What to do in the middle of summer

in Texas?

How about getting up EARLY to ride our tandem before the heat and humidity makes it unbearable? Actually we could do that at home, but exploring is always fun and we appreciate a change of scenery.

Speaking of exploring, at the suggestion of our friends, Linda and Mike, we found this very Texan greasy burgers place.

Notice the little sign to the right of the door,

Texans aren’t known for sugar coating, and they tend to speak in a way that is easily understood. 

 (The burgers were outstanding!)

While in College Station, we were roped into invited to be judges in an IBCA sanctioned BBQ contest at Lake Somerville.

Don't we look official?

The ribs were worth spending the day outdoors with a heat index well over 100 degrees. 

A most interesting cooker 

Yep, it's obvious, we are in Texas

Thanks Scott and Lisa for the invite.

We stepped briefly out of the Texan culture for an fun evening with friends eating Italian food, drinking wine at Luigi's

and listening to the amazing Alemay Fernandez singing with a local jazz band.

Of course “book club” at Carney’s meets year- round.

We always look forward meeting up with this group every Tuesday when we are in town.

Summer in College Station always means birthdays to celebrate. We were lucky to celebrate with sister-in-law, Anna on July 4th.

We have had our Texas fix and are headed back to cooler home where the weather rivals Texas at its hottest.

(Because of the almost unbearable heat, Mom didn’t have much on our to-do list. She’s a good mom.)

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We had fun, fun, fun

until Michigan took our dream away.

The fun started in a Walmart parking lot in Wichita Falls, Texas on Sunday as we watched the fightin’ Texas Aggies pull off an astounding win over University of North Carolina. Can’t imagine what folks were thinking as we strolled through Walmart in a daze with silly grins plastered on our faces. 

Monday we floated on down to Lewisville Lake near Dallas. After setting up camp in the Corps of Engineers Park,

we got together with some of our Texas friends.

(You may remember them from our Italy trip in 2016)

It goes without saying, when we are with these folks, we have fun!

You have heard us say on more than one occasion, we love the small towns we have discovered across this great country. However....we do enjoy slipping into the city from time to time. Since Dallas is where Captain began his career over four decades ago, it is always fun to return and reminisce . So we hopped on the DART (which wasn’t in existence when Captain lived there)

and headed downtown. First stop, Dallas Museum of Art.

Lady with a Red Hat, Frank Duveneck

Painting by Winston Churchill

Acrylic on Canvas

We were impressed with the museum (which had just opened when Captain worked downtown) especially the high school student exhibit. Wow, there is a lot of talent in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area!

Leaving the art museum, we strolled over to Klyde Warren Park (which was a concrete canyon of a freeway when Captain left Dallas....they decked over part of the freeway to create a green space north of downtown) where we had a choice of lunch from the food trucks.

The park is a beautiful lawn surrounded with tables and chairs, 

an innovative playground (with a really soft and squishy surface,)

a rack with magazines as well as a cart with games for folks to borrow as they relax in the park. Pretty cool! 

While eating a snack in the park we noticed a trolley

so we jumped on board and did a little touring (and Captain continued his narrative of how it used to be.) He finds it hard to believe how exponentially the city has grown over the past 25 years. 

The trolley has an interesting history.

This fun day in Dallas cost us a total of $25 ($5 each for a DART day pass, $15 for our food truck snack.) The art museum and trolley were free. What a bargain!

We had so much fun in Dallas on Tuesday, wee decided to return on Wednesday. This time we took the tandem. We started on the Cottonwood trail, riding along and under the freeways.

This may seem like a really cool ride but in reality it is somewhat risky. In cities like Dallas, homeless people tend to camp out under the freeways, leaving shattered glass along the bike paths putting the cyclist at risk for flat tires. On this particular trail, Captain was able to maneuver around the glass and we did not flat.

Following the Cottonwood Trail east, we connected to the White Rock Creek Trail and had a beautiful ride around White Rock Lake. (No photos due to our aging computer issue. Happy it held up until our last post from our Winter 2018 trip.)

Definitely plan to return and cycle more of the trails in East Dallas

We ended the week celebrating the 65th birthdays of the members of A&M Consolidated High School Class of ‘71. 

For one evening we all slipped back into the hippy days. Yes, most if not all were under the influence of drugs (for blood pressure, arthritis, asthma, etc.)

We are headed for San Antonio! That was our dream, but it was dowsed by Michigan. We will be watching the Final Four in College Station.

You have heard us say, “We are on an adventure.” And that we were, thanks to Ms. Garmin. Following her directions, we found ourselves doing a little “off road” RVing as we made our way to Lost Dutchman State Park in Apache Junction, AZ, just west of Phoenix. We knew we were in trouble when the pavement turned to obvious “off road” terrain.

At this point, it was too late to turn around, so we gingerly proceeded over the rocks and down the slopes until we reached pavement. The Wanderer and Roger made it without any injuries and our heart rates returned to normal. (Lesson learned, stop, assess, disconnect toad and turn around.)

Lost Dutchman State Park at the base of the Superstition Mountains was the home base for The Wanderer last week.

Finally we could have a campfire! (We found in a number of Arizona state parks, fires were not allowed due the potential for wild fires) It was quite nice to sit by the fire on a cool evening

to watch the sun set.

Around the campgrounds we had noticed several hummingbird feeders, considered getting one and thought, nah, just something else to maintain. Shortly after setting up camp at Lost Dutchman, a hummingbird discovered the butterfly magnets on our screen door and kept returning to check for nectar.

A couple of days later while visiting some folks we were entertained by hummingbirds at a feeder attached to their RV window. Yep, Captain went in search for a hummingbird feeder.

The Superstition Mountains are great for hiking, so we did.

A fairly moderate trail to Prospector’s View of about 2 miles

and the more challenging Siphon Draw Trail. No, we didn’t attempt to hike to Flat Iron, but we did make it to the Basin.

Several folks suggested we bike the Indian Bend Wash Multipurpose Trail from Tempe to Scottsdale. Again, we encountered an adventure. Just getting to the trail head we had to negotiate an obstacle course through major construction in Mesa. Finally we reached the parking lot for the trail but couldn’t find the trail; it was closed due to construction. So we did a little off road cycling.

Finally we found the trail and proceeded through a Pro Disc Golf tournament, made note of the signs stray golf ball area, (We were lucky to be missed by both golf balls and discs.) and enjoyed a nice bike ride.

One of the highlights of the week was sister time.

at the home of ABN's sister, Mary and husband Steve.

 Happy to report they are happy and healthy, playing golf and hiking most days.

Another highlight was getting to know Adele and Steve from Colorado.

We connected with them at Patagonia State Park a few weeks earlier. The draw was their 1999 Lazy Daze;

except for the color, it was almost identical to The Wanderer. Captain and Steve had a great time discussing modifications and upgrades. We departed with sincere intent to connect again down the road.

Arriving today at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, AZ, we are looking forward to exploring Cottonwood, Sedona and Jerome. The bicycling looks promising!

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Not so fast, said Mother Nature

Two weeks at the beautiful Catalina State Park in Oro Valley, just outside of Tucson,  we were ready! The tandem was ready! Two weeks to explore Oro Valley and Tucson on the 100+ miles of shared bike/pedestrian paths.

Hold on, said Mother Nature, I have other plans. In the dessert where it rarely rains, it rained for four days. Other days it was cool and windy (20+ mph windy!) We were able to ride about 70 miles total, just enough to know we have to come back; the trails are awesome.

So out came the hiking boots.

The gentle Canyon Loop trail took us through some magnificent saguaros.

The Romero Pool hike was a bit of a challenge,

we made it up the trail, over a lot of rocks, to the top of the ridge

took a photo and hiked back down for a total of about 5 miles.

Stopping by Montrose Pool on the way.

If there is a wine festival, we will find it. It just so happened we found the Off the Vine festival and got to sample some of Arizona’s wines.

The wines were very good but lack the boldness we prefer. However we did fall for a wonderful chocolate orange port. If our porch friends are lucky there will be some to share when we get home (but don’t count on it.)

Oro Valley has a really nice farmer’s market;

after sampling our way through we came home with an assortment of dried food snacks, a red lentil soup mix, a jar of marinara sauce and a couple of pastries.

Making the most of a cool and cloudy day, we went to a nearby theater and saw The Darkest Hour which we recommend for fellow history buffs.

Of course we couldn’t be in Oro Valley and not see ABN’s cousin, Lin and her husband Fred. We joined them at Café Cosa Poca for a very nice dinner.

We love Catalina State Park but the rules are only 14 days and then you have to move on; so we are saying good-bye for now

and moving north to Lost Dutchman State Park near Phoenix, hopefully to warmer weather and some cycling. Actually we can’t complain about the weather as our hometown is experiencing flooding, so we will put on a jacket and be content. 

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