Some pictures and musings from my trip to Zapata -
Hit the road at 5am leaving St. Pete headed for as far west as I could make it the first day. I knew that along the way I would be passing thru Mobile, Alabama, and I had seen the battleship USS Alabama berthed just off Interstate 10 in that city. I have never seen a battleship up close and had promised myself that I wouldn't miss the opportunity if I made it to the area again.
When I reached Mobile, I pulled off the Interstate and went to the park where the Alabama is along with multiple other historical military pieces - a B-52 bomber, a WWII bomber and transport plane, several tanks and tracked vehicles and a few artillery pieces. There is also a WWII submarine on land.
Being a military brat, I was thrilled to get up close to these magnificent machines.
Unfortunately, I did not take the time to tour the USS Alabama. I will someday!
Took maybe 45 minutes out of my trip and took lots of pictures. The sheer size of a battleship is incredible. Seeing one on TV or in the movies just doesn't do justice to their majesty.
I made it to just short of San Antonio the first day. Found a suitable motel (where I could park at my room door) around 9pm (central time). So 14+ hours on the road and 1120 miles that day.
I had a plan to go visit with Mel
Sabre52 the next day at his ranch about an hour west of San Antonio to finally meet each other and check out some of his rock collection.
He was supposed to go shooting at his gun range that morning and I was due there noonish.
Well, I gotta admit that I was pretty pumped up for this trip. High energy and in go go go mode!
Woke up at the motel bright and early. Okay, maybe it wasn't exactly bright yet, but it was early!
Packed up what I had taken inside the motel and got on the road heading towards Mel's. WAY too early according to out agreed upon meeting time!
Got close to his area and pulled into a rest area to ponder how far I was ahead of schedule.
After dealing with my consternation (I was raised to be punctual, neither early nor late) over being too early, I gave Mel a call and he told me that his shooting partner had backed out for the day at the range and to come on by. *whew*
Mel lives in an area to the northwest of San Antonio called Hill Country. This area is stunningly beautiful country! As a Florida boy, I am simply not used to such spectacular scenery. I maybe should have taken pictures, thought quite a bit about doing so and actually decided that I would rather just have those picturesque memories in my mind. Trust me, it's beyond words beautiful there. It's not the southern Alps in Germany, but some of the nicest country I had seen in decades. I fully understand why Mel and his wife decided on the area.
Meeting up with Mel was certainly a highlight of my trip. And, I'm gonna leave it at that. MY memories!
His knowledge about rocks everyone here knows. Wish I could do that Spock mindmeld thing and instantly "download" his rock experience. (and retain it!)
We spent a few hours talking about rocks, life and the world in general; looking at rocks and ... my buying rocks! I did manage to pick up a few while there.
A
few rocks from Mel unloaded at the motel in Zapata. Treasures!!
He does have some rocks left. I'll go back and get them too when he is ready to part with them!
We had a wonderful BBQ lunch that Mel's wife Sharon picked up while out running errands as Mel and I buried ourselves in his rock piles. She was a pleasure to meet and seems to have taken to Texas living as well as Mel has. I believe she was filling a water trough for some of the ranch cattle when I pulled in!
My heartfelt thanks to both Mel and Sharon for the warm hospitality - and the rocks!
Headed off in a southerly direction from the hill country towards Laredo.
Oh... before I forget. Driving through Houston (evening freakin' rush hour) and San Antonio (in the pre rush hour dawn darkness) was the stuff of nightmares. Maybe folks in the Los Angeles area have such roads and traffic, but I had never seen the likes. There are those cloverleaf things with 5 or 6 levels going God knows where! I would have ulcers if I had to deal with that on a daily basis. Too bad if there is a traffic accident - it results in a 10 mile parking lot!
My thoughts, once I had Houston in my rear view mirror, were that a nuclear attack in the low megatonnage range would sure improve things in that area! (Sorry
richardh - that place scared the hell out of me!)
Adding: As insane as the roads and traffic were in those two cities, I never once heard a horn honk. Must say these Texas folks amazed me at how well they reacted to (allowed) vehicles merging and how, accidents aside, smoothly traffic flowed at a pretty darn good speed. Kudos to Texas drivers!
The drive from Mel's area NW of San Antonio to Laredo would be boring to those from the area, but I found the change in the flora and general landscape fascinating. Pretty much what one might to expect to see if walking from Heaven towards Hell. I'm thinkin' that Hell is a little further south than Laredo, but probably not by much.
Not much to say about Laredo other than I made sure my truck doors were locked at stoplights. I would NOT want to live there.
Made it to Zapata late afternoon and got checked into the Best Western where James and I stayed - and where he still is! (jerk) I was the ONLY person staying in the motel that night. Usually not a good sign. Maybe the road construction out front was deterring other folks? dunno... Never saw even 10 rooms occupied my entire time there.
The next morning, with Jim due to arrive later in the day, I headed to the area we had discussed and planned to do most of our rock hunting.
Need to throw in at this point that I have never been rock hounding before. I have lived in Florida the entire time that I've been interested in rocks, and there really are not many opportunities to search for or collect rocks here. Going to a phosphate pit to dig calcite clams from the wall
ain't rockhounding!
This highway sign is a couple hundred feet before the turnoff to the rock area. Had to take pic for Ed
Intheswamp 
Got to rock area and ... now what? Okay, here for rocks, so go find some!
Well, the roads are basically made by graders making a path through the scrub and the sides of these roads are pretty much lined with rocks. This is gonna be easy!! These things are everywhere!
no so fast...
A rock, even an obvious agate, ain't necessarily worth having. ANY rockhounder knows that hundreds (or more) rocks must be individually examined before calling one a keeper. I had to learn this. Oh, and darn near every rock lining these roads are agates. Needle in a haystack kinda thing...
Heading in - surveillance blimp flying as always. Good use of tax dollars as far as I was concerned!
Scrub area lines both sides of the gravel/dirt road -
There are probably hundreds of miles of this fencing along all the roads off of the highway. I got to wondering just who the heck put it all up. Not a job I would sign on for!
Anyway, I don't recall just how many rocks I gathered that first afternoon out. I can probably safely say that none of them made the trip home with me. The top of the learning curve as to which rocks to keep had not yet been achieved!
Wasn't even in sight.
Headed back to motel well before dark. There are cartel bad guys out there with machine guns ya know. pfffftt...
And I believe (my memory on specifics ain't what it used to be) this is where I met up with James. I was out putzing around with my truck when he pulled in. We met, he was pretty much who I was expecting (MORE on that later!) and he said to me something along the lines of: "You're not what I was expecting."
uh.... Mel had said the EXACT same thing!
I'm still not sure whether that was a good thing or what.
Gotta get some stuff done today. Part two coming soon.
Nov 12, 2024 9:54:37 GMT -5
Nov 12, 2024 9:54:37 GMT -5
Nov 14, 2024 18:17:57 GMT -5
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Nov 14, 2024 18:17:57 GMT -5
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Nov 15, 2024 17:44:51 GMT -5
Nov 15, 2024 17:44:51 GMT -5
