Tucson AZ, a hiking and birding paradise…

After our short stay in Benson AZ we headed west to Tucson AZ, a town we have always enjoyed. Once again we opted to stay at Rincon Country West RV Resort. Why? Well it is a Passport America park and even at $37.00 per night it is the least expensive option in Tucson.

Tucson has quite a bit of traffic congestion so staying closer to town was important so as to spend less time in the car and more doing ”things.” The weather during our stay was perfect with highs in the 70’s nearly everyday.

Tucson has several breweries that we love and is close to many hiking and birding opportunities. Our favorite spot to bird near Tucson is at the Sweetwater Wetlands Preserve. Sweetwater Wetlands Park is a popular destination for birdwatching and nature enthusiasts.

The park features a series of constructed wetlands designed to treat reclaimed water while providing habitat for a diverse range of wildlife, including numerous bird species. Habitats include ponds, marshes, and riparian areas. We visited this park many times during our stay.

This park along with Christopher Columbus Park are great for an urban hike around water. Ducks and birds associated with wetlands are abundant at these parks during the winter migration period. We were able to see many species including a close encounter with a Cooper’s hawk that landed in a tree right beside us.

There are also great places outside of town we visited as well. Saguaro National Park is a favorite. The park was originally designated as Saguaro National Monument in 1933 and later redesignated as a national park in 1994 to better protect its resources. The area called the Rincon Mountain District (east) has a great loop drive with access to many trailheads.

A new hike we found near Madera Canyon called the Florida Canyon Trail. Florida Canyon is a picturesque area located in the Santa Rita Mountains in southern Arizona, near the town of Green Valley, AZ. Florida Canyon is a moderate to challenging hike providing opportunities for birdwatching and enjoying the flora. The hike is steady and steep with lots of loose rock. It was one we would normally not do except the mountain views were exceptional.

We loved our stay in Tucson so much we stayed 5 days at one park (the limit for half priced camping) and 4 more days at another Passport America park Rincon Country East RV Resort. We were able to do more hikes and more birding while the weather was good.

A Short Stop in Brady Texas

After leaving San Angelo Texas our next stop was at the small Texas town of Brady Texas, We stayed at another nice Passport America (50% off) park called the Rockin R RV Park. The park is located just outside of Brady.

Less than 5,000 people call Brady home. Brady is known as the "Heart of Texas" because it is the closest city to the geographical center of the state. The actual geographical center of Texas is located about 15 miles northeast of Brady. Brady was home to my favorite Aunt Mildred who passed away some years ago.

The community was named Brady City after Brady Creek, which runs through town. Later the name was shortened to Brady when the town was incorporated in 1906. The quiet and quaint downtown area is nice for a stroll to admire the historic buildings

One of the iconic landmarks in downtown is the McCulloch County Courthouse. Built in 1899, this gothic looking building reflects the town's rich history. Its design features a combination of Romanesque Revival and Italianate architectural elements. One thing we love about Texas are the interesting historical court houses.

We also drove out to nearby Brady Lake. There are RV campsites there as well. We will have to remember that in the future. There was a little BBQ event going on at the lake but the big event that Brady is best known for is hosting the World Championship Barbecue Goat Cook-Off every Labor Day weekend. I sure that would be a fun event!

Las Cruces NM and a Hike to the Organ Mts…

We left Marfa Texas and made the drive over to Van Horn Texas for a one night stop at a Passport America park. It’s a nothing special park but Oasis RV Park & Apartments is just fine for an overnight stay.

The next morning we made a longer than normal drive to avoid some colder weather predicted in the west Texas area. We drove into New Mexico and after 166 miles on the road we were at another Passport America park. The Coachlight Inn Motel & RV doesn’t get great reviews but we have never had any issues while staying there.

We originally planned a short stay but due to some windy weather predicted for southern New Mexico we stayed until that weather system moved through. In the meantime we certainly enjoyed our stay in Las Cruces, a town we really like. We had great New Mexican food, played a little disc golf, visited nice breweries and found lots of hikes during our stay.

On a sour note our battery died in the Honda CRV so we drove over to Walmart and luckily our battery was still under warranty for another 90 days. It was great to be able to receive a new one free of charge. I must give additional kudos to the guy who took care of us as we were in and out of there in no time despite the crowd.  Afterward we drove over to Spotted Dog Brewery for a celebratory beverage.

One afternoon with the weather fairly nice but chilly we drove over to the Organ Mountains and hiked the Bar Canyon trail that took us by a small cave. The Organ Mountains are mostly shades of yellow since there have been several freezes in this area already. Interspersed with patches of green the Bar Canyon Trail was a nice 3 mile loop with some elevation though not too extreme.

The mountains were scenic but the area was really dry due to drought conditions. We were still able to find the small waterfall many had mentioned was near the midpoint of our loop. It had a little trickle of water and it made for pleasant sounds as we paused to savor the views..

We will be in Las Cruces a few more days before moving on. We hope for another hike if the weather allows…

Quirky Marathon Texas

We left Seminole Canyon and made our way further west. Our next stop was at the Marathon Motel and RV Park in Marathon, TX. Marathon is another little Texas town  we have passed through but never stopped at. It’s not a typical small town in Texas as there is a quirkiness to this town reflecting the population choosing to live there.

We are only staying a couple of nights as we know cold weather can hit us in this part of the USA anytime so we will move through rather quickly to avoid as much cold as we can. Upon arrival we set up and since there was not much of the day left we walked from the RV park into the town of Marathon. The stroll to the town was a pleasant 3/4 mile walk.

There really isn’t a lot to check out in Marathon as it has a population of just under 400 people. However, there are some interesting sights to see. Our first stop was to visit the French Grocer, the only grocery store in Marathon. It wasn’t a typical grocery store as it featured lots of unique items one would expect to see at upscale city stores. It was definitely fun to browse this store.

Another cool spot to check out was the historic Gage Hotel. The hotel is again not one you would expect to see in a small Texas town. The Marathon  Gage Hotel is a higher end hotel complete with a fine dining restaurant and a cool little tavern on premises. Of course one of our two nights we had to try the White Buffalo Bar.

Our last point of interest was a stop at the Brick Vault Restaurant & Brewery. This establishment also makes Bar B Que and recently made the top list of new BBQ places by Texas Monthly magazine. On the Sunday of our visit the BBQ was already sold out but that didn’t stop us from trying their brews, some of which we found to be exceptionally good. Visitors should however be aware that they are only open from Thursday to Sunday.

Before leaving we also made the short drive over to Alpine Texas to pick up a few items and to play a round of disc golf. The disc course is on the campus of Sul Ross State University and while it wasn’t an exceptional course we still had fun playing a round there.Upon leaving we both reflected we were glad we made the effort to explore Marathon, Texas.

Hammond LA…

We left Biloxi early in the morning to miss the traffic caused by all the vintage cars at the Crusin’ the Coast rally. Before long we pulled into our next site at Hidden Oaks Family Campground in Hammond, LA.

Hidden Oaks CG is a mom and pop kind of place which hosts lots of weekend events and as such is rather large. It has over a 100 sites and lots of permanent residents living in park models with large shade shelters built over top of them. We can surely imagine this place hopping on one of those active weekend events.

We would only be in Hammond a few days so they put us on a nice gravel pull through. There is an old ox bow lake in the middle of the park and we were parked  where we could see the lake out the front windshield. Also we found some nice trails to walk inside the park including a daily morning loop alongside the little lake and down to the river on the south end of the property.

Another fun thing about the park is that there is a flock of peacocks who free roam around the park. There were about 10 of them and one all white peacock. They often foraged around the motorhome so I am pretty the locals often feed them.

The town of Hammond is smallish but it does have a small college in town and the downtown area has a fairly lively area as well. We even checked out a small brewery, Gnarly Barley, near downtown. They served some really good craft beer and while we were there they also had some nice live music. We also got a kick out of the food truck’s name, photo attached.

Not too far away from our campground there was a nice boardwalk trail out into a fresh water swamp. Sharon loves hiking boardwalk trails so we found this one and even though the hike was short it was a nice afternoon diversion. One thing we saw lots of on this walk was the pinkish eggs of the non-native Apple Snail.

At the base of nearly every Cypress tree we saw what looked like pink bubblegum stuck to the trees. But on closer inspection it was apparent that these bubblegum blobs were the snail eggs. A little search on google told us exactly what they were.

Thanks, Hammond for some good beer, nice hikes and for learning something new!

Charlotte NC, Hikes and Disc Golf…

We felt pretty happy our wallet didn’t get hit too hard at the Freightliner shop in Gaffney SC. The free camping made it even a little better and now that we are all fixed up, we are ready to roll once again. Our next stop would be in North Carolina.

It was another uneventful drive (our favorite kind) as we rolled into Charlotte, NC.  We settled into our next campsite at the Camping World Racing Resort in Concord, NC just north of Charlotte. We have never visited Charlotte and are looking forward to our stay to check out the area.

The campground was nothing special but was in the perfect location for us to explore all that Charlotte had to offer. Sites are large with full hook-ups but there is little to no shade and lots of gravel. This park is really here to cater to the Charlotte Speedway which we could see (and HEAR!) easily from our site.

We found lots of nice parks near us offering hiking and disc golf. We enjoyed several of them and were pleasantly surprised how much we like this area. It will be in consideration for a possible final stop on our travels. While the state has a state income tax which we hoped to avoid we’ll just crunch the numbers to see if it makes it onto the list of our top five locations to land for our next chapter on the road of retirement.

One great disc golf course we played was at the Reedy Disc Golf Course in Reedy Creek Park. The course is a moderately hilly and heavily wooded 18 hole course covering about a mile from the first hole to the last. Of course we never walk in a straight line nor do courses add in the distance between tees to the course length so on most courses we will walk just less than 2 miles to as much as three and half miles.

The greater Charlotte area has at least four Nature Centers and Preserves with Reedy Creek being one of them. These parks have some great hikes within them and while hiking along many of the trails it gave the wonderful feel of escape from the hustle and bustle of the city.

We spent a day visiting the large University of North Carolina, Charlotte (UNCC) which also has a really nice botanical garden.  We were also impressed with the city’s excellent roadway system to what I consider to be the result of exceptional city planning. These added to the reasons why we found Charlotte an attractive place to land. After a week in Charlotte we will move on to Raleigh to visit our daughter and her family along with taking care of some medical appointments for Sharon.

Birding and Hiking in Alamo Texas…

We have been in Alamo Texas at Casa Del Valle RV Resort for awhile and decided to share a little about this place and why we came here. The resort is one of the many over 55 resorts in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV).  Aside from the price of $199.00 per month for first time visitors we were attracted to the location of this park.

Alamo Texas is about an hour and a half from the beach at South Padre Island, However, it is pretty centrally located to several state parks and wildlife refuges in the  Valley. While we have eliminated South Padre Island as a future home once we stop RV’ing we felt as if we should also check out the interior of the RGV.

The attraction of the RGV as a future home is the cost of living down here is quite low. The weather is attractive as well although the summers can be quite hot. What we didn’t know was whether or not there were enough other amenities to attract us to this locale.Thus we made a list of places to visit during our stay.

High on the list was Bentson-Rio Grande State Park near Mission Texas which we have already ventured over to twice. We have visited before and remembered this park has a lot of hiking and/or biking opportunities and is great for birding. On our first trip we hiked a few miles and birded along the way.

What makes this park good for birding is that the staffers and volunteers have set up several bird seeding stations with a few photo blinds as well. A lot of birds seen in this part of Texas can only be seen here in the entire United States so it isn’t surprising to run into people who travel from all over the USA just to come here to birdwatch. Sharon always looks forward to sightings of the plentiful and colorful Green Jays. This park never disappoints in that regard!

The state park is right on the border of Mexico as many of the parks are in this area so we often see the dreaded border wall. We also see lots of border patrol and an occasional Texas National Guardsman because they were deployed by the governor to assist Texas with their so called border crisis. Interestingly in the almost three months we have been here we have heard zero stories on the local news relating to the “crisis”.

Today’s photos are from the state park and we hope to revisit this park again  before we leave.

NOTE: We are currently in Alamo TX until April  27th…