Lone Star Flight Museum, Houston, Texas

Josh is a member of the Lone Star Flight Museum which membership entitled him and his family to tour the B-17 Flying Fortress airplane on July 4. Jim & I were planning on leaving Lonestar Jellystone on July 4, but since Josh invited us to go to the museum with him, we left on Tuesday. Luckily we did since there was a severe rain storm that came through on the 4th and it rained most of the day. We got soaked running from the truck into the museum, even with umbrellas.

Leonardo Da Vinci: Machines in Motion

We visited George Bush 41 museum in College Station, Texas. One of the exhibits on display this year is Leonardo Da Vinci's Machines in Motion. Da Vinci  lived from 1452 to 1519. He was a painter, architect, inventor, and student of all things scientific. His natural genius crossed so many disciplines that he epitomized the term “Renaissance man.”

Armored Tank

George H.W. Bush ("41") Bush Presidential Library & Museum, College Station, Texas

We drove to College Park to get my bike worked on and were going to go on a bike ride, but Jim said that he wanted to go to the Bush Library instead. It just so happened to be just after Barbara Bush passed away and they had a tribute to her and George Bush. 

Big Bend National Park ~~ Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive & Santa Elena Canyon

Since our days were numbered in Big Bend, we had to get in as much sight seeing as possible, so the next day we took off again, this time driving the 30 mile Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive to Santa Elena Canyon. Our first stop was Homer Wilson Ranch. It's a long way down to the actual ranch, and I did not walk down there. The ranch was abandoned in 1945. There is a foreman's house, bunkhouse, corral, and a dipping vat for sheep and goats.

Big Bend National Park ~~ Boquillas Canyon & Chisos Mountains

Our first stop in Big Bend was at Panther Junction Visitor Center, which is the park's headquarters and the major visitor center with lots of exhibits and a film about the park. The film was great, narrated by Peter Coyote, telling about the park and how it came to exist. Big Bend lies in the northern part of the Chihuahuan Desert, one of North America's four major deserts. It also hosts the Chisos Mountains, which is the only mountain range to exist solely within a national park.  

Whitehead Memorial Museum & Judge Roy Bean, Del Rio, Texas

While in Del Rio, Texas we visited the Whitehead Memorial Museum, which also had an exhibit about Judge Roy Bean. We then stopped at Judge Bean's original exhibit on our way to Big Bend National Park. 

Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, Glen Rose, Texas

We finally made a visit to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center located here in Glen Rose. The Wildlife Center consists of 1,800 acres with around 1,100 animals that roam freely in large pastures among near-natural conditions. They offer various types of tours, but we opted to drive through ourselves so we could stop and go at our leisure. The large pastures these animals live in enable them to behave, socialize and reproduce similar to the way they would in the wild. Many of the species' populations are dwindling and endangered, so ensuring their survival requires a cooperative effort. The "Gosdin Scenic Drive" is 7.2 miles long and took us about two hours. At the half way point they offer a Children's Animal Center, Nature Store, and Overlook Cafe. 

Aoudad