The trip is over and we are safely home. 

L. Johnson Historical  roadside park for lunch

Flying flags at Guadalupe Peak campground

I have not written in the blog since 2011 so I am a bit rusty.  I am not publishing a book so I will not apologize for spelling or sentence structure.  Read only what makes you happy.  I will try to post a couple of days at a time and add a few pictures.

Monday June 10^th 2013  ~  8:38 am

Pulling out of drive and headed for points west.  I was thinking of a leisurely ride to perhaps Junction and the South Llano State Park.  By the time we are in that area it is too early to call it a day.  We choose to go to Balmorea State Park and see how that was.  It did not seem as lush vegetation as when I was there in the 90’s.  We chose a nice spot with water and elec, filled the fresh water reservoir and went straight to bed.  Sometime around 1am nature called and I realized the air conditioner was not cooling.  I turned it off and went outside to check the outside temp.  It was very cool so the windows went open and before morning we were pulling for light cover.  Upon stepping out in the night I was amazed at the night sky.  The stars that were visible numbered in the millions and the Milky Way was quite visible.  Since we did not unhook the trailer we took a walk around before pulling out.  At the observation deck of the ceinega (desert wetland) the turtles (2 varieties) and fish were busy playing and I am sure wanting us to drop a morsel for them.  We did not feed them because we are good stewards of nature.

Tuesday June 11th

On we go to find a grocery store as we are so smart we waited until a tiny grocery in Van Horn was our option.  So much for a good avocado and veggies.  We had a burrito for breakfast and trudged off to Guadalupe Peak National Park.  It has a nice parking area for rvs now and we had aspirations of some nice hiking.  As per usual, we check in at the Visitors Center, chose a parking space, paid our money and prayed for the sun to set so we would be in a nice shade.  These spaces were dry camping so no reason to turn on the air conditioner.  We left for our first hike to Frijoles and Manzanita Spring and Smith Spring.  This should be a hike of approximately 3.4 miles and is considered a moderate.  Well I guess that could be unless you started at 1:30pm in the hottest part of the day.  Dumb.  We did have plenty of water and a couple of apples.  Not nearly as much water in Smith spring as when here before but loved the park bench for a rest.  Paulette had peppermint so we used it on our feet to help cool them off.  Not sure I wanted to dip my toes in the mossy water.  The trip ended well and both were happy to be back in the car where it was cool.  After returning to the camper, I started cooking chicken breasts and Paulette chopped zucchini and bell peppers.  It made a lovely dinner.  We had enough left over for Wednesday night.

A solo lady from Maine had parked near us so we had many conversations with her about her travels and ours.  She left from Florida and was wandering toward California by way of many stops.  She is 70 and more weathered than me.  We did the Piney Nature Trail before bed time, cleaned our bodies in the little Casita and headed for bed.  My muscles in my right hip were really hurting but I made it okay until around 2am.  Checked and the stars were showing off again.