We started our day with a pancake breakfast at the campground clubhouse. Then we headed out into the Texas Hill Country. North of San Antonio there really were hills! From the freeway, we saw a store called "The Look" advertising country furnishings. On the roof it said, "Cowhides Mean Romance. Well, that got Rich's attention, so we had to investigate. They had deer antler chandeliers, furniture made of longhorn horns, lots of kinds of hides, rugs, and Texas-style mission-style ranch furniture. It was quite the store! We didn't find anything we needed, but there was a quote we liked - "Friends [View Full Entry]

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We were tired this morning from all that walking yesterday! We changed our minds about boarding Daisy, and decided she could come with us. The kennel was going to be closed on Sunday so we couldn't pick her up until Monday! No way! Rich filled our propane tanks and we took showers. Then we went off to the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park. The first one was the Espada Mission San Francisco of the Sword. It was first built in 1690 in east Texas and was closed and started anew several times before being built in 1731 on the San [View Full Entry]

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We spent a lazy morning at the camper. The last couple of driving days were stressful! Rich called the VA about medicine for when we get home and made January appointments, including one for his leg. Then, we went to the Alamo! Everybody remembers hearing about the Alamo and the famous people who died there, but unless you're a Western history buff like Rich, it's hard to remember why it was important. We walked all around the Alamo and never did learn very much. So, Nancy bought a book to help out. First, the Alamo was part of the mission system [View Full Entry]

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We left West Houston on a windy, cloudless day and it was 40 degrees. The land was flat and the ranching was cattle and grass hay. We could see how cattle could be hard to find and hard to round up in these live oak and mesquite trees and tight brush. A lot of cattle were wild before the great cattle drives started and we could see why. Rich says that cowboys wore chaps to prevent scratches and tears from the brush (chapparal) and that even horses wore leather "armor" from their necks down past their chests. We saw our first [View Full Entry]

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There was a little rain and a little wind during the night. A cold front was moving through and it was 41 degrees this morning. There were refineries again. The countryside has scrubby little trees and bushes in the grass. Later, it was 38 degrees, rainy, and windy! The RV parks we passed were full or nearly full. We are in snowbird country, where the people escape snowy places and fly south, so we called ahead to a park beyond Houston to make sure there would be spots and there were. We stopped at the Texas Welcome Center. The guide said [View Full Entry]

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Before we hit the road at 8:40, we left two bowls of food for the stray cats. There was light rain overnight. Today started out cloudy, breezy, and humid. As we passed over sandy creeks, we realized that we haven't seen a rock in three days. There were cotton fields that had been cut, but at the ends of the rows there were little drifts of white cotton balls like snow. There are actually some rolling hills. We passed orchards of big trees - pecans, walnuts? When we got to St. Francisville, LA, we started going on part of the route [View Full Entry]

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We started our day of touring by going to the Emerald Mound, a Native American temple mound built by the Natchez and used from about 1250 to 1600. The mounds were used for ceremonies and sometimes the chief lived on top. Some local mounds were being used when Europeans came and they observed some of the ceremonies, including human sacrifices at the funerals of high ranking people. The mound was built by people carrying baskets of dirt until it was 770 feet long by 435 feet wide and 35 feet tall! It was flat on top, except for a few mounds [View Full Entry]

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We spent a leisurely morning and left the RV park around 11:00. Jodie and Nancy spent a half hour on the phone going over the mail. We saw our first dead armadillo by the roadside. Will we ever see a live one? A highway sign for an upcoming rest area said, "Security Provided". We decided we didn't need to stop.We passed through Jackson, the state capital. According to the guidebook, it was nicknamed Chimneyville, after Sherman burned the town in July, 1863. There were beautiful, new interchanges in Jackson, but the highway was old, rough, and bouncy. We were sure everything [View Full Entry]

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We decided we had to see the lion before we packed up and moved on. We drove over to the park and it was closed. It opens at 5:00, but only for the trainride through the lights. We drove down the park roads to see if we could see any cages and we did. We found an open gate on a service road. We didn't see any sign that said, "Keep Out", so we didn't. We wound around on the road down to the cages and saw llamas and goats and then we saw the LION! Nancy jumped out to take [View Full Entry]

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As we got in the truck to drive back to Bob's in Boaz, we heard the lion roaring again. We met Bob at his house and then went to eat breakfast. We had pecan waffles. MMMMM! Then Bob drove us all over the Boaz area. There was corn stubble in the fields. People's vegetable gardens were still growing, especially cabbages. We're still amazed that so many places have vegetable gardens without fences around them. I guess the deer and the rabbits have plenty of other food of their own! We picked up Bob's grandson from pre-school and continued our tour. The [View Full Entry]

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