7,443 and rolling

After returning to Linda;s from Las Vegas, we spent a couple of nights resting up, loading the car with everything we had left there before departing for the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas (tent, sleeping bags, etc.), said our tearful goodbyes, and headed east.

 Our next stop was to have been to visit the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico but Betty kinda decided that she didn't really care to go any further underground than the required "6 feet" we all must resign ourselves to some day. So we altered our itinerary and visited the White Sands National Monument instead. The White Sands expanse of 99% pure gypsum dunes encompasses an area of about 295 square miles and is part of the White Sands missile range in New Mexico. It is definitely a very unique landscape. Where we plow snow back in Maine, the National Park Service here plows gypsum (hydrated calcium sulfate) to keep the park's loop road open for visitors. The dunes are snow white, can be taller than a 2 story house, and, as I said earlier, are composed of 99% pure gypsum.

All the dune area is surrounded by mountains. In the photo to the right, Betty is just cresting the top of a dune. Notice how small our Ford Explorer looks down below. Most of the native desert creatures (lizards, toads, etc) that live here have evolved to a white coloration instead of their normal colorations of browns and greens when the same species is seen elsewhere in the traditional desert areas. A very unique place, indeed.

A couple of days after leaving New Mexico we stopped over in San Antonio, Texas to stroll the downtown "Riverwalk" and explore the mission "San Antonio de Valero", more famously known as "The Alamo". Contrary to some comments I had read on the Internet about visiting the Alamo, Betty and I both enjoyed the 3 to 4 hours we spent there. Perhaps it's because we have a greater appreciation of history than some of those "bloggers". The historical write-ups and the historical artifacts were very plentiful and very enlightening. They even had Davy Crockett's beaded vest and his long rifle as well as Jim Bowie's famous knife. The history of the whole complex and the eventual siege of the mission by Mexico's president, Santa Anna, and the defense of the mission by volunteers from nearly every state in the union was fascinating to read about. The defenders numbered 189 men and held off Santa Anna's Mexican army of 6,500 men for 13 days before they were finally overwhelmed and annihilated.

Our next stopover, by Betty's suggestion, was Galverston Island off the Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico. It is here where I am writing this blog post (we leave in the morning for New Orleans, LA). Today, we viewed 2 documentary films. One regarding Jean Lafitte, a pirate who established a colony here and raided both American and Spanish sailing vessels and the other about the destruction of Galverston on September 8th, 1900 by a ferocious hurricane. It was the largest natural disaster in American history. 6,000 people perished out of a population of 37,000. One third of all buildings were obliterated.



Next, we went aboard an off-shore oil drilling rig, the "Ocean Star" and toured the four levels of the oil platform, learning how deep sea oil drilling is done. Very fascinating, very educational, and very enlightening (especially with the "Deep Water Horizon" oil rig disaster in the Gulf happening less then a year ago fresh in our minds). There were no apparent effects of that spill impacting the beaches here on Galverston Island.

So, after having an expensive lunch at "Joe's Crab Shack", we headed for the beach to see how we fit in our newly purchased beach chairs. We had heavy rains the night before, woke up to morning fog, but the warm sun broke through by the time we hit the beach on the Gulf of Mexico side of Galverston Island.

As you can see, it's "just another day at the office" for Betty

Now, here's two problems for you to ponder....... (on the right, I'm in a "basket" used to hoist men and gear from a delivery boat 100 feet or so up onto the working deck of an offshore oil drilling platform).

What is the name of this very rare life form?

What is WRONG with this picture?

That's it for now folks, meet you on "Bourbon Street" in New Orleans.


p.s.: if anyone gets both trivia answers correct, I'll send you a surprise gift.


    Love Y'all !!!



Oh, yeah. Regarding the title of this blog posting ( "7,443 and rolling" ). Today marks the 2 month anniversary of our departure from Maine. In that time we have added 7,443 miles to the old Ford Explorers odometer reading and we still have a good 3 months to go. Gotta keep drilling for oil - need the gas!