Merry Christmas from Benson

We were very pleased to have Mom and Bob join us for a few days. We exchanged a few gifts and had some great meals. On the 27th they were on there way back to Holtville CA

A new Presley baby!

Will finally got his wish and brought home a (fairly) new 400cc scooter.

While we can only ride it while it is in the truck for now, we can't wait to get 2-wheelin"

Wonderful state park in Blanco Texas

We are loving this park.

We have made great friends.

There are a dozen towns, plus San Antonio and Austin, that are easy day trips.

Every road is beautiful to drive.

Alot of history, nature and museums.

We are going to come back here often!

We leave on March 21 to make our way home.

Luckenbach Texas, did not find Willy Nelson

We have made 3 trips to Lukenbach which is only about a 30 minute drive from us. The road, as is EVERY road out of Blanco is an amazing twisty paved road that begs for a motorcycle to challenge its curves and hills.
Hopefully we will oblige next spring!











One afternoon about 100 trailriders came thru. One cowboy could not wait for his beer so he road up to the bar. No problem getting served here!

kayaking the Frio river

Ran the rapids in my inflatable Kayak...actually the rapids were super tame.
This river is a major tubing destination. It is in Garner state park which is the most popular park in Texas. Over 3,000 people here some weekends.
Probably not more than 50 when we stayed for 3 nights end of Feb.

Boating up the Rio Grande

Here is Will in his shiny new folding boat zooming for the camera. We are about 8 miles from the launch on the Pecos river, but just across Seminole canyon from the point we walked to in our blog post "walking to the rio grande".
You can see the picnic shelter just above the bow of the boat on the hill.




This is the famous pictograph that gives Panther cave its name.

There are maybe 100 other pictures on the wall as well









Here is the guide map with a clear picture.

Walking to the Rio Grande

Just below our campsite is a 2 mile hike to the Rio Grande/Seminole canyon

junction. We walked this on Valentine’s day.
The area is a true desert. The walk was a treat and the overlook was amazing.

This is Will with the Rio Grande behind. Mexico is the left bank.

Across the river is another ancient pictograph site which is only accessible by boat.

You can see the dock in the middle of this pic. The site is 40 feet above.

We hope to visit it next week

The sign on the fence says "state park boundary"...the view behind is typical desert in this area.

Seminole Canyon

We moved to this state park on the edge of the Chihuahuan desert on Feb. 11.
It is very remote (the nearest town is Del Rio TX) and near the juncture of the Rio Grande and Pecos river. Of course it is very close to Mexico and heavily traveled by illegal immigrants and the US Border Patrol.

The park has amazing canyons which are especially important for their ancient pictographs and fossils.
We have taken one tour to see some paintings and the canyon bottom and have 3 more to do.













We also intend to put our little boat into the Pecos river (just below this bridge which is 273 feet above the water) and travel 8 miles up the Pecos River and 2 miles the other way to the Rio Grande.
The fishing in this area is excellent (a couple at the boat launch had caught 20 big white bass that day).












Mona at the bottom of Seminole canyon.

The park mascot...a shaman sculpture. Very intricate.










Illegal immigrant checking out the high rise housing on the canyon wall.

Connecting with the dolphins

As we get ready to leave this park on February 11, we are tying up loose ends. One thing that we wanted to do was to visit with the dolphins. There is a remarkable, small family operation called “dolphin connection” www.dolphin-connection.org
While this business caters to tourists, it really is about dolphin study. The owner-operator is a former University professor who studies dolphins by using the fees collected for his work and to educate the public.

We luckily found ourselves alone on the tour. Penny was allowed to come along as we were told “Dolphins like dogs”.





Here is Penny playing lookout...she growled when dolphins were near the boat....of course long before we saw them!




The tour was a treat as the captain intimately knows each dolphin in his bay (over 200!) by sight and was happy to share his immense knowledge of dolphins.
Did we actually touch dolphins??? They allowed us to come within inches but stayed just that far away.
We would go again in a minute!

Weather gets us into trouble….

January was the wettest and coldest January in Corpus Christi in about 25 years. Rain was about 21/2 times normal. Lake Corpus Christi rose about 2 feet….still about 8 feet below capacity due to a 3 year drought (seemingly broken when the Presley’s arrived).

This picture is of the NON-floating pier and shows how far down the lake is.

Will apparently got bored. He decided we should move on to Mexico and warmer weather. Mona said she was not up to moving. Of course, Will was outvoted so we stayed in LCC.
But, Will got his revenge. On January 22 (with Mona’s consent, of course) we booked a flight to Toronto for January 25, returning on January 30. It was kept as a total surprise to our family.
Of course THIS is why we traveled….

It is not that we got homesick, it is just that Hannah’s first birthday and Colin’s twice yearly visit to Powassan and crappy weather in south Texas came together.

We went home. We got the 24 hour flu. We had fun. We were ecstatic to spend time with all of our family. We were very glad to get back

Footnote….in the 10 days we are back the weather has broken and become normal..highs in the 20s Celsius most days.

Our second month in Texas

Our first month at Lake Corpus Christi is over and we have renewed our site for another month. We will be here until Feb. 9 and then spend 4 weeks traveling in central Texas.
I thought I might summarize some of our Texas lessons….

What we really like….
The price of gas. Today (January 17) we paid the equivalent of 58 Canadian cents per litre.
The low price of booze….this is hard to get used to…so we have decided to avoid buying booze during the week. I have picked up beer for $15 for 30 cans, premium Tequila for $15 per bottle and decent wine for $6. To make it worse, in our neighborhood bar/marina you can buy a bottle of beer for $1! In a very quaint throwback to ancient times, you are allowed to BRING IN your bottle of wine or liquor and they will serve it to you. This is because the county is “dry” and you can not buy anything harder than beer in the stores OR bars.
The service. Whether a restaurant, bar or store, the people are extremely friendly and helpful.
The weather. Although it is a cold snap right now (and the threat of 0 Celsius has prompted a “hazardous winter weather advisory”) the average temperature is 66 F, which I guess is about 18C.
The longer days. Right now the sun is rising abut 7:15 and setting at 6. We are getting almost an hour more of sun per day.
Texas state parks. There are over 120 state parks and they are wonderful places. Many full of history, others full of fish, still others with amazing natural attractions like waterfalls, caves or mountains (not rocky mountains, but darn big hills).
The cemeteries. In the Mexican tradition almost ever grave has flowers or keepsakes placed all over the plot. It is obvious that family means a lot to these folks.







Seafood. Wow. We have bought live jumbo shrimp off the back of a boat for $5 per pound. We are almost shrimped out....but not yet.







Things we don’t like…

The speed limits. Interstates are pegged at 70mph (110KM for the Young Canadian Readers) but almost every road is set 10mph (16kph for YCR) higher than we would see at home. What blows are mind are the two lane backroads without shoulders, and with lots of driveways and curves that have speed limits of 65 mph (103KPH). These would be a maximum of 50mph/80kph at home.






Sandburs/spurs or whatever you may call/curse them.
These tiny spheres are horribly sharp and are found throughout any grassy area. Don’t even THINK about going barefoot in the grass. The poor dogs are driven mad by these burrs as they attach themselves to the paws or belly in an instant. I have no idea how native dogs cope. Penny is kept on the pavement but still manages to come up with lame.
Here she is being given a saltwater soak for her sore paws. Its so bad she quietly stands for her soaking.
The smoking rules, or lack of them. Yes, you can smoke in restaurants etc. The bar we celebrated New Years Eve at was at least 90% smokers. Too 1980’s for me.
Lack of some common foods….we can’t find fresh pasta or pitas in the grocery stores. Mind you, tortillas are cheap and very fine.
Radio stations….they are the shits! You can see my rant on the Texas Mix radio station (below) which was the exception to the rule (and is not within our range here). The patter and lack of good public radio was mind-numbing. We now subscribe to satellite radio, mainly so we can listen to good ol’CBC. No wonder Canadians are generally better informed than their American cousins….there is no equivalent to the CBC here (don’t even think that their “National Public Radio” is even close).
Decent newspapers. The Toronto Star blows away any Texas newspaper. And that is not even our best read in Canada….

Lastly, and not in any way "leastly", we do not like the wind. It can blow for days, and apparently, even weeks. Turn it off, please!