A Full-time Life

BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK REDUX - SUNDAY FAVORITES

 

Recently I came across this nice post-sharing site called  Sunday Favorites.  A blogger, Chari,  created it to share old favorite posts that might otherwise be forgotten.  Seems like a great idea.  So I'm reposting this one to remind myself and everyone else to watch the Ken Burns series "The National Parks" which starts on PBS the end of September.  And because we loved our 2006 visit to Big Bend, one of the more remote places we've stayed.  Click on National Parks in the the right-hand Category column to see posts on some of the other National Parks we've been lucky to visit.  These are all some of our favorite places and we can't wait to watch the PBS series.

It would be fun someday to say we'd visited all of our National Parks.   Even if we don't ever get to all of them, we are glad to have spent time in the most remote and least visited one in the lower 48 states.  This is Big Bend in southwest Texas.   There are 800,000 acres within the Park's boundaries.  The scenery provides wonderful contrasts.  It is in the Chihuahuan Desert, surrounded by the Chisos Mountains. 

The Rio Grande River forms an international boundary along the south edge of the park (for 118 miles).  The River is narrow and you can see Mexico on the other side.  We really hope that by the time our grandchildren get to visit the park they will still be able to see this view instead of a fence or wall.

We hiked down the spectacular Boquillas Canyon.  It's a narrow section formed by the River when it meandered through the desert eons ago. 

The river level was low when we were there and we easily explored the bottom of the canyon by foot. 

Before 9/11 there was a soft crossing here into the Mexican village of Boquillos Del Carmen.    Tourists could be ferried across the river and experience a bit of what was like to live in a remote village in Mexico.  That's no longer possible because of security concerns.  By road, the village is 100 miles from the nearest legal crossing to the US, so these changes have almost completely cut off the village's source of income other than subsistance farming.  While security is certainly a problem at some more metropolitan border cities (such as El Paso), it is hard to imagine how it could really be so serious way out here. 

Vendors still wade across when they can get away with it, keeping an eye out for Border Patrol.  The stand shown here is on the Mexican side of the river. We purchased these walking sticks.  Made from stalks of the sotol plant which grows wild everywhere, they are light and quite strong.

Humans have lived in the park area since prehistoric times.  The little dwelling in the picture below is called Luna's Jacal.  It is a rare remaining example of a building from the region's early settlement period.  Luna was a Mexican sheepherder and he and his wife raised a large family (10 or 11 children) in this house.  A jacal is a type of dwelling with upright posts chinked with mud.  It had a thick mud roof that kept it cool in the desert heat.  You can see that the roof is disintegrating.  This points out a major problem with all national parks and especially this one, I suppose because it is so remote.  There isn't enough funding and staff to keep up the archeological sites in the park or even to properly catalog all of the historic sites and structures.

Big Bend Park is in Brewster County which is one of the most sparsely populated areas of our whole country.  Only about 13,000 people live within its 6,000 plus square miles.  We stayed in Alpine, which is 100 miles northwest of the park headquarters and then moved to the tiny village of Terlingua which is a gateway community to the park.  These are both remote, quirky communities.  We had fun exploring around the towns as well as within the park.

A WALK ALONG JEANS ROAD

Fern Ridge Shores RV Resort, where we're staying, is on Jeans Road, Veneta.  It's a quiet country road along the edge of Fern Ridge Lake wetlands.  The road was named after an area pioneer, William Jean. 

The road is just perfect for an evening stroll, the kind where you pull on your favorite old jeans and just take off to explore and see what you can see.  So when we walk it, I think about it being named for those kind of jeans instead of the pioneer.  

The three-mile long road starts in the middle of the town of Veneta (that would mean there are about four city blocks on either side of it) and it dead-ends just past Fern Ridge Shores.  Our walk is exactly one mile (one way) --   from the docks at the edge of FRS to Zumwalt Park.  Several other areas with public access to the Lake are located within the mile. 

Here are some of the things we see on the way:

 

Succulent blackberries ripe for eating as you walk.

A glimpse of the Lake through the trees at the edge of the road.  You can walk down to the Lake at this point, to extend the walk.

This is why it's called Fern Ridge Lake.  Lush greenery is just part of the scenery around here. 

 

I should cut a few of these cattails and put them in a vase.  They are the perfect RV arrangement, because you aren't supposed to put them in water once they're cut. 

But I haven't had time yet, because I'm too busy bird watching, and (apparently) taking self-portraits of my shadow.

We usually see grebes and ducks and sometimes herons and egrets in these wetlands.  Earlier this month there were hundreds of red-wing blackbirds migrating. 

Out on the Lake there are ospreys, purple martens, and swallows.  We see them when we take the boat out and occasionally from the road.

This little channel is almost at the end of our walk, just before Zumwalt Park.

Here's the other side of the street, as we're coming back:

There are some charming homes, with beautiful gardens and friendly people who wave when they're outside.  One home has an old tractor wheel collection.  It makes an interesting fence row.

 

There is also one "McMansion".  I can never decide if the fence is meant to keep the riff-raff out or the people who live there in.  This house has been for sale for quite a while.  I should point out that this side of Jeans has no Lake View.  You have to come over to the RV Park side to get that!  I know where I'd rather live.

 

Yesterday, a deer jumped across the road not two feet ahead of us.  She had been nibbling apples from this abandoned tree and we scared her.  But I couldn't fumble the camera out in time.   This sign speaks the truth though!  

And then we're back home -- this is the boat dock right at the edge of Fern Ridge Shores RV Park (and our boat tied up there). 

It really is a lovely walk.  We are happy out here in the country.

SWEET SOLUTION TO THE ATTACK OF THE GIANT ZUCCHINI

RECIPE FOR AN OREGON SUMMER TRADITION:*

     

1.  Take a giant Zucchini.  Please!

(Jeff and Cyndi and everyone they know have been eating as much of their garden crop as possible.  But sometimes they just get away from you.)

 

 

 

                                                            2.  Grate it up with our salad shooter.

(We got it as a Christmas present a long time ago. And thought was pretty silly at the time.  But it's wonderful for something like this.) 

 

3.  Stir in a few other healthy fun and delicious ingredients that you already have in the cupboard.

4.  Pop the pans into your now-working and much-loved convection-microwave oven.

AND TA-DA:

 

 

 

 

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I really don't bake very often any more.  So when I do, it seems like a small miracle that you can stir a few things together and get this result.

 

 LIVING THE FULL(SUMMER)TIME-LIFE IN OREGON

 

*(And you can get the full Zucchini bread recipe pretty much anywhere on the Internet if you don't already have it in your cookbook collection.)

HOUSE ON THE ROCK (Flashback Friday)

 

This one's a leftover post from the latest Spring roadtrip.  Chronologically it belongs somewhere between here and here.  House on the Rock is the most visited attraction in Wisconsin, and it is listed in most midwest travel guides as a "must see."  It was an interesting stop.  The building is perched on a 60- foot rock pinnacle.  It is surrounded by typical Wisconsin countryside -- beautiful, green, gently rolling hills.   The "house" (which really isn't a house) was the grand vision of Alex Jordan. 

It really isn't a house and never was one, so I felt like I'd been cheated. Because after all it is called "house" not "building."   The docent said Jordan built it as a retreat and meeting place for friends.  I think he built it as a tourist attraction. 

Plus because most of the rooms are sort of underground, I found it dark and kind of spooky. Bill agreed that the underground rooms were too dark but he admired the construction and the way the guy had the imagination and ambition to complete his idea. 

You walk down ramps to see the thirteen  rooms.  Jordan was a collector of many things and his collections are  housed in the various rooms and in nooks and crannies carved into the stone.  They include oriental art, stained glass, statues, books, lamps, music machines that play themselves, dolls, guns, and a whole bunch more. We both agreed that we really didn't love these "stuff" collections.   

You go back up the ramps again to visit the Infinity Room on the main level. It projects 218 feet out over the valley and contains over 3200 windows.  I liked this room better than the underground ones. The window seat, in another one of the upper floor areas, looked like a nice place to take a nap. 

There are other rooms, not part of the original House, that showcase more of Jordan's collections but we chose to skip that part because we'd seen enough "stuff".   

 

There's also a quite lovely Japanese Garden, which we did enjoy.  The Garden was just added last year.  The sunshine felt wonderful after emerging from underground.

According to a pamphlet we picked up as we left, "Alex believed that sights and sounds were the most effective means of stimulating the senses.  He wanted his guests to question his creation, to come to their own conclusions and to turn his world of dreams into their own."  

Our conclusion, which its builder may not really have wished visitors would come to, was that there were too many of some kinds of sights and sounds (all those spooky music machine collections) and not enough of some others (sunlight! bird song!). 

So House on the Rock was an interesting experience, but certainly not one that we'd put on our "go-back" wish list.   

 

 

 

FAMILY AT THE ZOO (Remember Whensday)

Our 2004 road trip took us through Louisville Kentucky, where my mother was born and raised.  In 1938, she came west for a job, met my dad and never really went home again. It was interesting (and poignant) to look up the old places that Mom always talked about.  Here I'm standing on the property where her childhood home used to be.  (If you click on the picture, you can see a liquor store sign -- I don't think it existed when she lived there!)  In the 1950s, the family property was purchased by the city for use as a school, then became a media center.  Now the population has shifted again and it is once more a high school.

The school was named for my great-grandmother and this is a painting of her.  It is hanging in the auditorium.  The other picture is my great-uncle Lydian, a bachelor who still lived on the property when it first became the school.  He was able to stay in his house on the school property until he passed away. 

 

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Many generations ago, my mother's ancestors owned a farm that was part of the land that now houses the Louisville Zoo.   When the zoo was being built, they discovered some old family burial plots. So the city fenced off the tiny graveyard and a stone was erected. I guess there are about a million descendents of these Louisville pioneers by now.  I hope they all know that they have family at the Zoo.  

 

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JUST HANGING OUT IN OREGON

We're just hanging out here in beautiful Lane County, enjoying the summer.   When we first got here, I wrote about how incredibly hot it was -- and almost as soon as I posted that, the weather moderated.  So now we're enjoying very lovely temperatures -- maybe low 80s daytimes, cooler at night.  Lovely.

Now if it could just stay like this for a few more months. 

 

 

 

The fruit trees and berries are growing on our daughter and son-in-law's place. 

When we first got here, you could pick a gallon of berries without moving -- they were that thick.  Now they're starting to fade a bit (because of that one hot week).  But still so good!

All of this fruit is so easy to pick.  Blueberries must be the best berry ever -- no thorns.

And whoever developed dwarf fruit trees was a genius.  They are loaded with fruit, most of it pickable from the ground.

So we're just hanging out in Oregon, doing our things and enjoying the fruits (literally) of others' green thumbs. 

 

FLIGHTS OF THE GEESE

Ever since we saw the sculpture of geese in flight on North Dakota's Enchanted Highway, I've been thinking about one of our best bird watching experiences ever. In 2006, we stayed near New Mexico's Bosque Del Apache Wildlife Refuge during Fall Migration.  That was our second Autum visit -- it's such a beautiful time to be there.  (Check out our Bosque photo album on top of the right-hand column.). 

I thought it would be fun to compare the North Dakota and New Mexico flights:

 

 

 

 

 

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Maybe the Enchanted Highway sculpture was Art imitating Life -- maybe.  At the very least it was craftwork that we enjoyed both for itself and for the memories of a lovely time in New Mexico.  

 

 

 

 

 

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The major difference between the two experiences, though, is this:  We're glad we went to see Enchanted Highway and the story behind it was interesting, but having seen it once, we probably won't go again.  But we'd go out of our way to go back to the beautiful Bosque  -- and we really hope we do someday.

 

 

 

 

 

SUMMER and FAMILY

We're having some great family time here in Oregon. 

These are the snapshots that I'd have on our refrigerator right now if it weren't wood instead of metal.  The ones right below are from somebody's big 7-0 birthday celebration.  (Let's see, who's the oldest person we know here?)  The family gathering was at Cyndi and Jeff's house  (they're the parents of our three grownup -- and farflung -- grand-children).  With the birthday "boy" (yeah, right!) is our grandson Ryan who is visiting all of his Oregon relatives for a while.

Lower collage:  Those are our other two younger Grandkids, Sarah & Collin, and some more pictures of Ryan (and Aunt Cyndi) at the Lake. 

Summertime!  Kids!  Gotta' love 'em!  They make us feel young again (well, almost anyway).

ROADTRIP WRAP-UP, SPRING 2009

 

The season started late for us because we even didn't arrive at our summer destination until July 15.  But we are here at Fern Ridge Shores now and, oh my goodness, it really is SUMMER now.   Last week, there was a heat wave of record proportions here in the normally mild Willamette Valley.  The temperature reached 103 on a couple of days, almost unheard of in this part of the country.  We are lucky to be here though.  The Park is partly shaded, the Lake is inviting and cool (and our AC works).   Hot or not, it's great to be here.

It was a good roadtrip.  We saw  some beautiful country between Florida and Oregon.  We drove 5400 trailer miles in the two and a half months (not counting miles put on the truck exploring while we were unhooked).  We took the Northern route and so almost all of the time we were on roads that were new to us.       

We stayed for at least one night in fourteen different states, four of them new to us.  We added a National Park to our list of those we've visited.  And we explored new parts of some states where we'd spent time on earlier trips.  Click on the "states where we've stayed" page on the right for a list of the RV Parks where we stayed on this trip. 

We had some great visits with family this time, something that we have never been able to do on previous roadtrips (until we got back to Colorado and then Oregon).   This time, we were able to spend some time with two sets of our grown grandchildren.  We parked the house for a while in Charleston, South Carolina where we had a lovely visit with our grand-daughter and grandson-in-law who had just moved there.  Then, later in the trip, in a nice bit of serendipity, we crossed paths with our traveling grandson and his wife in Illinois.  And we even were able to drop in on a sister and brother-in-law whom we hadn't seen in a while in Bemidji, Minnesota.

We spent three wonderful weeks near our son and daughter-in-law when we got back to Colorado (which is actually more like a home-away-from-home break during our roadtrips, because it is so familiar to us by now).  This picture is Golden Pond near their house and a view of some of the many snow-capped Mountains that you can see from Longmont, where they live.

We really like having our own house when we visit people.  We feel like we're neighbors for the time we're there, instead of having to impose on our hosts as houseguests. 

Here are a few bits and pieces that didn't make it into the posts we did as we traveled.  (If you haven't already seen those, just scroll down through the posts below --  back through to the first of May -- to read the major highlights.)

Most of the time on our overnight stops we were able to find RV Parks where the spaces were long enough so that we didn't have to unhook.  It's a pain to have to go through that if you don't really intend to go anywhere in the truck that night.

When I opened the curtains one morning, I found myself looking at a Teton and Freightliner exactly like our own, kind of like I was seeing a reflection.  These people had come in late the night before and pulled in right next to us.  We're all looking for those nice long pullthrough spaces!

 

The other thing we like in an overnight spot is when there is something interesting to look at when we take a walk after we're parked and hooked up.  It doesn't have to be anything amazing --  the local wildlife will do beautifully.

For a little while, we thought our trip might be jinxed because just an hour or so into our trip -- the very first day, somewhere near Ocala Florida -- we were stopped in a traffic tie-up for almost three hours.  We never did find out why.  But people just got out of their cars, sat down in lawn chairs, played frisbee, walked their dogs, and visited.  We even saw someone unload a horse from its trailer and walk it along the roadside.  Nobody seemed too concerned about the delay, they just sort of turned it into a roadside party.  So it turned out to be kind of interesting after all.

Road construction projects were going on everywhere, so we saw a view kind of like this one just about every day we were on the road.  In Minnesota, they say there are two seasons:  Winter and Road construction.  We never did have any more long delays anywhere, but sometimes it felt like we were running an obstacle course with the trailer.

 We love traveling and learning -- that's why we live in an RV. Here are a few extra pictures of things we learned.   (click on 'em).

A tortoise patrols at a roadside rest area near Savannah

Inside Teddy Roosevelt's N.D. cabin.  It was made of railroad planks. (At TR National Park in North Dakota). 

Below:  Pioneer women weren't always happy with their lot (with good reason).  (Somewhere between Fruita CO and Beaver Utah)

 

 

There are some great things about small towns!  Donna and Sherm, friends of ours in Springfield, grew up in tiny Richardton, North Dakota.  He went to high school at this Benedictine Abbey.  It is a beautiful building -- and the Abbot of it remembered them very well when we mentioned their name!

 

We always enjoy our roadtrips, but after a few months it's great to be settled down again.  We're especially happy to be here at Fern Ridge Shores, where we can visit with family and old friends.   It's going to be a great summer!