46 "T" for Texas

     Another beautiful morning at the Stillwells, see I can change.  Tried to be quiet as I left the camper, Ruthie says that's impossible I invariably trip, drop, or knock something over.   I headed for the "strip,"  for the last few days the trail riders have been arriving.  If we were still on our "mayberry" theme this would be the episode when the traveling carnival came to town.  The characters would be endless.  Men and women from all over Texas and beyond.  Bringing their four legged companions.   The living quarters were as varied as on the RV side of the park with the exception of horse trailers, a lot of them were one unit.

   This mule was evidently having some separation anxiety issues.  Tied to his home he was raising quite a ruckus, braying, pawing, kicking the trailer.  Kind of funny until I seen he was rearing and pawing the trailer and got his hoof caught in the window opening, could have been a tragedy.  Went over and told a man his mule was in danger.  "Not my mule, a couple of women tied him and drove off."  I couldn't let him get injured so I walked over and modified his behavior until his owner returned.   They were surprised saying that he is always so good and has never caused any problems.  Kind of like children,  acts up when your away. 

     Seen Keith coming back from his morning walk,  look at the scenery, little different then walking on a treadmill watching a TV.   Good for you Kieth. 

     By this time Ruthie was up and checking my usual haunts looking for me.  We stopped by the office to get a breakfast sandwich and have a cup of coffee.  I don't remember if I smelled chocolate or if Barbie tole me she had been baking brownies all day.  I mistakenly thought they were for the pot luck with the trail riders tonight. Major disappointment. 
  Eleven o'clock time for gospel music with Eldon and Ann, can't get enough of them.   Nice session and finish up with "Happy Trails" always smile and think of my two oldest grand daughters and the time they asked me to download some of my music they had chosen to their mp3 players.  I thought I was doing a good thing when I included Roy and Dale's Happy Trails.  I think Briana said "Gram-pa are you trying to get us killed."  evidently it isn't socially acceptable in high school.. I'm just thinking maybe little Aryia will appreciate it in 15 years.

   Time for a quick bite.   Not to much as we have the potluck with the trail riders tonight and at this point I still thought "the brownies".   Took a picture of my lunch for two reasons,(sorry I started without you.) we had never seen watermelon radishes before.  And maybe it will give you some idea why Karen invited us over for dinner.  
     The potluck was held in Hallies museum and we got to see a few of the trail riders we had met in the morning.   Afterwards the riders retired to a bonfire at the end of the strip.  Because of the fire danger the fire was in a pit and surrounded by sheet metal strips.   There was a couple of the riders with guitars and the group had a nice singalong going on.   Later the group started thinning as riders headed to bed anticipating a hard ride in the morning.    They sang "T" for Texas of course, the end of that verse is and T is for Thelma who made a fool out of me.  One of the guitar players added that "T" was also for his mule Thelma Lou.    They kept asking for requests and when no one responded I suggested that they sing one of the wall songs. (shut up Vern) "What wall songs"   "Four walls, Hello walls and Up against the wall"  To late I had said it.  Unfortunately they picked up on the last title and worked their way thru it.

February 11, Monday

  We decided to take a hike and climb the hill across from the campground, even though it isn't very steep it is still a chore with the rocky ground, cactus scrub bushes and thorns.  Here it looks like she is holding her own but it didn't take long for the masked man to leave her in the dust.  Nice try Ruthie, maybe if she would have taken her hands out of her pockets she would have stood a chance.   Maybe next time we come here. Did I say that out loud?

 This is an example of goat head thorns, the kind that were puncturing the bicycle tires. And the ground, can you imagine taking a wagon across this land.  Hallie said there are two kinds of people, if you look at the ground you will hate it, if you are the kind of folk that look up, you will love it.
     We climbed the hill past the point where the Stllwell 4L brand is laid out with white rocks on the hillside. 
  
   We took pictures of the RV park, as you can see our little camper on the left is pretty small when compared with the big RV's. 

    We headed off the hill in the direction of the strip stopping to visit with some of the riders.  We ran into a tall rider that we recognized as one of the entertainers from the bonfire last night.  We seen Thelma Lou in the temporary corral behind him.  We found out he was Tommy Lee but we could call him String.  At one time he had worked for one of the Stillwell's.   I made the mistake of asking if he was retired?  "I must be I'm old and I don't have a public job." 

The strip  

    Here you go, plant a garden here!  Put a fence around it and put your children's swing set up.  A little intimidating isn't it. 
    We had met some wonderful people from Kansas,  we were lucky enough to catch them visiting in front of their camper..
From left to right we have Mary, Paul, Ruthie, Doug (standing) and Rochelle. Fun people, Paul is a serious rock hound, every since at age three his mother made him feel special when he brought home a rock he had found.   We could learn a lesson here.  Mary has many hobbies including sewing and quilting which accompany her on these vacations.

     Doug and Rochelle love to explore Big Bend and are serious hikers.   I wonder if we will every see any of them after we leave. 
     It was at this point that Mary surprised Ruthie with a gift of two beautiful scarves.  How did we get so lucky?

 While we were visiting Dene came by and asked us if we would like to take a jeep tour?   Of course!  Moments later we were climbing into the jeep.  Ruthie and Sally took the first ride in the balcony.   Dene takes tourist on jeep tours and one of the stops is Lynn's ranch, a couple of interesting points, at least to us.

  
    Water is so scarce and precious here Lynn has been running plastic pipe on his ranch at this time he has approximately 26 miles of pipe.  When Lynn turns off the main road onto his driveway, he now has fourteen miles of rough rock road to his house.   A hard life, but I hear the home and view are beautiful. 

    Dene pointed out a guzzler to that ranchers use to try and catch what little rainfall there is and make it available to livestock.  The large sheets of metal funnel the water into a tank.  The livestock then press on the on demand valve to access water. 

  Besides tours and predator control Dene also checks on ranches when the owners are absent.  Here we are riding high.
     We could have rode for ever, what a treat.  Thank you, Dene and Sally!