Finally got moved to my new lot at the Saguaro Co-op 3.7.22

On Monday, I fired up the Moho, drove over to the Co-op’s propane fill station and topped off the Moho’s propane tank before moving to my new lot at the Saguaro Co-op. Lot 40 is 3 sites from the southern border of the park, faces East with a great view of the mountains. The lot has a 280 sq ft (20’ x 14’) casita with a 3/4 bath, closet, kitchen area with cabinets, large counter and a double stainless sink. The casita is raised 4 feet off the ground, on a concrete slab with storage space below. A small outside access portion is full height, so I’ll use that area for tools etc, it's also the access to the storage crawl space. The front of the casita has a raised 8’ x 20’ deck.

I’m in the process of buying some furniture. So far I have purchased a used leather sleeper sofa and recliner, from a friend. So I now have guest accommodations. I plan to order a couple of bar height deck chairs and a small corresponding table for the deck. Eventually, I hope to find a small kitchen table and chairs. Every Saturday the co-op opens the yard sale storage trailers and if I get lucky I’ll find something there. Co-op members donate furniture and then the Cactus Wrens sell it as a source of funds for bands and events in the Co-op.

I’ve decided to keep the Moho for now. I have a great view from it and since I’m planning to head north April 30th, I really don’t have much time and don’t want to make any snap decisions. The current plan is to leave it on the lot for the month of May, run up to CORA in the truck and hand at CORA for a few weeks, then make a trip back to Benson loaded with some items for the casita, before returning to CORA. I'll probably move the moho off my lot and into the Co-op storage area to earn some rental credit on my lot for the summer.

I’ve been making plans for Alaska, and if I decide to do the trip I’ll take off from CORA the first week in June. I’m waiting to see how things shake out with gas prices, fuel availability, the border and Covid. I’m very fortunate to have the park model at CORA, so if I don’t do the Alaska trip I have a great place to hang out for the summer and I can also do some other trip, such as the Pacific Northwest, which I have never visited.

Tuesday, March 8th was my road anniversary. It was 24 years ago that Nancy & I left NH for the adventure of a lifetime, another milestone. I continue to stay busy at the Co-op with all the events, occasion trips to the hot spring at Hot Well Dunes and hike in the desert as well as some of the state parks and National monuments nearby.

I have a reservation at Pichaco Peak State Park for March 20th, and plan to hike to the peak to mark Nancy's two year anniversary on the summit. There are two trails to the top, so I'll do the one that I didn't do on Christmas.

That's it for now, I hope this post finds you all happy and healthy.

Tight lines and safe travels

Joshua Tree - Part 2 Feb 2022

 Joshua Tree - Part 2

Random Pics from my Thursday hike to Contact Mine

                                           abandoned mining equipment at the mine

                                                The trailhead with 5G coverage

                                                           The trail to the mine

                                                              Contact Mine
I have hiked to a number of mines in Joshua Tree and I am always stumped as I look around and try to understand what made someone dig a hole here as opposed to twenty feet away or 100 yards away. I'm sure there was some rock formation that indicated gold was present, but these places are in the middle of nowhere and of course there wasn't a trail or road. I imagine a guy walking with a couple of burros hour after hour, day after day, looking for some indication that gold might be present and then after finding it, he had to build a road to haul all this equipment to the mine. 

After posting part 1 of Joshua Tree N.P. , a backpacker approached and asked if I could give him a ride anywhere near the west entrance. His car was park at a campground where he began his hike four days ago. Hie car and campground was well past the west entrance but I agreed to take him to the West entrance which was still quite a good distance away. He was a grad student studying architecture in N Y City taking time off to do a nine month road trip, backpacking and skiing at various places. His next stop was Yosemite N P. 

After dropping him near the West entrance, I did a short and uneventful hike, then headed back to camp. My friends Phil and Mary were spending the night at the Twenty Nine Palms Elks Club in their Moho and were coming to my campsite to visit. We had a great time and per our usual routine, drink copious wine. 

             Skull Rock, one of the many unique rock formations at Joshua Tree

Friday morning at 7am, I was on the road heading home. I altered my route home to avoid Phoenix and have a cup of coffee with Marilyn in Yuma. The visit with Marilyn broke the drive in half. The drive to Yuma was interesting and wound through there desert on a two lane road connecting I-10 to I-8. After leaving Yuma, Enzo battled a very strong headwind all the way to Benson. Most times the truck would not shift out of 5th gear. I have a 6 speed transmission, so my gas milage averaged 10 mpg, rather than was usual 14-16 mpg.  I arrived home at 5pm. I wanted to get back to the Co-op to attend a “Celebration of Life” event for a friend’s husband who passed in October of last year. 

That pretty much sums up my quick trip to Joshua Tree. Enzo preformed well, I was nice a warm with the furnace. The new DC to DC charger that I recently added, seems to have solved the low alternator output to the house batteries. 

I don’t have any overnight trips planned in the future. It looks like the lot with the casita will get inspected after February 15, so hopefully I change lots and get settled in before the end of February. Then I will spend some time living in the Moho on the new lot and decide whether or not to sell it.

Tight Lines and safe travels.

Joshua Tree N. P. - Part 1 Feb 2022

I left Saguaro SKP Co-Op at 7:10 am, Sunday 1/30/22. It was a a very nice day, temperature was around 40 degrees, and the sun was shining low on the horizon. It been a very long time since I have ventured west of Phoenix, even longer since I had been to Joshua Tree NP. Nancy & I first went there in 1995 during our three month rock climbing road trip, which was three years before we hit the road full-time. We returned in 1999 and again sometime after 2010. I have fond memories of rock climbing, hiking and one not so found memory of our Itasca motorhome rupturing a rear axle seal and “bleeding out” in the driveway of a RV Park in the town of Joshua Tree, CA. Needless to say, the owner was not pleased as we were towed to a local repair shop and then spent three days camped in a tent in the National Park, waiting for the repair.

460 miles and eight hours after leaving the Co-op, I arrived at site 60 in Jumbo Rocks Campground. It was a very nice site, but I was barely able to parallel park the truck in the site. I was pretty tired after the drive but I did manage to go for a little hike from the campground and get my 10,000 steps done. I crashed very early that night. 

Monday morning, was a partly cloudy day and I hiked up to the summit of Ryan Mountain, Elevation 5457 ft. The hike was 2.8 miles round trip with a 1000 ft elevation gain. I thought I was moving pretty slow, but did manage to summit in 53 minutes. I arrived shortly before a large group of hikers from Las Vegas. We did the usual exchange of photo taking, chatted a bit, then I slipped away to a quieter section of the summit and spread some of Nancy’s ashes. 

We never hiked this trail but the peak has a splendid view of a large portion of the park and I know she would have liked it. I hung out on top for about 45 minutes before heading down and back to the truck. The day was still young so I did some more hiking from a roadside pull off, around some boulder islands and through a mini Joshua Tree forest. 

Camping with my “geezer pass” is only $10 a night but unleaded gasoline is $4.33 a gallon in Twenty One Palms, CA, so that really offsets the cheap camping.

Monday afternoon I stopped by the visitor center to inquire about the old miner’s shack which is not promoted by the park service because it still has artifacts and is pretty intact. I described it to the ranger and said I had visited it about 18 years ago and wanted to go back. The ranger said he didn’t know what I was talking about. I hung around and looked at maps for awhile, hoping I might discover a hint or even the name of the place. At one point I was the only one in the visitor’s center and the ranger called me over to the desk and took out an old guide book. He turned to the description of the hike to the miner’s cabin and let me photograph it. He asked me to respect the cabin as well as it’s privacy. Needless to say, I won’t be naming it or providing directions to it in this post.

Tuesday morning, I set out to find the cabin. The trail to the cabin begins at a popular trailhead, but then breaks away. As I was getting ready to head out, three other people arrived. I let them get out in front before I headed up the trail. The trail to the cabin was more traveled than I had anticipated and was pretty easy to follow, especially with the guidebook pages. After about a half mile I caught up to the others, they were also trying to find the cabin. They had researched it online before coming to the park. We continued together and hoped the internet had not spoiled this pristine historic place. We found the cabin and it looked exactly as it did 18 years ago. There may be hope for our historic places after all.

The hike is only 2.5 miles round trip. I suspect it would not be pristine if the park service promoted it. The cabin was built within a pile of large boulders. It utilizes the boulders for its walls and a portion of the roof. There is a fireplace, the remains of an oven, wooden shelves with rusted cans, and even some old utensils. Part of the roof is constructed of dead boughs and flattened tin cans. There is even a six pane window. The four of us hung out for a while, then they said goodbye, then headed out,  I stayed and just enjoyed the place by myself for quite awhile before heading back down the trail. 

I drove into Twenty-nine Palms to replace the headlamp, which I dropped and broke Monday night, checked in with the outside world via my phone and then headed back to the park to hike to the Wall Street Mill and the Worth Bagley Stone. The story goes that Worth Bagley and William Keyes had an ongoing dispute regarding access to water near the claim. There was a gunfight, Worth Bagley lay dead, the dispute was settled and Keyes was sentenced to nine years in San Quentin Prison for manslaughter. There are a number of old cars and trucks along the trail. The Wall Street Mill was a ore stamping mill. Miners would bring their ore to the mill to be crushed and processed for gold. It was a three story structure, but it lies in ruins now, fenced off by the park service. 

Joshua Tree N. P. has changed as has most things, 18 years ago it was the winter location for climbers. Long before that it was the winter home for the hardcore Yosemite climbers, who put up many of the first ascents in the park. When Nancy & I climbed here, we would spend hours trying to locate routes using the guide book, dead reckoning and beta from other climbers. Now as I hike along well trodden trails I find sign posts pointing to climbs by name and rating. 

Wednesday morning, I awoke to lots of wind rocking Enzo. I must have slept through the worst of it, because when I stepped out of Enzo I discovered my neighbors had packed up their tent during the night and left. Turns out I was wrong. The real wind arrived later in the afternoon. I was pretty much wind bound in Enzo, except for a short 2 mile hike and a small wind protected hang out spot near camp. The wind blew most of the night and finally subsided Thursday morning.

After hiking the Contact Mine Trail Thursday morning, I discovered I had 5G coverage in the trailhead parking lot, so decided to post Joshua Tree NP part 1.

Tight lines and safe travels

 

Picacho Peak and Christmas

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Much has happened since my last post. First of all, I settled into my winter home at the Saguaro SKP Co-Op. 

                                               The Co-Op from the desert trail

I have been meeting lots of people while attending the 4pm happy hours, and other park activities, such as the weekend dance. The park has a volunteer fund raising group, which collects donations through a few major activities. For example, an auction was held and they collected over $9,000. The funds collected pay for many of the events, including the bands, so there isn’t a cover charge and of course its BYOB, it makes for a cheap night out. LOL.

The RV park borders a huge expanse of desert, so I’m able to hike 4-5 miles most days on desert trails through the back gate. That, plus the walking to events easily puts me over my 10,000 daily steps, some weeks I have exceeded 100,000 steps in a week. I’m happy with my decision to make this my winter home. I enjoyed last winter at The Ranch, but this park is about 5 times the size, and therefore, there is much more activity. Also, since Benson is located on I-10, we get more travelers and I’ve already had some friends stop by.

The first week in December I headed to a Four Wheel Camper Owners Rally in Ocotillo Wells, CA., after stopping in Yuma to visit my friend Marilyn. 

                                       A small section of the FWC Rally 

There were 120 FWC campers like mine. The company catered two breakfasts, two dinners and two happy hours with endless beer and wine. We did a tour of many of the personal campers. It was very interesting to see the diverse modifications people had made to their units. All the fly fisher people were impressed with my home made fly rod vault. I was impressed with one guy who raised his unit 4 inches and then place storage draws between the bed of the truck and camper floor as well as cabinets on each side. Of course, he had a F350 to handle the extra weight.

After the rally, I met up with my college roommate Michael. 

He drove in from San Diego early in the morning and we did a desert canyon hike in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. He had a motel room about a mile from the State Park campground where I camped. We spent the evening in my campsite, grilling a couple of steaks, drinking, enjoying the desert sky and catching up. 

                                    Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Campsite

For Christmas, I had planned to fly to Beaver Falls, PA, to hang with my family. But due to the explosion of the Omicron variant I canceled. Once I canceled my flight, I booked two nights at Picacho Peak State Park Cam,pground. It’s only 90 miles away and it was a favorite desert hiking area for Nancy and I. I arrived at noon, Xmas eve, settled into my campsite with Enzo, checked out the trail head for the next day, relaxed, had some appetizers, cooked a steak, and had a nice bottle of wine. It rained off and on, which really brought out the dessert fragrance. Picacho Peak it a 1500 ft chunk of rock that rises up from the Sonoran Desert. The desert is home to some nice size Sonoran cactus.

                                   Picacho Peak State Park Campsite, $30 / night electric

Christmas Day, I started hiking about 9 am, on the Sunset Vista Trail, which meets the Hunter trail about a half mile from the summit. 

The first mile or so is a moderate hike, it then begins the ascent with switchbacks until you come to the first of many cables. Without the cables, these sections of the hike would be an easy technical climb, probably rated 5.2 or so. The cables allow the hikers to ascend using natural footholds and the cable to “climb” the rock face. Some of the cable sections were 20 to 30 feet in length. I didn’t count them but my guess is that there were at least 6 vertical sections, and a couple of horizontal sections. 

There was one couple on the summit when I arrived, we did the usual photo of each other and then they headed down. I had the summit to myself for about 15 minutes until a loud group of four arrived. I stuck around to watch a jet liner circle the summit and then land at the Pinal County Airpark, which I now have learned is an airplane boneyard.

 I have to admit that by the time I reached my truck at the trailhead, my legs were tired. Total distance for the day was 6.2 miles, round trip, and according to my altimeter 1,560 vertical feet. I was showered and set up back in camp around 2:45pm. 

I spent some time FaceTiming friends and family, then treated myself to prosciutto wrapped sharp provolone, a salad and grilled lamb chops, along with a good bottle of wine. It wasn’t as good as being with my family on Christmas, but I was Covid safe and overall a very good day.

                         The view of Picacho Peak through Enzo's window 

The next day, Sunday, I drove home and settled in at the Co-Op, back in the Moho. The weather has turned cloudy and cold with the high temps in the low to mid 50s. Currently, according to the office there are no cases of covid in the park. We are supposed to self report and quarantine if we test positive or get sick. I’m taking it a day at a time, with regards, to any future indoor activities. 

I wish all of you a very happy, healthy,  and positive New Year.

Tight lines and safe travels

11/18/2021 - Benson, AZ

 Well, I hope my reservation rant didn’t offend anyone, but I needed to get it off my chest.

I left GUMO on Monday, simply because there were predicting high winds for Tuesday. When I fueled in Del Rio, TX I had calculated that I had enough fuel to get to GUMO and then take the direct route around El Paso and fuel just north of El Paso. Well, Sunset Reef Campground was 30 miles north of GUMO, which was a 60 miles round trip that I had not factored into my calculations. Also, there is a huge climb from the valley floor coming out of Van Horn to GUMO. 

The climb from Sunset Reef Campground isn’t that bad but it still burned more diesel than flat land driving. As I crested the peak passing GUMO, my low fuel light flicked on and off, not a good sign. I was over a hundred miles from El Paso and not much in the way of fuel stops along the way. Van Horn was 50 miles away, lots of fuel, but 50 miles out of my way and it would mean I’d be traveling I-10 through El Paso, rather than the scenic northern route which includes the bypass around El Paso. I turned and headed back to Van Horn and within minutes the low fuel light was fully on, no flickering. I made it to Van Horn, took on 85 gallons in a 100 gallon tank and was thankful I didn’t try to push it to El Paso. 

On a related note, I have owned the Moho for 11 years and never forget to replace the fuel cap after fueling. On this trip, I did it twice. The moho is now equipped with two brand new fuel caps. There are two fuel fills, one on each side the Moho, oh well, the caps were hard to find but cheap enough.

The rest of the drive to Deming was uneventful. El Paso has really grown, I-10 has more lanes than it did 10 years ago, so it wasn’t that bad getting through. I arrived at Dream Catcher RV Park, at 4pm, paid $16.99 for  two nights of dry camping and settled in. Deming hasn’t changed much, I visited my land, no change there, drank some wine at the local winery, of course now they charge for tastings, and bought two nice bottles of wine.

Wednesday, I headed west again for the final 175 miles to Benson, AZ and my new winter home. In May I bought a bare lot, 50amp full hook-up at the SKP Saguaro Co-Op, lot 294. Nancy & I spent a month in the park ten years ago. After getting settled onto the lot, I got to thinking that it looked familiar. After checking my journal, it turns out this is exactly the lot that we rented for a month, ten years ago. There are approximately 300 lots available for lease and I unknowingly leased the exact same one. The universe is strange.

                                                            My lot with morning sun

Yesterday I met my neighbors on the left, I met some more people at happy hour, including a guy who is an avid hiker and today I’m taking the tour. Friday and Saturday night there are live bands in the clubhouse, and a bunch of other stuff going on. I had forgotten how many activities this place has. 

I think I’ll be happy here.

Tight lines and safe travels.

Guadalupe Mt N.P. and my reservation system rant !!!!!!!!!!

Before I begin my reservation rant, I’ll fill you in on the events since my last blog. 

I did in fact drive the 381 miles to Guadalupe Mt National Park. I arrived at 1pm local time and saw signs that the campground was full. What the hey, it’s a holiday, so I drove 30 miles north, towards Carlsbad, NM, to a free BLM campground, Sunset Reef Campground. I stayed here a number of times last winter when I was at The Ranch so no big deal. It is actually a very nice boondock campground with covered picnic tables, fire rings, trash and clean vault toilets. If you have been following my blog, you have seen pics of this place before, so I won't bore you.

The next day, Friday, I drove the truck back to GUMO and hiked 6.8 miles round trip on the El Capitan Trail to Guadalupe Springs. It was a very pleasant hike through the desert and only saw a total of 5 people. Plus, it was a hike I had not previously done. The spring was dry, but looking up at El Capitan from below was impressive.

El Capitan on the left with Guadalupe Mt Ridge on the right

Saturday, I hiked McKittrick Canyon to the Pratt Cabin and then to the Grotto, 7 miles RT. This is a very popular hike in the fall and one I have done numerous times. But for the first time in all my visits, the cabin was open. It was in great shape and looked like it could be lived it today, sans electricity, which was removed years ago and sans plumbing. But, I sat in the rocking chairs on the porch for an hour and enjoyed lunch and conversation with other hikers, including a group of Rhodes Scholars. Go figure. The fall colors were pretty and even with the crowd, it was a beautiful hike. 

Sunday, I realized I was more out of shape than I thought. I had considered repeating  Guadalupe Peak, but settled for a very short hike to Smith Spring near the Frijole Ranch, 2.4 mile RT. I arrived at the spring around 11:30, had lunch and just sat on the stone bench for 45 minutes listening to the sound of the water. I had the whole place to myself. Walking out I met 5 people heading up the trail. This is probably the most beautiful place in the park and it gets very few visitors. The first two photos below are looking out from the spring, the third is the spring itself. It's hard to believe this is West Texas.

                                                                 Smith Spring

MY RANT

It appears that the entire federal campground system is being converted to reservation only camping and there will no longer be first-come, first serve sites available. If you recall, I first encountered this at the Army Corp park near Texarkana at the beginning of my trip. But GUMO, which has always been entirely first come, first served is now 100% reservation only. I know the campground hosts. Last year we often chatted during my numerous visits and they remembered me. They informed me that the change occurred on October 1, 2021 and many nights, there are no-shows, but they have to turn people away because they can’t give a site away unless the reservation is cancelled and often times people don’t bother to cancel. Even Dog canyon, which gets very few people is reservation only. The people working at the park, don’t think it's the best process, the cost of camping has increased, and recreation.gov is paid a fee both by the camper and the park. WTF!!!!. This is public land

Here is an except from an article online:

"We do see recurring complaints about how the system is overrun by bots," said Rick DeLappe, a Park Service employee who manages recreation.gov for the federal land management agencies that use the site for everything from reserving front country and backcountry campsites to tickets for scaling Half Dome at Yosemite National Park or going underground at Mammoth Cave National Park.

"We have a very active security team," DeLappe continued. "We have eyes on the screen watching for suspicious activity. We’ve incorporated the CAPTCHA features for making reservations. There are algorithms that they use to recognize people who may have built a bot or something to improve their access. We’ve got an extensive security plan to protect against this and all the other factors of security that you would think of for protecting private information.”

But more than a few people who use the site believe it's been taken over by bots or some other nefarious blueprint for dominating the reservations platform.

"I am so sick of trying to plan trips and make reservations in our national parks!!! It is a totally ridiculous situation," Rick Leroux wrote in a comment to a Traveler story back in January 2020. "They spend paragraph after paragraph describing the parks and all that you can do, but good luck when it comes to making an actual reservation."

More recently, on February 12 of this year, "rb2" vented his/her irritation with the reservation site in another Traveler comment:

"This is a totally frustrating situation. I have tried for weeks to reserve at spot at Many Glacier in Glacier. I've hit 'Book' a second before the time, two seconds before, right at that the time, and all the available campsites are reserved within five seconds, and there could be up to 20 available."

"I'm done with this reservation system and national parks," Rick Weber added in a comment on February 21. "Only the federal government could screw this up so bad with a multi-million dollar contract. I do not make the foregoing statement without cause. ...You see, I'm a federal employee. I'm rather convinced that savy PC hackers have a backdoor into the system."

Quoted from: Rush To The Outdoors Has Challenged Recreation.Gov 

By Kurt Repanshek - March 3rd, 2021

Maybe we need to organize a camp-in at every federal campground, where hundreds of campers all show up on the same day and just camp in the middle of the road and block access beginning at midnight when the parks have minimal staff on duty and stay there until we get forcibly removed. If someone has a reservation, we will let them into their site, I don’t want to infringe on their rights, of course they might have trouble leaving once the tow trucks show up.

Okay, maybe we should start by writing to our ineffective, elected representatives. If nothing else, they should develop a system, such that if you make a reservation and don't cancel, you either pay a fine before you can make another reservation or maybe you are just blocked for a year or LIFE!! 

Maybe this is the issue that unites both the Left and the Right. GIVE US BACK OUR FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED CAMPSITES !!!!!!! 

WARNING

If you plan to camp at any federal campground, be sure to check the website, Don’t assume your little piece of heaven will be available. 

11/10/21 - Westward bound, Benson or bust.

 It’s been awhile since I blogged, so I'll try to catch you up, as of today, it's been a month since I left CORA and I have driven approximately 2,500 miles.

I arrived at Rainbow Plantation, in Summerdale, AL, just east of Mobile on Thursday, 10/21/21. Spent Friday night and the weekend with my sister, Lori, niece, Karen and my Grand nephew, Master Alex. Had a great time. On Tuesday I brought the Moho into Foley Auto and RV Repair. They are an authorized Cummins and Spartan repair shop. They did the stuff that didn’t need parts, but it would be another week before the parts came in, so on Thursday, I moved the Moho to an RV park that was much closer to my niece and hung out with my family most of the week before returning to the SKP park in Summerdale. The weather cooled off so I decided to rent a space in dry camp. 

Dry Camp (aka boondock) at Rainbow Plantation, with the storage area in back. Very Quiet

Things have really changed. When we first hit the road, most nights, the Escapees Park dry camp sections were full. But for these 3 nights, I was the only one in dry camp. But it was great for me, since I had the whole place to myself. After getting all my repairs done I headed west. I planned out my route with approximately 250 mile days. 

Saturday I landed in Farr Equestrian Park in Baton Rouge, LA, 240 miles. I had full hookups for free. The office was closed, there was no self pay, no phone number, the sign said to pay when the office opened on Monday. Well, I only planned on one night, and would be 241 miles down the road by Monday morning, so Free.

                                                         Hailey's Beach N Bay RV Park

On Sunday I drove to the Bolivar Peninsula, just across the water from Galveston and used Passport America to grab a 50 amp FHU site at Hailey's Beach N Bay RV Park, 241 miles. It was a very small park and the sites were tight, but only $27.00. That night I drove the truck to Galveston via the ferry and had dinner with my good friends Hugh and Dianne. 

                                            Truck on the ferry, heading to Galveston

Monday, I headed west with the Moho via the ferry, even saw a porpoise swimming while on the ferry. Monday night I was at  Goliad State Park in Goliad, TX, after driving along the TX coast. I only covered 225 miles but it was slow going in spots. I spent two nights there and visited the Presidio, the historic Catholic church at the Presidio and the historic mission. The church has been continually in use since before the Goliad Massacre in the early 1800s when General Santa Anna ordered the murder of all of Col. Fanin's men who had been captured. The Mexican solders were ordered to shoot the  prisoners including the wounded. They were held in the church before being march out and shot. On a positive note, it was here that Francisa Alavez, a very brave Mexican woman, saved a number of the captured Texicans and became know as the "Angel of Goliad", there is a statue in her honor.

This is also the birthplace of General Ignacio Zaragoza, who led a much out numbered Mexican Army during the battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862 to defeat the French Army. Cinco de Mayo is the celebration of this Mexican victory over the French. 

It's pretty amazing that this little spot in south Texas is home to so much history.

I had a great Water/50 amp  Electric pull-thru site for $27 a night. Nancy and I had visited Goliad a couple of other times. I had hoped to grab some Buttermilk Pie at the Hanging Tree restaurant, but it closed a few years ago.

                                                   Goliad State Park Campsite

                                   The Presidio and Catholic Church in background

Today, was sort of a long driving day, 281 miles to Amisted National Recreation Area just west of Del Rio, TX. $5 for a boon dock pull-thru site. Nice view of the lake. So far I have managed to stay off I-10. I exited I-10 at Winnie, TX, just west of the LA - TX border and it looks like I won’t get back on I-10 until Van Horn. The I-10 corridor from the eastern Texas border to Boerne, TX, which is just west of San Antonio has become very congested and worth avoiding. I have driven  a few more miles, but the drive has been much more pleasant. I also have saved quite a bit on fuel. Diesel near any of the Interstate Highways was in the range of $3.45 - 3.85. I have been paying $3.09 to 3.24 a gallon. Factor in the fact that I usually buy 70 gallons at a pop, need fuel every 450- 500 miles and that adds up to a few bottles of wine.

                       The view from my $5 site at Amistead National Recreation Area

Tomorrow, Thursday, 11/11/21, I’m gonna try to make it to Guadelupe Mt National Park, 381 miles, but should be easy going. It’s a holiday, so I’m taking a chance trying to get a campsite, but I tend to be lucky and I know a few free spots nearby if the National Park is full. 

Tomorrow is Veterans Day, I would like to thank all the men and woman who have served and are serving our country for a job well done. 

Tight lines and safe travels