West Texas Fun!

Driving into Texas we didn't know quite what to expect. Various people had told us that the drive in from New Mexico was very long and very boring. Because of the hour that we lost we had tried to get an early start and to keep our breaks to a minimum. We had fueled up in anticipation of a long stretch of road which might not have many gas stations on it! As it happened we were nicely driving for a couple if hours, the older kids doing math home work and the younger ones playing and colouring, and Dominik suddenly asks, "How far until the next stop? We have 100 km left." So, we looked at the map and it didn't look too bad. That was until a couple if these 'towns' turned out to be just blips on the highway, no fuel in sight!  Finally, with 34km fuel to go, we found fuel on our navigation only 28km away. Hmmmmm. We rolled into the station without trouble, thankfully, and breathed a sigh of relief. Then a man on a motorcycle pulled in behind us and told Dominik how close HE had cut it, his tank being significantly smaller than ours. What a morning!  We refueled ourselves at Dairy Queen (burgers, not blizzards) and drove the rest of the way to the Torchbearer Center in Comfort, TX.

Although we had arrived after the office had closed, we found someone to show us the cabin where we would be staying. The weather in Texas was COLD! There was a definite nip in the air and I had arrived still wearing my sandals!  We ran back to town and bought something to make a picnic supper and went to bed.  We spent part of the next day at Walmart buying some extra clothes and I finally got a haircut. This day was a bit of a catch-up day with shopping and homework.

We have been looking forward to horseback riding since we began our trip, and as it costs quite a bit most places we were thrilled to hear that we would be allowed to go out riding at His Hill.  Friday was the big day. We met in the afternoon at the corral and met Mark, the man in charge of the horses.  We met the horses and heard what to do and what not to do.  Then we led the saddled horses from the barn down to the corral. Wait- did Jeremiah lead his horse or did it lead him??? He can't even reach the horses neck! Anyway, he was the first one to get on and, Since he wasn't going on the trail with us, he had a little lesson and rode JJ around the corral and around some pylons. He learned how to use his reins and seemed quite proud of himself.

Then it was our turn. Rebecca rode Buster, Elena had JJ, I rode on Chip, and Jonathan proudly rode a black and white named Oreo! Since we have been eating Oreo cookies on our trip Jonathan was excited about that.  We had a relaxing, albeit COLD, ride around and then were allowed to help unsaddle the horses, clean up after them and even ride on the tractor to feed them.

Saturday started off as a slightly misty day but it cleared up nicely as we drove north of Fredericksburg. We went up to Enchanted Rock State Park, which had been recommended to us by good friends who used to work at His Hill.  This park is a HUGE pink granite rock and it reminded us a bit of Ayers Rock (Uluru) in Australia. We hiked up with throngs of weekend wanderers, including a lot of Boy Scout groups. We were headed for the cave in the hill, which you can go through if you have some sort of light with you.  We knew that I couldn't go through the cave with Josiah, Dominik checked, but it was just too steep and too narrow. So we ate a snack together and they headed off.  Because there were so many Scout groups also going through the cave it was a bit of a wait, but eventualy they got in. I headed down to the car with Josiah, also a hike, after we saw that both Elena and Jeremiah would be fine in the cave. They had fun going through, even crawling on their bellies at one point! Then, once out in the open again, Jeremiah promptly threw up all over Dominiks's leg!  Oh dear.... This was coincidental and had nothing to do nothing to do with their adventure. He was happy enough before they started! It was just the beginning of a virus! Anyway, he went right to sleep in the car and was soon well.

Saturday night Dominik took the oldest three kids to the Tejas Rodeo in Bulverde, north of San Antonio.  They watched Bull riding, calf roping, barrel riding and they had a 'cow scrambling' activity for the kids. The highlight of the night for Elena was her purchase of a lovely pink 'cow girl' hat! They had a great time!

Sunday was our last day at the Hill and we discovered that we had planned to be at church on the right Sunday- they had a pot-luck lunch after the service!  Now, some pot-luck dinners are really a hit-and -miss affair,  but this was fantastic! We really enjoyed it and visiting and it was only part-way back to His Hill that we realised that we had forgotten the baby stroller at the church!  Fortunately, there was a key where we were staying and we just had another leisurely drive, as if we don't drive enough right now, to the church and back. The rest of the day passed really nicely visiting with some long-term staff at His Hill.  It was great to get to know them better and it helped to reinforce the feeling that we really are like a family at Torchbearer's.

Sunday evening Dominik went out to eat "some real southern food" with a guy from Austria who is in his second year of Bible School here. He knows Dominik from retreats at the Schloss. They had a great time catching up because the kids and I were all in bed when he got back!

So, speaking of family, having bid them all farewell at His Hill, we embarked on a really short drive to the northern edge of San Antonio where we would meet and stay with my fourth cousin and her husband. My Dad and my cousin, Mary Jane, both do alot of Family Tree research and found each other this way. We have the same family who lived in Pateley Bridge in Yorkshire, who went to Barbados and then came up to Canada. Interestingly, to me at least, our branch of the family were late to marry each time (yup, including me) and my cousin's line wasn't and so she is actually a direct fourth cousin with my children! Interesting too because she is my Mum's age! Anyway, enough of the geneology part!
We arrived to a very warm welcome and the suprise that my cousin's daughter was also there to meet us! We had a great visit and then went downtown to see the Riverwalk and the Alamo. A long time ago I worked at a Children's Hospital in downtown San Antonio and so I was expecting to see the Riveralk as it was then. Well, we were here in the off-season so there were fewer tourists, fewer river boats, and not many restaurants had music playing outside. We could see the coloured lights hanging from the trees but the weren't lit up. Still, we had a nice walk and we made our way from there to the Alamo.

Now, for North Americans the Alamo is famous because there is that expression, "Remember the Alamo", but I don't know that others will know about it. The Alamo was built in 1724 by the Spanish as a Catholic mission. It was then secularised in 1793, was farmed by  Indians and then the Spanish an Mexican military used it as a garrison in the early 1800's.  In 1835 some Texans fought the Mexicans for the occupation of San Antonio and won, then occupying the city and the Alamo itself. On Februars 23, 1836 General Santa Anna arrived to fight to win the city back. The Texans and Tejanos held out for 13 days before being defeated on March 6, 1836.  Among the dead were Davy Crockett (of the wild frontier) and Jim Bowie (famous knife fighter).  The day that we were there they had a display of old guns and bullets to see, and there were volunteers with a model of the old Alamo, answering questions about it.  It amused Dominik that the volunteer that he listened to didn't actually give that much information about the battle, but that his main point was that he is first and foremost a Texan and therefore at his home he flies the Texas flag a few inches higher than the American flag!
As we made our way home for supper we saw, just outside the Alamo, a couple in leather jackets being followed around by a little film crew. We didn't recognise them, neither did my cousin or her husband, but they didn't appear to be very classy. Amazing who gets filmed these days!

We wanted our last day in the city to be a bit more relaxing because we've seen that the kids are slowly getting tired out from travelling.  We decided to drive out to the Natural Bridge Cave for a tour, have some lunch and then relax at home.  This cave was really large!  It has been open since the 1960's to tours and so it's walkways and steps in the cave are all paved and have hand rails and dim lights inside. There were glass doors at both the entrance and exit of the cave, keeping in the 90% humidity and Temperaturen of 74 degrees F. It was really warm in there! We had dressed for a cool cave and were quickly pulling off layers. The size of the cave and the formations inside were spectacular. There were some very impressive stalactites (hanging down from the ceiling) and stalagmites (growing up from the floor). The tallest one was 10 m tall! We very much enjoyed the tour, despite the evolutionary perspectives, but the guide was a young guy who have an answer to all questions whether he had the information or not. There were some really good questions from some people and he answered nonsense in a very authoritative manner.  This was a good lesson for the kids: If you don't know an answer just say so. You look more intelligent admitting that than to say something that everyone knows is rubbish!

So back to the house for the kids to relax and to try to journal a bit. We had a real Texas meal of brisket, I did laundry and that was that! We enjoyed our fun and adventures and visiting and the next morning we set our sites on Houston. But wait! The NAVI updated overnight, or the tablet did, and all if our downloaded maps were gone! Fortunately we discovered this while fueling up near to Mary Jane and Wayne's so we drove back to download the map of Texas. Then, finally, we were off!

Mexico, The Old West and White Sands

So, leaving California was much the same as any other trip in the state- there was a lot of traffic! We got up and straight into the car that morning and found a grocery store to buy breakfast at. This time it was herbed foccacia break and spinach dip for Dominik and I, while the kids ate croissants and then cinnamon buns. Well, that's a bit of variety for you! Soon we were over the State line and were in Arizona. Finally we were seeing  that famous symbol of the state: the Saguaro Cactus! You know, the talk one with arms reaching up, like we used to see in  the Road Runner cartoons. Incidentally, the Road Runner is New Mexico's State bird! At first we only saw one like cactus here and there, but eventually there were loads of them.  We really enjoyed seeing side open spaces in the landscape again, as well as slightly fewer cars on the road. 

Southern Arizona isn't up at a high altitude like the northern part of the state so it is warmer as well as being quite dry.  We, again, had great weather, and the lovely blue sky was suddenly off-set by a vast rolling plain of yellowish sand dunes. Real dunes as you might expect in an African desert! Because it was the weekend people had their dune buggies and motor bikes out and it looked like they were having a great time!  We tried to get closer to take some pictures but the road we tried required a special permit. We hadn't expected to see a real, sandy desert there and it was a good suprise!

So, as we were merrily going along, trying to get to Mesa (near Phoenix) in time for supper, we saw a sign for Mexico. Now, you know that the Interstate that we were on parallels the Mexican border for quite a way, but did you know that the Americans have built a huge fence on the border and that it stretches out for MILES!  Well we figured 'why not....let's go to Mexico!'. So, we drove down south and pulled into a paid parking lot on the U.S. side. In this parking lot we found dozens of cars from Canada! They were mainly from Alberta, British Columbia and a few from Saskatchewan. Walking back and forth across the border were Canadian seniors who live in Arizona in the winter time. A bunch of "snow birds"!  Okay, if it's safe for all these seniors then it's safe for us! It was a small town called San Luis, a few miles from Yuma. We walked over the border without the Mexican authorities even checking our passports! 

It was a Saturday and there was a fiesta going on, but they were celebrating The Day of the Dead. This wasn't really our thing....like Hallowe'en.....shirts and manequins with skulls and skeletons on them and people with white and black face paint. But there was music and decorations and food stalls. There were craft stalls with spray-painted jugs and post boxes and coke bottles. And there were places to buy your cerveza (beer) and margaritas.  Interestingly this town seemed to be a dentist and pharmacy-filled place. As we walked along there was a man at nearly every shop, outside, asking us "Are you looking for a dentist?" "Here- we have a good family dentist. Do you want to see?". "Do you need medicine? We have lots of medicine here!" Hmmm....I wouldn't be in Mexico looking for a dentist. No, I have never thought about that. Maybe they have cheaper medicine.....but no thanks. I'm not in the market for a bulk carton of Alka-selzer!

We looked around at everything and then, as we needed to be in Mesa by supper time, we headed back to the border. Going back over takes a little bit of time, and there was a queue, as all the Canadians and Americans went back over and passports had to be checked.  Apparently there are people who treavel to Mexico for a cheap dentist because the older man behind us in the queue had had a tooth out and was still bleeding! He had some gauze but didn't have it packed in his mouth. The blood in his mouth and the spatters on his shirt bore witness to his experience there! 

Crossing back was our first test of the American visa in Dominik's passport. The rest of us, travelling on Canadian passports, have no visa issues, but Austrians (and, I suspect, most Europeans) need a tourist visa which is good for 90 days and multiple entries. This was our test of the multiple entry idea. Thankfully, we had a really nice customs man and we are quickly back in the States.

To celebrate our VERY short Mexican excursion, and the addition of another country to our 'have-visited' list, we found a Mexican Restaurant for lunch (sorry, just a cheap chain).  They had a dollar-menu so we could try all sorry of different variations of tacos, tostadas and burritos! 

Towards sunset the landscape was looking really lovely, the tall, cactuses outlined in the yellowish-orange light, and we wondered why Arizona didn't have a different time zone as it was 6pm as we approached Phoenix and it was getting dark so quickly. We had 'fallen-back' and gained an hour while in California and while Arizona was in the same zone it really was much darker. So, we arrived at our acandleinthewindow hosts' house at 6pm, just in time! We happily at burgers and chatted and then, to everyones delight, they made s'mores over a campfire in the back yard for dessert! It was later, after the kids and our hosts were in bed that I noticed the clock. It was an hour later than we had thought!!! Arizona doesn't do daylight savings time so, although they were in the same time zone as California when we were last there, now they were on Mountain time instead of Pacific! Oh dear....that meant that we had arrived at 7pm for supper!

On Sunday morning we went with our hosts to church and then left to visit for Rawhide Western Town. Although not an authentic, truly old town, it has been built for the tourists and has various activities and shops. We arrived just in time for a show at the Western Theater. Here the 'Arizona Roughriders' perform a different skit every hour and a half or so, doing stunts and shooting pistols (with blanks, if course!). We ended up watching three shows (the outlaw, the bank robbery and the jail break) and enjoyed them all! We tried out mechanical bull riding, gold panning, donkey riding (kids only), a climbing wall (J&R), and we visited the jail and, of course, the sweet shop!  We stayed until sunset and ran home for supper, this time knowing the right time!

Monday morning we got started a bit later than we had expected, but we had a relaxing breakfast and chat with our host. They had invited us down to the State Capitol building for a tour as their daughter works there, but I, due to a lack of sleep or whatever, was so dizzy that I felt a bit ill and not really ready for a tour. It was a lovely offer but all I wanted to do was sit in the car and have a nap. 

Monday was also Elena's sixth birthday and we had to figure out how to celebrate in the car! We started with singing and then telling Elena that she could choose whenever she wanted for her birthday lunch.  With so many options what did she choose? Yup- MacDonald's.  But this time, as it was her birthday, we let her have a Happy Meal. Shortly after we found a Walmart and I made a quick run in for presents.  We stretched it out by giving her one presents every hour and a half or so, smallest (pack of stickers) to biggest ('Frozen' Elsa fleece blanket).  We had done this for Rebecca a year and a half ago in the way back from Croatia, spreading the gift-giving out over three countries! This time we covered only two States but it was probably the same distance!

So, we arrived in time for supper in Las Cruces, New Mexico and yeah!, there were children for the younger kids to play with.  We were good and hungry and we very happily tucked into braised beef and avocado wraps, made with freshly made tortillas. It was SO good! After putting the kids to bed we had an interesting chat with out hosts about their life in New Mexico, with the military and about adoption as four of their kids are adopted.

The next day was Memorial Day here in the States so both we and the other family headed out for our respective day trips.   We drove out to White Sands National Park, past the missile testing range, armed with four round sleds.  White Sands is just that, an area of dune after dune of white gypsum sand. Although it wasn't hot on the day we went there, we were told that the sand doesn't retain heat and therefore wouldn't burn your feet when it was sunny and hot.  We drive to the back loop of the park, as advised, and found a big dune.  We hiked to the top and the kids started sledding down the dunes on the sleds! It is such a popular thing to do that they actually sell sleds in the park gift shop!  We sledded and ran and jumped and played and came home with sand in our pockets and shoes and..... It was a great time! Fortunately we had been invited to do laundry here before leaving and could leave the extra sand in New Mexico. 

On Wednesday morning we needed to get an early start on our drive to our next stop, the Torchbearer's Center of 'His Hill' in Comfort, TX. We needed this extra time because, not only would it be a long drive, but because we would move into the Central Time Zone and lose an hour as soon as we crossed the Texas border. Dominik and I were up at 6 am and were packed up and had all the kids in the car, some dressed and some not, by just before 7.  It didn't take long to reach El Paso where we hopped over into Texas and the new time zone and picked up breakfast-to-go.  For the rest of that journey you'll have to wait for our next edition, "West Texas Fun"!