Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - Work Day

Spent the day getting caught up on work and recovering from the long busy day yesterday.

Monday, December 13, 2010 - Travel to San Angelo State Park

Got out early, out of the park by 8:15, picked up hay just up the road and headed out from there in less than half an hour. Headed straight north to Marta, where we stopped for breakfast at a little cafe (no fast food except Dairy Queen, so we decided we needed to take the time for a quick sit-down. Half an hour later we were on the road again, making excellent time. We stopped at Walmart for a few things, including gas for Hubby's van (I had stopped earlier for diesel just south of town), and made it to the park headquarters by 3:30. Unfortunately, headquarters wasn't where we needed to go, so we were re-directed to the South Entrance, where it took over 20 minutes just to register. Texas State Parks has the most confusing entrance fees I've ever seen. By the time you get done you think you're being nickeled and dimed to death! An entrance fee (one waived for Hubby because we bought a Texas State Park Pass, but not for me because we were in separate vehicles), if we had been in the same vehicle we would have both got in free. Then we had to pay for two extra vehicle fees (one for the RV trailer, another for the van, but not for the horse trailer - go figure. Had we been a motor home instead of a truck pulling a trailer, we would have only been charged one extra vehicle fee). No senior discount until Hubby turns 80! And the list goes on. It was impossible to figure it out in the end. They also mentioned that we would get two nights free if we stayed for a week, which was a good possibility anyway. Finally, after we finished at the office, we were directed 8 miles up the road to the North Entrance, a locked gate that would get us to the horse camp. They marked the map wrong, so I missed the entrance and had to turn around. Finally we arrived at the campground, a nice little camp with 10 sites, all with water, electric and corrals for the horses. We picked out Site 7 because it was long enough for both vehicles (or should I say, all four), and a good sized pen (some were smaller), and it didn't take long to get settled in. Hubby had no problem getting a satellite signal in between huge old pecan trees, and we got everything done before dark. Yeah!

Sunday, December 12, 2010 - Rest and Preparation Day

Spent the day tending the horses, watching TV, hooking up the horse trailer, getting caught up the blog and generally relaxing for the bulk of the day in preparation for a very early start tomorrow morning. We took a short drive down to the shores of the Rio Grande, just to say we saw it. (That's the pic, Hubby with the Rio Grande behind him.) It was rather disappointing, much smaller than we figured it would be, apparently Mexico has been draining a lot of it for agriculture (though I suspect there are just as many Americans upstream doing the same thing...) We've decided our next stop will be San Angelo State Park, which will be close to a six hour drive, and we've arranged to stop to pick up a few bales of hay from Terry, the owner of the RV park who also happens to grow hay, mostly alfalfa, but some mixed, which is what we want anyway. That should hold us over until we get to the Hill Country area, where I expect hay will be more readily available.

Saturday, December 11, 2010 - Ride Day near Big Bend

Slept late this morning, and after a late breakfast we saddled and booted up the horses and headed north out a dirt road behind the RV Park. It had some areas that were very rocky, and others that were sandy like a beach. We passed a number of junk piles, riding out until we reached a small rise that, once we were on top, could see it led directly into town, accounting for the reason why it had become the town's unofficial landfill, and we turned around, looping around a ridge to the east before coming back to the RV park about 90 minutes later, just enough to give the horses some exercise without making them work too hard. They had worked up a sweat in the heat (this is the first time I've been able to ride in a sleeveless shirt in ages!), so we got out a hose and rinsed them down. That lasted about 5 minutes, when Hubby's mare flopped down and did a half roll in the dirt, making her a muddy mess on one side. Well, at least she was cooler! Had another nice evening at Happy Hour, though the cigarette smoke was starting to bother me today, it seemed most of the group was smoking today, and not enough breeze to send it away. Got back as the sun set and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Friday, December 10, 2010 - Work Catch Up Day

I spent the day getting caught up on work, while Hubby went into town to meet with the propane guy (we had to make an appointment, would you believe!) and get a few things we had missed at the store the previous day. Went to Happy Hour again, met some more people, and had another pleasant evening all around.

Thursday, December 9, 2010 - Travel Day to Big Bend, Another Screwup

Got out by 10:00 after going over to the campground to dump. An easy drive down some desolate roads, with just a few small hills to cross on the way. After shopping and getting gas in Presidio (where the prices were much higher than anywhere we've been lately, mostly because it was so small everything was pretty much a monopoly), and discovering the only propane place in town was closed, which was a problem because we had one empty tank and despite our southern location the nights are still below freezing, we arrived at Fort Leaton, an interesting museum of the early history of the area and one of the outposts for Big Bend. After several minutes of pleasant banter with the Ranger there, we discovered that almost the entire park was closed for all but a public hunt, a fact that neither the reservation in Austin or the folks at the park had mentioned to me when I had called earlier. All he could offer was one night, but we'd have to be out before 9:00 am when the hunt started the next day. Considering that we had to go 27 miles on washboard gravel roads to get there (and another 27 to get out), we declined. Now we were stuck. Fortunately, just up the road was the Loma Paloma Golf Course and RV Park, and the owner was kind enough to let us stay there with the horses. We found a perfect spot, way at the western end in their storage area, that had two trees just the right distance apart for a highline. It didn't have water or electric, but at the time we thought we were only spending the night so it didn't matter. We had filled the RV with water at Ft. Leaton before our unfortunate discovery, so all we needed was to fill the 55 gallon drum for the horses, which we did in short order. We were soon settled in, and were then invited to Happy Hour at the Lizard Lounge, a tent-covered are in the middle of the park with long tables and chairs for socializing, which apparently happens every day at 4:00. We made our way over there about 4:30 with drinks in hand, and met some of the other temporary residents of the park. They even had some munchies, like a real live happy hour. It was very pleasant, and quite a nice surprise after being in so many public parks that have posted warnings about not having alcohol on the premises. We soon learned that all of the property directly behind the RV park was State land, and we were welcome to ride back there. Once Hubby learned that, we decided to stay a few days, rather than to rush back north into much colder weather (a major blizzard was crossing the country). Stayed in the gathering until the sun went down and the temps dropped, then got everyone settled in for the evening.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010 - Avoided Going Outside Day

Spent the day conslidating as many jobs as we could whenever we needed to go outside, just to avoid the 15 minute exercise of getting the burrs off our boots and clothing before coming inside, longer if we took the dogs with us, because I had to put boots and Marina and carry Billy out to the dirt road. Not a fun day. We went to get water out of the trough for the horses, but it was frozen and hadn't refilled, so we had to run over to the main campground to pick up some water there. Did some work on the computer, made a few phone calls, confirmed there were openings at the horse camo down at Big Bend Ranch State Park on the Tex-Mex border, and otherwise prepared for our departure tomorrow, ahead of schedule purely due to the misery of the burrs!