Creole Culture and the Corp of Engineers

Location: Natchez State Park, Natchez MS

We had a slow start this morning due to spending time with a Swiss couple, Peter and Theresa, who've lived for the last 30 years in Australia. They tour the U.S. almost every year for at least a month. They travel much like we do, light and back roads. Peter spent years shooting video of America Road trips for a Swiss TV Channel. It's amazing how much of America they have seen over the years. They've even done the Alaska Highway. We enjoyed swapping stories and giving each other tips of places to visit. They are encouraging us to take a road trip through Australia. In fact Peter was so emphatic about it that he brought over a list of all the places (with prices!) of Aussie camper vans for rent. Who knows this could be fun! One of the true joys of road trips is meeting interesting people like these folks.
Our first big outing of the day was visiting Natchitoches (pronounced "Nack-a-tish").
and the Cane River Heritage Area. Natchitoches is the heart of the Creole culture in Louisiana. The Creole Culture is a blend of Spanish, French, African and Native American culture. It took shape in this area around the 1800's. We took a walking tour of the downtown historic district, then did a tour of several old plantations. The historic downtown is quaint, still lined with brick streets, and has a gorgeous grassy embankment along the Cane River which is lined with fragrant magnolia trees. This is the town that the movie Steel Magnolias was actually filmed and is based on a true story of the author's sister from this area.
It rained hard last night, which was fortunate because it lowered the temperature and made for some dramatic cloud formations. It also set the tone for viewing some of these plantations. We were by ourselves on most of the tours. As we walked the fields, out buildings and slave quarters it was quite powerful. I wanted to honor and be respectful of the contribution and hardship of the people who spent their lives on these grounds. Walking over the wet plowed grass along the corn and cotton fields and viewing the plantation in this humidity made it feel so real.
Our next adventure was finding the Old River Control Structure on the Mississippi River. Ned and I have been reading "The Control of Nature" by John McPhee. In it he describes how the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers is trying to control the flow and direction of the Mississippi River. A pretty amazing (if not ultimately futile) effort. We were fascinated by how the Mississippi River used to flow into the Red River thus eventually making the Red River the more dominant river. A key element into preventing this, and keeping New Orleans from drying up, was building the Old River Control Structure. We had to go see it. Since the main point of this trip is driving the Great River Road and learning all about Ol' Miss, this was a natural starting point. We made a trip to the Army Corp of Engineer Visitor Center in Grand Encore and spoke with one of the old retired Corp volunteers. Turns out this structure was a mere 3 hour side trip. Pshaw, that is a mere drop in the bucket to us! So, off we were with this volunteer's directions, driving down some pretty obscure roads, and armed with a couple of maps. Our efforts were not wasted. It was incredibly fascinating and so rewarding to see in action something we had been reading about. Even though the Corp has done a valiant effort it does seem as if the Mississippi will eventually win out. We also enjoyed viewing the locks between the Mississippi River and the Atchafalaya River.
We sadly said goodbye to Louisiana and crossed over the mighty Mississippi for the first time this trip. We pulled into Natchez State Park outside of Natchez, MS rather late, but are rewarded with the first fireflies. Looking forward tomorrow to exploring Natchez and beginning our adventure on the Great River Road.

Frizzell + Fruitcake = Fun!

Location: North Toledo Bend State Park, LA

We are now officially in East Texas. How do I know? People greet us with "Y'all", sweet tea is ubiquitous and I'm a bit dewey. (We southern ladies don't perspire, we just glow and get dewey). Yep, we've officially left the dry baking heat and entered into the land of humidity. First destination today was Corsicana, Texas. Home of Lefty Frizzell and Collin Street Bakery. What, you don't know Lefty Frizzell, honky tonk country legend of the 1950's? Perhaps this will refresh your memory. Lefty Frizzell
The Lefty Frizzell Museum is located in Pioneer Village, a reconstructed little hamlet that has a blacksmith shop, old cabins, law enforcement and crime museum, slave cabin and a trading post. This little village was created in 1956 by the local historical society, and God love them, they preserved it ever since in exactly the same state. This includes the worn and yellowed newspaper clippings, black and white photos and hand written references to things such as "This is how your grandparents lived." The Lefty Frizzell museum is a real little gem. It pays homage to many country music legends, including Merle Haggard who was first asked on stage by Lefty. I especially liked the custom Lefty cowboy boots, embroidered jackets and photo of Lefty with a very stoned looking Johnny Cash. The local park also has a statue of Lefty. To my fellow country music fan Eric, you would have loved this! I so wanted to get a postcard, but as the sweet elderly volunteer at the museum said, "Oh my, we haven't had those in years!". Well a fellow or gal can work up an appetite looking at all this memorabilia (oh did I mention the Bonnie & Clyde gruesome death photos?) so a trip to the world famous Collins Street Bakery, renowned for their DeLuxe Fruitcake, in downtown Corsicana was in order. Ned remembers "fondly" as a kid receiving this fruitcake with a cowboy on the tin lid each Christmas. We each got a sample, but in all honesty I ate them both. (Truth is I love fruitcake!) I was disappointed in that they only give factory tours during the fruitcake making season. Sigh.
We thoroughly enjoyed the drive today. This morning, traveling through the prairie and lakes section of Texas, we passed fields of corn, wheat, sorghum, sunflowers and cotton. The wild flowers were abundant and lined the road. This afternoon we crossed into the Piney Woods area and were overjoyed with the dense woods and rolling hills. Dogwoods, mimosas, pine trees and lots of big broad well kept lawns were mostly what we encountered on the back roads. We made a few stops at some farmer's markets picking up peaches, mangoes (different variety than we get back home), and veggies for dinner.
Finally we left the great State of Texas behind us and crossed over into Louisiana. Every time we've traveled to Louisiana we've had some incredible experiences. Today was no different. We are camped at North Toledo Bend State Park on a peninsula jutting into the Toledo Bend Reservoir. Best campground of the trip so far!
It's a heavily wooded area with generous space between campsites and the facilities are top notch. And for some reason on a Saturday night it's almost vacant. Another great perk is it has free laundry facilities. One week on the road and it couldn't be better timing. We got here a little late to use the swimming pool so we hopped on our bikes to explore the vast park. For those of you worried about Ned getting his grove back I can honestly stay - The Nedster is back. We had a bike race up a hill and he beat me fair and square. All the more incentive to hit Fit Culture gym when I get home!

Midnight Serenade at Balmorhea

Lake Whitney State Park, Whitney, TX

Well my prayers were answered and we did indeed have a cool breezy evening. Great for sleeping until about 1:15 am when we were awoken from a dead sleep with BLARING "Norteno" music. Now don't get me wrong, I can groove to some polka swinging Northern Mexican music, but not after midnight and when it's forced on me!
Some yahoos pulled into the entrance of the campground (we were campsite #1) and blasted this song not once, not twice, but four times before the campground host finally came out with a flashlight to see what all the ruckus was about. (I think everyone else was just scared to death and kept a low profile). Before our roving mariachis left, they backed-up, screeched their wheels, gave out a big yelp and took off. It took the sheriff 30 minutes to respond. Needless to say we didn't get a lot of sleep after that. It was pretty amusing this morning talking with the campground host (turns out she's a retired Texas police officer) and the retiree in the bus-size RV across from us. He said he wasn't afraid cause he always carries a .38 in the camper. Ah yeah, almost forgot we are in Texas.
Now back to the beauty and wonderment of Balmorhea State Park. It's a natural artesian spring, in the middle of the desert, from which 1.5 million gallons of water flows an hour. In 1936 the WPA built a "swimming pool" around this. (I've attached an aerial shot of the swimming pool being built in 1936 to give you a perspective of the size). It's the world's largest outdoor swimming pool and holds 3.5 million gallons of water. It takes the spring only 4 hours to fill the pool. Dang! The deepest point is 25 feet. There are low dives, high dives, turtles, catfish and lots of little guppies that like to nibble on your legs. Half the area is all natural (scuba divers come here) and the other half is like a regular swimming pool. It's incredibly refreshing because the temperature stays between 72 and 76 degrees, the water is crystal clear and obviously there's no chlorine etc. We swam until hunger took over. We had bought a couple of Texas size steaks for grilling earlier that day and they sure tasted mighty fine! After dinner we were still so hot that another hour or so swim was in order. We swam until the sun went down.
Today we cut through the heart of Texas on route 67. We expected more of the dry arid flat lands and were pleasantly surprised with the green rolling hills, big long mesas and beautiful wildflowers as we traveled farther into the prairie and lake country. After a very long drive (maybe 8 hrs?) we finally reached Lake Whitney State Park and were rewarded with a great campsite perched over the lake. It's really windy, but it keeps the flies away and the temperature down. We keep toying with the idea of going for a swim, but Ned put up the hammock and my get-up-and-go just got up and went.

Carlsbad Cavern and Texas Heat

Location: Balmorhea State Park, Balmorhea, TX

The wind kept up through most of the night which was much appreciated. Sleeping on the top bunk in the Winniemobile feels like you are sleeping on a veranda during the dog days of summer. We rolled into Carlsbad Caverns National Park in time for the 10:00 tour, the first one of the day. We really didn't know what to expect. Our main reference point was touring Mammoth Caves a couple of years ago. Let me just say that Carlsbad Caverns was absolutely amazing! It also helped that Mandy, our Park Ranger tour guide was engaging, funny and really knowledgeable. I've seen stalagmites and stalactite before, but nothing quite this stunning. We took an elevator down, down, down close to 800 feet underground. There was an old cafeteria (no longer in use) and a concessions stand but for the most part we were just greeted with a dimly lit cave. We took the Kings Palace Tour with Mandy and were able to view several cavern rooms on a path snaking in and out, up and down, twisting and turning through this magical underground world. Every turn you were greeted with another magnificent formation all cleverly lit. We learned that Carlsbad Cavern is a limestone cave in a fossil reef laid down by an inland sea approximately 250 million years ago. We fell in love with the tale of Jim White's discovery of the cave as a 16 year old in 1898. In fact, loved it so much we bought his 1937 book - ghost written by Frank Nicholson. At one point while on the tour all the lights were turned off. We not only experienced the pitch black darkness, but Mandy then lit one small lighter to show how Jim explored 19 miles of this 30 mile cavern by himself! Blew my mind. Ned and I then took a self tour of the Big Room and were equally amazed at the clear pools, magnificent formations and the unique geometry of the stalactites and stalagmites. I tried to take several pics along the way but none of them do it any justice. We timed our tour perfectly too because we were with a really small group and had the place almost to ourselves. As we left, the parking lot was almost full and busloads were being trucked in.
Next in order was figuring out the camping situation for the night. It felt unbearably hot especially after spending several hours underground in cool temperatures. The thought of staying at another dried up desert park seemed rather bleak. We've seen West Texas before and it ain't lush. We looked at a map of our Texas State Park options, saw an oasis in the desert, laughed and said "Well we always had Balmorhea." Six years ago on our first road trip we stopped at Balmorhea State Park and loved it. Even though it's a little out of our way (Ned reminded me that we once drove 200 miles for fried chicken) and a bit "tired", the idea of swimming in clear, cool, fresh spring water was more than we could resist. As we pulled into the campground around 5ish the temperature was hovering near 100 and it was all we could do to get on our suits and dive in. Tomorrow we have a loooong drive so I'll spend some of the time describing Balmorhea with pics. For now, this cowgirl is gonna hit the hay. (And pray for a cool breezy evening).

White Sand and Little Gems

Location: Brantley Lake State Park, Carlsbad, NM

First stop this morning was at "New Mexico's Best Rated Farmer's Market." Turns out - not so much. The market is held on Wed. and Saturdays. The Saturday one is 7 blocks long and has lots of fresh produce vendors. Today's was mainly craftsmen. While it was fun to see their wares we were more in the market for fresh produce. We did manage to pick up some fresh spinach and pecans, a local favorite around here. There are many pecan groves that dot the surrounding area. Next in order was a trip to White Sands National Monument. We didn't have high expectations for this field trip and gosh were we wrong! The visitor center is adobe style and built by the WPA in the mid 1930's. The exhibits and film were really interesting and got us excited about exploring the dunes. Several people were buying sleds to slide down the dunes. We seriously thought about it, but opted instead for the one mile hike that led us over several dunes and through an interdunal area. We were amazed that we had the "trail" to ourselves until we figured out that it was high noon and 94 degrees in the blazing heat. (The ranger warned us against taking the 3 mile and 5 mile hikes, you'd think we would've had a clue). The saving grace was the wind. It was blowing so hard that we didn't notice how hot it was - at first. This hike was absolutely fascinating! We saw tracks from lots of different animals, learned about the flora and fauna in the area and got a close up feel for the amazing beauty of these gypsum sands. What I found most interesting was that the sand is not hot at all. I kept expecting it to feel like the beach when you are hopping on one foot to the other and yelling, "ouch, ouch, ouch" as you get to the ocean. Here the sand is rather cool. Turns out that there is water at approximately 12 in. under the sand! When you bury your hands in the sand it actually feels quite cool. I was goofing off and pretending that I had been crawling across the desert in search of water (yes, Ned documented this) and was quite surprised at the cool, moist feel a few inches below the surface of the sand. We continued to explore the park and enjoyed watching some others sledding. The picnic areas in the midst of the sand dunes look surreal and like a science fiction movie. Turns out this park is quite the little gem.
Leaving the park and heading East we assumed we would be traveling through more of the same arid landscape as is so much of New Mexico. Instead, we drove over the Sacramento Mountains, to an elevation of 8400 feet, and were delighted with the town of Cloudcroft. This scenic drive had cherry farms and apple orchards, lots of interesting rock formations and tons of coniferous trees. We were so fascinated by this little gem that we did a little research on it. Turns out Froders rated it in 2002 as the number 3 most overlooked and underrated destination spot. We concur! Unfortunately, after leaving the Sacramento Mountains we were again greeted by parched landscape and dry hot winds. We passed through a little town called "Hope", which actually seemed quite hopeless. We expected the same when we drove into Artesia. Much to our amazement it had a thriving downtown and we thought there must be a university there when we spotted the football stadium. Turns out the Artesia High School Bulldogs have been State Champions 25 or so times. This town takes their high school football very seriously. Go Bulldogs.
Our final destination, Lake Brantley, was supposed to be an oasis in the desert. Hmmm. The lake has all but dried up and instead of having a campsite on the water it's a good mile away. (See one of the pics). This however did not deter us from attempting to cool off from the parching 95 degree sun. We rode our bikes to the boat ramp, inflated our floaties, and plopped ourselves in the mud puddle. The wind thwarted our attempts to go more than a few feet offshore. Nevertheless, a good time was had by all.

The Kindness of Strangers New Mexico Style

Location: Siesta RV Park, Mesilla, NM

The campground fairies only made a brief stop to Canyon Lake Marina Campground. In other words, they left tp, but the showers were still locked up. I know people love to bash the government and praise free enterprise, but in our many years of camping nothing beats the State and National Parks. I want to publicly thank the 48 states we've camped in for their campground aesthetics, professionalism and cleanliness. (As an aside when we asked one of the private campground workers about the locked showers the response was "Complain at the office, I'm f***ing done." ) Soooo, we moseyed on down the road to Lost Dutchman State Park and asked to use the showers. Let's just say the experience was close to nirvana:)
After finally getting cleaned up we made it to Roper State Park much sooner than anticipated. Again, with the temp being in the 90's, we weren't in a hot springs state of mind. We decided driving in an air-conditioned car listening to an audio book of Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi" was much preferred. All the other state parks were either too far or too soon so we finally opted to end our day in Mesilla, New Mexico right outside of Las Cruces. Six years ago, on our first road trip across the U.S. we drove thru Mesilla and loved the quaint town with its chill vibe. We found a private RV park (it is what it is), unloaded our bikes and explored the town. A Mexican restaurant patronized mainly by locals was recommended to us. We were out front, on our bikes, still "on the fence" when a really sweet elderly couple came by and told us we should definitely try it. The woman started describing in detail the signature dish (stacked enchiladas with green sauce and an optional egg on top) and we decided to give the place a try. No sooner had we sat down and ordered drinks when an appetizer appeared at our table. It was compliments of this cute couple!! Now, how wonderful is that?! We held up our drinks and said to them, "California thanks you." They responded that they used to live in Long Beach, but NorCal was okay too. After dinner they stopped by, wanted to make sure the dinner met our expectations, and gave us other recommendations in town. This is why we love traveling so much. Your day can start out with a grumpy, burned out employee and end with a kind act from a stranger. Tomorrow we hope to check out a farmer's market in town and visit White Sands National Monument. We love to eat local food so we are really looking forward to tasting the local, fresh fare.

Looking for Mr. Wright

Location: Canyon Lake Marina Campground, Apache Junction, AZ

Last night was pretty magical. We decided to sleep on the top bunk of Winnie, partly for the cool breeze and partly to see the incredible night sky. Light from the campers' fires danced on the canyon walls, the stars were brilliant in the sky and the moon shone brightly down on everything. The sun woke us up this morning and the desert continued to amaze us. Bunnies were hopping around, the birds were serenading us and the moon still shone brightly in the sky. Who knew the desert could be such a vibrant place! Reluctantly we left Joshua Tree National Park and headed towards Phoenix. Our original plan was to stay at a hot springs, but the thermometer was pushing the 90's and soaking in 104 degree water no longer seemed appealing. Instead we decided to check out Taliesin West in Scottsdale. Years earlier Ned and I had toured Frank Lloyd Wright's home in Oak Park, Il and did a walking tour of the homes he designed. We were wowed by the architecture and fell in love with his style. We really thought we were in for a great treat today. We took the 1.5 hour tour which ended up being close to 2 hours. Unfortunately, we were a bit underwhelmed with the experience. Our illustrious guide, Don, spent most of his time being put out by us mere mortals who couldn't possibly comprehend the greatness of this institute.
What we did learn is that Taliesin West is a working architecture school and foundation that continues Frank Lloyd Wright's legacy. The actual architecture itself is not nearly as impressive as what we've seen in Oak Park and Sedona. I enjoyed some of the art sculpture created by artists in residence, but the craftsmanship of the buildings and furniture was pretty crude. If you're in Scottsdale I recommend doing the tour for the historical significance, but don't get your hopes up for the architecture.
Since we blew off the hot springs our next goal was to find a place to camp for the night and, better yet, a place to cool off. Never fear...I had a back-up plan! (Yes, my blue book itinerary contains such contingencies. Ned is laughing as I type this.)
We drove through Lost Dutchman State Park but the idea of camping in blazing heat among the cacti didn't look that appealing. We drove another half hour to Lake Canyon Marina. It's a private campground and not nearly as nice as State Campgrounds, but it has a lake! We are parked pretty much in a road, but our campsite is right on the lake. We didn't waste any time blowing up our dollar store floaties and cooling our heels. Our entertainment has been watching John Q. Public wading waist deep in the water with coolers, chairs and towels and sneak around the cyclone fence next to the boating ramp in order to avoid paying the day use fee. This place looks like a war zone after the Memorial Weekend. The ladies room has no tp and the showers are locked, but I'm still hopeful the camp fairies will visit in the night and straighten things out. It's a far cry from our magical desert night, but I ain't complaining! I'm sitting near a cool lake with my honey in the mountains of Arizona. Life could be worse...