The Finale

From San Antonia we drive northwest through San Angelo to Lubbock passing through flat desert deer and antelope ranch country - hunting holidays on ranches are offered, some cattle then closer to Lubbock there is crop farming - some corn but a lot of cultivation has been planted and waiting for rain.  It is a long days drive across Texas but we needed to make some miles as we only have a few days of holiday left. We stay overnight in Lubbock which was the home town of Buddy Holly.  Some artists record here including Leane Reimes.

Back into New Mexico we make a stop at Fort Sumner to visit the Billy the Kid Museum - he is buried nearby. This small town is in hot, dry desert.  A rail line carries long double storey containers of freight - not many passengers.  "Oh, one train did have a passenger carriage a few weeks back" we are told.

North to Santa Rosa where we meet Route 66 which takes us into Alburquerque and an overnight stop at the same RV Park we stayed in a month ago.  This completes another long driving day.  Alburquerque is overlooked by the Sandia Mountains rising to over 10,000 feet and it is a nice change to see some mountains again.  Further northwest we start to see some 'badlands' type country, treeless hills of porous looking earth in pinks and greys.  Arriving at Bloomfield we visit some peublo ruins and a little further north at the town of Aztec there are some very well preserved ruins.  These were mistakenly named Aztec Ruins but are in fact peublo ruins from 11th century.  The masonry is very good.  The stones are uniform is size and skillfully set with darker rows of stone in places.  Rows of smaller stones are set between the larger ones, perhaps for decoration or to help hold the mud in place.  Wooden beams of pine and mesquite were used for the ceiling and base for the second storey.  About 500 rooms have been found around a central plaza.  Within the plaza is a giant kiva (ceremonial room) which is partly underground and partly aboveground.  The 90 ton roof is supported by four huge pillars constructed of crisscrossed layers of timbers which have been plastered.  The kiva has been restored and is impressive.   Stayed overnight at Farmington at an RV Park advertising shade trees.  The chatty manager delighted in showing us his vintage care collection, one 1932 Ford bought from Australia.  The park rate is expensive and has no bathrooms!  We negotiated a lower rate - not our best choice!

Further west at Shiprock in the Navajo Indian Reservation we pass the Shiprock formation rising 2000 feet out of the desert.  It is a sacred site and can been seen for miles.

We take a short detour from the main road to the Four Corners Monument.  This is the only place in USA where four states meet - Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.  There are native jewellery stalls representing all states. It is very windy during the afternoon and the RV is a bit of a handful.  There are duststorms and whirlwinds and at times visibility is low.  Late in the day we arrive at Monument Valley.  This is a beautiful area visited last year and we wanted to show it to Ross and Jill.  Giant red sandstone buttes rise singly out of the desert and canyons surround the area.  The area has been the scene of many western movies.  John Wayne was in four movies here including "Stage Coach" and "The Seekers".  The wind has died down somewhat and Ross and Jill take a guided tour in an open jeep into the valley which they thoroughly enjoy.  We had done this tour last year.  The campground (a small dirt area, no facilities, fantastic view) is just too rough for our big RV so we decide to 'park' in the parking lot at the hotel and viewing area - still fantastic views, had dinner at the hotel and got up at 5.30am to watch the sun rise over the buttes - magic!

The scenery is attractive driving south to Flagstaff.  Pink sandstone hills finally give way to pine forest as we climb to an altitude of 5000 feet.  From Flagstaff we take a scenic route along Oak Creek Valley to Sedona - pine forest, lovely pink hills rising from the creek.  There are camping areas along the creek, holiday cabins and resorts.  Hugely popular area and as it is a Saturday, summer holidays and hot, the area is crowded with campers and day visitors.  Swimming holes along the creek are filled with people cooling off as we slowly drive the narrow winding road into Sedona.  We have no reservation and are lucky to get a site large enough for us at the RV Park.  Coincidently, we are placed in the same site we had last year.  It is time to clean the RV and empty the cupboards and pack for our flight home (hope I don't need an extra suitcase!)  Not looking forward to going from this cool mountain area to Phoenix where the temperature is forcast to be around 44 deg. celcius for our last day there.

Some obversations from the trip:  The people everywhere have been very friendly and helpful.  Children are polite - "excuse me sir, yes ma'am, yes sir" are heard often.  Motorists are courteous.  Food is very cheap and fruit and veg are good quality.  There is a big problem with obesity here.  This is encouraged by supermarkets offering everything in huge containers, a mind boggling number and variety of fast food outlets and restaurants giving large servings and offering "take home boxes".

Our 39 foot RV has served us well and has been very roomy for four people.  We have visited or touched on nine states and enjoyed a wonderful diversity of scenery and culture from the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico to gulf of Mexico and the bayous of Louisiana; the technology of the NASA Space Centre and tasted a variety of cuisine - huge beef ribs, green chili, enchalada, fried green tomatoes, gumbo, etouffee', po boys catfish, crawfish, margeritas!.

What a great trip!!

San Antonio

NOTE:  Previous Post "The Gulf" has been updated with photos.

San Antonio is a city of 1.6 million people and is the location of the most famous battle in Texas.  The Alamo (Mission San Antionio de Valero) where 189 defenders fell on March 6, 186 after repeated attacks by Mexican Gen. Santa Anna's Mexican Army.  Among the Alamo's garrison were Jim Bowie, renowned knifefighter, and David Crockett, famed frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee.  The highly photographed chapel and long barrack are all that remain of the original fort which know sits in the centre of the city.

One level below the downtown streets, the popular Paseo del Rio (River Walk) is edged by hotels, art and gift shops, restaurants, sidewalk cafes, boutiques and live music.  There are half hour river cruises which meander through this delightful area and the canal even goes right into a huge shopping mall and into the convention centre and some hotels.  Driving through the city one would not notice that this almost subterranean area was there. 

The Tower of the Americas at 750 feet offers breathtaking views of the city from the Observation Deck.  Ross and Jill had lunch in the tower while we opted for dinner along the River Walk.  A full day tour gave us the history of the area and visits to some of the outlying missions.  Our two day visit was very enjoyable, however the heat was almost unbearable while touring the city and we were all exhausted at the end of the second day.

The road systems here are very good.  Surrounding San Antonio are two ring roads which moves traffic very quickly and efficiently.  As we leave the city we are on one of the ring roads.  It is a ten lane freeway with another two lanes exiting and entering each side, this is then flanked by four lanes each way on the minor road, making a spread of 22 lanes of traffic. Can you imagine this in Sydney!?  Most Texas cities are the same, admittedly the flat terrain makes this kind of planning easy.

The Gulf

Driving around the Gulf the devestation from hurricanes is very clear.  Hurricane Rita swept through in 2006 and Hurricane Ike did a lot of damage in 2008 when it hit Port Arthur and Galvaston in Texas.  A lot of communities never recover and Port Arthur is almost like a ghost town - business buildings lie empty (some 6 storys tall) and street after street has little left but concrete slabs. 

Galvaston is an island south from Houston,  11 miles long and reached by ferry from the east (the direction we came) or by Bridge to the north.  It is a holiday playground reminding us of the Gold Coast at home, no high rise, but hotels, clubs and restaurants along the beach front, canal development, large marinas.  They claim to have some of the finest beaches in the world, well I'm sorry Galvaston, but these are not 'fine' beaches.  Very flat, the sand is grey, very weedy, no surf, the water milky caramel colour.  People paddle but that's all.  As it's the summer holidays, it is very busy but hurricane damage is very clear.  Entire hotel resorts have been washed away or demolished as a result.  One had it's neon sign still standing, with no hotel behind it.  In residential areas, entire suburbs have been, or are being, rebuilt.  The new homes are brightly coloured weatherboard, multi storey, on high stilts (a building standard because of the storm surges)  The island is only a few feet above sea level and when a hurricane hits, the storm surge can wash over the entire island.

There is a mind boggling number of oil and gas refineries in the Gulf region.  We have seen them all the way from New Orleans, and here they surround the city of Houston. Suburbs full of them, one after the other with a massive array of pipelines, with roads under and over them.

We stayed one night in Galvaston and then two nights in Kemah, a town on a bay near NASA and also near an historical site we wanted to see and it's about 10 miles from Houston city.  Kemah has an interesting Boardwalk along the river at the edge of the bay, with shops, restaurants and permanent carnival.  The only surviving wooden roller coaster in the US is here.

We vistited the Jacinta Historical site.  Texas won the right to independance from Mexico here in a battle between General Sam Houston and Mexican General Santa Anna.  There is a tower, 570 feet high, built from limestone, to commemerate the battle, and it is the tallest masonry tower in the world.  There is an interesting museum and an elevator to the 34th floor for a fine view over the area.

Nearby the Battleship Texas is permanently moored and is a museum.  This dreadnought type battleship was commissioned in 1900 and served in both World Wars and was the flagship of the fleet in WW2.  We had a good look over it despite the stifling heat, especially on the lower decks.

Day two took us to NASA and we needed nearly all day to see it.  We are told it is not just a museum, it is a working space administration facility.  We tour Mission Control from which all the Appollo Missions were monitored, the huge hangar which houses the Astronaut Training Centre, with 'mock ups' of the Shuttle, space labs and various prototypes of vehicles.  We also see the Saturn..Rocket, 362 feet long (it is huge when one stands next to it).  There is a 7 storey Imax theatre, a mock up of the Shuttle one can walk through, simulators one can try their skill at, demonstrations, talks, fun activities for the young.  On the serious side, plans are under way for the Orion Missions due to start in 2013 and further missions into 2030.

We finish our day with a browse along the Kemah Boardwalk and a very nice seafood dinner overlooking the waterfront. It's Friday night and a dazzling firworks display over the water is a weekly event.