Seminole Canyon S.P. TX

 

We seem to have a knack for traveling on rainy days, and that makes a huge mess of the outside of both vehicles. The full-out washing of vehicles at campsites is generally frowned upon if not outright prohibited, but in many places a bucket-and-rag wipe-down will be tolerated. TBG becomes twitchy until he can knock the dirt off, which generally happens relatively soon after we land. I appreciate that he does all that, rebuffing my offers of assistance, probably because that usually means I’m free to prepare the large amount of food necessary to keep the B in TBG. He’s been losing a bit of weight since we took off (we both have, neither of us meaning to, but one of us has more to give than the other, and it ain’t him.) Food, in more ways than one, is a challenge when you travel full-time. I could do a whole post just about that.

The rain was gone by the time we parked, but a cold snap was imminent and the camp host was making the rounds to warn everyone of the strong winds that would accompany the dropping temps. Did I already write this post? It feels like I already wrote this exact same thing before. Sigh. Aaaaanyhow, we had known this was all coming, but since it would be short-lived, we knew we could wait out a bit of a freeze for the goodness in store on the other side of it. Weather, as you can imagine, is a challenge when you travel full-time. I could do a whole post just about that.

We did little with the rest of day, walking to the bird blind (no birds), around an access road (lots of deer), found one OATV channel in English and watched the second half of The Blue Lagoon (holy kombucha, it was as hilariously awful as I remembered) and most of The Man in the Iron Mask. After that, the only thing we could watch for the rest of the stay was a Spanish-dubbed funniest videos-type show that didn’t require understanding the language to appreciate or a Texas TV station called Grit that plays all westerns, mostly the really old ones. There was park internet available, but it was quite spotty, and there was no cell service at all at our site. Connectivity, in all its forms, is a challenge when you travel full-time. I could do a whole post just about that.

Our first full day was chilly, gray, and windy, but we bundled up and trekked the road back to the Visitor Center to tour the displays and walk the short trail adjacent to it.

 

TBG is too cold to mill about in the wind.

Once we were back and warm in the rig, and with most of the day left to fill but no desire to be outside any longer, we tried to find things to do to stave off rig-fever. I re-arranged our wardrobe closet. We had a fire drill, me pulling the red handles on both emergency exit windows while TBG stood outside to catch them. The seals on those windows can become sticky from non-use and be very hard to open in a true emergency. The one in our bedroom was almost impossible for me to push open, so it was a good exercise to have done. I did my best to make the safety exercise engaging by clapping my hands and calling out, “Good drill! Good drill!” as we moved hurriedly between the bedroom and living room.

We listened to XM radio, a subscription we added last month when the free trial they had in September expired. When we were just vacationing RVers, we enjoyed being at the whims of OTA radio, but now that we travel in our home, we wanted something with a bit more variety and reliability. This rig also has a satellite TV dome on top, and we have talked about getting that service in the near future as well. It’s a hard decision for us because we do appreciate how an occasional dearth of all electronic signals forces us to be more creative and active. I believe it’s also what caused some of the trouble in The Shining, as well, so we’ll have to think long and hard about that.

 

staRV

Happily, the following morning dawned clear but at a shivery 35º. We took our time over breakfast, giving the sun a chance to work a little magic, then set out on the 4.26 mile Middle Fork Trail. The trail itself wasn’t very picturesque, which accounts for why we have few pictures of that outing. Halfway through the first half of the walk, my phone ding-donged from inside my backpack, indicating we were getting internet. Good thing our plan includes international roaming because we were getting it from Mexico!

 

Ramada

Finally, someone got smart, and the benches in the ramadas weren’t bolted down, so they could be moved to the changeable shade throughout the day, not that we needed shade on this day. We paused here in the warm sun to catch up on some email, phone calls, and the like. I’m sure if anyone had seen us, noses in our phones in the middle of the trail, they would have judged us harshly. I, myself, would have done the same only a few short months ago, shaking my head at people out to dinner only to have their phones out, not talking to one another, or seemingly ignoring the beautiful world around them, while they poked at their screens sending texts and emails. But now that we are together 24/7/365 with a great deal of that time in a connectivity wasteland, we have to take advantage of it when we can. To the outside world, we know we will appear to be those people who cannot bear to put their phones down for one minute and relate to one another, when in reality, most of the time we do nothing but relate to one another. Besides, sometimes you’re waiting for Very Exciting News™, which I will share at the end of this post. No scrolling ahead!

 

These abundant beauties look like kalanchoe. Can they be?

 Our next day dawned in much that same way, and we again took our time in the morning, allowing the day to warm a bit before setting out. We had Health Check Day, weighing in and taking our blood pressure (all good numbers for family who are reading the blog.) Once we were cleared to resume physical activities, we set off on the 6-mile Rio Grande Trail.

 

Presa Canyon

Near the terminus of this trail, you can look across Seminole Canyon to a pictograph site that is accessible only by boat tour (not available during our stay). The namesake was visible from the overlook.

 

Panther Cave

Border Patrol

We had another General Delivery to retrieve in Comstock the next day, and on our way out of the park, we went to the Visitor Center and signed up for the canyon walking pictograph tour. Doing so may or may not relate to our Very Exciting News™ (still, no cheating!) but was definitely something we were looking forward to since it was the only way to be allowed to get on the canyon floor.

The canyon floor.

It was a beautiful morning for the tour and we were happy to be among a nice turnout, which included some new full-time RV friends we would make.

New friends are somewhere in this photo!

 We were headed up into that dark overhang at the left of this picture.

Looking out from the shelter of the pictograph cave.

 The tour was informative, and we enjoyed imagining aloud how the pictograph artists got up high enough to reach the areas they painted. My theory — that they boosted one another up on each others’ shoulders — was not too far out of the realm of possibilities. My favorite fact was that sheep, moved through by shepherds long after the pictographs were drawn, rubbed along the walls smearing the paint with their lanolin and creating swaths of color along the rock. I suppose I should mourn the loss of the ruined pictographs, but I’m a horrible person and I don’t. Maybe the pictograph paint ruined the wool in a sort of poetic justice.

Our only wildlife photo of this stay.

After the tour, we got to chatting with another [mostly] full-time RV couple from Ontario, Canada. They graciously invited us to join them around their fire pit that evening, and we gladly accepted. Meanwhile, we motored off into Comstock to find the P.O. and feed the Toad.

As in past P.O. visits, this was a very small office with the friendliest postal worker you’d ever want to meet. Even a customer introduced herself to us, recommending some things to do in the area and instructing us that if we did them, to be sure to say “Missy sent us!” Without fail, the folks we’ve met along the way, in all capacities, have been open and welcoming.

That evening, we enjoyed ourselves immensely around our delightful new friends’ propane fire pit — an object we may need to add to our traveling arsenal someday —  exchanging travel tales and laughs, under the starry sky.

On our last day, we waved goodbye to our friends as we passed their campsite on our way to hike the 6.25 mile Canyon Rim Trail. I don’t know if they were looking out their windows as we went by, but I have faith (and hope!) we will meet them again on the road.

Bridge to the Past

The sign on this “bridge” reads that it facilitates safe passage, but it’s built on top of the same rock surface that makes up the rest of the trail, rather than over any sort of chasm, so I’m not sure how they were defining “safe.”

Watch for snakes!

And we saw one, too. More precisely, TBG spotted one on the rocks to the side of the trail. It was another Coachwhip, and it hurried under a bush when it saw us, where we left it in peace.

Making a loop of it.

 We came back along the Rio Grande trail, taking our time and stopping at the ramada to call our parents and extend our time out in the lovely weather.

And now for the announcement of our Very Exciting News™!

As some of you already know, we have always intended to spend a portion of our full-time RV retirement as volunteers. In our travels prior to full-timing and now, we have benefitted immensely from the hard work volunteers provide to ensure others have pleasant, interesting, and safe experiences when they visit state and national parks. We have long had the desire to give back in kind.

TBG has been hard at work researching our options and trying to coordinate the time and place for us to do so. I am very happy to say that we have been accepted as volunteers with the NPS for Summer 2019 at Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in New Mexico! We will be spending roughly the time between Memorial Day through Labor Day there, serving as Visitor Center workers, interpetive trail guides, and anything else that is needed.

This is not a completely selfless endeavor. RV volunteers in such situations are provided with full hook-up sites and a few other amenities. They are usually only required to work 2-4 days per week, allowing them freedom to explore the beautiful areas in which they are working on their own time. The time-frame we’ve chosen was also done to ensure us a place where we didn’t have to compete with holiday crowds during the Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day weekends, as well as the general summertime camping crush.

The Gila Wilderness is a remote area, with the closest services over an hour away. There will be limited e-everything. It will be a southwest summer, but less hot than much of the rest of the state due to its elevation. However, that means only occasionally do temps hit the century mark, but they do still hit it. Thunderstorms, says the website, are common in the summer afternoons, but I rather like a good thunderstorm.

We’ll see. Maybe we’ll hate it. Probably we won’t. I won’t know until we get there how often I will be able to share via blog, how much fodder I will have to write about in one place for three+ months, or even how much of what we do on their time I can write about on our time. In the meantime, we have many months to go between now and then. In real time, as I write this, the sun will be up very soon and the trail is calling us out. Rest up, my friends! We have a lot of hiking to get through next time in the splendor of Big Bend National Park!