June 2011- Sum-Sum-Summertime! With a long hard spring season of work behind him, Casey was ready for some family fun and relaxation. We decided to rent a travel trailer and head west to the refreshing Balmorhea State Park with its natural spring fed 2-acre pool. And we had promised our Pecos that we would take him to the annual rodeo in Pecos, TX.
It was 110°F or more each day. The poor A/C unit in our little travel trailer ran non-stop all day just to keep it bearable. So glad we decided to stay at a place with a refreshing pool. The park itself doesn't have a whole lot to offer but the pool makes up for it. The campsites are minimal with not much shade but beautiful views.
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| fun exploring the state park |
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| san solomon spring, providing a refreshing 72 degree pool |
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| view from our campsite |
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| making s'mores |
The pool has probably one of the last outdoor high dive boards anywhere. Casey did his best to show us his Olympic diving skills.
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| cannon ball! |
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| can opener...not sure they have that in the Olympics |
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| Have you ever seen it so hot it could curl up a Croc? We left these outside of the travel trailer one day and they curled up like a Frito. We never could get them to straighten back out! |
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| Pecos spent 3 days "swimming" on the steps |
With all these signs to point the way we didn't get lost. At one point Pecos said "Can you believe it? My name is on everything around here!"
Did I mention how HOT it was? It was so hot the pavement in Pecos was melting.
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| Howdy- from Pecos in Pecos! |
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| I tried to talk Casey and Pecos into shaping their hats this way. |
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| classic rodeo entertainment |
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| brazos got a little hot waiting for the rodeo to begin |
Pecos wanted to see a cave (but was a bit worried it would have bears in it). On our way through Sonora we stopped at Caverns of Sonora. Unfortunately they don't have any self-guided tours and the only group tour they offer is 2 1/2 hours long and we had just missed it. Don't think that length of a tour would have worked out for us having to hold Brazos. So we opted to take a drive one day to Carlsbad, NM to visit Carlsbad Caverns. It was well worth the trip even though we kind of rushed through the self-guided tour...Pecos was cold and Brazos was un-interested after the first 5 minutes. Plus we didn't dress warm enough for the cool 55°F temperature of the cave. I highly recommend a trip to the Caverns if you are in the area...and even if you are not in the area, you should make a detour for it.
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| A fire had burned a large portion of the park about 2 weeks before we were there. On the drive up to the visitor center we could see where fire retardant had been dropped from helicopters. This photo was taken at the entrance to the visitor center. |
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| matching smiles! |
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| all that cave exploration wiped him out and made for a peaceful ride back to the campground |
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| pecos was allowed to pick 2 things at the gift shop. this is one of them. |
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| His other gift shop selection- a dinosaur fossil excavation kit, which kept him very busy back at the campground. |
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| It took 2 days to pack and load the travel trailer, but only 20 minutes to unload this mess! |
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Pecos enjoyed serving as navigator...good thing we had a GPS.
We were packed like sardines. If our rental car had a luggage rack we would have used it, but instead this is how we loaded up. We had to stop shopping because we were out of room.
Pecos with 
It only took them 20 minutes on our first day to find a cow. Pecos wanted to know if he could rope it.
Then on a lion.
The national snack of Germany- a pretzel. With a pretzel in one hand and a doughnut in the other Pecos fit right in with the locals.
Casey couldn't 
This is how Pecos spent the 10 hour overnight flight to Germany.
And this is how he spent it on the way home...not an overnight flight.