Oklahoma

It is hard to reconcile the picture that one has f Steinbeck's Oklahoma "Dustbowl" with it's swirling red dust blowing over the forlorn landmass, with the rarity found as own travels through Eastern Oklahoma today. (from http://www.weru.ksu.edu/new_weru/mutimedia/dustbowl/big/usda19.jpg )

One thinks of flat landmasses of red dirt, which are still definitely found, and not the rolling green hills and mountains with winding picturesque highways and country roads that we have found. 

Traveling north out of Nacogdoches, TX we traversed the whole of Highway 259, up into Oklahoma. We had reservations at Big Cedar RV Park with no preconceived ideas as to what the area looked like other than the "lovely green rv slots with full hook-ups" as seen on their website. As we crossed into Pklahoma, it didn't look much different from the piney wooded areas that we had come through in NE Texas. The deeper we traveled however, the more the vistas changed. The route took us into an area of mountains with landscapes covered in beautiful large green trees, interspersed with the ocassional burned out field, green fields with buildings that could have been, and probably were, built 50+ years ago and in full need of paint and possibly even renovations.  

 as well as grazing livestock.  The speed limits were decreased but you were well compensated by the vistas.

The area is in the Quachita National Forest, which is home to many hiking, mountain biking and ATV trails; the main one being the Ouachita Trail, possibly the longest trail in Arkansas and starting in Oklahoma. The main downfall of all of this is the heat, humidity and ticks found in abundance at this time of year. The roads are not flat by any means but they will be good training as I get back on the bike again. Danny is enamored with the hiking and mountain bike possibilities. 

Reading the many roadside signs, we discovered that this area indeed probably was a "dustbowl". in the 1920's it had been completely denuded by logging operations and abandoned. In the 1930's the federal government bought all the land back, putting it into national forest. It was during this time also that the homesteaders failed, leading to the mass migration of the Depression.

Our RV pad is quiet and set amidst the natural beauty of the valley between two distinct mountain ranges. We are close to the Talimina Scenic Drive (and we all know what that means - hills!) and Queen Wilhelmina State Park on the ridgecrest of the drive. There is also Runestone State Park where we revisited yesterday. This is an interesting place as it links early scandinavian explorers/settlers here in the USA to earlier times before Columbus. In fact, recent archeological findings based on language - runes" - place the time of occupation somewhere between 600 and 800 a. d. If interested, look up

http://www.exploresothernhistory.com/heavener1.html and http://news.nationalgeogaphic.com/news/2010/11/101123-native-american-indian-vikings-iceland-genetic-dna-science-europe/%5D . We stopped for lunch at what looked like a dive, an old railway passenger car, but turned out to have excellent service, fantastic food, and no greasy food smells - "Southern Belle" restaurant. 

"But wait, there is more ..." we were planning on leaving Tuesday after Labour Day (who wants to be on the road Labour Day weekend?) but we discovered a State Fair and an upcoming craft exhibition and sale. Definitely worth a visit. The craft exhibition not until the week after the Ladbour Day weekend so we extended our stay. This area no doubt has a good cross section of many crafts, not that I am buying, but definitely worth it for ideas and the pure enjoyment of the experience.

Did you know that Hwy 259 was inaugurated by President Kennedy in October, 1961? Heck, I am sure that he did many things like that, but this is just up the road from us: all with plaque, monument and green space on the highway. 

This represents things that one finds all over America and Canada that are worth more than a cursory glance as we speed by. We love to stop at them as we pass them by and increase our trivia knowledge. Someone, somewhere said that this is a good way the lessen the chance of Alzheimers; that and learning another language.

We came for a few days and we are staying for a couple of weeks. Now that is a true definition for "taken by surprise!" The area is full of surprises and we are enjoying all of them and our time here.

If anyone is even slightly close in the area, come and visit. It is a great place to be.

continuing saga of Texas State Parks ...

Aaaah, finally, hopefully a break in the weather. It has rained off and on with burst of radiant sunshine and increasing temperatures for the last three days. Tonight the temperature was 71 deg F with a humidity of 91%. The humidity more than makes up for the temperature with results that it is still unbearable when outside for long periods of time. Long range forecast? More of the same? We shall find out as the days progress.

We are still roaming around the Texas State Park system, experiencing and comparing them. Amongst other things, they all offer at least one geocache and more in surrounding areas. The lakes a beautiful, if a bit lower than normal. The water temperatures are a bit higher which results in what? More mosquitoes? hmmm not sure but there is a general regional warning out for West Nile Disease (mosquitoes that come out during the day). The areas have been exceedingly dry but hopefully this rain that we have had will allow for a good soaking and reduce the fire hazard. The park is full this weekend, but not many out and about, I guess because of the rain and thunderstorms.

If the temperatures and weather continue like today (and how likely is that? After all, this is Texas!) we will head north towards Sedalia, MS where we are scheduled to attend another RV rally. This time we are registered to gain some of our required classes for the Red Cross Disaster Volunteer certifying system as well as enjoying the fun associated with a rally. Hoping to meet up with some friends there as well. Anyone else going? If so, drop us a line ...

Reflections

As I re-read some of the travel posts, I am more and more aware that often the posts are more informational rather than travel oriented. This is not what I meant for this to be. The focus will be changing as I continue from here on in.

As we ramble around Texas bearing up but barely, under the heatwave here, people delight in informing me that this summer is not as hot as last summer. For me however, I wasn't here the whole summer and this is this summer and for me, it is HOT and humid. I am relegated to staying inside except for small bursts of activity. Driving in the car to see things is great as there is ac in the car, and more than not, at the places that we are going to visit. And hopefully, the end is in sight...

Even though we are now back in the USA and enjoying ourselves as we re-immerse into American culture and ways of life, we find ourselves continuing to look back on our time in Peace Corps. It was a time when we felt active, maybe too active at the specific time, a time that offered us self-satisfaction and fulfillment, and a time of interesting experiences. It is definitely hard to leave that behind and look for something new and exciting. This is our goal of the day, of the week: find something that offers the same and even more.

Texas State Parks/Geocaching/HEATwave ...

We finished up our whirlwind tour of Europe with Brooke with a further 2 weeks of exploring the South of France by ourselves. We, of course, traveled by train first to Albi, where we explored the first of many cathedrals, chateaux, fortified castles and restaurants. Then on to Arles, again by train, this time however we had a mix-up in our tickets. Here we also added bicycles as a form of transportation. From there to Avignon, and then back to the Loire Valley and cooler temps. We experienced heat waves without a cloud in the very blue skies, in the areas of Southern France but as soon as we headed north, rain and cool temperatures which continued until we left Paris for Dallas.

Arriving back in Dallas towards the end of June, we entered a sauna for sure - triple digits and high humidity. I felt like I was back in Panama &/or Colombia and experienced the accompanying leathery. This time, however, I don't have to go out in it if I don't want to. YEAH!!!!

So now we are back in the RV and visiting and experiencing Texas States Parks until after July 4th celebrations. Then we will head over to Arkansas where we have done very little exploration. If the heat continues as it is now, I won't be out doing any bicycle riding now long distance walking/hiking. Tried today with the walking/geocahing - out for 1 1/2 hours and took 5 hours to get my core temperature back to some semblance of normal. So there we have it, the summer, as long as the temps are like they are now now, will mean living inside for me. My sewing machine, Miss Betsy will see a lot of me, although it sure looks funny sitting in the RV. Also might get some needlework done. AND, Danny will be out enjoying the countryside by bicycle and walking/hiking.

We are exploring the possibility of taking a bicycle tour this fall or next late spring. Where is still up for discussion. As for travel, not much more unless it is to Mexico. Our friends in Paris gave us a good recommendation for a town to look at in Central MExico as a possible retirement place. We shall see.

Europe on a shoestring?

Can anyone "do" Europe on a shoestring these days? From our humble travels that we are currently doing, I think NOT. Today we are in Brussels, Belgium, tomorrow to Bruges and having just come from London, ENgland.

We arrived with our wonderful GD in London ready for an adventure and a good time. We knew that things were expensive but had no idea as to just how expensive. Three versus two can really make a difference. One of the first thing we have come across is that the hotel rooms over here are done "per person" not necessarily per room. Travels all done by the Tube and local buses, we found the best deal to be the Oyster card. Put money on, swipe, travel, and replenish when used up. Buses $1.35, underground $2.35 per zone. Not bad considering the alternative - taxi. We took the 'Hop on, hop off" tour bus which gave us 2 days of free on and off. All good ways to travel and travel we did, between the buses, undergrounds and feet, we saw more in 3 days that I ever thought that we would, and this with a sick GD who wanted to rest ll the time.

We rode the London Eye, saw the Lion King play, took a cruise on the River Thames, as well as all the walking tours. We didn't get in to see the various venues, like, St Paul's Cathedral, London Bridge, Tower of London, THe changing of the guards, etc. There is too many things to do and one must make choices.

The we took Eurostar speed train through the Chunnel to Brussels. Here we also did the "hop on, hop off". A good way to see the city in a short amount of time. We did the pre-requisite eating of waffles-chocloate-frites & mayonnaise. And we WALKED!!!!!

Tomorrow Bruges, Thursday to Paris, again by high-speed train.

So there we are, doing a quick and fast Tour, seeing as much as we can, and having a blast!

More later, photos to come up here shortly.

We are now back in the US – that means I have more time to do the things that I fervently wish I could have been doing, right? But just what are those things? Traveling, touring, planning tours, sewing, needlework, quilting, reading, playing Sudoku, Mahjong … all of the above but in a manner that allows me to do it all. Yeah right! A glutton? Yes, but it sure would give me a lot of pleasure. Of course, in between all of these things, I should do my equal share of driving – except in the RV. Hmmmm, do I need to re-allign my priorities or what …

Anyways, after we got the RV roadworthy, we took it out for a test(a 4 hour drive, up and down and country roads) by going to a close-by RV rally in a place called Rayne, Louisiana – the Frog Capital of the World or so they claim. 

 There is much to see and do in this area, as verified through our very limited touring during our 6 days in the area.

-        The city of Rayne itself and its many murals and statues, all of frogs – an economy that once was based on the harvesting of frogs for export, now replaced by rice. The spraying of the rice fields have all but eliminated the frogs.

 ...murals are all over the city with all different themes but still of frogs.

(even the post office got into the act)

We had a Scavanger Hunt with a list of various murals to find and I, surprisingly, won a price – t-shirt from Rayne and a ball cap!

-       The city of Crowley, a mere 7 miles from Rayne, where we learned all about rice and how it is produced. Got a great Cajun rice cookbook there.

-       The city of Eunice where we learned all about the area at the NPS interpretive center and the local Cajun/Xylico music at it’s own museum. Here  we were also part of the audience of a live radio show that featured Cajun music. Now that is different.  

-       At Avery Island we learned everything and more that you ever wanted to know about Tobasco Sauce. We also discovered that it really wasn’t an island in the true sense, but rather a huge salt dome that appeared as an island from afar. Tobasco flavoured ice cream and coca cola anyone? They also brought out miniature samples of Tabasco as a gift for each person and of course, ended the tour in their uniquely Tobasco gift shop where we actually bought some planting seeds for the special peppers. I understand that the plant is very ornamental as well, especially if it blooms around Christmas. 

  

-       It is a wonderful bike riding area – the roads are wide with shoulders and few potholes and so very little traffic, and ost importantly, lots of close stores, restaurants and towns, even on the country roads.

     -   Visited the site of Longfellow’’s Evangeline, St Martinville. 
     -       Oh yes, our reason for being in the area, we attended a RV rally where people 
         came from all over the USA and Canada for 4 days of fun and making contacts. 
         We sat in on various lectures/seminars and learned how to volunteer in our rig 
         (we had already decided to become a Red Cross Disaster volunteer) as well as
         how to go to work if the need should ever arrive. 

Being back on the road, but not in the Motorhome, we drove from Texas to Yuma, AZ to spend some quality time with friends there. Took 2 ½ days of driving with a stopover to visit a couple of Painted Churches that are found in Fayette County, in the southern tier of Texas. They are beautiful and rival anything that we have seen during our many travels. Because of the wealth or lack thereof in the community, wood is painted to look like marble and sculptured decorations. You had to look closely to see that it was painted, not carved. They were painted by itinerant painters, many of whom were from San Antonio, according to printed material that we read.

The two that we visited were found on the outer limits of Schulenberg and in Praha. The one in Schulenberg was more German while the one in Praha, a mere 7 miles away, was more Czeck in their nomenclature. Design and culture. The stained glass windows in the each church were sponsored by members of the congregation and had their names worked into the window pane itself. The names testify to the diversity and origins of the population.

Praha: 

St Mary’s on High Hill, Schulenberg: 

From the outside it looks like any other lovely country church, but on the inside … 

This area is an area worth exploring, in fact it would be fun on a bike as all the little towns are close by and the roads with little traffic and in good condition. So we will no doubt, put together a small daily bike tour and see all the churches in this genre at a later date.

Throughout all our recent travels, we have returned to the fun of collecting stamps at National Parks, finding and visiting areas that are new to us, and looking for roads that we have not driven to date. Sometimes that can be a difficult job, but find them we did and added more pink to our atlas. This then takes us into all different areas and secondary roads, rather the interstate and major highways. Today we are heading to see if we can do some cemetery slinking in the Hill Country, looking for some of Danny’s ancestors. Alas, we couldn’t find the cemetery and ran out of the allotted time for this activity but we did find fields and fields of blue bonnets, Indian paint and some black eyed suzies 
as well as some we couldn’t identify. How often do you actually find the desert in bloom? Not often but when it is, WOW! 

Returning to Phoenix from Yuma, we flew out to Edmonton to visit the folks for a few days. It was fun visiting with them and other members of my family. Spring had sprung – but the green that I like hadn’t sprung at all. In fact, on Friday we awoke to find the area covered in something that was white. What could this be? Snow????? The only way to find out was to go out into it – Yikes! It’s COLD! And yes, it is snow. Dad says, “won’t last!” Wrong! The snow kept coming down; the next day it was still coming down; the next day it was still snowing and we were scheduled to fly out! It was much prettier driving out to the airport than it was coming in: White versus brown. 

Coming back to Phoenix, and the heat and sunshine, we headed across back towards Texas. In typical Danny and Shirley manner, we are bumping down the road and decided to camp over at a Hot Springs in New Mexico. We had a little food, nothing for a regular breakfast, no sleeping bags just sacs and a fleece blanket for each of us. Heck, that is enough. The hot springs first thing in the morning made up for the desert COLD that we encountered overnight. Did you know that a bath towel works really well as a small blanket?

Pulling out the map, we looked for the “road [least] traveled” that would get us across to Texas via the most picturesque route. But wait a minute, how about heading south and visiting Seminole Canyon State Park? We can be there by 10pm if we get on the road immediately. Phoning the park we find that we can get on the archeological tour in the morning. So off we go!

Setting up the tent in the dark, pestered by flying mosquitos and bugs that looked as big as quarters with bites that left HUGE marks, we set the alarm. The next morning it was a rush to get to the park office where the tour started. Looking out over the canyon, the landscape was desolate, yellow and brown with scrub bushes and cacti. We lucked out as to the tour guide as we were the only ones on the tour along with her evaluating boss. The information we received was phenomenal and it took far longer than the scheduled 1.5 hours as the questions were answered with lecture-type responses. The shelter was filled with interesting petroglyphs with the relayed information spiking the desire to continue with the learning process started before PC. (BPC) 

  

A nice interlude and then a fast trip back to Nacogdoches and the RV. Is it finished??? ... hmmmmm

And so ends the first of many new adventures as we find our way back into life in the US. We continue to ponder the possibilities offered by another PC experience but have postponed making any decisions until the fall.

Back in our home again ...

We have finished our assignment with Peace Corps: 27 months in Panama and 6 months in Colombia. What a ride we have had. Our time was chronicled on our PC'ing blog and now we are home. Our RV is up and running. The cleaning, sorting and restocking is currently under way. It feels wonderful to be back and yet, confusing and just a little stressful. After living in Latin America countries for 3 years, I find myself answering in Spanish, looking for potholes in the sidewalks and wanting to walk everywhere. The car is here and I love the availability but the distances - so much farther than there and the bus systems are, to be blunt, almost non-existent.

Where to now? Well the first item on the agenda is a commitment from the very beginning - Jury Duty. This starts on Monday and already I am dreading having to sit inside all day. Hopefully my patriotic duty won't be required this time around. Then, we are planning on re-aquainting ourselves to areas in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas as well as with family and friends. This will keep us very busy until we leave to go to Europe in May.

So hop aboard and "sail away with me" as we begin another leg in our life's journey.