Rock Climbing and Crazy Water?

We had a free weekend approaching and decided to go camping for a few days somewhere, anywhere. It had been a busy summer and fall was approaching.  I emailed our son and told him we were thinking about trying Caprock Canyons SP and invited his family to join us.  He replied that they had just made reservations at Lake Mineral Wells State Park and would like for us to join them there.  Their trip was a birthday request of their oldest son, Will.  He is now 12 years old and this park has great rock climbing areas, which he loves to do and excels at. How could anyone say no to that?

 On our way down to Mineral Wells our route took us through Archer City, Texas, the home of famed writer, Larry McMurtry, author of Lonesome Dove and many other works.  We stopped at his book store for a look around and a break from the heat.

We arrived in the heat of the day on Friday.  It was 106F as we set up.  Later, a cool front came through and Saturday was pleasant for a day of rock climbing or watching.  We chose watching.  That afternoon the boys swam while we got a campfire ready for hot dogs and s'mores.  A scary story after dinner and then every one slept well.

 Brock practices climbing on the lower rocks.

 Cory coaches Will and all the other climbers in safety and technique.

Me, Cory and Grant pause for a moment.

 Christi and Cory.  Hey, she climbed to the top too!

Will, Sam (the boys' friend and neighbor), Grant, Brock, Cory and Christi at Penitentiary Hollow, where all the rock climbing action occurs. 

 Around the camp fire.

On Sunday, the kids went fishing while we prepared lunch after which they left for home. We planned to stay an extra day.  Our plans changed a little when Betty received word that an elderly aunt was not doing too well.  We were only an hour away from the nursing home she was in, so we decided to stay an additional day in order to go visit her.

When I had mentioned to my 85 year old mother that we were going to Mineral Wells her immediate response was "See if you can still buy Crazy Water!" (that is a story in itself).  The high mineral content of some of the water from wells here was said to have cured a demented woman who drank it in the 1880's.  It was later found that the water contains trace amounts of lithium, a mineral used in the treatment of certain mental disorders.  On our way out of town we stopped at The Famous Water Company and found that yes indeed, they still sell Crazy Water and in fact the Crazy Water Festival is coming up in October.  We bought a case of the miracle water and then pointed our rig towards Amarillo.

Another fun trip in the books.

Kids, bikes and the Canyon

Spring break was here.  Our son and daughter in law were making a trip to Denver and asked us to keep their three boys for a couple of days.  Yippee!  All we needed was a reason to try out our new (to us) 5th wheel.  We took the boys and their bikes down to Palo Duro Canyon State Park.  This park is about 25 miles from our house, so that makes it one of our favorites when the weather is not too warm.

While I checked us in at the gate the Texas Longhorn cattle exhibit got a good looking over.

A brilliantly colored cardinal was a regular visitor at our campsite.

Will and Grant hone their skills in the fine art of cooking bacon in camp.


A downhill sidewalk provided hours of biking fun.

Hiking with Capitol Peak in the background.

Climbing the red rock bluffs.

Our crew.

Brock keeps up with his big brotherts.

More biking fun.

The famous Cave.  Always a favorite destination for a short but exciting hike.

Stopping to read a little about our surroundings.

These kids are part mountain goats.  Yes, there are kids in this picture.

It was a short, but memorable camping trip.  It gave us another chance to iron out any kinks in our rig and hopefully the boys will remember it for a long time.  I know we will.

2300 miles and we never left Texas!

It was April, 2012 when Betty got a phone call from a customer requesting that she come to the Rio Grande Valley (Los Fresnos, Texas, to be exact) to do a product show and demonstration.  Betty sells the Longaberger family of products (baskets, pottery, wrought iron and more) at home shows.  She will go almost anywhere to do her job.  After a little thought we decided to hitch up the 5th wheel trailer and make a little vacation out of it, after all our route would take us through Midland, twice, where some of our grand kids are!

Our first stop was Midland where we stayed and played.  The next day after hugs and promises to be back in a week or so, we moved on.  Two days later we arrived at Port Aransas on the Gulf Coast.  There we visited a cousin I hadn't seen in years and got a tour of the beaches, neighborhood and town.  We stayed at a great RV resort, but didn't have time to fully enjoy it since our schedule called for us to be in Los Fresnos the next day.

After the work was done in Los Fresos we continued northwest along the Rio Grande River leaving the Valley behind.  Most of the snowbirds were gone, but I can see why they come here by the thousands every winter.

Our next destination was Big Bend National Park, but it would take a couple of days to get there, so we stopped along the way at Seminole Canyon State Park. What an awesome place.  Uncrowded, beautiful desert scenery, Native American pictographs, gorgeous sunsets and even a nighttime thunderstorm!

Big Bend was as vast and awe inspiring as always.  The history presentations and exhibits were great.  The RV "campground" with hookups was really just a parking lot, and a crowded one at that, run by the store at Rio Grande Village.  Thankfully we were there after the peak season, so there weren't too many rigs in the lot.  The really pretty camping is in the National Park Service campgrounds, but there are no hookups there and with daytime temperatures reaching into the 100's, electricity was a mighty fine thing to have.  It makes the air conditioner work better, you know.

After a few days there we headed on to Davis Mountains State Park, but we took the scenic route through Big Bend Ranch State Park.  This park is nearly as big as BBNP, but newer and not very developed yet.  The drive  along the river has been ranked by National Geographic as one of the most scenic in America.  They were not kidding.

















Overnight at Davis Mountains State Park, we skipped the "Star Party" hosted by nearby University of Texas' McDonald Observatory.  We had attended it before when our kids were young.  Let me tell you, in case you didn't know, there are a LOT of stars up there and you can see most of them from here on a clear, West Texas night.  Do it if you ever get the chance.  You can bring your own telescope or use one of several they set up just for the event.

After another stop in Midland we headed back to Amarillo. We had traveled 2300 miles, seen umpteen Border Patrol officers, burned more diesel than I care to calculate, but we had a great time.  And we never left Texas!

Making room for a "real" queen size mattress

Before we ever took a trip in our "new" (to us) 5th wheel rig, we knew we were going to have to upgrade the mattress to an actual queen size.  Our previous trailer had an RV queen which is almost like a full size, and sometimes it was a struggle to get a good night's sleep..  The gentleman we bought this trailer from had kept his mattress, so we took the opportunity to enlarge the base a little by adding a layer of plywood over the existing platform and simply cutting it larger so as to accommodate a true queen size mattress.  Then we ordered a memory foam mattress, similar to what we slept on at home, from Walmart Online.
When it arrived it was packed into an amazingly small box. The instructions said to position it near the place it would be used before opening.  No Kidding!  Once the bindings are cut it begins to expand immediately.  After a day the expansion was complete and the mattress was ready for use.
This type of mattress works very well with a simple plywood platform and the cost is reasonable. These mattresses can be ordered in various thicknesses, so be sure of what your setup can accommodate before ordering.  A 12" mattress may crowd your headroom and cost more, while a 6" or 8" mattress will cost less and fit your needs better.

The Next Step

Its been a year since we bought our first travel trailer, a 26 ft. Rockwood bumper pull. Our intent all along was to use it for a year or so and decide what we liked about it and what we would want in another trailer. We pulled it quite a bit with a 2001 Toyota Tundra with the 4.7L engine. After waiting for years for Toyota to introduce their long awaited Hino diesel powered Tundra, we determined in was time for more power in the pulling end of our rig and Toyota wasn't going to be the answer. Even though I loved the Tundra and seldom had any trouble with it, we eventually sold it and bought a Ford Power Stroke diesel F250.

The Ford's previous owner had used it for towing a 5th wheel trailer, so it was already wired for lights and brakes, and the rails for the hitch itself were still installed. Those facts made it easy to consider a 5th wheel trailer, so when we found one that met our requirements (a couple feet longer, an additonal or larger slide out, and a rear living area), we decided to take a look at it. We took a day and drove the 4 hours to Wichita Falls, TX. After looking it over closely and some negotiating, the seller agreed to include the slider type hitch he used. We had a deal! Later that day we pulled the the four pins holding the hitch in his truck, moved it over to our truck and took home a 2008 KZ Spree 285.

It pulled like a dream, but it will be a couple months before we get to use it in earnest. However, we may sneak off to Palo Duro Canyon for a day or two in the near future to try it out. I'll keep you posted.

Palo Duro Canyon Revisited

We finally had a free weekend, so we decided to make a short trip to Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Just the two of us. The weather looked promising with high temperatures forecast to be in the 80's (the last time we camped here was in July and the daytime highs topped 100).
We weren't disappointed. No wind, no rain, and great temperatures. The only "issue" was a young couple tent camping in the site next to us. They had an awesome radio in their truck, and they shared it....a lot. A loud radio, however, couldn't discourage the deer and turkeys who frequented the area. Eventually the radio was turned down and the evening was crystal clear. Perfect for grilling burgers.

Saturday morning we fired up the Keurig, brewed a couple cups of coffee (man, I love that coffee maker!) and after a chilly half mile walk around the campground, we cooked breakfast, cleaned up the dishes and wondered what we were going to do with the rest of the day. Deciding that since we had lived in Amarillo for almost 20 years, and had never been to The Lighthouse, that would be a great place to hike to. We got started about 10:00 am. Well, it got real warm real quick and at the one mile point of a six mile hike we decided it was time to turn back.

As if we hadn't had enough, we hiked a little around our campsite.

How hot has it been in the Texas Panhandle?

So hot that even the cactus is dying!

This old power pole was spotted behind our campsite.

It seems that electricity was smaller back then!

The deer just really don't mind humans being around at all.

We loved watching a beautiful moon rise over a canyon rim.

Fully rested and mentally prepared, the following day we tried it again.
We set out at 8:00 am, took twice as much water and had a great hike. There was no one else on the trail for the first hour or so. In fact it wasn't until we needed to "pause for a cause" that we met another hiker. I was supposed to be the lookout and it wasn't until Betty had her pants around her ankles that he turned the corner in the trail and with his head down, walked right up to us before looking up! "Oh, uh, sorry" he mumbled as he did an about face. Oh well. I'm pretty sure it wasn't anything he hadn't seen before.

When we returned to camp we got an added bonus! The kids with the awesome radio had departed, so we had a peaceful lunch before packing up to head home.