Day 15: Athens, AL to Cary, NC

After a lovely breakfast with Deb, Tom and their kitties, we headed out for one last day of driving.  The hills started to rise as we went through Tennessee and Georgia.  By the time we got here:

we were officially in the Appalachian Mountains.   After living next to 10,000 foot peaks for years, Catherine found these eroded tree covered peaks beautiful inviting hills.  The mountain streams around the East Coast are quite dramatic compared to those on the Left Coast with many of them being larger than the Rio Grande (at least the western part of that river).  We headed past the site of the 1996 Olympics Whitewater competition and the Nantahala River (which Catherine rafted in 10^th grade). 

Oh, and to make Catherine really happy, there was plenty of this

After being in NC for hours and hours (we started west of Murphy, 563 miles from Manteo, NC according to the sign), we finally made it to I40 and our first traffic jam.

About 10 minutes later, we went around the road construction.  Catherine turned off the GPS because how could we possibly get lost once we got on I40?  Denise had been on freeways for about 100 miles when she decided that taking US 64 the rest of the way home would be more scenic.  It was more scenic (the same piney woods and fields we’d seen since just north of Hackberry, LA), but we missed a turn in Lexington.  Thankfully, John in cooperation with Google figured out we were on Old 64 and that we’d be fixed in a few minutes.

We saw deer in the driveway as we came into Denise’s house.  Tom liked his new hat (found in the dunes in White Sands) but both of them were rather surprised by the photo op.

Chester made himself at home on the bags, but Sam went to hide from the excitement.

Catherine managed to drive solo for the last few of the 4623 mile journey.  John didn’t bother to get up until after she took a picture.  He really doesn’t look happy to see me (or that this photo will make the blog).

Catherine’s furballs were running around too quickly to make photos possible, but seemed to be happy to see her.

Denise’s favorite parts of the trip was the Vermillion Cliffs (with the California Condors), Bosque del Apache (more birds), White Sands National Monument, Big Bend (especially the parts near the water), and the Whooping Cranes (tearing up Blue Crabs and feeding their baby).

Catherine liked the Vermillion Cliffs and White Sands, but is looking forward to being home for a bit.

We also note that we saw license plates from 45 states, missing Rhode Island, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Hawaii, and Maryland (of course).  We got 8 bonuses -- 5 Canadian Provinces and 3 from Mexico.  Thanks for reading!  Next time you are heading somewhere, send us the link to your blog!  It takes 30 minutes to an hour a night and is a fun way to keep a journal.

Day 14: Clinton, MS to Athens, AL

Whew -- we're finally making progress!  We even used interstates today.  All day!  It was amazing going 70 mph Northeast!

It turns out the interstates through MS look much like those through central NC, so Denise wasn't interested in taking pictures.  However, we did note we had to be getting closer to home because we followed:

We did not go to Piggly Wiggly.  If you aren't from the Southeast, yes, this is a real grocery store.

We stopped in the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge just south of Huntsville, AL (another new state for Denise).  Theoretically they have an enormous variety of wintering waterfowl.  We saw thousands and thousands of Sandhill Cranes (more than in Bosque del Apache, but further away), a bunch of Canada Geese, a few Greater White Fronted Geese, and some Coots (which look really funny walking around on the ground).  Here are Sandhills coming in.

We also did their little nature walk where we saw standard East Coast tweety birds -- Carolina Chickadees, Eastern Towhees....  Here's Denise in the cyprus swamp.

We were either extreme rednecks or great wildlife biologists when Denise insisted we pull off on the shoulder of the road to look at a roadkill armadillo.  He really resembles a hard-shelled possum and everyone who has them around seems to hate them.  They also tend to become part of the asphalt at similar rates to the standard possum.

Then we made it to Deborah and Wonderful Tom's house!  It looks like it belongs in a designer home magazine.  They've done a tremendous job -- walnut flooring, all the hardware is beautiful, a granite counter tops in a kitchen Catherine would kill for.  What makes the house special is that much of the furniture and mementos used to be in their parent's houses.  The blend is seamless and the finished product is stunning.
Two cats( Mattie--all black and Tia Maria--a Himalayan with a poodle cut) live with them.  Needless to say they are spoiled.

Outside, it was 75 degrees.  As they don't want more people in the area, Tom explained it's often in the teens and even single digits in Northern Alabama.  Catherine doesn't believe it.  Deborah's yard will be in bloom 3 of the 4 seasons and the view of the azaleas from the pool must be breathtaking.  Catherine likes the Weeping Holly as well.

We got a walking tour of the neighborhood (all stone and brick houses) and a golf cart tour of the woods, golf course and stream.  I should have had my camera out because the house, yard and neighborhood are gorgeous.  It's all very different from the last time Catherine visited -- September '03 when she and John were leaving the East Coast, dating and CA bound.  The house didn't have walls, the pool was a hole and they didn't have neighbors yet.

We had a scrumptious dinner pork loin (it even tempted Catherine to try a bite), celery with homemade cream cheese dip, roast cauliflower, beans, cornbread (Denise showed them how to make it country-style, cornmeal, water, and salt cooked in a hot oiled pan), potatoes gratin, and a Butterfinger cake!  Catherine is fairly sure she'll never eat ever again.

It's been several years since we've seen Deborah and we stayed up late chatting and laughing.

Now that we know the way, we'll be sure to come back soon (if they'll have the scruffy relatives)!  Tomorrow, with a bit of luck, we'll find I40 and be home!

Day 13: Alvin, TX to Clinton MS

The morning started in Alvin, TX, the home of Nolan Ryan.  They have a super nice YMCA near the Nolan Ryan museum... coincidence?  After a false start due to communication problems between the front desk and Denise about which direction to turn out of the hotel, we found 517 and stayed within a few miles of the Gulf until we hit I 10.  There is a LOT of industrial stuff through here and a lot of fuel cylinders.  Lots of potential energy in those tanks -- hope folks follow the no smoking regulations :-).   The stacks mostly spew steam, so it didn't look or smell so bad.  Environmental regulations do work!

As we crossed into Louisiana (a new state for Denise, and the only new state for Catherine), we noticed a small tanker that had just unloaded at Port Arthur.

We stayed along the beach looking at the treeless fields.  Trees are super picky – in the West there weren’t any because it was too dry.  Here there weren’t any because the fields have standing water.  Cows live on the little rises.  We began to notice that all houses were on serious stilts – not so unusual for East Coast Beach dwellings.

We turned up highway 27 towards Joan Hauser’s hometown, Hackberry!  This is about 15 miles inland in Bayou country.  Now, both Denise and Catherine thought Bayou meant swampy cypress swamp with black water, vines and Spanish Moss.  In Texas, we saw a couple of Bayous that were sort of promising.  It turns out that Bayou means river.  Between the coast and Hackberry, there was marshy grass with tons of Bayous running through.  

We stopped at the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge.  There we saw a great sign.

However, we saw no alligators, no armadillos, nothing exciting.  We saw a bunch of egrets/herons but after yesterday, those weren't exciting.  We waved to Joan's relatives and saw the Family Dollar where her mom works.  (Joan said that if we really missed the armadillos, we should take a shotgun to her sister's house and we could see as many as we wanted up close and personal.)  We noted that all the houses were still on stilts -- even the trailers.  The storm surge from Ike was impressive -- many of the stilted houses flooded.

Just a bit north of Hackberry, Denise was disappointed that Louisiana starts to look like anywhere else in the Southeast.  Even the small towns started to remind us of Mt. Olive in both the names on the store fronts and the architecture.  Outside of town, to the south there were lots of pine plantations (gotta make paper), and further north some more traditional agriculture.

We crossed the Mississippi into Natchez, Mississippi (new state for Denise), a city on a hill.  A hill!  Louisiana is flat.  Really flat.  This is view from the front seat coming up to the big bridge.  This river we can cross at 55 mph, the Rio Grande that we can throw a rock across is a international border.  Weird.

In any case, we found the Natchez Trace Parkway.  This 444 mile long, but extremely skinny National Park follows the route of the NT highway established by President Jefferson in 1801-2.  He thought it necessary to have a good road between  Nashville and the southwest corner of the US – Natchez, Mississippi.  This way when the French or Spanish or Indians attacked, word could get back to Nashville and eventually Washington DC.  They’ve also preserved some artifacts along the way.  For example the Emerald Mound is the second largest Indian mound in the US.  It’s about 770 long, 435 feet wide and 35 feet tall.  The Mississippi and other tribes started building these in about 1300 and continued until the Spanish showed up bringing disease, wiping out the Native Americans.  Catherine thinks it’s all about my tribe’s mound is bigger than yours.  In any case, they were used for ceremonial purposes.

Catherine is standing on top of the little bitty secondary mound that's on top of the primary mound described above.  She's also glad she didn't have to carry the dirt in.

We also stopped at the Locust Mount plantation and inn.  When folks floated goods down the Mississippi, before the advent of steam power, they had to sell their boats for timber and walk home -- at least 445 miles back to Nashville.  The trip took about a month and there were about 50 inns along the way offering food (corn mush) and a lodging for about a quarter.  Catherine notes the similar spacing to the Camino de Santiago (which is still in use in Spain... she walked it).

This part of Mississippi is covered in a 30ish foot layer of soft top soil blown in from the Western part of the US.  In some places, the original road sunk all the way through it.  Catherine figures it would haven been soggy and nasty given the rain and the horses using it.  She thinks she would have walked beside the highway.

After missing several herds of deer as the sun went down, we stopped in Clinton, MS.  Catherine had adventures at 3 gas stations to get gas, milk and a sub.  Now it's off to bed!  Hopefully we'll find cousin Deborah tomorrow for great company, a soft bed and a home cooked meal that hasn't seen an ice chest!

Day 12: January 27, Mathis to Alvin, TX

Although we were up late last night (neither of us were sleepy after a long day with nothing but driving), we were still up fairly early.  We meandered through small roads towards the Gulf Coast.  We encountered old and new Texas industries: agriculture (corn and cotton fields) and industry (oil wells and wind turbines).

Denise was very impressed by the Corpus Christi "skyline" -- that is some of the industrial stuff nearby.

Because we had a 1 pm departure to look at the Whooping Cranes (thanks to Joan Hauser for her suggestion to look for them), we had some time to kill in Rockport/Fullerton.  We walked around the Fullerton estate -- it was finally warm enough Catherine was comfortable in just a sweatshirt.  There were even bugs around, meaning there must be both water and warm temperatures.

After looking around Rockport including some of their more exclusive neighborhoods, we stopped at Walmart for some last groceries.  This Walmart's parking lot is great for out of state license plates -- all the snow birds shop here.  We relaxed waiting for the tour to start, watching Mockingbirds, Great-Tailed Grackles (distinguished from Boat-Tailed Grackles by eye color) and Starlings.  Those are shrimping/oystering boats in the background.

The boat tour was worth every penny.  The naturalist/guide could spot a bird a mile off, describe it's location and identify it.  He even described the identifying characteristics.  It was perfect!  The weather was great -- nearly 70 and no wind (the water was so flat the crew said anyone who got seasick would be summarily thrown off the boat).  The Bass family who owns a barrier island that is 25 miles long and uses it to farm cattle and hunt happened to be burning some of their fields, so there was distant smoke, but not enough to bother anyone.  Did you read that?  They own 25 miles of barrier island!

 If you aren't a birder, skip the next paragraph.

We saw Dunlins, Oyster Catchers, Royal Terns, Caspian Terns, White Pelicans, Brown Pelicans, Pintails, Long Billed Curlews, Buffleheads, Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, every Lesser Scaup in the entire world, Little White Egrets, White Ibises, Reddish Egrets, Long-Tail Ducks (fairly rare in TX), Ruddy Ducks, Turkey Vultures (the OK State bird according to the Texas tour guide), Crested Caracaras (only 2 and far away), Willets, Ruddy Turnstones, Tricolored Herons, Red Tailed Hawks, Long and Short Billed Dowitchers, Avocets, Itty Bitty Sandpipers (we noticed these, not the guide), Little Blue Herons, Belted Kingfishers, Double Crested and Neotropic Cormorants (distinguished by size), Northern Harriers, and a couple of Common Loons.  Yes, Catherine was taking notes and, no, please don't ask her to identify all of these without Sibley's Guide to Birds, birds that are posing correctly and, as necessary, several similar species side by side for comparison.

In addition to the little stuff, we saw what we came for: Whooping Cranes.  We even saw one pair that had successfully raised both chicks -- normally avian siblicide occurs.  One group with Mom, Dad and the young one was cooperative and crabbed for the boat for nearly 15 minutes.  The baby would wait until a parent pulled up a crab and pulled some legs off, so s/he could eat without doing any work.  Sounds just like a kid, doesn't it?  This group even flew off at the end -- they are stunning when they fly!

For Denise, the highlight of the trip was seeing Roseate Spoonbills working the mud near the Whooping Cranes.  That group of cranes consisted of 4 subadults that would do practice mating dances periodically.

Catherine's highlight was seeing a Peregrine Falcon.

Since we were in the Intercoastal Waterway, saw a bigger boat carrying benzene (and leaking a bit from the smell).  This area once was a major port for the cattle trade.  Because the cows couldn't be driven to the stockyards in West Texas (because they would die along the way), they were driven here, and their hides and tallow shipped north.  The meat rotted because they couldn't store it.

We also saw a bunch of the off shore natural gas wells.

Other than humans, the only mammals were Bottlenose Dolphins playing in the wake.  Not terribly rare, but still fun to watch.

At 4 we hit the car and headed north towards Alvin, TX.  This part of Texas seems familiar -- kind of a cross between eastern NC and central FL.  Lots and lots of cows and lots of BIG fields with black dirt.  There were a couple of substantial chemical plants to break up the monotony and we even run into towns frequently enough we don't have to worry about having at least 130 miles of gas in the tank (that was the longest "No Services for" sign we saw although Catherine isn't sure they bother to put those up in a lot of places).

Tomorrow we'll see Joan Hauser's hometown of Hackberry, LA and then head toward Natchez Trace.

Day 11: Chisos Basin to Mathis, TX

We left the hotel looking for roadside critters.  Even though the gas station attendant at Panther Creek said the javelinas around there are so tame they’ll try to steal groceries as you bring them inside, there was nary a critter in sight. 

We stopped and looked at the fossil exhibit – the desert wasteland of today was once a vast wetland.  That must have looked better.  Because now it’s just ugly.

We stopped at the last visitor center at the north entrance of the park (total visitors this part of the day: 30).  They had great pictures of the camels they decided to use instead of horses (very successful and smart program for 2 years until the trains came through).  The flash flood photos are also impressive – huge quantities of water come from nowhere.

As we exited the park, there was a small water dish (and maybe some seed scattered).  We saw another Black Throated Sparrow drinking.  The Scaled Quail were cooperating (or baited) and we got binoculars on them.  Catherine had this view for most of the rest of the day, except generally there was no cell phone reception.

West Texas is entirely fenced, but has very little alive in it.  No hawks.  No buzzards.  A few tweety birds -- we saw a Savanna Sparrow.  Denise spotted three javelinas along the side of the road, but they scuttled off with their chubby little rumps waddling before we got pictures.  Denise saw a deer.  In terms of livestock, we saw about 20 normal cows, 2 road kill long horns, a herd of goats and these:

After we came out of the park, we turned right at Marathon and headed out on 90E forever.  We went through the Border Patrol check points twice and the drug sniffing dogs decided our car passed inspection.  The entire length of 90 has a dirt road beside it, used by Border Patrol.  Honestly, if anyone wants to make it across the river, through this godforsaken country, is a little Border Patrol going to be a deterrent?  Catherine says if we don't want illegal immigration, put massive fines on the folks that employ people without papers.  Deporting the poor folks desperate enough to try this just seems like a losing battle.

We stopped at the overlook where the Pecos River joins the Rio Grande (it's much Grande-er now).  The background is Mexcio.  Pretty view, but it's unclear why the Pecos is so oddly colored, it should be under US pollution laws.

We then headed to the Amistad International Reservoir where we had a quick lunch looking at the Coots.  The bridges to the left are 90E and a railroad trestle.

At the point you turn into the park you have a choice:

or, as we had done, a right turn for the park.

Once we hit Uvalde we started snaking South East towards Mathis and the countryside got a bit more familiar to the East Coaster in the car.  Here the cow pastures got more lush (yep, that's a lush cow pasture):

And there were even a few irrigated fields.

We even saw irrigated cow pastures.  However, the most exciting finds of the day were 1) Texas driving laws.  When in Texas on a 2 lane road with the speed limit 75 mph, if the road has a broad shoulder and someone comes up behind you, when you get to a passing lane, you are to pull into the shoulder (still going 75) and the person behind you passes you (generally only partially in the lane of oncoming traffic).  If someone is coming from the opposite direction s/he also moves into their shoulder.

2) Crested Carcaras.  If you don't know what they are, look them up.  Denise claimed she saw one sitting in a tree.  The she claimed she saw 2 more flying overhead.  As they are uncommon (and Catherine spent days in Costa Rica looking for them), Catherine didn't believe her.  Then we spotted 5 more.  If you want to added Crested Caracaras to your life list, simply zigzag along Texas highways between Uvalde and Mathis at 75 mph in midafternoon in January and you won't be disappointed.

Sleeping in and Whooping Cranes tomorrow!

Day 10: January 26, Still in Chisos Basin

Yesterday we posted pictures of sunset through “the Window”.  Today, it seemed like a good idea to hike to the Window.  Why was this hike a good idea?  The guide books boasts lots of wildlife.  It turns out, parking lots are much better for wildlife.  In any case, we got several good views of the Window going down.

Going down?  Oh yeah, this hike is inverted.  2.5 miles and 800 feet down and then turn around and do it in reverse.  We got to the bottom and it was a very pretty view.

But Catherine was freezing and, therefore, miserable.  Her poor fingers were painful.  But, she was good and hiked a long way behind Denise until we started back up the hill and she warmed up a bit.  In any case, that shiny stuff on the rocks isn’t ice – they are polished because all the runoff from the mountain range goes through this notch.  Denise wouldn’t let Catherine get any closer to the edge (the cliff is only 220 feet).   Catherine wanted a better look over the desert – but what we could see was pretty.

As we walked back up the canyon through the oaks, the Mexican Jays had woken up and were playing, as were some Spotted Towhees, a few Rufous Crowned Sparrows, and a handful of Acorn Woodpeckers.  Here is their typical habitat in the canyon.

When we approached the parking lot, we found a Cactus Wren.  We headed out from the visitors center and stopped at a pullout for a quick lunch.  On the way, we spotted a Rock Squirrel (notice a theme, many more birds in parking lots and cars than when we go walking… hmmm… John says we’ll eventually learn).  We had a lovely lunch of Tostitos with brie cheese and strawberry jam pilfered from a hotel continental breakfast.  Don’t knock it ‘til you try it.  It’s pretty good.  While we were stopped, a flock of Bushtits and a couple of Ruby Crowned Kinglets wandered by.

As we came out of the mountains, we passed a covey of Scaled Quail – again from the car and Catherine stopped in the middle of the road and pulled a 3 point turn.  Her national park driving skills are improving.  We headed east to the Rio Grande Village area of the park.  The 20 mile drive to it is less than inspiring. 

We made a quick pit stops at the visitor center where Denise acquired an adaption of The Three Little Pigs  except it’s the Three Little Javelinas (which she is currently reading and giggling about) as well as the letters home from a teacher in Big Bend the 1950s (the letter Catherine read involved stopping class to show them a fresh mountain lion skin).  At the general store where Catherine acquired a pet Javelina named Jose and Denise bought a copy of the Big Bend Gazette. 

Having made Larie proud, we continued towards the first trailhead behind the campground.  As we drove around, Denise spotted a bobcat walking in the brush.  S/he seemed quite happy, even rolling on his back – we attempted pictures, but were a bit too excited to get a good one.  Later, the rangers told us a pair lived at the campgrounds and were frequently spotted.  In any case, each of us doubled our lifetime bobcat spottings (the first being earlier this trip).

The nature center trail goes through some kind of impoundment (ie a little flooded area) beside the Rio Grande.  They are trying to save some endangered minnows, but are having problems with other invasive fish.  In any case, there were lots of bulrushes and Marsh Wrens.  We headed up to the overlook to see Mexico again.  The view was pretty – we could even see a vaca (a Mexican cow… she’s not in this picture).  Again just like Nevada Barr's Borderline.  

At the top, there was an odd little pile of Mexican handicrafts and a jar for donations (according to signs we saw later at a different spot, purchasing and selling in this fashion is illegal… so there were donation stickers on every item).  Denise found an ocotillo and scorpion that had to go home with us at this spot.

We then spotted our first illegal border crossing – we believe this gentleman had just restocked the stuff piles and was headed home on his horse.

We meandered over to the Boquillas Canyon Trail.  Boquillas is a tiny shanty town just across the Rio Grande.  Until a few years ago, tourists freely crossed the river and bought goods (now sold in the piles).  With National Security on the line, the border was closed – in fact there are no legal border crossing spots between El Paso and Piedras Negras – a distance of nearly 450 miles.  The town of course has suffered and Catherine can guarantee that no one in Boquillas was involved in 9-11.  In fact, as far as she understands it, no one in Mexico was involved.  In any case, tourism has suffered horribly.  Victor, who used to ferry American across the river in his little boat, now beautifully sings in the canyon panhandling hoping for the border to reopen.  According to the Big Bend Gazette, they are trying to get agreements in place as they have in 37 spots in Canada to allow American tourists to cross without having a full-out border control station.  We hope the US and Mexican governments can make an International Peace Park (like Glacier and Waterton in the US and Canada).  Here’s a photo of someone taking a boat with donations back across.

We spoke with a young man from Mexico who said (well, in his broken English and Catherine’s broken Spanish) that the Park Rangers would chase them off the US soil if they caught them.  However, we think they have better things to do with their time.  In fact, any use of their time would be better than trying to kill this struggling economy. 

We headed down the canyon  a bit further and traded pictures with some women from Colorado.

We had to take one final picture of vacas – one is even has a cowbell and is licking her calf.

The Colorado ladies mentioned the Hot Springs, so we decided to take a look on our way back.  The rock formations are unique. 

There had been a resort here.

The Hot Springs were a main attraction (we assume).  They still feed into concrete pools today.  Those bathing (suits optional) reported that water was a balmy 104.  With the polluted Rio Grande beside the springs and the propensity of 100 degree water to grow nasty stuff, we stuck a finger in and headed out.  The Northern Rough-Winged Swallows played overhead as we headed back to the car.

The Scaled Quail stay at one spot near the road but scuttle into the grass quickly making them hard to take a good look at and the supposedly ubiquitous Javelinas were nowhere to be found.  The sunset through the Window was much improved as the clouds had come in (sadly, the photography club was nowhere in sight).

The parking lot internet wasn’t being as friendly tonight, but we managed to tell our husbands we haven’t become lion food.  On the way back to the cabin, Catherine believes she saw a Ringtail.  Of course, as she’s not sure those actually exist, it could have been a figment of her imagination.  Driving forever across Texas tomorrow.