Oh - Deer!

We are now starting on our 3rd 50lb bag of deer pellets! ha! Yes, the deer have really taken to this stuff as you can see. "Big Daddy" even warmed up enough to Earl to eat out of the bowl. "Baby" loves all the attention and will come to me now when I call. This baby is so small that when there are about 20 deer all scavaging about it gets lost in the crowd but when I call it proudly walks right through the crowd and come right to me. Of course I do usually reward it with a bit of carrot or apple core! ha! No waste here when it comes to veggie scraps. The deer are better than rabbits - and we do have some of them too although they are more scarce.

Christmas Day 2007, Medina Lake, TX

Christmas day was sunny and clear and cool. We joined about 200 others at the park and had a great potluck dinner. Folks on one side of us were from Anacortes, WA and the other side were from New Orleans. This guy was a chef and brought jambalaya! Wow! What a dish.

Majestic Theater - San Antonio, TX

This holiday we sort of tagged along with friends Bob & Sharon for an afternoon treat at the Symphony at the lovely historical Majestic Theater in downtown San Antonio. What a marvelous way to really "catch" the spirit of the season! We all enjoyed it immensely. Afterwards we walked along the famous Riverwalk here in town and imbibed a bit at a lively Mexican restaurant! A fun time was had by all...

San Antonio, Texas

A visit to the fair town of San Antonio would not be complete I guess unless it includes a visit to the Alamo. The day was picture perfect and the grounds of this mission are very nice. We did not spent too much time here since we have been there before but wanted to look for some info at their library.

Happy Holidays!

2007 has been quite a year for us and imagine for you too! There have been ups and downs and joys and sorrows and all sorts of things in between.

This holiday season we will be celebrating along with others here at Medina Lake Thousand Trails Park. This is a nice friendly group and a very nice park filled with all these deer! The scrawniest looking rabbits we have ever seen with huge tall ears! Folks from all over the USA are here too so expect to have a nice day.

Earl and I want to wish you and yours a joyous Holiday and a hopes for a very happy and prosperous New Year!

Medina Lake, TX

Here is Mr and Mrs cardinal on our bird feeder. They have been a frequent visitors along with a number of relatives. We have had others like the tufted titmouse who is so cute and finches too. Just love all the activity of the birds flitting to and fro. Titmouse hammers away on the sunflower seeds which is always fun to watch too. We hear them each morning before we are up out there calling to each other and relatives to come for an early morning breakfast.

Lake Medina at Lakehills, TX

This is my adorable baby! It is about one of 50 deer here at this park! There is nothing quite like these big brown eyes to steal your heart unless it is the feel of it's little teeth eating out of the palm of your hand. This little guy appears to be the youngest and quite trusting. I have taken to feeding it bits of carrots and other little goodies - He does not liked peanuts that are not shelled though as his older counterparts will eat just fine - along with my birdseed! They are a hungry bunch and we are on our 2nd 50lb bag of feed!

No deer corn for these hungry deer. They did manage to go through all my squirrel corn though before we purchased the feed and they are great at eating all veggie scraps from salad fixin's.

Just love having all these deer around - have to refill water dish numerous times during the day but that is fine too. We have had rabbits and squirrels and a variety of birds as well so we are quite content here.

There is even a resident great blue heron who hangs out down at the dock here.

Fort Worth Stockyards

A few more pics from the Stockyards. Yes we stayed to watch the "cattle drive". Different sort of place and not much going on during the day. Expect things get to hopping afte the sun goes down at Billy Bob's.

Fort Worth Stockyards

Yes, that's the old gal now - first admiring Bessie and then actually sitting atop "Big Jake". Can you believe your eyes? How fun, stopped to ask owner for a photo op and he insisted I get hoisted up on top of Big Jake. he was a nice ol guy and it really wasn't too bad. ha. This all took place at the "Stockyards" in Fort Worth. There wasn't much going on there while we were there but we did enjoy our visit very much. fun to see these marvelous animals that are a "symbol" of Texas. We occasionally see them in pastures along the highway but of course they do not roam free any more.

White Pelicans

While at Lake Tawakoni we were thrilled to have such a large group of white pelicans come by each day. We could watch them congregate out on a point near us and then they would swoop down en masse to come into our bay. Lovely to say the least. They are larger then their cousins the brown pelicans and when in flight they show off the black under their wings.

Visting with old friends

Had a wonderful visit with old co-workers of Cyn's just before Thanksgiving in Plano, TX. Jim was Cyndy's old boss before Continental Ins went out of business and it has been several years since they've seen each other. Must say Jim and Maureen don't look a day older and daughter Jamie is a beautiful young lady. A fun time was had by all.

J C Penny Company Headquarters- Plano, TX

Took a ride into Plano to check out the J C Penny Museum and stayed to have lunch. Interesting building with a cafeteria (open to public - which we par took of) and a little gift shop. Not much of a museum and we had to pass throught the atrium with surrounding offices to get there. Nice open building and nice working envirnment or so it seemed to us. These are actual items from Mr. Penny's personal belongings. He was quite a guy and really did live the "American dream". Hats off to him. It was an interesting display and to see where his ideas have expanded over the years and carried on long after he is gone. Other picture is of Earl looking down on cafeteria area

Lake Tawakoni Thousand Trails, Point, TX

This is our new home for the next few weeks. Actually we have already been here a week and love it. It is a nice large park spread out and we have a lovely site with this as our view each evening. Since the sun sets in the west we have the perfect sunset "view point". Love all these commorants and white pelicans, vultures and gulls that come around besides the egrets and herons we have seen. We have not had a lot of action at our bird feeder but we have seen a variety of birds such as killdeer, meadowlark, titmouse and chickadee.

Everything is big in Texas

We spotted this bug on the wall in the store - it was about 3" long and no idea what it was and left it there but what a pretty bug! and so BIG!

Lake Texoma, TX

A few pictures of the lake. It was a large lake and fairly warm about 70 degrees or so they would report each day on the news. One thing that disturbed me a bit was finding these very small bugs or fish or something on the water in a low spot. Not sure what they are but they darted around and was afraid they would attack so didn't attempt getting in the water..

Lake Texoma Thousand Trails Park, near Gordonville, TX

Our 1st visit to Lake Texoma TTN. Pretty park and we had nice weather while there. Spent two weeks and enjoyed visiting "Ruby's" cafe as much as the pretty scenery!

Took a few short side trips from here but otherwise stayed home and played a little pickle ball and Earl enjoyed the hot tub!

Scissor Tailed Flycatcher-Bridgeport, TX

Currently we are camped here in Bridgeport, TX and from the entrance to our campsite we have a large wildlife refuge sort of area to pass through. Twice we have been fortuate enough to see this beautiful bird! Once just sitting on the post next to the road but in the excitement fumble fingers couldn't get camera on before bird flew away. The next time I was ready! ha! We also seem to have a resident hawk whom we have seen on a few occasions but then driver with the heavy foot doesn't always stop in time.... if we're lucky we'll catch a shot of him before we leave here. It is a magnificent bird, quite large and striking markings.

Texas State Fair - Dallas

Timing seems to be everything sometimes and this is one time it really worked in our favor. First, we were here while the State Fair was in process and 2nd the day we chose to go we were given free tickets at the gate! How about that! So we made the most of our day. Dallas is a BIG city and the freeways and traffic are like any other big city - always congested so we did not want to get caught up in the heavy afternoon rush hour traffic... hence we only stayed until about 3 pm but we had a good time and saw as much as we could. Including some of the brama cattle judging. This was the entrance though so no mistaking where we were I guess. ha! Big fair with a huge auto show of all the latest models of the various car mfgs. Even some concept cars so that was fun.

Group Family Photo

This is a good group shot of family. So many folks traveling here at this sad time. So good to see family supporting each other though. Patty and her children are blessed with such a great support group Starting in the back is Domita, Monique, Mike, Veronica, Daryl, Patty, Rosa, Friend, Faith, Ricky, Jerri Lynn, Marshall and sitting down is Sue, Kevin, Karen and Leticia. Earl is Uncle to Mike, Patty, Kevin and Sue.

Family Time-North Richland Hills, Texas

Although it was a sad time it was great to see Patty, Mike, Karen, Kevin and Sue. I had never met Sue before and we did not get much of an opportunity to visit. However, we did have a nice visit (al be it short) with Kevin, Mike and Karen. We are hoping to get over to see Patty again in the near future after things settle a bit. She was so distraught over losing her youngest daughter as you can imagine.

Sad goodbye to Brittany

Sadly as we arrived in Fort Worth area we learned Earl's great neice had recently died. We were so sad to hear the news as we were looking forward to our visit with Brittany and her family. We had such a great visit when were here before back in 2002. She will always remain in our memory though as a sweet girl and we were fortunate to have come at a time when so many other family members were gathered.

Bridgeport, Texas

So here we are in Bridgeport, TX at Bay Landing Thousand Trails camp. Plan to be here about two weeks. This is a nice park with a lovely lake. Haven't done much yet besides trying to get caught up and housecleaning done.

Munday, TX

No visit to Texas would be complete without a stop at Munday; the heart of Texas prairie. This is a quaint little town and one we enjoy visiting. They allowed us to camp at their city park overnight and we wandered through the little shops and picked up a few more t-shirts. ha! This town was named for a cousin of Earl's.

Lubbock, TX- Buddy Holly Walk of Fame

This is the 'Walk of Fame' in Lubbock - with no other than the incredible Buddy Holly! We were happy to find this and learned there was a museum also dedicated to Buddy's memory, however we did not visit there. There were other placques surrounding buddy but not many names that we knew - one of my favorites though was Roy Orbison.

Lubbock, TX - Prairie Dog Town

One of our stops recently was in Lubbock. This is a fairly good sized town in West Texas and naturally while spending a little time wanted to see the sights. One of the sights just happens to be MacKenzie Park. One small section of this park is called Prairie Dog Town set aside to "save the black tailed prairie dog" back in the 1930's when it was learned the government was on a mission to poison all these little guys. Not only do they have a special section but they encourage to bring carrots to share so naturally we did. No wonder the little tummy on this buy is bulging! They were pretty darn cute.

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Here is a picture of the "Southern Cross". This is the balloon maned by our new friends from New Zealand. Very exciting to be a part of this adventure. Last we heard they were considering purchasing a new balloon but not sure if that has come to pass. In any event, we are hoping to catch up with them another time.

Sad news that there was a fatality at the fiesta this year. No body we knew but unfortunately there are times when the wind conditions are just a little more than even good experienced pilots get caught up in. All okay in our crew thus far.

Because we had spent 9 days at the fiesta in 2001 didn't think we would want to spend that much time so had reservations and other plans and left fiesta after only 3 days. Guess we'll just have to learn to be more flexible... on the other hand it did take us a few days to get our energy back after the very early mornings and running around we did while in Albuquerque. Too much fun for these old bones.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

Here is official sign for the balloon park. This is where we are calling home for the next few days. It is fun to be here with so many other balloon enthusiasts!

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta-Dawn Patrol

Each morning the dawn patrol goes up 1st to check the winds and to give others the opportunity to decide if they too will join in the fun. ha!

We thought the Dawn Patrol would go up earlier than it did but it was fun watching them all get ready to go and finally drift off into the town.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

Do you see the latest and greatest attraction? That's right, Darth Vador has joined the fun. He was a big hit. I was not too impressed and didn't see him high enough for a good photo shot but will have a few more days to try to get a better shot at him. ha!

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2007

Sunrise and the 1st wave - so to speak. Actually we did learn quite a bit and that is that the ballons do go up in waves...

The balloon we were with did go up in the 2nd wave. There was a lot of concern since the balloon do not fly when winds exceed 7mph... the wind wasn't too bad but it was predicted to get worse so everyone was dubious...

This day the balloon flew northwest which was something they don't usually do either... hence the landing in the field...

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

Here is crew loading basket in riverbed of STICKER bushes! This was not especially fun especially since the sticker tended to attach themselves to you clothing - the worst part picking the individual pesky little sticky guys off!

In any event, we were able to get the basket and balloon loaded on trailer and eventually attached back to van and safely out of there! And we had fun... ha!

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta 2007

You guessed it, we are here in Albuquerque and this time right in the thick of it!

Met a couple on the lonliest highway 50 in NV a few weeks back while waiting for construction that own a balloon and were headed this way... they are from New Zealand and have been doing this for a number of years...

This morning we lucked out and met up with them and were able to "crew" for them. Wow! What a fabulous experience. We had a ball! Helping to get the balloon launched and then following in the chase vehicle.

Unfortunately the balloon landed in the "wrong" space - the river flood plain next filled with nearly waist high sticker bushes and " NO ACCESS". You got it, had to call the city to get two gates unlocked to get vehicle in... gee whiz... what fun - we loved it even if the regular crew did not much appreciate it.

Mesa Verde National Park, CO

A view of the lovely colors blazing across the mountains here at Mesa Verde. This really is a nice park and we took advantage and did a few hikes too.

Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

This was our 2nd visit to this area and we were not disappointed! The camping fees here are hefty. $23.00 to dry camp without the National park senior pass. They do have a full-hookup area for $31.00 a night. We took the dry camp area and noticed there were only 2 rigs in the full hookup sites.

The hillsides were ablaze with color (which we did not see last time) and we did see deer. No wild turkeys this time but a large variety of birds which pleased us. The deer were in the campground and around the area.

They were working on repaving the entire roadway which is large here. Took a few trips out to the various roads to see all the cliff dwellings and do a little hiking. There was much evidence of past fires. Our last visit was same time Oct 1, 2001 and this time Oct 1, 2007. They had 1 fire in 1996 and since then a large fire in 2002 and another in 2003. One fire was quite close to the Morefield campground where we stayed.

This park is high altitude at 7000 to 8000 ft plus. Wonderful views of the surrounding area and on a clear day you can see New Mexico. Our 1st night, they had predicted 30% chance of rain possible. We watched as the clouds moved in and most of the day we had had some wind. Okay, so now it’s who knows what time of night and the wind is howling and shaking us. We could hear glass shaking which is something we don’t hear driving down the road! Yes, we did have some rain but not a lot. Both of us did hear the thunder rolling through although it did not sound too close and we never did see any flashes of lightening. Goodness, both of us were afraid of what we would see in the daylight.

Wouldn’t you know the next morning the sun came out and it was a beautiful day! Very pretty blue skies and warm enough in the sunshine although with a slight breeze and in the shade it could be cool. No evidence of bad weather from the night before EXCEPT when we stopped at the 1st overlook we saw a dusting of snow on the San Juan Mountains east of the park.

Leaving Natural Bridges National Monument, UT

Leaving Natural Bridges area heading east towards the lovely State of Colorado we nearly hit these two gals as they were racing across the street behind two others... The 1st two came out as I fumbled with the camera and just as we thought the coast was clear another two came flying out from the side of the road... good grief! They are gone in a flash too with this high brush on the sides of the road. Wonderful to see deer but would like a little warning! Noticed when we came into New Mexico they are building very high fences along the freeway to keep deer off the highway. Hopefully anyway..

Moki Dugway, Valley of the Gods, Gooseneck State Park and Muley Overlook

This was our last day in this lovely State of Utah! So we took a drive down Hwy 261 from our campsite here next to the corral in the overflow parking for Natural Bridges. Wow! What a drive!!! There ARE signs along this road that warn not to take too large a vehicle with GOOD reason.

1st stop was the Visitor Center who gave us good advise and then off we went... the Moki Dugway is the name of 3 mile stretch of road that is 1100ft elevation change with gooseneck turns or hairpin turns (whatever you perfer)! Speed limit is 5mph! They did pave the corners but not the other parts of the road and it is NARROW! What a view though...

1st stop after getting down into this canyon we took in Gooseneck State park. Wow! It is called this because it is a canyon of turns formed from the San Juan river. Very interesting. Will post pictures when we get a better signal!

Then off to Mexian Hat. It is one of the spires on the Utah side of Monument Valley. fun... then we were off to Valley of the Gods - a 17 mile windy, dirty, rocky, dippy, drive! This is Utah's answer to Monument Valley. fun fun and scary at times but we made it through okay.

Afterwards we went back up the Moki Dugway to Muley Overlook. This is a 5 mile dirt road (a lot better than other roads we had been on)...this overlook offered views of the San Juan river goosenecking it's way through with views of the real Monument valley beyond. Fun place with a van full of young adults.

A little hair raising but fun and glad we went as we may never be here again.

Grand Staircase Escalante-Capital Reef National Park

Although we had originally planned to stay in Escalante National Monument, after looking into the plans further, decided against it and to go right from Bryce to Capital Reef with plans to take side trips into Escalante if so desired.

The highway from Bryce to Capital Reef travels right through the heart of Escalante and is designated Scenic Highway 12 – I must add with good reason! This was gorgeous driving along this highway! We soon found ourselves more or less traveling with a guy in a small car who stopped at all the same scenic turnouts. He said he was a sucker for this scenery and I had to agree. He was from California and was awed by this landscape.

We met some folks from Germany at one of the turnouts as well and they have purchased a small class C motor home for a two-year stint here in North America. They LOVE it here and say we have it ALL! They were traveling in opposite direction but were just as much awed as we were by the scenery and said they had already traveled most of USA, Canada and some of Mexico. Their plans are to return to Germany and probably sell off everything so they can return to full-time here in USA. Says a lot for our natural beauty in this country.

The pass was 9600+ft and a mighty climb north of town of Boulder. Can you guess why they named it that? No doubt about it, there is boulders everywhere of every shape and color and it is just plain fun to see it all. We were a bit surprised when 3 cows entered the roadway but were patient and let us pass without any harm to any one. Thank goodness!

The quaking aspens were lovely and so colorful it was a thrill to see them. Entering the Capital Reef National Park from the west was a wonderful treat because we had such a build up on the way here. This place is not stupendous like Bryce – it is Tremendous! The size of this reef is gigantic and so colorful besides all the other scenery, orchards and lovely campground with many deer hoping for a handout from the orchard. The orchard has apples and pears at this time of year and you pick for $1.00 a pound on the honor system. It’s a wonderful thing so of course we picked 10 pounds… goodness now I have to start baking again I guess.

Overflow campground-Natural Bridges, UT

So here we are in the overflow campground at Natural Bridges National Monument. We called ahead from Captial Reef to check on the camping situation here and were told they had a campground without dump station or water. Okay, so that was no problem.

Anyway, after a wonderful drive from Capital Reef across some of the strangest country we have ever seen and across the beautiful Glen Canyon Recreation Area we come up to the Natural Bridges National Monument. We quickly learn that they only have 13 camp sites and you must be 26 ft or less. Okay, so they send us off to their overflow area which about 7 miles down the road and we are to look for a gravel area.

We found the turn off okay but no gravel area - instead we find a corral and nothing there... so we figured what the heck and decided to make that our new home for a few days. After getting settled we took for the town of Blanding and had a lovely sunset in the evening. One other rig was there so figured all was ok. Oh yes, we did drive on down this gravel road in search of the gravel area and found the road did continue quite a ways with terrible ruts from the torrential downpour we had last weekend!

First thing today we packed our picnic lunch and headed over to the Monument to check out the 3 natural bridges which are supposed to be something else! We hiked down to each one and after about 6 miles we finally made it all the way through, had a great lunch and headed for home.

As we pulled up in the car we noticed the corral was no longer EMPTY. No, we had quite a number of youngest looking cows. They would only look at us and couldn't tell us anything. Did not take long before a truck and trailer pulled up and we were told we were fine where we were. So these two folks loaded up their truck to sell off the calves they had in this batch.

Next thing you know here come a whole herd of cows with 4 cowboys. The real thing or so it would seem. They picked the worse time of day to herd these cows into the corral (working around the Blue 'Roo -without complaint). The wind was blowing sand everywhere and we were a bit surprised they did not have bandana's covering their mouths. They did a great job and have really worked hard today from what we can see.

They have made a few trips back and forth with their truck and trailer sorting cows and taking them in different loads. One of these cowboys appeared to be quite young (maybe early teens).

As I sit here this evening writing I see the sky is covered with so many colors with a lovely lovely sunset. We are so very fortunate.

Road to Cedar Breaks Monument-Utah

Here are a flock of sheep blocking the road with Fed Ex trying to get through. This was a lot of fun.

Bryce Canyon - People in a row

Don't these two look alike - we thought so....