Sunday, March 29, 2015

A GREAT DAY AT THE PARK AND BREWERY

Saturday, March 28 – We met up with Carrie and her friend, Stephanie, for a walk in the park. Houston Buffalo Bayou Park has just re-opened recently after a many, many million dollar renovation. They have separate paths for walking or running and then one for bikes.

Buffalo Bayou Park

Buffalo Bayou Park

Buffalo Bayou Park

One of the cool areas we were headed to see was the Johnny Steele two dog parks. They have one for small dogs and one for larger and small dogs.

dog park signs

Both parks were packed. Both have a water feature that the dogs seem to really enjoy. Bet they enjoy it even more during the hot summers Houston is known to have. The small dog park still has a very nice grassy area but those big dogs have worn much of the grass in their park away. They get pretty rough!

Houston dog park

Houston dog park

Houston dog park

Houston dog park

Spring has come to Houston.
flowers in park

After our walk in the park, we headed to the Karbach Brewing Company. This place was PACKED!

Karbach Brewery

Karbach Brewery

Karback Brewery

Carrie and Stephanie
Karbach Brewery

There are two tasting packages…$9 gets you a very nice souvenir 9 ounce glass and 4 chips to taste four kinds of beer, and for $12, you can get a 12 ounce souvenir glass and 3 tasting chips. Tours are also included, but they were booked up all afternoon. The earliest spot available was for the 6 o'clock tour, and we didn't want to stay that long.

The girls opted for the 12 oz, and we did the 9 oz.
Karbach Brewery

There is a food truck, or you are permitted to bring your own food into the tasting area. There is plenty of seating plus several Corn Hole games. The young people were having a good time and appeared to be drinking responsibly.

So fitting…don’t you think?
Karbach Brewery

After a couple hours, we headed back to Carrie's neighborhood, Mid-town Houston, for something to eat. After that we called it a day and headed back to the 5th wheel to watch NCAA March Madness Basketball.

Carrie treated us the entire day. It is part of her birthday gift to us. Paul’s birthday was Friday, and so this was a very timely treat for him. Thanks so much for a wonderful day, Carrie.

Cheers
Karbach Brewery

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day! 

Thursday, March 19, 2015

FINISHED OUR TREK ACROSS TEXAS

Thursday, March 19 –  We've arrived at the Houston Elks Lodge. Of course, we are mainly here to visit our daughter, Carrie, but we feel so comfortable here, we call it home.

Welcome to Texas

We continued our journey across Texas on TX-36 and US-290. Again, love the back roads of Texas. Not much traffic, few large trucks, nice wide berm, and enjoyable scenery. For you non-Texans, don't be surprised, if you travel the back roads, to see people pulling over to drive on the berm to let you pass. It's a little scary, but the berms are as wide as a traffic lane and if you're careful, it seems to work well for allowing others to pass. Just BE CAREFUL!

Houston

So we are at the Houston Elks Lodge in Stafford, Texas. There are 10 sites here (8 with concrete pads and 2 gravel). We are on our “usual” site #1, a nice concrete pad with no one on our patio side. We have a 50 amp FHU site. The street is gravel and the campground is just behind the lodge. There is a pool, that if it warms up, we will jump in to cool off. Yes, you do have to be an Elk to use the campground, but that makes the lodge available to you also.

Stafford Elks #1

Stafford Elks #1

Stafford Elks #1

We know many of the people here so enjoy staying here. We also have learned our way around Houston and have nearly mastered Houston traffic. “Nearly” because one never “masters” the freeways in and around Houston! Especially, if you are over 50.....ha ha!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

A NICE, EASY DRIVE THROUGH TEXAS

Wednesday, March 18 – We got another early start on our travels this morning, pulling out of the Roswell, NM, Elks Lodge bright and early. We pass through another time zone again today. When we cross the Texas state line, we will be in the Central Time Zone .

Today's travel through Texas was very enjoyable. We stayed on US-380 most of the day. What a nice road. Texas’ back-roads are quite nice and sure beats traveling on the interstates. We jumped on I-20 in Abilene for a short jump to Baird, TX.

We are staying at the Baird Motor Inn & RV Park. We have a 50 amp, FHU site. The sites and streets are gravel with a small patch of grass between the sites and small trees between each site. The price is reasonable, especially considering it is almost full with full-time workers. There were only three sites available for over-night stays. This park is fine for an over-night stay. Texas is getting tough to find a reasonably priced campground for short over-night stays. I guess this might be true for the entire country.

Baird RV Park

Baird RV Park

Looking right.
Baird RV Park

Looking left.
Baird RV Park

NOTE: To clear up a possible misunderstanding from yesterday’s blog:….The Radio Astronomy Observatory is located on the Plains of San Agustin, between the towns of Magdalena and Datil, some 50 miles west of Socorro, New Mexico. We copied the section entitled…Why did they choose Roswell, NM, for the VLA site? directly from the official website. It states that it is located in Roswell, NM. We found it was about 20 miles East of Datil.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

 

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

VERY LARGE ARRAY

Tuesday, March 17 – We enjoyed our over-night stay in Datil, New Mexico, although it got a little colder than what we were use to in Mesa, AZ. Low temperature last night was 39*....Brrrrrrr!

With the time change (Arizona doesn't recognize daylight savings time, so we lost an hour when we moved into New Mexico.), we were up early and ready to hit the road soon after daylight. The campground is located behind a restaurant so we took the time to enjoy breakfast before we left. Nothing like a good breakfast!

Twenty miles down the road from Datil is the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array (VLA). We've had this on our “bucket list” for over five years. We finally managed to work it into our schedule.

VLA

Why did they choose Roswell, NM, for the VLA site? Because it is high, flat and far from any city. This area permits proper placement and easy movement of the antennas. The mountains ringing the plains provide protection from man-made electrical interference. Additionally, the height above sea level minimizes the blurring effect of the atmosphere on radio images.

VLA

Please click on the picture for easier reading. Lots of good info here.
info

The VLA is used to make images of astronomical objects with a level of detail comparable with photographs made by the world's largest optical telescopes. The VLA receives the naturally occurring radio waves from planets, stars, and galaxies throughout the universe.

The dishes are arranged in a huge “Y” formation that varies from 13 miles to a smaller configuration of less than a mile. They are movable via railroad tracks to vary the size.  Even though they are 28 separate dishes, they are focused and receive input as if they were one huge dish.

VLA

We were fortunate to see the dishes moving. They moved from a shot straight up to just above the horizon. Pretty neat!  We were standing right under one of the dishes as it moved.

Beginning position.
VLA

Ending position.
VLA

The tour is a self-guided tour. We began in the Visitor's Center. We watch a movie about the installation, and then walked around to view the displays. We picked up the printed guide that describes the different stops on the tour. The walk around the facility is about a half mile on gravel pathways. It is really quite interesting.

The size of each dish is 82 feet. Two school buses could park end-to-end in one.DSC01515

There is a $6 per person fee ($5 for seniors), but the gift store was closed, and there was no one in the Visitor's Center to collect the fee. We were pretty much on our own, so we enjoyed the tour for free. We completed the tour in about an hour but would have meandered a little slower but it was pretty breezy and cold. Plan for two hours, and you should be good to go!

The sound we heard when the antenna repositioned was the drive
motors moving the 100-ton dish.
VLA

After our visit to the VLA, we continued across New Mexico to Roswell, NM. We are staying at the Roswell Elks Lodge. $15 got us an electric and water site with gravel pads and streets. They are all fairly long pull-thrus. It is pretty empty, so we have an entire row to ourselves. There are 12 sites and only three are being used.

Roswell Elks

Roswell Elks

Looking right.
Roswell Elks

Looking left.
Roswell Elks

We've visited Roswell, NM, in the past. That means we stopped downtown to see the touristy “man from outer space” stores. Now if we can just survive the night without being abducted by Martians!

Stop back and check our progress across the “Great State of Texas” as long as the Martians leave us alone tonight!

Thanks to everyone who left a comment or emailed Marsha about her back. The long drives are hard on her back, but she says she is feeling less spams each day. Hopefully, she will feel much better by the time we hit Houston and will be able to avoid a doctor’s appointment.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

Monday, March 16, 2015

GORGEOUS DRIVE…TONTO NATIONAL FOREST

Monday, March 16 – We pulled-out of Mesa, Arizona, early this morning after a month enjoying the wonderful weather. We've sure enjoyed one of the best winters, weather-wise, here in the Southwest part of the U.S.A. It's already getting HOT in the area, climbing into the 90's during the afternoon.

With a destination of Datil, NM, in mind, we headed up the mountain on AZ-87 on our way to Payson, AZ. This road took us through Tonto National Forest. Man-O-Man, what a climb. That is the most strenuous climb our Ford-350 has been put through. There were times we were climbing at only 30 mph.

Road to Datil, NM

We are sure glad we chose to go over the mountains to Payson. This is truly a scenic route, one of the best we've experienced. Wish we would have planned a week's stay in this area! We then cruised along the mountain tops (the Mogollon Rim) on US-60 to New Mexico. What a change in geographic scenery. This part of New Mexico appears significantly differently from the areas we've explored several times in the past. It's very beautiful too!

Road to Datil, NM

Road to Datil, NM

Some of the mountains in this area still have snow on them.Road to Datil, NM

Just outside Payson, Doug Laning (http://missadventuretravels.blogspot.com/) and his dog, Yuma, passed us on the highway. We would have stopped for a short chat if he had seen us or stopped for a break, but we eventually lost sight of him. Darn! We met Doug and Yuma in Quartzsite, AZ, this past January at the Blogger Fest.

Road to Datil, NM

We slowed down in Pie, NM, hoping to stop at Pie-O-Neer for a piece of their famous pie. Unfortunately, they were closed. We weren’t surprised. We sometimes felt like the only vehicle on the road.

Road to Datil, NM

We are in Eagle Nest RV Park located in Datil, NM. It is just a scattering of RV sites behind the Eagle Nest Restaurant. Great for a few nights or over-night…nothing fancy. Gravel/dirt streets and sites. All the sites are FHU, 30 amp sites. The sites are haphazardly set with no apparent plan. You pick out a site and pay in the restaurant. Most of the sites are occupied by workers. By the looks of their trucks, they appear to be highway construction crews.

Eagle Nest RV Park

Eagle Nest RV Park

Looking right.
Eagle Nest RV Park

Looking left.
Eagle Nest RV Park

We are only here for the night. We are visiting the Very Large Array (VLA), 20 miles down the road, first thing tomorrow morning. Stop back to check out these huge satellite dishes. Maybe they heard life out there in another galaxy?

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

Friday, March 13, 2015

MEETING NEW FRIENDS AND ENJOYING OLD FRIENDS

Thursday, March 12 – We were off to Goodyear, Arizona, this morning for our last Cleveland Indian Spring Training baseball game. They are playing last year's American League Champion, the Kansas City Royals.

A gorgeous day for a game.
Indians game

We again arrived at the ball field early enough to roam around and enjoy the excitement of pre-season baseball. We had pretty nice seats down the first base foul line. We grabbed a couple hot dogs (You can't go to the ball field and not have a dog.), some peanuts, and a couple beverages and sat back to enjoy the game.

The game started out so promising with our first batter hitting a triple.Indians game

It didn't take long for Marsha's phone to start beeping. We had told the family we were attending the game, so they were watching on their local TV channels to see if they could catch a glimpse of us. Evidently we were right in line with the camera that keeps the pitcher in view because we were constantly on the TV screen. They even zoomed in on us a time or two and caught Paul shelling peanuts and feeding his face....ha ha! Masha’s dad called us twice while we were at the game telling us how many times he keeps seeing us. Our daughter even had a friend call her to tell her she was watching us on TV. JEESH.......stardom!

Indians game

Unfortunately, the score didn't end as we would have hoped. They are still playing many new guys to establish who to keep in the majors and who to delegate to the lower leagues. I suppose we should have delayed our visit closer to the end of spring training in hopes of seeing more of the starters. Maybe so, but we've enjoyed the games and are making preparations after a month in the Phoenix area to head toward New Mexico and then Texas.

On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to meet for the first time Ingrid and Al, Live, Laugh, RV, and dear friends, Pam and John, Oh, The Places They Go.  We met at Handlebar Pub and Grill in Apache Junction, a really neat pub. We had a great time with lots of talk, laughter and delicious food. Both of these couples love to hike and enjoy the outdoors. We have so much in common.

F: Ingrid, Al, Pam; B: Marsha, Paul, John.Handlebar Pub and Grill

We meet up again with Pam and John for dinner on Wednesday. We intended to show them the famous Organ Stop Pizza, home of the huge mighty Wurlitzer Pipe Organ, but upon arriving we saw a huge line of people waiting to get in. Yikes, that didn't look like something we wanted to do, so we headed down the road. We eventually stopped at a nice Mexican Cantina for dinner and to visit for awhile.

Marsha’s back is giving her fits again. She is taking muscle relaxers and laying on an ice pack. We will be laying low the next few days hoping the spams slow down.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!