6^th April – sun is shining with spring presenting herself to us with another glorious day, camped under a large oak tree in the small and peaceful Blanco State Park, just west of Austin TX. I departed the "alluring" Colorado River RV Park and Resort (I can’t, even in my wildest imagination, see the "resort" part of this camp ground) amid rain and hail as a line of bad weather moved in. I had just dropped Richard off and hurriedly returned to the campsite to get myself underway before the weather arrived…..too late. As I endeavored (or the Aussie spelling, endeavoured) to transfer myself and Walker from truck to trailer amid the hail, Walker took one look from his lair on the back seat of the truck and shot me that "are you out of your mind woman" look and promptly settled on the back seat again.…..smart dog for it was me who was left standing outside the truck, in the hail.

I thought I would be in the mountains here, but wrong, this area is referred to as the "hill country"……good wine area I am told, despite it being a little shaley and scrubby. I guess we are in the land that experiences what we would call in Australia "the wet", judging by the number of signs warning of flash floods and the depth of the drainage systems and washes (Aussies, read…natural drainage ditches). No doubt they are eagerly awaiting the rains here for they are currently in a 3 year drought situation and it is not looking pretty for them.

As of today, Richard has made the halfway mark according to longitude. He will have another few days of riding, however, before he makes the halfway mark in actual miles. I wanted to celebrate with a bottle of champagne, but, trooper that he is, he said, no let us wait until San Diego before we celebrate.

16^th April – Seminole Canyon, on the border of Texas and Mexico. It is difficult to see why so many fought and died for this piece of the country – dry, desolate, windswept, but vast and timeless at the same time. The border patrol people are very conspicuous in their numbers here. They must have keen eyesight for the other night some young "gentlemen" left their calling cards by destroying several of the signs in the park and then proceeding to set the scrub on fire. (A large portion of western Texas is already experiencing severe wildfires, attested by all the smoke in the area). This event took place in the middle of the night, yet the border patrol guards spotted the fire, awakened the park ranger and together they put the fire out before it took hold…………thankfully, as we here in the camp grounds would have been trapped, given where they had started the fire. Don’t ya just love the mindset of some people! Fortunately the rangers have a pretty good idea of the identity of those responsible and were taking it very seriously. I even had a visit from the park ranger for a statement as I had casually commented while paying my bill at the office, that I had noticed the sign destruction while out walking the dog. The ranger paid me a visit in Mandy to pin down times in order to nail the "gentlemen" involved. Once business was done, we had a pleasant chat about life as a ranger in the back blocks of Texas…..most interesting.

While here in Seminole Canyon, I am camped on top of a knoll, with a panoramic view of Mexico. The downside is the wind which howls through here around 30-40 knots during the day. Early morning and evenings are just delightful however, with the sun ravaged landscape taking on a softer hue at those times and the wind fading to a gentle warm breeze. Nice time to settle in with a glass of wine in hand.

Richard took a rest day with me a couple of days ago and has now moved on ahead. My intention of "doing my own thing" has morphed more into a support for him. I am continuing to follow his path relatively closely, with him spending probably 3 or 4 nights out of the week with Walker and I, which is very nice.

Yesterday I joined a small tour and hiked down into the Seminole Canyon to view some 4,000yr old rock paintings, created by people who, to this day, remain unidentified – the Indians who are descendants of the original tribes who inhabited this region, claim no heritage or knowledge of these people. The geology of this area is truly fascinating, with rock faces displaying layers dating back 95 million years with some layers containing fossils of sea urchins, clams and coral. The land has been uplifted over time for we are at about 1500ft in elevation.

As I look around, I am truly in awe and take my hat off to those who conquered the West without cell coverage! Verizon…my greatest source of frustration, continue to suck when it comes to their cell and wifi coverage. The lack of cell coverage makes for interesting planning and organizing rendezvous between Richard and I as he moves westward. The challenges also include forward booking and locating of camp sites and all those other things that our technologically orientate culture requires computer access for.

17^th April – today I reached Fort Davis, at an elevation of 5,000ft, highest town in Texas, (poor Richard knew all about that climb). I had been informed the State Park I had reservations in had succumbed to the wildfires and has been closed as with the Observatory which is ranked around the 6^th best in the world for viewing the "out there". I have therefore camped in town in a seedy campground for the night with Richard arriving about the same time as I did. Fortunately, as of yesterday, the fires around here have been whipped and beaten into submission and are all but lifeless now.

As I drove through the small towns up to Fort Davis it was eye opening to see the wildfire devastation and how the people had fought a desperate but successful front against the fires around each of the settlements, saving most of the infrastructure of their towns. Everything was black and wasted up to the very edges of the townships but sadly many of outer homes had not been so lucky. In places, smoke was still rising from the remnants of what once was someone’s home and property with an occasional, small, unburnt paddock, surrounded by black, in which stood a lone horse, or two, standing in the middle, alive and safe. Tragically, the loss of cattle, horses and wildlife, who graze the plains, has been high despite the heroic efforts of many firefighters and volunteers.

As we moved on down the mountain range onto the open plains, it was soul destroying to see the towns in this desolate region which are dying or are beyond dying, being truly finished, dead, extinct. These towns were established in the late 1800s to support the railway line, but the lines no longer require the support. The people who still live in the towns appear, for the most part, to lead hard lives. I entered into conversation with a campground host one evening. I asked what he was doing in this particular "lost town" and he said "hiding". A refugee from Las Vegas. Great place to hide although I did not pursue who or what he was hiding from.

Had the border patrol police chase me down as I was using a service road to hunt for Richard and in so doing I apparently bypassed the border patrol inspection point…………a big no no…oh dear! I was re-routed back through the inspection point where the sniffer dog on duty showed no interest in us. If they perhaps thought they had a drug runner, I sadly disappointed them and I was happy to be on my way. Drug runners and drug cartels are, however, a real problem along the Mexican/US border with many, many bodies found, and continuing to be found, in shallow mass graves, mostly just inside the Mexican border, according to the local news.

By the way, Richard is keeping a blog running and updating it daily, covering his journey The website is www.tinyurl.com/rfmolony

The winds through the remainder of Texas and on into New Mexico have been relentless, gusting 50 – 60 knots at times which has made traveling difficult and sometimes impossible in a high profile vehicle. I have given up trying to stay atop the dust which accumulates in Mandy.

1st May…I left Richard 5 days ago and with Walker, headed north. The plan was to stay in a very primitive (no water, electric, etc) State Park south east of Albuquerque then head north past Santa Fe to meet up with a girlfriend in Ojo Caliente, the hot mineral springs where we would spend the weekend and catch up. Fortunately, I changed my mind enroute and headed straight for Albuquerque where I experienced a fascinating 3 days, for many reasons. The weather played a hand again, with below freezing temps and snow in Sante Fe and further north……so no hot mineral springs for me. Therefore I sat out the rough weather in a nice Casino RV park just out of Albuquerque and took in the sights and sounds of the Gathering of Nations. This represented the gathering of tribes from all over North America, Mexico and Canada who came to compete in traditional dance and music. It is the largest Pow Wow in Northern America and it just happened to be in Alburquerque that weekend…lucky me. My girlfriend, who is entrenched in the Peublo culture, then took me in hand and I had a wonderful introduction to the Native American culture. I even witnessed an Apache Gan Dance. This was separate from the Pow Wow and was performed for only a small gathering of people. The dance is a sacred healing dance with dancers dressed as Mountain Spirits. It is rarely performed for the general public, but I noticed three people of Indian descent receiving the healing of the dance…..perhaps there was a story there. I now recognize my belief that the Native American culture was one of peace and blending is not quite correct. Between the tribes, butchery and slavery was also a part of their culture which surprised me.

May 2^nd, Walker and I headed west from Albuquerque to the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. Spent the afternoon walking through the open grasslands mixed with multi colored (coloured) eroding cliffs where hundreds of large trees lie where they fell, 250 million years ago, and the silica of the eroding cliffs have immortalized every details of them into stone. Wind and water are slowly exposing them. Quite fascinating yet unsettling for some reason and was happy to move on.

May 3^rd…my birthday and Walker and I will head for Sedona today, a place long on my "to visit" list. That means that I am now in Arizona and wow I can even see snow on the mountains ahead…yeah, out of the desert....it is now pm of the same day and I have made Camp Verde, south of Sedona. On the way today… I took Mandy on a side trip so I could go see the best preserved meteor crater on earth. This lunar landscape, where the Apollo crews trained, was apparently created by a meteor some 50,000 years ago...impressive.

Spent this morning exploring the surrounding countryside of Sedona, known for its vortexes of energy….yep could sure feel them! Walker, however, had no patience with me when I liked to just sit quietly for awhile and take in the natural beauty around me…..he always keeps nudging and bugging me until I am up and moving. It is just so heavenly to be back into somewhat greener country, with lots of natural hiking trails. The truck decided she was doing too much work and needed some attention too, so presented me with an emissions problem when we returned from hiking this morning. Dropped into a local mechanic who found she needed a replacement O2 (whatever), but I will have to wait for the part, expected in early tomorrow morning. I will head back tomorrow morning and when truckie is a happy camper again, supposedly only a ½hour job, I will head towards Richard and catch him around Friday lunch time.

The plan is to follow him across the last desert, over the mountains and into San Diego. He looks like he will complete the adventure from St. Augustine Fl. to San Diego CA. in about 10 days. If all goes to plan we will then move onto LA where Richard and I hope to spend a night aboard the Queen Mary, which has been turned into a hotel. Our anniversary and my birthday present…….yeah! We then fly to Washington DC for Kate’s graduation on 21/22^nd May, (after no less than 7 years of study, completed in 6 years). We are very proud of her efforts. Our bank account will also be delighted now she has completed her studies. Travis is flying up for the graduation which will gives us a wonderful family weekend together. Once back in LA (Walker will be pleased) the three of us make our way north to Canada.

Time to go, be well, be safe, be happy

Diane

PS, the energy here in Sedona must be really screwy, as not only has the truck given her opinion today, but also Mandy, for when I returned to camp, I could not retract the electric awning and then broke my glasses while trying to resolve the problem. Two kind gentlemen came to the rescue as I blew one fuse after another, (not my fuse but Mandy’s awning fuse). It is now retracted but I need to also visit a dealership tomorrow about the awning. Can you believe it….there is one right where Richard will be tomorrow night which is a 4 hour drive from here…hey ho. As there are only about 5 La Mesa service centers (for warranty work) in the whole of the States, I also have luck with me too it would seem. Onward we go………..