Carlsbad, NM

130 miles north of lovely Ft. Stockton, Texas lies Carlsbad, New Mexico. The drive through this part of the Texas panhandle was an endless string of oil fields, most with wells pumping, and with quite a few new wells being drilled.

We made it out of Texas...finally! 

One of the hundreds of oil wells along the way

We both expected Carlsbad to be a larger town than it actually is. It appears to be populated almost totally by oil workers, as is the RV park we stayed in last night. We were a little disappointed when we rolled in here yesterday afternoon, so we're going to head on up the road this morning.

The world famous Carlsbad Caverns is as exciting for Stacy as Disneyland. For Jack, not so much. So Stacy took the 2-hour trip underground...and had a blast. Jack did a little reading.

The rangers carefully screen every visitor to make sure they have not been in other caverns recently because of the white-nose fungus that is decimating bat populations all over the Eastern USA. MILLIONS of bats have died so far, and the fungus keeps spreading. Since the only caverns we visited were Jewell Caves in South Dakota, we were cleared to go. Also, since the bats at Carlsbad migrate to Mexico during the winter (not so dumb, huh?) and don't hibernate in the caves, they are much less susceptible to the disease. Still, the rangers are cautious.

Cave entrance, discovered by a farm boy in the early 1900's when he saw what looked like a large plume of smoke in the distance. Upon investigation, it turned out to be a swarm of BATS leaving a large cave.

A hint from Evan's preschool days about how to remember which way stalagmites and stalactites go: 

"When the mites go UP, the tites come DOWN". 

The self-guided tour was remarkable! You can enter through the natural entrance and walk down into the cavern, or take an elevator down 750 feet. Stacy walked in. The paved walkway winds down, down, down through dark, minimally-lit grottoes, around boulders, past "decorations", and finally into the "Big Room" which is the size of 14 football fields, and hundreds of feet high, lined with incredible formations.

On to Roswell...and hopefully alien encounters!

Ft. Stockton, TX

Yesterday we left San Antonio and headed out across the vastness that is west Texas. Fort Stockton is about 320 miles away. (And thanks to a little traffic snafu in San Antonio we added a few extra miles.) At one point along the drive we realized that 1/4 tank of gas wouldn't get us the remaining 120 miles to the next gas station, so we had to backtrack 17 miles.  So, 320 became 380, which is a long drive for a F150 pulling 4 tons.

All the way across, the scenery didn't change much:

100 miles along....

200 miles along...

300 miles along...

Whoa, a WINDMILL! Stop the train! 

Those folks who aren't pulling their house behind them can take enjoy a generous Texas speed limit.

And finally we got to Fort Stockton....

Look familiar....?

They are taking advantage of the wide open spaces and the relentless wind to develop wind farms out here. We saw, quite literally, thousands of windmills along the way.

Windmills along I-10

Even I have to admit the sky here is beautiful.

Today, we leave Texas and head into New Mexico.

San Antonio, TX

Ahhh... It is SUNNY and warm in San Antonio. Jack and I both agree that we are much better people when the sun is shining.

We are staying in a lovely campground, the Alamo KOA, which is actually several miles from the Alamo. But, a city bus stops right outside our gates and takes us right to the Alamo and Riverwalk. We have not been that impressed with KOA's in general, but this one is exceptional.

When we visited the Alamo we were prepared to be unimpressed, since both of us had heard it was just a little old building scrunched in between a bunch of large modern ones. But it actually was quite pretty, very moving, and extremely well preserved. We just happen to be here on March 6, the date in 1836 on which Santa Anna attacked the mission and killed the 189 men who were fighting for Texas' independence from Mexico. There was a pre-dawn memorial this morning (the attack happened at 6 a.m.) but we were sleeping so didn't make that.

The Alamo

That is Davy Crockett on the right and Mr. Travis, who led the Texan fighters, on the left

Stacy at the Alamo

The interior (We learned later that photos were absolutely not permitted)

The San Antonio Riverwalk is breathtaking! We really didn't know what to expect, but it was so serene and picturesque and clean. And there are ducks! It must be even more spectacular when all the trees have leaves and the flowers are blooming.

Water taxi

We walked down to the Old Town Mercado (Market Square) which was lovely, but very quiet.

And the oldest church in Texas, the San Fernando Cathedral, is in the plaza. It is very large and impressive, inside and out. It is also home to a tomb containing the remains of the men who died at the Alamo... Crockett, Bowie, Travis, et al.

The Cathedral

The tomb of men killed at the Alamo

Austin, Texas

Howdy, y'all! Yes, seems we have been in Texas just a little too long. :)

We finally were able to chip our way out of the ice in Dallas on Tuesday and drove on down to Austin. It's the state capital and home of University of Texas, its 50,000 students, and Bevo the Longhorn steer. It really is a very pretty city.  We only did a brief drive through, as our time stuck in the Dallas ice storm put us behind "schedule" (as if we actually have one of those).

Longhorn Stadium....MASSIVE complex. Football is big here.

I thought there would be lots of steers....and BIGGER ones. But this is the only one we found.

Austin has some beautiful new and interesting old architecture. The Colorado River runs right through town. The Capital and surrounding plaza are gorgeous.

Texas State Capital. We are fortunate to be here during the Republican primary campaign, which has made for some "interesting" TV advertising.

The Lone Star State

Dallas...Sunny no more

Well, we had planned to leave Dallas this morning and head south to beat a cold front due to move through here tonight. Well, surprise, surprise, surprise! We awoke this morning to sub-freezing temps and a combination of freezing rain, sleet and what the weather folks on TV call "Thundersleet".

Yay us!

Luckily, the RV park had room for us to stay another day, so we are hunkered down until at least tomorrow when it is supposed to warm to above freezing by noon. We are hoping to go on to Austin tomorrow, and then continue to San Antonio the day after.

But we've had a great time here in Big D and enjoyed a beautiful 80-degree sunny day yesterday, so I guess we can't complain TOO much. We had a fantastic time last night with Jack's brother, Jim, and his lovely new bride of just under 4 months (whose actual name just happens to be Dallas too!).

Any-hoo, as they say here in the South, Irv is a nice warm sanctuary in which we can weather the storm. And the Oscars are on TV tonight!

They call it "Thundersleet", and ain't nobody going nowhere!

Dallas, TX

So here we are in SUNNY Dallas where it was 78 degrees yesterday and....wait for it....WE SAT IN THE SUN! Today is just as lovely and warm. But tomorrow it is forecast to plunge to the 40's again, and then freeze overnight. Unbelievable.

Jack lived in Dallas from age 11-15. In the '80s, Stacy attended Nursing school at University of Texas in Arlington. So we both have some history here. You will notice, however, that WE DO NOT LIVE HERE! There are many good reasons for that.

But Jack's brother Jim and his wife Dallas live here, and we are excited to see them. Also Jack's nephews: Mark and his wife Teri, and James and his family. So we are here to visit them. Who knows, maybe we will actually remember to get some photos!

This whole area is bustling and crowded with tons of traffic. Obviously the economy is doing pretty well, at least where we are in North Dallas.

We are staying at a beautiful city campground, right on Lake Lewisville. It is quiet and conveniently located, with lots of trees. I think the lake used to be closer, but Texas has had years of drought so the lake is pretty low.

See, it's pretty, but very dry.

Tomorrow we will head south to Austin, hoping to avoid the freeze they say is coming. It will be the 52nd freeze of the winter. Unbelievable.

O_O_O_OK-la-homa!

We drove out of Hot Springs, through the Oachita Mountains and into Oklahoma.

The first night, we stayed at a KOA in Sallisah, OK where there is a race track, a small casino, and not much  else. The nice young couple who owned and ran the campground had just started their KOA career, having recently moved down from Michigan. They were lovely people, and the campground was clean. We wish them well.

On the highway, we passed through Checotah, OK which, as EVERYONE surely knows, is the hometown of Carrie Underwood, 2005 American Idol winner and country music's sweetheart.

We drove on into Oklahoma City, where Jack lived until he was 10 years old. We had a great visit with his sister, Betty Sue, and her husband Frank. Jack's niece Ashley also stopped by. We enjoyed it so much that we forgot to take any photos!

We visited the OKC gravesite of Jack's first adoptive mother, Mary Virginia Ramsey. It has been a tradition for Jack to stop by and "have a little conversation with her" whenever he is in town, just to check in and let her know how he's doing in life.

We also visited the gravesite in Moore, OK of Jack's birth mother, which he had never done before. We wandered around the cemetery in the 20 degree weather looking unsuccessfully for the grave, until it dawned on us to call the City. Fortunately, we found a very helpful woman who guided us via cell phone to Janie Lou Blair's gravesite.

It was freezing in OKC, so cold that we had to bring in our water hose each night to keep it from freezing. We are SO tired of being cold!