Traveling through Texas

We left Austin,and headed to San Antonio. Once again a great "Care Free " campground. We found a special on the internet.$99 a week. So we stayed a week. We went to the river walk several times. We tryed different restaurants and different food. This time it was Mexican!! We took the boat tour of the river walk. We really did enjoy the river walk. Real pretty and lit up at night.
We visited the Alamo.Remember the Alamo??? It was interesting, but smaller than Disney made me believe.
Also we went to one of the many missions. They date back to the Spanish missionaries. It was very interesting.
We spent several hours in the pool and spa. Cool, clean and relaxing. A good week.
From San Antonio we traveled west to Fort Stockton Texas. It was just a one night stop. I don't remember ever seeing that much dust in air. One of the campers told me that since the first of January until the middle of May they only had 6 tenths of an inch of rain. Talk about dry and windy.
Moving north into New Mexico was a real improvement. Carlsbad Caverns are ENORMOUS!! The city of Carlsbad has a nice park on the Pecos river. We went there and tryed our Kayak, which we dragged around on the top of the jeep for several thousand miles. Then we took the park boat tour. It went up to the springs where the pecos river comes from.
The campground had an ice cream social and movie(Mad Money). We had to make our own ice cream. Ice, salt,cream, vanilla extract,and sugar. It was fun and tasted good. Another night they had a hot dog cook out. Free dinner and we got to meet some nice people.

Playing catch up

Boy do we have a lot of catching up to do. Our next to last night at Branson we were supposed to go to a dinner show followed by an outside show. The outside show was cancelled due to a tornado warning. When we got back to the campground the campground the sirens went of, telling us to take shelter. They had an underground shelter. It was scary and so many thoughts go through ones head. The tornado missed us and things turned fine. The same storm headed east and messed up our home in Jersey(lost some siding and roof shingles). But life goes on. Our last night at Branson we went to the Broadway show. It was excerpts from different shows.

Next we went to Weatherford Texas. Weatherford is outside of Fort Worth Texas.We visited Laurie and Lou there. We had lunch and dinner with them. They are our nephew and neice. Lou is pastor of a new church. It is an old church building that is being refurbished. It will be a lot of work, but it should be worth it.

While we were there we stayed at West end campground. What a campground!! The owner had six dogs that ran as a pack. Friendly during the day, but you didn't want to go out at night. There were chickens running all over and roosters crowing at three in the moring. While we were there we went to the Fort Worth zoo it was nice, but we had enough animals at the campground. Visiting the zoo brought back memories for Vera. There was a lot of school kids ther on field trips. Vera has been there and done that many times.

Our next stop was Austin Texas. To bad it was just onr night. It was a great campground. Care Free Campground of Austin. Care Free is a new chain of Campgrounds. We recomend them.

I don't like heights

The next day we traveled from Louisville Ky to Dexter Mo. It was a pleasant and uneventful trip. But.... The following day (Wednesday) we traveled west on Mo. route 60, heading across Missouri to Branson. Half way across 60 we hit a detour due to an accident ahead. The detour was forty miles long(just a little out of our way). There wasn't a quarter of a mile that was straight or level. I'm telling you every inch of it was up and down on a very narrow two lane road,with no shoulder. Did I mention this was all in the beginning of the Ozarks? We finally got through the detour. After turning south on Route 65 we realized that was nothing compared to the last thirty miles to Branson . The road goes straight up and down, followed by straight up and down. All of this was right on the edge of the mountains (thousands of feet down, well maybe...) When I say we finally got there I mean finally!! Branson has a lot of shows, and has a lot to keep you busy. The only problem is they built it on top of the mountains. When I ask people why, they just laugh.... I really don't like heights!!! I saw Vera laughing . I thought she was laughing at my being scared of heights. I found out she was laughing because she was nervous too.
We have already seen a 50's at the hop show and Andy Williams show at the Andy Williams theater, followed by a late night snack at the Andy Williams Grill. Are you beginning to see a trend here?
Tonight (Saturday May 10Th) we have reservations for The Shepherd of the Hills show . Before that we are going to the Son of the Pioneers dinner show.
Also this afternoon there is a TORNADO watch. Did I mention we're not real crazy about tornados?

We were late for everthing.

It is May 9th. God ! have we been bad at keeping this blog up to date. We arrived in Natchez ( actually the campground was on the La. side of the Mississippi River. Well at least half was ON THE SIDE of the river, the other half was still under the river. But that really wasn't a problem. Natchez is a quaint town. We visited Grand Village, an indian museum and village. By the time we went to the Antebellum Homes tour they were closing. We just took a car tour of them. We found ourselves in the same situation when we finally reached the Frogmore cotton plantation.It is the only active cotton gin in the country that people can tour.But we were late again. After all the riding we took a walk through downtown Natchez. We bought some books in a neat little book store. It reminded both of us of "The Little shop around the corner" from the movie "Youv'e got mail". We had dinner at a place called Pig Out Inn. Good food, fast service, full bellies. After we got some nice pictures of the river and river boat.
We spent the next day driving up Natchez Trace ,one of the most comfortable drives I've ever enjoyed.
We stopped at Tupelo Mississippi. It's Elvis's birthplace. We saw his two room house( bedroom and kitchen). It might have been a three room house if you count the out house. It was interesting to see how the king of rock and roll grew up. We went to the hardware store where Elvis bought his first guitar. We fell in love with the town. We were told if you ask a southerner a question, you get a book. Wow is that true. Barbara, the owner of Antique alley, was so friendly. She was preforming in the town playhouse in Gypsy. Really great people...and therefore great town.
The following day we continued up the Natchez Trace Parkway to Nashville. We spent the next day touring the Opry Hotel. The atrium was enormous, boat ride inside, water falls inside, and beautiful plants inside. It is beautiful. That night we went to The Grand Old Opry. A great show. I think Vera is in love with Brad Paisley.
Our next stop we were bouncing between Kentucky and Indiana. One side of the river is central time and the other side is eastern. We had a good excuse for not knowing what time it was. We saw how they made The Louisville slugger baseball bat. We visited a munitions and armament museum. Then we toured a lumber making plant. We saw the process from tree to finished board. They make finish trim work at this plant.
Next we are headed for Branson Mo.

New Orleans etc...

The next night (Wednesday the 23 of April) we stayed at a real red neck campground. It was in Gulf Shores Alabama. Just by comparision we looked like high class. We finally fround someplace where we looked good, but we were only there for one night. Good thing ,I kept hearing dueling banjos. The next morning we headed out through Mississippi , to New Orleans La. The main highways are in terrible condition around New Orleans. We made reservations at a KOA campground in New Orleans.
The first day we toured Destrihan Plantation, an old sugar plantation.It was very interesting and stately. We talked to the girl that gave the tour. She told us things to do while in New Orleans.
For breakfast, the next day we went to the French Quarter. We had "Cafe au lait" and "Beignet"(pronounced" ben yea ") at the Cafe Dumond. Lunch was at the Gumbo Shop. I had to try something new, Jambalaya. It was pretty good.
We walked around the french quarter most of the day. We had to include Bourbon St. !!! It doesn't have much on Duval st in Key West. The Buildings were all adorned with rought iron railings.It was very interesting too.
We took a street car (not named desire) just so that we could say we took a street car in New Orleans. Guess what, no stella!! The street car was a rescue for our feet from all the walking we did.
Saturday was a perfect start of a day for the Jazz Fest. We did enjoy the Dixie land music in a tent. We had lunch from a variety of venders. Things were going good until it started to pour. If you were in a tent it wasn't bad. Billy Joel was to perform on an outside stage at 5:30. We were totaly drenched by 5:00 P.M. and just couldn't think about listening to Billy Joel in the pouring rain and mud. We headed back to the campground. Sunday evening we went out for pizza. We saw another couple eating Crawfish. I asked the waitress if we could try a few. She gave them to us for free. Monday morning we left New Orleans for Natchez Mississippi.

The New (Pimped) Ride

We left Lazy Days With our new motorhome. We headed for north Florida ( the pan handle ). It was about three hundred miles. What a comfortable ride in our new Damon Challenger, which is thirty seven feet long and has three slides. Pictures will follow as promised. We arrived in Mexico Beach which is located on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Our stay at Mexico Beach was really a lot of fun. We met up with Toby and Chris, who are our great friends from Sunshine Key, at Rustic Sands camp ground. We enjoyed three days together. Florida Caverns ,Falling waters State park and Apalachicola were some of our excursions. We promised to return to Apalachicola because some of the more interesting shops had closed by the time we got there. We ate dinner at a great little restaurant named Tamara's. We moved on from Mexico Beach to Navarre, still in the Florida panhandle. We camped at Emerald Camp Ground. The camp ground was right on the beach. The sand was so soft and white!!! We sat and read on the beach and enjoyed every minute of it.
Today, Wednesday April 23rd., we left Navaree and ended up in Gulf Shores Alabama. On the way we stopped at The Naval Air Museum in Pensecola Fl. What an interesting guided tour of all the Naval aircraft. We looked for our nephew's name in the Cubi Cafe,but couldn't find it. There were so many names,of pilots. They covered every wall.
Tomorrow we'll drive to New Orleans. We plan to stay there for four days. There is just so much to see and experience. To be continued.......