February's
Journal
Feb 28 This is a transition day. We begin the day at
a State Park campground, one of many places we that we have stayed
for 
one or two nights as we persued our adventure. Tonight will find us
in another campground, but this one will be different. Sure it will be
a pretty little private park in the mountains, but that is not what
will make it different. What will make it different is that we will
call it home for the next two months. When we first decided we wanted
to experience this lifestyle, we included all the different aspects of
the RV life as we planned our adventure. Work camping is something that
many RV'ers do,
yet far, far more never never experience. I don't know whether to laugh
at or feel
sorry for, the people who post on the forums about how they would never
work camp, yet purport to know all about work camping. How many times
have
the words they've written, caused people to hesitate or not attempt something? If
we stay in our shells how are we ever going to grow to be tree?
Because of these things and the desire to be of service to others, we
committed to volunteer at Mountain Stream RV Park near Marion, NC for
the
months of March and April. We hope that over the next 8 1/2 weeks to
give you a glimpse into the daily life we will be living. There may be
no wrong turns leading to non-existent campgrounds for a while, but you
can bet that we will experience every aspect of the work camper life
and on these
pages, you will too.
Our drive from Spartanburg SC to
Asheville NC on I-26 was uneventful. Traffic was light and the road was
good, however as we traveled east on I-40 from Asheville we encountered
a
steep downgade. This one was not like the monster downgrades out west,
what makes it different was how curvy it was. It's like they took an
existing road and used that right of way it to make an interstate.
Probably saved
North Carolina some money, but how many people have to be maimed or killed because of these poorly design highways. I know I get off on
this
tangent every once in a while, but it really gets my goat. Why do we
tolerate such incomptencey from our government?
Okay, okay, off my
soapbox. Note that the sign in the picture to the right is NOT of I-40.
It was on NC-80, the state highway that goes up the mountain past the
RV park for several miles to the Blue Ridge Parkway and beyond, it just
doesn't get much prettier than this!
It was late afternoon when we pulled into Mountain Stream RV Park and within minutes of arriving, we felt like we had known the
owners, Ron & Becky Johnston for all of our lives. Every once
in a while God works a little magic in our lives. This place has angel
dust everywhere! It was shirt sleeve weather as I grilled turkey bugers
to perfection. It's no secret, rub extra virgin olive oil on both
sides, grind on some salt and pepper and grill. I also grill the buns
which are whole wheat english muffins. As with the burgers, they are
coated with EVVO and grilled till lightly toasted. Takes a little
experimentation to get the timing down right, once it's nailed you're
talking mind blowing good burgers. (We also do both the ground sirlon
burgers and the buffalo burger the same way.) Served with southwestern
beans, saute'd green & yellow baby squash plus salad, it made for
the perfect meal to mark the next phase of our next adventure. Then
there is always dessert. Tonight it was chocolate chip cookies and warm
vanilla flavored milk. I'm gonn'a sleep like a log!!!! But what will tomorrow bring?
Feb 27 Man-o-man, did we ever sleep in
this morning.
We (Linda) had gotten down the second comforter last night and used it
as a topper on the bed. This was the coldest
night since we began our adventure ,but we
never noticed how cold it was, though there might have been a higher
snuggle factor than usual last night. Normally when we stay at
a
Walmart we leave early in the morning. Not today. But the joke was on
us, because when we finally did pull out , every one else who had spent
the night in our little corner of the Greer, SC Walmart was still
there!!! This is going to be a short drive day. Our plan, and based on
yesterdays experience it is only a plan, is to drive the few miles to
Spartanburg and stay at Croft State Park for the night, giving us some
rest, catch up and baking time We were really ready this time with the
route to the park, or so we thought. We had it programed into our GPS,
plotted on Streets and Trips, printed off Yahoo! maps and marked on the
road map. All this meant we had absolutely no problem until we turned
onto the road that went to the Park.
As soon as we turned off the state highway onto the narrow country road
we
see a big sign, "Bridge out, Road ends 1000 feet" 38 feet of RV, 4 feet
of tow bar and 17 feet of Explorer come to a sudden stop in the middle
of the road. We are on a very narrow country road - what would you do?
Ahead there is a very small pull-out. We pull off the road, or rather I
should say we pull the coach off the road, the back half of the
Explorer remains on the road. Now what to do? We did the only thing we
could, Linda told Bob to walk down the the road and see what was or
wasn't up ahead. About 5 minutes later Bob returned with the good news
that the missing bridge was 'after' the turnoff to the state park. Of
course this begs the question as to why they couldn't have had a sign
saying the road was open to the state park. Jeez, no wonder these
people lost the the Civil War. The road back to the campground seems to
go on forever, but finally you arrive at the campground(s). There are
two of them, one to the right and one to the left. We opt for the one
to the right. As we start to turn in I begin to wonder if the
campground was designed for anything bigger than a Model T Ford. None
the less we plunge onward. And plunge it is, as the road takes an
abrupt turn to the right and descends at a precipitous rate. Undaunted,
we intrepid adventurers travel on. Off to the right we notice a pull
thru, or what apparently passes for a South Carolina pull thru. Getting
anything larger than a Honda, let alone any kind of RV, into that sight
would take a miracle!!! Half way around and we haven't seen a site that
would begin to let us park the coach. On the far side we pass 4 or 5
sites we could get into, but by now we are thinking about the other
camping loop. So off we go to explore those sites, or so we thought.
Once again demonstrating the brilliant South Carolinian mind at work,
it isn't till after you are on the road to the second campground that
you see the large pile of gravel that blocks the entrance. Why they
couldn't have put a sign up letting people know the loop was closed is
beyond me (apparently it is also beyond the intelligence of the people
responsible for this park). Well look at the good side of it. Everybody
says that if you tow a toad, sometime you're going to find yourself in
a spot where you have no choice but to unhitch the toad to get out. We
now count ourselves among the select group that has to unhitch the toad
and turn around the coach!!!! Another feather (??) in our hat.
So back to the first loop we go and park deep within the piney forest
where no 
Motosat
will ever find the Satellite. Later a 5th wheel came in and parked in
the only open to the south site. A little later we saw a MotoSat being
deployed on its roof. Only took it about a half hour to find the
satellite, but by then I've concluded that nothing is easy as far as
RV'ing in South Carolina is concerned. In the late afternoon we went
into Spartanburg to do some shopping. True to South Carolina standards,
the street the Sam's Club was on did not show on any map we had, nor
the GPS or Streets and Trips. Found it by going to a WalMart and asking
the greeter where the Sam's Club was. Maybe we're finally figuring out
how these people think. As a personal aside, I spent almost 15 years
working for a South
Carolina Company and other than my occasional trips back to the
Greenville area, I enjoyed very much working for them as the people
were the absolutely greatest. Linda just made a comment about my nose
growing to extraordinary lengths, ha, ha.
Returning
to the coach we put away our purchases. One thing we we are used to
buying out west is 3 lbs bags of bittersweet chocolate chips. That's
what makes the cookies and brownies we make so awesome. Unfortunately
the concept of bittersweet chocolate seems about as foreign as
unsweetened tea here in the south. We may have to have some bittersweet
chocolate chips shipped in from California if we're going to continue
to make the world's best chocolate desserts!!!!! Later we made a
roaring fire, shelled some peanuts and relaxed as day turned to night
this late February evening. Dinner was a variation of one of Bob's
specialties: baked salmon in leek sauce, accompanied by brown rice,
broccoli & parmesan cheese with a tossed salad. Later Linda
baked
her worlds best chocolate chip cookies, part of the secret is the
bittersweet chocolate chips, whole wheat flour and chocolate pudding
mix. Just so you know, perfection comes from hours of experimentation
and constant tweaking of what is already an awesome recipe. Served with
warm milk it recalls memories of childhood that are incomparable. As
I've said so 
many times, we love the life we live.
Feb 26 Sunday morning, so we have another
opportunity to
check out a mega church. Our plans were to spend some time in
Marietta,
Georgia today and as luck would have it, there was a mega church almost
literally across the street from where we were going. The church was
Roswell Street Baptist and it held two surprises. One was related to
clothing,
the second to singing. Being Californian's we are used to casual church
dress being blue jeans and sneakers. This has been the standard in the
contemporary services at the mega churches we have visited across the
country. Today we found out, casual dress at a contemporary service in
the old south means sport coat and tie instead of the usual suit and
tie. We quickly decided we would sit up in the balcony and low and
behold, there were a number of other more casually dressed folks up
there. The second surprise was the voice of the lead singer. He had the
most beautiful, melodious voice we have ever heard at a contemporary
service. There was the normal praise band, but on the last two songs
this one cut loose with some mind blowing acoustical guitar work. To
sum it up, a pleasant time was had by all.
Next we drove one block
over to Washington Street and visited the Marietta National Cemetery.
The
origin of this cemetery was
in the deaths of General
Sherman's troops
as he march on Atlanta in 1864. One of those deaths was an ancestor of
Bob's. The grave site is on a hillside under a large tree, a beautiful
final resting place for a farm boy from Ohio who died a horrible death
from dysentery just a couple of months after joining his brother in the
3rd Ohio Battery. Looking at the thousands of white stones here and
remembering the thousands in Andersonville, you realize the Civil War
personally touched almost every family in the country at that time.
Once again we were reminded that, truly, "War is hell".
We "broke camp" and hit the road once again. As we drove northeast on
I-85 we had our first oppotunity to stop at a Flying J for fuel. Now I
know why people speak so highly of them on the discussion boards.
Separate easy acess pumps for RV's, dump station and propane, nice!!
They way the pumps were set up we filled the diesel tank from both
sides at once, also another first for us. All 
this and their prices
were the lowest of any of the stations at this exit.
Our tentative plan was to stay in an RV park just north of Greenville
and possibly spend time with an old boss of Bob's. Events transpired to
change our plans. First we left the Atlanta area much later than we
planned, second, Atlanta traffic was much heavier than we anticipated
and third, we couldn't find the RV park we had planned to stay at.
Trying to find the RV park is a study of life on the road in a
microcosm. We had tried to find a park close to Greenville as that is
where we wanted to stay. Searching the books and the web, we finally
decided on Flowermill RV park just north of Greenville. They have a
nice website, but then I think we have a nice website, but that doesn't
mean it provides useful information to anyone. Unfortunately, the
Flowermill website and reality are two disparate realities. First off, once you leave the
main highway,
the country roads to the park are ridiculously narrow. We hit a number
of small branches along the road on the way in. The website gives the
address, but doesn't suggest the best way to drive to the park. We
drove in following the best road we could find, then found out the road
the park was supposed to be on didn't intersect with the road we were
on.
We stopped in a church parking lot where a few heated words were
exchanged between the driver and the navigator. Deciding to turn around
we drove back, turning at what we thought was the right road.
The
sign didn't match what the map said, but sometimes you have to put up
or shut up. We decided to put up and turned onto the road we thought
was correct. Rounding a sharp turn we saw some RV's parked to the left.
The road leading to the RV's, if it could be called a road, was
incredible steep and there was no sign visible to identify whether it
was the RV park we were looking for or not. We passed it by and with a
little luck and a lot of wandering, plus dodging more branches, made it
back to the main highway. We may be dumb sometimes, but we're not
stupid. We decided this was not the place nor the time for us and drove
on towards Spartanburg, SC. Just a few miles down the road we happened
upon a Walmart, noticed an RV already parked at the outer edge of the
lot, so we pulled in and parked for the night. Of course we, as always,
spent more money shopping at the Walmart store than we would have at an
RV park, but what the heck, at least we could find the place. It was so
cold, we opted for hot soup and quesadillas for dinner then cookies
with hot Torini raspberry flavored milk for dessert. Our driving may
not always be the best, but you can never fault our cooking!
Today was also special for someone else, so we make a HAPPY 7th BIRTHDAY WISH to our
Grandson Zach!!!!!!!
Feb 25 Woke up to to a slow, steady rain
this morning. This
is one of those days you just want to sit in the RV park all day and do
all the inside chores that seem to pile up, since your having too much
fun in life to keep up with them. However, one of my things is, we try
our darndest to drive through big cities on weekends when the traffic
is
lighter. With Atlanta and its legendary traffic looming to the north
plus
the desire to visit another of Linda's nephews while here, it
was out into the
rain to get ready to pull out. We disconnected the water and electric
and connected the Explorer. I have to say, I really love how easy it is
to hook and unhook our Blue Ox Alexius tow bar and SMI Stay-in-Play
toad
brake. The non functioning curbside slide motor finally caught up to me
though. With all the boys coming last night, I had hand cranked it out
to give us more room in the coach. Now, in the rain, I was going to
have to crank it back in. I almost made it too!. Most of the time I was
under the slide as as I ratcheted it back in and all the water trapped
on the slide topper flowed off the end, but (there's always a but),
with
about three inches of travel left before it was closed, the water
started falling off the front. Now the slide is probably 15 feet long,
so
why is the only spot the water runs off the topper exactly above where
I am
kneeling to crank in the slide!!!
Our first stop today is at the air
museum at Warner Robbins where we were meeting Linda's nephew and his
three boys. He told us he trys to take the boys somewhere on
Saturdays
to give his wife time alone, her break for the week so to speak.
Because of the rain and time limits we had, he drove us around the base
for a quick tour, then as he and the boys went into the museum, we
turned northward toward Atlanta. We had picked an RV park in Norcross
just off I-85, northeast of downtown, to stay at. This meant either
driving through downtown
Atlanta or taking I-285 around the east side of town. I opted for the
longer I-285 route due to the heavy rain that was falling. The rain
slowed traffic on I-285 so that it was going just a little over the 55
mph speed limit making for a more comfortable drive, even with the
rain. Upon entering Georgia, I had quickly learned that speed limits
are merely numbers on signs in Georgia and have nothing to do with how
fast you drive,
which appears to be limited only by how fast your car or
truck can go. It's like everybody is auditioning to be a stunt car
driver for "Dukes of Hazard". As we arrived at Jones RV park the
weather finally started to co-operate as the rain turned to a light
mist. Quickly setting up, we headed out to visit another of Linda's
nephews. We had a wonderful time visiting with him and his 17 month old
son. We thought the three boys were active! He was a non-stop perpetual
motion machine! We had a fantastic meal at Pasta Bella in Austell,
Georgia. Italian food done the right way - tons of garlic!!!!! Linda
got to see some old family items she hadn't seen in years and then it
was time to head for home. A bowl of ice cream topped with nuts capped
what was both a funtastic and fantastic day for Linda. The life we live!
Feb 24 Vacation mode again today, but
because of two very
special places, Andersonville National Historical Park and Plains,
Georgia. After a quick breakfast of oatmeal and raspberries, we drove
over to Andersonville which was the site of the famous Civil War prison
camp. One of the first things we did was attend the movie about
Andersonville prison in the visitor center theater. To
say that it was
moving would be a colossal understatement. When it ended, not a single
person in the room said a word or got up to leave until after all the
credits had run. It hit home that no one at Andersonville,
whether
northern prisoner or southern guard suffered less than anyone else. It
was incredible to learn that while nearly 13,000 of the
43,000 prisoners died while in captivity, the
death rate among the guards was essentially the same as for the
prisoners! It is surely true, "War is hell." Later we slowly
toured the prison site, trying, but failing to visualize the scenes of
unbelievable suffering and unimaginable horror that took place, not
only on this ground, but in all the prisons, both northern and
southern, during the Civil War. The emotion we felt as we stood before
Povidence Spring was hard to comprehend. One of the many
tragedies
of the prison camp was that there wasn't enough water to even begin
supplying the the needs of the tens of thousands of prisoners. Then
during a violent thunderstorm, a spring started flowing out the side of
the hill inside the prison walls. A spring that still
strongly flows more than 140 years later. Whether
the hand of providence was
involved or not, it was truly a miracle that thousands of lives that
would have been lost were saved by the water from this spring. Later we
ate our turkey wraps under some huge trees, just yards from the prison
cemetery where those that
ceased to suffer lie interred in silent row after row of white stones.
To visit the cemetery is to feel the sadness this place exudes. The
museum and visitors center is a memorial to all American soldiers who
were imprisoned during the different wars our country has fought. From
Revolutionary War British prison ship through Japanese Bataan Death
March to
the Hanoi Hilton and the wars in the middle east, the
history of the American prisoner of war is told.
We also wanted to
spend time in the town of Andersonville, but were not able to because
we were also planning
on going to Plains, Georgia to visit the President Carter National
Historical Site. We had spent so much time at
the Andersonville prison that we we
needed to hurry to Plains before the President Carter visitor center
closed for the day. The drive from Andersonville to Plains took
us through Americus. The downtown area of Americus has many wonderful
old commercial buildings. The Windsor Hotel has to
be one of the
the, if not the, most beautiful buildings we have seen during our
adventure. A giant brick building with towers and turrets, pictures
just can't do it justice. Entering Plains you see the red peanut
trailers parked everywhere. The peanut processing plants are also
easily
recognizable. Plains is a very small town, with the old
commercial
area that we always saw on TV being about a half block long with the
train
tracks running in front of it. We spent a good deal of time touring the
President Carter visitor center which is in the old Plains school
building. It is very informative, plus the movie they show is
excellent. As I walked the halls, I could imagine a young Jimmy Carter
doing the same things we all did when we were that age. As I spent time
in Plains, I began to see how the core values of honesty, integrity and
compassion could be formed growing up and living in a town like this. A
visit to Plains would not be complete without buying some peanuts, so
we went "downtown" and bought some in the shell raw peanuts we can
roast ourselves and also some fried peanuts (shelled peanuts fried in
peanut oil). By now it was 
almost 5 o'clock so we
decided to
drive past the Carter's house which is on the south side of
town before
heading back to the campground. Somehow we missed it and had to turn
around. As we drove back towards the house we saw a man and woman out
for an evening walk. It was President and Mrs. Carter!!!! Of course, it
was only as we
were passing them that we recognized who it was, so we turned around to
look again. Trailing the Carters by about 30 feet were two young men we
took to be secret service agents and on the street was a very
large
black SUV, again with young men in it. We realized it was a secret
service
vehicle when it put on its flashing blue lights to make a car move that
was stopped near the path the Carters were taking. Linda managed to get
several photos of their backs and I got a small wave from the
President as we drove past. This is where they live and they take an
evening
walk, just like Linda and I do. They are just ordinary people who have
been able to accomplish extraordinary things during their lives. Later
as we drov
e back to the RV park we
wondered what the odds were of us
driving past the President's home at the same same time he and his wife
were taking a walk.
Back at our home, we wolfed down chicken burgers
and then had a visit from Linda's nephew and his family. He's in the
Air Force Reserve and was called up to active duty for a temporary
three month assignment which has turned into a two year assignment.
While the four adults visited, the three boys, aged 9, 6 & 4
explored every square in of the coach. It was so much fun watching them
and remembering our own grandchildren. After a day like this there is
nothing better than chocolate chip cookies and warm milk to send us off
to the land of sweet dreams.
Feb 23 Caesar may have crossed the
Rubicon, but today
we
crossed Alabama. With a Walmart overnight, we were up early
and
on the road heading east. The rain of yesterday had ceased,
but
fortunately the clouds that carried that rain still remained. So, as we
headed eastward in the early morning those
clouds now served as natures perfect sunglasses making for a pleasant
drive as we faced what would have otherwise been the rising sun.
Almost before we knew it, we
were passing by Meridian Mississippi and seeing the welcome to Alabama
sign.
Wanting to get back to our normal way of traveling we exited
I-20
and headed east on US-80 which we followed across western AL to
Montgomery. Most of US-80 is a divided four lane highway.
The drive was peaceful and
relaxing. We had a
moment of
humor between Selma and Montgomery when we had to stop for a herd of
cattle who found the lush green grass in the median more to their
liking than the grass in the field along the road. We really
felt
for the poor fellow trying to chase the cows off the road.
For
some reason, we just weren't finding anything in Alabama along our
route to
stop and see. The one less than memorable thing we did
encounter
was the worst section of road we have traveled to date. I-65
from
US 80 south of Montgomery to I-85 in Montgomery was without question,
the absolute
positively worst section of road we have driven anywhere at
anytime. I wonder if maybe the road designers that were too
incompetent
even for Texas and the contractors who were even too bad even for
Louisiana
got together to build this section of road, ha, ha, ha. (But
it
could be true.) By mid afternoon we were well into eastern
Alabama,
once again on US-80 heading towards Columbus GA, all the while slowly
winding our way through the wintry southern country side.
We were once again reminded of the suffering inflicted on the
people in the area devastated by the hurricanes as we saw FEMA trailer
after FEMA trailer going towards the New Orleans area. Since we
were this far east we decided to push on towards Macon, Georgia. Before
the day was over we had traveled 401 miles and were at Twin Oaks RV
Park, a neat little RV park just south of Perry, Georgia. This was most
definitely not our typical day, but if all days were typical, then all
days would be boring! We got to the park early enough that we could
just kick back and relax for a while. I'm not sure why we didn't stop
and spend time in Alabama as we certainly didn't have to be in Georgia
tonight. I did, however, get my "history fix" for the day. US-80 from
Selma to Montgomery was the route of the famous civil rights march, so
as we would pass by older buildings, I would mentally transport myself
back into the 1960's versus the 1860's of the day before. Spent the
early evening relaxing and just plain enjoying life, after
eating
a meal of roast turkey (from the freezer), sweet potatoes and gravy
with broccoli. Later Linda baked her, out of this world
chocolate chip cookies (she's got baking in the microwave convection
oven perfected), which we combined with ice cream to make the perfect
end to a perfectly non-typical day.
Feb 22 This is the day I get my Civil War
fix as we
are heading off to Vicksburg to tour the battlefield. The plan was to
drive
up RT-61, stopping briefly at Port Gibson, then on to Vicksburg. We
hoped to leave Vicksburg by 3:30 to avoid the traffic and be able to
reach eastern Mississippi before stopping for the night. However,
thanks to an email by a reader, we changed our plan to include
a
drive
up the section of the Natchez Trace Parkway from
Natchez to Port
Gibson. I have always had an abiding love of history and this brief
time on the trace allowed me to mentally transport myself back in time
to when life was very different from how we live today. There was a
certain majesty, bordering on an overwhelming sense of awe, that I got
when standing in a section of the old trace, cut deep through the soft
Mississippi loess soil. As I peered down the leaf lined trace, the
trees, brush and mist seemed to part and I could could see into the
past. What a shame it is that to most school kids history is just dry
boring facts. As I gazed down the Trace memories from reading Pulitzer
Prize winning author, Conrad Richter's The Trees opened a window most
people probably never see. Richter's trilogy - The Trees, The Fields
and the The Town is absolutely wonderful. To quote from a review, "In
this trilogy, Richter weaves a rich tapestry of legend, folklore, and
American dialect that captures like nothing else the experience of what
life must have been like on the frontier in the late 1700's. Richter
won the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for The Town." While the novels
are set in Ohio, it is these people who may have journeyed down to
Natchez and walked back along the Trace. Isn't imagination a wonderful
thing! Further up the Parkway we stopped at Mount Locust, the only
original inn that remains on the Parkway where once again I was
transported
back in time.
We exited the Parkway at Port Gibson and parked along
Church Street, which is Rt-61. They have a small visitors center that
is on 
the
south side of town, right after we first entered Port Gibson.
Unfortunately it will not accommodate RV's. We decided against walking
back up to the visitors center and struck out on our own. What a
wonderful
little old town! Many of the houses and churches have plaques out front
that describe the date and architectural style of the structure. This
is definitely not the tourist city Natchez is. What it is, is a real
slice of America. We spent a long time walking the streets of Port
Gibson, again immersed in the past. As we walked along Church Street in
Port Gibson Mississippi it slowly dawned on me just exactly why they
picked church street for the name of this street. Never have we ever
seen so many beautiful old churches (and even a synagogue) in such a
small area. No wonder the Yankees called this place "the town to pretty
to burn" and spared it as they burned the towns in this area during the
Civil War.
Think we're done for the day? Think again. Somehow
or other we seem to have shifted into high-powered vacation mode. So we
turned north on Rt-61 for the second time day, heading towards
Vicksburg. To complicate things, rain started to fall, alternating
between heavy mist and medium cats & dogs. The battlefield park
was
easy to reach as the brown NPS signs are both plentiful and easy to
follow. It cost us $8.00 to enter the park. There is RV parking at the
visitors center ( we chose to leave the coach here and drive the
battlefield in the Explorer, but they do permit RV"s on the park
roads). We stopped and viewed the visitors center. Didn't impress
either
one of us. Not sure what I expected, but whatever those expectations
might have been, they weren't fulfilled, plus they announced the movie
would be shown, then didn't show it. It was a very poorly run visitor
center. The battlefield drive is very
long, first following the Union Army lines, then returning to the
visitors center along the Confederate Army lines. One of my ancestors
was in an Artillery Battery that was at the battle. We stopped at every
marker referencing artillery, but never found one for his unit. However
that turned out to not matter.
They have something at the mid point of
the drive that completely blew my mind. It is a
Civil War Gunboat that
was recovered from the bottom of the Yazoo River. Isn't it
interesting how miles and miles of earthworks and dozens of replica
canons could not do what the few remaining boards, pieces of metal,
armorments and personal affects from a ship that sank with no loss of
life could do. For some reason, it made what happened during the
Civil War very real to me. I would add that it was the single
best display of an artifact I have ever seen in a national park.
All together we spent about four hours touring the
park,
always with a light mist falling. While the off season
meant very little traffic, the weather took away
some of the enjoyment of our visit to the park. Way, way past
the time we wanted to leave Vicksburg we pulled out
heading east on I-20.
Our goal was to reach the Meridian area and
spend the night at a Walmart. If you are going that way,
there
is a Walmart Supercenter in Pearl Mississippi just east of Jackson
which is very easy to find. However, as often happens when we flip the
coin and it came up
tails at the intersection, we should have ignored it and went the other
direction. After getting back on I-20 and heading back west
we
for a few miles, we drove right to it on our second try. Of course all
this took place during rush hour in bumper to bumper traffic. Somehow I
have to wonder, if the people that write how
their travels are always so fantastic, ever actually travel.
We
had an interesting and even for us, different dinner tonight. Egg drop
dry soup mix which turned out to be perfect for a cold rainy night when
accompanied by quesadillas topped with chopped tomatoes, peppers and
onions. I kow, here we are in the heart of the south and
instead
of eating biscuits and gravy, we eat a combination of asian and
hispanic food. Maybe this is what they mean by the New South. Later ice
cream with
chocolate chip cookies topped a great day (the weather might not have
been the best today, but the food doesn't get any better that this).
Feb
21 Natchez must be one of the prettiest
towns in Mississippi but also in America.
However, first we had to make sure we had enough energy to tackle the
task of walking the streets of old Natchez. One cup of old fashioned
rolled oats, an eighth cup of wheat bran, add two cups milk (we use
skim) slowly bring to a boil over medium low heat, stirring
occasionally. Spoon into two bowls and top with sliced fresh
strawberries, chopped walnuts and powdered cinnamon. Now that's a real
tasty, nutritious and very healthy breakfast that will see you through
a day of Natchez sightseeing! As we had prepared to journey eastward I
had done a lot of research on Port Gibson and Grand Gulf Military Park.
However, the navigator having decreed we were going to see Natchez, off
we were going.
First there would be a stop at a lock smith to have RV
keys made, then a copy shop stop and last the Post Office to mail in
our DirecTV local channel waiver form. Since we only use DirecTV in the
coach, we have no "local" stations in the stationary house sense. The
local waiver will allow us to receive the ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC
stations from both New York and Los Angeles, meaning no more antenna,
no more snowy, hissy CSI shows plus possibility to see Desperate
Housewives
twice on Sunday evening. Linda will be in 7th heaven when we get the
waiver!! Of course, no matter what we try to do, there is always
something that makes it interesting. How about a locksmith that wasn't,
a non-existent copy shop, plus a phantom Post Office. What are the
chances that all three places would not be where they were supposed to
be? So much for the Yahoo! yellow pages. Undeterred, we stopped at an
ACE Hardware store and got all but one
of our keys made, noticed a combination print shop/stationary store
where Linda got the copies made and also put our mail in their mailbox.
When you live on the road you have to either be resourceful or be lost,
ha ha.
Now we were ready to do some sight seeing in Natchez, but where
to go? We drove downtown and stopped at what we thought was the Natchez
National Historical Park, but all we found were closed buildings.
Finally found the Natchez Visitor Reception Center. Somebody(Trent
Lott?) got a big grant from the Federal Govt to build this
grandiose edifice. Got to say we really love listening to strong
Mississippi accents of the people, though several of them were almost
to accented for us non-southerner's to understand. But you know, from
the
number of times they asked us to repeat what we were saying, I gathered
the inability to understand was equal on both sides. Next followed a
walking tour of much of old Natchez. The brochure gives
just enough info so you can find the 
old buildings, but very
limited info about them. We did find one very cute thing. On the lawn
in front of the city building is a stone which memorializes
the
"city kitty". F
ollowing
our trek around downtown Natchez we
drove out to the National Park Service site at Melrose. This was an
antebellum mansion which we throughly enjoyed touring. Our guide, who's
name was Nathan, made the tour extremely interesting. It was more than
just a big old house. It was alive with the family that lived there,
yet we were also very aware it was the slaves that made this
ostentatious
lifestyle possible. My take on Natchez: I enjoyed my time
there,
but am not sure I would go back. To be fair, we were there during the
"off" season and it may be if we were to return in the late spring or
early fall we would enjoy it a lot more. The real bummer of all this
touring was, we had missed lunch.
No turkey wraps today, can you 
believe it? Still, there
is always
something good that comes from everything. Later Linda more than made
up for a day with no turkey wraps by baking those mind blowing
chocolate chip cookies, which we
ate still warm (and gooey) from the
oven. This was washed down with some
warm milk to which we added some
Torani Irish Cream sugar free
syrup. Now that's a dessert, if
there
ever was one!
To digress a little bit, after we returned to the
campground Linda
decided we would have a fire. The area had been receiving rain recently
so most of the sticks and wood lying on the ground was wet. Thus a
survey of the campground was in order. As
luck would have it, we located several nice logs in recently vacated
campsites and shortly Linda was enjoying her big smoke. Historically,
Linda is more likely to build a big smoke than a big fire.
For dinner I
made some more
"pounded pork" which I pan fried this time. It's really very simple,
but the result is a pork chop that is elevated a couple of notches on
the flavor scale. Start with a very well trimmed boneless pork chop,
dust liberally with garlic powder and pound thin with the bottom of a
wine bottle (you can use whatever is at hand to do the pounding), then
put them into a baggie that has a mixture of chili powder, lime juice,
garlic powder and bourbon. To really tenderize the chop, you can prick
it repeatedly with a fork prior to pounding it. The more you beat on
it, the more tender it will be. You can vary the quantities to your
taste and let marinate for an hour or so. This was pan fried over
medium heat in some olive oil and served with boiled sweet potatoes and
sauteed asparagus (we like to use olive oil, fresh garlic and just a
dash of basalmic vinegar). Accompanied with a tossed salad, it's more
than just food! Life is what you make it!!!!!!
Feb 20 The reason for stopping here in
Orange, Texas was so Bob could visit the
waterfront and hopefully see the site where the
shipyard that had built
the ship his dad served on in WWII had once been. Unfortunately the
local ship/shipyard museum was
closed. It seems that a rather nasty lady named Rita had come through
the area last September which resulted in some rather significant
damage to the USS
Orleckwhich
was moored at the museum. The result is no museum to visit and no
info on the local shipyards. Since the only reason we stopped here was
to fulfill Bob's need to touch the past, we are sort of up the creek
without a paddle (actually at the river without a ship) lol.
As the RV'ers saying goes, the next time
we're thru this area we will stop and visit the museum. So now what to
do? All the weather reports are for colder, rainy weather for the next
5 days. Do we make a dash for Florida, hoping for sun and warmer
weather like Linda's sister, or do we take the route we originally had
considered, angling up toward Mississippi to the Natchez Trace, then
eastward towards the Georgia. Deciding that the Texas coast had given
us enough coast living for a while, we opted to face the the
possibility of colder weather and visit the central part of
Mississippi. What a difference this is from the time before we retired.
Then trips like this were vacations of defined duration, preplanned and
fully researched. Here we are, five and a half months after our last
vacation and maybe the rain can fall, but we can go where ever our
heart's lead us (apologies to the late Roy Orbison). Isn't funny how
every once in a while the realities of living force us to look directly
into the mirror and see what the life is that we really live?
Leaving Orange behind, we traveled across the corduroy road that
masquerades as I-10 in Louisiana. It did not take many miles of driving
in Louisiana before a thought crossed my mind. If there was a state
were the traffic design of Texas was combined with the road conditions
in Louisiana, the only name for that state would be Impassable. After
having read all the stories about how corrupt the politicians and
government is in Louisiana, I'd have to say it is either as corrupt as
people say or made up of the most unbelievably incompetent people that
nature produces. While the foregoing is only my opinion, I invite you
to drive on Louisiana highways and form your
own opinion.
Our drive took us northeast
across Louisiana from
Lake Charles towards Alexandria, then westward on LA-28 towards
the Mississippi
River and Natchez.
We saw several FEMA Trailer Villages,
including a gigantic one just before the Coushatta Casino near Kinder.
Brings the reality of the hurricanes face to face with our
distorted picture of this colossal tragedy we get from the newscasts.
Then the scenery changed. As we got to Forest Hill,
Louisiana,
wholesale nurseries began to crop up like weeds along Hwy-165 and Hwy-112. It
seemed like almost
every square foot of land was devoted to growing nursery plants. We
weren't to far off as this
article
shows. We crossed the Mississippi as a large barge passed
underneath and Linda took picture after picture so we could put the
best one on the website. Unfortunately, all she got were a number of
somewhat blurry photo's of bridge girders with part of a barge peeking
out. I'd like to figure the odds of never getting a good picture of the
barge. We had an interesting journey before arriving at our home for
the next several days. Our GPS managed to route us on one of those,
never again roads en route to Natchez State Park.
We had read good
things about the State Parks in Mississippi and we weren't
disappointed. A beautiful park, nice level concrete pad,
water and 50 amp electric with a nice dump station at the campground
entrance is making for a pleasant experience in
spite of the dreary
weather. While I rate my desire
to spend time in
Louisiana at
about -2 on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd rate Mississippi a solid 8 or 9. We
arrived to late in the day to any sight seeing, but did enjoy a
relaxing evening the shows on CBS. While the MotoSat finally, after
about 2 hours of searching, found the satellite, we can't receive
Direct TV for some reason. Talked to the people in the site across from
us and they also couldn't find the DirecTV satellite. Small price to
pay for the life we live. After a dessert of persimmon cookies and ice
cream we called it a very satisfying day.
Feb 19 Sunday morning found us on our way
back to my
cousin's. If you've followed our adventure you know that when we are in
an area that has one of the new mega-churches, we like to go and find
out what they are like. Turns out the church my cousin attends is an
"about to become" mega-church. So we got to enjoy another morning of
contemporary music. The man behind the music is Austin Ryan and it was,
without question, the best we have heard to date. If your
curious, church was Copperfield
Community and you can listen to a small clip of their music
on the website.
Next we went to an early lunch at Pappadeaux.
Wow, is the only word I can use to describe the food. I'll just say my
Blackened Texas Redfish with crawfish etouffee and dirty rice was
simply awesome. Turns 
out my cousin's husband
travels quite a lot on
business and he has become almost as good at picking good restaurants
as a food critic would be. And the real secret is to not only be able
to pick the restaurant, but also pick the right dish, which he has down
to a tee!!!! Later, after showing them our coach, their son
loved the
heated, massaging recliner, laughing about how our slides would be just
the thing to get some extra space in their house, we said our goodbye's
and prepared to hit the road once again. This just about did me in.
Here we were, in Houston, Texas and it was so cold, my fingers would
work correctly. And of course, not only did we have to disconnect, but
we (I) also had to dump the tanks. Just remember when you look at all
those smiling , happy people in the RV shows and brochures, it ain't
always fun and games!
Eventually we got it all done and hit the road
with the coach heater slowly removing the state of numbness from our
bodies. 
One thing that is interesting
is, the cockpit heater in our
coach only heats the area right where we sit. Put your hand back behind
the seat to grab a map or atlas and it is really cold. Yet where we sit
it is warm and comfortable. Our route took us on Farm Market Road 1960
to Dayton, Texas where we picked up US-90. We have been trying to take
routes that keep us off the interstate highways as much as possible so
we see the country rather than just drive from place to place. As we
approached Beaumont, the blue roofs started appearing and we slowly
realized Hurricane Rita had done a tremendous amount of damage to the
area. Our plan was to stay overnight just across the border in
Louisiana. As a side note, anyone planning to drive I-10 from Beaumont
to Orange
should aware that when
we came through there were
construction zones that really
narrow down the lanes. It was when we pulled into the Texas Pelican
campground that the tremendous personal losses caused by the hurricanes
really hit us. The campground was full of people who had been displaced
from their homes. Everywhere we looked we saw broken off or
uprooted trees, piles of debris and buildings obviously damaged by the
winds. For $5 we stayed at the edge of the campground with no hookups.
We were glad to contribute even a little bit to the local economy, as
it was apparent this area had lost so much.
Feb 18 Dawn exposed a cold, wet dreary
landscape. Now
as I think about it, this is definitely not the kind of weather
that we have been experiencing over the last month. We had planned to
travel east towards Baton Rouge , then north to the Vicksburg area to
sate my Civil War history hunger. Following a much more southern line
across the south is calling strongly to us. But first we had to run
some errands. One was to the post office to mail our grandsons birthday
presents, the other was to find a locksmith. With that casual comment
you probably sensed a story in the offing. Ever pull into a filling
station, put your key into the little door that hides the gas cap and
have key break off in the lock? Like, now what do you do? You wouldn't
have stopped at the station unless you needed gas, so here you are, no
way to get to the filler with the broken key in the lock. What would
you do? Now put yourself in our place. Driving a motorhome-car combo
you
pull into the diesel pump and find the Explorer is only about 3 feet
off the road. But you need diesel, so you break the key off in the
lock. Now panic because the dealer only gave you one full 
set of keys
and several other keys that were duplicates of a couple of the other
keys. First thought is, do we have another gas key immediately followed
by the second thought. Even if we have one what good is it with the
lock jammed with the broken key. Linda's finger nails to the rescue.
She was able to pull the key out just far enough that I could get the
tips of my wire cutter pliers on it and pull it out. Cheap brass key,
no twist, it just snapped off. There was a duplicate on the other set
and it was steel. Hard to get in the lock and hard to turn, but got the
door open so we could fuel up. Just another chapter of our adventures
in RV'ing.
Never did find a locksmith shop that was open, but passing
by an H.E.B. grocery store, the Explorer just seemed to turn into the
parking lot. Fresh vegetables and ice cream (looks like that wish for a
baked dessert isn't going to come true) and some serious chocolate
treats for Linda's sister, then we were off to the RV park.
Spent the afternoon and late into the evening visiting with my cousin
and her absolutely awesome son and wonderful husband. After living in
our motorhome for 6 weeks, it was culture shock plus, to be in a house
that has a number of rooms which are bigger than out entire RV, but
then everything is big in Texas. Why is it there is always something so
special about being with family? And to top off the evening they even
had what is both Linda and my favorite dessert. Tin roof sundae's.
Another day of living right!
Feb 17 Moving up today.
Literally rather than
figuratively. The plan is to spend most of Saturday and possibly Sunday
with my cousin in north Houston. Now we been driving around in this 38'
motorhome pulling our Explorer for over 6 weeks. Throw in a RV driving
course and it should be something we can do with ease. Short rewind,
throw in driving all the way across Houston and becomes something that
is anything but easy. While there may be some that would take umbrage
at the following, it occurs to me that it is quite possible that only
people that flunked their college course in traffic design are eligible
to be hired by the Texas Dept. of transportation. In this city, all
common sense seems to have gone out the window when it came to
designing the interstate highways.
Given all this on my part, I almost
blew Linda's mind when I suggested we take I-45 all the through town.
It wasn't that I had eaten some strange exotic food for breakfast (the
oatmeal cooked with milk and topped with fresh strawberries chopped
walnuts and ground cinnamon was awesome), no it it was for very
practical reasons I was suggesting it. I-45 was the shortest and
quickest way to where we were going. Besides, the traffic reports were
showing that it was just congested enough to slow traffic to a
reasonable speed, yet not be stop and go. To help identify where the
lanes suddenly became exit only lanes either to the right or left (and
as I had learned) with no warning, I studied Streets and Trips. This
really paid off, as I was in the correct lane at every critical point.
The only problem we had was finding the road to the campground. True
to Houston traffic design, there was no street sign for Cherry St. in
Tomball where we needed to turn. A long, roundabout, traffic filled
journey ensued, which culminated, at last, in our arrival at Corral RV
Park. This turned out to the nicest RV park we have stayed in to date
as we were in the new section. There was time for the girls to do
laundry and me to rest before we ate a dinner of chicken in green sauce
(tomatilla's, garlic, onion & cilantro) with refried beans,
plus my
special guacamole. Then it was another night of Olympic masochistic TV
viewing followed by the last of the ice cream. Now that was something
to look forward to because maybe Linda will bake something for
dessert!
Feb 16 Vacation mode today. This is NASA
day. Our
main reason for staying on this side of Houston, as opposed to some
other side of Houston or Galveston or wherever was to visit the NASA
space center and to take the tour so we could see the room
where they
control the manned space flights. So after a quick breakfast of milk
and shredded wheat topped with sliced fresh strawberries and a dash of
Stevia which we microwave for about 40 seconds, just enough to warm the
milk and make it one totally awesome breakfast, off we went. The doors
open at 9AM and we were trying to get there just after 9. Another day
when the best laid plans go off in their own direction. I was cool
about it though! No more BBD's is my new motto! This is one really neat
place when we finally get there, at about 10AM. You see,
Linda
had trouble programing our Garmin 2610 GPS so she made a hand drawn
map. Problem is no cross streets for warning before you have to turn.
This is a very bad thing in Houston were street signs are small, hard
to read and not in your line of sight, yet everybody drives like
a bat
out of you know where! After missing one turn,
correcting it, ending up
going in the wrong direction for 10 miles (it wasn't easy getting that
far off course , but somehow I managed to do it) we finally arrived at
the Space Center, thanks to Linda pointing out we didn't really want to
go to Texas City.
We elected to get the astronaut audio device which
was great. If you go I'd highly recommend you get it as it makes the
day much more pleasurable. I need to point out we did not have turkey
wraps today for lunch. While it would have been nice to have had one at
the Space Center, we opted for southwestern chicken wraps, which I
would rate okay. But all in all, we all really enjoyed our time there.
They have something for every age and every level of interest. We got
to see the manned space flight control room when we took the tram tour.
It was the old control room, but the fact it was the room that
controlled all the moon flights, the one where the words, "Houston, we
have a problem" and also the words, "One small step for man,
one giant
leap for Mankind" were first heard, meant the world to us.
There was an actual Apollo capsule which had returned from
a flight to the moon. And Linda got her "rock
fix" when she got to touch an actual moon rock.
Then later she got be
the "commander" of the space shuttle. After
a long, full, but
very enjoyable day, we
headed back to the campground for relaxation and
another night of what NBC calls the Olympics. Hey, maybe we're just
gluttons for punishment. Dinner was Owens sausage sandwiches, broccoli
and salad. Healthy nutrition with great taste. The horseradish sauce on
the sausage puts it over the top. Reflecting upon today, in some ways
the Space Center was disappointing, in others it was almost beyond
words. I'd say, having been there, I wouldn't go back, but I'm glad I
went. Dessert was ice cream and 11 O'clock brought a night of peaceful
sleep.
Feb 15 On to the Houston area is our goal
for today.
Still not feeling the greatest, but beginning to realize that life on
the
road is no different than life at home. Good days and not so good days,
good health and not so good health, good times and not so good times.
This was designated coach cleaning day by the commander, aka, Linda. So
after a breakfast of onion, green and orange pepper and garlic saute',
which then had eggs poured over it and scrambled, to finally be topped
off with grated asiago and Parmesan cheese, out came the dust cloth,
sweeper and hand vacuum. The wind had blown everyday we were at Port
Aransas. The equation reads: (Fine Sand + Motorhome on Beach)
X
Constant Wind = Grit Everywhere in Coach. This you
either
already know or will definitely learn that it ranks right up
there with
Gravity as one of the immutable Laws of Physics. A corallary to this
is: All surfaces will become gritty. Now if it was such an important
Law of Physics, why couldn't I remember it from my high school physics
class. Guess I'll just chalk it up to not paying attention in class!!
As we planned our route over to League City where we would be spending
the next several days, we could see there were several options we could
take. To make a long story short, if you are planning to stay at Safari
RV Park in League City, DO NOT try to take Calder Drive north from 517
to the park.
It may look like a
short cut on the map, but since Calder
dead ends about 500 feet south of the entrance to the park, it will
prove to be a much longer route. Now there's always a rest of the
story, so, we actually drove the right way, all our maps and mapping
programs showed Calder as a thru street. However, no matter how we
tried to program our GPS, it would not take Calder from the south, only
from the north. Figuring it knew something we didn't, we took its
advice and were we ever glad we did! By this time I knew yours truly
was catching a cold. So while Linda spent catch up time with her
sister, this boy got some much needed rest. Now I did awaken at 4PM
when the alarm on my wrist watch went off (my daily reminder that there
is still an hour left in the work day - but not for me
anymore),
but healing sleep called again, in which state I remained until dinner.
Chicken Fajitas have never tasted better. Then after an evening of the
Olympics or what passes on NBC for the Olympics, aren't there any other
countries than America competing? And after listening to all
the negative comments by the reporters about virtually every American
competitor in what ever event NBC was showing, I realized it made
Newton Minnow's
comment of long ago, just as true today, "TV is a vast wasteland". So
why do I watch? Lest you wonder, dessert was ice cream!
Feb 14 This turned out to be a BBD. Here
it was,
Valentine's day and yours truly had to show one of his BBD's. Sigh.
Since we wanted to be in the Houston area to visit Bob's cousin, it was
time to leave the sun and surf (also the wind blown fine sand that gets
onto and into everything) and see some more of Texas. I get confused
whether this is called South Texas, East Texas, the Texas Gulf Coast or
just plain Texas, but what ever it is called, there sure is not only a
lot of it, but a lot different "its" also. Our 
travel plans took
into account the tide at the ferry crossing, so we would be leaving
after lunch. Once again I washed the windows of the coach without using
the ladder. I promised myself the last time I wouldn't do it again, and
boy o boy, is my memory short! It isn't a problem until the sun finds
its way into the exact wrong place in the sky. I did have an excuse,
wasn't feeling the best, kind of like a cold coming on. Took
some
photo's of the campground, then drove up to the ferry landing. Now
every time we had been there this week, there were only a few vehicles
waiting to board. Not today, took us nearly an hour to make the
crossing. Retired, no hurry, no problem. This was not going to be a
long travel day as we were planning on stopping in Victoria for the
night. Linda's sister had never stopped for the night at a WalMart, so
our intention was to initiate her tonight.
One spot the ladies wanted
to see was Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. The directions read, go x
miles through farmland, turn, go x miles through farmland, etc. You
finally come out on the coast at which point I had no idea of where we
were at as all Linda was giving me was the turns. My body was starting
to hurt and though the turkey wrap for lunch had perked me up, life was
becoming less fun by the minute. Finally after what seemed like hours
we arrived at the visitors center. Of course as we walk up to the
counter to do what the ladies want to do, they both suddenly decide to
dash into the powder room. By now I really ain't feeling good. Don't
really hear anything the attendant says, Linda gets the brochure and
off we go. Well, first we have to unhook the Explorer, then off we go.
I'm driving down this narrow curvy road, hurting, Nothing from the
Ladies
so I keep driving After along time I get asked, "aren't we going
to stop and
see something?" I just keep driving.... asked again, I inform the
navigator she has the map and if she wants to stop somewhere, just say
so. End up with no stops, get back to the coach, lay down and fall
asleep. Later Linda drives the rest of the way
to Victoria, and just
as
we are leaving the park a flock of wild turkeys crosses the road right
in front of us. Not bragging, but Linda does a magnificent job driving
the coach and it is days just like this that her being able to drive
means so much. As she is driving through Victoria, after dark and on
city streets no less, I make the bright observation that they sure must
like to eat out in this town as all the restaurant parking lots appear
to be full. I'll skip all the gory
details, but suffice it say that
sometime thereafter I was more than fully aware it was Valentine's Day.
Like I said in the beginning it was a Bad Bob Day.
I guess the only good thing about the day, at least for the
Walton's point of view,
was not only is there a Walmart Supercenter in Victoria, but right next
to the WalMart is a Sam's Club. It would have been much cheaper to have
stayed in an RV park and taken the ladies out to dinner. Dessert was a
small bowl of ice cream for me (sigh) and off to a, hopefully, healing
nights sleep.
Feb 13 Today is what I have really come
to apprciate
about this lifestyle. It's monday, monday as the Mommas and Pappas song
goes. Yet it is no different than another day. I know that this week we
will be moving again to a new neighborhood, several to be exact, we'll
leave the tranquillity of the coast behind and enter into the hustle
and bustle of the Houston metro area. But it is our choice to do this.
We don't have to drive the same road to the same workplace at the same
times for the next five days. When and where we go is up to us. Talking
to my son last night, he told me how, he too, wanted to be able to
enjoy this type of life someday. Talking with him I remember the many,
many nights I spent, eyes glued to the computer, following the
adventures of those already living this life. The books I read, the
emails, sent and received, thinking, as we saw an RV on the road, do
they live in it? And always in my mind was the thought, someday I'll go
on my own adventures, following wherever the road leads us.
I often remember listening many years ago to a tape where the speaker
was, oh so vividly, describing this most marvelous of all places. As I
listened, my mind drew word pictures that magically brought
that place to life. The enchanting, faraway, yet nearby paradise
called, Someday Isle. My dad had an overwhelming desire to visit that
place, so many times he'd talk about how someday he would retire,
travel, spend endless hours antiquing and visiting with his
grandchildren. He almost got to Someday Isle, it was within
site,
when six months before Dad was to retire, he suffered his second and
final heart attack.
We all have dreams and aspirations. It was when we realized we were
going to have to stop dreaming about going to Someday Isle that we
finally understood we really didn't need to have all the material items
which we thought we did to make it happen. That we could make it happen
with what we had, that you could sail past Someday Isle on either a log
or the fanciest ship afloat. The means didn't matter, it was the
destination. We're sailing on this big ocean we call, our life, because
we can, just as we know you can sail on your own ocean, Because You Can!
Feb 12 Just as yesterday morning was
chilly, this
morning was hot in the coach. Once again we had run the heat pump and
portable heater during the night, yet this morning it was 75º
when
I got up and no, it wasn't mid morning, nor was it any warmer outside
than yesterday. Even Linda mentioned that it was warm!!! Someday we'll figure out how these things work.
(The heat system and Linda). One of the local attractions that I wanted
to see was the WWII
aircraft carrier CV16, The Lexington,
which is now 
preserved
as a museum in Corpus Christi. While all the tours are self guided, the
result was an awesome experience that anyone with the slightest
interest in history will really appreciate. While there is a good deal
of climbing stairways and going through narrow passageways and hatches,
everyone there, from small children to people far older than ourselves
was having a grand time. This is by far the best large ship exhibit we
have ever visited. I especially enjoyed talking to the very elderly
docent, deep down in the engine room. It made real the stories I
remembered my dad telling about his days in the engine room of the ship
he served on in the Pacific during WWII. He always said he had had
enough heat to last a lifetime down there, and boy did he love the cold
weather and snow. I can
still remember him often waking me at O'dark:30 on a cold, snowy winter
morning, saying let's go for a little walk, then shovel snow. Something
that as I grew older, I came to appreciate more and more as a very
special time in my life. How could I have imagined
what
wonderful memories a visit like this would spark, deep in the bowels of
a warship, built before I was born, talking with a man in his 80's and
picturing my dad as a young sailor toiling in almost unbelievable
conditions. Being human is such an awesome
thing.
Because the ship so far
exceeded our expectations, our visit lasted most of the day. Please be
aware that there is not any
free on street parking in the vicinity of the ship. You can park in The
Lexington parking lot across the street from the entrance or in any of
the Texas State Aquarium lots which are nearby. You have to have a
token to exit the lots which you can buy at the ship's admission
counters. Cost for the Lex lot is $3.00, while the aquarium lots are
$3.50. Of course we had parked in one of the aquarium lots. Later as we
returned through Aransas Pass we stopped at the HEB store get some
fresh strawberries they had on special according to sign out front.
They were even better than advertised and of course once we were in the
store we found a number of other food items we just had to have. Who
says advertising doesn't work, ha,ha. By the way, for once I didn't
have turkey wraps
for lunch. I had gotten so deeply, mentally and emotionally involved in
walking through the Lexington, I completely forgot to eat. Hey, look at
it this way, the only thing I lost was a little weight! While all this
was going on, the ladies found a great spot on the
flight deck to sit and
visit.
Spent the rest of the day either talking to family on the
phone,
watching the Olympics, at least what passes for Olympic coverage on NBC
(the lowest common demoninator viewer they shoot for is
many, many
levels below me) and eating grilled sirloin burgers and chili peppers.
We also broke out the bottle of champagne we forgot to get out
yesterday on Linda's sisters birthday and toasted the past, present and
future. The number of toasts ended up equaling the volume of champagne
and we were happy, more ways than one, with that. Since I had eaten the
majority of cookies last night, I was informed if I wanted any dessert
I'd have to make it. Thus, a little later we we were both enjoying a
bowl of hot tapioca pudding.
Feb 11 How a few hours can make
a huge
difference. Last evening the wind was literally howling as our coach
rocked and the air was filled with blowing sand. This morning dawned
clear crisp and cold, the wind the least of our worries. Both
the heat pump 
and the
portable heater worked to keep it comfortable in
the coach, barely succeeding this chilly morning. Along with a chilly
morning goes a nice hot breakfast to get you going for the day, right?
So why did we have cold ceral this morning? Probably the same reason
the grocery store always has so many older retired folks in it at 5:30
pm when all the people who work are stopping for a few things on their
way home from work, human nature. So continuing to follow in this same
vain, we deciced to go grocery shopping. Now another of my former pet
observations about life was, why did so many little old ladies do their
shopping on Saturday morning,
when they could so easily go any weekday morning when there were hardly
any shoppers in the store. So here we were, "old" retirees who could
shop any morning of the week, going out on Saturday to join all the
folks who worked during the week and could only shop on Saturday
morning! As the saying goes, "there's no accounting for people". Now
when you 'live' in Port Aransas the way we do, there isn't a whole lot
of choice in where to shop unless you want to leave town. So leave town
is what we did, driving down to the ferry landing and going over
to Aransas Pass where there
is a Walmart Supercenter.
My trusty navigator directed me, in her not so unusual fashion, the
wrong way through Aransas Pass so we got to also visit the town of
Ingleside. Geesh, it's only time and gas, plus the scenery wasn't 'all'
that bad. Shopping took most of the morning, who's in a hurry, and we
arrived back home just in time to have our usual delicious turkey
wraps. In the afternoon we did a little cleaning and decided we
would visit another of the "mega churches" while in the area.
This
time we went to the 5PM Saturday service at Bay Area
Fellowship. This one meets in a converted former Elks Lodge
and featured some seriously hard rock
music along with an inspiring, though very much to the point message,
namely, you are responsible
for you. This was one of the 8 services they have each weekend and gave
us some additional perspective on religion in America. Being normal
people,
we spent most of the 30 mile drive back to our home in Port Aransas
comparing the music at this church, with the music at the others we have visited. This one rated
hardest rock and highest volume (but not best sound system).
Dinner was once again, grilled marinated shrimp for us
, salmon for Linda's
sister, Katherine, (shell fish allergy) and grilled sweet
potatoes, with brocolli and salad. For dessert
there were
warm chocolate chip cookies, just baked to celebrate Katherine's
?? birthday (note the duplication
of
question marks reflecting the type of digits that should be shown, but
due to being sensitive to this particular senior citizen, we chose to
disguise).
This was the first birthday in many many years, actually they
determined it was over half of a century, that both had been together
to celebrate either of their birthdays. Presents were opened
and
memories created in a place far removed in both time and distance from
the small midwestern farm where they had grown up. Later,
Linda
made expresso
to top off a memorable day.
Feb 10 The day dawned gray and misty with
cloud
encrusted skies as we walked along the beach. A strong, steady wind
blew in off the
gulf, churning the water into a gray, frothy mass, broken repeatedly
with busts o
f white as the water
tumbled and rolled onto shore or against the jetty walls. It
carried the
remnants of the sea, casting them
ashore. 
Looking toward the jetty
we saw an almost ghostly apparition appear
in the distance, one that soon resembled a ship, finally recognizable
as a
tanker which was being preceded out to sea by a bevy of dolphins. All
the while, birds of the sea bounced on the turbulent waters of the
shipping channel, intent only on procuring their morning meal. Even
though we were
silent intruders into this world, who could not be moved by
the
beauty of it all. These are the things we could not have
imagined before we undertook our adventure, but now look
forward
to, and eagerly seek out when given the opportunity.
Returning to the coach we feasted on a breakfast of scrambled eggs with
diced canadian bacon, peppers, onion topped with melted cheese.
This was accompanied by a toasted English muffin topped with pure fruit
spread. Afterwards Bob began working on changing the design of our
daily journal, by incorporating the pictures into the
text rather than using thumbnails below each days events. This will
hopefully make for a more integrated and interesting layout which will
also load faster than the previous format. With Bob occupied (Linda
terms it "nose buried in the computer, oblivious to anything else"),
Linda and her sister went to the laundromat.
On the way back they noticed a sign announcing one of the local shrimp
boats
had just returned, so guess what we're having for dinner tonite? It
sure ain't leftover chicken fajitas and refries, no sirree bob!! In the
afternoon Bob continued his computer work while the ladies went to
visit the local Greyhound track for an afternoon of
entertainment. While
they did not 
place
any wagers, they still had a great time. Linda's sister had been to the
races before, but this was Linda's first experience. It's interesting
that Bob's grandfather had a real love for Greyhounds &
Greyhound racing and over
the years had several retired dogs as family pets. They are truly
beautiful animals which were bred for pure speed. While all this was
going on, there was a scene that could have been cut from the Hitchcock
movie, "The Birds" taking place outside the coach. 
Bob
had felt the usual need for the daily four o'clock shelled peanut
snack. Taking bag in hand he went out to the picnic table beside the
coach and started shelling and eating the peanuts. After a while he
noticed a female grackle had landed on the ground near the
table. Without considering the ramifications, he tossed a shelled
peanut to her. (The
females being brownish and smaller while the males are black, larger
and far, far noisier). Within microseconds an entire flock of grackles
had
descended upon the area immediately around the table. Linda came back a
little later and took a picture of the remaining birds by the
coach. A little later I
confessed up as to how they got attracted to that spot.
In the late afternoon
the winds picked up, so everyone went over to the 
beach. The waves were
crashing ashore and debris was littering
the beach. The combination of the high tide, a full moon and strong
winds
made for a spectacular show. Linda had the good fortune to find a
small, complete
sand dollar. Dinner was the afore mentioned shrimp,
pan
seared after marinating in oil, lemon juice, garlic and chili powder,
accompanied with sauteed squash and tossed salad. Just as we were
eating the wind came up so hard we had to bring in the curb slide. All
evening long the winds blew and the coach rocked. Checking weatherunderground.com
for local Port Aransas stations we found the winds were fairly steady
at 25 to 30 mph. Spent the evening watching parts of four different
movies on DirecTV (just the good parts of each), then devoured some of
that chocolate cake and ice cream I've been raving about, while
watching Turner & Hooch, before calling it a very successful
day.
Feb 9 This
morning I was out walking before the sun came up. What a wonderful
feeling it is, walking in the gray predawn light, listening to the
sounds of the waves lapping up on the beach, the gentle whisper of the
wind blown sand as it smooths and refresh the wide expanse between the
water and the dunes. At the waters edge the birds sit, as if patiently
awaiting the new day. Others ride the waters surface, gently bobbing to
the rythym of the waves. Up and down the beach, near the
waters
edge, stooped over figures are seen, slowly plodding along
near
the waters edge. Briefly they stop, reach down and lift another shell
to their plastic bag, then move down the the beach, eyes fixed on the
sand, not seeing the spectacular show mother nature is in the process
of displaying for the creatures of the earth. Sunrise has come!
Today Linda and her sister Katherine escaped from Mustang Island and
visited the Corpus Christi Botanical Gardens. 
February caught the
gardens between major blooms. For a number of years we had raised several aloe plants at
our house.When
we had to treat a small burn, all we would do was cut a leaf, or
portion of a leaf off the plant, strip back the outer covering and
smear some of the jell on the burn. It was amazing how fast the burn
would heal When we were debating what plants to bring from the
house as we started our adventure, a small aloe plant was almost included. There were
many orchids blooming in all their glory, but the highlight was when we
spied a
small chameleon (we
learned later it was a common
green anole) but it was fun to watch.
While the ladies were out gallivanting around, Bob was back at the RV
slaving
away (not really, but it looks good in print!!) working on the website,
answering email and relaxing. After all we are retired from the life of
normal work.
All to soon it was time to fix dinner (you'll notice I omitted any
reference to lunch, because I didn't have a turkey wrap today). The
decision was for grilled, quartered, green peppers
slathered in olive oil, turkey
burgers, southwestern beans and brocolli. That's what I call eatin'
good, others may think it to be a somewhat fowl combination of foods
(sorry just couldn't resist the little pun). Later after an evening of
Survivor and CSI, it was time for Linda's latest rendition of chocolate
cake and ice cream and bed.
Feb 8 Lazy day, walk on beach, went
grocery shopping.
Now that could almost suffice for a complete description of what we did
today. However, I've never never been one to merely use a few words,
when many more would accomplish the same thing!!! Managed to look
outside this morning just as the sun was rising and went down to the
beach to take some pictures. Unfortunately I was too late to get the
sunrise, but tomorrow will be a different story.
Walked out on the
jetty, laughed at the pelicans hanging their wings out to dry and marveled
at the RV's parked on the beach. Back
at the RV, it was a breakfast of oatmeal, blueberries and chopped
walnuts topped with cinnamon. Then while Linda and her sister took the
dogs for a walk along the beach, yours truly headed inland to explore
the town. Wow, are there ever a lot of older people out walking the
residential streets of Port Aransas. Exploring this way is such fun.
Did you know that Duncan Hines, he of cake mix fame, had his honeymoon
just up the street from where we're staying. 
How about the fact the carrying
capacity of the Port Aransas - Aransas Pass vehicle ferry is whatever
they can load on board. Whole sheepshead sell at the fish market for
$.99 per lb while flounder is $3.99. Did you know there is at the very
least, either a restaurant or souvenir store on every block
around here. All this took the entire morning and soon it was time for
the - turkey wraps. To me food is like craps, when you're on a roll
don't stop! Now, no smart emails equating 
the
name of the game just
mentioned to the wonderful noontime repast we enjoy everyday. It was so
relaxing, sitting out under the ramada that we almost forgot that
during the preparation of lunch we determined we were in danger of
suffering an almost fatal shortage in our food larder. E gads, we are
almost out of smoked turkey!! No turkey, no turkey wraps!! Therefore a
trip to the local IGA store
became a necessity. Approximately 60 minutes
and $40 later we returned
with a few additional items that Linda felt we needed. At least we
didn't get a rubber chicken like in Johnson City! One of our finds was
a
package of almost perfectly trimmed boneless pork chops. After being
well "forked", 
followed by a wine
bottle pounding, then spending
the remainder of the afternoon in a mixture of garlic salt, lime juice,
cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, canola oil and Jim Beam, they were
grilled with some portabella mushrooms covered in olive oil,
which made
for one of the tastiest meals we have had in a long time!!!!! Later we
watched a
ship sail out the channel, then a new
episode of "Lost" while Linda came up with another
chocolate dessert recipe
that will definitely be a keeper. When we topped it with with
ice
cream, it made the perfect end to the
day.
Feb 7 Part of our reason for traveling to
Texas was
to get in some quality beach time, so bringing in the motorhome slides,
we headed down US
181 to the Corpus Christi area. We wanted to stay close
to the beach and by using the internet we found a Nueces
County Park at Port
Aransas on the northern end of Mustang Island which had a
Gulf beach campground. This falls under the 'nothing is easy' category.
As the Park had recently been renamed, the website didn't show how to
get to the campground, the entrance is not well marked and my navigator
got all flustered
as we drove the narrow
streets of the town. The
concept of the beach also being a road is somewhat foreign to us
inlanders. Anyone who wants to get to the IB Magee Park campground on
the paved street, take Beach Street towards the beach, when you're in
the dunes look to the left and you'll see the campground. The narrow
paved
road to the left with the sign that is hard to read really does go into
the
campground. Don't worry if you miss the turn, just go down to the beach
hang a left, go up the beach till you see the entrance station and
enter. (Much will remain unwritten about our journey to the campground,
lol) Now that we're here, we have several other ways of getting in and
out on sand roads. Heck, if camping on the beach is your thing, just
drive the RV right out on the beach and park, there's quite a few out
there. 
The campground has
water and 30 amp electric and though it does not have sewer hookups,
it has several dump stations. The campground is protected
from the blowing sand by the dunes, yet is only a couple hundred feet
from the
beach on
the Gulf of Mexico. We decided it was nice enough that we would stay
for a week even though there is supposed to be cooler weather coming
this weekend. Spent the rest of the day, after eating a very late
lunch of turkey wraps, kicking back at the
beach, 
picking up
shells and just enjoying life. Dinner was my perfect chicken
fajitas, eaten
while watching NCIS, which turned out to be a cut
up bodies
episode. Those fajitas were so good and so was Abby!!!
(We call watching NCIS -
getting our Abby fix).
Later it was a Linda modified recipe
of
chocolate brownies made with vanilla pudding instead
of the chocolate
pudding the recipe called for
that finished off the day. That woman, who just happens to be my
wife, has a nack for making good
food, great!
Feb 6 Lest you think we have become
vacationer's,
rather than eager, young, respectable retiree's, let me assure
you
we
have
most certainly not! This morning we dug out the
step ladder and
buckets from the bays under the motorhome, so we
(Bob), could wash the outside windows of the coach. This was a job that
(we) had been putting off since Quartzsite and Linda decided that it
was
going
to get done today, so Bob did as ordered, err, requested. While Bob
washed the windows on the coach, Linda's sister washed her entire van.
Whereupon Linda was heard wondering out loud why Bob didn't wash the
coach as well as the windows. Who can ever understand women? 
Later
after a wonderful lunch of turkey wraps,
we drove over to San
Antonio Missions National Historical Park,
which is comprised of four missions dating from the 1700's. This trip
was suggested by the owner of the campground we were staying at as the
number three place to visit after the Alamo & Riverwalk. We
chose
to visit Mission San Jose, where the Park visitor
center is located.
Arriving at the right time, we were able to attend a Ranger led tour of
the mission that was quite informative.
The history of the missions is fascinating and one can only try to
image what life was like as the old ways the Indians knew were replaced
by the new ways which were so foreign to them. As an example, the
missionaries not only had to show them how to build the buildings, they
also had to teach them the meaning of time and that you were expected
to do the same things at the same time each day. It begs the question
whether their life was better before or after the missionaries arrived.
There was a very
poignant moment during the tour, when, as we were
sitting in the Church, the Honor Guard came to prepare
for a funeral service which would be held
the next morning for Sgt
Sean H Miles of the United States Marine Corps, who had been
killed
in action in Iraq on Jan 24th.
The San Jose Mission grounds also give you an excellent
idea of what the Alamo must have looked like in the early 1800's, which
is not 
at
all how it looks today, since the Alamo is
right in the very
heart of downtown San Antonio and nearly all of the outer grounds are
gone. Instead of wide expanses enclosed by walls, they are now city
streets and a retail center across the street
from the Alamo. One can view it either as disappointing that all the
development was allowed to encroach upon the Alamo (there is a very
fascinating story to the history of the
Alamo
in the years after the battle) or we can view it as wondrous
that
out of such tragedy came the magnificence that is the Texas of today.
Later we visited the mission's working grist mill,
which on the same site as the original mill. The docent was a VIP
(Volunteer In
Pa
rks)
from Michigan and besides learning about the operation of the
grist mill, we enjoyed finding out more about how the volunteer program
works, which is something we want to do in the future. Her husband had
taken early retirement at the first of the year (sound
familiar)
and this was their first VIP experience. She operated the grist mill
while her husband was the roving docent on the grounds of the mission.
They worked 24 hours a week and were staying at an abondoned Air Force
base about 7 miles away. Other than the accomodations, they were loving
every minute of the experience. After their three month commitment to
Mission San Jose was fulfilled, they would be spending the summer as
volunteers in a park in the upper midwest. There are so many ways to
live life on the road, there isn't enough time do all the things we
want to! For dinner we
polished off the last of the leftover spaghetti with sausage
sauce, which was followed by brownies and ice cream. I'll
tell you, we sure do eat good!!!
Feb 5 Moving day today, so we packed up
the house and
drove from Johnson City to San Antonio. Of course nothing is
ever
as easy as you think it's going to be, particularly when you combine a
large RV and novice travelers with a big city then throw in the old closed
freeway in the downtown area due to construction monkey wrench. All
this equates to a fun filled?? trip, though it was by dint of a major
change in plans due to said freeway closure when we were in exactly the
wrong lane to go where we wanted. The fact is that regardless
of
the route, eventually we arrived at our destination. Now the choice of
a RV
Park or campground is always a personal thing and RV'ers certainly have
widely differing opinions as to the type of facility they prefer. To
preface the discussion on our choice for this segment of our adventure,
we had thought about
joining the discount camping program, Passport America program before
we set out on our adventure,
but had held off. So, looking for a campground that was reasonably
close
to San Antonio as well as reasonably priced, we selected Hidden Valley
RV Park
near I-35 & I-410. What we found was a secluded little
campground
in a small valley with with full hookups, including 50 amp electric.
Since this was a Passport America park, we decided to join and stay a
couple of days for the discounted rate of
$9 per night. Now we will only have to stay at Passport America parks a
few more nights and we're back even in the money department. A
situation Linda will make sure we accomplish and then some. The road
coming into the campground was gravel, rough and
dusty, the sites, situated close together were mostly all back-in
except for about 6
pull thru's. With were no other facilities (no restrooms) and a fair
number of long
term or permanents it is definitely not a "Resort" RV park, but more
than adequate for our needs. The owner was just an absolute jewel and
she made us
feel like we were special. After getting set up,
which
consisted of hooking up the electric and locking the door, we were off
to
the Alamo and the Riverwalk, though my to co-travels only thought we
were going to the Alamo as they knew nothing about the Riverwalk. Since
it was a Sunday afternoon, traffic
was light getting into downtown, and with only a few misdirections from
my trusty navigator we soon found ourselves going in the wrong
direction. Eventually we did find the Alamo and parked nearby.
Interesting that the weekend parking rates are higher than the weekday
rates. There are a number of docents, and presentations about the
entire history of the Alamo, all of which we tried to be part of. Made
the Davey Crockett of my childhood real to see a book inscribed by
David Crockett and also to see one of David Crockett's own rifle. I
should point out that we were able to do all this touristing because we
had fortified ourselves on turkey wraps before leaving the campground.
Next we walked across the Alamo Plaza and down to the Riverwalk. After
walking a ways and saying over and over, this can't be in the middle of
a city, we came upon the tour boat station. The people in the boats we
had seen while walking looked like they were having a great time, so we
got our tickets and had a great time also. Turns out the boat captains
get most of their income from tips so they work really hard at making
the cruise a great experience, ours sure was! Later as the sun set we
dined on enchilada's, quesadilla's and a gringo burger (Linda's sister
doesn't do Mexican food due to allergies) while sitting at a table at
the edge of the river. The ladies did make sure to do a Margarita while
Bob had sweet tea (didn't even taste like tea). Returned to the Alamo,
not realizing it was unbelievably beautiful after dark. Then back to
the campground for Ice cream dessert and the end to a fabulous day.
Feb 4 When we lived our former life,
Saturday morning
always meant laundry if we were home. Also there is this fond
remembrance of the "old days" as "goodold
days", so took the dirty clothes out of our Splendide 2100
washer/dryer, put about 1/2 back in and washed them. To things about
our washer/dryer: 1. it serves as our dirty clothes hamper between
laundry days 2: it is the greatest thing to make life easy. Linda still
occasionally uses the RV park laundry facilities. At this campground
the OoO sign, (Out of Order sign) was prominently displayed as we've
seen several times in our short time traveling, thus making the W/D
just the appliance to have. Back when we were working up our must have
list for the RV, two things that kept coming up over and over were the
4 door refrigerator/freezer and the washer/dryer, both of which we have
already come to treasure. One of the beauties of our W/D is we can go
off and leave while it is running and not be chained to the laundry
facility. This is exactly what we did, visiting the LBJ Ranch complex
out of town. There were several surprises on this trip. The ranch is a
National Park you tour by bus. At the same location there is
a
wonderful State
Park complex that is dedicated to preserving the Texas
Hill Country. The LBJ Ranch was donated by the family to the National
Park Service, with the President and Mrs. Johnson retaining lifetime
rights. Therefore you can not tour or even get off the bus at the ranch
house. Mrs. Johnson still spends some weekends here, though she now
lives in Austin, as does her daughter Lucy. Did get to get off the bus
at the recreated LBJ birthplace on the farm and also the family
cemetery where numerous ancestors as well as the President are
interred. The NPS Ranger made the visit very enjoyable. He was a native
from the area and had many interesting stories and tidbits of
information about the family and the area. As part of the LBJ State
Park, which is separate from the National Park, is the Sauer-
Beckmann Living History Farm, which recreates Texas Hill country Farm
Life in the early 1900's. If you have even the faintest interest in how
people lived a hundred years ago, this is an absolute must see.
Feb 3 Anyone remember the song: Turn Down
Day by The Cyrkle,
that's what it was for us today. Just a slow, lazy day with an
enchanting visit to the Johnson City District of the Lyndon B Johnson
National historical park that made for an awsesome, yet contemplative
experience. All my life I've detested this man for lying to the
American People about the War in Vietnam. One result of that lie was
the death of my brother over there. Life has so many what if's, that's
why, when you see opportunity grab for it with all your strength and
willpower. Yet this man did so many good things also, that it makes a
rational judgement of him difficult for me, as it no doubt is for many
others. The visit was good because because it showed that he was no
different than anyone else. Just a human being trying to do, based on
his background, morals and the times, the best he could. Enough of
that! He was obviously a large man. They have his famous rocking chair
on display, think I'd almost get lost sitting in it. Also learned the
town is named after a cousin of his grandfather. In the Johnson
settlement area is the cabin his grandfather and grandmother lived in
1867. As part of the settlement there are several fields with longhorn
cattle which fascinated Linda. This whole area is within a mile of the
campground and is an easy walk, though we chose to drive. Later drove
around in Johnson City, a small town that obviously has seen far more
prosperous days in the past. After relaxing in the coach, we followed
our lunch of turkey wraps with a dinner of spaghetti with sausage sauce
and salad. Later we went to the little strip plaza next to the
campground where Linda found a rubber chicken that is now proudly
displayed above our microwave. Dessert was the last of the Warm
Chocolate Cake and pecan ice cream. Can't wait to taste what she bakes
tomorrow!
Feb 2 Got up this morning and found the
neighborhood
around the Pecos WalMart had definitely improved during the night,
parked behind us
was a Prevost with MotoSat! Unfortunately we
needed to hit the road to meet up with Linda's sister in Johnson City,
so didn't get to visit with them. Leaving Pecos, we drove southeast
(morning sun in the eyes) to Fort
Stockton and fueled up at a Shamrock station across from there WalMart
with
easy acess, high speed pumps and good prices. Now it was time for
traveling due east to Johnson City. After driving for miles thru
intermittent limestone road cuts (which block the constant winds), just
east of Ozona Texas a minor miracle occured. We started seeing trees
along the road. Not just the occasional tree along a creek or river
like we
had been seeing for the last 3 weeks, but honest to goodness real
trees. The closer we got to Johnson City, the prettier the country
became. It is easy to understand why LBJ loved to return to his ranch
so often. Our plan was to meet Linda's sister at Roadrunner RV park,
just
south of Johnson City which we found out was an old park with very
narrow roads
and sites. If you read between those lines, then you guessed I managed
to just barely scrape an inch of paint off the coach when pulling
into the site. It really isn't noticable, being at the very bottom edge
of a compartment,just
before the right rear tire. Still, I flogged myself for not paying
enough
attention to what I was doing. This is really small town USA around
here, yet as we were left
I-10 and drove east on US 290 toward Johnson City I was thinking, why
would there be a four
lane highway out here in the middle of nowhere with very little traffic
on it? Finally the light bulb lit up very brightly. Lyndon Baines
Johnson! Powerful congressman, more powerful Senator, Vice President
and
President!!! Why not a little "pork barrel spending" for the folks
back home. Local people see and use the road everyday then remember who
got it
for them come election day. No, I'm not a cynical old man, just
pragmatic. After a dinner of chicken in wine sauce, another fabulous
South Beach recipe, the girls visited and I tried to get caught up on
email. Later we watched CSI (almost missed it since we now in
the
Central time Zone and everthing is on an hour early) then had the same
awesome dessert we so enjoyed the night
before,the Warm Chocolate Cake recipe Linda modified which
she topped with pecan ice
cream. Man-o-man I can't believe it's actually good for you, but it
is!! I'll eat to that!!!!!.
Feb 1 Up early and after a
quick breakfast of
cereal and milk, it was up a very curvy US 82 to Cloudcroft, then on to
Carlsbad. Got fooled on this route. The map shows it to be a fairly
straight road. Not so. The worst part was we were driving into the sun,
so it was very hard to see the road. There was even a tunnel that we
navigated with ease. Once up on top it was gentle rolling scrub land.
For the last couple of days the same thought keeps hitting me, "There
sure is a lot of nothing out here" and how true it is. Our route took
us south of Roswell and though we looked and looked, we couldn't
indentify any alien life forms, bummer. We arrived in Carlsbad about
11AM and immediately drove out to Carlsbad Caverns and did two really
good things. First we got the hand held audio guide for each of us and
second we signed up for the Kings Place tour. We both would highly
recommend doing these two things when visiting the Caverns. The Caverns
have always been one of my dream locations. The Outer Banks of North
Carolina was another and I found it to be a disappointment. Not so,
however with Carlsbad Caverns. They actually exceeded my dreams. There
is no way that pictures or movies could begin to do justice to the
either the enormity or the beauty of the Caverns. They are so awesome
they seem almost fake like a movie set. This warm February day was
perfect for a visit as there were very few people at the Caverns today.
Since we had plenty of time and our audio guides we elected to walk
down the original entrance. We didn't get to see any bats as they are
there in March thru October, but at times there is this unforgetable
odor wafting in the air. Hint- thousands and thousands of bats make
thousands and thousands of piles of bat poo, aka bat guano. Later we
had the priviledge of being on Ranger Jason Richards last tour. He had
started out as a cave specialist many years ago and had so many
wonderful stories to tell. Now all this touring took a long time and we
found ourselves in the Cavern at lunch time, so no turkey wraps today!
Posted a pix below of our honey mustard chicken sandwiches. In the late
afternoon we made a 70 mph dash for Pecos and made it just as the sun
was setting. Found the WalMart and shopped as usual, found a Best of
Gallagher, full Sledge-o-Matic version on sale plus the usual
foodstuffs. Dinner was pan fried sirloin bugers smothered in onoins.
Later I finally figured out how to use the new US Robotics USB wireless
port on the desktop while Linda baked a new recipe from the South Beach
Diet for Beginners website, called "Warm Chocolate Cake", a must repeat
dessert, especially when topped with pecan ice cream.
