Joshua Tree National Park

Our next stop was Joshua Tree National Park.

While hiking through the desert I was completely surprised when a Joshua Tree leaped out onto the trail.

Fortunately I can run faster than a tree so I escaped without harm.

It is difficult to comprehend this amazing land.  Here is an arid environment, and yet you find  many species of plants thriving.

As we travel around I am continuously amazed at the ingenuity of man and efforts that have been put forth to thrive in a harsh area.  Because of the lack of water some cowboys built a dam in a small canyon and created their own lake.  Due to the drought that is besieging the area the lake is way below normal levels, but still there. Take notice of the water lines in this small lake.

And every where in this region is evidence of those who went before.  What motivated these people to leave there mark upon the land, yet wherever we go, we find similar pictographs.

And how in the world did Mother Nature get these rocks stacked like this?

Cochise Stronghold, Benson, AZ

Our time at McKinney Falls State Park came to an end.  after nearly 3 months in one area we were quite anxious to move along.  So we made 3 500 mile days leaving TX and finally stopped in Benson, AZ for a little climbing and exploration.

In the Dragoon Mountains, part of the Coronado National Forest, we came across an area called the Cochise Stronghold.  Lots of options for exploring this historical area, but lacking a lot of time we chose to try our hand at rock climbing.

I recall stopping on the road to the climbing area, I was only going about 15 mph.  Thinking to myself that I was not aggravated at the slow pace.  While stuck in traffic in Austin I would feel tense, here, I was completely relaxed, even though the rate of travel was about the same.

New area so it took us a little while to explore out the climbing routes. Here is Barbara letting me know that I should bring the lunch up.

Of course once we got the climb underway she was pretty excited about the whole thing.  Here she is "feeling alive".

Her feelings where a little short lived, her rope snagged on her final rappel.  She got stuck about half way down.  We had to safe her in on a climbing bolt while I rigged a rappel from the top and cleared the rope.  All done in a safe manner.   Just a little unnerving when you are hanging on the side of a cliff and you can't go down and you can't go up.

Christmas with the Grand-kids

Grandkids are so much fun around Christmas time.    We managed to coordinate them all at the Bass Pro Shop for Santa Claus pictures.  What a zoo. But we did manage to get a good picture before Cooper had a anti-Santa meltdown.

Xander had no problem with Santa. Mommy was right there were he could see her so it's cool. 

Of course Miss Photogenic Madison was up for the shoot.

Two separate houses so different Christmas styles.  We think we might have overwhelmed Xander a bit with the size of the prize.

Madison got a new bicycle

Hey wait a minute....

That's more like it.  You gotta keep a watch on Mom, she likes bicycling too.


Cooper got a new crane

Uh, dad could I play with my new toy please!

A super good time for us. We have always enjoyed bringing Christmas home to the kids, not we get to watch them bring Christmas home to there children.

Grand-kids

While we were the campground host at McKinney Falls State Park we had several opportunities to visit with the grand kids.

Madison came up for a couple of days and played ranger with me.

I think she went bug-eyed over her new hat.

Cooper spent some time with us also.  He liked walking Bandit.

On the car ride up he used some coloring sticks.  Thank goodness for diapers or this might have been a little uncomfortable.

Xander is still just a bit too young to camping with Grandma and Grandpa, maybe next year.

Of course we had to take them hiking.

And to the arcade...

And Madison got to go to 6 Flags

All this activity kind of made everyone a little tired.

Holiday's in Austin

We spent quite a bit of time at McKinney Falls State Park, Nov/Dec/Jan.  Working, some climbing, and many trips into Houston.  My mom Gwen Reid got ill and I spent 4 days with her at the hospital.  After she got out we moved her from assisted living into a long term care facility. 

My niece and her husband, Max and Lindsay Oyola, hosted a fantastic Thanksgiving feast.  It's always good to visit with family.

Austin, TX had some fun Christmas things.

A really nice Christmas Light Festival.

The locals decorate the trees along the road.  What is even more amazing is the folks that put this stuff up also took it down after Christmas.

We got the camper decorated for Christmas. Not a lot, but some.

Barbara took a job as Santa's Helper at a photo place in the mall.

Of course being a good shopper Barbara really wanted the can with the deer on it, so while at Walmart she went climbing....

Welcome to McKinney Falls State Park

We got a job at McKinney Falls State Park in Austin, TX for Nov/Dec/Jan.  We are the night campground hosts Mon-Thur.  Pretty easy gig with lots of time to play during the day.

When we arrived for our orientation briefing the state park was in a tizzy.  The night before they experienced a record flood, 41' above normal flood level.

Above picture is the visitor center where we were supposed to have our orientation

The entry way was chest deep in water.

 It is difficult to imagine that those little bushes in the center of the picture are actually trees that are 40-50' tall.

One of the restrooms got washed pretty good.

It didn't take long for the water to begin to recede.  By 2pm there was 1/2 the flow that they had at 9am.  And so the clean up began.

First was removing the flood damaged stuff from the visitor center.  They also had a half a year supply of toilet paper stashed in this building.  Can anyone guess the weight of a case of toilet paper after it has been soaked in water overnight?

Next came dragging the flood debris away from the picnic tables.

Some noticed that there was a little bit of debris that had lodged in the trees at the height of the flood.  So we used pole saws, hooks, and a rope with a weight on it to drag the debris down. 

The tricky part was getting out from underneath it before it could get you.  Out of 100+ trees I was too slow only twice, I took a 4"x2' branch on the hard hat, and another 2" branch on the forearm.  No real damage. 

Some of the piles got really big.

Barbara was using her rock climbing skills to set a rope on some snags we couldn't reach.

The state parked closed for about 10 days.  Barbara got to do gate/guard duty, allowing cleanup people in while sending users and media away.

Lots of hard work.  I put in full 8 hour days of manual labor.  It was a great experience to watch the Americorp people work.  They had a team of 20-30 year olds working chainsaws to cut the debris so bobcats could move it to collection spots. 

They were not allowed to cut anything above their heads because it was too dangerous.  So the state park volunteers, 58-88 year olds, took on the task of getting the debris down so the kids could cut it up. 

There was only one injury (other than minor cuts and bruises), a log rolled onto one of the Americorp kids and hurt his ankle.  We never did find out if it was broken or just sprained.