Day 21 - White Sand Dunes National Monument

Today was originally planned as a day in Guadalupe National Park (you can hike to the highest point in Texas). However, at a poolside conversation yesterday, a fellow camper mentioned White Sand Dunes National Monument as a great place to take the kids. So we re-routed and replaced Guadalupe with White Sand Dunes. I hope Guadalupe's feelings weren't hurt..... There was no way my kids were going to make the 8 mile trek to the top anyway. I had to be real about that.

Sometime in the past I had heard about White Sand Dunes. Perhaps it was a reference to the Missile launch facility or the Airforce base in White Sands. The comment was so long ago, I really hadn't remembered the White Sand Dunes as anything special.

After today, I think they are something special for sure, and definitely a place to visit. When you drive into the dunes, you feel like you are on another planet. Everything is white and there is no vegetation. Check out this great picture of Bailey being pulled by Dakota, the Watkins' dog. This picture is what we look like going down the road (Mayo RV in front, Watkins in the rear), but set in the backdrop of the white sands. The pictures just don't do it justice.

Day 20 - May 29 - Carlsbad Caverns

To describe our experience at Carlsbad is like describing a movie with a great plot and a disappointing ending. We spent the afternoon touring the caves and being amazed at the cave formations. However, in the evening, our expectations for an amazing bat flight (based on our 2007 experience) were not met. Unfortunately, only about 1,000 (my guess) bats exited the cave during the dusk visibility. In September 2007, I would guess there was 300,000 that we viewed (based on what the rangers said). I guess I didn't do my homework. and the bat flight. I'd recommend the late summer months. By the way, you probably should consider the flight return from 4 am to 6 am. The rangers say that this is much more impressive than the exit. The gates are always open so anyone can come in any morning to view the return. We opted not to because the ranger said the numbers would be so small we would probably be disappointed.

We learned that the bat flights in May are about 1/100th of the volume in July, August, and September. The reason for this is that the mother bats are giving birth during May and their flight patterns are not the same. The baby bats hang from the ceiling for 5 to 6 weeks before they exit the cave for their first hunt, which is why the flights in the late summer are spectacular. For those of you wanting to experience the caves, I would highly recommend the late summer and the early morning return viewing.

Day 19 - Stationary in Carlsbad, New Mexico

For the first time we stayed put for an entire day. It was a good opportunity to catch up on laundry, take care of some logistical things, and enjoy time with the Watkins family (Sheri's sister) who arrived this afternoon. They will be joining us for 2/3 of the trip over the next 8 weeks.

Tomorrow we will explore the caves at Carlsbad Caverns. They are most famous for the evening bat flight program and the unusually large open room in the cave with many different formations. For the bat flight program, the National Park Service has constructed an amphitheater right at the mouth of the cave. Several hundred thousand bats exit the cave each evening in the summer months. We saw this in 2007 and it is definitely worth seeing again. We even read that the park allows morning viewing for folks to see the bats return on specific mornings from 4 am to 6 am. They exit in a tornado like fashion by swirling out of the cave (thousands at a time). However, the return is more like a dive bomb approach. I hope we get a chance to see that!

Day 18 - Big Bend, Texas to Carlsbad, New Mexico

As we relocated from Big Bend to Carlsbad today, we achieved several milestones: We crossed the 3,000 mile mark, we entered our seventh state, and we changed our third tire. This is also the first time on the 2014 trip that we are repeating a 2007 location (Carlsbad, New Mexico).

Without convenient internet over the last several days, I feel as though I have short changed my comments on Big Bend National Park. Although it is extremely far from any route most folks would travel, the park is worth visiting. If you like birds, there have been over 450 species spotted in the park. I saw several birds I have never seen, many having brilliant yellow, red, and orange colors. The park is a "paradise" for avid birders. The sunrises and sunsets are incredible, the night sky is amazing (it has some of the lowest light pollution in the US), and the opportunity to see other wildlife (bears and mountain lions) make this a fun park to explore.

Speaking of the night sky, Bria was absolutely terrified when we stopped to view the stars. I held her in my arms and she still couldn't handle the darkness. I guess we spent too much time talking about the dangers of bears and mountain lions because she was convinced one was going to grab her out there in the dark. Brandon and Bailey were absolutely amazed at the number of visible stars.

Caught a sunrise on Memorial Day

Days 15, 16, and 17 - Big Bend National Park

Saturday, May 24
We traveled from Fort Stockton to Big Bend National Park today. About 10 miles south of Fort Stockton, my low tire pressure sensor gave me an alarm. I'd like to give a shout out to the construction worker who left that nail in the road for me to puncture my tire. He allowed me to boost my confidence by re-establishing that I indeed can change a flat tire. A sincere thanks for Ford for giving me a full size spare. We turned around and got the flat tire repaired so we now still have a full size spare.
On the way to Big Bend we saw several road runners, I almost hit one but he flew to avoid getting hit. We also saw several little miniature dust tornadoes running through the desert. In fact one crossed the road right as we drove by and we were blown around by it.

Sunday, May 25
We began the day by leaving the campground at 8:30 and traveled an hour to the Chisos Mountains Visitor Center. We were the only people who attend the 9:30 Ranger-led nature hike. As we were getting started, a one year old bear walked right through our picnic area. We were probably 15 yards from him. The rangers intentionally try to scare the bear to train them that people are not friendly. The tourists were all happily taking pictures.
We drove another hour west to a beautiful canyon cut out by the Rio Grande river. The river is remarkably shallow, but the canyon is really impressive. We hiked the 1.6 mile trail to get further in the canyon and then on the way back, the kids waded across the river into Mexico (see post below). Bailey slipped and fell in so she went for a swim in the Rio Grande and thoroughly enjoyed it. Bria lost her flip flop in the very thick mud that lines the bottom of the river.

Crossing into Mexico

The kids waded across the Rio Grande into Mexico today. I stayed in the US. It's probably the only time my little kids were in a different country than their parents.

Day 14 - New Braunfels, Texas to Fort Stockton, Texas

Today we drove about 5 hours across what most people would consider emptiness. I really see why people appreciate the Shenandoah Valley if they come from the dessert. You could probably buy land for really cheap out here, but it looks like all the usable land has been purchased and folks installed windmills or oil rigs. The rest probably has little value. The population density of Pecos county is about 1.5 people/square mile (excluding the largest city, Fort Stockton). It's pretty barren and remote. Just for comparison, the population density of Rappahannock County in Virginia (very rural county) is 26 people/square mile. We drove about 100 miles and didn't see a single gas station. That almost got me in trouble. Thankfully, I had 20 miles to empty when I rolled into the gas station in Fort Stockton.
Tomorrow we head to Big Bend National Park. I will likely step off the internet grid and return in 3 days.
After 2 hours, I was finally able to upload Bria's video recording of our Skycoaster ride. The narration is well worth the 35 second clip (see below).

Brandon and Hunter on Skycoaster

Day 13 - Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels, Texas

We spent the day at Schlitterbahn, which is a really nice water park here just north of San Antonio. I don't have a lot of pictures because cameras and phones don't mix well with water. However, I have a great video of me and Brandon on the sky coaster. Bria is the camera operator and gives a great commentary. She kept telling me she wanted to go with me and Brandon, but when the time came to sign up, she wouldn't say no, just not right now. I think she is afraid to admit she has a fear of something. I've tried to upload the video but it just won't work with the connection I have here. Tomorrow we are off to Fort Stockton and then Big Bend National Park. I suspect I may fall off the radar for a 3 or 4 days assuming that the National Park doesn't have wifi and there likely won't be a cell phone tower in the desert!

Day 12 - Burleson, Texas to New Braunfels, Texas

Today we covered 217 miles in about 4 hours. We are right near San Antonio, Texas and will spend Thursday doing something fun in the San Antonio area (there was still some debate at bedtime......).
The kids swam in the Guadalupe River, which happens to be 20 yards from my campsite. The swimming was short lived because a snake decided to crash the party. I'm not sure how many species of water snakes are poisonous, but I didn't think I should find out.

I'd like to honor the innovative business men in Texas who have developed very interesting tag lines that probably wouldn't get my attention. For example, one used auto store was titled "Cut the Crap Auto Sales". I just thought that was supposed to be standard business practice. We ate at a very popular Bar-B-Q chain tonight that has numerous stores throughout this part of Texas. If you read the shirts of the employees at Rudy's Bar-B-Q you will see that it says "The Worst Bar-B-Q in Texas". I don't know about you, but I simply wouldn't have thought that would be a winning tag line. Somehow, people pay lots of money for the worst Bar-B-Q in Texas. Heck, I've grilled some pretty lousy hamburgers, maybe I should start competing for the worst Bar-B-Q slot.

Days 10 and 11 - Burleson and Cleburne Texas Visiting Charla and Deedra Bailey (and their families)

We drove from Northern Dallas to Southern Dallas to visit my nieces and their families. The weather cooperated nicely so we got to enjoy a lot of time outdoors. Unfortunately, the internet service did not cooperate nicely. In 2007, on our first cross country trip, the wifi at campgrounds was surprisingly fast. In 2014, the wifi is super slow. I think it must be a combination of two things: more users, and data restriction. Some campgrounds actually post that they throttle the data for users that are consuming too much bandwidth. Last night, it took 10 minutes to open my blog page. What this means is that I can't download pictures to our Flickr account. So you may only get a few small snapshots in the blog rather than an album. We'll see if we can find campgrounds with faster wifi as we move west.

Day 9 - May 18, 2014 - Dallas, Texas

Today was a great day spending time in Dallas with my good high school friend Jeff Terry and his son Spencer. There are many people in my network of friends near Washington DC that probably don't like this the border around this photo because it's the Dallas Cowboys, the long time arch rival to the Washington Redskins. This picture was taken on our tour of the Dallas Cowboys stadium, which is the largest domed structure in the world. The 1.5 hour tour was pretty impressive and included many unique facts. Who knew that the rivalry between the Cowboys and Redskins started when the owner of the Redskins tried to block the Cowboys from being added to the league. All owners had to vote "yes", and the Redskins were the only franchise to vote "No". The Cowboys owner outsmarted the Redskins by purchasing the rights to the song "Hail to the Redskins" and he didn't allow the Redskins to use the song until they voted "yes". I learned one more fact about myself. I can no longer out run my 11 year old son.......He beat me in a
race on the field.

We also enjoyed a round of golf at TopGolf, which is a highly advanced driving range where the golf balls have a radio frequency chip inside of them so that the players try to shoot near targets and the distance to the target is recorded.

Day 8 - Hot Springs, Arkansas to Dallas, Texas

Today we spent quite a bit of time on the road (~6 hours with stops) and covered about 313 miles. The highlight of the day was our evening campfire with a good high school friend of mine, Jeff Terry. We shared smores and stories around the campfire. Here is a smores shortcut: put the marshmallow between two chocolate chip cookies. It's absolutely delicious. On Sunday, we will be taking a tour of the Dallas Cowboys stadium built in 2009 with Jeff Terry and his son Spencer.

Day 7 - Hot Springs National Park, Hot Springs, Arkansas

From 1915 to about 1930 Hot Springs, Arkansas was equivalent to Orlando, Florida today. It was the place to go if you were rich or poor. Although there are many hot springs throughout the US, the water from these springs was thought to have medicinal qualities superior to any other hot spring water because of its purity, it's mineral content, and the heat source (radioactivity [very small amounts]) of the water. There were 21 bath houses (think spas) in operation that catered to all walks of life. Some of them are still in operation today and 100,000 "baths" are taken in the hot springs each year.
We toured a restored bath house, took a small hike to several hot springs (the water was almost too hot to touch), and went to an observation tower. We also filled up some water jugs using the free spigots they have throughout the town. I'm hoping the water has special mineral qualities to heal Bria from her picky food issues and her stubbornness. Better yet, perhaps it will heal me from getting so aggravated by both of those.

Day 6 - Memphis, Tennessee to Hot Springs, Arkansas

I guess you could call today a day of accidents. Thankfully, they surrounded us but nothing directly affected us. On the way to Hot Springs we passed a very unusual accident in which a tractor trailer (with 2 trailers) veered off into the woods and hit a tree. Here at our campsite, the neighboring camper had a branch fall and puncture the roof during high winds. Yesterday, when we were not here, our other neighbor had a branch fall and dent their truck. When the kids heard these stories they were asking me to move!
Today we passed the 1000 mile mark. To celebrate, I changed a tire on the travel trailer! It had a very unusual wear pattern. You can see from the picture the outside 1/4 of the tire wore down quickly but the edge is still intact and 3/4 of the tire is fine. I think there much be a tire defect or some suspension issue.The other 3 tires are just fine. I'll be monitoring the new tire very closely. Tomorrow we spend the day at Hot Springs National Park!

Days 4 and 5 - Moving across Tennessee

Today and yesterday were traveling days. The next real stop is Hot Springs National Park (we will arrive on Thursday). However, we have made the best of both days. We got the RV window leak repaired on Tuesday and the kids invented a new card game that we played together along with some other card games. Today we are staying at Graceland, which is Elvis' mansion. We elected not to pay the sizable entrance fee and just enjoy the views from a distance. The whole square mile seems to be devoted to Elvis. I've never seen so many Elvis stores in one place. We really weren't staying here because of Graceland, they just happened to have a nice campground on the property and it was on the way.

I don't watch much late night TV, but I've seen Jimmy Fallon's "Thank You" segment a couple times. I've got two for him: "Thank You, Mr. School Bus Driver for passing me on Interstate 40 in Tennessee and reminding me just how slow I was driving today." "Thank you daughter, for reminding me that the sewage pipe I hook up every day really does contain some gross stuff. I needed that reminder."

Day 3 - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

What a beautiful day! We began the morning with a 2.6 mile hike to Laurel Falls. (Great recommendation by the park ranger.) It wasn't too difficult and great for families because the path is paved. We even saw folks pushing strollers. After seeing the 80 foot falls, we made our way to Clingman's Dome, which is the third highest peak east of the Mississippi at 6643 feet. (The top 2 peaks are only 4 and 40 feet higher and both are nearby). The coolest part about the summit is that the park service has erected an observation tower. Unfortunately, the kids only wanted to stay up there for about 5 minutes. Total distance hiked for the day: 3.6 miles. Total distance I had to carry Bria: 0.1 miles (on the steepest part of course). She claimed she just couldn't make it any longer.....Within 10 minutes she was running up the path.

Cross Country Trip - Day 2 - Great Smoky Mountiains National Park

Today was our first day in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which is the most visited National Park of all the US National Parks. The park is known for several things: 1) Salamanders, 2) The highest eastern US mountains, and 3) The history of settlement and creation of the park.
Salamanders - I never knew that salamanders could reach 2 feet in length! The Hellbender Salamander is not unique to this park, but is in large numbers here. Apparently, the variety and number of salamanders in the park make this a Salamander lover's paradise. There is at least one species that is only found here.
History - The land was originally inhabited by the Cherokee Indians but the US government drove the Indians from this area to Oklahoma in the 1830s. The ranger told us that of the 14,000 Indians that were driven from the land, only about 10,000 actually survived the trip. The trip is known as the "trail of tears". The regional European descendents began moving into the park and cultivated the land until the 1934, when several conservation groups in Tennessee and North Carolina purchased the land and deeded it to the US Government. Unfortunately, 1,200 people were kicked off their property to create the national park.

If you are ever near the area, the park is a great destination. The town of Gatlinburg feels much like a tourist region, but the park has some amazing views and nice waterfalls. I highly recommend the ranger talks. We took a one hour hike with a ranger today and he gave an excellent educational talk/hike. My favorite fun fact of the day was the story behind the "dog hobble bush". In the early 1900s locals used to hunt the black bear with dogs. The black bear would run through thick brush filled with the "dog hobble" bush. The bush's leaves have sharp pointed edges that wouldn't bother the bear, but would cause the dog's to hobble because it would scratch up their nose and face.

Cross Country Trip Day 1 - Berryville, Virginia to Gatlinburg, Tennessee (419 miles)

Bailey, Brandon, Bria, and I left Berryville, Virginia around 9 am and arrived at the KOA in Gatlinburg around 5:45 pm. I'm glad this was one of the longest driving days, I wouldn't want too many of these days. As soon as we arrived, we set up the RV and grabbed something to eat. However, just when we could have gone outside and burned off some energy, it started raining. Needless to say, all that stored energy came out when I tried to put them to bed. Maybe I was too ambitious thinking that my patience was sufficient to hand three kids alone for 21 days......My hat goes off to the single parents or military spouses that do it full time.

There is one issue that I am going to have to repair on the RV. The window is not sealed properly and water is slowly leaking into the bunkbed area. Hopefully a little caulk around the window will do the trick. We'll find out......

Day 6 (2 days until departure)

Only 2 more days and we'll be taking off. Here is a link to view the first portion of our route:
First 13 days - Berryville, Virginia to San Antonio, Texas

After posting pictures of the RV we used in 2007 on my last post, I thought I would post some pictures of the RV we are using in 2014. Bria thought she would be funny and pose for the picture upside down.

Sabbatical Day 3 - (6 days until departure)

Although our 2007 sabbatical was full of fun, it also had it's moments of conflict. What can you expect when you cram 6 people in a pretty small RV for 112 days. As you can see from the 2007 pictures below, the sleeping arrangements required all 4 kids to lay side by side. Needless to say, we had at least one kid say "he's in my space" numerous times every night. The kids aren't so small anymore and we have one more Mayo than last time. Thankfully, we've got two sets of bunk beds in the back to remove the "he's touching me" problem!!

Sabbatical Day 1 (7 days until departure) (Saturday, May 3, 2014)

Most mornings I wake up and do the same routine. While everyone else is still sleeping, I shower, get dressed, and get on with my day. My biological clock is still programmed for an early morning, so today began like every other day.....However, this morning when I opened the door to the bathroom, I almost had a heart attack. My eye caught a glimpse of what appeared to be an enormous mouse. I almost jumped out of my skin and quickly turned on the light to see what this creature was. There in the light was our hamster Buttercup. She thought she would explore the house the night before and decided it would be a great idea to scare me to death. Thanks Buttercup!