by laura beth

About 5 years ago, Kenny's cousin James Tavernier moved to the Houston area from Orange County, CA for a job. In the meantime he met & married a beautiful lady, Kim, and had a little boy. Neither Kenny nor I had ever met Kim, her boys Cal & DJ, nor little Ephraim, who is now 3. And so we got to visit them at their home in League City. We had a great time. Aunt Debbie (James' mom) also live close by, so we got to see her quite a bit. Kim is a wonderful lady, Cal and DJ are the most polite, interactive, and well-mannered teenage boys I have even met (and they're cool!), and Ephraim is a laugh-a-minute. James is alright I guess. JK, James.

Their apartment complex had RV parking, which is uncommon but delightful, and so we camped out for several days. The weather and humidity were mild at night, which was a blessing since we couldn't plug in and therefore had no air conditioning in the moho. We swam in the pool almost everyday, ate very well, and went geocaching (Kenny got Cal and DJ hooked on it). We got to meet Michel, a friend of Kim's that we had become acquainted with through our conversations about Eastern Orthodoxy on Facebook. She invited us to a free concert at a park in Houston at the Miller Outdoor Theatre. On the menu the night we went was Accordion Kings and Queens: lots of polka, zydeco, and Cajun music, and an accordion contest. Kim, Michel and I packed lots of yummy food and wine to share, and we all had a wonderful time.

Also, while we were in League City, Kenny suggested that I ask Kim to invite some of her friends over to have a "jewelry party" in which they could buy my handmade jewelry, or I could custom-make pieces for them. It worked out really well, so I hope to do this more while we're on the road.

Anyhoo, we had a super time with the Taverniers, and hopefully they will be able to meet us in Willis, Texas in a week or so while we're visiting my cousins Nick and Sammi Jo, and while James' daughter Ashley is in town.

by laura beth

We arrived at San Antonio late after leaving Marfa. As we pulled into the RV park, a table saw chorus of cicadas greeted us, and we had our first taste of significant Texas humidity. We thought the RV park we were staying at was in San Antonio because of an incorrect address, but it ended up being in Spring Branch, about 45 minutes north of San Antonio in the oak-laden hill country. It's pretty nice there, so we didn't mind the drive.

Once in San Antonio, we went straight to the River Walk where we took a boat cruise and stopped for happy hour snacks and margaritas (not super good, but refreshing and a steal at $10 for 2 margaritas and an appetizer). We then walked over to the Alamo. We got there just in time: they lock her up promptly at 5:30 and we got there at about 5:15. Fortunately it's pretty tiny, and there's not too much to look at, so 15 minutes was plenty of time. Admission is free and it's worth visiting if you have a chance.


After the Alamo we headed northeast of San Antonio to Helotes and John T Floore's Country Store. Amazing.

Floore's was recommended to us by our friend Roger from Bisbee. He stopped there while touring Texas with his band, and said it was the best he'd had. It really was the greatest honkytonk BBQ imaginable: $8.75 for a 3 meat plate (we shared brisket, ribs, chicken, mashed taters, green beans, onions, pickle, jalapeno, and white bread), a couple of cold beers, and to top it off it was "Biker Night". Bike Night happens pretty regularly (once a week), and the turn out is impressive. Awesome BBQ, tons of bikes, live music, and even some Bandidos! Willie Nelson still shows up now and again, but we must have just missed him. If you're ever even close to San Antonio, you have to go to Floore's!

The next day we decided to beat the heat and humidity by finding some water to play in. Our friend Ashley told us to go to Schlitterbahn-the world's greatest water park-but at $40 a piece, we decided on toobing instead. We drove to New Braunfels and found a cute little "toobing" shack (Landa River Trips) and hit the Comal River. Ten bucks for each for the tube, a 2 1/2 hour float, including two fun toob shoots, and a ride back to our moho. As of yet, Floore's and toobing are my favorite Texas things.

We were hungry for more BBQ after spending the day in the river. Granzin's was recommended to us, but we don't recommend it to anyone. It was alright, just not great. We headed out of San Antonio and towards Houston after a stop at Buc-ee's and some $27.99 per pound turkey jerky. My one piece cost $4.20, but it was dern good.

by laura beth

Texas! The furthest east we've made it in the moho. After last year's plans to visit family in Texas fell through, it feels good to finally make it. We flew through New Mexico and then made a quick tour through The West Texas Town of El Paso: Chamizal National Monument, Scenic Drive, the free Museum of Archeology Museum, the free National Border Patrol Museum, and Ysleta Mission (established in 1680 and still active!). Scenic Drive gives an impressive view of the expanse of El Paso and its sister town, Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. These two cities sprawl out over a 320 square miles, with a combined population of over 2 million people. Huge. Even if there weren't a large fence separating the two cities, the line is clearly drawn by the building styles and colors.





The museums were a nice break from the heat, however the Border Patrol Museum gave off a subtle racist vibe. Most notably the miniature Border Patrol vehicle display, which used Homies to depict Mexican immigrants. Apparently I'm not the only one who felt this vibe: ABC news article.



We left El Paso, broke off Interstate 10 and headed south on highway 90 towards Marfa. This lonely highway is kind of out in the middle of nowhere, and several of the towns sprinkled along it are tiny and semi-abandoned. Just before Marfa is a small ghosty town called Valentine. I really want to some back someday to visit and take some photos. One small run-down building caught my eye. The word BEER was printed on the front, and a large tree was growing through the front door.

Between Valentine and Marfa is a Prada Marfa, an art installation piece along the side of the highway in the form of a Prada storefront, containing actual Prada bags and shoes from the Fall 2005 collection. I like it because it's unusual, I don't like it because I don't think it falls in the category of real art. And I don't care about Prada. Anyhoo, pretty weird. We caught it just at sunset, and the sky was beautiful.

Marfa would be fun to visit again too. Apparently it's got quite an art scene, and several galleries. As it is we rolled into town just after dark, spent the night just outside of town, and left the next morning. The main reason we came was to see the Marfa Mystery Lights, or MML. The MML are balls of light that appear after dark just above the horizon. Earliest records of the lights go back to the late 1800's. There is a ton of conflicting information about the MML, but according to the literature at the viewing area (nine miles east of town), they are visible most nights of the year. This is desolate country, and there was no light other than the moon, stars, a couple of red railroad lights. We watched for about an hour, straining in the dark, hoping to catch a glimpse of something mysterious. We saw several sets of headlights. Pretty soon some pink and orange flashes light up the horizon to the far left of the viewing area. We saw this over and over again. I was pretty sure it was just lightning, but didn't want to say anything out loud (there were several other groups of people there, and I didn't want to dash their spirits-they all thought it was the MML). I eventually went on to bed. However, Kenny stayed up and ended up seeing something altogether different than railroad lights, car headlights, and lightning.

by laura beth

Bisbee is a darn nice town. It's beautiful, historic, quaint, and the people are super friendly. It definitely maintains the charm that I think makes small town America so attractive. People know each other on the street and there is a lazy, laid-back vibe throughout the town. Bisbee is a mining town, and many houses were built in the late 1800's, before automobiles existed. Everyone got around by foot or mules, and homes are built on tiered hillsides with flights of stairs from street level on up. To celebrate this quirkiness, a local non-profit sponsors a fitness challenge called Bisbee 1000 which includes climbing up and down all of the stairs in town.



Our day in Bisbee pretty much consisted of this geocache. The GPS coordinates lead us to a cool little shop, where I bought my new favorite earrings, and where we met Roger. The rest of the photo clues led us around town and up a high winding road, aptly named High Road. It was a little warm to be climbing up stairs and hiking up hills in the middle of the day, but we were rewarded with interesting sites, awesome views, a pretty cool find. Later on we ran into Roger again, who was excited that our geocache hunt was successful. He joined us for a couple of beers at the Copper Queen. We really enjoyed shooting the breeze, but eventually had to mosey on out of town and on to New Mexico.

Check out these sites on Bisee, and be sure to visit if you ever get the chance:

Bisbee Chamber of Commerce
City of Bisbee
Discover Bisbee

by laura beth

We left Tucson and headed to Bisbee, Arizona. We had been told countless times that we would love this little town, but never bothered visiting. this time we wen tout of our way to check it out. We rolled into Bisbee in the evening and decided to settled in at Turquoise Valley RV Park in Naco, Arizona, south of Bisbee right on the Arizona/Sonora border.

In the morning we decided to cross the border into Naco, Sonora, Mexico for fun. As we headed towards the border (2 streets over from the RV park), we came across a gentleman who stopped to visit with us. Both his hat and t-shirt had "Jesus" written across them in big letters, and he was carrying a Bible. He asked us if we wanted to "burn something" before heading over (for those who may not understand, that's slang for smoking the marijuana), and then reminded us that it was June 1st, the day that the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative went into effect, requiring a US Passport or similar ID to get back into the states. He proceeded to tell us about the hard time he was given trying to walk home...basically he gave the immigration officer the "what for". What terrible luck! We no longer have valid passports. Mine is in my maiden name and Kenny's expired at the end of April. Neither of us had been to Mexico for several years, and this was really the most convenient opportunity for us to just cross the border for fun. We ended up talking to an officer before crossing, who basically told us to try our luck. And try our luck we did. Twenty minutes later we came from Naco, Sonora to Naco, Arizona, and to the same officer, who gave us the shpiel about not being in compliance, yadda, yadda, yadda, and then he literally slapped Kenny on the wrist. Whew! On to Bisbee.