What we've been up to this Winter of 2018

Well, we don't really have an excuse for not posting for 2 months other than we're in Fredericksburg Texas and having a great time this Winter of 2018.  As you may know, this is our second Winter here and we've really learned how to do it.  Christmas parades, the Marketplatz, Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, great shopping and wineries all over the place!  Fredericksburg has it all and it's even better in the Winter, according to us.

First off we learned last time we were here (October 2017 - March 2018) that there was a winery circuit we needed to check out when we got back.  Lupe joined the Grape Creek wine club, after a lot of tastings, and I joined Becker's.  So, we learned, after a lot of trial and error (LOL) how to go to two wine tastings every day we are in town and get two free glasses of wine, each!

At Becker wine club, chillaxing with Lupe drinking White Wing Chardonnay

So far, it's just December 15th, we've made it to both tasking rooms 50+ times since joining in October. I guess we're getting our money's worth!  That's probably not a record but we've had fun every time.  You and a guest get a free glass of wine each day and on certain days at Becker they have locals night with free charcuterie.  WARNING: To be Wine club members, you agree to get quarterly wine shipments which are usually 3-6 bottles.

Charcuterie at Becker Tasking room

But even before we hit the wine circuit we already had a scheduled event.  We got the Garrison Brother's email inviting us to participate in their October bottling while we were still at Big Bend National Park.  We'd been waiting for a year since we tried last season to get in after our Distillery tour.  At that time they told us to signup via email and we'd get notice if we got picked.   And we did.  So, the first week we were back we headed to Garrison Brothers Distillery to bottle some of their amazing bourbons.

And, it's a secret but here goes: when you are done you get 'employee pricing' for a day at their shop - on top of the gifts Dan Garrison graciously provides us after 2 days of bottling.

Thanks to Dan Garrison for a great time

With that great start, we both realized how lucky we were to be right here, right now.  Lupe began looking for seasonal work and I began my volunteer work as a park host at Enchanted Rock SNA.

Hiking Enchanted Rock's Echo Canyon under October's stormy clouds

And as luck would have it the first thing that happened here at the park was a flood.  Mid-October this area got massive amounts of rain just like many parts of Texas.  There was major damage and clean up to do at Enchanted rock, and my friend Bob and I got to do some cleanup before the park could open.   Bob if your reading this, we miss you guys!!

Sandy Creek bridge after mid-October flooding

And that is volunteering as a park host.  You do what's needed and you look for opportunities to contribute.  I've really enjoyed this season at Enchanted Rock and Fredericksburg. I again got a chance to do some gardening in beds around the buildings and I was 'Santa' again for Christmas.  The Texas Hill Country is an amazingly beautiful place with views in every direction with wonderful people to spend time with.

We've been so lucky to find this place and participate here.  I hope we will be able to do it again.  Right now, as workampers, we are planning our stops for 2019.  Early in the year, we'll be traveling to Quartzite and Lake Havasu Arizona to spend time with the Xscapers group for my birthday in January, like last year!

January 13, 2017, Quartzite AZ, in my PJs :) 

After that, we'll travel with some of them to San Felipe, Baha California, Mexico for the Mexico Convergence. Yes, we're taking the Airstream out of the country for the first time, and we're so excited.  From our Maiden Voyage to Mexico.

Thanks for taking the time to read all this.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Bert and Lupe on the Road.

Last day of work at Rio Grande Village in Big Bend National Park

So today was our last day of work at Rio Grande Village in Big Bend National Park.

On our last 2018 hike in the Basin

It was bittersweet since we have just completed our first workamping assignment at a National Park, made very good friends in the park we would miss forever, managed a store in a National Park, got to spend 6 months in the Chihuahuan desert, kayaked the Rio Grande River, had a fun weekend at Lajitas Resort, fell in love with Terlingua, found our favorite National Park and on and on.

Last stop at the store to say Goodbye

Thank you Forever Resorts,
Chisos Basis Lodge,
Rio Grande Village Store,
and Gary and Maria!! 

and off we go one to our next adventure!

This has been a one-time event for us, and we will never forget it.

We have memories and good friends that will last a lifetime.

It's been an eye-opening and enlightening experience for both of us.

As we leave our favorite National Park, we look forward to good times and travels throughout our home state of Texas for the month of September 2018.

After stopping by Seminole Canyon State Park & Historic Site, we'll head to Enchanted Rock state park to spend the Winter via Austin of course! 

I'll (Bert) be a volunteer park host, and Lupe will work in Fredericksburg.

And here is our Google Photo album of every photo we've taken (and saved) from Big Bend since 2014.

Lupe's 2018 Birthday

So my Birthday is always over Labor day weekend for the most part because I was born on September 1st. This year we had to work on my birthday so we did not do anything to celebrate it on the 1st.  I'm quite used to this as my Brothers Bday is on the 28th of August and my Fathers bday is on the 29th of August. Growing up my birthday was not usually celebrated on my official birthday.

Thanks to Forever Resorts, the company we are currently working for, for my 2 free (birthday) nights at Lajitas Golf Resort in Lajitas, Texas.  Here's what happened.

Leaving the park we decided to stop at the tunnel that leads to our end of the park and get a few pictures. I love this little tunnel. It not only lets me know that we are almost home after a long ride across the park, but it also has a pretty cool view of the Sierra del Carmen Mountains in Mexico behind it.

Check-in at the hotel was not till 3pm so we decided to stop at the Chili Pepper Cafe in Terlingua to get some food. We always enjoy this place because of the hot salsa and spicy food. 

Lajitas Hotel is broken into 3 different areas, luckily we were able to stay in the Main hotel.  

After check in we walked down to the Longhorn museum that is connected to the Golf Resort check-in. I don't have a long arm span but this Longhorn's horn span was still huge.  

After walking around a bit we decided to check out the pool, but due to the weather, we were not able to enjoy the pool so we decided to do some more walking and check out the bar. 

This was the main photo on the back end of the bar. We started out with a shot of Bourbon to start the night off, I jumped to a French 75, went to Vodka for a Lemon drop Martini and ended the night with a Mexican Martini! We had a great dinner with some fun conversation about our travels with a few of the other guests at the bar. 

Instead of paying $250 to rent a Jeep for the day we decided to rent a Golf cart from Black Jack's Crossing for the morning and drive around the course. We were told it was a beautiful drive and even if we did not play golf we would still enjoy it. The entire trip took us just over 2.5 hours after all our stops to take pictures and just enjoy the views. It was well worth it!

Just pass hole 9 is a pump house that supplies water to the water features for the front 9. If you look closely in the picture below you can barely see it. 

We actually had to turn around on hole 11 because we passed these ruins, it was not until we were on the green looking back that we could see them. 

After our fun golf cart exploration, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for my Gentleman's Facial and Agave massage. Bert wanted me to have a massage to help relax for my birthday. The couple who work at the Lajitas Agave Spa also have a massage studio in Terlingua, Tx. 

After my massage, we had a few hours to simply relax, so we watched some US Open tennis and just kind of kicked back in the room. That evening a friend of Bert's offered to make us dinner in Terlingua. On our way out of Lajitas, we decide to make a quick stop and take a picture of Mayor Clay Henry. He is the one on top of the house lol.  

Sadly we do not have any pictures of dinner. Melissa made an amazing dinner for us, I'm not a big fan of grits but if you toss shrimp on top of it its a go. While the food was cooking she gave us a tour of her property on Ben's Hole creek. Could not see myself living in Terlingua unless it was a property kind of like hers. 

After dinner, we made our way back to Lajitas. Bert hung out in the room to watch a bit of the US Open while I went down to the pool. Within a few minutes of being at the pool, it was totally dark. Thanks to the cover of darkness I was able to swim au naturel in the pool and the fountain, drinks might have been involved lol.  Great Birthday!! 

Here are our related posts

How we accidentally met our new friend Melissa at Starlight Theater in the Terlingua Ghost Town. 

For more pictures and video feel free to check out our Google Album Lupe's 2018 Birthday Weekend

Closed Canyon in Big Bend Ranch State park and the incredible drive down FM 170 to get there

A young, in-shape guy, came through the Rio Grande Village (RGV) store while we were working at Big Bend National Park and mentioned his hike through Closed Canyon in Big Bend Ranch State Park.  He said the slot canyon was amazing, the hike was great and we should definitely do it, and then he mentioned that he'd gone too far into the canyon, going over a rock formation that was too slick to climb out of, and he was not able to get back out. He said that to get back to civilization he had to continue down the canyon to the Rio Grande and hike another 7 miles until he found another canyon that he could climb out of.  Well, we got excited just hearing 'slot canyon' and not much else really made any sense, until we faced a similar choice in a place similar to what he talked about.

When we got there we found an unexpectedly beautiful place to explore.

We decided to make the drive through Terlingua and on to the State Park's eastern visitors center, Barton Warnock Visitors Center, near Lajitas.  This was really the only way to get to the state park from Big Bend, and we'd been wanting to visit Barton Warnock since we'd heard how great it was.

This was still a long drive for a hike. From the southeastern part of Big Bend, it would be an hour and a half drive just to get to the visitors center.  Then we'd have 20 miles to go down FM 170 to get to the canyon.

Google map from RGV to Barton Warnock Visitors Center

Another reason to make the trip was FM 170 or River Road, one of the most scenic and unknown drives in America.  We often talk to Big Bend visitors about 170 out of Terlingua as a way to see an almost entirely unknown, and therefore, unexplored part of West Texas; an incredible drive above and through the canyons created by the Rio Grande over millions of years, River Road is undoubtedly one of the most if not the most scenic drives in North America (Texas Monthly and National Geographic agree).

Barton Warnock Visitors Center

So, we began at Barton Warnock asking questions about Closed Canyon.  By the time we got there, mid-afternoon, it was about 105 degrees (it was August!). The folks there were very helpful, providing all the details we needed.  As it turned out, they said Closed Canyon was a relatively easy hike and we'd get some shade because of the high walls and narrow slot canyon.  The Ranger mentioned not hiking too far in and paying attention to what you climbed over, under or through.  Many formations and boulders were not easy to climb when coming back; so he said we would not be getting to the Rio Grande River on the hike.

And I got to buy a state park T-shirt and support Texas State Parks!!

Closed Canyon trailhead marker

The parks trailhead marker sign provided much-needed safety information everyone should take in before hiking the trail and mentions being aware of drop-offs that become 'too great to safely negotiate'.  Point taken!

Heading into Closed Canyon

The hike began in the dry creek bed leading in.  We began to realize it was much cooler and windier in the canyon.  The air began to travel faster and cooled as it was compressed, forced through the slot.

The path curved to the left as you enter the high-walled slot canyon. Small creek rock and black dirt covered a hard but smooth canyon floor. 

The canyon was rather wide as we started with variations in the color and texture of the rock, smoother on the lower parts of the walls and rougher up higher where the water had not affected it as much.  

Looking into the canyon as we walked you could see how the water traveled through it, smothing it over millions of years, carrying sand and rock with it.  

With cliffs and caves above us, the slot canyon began to narrow, becoming even more smooth-walled along the way; large boulders were exposed as the canyon narrowed. 

Each left and right we took through the canyon gave us a new view around the corner with something unexpected and different ahead.  

We began to do more boulder climbing to continue on through the narrowing slot. 

Eventually, the flat ground disappeared, and all we had was boulders to climb to continue the hike.

At about .87 mile, we came to a drop-off of about 12 feet that we could tell we'd not be able to climb out of on the way back.  

We both tried and could have gotten past the standing water tinaja but getting back up the rock seemed like 'too great to safely negotiate'.  

With the smoothed rock walls and about 8 feet apart, we would not have been able to push against both walls, like a bridge, hands on one side, feet on the other, to get across both ways.  This is a technique we've seen (on youtube) to get past the point where we had to stop at Ernst Tinaja!! 

It was tempting to consider just dropping into the water and continuing the hike, but climbing up and out would have been very difficult or impossible for both of us.  We do need to practice 'bridging' for next time!! 

So we hiked out, happy as clams that we got as far as we did! 

Here's my short video of the hike out

 

On the way back, we spent some time exploring and taking photos of FM 170.  

Here's a panorama photo taken from Fandango Dome Rock, a high point on the road, looking toward Presidio.  

And another looking toward Big Bend National Park with the Rio Grande's green path in the lower right.  

Here are our related posts!

Kayaking in Big Bend Ranch State Park, passing below Fandango Dome Rock.

Hiking into Ernst Tinaja, were we got stuck at the big hanging rock.

And here are our all our videos and photos from this hike in our Google Photo Album.

Meeting new friends, accidentally

My former High School band director, Mr. Banda, had been urging me to meet another one of his students that lives near Big Bend National park in Terlingua, Tx. while we're here.  Melissa is a school teacher there.  Mr. Banda sent several messages, to both of us and in 5 months we had not managed to meet up in Big Bend NP or Terlingua.

So each time I'm driving through Terlingua or shopping there, I have not called or messaged her and I feel bad about it but just go on thinking she'll not have the time to just meet us at the store or a restaurant. It's always an impromptu visit.  That day we had traveled through Terlingua to Lajita, then to the state park.  And the same thoughts had run through my mind.

Starlight Theater Bar

So, after hiking Closed Cayon in the Big Bend Ranch State Park we went to Starlight theater for dinner.  We walk up to the bar and, strangely, there were 2 spots next to each other so we sit down, order drinks and chips (it's happy hour) and start to relax.  There is a woman sitting next to us drinking her water and she looks familiar, but I'm not sure why.  So, I guess that she might be the Melissa that Mr. Banda had mentioned multiple times.  Hey, we're in a tiny ghost town so..

Automatically, I'm going to Facebook, trying to look at common friends with Banda while she and I have a casual conversation about our hike in the state park.  She talks about Terlingua and why she's there.  I'm not quite to the common friends yet when she mentions she's a teacher there and, I say 'do you know a Mr. Banda?'

Accidental friends

Well, of course, she did; we laughed at the coincidence and the many times we had both thought about the other while passing through.  Anyway, it was great to finally meet Melissa, and now we can let Mr. Banda know we've met, thanks to his generous prodding!

Ernst Tinaja and the Dead horse Mountains

Ernst Tinaja, a series of rock watering holes, is reached by hiking up a half-mile into the amazing Boquillas formation created 90 million years ago. The difficult part is getting there.  The Tinaja (Spanish for "large earthen jar") is accessed from Old Ore Road, which is a 27.5-mile backcountry road in Big Bend National park connecting the RGV (Rio Grande Village) area to HWY 385, the park entry road coming in from Marathon.

And while we believe 'The Green Monster', our 1500 RAM, is the best truck in the world, it is not a 4x4 vehicle, however, since it IS a monster we decided we'd try the road anyway to see the tinajas.

We began our trip from the southern end of Old Ore road, so the side road to the Ernst Tinaja camping area was about 5 miles down that road. Along the way, we had amazing views of the Chisos Mountains as the morning began.  We started about 9 a.m. to avoid hiking in the hotter afternoon heat.

Along Old Ore Road you get many beautiful views of the Chisos

Along the way, we passed multiple camping areas, including Candellia, which was named after the very abundant Candellia plant, used to produce fine wax in Mexico

and the grave of Juan de Leon who was murdered at La Noria in 1933 following an argument with Joe Loftin, who was never convicted of the crime. I hope my grave looks this good when I'm put in the ground!!

Anyway, we arrived at the Ernst Tinaja camping parking lot and started our hike.  The weather was wonderfully cool and perfect for the hike.  We immediately started to notice all the water that had collected on the exposed bedrock probably still there from the 2.5 inches of rain RGV had received two-weeks prior.

As you begin the hike, up the wash, you walk on exposed, whitish limestone sheets uplifted and angled over time, each holding a little water full of tadpoles and small creatures.

hiking towards Ernst Tinaja

As noted in Falcon's Big Bend Hiking Guide, continuing up the wash you are walking back in geologic time.  The type of rock changes from large white limestone sheets to thinner and more colorful limestone and shale.  Fossil remnants indicate these beds were originally deposited on the ocean floor 90 million years ago.

entering the tinaja canyon

Walking into the Ernst Tinaja canyon, rocks become even more colorful, layered and more folded while the white limestone base rock that forms the tinaja, known as budda limestone, starts to appear.

Ernst Tinaja

Looking back from where we had hiked in, the shot of Ernst Tinaja shows the deep green color of the water; you can't see the bottom. The water level was higher than what I've seen in other photos probably due to the recent rains. Many references to this tinaja talk about how animals get trapped in its water and drown as the water level drops, with the sides slick with algae preventing them from escaping.

Just past the tinaja the horizontal, layered walls become twisted and pushed into cave-like structures.  Years of sand and rock-filled water traveling through the canyon and high speeds have also changed these formations smoothing the lower rocks like a rock tumbler would.

Smooth white budda limestone formations are abundant.

continuing into the canyon past the tinajas

We continued into the canyon another quarter mile, climbing up, over or under many of the smooth rock formations

eventually, stopping where we didn't have the climbing skills to pass. I call it the big hanging rock!

At the formation where we stopped, there was a bee-filled pool, where they could take a cool a drink.

We hiked back out of the canyon passing many flowering plants with birds fluttering around them.  The tinaja supports a small community of plants and animals all year long, an oasis that allows for life in the typically hot Chihuahuan desert.

Dead horse Mountains pouroff

We decided to continue down Old Ore Road toward 385 which we found out was the more challenging part of the backcountry road, especially for the truck.  To the East, we were blessed with beautiful views of the Dead horse Mountains and high mountain pouroffs along the way.

And to the west, we again had the distant Chisos Mountains to watch for between the undulating McKinney Hills

where we also found remnants of the McKinney ranch.

Along with more beautiful, flowering plants along the road.

Here's our Google Photo Album of all photos from this trip.