Travel

Big Bend National Park

Room With A View

We had big plans this morning to do the 2 mile walking tour of Fort Stockton and grab a half dozen caches around town before heading down to Big Bend National Park, but twenty mile an hour winds and the low 40’s temperatures dissuaded us from it. We also had big plans to eat breakfast at a local joint, but they’re not being open prevented that, so opted instead to eat breakfast at McDonalds and shop for provisions at Wal-Mart.

For the hundred and something mile drive to Big Bend I had mapped out a few more caches, after two failures we gave up on that. The first was an interesting two stage earthcache. Stage one was right on US385, but stage was 3.84 miles into what the GPSr showed to be nothing, with no roads to it. The second was at a roadside picnic shelter. After stopping and the direction it indicated seemed not be appropriate, so I read all the cache instructions and noted it said, “Hop the fence and 100 yards in it will be under a dead cactus.” The fence in question was a 5 foot high, 4 strand barbed wire one that we weren’t even thinking of attempting.

I know it seems like I have been writing about nothing but negative things that have been happening to us, but we are having a great time (except for that drive from DFW to the hotel on the first day.) The roads are uncrowded, the people are friendly, the weather good and the scenery sublime.

The photo above is from the balcony of the room we are in for the next three days and it is probably the worst view for miles.

We Really In Texas

Texas Shaped Waffle

This breakfast waffle at the Microtel Inn wasn’t the usual round shape…

After eating we spent the rest of the morning over at San Angelo State park doing some geocaching. There were a total of 56 caches in the park, but there was no way we would try and get nearly that many. Ended up grabbing 8 and DNFing one. The park was touted as having a large lake, but because of the lack of rain in these parts it is bone dry. Maybe someone should tell the state of Texas to amend their description of the park. Also the geocache’s descriptions could be made more truthful. It was still worth the 4 bucks a head to get in as we got to see some prairie dogs (got a photo) and bison (no photo) to go with a couple small hikes in some very different terrain than we can see in SC.

The afternoon was spent driving to Fort Stockton where we are spending the night. Along the way we stopped and briefly visited the Santa Rita #1 which turned the University of Texas into a very rich school when it became the first major discovery of oil in West Texas. A couple things we found out today, Texas isn’t big on postcards, can’t seem to find them anywhere and you can legally go 75 MPH on some of the 2 lane roads here.

We in TEXAS

While in the Atlanta airport awaiting our flight, Donna decided to call brother Scott to see how they were doing. He, his wife and the three kids piled into the family vehicle and left Seattle on Friday afternoon. Scott and Beth were going to take turns at the wheel so they could get to Albuquerque virtually non-stop. She called and there was no answer, so she left a message.

Just before we were getting to board our flight she flipped open the phone to give him a call and noticed we had two missed calls and a text message from Scott. She tried to call him back, but got no answer again. I suggested replying to his text. She had never done it before, so I talked her through the process and watched in amazement as it took 5 minutes to compose a couple of four word sentences. She wanted to know where the question mark and other punctuation marks were on our simple cell phone. We don’t have any, so she sent it off. I told her it was texting, you don’t need no punctuation. You don’t need all the letters in the words. Heck you don’t even need verbs.

When we landed in Dallas, she sent him another text, “We in TEXAS.”

Bluffton

We spent the weekend on HHI and instead of roaming the island we crossed the bridge back to the mainland for breakfast. Our destination was the world famous Squat-N-Gobble in Bluffton. We figured we’d eat breakfast and do a little geocaching around town, there were probably about a dozen within walking distance, and then head back to HHI.

Donna and I actually ate at this restaurant once before – 21 years ago. We were in Savannah for a Miata gathering and had brought our bicycles to go for a Saturday morning ride with the Coastal Bicycle Touring Club of Savannah. The Squat-N-Gobble was the destination for lunch and then ride back.

The place hadn’t changed much. It seemed like they bumped it out enough to add two more tables, but we couldn’t be positive. When we pulled into the parking lot I notice a town police car across the street and a city working was piling barricade parts on a telephone pole nearby. Donna asked our server if today was the town’s Christmas Parade and the answer was, “Yes.” “It starts at 11, but they will be shutting the streets down starting at nine.” She told us to park in the Dollar General lot next door as the parade route passed right down the street between them, that way if we wanted to get out of town beforehand we could.

Donna and I thought it might be fun to watch their parade, so we ate and headed out touring town and geocaching away. We found 7 in a row and when we DNF’d number eight we called it quits. It was 10:30 anyway, so it was time to head back to find a viewing spot. We dropped our equipment off at the car, grabbed a couple of cold soft drinks and wandered into the fray. For such a small town they sure attracted a large crowd for the parade.

Turns out thinking it might be fun and it actually being fun were not too similar. We watched about 15 minutes before making our way back to the Dollar General parking lot and heading out of town and back to the condo.

If I Was Running For President

I would have to apologize to the citizens of the great state of Florida, because if I wanted to get to get elected I would probably need the 29 electoral votes it represents. But thankfully I’m not running. That’s Gary Johnson’s problem.

Florida is actually, in spots, a very nice place, and we have been to several. Including today when we visited a lock on the Okeechobee Waterway where we found 2 out of three caches and walked along a couple of nice nature trails. So we probably would visit Florida if Sandy and family weren’t here, just certain, less busy, spots.

Artist’s Retreat

Monhegan has always been a haven for artists and artist’s workshops. While we were there, we stumbled onto this group several times at various locations around the island.

Foggy Morning On Monhegan

The morning we left started clear, but the fog soon swept in giving some mood to the island. Most people who visit Monhegan come for just a few hours via ferry from the mainland, so they don’t need a place to stay. But for those who come for an overnight or two, mainly stay in one of a couple places.


The largest and most visible spot is the Island Inn which has 32 rooms and is probably the first thing you see when pulling up to the dock.


The next most popular place is the Monhegan House with its 28 rooms. Both of these two spots serve breakfast to both those staying there and folks who walk in (like us.)


If you are staying longer the best option is a rental house that run from rustic to almost modern.


If you come by boat, you can always stay aboard. Not on one of these though as they are lobster boats owned by the local fishermaen. There was a small sailboat moored in the harbor this morning, I just didn’t take its portrait.