Update!

Lets bring you up to speed on our trip. Currently we are back in Texas in a big hole in the ground called Palo Duro Canyon. We have been hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing and nature watching. Lovin' every second of our time in the hole. Yesterday, we celebrated Reta's birthday by biking and hiking to a stone structure called "Lighthouse". It was about a 6 mile bike ride with another 2 miles of climbing this cliff, straight up. I have tons of pictures to download from my camera still so the next time we come out of the hole I will upload the blog with them.

As for our trip to Oklahoma we arrived to Oklahoma City with beautiful views of cliffs along the highway.

Here is a picture of the skyline of downtown Oklahoma City.

Once we set up camp we turned on the local channels to see if there was going to be a storm that night because the sky looked pretty dark. Those type of clouds that are dark and almost green in color. As soon as the TV was on we saw these radar pictures of a huge storm heading our way.

I took this picture from the TV because I have never seen something like it. As we waited and watched the pictures on the TV we were ready to run to the storm shelter in the campground. With our personal documents in hand,laptops and a couple of personal items, we were ready. I woke up around 2 in the morning to the RV shaking with the strong winds. Rain was coming down sideways and in droves. I flipped on the TV to find out that the worst part of the storm was north of us. Only about 40 miles.

The next day the news reported that a tornado had hit this small town north of us and completely destroyed it. WOW! That was a little too close. After touring around the city we decided to change our plans of going further north and instead head west. That brings us to where we are today. Still trying to stay away from those nasty looking clouds.

I have some more pictures of Oklahoma City but will download them later.
We are sitting in The Big Texan Restaurant after eating lunch and decided to use their Wi-Fi to update the blog. This is home to the 72 oz steak. There were two guys eating this huge hunk that hung over the plate it was served on. They had one hour to eat this 4 1/2 lb of meat along with a dinner salad, baked potato, three shrimp and dinner roll. If they succeeded it would all be free. If not, cough up $72 for your moment stuffing your stomach. Believe it or not, one guy did it. The other put his head down and asked for a "to-go" container.

We are undecided as to which direction to go from here. Either Santa Fe, NM or Albuquerque, NM. Anyone have any thoughts? We were thinking of Carlsbad Caverns but there aren't any good campgrounds around it. All the reviews were very scary so that's why we are leaning towards those two places.

We hope to come out of the canyon to check emails one more time before we leave and update the blog with more pictures.
Thanks for the comments you all have been leaving. We are kept entertained by them.

Two things before I leave you. 1) It was Reta's BIG birthday yesterday. She is into her next decade. and 2) She was inspired to write a blog. Check it out. It's right after this post. I think my days of writing may be over. She is pretty good!

Welcome to Palo Duro Canyon

We have arrived at our next destination, Palo Duro Canyon in Texas. I am so excited that I can’t sleep. The few little critters scurring around the bucket light have got my attention as well. I want to go explore, but it’s too dark right now (Tuesday 5/27 @ 5am). So I’m making my first attempt at the blog. Yes, can you believe it?! I just hope I do as good a job of relaying the sights and feelings as Elton has.

Palo Duro Canyon, we didn’t really know what to expect of this “canyon”. There were some nice pictures on the state’s website and a neat description in the Texas magazine that stated “baby grand canyon”. I was looking at it as our chance to “commune” with nature as we are staying in a state park albeit in an rv. The first glimpse into the canyon is from the road leading into the park. You can’t see the ground so I’m thinking it will be the size of a very large sink hole with some great rock formations. How big can it be since you can drive to the bottom of the canyon?
WOW! This canyon encompasses 26,000 acres is 120 miles long and is 600 to 800 feet deep and is incredible. This is the second largest canyon in the US! You get a glimpse of portions of the canyon as you drive down the park road that has been cut into the side of one of the canyon walls. For those of you familiar with Maryland, a little like the drive down Sugarloaf Mountain except without the trees. If you stray too far from the road, you go over the embankment. They say it’s a 10% grade but it felt more like 20 or 30% in the rv. And the switchbacks! Thank you Elton for scouting out oncoming traffic so I could take extra room to make the turns as the turning radius is not that tight.

There are 3 things that really get me excited: Elton (what can I say); scuba or free diving and even snorkeling in an ocean or fresh water river; and exploring the natural wonders of the land. Elton was able to convey our experiences scuba diving in the Bahamas and diving/snorkeling Florida‘s fresh water rivers. So let me see if I can do this description in the same way . . .

When we set up camp here at the bottom of this canyon, we couldn’t help but notice the quiet! Meaning, you can’t hear any city, highway noise. You hear nature. Ok, ok, we may hear our few neighbors occassionally, but when they’re quiet, nothing but birds and animals, wind through the canyon and rock slides. You feel a gentle breeze kissing your cheeks when you are at the top of the canyon, but at the bottom, the wind sometimes seems to swirl and wrap around you as if giving you a welcoming hug or a gentle nudge to look here and there. Now standing here in the bottom of this canyon, the views of the different layers of rock formed from so long ago when the mountains caved in on themselves and rivers then ran through the crevasses are incredible. The formations of some of the rocks looks as if someone had stacked them on top of each other. Some rocks look as if they could fall/slide down at any minute. And the caves! Your imagination just runs rampant with thoughts of what animals live in those caves. We’ve only seen rabbits, turkeys, vultures and other small birds so far, but look forward to glimpsing the other inhabitants: mule deer, roadrunners, hawks, coyotes, barbary sheep, and bobcats. If we’re lucky we’ll see some diamond back rattlesnakes and endangered Texas horned lizard.

I hope you can get a sense of the excitement and wonder we are feeling with the pictures and commentary we'll post later. As Elton put it so eloquently before, this is why we took this trip, to see and explore the unusual and unexpected of this great land and it’s waters.

Palo Duro

Check out where we are...
Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Texas. Down in the canyon with no cell or internet reception until Monday.

Two Cities in One Day!

The first stop on our two city tour took us west to Fort Worth and the Stock Yards. This area was once the central processing place for beef. Animals would arrive on cattle drives or by train cars. They would be sorted and sold. There were butcher shops here that would also prepare the meat for delivery to supermarkets.

While we were walking around a cattle drive took place right down the middle of the street. These Long Horn Cattle walked past us showing off their huge horns that seem to be 6 feet across. They even had one that was saddled up. You could pay $5 and sit on him for a picture.

After a great lunch of, you guessed it, T-Bone steak we headed off to explore some other parts. The downtown area is not very big but it has everything that a major city would have.

On our drive across I-30 East heading toward the "Big D" we were slowed by this Texan wanting to see if his Pick Up got better gas mileage if the wheels were pointing up.

We were greeted into Dallas with the views of giant skyscrapers. The next stop was the 6th floor of the Book Depository on the corner of Elm St. and Houston.

This building was made famous but not for the right reasons. Back in 1963 President John F Kennedy came to Texas to campaign. After being warned that Texas was not safe, he still decided to come. The Presidential Motorcade took the hair pin turn from Elm to Houston and that's when Lee Harvey Oswald took the shot that was heard around the world. The 6th Floor Museum is filled with footage and Police investigation of the event. It also address's the Congressional Hearings about the second shooter located on the "Grassy Knoll".

The picture below has an arrow on the window that the shots were fired from.

Here is the view from inside the building looking at the window. The boxes of books surrounded the window and where he hid from anyone that happen to walk past him.

This picture shows the exact view down Houston Street.

After we toured around the city of Dallas we decided to head home to beat the Memorial Day traffic that had started early. Once again there was another accident on the highway. This one didn't turn out very good for someone. They shut the entire highway down behind us so that they could investigate the scene.

Tomorrow we are headed to our next destination. Where? You'll have to wait till we get there. Enjoy your holiday!

Where are we?

Yesterday was the worst day we've had so far during our trip. We got lost so many times that we were so happy to get back home. The day was planned to go to Cedar Hill State Park to try out their mountain biking trails. We got on Google Maps, Co-Pilot (our navigation system for the RV) and my Garmin handheld GPS unit to make sure we had the correct directions. Out of all three not one navigational unit had the new roads that have been built around Dallas. We eventually found the Park but then it was the same thing to get home. Nothing matched up to our maps.

Fields like this are a common sight along the roads we were on. After awhile, it all looks the same.

We tried stopping and asking a local for directions but she would never give us a good answer. She just kept looking down and once in awhile look at us as to say, "You're still here?".

Finally arrived at the single track trails for mountain biking. It was a great trail. Tight, hilly with switchbacks that left you dizzy. At one point I was out in front and I came up on this tight part of the trail that had tall grass closing in on both sides. All of a sudden, this huge bird came out of no where and almost hit me. It took off running up the trail ahead of me and finally ducked under the tall grass and disappeared. It was then that I realized it was a rode runner. Scared the crap out of me! Later, I had a field mouse come out of the trail and run along side of me for 10 feet before it too disappeared.

There are countless lizards or geckos that are sunning themselves along the trails and when they see you scatter off. Great trail. If we had more time we would definitely ride some more here.
Today, we are scheduled to visit Fort Worth and Dallas.

Howdy Yall

Road Hazard has settled into its new location between Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas. Just over 20 miles to each city. No pictures or stories to post today since we had a smooth drive up from Austin. It took us about 3 1/2 hours to get here but we stopped and filled up along the way. With the price of diesel climbing higher everyday we try and keep it filled so that we don't get a huge shock when we do hit the pumps. We have noticed the landscape change as we drove on I-35 north. This area is called prairies and lakes and that's pretty much what you see.
Today we are going to head out and hit the trails for a little mountain biking. Check out what the local fauna looks like. Maybe tonight we'll go out and get a true Texan piece of steak that is falling off the plate, it is so big.

The Hills Are Alive...

We took off early this morning to explore the Hill Country. The schedule called for us to go through 3 cities with a combined population of 11,225. The first thing you need to do when you get out of the city is remind yourself that you are in Texas. I say this because we saw rolling hills along our drive that reminded us of the east coast.

The first city was Fredericksburg about a 1 1/2 hour drive. This city was settled by immigrant families from Germany in 1846. This area was on Comanche frontier but when the Germans arrived they signed a peace treaty with the Indians that surprisingly was kept. The Germans and Indians learned to live together and even trade. Many buildings have the traditional German styles. About 15 miles north of the city lies Enchanted Rock.

It's a massive dome of solid granite that was of Indian legend. We set off to concur the summit in 96 degree and Texas humidity heat. Hearing only flip-flops, shorts and t-shirts we walked the 1/2 mile up the face of this dome.

The peak is 1,825 feet high and we climbed 425 feet of it. It's like climbing up steps on a 42 story building.

Let's just say that we, okay, I was breathing very hard by the time we summited. After catching my breath we set off to take pictures and look out at this scene before us.

Here are a couple of pictures that we took just chill'in on the rock face. Reta is relaxing on this huge mound of rocks.

I took the time to sit down on them and take in the view.

Okay, the truth is it was only three rocks we picked up to bring home as memories. We just set it up to look like we were on them.

We made it back to Fredericksburg to find the Brewing Company. The building was built in the 1890's and still holds the German brewing tradition and cuisine. This city has the biggest population of 10,000 people of the three cities we visited.

The next city we stopped by to explore was Luckenbach. It has a staggering population of 25. That's right, 25. We stopped in and it added 10% more people to the population. Here is the general store that also serves as a beer tavern, traditional rural dance hall and sometimes as a blacksmith shop. At one point it also served as the Post Office.

In the slide show you will see the other city that we visited called Johnson City with a population of 1,190. This place is best known as the hometown of President Lyndon B Johnson. There are parks and his farm which is now a National Park.

We traveled a total of 220 miles and took just about 8 hours to complete our tour. Couldn't help but laugh at some of the road signs that we saw. Here is another example of what we found. Too scared to drive up and see if there really were convicts at the end.

Hammer and Wrench

After waking up this morning we decided to tackle a few items that needed to be addressed around Road Hazard. It seems that I turned into several characters:

Tim "the tool man" Taylor

Snyder

Bob Villa

The bikes needed repair and maintenance. On my bike I had to replace the pedals because one of the pedals broke on our last ride.

On Reta's bike she had to insert this rubber piece between the tire and inner tube to prevent flats. In the last week she had 3 flat tires.

Thorns were going right into her inner tube and we were both tired of fixing flats. Once we finished working on the bikes we were both dirty so we decided to tackle RH. First we made a run to Camping World to pick up a few supplies. We discovered a couple of days ago that we had a small leak in our hydraulic lines for the leveling jacks. The left rear jack would keep retracting and cause the motor home to sag. The whole time we were in Houston I thought the ground was sinking and would complain to my landlord. Sorry, it wasn't your yard. Anyways, it has been leaking and we found the leak but still needed to tend to some other issues with it to make sure we fixed it completely. It required us to get in the engine compartment and also crawl around under the RV. We were quite dirty when we finished but mission accomplished. Since it has been getting very hot during the day we decided to insulate around the windows. We bought a huge windshield screen to block out the sunlight and heat to put on the big window up front. We also bought some pillow like plugs to put in the vents because there was some serious heat coming through.

The only way to finish off the day when we completed our tasks was to hit the pool and relax.

Tomorrow will be back to exploring the hillside.

By the way, on our way to Camping World we saw this exit on the highway. Did I mention we are in Texas? You can't get anymore country than this!

Last thing, if you haven't seen the comment on the Bats blog, my friend Peter wanted to inform me that he had misdiagnosed the snake we found. Anyways, here is his comment which I fell off my seat from laughing after I read it.

"Elton, It's a Blotched Water Snake - Nerodia erythrogaster transversa.Sorry for the misdiagnosis. Hope you didn't fry it up and eat it with some Brazilian goat-eyeballs while chanting around a fire in face paint."

Nice guy.

High & Low

Today we went from one extreme to the other. I say that because we started the day off by climbing 110 steps to reach the top of Mount Bonnell. It sits atop a hill that is located northwest of downtown Austin.

Once you feel your heart beating hard like its about to jump out of your chest and your calf muscles becoming as hard as the stone steps you are climbing, you reach the top. Its not as bad as the picture makes it seem.

Your reward is a beautiful view from 780 feet above the Colorado River and Downtown Austin.

When you look around you see these huge mansions built up around the river and tucked up into the hills. I guess we know where the rich must live in Austin. For some, I guess, it brings out the feeling of love.

After climbing around the rocks and watching the hawks soar around above us we jumped back in the car and headed into town.

Our destination was the southern bank of the Colorado River and a park called Zilker Park.

It is a trail that follows the river and around every turn it gives you these great shots of the city. The trail was packed with walkers, joggers and bikers because the weather today was perfect. About this time we had walked up a pretty big hill and biked several miles so our stomachs were beginning to let us know that we needed to pay attention to it. On our ride around the city we happened upon this place called Austin VolleyBar & Grill.

This is what we always wanted! A restaurant with sand volleyball courts. There was a league in session but if we waited around they had open courts after they finished. We enjoyed a good healthy lunch and talked to a local player about their tournaments in the area and level of play. It was difficult to get us out of there but we decided to continue down the trail and explore some more. It think it was a good decision because we found Barton Springs.

It is a natural spring that gushes fresh water by the millions of gallons a day. They created this swimming area that fills up with Austonians on hot days. The sides are lined with sloped grassy lawns that is great to lay out on after getting out of the 72 degree water. What a perfect way to end our day. We jumped into this clean water and just let the gentle current take us down. It seems that Austin has several surprises the more we explore it.

Water & Bats

What an incredible day we had. Because of all the graduation ceremonies happening downtown we decided to stay away until evening. Just minutes down the road is McKinney State Park. It is where two creeks meet, Onion and Williamson Creeks. The first thing that catches your eyes is the huge slab of rock before you. Its pocketed with holes and waves from years and years of rushing water carving its signature in the rock.

We rode our bikes down this rock until we came upon Lower McKinney Falls. It dumps into this nice pool but before it does it also carves unique holes and curves into the rocks. To get to the Mountain Biking trails you must traverse the creek and rocks with your bike perched on your shoulder. Careful not to get your feet wet while you cross. Fortunately, the water level was low so that our rock jumping was made easier.

What is it about the sound of running water over rocks and falling water that brings that sense of calm over someone. You can sit, it seems, for hours just listening to those sounds.

On our ride, Reta spotted this small snake swimming along in one of the pools. I asked Peter, a snake Mr. Know It All, and he said he thought is was a King Snake. Non poisonous but enough for me to stay away.

Here we are. Finally a true mountain bike trail. Also known as Single Track because you can only fit one bike on the trail. We climbed big hills and were rewarded with long downhills that would take you through wooded areas or open plains lined with cactus and wildflowers. In all, we rode for 8 miles and climbed close to 100 feet during our travels.

Another reward was the field of wildflowers with butterflies kissing flowers.

After a day filled with pedal cranks, snakes, waterfalls and flowers we headed back to Road Hazard to get cleaned up and prepare for our next encounter with nature. Honestly, we were both quite excited about our next meeting because it would be the first time we had ever experienced anything like it.

Here, in the middle of a city of 718,000 people sits a normal looking bridge that spans the Colorado River.

Then as the hustle and bustle of the city starts to slow, you look out west and see the sun starting its descent behind the hills for the night. You start to hear and smell something different. It starts with just a few squeaks. The crowds start to get bigger along the bridge and along the river banks.

Then, people start paddling up the river on their canoes and kayaks to position themselves for a show with 1.5 million participants. There, you smell that? The smell of ammonia is caught up in the wind as these Mexican Free Tailed Bats start to wake up and get ready for their night out on the town. If you think about it, what is one of the first things you do when you wake up? That's right, use the bathroom. These bats are no different. That is the clue that the mass exodus is about to happen. The once quiet evening turns into the sound of flapping leather wings and squeaks as hundreds and thousands of bats start to emerge from under the cracks in the bridge.

Brace yourself because here they come. With close to 1.5 million of these little guys exiting it takes about 15 minutes. You look down from the bridge and all you see are these brown bats flying past you at a blurring speed. You wonder how they don't collide into each other as there is no lines or street signs on their highways.

As you look up towards the horizon you can see the swarm of bats disappear into the night sky as they head off to consume 30,000 pounds of insects in one night. Look at the picture below at about the height of the building being constructed and you can see a blurred line across the picture. That would be the swarm of bats.

We found ourselves trying to describe to each other what we had just witnessed but we always ended saying, "This is something that you must see yourself because words put together don't give you enough to appreciate the sight, sounds and smells".

After prying ourselves off the bridge we headed up to 6th Street where it is lined with Bars and Restaurants. We walked about 8 blocks and every bar that we passed had a live band playing. There are no DJ's here. Every type of music is being played. The crowds are starting to get thick as people make the difficult decisions on which place they want to go into. I wish I could have taken pictures as we were walking because you see all sorts of people. From Punk Rockers with their hair spiked up to an old man wearing a thong bikini.

Just up the street sits the Capital Building. All lit up at night as to announce that it is the biggest Capital building in the free land.

Enjoy the slide show as it has a mixture of our day.

Here is a video that I shot in hopes of giving you a better idea of the amount of bats taking flight.