Archive for January, 2010
Posted on January 12, 2010 by jason
We sent out a Couchsurfing request to Guil in Marathon, but we actually heard back from Stan, but he was in Florida. Then Guil called us and he was in New York (turn out he’s also a UPS pilot). Then we heard from Jarret. Jarret is 21 and came to Guil’s place for one night. It’s been 3 months and now he’s in charge when Guil’s out. Jarret gave us directions and we set course for La Loma Del Chivo.
We pulled up and immediately met the entire crew at the compound. Cool folks who had a similar story – most have been there a few months and all have their own projects.
It’s essentially a free-form building experiment. They’re creating a hostel made mostly from papercrete (warning – flammable!) and are experimenting with other alternative building techniques and self-sustainability. Anyone who wants to stay long enough to finish a project gets to build anything they want, with Guil picking up the tab. They host a random assortment of travelers, and Couchsurfers stay for free.
It’s a work in progress, but a pretty interesting vision is sprouting up from the desert. It’s completely off-the-grid. Solar powered adobe sleeping pods. Outdoor movie theater. Organic gardens. Hopi kiva. Outdoor communal kitchen. Sweat lodge.
We weren’t going to stay long enough to build anything, so we decided to cook everyone dinner and spend the evening hanging out and staying warm around the big fire pit.
As the night went on and the temperature dropped, the wind picked up and it was a pretty crazy night of trying to sleep in the howling wind. To make things more interesting, everyone out here has some sort of junk pile (several, usually.) Partly because everything has more value out here and is harder to get, and partly because everything is viewed as a potential building material. Anyway, when the wind picks up, pieces from the piles start blowing around and it makes a heck of a racket.
Posted on January 11, 2010 by jason
If you like to just get in the car and drive with your brain disconnected, the trip from Del Rio to Marathon is for you. It’s simultaneously barren and beautiful. Peaceful. The landscape changes slowly, so you have plenty of time to consider what’s in front of you. We had thought we would make it all the way to Marfa today, but decided to take it even slower than usual.
We made the required stop in Langtry to see the Judge Roy Bean Saloon and Museum. He was The Law West of the Pecos and dispensed justice with a .45. It’s a pretty interesting (and free) stop with Wild West memorabilia and Bode enjoyed it. He asked why I wasn’t wearing cowboy boots since we were in the Wild West. He was.
We had planned on camping this entire part of the trip, but the weather forecasts have been warning of an ‘Invasion from the North’ with ‘Arctic blasts from Canada.’ Those damn Canadians are at it again and we had to wait until after the commercial break to hear more about it! I can barely stand weatherman hyperbole, but since this could actually impact our plans we had to listen. Expected temperatures in the single digits tonight, so I sent out a few Couchsurfing requests as a backup and we got an interesting response from Guil in Marathon.
Posted on January 9, 2010 by jason
From Luckenbach, we made the short hop over to Fredericksberg. My uncle Bob told us to go check out the recent additions to the the National Museum of the Pacific War – a.k.a the Admiral Nimitz Museum. Bob’s childhood buddy, David Richter, was the architect. We had wanted to get up here on Dec. 7th to meet Bob’s father, Commander Donald E. Skewis (USN Ret.), and some other guy named George H. W. Bush who was there for the dedication. As usual, we were running a little late and missed it.
The museum is pretty impressive and has an interesting collection of artifacts from the war in the Pacific, including a Japanese mini-sub. The labyrinth-like exhibit hall winds you through the all the notable events of the war with Japan and includes high-tech audio/video displays and plenty of military hardware. Bode was most impressed with the anti-aircraft gun that seemed surprisingly functional. He could spin the gears and aim it with ease.
We had lunch in town and overhead the guy at the next table talking about our friend Dave, who we are headed to visit in Marfa – 400 miles away. Everybody knows Dave.
Enchanted Rock is here too, but I’ve been many times. We still intended to go there and camp for a night and scramble over the rock with Bode, but it turns out the park was closed this week for deer hunting. I’ve never heard of a State Park closing for deer hunting, but there you go.
Next, we decided to make the drive over Kerrville. Angela wanted to stop at James Avery’s HQ and have a look around and we have always heard the town was pretty cool. We drove around the town but didn’t really see any reason to stop. Maybe we missed something, or we just need to come back for the big folk festival.
We’ve made it this far from Houston with no interstate driving, so we pulled out the map and set course for Del Rio and some campgrounds near Lake Amistad and the border. This was followed by hours of driving next to ‘big game’ ranches. Signs advertising $1500 for a ram hunt. Really? $1500 to go shoot a ram inside some guy’s fence. How sporting.
As we got closer to Del Rio, the landscape evolved to barren desert and the sunset was blazing red. Right at dusk, we came across our first random border patrol checkpoint. A Latino family was stopped in the northbound lane and standing outside their car not looking like they were having much fun, but we were headed south and all traffic was free to go in our direction.
We ended up within just a few miles of the Mexican border and Angela started half-joking that we just go ahead and cross over and start the Mexico leg of the journey right now. Hmmm….
Posted on January 8, 2010 by jason
These are real words in our daily life. Welcome.
Bode got a very cool anatomy book for Christmas and he’s been pouring through it almost every night. I’m a little surprised at just how closely he’s studying it, but if you’re going to be curious about anything at a young age, your own body is a pretty good subject.
A recent ‘a-ha’ moment was learning about alveoli and asthma. Now that he can see what the problem is (in cartoon form) and explain it himself, now he actually *wants* to use his inhaler if it’s ever needed.
The other night, after going over all the bones in the book, Angela pointed to the pelvis and asked him what it was called. He pondered it a bit and rubbed his metacarpals against his gluteus maximus searching for bone. Then he came up with it – the bumskull! A skull for your bum. After we finished laughing, we decided it’s a much better name and so it stuck.
If you’re ever at a campsite and hear “Bode, get your bumskull over here!” then please come introduce yourself.
This reminds me of one of our regular camping board games – Scrabble. One evening I must have been distracted and Angela put down this zinger: anclepoo. Somehow I didn’t even notice it until much later in the game. I questioned it, of course, but she insisted that it was a real word. I wasn’t about to figure out how to back up the game, and knowing to pick my battles, there was really no point in fighting this one. One secret to a happy marriage: anclepoo is a word.
I can’t recall ever winning at Scrabble.
Posted on January 7, 2010 by angela
Over the holidays we had a serious amount of couch time and a virtually unlimited number of TV channels.
One thing everyone can agree on: Caillou is a pest. Even the grandparents cringe when this show comes on. My friend recently posted on Facebook that her son asked what planet Caillou was from and she answered Canada.
Even Caillou’s parents are unbelievable. Can they do no wrong? That little whiner complains about everything and his parents have the patience usually given only to saints. Caillou and his primary-colored world, er. I just don’t get it.
And Dora, please! Where’s the ocean? Are you kidding me? It’s right next to you! Give these kids a break. However, I do like to explain the plan for the day in Dora terms: “Breakfast, Shower, Park!” And then if he actually gets dressed I do a little “We did it” dance myself.
Posted on January 6, 2010 by angela
Texas Hill Country driving means that you can judge the distance between towns by the water towers on the horizon.
Our next stop was Luckenbach, Texas – made famous by Waylon Jennings song of the same name and and Willie Nelson’s famous 4th of July picnic. Jason came here with his dad as a kid and had vague memories of hippies and cowboys drinking beer and pitching washers… and apparently nothing’s changed.
I’ve never been, so Jason showed Bode and I around… it took 10 seconds. The small general store/bar, the closed dance-hall, hat store and the area where you can throw washers. That’s it, but it’s all it really needs. We still managed to linger around a couple hours. Bode was pretty impressed when he saw cowboys and mentioned it loudly. Then he looked over at a couple of bikers and announced that they weren’t cowboys, but football players. Once we explained that they had different helmets and that those nice gentleman were motorcycle riders, he thought that was pretty cool too.
Tonight while playing with his toy cars, Bode announced that his tanker truck was delivering beer from the Spoetzl Brewery.
Posted on January 5, 2010 by angela
We spent the day driving back roads and slowly getting away from everything. It was great.
We made our way to Shiner, Texas and set up camp at a city park. A sign instructed us to call the city police department and an officer would come collect a camping fee, but the town’s only officer on duty was busy. We fully expected an officer to tap on our window with a flashlight at some point during the night, but no one showed. Free camping!
The park still had their Christmas lights up and we had the displays all to ourselves. It was a little eerie, but we had a stroll around the park and enjoyed the small town festive light display. The temperature dropped rapidly as soon as it got dark, the wind picked up and the rain started. Good camping weather. We could even hear cows mooing.
Our friend Mear donated some travel games from his childhood when we visited in Austin – some of my old favorites – and it was time to introduce Bode to Othello. “A minute to learn, a lifetime to master.”
The next morning we headed to the Spoetzl Brewery for the Shiner beer tour. After 100 years, they still make the best bock beer in the U.S. Shiner Bock is pretty much a staple in Texas - everyone drinks it, but the locals in Shiner prefer the Blonde Ale. It’s always been brewed right here in Shiner, and you can get it in 41 US states (and Mexico), so pick some up and give it a taste. It’s good.
It’s a big factory, so Bode was impressed. They also gave him lemonade during our tasting, so he gave the tour a thumbs up.
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