Camel Comanche Control

Big Bend National Park, Texas

Before dawn, the lime green and pink neon lights of the Cactus Café and Motel flicker on the dark desert highway. The headlight of a fast freight train can be seen approaching for fifteen minutes. Dawn breaks and light and shadow play on the surrounding mountains.

We pack ham sandwiches, bottled water and swim suits and head south 110 miles on the motorcycle. We will follow deserted Texas State road 435 to the Mexican border and the Rio Grande River. We're hoping they have a gas station at the end of the trail.


This road was built on the old Comanche Trail. The Comanche came down from the Fort Stockton area and crossed into Mexico to liberate cattle and horses. The US Army shipped 30 camels to this area in an experiment in policing the area in 1859. The start of the Civil War brought this experiment to an end.


The desert gradually changes. We begin to see green cactus with purple flowers. Then we see purple and pink cactus with yellow flowers and things that look like cattails with red flowers.

 At first the morning is very cool, but by noon the temperature is over 100 degrees. It feels like a giant hair-dryer is trained on us. Mrs Phred yells in my ear that this is like picking apples on an Israeli Kibbutz.

When you get older, your facial skin gets looser. At 60 MPH, with a 20 MPH headwind, everything flaps rapidly. The skin under my eyes flaps and stings my eyes like being slapped with a wet towel. My cheeks flutter like a southern belle's eyelids.

The Park ranger at the entrance to the Big Bend National Park tells us not to swim in the Rio Grande River. We take a nap under a tree on the river bank. We are alone, except for a buzzard. The water looks cool. I wonder what the problem is. Pesticides? Bacteria? Piranha? Little fish that swim up your urinary tract?

We ask a guy working at the camp gas station about the no swimming rule. He says there is an undertow, the water is not real clean and they don't want you swimming 40 feet into Mexico. He shrugs apologetically.



We return around dark, exhausted, with 225 miles on the trip meter and have a Margarita.

Strangers in a Strange Land

Bangkok, Thailand

 


Now that I have time on my hands again, I'm publishing a few more pictures of our recent trip. These are from our second day where we begin with the free breakfast at the Lebua Tower . We have dragon fruit and strange local foods like fried dumplings with sweet insides in addition to the standard bacon and egg choices. We're running hard to see it all today because it's the end of our time in Bangkok, probably forever.

There is a little temple in front of the hotel that intrigues us from our room on the 36th floor. It is surrounded by big new hotels. It reminds me of the Trinity Church next to Wall Street in lower Manhattan. This view is looking back up at the Lebua Tower.

.A zoom view from our room....

This ad is on the inside of the hotel elevator door.

The temple is locked up. There are lots of kids in green uniforms in the temple compound. They are in school. We can see the river traffic from our room. We got a hotel a couple of blocks from the river because of the flood worries.

After wandering through the local neighborhood we decide to walk to the big temples two miles away. The day and traffic  begin to heat up so we hire a tuk-yuk after about 15 blocks of walking..

We ask to be taken to the Temple of the Golden Buddha. Our tuk-tuk driver does not speak English so I point to my wedding ring and say "Buddha". That actually worked.

The solid gold Buddha weighs about 10 tons. He was covered with plaster for many centuries and discovered accidentally when a moving crane knocked off some of his outer coat.

These are the tuk-tuks in case you were wondering.

I'm not sure who the little person in the pink shirt might be. I don't think I noticed her at the time...

Our driver takes us to another minor temple before dropping us at the Wat Po Temple complex.

These pink elephants are in the street. In the background you can see the spires and spikes of the temples in the King's palace complex. The center building is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.

Bottomless Lake

Bottomless Lake State Park, New Mexico 

The New Mexico high plains: a mile high, no atmospheric moisture, no moon yet, no human lights for twenty miles, no cities for 200 miles and no visible air pollution. The Southwest offers the best star-gazing in the US.

Outside, at 8.00PM local time with no night vision, the things you can see from any city jump out. There's Venus high in the evening sky, the Navigator's Triangle overhead, Sagittarius the Teapot, the Chair of Cassiopeia, the Big Dipper and Polaris.

Night vision slowly fills in and the background clouds with so many stars that it becomes difficult to find these constellations. A wide cloudy swath of millions of faint stars glows from tens of thousands of light years distant.

Then the moon rises and its bright light dims the Milky Way once again. This is my first time to see it. How small we are. How transitory.

At 5.00am, Orion is up and the fire of Aniliam glows like a diamond to the brain from the center of the belt. It looks like Jupiter or Saturn is near the moon. My companion wanted to pack my telescope. I should listen to her more.

The Big Apple

Went to NYC to visit while my sister and BIL were there. All Phred asked for was a picture of the new World Trade Center.

My BIL, Tom, had never been to the US Open, so off we went.

You might need a magnifying glass for the next two pictures, but there is Andy Roddick in his usual white outfit.

Venus Williams on the right, wearing one of her colorful dresses.  Notice how she stands inside the line for the return of serve.  Don't think she does that against her sister.

The Chrysler Building

Something to eat.

We took a walk along the High Line.  The city took an old freight line and made a beautiful walkway.

Jil and Tom

Bryant Park near Times Square.

Sunset? Must be New Jersey...

Art is everywhere.

The Lustgarten sisters and the Empire State Building.

Isn't he lucky.

Great trip.  Easy in and easy out even with the RNC and Hurricane Isaac lurking about.