Ken & Diane Travel

 January 30, 2023 Two weeks in Las Cruces, NM with temps just starting to rise today. Lows in the 30's this week with highs in the 60's , hooray! This past week week we managed to hike Dripping Springs Park in  the Organ Mountains 3 times averaging 3 miles each time. The last hike being 3.4 miles and uphill for the first hour. We climbed a little over 600 feet on that hike and I could really feel it.    Diane needed a closer look. Easy looking trail but rises 600+ feet in elevation and went for a mile and half. About 1910, Dr. Boyd constructed  the sanatorium, building a wood-frame kitchen, dining hall, a caretaker’s house, a guest house and “ephemeral,” or short-term, patient housing. The sanatorium would shut down within a few years. Eventually, rancher A. B. Cox would acquire the Dripping Springs land, using the water for his livestock. Van Patten's Mountain camp. This resort had 32 guest rooms, dining room and featured a full-size piano. this place is a mile and ha

 January 25, 2023 As we left Alpine on the 16th we went under a bridge that had a sign stating that it was 13 feet 7 inches high. I did not expect any problems but as we entered we heard a load noise, We stopped after going all the way through and found that our radio antenna was missing. It sticks up about 2 feet from the roof line, higher than the vents or AC units.  Once in Las Cruces, NM I pulled out my ladder and climbed up up on the roof  (isn't that a song) and found the antenna lying on the roof. We drove about 250 miles with it just lying there, unbelievable! Will wait until we get home to replace it.  Here in Las Cruces it has been in the 40's and 50's during the day and in the 20's and 30's at night. Last night it was 25 degrees. We have about another week of this before it starts to warm up to normal temps.                                                             Back country Big Bend National Park Juarez, if you saw the movie Sicario it truly represe

 January 18, 2023 Our stay in Study Butte was great. Temps in the mid to upper 70's with sunshine every day. We spent time in Big Bend National Park and found another back country trail zigzagging up the side of a mountain, which was calling my name. 9 miles of trails in an hour. We ended up on a dirt road which lead us back to the highway about 25 miles from Study Butte.    By the Rio Grande We also stopped several times at our favorite restaurant in Terlingua for lunch, La Posada Milagro. Best part was the Mexican Coke.   Our next stop was close to Alpine, TX. We had never stayed at this campsite before and may never again but for 4 nights it was OK. Problem is the sand spurs. They were plentiful  and Buddy did not like it as he had a tough time doing his job without get them on his feet. We had to take off our shoes when coming in the coach and pull the spurs from the soles of our shoes. The park was small, only about 12 spots, and we never saw the owners. The best part of the c

 January 9, 2023 We are currently in Study Butte, TX just outside of the Big Bend National Park. The weather here has been in the mid 70's during the day and in low 50's at night. Friday we packed a lunch and spent a couple of hours in the park with about 12 miles of dirt road leading to the Rio Grand River. We checked out the trails we planned to take the following day. A trail that we took several years back. This time we had a map and OnX OffRoad app to help guide us.                                                    Wolf Moon over the Coach, beautiful night by the campfire. Saturday we got into the park around 8:45 am, before the park rangers even arrived. We drove for about 45 minutes to get to the start of the trail, however I missed my road and we ended up doing the trail in reverse. But before we got to the trail we wanted we had about 6 miles of dirt road to drive through; oh well!  We spent 5 hours and 33 minutes on the trail averaging about 10 miles and hour. We did