Big Bend, day 1

Took a hike, how's that for predictable!  The Ward Spring Trail went up into the hills a bit to a spring.  Nice hike.  Had lunch up there.  Then went to Santa Elena Canyon for another hike.  That's a huge canyon on the Rio Grande.  We did that 2 years ago; it is so impressive that it's well worth repeating.

WAYYYY out in the distance is Santa Elena Canyon

Bluebonnets, the Texas State Flower

Santa Elena Canyon:

US on the right, Mexico on the left

Terlingua TX!!

Finally made it to Terlingua.  This was a day with a lot of changes.  Started out almost rainy, wet ground, heavy overcast, 2 mile visibility.  Flat, well vegetated ground.  Became sunny, 80 degrees, some interesting high clouds.  The terrain varied from vast scrub brush on nearly flat land to hills followed by mountains.  We kept climbing most of the day.  The truck kept telling me about it.  As I watched the fuel mileage readout it stayed below 10.  It was giving a lot more back on the plains.  We went form 1900' in San Angelo to over 4000 and now back to 2900.  The truck had no trouble hauling the camper, but I could tell it was working harder.  Of course that 20 mph headwind didn't help either!

I forgot to mention that at the San Angelo State Park we met a Ranger who grew up in Holland VT.  She married a Texan and ended up there.

Tonight we went to a nearby Mexican restaurant and met up with a couple from Lubbock who are here for a few days.  There were only the four of us in there so they invited us to join them.  It was mostly long tables for 8-10 people.  Nice Mexican lady who runs the place and cooks everything fresh when ordered.  It takes a bit longer but it was quite good.  Carlene was a bit less impressed.

Now for a couple days in Big Bend.

Walking Callahan at a picnic area

One of the small towns we went through

Sometimes Cal likes to come forward to check the view and check on us

 Some of the scenery along US Route 67

Some views of Alpine TX

Our first siting of a Border Patrol truck.  Soon to be a very common sight

Getting close to Terlingua

 A couple small mountains north of Terlingua, seen here in the late day light as we went to dinner:

San Angelo TX State Park

It rained during the night.  We have not had much rain.  I think I've used the wipers just once and that never went to regular speed.  Today started out as a heavy overcast day, visibility of a few miles until it fogged out.  Passing by Dallas and Ft. Worth was uneventful, it was early enough that traffic was OK.
It got up to 83 again, T-shirt weather for a second day.  Started to see plenty of cattle along US Route 67.  Most of the day was off interstate in open countryside.  We prefer to be off the big highways and out here a lot of the US highways are 4 lane anyway.  Today was a mix of 2 & 4 lane.
The State Park here in San Angelo is mostly open and woods.  But the woods are sparse small trees. Enough so that walking through it would not be pleasant but seeing through it is not too hard.  We saw some of the park's resident Bison herd, perhaps 8 of them.  And also 6 deer.  That was a walk we took before dinner and about an hour before sunset.
When we got back to camp we had our first dinner outdoors at the picnic table.  It has been too cool for that before now.
It is a very nice site.  The view from the living room windows does not have any buildings in it.  Also a first.

Yesterday at a rest area just inside Texas, Fresh Mowed Grass!

Some of the flat landscape, cotton fields and farmhouse

Bison!

Bison (cutouts) behind camp

Terrell TX

Almost to Dallas.  Maybe 30 miles east of Dallas.  Nice RV Park, much more spacious than last night.  It got to 83 degrees on the truck thermometer during the day, and it's still warm at 9:40 tonight.  We have both doors and a couple windows open.  Haven't done that before tonight!

The front section of this park has a lot of Tiny Homes.  They are part of the permanent residences.  In most of the parks down here a good number of spaces are occupied either all season or permanently.  This one is pleasant enough but it's right beside I-20 and with plenty of road noise.

Cal waiting to get out at campsite

Quite a few geese hang out at the ponds here and leave about 4:30 PM

Drive to Vicksburg MS

It was an overcast day but only needed one swipe of the wipers.
Good scenery but no photos.
The campground is OK, pretty cramped compared to most of the others we have been in.
I didn't get hooked up to the Super Bowl until mid second quarter.  Tried the cable TV at the site, couldn't get that to work.  Hooked up the antenna, couldn't get that to work either.  Tried the WiFi, that connected but without internet!    Finally got some WiFi and watched the rest of the game on the laptop.  That had intermittent connection problems but was good enough.  Not like it was a thrill-a-minute game.

Today's only photo:

Hanceville AL & Huntsville AL

Started the day with a good breakfast in Hanceville AL with Carlene meeting up with her friend from the Army days.  They have been in contact all this time but have not seen each other in over 50 years.  They had a few things to talk about!

Then off to the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville.  They may be best known for Space Camp but there is a lot of history here.  This is where Werner von Braun came to develop the Saturn 1 and Saturn V launch vehicles for the Apollo Moon landings.   The Apollo ship itself was also designed here.  It is a large indoor and outdoor display area with a complete ISS to tour.  I'll let the photos do the rest.

Off to Vicksburg MS tomorrow.

Carlene checking the lunch selection aboard ISS 

Carlene on Destiny section of ISS

The only fully-stacked Shuttle anywhere.  Meaning Orbiter, tank and boosters together.

Moon rock collected by Alan Bean 

Apollo 16

an unmanned aerial vehicle 

Checking out the Saturn 1 engine

Posing with the LEM and a Saturn V

Skylab

Lunar Rover & LEM

A-12 Blackbird
Got a Need for Speed?
NY to London in 1 hour @ 60,000'

To Cullman AL

Beautiful sunny day around 51 degrees for a drive to Cullman AL.  Uneventful passing through Atlanta, I got my fill of big city driving, 3 to 4 lanes of 65 mph heavy traffic.  But better than the Interstate parking lot we had the last time we were here.  Then a huge construction project in Birmingham.  A half mile of elevated highway I-20 is torn apart.  Just towering supports remaining.  Carlene said it looked like a full scale sandbox where a bunch of kids were playing with their Tonka trucks.  Of course we did not expect that and Carlene was driving.  The detour was marked, barely.  And not too clearly either.  The GPS was useless, it just wanted us to get back on the interstate that didn't exist.  I got on the laptop and found that the direction Carlene was headed was just right.

So we are here in this campground for 2 nights.  We'll have breakfast with Carlene's Army fiend and then go up to Huntsville to the NASA facility.

We didn't take any pictures today but I have some that Carlene took yesterday in the park but we couldn't get on last night.  That one I posted last night took 15 minutes to upload.  I told you it was a poor connection! 

Tonight we have WiFi for the first time.  And a Great Bluegrass radio station!