Settling In

We've been settling in at Miller Creek RV Resort in Johnson City, Texas since the end of August.  We were treated to this beautiful sunrise!  No filters on the camera to create this beauty!  We've been catching up on old friends travels, meeting new friends, visiting favorite restaurants, getting dental exams, and glasses updated!  Roy is workkamping, and the fun planned events at the park are beginning! 

We've gotten ourselves familiar with the area, as we knew it a year ago, and have been getting acquainted with what's new!  This is a luxury vacation rental being built on a hilltop along Highway 290 heading toward Johnson City!  It has three floors plus a rooftop deck with porticoes.  The three floors are reported to be a total of 5,636 square feet and with the rooftop deck added in comes to 6,738 square feet.  It will have 4 luxury suites ranging from $200-$500 a night!  It's construction is for the owners of the Lighthouse luxury vacation rental located atop a nearby hill.  This vacation rental will be call Arc de Texas (Arch of Texas), as it was inspired by the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (Triumphal Arch of the Carrousel) in Paris, France.      

Meet Gonzo!  We got a surprise when we got settled into our RV site!  I stepped outside one evening to find an extremely skinny sick cat at our doorstep!  Despite his terrible condition, he was an extreme lovebug!  This area primarily operates a trap and release program in regards to homeless cats, as there isn't a local animal shelter.  The notch in Gonzo's left ear marks him as having been neutered through a trap and release program.  His right ear isn't missing, but is disfigured through untreated ear mites.  He was infested with fleas, and had a deep chest congestion!  He has three fangs broken off and yellowed worn teeth!  He was quite emaciated.  My prognosis is that he had about one more month to live!  He came to the right place for help!  Over the last month he has made a steady recovery.  Of course, we've all fallen in love with him, and have decided that if he wants to live with us he's welcome!  We'll figure out how to make it work later!   

I've been extremely busy with the Spring through Fall influx of animals into the shelter I volunteer for back in Michigan.  I'm still posting pet pictures on petfinder.com and writing letters for the animals to promote themselves on the shelter's Facebook page. I'm proud to be part of the team that promotes the shelter animals for adoption, as Chippewa County Animal Shelter just received recognition for their 96% save rate and coming in second out of 60 open admission shelters in Michigan!  We have branched out to listing lost and found pets on the shelter's Facebook page. Community networking via Facebook has been very successful in getting pets back home.  In the last two months life has been extremely busy with promoting a millage election, an adoption special, an adoption fair,  a dog trot fundraiser, and a new collaboration between the shelter and prison for training shelter dogs.  Life is busy, but very good!

Floating The Guadaloupe

It's good to be out of the desert and back around green plants and moisture!  We have a lot of hydrating to do!  We're loving humidity, rain, rivers, and breezes that don't carry visible dust!  This is the Guadaloupe River in Kerrville-Schreiner Park located in Kerrville, Texas.

It's a pretty park providing picnic tables along the river's edge.  Tube and kayak rentals are available.  There is a nice RV and tent camping area.

Point your toes down the river and go as far as you care to go!  We didn't go far.

There were quite a variety of ducks to float with.  They would swim close to see if treats were being offered.

There were a variety of geese to enjoy, too!  Ahh, water!  As soon as we recover from our sunburns, we're off to find another place to swim! 

Carlsbad Caverns

We didn't think we were going to get to see Carlsbad Caverns while in New Mexico, but plans can change quickly in the RV lifestyle!  Instead of heading north as originally planned, we went south!  The desert terrain seems to change quickly, too.

The landscape can be very flat and then as if out of nowhere you'll be climbing mountains!  This is the terrain within Carlsbad Caverns National Park. 

The Guadaloupe Mountains surround a basin which was once an inland sea! 

Here is an explanation of the Delaware Basin. 

This is the walkway to the natural entrance of the cave.  The cave can also be accessed by an elevator in the visitors center.  The self guided tour of the Big Room is $6.00 per adult.  There are 6 other guided tours for various fees.  Some tours are to other sections of this cave and some to other caves.  They have a walk through lantern tour and some strenuous crawling and climbing tours!  I didn't realize how much of a tan I have until I saw this picture!   

This is the amphitheater for the evening bat flight presentation.  We opted not to attend for a variety of reasons.   The bat population is down during draughts.  We had a full 6 hours of touring, and the 23 mile trip back from Carlsbad RV Park was enough to discourage us from a return visit on the same day.  After seeing White's City RV Park, I would recommend staying there.  It is only 7 miles from the cave.  There are nearby gift shops and a restaurant.  We didn't find the community of Carlsbad to have any tourist appeal, although there is a free art museum there. 

This is the switchback trail into the cave!  It has a descent equivalent to a 69 story building!  Reporting the descent as 69 stories is much more impressive than the reported 750 feet!  The walk down the switchbacks is one mile and is estimated to take an hour.  The surface of the walkway is a nice blacktop and handrails are provided further in.  Roy and I found ourselves using the handrails and plodding along.  We thoroughly felt our age, as we watched group after group of 20 year olds zoom past us without holding on!   

This is the view of the entrance looking upward.  Walking back out of the cave via this opening is allowed, if you think you're up to it! 

This is the best my digital camera could capture with the use of the flash even with lighted displays!  Looking on the Internet for images within the cavern it becomes obvious that this appears to be an issue for all but the most professional grade cameras.  I find that even the high quality images don't do justice to the cavern, as they can't capture its enormity or the vast number of formations that can be seen together in an area!  The walk around the perimeter of the cavern's Big Room is one mile and is estimated to take an hour.  We were comfortable wearing long pants and short sleeve shirts.  I think shorts might have been even more comfortable than the long pants.    

This is the concession area of the Big Room.  There are a few beverages (water $1.50), cookies (2 for $1.00), and a parfait ($4.00).  There were some expensive  prepackaged lunch meat sandwiches.  The line to the elevator stretched from the elevator sign to far beyond the circular souvenir stands and then into a roped zigzag waiting zone!  Two of 4 elevators have been out of order for two years!  The wait to enter the elevator was one hour without available seating!  The crowd was grumbling and considering abandoning the elevator for the walk uphill, but when last call for the walk was announced nobody left and the crowd got quiet!  In our opinion the cavern experience could have been greatly improved by some form of transit within the cave.