rugged and remote soul sucking

I've always wanted to visit Big Bend and last week we did! You've gotta come prepared to camp at Rio Grande Village. The nearest real grocery store is over 100 miles away. The nearest WalMart is 250 miles away. We stayed for only 5 days because pets are not very welcome at Big Bend. The weather was perfect. The exploring was magnificent. The sky was incredibly dark and the stars were simply awesome. Big Bend is the extreme north range for birds and critters from Central and South America. It is also the extreme south range for many North American species. From our trailer we saw a bobcat! Coyotes wandered the campground looking for tasty little dogs left out by their careless owners. Roadrunners were everywhere. My soul always sucks up as much of the pristine surroundings as possible when I'm in a National Park. This park was particularly special because there was no air traffic. We didn't see one airplane in the sky. Remote and rugged soul sucking.

If you look close you can see our trailer in the center on the right - we were on the south edge of the campground.

cool clouds over the "Basin"

hot springs on the Rio Grande 3 miles up from the campground

nice road through a rugged wilderness

the trail into Santa Elena canyon on the west boundary of the park - that's me going back to the truck because I don't do heights well

inside the canyon via my husband's pictures

the Rio Grande - an oasis through the rugged desert

Leave me a comment or just say hi. I'd love to know that you're out there and I'm not just writing to myself :)

 

journal entry 3,216

A page from our daily journal...

January 31, 2011

roseate spoonbill and blue heron at Matagorda, TX

Goodbye Gulf coast. It's been big fun and we will be back. Sajac, our truck, and Emoh, our 5th-wheel trailer, creak with rust as we drive west. Dick has decided that Potter's Creek is the place to ride out this storm. We drive across the flat landscape through historic Victoria back to the Hill Country. It's comforting to be going back to familiar territory to hunker. We know where to park Emoh and get set up with our door and satellite dishes on the protected south side of the trailer.

sweet sunset at Potter's Creek campground on Canyon Lake, TX

It's hot and humid. We walk out the swim beach loop of the campground and Hilldog runs with delight. She likes it here. A glorious sunset is our reward for leaving the gulf. In the wee hours of the morning strong winds rock the trailer and wake us up. Dick looks at the radar since we are still in the "tornado zone". He comes back to bed declaring us safe. All of the red is to the north of us. Sure enough. It's a couple hours of heavy rain and strong winds. No thunder. No lightning. We're asleep again before sunrise.

palacios texas

This turned out to be our last stop on the Texas Gulf coast. Palacios, Texas is about halfway between Houston and Corpus Christi. It's a small town of about 5,000 and boasts that it is the Shrimp Capital of Texas. The harbor did have a big fleet of shrimp boats but we couldn't find fresh shrimp for sale anywhere in town. Go figure. We found a little RV park on the north side of town and right on the water. Most of the residents were "contractors" with the oil industry and they worked during the day so it was nice and quiet. And very dog friendly - no leashes required. We could walk from our trailer along the waterfront park for two miles. Sweet. I think we would have stayed another week except for that darn storm that was heading our way with threats of tornados and damaging winds and golf-ball sized hail. So our seven weeks on the coast came to an end and we hurried to a safer haven further inland. That is another story ;)

Sunrise out the back window - gypsyartisan.blogspot.com

 

same sunrise - gypsyartisan.blogspot.com

one of my favorite waterfront homes - gypsyartisan.blogspot.com

And then there were days like this - rain rain rain

not even the dog wanted to go out

choices

I am missing the Tucson Gem show :(

I guess that's price for living in Texas this winter ;)

This is the view out our window at the sunrise in Port Lavaca.

I loved this little "beach shack".

And the color. Oh, the tropical color of the Texas Gulf coast.