From Houston, we never seem to make it beyond Fort Stockton. It's sort of an oasis in the middle of nowhere and the only logical stop. As a result, most major motel chains are now represented there and most of the local motels are on the way out. I was pleased to see that most of the properties advertise free wireless Internet. I can remember not too long ago that you couldn't even get online with an AOL dial-up account.
When we got to town, I pulled over and did a POI (points of interest) search for hotels in Ft. Stockton and came up with a nice list on my Mio 520 GPS screen. All you have to do is tap on the listing and an info page pops up. To phone the property, you need only tap on the phone number and the Mio, which was connected to my phone via Bluetooth automatically makes the call and you can talk over the speaker. After learning that all my first choice hotel were already booked, I grabbed a room at the EconoLodge, which promised Wi-Fi.
After dinner and a walk through the historic district I settled in for a pleasant evening online, but the system was down and never got back online during our stay. Bah! I made do with my Treo and checked email in a disgruntled mood.
Breakfast the next morning wasn't much to writ home about. There was not one healthful item offered. It was all carbs and sugar. Not a piece of fresh fruit or protein in sight--not even orange juice!
By lunch time, we were in El Paso and starving having passed on breakfast. One of my favorite firms in the whole world is the El Paso Saddle Blanket Company that sells interesting imports from all over the world. I noticed that they had moved since my last visit with easy freeway access, unlike their last location, which flummoxed most GPS systems.
In the men's room there, I had a little shock when I opened the door. There was a woman standing at the sink. She was quite attractive too. Naturally I looked at the door to make sure I had entered the men's room. Indeed I had. Oh well. Just to prove it, I had my picture taken with her. She wouldn't tell me her name. Maybe that's because she was a mannequin.
Now we were really ready for lunch. We hadn't had Chinese during our trip, and we glad to spy a Chinese Buffet. It was absolutely the worst place we've ever eaten bar none. It gives all Chinese food a bad name. Everything was greasy and cold. There was only one vegetable dish--soggy broccoli and rubber beef. It make our Super China Buffet in Moscow really super. Yuck, and they only had about eight choices instead of a hundred or so that we expected. Double yuck.
As we crossed New Mexico, I remembered the sacred mission I had been charged with to bring back Hatch chilis. I finally found some canned ones in Las Crusces at an Albertsons, which is an Idaho company, and it was on Idaho Avenue. Ha! I've arranged to receive gunny sacks of fresh Hatch chilis when they are harvested at the end of September, even ristras. So, if you want any, let me know.
Next we took a detour to the charming Spanish colonial town of Mesilla for some photos in the main plaza, which was filled with cars. What a shame. They should ban autos.
Just before crossing the border into Arizona on Highway 90 we scored some gas at $2.41 a gallon, the lowest on the trip so far.
All across New Mexico, the desert was brown and forlorn looking as opposed to the greenery of Texas. However, as soon as we crossed into Arizona, it looked as if someone had turned the sprinklers on--everything was green and lush. Barrel cactus were in bloom, ocotillo were leafed out, and the saguaros were magnificent. However, I noticed just the skeletons of dead chollas of various species. Arizona is recovering from a drought and the chollas didn't make it. What a shame.
Of course, we didn't see a single saguaro or ocotillo in New Mexico. I remember as a kid watching cowboy movies and stating proudly when a movie was filmed in Arizona because of the unique sahuaros and ocotillos. However, I was amazed to realize that I had seen a few ocotillos in the desert just before El Paso. Strange. How did they get there, and why aren't they in New Mexico? I suspect it's a function of altitude with most of NM over 4000.
We arrived at our distination at the end of the day for overnight with friends in Central, Arizona. They have Wi-Fi, but it's hard wired, and I'm too pooped to monkey with it. Maybe I'll find a hotspot in the morning.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Hello to Houston Again and Goodbye
Our all-too-brief weekend foray into the scenic Texas Hill Country ended as we returned to Houston on Monday. Brother Terry and Kimberley came to son Tim's house for dinner that Matt and I prepared with the help of the fantastic Fiesta grocery stores that are like visiting Mexico. What a treat. We had carnitas, chile verde, rice, beans, homemade tortillas, with salsa verde con pina, pico de gallo and guacamole. It was a toss-up between mole verde and chile verde. There wasn't much room left for the key lime pie dessert though.
Tuesday we just had a fun day hanging out at Tim's playing with the kids until time to take Matt to the airport to fly back to San Diego. It seems that the story of my life these days is that I just get used to having my kids/grandkids around, and it's time to leave.
After dropping Matt off at IAH, we headed to Terry's house for a gourmet dinner cooked by Kimberley and overnight. We stayed up too late talking and got off to a late start on Wednesday.
No matter what, I never get much farther than Fort Stockton when we head west from Houston and that's where we ended up again tonight after a fairly uneventful day of driving. Gas has been fluctuating between $2.55 and $2.95.
I can remember not that long ago that you couldn't even get an AOL dialup Internet connection here. Now, almost all the hotels, even the dives, offer wireless. Isn't competition wonderful. They even have a Holiday Inn Express, Best Western, Days Inn, and Comfort Inn here now as opposed to the local non-chain motels in days of yore. Hooray for Fort Stockton. Now, all they need is a canal with some shops along it to compete with San Antonio.
I don't know how far we'll get tomorrow, but we're hoping to make it all the way to Central, Arizona to visit friends.
Tuesday we just had a fun day hanging out at Tim's playing with the kids until time to take Matt to the airport to fly back to San Diego. It seems that the story of my life these days is that I just get used to having my kids/grandkids around, and it's time to leave.
After dropping Matt off at IAH, we headed to Terry's house for a gourmet dinner cooked by Kimberley and overnight. We stayed up too late talking and got off to a late start on Wednesday.
No matter what, I never get much farther than Fort Stockton when we head west from Houston and that's where we ended up again tonight after a fairly uneventful day of driving. Gas has been fluctuating between $2.55 and $2.95.
I can remember not that long ago that you couldn't even get an AOL dialup Internet connection here. Now, almost all the hotels, even the dives, offer wireless. Isn't competition wonderful. They even have a Holiday Inn Express, Best Western, Days Inn, and Comfort Inn here now as opposed to the local non-chain motels in days of yore. Hooray for Fort Stockton. Now, all they need is a canal with some shops along it to compete with San Antonio.
I don't know how far we'll get tomorrow, but we're hoping to make it all the way to Central, Arizona to visit friends.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Texas Hill Country
After checking out Austin a little more, we headed west, deeper into the Texas Hill Country with the goal of spending the night in Fredericksburg, an historic German community with unique stone architecture.
Hill Country is a lush, green region of dense scrubby growth on a sedementary limestone base webbed with streams and rivers. It rains a lot, which explains the green and the water, but it doesn't get all that hot or cold, and it's not humid like Houston. Consequently, more people are discovering it. Housing developments are starting to pop up like wildflowers after a rain in the Spring.
Property values in this area are bargain. For $150,000 you can get a 2500 square foot, two story home in this area. My son's 900 square foot condo in San Diego is worth over $500,000, to give you a comparison.
We took a detour to hike along the Pedernales River to a series of falls or cataracts carved out of the bedrock.
It was a fairly rugged hike over unimproved trail, which my wife Romana declared the worst she’d ever been on in her life. We even lost the trail at one point and had to navigate by dead reckoning without any GPS, if you can imagine. I had brought my GPS watch just for such occasions, but forgot to put it on.
Along the trail, we saw several exciting species of birds. I’ve never seen so many cardinals in all different stages of development. They are one of my favorite birds. Another favorite that is more beautiful than a diamond glistening in the sun is the painted bunting. I can only remember seeing two others. What a treat. We saw a couple of ladder backed woodpeckers and heard more. But, we have yet to see the elusive scissor tail flycatcher, which is the Texas state bird. I hope we’ll see at least one in its erratic flight pattern before we leave Texas behind.
In Johnson City, a small burg not far from Fredericksburg, we visited Lyndon Johnson’s modest boyhood home. On a previous visit we visited his ranch, which was quite a bit more impressive except for his raising exotic African range animals for his friends to shoot.
Finally reaching Fredericksburg, we had lunch in a German restaurant and explored the town.
The highlight of the day was in the evening, at dusk, as nightfall rapidly descended upon us, outside an old railroad tunnel, out in the boonies, about twelve miles east of Fredericksburg. With little light left in the sky, after the fireflies had already started sparking, the first bats begin emerging from their diurnal domicile. At first, there was just one or two zig zagging madly. Then more and more and more and more until it was like a swarm of angry bees. It was like watching popcorn pop in an air popper when at first just one or two kernels burst open and start swirling around soon followed by others until the whole container is a roiling vortex.
I thought it would be a feeding frenzy on the poor fireflies, but, apparently bats do not feed on fireflies, to my relief--I really like fireflies. Why don’t we have fireflies in Idaho? Maybe I’ll catch some and import them, along with some armadillos and turtles. I’ve yet to see an armadillo on this trip. Maybe they all got barbecued.
Our plan tomorrow is the meander back to Houston, visit one of the incredible Fiesta Mexican supermarkets, buy something exotic that Matt and I will cook for dinner at my other son Tim’s house. Terry and Kimberley will be there too.
Keep connected <<>>
Hill Country is a lush, green region of dense scrubby growth on a sedementary limestone base webbed with streams and rivers. It rains a lot, which explains the green and the water, but it doesn't get all that hot or cold, and it's not humid like Houston. Consequently, more people are discovering it. Housing developments are starting to pop up like wildflowers after a rain in the Spring.
Property values in this area are bargain. For $150,000 you can get a 2500 square foot, two story home in this area. My son's 900 square foot condo in San Diego is worth over $500,000, to give you a comparison.
We took a detour to hike along the Pedernales River to a series of falls or cataracts carved out of the bedrock.
It was a fairly rugged hike over unimproved trail, which my wife Romana declared the worst she’d ever been on in her life. We even lost the trail at one point and had to navigate by dead reckoning without any GPS, if you can imagine. I had brought my GPS watch just for such occasions, but forgot to put it on.
Along the trail, we saw several exciting species of birds. I’ve never seen so many cardinals in all different stages of development. They are one of my favorite birds. Another favorite that is more beautiful than a diamond glistening in the sun is the painted bunting. I can only remember seeing two others. What a treat. We saw a couple of ladder backed woodpeckers and heard more. But, we have yet to see the elusive scissor tail flycatcher, which is the Texas state bird. I hope we’ll see at least one in its erratic flight pattern before we leave Texas behind.
In Johnson City, a small burg not far from Fredericksburg, we visited Lyndon Johnson’s modest boyhood home. On a previous visit we visited his ranch, which was quite a bit more impressive except for his raising exotic African range animals for his friends to shoot.
Finally reaching Fredericksburg, we had lunch in a German restaurant and explored the town.
The highlight of the day was in the evening, at dusk, as nightfall rapidly descended upon us, outside an old railroad tunnel, out in the boonies, about twelve miles east of Fredericksburg. With little light left in the sky, after the fireflies had already started sparking, the first bats begin emerging from their diurnal domicile. At first, there was just one or two zig zagging madly. Then more and more and more and more until it was like a swarm of angry bees. It was like watching popcorn pop in an air popper when at first just one or two kernels burst open and start swirling around soon followed by others until the whole container is a roiling vortex.
I thought it would be a feeding frenzy on the poor fireflies, but, apparently bats do not feed on fireflies, to my relief--I really like fireflies. Why don’t we have fireflies in Idaho? Maybe I’ll catch some and import them, along with some armadillos and turtles. I’ve yet to see an armadillo on this trip. Maybe they all got barbecued.
Our plan tomorrow is the meander back to Houston, visit one of the incredible Fiesta Mexican supermarkets, buy something exotic that Matt and I will cook for dinner at my other son Tim’s house. Terry and Kimberley will be there too.
Keep connected <<>>
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Austin
Austin is the silicon valley of Texas. Son Matt is interested in checking it out for job possibilities as a computer engineer. We visited the Capitol Building, the University of Texas with an enrollment of over 50,000 students and roamed around downtown with its blend of old and new before heading West into the Hill Country.
African Art
All of this African art is for sale. Let me know if you're interested. Prices range from $1500 to $50k per piece.
One of Terry's Picassos
If you want to know the name of this Picasso, you'll have to email me and have a note from your mom.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
