White Shaman

One of the big things we wanted to do while we were here is to see the cave paintings. They are excellent, about 4000 years old and pretty well preserved and documented. They are trying to get them registered as UNESCO world heritage sites. We had already gone to the Seminole Canyon site and today we went to the White Shaman site. Seminole Canyon is a Texas state park. White Shaman is on private property and is administered by the Rock Art Foundation out of San Antonio. WE had been here before, but had Sarah's parents with us and they didn't feel like climbing the steep canyons and scrambling over loose rock. Well, we did and today we went back.






We drove down an old rutted dirt road and met up with a group forming. The tours are given by volunteers and are only given at 1230 on Saturdays. WE descended into the canyon across slick limestone and scree. The canyon is formed by the Pecos river near the confluence with the Rio Grande.

At the first stop we saw some faded red images, not the main event though. The images showed figures that appeared to link arms. They grew smaller as they went higher in the canyon.



After that we followed the guide down into the main painting area. Michael stopped frequently anytime he found a fossil in a rock or an embedded shell. He is great at volunteering information to the guide and much like at the Sonora Caverns, he quickly became the junior tour guide. The paintings were very cool. Apparently they know the white shaman painting is important because they white paint is the most difficult to produce and therefore the most valuable. It is really cool to think about the people that made the paintings and the world they lived in then.












Then we hiked back out of the canyon and drove home. Max hiked the whole way by himself. That's pretty good as he usually gets carried a good part of the way. Of course, he tried to get into someone's arms today, just didn't happen for him. He had a good nap on the way home. When we did get home, we discovered Michael has his first loose tooth. How time flies.

1/11/12

Just read the kids a bedtime story. Then Michael wanted to read us a chapter from the Frog and Toad book. Nothing quite like having your 5 year old read everyone a bedtime story.

1/9/2012

Happy New Year to everyone. We have made plans for our next destination. WE are going to Springdale Arkansas. It will get us up close to my Mom for a contract and have us in prime position to move either North or East for the next contract in late spring. It is another smaller hospital, but it sounds interesting.

There are a few things I saw when I lived in Branson, that I would like to take everyone to and I am sure Sarah will find more than enough stuff for us to explore as well. Just going to have to adjust to the cold.

12-27-11

Sarah's parents coming in today. Looks like they are going to stay for a week. Will be crowded, but happy. Michael woke up early this morning, saying, "It feels like a holiday. Papa's coming today." Cute kid.

Out our back window, there is a canal that is dry most of the time. Every three weeks or so, some gate somewhere is opened and water flows about 8 inches deep. The cool thing is that deer roam about back there and it is fun to watch them while sitting at the computer.

It was a good Christmas. Michael noticed that he didn't quite get as many presents on Christmas day as he had expected. I had to tell him that was an unfortunate side effect of having this be his fourth Christmas. One at Sarah's parents, one at the B&B ranch, one with his friend Ace and then finally, Christmas morning. Max got a bucket full of football guys and was happy.

12/13/11

Not a tremendous amount to report these days, thus the sparsity of posts. We have spent time traveling to see family. There isn't much scenic family friendly adventure here in Del Rio. There are some cave paintings nearby which we want to see, but have not yet been able. We were thwarted in our one attempt so far.

We bought a tent and have our eyes on some nice sleeping bags for future camping purposes. That was Sarah and my Christmas presents to each other.

We are headed back to Houston, for the third time, this weekend to see family yet again and to exchange presents.

Michael stayed in Houston this time and this means five days away from all of us, we miss him. It has been nice to have Max time though. He is such a cute kid and thrives under the direct undiluted attention.

Sarah and I went running today of all things. 7 minutes. I am trying a time rather than a distance goal. We toyed with the idea of setting a goal to run a marathon in a year. We will see how that goes.

11-8-11

Just an all too infrequent check in. We are settled into the park here in Del Rio. It is an old mobile home park converted to an RV park. The work to get into the site and get set up was more than we are used to, but I think it was worth it. We have a fenced in yard in a lot that was sized for a double wide trailer. Livin' high on that hog!

The hospital is small, very small. It is quite an adjustment and I am not looking forward to the inevitable adjustment going back to a bigger ER. Today I went three hours at a stretch without a patient. None.

Tomorrow we head out for Houston to see doctors and dentists and mechanics, oh my! It will be very good to see the family as we miss them very much. I am even going to try to step into my Kaju class again for a night.

Michael is taken over by the materialistic spirit of Christmas. Took one Target catalog. Max is busy testing every boundary there is and finding new ones all the time. He is also attempting to use crying and whining to achieve his ends. Need to get that nipped. Life progresses and we are still exploring it. There is a somewhat historic canyon here we want to explore. There are some fish in the lake I want to amuse. I say Judge Roy Bean's grave the other day. All good in the adventure life.

Del Rio

WE made it to Del Rio. 1860 miles in 6 days. That was tiring. There was some beautiful scenery and we got to add two more stickers to Irv. Now there is a Colorado shaped hole in the map that we need to fill.

During the drive I told Max I couldn't reach some toy he had dropped. He said it made him sad. I told him that's OK, we can be sad together and I put on a pouty lip. Max told me no, Mommy's and Daddy's don't can't be sad, they can only be angry.


Kids.