Boquillas

As I mentioned in my Big Bend post, one can actually cross the Rio Grande into Mexico from Big Bend National Park. There is a US BCP office on the US side, and a corresponding office on the Mexican side (closed the day we were there). A valid US passport is required for the border crossing.




















For $5 roundtrip, a rowboat takes you across the Rio Grand; at this time of year, the river can't be more than 30 yards across. Supposedly, cheapskates can and do cross the river by simply wading or swimming across. I wouldn't have cared to do that on the day we crossed; it looked fairly deep, with a swift current.

Captain Dennis 

On the other side, there's a large group of men, burros and pickup trucks to arrange transport and/or guidance to the village, some 3/4 mile away, on a bluff overlooking the river. It was a nice morning, so we elected to walk. We were quickly accompanied by Raul, our guide for the day.

Raul spoke excellent English, and we enjoyed his company. We peppered him with questions about life in Boquillas. It can't be easy living there.

Boquillas is literally off the grid. They have a self-contained electrical system, entirely powered by solar cells. There's not enough juice available to run air conditioning: this, in a place that regularly gets over 110°F in the summertime.

The community has a single well; from it, water is pumped into a large tank on the upper end of town. Twice a week, the valve to the tank is opened and water flows by gravity to the houses and business in town. It appears that most people have a water storage tank in their house.

Satellite TV? It's available, but expensive. Internet access? Don't know; I didn't ask. What about sewer? We didn't ask, but I'd assume septic tanks, but maybe it gets dumped downstream in the Rio Grande.

One of Boquilla's finest. Note the power lines.

The nearest city is 3.5 hours away - by dirt road. There's a school, a medical clinic (staffed only a week or two a month) and a church (ditto).

Everybody in town is pretty focused on tourism; it appears to be the only industry in town. Raul's wife runs a little souvenir stand, one of a dozen or so pretty much selling the same stuff. There's two restaurants and a bar, and a little mercado (market) in town.

Looking toward "downtown" Boquillas

The view from Jose Falcon's

We spent maybe two hours in town. We walked it end-to-end, spent a few bucks on souvenirs, had a delicious and inexpensive lunch (and margaritas) at Jose Falcon's, and walked back down to the river. It was interesting, insightful... and made us REALLY thankful for all that we have.

Big Bend

I continue to have trouble posting photos in this blog. I’ve got a number that I want to share, but rather than continue beating my head against the wall of this incompetent software I’m simply going to post a number of photos on Instragram (as shook.rick). Look for them there.

We’ve spent the past week in Lajitas, TX, which is just a few miles west of Big Bend National Park. In our travels in the past year, we’ve visited National Parks in three of the four types of deserts found in the US: Great Basin (Great Basin NP), Sonoran (Saguaro NP) and Chihuahuan (Big Bend NP). Each offers its own unique beauty.

Lajitas is a very small town built around a very nice golf resort; the RV park we are staying at is actually part of the golf resort. Other than Lajitas and the neighboring town of Terlingua (itself not much to write home about) we are a long way from everywhere; the closest city of any note is Presidio, TX, some 50 miles upriver.

We’ve been into Big Bend three times, spending long days driving to and seeing some of the sights. We’ve seen the major sites, but there are tons of little sights, hikes, etc. that we’ll just have to pass on - for now.

Our first trip took us to Santa Elena, which is where the Rio Grande exits a narrow, tall gorge. The canyon walls are 1500’ high; in places, the gorge is as narrow as 30 feet. Here’s a shot:

Our next trip took us to the farthest end of the park, to Rio Grande Village. Aside from a small RV park here, the main attraction to us was the opportunity to visit Boquillas, Mexico, via a rowboat ride across the Rio Grande. This is a bona fide Port of Entry in both directions; one needs a passport to do this. There’s a lot to say about Boquillas, so I’ll treat that in a separate  blog post.

Our last trip took us to Chisos Basin; at over 5400’ of elevation, this represented a significant change in both vegetation and in temperature from the much hotter and drier desert found in the rest of the park. Chisos Basin abounds in trees, both deciduous and evergreen, as well as wildlife more commonly found in more temperate climates: bears, mountain lions, white-tailed deer, etc.

We had a ball here. We definitely want to come back.

Marfa

As I mentioned in a previous post, we visited the little (pop. 2,000) town of Marfa, which is some 25 miles west of Alpine. Marfa is best-known as an artists enclave. There are literally dozens of galleries and studios scattered throughout town. We saw some interesting stuff - which of course I can't legitimately photograph.

Marfa itself is an old town, with some interesting buildings...






Near the end of the day, we were wandering around the outskirts of town and discovered the most magical place, a place called El Cosmico. I guess it can best be described as a campground, but that threadbare word doesn't do it justice. It offers for rent canvas tents, teepees, yurts, and an absolutely amazing collection of old-time trailers. We had a ball wandering through the place looking at the myriad colors and designs of these ancient beauties:

Alpine, Texas

(This was written on Thursday, 3/21 but not posted until 3/22. The days and

dates referenced might therefore be a little bit off.)

We’ve been in Alpine, TX for the last few days. We’re here primarily because

we couldn’t get in to Big Bend National Park, some 100 miles away, until tomorrow.

This week is spring break for most of Texas, and Big Bend is a hot destination in

the springtime.

Alpine is a small town of some 6,000 people located at 4500 feet in the Davis

mountains; it is literally in the middle of nowhere. Despite that, this is a nice place.

It’s got a hospital, grocery store hardware store and any number of nice restaurants

and night spots; it even had a brewery until it suddenly closed at the end of last year.

It’s the home of Sul Ross State University.

How far in the middle of nowhere? Driving into town last Sunday, we noticed

that we had developed a crack in the windshield of the truck, which necessitated

its replacement. The closest auto glass repair place is sixty miles away! We took

care of that little chore yesterday.

This area’s got a lot of stuff to see. A couple of days ago, we drove some 20 miles

up the road to Fort Davis National Historic Site; this is an amazingly well-preserved

19th century Army fort. The fort was largely staffed with Buffalo Soldiers - some of

the original African-American soldiers in the US Army. Reading about their life and

service here was fascinating.

We spent today (3/21) in Marfa, TX, which is an art-centric little town some 25 miles

away. I took a number of pics there; I’ll put out a separate post on Marfa.

Farewell, Tucson

We are back on the road again, having bid a fond farewell to Tucson this morning. We didn’t go too far; we are in Las Cruces, New Mexico, some 280 miles from Tucson.

We planned on leaving Tucson yesterday (3/13)  but a huge wind and rainstorm blew through; we are talking wind gusts of 60-70mph in Las Cruces yesterday. This same system is currently hammering the Midwest with hurricane-force winds, snow, and all kinds of unpleasantness. These are obviously not conditions where one would wish to take a 40-feet-long, 13+-foot tall trailer through. 

We didn’t have to be in Las Cruces yesterday; we’re staying here for a few days anyhow. So, in a rare burst of maturity and wisdom we decided that we’d simply sit tight in Tucson. We spent the day indoors; we needed to get started on our income tax return, anyhow.

Leaving Tucson and driving to Las Cruces was completely uneventful; today’s weather was calm and sunny. To our pleasant surprise, all of the various systems in the trailer worked just fine, after setting in one spot for two months.

Can’t say the same about our arrival here. The automated  system that levels the trailer is acting up. After quite a bit of fiddling, I figured out that I can raise and lower the six individual jacks manually through the control panel. So, we’re here, and level, and should be able to get everything back up when we leave on Sunday. I’m going to call Heartland in the morning and have a little chat with the tech service people. There’s nothing mechanically wrong with anything; I’m hoping there’s some kind of reset procedure that will set the electronics right.

I’m gathering up my (our) thoughts on our time in Tucson and will probably put out a little summary in a few days….

Saguaro

Oldest daughter Sherry has been visiting us for the past few days; she’s a teacher and is on spring break this week. She left us this morning to return home. It was very enjoyable to have her here with us. We miss seeing our children on a regular basis.

Last Sunday, we took a nice, six-mile hike in Saguaro National Park. We had beautiful weather: sunny and breezy and not too hot.

Seeing saguaro cacti is a never-ending pleasure for us. They exert a magical, other-worldly charm. There were literally thousands of them on our hike, and no two look remotely alike - except for the young ones, which are simple columns.

At this time of the year, the region where we hiked has numerous small flowing streams; they are draining a fairly large mountain range. In fact, our hike destination was a small waterfall, Bridal Wreath Falls.

It may have been small, but it was beautiful - well worth the walk.

Aviation in Tucson

Those of you that know me know that I’ve always been interested in aviation. Both Cathy and

I grew up in Lancaster, CA, which is the closest city to Edwards AFB. I guess all of that

watching low-flying supersonic aircraft as a kid has stuck with me.

We did several things here that are aviation-related. Let me share them with you.

Tucson is home to the third-largest (behind the Smithsonian and the Museum of the USAF)

aviation museum in the world, the Pima Air and Space Museum. It is an enormous facility,

chock full of some really interesting aircraft. The four of us toured the museum a couple of

weeks ago. Since they weren’t nearly as interested in aircraft as I was, I paid an extra 5$

to get a two-day pass. When Cathy was in California for the weekend, I wandered over

early Saturday morning and spent a few extra hours there. In addition to the shot of a B-36

bomber at the top of this post, here are a few pics from my visits.  

Here’s the two glamour queens, Leah and Cathy:

This B-17G is in the 390th Air Group museum, contained onsite.

While I was there on Saturday, the Air Force was conducting its annual training for

participation on Freedom Flight programs. Freedom Flights take place at air shows

around the US, and usually pair restored fighter aircraft from WWII and/or Korea with

current USAF fighter aircraft. Not surprisingly, the Air Force takes this all pretty

seriously; EVERYONE that will participate in that must go through this training.

Davis-Monthan AFB is literally across the road from the Pima museum. All day long,

all weekend long, flights of aircraft were flying in and out of Davis-Monthan in close

formation. It was like a days-long air show. I knew this was going on, so I took my good

camera and longest lens to the museum, and managed to get the following shots.

The photo below shows, clockwise from the top, a P-47 Thunderbolt, F-22 Raptor, P-51

Mustang and a P-38 Lightning. All of these beside the F-22 were WWII fighter aircraft.

The photo below shows an F-86 Sabre, P-51 Mustang and F-16 Falcon. The F-86 fought

in the Korean War.

.

We also took a tour of the “boneyard” at Davis-Monthan AFB. This facility stores some 4,000 aircraft from all US government agencies. Some are kept in strategic reserve. Others have

the engines, electronics and other valuable spare parts removed and the remaining carcass

is eventually sold for scrap.

Photos don’t really do the place justice. It is hard to imagine the rows upon rows of airplanes

sitting in the desert. The photo below shows dozens of jet engines, removed from aircraft

and carefully wrapped for preservation. In the background are dozens - out of the hundreds

that are actually stored - of C-130 cargo planes.

Spring Training

Last Sunday, we drove up to Phoenix for the day to see a Dodgers game - actually, I drove up for the day. Cathy was in SoCal visiting the grandkids and flew in to Phoenix Sunday AM. I picked her up at the airport and we headed to Glendale to watch the Dodgers.

We met Heather and Dan and a few of their law school buddies at the park. Spring training is a special time for Heather and Dan; they fell in love on a spring training trip when they were in law school.

Yesterday Cathy and I put the dogs in a kennel and drove to Phoenix to see a couple more Dodger games; this trip was planned before we knew that Heather and Dan would be in Phoenix last weekend, and before Cathy decided on a grandkids fix. We saw the Dodgers whip up on the Angels yesterday afternoon, and we’ll watch them again tonight.

Spring training’s great. The weather’s been great, the games are relaxed, you are pretty close to the action… highly recommended to anyone who’s never gone!

First two pics are from Sunday, at Camelback park. Last two pics are from yesterday, at Tempe Diablo park, home of the Angels.

We actually watched this game from the lawn out in left-centerfield.

This pic below was taken from our seat and sort of shows just how close to the action you are, even from the cheap seats.

Bisbee and Tombstone

I’ll be getting a couple of blog posts out in the next couple of days describing some of the things we’ve been doing here. Since my last post describing the great Tucson Blizzard of 2019 the weather has turned nice. Most days have been in the high 70’s with lows around 50. It’s supposed to hit 80 the next couple of days.

With our Ohio friends Dennis and Leah, last week we drove to Bisbee, an old mining town just over an hour southeast of here. Bisbee is home to a number of defunct mines including the Copper Queen Mine, which offers what turned out to be a fascinating tour.

After getting equipped with the requisite safety gear we boarded the little mine train and headed underground. What made the tour great was our guide, Dave. Dave’ s an 80-year-old former hard rock miner. He expertly described how these guys made a living dynamiting rock deep underground.

On the way home after the tour we stopped in Tombstone, some 20 miles north, for a late lunch. We’d been warned that Tombstone was a little touristy, but we still found it quite interesting