Well, we've "closed the loop" and are now back in San Jose (map). Even though we are officially residents of the great state of Washington now, San Jose will always hold a special place in our hearts as our home of many years.

Because we have so many friends, family members, acquaintances, and financial and medical professionals here, we will be here for nearly three weeks. I suspect I will not have much to report here in the blog during that time, so posting will be sporadic until we are back on the road.

We were last here, briefly, in mid-October, so this loop has taken a little more than four months. I'm sorry that I did not record our mileage at that time, but it looks like we have covered between 10,000 and 15,000 miles in that period. We have also traversed 30 states on this loop, and even set foot into Mexico (though Odyssey stayed in the US). While we were traveling we also had one airplane flight (Sean had to fly from Denver to San Francisco for a legal proceeding) and a 7-day Caribbean cruise, along with one night in a luxury hotel in Death Valley. Odyssey also endured four ferry crossings.

In the four months of full-time living aboard Odyssey, she has gotten a proper shakedown, and we've uncovered perhaps a dozen problems and issues that need to be addressed. But all in all, she is everything we designed her to be, and is serving us well. We love our life on the road, and are not looking back.

Approaching San Jose, then, was an interesting experience. Hundreds of times we have traveled these roads into the city with the feeling that we were "coming home." The roads are the same, but the feeling is very different, now that home is with us all the time, and San Jose is just another stop on a long journey. We are still trying to sort through these strange feelings elicited by our former home town.

While we are here, the San Jose Elks Lodge is serving as our base of operations. They have electric hookups here, and it is a short stroll to the Light Rail and CalTrain stations, making it quite easy for us to get around. Odyssey has a few visits of her own to make while we're here, but for the most part we will stay here at the Elks while we are in town.

If you happen to be one of our bay area friends, the reason you have not yet heard from us is that we are still sorting through our schedule and trying to make professional appointments, both for ourselves and for the bus. Feel free to drop us an email or give us a call, though, and we will set something up. We will try to get in touch with absolutely everyone in the next few days, but my brain isn't what it used to be, so call us if you haven't heard from us by next week...

We spent last night in Bakersfield, and took our friends to the Olive Garden in Odyssey. Unfortunately, pulling in to the parking lot I managed to smack a curb, probably due to the finnicky front levelers being out of adjustment. The plastic front trim, which has been mangled and glassed back together many times already, is again mangled. We'll need to find a fiberglass shop to get it fixed, and there's probably some metal bending and bondo work needed as well.

Today we headed up 99 out of Bakersfield, cut over to I-5 and blasted up to 152, which will take us over the hill and into the bay area. We wanted one more night of quiet before the hustle and bustle of San Jose, so we stopped for the night at the San Luis Reservoir recreation area (map). After paying our camping fee, which, incidentally, has doubled since the last time we were in California, we drove the mile or so to the campground to find that Odyssey doesn't really fit in any of the spaces -- an absolute first for us. We're taking up two spots -- probably not an issue, since the campground is only about 20% full.

The near-doubling of almost all fees at California's state parks is one of the Governator's strategies to improve the state's bleak financial picture. While we don't really mind paying $20 for camping in a state park (with water and electric hookups, to boot), this sort of penny-ante tactic really does nothing significant at a state budgetary level, yet has a severe impact on the state's most impoverished residents (the sort of people for whom, for example, fishing in this park is a means of subsistence, not just recreation).

We had a brief moment of excitement today when we passed another Neoplan Spaceliner (the same type of bus as Odyssey) heading south on 99 as we were heading north. I recognized it immediately as the coach that had been built several years ago for country/western singer George Strait. George has since sold it (it was listed for sale for a long time, perhaps two years ago), and I have been told that it is now owned by someone in Mexico. Nevertheless, today it was in California. We sounded a couple blasts on our air horn as we passed, but did not receive any response (as far as we could tell).

Tomorrow, we will be in San Jose.

Today is our last day in Death Valley. We are at the Furnace Creek Campground (map). which is behind the visitor center.

Friday night we hosted a cookout for our friends, all motorcyclists from the bay area. We had ten people in all, and, while most of the eating and celebrating and some of the cooking happened outside around the campfire, this still counts as Odyssey's first "dinner party" if you will, and it was a success, or at least it seemed so to us.

I add that last qualification because, while I consider myself to be a fairly decent cook, I am not a vegetarian and have no particular skills in preparing vegetarian dishes. Nonetheless, two of our gang are vegetarians and I found myself having to modify a few recipes as a result, including making my own vegetarian Worcesteshire substitute. In any case, everybody ate the food and nobody (yet) has complained or fallen ill.

Saturday and Sunday we rode through the park on our motorcycles. A good deal of the park road system is closed due to the massive flooding that occurred in August. This flood event was rather spectacular, adding significant amounts of material to the myriad alluvial fans that comprise the basin. The fresh alluvial material is starkly beautiful, and a jarring reminder that the park is ever-changing and that man's flimsy structures are fleeting and insignificant in the face of the forces of nature. In the visitor center, we looked at photos of concrete restrooms uprooted and moved several hundred feet downhill, and cars flattened like pancakes and rafted miles away from where they had been parked. Most of highway 190 was completely undercut, and multi-ton sections of pavement were pushed downhill like a log raft on a rapid.

The other consequence of this particularly wet winter (Death Valley normally sees only two inches of rain in an entire year) is that the wildflowers are spectacular. Down by Ashford Mill they cover the valley like a carpet and are in full bloom. I've been coming here for over ten years and have never seen vegetation like this in the valley.

I have also never seen this much water in the valley. What is normally a vast expanse of dry salt pan (except for a small spring at Bad Water) is now a lake covering hundreds of acres -- the reincarnation of prehistoric Lake Manly. From certain vantage points, the lake reflects the snow-capped peaks of tha Panamint Mountains in the background -- picture-postcard beauty which gives the illusion of an alpine setting and belies the deadly, searing, arid 120-degreee heat of the summer in this place of extremes.

All in all, we have never seen the valley so beautiful as it is right now. Ironically, people are staying away in droves, presumably because access is somewhat more difficult due to road closures and, mostly, because several "attractions" are closed or inacessible (Artists Drive, Zabriskie Point, Dante's View, parts of Race Track, and several trails). The drippy weather probably also has something to do with it (it's been raining on us off and on all weekend), but boy are these people missing some fantastic scenery.

Today we will pack up the bikes and head towards the bay area. Our friends usually stop for the night in Bakersfield, and we might join them again tonight if we can find a place to park. Besides which, Bakersfield might be a good place to look for the tires and wheels we sorely need.

Our biker buddies at Death Valley. They're a motley crew, but we love 'em.

We are at the Furnace Creek Inn in Death Valley National Park (map). We spent a pleasant night in the hotel here, and enjoyed dinner and breakfast in the dining room. The highlight of this hotel, for me, though, is the swimming pool, fed from a hot spring that runs a constant 85 degrees year-round.

None of the hotels in Death Valley allows pets, but we have the secret inside knowledge: there is exactly one room at the Inn that has its own, immediately adjacent parking (a large dirt lot, plenty big for Odyssey). That room happens to the the "pool side bungalow," which, though a bit more expensive than the other rooms, is also the only room that opens on to the aforementioned pool.

The adjacent parking allowed us to leave the beasts in Odyssey while we enjoyed the hotel, but still provided easy opportunity to walk the dog, check on everybody, and use our satellite internet connection.

In a few minutes we will be departing this lovely property, bound for the park service campground only a mile away.

We have been in Las Vegas for the past two nights, staying at the Silverton Hotel/Casino RV Park (map). This is a nice park, as commercial parks go, but we understand it will be closing this year to make room for more hotel, or some such. Too bad, really -- it looks brand new.

For Valentines day, we ate at the teppanyaki restaurant at the Tropicana, then saw the Cirque du Soleil show Zumanity over at New York New York. Last night, we ate at the Wolfgang Puck bistro in Mandalay Bay, whose name already escapes me.

The Silverton Casino, by the way, has a giant, brand new, "Bass Pro Shop" attached. We'd never been in one of these, not being into fishing ourselves, but I must say it is a very nice store.

This morning we leave for Death Valley.

We are camped on the shore of Lake Mead, in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area (map). More accurately, I should say we are camped on the former shore of the lake -- the lake is so low right now that the water is nearly half a mile from here.

Yesterday we drove across Hoover Dam. En-route to the dam we had to cross the security checkpoint, which I expected to be manned by the Bureau of Reclamation Police, or maybe NPS park rangers, or even the Coast Guard. It was something of a let-down to find it staffed by armed security guards from the Wackenhut agency. There was not even any indication of which federal agency's jurisdiction the checkpoint fell under. Unsurprisingly, all four guards and a supervisor felt the need to look Odyssey over.

Approaching the dam from the steep Arizona side, we were immediately struck by how low the lake was. It gave the dam and its intake tower assemblies an eerie appearance. We had planned to stop at the dam, walk around, and maybe take a tour, but the place was an absolute zoo -- people everywhere, and little opportunity to pull Odyssey off the road and park. In the end, we decided to just keep driving. Stopping at the NRA visitor center several miles west, we learned that the "Hard Hat Tour" that we had wanted to take was eliminated after 9/11, and even the regular dam tour had been pared back to just visiting the powerhouse. We were glad to have seen the innards of the dam when we took the tour in 2000.

After leaving the visitor center we headed north through the NRA to the North Shore Road, then a few miles east to a dirt turn-off known as 8 Mile Road. Not because the road is that long, mind you, but because the turn is at milepost 8 on the North Shore Road. This road leads down to the (high-water) lake shore, just before which it fans out into several little roads, each leading to its own peninsula. Right now, the peninsulas are more like promontories, as there is no water between them.

We have a beautiful view of the lake from here, and it was very quiet last night on our private promontory, even though there are RVs on most of the surronding ones as well. A ridge of mountains precludes seeing Las Vegas from here, but the glow of the city was unmistakable in the distance last night, and the vertical beam of light from the Luxor pyramid was clearly visible.

Today we will head in to Las Vegas, where we have reservations for two nights at the Silverton Casino/Hotel and Campground. This campground is fairly close to the strip, and they have a shuttle. Tonight we have tickets to Cirque du Soleil at the New York New York, our Valentine's gift to ourselves.

Today we drove through Lake Havasu City and stopped to see London Bridge. The whole affair is a cheesy tourist trap, which, of course, was McCulloch's goal. The weather was perfect today, though, and we saw some great scenery along our route.

When we hit I-40, we jogged west to Topock, hoping to head north on AZ-95 along the river. However, the road was posted "closed" as it was awash just past the Topock marina, so we had to get back on 40 west, into California, and up to Needles, where we were able to re-cross the river and resume our route on AZ-95.

After driving through Bullhead City, we took the turnoff toward Davis Dam. The dam itself is now closed to traffic, I assume due to security concerns. From the dam road, we turned north into Lake Mead National Recreation Area and a park service campground on Lake Mohave called Katherine Landing (map). There is a "resort" here that appears to date from the 50's, when the lake was created. The park service took over in 1964, and the resort is run as a concession. We are in an actual park service camp site, however. From here, we have a lovely view of the river and the Newberry Mountains on the other side, in Nevada. As I type, we are enjoying a nice sunset over said mountains.

Tomorrow we will head east on 68 to US-93, which will take us north over Hoover Dam. Soon, Hoover Dam will also be bypassed by a new bridge just south of the dam, and the dam will be closed to through traffic. I don't really know why, but something motivates me to cross the dam in Odyssey before the opportunity is gone. Of course, we will be subject to security inspection, and there exists a (very remote) possibility that we will have to backtrack to Bullhead city and cross the river at Laughlin. Assuming we cross without problems, we may stop in at the visitor center there. I understand the lake level is at a historic low, so I am interested in how the view will differ from my previous visits over the last 30 or so years.

We are camped in the parking lot of the Blue Water Casino Resort, on the Colorado river near Parker (map). It's kinda like being at Wal-Mart, only with a better restaurant. Actually, the Blue River Resort gets three diamonds from AAA, and we had a nice dinner in the nicest of their three restaurants. We also had a look at their indoor pool complex, visible from a balcony on the casino level, and it looks really nice (three levels of pools with a water slide).

Our plan was actually to stay on BLM land near Quartzsite, AZ. For those outside the RV or rockhound communities, I should say that Quartzsite is a sleepy little town in the desert, whose population swells to nearly a million in the months of January and February each year. It is a major destination for snowbirds, with the BLM "Long Term Visitor Area" nearby, tons of free BLM camping immediately surrounding the town, and a myriad of private RV parks. The town fills with vendors setting up booths and hawking all manner of RV paraphenalia and cheeseball craft items, and a giant RV show moves in for the month of January. In February, a number of major rock-hound events take over.

In any case, we decided we ought to at least drive through Quartzsite, or "The Q" as it has become known. Besides, I know one of the vendors and we wanted to stop in to say hello. So after leaving Organ Pipe Cactus we headed north through Gila Bend on 85, then west on a combination of Salome Road and US60 (mostly to avoid I-10) and a short stretch of I-10 into the Q. We arrived just a bit before 5, and my vendor friend's shop was deserted. I already knew he had to fly out of town today, but his partners should have been there till 5. We can only guess that folks closed up early because it has been pouring rain here in AZ for a good 24 hours now.

We decided that since we were heading north anyway, we would look for a free BLM spot north of town. Unfortunately, all the dirt roads were a muddy mess due to the aforementioned rain. The few hard-scrabble spots we saw (several of which had a handful of RVs in them) were too close to AZ95 for our taste. By the time we realized we were running out of BLM options, we were almost to Parker and night was falling. We spotted this place as we were making for the county parks along the river north of here, and decided to check it out, since we were uncomfortable taking pot luck on an unknown park after dark.

Tomorrow we head north to Havasu City. I've wanted to check out Lake Havasu ever since I worked at Stanford University and had a number of student employees who raved about vacationing there. For some reason, in the intervening 15 years or so, I've never made it there, even though I've been almost all the way around it. I also have a hankering to see London Bridge. I've seen it before, but it was still in London then. It had just been sold off to the Arizona people, and they were numbering the stone blocks in preparation for dismantling it. This visit will be a reunion, of sorts.

We are at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (map). The park is quite beautiful, although the campground is not really our style -- 200 spaces arranged in a grid, perhaps ten feet apart.

On the way in to the campground, we were measured for length for the very first time. When asked, we said we were forty feet, but I guess that's hard to believe given Odyssey's imposing appearance, so they asked us to pull up to a marked line. Then they looked at another mark in the back, and told us we were 42' (we're not) and the limit was 40. After I protested that we were certainly not more than 40', they pulled out a surveyor's tape and, sure enough, found that we are only a few inches more than 39'. We sat there wondering how many other coaches were turned away based on incorrect marks on the pavement. Apparently, the limit here used to be 35' until this year, when they increased it to 40', so the campground folks don't have a lot of experience with big rigs.

Most of the roads in the park are dirt and limited to vehicles under 26', so we will have to be content with what we can see from the campground here, at least on this visit where we do not have time to pull the motorcycles out. This is really the only place in the US to see organ pipe cacti, which are more prevalent in Mexico.

There is an active border crossing at the southern boundary of the park, leading to Puerto Penasco on the sea of Cortez. Apparently there is also a great deal of illegal crossing through remote regions of the park, and the visitor's center is named after a 28 year old park ranger gunned down by drug smugglers. The border patrol also has a big presence here.

This is our last contact with the border and the perimeter of the continental US, where we have been traveling, with only minor detours, for the last several thousand miles and nearly three months. Today we head north to Quartzsite, on our way to Las Vegas and Death Valley.

We are in Vail, AZ, a suburb of Tucson (map), visiting our friend Alfred.

We had dinner in Tucson last night. They have, apparently, not heard of Mardi Gras here. (I still have all my beads.) I did spend some time this morning reading the news from San Jose, where Mardi Gras has prompted a riot the last three years running. We still have rental property there. Apparently, things were relatvely calm this year.

We are enjoying a day of downtime while Alfred conducts some business. Tomorrow morning we will head out, on our way to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

Tonight we are camped at a primitive spot near Coronado National Forest (map). We turned down this dirt road hoping to find a primitive (or "dispersed") camping spot in the forest, however we ran into a local who directed us to this site. It is a good spot for Odyssey, and clearly many people have camped here before us (good for two reasons: it usually means camping is allowed, and re-using a site means less environmental impact than creating a new one). We realized we were not quite into the forest yet, but our map indicated we are probably on BLM land, which also permits dispersed camping. Now that I've zoomed in on the map coordinates while preparing it for the blog, it seems we are even a bit outside of the BLM quadrant as well. The map says it's "state" land (as opposed to private) so we're probably in good shape, though we don't have the Arizona state rules with us.

One of the things we like so much about the west is this type of camping opportunity, virtually unheard of east of the Rockies. For the uninitiated, both the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management permit camping anywhere within their boundaries, with certain posted exceptions, subject to a handful of rules. Rules vary from forest to forest, but generally include keeping at least 100' from water sources, one mile from developed campgrounds, and 1/4 mile from paved roads. There is also a schizophrenic "leave no trace" ethic that says, for example, dismantle and scatter any fire ring you build. It's schizophrenic because, in most cases, forest managers prefer you build your fire in a fire ring you've found from a previous visitor (implying that someone, somewhere did not "leave no trace"). We generally leave the site as we found it -- if there was a fire ring, we use it and leave it, and, if not, we either build no fire or dismantle our ring and return the area to its natural state.

Before anyone runs off to camp in the boonies, remember to check local rules with the FS or BLM district office. Also, while most dispersed camping is free, many national forests near heavily developed areas such as Los Angeles now require a fee to be paid in the form of an "Adventure Pass" (we have a "Golden Eagle" pass, which covers us) before camping (or any recreation other than simply driving through). Lastly, some states require a (usually free) permit before building a campfire, or even using a camp stove, outside of developed campgrounds. We have a campfire permit for California and Nevada, for example.

In any case, we chose this particular spot because we are visiting someone in Vail (near Tucson) tomorrow, and we wanted to be fairly close by.

Today we drove the remainder of NM-9 west to NM-80 south, which crosses into Arizona to become AZ-80. That took us into the border town of Douglas, where we stopped for lunch. From there we headed north through the former mining boomtown of Bisbee, still very much alive, and into Tombstone, which, expectedly, is a cheeseball tourist trap. For the record, we passed the OK Corral, but did not stop there. From there we headed west past Fort Huachuca and then north to our present location.

Interestingly, we saw what appeared to be a US Army/Border Patrol joint training exercise along the southern edge of New Mexico as we traversed NM-9. It was either that, or we've declared war on Mexico and I didn't get the memo. Every half a mile or so was stationed an armored personnel carrier, complete with manned gun turret and a squad of M16-toting grunts in desert camo. This went on for perhaps ten miles. Periodically, a Border Patrol truck would be parked with the APC, and, eventually, we ran into the support group with radio shacks and antennae, a military ambulance, and a bunch of humvees and deuce-and-a-halfs loaded with gear. Generally, the army guys waved at us when they saw Odyssey approaching. The Border Patrol has been proven to have no sense of humor, and they did not wave. (For my in-laws the army colonels: I did not recognize the APC's, but they were wheeled, not tracked -- maybe the new Stryker?)

Tomorrow we will be in the Tucson area. Not sure if they do anything for Mardi Gras there, but I'm ready with my beads...

We had a wild and wooly night last night. I guess the ten foot wind sock just a few feet from the picnic area should have been our first clue -- it was darned windy last night. I would estimate winds around 35-40 mph with gusts to 60+ mph. We made it through the night, though, and nothing blew off the coach. The ranger at the national park had warned us that the wind comes whipping down the canyon, right through the campground, and on down the state highway.

It was so windy that we actually broke camp and pulled out first thing in the morning. We certainly could not put the satellite dish back up, and the weather was still too drippy to want to go back up to the park, so we headed down US180 to the valley and in to El Paso.

El Paso is, frankly, an industrial wasteland. After fueling up along I-10 (Texas has the cheapest diesel we will see from here west), we drove TX375 along the "river." I put that in quotes because the Rio Grande here is more like the Trickle Grande -- one could literally walk across it. Of course, one would then be fired upon, because the river frontage here resembles the fortification of Berlin before the wall fell. There are floodlights every 100 feet or so, and a 20-foot "DMZ" along the US side of the river separated by concertina wire fences from the river and the rest of the city, the exclusive domain of the border patrol.

Almost all the water we saw in the Rio Grande in Big Bend comes from tributaries in Mexico. The Rio Grande is dry in El Paso because all its water is impounded further upstream, used up by Texas and New Mexico before it ever hits the international border.

We left El Paso by crossing El Trickle Grande into New Mexico, and made it as far as Santa Teresa before realizing that we would not see another supermarket until Tucson. So we briefly recrossed the state line into the northern El Paso suburbs in search of a "real" supermarket (we've only seen bodegas and mini-marts for the past few hundred miles). We found an Albertsons which, we both thought, must be the nicest supermarket we've ever been in. (Albertsons is a chain with which we have more than passing familiarity, but this is one of their newest stores.) Jonesing for a modern mega-supermarket with a real meat counter and a real bakery, we spent a good half hour or more shopping and stocking up. Then we had to wait in line for a good bit to check out because everyone was last-minute shopping for their superbowl munchies. Ugh.

After a minor navigational snafu (our maps do not correctly show the new highway to the new Santa Teresa border crossing), we found our way to NM-9 and have been traversing the southernmost part of the state. We are now at Pancho Villa State Park (map), the last decent camp site before Arizona. The park is in the town of Columbus, which was raided in 1916 by the Mexican revolutionary Francisco "Pancho" Villa, prompting a punitive raid into Mexico by US armed forces chasing him down. The state park comprises the grounds of the military barracks and staging area for the retaliation, led by Pershing. This campaign marked essentially the last use of mounted cavalry in a US military campaign, as well as the first use of mechanized forces. Pershing's experience here with a mechanized army paved the way for his success therewith in WW-I in the following year. (Can you tell we've been to the visitor center?)

Tomorrow we will head into Arizona.

We're at a state highway picnic area (map) and it's snowing on us!

We parked here because the campground at the nearby Guadalupe Mountains National Park turns out to be, essentially, an asphalt parking lot. This picnic area is about a mile away, and it has a better view, we can be by ourselves, and we're saving the $8 (whoo-hoo) that the Park Service wanted to charge us for a lesser caliber facility (really). I suppose if we needed the rest rooms that the Park Service provides, that would tip the scale in their favor, but we don't.

In any case, when we parked here around 5:00 Mountain Time (the time zone boundary is just south of here), it was raining, so we put our awnings out a foot or two just to keep the rain off the windows (we still have a couple leaks that are being worked out). It continued to rain throughout the afternoon and evening. What we did not notice, while we were fixing and eating our dinner, was that the rain had turned to snow at some point. As we were finishing dinner, we noticed the snow in the headlamps of a passing car. When we looked, nearly an inch had fallen -- on our awnings! Of course, there's no way the awnings would retract like this -- we spent the next half hour on the (very slippery) roof, in the dark, in the snow, brushing the snow off the awnings. Quite a chore, but we finally got them retracted.

While we were up there, two DOT plows passed in each direction on the road. We're hoping this does not stick, but if it does, we'll be snowbound here in the morning. The plows, of course, are just piling the snow up across the entrances to the picnic area, further blocking us in. I may have to break out the shovel in the morning.

We had a nice drive today along the scenic loop from Fort Davis west to McDonald Observatory, where we stopped for lunch. Today they were running several visitor programs, including an evening star party, but with the weather uncooperative it did not make sense to stay for any of them (including the tour to the 'scopes, which would have kept us there till 4:30). Our ASTC membership through the Tech Museum in San Jose gained us admission to the exhibits, so we browsed through those before leaving. For you NPR fans out there, the McDonald produces the daily audio snippet "Star Date" and we had lunch at the "Star Date Cafe."

After returning via TX166 and a short connecting road to US90, we elected to proceed north on TX54 to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park, rather than hop on I-10 to El Paso. 54 is marked as scenic through this stretch, and what we could see of it suggested it was, but the fog and overcast was so low we could barely see the mountains on either side of us.

With any luck, tomorrow we will get a chance to actually see the Guadalupe Mountains before again heading west into El Paso. Unless we get a wild itch to see Carlsbad Caverns, which are some 60 miles north of us.

No internet service tonight (there's a tree in the way) so I am having to "post" this to a file for uploading later.

We are in Davis Mountain State Park (map). The campground is mostly empty, and we are all alone out in the "tent" area, where we were just able to squeeze Odyssey into a parking space. There turns out to be a lodge here, apparently built by the CCC in the 30's. We selected a site close to the trail to the lodge, and walked up there for dinner. Nothing special, and tonight was buffet service because they were short handed, but not bad for a state park.

Today we drove out of Big Bend park to the west, through Terlingua "ghost town." I put that in quotes because Terlingua has become a tourist trap, and it's now far from deserted. We had lunch there in a roadhouse called Ms. Tracy's -- excellent grub, and a real biker-dive type place. We fit right in. This is the off season here, so everything was quiet.

Much of Terlingua consists of the ruins of adobe brick buildings that are leftover from the town's boom days as a mining town. It is amusing to see some of these buildings, in their run-down state, now being re-occupied by residents of the town.

From Terlingua we drove west along the Rio Grande on Farm Road 170. This is perhaps one of the most scenic roads in the US, with sweeping vistas of the river and the cliffs on the Mexican side. The road winds through Big Bend Ranch State Park for a good part of the way to Presidio. The road also has a roller-coaster aspect to it -- as a minor road through a state park, the alignment and grade follows the natural contour of the land much more closely than, for example, a state highway would (where grades are leveled and alignments straightened for speed and safety). Odyssey "bottomed out" on many of the dips. The road was posted at 55, but we could manage no more than 45 for most of the length.

In Presidio it becomes necessary to depart from the river once again, and we headed north through the town of Marfa, where we crossed US90, and into Fort Davis. Night fell just before we arrived there, and we continued three miles west of town to this park. Ft. Davis was home to the "buffalo soldiers" and I would like to have stopped at the small museum, but it was already closed.

Tomorrow we head west, perhaps stopping at the MacDonald Observatory before joining back up with US90.

I have been asked about the status of my rear end. Err, what I mean to say is I've been asked whatever happened to the seepage problem with the differential.

The answer is that, when we had Odyssey in for service at Stewart & Stevenson Corpus Christi, we asked them to check the differential oil and advise if it was low. They did, and it wasn't, so we are looking at the seepage as a non-critical problem. We will likey seek out a Freightliner dealer at some point just to have it double-checked, but this is no longer a pressing issue.

So that's the rear-end status.

Today the weather here was beautiful -- we should have waited a day on getting the bikes out. Since we'd already explored the Rio Grande Village area pretty thoroughly (and also, our water tanks were done), we loaded the bikes back up and broke camp this morning. Our water tank was so completely empty that we spent a full half hour at the dump-and-fill station on our way out.

We had a nice drive through the park to the Castolon area, also adjacent to the river. Due to the terrain of the park, it is necessary to drive 20 miles away from the river back toward the park entrance to make the transition, unless one has what the park service euphemistically calls a "high clearance vehicle" (think old-fashioned Jeep, or maybe humvee). We ended up driving all the way around the Chisos mountains that we had ascended yesterday. They were quite spectacular in the clear sunlight. Also the geology and terrain on this side of the park are quite different than the other side -- it feels like we've entered the realm of the Roadrunner cartoons. Of course, that image is reinforced by the fact that the park is chock full of coyotes and, you guessed it, roadrunners (which had a nasty habit of crossing the road right in front of Odyssey).

We are parked tonight in the Cottonwood campground (map). This is a much smaller campgound than Rio Grande Village, and generator use is prohibited here (there are no hookups), making for a nice quiet camp. Nearby is the historic Castolon site, which was formerly a cavalry barracks and then a small store and settlement. The store still operates in the fomer barracks building, although sales have fallen off since the border was closed and the townspeople of nearby Santa Ellena, Mexico can no longer come here for their necessities.

This particular campsite presented the opportunity to easily walk down to the river, where we saw several species of birds.

Tomorrow we will head west out of the park, through Terlingua.

Today we unloaded the motorcycles and had a nice, if cold, ride through the park. We went to the Chisos Basin area and had lunch at the lodge there. The Chisos Mountain Lodge is at 5,400 feet, and I would estimate that the air temperature was in the lower 30s when we were there. In fact, all the trees at the summit were covered with a beautiful, glimmering coat of ice -- evidence of a freezing rain earlier in the day.

After lunch we took a spin through the Chisos Basin Campground -- only three rigs were in evidence, most of the campground being empty. Signs in the park and notes on the map indicate that the road to the basis is not recommended for motorhomes over 24 feet. However, close inspection of the route revealed no issues for Odyssey (which has an uncommonly short wheelbase and, thus, tight turning radius for a 40' coach). On our next visit, we may spend some time in this high mountain campground, where we can take advantage of the restaurant at the nearby lodge.

On our way back down to the Rio Grande Village, we also made an excursion to the Boquillas Canyon overlook and trailhead, passing the now-closed road to the Boquillas Crossing en-route. The canyon is quite impressive even from a distance, but we've heard the only way to truly experience it is on a raft trip, something which will have to wait for our next visit here.

Throughout our ride, we were struck by the immense expanse of the park, and how devoid it is of development. The scale was very much reminiscent of Death Valley, with very similar open spaces and vistas (though quite different vegetation), but even Death Valley has a bustling village (Furnace Creek) that makes Big Bend seem positively deserted.

It was snowing this morning as we left Marathon. It was just starting to stick, so we were happy to be leaving to the south and downhill. We were out of the snowfall by the time we hit the park boundary. I should note that before we left, we enjoyed a hearty breakfast at Marcie's Kitchen, a small cafe on the property of the restored 40's era motel that also served as the campground at which we stayed last night. Marcie prepares home-cooked breakfast items from both sides of the border.

We had a nice drive through the park, although the weather limited visibility to a few miles and I suspect we missed some spectacular mountain scenery. We found a nice site here in the Rio Grande Village campground (map), staked it out with our cones, and spent the next couple hours at the coin laundry, which also happens to be the general store, and, in fact, the only "facility" of any sort here in the "village." The only things here are the 100-site park service campground (no hookups) at which we are staying, a 25-site full hookup campground operated by a concessionaire (who also runs the store), and a small ranger station/visitor center. There is no lodging or food service, so anyone thinking along the lines of, say, Yosemite Village may be in for a surprise.

We did take a walk along the scenic nature trail that skirts the river. From a rocky overlook can be seen the now nearly defunct village of Boquillas de Carmen, Mexico, killed off by post-9/11 border paranoia (article). It is a shame that we will not be able to cross the river here.

We've booked this site for two nights. If the weather cooperates tomorrow, we'll unload the motorcycles and explore the park. I expect we will move Odyssey to the more remote Castolon area on Thursday.