MOFO #9 - Angry Plants and Gracious People

It's hard to believe that we've been at this adventure for nine months. It's also hard to believe that we haven't updated the blog since our trek up Kili. Oops! As a bit of explanation, we both came down with varying levels of the crud shortly after returning from Africa and are still trying to shake a cough. We also were re-visiting several states and the route planning had tilted from seeing insane places to meeting up with family and friends. We still saw insane places...but admittedly derived much joy from the people we caught up with along the way.

Post-Kili we had some recovery logistics to take care of (like dealing with all the laundry we generated and shoved into a duffel bag to drag back...ugh). So we spent a couple of days at the Nellis AFB FamCamp in Las Vegas before heading out. As per usual, we had no real schedule or route planned, but more of a conceptual “meander east” and “stay south” where it’s warm.

In the Arizona desert, loving OUR public lands!

When we finally hit the road again, we thought that we could find a place near Parker Dam on the AZ side of the Colorado River but the campgrounds there were sardine can-like (not our style), and full, so we snuck out of town and boondocked on some local BLM land. Secluded and free...we love us some BLM land! Next stop was Gila Bend, just south of Phoenix. It was a bit odd, to be honest. Nothing wrong with the place or the history, but the Visitor Center staff told us repeatedly that they couldn't recommend any hiking trails because of drug/human trafficking in the area and then sent us to a relatively “safe” wildlife management area without trails, where we found a bunch of good ol’ boys ‘n’ their gals setting up personal shooting ranges (imagine hand flung clay pigeons, bottles, or cans while drinking beer sort of “shooting range”). We decided we’d rather take our chances with the traffickers and headed further south.

Fun rocks and the northern extent of the organ pipe cactus.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is an scenic and interesting place on the border with Mexico with some fun hikes and all sorts of plants that will scuff you up. In case you're curious, the fruit of the cholla cactus looks harmless, but one of us discovered it is angry and will embed tiny hair-like needles into your fingers. This is probably where we really embraced the phrases "angry plants, such angry plants" and "no touching!" as well as "so many things out here are trying to kill us!" We're pretty sure that all of those expressions are things we should have learned in kindergarten, but one of us is a slow learner (Dean was tweezing those super fine and nearly invisible hair-like needles out of his fingers for days, which reminds us of another expression, “boys are dumb.”).

From there, we headed southeast toward Tucson to link up with family and friends, and to check out Saguaro National Park. Tucson is a fun town and we definitely appreciated the “what-to-do-in-Tucson” intel we received from our friends and family there. We enjoyed a nice evening out with Dean’s War College colleague/friend Lou and his wife Michelle. We also were thrilled to catch up with one of Dean’s nieces, Grace, her partner Iaos and their son Ryker. In between our increasingly busy social life (rare for YOFOAdventures!) we made it to Saguaro National Park for a short hike (very cool and worth a visit). Nearby is the Sonoran Desert Museum - go if you're in the area. With some lucky timing we caught their Raptor Flight demonstration. It included a great horned owl, a pair of ravens, and a ferruginous hawk. When the hawk spotted something tasty scurrying nearby it ignored its handlers and veered off into the desert. This brought an abrupt and slightly early end to the demo, but we were rooting for the winged killer, so were more than happy the raptor left in search of brunch!

We left Tucson for more fun with friends as we detoured (ha, that would imply we had a set path!) down to Sierra Vista for a very enjoyable dinner catching up with one of Dean’s old Army buddies, Scott, and his wife Denice. In our typical zigzag wandering, we then headed back north to Willcox, AZ to hang out with Sharon (Julia’s Aunt) and her husband Mike. They graciously offered their front yard for our campground and it came with a superb taco dinner and pancake breakfast feast. En route we stopped for an afternoon of hiking at Chiricahua National Monument. Arizona terrain is a nice mix of mountains and forests (north), red rocks (Sedona), desert (uh, everywhere else). Chiricahua was a bit of a sky island in that this stand-alone southern mountain range seems to have a lot of biologic diversity that is somewhat isolated and remote and quite unlike the surrounding terrain.

Chiricahua National Monument reminded us a little of Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah

Next as we meandered east was a short visit to New Mexico. We continue to try to limit our driving to less than about 5 hours between overnight stops (more time on the road begins to feel like a grind and we’re afraid we’ll miss something!), so on our way to our next destination, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, we boondocked outside of Las Cruces on BLM land. That gave us the opportunity to explore Organ Mountains National Monument where we hiked to the ruins of a tuberculosis sanitarium and the ruins of an old mountain resort. Turns out that it was on the same stagecoach route that we would see later in the Guadalupe Mountains.

Random, and BIG, roadside statue of Sam Houston.

After our trek through across Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico, we were excited to finally add another state to the list: Texas. We now have a better appreciation for the expression “everything’s big in Texas,” which includes Texas itself. Our path through the state may appear as if we didn't have a plan; however, in our defense, we sorta had a concept: hit the National Parks and visit friends and family (sounds like our entire YOFO concept!) while generally heading in an easterly direction. That translated to starting in the north, then heading south, then east, then back north, back south, east, north again, and finish heading southeast! Perfect!

On a hike in The Guadalupe Mountains...Like everything else in Texas, the views are BIG.

Our first Texas stop was the Guadalupe Mountains NP. It is very scenic, but also one of those places where we were puzzled as to how it was ever elevated beyond National Monument status. We did a little bit of hiking there and intended to do more, but by then the crud that Dean had passed to Dawn had blossomed into the flu. That, and temps that were in the 40s with 30-ish mph winds made us look south for our next destination. Seriously, Texas - you had one job...be warm! Before leaving we day tripped up to Carlsbad Caverns NP - great and very fun cave that was much different that the other caves we've visited bigger, types of formations, etc). The cave’s bats were still in Mexico (they migrate, since apparently even bats know that Texas isn't always hospitable in the winter) so we didn't get to see the chaos of their daily exit at sunset.

Carlsbad Caverns have some wild features

Exploring the Rio Grande. We MAY have illegally crossed the border.

Seeking warmer climes (this is becoming a trend for us) we next angled south toward Big Bend National Park. It seems like it's in the middle of nowhere (and, well, it is), and holy hades is it BIG. We camped on the Rio Grande on the eastern part of the park and it was over an hour and a half drive to get to the western section. Poly moly. We tried to do “all the things” at Big Bend: we got in some hikes, busted out the mountain bikes, put the kayaks in the Rio Grande, gaped at the scenery in the Chisos Basin, and mostly avoided angry plants (“no touching!”) and animals! As we pondered our departure, we assumed we'd figure out what was next during the evenings. Great idea...except that Big Bend also has no cell service and really bad wifi in a few specific spots. So, not for the first time in our travels, we drove out of Big Bend with no clue where we were going. On the plus side, there's really only one way in/out of the park, so we had some time to discuss it before we picked up a cell signal. We saw another “green area” on the map near Del Rio called Amistad National Recreation are so we continued east!

Finding a water filled tinaja in Big Bend. While we didn’t drink from it, finding water out here determines if you live or die

Even the sunsets are big in Texas. View over the Rio Grande inside Big Bend NP

We stopped for lunch at a fantastic little roadside place, which gave us a chance to sort out that 1) Amistad NRA is administered by BLM and 2) they had areas that RVs/trailers could camp! Winner winner, brisket dinner! We found a quiet, peaceful place to camp out while we kayaked and generally played! Amistad National Rec Area is a shared reservoir between the US and Mexico and is huge (seems to be a Texas theme!) with lots of opportunities to play, especially if you boat or fish.

Not sure who was more surprised - the goats on the rocks or us in the kayaks.

After Amistad, we dared to head northeast looking for a midway point that would let us angle toward either Austin or Dallas, depending on how folks' calendars worked out. We found a lovely campground on a dammed lake managed by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Random plug for Dawn's employer - the Corps of Engineers as part of their water management and flood damage risk reduction mission manages a bunch of campgrounds around the country with boat ramps, beaches, and other recreational facilities...go visit one. We haven't had a bad experience and have stayed in at least five or six of them spanning three plus states (and districts).

It worked out that Dean’s classmate Jeff and his partner Susan came up next on the visit list, so we headed up to Denton and had a fantastic time hanging out at their Lucky Dog Daycare Ranch. And yes, it's as magical as the name sounds. We got to go on walks with between 15 and 47 dogs (yay!), met a slightly cranky dieting pot-bellied pig, got to rub cow noses and ears, and helped the silly guinea hens remember that they could fly back INTO their enclosure area. Jeff arranged a BBQ with a couple more classmates, Ron and Mo, and Mo’s wife Lois. Between Mo’s brisket, Ron’s beer and Jeff and Susan’s hospitality, we had a great mini-reunion.

It had been over 10 years but it did not seem to matter. Catching up with life-long friends is like that. — It had been over 10 years but it did not seem to matter. Catching up with life-long friends is like that.

A quick trip south to Austin meant a fun evening hanging out with Dean’s niece Ellie and her husband Jon, who we'll see again after they move back to New York this summer. Ellie and Jon are Carlisle Turkey Trot veterans and were grilling us to see where Thanksgiving would be next year. Don't worry Chuck ‘n’ Jules and Trav ‘n’ Jess - we threw all of you under the bus! We volunteer available to help, for the low price of parking the YOFOhome somewhere nearby.

Next stop was north of Houston to link up with a couple of Dawn's classmates, Georgina and Brandi, who were super kind to a) come out and play on a school night and b) not make us drive the YOFOHome anywhere near Houston traffic! Crawdads, laughter, and friends - Tuesday nights don't get much better than that.

Fun kayaking right from our campsite on Lake ‘o the Pines.

Based on some recommendations, we headed up to the Piney Woods part of Texas and camped on Lake o’ the Pines. The recommendation also came with "and you'll drive by Buc-ees and must stop" instructions. Buc-ees was a Texas-sized rest stop where we wandered for a bit, got lunch (a boudin sausage kolache and brisket sammich - a nice cajun-Texas mix), and some Beaver Nuggets (it's a thing, and rightly so) and then got out of there before we ended up buying a crawfish boil setup!

Since this is a MOFO post we’ll share a few stats. We’ve driven over 30,000 miles in the last nine months; been to 20 states, visited six nieces, hung out with classmates and co-workers, bought ten tires, and eaten about 25 bags of spicy pork rinds. We've visited 33 National Parks and well over 60 if you include national monuments/sea-lakeshores/historical parks/recreation areas/etc., not to mention the Canadian or Tanzanian chaos.

And yes, we know we’re within sight of the end (boo hiss) so before anyone asks - we don't really know what’s in store for us after our YOFO. We’re still dreaming up and weighing options. In the meantime we’ll continue to wander east toward Florida. That’s about as detailed as our plan gets.