Western (and Southern) Trip 2023

2/9/2023

We had a great trip. I wish it could have been longer. We went to the Smoky Mountains, Pensacola, Galveston, San Antonio (twice), Big Bend National Park, and Hot Springs, with stops in Columbus, Atlanta, and Bloomington (Indiana) to see family.

Smokies, Gatlinburg KOA, Tennessee

This is the second time we stayed at this campground. We love it. It is wooded and well-maintained, the showers are amazing, and it's right next door to the Smoky Mountain National Park.

Right behind our spot was the back of the campground and the entrance to a path leading to national park trailhead, 1/2 mile down the road.

We had a fabulous hike, the same path we took the last time we were here. This time, temperatures were in the 60s. No snow on the trails!

Fort Pickens, Pensacola, Florida

We loved Fort Pickens! The campground was very nicely maintained with lots of trees. It is located on an island and is part of the Gulf Island National Seashore. On one side of the island was Pensacola Bay, and on the other was the Gulf of Mexico.

We hiked the beaches and the Blackbird Marsh Trail. A beautiful, white-sands beach surrounded the island, and through the center of the island there were old dunes covered with bushes and trees. Blackbird Marsh Trail runs through the island's center. There are newer dunes closer to the beach with short trails through those.

We saw an armadillo on the path!

We saw a huge snapping turtle, too, a huge heron, and lots of mockingbirds.

We visited the fort and one of the hideous "batteries," which were structures for defense that housed guns and provided protection for soldiers. There were about four spread over the island. The one we climbed up was the least hideous. The last one in the picture below was especially gruesome. We came upon it by accident on one of our walks. We needed to go past it to get to a beach path, and I could not look at it as we went by. Look at it! It's repulsive. Even the photo of it gives me the creeps.

Galveston KOA, Florida

It was a nice campground. Campers packed in as per usual for a KOA, and the campground was packed! But there were some palm trees around and nice grass. I liked our spot.

A couple of shots of the campground from the deck of the office, shower, laundry, entertainment, and pool building.

One warm day we stayed in the hot tub for a couple hours. I know they say "limit 30 minutes." But we didn't care and we didn't die. We did have a jolly good time. We chatted with a couple other campers who popped in and out.

We hiked a couple times on the beach. The beach here was easier to walk on than the Pensacola beach, but I found it kind of boring.

One cool thing we got to do is tour NASA Johnson. A friend's son works there and he gave us a personal tour! We were very lucky because he only got the request a day before we arrived but he made time for us, and he was transferring back to Ohio in just a month. He drove us around the base and took us into a couple cool buildings. One was where an enormous space holds loads of exact models of various International Space Station structures. People from different countries are working on them, testing things out.

The other thing I loved was Mission Control. You go into a room overlooking the actual mission control where technical specialists are manning various stations while they are keeping an eye on the astronauts on the International Space Station. It's operational 24/7. There are large screens at the front of the room and the one in the middle was dark when we got there. But as we were watching, the space station was heading to the light side of the Earth and the ship came into view. It was a lot like being on the starship Enterprise.

My husband loved the models. There are some big ones when you drive in, one of the shuttle on top of an airplane, and one of the Space X rocket that transports astronauts to the space station. The other set of models he liked were these that showed comparisons to scale of different rockets through the years.

Here's a shot of everyone in the camper having a cozy time of it.

The White Ingrate got a little antsy on the drive. He loves to look out the window, but even when he could get close, he wouldn't sit still. So Scott made him this shelf and it worked really well, keeping him (the dog) content enough to tolerate.

San Antonio, #1, San Antonio KOA, Texas

We had a very nice campsite.

Right in front of our site was an entrance to a city path that ran miles and miles through a number of city parks and out through fields and woods.

The campground was nice, with lots of trees. There was a pretty pond.

We walked along the city trail one day and rented bikes the next and went a lot farther. Both days were very bright, warm, and pleasant.

One day we went to Mission Concepción and then walked the River Walk. It was fun but very hot and we didn't bring water. Toward the end, I was spent and close to having heat stroke. But did I learn my lesson? No. Stay tuned for San Antonio #2.

Big Bend National Park, Texas

We stayed at Marathon RV Park and Motel. It's pretty barren, but that's par for the course in this part of Texas from what I can tell. It was a nicely run, nicely maintained park. Here's our site.

Two extra features that make this park special are the dark sky park they have and the courtyard. The dark sky park is a huge space; they could have squeezed more campers in but they don't. They have telescopes and you can look through them for just $10 a person. Unfortunately, we didn't take advantage the first night, it wasn't offered the second night because of the festival (see below), and we were gone by the third night. However, we did see the sky on our first night. It was incredibly beautiful. The night was clear and could see so many stars and the Milky Way.

They maintain a lovely courtyard that they make available for the campers. They light a fire at night and there is a fountain and pretty plants.

The pictures below are not mine; I got them off the internets because the ones I took are nowhere to be found. Thanks a lot, Google.

We had planned on staying 5 nights, because it's like really far from home. But several things combined to compel us to leave after two nights.

First and foremost, it was cold. The first night it got into the teens. Hiking during the day was very pleasant, but part of the fun is hanging out at the site, too, and it was too cold for that. Plus, that's no fun at this type of campground.

Second, there was one bathroom. It was a very nice bathroom, but that's all there was and it housed the shower, too. But then on our second night, the park hosted a music festival. That is cool and all (though we stayed in our camper), but still there was just the one bathroom. The music festival was going to happen on the second night, too.

And third, the drive to hiking in Big Bend was over an hour. For some locations, it would have been closer to two. The drive was actually beautiful and it went by fast. But we had to leave the dog in the camper and including time for the hike, he would be have to be left alone for 5 to 8 hours. Five is pushing it, more is not possible.

So we hiked for one day. It was a splendid hike.

We drove to the Chisos Basin Campground and walked the Window View Trail. It was spectacular. I was surprised by the number of other people on the trail. The mountains are cool. They're volcanic.

The window view at the end of the trail. There is a crazy person in this photo. You can see his arms and head as he's getting a picture. Admittedly, it's a better picture, but not worth death in my book. Do you see those shiny, slick rocks you have to cross to get to this perch? He said it was less dangerous than it looked. But he's always saying that.

Here's the view you get when you risk your life.

As we were leaving the park, we stopped at another short trail and exhibit. Eocene-era horse-ancestor bones had been uncovered here and there was an exhibit dedicated to that, other fossils, and the geology of the area. It was interesting.

San Antonio #2, San Antonio KOA, Texas

So we cut Marathon short and added three more days to the next San Antonio stop we had planned. I'm so glad we did. I still feel guilty leaving Big Bend with only one day in the park, but we had a blast in San Antonio the second time. And it was warm. Very warm. Upper 70s and low 80s. You can't beat that.

This time our site was next to the pond. The sites were close together, and while one large camper was on our right, no one ever came into the site on our left. We had a big space behind the camper where the dog had his area and we had our campfires overlooking the pond.

We hiked twice in a park called Government Canyon. It was beautiful. Check out this sign at the entrance, heh heh heh. It had to be the word "accuracy."

The first day we took Joe Johnston Trail to the dinosaur tracks. Yes, dinosaur tracks! A fun surprise.

We continued on that trail a ways until we got to the Canyon Overlook. Someone got too close to the edge again, but fortunately, he survived. At that point, we had to turn and take the trail back to be home in time for a call.

For the second hike, we started out on the same Joe Johnston Trail, but then we decided to make it a long hike and add some other trails (Cave Creek, Sendero Balcones, Overlook Trail). Looking at the map, I thought we were pushing it, but I guess I figured if we got tired, we could double back.

Well, we did the whole thing but it was monumental. It turned out to be 11.6 miles. It would have been a challenge in any case, but stupid us, we didn't bring water. We were extremely thirsty when we got back to the visitors' center. OMG. But it was mostly shaded, and for that reason I think we are not dead or rescued by local law enforcement.

The next day we rented bikes at a nice little shop in San Antonio, Blue Star, and went for a long ride on the River Walk. The bikes were reasonable and very comfortable. This time we brought water. We had a terrific ride.

Hot Springs KOA and National Park, Arkansas

We drove in at night and couldn't see much. We were pleased when we woke up and saw the campground in daylight. It's a nice little campground. We were close to the bathrooms. No one took the site next to us and that's a bamboo patch behind us.

We had only one day and we drove to the trailhead for Hot Springs Mountain Trail in Hot Springs National Park. It was under 10 minutes from our campsite. The trailhead was in the campground, and that campground looked very nice.

The hike was beautiful. A couple nice climbs and lots of beautiful woods. We saw plenty of other people on the trails. We hiked the Hot Springs Trail and the Peak Trail up to a fire tower. I don't like heights, but Scott really wanted to climb it. I agreed and we went inside to pay.

We had forgotten to bring money! So we finished the hike, went back to the car and got his wallet and my America the Beautiful pass, and started the trail again.

This time, we climbed the tower. I didn't like it at all. I did not look over the edge at all. I either closed my eyes or looked at the ground in front of me, gripping the handrail the entire time. It's sad, I know. I missed some beautiful views. But that's the way it is I'm afraid.

The view at the top was pretty and cool. We took the elevator down. I couldn't handle it, and if my husband wanted to, he was free to walk it by himself. I wouldn't mind.