Catching Up 2009 - Part 2

On Sunday, Feb. 15th, we left Topsail Hill State Park and headed to Mayo, FL for our next mission stop. The rain and wind from the prior days had passed and it was nice traveling. Arrived about 3 pm and settled into our spot. The Florida Campers on Mission (COM) are building a new facility for Airline Baptist Church. They've been working here since October 2008 and are now in the drywall hanging, taping, and finishing stage. Andy has experience with drywall having worked on the Builders for Christ trip in 2007 in Cullman, Alabama. Don & Nita Ridgway lead this group of workers and helped to set up the campground here for the Campers on Mission. They have 14 spots here that provide full hook ups (water, 30 amp electric, and sewer connection) plus wi-fi Internet. The church members have really helped the Florida COM work here by supplying free propane, welding services, washer/dryers and great lunches Monday-Friday. And we mean great lunches!!

We went to church here Sunday night and experienced their honky-tonk type of worship. Everyone sang with gusto and it was a great service. Monday at 8 am Andy started working over at the building. Andy's main job for the first week was to "screw up". He worked installing ceiling drywall so he was placing thousands of screws overhead in the ceiling! The first few nights his upper back, arms, shoulders, and neck were really complaining. But a nice hot shower, a little massage, and supper followed by a couple of Tylenol fixed him right up. He comes home every night covered in drywall dust so Linda makes him stomp around outside Barnabas before he comes in.

There's not a lot for Linda to do at the building, so she's been keeping busy with Ladies Bible Study, making salvation bracelets, keeping Barnabas clean, doing laundry, and crocheting hats for the local nursing home. She's getting lots of training in being a good southern baptist wife -- she needs it! Too bad she's not been practicing cooking! These ladies here can really cook. We've now samples "greens" and "grits". Like the grits -- not so much the greens -- but we're trying.

On Sunday, Feb. 22nd, it was Baptist Men's day at Mayo Baptist Church. The men led all the Sunday School classes, provided all the singing in the choir, and the music, and did all the preaching. Andy was snagged as soon as we walked into the sanctuary to join the men's choir and really enjoyed it. It would have helped if he had heard the songs before. At least he had the book with the words and music. The Pastor had a great sermon and it was a really good time of worship. That evening, the men and boys had a cake contest (with really nice prizes). Linda was asked to be a judge for the contest and really enjoyed tasting all the cakes the men had made. Those men can bake a cake and the competition was tough. After evening service, we had more food (surprise) and everyone enjoyed all the cakes! We trudged home with our flashlights to our RV, high on the sugar from all the cakes. It was another good day of worship.

The second week, Andy and the guys have finished with the drywall ceiling and Andy has been working on odd jobs, making signs, moving materials, helping Don fix the wi-fi when it went out, and being a general gofer and material handler as well as doing some miscellaneous electrical work. He worked on stuffing insulation today. He's also become the honorary break and lunch time "trumpeter". That involves blowing through a long piece of metal pipe to notify everyone that its time for a break! I think he enjoys this job the most.

We've really enjoyed being here in Mayo. The people from Campers on Mission have been really warm and friendly. Our sunset watching gatherings in the evening have become our favorite time of day. We'll hopefully be able to return to Mayo for another week of work before the 3rd grandchild is born on March 30th. Surprise, surprise, they'd like us to return --- :-) Go figure!

We'll finish up working here on Friday (2/27) and head to Riverview, Florida (near Tampa) to visit with Chris, Cindy and the grandkids next.

Catching Up 2009 - Part 1

Okay! Enough of you have harassed us about letting our blog get behind that we're going to try to catch you up on all the happenings with the Washburns' travels. We finished up our trip to Big Bend National Park (BBNP) on February 1 & 2. Sunday (2/1) was a day of cleaning (laundry and stuff) and just enjoying the scenery. Monday (2/2) we received our mail delivery, had another wonderful lunch at the restaurant in the Chisos Basis and again marveled at the scenery. On the way home, we stopped at Dugout Wells (an old settlement where there is water) and therefore lots of birds and plants (even a palm tree!). We just sat for almost three hours enjoying the scenery, watching all the birds, and enjoying the quietitude (our new word). It was hard to gather up the chairs and picnic basket and head back to Barnabas as it got dark. On Tuesday, February 3rd, we drove out of BBNP and headed for Fort Stockton. It was very hard to leave -- we kept telling ourselves that we WOULD NOT like it in the summer when it was 115! The trip to Fort Stockton was again thru desert scenery and it was a pleasant 1/2 day's drive. We arrived at our campsite around 2:30 pm, found a Tex-Mex restaurant for a meal, and a Wal-mart to resupply and finished the day doing some sight seeing around the old fort. Managed to get our shoes loaded with stickers walking thru an old cemetery and (of course) we carried them into Barnabas to find with our bare feet! Again - enjoying the wonders of God's creation!!!

On Wednesday, Feb. 4th, we drove into San Antonio, TX. Oh the joys of traffic! We had little to no traffic for the last month and it was a shock to hit the traffic going thru San Antonio on the interstate. We arrived at our campground on the south side of town, Braunig Lake, and parked in a lakeside spot with lots of elbow room. February 5th was Andy's birthday. First thing in the morning we dropped Barnabas off a the Freightliner dealer on the East side of San Antonio and headed downtown to see the Alamo. We spent the morning exploring the site and going thru the "shrine". It was quite an experience. Found a great place to have lunch on the Riverwalk (Casa Rio) one of the oldest restaurants on the Riverwalk. We ate outside along the canal - had great Tex-Mex food. Of course, it being Andy's birthday, we just had to have the roving quartet of Mexican musicians play Andy happy birthday! It was good to see him a little embarrassed. The waitress took pity on him and gave him a free dessert so I guess it was worth a little embarrassment. We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling along the Riverwalk, taking a cruise, and catching a movie about the Alamo at the IMAX. Drove back to get Barnabas from the repair shop (we had scheduled maintenance done on it-oil and transmission fluid changes, etc.) and headed back to the campsite thru a beautiful sunset. The next day was again running errands, finding a Wal-mart for an oil change for Little Red (the Vibe), and finding a Christian bookstore to stock up on reading materials.

On Saturday, Feb. 7th, we left San Antonio and drove to Houston, in very windy conditions, to have lunch with Mandy and Danielle at a Cracker Barrel on the west side of Houston. From there we drove to Livingston, TX and spent the night at the Escapee's Rainbow Campground. Sunday we drove into Shreveport, to spend a couple of days with Ron and Deborah (Andy's brother and sister-in-law). Again, we had to park at the Diamond Jack's Casino in Shreveport since the welders are still working on the new gas pipeline and there were no other campgrounds available. We still haven't been inside the casino. On Tuesday, Feb. 10th, we left Shreveport, again in the wind, and drove ahead of a weather front all day. Ended the day at Hattiesburg, MS in the Shady Cove campground. Basically, we camped in the woods and plugged into their electricity. Nothing remarkable except for the abundance of bluebirds! They were everywhere.

Headed out on the next day, Wednesday, Feb. 11th to Santa Rosa Beach, FL again in the wind/rain. Not a pretty days for travel at all. Arrived at the Topsail Hill State Park RV Resort and settled in. It's a really pretty park - VERY nicely landscaped. You almost don't see other RV's around your site. We were in the pine forest so no satellite but, hurrah!, they had cable hookups! On Thursday, Feb. 13th, we again needed to find a Wal-Mart for RV supplies. We headed out to find a breakfast place (kinda late in the morning) and ended up having a wonderful breakfast at Waffle House. They are everywhere down here. Every couple of miles you can surely find one. We were unprepared for all the development and traffic here. Drove 20 miles along Highway 98 (which is along the coast) and only saw the gulf waters twice. There are so many hotels, fancy shopping centers, etc. etc. that they have almost totally blocked the gulf from view. Too much glitz and glamor for us. We quickly made our purchases and headed to a less travel route for our return to Barnabas. One good item today -- we ordered delivery pizza from Giodorno's -- ham and pineapple -- and it was the bestest we've EVER had!! It cost us dearly -- $22 --but it was worth it! On Friday, Feb. 13th, we headed for the beach. Topsail Hill has a private beach that you have to walk back to -- no cars, or motorized vehicles allowed. Its only a .7 mile walk but it keep the riff-raff out! It was a beautiful day - high around 70 with a light breeze. Our first glimpse of the gulf waters was thru white sand dunes and was quite beautiful. The water here is crystal blue/green -- you can easily see the bottom as the waves come on shore. We did not come prepared to spend much time on the beach but it was so wonderful we just plopped down in the sand and enjoyed! We could probably see 5 miles of beach around us and only 10 or so people were on the beach with us. It was like having our own private beach. The sand was beautiful. White, crystaline and fine. Didn't stick everywhere like most sand. We stayed and played in the sand, enjoying the sound of the surf and the call of the seagulls for almost three hours. Linda had her hat on but short sleeves and no sunscreen. She paid for it with a sunburn on her arms! Not good when she's not supposed to get much sun. Oh well -- it was a beautiful day. We rode the park's tram back to our campground and finished the day hanging around the campsite.

On Saturday, Feb. 14th, it RAINED. IT RAINED and IT RAINED. Buy the time it was over, 2-1/2" had fallen. And in Barnabas we heard every drop. Needless to say, with the cloudy day and the drum of the rain on the roof, we had a sleepy kind of day. End of Part 1. Additional pictures are on Linda' Facebook page.

5th Day in Big Bend National Park

No storms last night, but strong, gusting winds came up at sunset. We’re told this is not uncommon in these parts. Also, yesterday we decided to do a couple of loads of laundry at the BBNP camp store (walking distance from Barnabas), so we sorted clothes and headed that way. Linda had checked earlier and thought that some of the 4 washers would be available about now. But our laundry will have to wait for another day. Just before we got to the camp store, a bus arrived and spilled out a full load of young adults who had spent the last several days rafting and camping on the Rio Grande. And they ALL were headed into the washer area with their dirty clothes! This morning the plan is to drive a big loop of scenic roads and give BOTH of our legs a rest. Linda and I both slept very well last night, so we were up with the sun and preparing for the day’s adventure. Loaded up lunch, water, and map in the car, fueled up, and headed west. 45 miles from Barnabas to the west exit from BBNP (I told you the park is BIG, over 800,000 acres). From there to Study Butte (that’s pronounced “STOODIE BEAUTE”), then continuing west on FM170 to Presidio, TX. On the way we stopped at the Terelingua Ghost Town, which is a town that was abandoned in the early 1900’s. It’s now a tourist attraction, and also partially occupied by some “Bohemian” type Texas “artsy” folks. One occupied dwelling we saw from a distance was constructed of: the partial adobe walls of one of the “ghost town” houses, with a new makeshift roof over the top and rugs hung over the window openings and gaps in the walls, and a late model Cadillac parked outside. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto! We walked into a General Store that had lots of gifty stuff. Nice store with quality items, but something about the store and the town just gave both of us the creeps, so we high-tailed it out of there. FM170 is a very scenic road that mostly follows the Rio Grande all the way to Presidio (about 60 miles west of BBNP). Up and down with some 15% grades, back and forth and around, very twisty and wild semi-desert terrain. We’re glad that BBNP saved 800,000 acres of this beautiful country, because some of this area is spoiled by human habitation and abuse.
Just after getting onto FM170 was a sign that said “Road Closed in 45 Miles, Local Traffic Only”, but the Park Ranger this morning said the road was open all the way to Presidio. About 10 miles from Presidio, we came to a large pile of dirt across the road, with barricades in front of it. On them was a sign that said “Detour” and pointed right, into the desert scrubland. FM170 was still closed due to flood damage from September, and they had cut a dirt road detouring through the badlands. About a 3 mile detour, and the dirt road was wide enough for 2 cars to pass, and not any rougher than the dirt roads we’d driven in BBNP, but an unexpected adventure nonetheless. Earlier, one of us (identity will remain a secret) drank too much liquid, thinking there would surely be a restroom between BBNP and Presidio, so the dirt road detour was pretty uncomfortable, and arriving in Presidio was a big relief. From Presidio we drove north to Marfa, stopping along the way to eat our packed lunch. Marfa’s claim-to-fame it that unexplained lights can occasionally be seen looking SW from a spot several miles east of town. Supposedly this phenomenon has been studied by “experts” and has yet to be explained. East from Marfa to Alpine, TX, stopped at a grocery store there and got a frozen pizza for dinner, then south back to Study Butte, and then the 45 miles east back through BBNP to Barnabas and an excellent pizza dinner, accompanied by the singing of coyotes in the distance. Tomorrow’s plan includes a worship service of two, doing laundry and cleaning Barnabas, with maybe a nap in the afternoon. We’ll likely start heading back east towards Florida on Monday or Tuesday. But we’ll be leaving this area of Texas very reluctantly.

4th Day in Big Bend National Park

Each day here seems more beautiful than the last. Waking up to cool temps, clear blue skies, 70’s by afternoon, wild, big country around us. Today was a “quiet” day for Linda and a “wow” day for Andy. Packed camera, water, Andy’s bicycle and cycling gear (!!!!!!!!) and headed back to the Chisos Mountains and Chisos Basin. Parked by the lodge in the Basin and took the short, paved trail to the “Window View”, giving Linda’s knees and joints a break after two days of pretty intense hiking and climbing. The “Basin” is surrounded by the Chisos Mountains, except for this “Window” that is a gap in the mountains giving a spectacular peek into the expanse of desert below. Being in the middle of a desert, you wouldn’t expect a pine forest, but that’s exactly what you find on the northern slopes here. In the “Basin”, the pines are thinner and mixed with grasses and cactus. Lunchtime! We had lunch at the lodge, accompanied by as spectacular view of the Basin. After sharing a blackberry cobbler topped with ice cream and a cherry, we caught up with our emails (this is the only place in the whole park with internet access). After some digesting, it was time for Andy to fly! Linda dropped me off on the way back down the mountains (past the steepest part of the downhill road). After putting on bike clothes, shoes, checking out the bike (especially the brakes), I’m off for a wonderful ride in this big desert country. The planned route is 28 miles from here back to the campground where Linda and Barnabas will be waiting. Of the 28 miles, about 25 are DOWNHILL! OK, OK, not a challenging ride for a cyclist, but exhilarating and rare. Awesome roads, broad expanse of desert and mountain scenery, no traffic (I got passed by only 7 vehicles), saw a roadrunner, a dove, the occasional wildflower, and Big Foot (OK, Big Foot was the brand of the slide-in truck camper that passed me at mile 22!). I averaged almost 20 mph and 12 tooth bugs for the trip (tooth bugs ‘cause I was grinning all the way). Arrived at the campground happy and safe, showered, rested, and then grilled chicken outside on the portable gas grill to round out another exceptional day at BBNP.

3rd Day in Big Bend National Park

This morning dawned clear, blue, and cold – 30 degrees at 7 AM. After Andy showered, he switched the heat from propane to the heat pump to conserve propane. But instead of switching over, the thermostat read “ERROR”! No amount of button-pushing changed the scary message. After finding no troubleshooting tips in the owner’s manuals, Andy decided to try resetting everything by turning off the power. This involved turning off the “shore power” breaker where we’re plugged in outside, then turning off the 12 volt power system switch inside. Praise God, when Andy powered everything back up, the thermostat showed a temperature setting, not “ERROR” and the heat came back on. We had breakfast, make lunch-to-go, and headed for the southwestern corner of BBNP. Destination – Santa Elena Canyon. The trail had it’s “grand re-opening” today. The first leg of the trail (and part of the paved road that leads to the trailhead) had been closed since September by several feet of silt deposited by tropical storm waters which drained into the Rio Concho River in Mexico. RCR feeds into the Rio Grande somewhere west of BBNP. There are two ways to & from the Santa Elena Canyon trailhead. One is an improved gravel road, old Maverick Drive that winds 14 miles southish from the main park road. This is the road that we chose to take to the trailhead. We averaged about 15 mph, so with several historical stops along this route, it took 1 ½ hours to go 15 miles. We stopped at the historic dwelling of Gilberto Luna, who settled here in 1900 at the age of 60, made peace with the Apache and other Indians in the territory, farmed using the “flood irrigation” technique, and fathered 10 children (after the age of 60!). He died at the age of 108 in 1948, still living in the same dwelling. Other stops along the slow gravel road included the BBNP “badlands”, several dry creek bed crossings, and a couple of historic gravesites (we didn’t find these). Arrived at the trailhead in a VERY dusty Vibe, loaded lunch and water in Andy’s backpack, and headed into the canyon. The trail first led us through a grove of river cane and past silt deposits as high as 5 feet high that park workers had to clear from the trail. Across a sandy, silty flat that used to be a grove of giant river cane and tamarsk, then crossing over Terlingua Creek on several submerged rocks. The trail then quickly headed UP – a series of stairs and ramps that formed a switchback trail climbing up over 150 feet in elevation. Linda’s knees and joints held up pretty well today under the stress of this climb and the rest of the 1 ½ mile roundtrip. The views were spectacular, beyond description. The canyon walls soar over 1500 feet overhead, that’s the height of 3 Washington Monuments stacked on top of each other. We lunched on a cliff about 50 feet above the Rio Grande in this awesome canyon. Across the river on the opposite cliff near the water level we spotted an indented outline in the rock that resembled a door. It reminded us of the magic door that Frodo Baggins, Gandalf, and the seven members of The Fellowship of the Ring passed through yo get under the mountains into the dwarf mines (this from the “Lord of the Rings” movie). After lunch and resting our muscles (not the least of which were the glutes!) we reluctantly headed back along the gravel trail, stairs and ramps, through the creek and back to the car. After a quick potty break (in a very nice facility for such a remote area), we headed up the 25-mile winding, twisting, up & down paved road back to the main park road for the 35 mile drive back to Barnabas (all this still within BBNP). On the way back to the main park road, there were many pull-off opportunities for spectacular views, geological and historical education, and ice cream sandwiches at the Castolon store and ranger station. It was close to sunset as we approached the campground (after 6:30 PM - ‘cause we’re so far west in the Central Time Zone, and so far south), and the huge cliffs on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande to the east of us were almost on fire with pink sunlight from the setting sun. Within minutes the cliffs lost their pink color, then went dark. Another awesome day in God’s wilderness!

2nd Day in Big Bend National Park

The wind subsided last night, no rain, and no tree fell on Barnabas. There’s a willow right behind where we’re parked! This morning we set the alarm to get up at 7 AM so we could join a ranger-led birding walk at 8:30. The outside temp at 7 was 36 degrees, so we nixed the birdwalk and slept for another hour. It was the right choice ‘cause it was only 46 degrees at 8:30. Oh, by the way, the high temp today was75 degrees, in case you wanted to know. (As a side note, to give a perspective on how massive this Park is, coming in on Monday we drove over 60 miles from the park entrance to the campground where we are staying, at the southeast corner of the park. To get to the west edge of the park from here, the drive is about 55 miles. Desert, river basin, mountains, desert, and BIG SKY.) After breakfast, Linda made our to-go lunch and we headed out about 10:30 to explore more of Big Bend National Park. The first stop (which turned out to be our only real stop of the day) was to find and hike the 2-mile round-trip “easy” hike into Grapevine Canyon, which takes you to a spectacular “balancing rock” at the turn-around point. The drive to the trailhead takes you over 6 ½ miles of gravel road at 10-15 mph. The first ¾ mile of the hike wound gradually uphill through the canyon bottom, past cacti, scrub brush, lots of gravel and sand, lizards, and some birds. Words can’t describe the awe and majesty of God’s creative handiwork in this place. Pictures don’t do it justice, either. Think of views up to 150 miles, jutting rocks and mountains, scrub desert with little color but brown, and HUGE expanse of bright azure blue sky. The last ¼ mile to “balancing rock” is up, up, up, climbing over and around stones and boulders, skirting cacti, nothing but climbing up rocks. After a quick evaluation, we agreed that Linda’s knee would not stand this strenuous last stretch. Linda encouraged me to go on to the destination and take lots of pictures. She found a great place to sit and study the landscape and wildlife while I went on. That climb for me was exhilarating! The challenge of footing, finding my way up, around and through, climbing ever higher and seeing God’s glorious creation all around me - far away in the mountains, in the expanse of blue sky, right in front of me, and at my feet. Ever up, picking my way, stopping to turn and see Linda far below me, taking pictures, and climbing ever higher. At one point, still following the trail markers, I had to pick my way around a particularly large grouping of boulders. Unbeknownst to me at the time, that was Balancing Rock, but I didn’t see it because of my focus on footing and climbing. Needless to say, the trail got smaller, tougher and steeper as I continued to climb, still searching for the Rock (which was now behind me). After maybe 5 more minutes of climbing, I decided the going was too tough and started back down. Got back down to the large boulders that were in my way going up, I turned and “voila” there was Balancing Rock. Took more pictures and continued down to Linda. Boy, the descending was a lot easier from that point on. Duh! All in all, a great adventure. Linda was still enjoying the solitude and scenery when I got back to her, which means that I wasn’t gone too long. Saw a small (fast) lizard and stopped to watch several groups of birds forage for food on the way back down the trail to the car. Had another wonderful lunch in the shade of the car’s back hatch and talked to several couples who were getting ready to do the trail. One couple arrived in what can only be described as an Australian Outback RV. Built on the short (20foot?) frame of a cabover-style diesel semi (brand name on grill – “MAN”), huge wide off-road type tires, a stylized Texas Longhorn skull mounted above the windshield, door into back RV at least 5’ off the ground, two spare tires and rims (plus bicycles) mounted on the back, and licensed in Switzerland. Since the hike and the lunch took over 3 hours, we decided to meander back the 6 ½ miles of gravel road, took one short scenic stop, then stopped at Panther Junction (one of 3 ranger stations in the park) to pick up some supplies. Two miles from the campground, we drove back a paved side road to see Boquilla Canyon and another Rio Grande River overlook. Saw our first (and second) flowering cactus (both yuccas), and met a nice couple from Alberta, Canada at the overlook parking lot. Back home before dark to cleanup and have a quiet dinner before writing the blog and downloading the day’s pictures.

1st Day in Big Bend National Park

We woke this morning to pink sky outside our bedroom window. It faces East and what I saw was the sunrise reflecting off of clouds above the cliffs. It was really beautiful. We got up, got cleaned up, had breakfast and (after cleaning the filthy windows on the Vibe), headed out to Panther Junction visitor center. The drive back to the center looked entirely different than the drive in last night. It is another beautiful morning, some clouds but lots of blue sky and sunshine. We stopped along the road to take a picture of a pretty blue lupine right along the road. When I asked a ranger later in the day, what the flower was, she replied that it was a Big Bend Blue Bonnet. How about that! We drove up to the Panther Junction welcome center and went thru their exhibits learning about the geography of the park. They had a very informative outside walk with plants along the way and an interpretive guide to describe them all. It has been very dry here so some varieties were no longer there. After a quick trip to the restroom, you use them wherever you find them since they are far and few between, we headed up the road to Chisos mountains. The drive was beautiful as we drove up and up now heading into forests? How is that possible? Due to the elevation and more frequent water, on the north sides of these mountains are fir and spruce forests. Beautiful. The drive up was beautiful and breathtaking. Many pictures were taken. We drove around exploring the “Basin” as it is called and then settled on a space in the primitive campground to have our lunch of PB&J, Pringles, bananas, and DS oreos all the while enjoying the majestic scenery around us. Watched a little bird flitting around, scanned the mountains with binoculars, and just enjoyed the quietitude. We were there for over an hour. Time to move on. Andy would like to have me drive him up to Panther Pass and let him ride all the way back home (about 35 miles) which is mostly downhill some day. Sounds like the ride of a lifetime. We’ll have to arrange that. The weather turned a lot colder and blustery on the way home. We had beautiful 70’s for most of the day. By 4 pm, clouds and windy. Stopped at a lookout just on the campground side of the tunnel and hiked out to the lookout. Almost got blown away. Saw the mountain ranges on the Mexican side of the river, Boquillas, Mexico, and just a beautiful panorama. Hiked back to the car and back home. Unloaded in the fierce wind, took down the satellite and settled in for the night. Made a great dinner of chimichangas, broccoli and chocolate/raspberry deserts. What a wonderful day. Have watched a video on Big Bend and will soon start wrapping up and heading for bed. We hope to go to a bird watching walk tomorrow morning at 8:30 am if it’s not too windy, etc. A great first day in BBNP.