveport where we had enjoyed ourselves a couple of years ago. We stayed in a different campground, Dogwood Camping, to avoid the truck stop noise that had kept us awake in the Nakatosh Campground which bordered the truckstop. Dogwood had two inescapable features. We saw the first immediately as, with Carol at the wheel, we had to surmount an enormous and steep hill on broken pavement just to get into the place. There was no alternative for her but to gun the engine and go for it to hesitate would have meant disconnecting the car on the hill and backing off for another try. She made it easily, but not without some hard breathing.

The second was a bit more interesting. As I entered the office to pay for the night my eye was immediately drawn to a small table with a crossed flag stand bearing two flags, the US and Israel. I worked real hard to avoid the obvious thought that I had found a Jewish campground, in Nachatoches, LA. I cannot come up with as unlikely a scenario to compare it too. Once I disclosed my name the answer became clear. I was in the presence of an Evangelical Christian who has a love affair with Israel. As the conversation progressed and she asked if I was a Messianic Jew, I knew where we were going. We did. I assured her in no uncertain terms that there was no way I could/would consider Jesus as other than a prophet and left to go about my business.

The next morning Carol went to the office to pay for a second night and the conversation was repeated. It is nice to find people who care about Israel as much as we do. It is difficult when they want to change what we believe and do not accept no for an answer. Having had a Caatholic friend when I was 5 whose priest told him it would be good for me if he converted me, I have had plenty of experience at warding off most approaches, I do get bored with the subject.

In the campground we met Norm and Wilma. Norm is a minister, Orthodox Presbyterian as it turned out. We invited them in for happy hour and had a wonderful time. I learned more about the Presbyterians, and their schisms than I remember from any comparative religion course I ever took. We even had a chance to look at different ways of viewing a passage in the Torah, Exodus 34:14 if anyone is interested. We only had two translations to work with, but I know there are others. There was no overt attempt at conversion and there was lots of talk about grandkids and interesting travel.

The next morning, that must have been today (1/18/06) we continued across the Camino through Nacodgoches, TX and Crockett (last time through here we stopped at the spring where Davy and company stopped to refresh themselves – it’s still there and there is now a sign saying “Future Site of Park.” And on to Bryan where we will spend two nights and the most likely conversion attempt will be to Texas A&M loyalists, but we will be joining Leigh and Pat in Austin on Friday and will have to maintain our loyalty to #1 –

BROWN University, #1 in the Ivy League!

This is not quite a nonsequitor, well maybe it is, but I’ll go with it as you will see how it fits.

It was cool and threatening when we started up in the Wal Mart Parking lot. We moved back out on to US 278/MS 6 westbound from Oxford to reach the river. At Clarksdale we worked our way over to the Great River Road, MS 1 and turned south. It you pull out a map of the region you will see that the Mississippi snakes its way south like a plate of linguini. There are many threads of water, none of them connected to the main stem. They are remainders (or is that reminders?) of where the river once was and is no longer, for the time being. Actually this paragraph is very much like the area, meandering around the subject without really reaching it. The valley floor is a wide flat plain of very fertile soil and it is mostly agricultural, we saw cotton, rice and wheat fields and I am sure other crops as well that I would have no way of recognizing at this time of year. We did not ever see the river! We saw water that was old ox bows and we saw tributary streams, but the river was always just over the next levee or meandering west as the road went east.

We were intrigued with the name Yazoo City and when we saw a sign for the Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) we had to explore, in Gee 2 with the car still in tow. We turned off into the entry road fully expecting to find a visitor center parking lot that would provide a place to stop for lunch and a place turn the rig around. As we got further in we saw hunters heading off into the woods with portable tree stands on their backs. We saw plenty of turnoffs into the woods, but place to stop comfortably and certainly no place to turn. We came to an intersection, deep in the reserve, where all our choices were unpaved. I hailed a passing truck and the driver, in hunting camouflage, assured me that the road ahead had no low hanging or encroaching trees and would, as my mapping software told me, return us to MS 1. We proceeded a short distance and found a spot where we could get off the road for a lunch break, but not reverse our course. There were some trucks in the area and as we were ready to get lunch out a hunter appeared. I engaged him in conversation about hunting in the NWR and he explained that bow hunting only was permitted and only in certain areas. He said that hunting was allowed to the right of the entry trail (from his perspective) and to the left was a closed area. All the really large deer stay in the protected area and don’t venture into the hunting area during the season, that is why they are large, they are, for deer, intelligent.. After eating we continued down the road with no incident and returned to the highway and continued on down to Vicksburg.

We had stayed near Vicksburg a couple of years ago, the year of the snow storm on the Natchez Trace Parkway. At that time we drove into Vicksburg and had dinner at Borellos, an experience that we both remembered fondly. That being the case we left the Magnolia RV Park in the car after cleaning up and drove into town and after wandering around in the gathering dark for an hour we parked in front of Borellos and went in for dinner. The waiter approached and asked for drink orders and I ordered a Beefeater Martini, up with an olive. He looked startled and asked me to repeat which I did. As he left I looked at Carol and realized what I had done. I have not had Beefeater in a martini in over twenty years. Bombay Sapphire or Tanqueray for sure, but I had heard the words fall out of my mouth and decided to go with it. It was the best part of the meal. We will not seek out this place again. It wasn’t bad, just not worth coming out for.

As I write we are not sure where we are going today. We could spend the day here, but it is rainy and it being MLK day much is closed. We are thinking of moving on through Natchez and then into LA and across to Natchitoches (pronounced Nakotish). Still no word on the volunteer connection so it appears we will just keep moving and visit the Rainwaters in Austin late in the week.

Stay tuned!

We left Hungrytown Hollow fairly early and had an uneventful drive up and over the Blue Ridge and down the Shenandoah Valley on I 81. We remembered this time that the first Flying J we come to at exit 80 has propane but no dump facilities and is sized for mini RVs. Therefore we continued down the road to exit 77 where there is a Flying J with room and propane and dump facilities. Dump facilities are to RVers like bathrooms in Manhattan, sometimes hard to find and critical when you really need them. Lest I bore the non RVers I will leave that subject for now, but you may be assured it will reoccur and the most inopportune moments. We went looking for a Wal Mart in Bristol, TN that showed in all our guides. It wasn’t where it was supposed to be, it must have grown legs and moved. We gave up and continued to a campground we remember well. Baileyton RV is maybe 20 miles over the line into TN. We stopped there two years ago and had a pleasant enough stay – until we awoke in the morning to several inches of snow. The new owners remembered the storm; they have pictures of the campground that day. It has not happened again, yet. After a good night’s rest we continued down I 81 to I 40.

On one of our first trips down this way in 1988 (tent camping and staying in Inns and B & B’s) I had decided I wanted to take a tour of Oak Ridge, TN. As we got tangled in traffic coming through Knoxville I decided it was a bad idea and we continued back up into the mountains. The idea has stayed with me, but we never got within range of Oak Ridge again until this trip. We located a campground Volunteer Family Park outside Knoxville and twenty minutes from Oak Ridge, TN, it was open, well, sort of open. A quarter of the sites were torn up for upgrading water and electric and the place was a bit of a mess, but they had water, electric and sewer and more to the point WiFi (not free – $2). After setting up and having lunch, this was a really early stop, we drove over to Oak Ridge and found the American Museum of Science and Energy (AMSE) which has a huge exhibit of photos and memorabilia from the days it was the “Secret City” one of the homes of the Manhattan Project. There are still vast tracts of land that are off limits to anyone without appropriate clearances. This is one of those stops that is not worth going way out of your way for, unless you are fascinated with the history of this country through WW II. It is definitely worth a stop if you are passing this way.

Hmm, Tennessee, what else is in Tennessee that I want to see but would not get on a plane or make a special trip to visit? Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, TN population 361! Just look at a map, it is in the same state and only moderately out of the way from any place one might want to go. So off we went, going cross lots on roads that were lightly traveled and not another RV to be seen. Eventually there was the Distillery right on route 55, the main road to no place in particular. The tour covers then entire plant, even in the rain and cold, from the preparation of the charcoal for mellowing to the mashing and distilling and barrel aging warehouses. Moor County, the home of the Distillery, is a dry county. By special state legislation they are permitted to sell commemorative bottles of the product in one room of the visitor’s center. After the hour and a half tour and a walk into the heart of Historic Lynchburg, we got on the road to Mill Creek RV in no place Alabama. This place is off a back road, off a back road (I am not stuttering) in the boonies. It is about an hour north of Huntsville which is to say it is barely south of the TN line. Nice place, nice people, cold weather! The site was level and roomy and if I were into hunting or fishing this is a place I might come back to many times. I am not likely to be back there again myself.

As I am writing I am sitting in a Wal Mart parking lot. They may mistreat their employees, but they are mighty nice to us RVers. Free parking with all the security you could ask for. This particular Wal Mart happens to be located in Oxford, MS. When you remember what/who Oxford is famous for, let me know. To get here we had to drive past the birth place of Helen Keller and make a stop at the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in Tuscmbia just outside of Muscle Shoals. There will be a quiz on who and what these places are famous for when I see you next. The rest of the day included a piece of the Natchez Trace Parkway and sundry roads also not well traveled by our fellows in the big boxes.

Our current plan is to continue across Mississippi to the eponymous river and proceed along its east bank on MS 1 at least to Vicksburg. I’ll provide a report on reality after the fact.