Fri, Oct 29, 2010

Friday, October 29, 2010      

This will be our last “real” day of vacation since we plan to spend the majority of the day enjoying the hill country and will then begin two days of driving to get home sometime Sunday. 

Today began as many of our road trip days begin with a continental breakfast at the motel.  Then with a cup of hot coffee in hand we headed out for some dirt roads.  The weather was a good bit cooler than the prior day but it was still clear and there was no wind. 

The abandoned community of Click was our first stop with just an old empty store remaining to show there was once commercial activity here.  Nearby was an old water tank and a few cows to watch our activity. 

The deer were our in force and Paris and Dodger were having a fine time trying to keep up with all of them.  Gun season has not begun yet but the deer are in rut because we have seen probably a dozen really nice bucks the past couple of days and we never see any bucks at other times of the year.  I was only able to capture a few quick shots of one nice young buck who was distressed that all the does had exited stage right and left him stage left with us between them.  His confusion did give us a few seconds to capture his image.

We drove into Fredericksburg to an Amish shop we had read about and took a short walk before heading out again.

At the small community of Doss, TX we stopped to photograph and admire St Peters Lutheran Church.  Another of those immaculately maintained churches in the hill country it was established in 1896 by German Lutherans.  By 1898 they had a frame church and then by 1918 it was replaced by a Gothic Revival structure made of native limestone. The Doss community is very small pretty much just a very neat crossroads with the church, a small school across the street, a general store and a few homes.  The rest of the community’s residents are spread out across the county pursuing ranching.  As we walked around the church you could hear the voices of the children in school.  It seems like a wonderful place to raise a family.

From there it was back around retracing our steps to the Salt Branch for some water play for Paris & Dodger along with a little more walking.  After they tired we headed back to Mason for a repeat of our BBQ lunch of yesterday. 

After stuffing ourselves we began the process of picking a route back to Mississippi.  We did take a few more back roads and made our way to Gatesville, TX for the night.  We had very nice, relaxing day again and as I am typing I believe most of my small family is snoring already. 

Tomorrow and Sunday will be mostly driving days and I will find things to read to us to pass the time.  We have had an incredible trip, seen some awesome and inspiring sights, had some good food, good play and gotten some pretty good photographs to help us relive this wonderful journey.  For those of you who chose to share with us I have to thank you for all the comments, great stories you shared and for your well wishes and compliments on my photography.  You have helped make this road trip a great one.

We are well tonight and hope you all are too!  Hopefully, we will see you again soon on the road.

Peace, Hope & Love,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger

PS I forgot to download a couple of zebra and wild hog shots I took yesterday but they have now been uploaded.  You might enjoy the one of the young zebra colt… he is pretty cute.



Thurs, Oct 28, 2010

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Peace I ask of thee, O’ River peace, peace, peace
When I learn to live serenely cares will cease.
From the hills I gather courage visions of the days to be
Strength to lead and faith to follow all are given unto me
Peace I ask of thee, O’ River peace, peace, peace.               Author Unknown, Camp song

This was the day of water… glorious clear flowing water.  Doesn’t everybody feel a peace envelope them with just the sight of a calm body of water or a flowing stream?  If you spend much time on the dusty dirt roads in the hill country of Texas then coming around a curve to the sight of a flowing clear river is like heaven on earth.

Today we spent the entire day driving the dirt roads around Llano and Mason Texas which are two of our favorite small towns.  We are familiar enough with the area to know which creeks are seasonal and which ones can be counted on to provide relief from the dust when the summer has been a dry one.  So we just wandered from one great spring or creek or river to the next and just by accident we started with the smallest (Cherry Springs) and ended with the largest one (Llano River) right at dusk.

Water in the hill country almost always flows over rocks of one kind or another.  It may be limestone or even marble or often granite.  Add the combination of rocks and water and you get some of the prettiest clear water you’ll see.  Another nice thing about water in this area is that is it fairly shallow and this makes for easy access and great places for the pups to play.

One of the first funny things we saw this morning was a poster planted outside a ranch gate with a picture of former President Bush saying “Miss me yet?”  Charles and I got a real kick out of it so had to include a picture of it.    

I had originally thought that we would not take many photos today but it turned out to be a beautiful day… actually it was perfect with the temperatures only reaching the low seventies and just a slight breeze. We also found some good photo subjects so it was a fairly productive day photo wise and a very relaxing day as well.

We found a beautiful German Lutheran church building that was built in 1906 and was in perfect condition.  It serves the small community of Cherry Spring, TX.  Another neat old building we found today was the Onion Schoolhouse built in 1900.  Unfortunately its usefulness as a school has long passed and it is now used as storage for farm equipment.  Still, it is a beautiful rock structure.

The majority of our day was spent playing in the springs, creeks, and rivers and we were lucky to arrive at the Llano River crossing just as the sun had set and the light was absolutely magical.

Of course, between stops we had a great BBQ lunch at our favorite BBQ restaurant, Coopers in Mason, TX.

We are staying tonight again in Llano and are very well after a perfect day on the road.  We hope that you all are well too!

Peace, Hope & Love,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger



Wed, Oct 27, 2010

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Lazy morning again followed by a continental breakfast before we headed out toward the hill country of Texas.  As our road trip winds down we will spend our last few days in the hill country of Texas.  Although I may take a few photos we will spend most of our remaining “Holiday” time just relaxing and enjoying the clear waters with the pups.  We have spent a lot of time around Llano, TX and this time of year it is pretty dusty and dry.  We won’t let a good photo pass us by but we won’t be pursuing them as we have for the past month. 

We were a little surprised today to find very warm temperatures.  By late this afternoon it had climbed to 95 degrees.  It wasn’t really uncomfortable due to the very low humidity and it didn’t require us to close the windows but we did seek shade at every opportunity.

Having spent my entire life in the First Christian Church in Meridian we are always on the lookout for other Christian churches.  We found a beautiful old FCC church in Santa Anna, TX.  A small Texas town with a population probably less than 2,000 it was a pretty neat place.  The FCC congregation formed in 1894 and purchased the lot for this church building in 1900.  This church building was dedicated in April, 1901.  The building was in some disrepair but there was a beautiful new roof on it so we are hoping that the congregation is able to maintain this beautiful old structure. 

Our next planned stop was at Harry’s in San Saba, Texas.  It is a western wear and boot store that was founded in 1939.  This well stocked business is located in several beautifully renovated buildings in the heart of downtown San Saba.  It is built from beautiful native rock and has gorgeous wooden archways, doors and the original floors with beaded ceilings in some areas and stamped tin in others.  It was a very neat experience. 

Just outside San Saba and we got on dirt roads for most of the rest of the afternoon.  We did spot a bunch of jake turkeys that had to number in excess of 50 to 75 birds.  Most of them were very nice sized birds and a couple we could see well had long beards.  Any of our hunter friends would have been proud to have taken one of these Texas turkeys.  They were under some oak trees and far enough away that there was no opportunity for a good photo but I took one just to document the moment so to speak.

All of the seasonal creeks in the area were dry so we had to make our way to the Llano River to find some good clear water.  We crossed the Llano three times and it was just a beautiful as ever.  We also made a stop at the Llano City Park that lies along the banks of a damned portion of the river.  There are huge oak trees throughout the park and the nice breeze and accompanying shade made it a great place to relax and walk for a while.

We got a room and then Charles took the Jeep to give it a good cleanup and just called to say he thought he would just bring us back a pizza for supper… no complaints from this end for sure!

We are well tonight and hope you all are too.

Peace, Hope & Love,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger



Tue, Oct 26, 2010

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The day of the windmill.

Our room in Clayton, NM was nice and the continental breakfast was again, as we have had several times, a hot breakfast with eggs, sausage, biscuits etc…  After getting a second cup of coffee for the road we were ready to go.  The snow and wind storm of yesterday had moved on to other parts of the country and the sun was bright and the skies blue.  We were glad to see this change.

Clayton, NM is only about 10 miles from the Texas state line.  So very soon after leaving this morning we were in Texas.  You can spend days just driving across Texas and we have done that many times. So we were in search of a road that would take us in a generally southern direction that we had not taken.  We decided on State Highway 70 but would have to do a little driving to get to it. 

 This part of Texas is known as the Panhandle and it is a moderately dry area on the high plains.  There are long vistas and ample supplies of wind.  This accounts for the fact that this area is one of the fastest growing areas utilizing “wind farms”.  But the earlier windmills of days gone by are what Charles and I love to see.  Because of the dryness and the lack of open water, windmills are abundant in this portion of Texas and so began our “day of the windmill”.  The oldest windmill structures were wooden but it is getting harder and harder to find wooden windmills still in operation.  Most of the windmills we see now are metal and lack some of the character of those earlier windmills.  Still, it is better than no windmills at all.  

One of the appeals of a working windmill is the click, click swooshing sound they make as the blades above turn and the sucker rod moves up and down pulling the water below up and into a pipe this pushing it out into a waiting tank.  It’s a soothing rhythm and a great place to take a nap!

As we made our way down the Panhandle we didn’t have to search too hard to find a number of working windmills and we made it our goal for the day to photograph some of them.  It wasn’t too long until we found a large windmill farm made up of the new huge windmills lined up across the landscape. 

We took a couple of dirt road side trips with the last one being thru the famous JA Ranch which is located in the Palo Duro Canyon.  This canyon is the second largest canyon in the US…of course the Grand Canyon being the largest.  It is over 100 miles long and is over 20 miles wide in places.  Not as dramatic as the Grand Canyon it is still beautiful and you can drive thru it. 

Once thru the Canyon we were on Highway 70 for the remainder of the day.  It turned out to be a really really nice drive and a good road with almost no traffic.  We drove over 150 miles on it going thru numerous small Texas towns and ending our drive for today in Sweetwater, TX.

We have a nice room again tonight and are doing well.  We hope that you all are too!

Peace, Hope & Love,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger



Mon, Oct 25, 2010

Monday, October 25, 2010

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Ok, this day definitely changed our plans at every turn.  We were up did a little reading and enjoyed a good continental breakfast before heading out for the day.  We had planned to drive across southern Colorado perhaps stopping at Mesa Verde National Park and other spots along the way with no particular destination in mind. 

As we left Cortez though it was a dark dreary cloudy day and the rain had begun to fall.  It was far too dark and rainy to attempt a stop at Mesa Verde so we just figured we would be out of it somewhere down the road.  The forecast was for just scattered rain but the probability for rain increases tomorrow so we felt like there was no reason to hang around.  We drove on thru Durango… more rain.  We got to Pagosa Springs… more rain. Then we started up Wolf Creek Pass toward South Fork and it began to snow… hard.  Before we got to the top of the pass there was one 18 wheeler stuck and a BMW car as well.  We met the snow plow going down and were hoping we would soon be behind another plow to take us across the pass.  Traffic was being very good and everyone was taking it very slowly.  Just over the top of the pass we saw a poor motorcyclist who had stopped on his way up probably to add more clothing.  I really felt for him. He was riding a BMW GS which is considered an adventure bike but I doubt he really wanted to add this adventure to his repertoire.

We made it down the pass without incident and were pretty sure we would return to rain but that was not the case.  The snow continued at South Fork and Monte Vista and Del Norte and thru La Veta Pass. We spent the day pretty much in a near white-out. The temperatures had fallen from the fifties in Cortex to thirty-three and the wind was about to blow everybody off the road.  The gusts were supposedly about fifty mph. 

We decided it was important to try and drive on out of this unpredicted storm so we would not have to deal with it tomorrow.  At every coffee or restroom stop it was the topic of conversation among all of the travelers.  Luckily when we got to Walsenburg, CO and had to get on Interstate 25 the snow had returned to rain.  This was quite a relief. 

At Raton, NM we exited the Interstate and headed toward Clayton, NM where we knew there was a good Best Western that took puppies.  About 40 miles from Clayton the rain stopped and the sun even peeked out ever so slightly.  We almost broke into applause! 

We have had supper, are in our room and are well tonight and hope that you all are too.  And our hopes for tomorrow… let the sunshine, let the sunshine, the sunshine in!

Peace, Hope & Love,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger