Category: Traveling

When we were in Arkansas last week we were on the hunt for some new bikes. We had picked up a new bike rack near Knoxville, Tennessee a couple of weeks back but had no bikes to carry on it. Or at least none with us. Our son’s bike had been stolen when our house was burgled. My wife and daughter had no bikes. My nice Bianchi road bike was still sitting in Florida but we were in Arkansas.

We found a bike for our daughter at a Salvation Army store in northwest Mississippi the week before the family reunion. I was not necessarily going to get a bike for me since I already had one, but we were looking for bikes for our son and my wife. While looking, I found a nice Trek mountain bike (830 Mountain Track) for me, a Mongoose mountain bike for our son and a no name lady’s bike for my wife.

I went home and did the research to find out what I could on the Trek. It was not a high end machine when it was built in the mid-90s, but was still a nice bike. It sold for $400 new. That is high end enough for me. We went back the next day and bought three bikes.

The Trek does not have the correct rear wheel though. It has a 10 speed rear wheel. It is supposed to have 21 speeds, but has only 15. I will keep my eyes out for a good used rear wheel. There are some minor adjustments that need to be made to the bike, but it really feels great. My plan is to use it as my touring bike. I want to do some multi-day bike rides and this seems to be a great bike for it. I will need to add some accessories and change the tires/wheels.

The boy’s Mongoose MTB has full suspension. It feels squishy to ride. Kinda fun.

So we are now traveling with a load of bikes. When we leave the house this weekend on our next trip, I am going to have a hard time deciding which bike to take. I have just stripped my Bianchi road bike down to the frame and rebuilt it this week. But I also have this new Trek that I am eager to put some miles on.

Note: While looking for old posts to put links into this entry I found out that I never wrote about my road bike purchase in detail. I will have to get some pictures with the two bikes and give a detailed account of the Bianchi. It has a fun story all its own.

This last month has been full of meetings that took us to see family. We were also able to be in our sending church. I already mentioned our trip to Big Bend National Park. It was while visiting family we were able to squeeze that trip in.

Since then we have been in Knoxville, Tennessee where I ran a 10K race with PlaneT3rry. I was hoping for a PR (personal record), but it just was not meant to be. My training fell apart the last couple of weeks. I was not seeing the progress I wanted so I stopped working as hard to get there. Right now I am really using the running to control my weight. I have struggled a bit this year. Thankfully I am running though. That really helps.

We were in Knoxville for several days and a few meetings. Then we moved over to Memphis for a meeting and a chance to meet with an old college friend.

The vacation part of this trip started about a week ago when we got to my grandfather’s house in northwest Arkansas. We had a good time visiting with him and my new grandmother. They were married at 80 years old. Both widowed. It was good to spend time with them in their new church. They recently moved to Springdale, Arkansas from my home town of Odessa, Texas.

After a few days at their house we moved to Beaver Lake near Eureka Springs, Arkansas. We had a family reunion with my Dad’s family. Dad was not able to make the trip, but it was fun to get with his 3 siblings and some of their kids. There were 23 of us together for a few days. Grandpa and the new grandmother joined us one day for the festivities.

Monday we arrived at the lake and got moved into our campground. We chose to camp at the Dam Site River campground. There was also the Dam Site Lake campground to choose from that was just as close to the cabin where most everyone else stayed. Nothing earth shattering went on Monday other than we all sat around and talked and caught up with each other. Some of the family I have not seen in 6+ years.

Tuesday we went to the Great Passion Play in Eureka Springs. It was good, but not great. I thought the play was well done, but it lacked something. It seemed like a “wasted pitch.” There was a great opportunity to share the Gospel and the reason Jesus came to save sinners. Instead it appeared that Jesus died simply because He was a martyr to His claim of being God’s son. While He was God’s son, and His claims of that is why the Jews crucified Him, that is not why Jesus died. He died because we are sinners and need a Savior.

After the play we started back towards the lake. We knew there was a storm coming. We rushed as much as we could to get back and secure our campsite from as much water damage as possible. It was too late. By the time we arrived the tent was standing in water and everything was soaked. Fortunately we did not leave anything in the tent that could have gotten permanently damaged.

The golf ball sized hail that we had to drive through to get to the tent was the encouragement we needed to move up to the cabin for the night.

Wednesday we went to see some of the sites around the area and braced ourselves for another round of the storm. It was not nearly as bad that evening, but my aunt had already paid for a suite for us. We took her up on it and packed our tent before the evening storm.

Wednesday was the day that the grandparents came over. We traded camera memory cards and copied everyone’s pictures to each of the computers. While we were doing that we also had some singing with cousin Jarrod at the guitar. I secretly recorded that time. I have not had a chance to listen to it to see how it turned out, but you may get a chance to hear some of it here at the blog.

Thursday we high-tailed it back to Pensacola. It was a 14 hour trip for us. We were glad to get home (and back to Internet access).

I know I have complained quite a bit in the past about not having regular Internet access, but I can’t stop myself from doing it. I am amazed as to how often we have been traveling and have no regular access. At least, not free access. No way am I going to pay for it if I don’t have to. I just thank the Lord every day for my iPhone and being able to get email and surf the Internet for critical information.

We have been in Arkansas for the last week. We were visiting my grandfather in Springdale (northwest corner) for a few days. That was great, but no access to the lifeline most people call the Internet. Then we moved over to Beaver Dam (near Eureka Springs) for a family reunion. While it can be argued that one should not be concerned with Internet access when family is available to talk with, I personally would like to be able to do both. Why should it be one or the other? We did not even have phone service in our campground (more about that in a later post). Thankfully we spent most of the time on the mountain at the cabin where there was phone service available.

Now I have a lot of blogging to catch up on. Whether I will get half the posts up that I wanted to or not, I at least can. So if they don’t get posted, you know it is because I am just being lazy.

We are home for 8 days and I plan to use up all the bandwidth I can in that time.

As a family we had planned a trip to Big Bend National Park for a couple of years. It was a favorite place of mine growing up and my wife and I had been there camping as a couple once before.

Big Bend is a 800,000 acre national park on the Rio Grande between Texas and Mexico. When I was in junior high I started going there with a school group for a couple of days each year to go camping. I also went with a church group a few times to inner tube down the river. We would drive down on a Friday night and float down the river all day Saturday before returning home late that evening. Quite a few fond memories were made in my 10 (or so) trips.

For this trip we planned 2 nights at the park. The drive from my home town of Odessa is about 4 hours to get to Big Bend. We left on Monday morning and arrived at the park with enough time to set up camp and head to the hot springs that evening.

We set up our tents in the Chisos Basin campground. It is one of the 2 developed camping areas, which means it has running water, and electricity is available if you are willing to stand in the bathroom and use your device. There are several primitive camping areas in the park too. However, the developed areas still did not have showers.

Our trip to the hot springs was our chance to bathe for the week. The water was 105 degrees in the spring. It was warm, but about the same as a hot bath. It felt good for a short time. I jumped out of the spring area and into the river. The river was swift and deep at that location. Too swift to let the kids get in. But they had a great time in the spring itself.

We were prepared for the 95 degree days, but not well prepared for the 55 degree nights. We were quite cold that first night (it did not improve the second night either). The morning was a welcome sight since we knew it had to get warmer once the sun appeared.

Tuesday morning we cooked breakfast on our one burner stove. We were not allowed to build any kind of open fire at the camp site. This became a problem at the end of the trip when we ran out of fuel in the stove because we had planned to use wood or charcoal for most of our cooking.

We had a wonderful hike to the Window. This is a medium distance hike that takes about 3 hours to complete down a valley to a cliff overlooking the Chihuahuan desert. The hike was always a favorite for me. When my wife and I visited before we were not allowed down the Window trail because a mountain lion was teaching her cub how to hunt. People were their intended target. The Rangers were able to close the trail before anyone got hurt.

Tuesday morning’s hike to the Window was fun going down. The trip back up became a chore. Hiking with a 5 year old loses its fun when you start getting much past 2 hours on the trail. The trail looked different to me too. I don’t know if they have changed the route since I last hiked it 21 years ago or if maybe it just looks different in May than in December. I am sure the extra growth on the bushes changes the way the landscape looks.

We were all ready for a nap that afternoon. For dinner that night we got permission from a Ranger to cook over charcoal in a specified spot. It was not at the camping area, but also not too far away. We cooked some great steaks and grilled corn on the cob. To top it off we baked a cake in the Dutch oven. That is our specialty. It came out great and we were able to share it with some friends we made in the campground.

That night my son and I went to a program put on by one of the Rangers. She talked about what a wilderness is: what defines one, why we need them and what is being done to create (or protect) more. In the program we were visited by a blue-throated hummingbird. I would guess it was about 5 inches long. It is one of the largest hummingbird species.

We were also subjected to the nice cold night once again.

Wednesday we did a Ranger led hike in which the Ranger talked to us about the coming ice age. He explained to us what the previous ice age did to the trees and plants in the Big Bend area and how the coming one will affect the park. In 6000 years (according to his estimation) we can return to see the changes. Of course, there is the problem of global warming that is putting a monkey wrench in the ice age that we are headed too. He is convinced that it is temporary and that if the plants and trees survive it, they will repopulate the area once again. Whatever.

It was a good 1 mile hike that took us up 600′ in elevation.

Wednesday we packed up and returned to civilization so I could preach at a church that night.

While I would like to spend more time at the park and explore new areas, I know that when I return I will visit the same places over and over. There are just so many good memories hiking to and from the Window to make a trip to Big Bend without making it part of the experience.