The Way Southwest 

Our trip to Tucson, Arizona started on a cold NJ day driving west into Pennsylvania snow and wind. Although our next few days were clear and sunny we continued to have warnings of zero visibility in snow squalls and thunderstorms.

The passage across the country of winter storm Isaiah continued to threaten thunderstorms and included tornado warnings for all possible routes west. Therefore we stayed two extra days at a hotel in Birmingham, AL waiting for these dangerous storms to pass.

     
Winter in Alabama

Vicksburg National Military Park

This park is dedicated to the 1863 Civil War campaign and months long siege of Vicksburg, a port vital to Union control of the Mississippi River.

In December 1862, the USS Cairo, one of seven iron clad gunboats patrolling north of Vicksburg, was sunk by electrically detonated mines. All 175 members of the crew survived. Buried in silt, sand and mud, this bit of naval history was salvaged and restoration beginning in the 1960’s.

    
USS Cairo restoration                                                                  Ship model

 

Texas Hill Country

The Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Park at the LBJ Ranch included a guided tour outside the Texas White House which is under restoration. Mrs. Johnson occupied this house until her death in 2007. Also on the ranch grounds is “Air Force One-Half”, the presidential Jet Star aircraft which President Johnson used to travel to his private, ranch airstrip. President Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson deeded the "Texas White House" and LBJ Ranch to the National Park Service. One condition of this transfer was that the ranch would continue to be an operational cattle ranch. 

We had hoped to hike to the dome at Enchanted Rock State Park but the park was closed for a week for deer hunting.

 

West Texas is an endless land of oil, gas and water, numerous crude oil pumps, fields of tanker trucks and flare stacks burning off waste gases. All in all, quite a site. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_flare

 
 Texas refinery

 

Carlsbad Caverns

Big Room – A Chamber of Wonders

At this cavern the decorations began slowly over 500,000 years ago as acidic water drips through limestone bedrock into caves depositing crystals of calcite. A one mile plus walking tour 750 feet below the Guadalupe Mountains plateau through the Big Room reveals many large features including the (almost) Bottomless Pit and Painted Grotto.

The first nationally reported exploration of this extensive cave system appeared in The National Geographic Magazine in January 1924.

    
Stalactite/Stalagmite                                                                    Flowstone

   
Soda straws                                                                       Column

   
Drapery                                                                     Big Room

    

Arriving in Arizona

We are now at our camp site in Tucson, AZ enjoying the sunshine, pleasant temperatures and beautiful hiking trails with our friends Joyce and Alan Breach.

 

Of course during our drive across the south we did manage to make a few craft brewery stops.

     
Smoked Porter                                                           Pioneer Porter

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