Top Ten Lists - Attractions

Roger here.... Continuing on with our top ten lists from our first five years of travel in the motor home, this post covers attractions that we have experienced.  The attractions tend to involve less time than the excursions from the last post,  but there are obvious shades of gray between the two categories.

1.  McDonald Observatory, near Fort Davis, Texas.

This facility, which is administered by the university of Texas, was fascinating.  We attended a special program that included dinner and a viewing through the 160-ton Harlan J. Smith reflecting telescope.  We were able to see an M-3 star cluster, as well as the rings of Saturn.  

Lots of telescopes here housed in their own special observatories.  Worth a return visit to this otherworldly mountaintop.





2 (tie).  Potash Road, along the Colorado River, near Moab, Utah.

Three adventures in one on this unexpected day.  We drove along the Colorado River on Potash Road in search of some roadside petroglyphs that we had read about.  We found them -- hundreds of them -- along a relatively long stretch of road.

Down the road a couple of miles we found fossils of dinosaur tracks.  (the two prints on the right side of the rectangular boulder)  I scrambled up the rubble to get a better look.

Further down the road we accidently discovered the movie props from the Disney movie, The Lone Ranger along with the star trailer camp for the cast and crew.

2 (tie).  Umpqua Lighthouse, near Winchester Bay, Oregon.

We took a guided tour of the lighthouse during the day.  

The red lenses were imported from France.

A return visit at night was most memorable.  We loved the way the beams of light reflected onto the surrounding trees.  Like dancing faeries!  --  D.

4.  Miami Metro Zoo.  Miami, Florida.

The day we spent at the zoo was very early in our travels.  We both still rate this as 

the finest zoo we have ever visited.  

5. Luckenbach, Texas.  Near Fredericksburg.

This is a mandatory stop when we visit the Hill Country of Texas.  It seems to be a pure Texas experience, at least to a Indiana boy like me.

It is a great place to take family and friends when they visit.  The pretty lil gal on the right is our daughter, Amanda.

The free live music, the very laid back people, and the Shiner (or Lone Star) Beer truly make this a not-to-be missed Texas experience.

Marfa Lights, Marfa, Texas.

Marfa is an isolated small town in West Texas.  The movie, Giant, with James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor was filmed here.

It has a beautiful courthouse and town square.  However, the attraction for us was the mystery of the Marfa lights.  We were staying at nearby Davis Mountains State Park.  It was evening and I was ready for bed.  Dianne insisted that we go to the nearby viewing station in Marfa to see if we could get a glimpse of the controversial lights that appear and move on the horizon on an irregular basis.  There is documentation of Native Americans seeing them before the invention of the lightbulb.  I did not want to go.  I was sleepy.  It was time for bed.  You know who always wins these arguments :-).  What a mistake it would have been to go to bed!  The lights appeared that night.  The feeling that we both felt was surreal.  So glad we saw them.  Still don't know what we saw.

7.  (three-way tie).  Ojo Caliente, Ojo Caliente, New Mexico.

We needed a place to stay in an isolated part of northern New Mexico.  I found a mineral spa that happened to have a few RV sites.  We are not spa people, but we both agreed that this was fun.

There were several different natural hot springs as well as the mud bath that Dianne does not want people to see.  

What a relaxing place and an unexpected adventure.

7.  (three-way tie).  Wolf Park.  Battleground, Indiana.

Wolf Park is a research facility that schedules night howls for visitors.  These are handsome and intriguing creatures that live in a pack in a huge natural setting surrounded by fence.  The audience initiated the howling that the wolves responded to.   The park officials talked about the research being done while wandering through the pack.

7.  (three-way tie).  LBJ Ranch, near Johnson City, Texas.

We skipped this during our first visits to the Hill Country, but finally paid a visit.  We are so glad we did.  The Texas White House, shown above, truly was the location of much of the political world during the Johnson years.

The audio tour allowed us to travel through the expansive ranch and view many of the highlights of LBJ's youth and later presidency. Check out an early version of Air Force One.

The property remains a working ranch.  

10 (tie).  Powell's City of Books, Portland, Oregon.

This is the largest privately owned bookstore in the country.  It is housed in a multi-storied building in downtown Portland.  They sell both new and used books.  We spent quite a bit of time here with our daughters and granddaughter.  Had we not set a prearranged meeting time and place, we might still be browsing.

10 (tie).  River Walk.  San Antonio, Texas.

We have been here a few times and always love it.  The pictures in this post show our time with our granddaugher, Kaia (above)...

... and our daughters, Amanda and Robyn.  

Margarita time for the grown-ups.





HONORABLE MENTIONS:  too many great places not to include these.

United States Air Force Academy Chapel.  Colorado Springs, Colorado.

I was here as a child and wanted Dianne to see it.  I love architecture and this is an architectural classic.  

Loved the stained glass.

Duluth Harbor.  Duluth, Minnesota. 

Just one of those cool places... on the water with water barges, next to a huge lift bridge, a museum, restaurants, Duluth Trading Company, and ice cream.

Dania Beach,  between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, Florida.

We spent an afternoon at the beach here so we could watch...

... the parade of cruise ships leave Fort Lauderdale.

The Desert Zoo.  Desert Hot Springs, California.

An excellent small zoo on the San Andreas Fault that features desert animals from across the world...

... appropriately to a desert zoo, it was a hot, hot day.

Astoria Column.  Astoria, Oregon.

We climbed to the top of this mural-covered Italianate structure with our friends, Jay and Nancy...

... and oh, the view.

The Running of the Ducks.  Peabody Hotel, Memphis, Tennessee.

The ducks take an elevator from the rooftop to the lobby every day...

.... and after a waddle on the red carpet they plop into the fountain in the lobby to spend the rest of the day.

11th Street Cowboy Bar.  Bandera, Texas.

Wow.  This doesn't look like much.  Why would people tell me to go here?

It sure isn't very big.  What are those things hanging from the ceiling?

Go out the back door?  Why would we go out the back door?

Oh my gravy, look at this huge place!  

We were here for a very short time with our friends, Chuck and Cindy.  Worth another visit when the musicians are on the stage.

The next top ten list will highlight our favorite tours.

Dancing with Wolves

Roger here....   Dianne and I love being outdoors.  It is one of the reasons we enjoy our RV lifestyle.  We have always been intrigued by Wolf Park.  It is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of wolves in captivity and in the wild through behavioral research and education.  It is located just a few miles from West Lafayette, Indiana, but for one reason or another, we have never been there for a visit.  

Side bar ----  I almost visited twenty years ago when as a school principal I accompanied a group of 8th grade student leaders to an overnight leadership camp at nearby Camp Tecumseh.  One of my 8th grade teachers (Laurie) organized the trip and, as a science teacher, was excited to include a trip to Wolf Park on the way to the camp.  Unfortunately, this occurred in the days before GPS. We got lost and never did find the park.  Our poor bus driver (Tom) took us down nearly every gravel road in Tippecanoe County, crossing several bridges, and frequently finding dead ends at the Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers.  It really is too bad that we missed it, because our kids would have loved it.  


Sorry for the digression, and on to the fun.  It was early Saturday evening when I searched the computer to see what programs might be available.  OMG, there was an evening "howling" program, and it was only  available on Saturday evenings.  We'd have to hurry if we were going to make it.  We walked the dogs and dove into the car.  When we arrived (at the right location this time), the gate was closed.  I misread the time.  The program did not start for another hour.  My bad.

We drove around the same Tippecanoe County roads that were so confusing twenty years ago, checked out a possible kayaking access point on the Wabash River, and went back.  Glad we did.  The program was fascinating.  While two different docents talked about the wolf pack and wolf behavior, I listened, but was more fascinated by watching the four wolves on the other side of the wire enclosure.  They were soooo close.  Kind of eerie when the four wolves of the main pack stared back at me. 

 They were frequently focused on a crying toddler - hmmm, dinner?  They trotted.  They jumped up on a log to establish dominance.  They ate a pumpkin.  They over-peed on the same pumpkin to claim it as theirs.  They growled.  They attacked each other.  Oh, and they often trotted over to kiss the docent.  Then they fought over who was going to kiss him next.

We did not dance with the wolves, but we did sing with them.  The docent urged us to howl.  We howled.  The four wolves howled.  And then.....  the invisible wolves and coyotes on the other side of the lake howled back.  It was amazing. (Dianne here:  When the wolves become too old or are unable to be in with the "main pack" for any reason, they are "retired" to a different section of Wolf Park to live out their days in peace.  These were the wolves we heard from across the lake.  They also have several coyotes, and at the end of the following video you can hear them chime in, as well as the wolves from across the lake.)


 Turn off all the lights in the room, watch the video below and have a listen.  You won't be sorry.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AkTRROIbj8

This experience was every bit as cool as I thought it would be.  On our way back to the car, we made an obligatory stop at the gift shop to get a refrigerator magnet of Wolfgang, the leader of the pack.

For our daughter, Amanda, and granddaughter, Kaia, "Team Jacob" would love this place :-)


(Dianne again:  We've published two blogs today, so scroll down if you missed the last one.)