The Midland Texas area

We left Palo Duro Canyon reluctantly as we had a reservation for another night.  We decided that with the 20 degree temperatures expected we had two choices, winterize the camper by shutting down the water system or continue south. I picked Midland TX as a destination since they had a FedEx ship center where I could pick up a delivery. 

Before we left we did laundry in the little town of Canyon. I had a  few items for our purchase of the van that I needed to print. So while we were doing the laundry I pulled the printer out of the car, found a plug and printed documents. I’m sure that was the most novel activity that the locals had experienced but they didn’t seem very curious about it!

I researched RV campgrounds and found one outside of the town of Big Springs. I had tried several by phone and finally found a vacancy at the “Whip In” right alongside of the busy freeway. When we got to the Midland area I found out why the RV spots were full, the area is a boom town for the fracking industry and there is very little housing available for workers. Many of them live full time in their RV’s. Our RV was sandwiched in between two other RV’s. We had about four feet on either side. And compounding that, the two-day shipping isn’t really two day, the countdown doesn’t start on the date of pick up, nor does it include Saturday. 

The area was an interesting mixture, businesses everywhere to support the oil industry, an oil refinery across the road and a big plateau overlooking the area that has a huge wind farm on it. A land of contrasts. 

However, on the plus side, we saw sun! It was actually quite warm the first couple of days and we took the dogs on a short hike on a nature trail at the Big Springs state park in town. I caught a picture of a road runner. It was also nice to have info signs explaining the trees, shrubs and cactus. The town also has a very nicely landscaped area around the big spring that the town is named after. 

We decided to go see a movie that night. It was a novel experience! They warned us that the air conditioner was broken in the theater. It wasn’t broken in the “off” position. It was constantly “on” and the temperature in the theater was about 50 degrees! I had thrown my usual light jacket in the car. Dave had his rain jacket. We could have used winter jackets! 

And yes I do remember the movie, but I didn’t like it. A Star is Born, hard to watch someone drink himself to death and wonder what in the heck the woman saw in him except for a chance to punish herself with his drinking. That isn’t a strong woman lead role model, in my opinion. 

And then, with our usual weather related luck, the air turned cold and windy and it settled in to rain. This was a product of the aftermath of hurricane Sergio. We picked up our paperwork signed it, sent it back in and drove out of town under glowering skies, (with many thanks to our friends Bob and Barb who helped us by taking the car to the dealer to close out the lease and prepare it for the purchase). 

The first Roadrunner I have been able to photograph.

                                      The Big Spring State Park sits high on an escarpment.

                                            A long blade of a windmill being shipped.

This is how close we are to the next camper.

The Big Spring overlook. Nicely landscaped area.

Kansas and Texas-Palo Duro Canyon

I’m sorry for being so delayed on my write ups of our travels. Doing more living than writing. When I last wrote we were in Missouri. We left Missouri on October 4th and started heading in a southerly direction since the long range forecasts were were for cold overnights. We could see a massive rain system hanging over the center of the country and hoped we could avoid some of it. Not to be! We drove through Kansas and the Flint Hills area, a stark beautiful grasslands. We camped over night at a Army Corps of Engineers campground on the Pomona Reservoir. We managed to set up during a break between rainstorms abut it rained all night. I had developed a cold while I was in Missouri and like most illnesses, it seemed worse at night so one night in Missouri and the night at Pomona I went to be really early in the evening. That seemed to help the cold move out of my system although it took a week to be fully gone. I felt like I couldn’t complain too much as I only get colds about once every five years so I was probably overdue for one.

The following day was again cold and rain. It was a pouring rain, not a light rainstorm. We just couldn’t seem to catch a break on the weather. The clouds were low and not moving. I just could not bear the thought of trying to set up the camper in the cold so I looked ahead and found a La Quinta in Dodge City KS. We like the La Quinta chain since they don’t charge extra for dogs. Oh HOW NICE to be tucked up warm and dry in a motel that night as I still felt a bit punky with my cold. 

The following day we made a decision to forgo our reservation at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was clear that the rain in the higher elevations was turning to snow. We had hoped to see some of the National Parks in Utah such as Grand Staircase Escalante and Zion but we decided that driving through the Colorado mountains in rain turning to sleet/snow towing a trailer was foolhardy. 

We also decided to buy our second car, our van, from the Chrysler lease program. We knew that would add a level of complexity and the need to be able to spend a few days somewhere where it wasn’t going to freeze at night to get a FedEx delivery of paperwork. Our need to stay above freezing came as we traveled. Although we left Michigan thinking that we might like to try “boondocking” without water and electric, we realized that we like having our own shower and bathroom facilities. And with the nightly temperatures hovering in the high to mid thirties, the heater and fan comes on frequently. If we were relying on battery power, the fan would drain the battery quickly. So all in all, with our frequent moves, we decided to head south faster, though Texas. Our next plan became Amarillo TX as there was a FedEx shipping center there. The rain continued, dreary and drenching. Again a La Quinta was available and a welcome respite.

Hurrah! The following morning was…wait for it…SUNNY! Although a bit cold and windy, I still felt a mood lift. That is until Dave came in to report that we had a flat tire on the trailer. Ah well, minor inconvenience since we had a complimentary membership in Good Sam road emergency service. So we called and the service was scheduled. 

Next bad news, Dave came in and said that he couldn’t get the power jack to work. I was busy with the dogs so I didn’t got immediately to look at it but he came back to me and told me that he had pushed the button the wrong way and essentially had been trying to raise the jack instead of lowering it. So I went over to push the button to lower the jack. All of a sudden there was a horrible grinding noise and the power jack didn’t move at all. I tried calling Good Sam, but our roadside assistance only covered things that meant we couldn’t travel, not hitches frozen up. I then called an RV repair dealer. He said that he was booked up the following day, a Thursday but could probably do it on Friday. But, he said he didn’t want to mess around with warranty work, he wanted payment outright. He did say that grinding the hitch upwards when it was meant to go down would probably not be covered since that probably resulted in a shear pin breaking or gear teeth breaking which is probably what froze the hitch. So, I said that would be fine. We could take the hitch with us and try to file a claim, or more likely, just give him the hitch. 

Near Amarillo is a canyon, Palo Duro Canyon. There is a Texas state campground at the bottom of the canyon. The information I found online said that the canyon is second in size only to the Grand Canyon. So, the problem became, how can we go camp in that beautiful canyon without a jack to take the camper off the vehicle? Well, the answer is, we go to Home Depot to buy a scissors jack to raise the camper off the hitch on the car. We traveled down into the canyon which was breathtakingly beautiful, sandstone colored cliffs, a Grand Canyon-like surprise since I didn’t even know that canyon existed until the previous night when I saw some tourism information at the motel. We got a site, used the scissors jack to remove the camper from the truck but realized that the scissors jack didn’t stabilize the camper very well and in my research online, we found out the corner jacks on the camper aren’t designed to take the whole weight of the camper. So, our next decision became, we needed to go back to Home Depot and buy a heavy duty bottle jack that could take the place of the power jack and hold some of the weight of the camper during the days we were camped. We did this and finally returned to the campsite (after dark), leveled and stabilized the camper and had a frozen microwaved dinner.

The next day we planned to drive the canyon road. The canyon staff had posted a sign the previous day that all the hiking trails in the canyon were closed until they dried out. The excessive rain had created clay mud and washed quite a lot of sand into the roadways, although we could see that they had cleared out the “washes” on the roadways. We stopped at a couple of the trailheads and could see no signs saying that the trails were closed and there were quite a few cars at one of the trailhead hubs. Se we concluded that they must have opened up the trails and they were dry enough to hike on. We started out on a Lighthouse Rock hike. Neither of us had hiking boots on but the trail surface seemed dry, although rocky. We hiked only about half the trail (I later saw a picture of the Lighthouse Rock and regretted that we hadn’t hiked the full way. However we really weren’t prepared for hiking, didn’t have much water with us or good boots). The air was cool and it remained cloudy but it was colorful with some of the stripes in the rock a deep cranberry red color. We walked around several folds in the sidewalls and of course took a surfeit of photos!

The following day found us up early in the morning to use the jacks to raise the camper off the bottle hitch and put it back on the truck. Not easy or straightforward because the scissors jack is on wheels and not really designed for the weight of the camper. However, the bottle jack didn’t extend a high as we needed because we hadn’t put it on many blocks to stabilize the camper. So there were a few tense moments, but in the end we succeeded and we were able to drive to the camper repair and have the jack replaced. I found out some bad news while waiting that the cold weather was expected to descend the following night, with temperatures in the 20’s. So again we decided to go further south. Our paperwork could be shipped to us in Midland TX where we would wait a few days for it to be delivered.

                                          The colors of the rocks were stunning.

Me using the camera/IPhone connection. Later I learned how to do a 2 second delay to avoid taking a picture of me looking at the IPhone!

We saw a huge flock of Sandhill Cranes migrating.

Boonville area in Missouri

Missouri

My apologies for the long delay in adding to my narrative. From October 3 through 6th we camped in a campground called the Katy Roundhouse in Franklin, MO. This is a campground that is on the Katy Trail which is a 200+ mile trail that once was a railroad. The trail is now limestone surfaced for biking and hiking. The campground is the old switching yard; roundhouse although the equipment is buried in the weeds behind a fence. 

My interest in being in this area is that my great great (and great great great) paternal grandparents lived in Boonville, 3 miles from New Franklin. This is my first time visiting an area where my ancestors lived and it was interesting to think that they probably rode the original railway and were very familiar with that switching yard.

I found out in my admittedly amateur research online that my great great grandfather Philip Back was murdered in Boonville in 1874. He owned a tavern and was found in a cistern. The newspaper article described the setting as a “locked door” mystery. It said that he was found inside the cistern which was inside his tavern and the doors and windows were locked from the inside. I hoped that I could find out more information by visiting the Missouri Historical Society and look through the newspaper collection on microfiche. On Friday, October 5th I visited the historical collection and spent several hours looking through the collection of the newspapers from that time period. I found two references to his murder but nothing later to explain whether anyone was ever caught for the crime. The only newspaper I wasn’t able to investigate is a newspaper that was written in German, the “Central Missourier”. It’s quite possible that paper had more information but I don’t read German. I did scan them to see if I saw the name “Back” but with the dense text nothing was noticeable. So the mystery of his death is still there, although I saw a write up by someone that some thieves were later arrested for the crime but there was no source for that information listed.

However there are three graveyards in Boonville and I knew from “Find a Grave” website that many of my relatives have headstones. I found the Diringer and Meisburger great-grandparents’ gravestones and several Back relatives (great great grandfather and mother Philip and Barbara Back) and my great uncle Ernst. I was able to speak with the caretaker at the Walnut Grove Protestant cemetery and found out that Ernst bought the gravesite in 1900 when Barbara (his mother) died. He re-interred his father, Philip at that time. Previously when he was murdered the newspaper account said that he was buried at the Sunset Hills cemetery that was called the city cemetery. We then went to Sunset Hills cemetery and I was able to find the burial stone for my great great great grandparents Paul and Mary Stegner. The picture from Find a Grave was very helpful in locating it because I could see the fence in the photo. Otherwise I could have been looking for quite awhile as the cemetery is several acres spread over a large hill. It is a picturesque and peaceful site. Next to the Stegner gravesite is one for Sophia Vollrath which is Mary’s maiden name so it may be a 3X great aunt. She is listed in a German census with Mary, although I need to investigate that further as the column headings are in German.

We also toured the Old Cooper County jail and "Hanging barn".  http://freindsofhistoricboonvillemo.org/?page_id=128 It was in use up until 1978! It was an ancient jail with raw iron doors and damp limestone walls. The county continued to use it until a lawsuit forced them to close it. The jail was the site of several hangings. I had also hoped to find out the outcome of a “citizen’s arrest” that my great grandfather made of a man who raped a pregnant woman (she later died). The news articles I found said that a mob was after the rapist who was moved to a larger town nearby. The last article I found interviewed a mob member who said that the man, Sam Johnson, wouldn’t survive long enough to come to trial. It’s no wonder that William, my great grandfather, decided to move with his wife to Illinois to start his family there. He later moved to Red Wing MN. My branch of the family moved to Minneapolis which is where I was born.

Several early battles of the Civil War were fought in Boonville. One of the historical signs said that the war progress was affected by the early battles in Boonville as an important supply of armaments was maintained under Union control and the governor of Missouri who was a secessionist was hounded out of town. My relatives joined the Union army the earliest day that they could join. Before that, assumably, they were part of the “Home Guard”, unpaid soldiers on the Union side.

Our last stop on the way out of Missouri was the little town of Bunceton. The train depot is still there along with a train engine. (See pictures) My great grandmother, who became Anna Back (born “ Annie” Meisburger) lived in Bunceton. She apparently knew the Back family very well. My sister had a small album for signatures that she showed me while I was in Minnesota before traveling through Missouri. On one page Annie’s future sister in law, Emma Back, teases Annie about how Willie (William) is glad for “Bunceton station”. He apparently went to Bunceton to court Annie. I’m not sure where they met, perhaps they lived in Boonville and then moved to Bunceton. It will be good to look again at census records as prior to seeing this signature book I had no idea the Meisburger family lived in Bunceton.

While we were in Missouri we met one of the riders from our southern Coast to Coast tour. Marla met us in Columbia for lunch. She lives in St. Louis. We had met Cecil in Iowa, he is also a rider from our Coast to Coast tour. Fun to have reunions with them!

Unfortunately, we didn’t ride on the Katy trail at all. The weather continued to be often rainy and mostly fairly cold (in the 40’s) although we had two freakish days of high 80 degrees which plunged again into 40’s. We did visit Rocheport on a day when it was partly cloudy and managed to walk for a little more than an hour to see the high bluffs near the town and climb to an overlook over a former train tunnel. However, by the end of our walk the rain started again. We saw several groups of riders. They were managing to avoid most of the rain by starting later in the day but we saw one group that started so late they were riding in the dark to get to the campground. Both groups had not heard from the Katy Roundhouse owners so we told them the code for the bathrooms. The campground was really strange in that in the four days we were there we never saw the owners or anyone managing the place. They appear to operate it completely on the honor system, at least during the off season. They also had recently flushed their water system with bleach. It was quite undrinkable, at least to our taste, so we bought a jug of water for cooking and drinking.

The Bunceton Depot where my great grandfather went to visit my future great grandmother.

The old Cooper County historic jail, in use until 1978!

An early battle of the Civil War was fought in Boonville. It is likely my ancestors fought on the Union side.

The gravesite of my great great grandparents at Walnut Grove Cemetery. 

Also my great great grandparents. They are in the Catholic cemetery, Saints Peter and Paul cemetery.

My great great great grandparents in a beautiful site at the Sunset Hills cemetery.

Also great great grandparents.

A driving and camping tour: Heading (eventually) to the southwest

Today we are driving in a fierce headwind from Iowa to Missouri. We have had cold weather (high 40’s and low 50’s) ever since we left Michigan on September 19. For some inexplicable reason, today it is 89 degrees with a strong south wind. It makes the driving difficult for Dave, especially since the road doesn’t always go due south. We also had a period of bad road surface. I’m not sure what caused it but it made the truck bob. We are quite sure it was the road because when we got off the U.S Highway and onto a tiny county road, the bobbing stopped. Now that we are in Missouri we are back on U.S. 63 and it’s fine.
We were in Minnesota visiting my family from September 21 through October 1. Then we headed down to Des Moines, Iowa and camped at an campground run by the Army Corps of Engineers  on the Saylorville Resevoir near Ankeny, Iowa. There we were able to connect with Cecil, one of the riders we got to know on our Coast to Coast southern bike trip in 2015. Cecil showed us the High Trestle Trail bridge. The Des Moines area has a great network of paved bike trails. Our plan for the day was to bike on the High Trestle trail to see the biking bridge. http://www.inhf.org/what-we-do/protection/high-trestle-trail/
The High Trestle Trail bridge is unique. It is a half mile long and has arches built to be representative of the coal mines that used to be in the Des Moines area. I would like to see it at night at some future time. This trip it was too cold and misty to really want to go out in the late evening to bike to the bridge. It is a distance of about 2 1/2 to 3 miles from the little town of Madrid (pronounced “Maa drid” with the accent on Maa). Cecil was a great host in showing us the area.
During our ride we saw some great big flocks of white pelicans from the High Trestle Trail Bridge high (13 stories high) over the Des Moines river! They were flying in a formation called a “kettle”. It was difficult to get a photo of the immensity of the size of the kettle, there were easily 25 or more birds in each of the kettles we saw and a hundred in the flock hanging out on the shoreline. One informational sign I saw said the Upper part of the dammed Saylorville reservoir is a globally important bird habitat.
Now we are heading down to an RV park near the Katy Trail. We plan to stay in the Boonville MO area for several days. I am interested in seeing the area especially because my paternal Great Great grandparents came to this area from Alsace Lorraine France and Germany in the mid 1800’s. I also hope to find out more information about my Great great grandfather’s murder in 1874. There is a larger town nearby (Columbia) that has some newspapers on microfiche from that era. As well, there are cemeteries and headstones in Boonville. I’ll let you know what I find.
It is really great to camp on the Katy rail trail and have a sense that my ancestors rode on the train that went right by our campsite. We had a nice sunset that I could see through the trees. Although my picture doesn't look too impressive it seems like I haven't seen the sun in weeks!