Panhandling

Today we drove up through the Texas panhandle - the Llano Estacado (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llano_Estacado).  We stopped at colorful Palo Duro Canyon State Park (the Grand Canyon of Texas) south of Amarillo, TX. Hot, but nice! Kris helped Katie do a Junior Ranger thing, and later Kris and I did a quick scramble to a shallow, but tall cave. A little while later we stopped at Cadillac Ranch, that Route 66 (now I-40) icon west of Amarillo.  We did not have any spray paint, just some Sharpies, to contribute to the "artwork".  Later we stopped at the (free) Window on the Plains Museum in Dumas, TX.  Nice, but we did not have much time there (or anywhere). One of the reasons that we went this route was that Karen and I read about the Panhandle area in a book about the Dust Bowl (called "The Worst Hard Time", mentioned in a previous blog entry).  As the book mentions, the Panhandle area is mostly quite flat, treeless and quite windy. That said, the interstate and the towns we saw probably did not resemble the 1930s that much. We did have some nearby rainstorms blow up quantities of dust as we crossed the Oklahoma Panhandle into Kansas - it was not Black Sunday (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sunday_(storm)) by any measure, but it did give us a bit more respect for the area.  Later, I was reminded of the Kansas song "Dust in the Wind" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0zSB2WEtwU). We also wound up driving by the wreckage of last Sunday's spectacular, fatal train crash in the Oklahoma Panhandle (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-06-26/oklahoma-train-crash-investigation/55837244/1).  We have stopped in Liberal, KS, a hub of Wizard of Oz activity (we even saw a bit of a rainbow on the way to town).  Tonight at supper we heard country music on an AM station and saw someone with spurs on his cowboy boots - at a Chinese buffet!

Out of Austin

Today was full of emotion as we bid farewell to Austin, TX, and the friends we have made over the past 11 months.  My sabbatical host ordered the famous Franklin Barbeque for a farewell lunch (http://franklinbarbecue.com/).  It was quite yummy.  In my brief thank-you comments I pointed out how knowing one has only a short time in a place is a very potent motivator to dig in both at work and play to maximize the experience - and that one really does not know just how long one will be at a particular place.  Karen and the girls picked me up in the afternoon and we made it to Sweetwater, TX, (east of Abilene) at about sunset. Sweetwater bills itself as "Windmill Capital, USA", and just south of town is the most extensive wind farm any of us have ever seen - and we drove through the middle of it - very cool! Just saw the ridge far behind our hotel.  Most of the windmill flashers are sychronized to blink together, which is very impressive when all those lights come on at once. Another cool thing about the area is that we are on the edge of the famous Texas Permian red beds - noted for all sorts of fossils like dimetrodon (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimetrodon).

Karen's Birthday

Karen celebrated her birthday with kolaches for breakfast, followed by soccer and kayaking with the girls and friends.  Tonight, we went to some friends' house for dinner and further birthday celebrating.

Caliente

Temps hit 109 in Austin on Tuesday - a new high temp for June 26, and a new high temp for the month of the June.  It has not been this hot since late last August. On Wednesday, the high was 106 - a new high temp for June 27.  Movers came this morning, and now we have about 12 feet of big trailer filled for the move to Peoria.  They finished by noon, before it got to the hottest part of the day.  I hear Peoria could reach 100 this weekend - I'm not looking forward to that at all - at least here there is very little humidity!  We went swimming at the pool tonight and the water was between 85 and 90.  

Hamilton Pool and the Pedernales River

We were at the local Culvers a few days ago and were looking at the Austin-related pictures on the walls "Yep, saw that...saw that..." until we got to the one thing we did not see from those pictures...Hamilon Pool.  So, we took a break from packing, medical stuff, work, to go there this morning (went to church last night).  The park website warns that the 75 car lot fills quickly, so we got there about 9:30 and got in line (there were about 20 slots left, but the cars kept coming all day to wait their turn for the lot).  The "pool" is a large plunge pool for a 50-foot waterfall at the end of a small canyon.  More accurately, the pool is surrounded by cliffs sporting tufa flowstone formations and a huge overhang around at least half its perimeter. This time of the year the water really just trickles over the falls and waters the moss and ferns.  The tiny gravel beach was crowded, but there are plenty of large boulders to spread out on around the pool.  We ate lunch on the boulders near the back of this huge grotto.  Far above our heads we could see lots of oyster fossils from the Cretaceous - we were under an ancient seafloor and still tens of feet above the water.  We enjoyed the water (though it was not as clean as some pictures might suggest).  It beat the 100 degree heat.  When we were done with that, we drip-dried as we hiked along the long path that followed the creek to the Pedernales River.  The river was warm and shallow, and we had fun playing in the water some more.  Temps near 100 will continue all week.  If the high pressure was not over Texas, there would have been more of a chance that tropical storm Debbie would have tracked this way instead of Florida.  Some people would not have minded the rain.

Congress Avenue Bridge Bat Flight Revisited

Yesterday we stopped at the flagship Whole Foods store, located under the corporate offices in Austin.  We stopped at a Lush store, too, so Karen and Kris could get fancy soap.  We stopped by the Congress Avenue Bridge to watch the Mexican free-tailed bats do their evening flight.  They didn't fly until it got pretty dark, it was hard to see them without lights from tour boats and camera flashes.  The picture is a view looking down on the bats from the bridge.  Last August the bats flew when there was still a lot of light in the sky.  One possibility is that there is more food available than late last summer and the baby bats have not been born, so they feel less need to come out so early.  There are lots of crickets that they could feed on right now.

Texas Noteworthy

I started thinking about a sort of list of noteworthy things about Texas based on our limited 11-month visit here. You will find more details about some of these if you look back through my blog entries.  I will probably edit/add to this over time.

best barbeque - Salt Lick
best pizza - Mellow Mushroom - good crust, groovy atmosphere
best TexMex - Chuy's (honorable mention Taco Shack breakfast burrito, and some of us like Taco Cabana)
best ice cream - Amy's (honorable mention Bluebonnet Ice Cream)
best ice cream within short walking distance - Sonic
best burger - Five Guys (but Mighty Fine is a close second)
best Chinese - Little China
best soda - mix-your-own machine at places like Jack in the Box
most notable chips - HEB Texas-shaped corn chips

best water park - Schlitterbahn
best swimming hole - Krause Springs (Hamiton Pool and Barton Springs are honorable mentions)
best beaches - Galveston Island

best view (Austin area) - Mt. Bonnell
best view (central Texas hill country) - hilltops to east of Lake Travis dam (e.g. The Oasis, St. Lukes on the Lake)
best view (west Texas) - Guadalupe Mountain National Park area

best local TV programming - tie: Daytripper, Biscuit Brothers
best apartment complex - Renaissance at North Bend

best zoo - Houston Zoo
best childrens museum - Houston Childrens Museum
best fossil exhibit - Texas Memorial Museum
best place to learn Texas history - Bob Bullock Texas History Museum

best choir - Christian Choral Society
best elementary school - Pillow Elementary
best Kindergarten teacher - Mrs. Fickett

best music (TexMex) - Grupo Fantasma
best music (childrens) - Biscuit Brothers
best waterfalls - McKinney Falls State Park
best fossil hunting - Walnut Creek, east of Walnut Creek Metro Park
best hiking/biking - Walnut Creek Metro Park
best city park - Zilker Park (honorable mention to Walnut Creek Metro Park)
best church - St. Albert the Great Catholic Church

most notable building - Frost Bank Building (honorable mention to UT tower and the moon towers)
most notable news event - Bastrop wildfire (for a sort of touristy update see: http://thedaytripper.com/episodes/episode-310-return-to-bastrop-tx)
most notable weather - the drought (the occasional rains & few snow pellets only served to provide contrast)
most memorable animals - grackles (honorable mentions to fire ants, geckoes, Mexican free-tail bats, mockingbirds, and (flat) armadillos)
most memorable plants - prickly pear cacti (honorable mentions to live oaks, ball moss, cedars, yuccas, bluebonnets, and Indian blankets)
most notable free Austiny thing to do - watch the bats fly out from under the Congress Avenue bridge

Happy First Day of Summer!

Today is one of my favorite days of the year because the sun is out longest.  Scattered rain over the last couple days, but overall June has been pretty dry here.  Temps will be creeping close to 100 over the next couple days.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Back to Austin

Yesterday we stopped by Guadalupe Mountains National Park in far western Texas.  We did not have much time, but we did Junior Ranger stuff and took a short, very warm trail.  Along with the cacti and the wonderful view of the mountains we saw a few lizards and a six-inch yellow centipede.  We would like to visit - and hike - in the park again someday, perhaps in a different, cooler season.  The picture is of El Capitan, a sheer rock formation that is connected to the highest point in Texas: Guadalupe Mountain. After that we drove through the western Texas desert to head home - beautiful, but also a little scary in its emptiness.  The van thermometer reached 112 at one point on I-10.  It was interesting to watch the dust devils - one was probably hundreds of feet tall.  The saddest sight to my eyes was probably an abandoned orchard with dead trees, empty buildings, and a dust devil swirling in a nearby field.

When we went to Alaska years ago and saw the awesome tress and mountains I got the opinion that it would have been more dramatic for me if I had not been living in Seattle for several months and seen familiar things. I think something similar was at play this weekend - it would have been a little more dramatic for me if I had not seen dry weather, reptiles, and cacti in central Texas for the past several months. However, I did notice that Austin looked to be drying up (grass fading, etc.) when we left town, but as we returned from western Texas it looked lush and green by comparison! Overall, it was a great Fathers Day weekend.

Today is Juneteenth, a celebration of freedom from slavery that I had never heard of until the Texas move.  I guess it started in Texas, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth.  There have been a lot of crickets around near the UT-campus: in our offices, in our labs, etc.  Here is an article about a person that I often see on the bus ride home: http://www.austin360.com/recreation/rundberg-running-man-entertains-traffic-as-he-gets-2274182.html.

Fathers Day in Roswell, NM

Today after church we went to a rock and mineral show at a state park near Carlsbad.  I did not find any legally harvested speleothems, but found a couple other items - including something from the region's potash mines.  Then we traveled to Roswell, NM.  There was the tacky, touristy alien stuff downtown (supposedly there was a UFO that crashed in the vicinity in 1947 and it was carted off by the government to Area 51).  What we did not know was that the area was a base of operation for Robert Goddard, the rocketry pioneer in the early 20th century - maybe the aliens were trying to reach him for spaceship repairs.  Seriously, though, the Roswell Museum and Art Center (free!) had some nice Goddard artifacts and a setup of one of the larger launch towers outside (sticking up behind the building in the picture).  When we returned to Carlsbad, we went on a paddleboat ride on the Pecos River - they have a nice riverfront beach park.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park: Best...Cave...Ever!

We visited Carlsbad Caverns National Park today.  I like caves, and have visited maybe about ten over the years.  Every cave has its own sort of personality - Mammoth Caves National Park is quite good.  I really did not expect many surprises from this one.  What I think shocked me was the sheer size of the cave, and it was chock full of features.  Not just size in terms of length, but breadth and height.  The rooms were, well, cavernous. There was a tremendous amount of speleothems (stalactites, stalagmites, etc.), and some of them were huge.  I simply do not have superlatives (or expletives) to describe what we saw.  Like Karen said, there was a treat around every corner.  We did the Kings Palace tour before lunch, then afterward we did the Big Room tour.  Then we climbed OUT of the cave through the natural entrance (800 feet vertically - we got tired, but liked it).   I do recommend that if you go that you bring a strong, small flashlight for a closer look at things, and we thought a laser pointer was useful to point things out to one another.  Outside the visitor's center the Chihuahuan Desert was pretty great, with lots of bizzare-looking cati, and the road to and from the cave wound through a nice canyon.  Much of the cacti we saw was burned in a large wildfire just about a year ago - which made them even more odd.  However, we saw some nice, unburned areas.  We finished too late and were too tired to make it to Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  Another dusty near-miss with thunderstorms tonight.

To Odessa, TX, and Carlsbad, NM

Today we drove from Austin, TX, to Carlsbad, NM.  We had not yet been west of Fredricksburg in Texas.  We expected all flat and brushy, which we eventually got to, but getting there was more interesting than we expected.  I'm fairly convinced that I saw a big brown snake with patterns on it sunning itself beside the highway - maybe a rattler? I-10 west of Fredrickburg (western Hill Country) had mesas and buttes that had some brushy plants as well as grey rocks!  It was kind of pretty and reminded us of Wyoming.  We turned north to Odessa, passing through some of the Permian basin oil field, but also saw lots of wind turbines on the bluffs (I think I saw them from the air on the way to Seattle last September) - there were a lot of them.  Lots of ranchland, but cows were hard to find.  My wonderful wife agreed to stop at the Odessa meteor impact crater.  I'm glad we went (not something one sees everyday), but it was basically a large round hole in the bedrock.  We knew not to expect much, however, and the free museum next to it was well done.  We could smell sulfur compounds from the nearby oil fields - kind of like being in Yellowstone or a general chemistry lab. We saw no snakes, just a lizard. We caught a glimpse of the Monahans sand dunes, however, I thought the ones along southeastern Lake Michigan were much more impressive. The temps got to 104, but the van AC held up as we traveled further northwest. Some of the towns like Pecos looked pretty beat up and somewhat abandoned - it seems that the oil industry is what is keeping them going. It got pretty flat, but we could see mountains in the distance as rainstorms rolled by (but only blew dust at us).  We were happy to find a Pizza Inn for supper here in Carlsbad, NM (there is one in Peoria, IL).  After supper, Katie and Karen swam at the pool, Kris watched the Disney Channel, and I blogged and watched the sunset!  Posting pictures is still problematic, but here is one.  By the way, now Karen and I have set foot in every state west of the Missisippi River except Nevada.

Candle Chemistry and Odds and Ends

On the bus this morning I finished reading a copy of Michael Faraday's "The Chemical History of a Candle" based on his famous lecture series over 150 years ago. What an amazing lecturer he was! I had not realized how far back some classic science demos go. My favorite quote:  "We young ones have the perfect right to take toys and make them into philosophy, inasmuch as now-a-days we are turning philosophy into toys." (He was using a suction cup toy to demonstrate air pressure.)

We got 0.03 inches of rain yesterday evening, bringing the the monthly total to 0.04 inches. At least it has not yet broken 100 F this year. By contrast, I just saw on the news the radar images of the hailstorms up near Dallas  - I have never seen black and gray before. We are still packing.  Katie health is doing much better and she is back at swim lessons.

Still No Pix

My computer is still pretty messed up, making for some headaches.  Katie's high fever, etc. was diagnosed as the flu (did not expect that in June) but she is now on antivirals and doing somewhat better. Finished reading a nonfiction book this week about the Dust Bowl in the Great Depression - the book "The Worst Hard Time" was greatly depressing, but Karen and I both found it interesting enough that we might travel throught the panhandle area on the way back to Peoria.  Today we went to Walnut Creek again to poke around on the aforementioned rock slide now that they opened it to the public.  LOTS of Inoceramus shells.  We saw a blotched water snake, which is nonpoisonous (unlike the coral snake Kris saw elsewhere a couple months ago).  For supper we went to a Buca di Beppo Italian restaurant - it was fun, we ate at one in Seattle many years ago. We are packing a little for the move back, but have a long way to go.

Venus Transit - Second Time

Yesterday we watched the Venus transit from behind our apartment.  We projected an image of the sun through a pair of binoculars onto a piece of paper to see the "little black spot on the sun" (cue Police song).  Early this morning Katie had another fever, and reached the dubious milestone of tossing her cookies for the first time since she came into our lives nearly 2.5 years ago.  My laptop is still messed up and I am not yet uploading new pix so this image is from the Venus transit on June 8, 2004 (it looked pretty much the same).

Computer Problems

Computer issues are preventing me from posting pictures.  On Sunday afternoon we visited some friends in Austin that made us a great Tex-Mex lunch.  Later, they took us to the Oasis, a huge (2000 person capacity) restaurant renouned not for its food, but for its sunset over Lake Travis.  We had much fun.  Monday was Katie's sixth birthday.  Among other things, we celebrated by going to dinner and an inflatable playland.  She liked all her presents. She also had her first swimming lesson on Monday and did well.

Schlitterbahn Water Park

As Christmas, my brother's family (who also provided a waterproof camera cover years ago) and my sister got us tickets to the Schlitterbahn Water Parks  in New Braunfels, TX.  We used them today and were there from the 10 am opening to the 8 pm close.  It got into the mid-90s, but we kept cool.  We did not come close to doing all the rides, but we did some of them several times.  We tended to favor the lazy rivers with a twist, such as rapids and small drops.  We enjoyed those a lot, but they were tiring, too, because we tried to keep our tubes together and had to watch out for eddys that would trap our tubes (my rafting brother would probably really enjoy the challenge of navigating those rides).  The other favorite that we rode a lot was a lazy river loop that was combined with a wave machine.  We all had fun.