ATVing, Kayaking, and Ghost Towns In San Angelo

Located in west-central Texas, San Angelo is the next place we parked our home for a while. It had been about 18 years since any of us had been there, and we all looked forward to seeing the town where so many stories we’ve heard had taken place!

Mom and Dad decided to stay at the Spring Creek Marina campground, which ended up being a great place to camp for a month. The sites were nice and level – a relief for Dad and I, who have to level the camper ourselves if our site is not. We were within a couple hundred feet of the lake’s edge – and could just grab the kayaks, walk over, and go. Where the campground is, the lake narrows down into about the width of a river and boats are restricted to idling only, so this was great for kayaking.

My Great Great Aunt Fran, Great Great Uncle Jack, and Great Grandmother Martha were all there during our stay – so obviously we were around a lot of “great” people! It’d been 9 years since we’d seen my aunt or uncle, and 2 years since we’d seen my grandma at her house in Florida…

While we were there I found out about the Twin Buttes Off-Road Area. Of course, it didn’t take Mom, Dad, and I long to get a day planned to go out there, and the next Saturday that’s exactly where we went! We all had a blast out there, and it turned out to be a great riding area. You can read ALL about our day there on ATV Magazine’s blog by clicking HERE. I also compiled some of the video and pictures we took into a 5 ½ minute short-film that’s on ATV Magazine’s website. There’s some awesome footage in it from the ground, and from our new GoPro Hero helmet camera – so check it out by clicking HERE! (I’ve been writing for ATVMagBlog for over a year, so check out some of my articles while you’re there, along with all the awesome articles posted by ATV Magazine’s other bloggers.)

One day we decided to drive out to the old towns where my grandparents grew up – Texon and Santa Rita. They’ve been deserted for a long time, and it’s amazing to see that where thousands of people once lived with their stores, houses, and roads it’s now almost completely grown over. Surprisingly, though, there is still a lot of small debris left out there for the exploring types like us to go find. I personally found an old toy gun, a model airplane, a Coco-Cola bottle, a Pepsi Bottle, and some pieces of porcelain. My grandma came with us and showed us where their house used to be, and took us up to the foundation of their old swimming pool. Then we drove over to the only building still standing in either ghost town – the Boy Scout’s cabin. My grandpa actually helped build it when he was in Scouts as a boy, which made it all the more amazing to see!

We went kayaking several times during out stay, and had a blast every time! The river doesn’t really seem like it has any current (because we were right where it dumps into the lake), so it’s definitely not the place for an extreme whitewater rafter or anything. (ha ha) But for us, it was perfect – the little kids could fish off the shore while some of us kayaked around the bay.

We had lots more fun and adventures in San Angelo, but once again, time and space has limited me. Check back again soon – more fun is waiting just down the road!


I highly recommend the GoPro HD Hero for anyone who enjoys hiking, camping, biking, off-roading, boating, or almost any other outdoor activity! It takes great quality video and pictures, while being simple and easy to use out in the wild. And there are plenty of different mounts to choose from for your helmet, handlebars, car dashboard, etc.! This camera makes it easy to capture and share those awesome moments with friends and family, or to review the adventure yourself later - whether scuba diving, rally racing, ATVing, skateboarding, skiing, flying, skating, or whatever you love to do!

Valley of Fires

Before we came into north/central New Mexico I'd never even thought about there being volcanos and lava rock.  I think different now. We stayed at the Valley of Fires Rec Area just north of Carrizozo, NM for about a week. It sits right in the middle of a 44 mile long lava bed. The lava came from two vents which covered that part of the valley up to 150 feet deep! The campground is on an island surrounded by the lava flow.


When we first picked out a camp site it was on such a hill that Mom said she didn't know if we could even leval the camper, I was doubtful too. We got it though! The front of the camper was almost touching the ground. :)  The sites are very nice.  Each one has it's own ramada and picnic table along with amazing views of the surrounding lava field, valley, and mountains.

One of the first days we were there we went to Lincoln. Lincoln is where the famous "Lincoln War" took place. Billy the Kid and the Regulators fought their ruthless battle in and around town, ending in a daring jail break by Billy the Kid who dissapeared afterwards.  In the picture on the right I'm standing by the bullet hole in the courthouse wall made by Billy the Kid shooting his guard as he escaped.  After Billy the Kid got away, it is said he either was shot by the sheriff or escaped into Mexico where he lived the rest of his life. Lincoln is one of our favorite old west towns because it's secluded, rarely busy, and has such an interesting history. (Below is a picture of us sitting on the old hotel's front porch)

We also had fun hiking the Valley of Fires nature trail and exploring the lava. There's lots of little caves and "sinkholes" in the lava. The lava rock is razor sharp in some places, I had to watch my steps so I didn't fall.

The kids had fun at the Carrizozo city park (very top left). We went there a couple times. That park is whereTytus figured out how much fun a slide can be. :)

One day we decided to go for a drive up in the nearby mountains and have a picnic. We had a great time hiking around and having our picnic (picture on left) on top of a mountain. Then we went into Nogal Canyon to see what was up there. We found a great grassy spot alongside a pretty little stream (picture on right). I think we spent about three hours hiking around and playing in the little patch of snow that was still there. We had a long snowball fight which ended in Mom stuffing snow down the back of Hanna's shirt. :D It was a lot of fun. A few days later we went back and spent almost five hours at our little mountain paradise. The snow was gone but we found other things to do. Josephine was scared to walk down the steep bank to the stream so Hanna and I built her stairs. We dug into the bank and placed stones her step distance apart, and made a little landing at the bottom. To finish it off we used little rocks to write "Josie's Steps". :) The kids loved sending their little boats down stream. The boats included a gatorade can, a basketball, and a small jelly jar. One of us would wait down stream with a long wooden dowel to stop the boats from getting away. Dad and I also drove up the mountain a ways until we got to a place where the stream flowed across the road.  We could see Nogal Peak not too far above us. There must be a mountain lion up where we were, because first we found a cave with a turkey ripped apart inside, then some cat pee on a tree, then an elk leg, and then what looked like mountain lion tracks going up a hill. Dad kept his .45 close.

We also went to the almost ghost town of White Oaks. It's way off in a valley at the base of some mountains. We walked around the old two story school house and drove up to a large victorian looking house on a hill. There is also a big safe which was blown open by dynamite in the 1920's and robbed. I wouldn't have wanted to have my life savings in there. :)

One day we went down to Ruidoso and checked out the Hubbard Museum of the American West. We'd been to the museum about eight years ago and stayed in the condo right next to it with our grandmother. Quite a bit had changed. The virtual horse racing game was gone but in it's place they put a big kids area. Naomi, Gabriel, Josephine, and even Tytus loved the adobe house, chuck wagon, camp fire, life-size horse, and library. Naomi was in the adobe house (picture on left) almost the whole time pretending she was Josephina (an American Girl doll), Gabriel was on the horse almost the whole time roping the pretend steer, Josephine loved the campfire with it's pots and fake food to cook, Tytus crawled everywhere including around and under the wagons in the next door exhibit. :D  All the kids loved the old mechanical chuckwagon and bronco.  They sure aren't like the ones in Wal-Mart now.  These jerked back and forth so hard you'd think it would give a kid whiplash (picture above right)! We spent about five hours there looking around at the many different old-west exhibits and playing with the kids in between.

Valley of Fires Rec Area is definitly a cool place to stop if you're ever in the area. Carrizozo, the mountains, the lava field, the Hubbard museum and Lincoln are amazing places to go and the lava field is a good place to see it all from.

Check back in soon.  At the next place I'm going to be writing about (where we are now) Dad and I kayak across a very windy lake, I find a baby owl, and we get to see the bomb that ended WWII. :-)

The Sonoran Desert Museum and Getting Cut in Half!

The past week has been a blast! We stayed at the Gilbert Ray County Campground which is only about a mile from the Sonoran Desert Museum. We went ahead and bought year passes because we went to it four times this week and will probably be able to use it next winter too. The museum is incredible! It's unlike any museum you've ever been to. There are dozens of animal exhibits, a walk-through aviary, numerous shows throughout the day and a huge manmade cave to explore! I really enjoyed the Raptor Free Flight show in which they let four Harris' hawks loose for about half an hour. We even got to see them catch a wild wood rat! The kids liked the Running Wild show where you get to see some native animals run in front of and even fly over you. What makes the animal exhibits so amazing is that instead of conforming the cage so people can see better, they conform the people to the animals! At the beaver and otter exhibits you actually go down a ramp "under water" and get to see their dens and them swimming right in front of you. At the Life on the Rocks exhibit, which features snakes and lizards, the kids got to climb through a passage that lets them see what it'd be like to be a "rock dweller". I could go on for hours. : ) Check out the link above and go!

The Gilbert Ray campground is great. It has amazing views, nice camp hosts, and great sites. Hanna and I took advantage of our big site and had a 30 minute sword fight. I'm not sure who won. If it had been real she would've lost her left leg, but I would've taken a sure fatal blow to the gut when I slipped! So that's what I get I guess. I teach Hanna everything I know about sword fighting and she cuts me in half! I've never been beat before. I guess it's a good thing though, she is on my side after all. I want someone at least as good as me to watch my back. : )

Gettin' Ready To Go, and a Hermit Crab!

Well, today and yesterday we've just been getting ready to go.  Yesterday we said goodbye to my aunt and uncle.  I'm going to miss them.  I've learned so much about wood working from my uncle while we've been here.  We also went around and said bye to most of the other MAPS volunteers.  They've started to feel more like aunts, uncles, grandmas, and grandpas instead of just friends.  The picture on the left is of all the MAPS guys here sitting in our break room, we've had some fun times during our half hour break.  I'm going to miss everyone here.  Hopefully we'll meet up with them again soon.  Today we thought we were going to leave by 1:30 pm.  Between Dad's work and Mom feeling uneasy about driving in bad traffic, they decided to stay.  We'll probably leave by 10 am tomorrow morning.  I'm excited to get back on the road, but sad to leave all these wonderful people here, if only you could get to know them.

On a happier note, yesterday I got a new hermit crab.  My last one died and the guy at Petco said even if it was past the 15 day limit I could still exchange it for a live one. So, I got a crazy, wild little crab that doesn't even like to stay in his shell.  He's not shy at all, if you put him on your hand he'll crawl right up your arm! : )

Working Hard ... or Hardly Working?

Well, I've been busy the past couple days.  I cut out about 50 bread knives from boards of cherry on the 9th.  That took all afternoon, but I got it done.  Dad said I can't bring any boards along when we leave here, but if it's made into something then we can't leave it. ; )  I also "refurbished" a knife that one of the guys here found in a fire pit.  I polished up the blade and put a yellow poplar handle on it and it turned out pretty nice.  The knife has strange history, there is a bunch of Russian or Romanian type writing on the blade and I have no clue what it says.  Today we moved up a site to make room for some more MAPS volunteers that came in today.  We haven't moved in almost four months so we're a little out of practice. : )

My New Bed!

Well, we finally did it.  Mom and Dad having been saying for a while that Hanna and I should switch beds.  For the past year and a half I've slept in my queen size top-bunk in the garage area of are camper with almost everything I own on it.  My bed and the one below it are on an electric lift so when 4-wheelers are in there we can raise the beds up out of the way.  Hanna on the other hand has been sleeping in the loft bed above the kitchen area of our camper with almost everything she owns on it.  It is a little bit larger than a twin size.  Last night Mom told Hanna and I that Hanna should get to have the big bed for the next year and a half (ouch).  : )  So Hanna got all her stuff out of the loft bed into a huge heap on the floor. (The picture on the top left is of all Hanna's stuff piled on the livingroom floor.)  Now I know some people can be pack rats, but GOOD GRIEF!  It was like the widow and the oil jar in the bible, it just kept coming and coming and coming (Mom's gonna get me for this later)!  I then started moving my stuff straight from my old bed into the new one.  We worked until midnight.  It's truly amazing what you can find in such a tiny space that you didn't even know was up there, such as:
darts to a dart gun I don't even have any more,
a fake roach on a string to scare people with,
an old pair of dress shoes that don't even fit me any more,
and a lot of other stuff that I won't mention at this time. : )
This morning we finished putting all our stuff in our new beds and got everything organized like it should be.  I actually like my new bed/room.  It's comfy, more spacious than I had thought at first, and has a big window by my head so I can keep an eye on things outside.  All in all, it wasn't a bad trade after all.
-Cody

My new bed, spotless.                                                

Hanna's new bed, I refuse to comment at this time.

Sorting, Building and Mesquite Trees!

Today I did some fun, but unusual things.  First we decided to clean the back room (where all the kids toys are).  We piled all the toys up in the middle and started the daunting task of putting away everything, down to the little barbie crowns and every little toy soldier gun.  Amazingly I was saved by Mom from such a horrible fate and instead was given the job of building a desk.  After getting the measurements Mom and I went to Home Depot and got some thin plywood and some screws.  I started working on the desk, but quickly realized I would need Dad's help getting it done right.  I then started something else...  Along the side of the road that we're camped on, at the church we're staying at, there were some piles of mesquite tree limbs. I was able to get five of the guys from the youth group here to come help me haul them all to the construction dumpster.  I got the church golf cart and hooked up the trailer behind it.  It took probably about five or six loads and a couple hours but we "kicked that pig" (inside joke).  I finished doing the limbs just in time to help Dad with the desk and build Mom a shelf in the kitchen.  Our microwave finally croaked the other day and got thrown out.  Instead of getting another one we decided to make that empty space into three shelves for bread, chips, cereal, chips, and chips (I hope).  At least now we won't have to worry about our brains getting nuked!    :)  After that I decided to do facebook and write a post on my new blog.  Because Mom is sorting in the back there is a big pile of stuff right in front of the desk so I had to jump over a box, squeeze between a table, and climb over the side of our computer chair.  Now here  I am, sitting down wasting my time writing a blog post instead of watching Pride and Prejuduce with everyone else. ;)