Friday morning, after watching a rabbit come out of the trees behind us, and after a telephone chat with Mom and Dad (we are in a wi-fi dead zone) we went hiking. Our decision to stop at this park was a good one, as there are miles of hiking trails. Our hike started on Bridges trail which took us to Painted Rock overlook with views of Old Baldy. We then carried on to the Crystal Cave. John climbed down into the cave to do some exploring. As this cave is open to everyone most of the crystals have been damaged. On the way down from the cave we visited with a couple hiking up to the cave. We all enjoyed the break.
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| Where fat free can take a hike |
Saturday we did the 2.9 mile Frio Canyon Trail around the level section of the park, across meadows, through cypress and pecan groves, with a variety of other trees. We stopped at the gift store, which in addition to the usual t-shirts and books, rents geocaching gps and fishing tackle. Fishing in the park does not require a permit. We still haven't seen what we would consider a canyon. We did see people wading in the river.
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| Red Ants |
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Sunday morning the bunnies were back. There was a dog next door on Saturday, which meant we didn't seem them that morning. After breakfast we were off to our destination, Sonora Caverns. We stopped on the way in Junction at Lum's BBQ for an early lunch. We had been thinking about Coopers, since we had visited their store in Llano the last time we were in this area, but Joan's research led us to Lum's instead. They had nice lean ribs, and good sides. We had enough leftover for dinner. When we got to the Caverns, we checked and found out that there was a tour going in half an hour at 1:30 which had space, so we only needed one night in the rv park. We had planned to spend 2 nights at the cavern in order to take the tour. We parked in our site, plugged into electricity, leveling etc can wait. What an amazing cavern. The tour took 2 hours, included 360 stairs, but lots of breaks. Only 12 people are allowed on the tour, and a comprehensive set of rules is covered before going into the cavern. No purses, water or food are allowed to minimize damage. At one time a tour member broke off some crystals, and pocketed them. Someone reported him to the office. As a result, they successfully petitioned the Texas government to make it a jail term felony to remove crystals from a protected cavern. Sometime later, someone broke off a piece of the butterfly formation, was caught, and convicted. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and has spent a lot of his life here at Sonora Cavern.
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| Bottle brush formation |
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| Unusual angles on deposits |
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| Butterfly formation |
As it turned out the site was pretty level, so no need to unhook. John set up the satellite so we could watch Canadian junior curling finals.
Monday morning we were off early because we decided to stop for breakfast somewhere along the way. We found the Circle Bar truck stop in Ozona, got diesel, had breakfast in their restaurant and took advantage of their wi-fi. Our checked the weather at our planned destination, Balmorhea State Park. We discovered there was a high wind advisory for high profile vehicles in effect for that area. We did further checking and decided Fort Stockton was as far as we would go. We called one RV park, only to get an answering machine saying they were full. Then we tried Fort Stockton RV Park and got a site. We arrived fairly early, got set up, chatted with our neighbours from Washington state. They stopped because of the wind as well. Now that we have good wi-fi we can make some plans for further down the road. On this rare occasion, we couldn't get a satellite signal, but the cable was good so didn't try too long. It was pretty windy here too, making a bit difficult to communicate. There was a poster in the office to head off questions. "Is it always this windy here? No, sometimes it blows harder".
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Tuesday morning the wind had died down, but the weather forecast further west promised cold nights. In fact eastern Arizona promised lows in the teens. Since we have time and the weather promises not to be as cold here we decided to stay put until this cold front blew over. We spent the day doing household chores, cleaning the fridge and fun things like that. We also moved the satellite around until we found a signal.
Wednesday we walked most of the historic Fort Stockton driving tour.
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| Annie Riggs Hotel (now museum) |
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| Oldest House in Fort Stockton |
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| St Stephens Episcopal |
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| Fort Stockton |
This town has interesting beginnings, from the Indian Wars era. Fort Stockton is strategically placed at Comanche Springs to protect the San Antonio to El Paso mail, freight, cattle drives and immigrants from Indian raids. The treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo with Mexico, charged the US army with the task of stopping Apache, Comanche and Kiowa tribes from raiding into northern Mexico, something they had been doing every year for decades.
Thursday morning we used our furnace for the first time in a while. The temperature had dropped to 27F overnight. The sun came up and the day turned warm and sunny. After lunch we enjoyed the Six Shooter trail that encompasses the campground. We discovered this campground is much larger than we expected, it has 2 annexes that seem to be occupied by long term residents. We are hoping that the weatherman knows what he is talking about and this cold front from Canada, (Thanks a lot) is on its way east.
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