#7 Indian Bread Rocks aka The Masonic

Back in the 30's a group of Masons based in Bowie, Arizona dug out a road to an unusual rock cropping outside of town.  They called it the Masonic picnic area. The BLM came in later and named it Indian Bread Rocks recreation area.

Over the years this little area has been home to many picnics and nature lovers - and for a couple days it is our home too. ATV trails and dispersed camping opportunities drew us to the area but we're finding so much more!

In addition to wonderful vista and fun rock climbing, nearby Fort Bowie Nat'l Historical site gave us a good 3.5 mile hike thru the mountains.

Along this trail came an unexpected encounter with a Gila Monster and a less unexpected but still exhilarating encounter with a western diamondback. 

Indian Bread Rocks also provided the ultimate spot for viewing the lunar eclipse - high elevation, no ambient light, an unobstructed view of the sky and a favorable time zone. 

The little almost ghost town of Bowie seems to have a single purpose left - to grow grapes, pistachios, olives and pecans. We bought a bit of each to support the local economy. The grapes had been fermented though, of course. 

But for the most part this area gave us peace, relaxation and that serenity that comes with a remote location and a soothing campfire.

After four great days we head southwest hoping to find a boondocking spot as great as this one. Wish us luck!

 

Lots of rock scrambling opportunities here...even for the pooches

 
 The way we like it!

White Sands

While camping in Las Cruces, we took a scooter ride to White Sands National Monument and the missile range.

Riding through the dunes on the Harley was interesting and COLD. It's amazing how much coolness the sands retain from overnight.

After creating a sand angel, I discovered a half cup of sugar white sand in my pockets when we stopped in Alamogordo for lunch.  A free souvenir!!

On the way back to Las Cruces, we stopped by the missile base where David admired his favorite fighter jet. 

We discovered that a couple of the boondocking spots that we had considered weren't suitable for our camper due to its size so staying in our Las Cruces site another night was a good choice. High winds were predicted for Saturday so we planned to hit the road toward Arizona.  It was a very good choice.

#6 Las Cruces

After a day battling wind and changing a catastrophic flat on a big fifth-wheel - luckily not ours - we again used our Passport America app and found a very convenient (ie right on the highway with a laundry) RV park/hotel/restaurant at $18/night.  We met our goal of making it to New Mexico and tomorrow we'll scope out a couple of nearby boondocking sites at a nearby BLM area.

#5 Davis Mountains State Park

Over the past four days we've called Davis Mountains State Park in southwest Texas home. Hundreds of miles of beautiful, mountainous riding and an excellent campground to boot. A great skyline drive in the park drew us the first day.

We then enjoyed the town of Fort Davis with its history and charm. 

Fort Davis National Historical Park

We visited Big Bend Natl Park and of course David had to take any road that was signed as 4WD/High Clearance. Besides this crazy 12-mile off road trek, the most exciting part of the journey was our first Border Patrol checkpoint. Our pups didn't take kindly to bein checked out by a German Shepherd BP worker.

Big Ben National Park - just too big to get good photos of

The scooter rides around Alpine, Marfa, the McDonald Observatory and Fort Davis have been my favorite. 

We picked up some riding buddies one day. While cruising along in the middle of nowhere - not long after I took this shot - a misguided bee collided with my face at about 60mph and got stuck under my sunglasses. For the past couple of days I've had what appears to be a shiner. The swelling is finally going down; sure glad I'm not allergic though. Thus no pics of Tammy for a couple of days. ;-)

While we contemplated staying here another day - there is that much to do. - we need to move on. Tomorrow we cross the state line into New Mexico.

Views from lookout above Davis Mountain

State Park

Flora around Davis Mountains

State Park Trail

Fort Davis National Historic Site - Officer Quarters

Me trying to be artistic

#4 Cavern at Sonora

The Cavern at Sonora is the self proclaimed world's greatest show cave. As it sat right along I-10 we certainly had to stop and check it out. Turns out it is an awesome, still growing cave with a quaint little RV area within. Quaint in RV language means tight, barren and small, but very comfortable.

 Even so we found ourselves enjoying the area and stayed an extra night. It was extra interesting as guineas and peacocks roamed free.  Anyone who knows our pups can imagine their excitement. 

The winds were still high so scooter riding was limited but we still got a little bit in. 

Inside the Sonora Cavern - this cave had the most variety of formations in a compact space that we've ever seen underground.  It was also the warmest cave we've been in at about 80+ degrees and high humidity even at the lowest depths.  There were also high levels of carbon dioxide at lower cave levels due to the lack of ventilation and natural processes.  Apparently the state of Texas has been attempting to "confiscate" this cave to place it in the state park system and the private owners have been fighting these attempts for years.  They do a good job of maintaining the cave and surroundings and in my opinion deserve to continue to own and operate it.

#3 Brenham - You have to get ice cream, right?

So we arrive in Brenham, Texas where you just have to get ice cream, right?  Well we passed on the Blue Bell tour and instead brushed up on our Texas history at the Washington on the Brazos state park. My mammaw told me that we had a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence in our Ancestral history.  Hey, my great-grandmother's name was Texanna and football legend Sammy Baugh is in the family tree.  We've got to have some kind of interesting Texas history in our family.

Sure enough John S D Bryom was the first signer. I'll have to research more when I get home.





We only stayed in Brenham the one night but it looked like a nice little town with awesome fields of bluebonnets.

#2 Bethy Creek on Lake Livingston

Through our Passport America app we found this little campground on the north end of the lake. While I'm sure that it is hopping during the summer it's fairly quiet now...except for the wind which has been just under gale force since our arrival.  Even still we've been able to watch a diehard wakeskater each day at dusk - no doubt a kid that grew up in this cove.  We tried a little motorcycle ride today but the wind sent us back to the camper in less than a hour. We instead went to the Texas Prison Museum down Hwy 19 in Huntsville. Ol' Sparky sits there quietly still prepared to light some offender up. They had lots of Bonnie and Clyde memorabilia which was interesting since we were in Mount Lebanon just a couple weeks ago where the famous takedown actually happened. Yesterday we visited Daisy's Diner in Riverside, TX which has karaoke on Tuesday nights. This was a small town gathering at its finest - everyone knew one another and the David's chicken fried steak and my guacamole burger was divine.  Tonight we'll let the wind rock us to sleep while the sounds of the lake lap at our back door and tomorrow we'll continue the journey west.

Bethy Creek Resort

Ol' Sparky

Wish I had one of these at home...:-)