Sandfest to Beaumont.

Track - Wildwood flower-Joan Baez.

"We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children." -Native American Proverb.

Day 31.

Woke up and hit the pool straight away as it had been a pretty humid night. It was totally refreshing and set us up for what was to be a scorcher of a day! We then headed to the Port Aransas community park as this also housed a skatepark that pete was keen to check out. On arrival, a little league baseball game was underway which we watched for a bit before pete and dylan got stuck into the skating. A lovely concrete set up with lots of bowls and units. Becs then took one for the team and went shopping and to a launderette with Sol (to try to reverse the pinking of the boys clothing) while Pete and Dylan stayed in the park and swam in the community pool.

After a mid afternoon rendezvous we got back to Sandfest with the number of people now probably exceeding 120 thousand. Amazingly, for only 12 dollars, we got an overnight camping permit which got us in the middle of the action and allowed us to park the rv right on the beach. Perfect ocean views. There was good live music, "we play both kinds of music, country AND western!".....but in fairness,  there was a Katie Tunstall number, and we had a really good dance.

The sand sculptures were pretty impressive and included one of John Lennon, looking a bit fat, and a slightly strange adaptation of little miss muffet called, Little Miss Muffet's Revenge, where she was holding a large knife and the whey was body builders whey-protien. Dylan had us trying to to explain that one for a while.

Another dip for dylan, firstly in all his clothes, then wearing nothing at all. Solomon was just cooing and taking it all in as usual.

Then after some tea, from the convience of the RV, back in the Gulf of Mexico again, swim number 4 for dylan. The usual bedtime commotion followed and then we settled in to watch the thunderstorm.

Day 32.

 4am, after having been lying awake listening to very heavy rain and thunder for hours, we realised all the other campers had gone, and that our lone van was almost floating. We drove 5 mins up the road to higher ground away from the sea and went back to sleep. The next morning was beautiful sunshine again and it would have seemed all a dream if we were not now parked outside someone's house. We reluctantly left Port Aransas sparing a thought for the sand scultures, and caught the drive on ferry to the mainland.

We breaked for lunch at Aransas Wildlife Refuge, a drive around area with the endangered Whooping cranes. We didnt see any whoopers but dylan shouted for us to look whilst we were making sandwiches and there was an armadillo making his way into the scrub outside.

The spotting continued with deer and racoons and we walked to the top of a viewing tower.

Pete held sweatily onto dylans hand.....and was constantly reminded how high they were by dylans running commentry and questionssuch as Are you scared Daddy? A few hours later with the scenary having changed once again, we arrived at Brazos Bend State Park. What a spot. Found our campsite and there was another Armadillo snuffling in the bushes.

There was a lovely park.

Later that evening we drove back down to the the visitor's centre to get wifi and had an incredible drive with frogs, deer, racoons and several armadillos popping into the headlight beams. We sat up with the mossie screen over the doorand listened to the coyotes and bullfrogs. The spanish moss swaying in the light breeze. Totally beautiful and a contender for the top spot so far.

  Day 33.

 Excited about heading off on our trails we were up and out at about 8am. It was an incredible place, totally teaming with wildlife.

We hardly saw another soul in our 3 hour walk along the lakes and through the forest but we had close encounters with an otter, alligators,  a venomous cottonmouth snake, deer, too many birds to remember, turtles, and a small army of squirrels.  This was despite a 4yr old who cant quite whisper yet. Quite specular. We are so happy that places like this exist in the world.

At the end we went to the nature centre and dylan was able tohold a baby alligator and snake. After dumping and showering we sadly moved on and headed east past Houston to Beaumont.

San Antonio to Port Aransas.

Track. El son de la negra - The mariachi vargas de tecalitlan.
"Remember the alamo!" Sam Houston.
 Day 29.

  A late start but we left the canyon and passed our new friends about 10 miles down the road. We made it to San Antonio and our luxury RV park after another Mammoth drive and were straight into the cold pool. The weather had been overcast all day but it still felt close. Becs went off with 2 weeks worth of laundry and a fist full of quarters. She returned gingerly with several pink items, including a little brother baby gro, now looking a little more little sister!

Our neighbours were really friendly and gave us lots of advice for our journey east and some camping guides. After dark we tentitively decided to go into San Antonio, san antone to its friends, as there was an annual fiesta being held. A taxi company quoted us 60 bucks one way so we thought we'd drive it.

 It was a much bigger city than we had anticipated and took us 30mins to get out of the sprawling suburbs, along the 6 lane highways and spaghetti junctions into the city centre. When the parking places all seemed to have height restrictions, and there was clearly a carnival spirit in the air, we just pulled our very conspicuous vehicle into a car park adjacent to Hilton and decided to pretend we hadnt seen the signs to pay 60 dollars for the privilege. One of the triumphs of the trip so far, as in true Ozzy Osbourne style, we had parked around the corner from the Alamo.

A short walk away was the stunning Riverside walk. Again, in total triumph we sat in a lovely Italian resturant, both boys sleeping, and had a fantastic meal. Dylan woke up at one point to go to the restroom and have some bread. They were both so good we thought we must be dreaming. Had some pictures outside the Alamo on our walk back and then did a little victory dance by the RV as there was no ticket.  A smooth drive home and then straight to bed before our luck ran out!

Day 30

In fact, the luck did seem to have run out for becs in the morning a bit. She decided to take advantage of all the boys having a lie-in and go for a jog around the park, only to sustain a calf strain within a few metres ( a schoolgirl error, although the strains are more frequent now than they were then! )

 We started another long drive south to Port Aransas, beach playground to the Texans. It happened that our visit co-insided with SANDFEST 2013, a festival loosely based around sand sculptures. We had a swim in the pool on arrival at the RV park and then a walk down to the beach to check it out. Again the USA never ceases to surprise us and it was really really cool.

Had a meal out for a treat as it was Friday night and we had driven nearly 1000 miles in the last 3 days. Luckily Texas is the place to do lots of mileages at 3.2 dollars per gallon. Had deep-fried oysters and a couple of Shiner Bock beers  whilst Solomon drew a crowd and Dylan danced in the bar to Jonny Cash. We sat by a lovely couple who were cattle ranchers and peanut growers. We decided to stay another day to have a break from the road and embrace sandfest some more.

Carlsbad to Seminole Canyon TEXAS.

Track. Bob Wills is still the King - Waylon Jennings.
"See the oil fields at first light"......Bono.


Day 27.

Had a nice lazy start to the day and then about 11am drove to Carlsbad and the Living Desert State Park. We were the only people at the place. It resembled a botanical garden, but just with cactuses, and they also had quite a few animals which were injured or rescued and unable to be returned to the wild.

The roadrunner, cougar, and bobcat were highlights. It was really well done again and as state owned and run only cost a couple of bucks for the whole afternoons entertainment. We were encouraged to leave at 5pm and drove back down the hill into Carlsbad.

The RV park had an indoor pool which we enjoyed and then had a quick pasta tea hoping to hit the local drive-in. Unfortunately it was closed but we spent some time looking at the next bit of the road into Texas and concluded that there wasnt much to see for a few hundred miles, so prepared to leave early the next morning.

  Day 28.

We set the alarm for 4am, transferred the slumbering boys into their car seats, and then crossed the state border into Texas. It was lovely having total peace from the back and watching thr sun come up over the Texas oil fields.  Mile upon mile of nodding oil derricks and agricultural windmills, and not much else.

We hardly saw any cars and when there was a gateway to a ranch, the road just disappeared into the dust with no buildings in sight.  We stopped for breakfast and a few otber comfort breaks but by midday had covered 360 miles and reached Seminole Canyon State Park.

Another cracking visitors centre! Displays with cavemen and cowboys. After lunch we went out on the guided tour of the canyon. There were cave paintings from 4000 years ago.

The excitement obviously got to Dylan and a code brown was called at the bottom of the 250ft canyon. Becs was carrying Sol so smuggly passed over the wet wipes and nappy bags to Pete and they disappeared to desicrate the ancient monument.

We really enjoyed the walkand only had a few metres from the visitors centre on return to our spot for the night.  We shared our BBQ dinner with cyclists, Jerry and Peggy from near Sacremento. They were retired but obviously very fit, cycling from San Diego to Florida on folding bikes, and eating dehydrated food most of the time. Another sunset and then a fairly early night, although not really as we had crossed another time zone.

White Sands National Monument to Roswell

Track. Pan American - Hank Williams.

"What most people dont understand is that UFOs are on a cosmic tourist route. Thats why theyre always seen in Arizona, Scotland and New Mexico. Another thing to consider is that all 3 of those destinations are good places to play golf. So theres possibly some connection between aliens and golf." Alice Cooper.

Day 25.

  We woke up early and decided to head off without too much messing about. We arrived in White Sands National Monument mid morning and it was really warm. The drive had been uneventful other than another border inspection road block, this time slightly more thorough including digging out our passports and some minor interigation. We had the impression we were a bit of a novelty

. The visitors centre had a good educational area about the large expanse of gypsum sands and their history as the National Parks always seem to do. We picked up a sledge from the gift shop and we went to the dunes. The sand was truly dazzlingly bright and strangely cold to touch as it doesnt absorb any light. We set up our shade - a small square tent thing, and had fun with the sledge. The heat made the slidey climbs back up the hills all the more interesting and it wasnt long until we were all back in the RV with the air conditioning on having some lunch.

We had been the only ones in our car park approximately 6 miles into the dunes until a large New Mexican man complete with Lawrence of Arabia style head gear turned up with his Camel. We watched him unload Matilda from the Trailer and then Pete and Dylan went for a pat and a few stories.

  After selling our sledge back to the visitors centre (they arent able to hire them out due to the threat of litigation) we headed on to Oliver Lee State Park

. It was only about 12 miles south of Las Cruces but felt like it was in the middle of no-where. For 10 bucks we had an electric plug in, dump station and lovely shower block with an amazing view looking across the plains with the mountains behind us and nothing but the sound of crickets to be heard. The tranquility broken when a gust of wind disturbed the playing cards and when we sustained a few more injuries. Becs lanced her leg on a cactus and dylan fell and grazed his knee but there were no cougars or rattlesnakes and we had a bit of a campfire and enjoyed another beautiful sunset.

  Day 26.  

We left Oliver Lee and chose a route through the mountains past Ruidoso and Capitan, where we spent a couple of hours in the Smokey Bear Museum. Smokey was in fact a real baby bear rescued during the Los Tablos blaze in the Lincoln National Forest in May 1950. The fires destroyed 17, 000 acres of forest and men were nearly killed trying to control it in the strong winds. He became part of campaign against forest fires and recieved so much mail that they gave him his own zipcode

. After a wzlk through the buterfly garden and a play on the playpark we drove on. The next area of mountains were famous for being the hang out of Billy the Kid. In the tiny town of Lincoln where everything was closed we stopped for some photos by the courthouse where he shot himself free during one of several jail breaks.

 We arrived in Roswell mid afternoon which was a surprisingly large town, set out on the u1sual grid system.

We went out for a late lunch in a spot called Farleys. It was a large industrial space with lots of memorabilia hanging down from the ceiling and huge portions and drinks

. The alien museum was was quite understated but very good and thought-provoking. After reading all the evidence and accounts we are still undecided as to what really happened that May back in 1948. The truth is out there thats for sure! The shops were a little disappointing (we are experts in the field of gift shops) and reminded us of some of the shops in Trecco bay but we found few keepsakes.

 Found an RV park for the night and hit the swimming pool to cool off. It was cold in the water but we were all glad of the dip and the people who worked there were clearly impressed brought us over some umbrellas.We went into town for some food and panic parked outside Arbys, a bit like a desolate service station burger king . They had an offer on the fish fillet burger so we opted for that. Finished the day off by watching the film 'Roswell' on youtube..

Tombstone to Lordsburg NEW MEXICO

Track. Apache - The Shadows.
"Fast is fine but accurate is final -Wyatt Earp

Day 23.

 After a short drive we arrived in Tombstone and made our first stop off at Boothill Cemetry

 The cemetry shows how rough life must have been as little as a hundred years ago in this area. Every gravestone had an inscription detailing the circumstances of the death of the departed which included shot, murdered, killed by indians and hung by mistake. The most significant residents were the 3 young men shot by Wyatt Earp at the OK Corral. The moment was shattered however when dylan walked into a cactus and we made a sharp exit.

He had another fitting injury that day when his finger got trapped in his toy gun. Like we say, life is tough when you're a cowboy

.
 We then headed to the Courthouse/ museum,  where you could see Tombstones history and the sobering gallows.  Next was a re-enactment of the gun fight in the exact spot of the O.K Corral itself. It was actually very good and they played Wyatt Earp as a heavy handed bully which is apparently more realistic than how Hollywood portrays him. Solomon sat through the performance with his headphones on, his eyes occasionally reacting to the gunshots.

Finally we visited Big Nosed Kates saloon and had an authentic western experience, complete with stetson wearing contry singer, US Marines (we clapped them several times) and a letter from George W Bush himself thanking the owner for his contribution to the Republican party.

 We missed the turnoff for the campsite and so headed onto nearby Bisbee, the polar opposite of Tombstone.

We stopped at a health food supermarket run by a hippy and there was a street full of old Greyhound buses and motorbikes. Our RV campsite was overlooking the huge open cast mine.







   Day 24.

The next town along from Bisbee is Douglas. It is quite a typical American town with all the usual stores and well maintained houses, roads and tourist information centre. It is divided down the middle by the Mexican border and the Mexican side is known as Agua Prieta.  We had heard that it was possible to walk accross the border for a look and some shopping and that this particular border town was one of the less dodgy places to do so, so we parked up on a street and did just that.  We walked straight into Mexico and within several metres were struck with the difference in the roads, rubbish and facilities.  There was no real attempt to entice visitors, and in our 2 hour visit we saw no other tourists.

There were numerous barbours and a short back and sides, with a cut throat razor, seemed to be a reason for the US citizens in Douglas to cross the border. They were reminded to leave their weapons on the US side.  It did not feel at all unsafe, but reminded us of previous travels to other developing nations. There were people sat around, plastic flowers in all the shop windows and the smell of bad drains.

We had some great food in a cantina and then, as there didnt seem tobe anything else to do, we walked back again. Another stark contrast in entering the states and it reaffirmed our privileged status and right to pass freely.  There were no other vehicles on the 90 minute drive to Lordsberg along the border than US border Patrols and a few motorbikes.

We stopped at the Geronimo monument before passing into New Mexico. A quick look at the ghostown in Shakespeare and then onto ourcampsite for the night in Lordsburg.