Paul B Johnson St Pk, Mississippi

Morty is finally camping in Mississippi, as we are crossing it the long way this time. We are heading more North than East; a little South of Hattiesburg in a lake-centric park named after Paul B Johnson. The senior rate is $14 for full hookups, but the sites themselves are crammed so close together  we might as well be in the ghetto. We do have a fair view of the lake, but it is a big hike around the end to the nearest restroom. No WiFi and the weather is dreary, threatening rain. The maintenance workers are wearing wide striped green and white prison pants -- must be the latest fashion thing. At least the cell is coming in strong. We had a long 290 mile driving day, so I'm a little tired, maybe it will look better in the morning.

We were initially assigned to pull-thru site 95 but after one trip to the restroom we requested a transfer to site 1. This is a much prettier wooded locale with no adjacent sites for 360 degree views. My strong advice would be to avoid the pull-thru area, unless you think you really need one. Now things are looking better already.

Galveston Island State Park, TX

When you look at the website for Galveston Island State Park you might be put off by the update which says "no showers and only portable restrooms". They are very slow in recovering from Hurricane Ike and even slower in publishing their progress. The fact of the matter is that the bayside restrooms, though only two in number, are fully plumbed and electrified and even air conditioned. You could move or remove them, but they are not what "portable" brings to mind. There are at this time two shower/restroom buildings on the beach side, which are nearly identical to those at Goose Island. There are some limitations in that there is a pretty good hike from the RV Bayside camping area to the restrooms which are in the tent camping area, but it is not a major factor. The other limitation is that the Beachside areas are still not electrified, although the hardware to do that appears to be in place. Also of the three beach loops, only two have restroom/shower buildings. There is even a strong WiFi signal at the headquarters building.



We camped on the bay and used the electrical hookup on Friday. After breakfast on Saturday morning, we rolled Morty to the beach side to walk the beach and enjoy the beautiful day. We will be showering before returning to the bay.

Sunrise and Shorebird Walk at Goose Island

We learned a few more birds in today's shorebird walk -- lots of fun.

Sunset on Goose Island

We had some remarkable colors and tints in our sunset this evening:



One even caught a fish jumping out of the water!

Strange Birds at Choke Canyon, TX

I revisited the little woodpecker that watched us so closely yesterday. He was just as attentive today, following me from tree to tree, even sitting on the handlebars of my bike. Little Golden Fronted Woodpecker, you are a piece of work!

I was informed by a birder from Austin, that the Yellow Warbler, is really a Yellow Rumped Warbler.

The large yellow-black bird seems to be an Audubon's Oriole -- seen only in the Rio Grande valley.



The turkeys are cute, especially when the male is strutting his stuff.

Birding at Choke Canyon

Our second day at Choke Canyon dawned clear and bright, without a care in the world -- other than some cool temperatures. I put some birdseed out on the bar-b-que and the cardinals, red-wings, and assorted others including the rare Green Jay were unanimous in their approval.



We hiked about three miles to 75 Acre Lake and back on the bird trails. At one point we were closely watched by a Golden Fronted Woodpecker, who must have been on guard duty. We had a late lunch and sat in the recliners, and watched another batch of hungry birds devour our contributions.

Birding Choke Canyon St Pk, TX

We were snowed upon while breakfasting this morning -- just three miles North of the Rio Grande. Tucson is slated for 30 degrees tonight. This was all the incentive we needed to have Morty roll another couple of hundred miles East and South. We are now back in Choke Canyon where the birds flock in abundance.



The little bird sanctuary in the park has been made more isolated with additional fencing, but the cold seems to have stemmed the flow of most birds. Still am able to get a couple of decent shots -- these the first with the D90 and 70-300mm lens in a long while. It looks like the birds are Yellow Warbler, Redwing Blackbirds, and Northern Mockingbird. Weather wise, we can see the clearing in the West and we are hoping this bodes well for tomorrow. Traveling the farm roads of South Texas again coated poor Morty in a thick layer of red mud, but we were able to wash most of it off upon arrival. Now we must stay warm until tomorrow when hopefully, the Sun will warm us all up again.

Hacienda RV Park, Las Cruces, NM

The continental breakfasts are pretty special at this campground -- not in that they exist at all, but that alone would make them completely unique. No, what is special is that the offerings are wide ranging and change daily. Yesterday's choice of three cereals was supplemented with two new choices today in addition to yesterday's raisin bran. Today we also had a yogurt selection. Both days there were bagels and muffins and proper toasters with a host of toppings available.

Lynne suggested that today may be our last warm day for a while, so we are going to spend a third day here at Hacienda. Then we will be heading South into Texas following the warmer temperatures.

Mesilla, NM

Lynne spied some local salsa in the gift shop area of our RV park. That required me to get out the bike and reconnoiter some suitable chips from the local mercados. That trip took me into the historical town of Mesilla, where the Gadsden Purchase was completed.

I also went past a very interesting looking building which turned out to be an art gallery. This is no ordinary store-front art shop, but a first-rate museum and instructional center -- the Preston Contemporary Art Center. What I found was culture and history on a par with what I expected in Santa Fe or Sedona -- without the cold!



On Friday, we stay over to visit the craft show in Old Mesilla about a mile away from our site. We bike over and walk the square, stopping at every table and store. Indian-style artifacts are in abundance, along with a very aged ambiance. We stop for lunch and split a green chile platter of taco, enchilada, and tamale. Later that evening, the campground puts on a margarita happy hour that totally killed what little appetite remained for dinner.

Benson, Arizona

Morty is back in Benson, so to speak, because this is the town of the Kartchner Caverns State Park which was his first Arizona stop heading West. This time we picked a campground out of the AAA book which has a heated pool. We found Butterfield RV Resort right near the heart of town. There is a lot to like about this campground, named after the early Wild West stage line.



For starters, it has its own astronomical observatory seating 15 people and putting on a couple of shows every evening. It houses a 16 inch telescope with a GPS star-finder. We looked at star clusters, the Andromeda Galaxy, Mars, Orien's Betelgeuse, Rigel, and the Great Mollecular Cloud  -- quite a show! Another nice activity is Tuesdays' Texas Hold 'em tournament. A complete newbie, I entered the poker tournament, and lasted for over two hours, which was longer than several experienced guys at my table. I even won the first hand, with "pocket pair of fives."

The next day, I bike out of town to explore and find the signs to the airport. First one leads down slope one mile and turn left. Second one is three miles straight ahead up the mountain. I only go a little over two before I start worrying about being too far out in case of a blow-out or other failure. Consequence is no airport photos, but a couple of desert views.

Casa Grande, Arizona

Morty rolled East across I-8 to where it meets I-10 and Casa Grande, between Phoenix and Tulsa. We picked up a chamber of commerce glossy book at check-in. This is one very nice community, it is on my list for some in-depth exploration someday -- not too much city, nor too much desert.

We are at the Campground Buena Tierra right in the V of the two interstates. This is a family-run campground in the desert environment, with great modern facilites, and lots of site room.

Morty's mirrors have loosened and need some large socket wrenches to tighten down. When we are at interstate speeds, they seem to need adjusting every five to ten minutes. I approached a neighbor enjoying happy hour to ask about borrowing a wrench. He was kind enough to look but in the process knocked over and broke his full wine glass -- how awkward.

Palm Canyon Trail Hike

We are still at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, since all our next options are full for the weekend. This morning we hiked the Palm Canyon Trail in search of the elusive Big Horn Sheep -- we and a couple of hundred other week-end Rvers. The Big Horn were alegedly spotted on the trail at the exact time we were also on the trail -- but it must have been a different part, but the trail is only a mile and a half long, but a lot of it up. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.



I was surprised at how dehydrated I was when we got back. I figured the warnings for a gallon of water a person were a little over the top for the winter, so went in with just a drink at the entrance and exit. Heed the warnings!

We checked a couple of triple-A campgrounds heading east, but they were full for the weekend. So we will hold over here another night. This is only $23 per night, but we have to run the generator to cook or surf beyond the MacBook internal battery capability. The twenty-five cent showers work fine, especially when you shower with a friend.

Quartzsite, AZ

Quartzsite has no state parks, so we are at 88 Shades, a commercial park selected from the AAA campground guide -- click the link for another view. The park is still recuperating from the Quartzsite Annual RV Show that runs the last couple of weeks of January.

There are mostly permanent residents here now, along with a few travelers like us. One characteristic of the permanently moored RVs are the swamp coolers -- simple air conditioners that work by just water evaporation. There are still a passel of RV dealers and support operations here, and a few gas stations, restaurants, and RV parks, so the rates are very reasonable: $25 per night. The amenities are a little wear-worn, but otherwise fully acceptable.

Goodyear, Arizona

Morty took us to the Spring training home of the Cleveland Indians today. There are no state parks in the area so we checked into Destiny RV park. We have a nice site right next to the pool and the laundry. Both of which became the priorities for the afternoon. The tariff is $39 so that is quite a bit higher than we've been used to.

Since the Spring game schedule for the Tribe is not until March, I doubt that there is much to see in the way of training activities. The laundry was getting to be a priority since we have done none since departing three weeks ago. Lynne had five loads, all of which could be handled simultaneously in the huge 30 machine operation.



We are again under the flight path of Air Force fighters departing from Luke AFB. During the day, they are launching about every twenty minutes in flights of two to four planes. More A-10s are also flying overhead. Pretty exciting to watch -- it never gets old.

Didn't bother with pictures yet -- one RV ghetto looks pretty much like any other.The good news is that our rain avoidance travel plan worked again. We had just a few drops before departing Pichaco and none since. In fact since we have been here in Goodyear, it has been mostly sunny with temps in the mid 60s.

Hueco Tanks Rock Art

Rock art was the subject of our morning rock climb at Hueco Tanks. I didn’t expect real rock climbing for a group that included the over-62-set but I was wrong. We were climbing rocks where we could have easily slipped and tumbled down rock faces of 30 feet or more. But it was necessary to get to most of the best original prehistoric and early western petroglyphs and pictographs.

Seminole Canyon State Park, Texas

This morning in Choke Canyon we were faced with a weather front that impacted our travel plans. Coming in from the West were rain, storms and cold. We had been thinking of taking a small chunk going North to Garner State Park but that would have been into worse weather. Then we considered heading way South to Lake Casa Blanca, but that would have thrown us off our progress plan. That pretty much left heading West on a 200 mile chunk that theoretically would take us through the worst of the weather into the desert and near the Rio Grande -- specifically to Seminole Canon State Park.

Experiencing life in the desert has always been a fascination of mine and now I am there at last. We can see Mexico from our front porch. We can also see the prehistoric caves and shelters going back 6000 years or more where man stampeded buffalo off cliffs to their deaths. Rain has been a factor here yesterday and earlier today, but the dryness of the ground and plants is abundantly evident.



The ranger station has a very nice museum describing the history of the site. We had time to walk around a little and get some scenery pictures. Also needed time to wash Morty again, since in driving through the rain, he accumulated half of south Texas on his shell. Small milestone of the trip: we went past 2000 miles today. Facilities at Seminole Canyon are surprisingly good --  modern restrooms; also the campsites all have free WiFi internet which works very well. Word of caution: the park is 60 miles or 45 miles from food and fuel.

Tonight we are getting a pretty good rain that will probably keep us indoors until it lets up some. Also we are getting a pretty good lightning and thunder show. And the temperature is dropping from the mid-sixties of the afternoon to probably the forties. It will be interesting to see how our weather avoidance tactics play out.

Goose Island Wildlife

Some photos of: the back bay during morning feeding, turtles sunning, the Whooping Crane pair a little further off, and the Big Tree -- over 1000 years old.



Some other features of this park: near perfection in rest rooms and showers, great biking, sunsets. We have extended our stay through Tuesday.

Corpus Christi, Texas

One sign said that we had entered the city limits of Corpus Christi, but we have seen no hint of said metropolis. If it exists it is across the bay, beyond our range of sight. We do have a fair number of TV channels, so they must come from nearby. We seem to be getting some weak analog signals from Mexico on the "-0" channels. One more thing to think about is that, in general, it seems that Public Television stations are better represented and delivered in state parks than any other broadcast network. Cell phone service is also a little better than minimal -- we get to surf the web most of the time we try it.

Mustang island is a barrier island, and although we passed by some developed portions on our way here, everything we can see from the park is prairie-like grass and dunes. The building in the park are poured concrete to be nearly hurricane proof. An interesting arrangement for the restrooms, which are over the showers -- it may take some time for me to figure that one out. The restrooms and showers are far below average -- flaking paint on home-made partitions, ancient plumbing, no privacy area for changing and drying, and open to every mosquito in the county.

The sun is struggling to shine through the high clouds, and raise the temperatures into the 70s. It was enough to burn off this morning's fog, but maybe not for the rest of the job. Recent rains seem to have flooded the beach parking lot causing it to be unusable. Park rangers are running a pump but it is very slow going.



Back story on a couple of pictures: we saw the Roseate Spoonbill flock on Friday morning about three-quarters of the way to Mustang Island. Ms. Garmina knew that we were on the ferry and prepared us for the disembarkation. There seem to be a lot of starfish washed up on the beach. Warnings are still up about red tide striking this area last fall. Morty thought he was pretty big hunk when they assigned him two lanes on the ferry.

We are paying $16 a night to camp here -- a very reasonable rate. Tomorrow we head 36 miles north to Goose Island State Park, were the rate is $20, but they say they have fishing tackle to loan.

And, if you are playing along or just keeping score at home, the drain cap magically reappeared yesterday -- it had just come loose, and temporarily lodged itself on top of the plumbing. And we isolated the clicking sound to the coach door where everything seems firmly enough attached to put the whole issue into the benign category. So all is well again with Morty.

Mustang Island State Park, Texas

Morty’s travel to Mustang Island was a little out of the ordinary. The first part was about 60 miles over Farm Roads at an average speed of about 60 mph. Then we turned onto the series of barrier islands leading to the park and discovered that we were in for a ferry ride. The ferry operation was massive if not long. There were five ferries on the same route, each with their own dock and waiting line. The best part was that they were free – another first for Morty and us all. And short too, the whole ride was over in less than 10 minutes. Today, we have put more miles on Morty, than he had when we acquired him.

It seemed like we were too far from a Wal-Mart to bother looking, so we stocked up at the H E B in Aransas Pass. Quite a good shopping experience – good selection and low prices. The only thing we couldn’t find was the sport drink Power Zero, but we could have looked harder as we really didn’t find any sport drinks.

The beach is huge and deserted by all but a few park RVers. The sand is brown and the shells and starfish are abundant. The number of RV sites are few but close together. The open park grounds are huge. The Sun comes out about 4 in the afternoon. We are looking forward to a day off from driving.

Weather Holder -- Warmer Memories

There's no warming in sight. So we sit tight and look at some memories from July -- Airventure to be more specific. These were taken with my Nikon D40 -- with some lens dirt that has since been cleaned away. My neighbor who went with me wondered how my camera was able to fire off shots so quickly. The answer is simply  that is the way most Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras work.