13 December 2020 Burro Schmidt Tunnel

 When David picked up his rental car at the airport, he was surprised to see that they had foolishly assigned him a new Ford Ranger four wheel drive pickup truck! So of course he had to take it off pavement to see how it would perform. So on his second day off for the weekend, he went exploring the dirt roads north of Mojave. One of the folks at work had recommended the trail to Burro Schmidt’s Tunnel as something the Ranger could handle. So he took the southern route to the tunnel. The Ranger was not a great off pavement vehicle, mostly because the tires that were on it were not the best off road tires, but it handled the back roads just fine. He never really had to drop it into four wheel drive but did a few times just to see how it handled. As he arrived at Burro Schmidt’s tunnel, he was surprised to see the tunnel was actually open to the public and there were people coming out. One of them in a wheel chair! After asking them about the tunnel, he decided to do a little exploring. The tunnel was cut by William “Burro” Schmidt from 1900 to 1938 by hand. It goes a half mile through solid rock. Burro stated he started the tunnel to create a short cut, from his house to the smelter in town rather than taking “treacherous” trail over the mountain. Rumor is that he was following a vein of gold. By 1920 there was a road around the mountain but Burro kept on digging. The tunnel is on BLM land but there is a disputed mining claim that is open for the tunnel. David decided to go in to the tunnel as far as his cell phone flashlight would allow. Turns out he went all the way to the other side and only hit his head three times. About halfway through, he remembered that this area of California had experienced a lot of earthquakes in the last year. The thought of being in that tunnel during an earthquake was not reassuring. When he came out on the other end of the tunnel, there was a nice view out over the valley. He also found a trail he could take over the mountain rather than go back through it. Back at the truck, he decided to take the northern route out through Red Rock Canyon State Park. The road brought him out on CA14, but just in from the highway, there are a series of camping areas that are accessible for RV to boon dock. The road look easily passable when it is dry for our fiver. So he noted the coordinates of where the road interests CA14 in case we are in that area anytime in the future. 

Plaque outside the Tunnel

Burro Schmidts Tunnel entrance

Inside the Tunnel

The other end of the tunnel

View from the exit of the tunnel

View from the exit of the tunnel

Joshua Tree off the road

Coordinates for where the dirt road to the boon docking campsites intersect CA14

12 December 2020 Pacific Crest Trail

 David was on a business trip to Palmdale California for 11 days including a weekend. So he took advantage of the opportunity to get out on the weekend to do some fun things away from people. The Pacific Crest Trail runs along the mountain tops from the Mexico Border to the Canadian Border along the crest of the mountain ranges. Part of the trail pass not to far from Palmdale so he decided to hike a portion of it for some exercise. He drove to where the trail crosses Lake Hughes road and parked. The weather was cool and the clouds were hanging low on the mountains with occasional drizzle. The wind was blowing pretty hard in the valley but the segment of trail he chose was sheltered from the wind. He hiked in 2.5 miles before turning around with a 1200 foot elevation gain in the first 2 miles. Along the way he was surprised to find a couple of dens along the trail and a flowing spring. Not know what would be in the dens, he did not get to close! When he topped out on the crest, the wind was blowing hard and it began to rain. So it was cold and wet, a good time to head back. As soon as he dropped down a couple hundred of feet, the rain stopped and the wind died for a pleasant trip back down. The views from the top over the valley were pretty. The area had experienced a fire a couple of years prior and there was a lot of burn damage. In fact there was a sign at the base of the trail saying it was closed due to fire danger, but from the numerous foot prints in the dirt, it was clear other hikers were using the trail. It was a pleasant way to burn 2086 calories and get some fresh air after wearing a mask all day for 6 straight days! On the way back, he swung by Bill and Pam’s to say a socially distanced hello from the car. 

Hills above Lake Hughes

Animal Den #1

Animal Den #2

Pacific Crest Trail running through Burnt Out area

Burnt Out Trees

View into the Valley from the top

View from the top looking towards Lake Hughes

13-15 November 2020 Houston Music and Art Festival

 Leslie found a festival close to our winter home back in September and signed us up for it. It was a chance to get all our Boot Jazz stuff out and hopefully sell some merchandise.  It is the first festival in the area that was not canceled at the last minute although the dates and venue had apparently changed multiple times over the summer. It’s an outdoor festival that was held at Town Green park. This was the first time this park had hosted this festival. On Friday we were able to load in. Friday morning we sorted through the Boot Jazz boxes and loaded the truck up with the items for setting up Leslie’s Boot Jazz booth. Although set up was not supposed to start until noon and sites were first come first serve, when we arrived at 12:30 (got held up due to traffic), most of the sites had already been claimed and many folks were close to finishing up! Lessoned learned, times set out by the host mean nothing. Luckily we found a good site near a power plug. It took us three hours to get the booth setup. Along the way we met some of the neighboring vendors. We somehow ended up next to the Dominoes pizza vendor, but luckily they were not doing any cooking (thoughts of kettle corn were running through our head) but bringing the pizzas in from off site. We finished up our set up and headed back for home. Saturday morning we were on site by 10am to finish our setup with Leslie’s boot bracelets and necklaces, along with her real necklaces. Then we sat and waited for festival goers! And we waited. And we waited. Saturday was pretty disappointing. Probably less than 400 people came through and we sold nothing. The other vendors around us sold nothing either. There was one vendor near us selling brightly colored Tutu’s and another was selling puppets that drew the families in and they had some sales. Cynthia, Felix, Lauren, Olivia and Avery stopped by to visit. Olivia showed off her new tutu for us! 

We got a chance to talk with our neighbors a lot and many were very interested in, even envious of, our RV lifestyle. Most were staying in hotels for the festival. We made several new friendships amongst the vendors and helped each other with some set up issues and even with covering each other’s booth while they went out to get some food or the bathroom. Many of the folks we met depend on the festival circuit for their living and with all the festivals being closed due to COVID restrictions, they were desperate for some income.  

 

Sunday was not much better. We arrived to find our booth had sustained damage from the winds when the storm blew through last night,. But it was not too bad and we had things back in order in a hour or so. A few more people came through and we were able to sell three boot bracelets. Two jewelry vendor’s near us that Leslie became friends with, Alena (from Santa Fe) and Suzanna, both made enough sales to cover their costs, but not much in the way of profit. David became friends with Wayne, the husband of the Tutu vendor, since he was dabbling in wood working product sales and they were from near Fort Worth. So it was not a lonely day. At 5PM all the vendors started tearing down. Trying to finish before it got really dark and it was a mad house. People dragging stuff to the edges of the park to try to load up since at first they would not let us bring our vehicles back into the park. By the time we had gotten tore down and our stuff dragged to the nearby library parking lot, they started letting people in with their vehicles. It was not a very well run festival. After we loaded up, we went back and helped Suzanna load up her booth since she was by herself. All in all, we lost money on the festival, but it was good to get back in the swing of things. We think a combination of lack of advertising and the dramatically increasing COVID cases in the area resulted in so low of an attendance.

If your interested in Leslie's Jewelry: BootJazz.com

Boot Jazz booth

Our Vendor row

1 November 2020 Fredericksburg to Spring, TX

 Well, it was time to head for our winter layover. We took US290 across the south side of Austin to TX71 down to I-10. That avoided the construction on I-10 and dealing with downtown San Antonio. We are staying at Rayford Crossing RV resort just like the last two winters. We stopped at a roadside park on TX71 for a lunch break where a fort had once been built in the early 1800s to thwart Indian raids. It was not well marked and poorly maintained but an interesting find along the drive.  Otherwise the drive was uneventful.  

So this ends our travel year. If we do anything fun or exciting we will post something. Otherwise we expect to hit the road next March and will begin regal postings again then. Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year. Lets hope next year is more fun than this year has been!

Home Sweet Home for the next four months

31 October 2020 Fat Ass and Garage Wine!

 With only one day left, we wanted to try a winery with an interesting name. We had passed it a couple of times, Fat Ass Ranch Winery. With a name like that, we had to check it out. As we walked up from the parking lot, we noticed they had a live band playing rock n roll. We had to wait our turn to get a tasting. When we told the host we preferred dry reds, she shook her head. They specialize to fruity and sweet wines. They only had one dry red. Definitely not worth paying for a tasting. She recommended we go next door to the Wine Garage winery, which she said had several good reds. But we really wanted to listen to the band for a while, so we bought a couple of glasses their lone red wine and found a table to sit at to listen to the band. We could not remember the last time we had heard a live rock band. After finishing our wines, we drove over to the Wine Garage. We were very surprised by the Wine Garage. The decor was great and the red wines were very good! The interior has the look of a garage with antique cars parked around. One wall has murals of some of the most epic car movies. We had fun trying to identify them. We left with several bottles of red wines and a desire to return in the future. 

Howard Huge at the Wine Garage

They'll Get Ya Lubed!

30 October 2020 Becker Vineyard

 We had been to the Becker wine tasting room in downtown on previous trips and enjoyed their wines. But we wanted to go out to the main winery this time. We got lucky and it was not busy, else we would have required reservations. They were still working under their COVID rules, so they were serving bites of food along with their wine tastings. The food pairings were fantastic and really brought out the character of the wines. We really enjoyed the tasting and the views were great. We definitely will be back to visit again. 

29 October 2020 Alexander Vineyard

 Leslie has been wanting to checkout Alexander winery for a couple of trips, so we made it a point to get there this time. They import their wines from Europe, so they are not Texas wines. We did a tasting of their dry reds. We had a fun time talking to our hostess as she and her husband are ex-military and moved to Texas to get away from California. The wines were ok and we bought a couple of bottles but it is not a place we would return too

28 October 2020 Old Tunnel State Park

 David had the afternoon off from his consulting work, so we decided to investigate another state park. Old Tunnel State Park is the smallest state park in the Texas system at only 16 acres. The tunnel is an old railroad tunnel that was built in 1908 for a rail line between Fredericksburg and Austin. The rail line 

closed in 1943. The park was opened in 1991. Its claim to fame is the 3 million Mexican bats that live in the tunnel between May and October. The tunnel is not accessible to hikers. We walked the short nature trail and saw a deer along the walk.

Entrance Sign

The Old Tunnel

26 October 2020 Shopping

Having scouted out the shops earlier we headed back to downtown to do some more shopping. We of course were looking for Christmas presents but also some goodies for ourselves.   We also noticed that they had erected the town Christmas Pyramid as well as their Christmas Tree. We then went out to the Fredericksburg Brewery and taste a sampling of their beers. We were not overwhelmed. 

Town Christmas Tree

Town Christmas Pyramid

25 October 2020 LBJ State Park and National Historic Park

 We have been to the Fredericksburg area multiple times and always talked about going to the Lyndon Johnson Ranch but never actually made it there. So we decided to check it out this time. LBJ Ranch is part of two parks. A portion of it is a Texas State Park and another portion of the ranch is a National Historic Park. Most of the ranch, over 200 acres of it, are still owned by the descendants of LBJ. The ranch house was called the Texas White House due to LBJ liking to host meetings 

and dignitaries on the ranch. It has a small airfield that they would fly LBJ to the ranch on what he referred to as Air Force ½ since it was a small business jet (Air Force one was too big for the runway on the ranch). LBJ was also an active rancher and bred Hereford cows on the ranch that he would then sell as breeding stock to other ranchers. The ranch house was closed due to COVID as well as structural issues with the old house, but we did get to tour the museum in the National Historic Park and drove around the ranch areas open to the public. We then went back to the state park and toured the historic ranch and buildings from some of the original German settlers to the area. 

State Park Entrance Sign

Historical Park entrance sign

Air Force 1/2

Texas White House

24 October 2020 Hill Country Loop

 We decided to head down to Lost Maples state park for a hike. We hoped the leaves might be changing already. We drove on down to Kerrville and stopped in Bills BBQ for some good Hill Country BBQ. The place is not much to look at, but the food is great. From Kerrville, we headed south on TX39 along the Guadalupe River to TX187 north along the Sabinal River. Lost Maples State Park is along the Sabinal river. We pulled into the park and were stopped by a park ranger. It seems that many state parks now require reservations to limit the number of people in the park. Of course we did not have a reservation and there were none available until about the time we are leaving. We could see that some of the leaves were starting to change but they were at least 2-3 weeks away from prime leaf peak. So we head back out and took TX187 to TX16 north back to Kerrville. It's a quaint essential Texas Hill Country drive. We were disappointed we did not get in a hike but still enjoyed the drive. 

Now thats a real BBQ pit!!

Bill's BBQ!

23 October 2020 Luckenbach Texas

Having heard the song about Luckenbach Texas so many times, we decided we had to visit there. We were expecting something like Gruene Texas, a small tourist town with old buildings. What we found was a collection of 4 old buildings and that was about it! They did have a dance hall that was roped off due to COVID. A general store that had also been the Post office, a take out short order restaurant and a bar. The good part was they had a live folk band playing and Shiner on tap. So we grabbed a burger and a beer and sat down to enjoy the band. Leslie found a hat she wanted in the little store out behind the Post Office. A relaxing afternoon.

Lückenbach Concert Venue

Luckenbach Post Office

16 October 2020 Arlington to Fredericksburg

 We bid adieu to DFW and headed for the Texas wine country. We decided to avoid Austin, so we took 377 south from Benbrook to Stephenville before getting on US281 to Johnson City and then 290 through Fredericksburg. A little bit longer of a drive but a lot less traffic and hassle. Besides which we got to enjoy the wonderful Texas countryside! The wind was kicking up and we were blown around a little, but we have been through much worse. As we drove through Fredericksburg, we could see there were a lot of people in town for the weekend. So we decided that we would relax on Saturday, after a busy two weeks in DFW, rather than deal with crowds. We are staying at The Vineyards of Fredericksburg ($47.50 a night with Good Sam Discount). They are only doing no touch check in which was basically the same as late arrival. Our site has no shade, but the Sat TV works great after having gone without it for a month. But the Internet connection is really slow! Water pressure is 60Lb! Our site is gravel and sloped but we did not have any issues getting level. The temperatures are very comfortable. Best time of the year to be in Texas!

2 October 2020 Hot Springs AK to Arlington TX

 It was a long day’s drive, but we are finally back in Texas! It is a huge relief! We have been so worried about getting caught in another nationwide lock down or in a state mandated quarantine in some distant location. So it is great to be back in the heart of Texas, close to our doctors, family and friends. We plan to spend a couple of weeks in the Dallas/Fort Worth area to visit our doctors, dentists and veterinarian to catch up on our yearly “maintenance”. But, most importantly, to visit with our close friends and family in a safe manner. Were at the Treetop RV Park ($77 per night, no discounts (Suncoast Resort)) in south Arlington. We thought we would try this RV resort since it is more central to where we want to go than the Vineyard RV Resort up in Grapevine. From here we will head for the Texas wine country for a couple of weeks and hope the wine tasting rooms are back open by then (Bars in Texas are still closed due to COVID)!

Our Welcome Home sign!!!

28 September 2020 Lake Catherin State Park

 For his 61^st birthday, David wanted to go for a hike. We researched the local hikes on All Trails and decided on the Falls Loop Trail (2.2 miles, 236 feet of elevation gain, 775 calories burned) that would takes us past several waterfalls in Lake Catherine State Park.  We figured that was a mileage that Etta could do as well so it was a family hike! The temperatures were nice and cool and the trail was mostly in the shade. There were some parts of the trail that were a bit rough which required picking Etta up and carrying her through it. We got to se a dozen or so waterfalls and enjoy a beautiful day. Back at the Wanderer, we had planned another kayak tour but the wind had come up so we grilled so awesome steaks and called it Best Birthday Ever! 

Waterfall #1

Leslie and Etta take a break

Leslie in front of Waterfall #2

Close up of Waterfall #2

Close up of Waterfall #2

Creek alongside of the trail

Waterfall #3

26 September 2020 Kayaking on Lake Hamilton

 Since we are staying along side a beautiful lake, we had to pull out the kayaks and go for a tour. We have not had them out in a while so it took a while to get back in the swing of yaking. We rowed about an hour before turning back. We managed to not dump a kayak despite the big waves from the speedboats, but David slipped and fell in the water when trying to help Leslie get out of her yak. It was a pretty day and other than the large number of speedboats on the lake churning things up, was a pleasant diversion. But it cemented David’s desire to get a different kayak that is a bit more stable. With his height and weight, it makes his current kayak a bit unstable and is constantly fighting to keep from rolling it. 

25 September 2020 Exploring Downtown Hot Springs

 Our first trip into Hot Springs we concentrated on the National Park side of the historic downtown area. This time we went to explore the shops along Central Avenue. After wandering through a few shops and picking up a few Christmas gifts, we made our way to the Superior Bathhouse Brewery. It is built in one of the historic Bathhouses along bathhouse row and is the only brewery in a national park! The use the 4500 year old hot springs water in their beer. We really could not tell much difference from other breweries and the food was not that good. But it was a fun novelty to enjoy. Before we left downtown, we dumped our hiking water bottles we keep in the truck (for spur of the moment hikes) and filled them up with 4500 year old spring water!

21 September 2020 Hiking Hot Springs National Park

 We decided to wait until Monday to go for a hike, to avoid the weekend crowds,  on the 26 miles of trails in Hot Springs NP. The trails are primarily split between the east and west mountains. But they are generally short. There is one 17.8 mile loop around the perimeter of the park, but that was a bit more then we wanted to take on. So we grouped a series of four tails together to form a 3.8 mile loop (610ft elevation gain, 1,032 Calories burned) on West Mountain (West Mountain trail to Mountain Top Trail to Oak Trail to Canyon Trail). About halfway through we saw a group of 5 deer a bit off the trail. Otherwise we were in the woods the whole way and could not see much. But the clouds were hanging low with bouts of drizzle so we were happy to get off the trail before it started raining. Afterwards we went to our Mexican food favorite for a late lunch before heading back to the Wanderer. 

Entrance Sign for West Mountain

West Mountain Trail

Deer in the woods

 

19 September 2020 Hot Springs National Park

 We headed into Hot Springs to get some lunch and get a lay of the park. We found a Mexican food restaurant with really good review and stopped in to see how it was. The front of the building is a Mexican grocery store and the restaurant was in the back. La Bodeguita was some of the best Mexican food we have had since we left Texas. We will be going back! After Lunch we perused the store and picked up some items we never see in any of the usual grocery stores. 

 

After lunch we headed into the central district. Hot Springs NP was formed in 1921. Prior to that, in 1823, it had been designated a national reservation to protect the hot springs and the surrounding rock formations. The park is like a donut with the city of Hot Springs filling the center and surrounding the outside. The Park encompasses the mountains to the north and south of the location where the majority of the hot springs are located. The area just below the hillside where the hot springs are located, is where the historic bathhouses are located. The area began seeing the building of bathhouses after the civil war. The bath spa era really took off in the late 1800s through the early 1930s. Wooden bathhouses were replaced with more elaborate buildings in the late 1910 through 1920s. The bath spa era fizzeled out by the late 1930s. In its hay day, over a million people a year visit Hot Springs for the rejuvenating hot baths every year. The roughly 100 hot springs were enclosed and the water routed to a central cistern in the early 1900s to preserve the quality of the water. All the bathhouses get the same water from the central cistern. Only one of the bathhouses is still open for bathing. Several were torn down over the years. The remaining bathhouses are now part of the National Park and have been turned into restaurants, museums, park store, and park visitor center. Due to COVID, most of the buildings were closed to the public.  

 

The water that comes out of the hot springs falls as rain in Mountains to the North East of Hot Springs where it percolates down through the rock layers to 6000-8000 feet below the surface. The water gets gradually hotter as it descends (The temperature of the earth goes up 4 Degrees Fahrenheit for every 300 feet of depth). Between 6000 and 8000 feet it begins running horizontally along a fault until it is below Hot Springs where it percolates back up to the surface. It takes 4000-4400 years for the water to percolate down to the fault line! But only 100 years to work its way back up to the surface. The water exits the ground in Hot Springs at an average temperature of 143 degrees Fahrenheit! There are almost no minerals in the water, it has an almost perfectly neutral PH and the high temperature kills off any bacteria (They have fountains where you can get the spring water to fill your water bottles). So drinking the 4000 year old water as well as soaking in it was part of the draw to the area. There are a couple of springs that are still free flowing. You can see the steam coming off the pools even on a hot day (we tested the water with our hands and it is definitely warmer than you would want to climb into). 

 

We were a bit surprised by the crowds in the central district. It was very busy. After finding parking for the Behemoth, we walked down to bathhouse row and found the park store. After getting our passport stamp, and shopping for our usual items, we made our way down Bathhouse Row, stopping to read the history behind each building, to the park visitor center. The building was closed, but they had an information desk outside, so we talked with the ranger there and got some hiking suggestions. We walked the rest of the way down the Bathhouse Row (there are 8 buildings still standing) to the green space at the north end. We climbed up the hill to the Grand Promenade, which runs along the hillside above the bathhouses, and walked it to the south end of the bathhouses. We then went back to the Behemoth and drove up to the top of the North Hill above bathhouse row and took in the views over the Ozark Mountains. Beautiful!

Entrance Sign

Bathhouse Row

Hot Spring

Hot Spring

Grand Promenade

Ozark Mountains

18 September 2020 Carthage MO to Hot Springs AR

 We took a zig zaggy route down to Hot Springs to stay on Interstates and avoid getting on any backcountry roads through the Ozark Mountains. We stayed on I-49 down to Fort Smith, then I-40 to Little Rock and finally I-30 to the turn off for Hot Springs. It made for a longer day (7 hours) than we like, but it was worth it to avoid overhanging trees and steep inclines. We are staying at Treasure Isle RV Park ($30 a night (weekly rate)) outside Hot Springs on a lake. We are not lakeside, but close enough we can carry our kayaks to the boat launch. Water pressure is ok, WiFi is strong but slow connect speeds, no satellite TV (there is a tree preventing Satellite TV lock), concrete pad and patio, but roads arejk gravel and narrow. We are here to visit Hot Springs National Park and enjoy some time in the mountains of Arkansas. 

11 September 2020 George Washington Carver NM

 With the rain finally clearing out and the sun poking out between the clouds, we decided that it would be our best opportunity to visit the National Monument. We knew from the website that the visitor center was not open but that the grounds and walking path were. So we found the park film on YouTube and watched it to learn about the life of George Washington Carver. Born into slavery (His mother Mary was “owned” by Moses and Susan Carver) in 1864 on the Carver homestead in southern Missouri, he lived a life full of learning. His mother, sister and him were stolen from the Carvers toward the end of the Civil War by raiders. The Carvers enlisted a Union Scout to find them, but he was only able to find infant George who was suffering from whooping cough. His mother Mary and his sister had disappeared. With the end of the war, the Carvers took George and his half brother Jim into their home and raised them. George being a sickly child was not able to help with the field chores so he worked around the house and spent his time exploring the woods learning about the plants that lived there. In the 1870s at the age 12, he left the Carvers and walked 8 miles to the nearest Negro school where he enrolled. A local couple took him into their home in exchange for helping with the chores. He graduated from high school and, after doing odd jobs to earn enough money, went to the University of Iowa where he initially majored in art before his teachers convinced him to change to botany due to his extensive knowledge of plants and minerals. After graduating with his Masters, he became a professor at the Tuskegee Institute where he taught botany and did research on the uses of plants for 43 years. He developed over 500 uses for peanuts and 300 uses for sweet potatoes and led the effort to convince Negro sharecroppers to switch over to growing them instead of cotton as their cash crop. Loving art and painting his whole life, he developed and patented techniques for creating over 500 paint pigments using natural plant materials and minerals. He was the “Plant Whisper” of his time. George Washington Carver was world renown and respected. During WW1 he developed an alternative for oil using soybeans. When he passed away in 1943, at the age of 81, congress authorized the dedication of a National Monument to be centered on the homestead where he was born. In 1951, the national park service acquired 210 acres of the former Carver homestead and was donated the remaining 30 acres in the 1980s. The log home where George was born, along with the Caver’s log home were destroyed by a tornado in the 1880s. The home that the Cavers built after the tornado was still on the property but had been moved from its original location in the 1920s. Although George visited the Carvers and their new home, he did not live there. 

 

With the visitor center closed, we walked the nature trail through the woods where George played as a child and learned about his life. It was a beautiful day for a 1 mile stroll through the Ozark woods. David later called the park and asked if they could send us a sticker with the stamp for our passport book.

 

Following the NM, we decided to visit the Grand Waterfall in Joplin, the #1 tourist destination in Joplin. We found the falls and took a few pictures, watch the kids jumping off the falls into the water pool below before heading back to the Wanderer for dinner.

 

Entrance Sign

Young George Washington Carver

The Carver 1880 Home

Grand Falls, Joplin Missouri

Yes, we were really there