Bigbend and Aleins (i'm not talking about the southern border)

February 26, 2010 Road trip USA

           

 A late start to the day, road worn from the day before.  Breakfast at a fifties dinner, all chrome and glass, good joe and a bag lunch for $3.00 bucks.  The waitress a 4 foot something texas hurricane kind of gal who was lots of fun joking with the locals.  














We drove south on Texas 118.  It wasn’t long before we came upon a landscape that forced me to revise my previous held prejudice against Texas.  The sun was already high in the sky when Hen Egg Mountain revealed its splendor to us.  It appeared as a tumultuous golden sea of rock. Jagged hills heaved from the desert floor scattered with boulders all shades of yellow through to an earthy blood red. Dried river gulches snaked and disappeared into the stone.  Multi-colored orange and yellow grass lined the dead rivers and looked as though they where on fire.

 

Cactus and dwarf palms broke out with contractions of green. And then we reach the Big Bend Park entrance.  The vistas within the park are hard to describe.  Prehistoric cathedrals of stone push into a blue sky that envelopes you.  Ancient mountains, stone shedding soil, leaving only the hardest of minerals to defy the periodic raids from marauding gypsy rivers and the relentless attack from the sun. 






Sixteen miles further south and you reach the Rio Grande Basin.
















The transformation in the vegetation is staggering.  10’ tall grasses 30’ Cotton wood trees line the shores, remnants of old adobes.  A small oasis, then desert and another oasis.  We tented the night on the shore of the Rio Grande.  Cold, let me tell you, the condensation from our breath formed an ice sheet on the tent over night, -2 at night +22 in the day.  


We tried to find the natural hot springs for a nighttime warm-up, but the river was to high flooding them.  As we were walking something in the dark growled, sounding large. Time to go.  There is so much to see here but among my farvorite would have to be Boquillas Canyon.  So named for the little caves in the canyon walls.  Boquillas is little mouth in Spanish.  Aside from the natural splendor of the site what made it my favorite were the Mexicans on the other side of the river.  They sneak across the river and leave piles of handcrafts with price list on the ground (donations for the children of course).  You are meant to leave the cash and take what you like.  All illegal but seemingly not enforced.  

Perched on a large boulder on the other side of the river a man named Victor belted out Mexican folk songs.  We found his collection jar a left him a tip.  He had a good voice until he saw us put in the cash and then immediately took a break until the next people came by.  

The most beautiful place in the park is Chisos Basin.  High mountains surround you as you creep your way through a skinny, winding, mountain road.  More lush, with spectacular vistas in every direction, it gives one the sense that you are on top off the world. 

Begrudgingly we left the park, two days was not enough a week would be better.  We travel west along Texas 170.  First stop was Terlingaua ghost town.  An old mining and trading village; it bragged of having the biggest store east of El Paso in its day.  The ruins of adobe and dry stacked stone dwellings remain.  Some are intergraded into the existing, homes and businesses. 

Texas highway 170 roller coaster along the Rio Grande and is super fun to drive.  It also passes through a lesser known but know less beautiful Big Bend Ranch State Park.  The Sun was low in the sky and in our eyes, the tank was getting low and we were far from any town.  It’s the only way to drive a border hwy in the middle of a desert. 




We made Marfa in time for last call at a tex-mex restaurant.  Tummies hurting, we set out to find the “Mysterious Marfa Lights”.   About 8 miles east of town on hwy 90 you pull off the road and look to the south.  Wouldn’t you know it out in the desert lights appear and disappear, dance around seemingly interacting with one another and disappearing again.  Some big growing in brightness others look like faint stars.  Mostly white but some pale greens, blue, pinks.  Some people have seen reds and other colors.  They were first reported in the 1800’s by a cowpuncher that thought they might be Apache signal fires.  The Apache believed them to be stars falling from the sky.  I ask a local who was pumping the septic tank at the view center, he said “They tie lights to dogs and have em run around chasing one another, “We’re off to go feed them now” Some many different explanations, scientific or otherwise (Spanish conquistadors searching for gold) No one yet has proven a theory. Can’t explain them but having seen them we can’t discount them either.             

Yehah From Texas

February 24,2010 Road trip USA

Padre Island was no Isla M..  More the vacation spot the Wally and the Beaver forgot (and the Bundy's made a short visit and left their mark too).  We never made it to the south end which I'm told is better.  A storm front blew in and I do mean blew.  As we where driving on the beach, miles of flat cream colored sand, the wind was blowing seabirds backwards.  It was like a snow storm in the prairies but sand.  The pelicans futile efforts to shelter themselves in the cascading sand dunes was comical.  Then the rain started and we got out of there!  We drove west into the desert, Big Bend Park, Air force base and U.F.O. sitings. The desert is starting to bloom.  Small yellow and purple flowers checker the rolling cactus covered hills.  As night approached shafts of iridescent golden light pierced the storm clouds blanketing the desert floor on the horizon.   The Sun eventually submitted its control over the sky allowing the stars and moon to change the landscape into anther planet. The only thing reminding us that we where still on Earth where the occasional speckle deer at the side of the road and the impromptu immigration and border control check points along the hwy.  We're off to the park now and probably won't have Internet for a few days talk to soon. Saying farewell for now from Penny's 1950's roadside diner.

Hot Sauce and Cool Weather

February 22, 2010 Road trip USA

Where’d I leave off?  We managed to get onto the bayou.  The tour wasn’t really all that we wanted.  The boat was too big and so we couldn’t go as deep into the swamp as we would of like to.   Still it was the only trip available on our schedule and it was interesting all the same.  The summer would be the time to see it.  We didn’t find the Zydeco bands we were promised last night.  Instead when we got there a band was playing cover tunes from the 80’s.  Another place seem to be having an impromptu, drunken karaoke night.

 We visited Avery Island LA yesterday as well.  For those among you not hip to Cajun geography, Avery Island is home to the world famous Tabasco factory.  It was actually quite nice there.  First the air is permeated with a light infusion of peppers.  Secondly the family has owned the island for generations.

Avery Island

  The man was a nature lover and cultivated the gardens and grounds into a sanctuary the size of Stanley Park, maybe bigger.  We met our first wild Alligators here.  As we continued through this paradise we came though giant oak forests, floral gardens, bamboo forests (location of the original 1920’s Tarzan movie) and an aquatic     bird sanctuary.  It really was an Eden.  

Saw Our First Gator

Avery Island

Jens photo-Tarzan Bamboo forest

   

Continued west out of Louisiana following old hwy 82 along the coast.  A bit of a waste as it was fogged in so bad we couldn’t see 20 feet in front of us.  Besides it was dark. We pulled of the road for a short break; it sounded like it might have been an interesting place to explore. On the south side of the road white sand beaches with what seemed to once be some sort of beach communities.  Now just holiday trailers parked on top of what was probably a house of some sort before Katrina.  The north side of the road was a bayou, Sabine National Wildlife Refuge.  To bad we could see much.  The ocean sound and smelt nice though.  There were a great many creeping, crawling, noise making things playing about behind us in the swamp.  Time to get back in the car.  I missed a turn off to a town in the fog so we ended up in Texas around midnight; Jen still thinks I drove through on purpose but she’s mistaken.

Y’all know that show “king of the hill”?  We’ll I met the cast outside of Galveston Texas in the town of Brazoria.  I picked up a flat and had to stop to get it fixed, that where I met them, nice boys but their world is small.  Quote, “My sister said she wants to go to Bora Bora as if that’s even a real place”  Do you think he was serious?

The South Eastern Texas coast is a schizophrenic area.  We are presently west bound on hwy35.  To our immediate south, in its entire splendor, the Gulf of Mexico.  Not blue like the Mexican side, more of a muddy green.  Miles of white sand beaches interrupted with the occasional clumps of beach communities, brand new or in various states of rebuilding or abandonment.  Spread further apart but leaving a stronger impression are the giant chemical plants and oil refineries the feeling of post apocalyptic cities.  My view right now is the fiery sky falling behind one such futuristic steel city.  The in land, north side, transforms from prairie to swampy wetland indiscriminately and then back again.  The sky is everywhere and it seems as though we can see the curvature of the Earth again.  My new southern friends from the tire shop assure me that the area around Corpus Christi is quite pretty.  Our goal tonight is Padre Island, kind of an American Isla Mujeres. I’ll decide!

Cajun Is Good

February 10, 2010 Road trip USA

While I miss the old world cosmopolitan flavor of New Orleans, the Cajun country around Lafayette and Baton Rouge is remarkable!  Everyone seems infused with a hospitality that makes you feel as though you just returned home..  The food is fabulous!  Every restaurant prides themselves in their own variety of sauces, and subtle but distinct variations on recipes.  We've had craw fish, catfish, shrimp, chicken, turtle soup, gumbo galore, and just tonight I enjoyed, chicken stuffed with craw fish cover in a shrimp etouffee.  We took a driving trip through the country side and along the bayou's Teche and Benoit.  

lamp outside plantation kitchen

We visited both Acadian and African American Museum in St Martinville LA.  Simple but informative displays explain the respective histories of displacement, expulsion and exploitation.  St Martinville by the way is said to be the inspiration behind  Longfellow's  poem Evangeline (star crossed cajun lovers).  There are many old plantations still standing in the area.  Some are grand beyond good taste (especially considering  how their wealth was accumulated)  While others are much simpler, much like a farm houses most of us would be familiar with. The tours, I'm told, don't like to mention much about the slave history; they prefer to use the term servants.

  The zydeco music seems to be everywhere and that suits me fine, cause I like it.  We're planing on going back out on the bayou later tonight to hear more live music.  There are several bars/restaurants built into, or floating on the swamp.  They're fantastically run down garishly painted floating and or sinking road house, looking places.  I can't wait to get inside.  Tomorrow we getting a small boat tour into the swamps; I'm quite excited about the photo opportunities.  Talk to y'all later.

Blacksmith display on plantation

    

Fat Tuesday and New Orlean

Monday Feb. 15,2010 Road trip USA 

Well we made it.  It was a Herculean drive but worth it.  The city of new Orleans is not a nice place; it's gritty, it's raw, it's The Big Easy.  It's also still recovering from the hurricane. As the Sun was making a run for cover, we missed a few exits that put us right in the heart of some ugly scary districts. Tried and tried again and eventually found the French Quarter. Despite my tribulation we entered. At best the place wasn't designed for cars and the night before Fat Tuesday, well what a mistake. Narrow roads, one way streets pedestrians everywhere, cars bumper to bumper, no where even to pull over and get ones bearings. When it was clear we weren't getting a hotel in the Quarter we attempted to flee. To late! it was as if we were in a lobster trap, easy enough to get into but only way out was a pot of boiling water.  We kept trying street after street only to find dead ends, barricades or a loop back to where we started. To complete the maze, police were barricading streets and locking down the area for the festivities. It put an urgency to it, we had to get to the next street before they closed it down. It was hours before we found a hole in the perimeter. 

Jen found us a hotel south of the French Quarter,  at the seed edge of the Garden District. The Prytania Park Hotel (1525 Prytania St New Orleans) 

They took one look at us, took pity, and gave us a room at two times the going rate. In truth the rate might have being cheaper than the going Mardi Gras rate. Exhausted!, frustrated, and starving, I think our heads hit the pillow around 12:30 am.  

We woke early grabbed cameras, got bearings, sort off, and walked towards the Quarter. The area between the hotel and the French Quarter is, by in large, a no mans land with one notable exception "The Warehouse District" More on that later. Throngs of people are beginning to mass along parade routes. It may be the lack of sleep for the past 3 days or the starvation, or that it's "F"in cold, but everything has a surreal quality to it. There is most definitely something about to happen feeling about the place.  

Instead of waiting with the crowds Jen and I walk and walk, we really really want to find a coffee and something to eat; nothings open of course.  We eventually come across the only open coffee shop in New Orleans, seems the other people had the same idea as us. I suspend my "I don't wait in food line-ups" rule for this one time.  Can't remember the quality of that coffee and ham and cheese croissant but that was the best damn breakfast ever!

We spent the rest of the day walking around following the action, there seemed to be a large parade(which we never saw) and several smaller parades. Jen and I kept with the smaller ones, I walk on the street with them shooting as I went. Everyone was in costume. It's like Halloween on steroids with the abandonment of a gay pride parade. Absolutely everyone was involved. Rich-poor, black-white for this one day division are temporarily suspend for a hedonistic jamboree!  A notable exception was the Jesus freak, "the end is near" "Repent Sinner", crowd who seemed to use the event to try to save the lost souls who were having a good time.  The ideological tussles between the revellers and religious zealots provided extra entertainment opportunities. 

Spent the day exploring eating, drinking, observing and collecting beads; I only had to show my breasts once and thankfully no-one tried to kiss me. After dinner we walked back to our hotel (should have grabbed a cab but good luck finding one). It was dark, we were tired and Jen wasn't feeling well.  We where a little lost, I mean we knew where we were but not how to get where we wanted kind of lost. I picked a local, who I thought might not rob and kill us, for directions. They wearily gave us directions and even offered to give us a ride warning us, quite sincerely, even emphatically of the dangers of walking at night,(no mans land and all) I declined of course; however after 45mins more walking I started to rethink that choice. 

We intended to have a rest an return but exhaustion trumped desire and we fell asleep early. Lame right! we know. To justify our lameness we observed that the exuberant feeling of the morning dissolved as the day wore on, as night approached the drunkenness became louder, meaner and uglier. The news says it was busy but relatively not violent.  (only three shootings, one accidental discharge and the other two where only shot in the leg, so i guess that's not serious?)  In truth we haven't seen much in the way of nastiness. Most everyone is just having a good time or too drunk to do harm to anyone but themselves. 

There's lots of fear of violence but I haven't seen much. You can tell it's out there some where.  Maybe it's real but probably just Americans being Americans.  Don't worry Mom, I'm naturally paranoid so we're being careful. 

Once Fat Tuesday and hank over Wednesday were over hotel options dramatically improved. We where able to get a beautiful room in the heart of the Quarter 

Hotel Provincial (1024 Chartres Street). 

Private residence Garden District

When the checking in we were asked about our journey and after a brief description the otherwise austere man said seemingly impressed in a slow and low southern way, "coooool" and had us shown to our room. 

Private residence Garden District

Private residence French Quarter

I called him Zydeco Alice, I was to scared to ask. 

Cornstalk Hotel

Private Residence

Lafayette Cemetery#2

The Commander's Place(1403-Washington Avenue)
In New Orleans Garden District, at the N.E. corner of the Lafayette Cemetery number 2.  Easily the best food I've ever had! Oyster's bake in absinthe nestled in phyllo pastry. Did I mention 0.25 martinis. The service was outstanding! our waiter introduced himself but his immaculately waxed connoisseur styled, handlebar mustache told us everything before he ever utter a gracious southern tone.

The music and streets were alive yesterday and into the night.  

What do you say to something like this?

It ain't fair but hell is it Funny

My what a big Adams apple you have!

Barataria Preserve

Barataria Preserve

Jen and I went out into the swamps to the south of the city today.  Simply beautiful,  In the spring it would be better.  It's too cold right now for Alligator's and such and it's not as lush as in the spring and summer, I'm told.  Perhaps we can come back someday. 

New Orleans has a fantastic spirit! Its people, the food, their history and culture astound me.  I mean they gave the world jazz after all.  The city is surrounded by water: Lake Pontchartrain to the North and  the "Mighty Mississippi" River to the South. Swamps are all around us and you can smell the Gulf of Mexico if the winds blowing from the South; it gives one the feeling of being on an island. 

  

We'll spend another night or two and start a much slower return trip home.  Going to check out Frenchmen Street tonight, I'm told that's where all the real Jazz can be found. We plan to travel westward as far South as possible (maybe we'll find somewhere warm yet).  We would like to hit Mexico but we're concerned about the budget.  Before leaving Louisiana we'll explore more of the bayou and rural Cajun culture.  The food here is fantastic! and inexpensive.  The music is contagious!  Tonight we're off to find some gator for dinner.  Talk at you soon.