The Great Blog Update, Part II

Moving Out of Our Apartment in Washington D.C.

The packers came and packed and moved everything in our apartment on January 9, 2007. They got our car on January 10 and I left D.C. for good on the 11^th. The pack out was not nearly as bad as the move from Houston, but it was a hassle nevertheless. Of course it was preceded by a full week of shopping for things like jeans, shoes, pants, dog food, and the staples we are bringing to Venezuela like flour, sugar, cooking oil, rice, boxed and powdered milk, toilet paper, Pop-Tarts, Pringles, Fudge Sticks and flavored Oatmeal. Finding bedding for twin beds proved to be particularly daunting and required multiple trips to Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Tuesday Morning, and, finally Target again where we found suitable bedding for twin beds. (Gracias a Dio!)

As noted above, we shipped a car to Venezuela. Specifically we shipped the BMW, the one that says “rob me I am rich”. I'll keep y'all posted on how that goes.

The Waltz Across Texas

So, I flew out of D.C. with two huge suit cases, and two severely over weight carry ons and arrived Houston arriving at 9:00pm. I got the car we rented (an orange Chevrolet thing that looks like a PT cruiser, which was actually a score because we rented an “economy” model, but, since they were out of “economy” cars we got a mid size). I then drove to Austin where I picked up Mary at the Austin airport at midnight (you are wondering why she did not fly with me to Houston? It has something to do with government rates for airplane flights but I never was really clear on that, I was just following instructions). We spent the night at Mary's parent's house, and left the next morning at 8:00 for Big Bend. Along the way we stopped in Ozona, TX (www.ozona.com) which is where Mary's Grandmother and Grandfather met and lived for a while. Mary's Grandmother was the first Kindergarten teacher there. Here are some nice pictures of Ozona. We have a bunch of letters from Mary's Grandfather to her Grandmother written on letterhead from the hotel in the pictures.

We continued on to Marathon (way out in the middle of nowhere) and we were supposed to stay there but I got talked into going to Marfa which is about 1.5 hours away. When we got to Marfa we met up with Mary's Sisters (Joan & Amy) and their men folks (David & Alex) and it was decided that we would drive on to a little place called Chinati Hot Springs (www.chinatihotsprings.com) near the Mexican border. I did not get a vote. I should also mention I had a cold and was not feeling well. So, on we went to the hot springs. To get there we had to drive about 60 miles, the last 30 of which were on a dirt “road” (as Steve would say “this looks like a good place to build a road”) that winded down a mountain side, around hair pin turns, over huge rocks an through treacherous gullies. The orange Chevy thing I was driving has the clearance of a regular car and more than once I thought I might have taken out the oil pan. It was a scenic but harrowing drive. David (Joan's Man) had to take a leak. Here is a photo:

Also, we saw an old ice cream truck out in the desert:

We got to the springs at dark. The “springs” are hot water that smells a little like an egg-fart, piped into bath tubs in little out houses. The place was run by some hippies that looked perpetually dusty.

We left the next day for Big Bend (http://www.nps.gov/bibe/) (this began my third consecutive day of traveling). We drove over the dirt road again, only in a different direction, to a ghost town called Ruidosa (not to be confused with the New Mexican resort town of the same or similar name). The only thing in Ruidosa was a general store. Mary and her sisters (the boys and girls were in separate cars) stopped there to buy beer, one case, 24 beers, and the proprietor tried to charge them $48.00. He justified the high price by pointing out that he had to drive over 80 miles with the beer (Dude, I feel your pain, I have made that trip!) and kept the beer cold. Now I am certain that we were the only people that passed through that “town” that day. To get there you have to travel by dirt road through some of the most rugged terrain in Texas. It is not like he had a line out the door to buy beer. So Mary told him to keep on keeping he beer cold and we got beer at a supermarket down the (paved) road in Presidio for a more reasonable price.

The drive from Chinati Hot Springs to Big Bend was long (about 4.5 hours, exacerbated by stops along the way) but beautiful. It took us through the little known Big Bend Ranch State Park which is next to Big Bend National Park. Of course, once you get to Big Bend, you still have about 60 miles of driving. We left the springs at about noon and arrived at Big Bend at exactly 6:37. The best part of the trip was when Amy heard about a restaurant called Kathy's Kosmic Kowgirl Kafe and declared that she absolutely had to eat there. It was a BBQ joint! (for those of you that don't know, Amy is a militant vegetarian. Doh!!!)

The next day, mercifully, was spent hiking in the Chisos mountains.

I did the South Rim Trail (12.5 miles) by myself because everyone else were wimps. They (everyone but me) did the 9 mile Emory Peak Trail. I took some photos along the way with the aid of the “Gorilla-pod” that Mary got for me. It is like a tripod but has bendable legs that can grab onto things. Here are cool pictures from my hike:

The next day we were back to driving again. We left the Chisos Mountains Basin and drove to the extreme Eastern end of the park, to go to some more hot springs. I decided to do another solo hike, this one a 3.5 mile jaunt through the desert along the Rio Grande. We then drove back past Panther

Junction, to the extreme West side of the park at Terlingua. From there we headed north through some stunningly beautiful country to Alpine, then west to Marfa (www.marfatx.com) (again!) where we stayed at the Hotel Paisano (www.hotelpaisano.com), which, for you trivia buffs, is where Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean stayed while filming “Giant” nearby. It is a cool older hotel, but Marfa is, in my humble opinion, overrated. It is a blend of small west Texas town with Santa Fe. The end result left me flat. DQ and overpriced art. Groups of people that look like they belong at a New York gallery opening alongside West Texas ranchers. By no matter what you do to Marfa, no matter how much lipstick you put on that pig, it is still a dusty West Texas town acting cool. Frankly, it would be a lot cooler without the artsy posers.

After spending the night in Marfa we left the next morning Mary and I headed for the ranch, while Joan and David headed for Midland/Odessa to catch a flight back to Portland OR and Amy and Alex headed for Arizona. The drive to the ranch was at times very scenic. We went through the heart of the Davis Mountains, past Ft. Davis, and on up to San Angelo. Along the way we stopped in a little town called McCamey TX to eat. It turns out that Mary's Grandfather worked in McCamey for a while and operated a feed store there back in the 1930's. Finally at about 9:000 pm we arrived at the ranch. We were up bright and early the next day and headed to Austin.

In Austin we attended to affairs, moved things around and generally got things in order for our move. two days of hard labor in Austin, I headed to Arlington to visit Paul & Lori and Avery and Ansley. I have to say, Avery and Ansley are the two cutest girls I have ever seen. I had a wonderful visit with Paul & Lori. They fed me very well (thank you Lori!!!) and I had a great time playing with Avery in her Barbi Palace and at the park:

A special thanks to Avery for letting Uncle Mike have her room.

From Arlington it was on over to Dallas to visit Mom & Dad at their new Condo at Turtle Creek (it is nice!) We had a nice, mellow visit and it was time to head on down to Austin to get the dogs, take them to the vet, get them certified by the USDA for the trip to Venezuela and get them and me on down to Houston.