Travels With Picasso

Last night we had a tremendous wind storm that blew our tent/canopy right off the trailer. Luckily it wasn’t damaged and we stowed it in the car until this morning. This morning dawned clear and cool. The Texans call this a cold front – it’s only 60 today. I’ll be painting outside today. I want to try to capture the large vista and sky in front of our campsite.

The solar power is not equal to keeping our furnace running. However, it more than makes up for our other electrical usage. The furnace fan simply takes too much power. This is a lesson learned in cold camping.

We have decided to extend our stay here another week. That means we will head for Tucson around Feb. 1. We’re not looking forward to driving into colder weather when we leave Arizona to head home.

Here are a few of the unusual birds we see at Falcon Lake.

There are many more. As I get them edited I will post them on my Flickr page. The link is on the lower right of this blog page.

We awoke yesterday morning to clear blue skies and warm weather. It was too glorious a day to spend indoors watching the inept Seahawks. However, we did watch much of the game before hitting the park to look at wildlife.

It would be impossible to name all the birds here. We routinely see cardinals, orioles, woodpeckers, and dozens of others that are totally new and strange to us. The road runners are tame and always looking for a handout. Bobcat, javelina, jagarundi, tortoise, coyotes, deer and rabbits roam around at night. We would love to see some of those mammals, but one needs to be very lucky just at dusk. I do have some pictures of birds and hope to be able to upload them soon. The internet connection is not sufficient today.

Today the weather returned to gray drizzle. We woke early to take a hike, but saw the weather and went back to our warm bed. Our kindles have been getting a workout in this weather.

Yesterday we learned a rude lesson about solar energy and camping – it doesn’t work if the sun doesn’t shine. After four days of cold rainy weather our batteries were at their lowest ever. The solar panel is doing nothing and the furnace takes lots of power to run the fan. Therefore, we borrowed Don and Sandy’s (our Wisconsin friends who are here as well) Honda generator and charged our batteries.

Today it continues to be gray and rainy. However, it is warmer so the furnace doesn’t have to run quite as much. We have set the thermostat at 60 during the day and 55 at night to conserve power. That means wearing many layers at all times. The weather forecast keeps changing. Now they say we will have sun on Monday. Last Monday they said we would have sun today.

It seems that our plan to live off the grid on solar power is not going to be realistic this winter. That’s a disappointment. Of course this has been an unusual winter down here and all over the country. We thought we could go 2-3 days without a charge, but hadn’t planned on needing the furnace so much. It should be warmer here!

The wonderful bird life here no longer diverts us from the cold and damp. We’re longing for sunshine, just like we would be at home in Seattle!

Last night it was in the 30’s. We are in a McDonald’s at Noon and it is 45 and drizzling. Thank you McD’s for free wifi.

Today we took a 30 mile field trip to Rio Grande City to grocery shop, get propane, and see the local culture. It is quite an experience. Fields of onions and other crops broken by little towns. The houses vary from shacks to  beautiful mansions surrounded by stone walls. Groceries seem to be very inexpensive, at least some things we are interested in: jalapeno peppers are 3# for a dollar!

The terrain is flat. The highway from Falcon Lake to Rio Grande City rarely is more than a mile from the Rio Grand River and border. There are big birds everywhere: hawks, osprey, vultures, etc. We passed a bird refuge on the way that we may go back to visit on a better weather day.

We arrived at our southernmost destination, Falcon Lake, yesterday in sunshine and 77. It is a beautiful place. True to the rest of our journey, overnight a cold front moved in, the wind came up, and it rained. Today we are in the 40’s, it’s raining, and we’re wet and cold. That seems to be a theme for this winter. We bring Seattle weather whereever we go. Several people we’ve met have mentioned that.

There are lots of migratory birds here, deer, and native wildlife. As we sit in the car at the ranger station (the only wi-fi) and type this I am looking out at a feeding station with orioles, cardinals, quail, rodrunners, and other birds I don’t know. This morning a herd of deer crossed the road near our campsite. When the weather improves we hope to get some photos to post.

Due to the lack of connectivity posts will be fewer for a while.

Here it is Robin. 

A bit belated, but none the less heartfelt.

I took this photo on our way into Fort Stockton two days ago and it seemed so appropriate . . . traveling through this landscape you can’t help but think about the early white settlers who traveled this land on horseback, thinking to make it their own.

Some would say they accomplished their goal, but gazing into the distance, seeing nothing but cacti and mesquite and tumbleweed stretching to the horizon and beyond it is clear that no one can truly make this land their own . . . we can but pass our way through it and create a few strongholds where we can find shelter and hunker down in the face of of the wind.

For the last two days we crossed west Texas from El Paso to San Antonio. El Paso is an urban area of about 700k population. Across the Rio Grande is Juarez Mexico with a population of 1.8 million. There is a layer of smog that the incessant wind does not dissipate. The RV park we had targeted to stay in west El Paso (New Mexico) didn’t have room, which was quite okay because as far as we could tell the New Mexican side of the metropolitan area is covered with feedlots and stockyards. Instead we found a place on the east side of El Paso where we were comfortable for a reasonable price. In the morning the wagon train (all the overnight RV’s) hitched up and went on our way. The first left at 7:30 am. We left at 9:15 and others were still getting ready to go.

Leaving El Paso the highway follows the Rio Grande for a way. This is desolate country. There were some mountains, but not much in the way of vegetation, animals, or people. We stopped in Fort Stockton for the night. The best thing we could say about the RV park there is that the electricity and water worked. It was a large subdivision with it’s own street grid (recognized by the GPS) that has been turned into a trailer/RV park. About half the residents seem to be full time. It was depressing, but we only had to stay overnight. The west Texas sunrise was stunning.

Fort Stockton to San Antonio the geography changes to hill country. Rolling hills covered with cedar of some kind and live oak trees. Herds of deer grazed in the forest. Flocks of sheep also grazed among the shrubs and trees. Jean slept while I drove much of the day as she’s been feeling a bit under the weather.

Tonight we’re in San Antonio and going to rest tomorrow. If we get some energy we may go grocery shopping, but mostly we’re going to take it easy. We’re in a very nice RV park that we got for half price on the CampClubUSA membership we bought in Arizona. We paid $40 and have already saved twice that amount. It’s nice to get full hookups for less than the price of a state park campsite.

Finally, today was a milestone day. We passed 3000 miles on our trip today. That means I need to find a place to get the oil changed tomorrow. There’s always something to do when you’re carrying your home with you. Now we know how turtles must feel. 😉