Texas RV Travel blog

The sentence below was all I needed to read to realize my guest blog this week would be Andrea Allison and her blog, Southern Expressions.

I live in Collinsville, Oklahoma but am a Texan at heart.

Southern Expressions is about youth, dreams, hopes and determination. Andrea is a published writer of young adult contemporary and horror fiction. She has set goals on becoming a better writer.

Southern Expressions is definitely worth a read and a blog mark. Then, when she is a well known writer, you may say: “I used to read her writing on her blog, back in ‘06 …”

Tags: Southern Expressions, contemporary fiction, horror writting, goal setting

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Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for those who died in service to our country. Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday in 1971, to be celebrated on the last Monday of May.

Originally know as Decoration Day, it is believed that Memorial day started in the United States after the Civil War to remember fallen Union soldiers. This might be true, because eight southern states hold a separate memorial day for fallen Confederate soldiers.

About 5,000 people attend the Memorial Day ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery each year. A small American flag is placed on each grave and the President lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Ways You Might Celebrate Memorial Day:

• visit cemeteries and war memorials and place flags or flowers in remembrance
• attend Memorial Day parades or your local VFW hall
• fly the US flag at half-staff until noon
• add the POW/MIA flag to your flagpole
• participate in National Moment of Remembrance at 3 PM (local time)
• view the National Memorial Day Concert

National Memorial Day Concert

The PBS National Memorial Day Concert features music, video and stories that honor all Americans who have served or made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The PBS program is broadcast live at 8 PM EST so that television viewers across the nation can enjoy the event.

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Cowgirl Caravan

Sisters on the Fly is a group of women who fly fish, ride horses, caravan in vintage travel trailers and enjoy being together in the beautiful outdoors. The sisterhood started with two sisters, Maurrie and Becky who learned to flyfish from their mom.

The sisters decided to share their love of fly fishing and outdoor activities like horseback riding with other women. Only women may join Sisters on the Fly, although male trail guides and fishing guides are sometimes necessary.

Please visit Sisters on the Fly and check their event calendar for outings in your area. You do not have to own a vintage travel trailer to join. Some of the women drive diesel pushers, some have vans with tents and one or two have homemade gypsy wagons. All are welcome to the sisterhood.

From Sisters on the Fly website:

You are encouraged to join us on one of our trips and let yourselves be spoiled rotten PLUS learn to fish, and gather some new sisters you didn’t know you had. We range in age from 83 to 28 with most in between.

Sisters on the Fly will help you restore or locate a vantage trailer, like this one pictured below:

‘54 Aljoa
This item costs $5500
Contact Maurrie at 602-996-4491
msussman1@cox.net

Tags: Sisters on the Fly, Cowgirl Caravan, flyfishing, vintage trailers, women only please

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If you like Texas music, journey to the Quiet Valley Ranch for the 35th Annual Kerrville Folk Festival, which started today and will continue for 18 straight days.

Located in the Texas Hill Country, the festival is a family-friendly Texas tradition. Performers include Guy Clark (Sunday, May 28), Sue Foley (Monday, May 29), Dar Williams on (Sunday, June 4), and The Limeliters (Saturday, June 10).

Here just a sampling of the varied music fare:

* Jimmy LaFave
* Asylum Street Spankers
* Terri Hendrix
* Bobby Bridger
* Butch Hancock
* Slaid Cleaves
* Austin Lounge Lizards
* Trout Fishing in America

There are songwriters and storytellers and cowboy poets; workshops and competitions for new songwriters, teachers and aspiring singers; bike rides and canoe trips; Texas food and wine; arts and crafts booths … 1000s of people come from all over the globe to attend and perform.

You may come for a day or for the entire festival. Camping on the Quiet Valley Ranch includes RV hookups for those who think ahead. For those who do not, there are hotels, motels and campgrounds within an easy drive from the festival site.

Tags: Kerrville Folk Festival, Kerrville, Texas, folk music, storytellers, cowboy poets, family friendly music event

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Colorado Bend State Park (CBSP) is situated on the the site of two former ranches. CBSP encompasses 5,328 acres, including six miles of frontage on the Colorado River.

There are plans to develop CBSP. Now, the attractions are all natural: primitive camping, fishing, swimming, birding and wildlife watching.

Add 16 miles of hiking trails and 14 miles of mountain bike trails (Upper Gorman Creek Trail and River Trail), and there is something for everyone at CBSP.

The most magnficant feature in CBSP is Gorman Falls, a 60-foot high spring-fed waterfall. Water from the creek flows over the cliff and deposits minerals that create travertine formations. Gorman Falls is only available by tour.

At the bottom of the drop is Spicewood Creek, a refreshing natural pool. Please visit the Pbase photograph archive by RichO. He has captured some fine pictures of the Gorman waterfall (and other water features at state parks in Texas).

Although the park has not been developed, there are remnants of its many past lives. The park headquarters is housed in the former Gorman Falls Fish Camp office. You may see the roadbed where it once crossed the creek; the gold mine is still evident and you may find an old tool or two; an old pump, perhaps used to provide water for railroad steam engines and finally to water lifestock, rusts at the top of a hill; and every now and then you will come across a railroad tie.

There are approximately 378 caves and karst features on Colorado Bend State Park. A few are accessible via cave walking and cave crawling tours. Gorman Creek Crevice is the longest cave in San Saba County. In fact it may be the longest cave in Texas. Lemon Ranch Cave has spectacular formations. Many of the caves are little more than sinkholes, but do not explore the caves on your own. In some caves, the level of CO2 is dangerous.

Contact the park (325/628-3240) to make reservations for guided tour and for more information.

• Gorman Falls Tours - 10 am and 2 pm Saturday; 10 am. Sunday (weather permitting).
• Gorman Cave Walking Tours - 915 am Saturday and Sunday (resource and weather permitting)
• Crawling Cave Tours - 9 am First Saturday of each month (resource and weather permitting)

When Lake Buchanan is at normal levels, the trip from the park to Lake Buchannan is a 10-mile trip through the beautiful canyonlands of the Colorado River. Kayak or canoe if water levels permit.

Tags: Colorado Bend State Park, Gorman Falls, travertine falls, 378 karst features and caves, springfed pool, guided tour, Colorado River, Bend, Texas

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My guest blog this week is Amateur Viewfinder: Discover my Misadventures with my Shutterbox. The photographer is Rexe Pe who lives in Jiangsu, China. Jiangsu province is located west of Shanghai, covers an area of over 100,000 square kilometers and has a population of some 65 million people.

Road to the Confucian Temple

Neon lights give a new meaning to classic Chinese architecture at the entrance to Fuzi Miao. Today, the Confucian Temple in Nanjing sits in the middle of a commercial district that attracts local and foreign tourists alike, not only for its historical significance but also for the wide variety of shops that stretches out into the whole length of the pedestrian street.

The picture to the right is of Rexe Pe’s son, who is always getting in front of the viewfinder and posing. No wonder! What a good looking boy.

Rexe Pe writes of himself:

I’m a little speck that stings the eye that dare not blink, but mostly a student whose writing attempts and creative work are drawn from my insatiable quest for enlightenment and curiosity about man and the universe.

His photographs convey his deep love of his country and his art. He not only takes pictures, but provides a narrative for what the viewer is seeing. It is like taking a virtual tour with a friend.

Rexe Pe has another photography blog and it is called Reflections Unlimited: Your Window to My Life in China and Elsewhere. My favorite picture is of the Karst Mountains in Yizhou County.

Karst Mountains

One might wonder someone with great creative gifts must have been playing with these rocks like pebbles in a sand box. First time travellers around Yizhou can get the feel of the misty mountains that are dominant in classical Chinese painting styles.

Amateur Viewfinder and Reflections Unlimited are written in English so that we may share Rexe Pe’s journeys, stories and philosophy. Both blogs are worthy of a long visit and will help you to understand another culture through the viewfinder of a native.

Please visit both of these wonderful photography blogs and say hello to Rexe Pe. Tell him CyberCelt sent you.

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Shallow, salty and teeming with life, the Laguna Madre stretches more than 200 miles from southern Texas into northern Mexico, sheltered between barrier islands and the mainland. The Laguna Madre covers 609 square miles of estuarine and coastal marine systems.

The Laguna Madre is one of the five saltiest bodies of water on Earth. Without freshwater inflows from rivers, the salt content of the lower Laguna Madre is high, from 35 to 45 parts per 1000 of water. This saltiness is intensified by heat and the shallow water depth, ranging from 2.5 to 5 feet.

Meadows of seagrass thrive in the lower Laguna Madre, providing a nurturing home for young finfish, shrimp and shellfish. Having established an exclusive dependence on seagrass, more than 75 percent of the world population of redhead ducks winters in the Laguna Madre, which also provides wintering habitat for the endangered piping plover.

Endangered sea turtles share the beaches and coastal mainland with two magnificent wildcats: ocelot and jaguarundi.

Only 80 ocelots remain in Texas; 35 of them live at the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.

Public Access to Laguna Madre

Padre Island National Seashore

Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge

South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center

Port Aransas - Just became a National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR)

Mustang Island State Park

Cities on Laguna Madre

Corpus Christi

Port Mansfield

South Padre Island

Tags: Laguna Madre, Mother Lagoon, sea grass meadow, high salinity, redhead duck, piping plover, barrier island, Ripley Turtle, Ocelot, Jaguarundi

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