Macswayround Blog - Thursday, 29 January 2009

Amarillo to the Grand Canyon!

We trekked back to Texas and did manage to find Amarillo! We stayed at the Amarillo Ranch RV Park which had a beautiful heated indoor swimming pool too! It was bath temperature and so I even ventured in!

The Palo Duro Canyon State Park was our next stop. Once more beautiful scenery swept past us as we drove to the view points. This is known as the Grand Canyon of Texas and has a land which has been shaped by erosion. This canyon was formed less than 1 million years ago when the Prairie dog Town Fork of the Red River first carved its way through the Southern High Plains. However the rocks which are exposed today tell a story spanning back 250 million years. There are defined layers of rocks which have been exposed, adding to the colourful beauty as their story unfolds. We enjoyed walking around the canyon lands and luckily the rattle snakes kept themselves to themselves! However we did see plenty of deer and wild turkeys too!

The view from the first vantage point was so breathtaking that I managed to forget to pick up my bag from there! I did not miss it until much later into the evening when we were back at camp and so we could only hope it would still be there tomorrow?

We packed up Nessie and took an extra journey back to the canyon and LUCKILY my bag had been handed in to the front gate station – fully intact! Another lesson learnt and many thanks to that person who had the decency to hand it in!!

We travelled out of Texas once more and into New Mexico. The Enchanted Trails RV Park and Trading Post was on Route 66 near Albuquerque. This also had a Camping World sweetie shop for Phil and we spent a good while in there chatting to the helpful staff – Grant and Wendy. It was great to be recommended places not to miss on the rest of our journey toward California and to find out lots more information about Alaska that we shall need later on in the year!

We visited ‘Old Town’ Albuquerque which had a unique blend of people, cultures, traditions and creative forms of expression. Historic Old Town is a cultural shopping destination with a strong sense of identity. It follows the traditional Spanish pattern of a central Plaza and church surrounded by homes and businesses. Many artisans lined the street, still making and selling their jewellery in silver, turquoise and other south-western stones. Also on display was a variety of authentic native rugs, weavings and pottery. We found a beautiful ceremonial drum with a buffalo scene in the centre and now just have to find somewhere to store it!!

After a cultural time we left New Mexico and travelled into the Arizona desert! This has been a much anticipated highlight of our journey for Phil! Something about driving in the desert is very appealing! At least it is not mid -summer – in fact we are still following the snow!

We went to see the Petrified Forest (and expected it to be very scared -at the very least!) This is also a National Park which is home to the Crystal Forest and Painted Desert in addition to the Petrified Forest. There is also a wilderness area –so defined as being an area where human imprint is minimal. In 1964 Congress passed the Wilderness Act, restricting grazing, mining, timber cutting and mechanized vehicles in these areas. They are protected and valued and the Petrified Forest wilderness area consists of over 50,000 acres of mesas, buttes, badlands and scattered areas of grasslands. The trees in the forest have been turned to stone through a process involving millions of years. As a result of the different minerals found in the rocks – a huge variety of intriguing colours have been left behind. This National Park has one of the largest deposits of Petrified wood in the world! Ben was a little bit disappointed as he expected the trees to be stood upright but made of stone! The high, dry, grassland was once a vast floodplain which was crossed by many streams. As the trees fell, the swollen streams washed them into the floodplains. A mix of silt, mud and volcanic ash buried the logs. It was this sediment that cut off oxygen and slowed down the logs decaying process. Next, as silica –laden water seeped through the logs it replaced the original wood tissue with silica deposits. Eventually the silica crystallised into quartz, and the logs became preserved as petrified wood. The colours are amazing as minerals such as iron, carbon, manganese, and sometimes cobalt and chromium produce patterns and blends of yellow, red, black, blue, brown, green, white and pink.

Some of this wood is polished up and sold commercially today. There are many very unusual and attractive pieces that may be purchased at several petrified wood trading posts and we had a great time at one of these stores!

We stopped over at the OK RV Park in Holbrook on our way through to Flagstaff – a milestone on the Route 66! On our way we thought it would be interesting to drop off at a Meteor Crater which is the best preserved and the first proven meteorite impact site on Planet Earth! This is one of the most extraordinary places on earth! Approximately 50,000 years ago, a giant meteoric mass weighing millions of tons hurtled through space at 26,000 miles per hour and impacted on Earth. The crater is nearly 1 mile across, 2.4 miles in circumference, and over 550 feet deep! This is as tall as a 60 story building! The terrain so closely resembles that of the Earth’s Moon and other planets that NASA designated it as an official training site for the Apollo Astronauts. The Meteor Crater is the site of many important discoveries in the Science of Meteorites and cratering mechanics. We saw the actual Apollo Test Capsule with a viewing window to show the astronauts cramped quarters. We all got to touch the biggest surviving piece of meteor that has been left behind and this was about a three foot long nugget. It was a weird feeling to think that this was not even from our world!

We continued to Flagstaff and stayed in the KOA RV Park. They had a huge amount of snow about a month ago and lots of it was still around. The children had a great time as it was now warm enough to go out and enjoy playing in the snow without getting frostbite in the first few minutes!

We continued travelling in Arizona and went to visit the Grand Canyon National Park.........more to follow!!

FACTOIDS-

· Palo Duro Canyon is 120 miles long and 800 feet deep and is the second –largest canyon in the United States.

· PALO DURO is Spanish for HARD WOOD – in reference to the Rocky Mountain Juniper trees found in the canyon.

· Native American Tribes in the area once included Kiowa, Comanche and Cheyenne.

· The endangered Palo Duro mouse is found only in the Red River canyon lands and nowhere else.

· The endangered Texas horned lizard is also found in this region.

· Palo Duro State Park officially opened on July 4^th, 1934.

· In Albuquerque every October there is the largest ballooning event in the world. The 78 acres launch field at Balloon Fiesta Park becomes immersed in the process of inflating, launching and landing balloons!

· Old Town Albuquerque is an historical zone for the city and home for many families whose ancestors founded the town.

· Petrified Wood is surprisingly heavy and hard. It weighs nearly 200 pounds per cubic foot and its hardness is 7 on a 10 point scale.

· In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt set aside selected strands of the Petrified trees as a National Monument.

· In 1962 Congress designated the monument as a National Park.

· Crocodile – like reptiles, giant amphibians and small dinosaurs lived among a variety of ferns, cycads, and other plants and animals that are known only as fossils at the Petrified Forest today.

· The vast floor of the Meteor Crater is large enough to accommodate 20 football games being played simultaneously as over two million fans watch from the sloping walls of the impact site!

· The Crater has been the setting for the movie “Star man” and numerous documentaries.

· The Meteor was estimated at being about 150 feet across and weighing several hundred thousand tons, and it struck the rocky plain with an explosive force greater than 20 million tons of TNT!

WILDLIFE HITS-

· Wild Turkeys

· Mule Deer

Thursday, 29 January 2009 02:24:46 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Wichita Photos......

Us at Wichita! Hang 'em high!

Another View -Worth the Hike! The Meers Philosophy!

Lunch time! "What are YOU looking at?!"

WHAT A DAY! "Sing Up Mother!"

Can you spot Phil in his new Camo gear? Prairie Dog Lookout!

Wednesday, 28 January 2009 07:01:33 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Wichita Mountains.....Oklahoma

We found the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma and it was even more beautiful than the books had said! The drive through the mountains was very scenic. We were able to camp at the Doris Campground right inside the refuge. The wildlife was amazing and we only had to open Nessie’s door to be able to spot a wild animal! We were right in with the wild! These rugged mountains form a part of one of the oldest mountain ranges in North America. The Refuge serves all Americans by conserving part of the nation’s wildlife heritage.

We set up camp in the woodlands and the children loved collecting wood for the camp fire. We were alerted to the fact that buffalo and long horn cattle may pass freely through the campground - fantastic! It was excellent to be able to see wild bison/buffalo as they have been rescued back from near extinction. In 1907, 7 bulls and 8 cows were bought here from New York Bronx Zoo and in 1940, 4 bulls arrived from Fort Niobrara. Following these successful efforts the herds prospered and numbered 1,000 by 1949. Today this number is regulated annually with a live auction, in order to keep a healthy balance between the number of animals and the land resources that are available. There are now approximately 550-600 Bison on the Refuge at any one time. We stopped along the roadside and spent a lovely time viewing a herd of bison – as we sat up on Nessie’s roof! What a good vantage point and much safer too!

Longhorn Cattle were also bought to Wichita in 1927 from the prickly pear area of South Texas. A set of 20 cows, 3 Bulls, 3 Steers and 4 calves were bought here and today there are approximately 280 Longhorns at the Wichita’s!

We took a ride up Mount Scott – the second highest peak in the Wichita’s at 2,464 feet. This is a legendary site that boasts tales of ancient spirits, Spanish Gold and buried outlaw loot. Indians recall an old legend in which the Great Spirit appeared on Mt. Scott after a devastating flood. He is said to have called all Indians to him and provided them with a means to survive.

We also visited a nearby Gold Ghost town called Meers. Now there is nothing left there other than the World Famous Meers Store and Restaurant and so we felt we should pay them a visit! We were amazed by the 16 oz Texas Longhorn Burgers that arrived and we even needed a doggie bag to save some for later! It was delicious and is an award winning burger! Joe and Margaret Maranto purchased the Meers Store in 1983 and in 1989 they began buying Longhorn cattle for Meers-burgers and to build their own herd. They have an ultimate goal to be able to offer customer’s burgers which are made from the leanest, grass fed, hormone free beef possible and – YEP – they do just that! Back to the campfire for a sing song with the guitar to accompany us!!

The children got dressed up in camouflage to go and spot the nearby wildlife with Daddy, very early one morning – and they are realising just how quiet you need to be if you want to be lucky! We loved seeing some Black-tail Prairie Dogs along the road sides as they busied themselves in a humorous way! They are a keystone species to the prairies and grasslands where they live and we were very pleased to have taken this picturesque route through the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma!

We travelled back into Texas .......... “IS THIS THE WAY TO AMARILLO?!”

FACTOIDS-

· The Wichita Mountains took their name from the Wichita Indian Tribe.

· Indians inhabited this mountain range as long as 20,000 years ago.

· The 59,020 acre Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge is the oldest managed wildlife preserve in the United States.

· Over 22,000 acres are open for hiking and general wildlife observation.

· The Wichita Mountains were first designated as a forest preserve by President McKinley in 1901 and Congress changed the name to a Wildlife Refuge in 1936.

· Most geologists conclude that the mountains that we see today are much the same as they appeared 250 million years ago.

· Bison can grow to 6 feet tall, 11 feet long and weigh as much as 1 ton!

· Longhorn Cattle have an average horn length of 6 feet – although there have been recorded horns with an 8 foot span, which is wider than Nessie!

OTHER WILDLIFE HITS:

· Great Horned Owl

· Downy Woodpecker

· Tufted Tit Mouse (bird!)

· Northern Cardinals

· Elk

· White-tailed Deer

· Red -Headed Woodpecker

Wednesday, 28 January 2009 06:29:39 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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More Texas Pics.................

The children check the Whales in Dallas! Dallas Glass!

"The Cross Eyed Moose" Fort Worth.

"HOW!" "HOW!" Thom & his friends!

Wednesday, 28 January 2009 06:25:35 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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TEXAS - CAUGHT ON CAMERA.....................

"Look how sunny it is here!" "I like to inspect what I eat!"

"I can see you!" Beautiful bright colours.

Where all your dreams come true! A dazzling sunset. "I am very rarely seen"

"Thankyou to the Cross Eyed Moose Store!" "A Proud Nation." "HOLD TIGHT!"

Sunday, 25 January 2009 07:12:38 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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TEXAS DREAMING..........

We drove into Texas and dipped off Route 66 for a while, as we stayed quite near to Dallas. The Sandy Lake RV Park had many friendly local residents who were great to talk to! We met Thom and his son William and enjoyed listening to both local and general US history and knowledge too. It has always been great to talk with the locals wherever we have been as the local knowledge has been priceless!

On New Years’ Eve we visited Fort Worth Zoo. The animals all had well thought out and spacious enclosures and we had a great day!

We toasted the New Year in – in Nessie. Here’s to 2009! Thank-you to 2008 for being kind to us!

We enjoyed another special meal in Nessie with a New Year’s Day Roast. She is looking after us really well! We enjoyed the evening chatting to our new found Texan friend Thom and the children would like to thank William for letting them loose with his X Box and Guitar Hero Rock Band!

We went to spend some time in and around the Stockyard area of Fort Worth. This area has famous history as thousands of animals were taken by cattle drives from across Texas and gathered together at these stock yards and then shipped off to different places on the trains from the Fort Worth station. This western city still maintains the traditional approach with the local’s ‘cowboy dress code’ and plenty of steak eating houses! There was a lovely laid back and relaxed feeling about the place! We took a look around some traditional stores. The first stocked western furniture and home decor “Bum Steer”– with lots of animal heads looking at us from every direction! We had a good chat to the lady with English connections and reminisced about H.P sauce and marmite!! This lady was kind enough to phone through and find out the details of the Rodeo that was happening later that evening, for us!

Next we took a look around the company’s next shop-“The Cross Eyed Moose” with an enormous selection of Western Antiques (they also have a third store along the Main Street at the Historical Fort Worth Stockyards called Adobe Arts & Frame Gallery). Once again the people were very friendly and interested in what we were doing! We told our story-including about Phil’s cowboy hat (which was actually his brother’s!) having been stolen. The lady very kindly decided to give Phil a real mocoy Texan hat to replace his, especially as we were going to the Rodeo that night!

Here we found out about the Texas Jackalope-a Jackrabbit that actually has horns too. This is a single fauna specimen and was first seen by a trapper named George McLean in 1829.

The children also fell for the resident dogs in the shop and we all enjoyed our time at the Cross Eyed Moose!

The rest of us were not to be outdone and so after a traditional steak meal - we stocked up on a cowboy hat each too!

The Rodeo was great fun – we saw the finals of the Stockyard Championships in the Historic Cow-town Coliseum. It was very entertaining with bull riding, bronc riding, barrel racing, and calf lassoing!

The children were let loose into the arena with maybe 50 more children to do the calf and mutton scrambles! A calf or sheep was let loose and the children had to race to remove the tag and be the winner!

The Texas Longhorn Cattle herd can still be seen being driven up the cobbled streets twice a day, by cowboys on horse- back. Traditional is still alive and strong! The children were able to dress in traditional clothes and sit on the Indian’s horse which was also great to do.

We went to see Downtown Dallas which was a world away from Fort Worth. It is not very far in miles and it is a business centre rather than a tourist area. It is adorned with many enormous glass sky scrapers and offices.

We decided to take advice from the locals and get air conditioning fitted and we would like to thank May’s RV Inc in Lewisville, Texas for juggling their jobs and fitting us in at short notice. We were told that we would simply not survive when we return to the US in summer –without full air con throughout the whole of Nessie! Point taken!!

We packed up once more and headed out of Texas for a while and into Oklahoma. Phil had read that there was a great wildlife refuge where we may see wild buffalo/bison and so we decided to go and take a look!

FACTOIDS-

· Texas covers 268,581 square miles – both land and water.

· Texas extends 801 straight-line miles from north to south and 773 miles from east to west.

· Texas has 91 mountains a mile or more high, all of them in west Texas.

· The longest river in Texas is the Rio Grande, which forms the international boundary between Texas and Mexico and extends 1,254 miles along Texas.

· Texas ranks first internationally in cotton production.

· The Cowboy Boot’s history dates back to the Spanish Conquistadors who invaded Mexico in the 16^th century.

· Spaniards taught the natives the art of the fine boot construction.

· In the latter part of the 19^th century, approximately 600 boot-makers practised their craft in Texas.

· Now, no more than 60 artisans produce boots the old fashioned way-totally by hand.

· The classic boot was a work shoe with the cowboy’s daily routine in mind. They had pointed toes so they could be easily slipped in and out of the syrups and an elevated arch that helped to hold the foot firm in place. The upper part of the boot served as protection against barbed wire and snakes.

· The Cow-town Coliseum is home to the world’s first indoor rodeo!

· Jackalopes have the ability to imitate the human voice and they only sing on dark nights before a thunderstorm.

WILDLIFE HITS-

· Armadillo

· Redwing Black-birds

· Texas Long –Horn cattle

· American Kestrel

· Northern Cardinal

· Great Blue Heron

· Egret

Sunday, 25 January 2009 06:53:47 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Oklahoma City Pics - Christmas 2008

Here are a few more pictures to keep you all going -while we retrieve the photos that

were in the rest of the back blogs - sorry for any inconvenience - we hope to have this

corrected as soon as possible!

Apollo 14 - Lunar Rock - out of Christmas Day 2008-in Nessie!

this world!!

"The End of the Trail" We said hello to John Wayne.

Those are some Horns! Jemma and a cougar. Oklahoma Capitol Building.

Our civilised journey! "Yum Yum!!" This is some horse box!

Tuesday, 13 January 2009 03:36:19 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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WOOPS!

We are sorry that all of our photos are not available to be viewed on this site at the moment - slight technical hitch that will hopefully be sorted out soon! Meanwhile - thanks for your patience! Please check back again soon!

Monday, 12 January 2009 08:04:57 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Oklahoma City - Christmas 2008

The children were very happy to discover that the Rockwell RV Park at Oklahoma City had an indoor heated swimming pool! There were straight in there on our first evening, to help ease the withdrawal symptoms that they had been experiencing!

Nessie had been all decorated for Christmas-even with her own little fibre optic tree-she was feeling happy with the Christmas spirit!

A couple of days before Christmas we visited the Oklahoma Science Museum. This was a fun packed day and we even ran out of time – as there was so much to see. Ben was in his element at the Live Science experiment show. He went and asked the scientist if he could help explode something and for his nerve (and cheek!) he became the first volunteer! There were lots of demonstrations involving different types of explosions and the factors that are necessary to cause an explosion. They all led up to an enormous ‘big bang!’

There were many ‘hands on’ activities and even an outer space rocket simulator. The children flew over England and checked on our house for us!

We watched a 3D show in a domed theatre and this featured the spectacular Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. The film was explaining how the river is under threat because of the increased population who are taking water from the river that feeds the dam. Also the farmers are still using flood irrigation on their fields which is using much more water than is necessary.

We can’t wait to see the Canyon for real very soon!

At the museum there was also a Planetarium, life-sized dinosaurs and an extensive shipwreck feature, with many rescued artefacts.

On Christmas Eve, we went to visit the Harley Davidson Store – and Ben did some more dreaming about when he is a grown up!

The children went swimming again, before watching ‘Santa Claus-The Movie’, to prepare themselves for the big day! On a last look outside before going to bed we all saw a perfect sleigh line shooting across the skies above Nessie.......and Father Christmas did find us- just like he promised last year! Phil cooked a fantastic Roast meal in Nessie and we all went swimming in the afternoon-although some of us spent more time in the hot tub, than the pool!

On Boxing Day we went to the National Cowboy and Heritage Museum. This centre helps to keep the Western Heritage alive and preserved for future generations. There were many artefacts and exhibits that were very informative. In the entrance hall stood ‘The End of The Trail’ – a very powerful sculpture that is 18 feet tall and weighs approximately 4 tons. This is James Earle Fraser’s interpretation of the last cowboy in history.........Prosperity Junction was a 1900 Western Cattle town that we could walk through at dusk. We re-visited the life of a bygone era and experienced a saloon, school, church and even got to throw the children into jail for a while!

We had a great time in Downtown Oklahoma. This was a lovely time to visit with all of the lights and Christmas cheer! We took a horse and carriage ride around the ‘new city’ -as they just celebrated their centenary last year!

We took the ‘Melting Pot’ experience for my birthday meal in Oklahoma City and it was by far more unique than dipping marshmallows into melted chocolate at home! This was a Fondue Restaurant and a whole new experience. Our Server, Karl, had a wealth of knowledge to help guide us through the meal! We took the ’big night out’ option and enjoyed a cheese fondue, salad, entree and chocolate fondue for desert. All the raw meats and fish were cooked in the fondue pot right there in front of us, in the middle of our table. There were then many choices of dips and sauces to accompany the meat, with many different flavours. The meal was then completed with the Cookies ’n’ Cream Marshmallow Dream! Many thanks to Karl for his expert advice and Christmas cheer! We shall keep an eye open for the ‘Melting Pot’ in the future as Karl told us that the company is hoping to extend into Europe in the near future.

We then finished off the evening with a boat ride down the one mile long stretch of canal and were very well entertained along the way!

We could not leave Oklahoma City without taking the time to visit the National Memorial which remembers the 168 life’s that were lost (including 19 children) on April 19^th 1995. The Memorial honours the victims, survivors and rescuers who were changed forever after the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building was bombed on that morning. There are monumental twin gates of time which frame the moment of destruction at 9.02am. These mark the formal entrance to the Memorial. To the east the gates represent 9.01 on 19^th April and the innocence of the city before the attack. To the west, the time is set at 9.03am –the time everything was changed forever. There is a reflecting pool through the centre. On the site of the former Murrah Building stands nine rows of empty bronze and stone chairs. These represent the nine floors of the building. Each person’s chair is set according to the floor that they were either working on or visiting on that morning. Each chair has a glass base with the victim’s name etched into it and at night those glass bases light up as a beacon of hope.

There is an American Elm Tree (90+ years old) which survived the bomb blasts and it is now encircled and known as ‘The Survivor Tree’. It has an inscription to visitors which reads “The spirit of this city and this nation will not be defeated: our deeply rooted faith sustains us”.

More than 200 feet of the protecting fence has become a place to leave tokens of remembrance, love and hope. We found this Memorial site to be an extremely moving place to be. Across the road stands a statue of Jesus, covering his face with his hands, with these words – ‘and Jesus wept’.

We packed up Nessie and said our farewells to Oklahoma City and Christmas 2008.

FACTIODS:

· Oklahoma’s written history dates backs to 1541 when Spanish explorer Coronado ventured through the area.

· The area was the home of the Plains Indian Tribes such as Osage, Kiowa, Apache and Comanche. In 1803 Oklahoma was sold to the US, as a part of the Louisiana Purchase.

· In the 1830’s the Federal Government forced the five civilised tribes to leave their homelands.

· Oklahoma City (original) was born in a single day on April 22^nd 1889, when about 50,000 homesteaders gathered at the boundaries. At noon the cannon roared and hordes of people streamed over the line on wagons, buckboards, horse-back, on foot and even bicycles into the 2 million acres of land. They made their claims and overnight the city grew out of the plains.

· The Settlers who entered to claim land before the official start of the run were called’ Sooners’. Still today this is Oklahoma’s State nickname.

· On November 16^th 1907 the Oklahoma Territory and the Indian Territory joined, and Oklahoma became the 46^th State.

· Oklahoma does not have any Indian Reservations. There are, however, 39 Federally-recognised Tribal Nations Headquarters in the State.

· Just East of Downtown Oklahoma City there is Brick Town which is the renovated ware house district.

· Oklahoma now has the second largest American Indian population of any State.

· Many of the American Indians living in Oklahoma today are descendents from the original 67 tribes inhabiting Indian Territory (and we met Nick who explained that his Great -Great Grandfather was the recognised chief in the Comanche Tribe! Nick is now an Environmental Education Specialist at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma – which we visited later – more to follow!)

Sunday, 11 January 2009 04:03:34 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Michigan, Illinois, Missouri through to Oklahoma.............