YO RANCH - MOUNTAIN HOME, TEXAS

One mile along the private road to the YO Ranch, there is a gated entrance. After that entrance, another 7 miles to the main buildings. We were greeted along the way by this beautiful specimen of a longhorn cow.
This ranch is owned by the Schreiner family. In the 1880s, Charles Schreiner started purchasing cheap land and ultimately ended up with 550,000 acres. He didn't make his money only by cattle raising, but started a general store right after the civil war which was a prosperous venture. As profits grew, he began buying up more land. He developed many other ventures, bank, community college, water company, power company, and was one of the first to drive (in cowboy fashion) his cattle to Dodge City, Kansas to be shipped to the east.
The ranch now is only 40,000 acres. It is still one of the largest ranches, and I almost forgot, the Schreiner's in the 1950s, brought the longhorn cattle back from near extinction. Now the ranch is profitable mostly from tourism.

This Safaris bus took us into the protected exotic game areas of the ranch. This Ostrich does not want a ride, but became impatient for the corn kernels kept by the door just for her.

Now after an ample helping of corn, she is one happy girl.
This is one big giraffe. The Safari bus means he is about to get some cookies.

He puts his head in the window a bit to get some carrots and those cookies he likes so much.

What a face.

The bus is here. The bus is here. Debbie, our tour guide, was very enthusiastic, great fun, and very knowledgeable about the animals. She is also their caretaker so whenever they see her, they come right over.

So gently did the camel remove the carrot from my fingers.

Deer grazing under the oak trees. Notice the white deer. This is a young deer and as it grows older, will take on the coloring of its parents.

The African Antelope enjoying the quiet of the ranch.
Another of the many species of Antelope at the YO.

After a chuck wagon lunch, we went on a trail ride with this Italian cowboy. He takes care of all the needs of the horses, arranging vet care and shoe care. A farrier was there shoeing some of the horses. They have 16 horses and they all need to be reshoed every 7 weeks.

Poncho, my horse, was a sweet boy. It was fun riding on the ranch as some of the time we were clearly on trails and other times, we were riding among the trees and bushes forging a trail.
Eddie-boy, the dog, likes to go along on all the trail rides.

Heading home.

BUCKHORN LAKE RV RESORT - KERRVILLE, TEXAS

This is our site at Buckhorn Lake RV Resort. Behind us is a very nice tennis court. To the left is an open field and some distance away I-10. To the right is Goat Creek which is a gentle meandering creek we are enjoying.We have been watching this white "red bud" evolve from a little bud to some green to this beautiful white flowering and soon its leaves with start to come out.
We are in a valley surrounded by hills covered with live oak and cypress trees with cactus everywhere. It is very dry here. A semi-desert climate that is experiencing a drought.

The spring weather is rather interesting as day time is usually in the 70s to low 80s with night time dropping to the low 40s and 50s. The mornings start out foggy, cloudy, or misty, but tend to blossom into a blue sky with passing clouds.

This is the kitchen-side view of our RV
This tree, even without its leaves, is very striking. Goat Creek flows another 4 miles or so into the Guadalupe River which flows through Kerrville and past a great restaurant called Rivers Edge Tuscan Grille. We had lunch there for my birthday and sat in a section that was over the Guadalupe.

Wubie likes climbing these oak trees.
It's a bit breezy at times.

This is the fireplace inside the barn, at Buckhorn, which serves as a clubhouse and restaurant.
The outdoor patio with grill and bar and oil pan seats.

What's up?
The white patchy thing is a huge barbecue and the little black grill is for Sunday evening where we bring our own meat to grill and a side dish to share. We have really enjoyed these Sunday dinners.

DESCENT FROM 8000 FEET TO SEA LEVEL

Puebla was the last major destination for us in this trip. However, it would not be the most exciting. We knew we were on a high plateau, and that we would have to descend with our 16,000 pound home 8000 feet to sea level. What we did not know this morning was just how exciting (sweat!!) it was to be.
Here is the overall GPS track of the 167 mile drive. It would take us 11 hours to complete.

If you magnify it you will see that around Oriental we had to backtrack, and that as we approach the border between the states of Puebla and Veracruz in the high and rugged Sierra Madre Oriental, we really find out just how we will descend to Sea Level.

Details below. We start the descent from Puebla on an excellent highway. Here we are following the Wagon Master's motor home. We are descending here, but we will have to climb again.
At some point the Wagon Master invited a number of us to go ahead of him. The official caravan company trip journal indicated that there were few PEMEX gas stations in the route.

Alan Buie's 5th wheel and ours formed a small vanguard, with Buie leading, following the trip log directions. By the town of Oriental we were supposed to pick up a highway, but the trip log was in error, specifying that we take a right turn. At some point Buie in the lead begins to wonder when will we find the right turn. We look at our GPS and realize we are off-course.

At this point we turn our rigs around using a dirt road and we lead. The first order of business is to ask which way to the CUOTA (the toll road). I stop to ask (in Spanish of course) three different pedestrians. The last one was a taxi driver who told us to take a right at the next light and go 4 kilometers.

Then we see a few other RVs including Jim and Susan's Class C and Warner and Phoebe's Class B coming in the opposite direction, also lost, and we tell them to turn around and the instructions to the toll road. Our friends the Ahlgrens are in a small rig and agree to stay behind at the key corner to warn the rest of the caravan.

Once we take the turn we drive carefully looking for a big enough space for the entire caravan to park and fortunately find it in front of the Oriental town fair. Alan and we stop our rigs and monitor the CB to wait for the rest.

Once the Wagon Master arrives he gets ahead of all our rigs and sends his wife ahead to scout. She confirms that the CUOTA is ahead and we depart.

The trip is uneventful until we leave the CUOTA at the small town of Teziutlan.

The town streets are narrow and congested with traffic. Here is Buie's 5th wheel ahead.

The Wagon Master sends his wife scouting ahead, and we are still stuck in traffic when we hear on the CB that she is hopelessly lost in town. I hear a request from her to me to try to hire a cab to get us out. Of course our rig is locked in traffic following behind the Wagon Master, who by now is not responding to CB calls! I happen to see a taxi several vehicles ahead and get out of our truck to talk to him. The cab was full of passengers - not a surprise - and could not help us, but tells me that we just need to turn left at the T ahead and follow signs for Nautla.

I then find a traffic cop and ask him for help stopping traffic to help us negotiate the left turn at the T intersection ahead. He agrees. We all start making the very tight turn. I later learned that a number of the large motor homes picked up rashes from that passage.

But that was not all. Once we turned towards Nautla the street was being completely resurfaced and we had to drive our heavy rigs on soft dirt right next to the earth moving equipment. Look at the picture above to see it.

OK we breathed a sigh of relief when we finally left the town of Teziutlan. However, we now began to descend in earnest. The detailed GPS track above shows the many tight turns we took on the way down.
At first it was not too bad. Here we pass a small picturesque mountain town.
But soon we had our exhaust brake steady on, swooshing loudly, the engine RPM at 3000 near the red line of our turbo diesel to generate maximum braking from the exhaust brake, and the rig speed around the tight turns a little faster than we would have liked.
Here Warner and Phoebe in their small Class B were not sweating it as much as us behind them.

The turns continued steadily for at least the next 20 to 30 miles. By then we were in flatter and straighter roads in the lush tropical state of Veracruz.

PUEBLA VIEWS

Today we take the tour bus to visit the Puebla City Center and its Zocalo. Puebla is advanced, cosmopolitan, and cultured. There are a number of major universities. It is clear from the neighborhoods that the standard of living here is higher than most of the Mexico we have seen yet. There is evidence of industrialization in the outskirts of the city.

Its proximity to Mexico City must be a powerful influence.
Along the way to downtown we pass by many international cuisine restaurants. here is an Argentinian Restaurant.

Here is a basilica at the top of a hill. I didn't get the name.

This is the start of the pedestrian mall for the Artists Neighborhood in Puebla.

A shady walking mall with shops and places to eat and linger.

The shopping walking malls in central Puebla were quite crowded with Mexicans and tourists this Saturday.

We visited a Talavera factory. Talavera is a traditional stoneware originating in Spain.- - - - - - - - It says: Talavera Factory - Welcome - Come in.

A fine exemplar of Talavera Stoneware. It is heated to over 2000 degrees in the finishing step.

At the Zocalo.

Main downtown street.

Crowds at the Zocalo. An orchestra was playing classical pieces.

Small pooch on a leather harness. Wubi now has a similar magnificent quality leather harness from Mexico.

OAXACA TO PUEBLA MOUNTAIN DRIVING

Today we crossed 225 miles of high mountains of central Mexico. The destination campground is in a suburb of Puebla named Cholula.

The campground is a private 1 square block walled compound that contains open fields, apartment building, and at least two private homes. The owners drive Mercedes Benz cars and have beautiful homes. Their children have plenty of yard activity equipment.

This is the GPS track.

Here is our house at an altitude of about 8000 feet and speed of about 60 mph following behind us in the central Mexican mountains. The right CB antenna of the pair is showing.

Wubi is a great RVer. He has a commanding view of the landscape from all the cabin windows.

We passed beautiful - and dry - mountain landscapes.

Here is ahead of us one of several high curving bridges.

Mexico transports by semi. Here is one of the many heavy "doble remolques" - double semis.

One of several long tunnels in the mountains.

The landscape is arid.

As we approach Puebla we see more population. Here is a young shepherd and his goats.