THE RACE HAS BEGUN TO FREE ENSLAVED TOILET PAPER.
I have been doing some research on toilet (TP) paper, and discovered that TP was first discovered in the United States approximately 1859. The gentleman that first discovered it package it as flat sheets in a box, much like facial tissues today. In fact, he was sooooo proud, he had his name printed on every sheet. Later in the 1890's brothers by the name of Scott, produced TP on a roll, what you see today. Don't go an get all uppity you U.S. citizens, the Chinese were using it in the 9th century AD.
I am still trying to figure out how there was a run on toilet paper when the coronavirus is causing respiratory issues. I do know that because of the run for toilet paper has gotten out of hand, with people hoarding TP, or trying to scalp it for silly prices. Scalping tickets at a concert is child's play.
One thought is that some of the people have their heads where they don't belong, and believe they need the TP to wipe the nose after they cough.
Something I know for sure is that lawyers are struggling too; they have nothing to write their contracts on.
Today Carol and I entered the TP race of 2020. We drove 56 miles round trip, spending $43.00 for a 4 roll pack...plus a few other items. The toilet paper itself only cost $4.97, and are proud owners of this TP. Carol found a 4 pack on Amazon for $14.00, and an additional $42.00 for priority shipping, which would have been received in two to three weeks from purchase. Regular delivery time would have been sometime between early May and mid-June.
Anyway, I thank God that Carol and I are doing ok here in Livingston TX. Keep smiling, and remember that God is in control.
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
Saturday, March 21, 2020
Awaiting the Apocalypse or Aliens
We are now in Livingston TX despite all the scares running around regarding COVID19. You will understand the title of this post once I have finished the post.
I forgot our little visit to Roswell while we were in Lakewood NM.
That's right, we stopped at the infamous UFO museum. The museum was entertaining for sure. Carol and I sat through a video regarding the events around the suspect UFO that crashed near Roswell in the 1940's. The story told of the event made the lead investigator into an idiot. All the investigating he did, and the information he shared was redirected to somewhere under lock and key. The story the government put out was a downed weather balloon, and had the lead inspector holding weather balloon pieces. For $3.00 per person it was an ok place to go for a few hours, or half day if you read everything available.
We escaped New Mexico to Texas in the heat of the Corona Virus.
After Abilene we stopped Lake Bardwell, A Corp of Engineer (C.O.E.) campground. The lake is a reservoir with several areas to camp, whether RV or tent. This one some of the least
expensive beachfront property, at $14.00 a night, or $7.00 with the senior's pass.
If there is a question about this flower, it is the Texas state flower, the Bluebonnet. These flowers along with a beautiful orange flower were everywhere in the campground. This campground was the only one of the C.O.E. campgrounds on the lake open all season. The sites are water and electric only; there is a dump station on the way to the campsites. If there was a question of social isolation, there was more than enough room between sites to ensure we didn't breath on each other.
Enough said, off to Livingston TX.
I forgot our little visit to Roswell while we were in Lakewood NM.
We escaped New Mexico to Texas in the heat of the Corona Virus.
After Abilene we stopped Lake Bardwell, A Corp of Engineer (C.O.E.) campground. The lake is a reservoir with several areas to camp, whether RV or tent. This one some of the least
expensive beachfront property, at $14.00 a night, or $7.00 with the senior's pass.
If there is a question about this flower, it is the Texas state flower, the Bluebonnet. These flowers along with a beautiful orange flower were everywhere in the campground. This campground was the only one of the C.O.E. campgrounds on the lake open all season. The sites are water and electric only; there is a dump station on the way to the campsites. If there was a question of social isolation, there was more than enough room between sites to ensure we didn't breath on each other.
Enough said, off to Livingston TX.
Friday, March 20, 2020
Big Hole in the Ground
We arrived at our next respite point, located in Lakewood NM. This Ranch was the second one build for Escapee members to enjoy. This park is located on part of a large
happened to be one morning out our front door on the way to the caverns. I was excited to see the caverns, I had never been there.
From the beginning of the drive up to the caverns was a beautiful drive into the hills. You would never suspect that something as magnificent as the caverns existed.
The National Park Service (NPS) took in to account a lot when they set up the upper area outside. There are some parking spaces for RVs and buses, besides regular vehicles. People traveling with pets are not allowed to leave the pet in their vehicle, and they are not allowed in the caverns. Have no fear, NPS has kennel facilities to handle your needs. The Visitor Center has a restaurant, gift shop, and small show and tell area before going into the caverns. The cost is only $15.00 to get into the main cavern, you can buy tours into other caverns. The first thing I liked was it didn't cost us anything to get in because of our senior's park pass. The next thing I liked was the elevator. There are two ways into the cavern, walk or elevator. Carol and I chose the elevator, it was a little faster, and easier on Carol's knees, mine too, probably. You see the "Big Room" of the cavern is 750 feet below fresh air. Once at the bottom of the elevator, the doors open to a new world. NPS is upgrading lighting in the cave to make it safer, and more enjoyable. Enough talk, let's get to pictures.
The first thing that needs to be understood is that we are talking a 1 1/2 mile loop through the "Big Room". If you are claustrophobic you may not feel comfortable in the caverns.
Throughout the caverns NPS has provided names for some of the prominent formations, I will not be providing those names to encourage you to visit this national park.
 |
| Jabba Da Hut on Slim Fast |
I took over 300 pictures in the caverns, Carol took a lot herself, but this is all you get. You have to go and get your own.
The caverns were our primary reason for staying in Lakewood. Next Stop is Abilene TX.
In Abilene TX we stayed at the VFW for a couple nights. Kind of pricey at $40.00 per night for non-members. Carol has relatives here, they came by for awhile then took us over to a good steakhouse in town. My ribeye provided me three meals, Carol's only lasted two.
From Abilene we are headed to Livingston TX to see the home office of Escapee RV Club.
Still Catching Up
We made it to Alamogordo New Mexico, and we are staying at the Elks lodge. The lodge has 10 full hook up spots, but you must be an Elk to use them.We arrived at the Alamogordo Elks lodge before the rain. When it rained it took no prisoners, it was a short while thankfully. The snow on the mountain was from the storm I just mentioned,
and the following days it began melting as the temperatures started climbing up to the 70's in the valley, and 50's in the mountains. Now that we've relaxed a little it was time to explore.
The International Space Hall of Fame is located about 10 minutes from downtown Alamogordo, up on a hill, easy to find. We opted to visit just the museum, but there is a planetarium, and theatre. All three can be purchased in a package, or separately. Ham, the first space chimpanzee is buried on the grounds.
He was born in Cameroon, and died at the Carolina Zoological Park in North Carolina. His name is an acronym for Holloman Aero Medical, The military group that trained and prepared him for space.The museum is not just about our space program, but other countries that participated as well. The outside park
allows one to see and touch actual or mock up machinery. The museum is four stories, starting from the 4th floor, winding down to the 1st floor. There is a video talking about the moon landings explaining what each mission's purpose was and where on the moon they would conduct their business. Moving they show the progression of the U.S. space program. Remember Ham? they have his training unit, space suit, and capsule on display too.
The chimpanzees were trained to operate a control, if their response was correct they received banana pellets, if the response was incorrect they received a mild shock. On another level they had various rocket engines for the many rockets and missiles the program used. I won't bore you with all my engine pictures... however, they had one outside the museum and I was thinking it might be a nice upgrade to the current diesel in the truck, what do you think, too big? Might take some modifications.
Moving down another floor you enter the world of science fiction. The entire floor is dedicated to Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek, and a few spin off movies like Guardians of the Galaxy. They have a functioning
transporter room, however it is not FDA certified, and no telling how you will arrive at point "B", or what you will look like when you get there. As you can see it was not certain where my
pictures would end up on this page.
The following day, which was rainy and windy, we took a drive up to Cloud Croft for a museum and lunch at a recommended coal fired pizza joint... we ended up at the Dusty Boots Cafe for lunch, and no museum. The museum that was suppose to be open was closed, the pizza place was closed on Tuesdays, which happened to be the day we were there. We didn't read far enough on their webpage to see they would be closed. The Dusty Boots was still a good choice for food, it was home style cooking. Now let's talk about getting to Cloud Croft. SR 82 is a steep windy two lane road that climbs to about 9,000 feet in about 2 miles... I'm kidding, but it was predominately an up hill grade for most of the 50+ miles. As you get closer to Cloud Croft there is a photo opportunity of an abandon train tressel. There are a lot of trails to hike in the area as well, some lead to the train tressel. I can't tell you too much history
about the tressel, the museum was closed, the locals did not appear too knowledgeable.
After that lunch we had in Cloud Croft, we turned around and went home.
What was I thinkin? Yes pistachios. Carol and I took a drive to a couple of local pistachio farms in the effort to spent large amounts of money on.... nuts. Both farms offered tours and wine tasting. We opted out of the tours of trees with no leaves, and did wine taste at the second farm. Carol did find a bottle of pistachio wine she like; yes we brought it home.
Our last day carol and I took a trip out to White Sands. Originally we had decided that it could wait until another visit, we are both glad we didn't wait. We sat down and watched the video at the Visitor Center, very informative. It's hard to comprehend that what one sees is a field of drywall material not mashed together for building one's home's walls. The white sand is actually gypsum. In some areas of the
park the sand is so fine it feels like baby powder. This picture is atop a hill looking down on our truck. A lot of people come here to slide down the dunes, some families spend their entire vacation here, just to slide down these magnificent dunes. To get an idea how
tall some of these dunes, this picture on the right was taken looking straight on from the truck window. The actual height of the dune was probably 12 feet, approximately 5 feet higher than the truck. Part of the park is paved roads, part is driving on white sand roads, in fact, the best part of the park is once you get on the white sand roads. Once on white sand there is an opportunity to park and walk a boardwalk through the dunes. The boardwalk has a small area displaying information about what can be found on the dunes, whether it be vegetation or wildlife. It would be easy to make it a day trip because they have made it possible to enjoy the dunes, break for lunch at one of the picnic areas, and back to sliding down a dune. We returned home before the rains came.
With the occasional rains we started prepping for the next leg of our journey, which is to Lakewood NM, where we will be dry camping at an Escapee park. For those who do not know what dry camping is... we will be a self contained unit. Self contained means that we carry our own water, supply our own electricity, and store all our waste waters (toilet, sinks, and showers).
and the following days it began melting as the temperatures started climbing up to the 70's in the valley, and 50's in the mountains. Now that we've relaxed a little it was time to explore.The International Space Hall of Fame is located about 10 minutes from downtown Alamogordo, up on a hill, easy to find. We opted to visit just the museum, but there is a planetarium, and theatre. All three can be purchased in a package, or separately. Ham, the first space chimpanzee is buried on the grounds.
He was born in Cameroon, and died at the Carolina Zoological Park in North Carolina. His name is an acronym for Holloman Aero Medical, The military group that trained and prepared him for space.The museum is not just about our space program, but other countries that participated as well. The outside park
allows one to see and touch actual or mock up machinery. The museum is four stories, starting from the 4th floor, winding down to the 1st floor. There is a video talking about the moon landings explaining what each mission's purpose was and where on the moon they would conduct their business. Moving they show the progression of the U.S. space program. Remember Ham? they have his training unit, space suit, and capsule on display too.
Moving down another floor you enter the world of science fiction. The entire floor is dedicated to Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek, and a few spin off movies like Guardians of the Galaxy. They have a functioning
transporter room, however it is not FDA certified, and no telling how you will arrive at point "B", or what you will look like when you get there. As you can see it was not certain where my
pictures would end up on this page.
If you have never been around rockets and missiles taking off, they offer the opportunity to feel the sensations of five types of rockets. The way they provide the experience is through what they call the "Rumbler", and is achieved through sound and vibration. An unwitting soul, like myself
stands on a metal plates in front of two very large speakers, selects the rocket one wants to experience, an enjoy the experience.
The most exhausting part of the museum is wandering through the gift shop with 4,000 (exaggerated) other people looking for the perfect nothing to take home.
stands on a metal plates in front of two very large speakers, selects the rocket one wants to experience, an enjoy the experience.The most exhausting part of the museum is wandering through the gift shop with 4,000 (exaggerated) other people looking for the perfect nothing to take home.
about the tressel, the museum was closed, the locals did not appear too knowledgeable.After that lunch we had in Cloud Croft, we turned around and went home.
What was I thinkin? Yes pistachios. Carol and I took a drive to a couple of local pistachio farms in the effort to spent large amounts of money on.... nuts. Both farms offered tours and wine tasting. We opted out of the tours of trees with no leaves, and did wine taste at the second farm. Carol did find a bottle of pistachio wine she like; yes we brought it home.
Our last day carol and I took a trip out to White Sands. Originally we had decided that it could wait until another visit, we are both glad we didn't wait. We sat down and watched the video at the Visitor Center, very informative. It's hard to comprehend that what one sees is a field of drywall material not mashed together for building one's home's walls. The white sand is actually gypsum. In some areas of the
park the sand is so fine it feels like baby powder. This picture is atop a hill looking down on our truck. A lot of people come here to slide down the dunes, some families spend their entire vacation here, just to slide down these magnificent dunes. To get an idea how
tall some of these dunes, this picture on the right was taken looking straight on from the truck window. The actual height of the dune was probably 12 feet, approximately 5 feet higher than the truck. Part of the park is paved roads, part is driving on white sand roads, in fact, the best part of the park is once you get on the white sand roads. Once on white sand there is an opportunity to park and walk a boardwalk through the dunes. The boardwalk has a small area displaying information about what can be found on the dunes, whether it be vegetation or wildlife. It would be easy to make it a day trip because they have made it possible to enjoy the dunes, break for lunch at one of the picnic areas, and back to sliding down a dune. We returned home before the rains came.With the occasional rains we started prepping for the next leg of our journey, which is to Lakewood NM, where we will be dry camping at an Escapee park. For those who do not know what dry camping is... we will be a self contained unit. Self contained means that we carry our own water, supply our own electricity, and store all our waste waters (toilet, sinks, and showers).
Let's Get Caught Up
We finally left the Wickenberg area for other ground somewhere in Willcox AZ. The drive was pretty uneventful...unless one considers driving through a couple of cities full of stop signals. We arrived in Willcox and set up at the Elks Lodge for a few nights. The Elks Lodge in Willcox is open RVers that are non-members too. The day we pulled in it chose to rain, and very hard at times. We came back home and boy did it come down, at one point it hailed for a short time, fortunately no damage to our home. There are a museums and wine tasting spots within walking distance of the lodge. The first place we visited was the Rex Allen Arizona Cowboy Museum. Some of you may recognize the name Rex Allen from cowboy movies, many albums, or narrating Disney movies. Rex is a home town hero with a street named after him, a statue in the park across the the museum, and his horse is buried at the foot of his statue. |
| Rex Allen "The Last Singing Cowboy" |
One afternoon we took a drive to the Chiricahua National Park. This park is full of hiking trails, and fantastic rock formations. Driving to this park you would never tell there were any rock formations in these hills. First stop is the Visitor Center to watch a video before either driving up to the top view point, or hit a hiking trail
If you look real close at the first formation it appears to be a head. The story is that it is Geronimo resting. The trails allow one to see the formations from an over view or looking up. I tell you one thing for sure, it was windy the day we were there, so we had lunch in the truck. After lunch we headed to an old abandoned fort called Fort Bowie. The purpose for the fort in it's operational years was to protect the pass used by the Butterfield stagecoach which supplied mail, and Apache Spring which was the only water source for the area. The hike from the parking area to the fort is a 1 1/2 miles.
These are what is left of the stage-coach station that housed an area for sleeping, eating,cooking, and housing horses and donkeys. The tree in the main area probably wasn't there in the early days of the station. Continuing up the trial there is a marker that talks about a fight between the Apaches and the Army. A little farther up the trail is the cemetery where most of the soldiers are buried. Most of the officers were moved to the Presidio in San Francisco some years later. Geronimo's six year old son is buried in the cemetery. Let's continue on through the woods and down the path ... to the Indian agents office ruins, a mock up 
Indian camp, and the Apache spring. Only half a mile to go before we see the fort in the distance. Ok, we have made it, oh wait it's the first site of the fort. The first fort was built by a California volunteer infantry. Later the second site for the fort was built by regular Army Infantry. |
| New fort site |
 |
| Old fort site |
 |
| New fort site |
The second site has had some touch up, so much so, they want people to stay off the walls. After a short stay came the hike back to the truck. By the time we got back to the truck we were TIRED!! We drove back to the lodge and crashed for the evening... after we had dinner at the lodge.
Next stop is Alamogordo New Mexico.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)