A few last pictures

Terlingua, Texas

View from the porch, Terlingua

Evening walk near BJ's



Sunset near BJs Campground

The Volvo does Old Maverick Rd.



Santa Elena Canyon, Big Bend

Texas Bluebonnets

Santa Elena

               A few images of Texas
We camped at an RV Park near Terlingua, Texas, and toured Big Bend National Park in the Volvo.
On our way back to MI, we visited Michael's sister and family in Ft. Worth.



Michael's sister Sharon & Gary

                                Sharon's son Ian, Amy&Emma

Home!

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Grandma, Lillian & Bro

 As our daughter Ellen said in a recent Facebook post, "Well, that was different!" She was referring to the unbelievable difference between this (her second) birthing process and her first experience with baby-having 2 and 1/2 years ago. Five weeks earlier than planned, and a labor that barely gave her enough time to get to a hospital room made Little Bobby's appearance seem slightly surreal. But real he is, weighing in at 6 lbs. 1 oz, born early Saturday morning, March 8th, at 12:15 am.


Robert James Fox III

      Because of that very surprising phone call, our trip did a drastic about face. We were camped at BJ's RV Park near Terlingua, Texas, and were planning to spend a week there. We had toured the east side of nearby Big Bend National Park in the Volvo, traversing gravelly washboardy Old Maverick Road to reach beautiful Santa Elena Canyon on the Rio Grande, an impossibility for the Pickle (we're talking washboardy to the nth degree.) Another day we drove west in the Gherkin along the Rio Grande to the town of Presidio where we ate lunch at El Patio. And we spent some time exploring the unique area of Terlingua with its Starlight Theater and High Sierra Hotel.

    Seeing the east side of Big Bend Park will have to wait until another year because on our 4th day at BJs we packed up and started off on the 1700 mile trek back to Michigan.
    Our first night out we stayed at Michael's sister's in Fort Worth. The next day (Sunday) after brunch and a radiator fan repair (thank you, Gary, for the parts!) we left Ft. Worth and travelled to the Welcome Center on the west side of Missouri. There we got a few hours of sleep. Next stop was my brother's in Springfield, MO, just to say Hi and see their digs. That day we drove until we reached a rest stop near Marion, Indiana. The next morning it was a 2 and 1/2 hour drive to Ann Arbor, where our 3-day old grandson was waiting with his 2-year old sister, Lillian, and his proud parents.
   Yesterday we drove home to northern MI, still a hard and crusty, snowy expanse of whiteness, and a 0 degree temp this morning.
    End of a saga? Yes, for now.  We're happy to know we shared in Little Bobby's first few days. Fond memories of the sunny southwest desert will get us through the rest of this record breaking winter which we almost avoided.

Aguirre Spring

 

Windy! That’s probably the most used descriptor for Aguirre Spring National Rec Area; that is, besides breathtaking, beautiful and inspiring. Aguirre Spring Campground is tucked under a section of the Organ Mountains just a few miles east of Las Cruces, NM. at the end of a narrow, paved 6-mile ascent.  The last mile and a half or so is a one way loop and really gets into twisting and turning. At the start of the loop, we unhitched the Volvo and Michael led us to the campground in the Pickle while I followed in the Gherkin. (The fact that I only had to use two gears commandeering those hairpins helped.) The area gets its windy designation because to the east lies the White Sands Missile Testing Range - fifty miles of stretched out empty flatness. The wind picks up as the day warms. We were glad we visited White Sands National Monument in the morning, because when we drove past it again in the afternoon on our way back to the campground from Alamagordo, the Monument area off to our right was a cloud of white sand. The campground host who lives at the base of the campground year round, told us that one day last fall the wind there was measured at 120 mph.

Wind or not, it was great to wake up for 3 mornings to those rugged mountains towering over us with the early morning sun casting an orange pink glow to their craggy faces.

What? No sticks?

White Sands is surreal in its uniqueness. The only other place I’ve seen such mounds of whiteness is in Michigan – only THAT was snow!!! 

Another day at Aguirre Spring we hiked the Pine Tree Trail, a 4 ½ mile loop with an elevation change of 1100 feet.  It’s a rocky, stair-stepping kind of trail and the higher we climbed, the more I couldn’t look down, but it was a beautiful morning – sunny and not overly warm – and our hike gave us fantastic views of the Missile Range and Alamagordo Air Force Base, as well as up-close looks at the Organ Mountain peaks.