We stayed at McKinney a State Park and walked their upper and lower falls trail.
We were only 5 miles from downtown. A few different things around the city made it feel like home. Except the humor… This is the first time in awhile that parking was difficult and we were wondering the whole day if our RV would be in one piece when we came back.
…
First stop Voodoo Donuts. So many choices. All so fancy.
How am I going to decide?
Isabella has been asking in every city to rent one if the scooters, figured this would be a good place. Of course, they don’t make it easy after you download the app, get an account and we rented 2 to realize every individual needs their own account in their own app. Irritating, so we each took em for a minutes spin and left then in the side.
Do we have to say who won 😉
Balki
We stopped by a Hungarian designer that we came across. And went to an amazing Italian restaurant Red Ash. Everything was so tasty but the wood fired roasted tomato burrata salad was intensely good.
We had such a fun day today. We were close to the space center and it didn’t open till 10am so we enjoyed a lazy morning in pjs with the shades drawn and watched The Right Stuff…. in Sam’s Boat restaurant parking lot. After watching Hidden Figures last night it was fun seeing another movie this morning we were jazzed for the day. It also helped in understanding our day better too.
The girls immediately went to this mind over matter game to try and calm their minds to make the ball move up the tube. We knew it was possible because someone got it to move before us. No such luck. But no worries the girls…and I visited this multiple times throughout the day.
We went on the tour first. First stop was mission control. They are currently monitoring the astronauts in the ISS International Space Station. They have 2 identical mission control offices so if one malfunctions in any way they can move next door. Of course we were at the second mission control center but it was still pretty neat. They also had a large TV showing all the cameras from the current ISS.
They say the 1st person to get to Mars is between the ages of 6-17ISS live feed
2nd stop was the training research center. It was very cool. It’s where the astronauts and engineers practice and build things.
That’s the Orion. The Orion is part of the Artemis mission which will return to the moon. There is a mission planned in 2024 to land on the moon in the first time for 50 years. It will also be the first time a woman will walk on the Moon.
It was pretty cool because it was obvious something was going on down there. It looked as though they were taking some PR pictures and it was also being filmed. NASA is working with a Boeing and it is the first time NASA is using a private company for space travel. Boeing created the Boeing Starliner. A transport spacecraft to bring astronauts to the ISS. Currently, to get U.S. astronauts out to the ISS we go on a Russian space shuttle the Soyuz. The U.S. pays Russia $93,000,000 per flight. So NASA coupled with Boeing to build their own spacecraft to get our astronauts out to the space station. It’s set to be operational this year. According to Wikipedia “Space Adventures announced that it has acquired rights to sell tickets to the ISS on board the Boeing Starliner once operational flights begin”.
the Storm Trooper safety helmet kinda stood out
Glad we watched the Right Stuff this morning 🙂 it helped put into perspective what we were seeing. The 3rd stop was the Saturn V rocket. The Saturn V put all the Apollo missions into space. The one on display was an unused model. It also housed outside the Mercury-Redstone. The first American man in space, Alan Shepard on May 5th 1961, went up into sub orbital space in the Mercury-Redstone. Gus Grissom was the 2nd man on July 21, 1961. Gus later died in a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission. The 1st man in space was a Russian, Yurin Gagarin, on April 12, 1961.
More mind games. Edwin was brilliant at it and got it on his first try and every time after. Isabella was not far behind and then Vera. I tried so many times before I finally got it. But even then I could only do it twice.
Success…see the red ball on the right, blue ball on the left
Touring inside the independence was another favorite part of the day. We remembered a few years ago when they retired the Endeavor and it flew overhead in the Bay Area for its last flight. It was neat to go inside of it.
The heat shield from belowAnother thing not built for Edwin Current space suitGirls thinking their sleeping situation not too badWater that he then drank with a strawSally Ride, 1st American female astronaut to fly in spaceChallenger RIPMoon rocks The LEGO space shuttle put everything into perspective
The ISS is now a sub gravity science lab.
Candle flame different on earth and spaceInside a “room”
The girls ended up getting to do a virtual reality ride and they had a ton of fun
Look at Vera hairIronWoman astronaut 👩🚀 ice cream
During the “current space exploration” talk vera of course volunteered and got picked to try on astronaut gloves to tie shoelaces and button snaps.
We went up to Padre Island last night. The girls wanted to do the junior ranger badges up there since we were close, they now feel ownership here, and it was mainly about sea turtles.
Padre Island National Seashore is the largest undeveloped barrier island in the world. It has over 70 miles of seashore on the Gulf of Mexico.
There are 5 species of sea turtles that inhabit the island. They are all threatened or endangered.
The Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle is a species they are doing a lot to preserve. To the point that when turtles come on shore to nest, scientists dig up the eggs (to prevent poachers or animals from digging up and eating the eggs) They keep them in a box with sand, incubate them, and the day they hatch they bring all the baby turtles onto the beach for release into the ocean. Once they’re in the ocean they again collect the baby turtles and keep them for a year until they are older and re release them into the ocean. It’s a lot of
Unfortunately human causes, mainly pollution is the biggest detriment to turtles. They get caught up in old fishing lines and ingest more plastic then you’d like to know. Look at the similarity of a jellyfish to that of a drink top. It’s a problem.
Padre Island National Seashore is also a big stop for bird watchers. Half the bird species in North America use Padre Island via the Central Flyway. (remember the eagle sanctuary along the Mississippi River)
We learned that because of the way the wind and water currents are a lot of garbage gets washed up on shore. We went out to collect trash. We were surprised to not find as much trash as we were first expecting, especially after the amount was on South Padre Island, but it was so incredibly windy were convinced it all blew back into the ocean. Seriously it was so windy you could barely look up wind walked by back up the beach.
We drove to Houston. We plan to visit Nasa tomorrow. The girls and I watched Hidden Figures in preparation for tomorrow. We hadn’t seen it yet. I highly recommend it. We all loved it. Edwin found a place near Nasa to have some gulf food…crawdad boil. We ended up camping in the parking lot overnight.
No one enjoyed dinner…except Edwin…who loved it. The crawdads did serve well for entertainment and pranks. And we were in Rockets 🚀 Town do we were happy to be at a sports bar to watch the Houston Rockets do their thing.
We had a fun day driving on the beach, attempting to locate Edwin’s family property, playing catch, and going SWIMMING.
Sign at Beach Access 5Driving down the beachLots of fishermen have their poles set up
Once we got passed the traffic on the beach, we let Daisy out and exercised her for a bit 🙂
We got to what we think Edwin and his family’s property was. Without a super detailed map or internet to help verify location…this was our best guess.
We found this survey marker post but it was just laying on top of the sand so who knows where it came from.
A little bit more beach driving till the end of Island.
Daisy got her exercise for the day,At the end of the boat lane Found out there is a calico box crab also known as a leopard crab 🦀 Giant old buoy turned into art
There was so much garbage along the beach. There’s no to tell if it’s from beach goers or if it washed up on the beach. We picked up a tiny amount compared to what we saw .
We’re driving back up north and just went through another border patrol stop, This time they opened the RV door and looked around with a flashlight (without coming in)
We weren’t sure if we’d head to Corpus Christi or Austin. Yes it should’ve been an easy choice…but do you know the number of times I’ve gone on or googled Corpus Christi School and ended up with something from Corpus Christi. Texas??? So a drive through at least seemed necessary. Plus we had been also wanting to check out Padre Island. We have been paying taxes on land Edwin inherited with his siblings from his dad. The land is on South Padre Island and although taxes have been very little we have been curious to go check out what this property is all about. Anyway, Corpus Christi was basically on the way so….we had fun with our personal double entendres
Check it out, Corpus Christi has a beach walk.
We have a leak in the shower somewhere that we found out when we’re all taking showers after leaving Big Bend, so Edwin dropped off me and girls to walk to the aquarium. We had fun going inside the few beach stores open this time of year. It was so hot and muggy, and everyone was telling me this was cold…for here. If did feel nice to wear shorts for a change but it’s always surreal to have it this warm being as overcast as it was.
Across the aquarium is the USS Le I grin turned museum. Which we did not go into but we took pictures for Edwin and Tucker 🙂
Isabella keeps saying “I’d rather be in Hawaii” ….so here you go.
Ok, Corpus Christi Texas our of my system. The amount of oil refineries here are pretty intense. The smell even more so and smells generally do not bother me.
Heading across the bridge to South Padre Island. It was quite a detour to get down here but we figured when would we come back to this area???
We had a map, plot number, and didn’t really know what to expect. We found a real estate agent that could hopefully direct us to the right “development”. Frank also bought property there years ago as an investment so he knew the general area, which was great. What he also niceness us about was we wouldn’t be able to access the property easily… The road ends about 15 miles before the development. We knew you could drive and camp directly on the beach, but we also quickly realized that would be hard pressed with our vehicle….well not possible without getting stuck. Well we’d come all this way…it was a 3 hour drive from Corpus Christi…so now what.
It was too late to rent a Jeep or truck and make it worthwhile do we drove to the end of the road just for kicks.
We asked this guy if we can camp on the side of the road for free. He shines his long dreadlocked smile and replied in his French-Canadian accent. “You sure can brah, I’ve been here for 3 months already. I come here every year for about 3-5 months. But don’t stay down here because the spring breakers like to come to the end of the road abc they’re loud”. Thanks for the tip brah.
We decided to stay another day to attempt to see what this property is all about, But we’ll do that tomorrow. For the rest of the day we enjoyed being on a beach, collecting shells, and playing catch. First time seeing the Gulf of Mexico which was pretty cool. But it was disorienting seeing the sun NOT set over the ocean.
So bc we left Big Bend and had driven a bit but just pulled over at rest stop. Good thing about Texas is you can sleep in rest stops.
Fallen over gas station roof
You can see the Rio Grande just South of us. Mexico still on the other side. When we had driven into Bog Vend a few days ago we were surprised to see a border patrol checkpoint on the way in. We were then surprised last night when no one was there. I myself gaff found myself curious about what the border looks like in different places. You hear a lot of different things on the news.
It felt appropriate for the morning drive
The dirt road on the side in the highway is used by the orderb atrolp (Edwin is requesting I use pig Latin) agents. We also saw them dragging 3 tires behind their trucks to sweep for prints??
Got to another town Del Rio and this is the fence a few miles from the border. Don’t know how long it goes
Passed another orderb atrolp checkpoint. They simply asked how many people in the car? 4. They let us go. Do they just trust us? Is their heat seeking monitors to see if we’re telling the truth??
alright alright alright. Near the border town of del Rio…Michael McConaughey was born in Uvalde Texas if you’re curious.
San Antonio. We went to the site of the Alamo. 1836.
Vera can’t pass up a glass elevator. Even if it only goes up to level 2.
Then we fix the obligatory Riverwalk and enjoyed the outdoor music.
uh oh, Neo can’t use this broken phone to get out of the Matrix
It was kind of crazy driving by and seeing the sky lit up by oil field lights.
We enjoyed the campground this morning. There was a great little walk through a beaver pond and up to a panoramic lookout. We are not used to seeing cardinals so they were pretty neat. There are also roadrunners out everywhere too which were not bored of seeing yet.
Items are left by the residents of Mexico for you to purchase by leaving money in a tin
More pokey things. Here’s the original stick Daisy brought Isabella to play with.
We went up to the visitor center 20 miles away so we could get some WiFi and call Julia for her birthday. Happy Birthday 🎈JJ
this is us after we got off of face time 🙂 ❤️ u jj
The girls went in and finished up there junior ranger badges. There was an awesome ranger there, Ranger Bob who went above and beyond sharing information with the kids going from talking about water, to climate change, to how and why humans are using artificial light to change the way we live, to the illusion of time. He was kind of awesome, what you want when you bring your kids into visitor centers. Thanks Ranger Bob, pretty sure you blew the kids’ mind. All species need food, water, shelter, and space. If something changes there are 3 options…move, adapt, or die. He was also adamant about some of the national parks making mistakes, like Zion, about using shuttles in their parks. The national park oath is about providing conservation of space and not about fulfilling the the enjoyment of the public. I have to say, even though WE had a good time, the crowds there hugely affected our expedience.
Big Bend National Park is in West Texas and borders Mexico. The Rio Grande River runs along the southern border of the park and also serves as a border between the U.S. and Mexico. For more than 100 miles the Rio Grande forms the boundary between the 2 countries and 118 miles of it are in the national park.
The answer is that he sand at almost every national park.
We went to Santa Elena Canyon to do the hike along the canyon. It was a long 1 1/4hr drive. And even though it was on paved road it had lots of rolling bumps that were not good for RV driving. On the plus side we drove by the Chisos Mountains and Vera has become quite the lunch maker.
The Santa Elena Canyon. 1500’ limestone walls. The Rio Grande serving as the border between Mexico and the USA. Heading upriver, the wall on the left is Mexico.
The canyon was beautiful and the hike is just a short little 3/4 mile up and into the canyon on your right. Edwin is doing better and walking around well, but no real walks quite yet. The girls and I were about to head up the trail when a couple arrived in a rented canoe. light 💡 Despite Edwin’s injury, he climbed up to the roof and got down the boat. Edwin still the man ❤️
Look at these 2 little kick butt girls… They took off before I got out of the bathroom.
Of course as soon as they got onto the rocky shore they didn’t slow down and the kayak fell off the wheels 😆
Wow, thank you thank you Edwin for even suggesting we should boat up the river. And getting it down for us. We haven’t utilized it very much but this was a perfect spot. Even though there were people around the canyon was quiet. The hike was short and even though the canyon is beautiful the 1+hour drove down wasn’t feeling quite worth it. But getting to paddle up the Rio Grande was pretty grand. The girls did all the paddling. We paddled about an hour up the river, 2 bends past the end of the trail where all the people were and then really did have the canyon to ourselves. Pretty epic. The water felt calm and like it was barely moving, but we got back down in about 30 minutes without much paddling…so I guess the river was moving. The river was shallow in areas with a sandy bottom and we had to make sure we’d cross upriver without getting stuck.
Vera’s climbed onto a rock island…but what country is she in?? 🇲🇽 or 🇺🇸
This was on our way back downriver with the sun starting to get low on our backs.
Isabella was our gondolier for a bit on the way back
What a fun afternoon. So happy we came down here and did what we did. The drive was definitely worth it.
It was 6pm when we left the canyon to head back towards the Panther Junction Visitor Center (which is still 30+ miles from the park entrance). Timing worked out great because I was hoping it would work out to attend their Dark Sky Night at 7:30. We didn’t get a camping spot for another night tonight because we knew we’d be gone for the day and only leave the visitor center after dark. Plus, our next stop is San Antonio (7 hours away) so we’d rather get a bit of driving in at night instead of getting back to our campground late at night and not be able to enjoy it anyway.
Big Bend is a Dark Sky Park. Gold Tier Level. It’s hard to imagine life without electricity and lights. Especially for us living in an urban environment. I don’t think there’s ever a time there are no lights. I still remember moving up to Idaho and it took me awhile to get used to no street lights. We lived at the end of a dirt road so it was especially dark. I also remember moving back to the Bay Area and feeling the same way in reverse…why are there so many lights around? It was now too light.
We have been to quite a few dark sky parks, but it’s either been a full moon, too cold, or were not there on the day they have a ranger program about the night sky. There were places there were so many stars in the sky the Big Dipper did not stand out. Point being..,we were happy to start learning a bit about what we were seeing at night. There’s really too much to share, nor do I think I could synthesize t in a way to share it all. But here are a few things that did blow my mind.
Sadly, counting the children born today, only 1 out of 10 will actually see the Milky Way with their own eyes. (Something that humans have looked up to (literally) / taken for granted is getting erased from our children’s realities.
Something we kind of know, but it’s different to hear in this way…. If the sun is where it is and we map out our planets with one step equaling 36 million miles…
Mercury. 1 step. 36 million miles away
Venus. 2 steps. 67 million miles away.
Earth. 2.5 steps. 93 million miles away.
Mars. 4 steps. 141 million miles away.
Jupiter. 13.5 steps. 484 million miles away.
Saturn. 25 steps. 891 million miles away.
Uranus. 50 steps. 1.8 billion miles away.
Neptune. 78 steps. 2.8 billion miles away.
Pluto. 102 steps. 3.6 billion miles away.
Edge of our solar system. 250 steps (2 football fields). 10.5 billion miles away.
Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1space probe from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles.
An astronomer and author Carl Sagan has this to write….
So let’s all be kind to each other. We are all affected by the choices and actions of others. But we cannot control others, we can only live our own.
Also launched in 1977, Voyager 2, was sent out to send data back from deep space as well as…if anyone finds it…directions to get back to a Earth and a golden record with sounds from Earth which include a baby crying, whales, Mozart, Bach, and Chuck Berry’s “Johnny Be Good”
The park ranger has a copy of the golden record and played some of it for us.
Here’s the letter President Jimmy Carter sent with each Voyager space probe.
We ended the night outside looking at stars and although we’d have to attend something like this multiple times to start seeing the night sky, I’m glad it worked out to come tonight.
It also really gave us an appreciation for all these places in the middle of nowhere that we are going to.
Is it because we are another 4 hours south…and it’s still COLD 🥶? Probably has something to do with it. But pretty sure we were all happy with company and new friends and today it’s just the 4 of us. Wait, why did we leave again? We could’ve hung out longer last night and just come down during the day. Plus it’s cold today. What were we thinking???
We drove the 4 hours to the park entrance. It was still another 30+ minutes into a campground but we were beat so we pulled over on the side of the road right by the sign. This is what we woke up to.
Big Bend National Park. 30th National Park.
We ❤️ U Bend~e
We drove into the visitor center and they told us to beat feet to a campground if we wanted any chance of getting a spot. This was still pretty early in the morning. There was about 5 cars including us circling the 100+ campground looking. The campground was full. Sucky suck, Bad moods still lingering. You know…let’s just check with the campground host anyway.
Our positive camping spot juju continues. The campground host gave us a spot that has been under reservation for a week but they haven’t showed up for 5 days but never cancelled their reservation.
Bad moods slightly better…but not much. Personally I felt slightly better about leaving last night because pretty sure if we had rolled in after lunchtime that (getting a campsite) would not be the case.
So what are we going to do today?? Well the roadwarners are surpassing their statewide continental travels to going International. The Warner’s are going to Mexico 🇲🇽 .
We are camping at the Rio Grande Village Campground right on the Rio Grande River.
Edwin drove last night and so I looked up what there was to do in Big Bend. A highlight is to go to Boquillas canyon and take a boat across the river. From there you can hike the mile up to town, get a ride in a truck, or rent a donkey or horse. Get some food, buy a souvenir, and return.
After we got our camping spot secured and the girls asked “what are we going to do today?” it was highly entertaining to tell the girls that we were going to go to Mexico and ride a donkey. Of course they didn’t believe me, so they were getting really annoyed. They didn’t even realize where exactly Big Bend National Park was except that it was in Texas. They did not yet know that we are literally on the USA Mexico border.
Since we weren’t able to go to the main visitor center this morning, it was still cold outside, there was another visitor center right next to the campground so we decided that was our first stop toget a better lay of the land before we set off.
One thing I’m finding myself personally getting more interested in along the trip is water. I love seeing the start of rivers, the confluence of them and understanding the water usage. It’s hard not to get nervous about our water situation. Much less rainfall and more demands because of population growth is causing real water right issues. The Rio Grande used to flow into Mexico. Because we/American farmers use so much water the Rio Grande is a trickle by the time it reaches Mexico. The Rio Grande that flows along the border of Big Bend National Park is now predominantly the Rio Conchos and it begins in Mexico.
I had a lively conversation with a gentlemen, Ron, and he asked if we went to San Luis Rio Colorado in Arizona. There you can see where the Colorado runs dry. The Colorado doesn’t even flow into Mexico anymore there. Wish we had gone there…but now we’re kind of past it so we another time. Ron was also planning to go to Mexico and he asked if we didn’t mind and he could tag along with us so he didn’t have to go over alone. So off we drove the few miles to Boquillas Canyon to cross the river.
We are officially in Mexico. Viva 🇲🇽 Mexico
Our first view of Mexico.Watching the boat to come get us. $5 boat trip per person.Bringing someone back from the other sideEdwin making himself comfortable…in my lap bc apparently he didn’t want to sit next to Ron.Our boat driver got a kick (kinda) about the boat being quite heavier than the 1 passenger he took earlier View on the other side of the riverEdwin and Ron took a truck up to town Isabella jumped on a horseVera & I took mules
Isabella felt good getting back on a horse.
Almost Everything they sell has “No Wall”There are 2 restaurants in town
The restaurant had 5 items on their menu. Cheese enchiladas . Chicken tamales. Goat tacos. Dos Equis. Margaritas. We ordered 1 of each. All were excellent.
This town of Boquillas has 250 people living here. There are no visible stores, grocery or other except items along the road for sale to the tourists. The nearest town is 4 hours away. This town’s entire sustenance is from the +/- 100 tourists that cross the Rio Grande from Big Bend National Park each day…except in 1/2 June, July & August when the temperature reaches 120F – which the owner of the first restaurant promptly told us he then just throws a bucket of water on the tile and lies down 😆) 5 boat ride per person. $5/mule ride. $8/horse ride. $7/truck ride. (but you can just walk the 1/2 mile up to town on your own legs for free) 🙂 Food & drinks weren’t exactly expensive but they weren’t inexpensive either. Nor were souvenirs. We spent more money than I though 2 hours in Mexico would be, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. How could you pass up a donkey ride, homemade chips, tamales, enchiladas, tacos, y margaritas in Mexico 🙂
Yo Quiero Taco Bell Cool way to use lots of broken tilesOur new friend RonVera with Professor Nut JobWe were an equal opportunity spender and tried the food and margaritas at both restaurantsGood think my Mexican 🇲🇽 flair can/will double as Hungarian 🇭🇺 flair
Edwin and Ron walked back down next to the mules instead of taking the truck.
baby burro
To get back into the states, there was this teller machine.
So the people in this town cross the border to get gas online from the States. The national park service guy manning the border said most of the trucks parked outside are owned by residents from Boquillas who come over to purchase
Oh and another souvenir we bought was a sombrero for Daisy to connect to her paternal lineage. She was mighty happy let me tell you…she’s actually a pretty good sport.
Vera quite happy with herself now that daisy is settled…with the sombrero on
We drove to the Boquillas canyon trail a few miles away and the girls and I went for a walk along the riverbank.
The trail ended but Vera scaled the rock wall and got us to follow her and to find these tracks.
We were convinced they were a beaver but I guess beavers are only found in Santa Elena canyon, here, there are nutrias.
I have a feeling there will be some more señorita Daisy pics
We weren’t quite ready to head back to camp and another few miles away there were some hot springs. From the campground it was a 3 mike walk. We could take a dirt road and get about a mile away. Edwin has already been walking around a bit today so I rode by bike to go check it out first. It was definitely cool, but the girls would not have been excited so after I soaked my feet for a few minutes, we headed back to camp.
Vera did some bike riding around camp. And we wrote some post cards.
daisy says buenos noches
I walked around the campground tonight. It was so dark. No campfires are allowed and it’s always a mixture between cool and foreign to walk around in complete darkness. It is a dark sky park here at Big Bend and hoping it’s clear like tonight tomorrow night do we can go to the dark sky program.
