Our yard and house have been ignored too long; a bad back followed by back surgery, and then a gimpy shoulder followed by shoulder and bicep surgery has taken its toll on our ability to take care of things around the house. We’ve tried hiring it done, but first of all, it’s hard to get anyone to rake leaves and put out mulch. Secondly, they charge an exorbitant amount for such work. And thirdly, none have been able to satisfy us in terms of quality and completeness. Thus, we’re the only ones to do the work if it is to get done.

On Monday, still recovering from all the yard work on Sunday, I rode over to watch the “Chicks” play pickleball at Diamante, but there were not enough to play, and of course I volunteered. Kay had medical appointments most of the afternoon. Late in the afternoon, I walked around the back yard looking for things to photograph and was surprised to see a Black and White Warbler. It was only the second one I have seen and the first was in Gilbert, Arizona.

There were also a few Yellow-rumped Warblers darting from limb to limb, and a Blue-winged Teal was swimming in the lake just off the dock. 

Even a dandelion posed for a photo.

Kay played pickleball on Tuesday, and we shared a quiet evening. Just looking around, the office is a disaster as photography and computer equipment are scattered all over the place.

Kay played her first golf with the Duffers on Wednesday and shot a pretty decent game, hitting her “Heaven” wood (Callaway 7 wood) and putting well. My semi-annual medical exam took place on Wednesday, and all is well, relatively speaking. I had lost 17 pounds since my last visit, and blood sugar levels had dropped in half—but they were still too high. He asked if I had fallen lately and I said yes, six times, playing pickleball. He said that didn’t count! Dinner was a petite chopped broccoli salad at Diamante for each of us, and it was really good.

Early Thursday morning, eleven lemony blueberry/cranberry muffins were made with sourdough discard, followed by preparing and smoking a rack of ribs on the Big Green Egg. I then repeated Monday morning’s pickleball activities, not intending to play but the “Chicks” were again short one player. The four of us had some great matches! Following pickleball, I tried to play 18 holes of golf, but my back hurt too much. Consequently, I played only 11 holes. Kay played duplicate bridge. And then, in the afternoon, we planted almost three dozen flowers, all intended to attract pollinators, especially butterflies and hummingbirds. Once again, we both were dirty, sore, and near “exhaustion”. It’s sometimes hard to remember that we’re in our mid-70s! I take that back. After pickleball, golf, and gardening, it’s pretty darn easy to remember—soreness in the knees and back, and leg cramps don’t let you forget!

Working in the yard has not been kind to my Lumbar Spinal Stenosis; my back is in constant pain! But, we keep on working to get things in shape for late spring and summer, and we only lack a few more days until completion. Consequently, we were back at it on Friday morning, continuing to prune the significantly overgrown Creeping Juniper. It has just about creeped over the entire front “yard”. After about three hours of hard work, the rock and gravel work in the yard can be seen once again, and accumulated leaves and pine straw can be collected. Shredding/chipping will be put off until a later date.

On Saturday, we traveled to Conway to watch grandson Ridge play AAU basketball. They won their first game with outstanding three-point shooting, but lost the second to a much taller and older team. In fact each of their players was as tall as I am—about 5’ 10”. Of course, Ridge was quite dejected, but he played well, rebounding, passing, and playing outstanding defense. It rained most of the day, keeping us inside.

Though Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest, more yard work called after church. It’s hard to tell if progress is being made since work efforts are so slow!

Now that the total solar eclipse is history, chores need to get done. And, there is such a long list: prune Forsythia, prune Crepe Myrtles, cut back Pompas Grass, severely prune Blue Creeping Juniper, chip/shred resulting yard waste, buy potted ferns and hanging plants, fill bird feeders (both hummingbird and seed feeders), remove leaves and weeds, organize garage, catchup on blog, attempt to repair appliances and smoke alarms, and clean up office! Consequently, no golf will be played this week, and pickleball only for the HSV Pickleball Club ladder.

Tuesday, Kay and I embarked upon trimming the Forsythia on the north side of the house. It is the only plant that survived in a bed created several years ago, and it has gotten a bit out of control. Next was pruning the Crepe Myrtles along the “ditch”, in front of the house, and around the patio in back. The waste vegetation from all this pruning was piled onto the lot next door for further processing.

On Wednesday, my back ached (lumbar spinal stenosis) from all the activity the day before. Nevertheless, Kay and I severely clipped the overgrown Pampas Grass in the back near the lake. That about did me in. It must have been the action of using the shears to clip of the dead leaves. The hot tub helped, but the aches and pains were severe enough to render me pretty helpless. Kay was scheduled to play golf, but it was canceled due to the threat of rain.

She had Book Club on Thursday, and the members always look forward to getting together. This was their first meeting this year (2024). Meanwhile, I took it easy, and worked on writing and publishing a couple of blog entries, still capturing our recent trip to Big Bend National Park. In the evening, I played pickleball in the HSV Pickleball Club ladder.

Car shopping was the order of the day on Friday. Neither of us need a new/different car, but I wanted one with AWD and a few more bells and whistles. It looks like I may be moving away from Honda despite having been a loyal Honda owner for the last 38 years. The local dealer just didn’t want to earn our business even though we’ve used them to maintain our Hondas (currently three) for the last nine years. After car shopping, we visited a local plant nursery where Kay bought a few hanging baskets to liven up the deck.

The aches and pains had subsided somewhat by Saturday, and I took advantage to rake leaves from the sides and back (actually a blower was used), and to change our ceiling can lights to LEDs. Kay played pickleball around midday, after which we drove to Little Rock to shop at Costco.

We took advantage of an empty schedule on Sunday (we played hooky from church) to work on the dishwasher and continue yard work. After taking the dishwasher somewhat apart, the water intake valve I ordered was the wrong one. The cost to repair is such that we’ll likely buy a new one. This will be the third appliance (all Frigidaire) to be replaced since building the house in 2015. The fireplace fan has also worn out, but replacing it can be put off until late fall. After the unsuccessful early morning, we shredded and chipped most of the yard waste from last week with the newly purchased electric shredder/chipper. It did a great job, and hopefully we’ll have mulch and/or compost as a result.

And lastly, time was made to take a few photos around the yard. It’s still too early for many dragonflies to be darting about, at least here, but this one posed long enough for a shot.

And there were several wildflowers in bloom (some call them weeds).

On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse moved across North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

The solar eclipse, also known as the Great North American Eclipse, was a total solar eclipse visible across a band covering parts of North America, from Mexico to Canada and crossing the contiguous United States. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the Sun. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon’s apparent diameter is larger than the Sun’s, blocking all direct sunlight. The sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk. Totality occurs only in a limited path across Earth’s surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a larger surrounding region. During this eclipse, the Moon’s apparent diameter was 5.5 percent larger than average. In Hot Springs Village, the partial phase started at 1:32.20 PM. The duration of eclipse totality lasted 3 minutes and 59.1 seconds, starting at 1:59:40 PM, with mid-eclipse occurring at 1:51:36 PM. With a magnitude of 1.0566, the eclipse’s longest duration of totality was 4 minutes and 28.13 seconds just 4 miles north of the Mexican town of Nazas, Durango.

I photographed the eclipse with Dan and Mike at Dan’s house. Thank you, Dan, for helping with all the setup and settings. Though I shot a bunch of photos, here’s a composite of a few showing the progression of the eclipse.

A fitful night’s sleep was enjoyed in our “sticks and bricks” house, waking up Monday morning to fast internet and a lake view. A quick trip to the RV storage bay was made to collect as many items as I could carry, particularly golf clubs and accoutrements and photographic and computer gear. I played pickleball in the morning at Diamante and golf with my old group at Magellan. And, the golf score wasn’t too bad considering it’s been almost a year since I’ve played 18 holes on a “big” course. It’s so good to be home!

I played pickleball again on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, while Kay attended to her social clubs and functions and personal care appointments. We were honored to host Kay’s sister, Nan, and brother-in-law George briefly Thursday afternoon and evening. It’s always good to see them and recollect memories. They left early Friday morning, even before we awoke, driving to Cincinnati and then Virginia.

We continued to unpack, wash clothes, and organize things over the course of the weekend. Saturday, though, was for watching Ridge play basketball with his AAU team. He is a really good, actually great, basketball player. He played soccer in the morning followed by two basketball games in the afternoon. He was exhausted! After getting our grandkids fix with the younger central Arkansas grandkids, we enjoyed a quiet evening and Sunday.

Big Bend NP was in our rearview mirror shortly after 8 AM Saturday morning as we headed north then northeast towards home. We were a bit underwhelmed by this national park, partly because expectations had been so high and we had spent the last five winters in a high desert/sky islands environment in Arizona. 

One of the highlights (I forgot to mention in the previous blog) was pickleball in Terlingua. The drive into Terlingua took us by an active pickleball court. After a quick tour of the ghost town, and on the way to the historic cemetery, we again noted the pickleball court across from the cemetery, but with only three players. Not one to pass up a chance to play pickleball, we stopped and asked if they could use a fourth. Each of us borrowed a paddle and played with them for about an hour. It was loads of fun, and as Kay said, “…just proves there are no strangers on Pickleball courts”.  The other players were Jack from the Terlingua area and Kathleen and Kurt, full-time RVers  from Northern Virginia.

Back to Saturday. With a 500+ mile drive ahead of us, we hunkered down and patiently drove towards Midland. There, interstate construction and an overturned semi caused a delay and U-turn on a construction site! 

Here’s Kay’s take of events. “Stay away!  I 20 closed! We were in a motorhome on I 20 at Midland traveling east today. We had been at a full stop with inches movement forward for over 2 hours this day before Easter. This jam up began for us at Exit 132. We still can’t see the ‘problem’ but some semis are backing up on entrance ramps to drive on an access road. We noticed a citizen directing traffic at  a blocked off construction area that forced us to do a U-turn ( he said the interstate was closed) and get on the westbound 20 to then travel and exit, cross over the interstate and turn east on the access road. This backup could easily been avoided had traffic been diverted to begin with to the access road.  Unfortunately the access road is fully clogged with traffic. As we drove the access road east we passed at least 6 miles of stopped traffic. We finally saw why. A semi was pulling a tanker trailer apparently filled with sand that had overturned blocking the entire I 20 eastbound lane/s. What a waste of time and money lost during this traffic screwup. We saw no state employees helping. We saw two Midland police cars sitting on a couple of side roads. Lack of information and warning exacerbated the entire situation. Who is in charge and were my tax dollars used in this kerfluffle? Shame on Texas Highway Dept. planners, supervisors and the construction company.  What no disaster response team?”

After a two-hour plus delay, we were back on track, and arrived at our overnight stop at Coffee Creek RV Resort and Cabins, albeit a couple hours late.

Another long driving day on Easter Sunday got us to the RV storage site about 4 PM. We unloaded just the bare minimum of stuff and made it into our beautiful house about 5 PM. We were both so glad to be home.

Our intent on spending the last full day in the Big Bend NP area was to hike to the “Red Rocks” area  near Homer Wilson Ranch in an attempt to see the Lucifer Hummingbird. This is one of the better bird watching places in the foothills habitat. However given our lack of success thus far in seeing birds, we opted to cancel that portion of our plans. Another goal for the day was to visit Big Bend Ranch State Park. Big Bend Ranch State Park is a 311,000-acre state park located on the Rio Grande in Brewster and Presidio counties, Texas. However, further research indicated that road conditions in the interior of the park were very rough with frequent washouts and loose gravel. It was highly recommended that if one is traveling to the interior, at least a 2WD high clearance vehicle is needed and that vehicles with low clearance should not attempt to travel to the interior district. Well, the “old” Honda CRV did not meet the high clearance requirements, so we opted out of this endeavor for the day.

The last item on our “last day list” was a visit to Terlingua. Terlingua was a mining town around the turn of the century and was the site of the first famous championship chili cook off in 1967, that today draws over 10,000 “chili heads” from all over the world on the first Saturday every November.

More than a century ago, Terlingua’s growth was spurred by the discovery of quicksilver, which brought miners to the area and helped them thrive for decades. But the Great Depression hit Terlingua hard, and as the demand for quicksilver dried up, so did the town. During the 1940s, Terlingua’s inhabitants packed up and moved on, leaving behind the crumbles of an eerily quiet ghost town.

Terlingua is quite vibrant with restaurants, lodging, and art galleries. Today, the remains of the town—which include homes, antique cars, a church, and a cemetery—are part of what draws people to visit.

With graves dating back to 1903, the Terlingua Cemetery is one of the MOST photographed cemeteries in the US.

Many of the graves are covered with rocks giving the cemetery a creative landscape. There is no rhyme or reason or even a straight path along the plots.

Some of the graves in Terlingua Cemetery are barely marked with a simple cross, while others are elaborate and festive burial plots.

While there are about 400 graves in the Terlingua Cemetery, the majority date around 1918-19 when the town was hit by the deadly influenza outbreak. The Terlingua Cemetery is both quirky and fascinating.

The visit to Terlingua wrapped up our “life list” item of touring Big Bend National Park. On to the next adventure!

After lunch, I walked a short loop trail surrounding one of the few shaded areas in the Dugout Wells park as trees, shrubs, and wildflowers grow around water generated by the windmill (spring.)

There were beautiful wildflowers and even butterflies available for photos.

Across the road was the short .5 easy trail, the Chihuahuan Desert Nature trail.

This short loop winds through vegetation typical of lower elevations in the park, and small metal signs along the way introduce plants commonly found in the Chihuahuan Desert. Cactus blooms and desert and mountain landscapes were quite beautiful.

Our final stop of the day was at the Rio Grande Village Visitor Center where we hiked the Rio Grande Village Nature Trail.

The trailhead was across the campground road, and parking for hikers was at least a quarter mile away! The first part of the trail is a boardwalk over a small pond that showcases riparian plants and animals. The trail proceeds up and around a small ridge that has a 360-degree view of the Rio Grande, the Sierra del Carmens in Mexico, and the Chisos Mountains in the park. It was a landscape photographer’s paradise.

We finished up the day at a natural hot springs that was on the edge of the Rio Grande River.

The paved road turns off onto Hot Springs Road, a two-mile gravel road descending down a rough, narrow wash to the Hot Springs Historic District and trailhead area. This road was ROUGH! After parking at the the 0.25 mile trail to the hot spring. The spring is contained by the foundation remains of J.O. Langford’s bathhouse ruins, on the north bank of the Rio Grande The ruins structure could comfortably hold about a dozen people at a time.  The water temperature was around 105°.  Overflow from the structure fell into the river and the water there was probably in the 80°s.  We didn’t take any photos at the spring as it was very crowded and sandy. These photos were borrowed from internet files.

We enjoy our morning routine, so our explorations today, once again, didn’t begin until mid-morning. 

Our first stop was at Sam Nail Ranch.

In 1916, Sam Nail built a two-room adobe house on the banks of Cottonwood Creek.

He soon married, and he and his wife raised a family there. We wandered through their homestead, observing remains of the original house, its adobe walls melting back into the desert. Soon, we were diverted to the sight of several Vultures sitting in a few trees on the homestead.

As we exited, the old, wooden windmill came into view and we imagined it pumping water up to a tank on the top of Burro Mesa for the Nail’s cattle.

Next, we stopped at the Chesos Basin Visitor Center

with plans to hike the Chisos Basin Loop Trail, but low blood sugar prohibited me from hiking the 2.0 mile trail. Instead, we hiked the short Window View Trail which offered a great view of The Window. Even a bird perched in a nearby tree.

The Chesos Mountains provided spectacular landscape photo opportunities. 

From the Chesos Basin Visitor Center, we drove to Dugout Wells for a picnic lunch.

Dugout Wells was once known as the “Cultural Center of the Big Bend.” The railroad reached Marathon in 1882, which drew people to the area with the hopes of making a life in West Texas. In the early 1900s, ranchers and farmers began to move into what is now Big Bend National Park. The Green family and their neighbors, the Averys, began to run livestock in the area around this spring. Community members built a schoolhouse which attracted children from the immediate area. This development made the area the social center for the surrounding families.

From Santa Elena Canyon, we followed the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive to Castolon Visitor Center, stopping at the Dorgan-Sublett Trailhead to view the ruins of the Sublett house.

James and Melissa Belle Sublett arrived in the Castolon area in 1913. In 1918, Sublett purchased four sections of land at this location, and called his operation Grand Canyon Farms. Mr. Sublett was one of the first settlers in the Big Bend area to actively farm the Rio Grande floodplain on a large scale. 

Next was a view of Cerro Castellan.

This is a stone butte rising 1,000 feet straight up from the desert floor, peaking at 3293 feet. Near Cerro Castellan was an interesting mountain formation.

After Cerro Castellan, we hiked a short trail to view Tuff Canyon. Here, Blue Creek, fed by rains in the distant Chisos Mountains, has carved a spectacular canyon through layers of volcanic tuff and basalt.

It was on one of the viewing platforms that I almost met my demise. Stepping high to a concrete platform, I tripped and fell, making a three-point landing: both knees and my CAMERA/LENS. While I as bloodied and skinned up, the camera received the brunt of the fall, receiving several deep scratches. Fortunately, it still worked after turning it off and removing and replacing the battery. The bad news is that it now has little resale value! The lens was no worse for wear. Nevertheless, the canyon was photographed and several Cacti were in full bloom. Who knew this spiny plants could offer such pretty flowers. 

Another iconic image appeared in the distance as we continued the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive.

The “Mules Ears” are two distinctive eroded rhyolite dikes known as Mule Ears Peaks. In the valley floor, deposits of white volcanic tuff erode from the slopes and hard lavas cap the mountains. 

Our last stop of the day was the Lower Burro Mesa Pouroff.

The Lower Burro Mesa Pouroff Trail was a relatively flat, easy hike to a pouroff that is dry most of the year. A good portion of the trail follows a gravel wash lined by Mexican persimmon, Mexican buckeye, and desert hackberry trees. The wash is bounded by volcanic hills with layers of yellow and orange ash-flow tuffs. Large congomerate boulders litter the valley bottom. Along the way were cacti blooms and lizards.

The trail ends at the pouroff—a 100-foot tall vertical channel carved into rock that funnels water from the mesa above.

Preceding retirement almost 20 years ago, Kay and I spent several hours over the course of a few weeks developing a “life list” of items we wanted to do in the years to come. (Our dear friend Ed Richmond coined the term “life list” long before the movie Bucket List came out.) Among the things on that original list—we’re now on our fourth revision—was a trip to Big Bend National Park in Texas. Today, Wednesday, March 27, 2024, we checked that item off our list. This entry and the next few that follow capture the essence of our visit. 

Leaving the RV park about 9 AM, we drove Texas Highway 118 south to the Big Bend National Park (NP) entrance station, showed our “old age” card, and immediately turned onto the rough graveled Old Maverick Road. The Old Maverick Road runs between Maverick Junction (park entrance) and Santa Elena Canyon. It is a 14-mile improved dirt road that passes along the Terlingua Creek badlands on the west side of the park. While usually passable for most vehicles, this road was rough and washboarded; the fourteen miles takes around an hour and a half to drive. Few opportunities to photograph presented themselves, though we did photograph a bird or two, a few cactus blooms, and some badlands panoramas.

As the drive continued a narrow opening in the sheer mountain cliff appeared, and became more prominent as we neared the mountain.

The drive ended at the Rio Grande River, the border between Mexico and the United States, at the entrance of Santa Elena Canyon.

Santa Elena Canyon is an iconic natural feature in Big Bend National Park.

While the best way to see the canyon is by raft or canoe, we opted to hike the short but steep 0.8 mile nature trail. The nature trail crosses Terlingua Creek, climbs several flights of ramps, stairs and switchbacks before descending into the very narrow canyon along the Rio Grande River.

This trail overlooked the Rio Grande River in many places.

At this point the canyon walls loom over 1,500 feet above the nature trail adjacent to the river.

Along the trail, wildflowers were abundant.

And, the cacti blooms were astonishingly beautiful; what a paradox.

Even a Checkered White butterfly made its presence known.

Let’s not forget about the well camouflaged Greater Roadrunner—beep, beep!