Pecos Bill

I can tell you why I was so excited to see the Pecos River. These are stories we grew up on, stories I passed on to my girls. Pecos Bill, Sidewinder the lasso, Sleu-Foot Sue riding the giant catfish on the Pecos River.

Upstream

We had been given a tip to see the best view of the Pecos River was to pull off the highway on to a dirt road on the left just past the State Park sign about 5 miles up the road. Miraculously, we found the turn off. The road wound up to the top of a hill and the view of the Pecos did not disappoint. Upstream we looked passed the bridge and around a bend, downstream where it empties into the Rio Grande.

Pecos River meets the Rio Grande

What rivers caught our fancy as a child more thanTom Sawyer's escapades along the mighty Mississippi or the tall tales about Pecos Bill on the Pecos? It was truly  magical to see the hawks soaring below us as we looked down. This is the wild west of my childhood fantasies.

TALE OF 2 TOM'S~~~SHOES

Walking across Terlingua Creek

Silly me thinking that lost luggage and a flat tire within 15 minutes of renting our car at the San Antonio Airport would end our "situations" for this vacation. Flat was fixed, I was reunited with my bag and off we went to Big Bend Natl Park. The park is in the middle of nowhere on the Texas/Mexico border. I had judiciously packed knowing that anything that was not with us was not going to easily replaced.
What was missing? My hiking shoes!! They were left in our former 4 Runner that was sitting in front of a house in San Antonio.
So that left me with a pair of flip flops and 2 pairs of Tom's shoes to hike in, a lacy white pair or my well worn basic brown shoes.

Bank of the Rio Grande

No question the basic brown will have to be sacrificed. These shoes are not much different than the ones the Cherokee forefathers roamed the hills in a century ago. No problemo.

Top of Lost Mine Trail Chisos Mountains

I was amazed. They made it the 3+ miles up and down hills and through desert brush on the Catttail  Falls Trail, 2 miles on the rocky Santa Elena trail that follows the Rio Grande , 4 miles on the Lost Ore Trail, walking miles around  Terlingua and in the LBJ ranch. The only downside was no tread on the soles so I had to watch slippage in mud and loose gravel. No thorns poked through the recycled rubber bottoms and my toes did not pop through canvas.

It has now become my mission to thoroughly wear these Tom's until they are threadbare. Just maybe the hike from the rim of Crater Lake down to the lake on July 4 will do them in.


 LadyBird Johnson Wildflower Gardens Stonewall Tx

Terlingua Street Art

Viper on the porch.

Name the parts.

Out of this world

Honda gas tank body and Weber kettle head.      

Pegasus at sunrise. Chisos Mountains in the background.

My Bunny Rabbit Pal in Terlingua Tx

I love to get up at sunrise and walk whenever we vacation. Terlingua was no exception. I was so paranoid of all the creepy crawly critters who call the desert home, I never thought about the softer side of desert life.
This little guy hopped in front of me, posed long enough for a portrait, then hopped off into his little bunny world.

Morning two in Terlingua I missed the sunrise, but my little bunny pal as waiting at the same spot. He posed again, this time eating breakfast and followed me down the road.


Eating breakfast



Favorite bathing spot

And finally showing how tough he was by drinking from a barrel cactus...

.....before hopping down the bunny trail.

SF 1/2 Marathon First Day of Training.

Today was the official start of my SF 1/2 Marathon Training. After spending the last 5 weeks camping, visiting friends, wine, olive oil, balsamic vinegar tasting, getting my garden weeded and planted, the house clean, figuring out how to use my new camera, blogging, reading 3 books, planning summer vacations, feeling my jeans getting a bit tighter, cleaning out emails...

Cleaning out emails.. eee gads I realized I signed up for the SF 1/2 marathon end of July and I have been tapering for 5 weeks. and only have 7 weeks to prepare for hills, speed and endurance.

so I haven't been a total couch potato. Mon weight training, Tues short walks, Wed Pilates at lunch and Zumba in the evening, Thursday, weight training at lunch and kick boxing after work, Friday, my destination walks.

Day 1 of training could have easily gotten derailed. It is raining. When I started out it was just spitting, then it started coming down more heavily. Lucky me, I remembered a raincoat. Just a quick 2 miles but it felt oh so good.