More from Big Bend

Exploring the area to the west of Big Bend National Park we found some more awesome scenery in the often overlooked Big Bend Ranch State Park. The park has an amazing drive along the Rio Grande river with numerous pull outs and picnic areas to enjoy the views.

Also there is the leftovers of a movie set of fake old west buildings that make an excellent photo shoot place. The place is called Contrabando and has been used in 6 different westerns. I found a reddish heart shaped Prickly Pear cactus piece and had fun placing it in many locations.

Back in Terlingua we lucked out and caught the end of the annual Chihauhau races. Check out the video. Too funny.

We did get back to Big Bend National Park a couple more times for sunsets at the Mule Ears rock formations and a hike up Lost Mine Trail in the Chisos Mountains, pant pant.

We are currently in Fort Stockton, a small desert town on the Interstate 10 hwy, restocking and resting up for New Mexico next!!! Oh we had a major thunderstorm the other afternoon with huge hail stones but after the sunset was spectacular.

More photos here

Beautiful Big Bend

After hearing about Big Bend National Park we wanted to get to it right away, but did you know Texas is very very big! Big Bend is on the the west side of Texas and we came in from the east, so a few stop overs would be needed along the way.

Anne likes the crab decor

First we headed down to Galveston south of Houston and spent 3 days at Galveston State Park right on the Gulf Coast. We walked on the beach, road our bikes and toured the historic Strand district downtown. We also had a lunch at Joe's Crab shack, a regional chain of seafood restaurants. Two thumbs up. The inside decor was really interesting, like an old fish cannery or something.

Oscar gets a much needed pee break at a rest area off I10

We next drove over near San Antonio and camped a couple of days in what's called the Texas hill country. The campground was right on Medina Lake but due to the severe drought in Texas there was barely any water in this large lake. Leaving there we headed another couple hundred miles down I10 to a little western town called Fort Stockton where we stocked up on supplies for our couple plan weeks in Big Bend. We stayed at Comanche Land RV park, a gravel parking lot basically but they had full hookups for the RV, free cable and wifi, exactly what we needed.
They also had cool giant arrows in the ground.

Finally after around 600 miles we entered Big Bend National Park and we weren't disappointed, everywhere we looked beautiful desert, mountain, rugged vistas, wow! We booked a week inside the park at Rio Grande Village camp area and explored the east side of the park. Many hikes were required to see the coolest landscapes, I think we might actually be burning of some of that southern fried cuisine from the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. :) The neatest thing is walking out in to the desert and just listening, when the wind is down all you hear is nothing, dead silence, so peaceful.

After a week on the east side it was time to move over and explore the west side, the park is so massive it's almost impossible to see from one side. We picked a little town called Terlingua to be our base. It's a funky place full of interesting characters and artists living out in the middle of nowhere. The main attraction is an old ghost town where some of the buildings have be converted into people's homes and shops. Terlingua is also home to a huge chili cook off in November. We have been in town a few days and so far did sunset photography in the ghost town, ate at the Starlight Theatre restaurant and day tripped down to Santa Elena
 Canyon.

 For a ton more photos click here

 

Today the temp went from near 90 degrees yesterday to 50 today and windy so it's upload pix and blog day... To be continued...

Who Dat? In New Orleans

Spent 5 great days in New Orleans the week before official Mardi GRAS. We decided it would be difficult with the dogs to do the full Mardi GRAS thing and the campsites get much more pricey. But the party was still raging on Bourbon St anyway. Took in a few bands, some drinks and a few good cigars while walking around with our eyes wide open, such a crazy scene. Also stopped at one of the many takeout places and grabbed a "Po-Boy"' kinda like a sub sandwich and seafood Gumbo!

Click hear for my sounds of the French Quarter YouTube video 

Sorry for the sound on Bourbon St but it is so loud with all the bands playing it overwhelms the tiny camera mic

One night we headed over to Frenchmen street which is just out of the French Quarter where the locals go for good food and music without the craziness that is Bourbon St.  It was nice to have dinner at a little bistro with jazz playing in the back then stroll the run down but very colorful, funky neighborhood.

During the days we had fun riding the electric street cars from Uptown area which is stuffed full of mansion like Victorian houses down to the French Quarter area. Along the way we could see the preparations people were making getting ready for the big parades.

Anne noticed that the Cirque du Soliel tribute to Micheal Jackson show was on at the New Orleans arena so on a really rainy night we drove in and saw it. It was actually pretty cool and it was neat to see the Superdome next door all lite up for Mardi GRAS. But man the traffic and roads in New Orleans are brutal.

 We had a blast in New Orleans now on to Texas.  Lots more pix click here

Our last gasp of Florida

Before we left Florida we made one more stop at a funky little fishing village called Cedar Key. Everything about it had that retro feel, like you are back in the seventies. The campground we stayed at even had an old trailer out front.

Anne and I headed into town and explored the small village on our bikes, which made for a great day. We of course stopped at one of the many waterside restaurants for our fill of some local seafood. yummm

On the local peir the pelicans were hanging around hoping to score some free fish from people fishing and Anne loves pelicans, so she had a blast.

Next morning we headed out to get some sunrise photography done. It was a beautiful morning and I was lucky to catch the boats heading out for the day of clam farming, which is the biggest industry here. The boats are very different. The steering is way up front and so is the engine. They call them "bird dog boats"

Leaving Florida was sad but west is where we need to go now. We have made stops in Alabama and are currently in Biloxi, Mississippi. Biloxi was devastated by Katrina and it still show, much of the oceanfront is empty lots. The casinos are back though and we spent an afternoon at the Hardrock Casino, had lunch and lost 5$ in the slots. Soon we head for New Orleans....

More photos of Cedar Key click here

Florida's Gulf Coast

The gulf coast is the western side of Florida. We have spent the entire month of January slowly moving up it from South to North. First we stayed in Ft. Myers so we could go to the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge so Anne could get some bird shots. There was also a bunch of beautiful white sandy beaches to explore. The amazing thing about the beaches was the amount of shells they contained.

Next stop was a hundred or so miles north to St. Petersburg / Tampa. Here we attended the Tampa RV supershow! Wow what a lot of RVs to see. We went into dozens of new models and felt good that nothing was better for us than what we bought. Another day we visited Fort Desoto State Park. The water was very calm and the view over to the Skyline Bridge was gorgeous. They also have one of the best white sand beaches on the gulf coast. Anne dragged me to the famous Salvador Dali museum to instill some culture into me. The building was really neat but the paintings weren't that impressive for the $21 admission price.

Last week we moved up to the Crystal River area where the manatees head in the winter to hangout because of the warm spring water found here. We booked a snorkel tour and got to swim with the manatees. We even had a baby one play us, very cool!  We also visited the Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park where they had an old hippo named Lou. Anne loves hippos so she was pumped to see Lou

We bought some cruiser type bikes to burn around the campground on and general sightseeing.
Checkout Anne testing hers out.

More pictures here

South Florida

We spent the last two weeks of December at the very southern tip of Florida. Weather was awesome usually sunny and around 80 degrees.

First we camped in the Everglades National Park , where we rented a canoe. We took it out on to the bay and down one of the inland rivers lined by mangrove trees. Wildlife was everywhere and from the canoe you get a great perspective on it. We saw tons of birds, like pelicans, ibis, herons, turkey vultures, storks, ospreys and on and on. We also watched a dolphin play with a fish it had just caught, observed a little manatee eating plants from the rocks and docks, and saw a tarpin swim through the very shallow bay waters trying to get back out to sea. One thing that was weird were signs in the marina parking lot saying that the vultures will eat the rubber trim from you car windows! bizarre!

Next we moved down to the keys for Xmas. We booked a week at a nice RV resort called Sunshine Key as a gift to each other, rving is very expensive in the keys due to lack of land. Of course we went and saw the famous Key West and took a trolley tour around the town. It's very touristy but was cool to hang out for the day. The nicer place for us was Bahia Honda State Park. White sandy beaches, turquoise waters and waving palms, aahhhhhhh. We rented a couple kayaks and had a great day on the water. Also got some snorkel and swimming time in on another day.
Only downer was my so called waterproof camera leaked and is now toast, so enjoy this last video. :(

Happy New Year! Next we are heading to the west side of Florida in Ft Myers, Tampa area for a few weeks exploring what's over there. Stay tuned.

More photos here

FLA!

Well we have landed in Florida and welcome it's balmy weather, beaches and palm trees. So far we have stayed for week long stints in two areas on the east coast of the state. First up was Daytona Beach, home of an incredible 23 mile strip of sandy beach you can drive on, so we did. :)

Also we toured the famed Daytona International Speedway, home of the Daytona 500 race. It was really cool to see the place even empty you can imagine what a spectacle it must be to see. There were some practice  cars racing around the track, check out the video I shot.

Daytona Beach video

Next we moved about a hundred miles further south to a town called Titusville on the Space Coast right by the Kennedy Space Center. We took a day to tour all the exhibits which there were tons of. We could have easily spent a week seeing everything that they have on display. Amazing stuff.

We have been touring a lot of guy stuff lately so lucky for Anne there was a great wildlife refuge close to the space center and we made a couple trips there and she was able to get some awesome wildlife shots, so stay tuned on her blogs for those.

We move down to the Everglades National Park next and then on to the Keys for Xmas.

Click here for more pix