November 24, 2015

Fort Worth Botanic Gardens

We spent the day at the beautiful gardens.  Also, we had lunch at the restaurant there and dined on stuffed avocado and pecan encrusted chicken.  Excellent!

My favorite was the Japanese Garden.

Entrance to the Japanese Garden

The Japanese Garden

The Japanese Garden

The Japanese Garden

The Japanese Garden

There were several Koi feeding stations.

November 19, 2015

Fort Worth Stockyards and Cattle Drive

I'd never even heard of the stockyards before..except for the stinky ones you pass on the freeway. This was a really cool part of town called  Fort Worth Stockyards Historic District.  They opened for business on January 19, 1890, covering 206 acres.  Now it's a tourist attractions with lots of quaint western shops, eating establishments, and a cattle drive of longhorns down the main part of town.

Bull rider.  Well, steer rider anyway.  That's not a black eye, by the way.  Just a shadow.

Us with Tom's sister, Brenda and Carl her husband.

Getting ready for the cattle drive.

The cattle drive moves through town.

The shops were located in a covered, open-air area.

The Shriner's Big Top was at the Stockyards
but there wasn't any action there.  Still, a nice
visual.

November 11, 2015

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

I've wanted to see the caverns since I was 6 years old.  It was so disappointing that the elevator was out of service.  It goes down 700 feet.  We had to use the natural entrance and only went down about a 1/2 mile.  It was pretty steep, so we wanted to be sure to be able to crawl back out. Still it was pretty cool, the part we did see.  We'll just have to go back someday when the elevator is working.  There really wasn't enough light to take good pics.

Natural entrance to Carlsbad Caverns

Switchback trail going into the natural entrance to Carlsbad Caverns

 Carlsbad Caverns

 Carlsbad Caverns

 Carlsbad Caverns

Next time I plan to bring a mono pod.  That should help...alot.

  

November 8, 2015

Old Tucson, Arizona

These saguaro cacti get pretty tall.

We were the first in the parking lot.  About an hour before opening.

Horse Thief, Shot Dead

November 5, 2015

Castle Dome Ghost Town

The drive to Castle Dome was about an hour north of Yuma.  The last 7 miles was on dirt, bumpy road, but we thought it was worth it.  Somebody bought the town and did some restorations.  They also have work camper hosts that look out for the place.  

Castle Dome, Arizona

Most of the buildings had copper ceilings

 

I hope to post more pics later when we can get decent wi fi.

November 2, 2015

We went across the boarder to Algadonis, Mexico to get some dental work done.  We each got an implant.  The shots were the worst.  Healing takes a long time. 

Mexico is so colorful!

October 28, 2015

Oceanside California

Oceanside was about one hours drive from where we were staying in Aguanga so we spent a day being beach bums.

Oceanside beach

Oceanside waterfront road.

This little cabin was used in the "Top Gun" movie.

Oceanside pier

The ramp that goes down to the pier.  I love palm trees.

October 29, 2015

Santa Rosa and San Jacinto State Park

On the way to see the Living Desert Museum in Palm Desert, we passed through the state park.

Little desert flower