Arlington

As with Houston, our purpose in Arlington was to see a Baseball game at Globe Life Park, home of the Texas Rangers.

B.P. before the game

We had nice seats

The Rangers won 4-3 over the San Diego padras in a good game.

Jerry World

Less than a mile from Globe Life Park and the Texas Rangers is  AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys.  We are not Cowboy fans, but we had seen and heard so much about this stadium we wanted to see it,  And since we were in the neighborhood, why not?

AT&T Stadium is nick named "Jerry World" because the owner of the Cowboys is Jerry Jones.  Mr. Jones does things BIG.  The stadium is massive.

The score board in the upper part of this next pic is huge.

Us at mid-field!

We got to see the Cowboys locker room and the cheer leaders locker room.  Sorry, no player or cheer leaders were around.

We ended up having dinner at the stadium then taking a shuttle over to the baseball game.  A very good day.

A great surprise

While driving from Houston to Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington Diana noticed a Facebook post from her cousin Fred.  Fred and family live in Homer, Louisiana.  But he and his family with grand children were in Arlington at Six Flags for the day.  After a few text messages we made arrangements to meet them for dinner.  Fred had indicated that they were trying to wear the grand kids down but I think the opposite happened.

Fred and Anne

The cousins

What a fun dinner and great surprise to see them all!

Minute Maid Park

Our real purpose in going to Houston was going to a baseball game.  Minute Maid Park is home to the Houston Astros.  It was also one of only 3 stadiums we had not attended.

By the way, The Astros won 10-1 over the Texas rangers in a blow out game.  But still fun.

Houston Space Center

While in Houston we visited the Houston Space Center which includes the Johnson Space Center.  All astronauts are trained at the JSC.  This is not a mock up or visitors display, you tour the real thing and see astronauts in training.  There are several massive buildings that hold various training locations and facilities.

We went inside the shuttle 

We saw the Saturn 5 rocket.  We had seen one before but had forgotten how big it is.

It takes an entire building and it is on its side.

The 5 engines

One of the rocket stage couplings

We saw the mission control room where all Apollo missions and many more were run.  Remarkably there were no computers or calculators for Apollo 11.  Just slide rules and manual calculation.

In 1969 for Apollo 11 this was very high tech.

Now our cell phones could do the job with the right app!

And we both got to touch a moon rock!!!

We spent the entire day at the center.  It was amazing.

Lajitas, Texas

Lajitas is on the Rio Grande and therefore on the border.  The mayor of Lajitas is a goat!

We stayed in Lajitas because the RV park had full hook ups with 50 amp electric.  Temps were in the mid 90s or higher each day and we wanted AC.  The NP park campgrounds did not offer any services for RVs.  Lajitas also had a beautiful golf course that eats golf balls!  A lot f them!

That is Mexico on the other side of the Rio Grande.  On one hole we could have hit a golf ball to the other side.

Big Bend NP

This park is on the border between the US and Mexico.  We did not stay in the park but stayed in Lajitas about 25 miles outside the park.  The park is really a 3 in 1 park.  There is beautiful desert landscape, the area along the Rio Grande and the mountain area.  We took one day for each area.  we also took some drives over and thru some less traveled areas.

The desert

A beautiful hike down a wash to the end of the canyon.

Then the Rio Grande.  May not need a wall in this section of the border.  This cliff is several hundred feet high.

A comment about the wall President Trump wants to build; The wall would have to cut thru the entire southern portion of the NP.  This will destroy many habitats, eliminate some migration avenues for wild life and seriously distort the natural beauty of the park.  Also, with the cliff along the Rio and the extremely hostile desert crossing there are no illegal crossing here.  We hope the wall does not happen.  If you disagree, go visit the park.

That is me on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande

The mountain area has a complete change in plants and animals.  Real trees with leaves and actual bark (we had not seem this for awhile.)  We took a hike up to Balance rock.

Carlsbad Caverns NP

Carlsbad Caverns NP is not far from Guadalupe Mountain NP.  In fact we left Harvey at Guadalupe and just drove up to Carlsbad twice.  Once to tour the cavern and once to see the bats.  The caverns are hugh and offer a nice but long self guided walk threw large portions.  But the caverns go on forever and there are some portions not available to the public.

The entrance

Inside the formation are massive, beautiful and very delicate.

The tour took us about 2.5 hours and was fantastic.

The cavern is summer home to about half a million bats.  Some have migrated back to the cave but many were not there yet.  In the summer the park hosts a program each evening as the bats exit the cave.  While the program had not started yet, there were still lots of bats.  So one evening we drove back up to see them.  No electronic devices such as cameras or cell phone are permitted because the signals interfere with the bats radar.  The rangers on duty were very clear about NO electronics.  We have no idea how many bats we saw that night but it must have been thousands.  We sat for at least 1/2 hour with a steady stream of bats exiting the cave.  But no pictures.  So we took a picture of a refrigerator magnet to include here.  Yes we did buy the magnet.

Golf

We have both become smitten with golf.  We both improved this last winter and hope to play a lot this summer.  While we have improved we are still new and not very good at all.  But we enjoy the game.  One big event on the course was Diana' first birdie.  It was on a par 3 hole where she drove over the water and landed about 2 feet from the pin.  A 1 putt and there it was. A very happy moment.

The golf gods reasserted themselves as she shot a 10 on the next hole which was a par 4.  Golf is a humbling endeavor.  For both of us.

Guadalupe Mountain NP

Guadalupe Mountain NP is very close to the border of Texas and New Mexico.  It is also very close to the time zone line between Central and Mountain time.  While we were there our phones were picking up towers in the Central time zone even though the park is in Mountain time.  Not a problem, just confusing now and then.

Hawaii

We spent most of February on Maui visiting Daniel and his now fiance, Mona.  She is wonderful and they are great together.  Daniel is a very lucky man.

We played some golf, ate way too much and of course saw some great scenery.