Sanderson - Memorial weekend 2014

 Last weekend, Daryl, Jessica and I went Sanderson. 

Daryl had work he needed to do on the house in town, and at the property. 

We left our home around 2 pm.. got to Sanderson about 10:30. 

On the way down we saw several critters..   We are used to seeing lots of Deer along the roadside..  

This time we saw several rabbits also - and a couple of them we nicknamed Kamikaze bunnies.. they seemed to run straight in the roadway to our car.. We never hit one.. but they were close. 

We also came across a skunk sauntering across the road.. he was just taking his time, as if daring us to hit him.. Daryl slowed down enough so Mr. Skunk got on across the road without injury to himself, or stinking us out..  

We had hoped to be able to see the meteor shower that was expected.. but for the first time in all the times we have ever been to Sanderson, there were thunderstorms that night, and too many clouds to see anything. We even stayed up, having driven away from the town, and all the lights until past 3 am..  Not a single meteor did we see..    We went back to the house and all crashed.. sleeping in till about noon the next day. 

It was SO hot on our first full day there...     

Thermometer hanging on house in town..  

Daryl worked around the house, and in the barn for a while. 

Making repairs on the air conditioning.. or "Swamp Cooler" as he called it. 

Also worked on one of the four wheelers that was in the barn at the house in town..

While he worked out in the barn.. I cleaned the bathroom, and swept and mopped in the kitchen. It was really pretty filthy.

Then I went to visit the "naaayyybors"  

 

At one point it started raining..  the goats all went and jumped in the boat on the left of the photo below.. it was under an awning, and I guess they felt safer there.  Daryl said maybe it was an Ark. ;) 

We went down to the property for a while that afternoon. 

We usually stop by this little opening, in "Isinglass Canyon" to gather Crystals..

this trip was no different. 

When we got down to the property, Daryl went right to work on the four wheelers that were there.. 

One was missing a wheel.. 

The other one would not run.. dead battery, and other issues. He spent quite a while working on the two of them. 

He got one running.. but not well.. kept dying. At least he made it back up the hill in front of the cabin. 

While he worked on the four wheelers.. Jessica and I explored a bit.. and made friends with yet another critter..  

She has beautiful hair...    I credit our Indian heritage for it. 

We did a little shooting with the 22 rifle.

Loading the rifle

Jessie getting instructions

This is the cactus  that grabbed her foot, when she went to investigate the cactus she had shot..  I think they were trying to get revenge. 

The clouds were building up.. tons of lightning and we were concerned with the rough drive out of the canyon area in rain.. so we left shortly after this. 

 This is the "House" in town.. it's a mobile home, with an added on enclosed porch and utility room.. and a BIG barn..  

House in the town of Sanderson

  

Sunday morning we got up a bit earlier.. still not early enough to go to the one restaurant in town for breakfast.. they closed before we got there. So we ended up getting hot food from "Stripes" gas station. The stove in the house doesn't work, so I couldn't cook anything there.

We then visited an antique store, and met a really nice guy named Travis, he and his wife Kate live in an old Masonic lodge. We visited with him a bit and he told us about a little store in the town we were unaware of. 

So we went in search of it, and visited Appolonia at her little grocery store she has in a small building next to her home. It's called "The Bunkhouse"   She had a little bit of everything. Told us if we needed anything let her know, she was making a run to Fort Stockton to stock up on stuff the next day.  She is an asset to this little town.. the only other grocery store closed down a while back.

We got our food and took it back to the house, where we ate, and Daryl tried to make sense of the 30+ keys his dad had hanging on a rack. 

After we ate we went on down to the property..  Daryl drove by his Uncle Paul's cabin before we went to he property that his dad left to him, and his siblings.

While we were at Paul's, we were visited  by some hooved critters..   Daryl and I had walked around the building, leaving Jessie at the truck, she came to us, laughing.. we didn't know at what until we walked near the front.  Our truck was surrounded by cattle. 

There were about 6 or 7 in all.  But these two were my favorites. 

After visiting a little with the cows (meaning mom took photos, and Daryl and Jessica just watched me be silly, talking to cattle)  we headed back to the property..  Daryl put out mouse bait in the cabin , because the day before we had found the cabin was BADLY infested.. unsafe to even breathe the air in there. 

While he did that he let Jessie take one of the handguns and go on a hike. 

She felt very pleased he let her have the responsibility of carrying the gun..  And she looked pretty cute too, with her holster on..  

After he finished with his chores, we did some more shooting.. 

I prefer the handgun I think to the rifle, but the 22 rifle had a scope which made hitting the target easier.

 I learned how to load the 22 magazine. 

and reload, and reload.. we went through a lot of bullets. 

Then Daryl decided he wanted to shoot the shotgun. 

Jessie and I had been shooting this one patch of "prickly pear" cactus, and he decided to use the shotgun on it..    While we only had "maimed" the poor cactus.. Daryl took a few limbs off.. haha. 

He hadn't realized the kick that shotgun would have though..  

When we finished shooting, it began getting really cloudy again, and we were concerned about rain yet again. so Daryl and Jessie packed up stuff in the pickup..   

On our way out, we drove by many deer running around, and several rabbits..  I actually got a shot of one of the big jackrabbits we saw..  hope you can see him in the photo below. 

We left fairly early on Monday.. well early for us..  

On our way out of town, I got a photo of the "Snake Days" banner..  It was being held the next weekend. 

Sign when you get into town - Sanderson, Cactus Capital of Texas 

While we were there, it rained, but to the west, on our route home, it had rained a LOT more...

This is heading north out of Sanderson, towards Ozona..  

Debris from flooding

Parts of the road were washed away..    

We saw the parts that were washed away, in pieces on the sides of the road..  

More pieces of the asphalt..   

On our way down, I had jokingly said why do they need flood gauges.. it never rains..  I'll never assume that again..   This flood gauge was demolished by the rushing waters and debris..  

On our way down to Sanderson on Friday, every creek and riverbed we saw was dry..  on our way home on Monday, they were all full, and rushing..  The area had probably 5 inches of rain or so..  

More pieces of roadway along the sides of the road..  

We got all the way to Fort Lancaster when they had the road we normally take to Ozona all closed off..   Due to flooding. So we had to turn around, go back down to Sheffield, and make a detour to I10.  Made our trip almost an  hour longer.. kind of wish they had signs up before we got on that road letting us know it was closed and you couldn't go all the way through.

But we made it home before dark. Unloaded the truck, relaxed and then Daryl and I went for supper at Ihop. 

I love visiting Sanderson..  Wish the mice hadn't made the cabin so miserable. We would have spent more time there. But we will be going back in a month or so.

I am not sure what Daryl, and his siblings plan on doing with the property. I know it will take a lot of work on both places to make them habitable. The house in town needs a lot of repairs, and the cabin at the "ranch" is uninhabitable.

But we did enjoy the visit. As we do every time. Just the view when we are down by the canyon is worth the 8+ hour drive...