Living Our Dream

Tucson, AZ, Part I: Saguaro National Park

We had quite a long drive from the Texas Hill Country to our next destination of Tucson, AZ. It took us three days driving five or more hours a day to get there. We usually don't drive more than 4 hours a day or for more than two days in a row, but somehow, that's the way things worked out for this leg of our travels.

Our first overnight stop was at Hilltop RV Park in Fort Stockton, TX. Hilltop RV is all gravel, and somewhat dusty gravel at that. They have full hook-ups with 30/50 amp electric and Wi-Fi. All the sites, which are fairly narrow, are pull-throughs. There is some traffic noise from I-10 but there is a nice view from the hilltop toward the west. The photo below shows our site at Hilltop RV.

The next photo shows some of the other sites along our row.

The pull-through site helped us get an early start since we left the toad hooked up. That was good because we had another drive of over five-hours. However, we gained an hour going from Central Time Zone to Mountain Time, and we got to our next stop at American RV in Anthony, TX, by early afternoon.

Anthony, TX, is a short distance past El Paso and right before the Texas - New Mexico border. American RV is located behind and is apparently owned by Camping World. In fact, there is a 200-300 rig rally park there, too. The campground is all fine gravel, but it's not too dusty. The fine gravel, however, gets stuck in the tread of your tennis shoes and gets dragged into the rig quite easily. There are full hook-ups with 30/50 amp electric and Wi-Fi. All the sites are extra-long pull-throughs, and site width isn't too bad. There is a little noise from I-10.

 

The next morning we were off to another fairly early start for another five-hour drive to Tuscon. This time, we would gain an additional hour because we were going into Arizona, and Arizona doesn't observe daylight savings time. Our home during our stay in Tuscon was Desert Trails RV Park.

In addition to getting good reviews on rvparkreviews.com, Desert Trails also has a 50% Passport America discount from May to September. The discount is good for up to four days.

Like a lot of campgrounds in the southwest, Desert Trails is all gravel (except for the main road around the campground which is paved), but the layer of gravel was very generous and it wasn't dusty at all. Desert Trails has some sites with 30 amp electric and some with 50. If you need 30 amps, be aware that Desert Trails is another of those fairly rare campgrounds where the the 50 amp sites don't have a 30 amp plug in the box. We wanted 50 amp because temperatures were predicted to be in the 90s most of the time we were going to be there, and we figured we'd need both air conditioners during the day. With 50 amp, not only could we run both air conditioners, but we also could run the washer/dryer and microwave at the same time if necessary. The nice thing is about the desert, however, is it cooled off at night and we could turn off the air conditioning and open the windows.

Overall, the campground is very quiet except for the incessant cooing of the white winged doves and mourning doves that starts before dawn. And someone living near the campground also has a rooster who can't tell time. He crows at random times during the night. The birds start to coo and crow in earnest quite early because with no daylight savings time, it starts getting light at 5:00 AM this time of year.

There are a couple of pull-through sites, but most are back-ins. The sites aren't very wide; but there weren't many people there, and we had no one directly on either side. Desert Trails is a winter snowbird park, and it has pretty much emptied out now that the season is over.

We liked the desert landscaping throughout the campground. There is a large cactus garden near the office, and there are small patches of cacti and desert shrubs scattered around the campground. Some sites don't have much landscaping, but we picked a site with a couple of small trees, some other desert plants, and a rather large saguaro (pronounced sah-WAH-roh) cactus in front.

 

The next photo is a view looking down the road. The sites look a little bigger than they really are because the RVs are parked on every other site. If you can stand the heat, Desert Trails is a really nice RV park in the off season, especially with the cacti blooming in spring; but we're afraid things might be a little too close for comfort when they're full in winter.

In addition to getting good reviews and having a Passport America discount, Desert Trails was located very close to several things we wanted to see in Tucson. One of these was the Saguaro National Park. Sagauro National Park is divided into two units about 30 miles apart separated by the city of Tucson. The two districts are the Tucson Mountain District (Saguaro West) and the Rincon Mountain District (Saguaro East).

Saguaro National Park is named for the saguaro cactus that grows in the Sonoran Desert. The Sonoran Desert includes the southwest corner of Arizona, the southeast tip of California, and runs on down into Mexico and the Baja Peninsula.

Saguaros can live to be over 150 years old, and a mature specimen will usually be 30 to 50 feet tall. Saguaros grow mostly on the south-facing slopes because they need the heat of the sun to survive in winter. The cooler air also collects in the valleys, and for that reason, not many saguaros grow naturally on the valley floor either. We'll have more information on the Sonoran Desert and saguaro cactus in our next post.

Saguaro East is a higher elevation that Saguaro West, and the Sonoran Desert in Saguaro East gradually gives way to conifer forests. Mica Peak in Saguaro East rises 8,664 feet above sea level. We were more interested in the desert, and since Saguaro West was only 5 or 6 miles up the road from where we were staying, that's where we headed.

We stopped at the visitor center and watched an excellent slide show on the desert and on saguaro cacti from a Native American perspective. Then we took off to drive the loop trail through saguaro West.

What we didn't know was, although the loop road in Saguaro East is paved, the loop road in Saguaro West is not. Not only isn't it paved, but it's pretty rough in places. Fortunately, the Saturn Vue didn't have any problem even though it doesn't have very high ground clearance.

There was an interesting balanced rock near the beginning of the loop.

In addition to saguaro cactus, the park has other desert plants like the ocotillo (pronounced oak-oh-TEA-oh), prickly pear cactus, cholla (pronounced CHOY-ah) cactus and plenty of creosote bushes.

On the return side of the loop, there seemed to be more branched saguaros.

Botanists aren't sure why some saguaros form branches or arms and others don't. A saguaro may have to be up to 75 years old before it gets arms. The one in the next photo was very impressive in both size and the number of arms.

We completed the Saguaro West loop with a very dusty car. Although the scenery in the park is nice, it isn't anything you can't see on the hillsides along many of the area roads. Tucson Mountain Park is a 20,000 acre county park that you have to drive through to get to Sagauro National Park, and its scenery is every bit as nice as that in the national park with much better roads.

There are several hiking trails in both units of the national park, but at 98 degrees we passed on the hiking. Still, we're glad we visited the park because we got to stop in several places along the loop road and see some of the cacti a lot closer than we would have just driving by in the car.

We have only scratched the surface of things to do in Tucson, so stay tuned for more.

Texas Hill Country Part I: Texas Capitol

We took our time leaving San Antonio because we had only about a 65-mile drive to Miller Creek RV Resort located just a few miles south of Johnson City, TX. Miller Creek RV has roads and pads that are a combination of gravel and dirt. They have full hookups and free Wi-Fi. Some sites have 30 amp electric and some have 30/50 amp. The sites are a mixture of pull-throughs and back-ins with grass between the sites. Site width isn't bad for a private campground. The photo below shows our site at Miller Creek RV.

The next photo is a little more distant shot showing some of the neighboring sites. As you can see, the campground wasn't very full.

We had a back-in site that had a nice view of Miller Creek behind us.

Johnson City is in the heart of Texas Hill Country. Texas Hill Country runs from about Austin westward to Fredricksburg, and from the northern suburbs of San Antonio northward to a little past Llano. Hill Country features regions of rolling to rugged hills underlain by limestone or granite. Hill Country is known for its showy wildflowers that bloom along the roads and in the fields in spring.

Much of Hill Country was settled by German immigrants, and you see town names like Fredricksburg, New Braunfels and Gruene (pronounced Green). It's an unusual contrast to the Spanish-sounding names we were used to seeing in Texas.

We visited Hill Country back in 2007, and we liked it so much we decided to visit again. Click here to read about our first visit to San Antonio and the Hill Country.

For our first sightseeing outing on this visit, we headed east about 40 miles to Austin  to visit the Texas State Capitol. The current building, which was completed in 1888, was the fourth building to serve as the seat of Texas government.

The building is constructed from pink granite quarried from the Marble Falls area of Texas which was about 25 or 30 miles north of where we were staying. With an area of 360,000 square feet, the Texas State Capitol is the largest of any state capitol building.

 

In the lobby there are statues of Sam Houston (left), hero of the Texas fight for independence, and Stephen F. Austin, who led the original 300 Americans into the then Mexican territory.

 

Although the dome is not the highest capitol dome, it is about 15 feet higher than the U. S. Capitol in Washington, D. C. Inside, the single, 6-foot diameter star at the top of the dome sits 266 feet above the floor.

Upstairs, we were able to get to see the senate chamber since the legislature was not in session. Interestingly, the Texas legislature only meets every other year, so having another career is imperative. Perhaps it's an idea that should be adopted in Washington.

We learned that the building was financed by a barter transaction where 3 million acres of public land in the Texas Panhandle were exchanged for financing of the construction of the building at an estimated cost of $3 Million. Two brothers, Charles and John Farwell from Chicago, created a syndicate backed by foreign investors and received a strip of land approximately 200 miles long varying in width from about 20 to 30 miles wide along the border with New Mexico.

The 3 million acres of land became the X I T Ranch, which at its peak had 150,000 head of cattle behind 1500 miles of fencing. After being plagued over the years with cattle rustlers and predators such as wolves, and with falling cattle prices in the late 1800s, the syndicate began selling off parcels of land to pay investors as the bonds came due. By 1905, most of the land had been subdivided; and by 1912, the last of the cattle were sold.

Not only was the tour of the capitol free, but the parking garage designated for capitol visitors provided two hours of free parking. Additional parking was very reasonable at only a few dollars an hour, but we made it back within the two-hour limit.

We made another stop on our way back to the motor home. Stay tuned, and we'll tell you all about it.

San Antonio, TX, Part I: Lulu's Bakery and SAS Shoes

From Dickinson, TX, we drove to San Antonio, TX, where we had reservations at Admirality RV Resort. We made reservations because Admiralty RV is located near the entrance to Sea World, and we were arriving on a Saturday. Although the campground emptied out on Monday, it was pretty filled when we got there, so it was a good thing we made reservations.

Admiralty RV has full hookups with 30/50 amp electric plus cable, free Wi-Fi and an Escapees or Good Sam discount. The roads, pads and patios are paved, but the sites are fairly narrow.  Most of the sites are pull-throughs with back-ins around the perimeter. The pull-throughs have grass between the sites in the front and gravel in back for extra parking. In spite of being near a limited-access highway and across from the entrance to Sea World, the campground is fairly quiet. The photo below shows our site at Admiralty RV.

The view looking down the road is shown in the next photo.

Margery has a former co-worker who moved to San Antonio recently, so we arranged to meet TR and his wife, Carol, at Lulu's Bakery in San Antonio later the afternoon we arrived.

Lulu's was featured on the Travel Channel program Man v. Food. Lulu's claim to fame is a 3 pound cinnamon roll. When the ladies in the campground office found out we were going to Lulu's, they asked us to bring back a cinnamon roll for them. Look at the size of that thing!

In addition to the cinnamon rolls, Lulu's also has a regular sit-down diner with a menu of burgers, fried chicken and their other claim to fame - chicken fried steak. TR was really disciplined and had a grilled chicken salad, Carol had a burger, and we both had chicken fried steaks.

The steaks are available in three sizes, the smallest of which is 12 ounces, and with traditional white gravy, dark gravy, or queso (cheese) sauce. The chicken fried steaks were good, but our cholesterol levels can't stand that kind of eating very often.

We had a good time chatting with TR and Carol and catching up with old times. The cinamon rolls are supposed to be excellent, but we never did get to try one because we couln't justify buying something that big for just the two of us. Too bad they don't make them in smaller sizes. Afterward, we headed back to the motor home for some TV and relaxation for the evening.

We goofed off on Sunday and watched the NASCAR race from Talledega. On Monday, we drove toward San Antonio for some sightseeing.

We got an early start because we wanted to stop at SAS Shoes. Margery started wearing SAS Shoes for comfort back before her knee surgery, and still wears them almost exclusively even now. She wanted to check out a new style in their on-site store, so we thought we might as well include the tour while we were there even though we did the tour when we were in San Antonio back in 2007.

The shoe store has a rustic style to it with several old cars on display outside.

When we went in to sign up for the tour, we found out there were no tours because of the customer appreciation sale that was going on in the store. The good news was the sale provided $15 off the price of any pair of shoes in the store.

SAS was started in 1976 in San Antonio (that's where the name comes from - San Antonio Shoes) by two men who were concerned at how shoe manufacturing was moving overseas. The partners decided to manufacture high quality, comfortable, hand-made shoes right here in the United States.

The shoe store at the factory has every style SAS makes in every size.

While Margery tried on shoes, Paul looked around the at some of the old cars on display inside the store. There was a restored Ford...

...and Paul really liked the old Buick convertible.

Then it was Paul's turn. SAS only has a few styles for men, but they recently started making running and walking shoes. Paul always has trouble finding shoes that fit properly and don't hurt his feet, but as soon as he put on their new walking shoe he was sold. His old pair was getting pretty bad, so he ended up with a new pair of shoes, too. We came for a free factory tour and went home with three pairs of new shoes. Cha-ching...but we did save $45 with the sale!

From SAS, we headed off to downtown San Antonio for some sightseeing. We'll tell you what we did in our next post.

Heading West From New Orleans

We left New Orleans, drove west on I-10 and made an overnight stop at A+ Motel and RV Park in Sulphur, LA, located just south of Lake Charles, LA. The A+ RV Park is only a couple of years old and has paved roads, pads and patios with grass between the sites. They have full hook-ups with 30/50 amp electric, free cable and free Wi-Fi. Most of the sites are extra-long pull-throughs, and the site width isn't too bad for a private campground. The photo below shows our site at A+ RV Park.

The next photo is the view looking down the road from our site.

The Lake Charles area is a center for the petro-chemical industry. Unfortunately, there is a chemical plant located on the other side of the trees behind the campground that emits a constant hum/whine that is noticeable in the campground when you have your windows open or when everything else quiets down at night.

We got a relatively early start the next morning since we didn't have to hook up the toad. Our next stop was at Green Caye RV Park in Dickinson, TX, between Houston and Galveston. Green Caye RV is part of Green Caye Village, which is a rental community that includes houses, townhouses, duplexes and mobile homes. The village also has a 9-hole, par-3 golf course.

The RV park has paved roads and pads, full hook-ups and Wi-Fi. We had 50 amp electric, and this is one of only two campgrounds where we have stayed that a 50 amp site didn't also have a 30 amp receptacle in the box. Maybe our site was an oddball; but they do have 30 amp sites, so if that's what you need, make sure you ask. The photo below shows our site at Green Caye.

And the next photo is looking down the road past our site. Some of the rental housing is on the other side of the white fence to the right, and the golf course is located behind the motor home.

Margery has been corresponding by email with Janice, whom she met through our blog. Janice and her husband Dave are full-timers who are originally from the Houston area, We learned about Green Caye RV from Janice's blog. It also turned out that Janice and Dave were staying at Green Caye for part of the time we were going to be there. We stopped by to visit with them, then made plans to go to lunch with them the following day.

Janice and Dave suggested La Brisa (The Breeze) Mexican Grill in nearby Bacliff, TX.

La Brisa has excellent Mexican food at reasonable prices. Portions are gigantic. We started off with baskets of hot, crispy corn chips and bowls of tomato salsa (spicy, but not too hot) and bowls of green salsa made with tomatillas that was mixed with sour cream. We've never had the green salsa mixed with sour cream before, and we both liked it a lot.

Margery had a chili relleno that she said was the best she's ever had, and Paul had a beef burrito grande. Prices for lunches ranged from about $6 to $8, and dinners were about $9 to $15.

La Brisa also has a large outdoor seating area complete with some nice murals that evoke a festive, seaside atmosphere reminiscent of Cozumel.

We enjoyed our lunch at La Brisa and spending time with Janice and Dave to get to know them better. We look forward to seeing them down the road in our travels.

After lunch, we dropped Janice and Dave off at their 5th wheel where they were going to wait for some work to be completed on their truck, and we took off to do some sightseeing. We'll tell you all about it in our next post.

 

Dallas to Albuquerque

One of the interesting things about staying at Hickory Creek Campground on Lewisville Lake in the Dallas area was the large number of wading birds that visited the lake. There would usually be at least a few birds around almost all the time during the day; but just about every morning for a short time just about the time the sun came up, there would be 20 or 30 great egrets and a few blue herons at the little inlet near where our site was. On the morning we left, Paul finally managed to catch a photo of a large group of the birds.



We finished packing, and took off for our next overnight stop at Copper Breaks State Park. Located about 12 miles south of the small town of Quanah, TX, Copper Breaks is an out-of-the-way state park that might be one of Texas' best kept secrets. We were there in the middle of the week, and the camping areas were empty except for us and the campground host. The photo below shows our site at Copper Breaks State Park.

 

Copper Breaks has paved roads, gravel pads, water and 50/30 amp electric hookups, tepee-like lean-to shelters, and widely spaced sites. There are hiking trails, an equestrian trail, and mountain bike trails. The campground is in the middle of nowhere (that's Zeller-speak for there isn't a Walmart nearby), and it was very quiet. Unfortunately, it was 90 degrees and we had to run the air so we couldn't enjoy the quiet.

About dusk, it had finally cooled off enough for us to go for a short walk. We were just in time to catch the sun dip below the junipers.

The park takes its name from the gray-green streaks of copper ore that run through the red rocks. Even in the waning light, the colors were very striking.

 

The next morning, we were on our way again for another one-night stop in Amarillo, TX, where we stayed at Oasis RV Resort. Oasis RV is a relatively new campground, and it is very well designed. The sites are fairly widely spaced and are completely paved with gravel between. Oasis is a member of Passport America, but the 50% discounts are temporarily suspended because they are offering a special $20 a night rate (their regular price is about $33 - the going rate for the area) to everyone to try to keep the campground as filled as they can after the high fuel prices last year and the poor economy this year. There are a lot of empty sites around us in the photo below because quite a few people had already left that morning.

 

From Amarillo, we drove about 5 hours to Albuquerque, NM. We will be spending a week at American RV Park. American RV has mostly pull-throughs with back-ins around the perimeter. Some of the pads are paved and some, like ours, are gravel and sand. The sites are a little close, but not too bad. American has full hookups including cable, and they have Wi-fi. Like most of the campgrounds in Albuquerque, American RV is located right along I-40, and there is some traffic noise. The photo below shows our site at American RV.

 

This is our first visit to Albuquerque, and there are a lot on our "want to see" list. We'll be sure to share what we find.

Dallas Part I: Trade Days USA

After our one-week stay at Rainbow Plantation near Mobile, AL, we continued on our westward trek with a one-night stop at Lakeside RV Park in Livingston, LA. We stayed at this campground our first year of full-timing.

Lakeside RV is a Passport America campground. The Passport America discount doesn't apply to pull-through sites, so we unhooked the toad and took a back-in. The photo below shows our site at Lakeside RV.

Lakeside RV is a very nice campground with full hook-ups, trash pick up at your site, and fairly widely-spaced, paved sites. Some of the sites are right on the lake.

About the only thing negative about Lakeside RV is the traffic noise. The campground is far enough from the interstate to eliminate noise from that source, but the road that runs past the campground has quite a bit of truck traffic during the day. Sleep was no problem, however; because traffic appreciably diminishes by early evening.

From Lakeside RV, it was on to Ajax Country RV Livin' in Marthaville, LA. The folks at Ajax are very friendly and accommodating (they even pruned the small tree at our site so we wouldn't drag against the branches when we pulled out), and the campground is a member of Passport America. The campground is a little older, but it seems to be well cared for. They have full hook-ups and some sites have 50 amp power. Roads are gravel and sites are grass with a little gravel. Ajax has mostly extra-long pull-through sites with some back-ins. The photo below shows our site at Ajax.

We opted for a 50 amp site because it was close to 90 degrees the day we were there. Running the air cooled us off and diminished the saw mill noise from across the street. 

The saw mill wasn't operating by the time we left around 9:00 AM the next morning. It was Friday and maybe they only work a four-day week. We were heading toward our next stop at Hickory Creek Corps of Engineers Campground in Lewisville, TX just north of Dallas.

Shortly after we got on the interstate, a car sped passed us. After it got well ahead of us, the driver pulled off onto the shoulder, got out of his car and began gesturing toward us. We knew he was trying to tell us something was wrong, so Paul immediately began to check the rear view monitor and the mirrors. He saw that the steps were out, so we pulled onto the shoulder.

The steps have an interlock so they retract automatically if the key is in the ignition and the door is closed. However, when we raised the jacks, the steps were still extended and touched the ground when the motor home dropped down. This caused the steps to bind and to not retract as they should when the door was closed right before we departed a few minutes later. When we pulled over on the interstate and opened the door, the steps were free and retracted as they should, so all was well. We're very grateful to the fellow who pointed out our problem. Had we hit a dip in the road, the steps could have dragged on the pavement and could have been torn off or severely damaged.

The rest of our trip was uneventful - at least until we arrived at Hickory Creek. When we tried to unhook the toad, the battery was dead. You're supposed to pull a fuse to prevent the battery from being discharged while towing. Paul installed a switch under the dash to make things easier so he wouldn't have to open the hood every time to pull the fuse, but he forgot to turn the switch off again after running the engine of the Vue that morning. Running the engine for three minutes is a required procedure for towing the Vue. We are very thankful to the camp host who brought her car over so we could jump the battery and get the car started. We let the engine run while we completed our set up, and the battery recovered and was fine afterward.

The photo below shows our site at Hickory Creek.

 

And the next photo is the view of the lake from our door.

The first thing we noticed when we initially got to our site was how windy it was. The wind was coming across the lake and hitting the motor home broadside so hard the motor home would shake even with the jacks down. When we took a walk later on, we discovered we had just about the most windy site in the campground. Our site faced a fairly wide part of the lake, which also happened to be the same direction the wind was coming from, so we were completely unprotected.

Fortunately, the wind was hitting our passenger side. Both our slides are on the driver's side, and if the wind is coming from that side, it gets up under the slide toppers and causes them to billow and flap risking damage.

The wind died down to a stiff breeze at night so we were able to sleep, but it picked up again the next morning. Although the wind built up again the next day, it wasn't as severe as the day before.

Our stay in the Dallas area happened to coincide with Trade Days USA held one weekend a month at Texas Motor Speedway, which is north of Ft. Worth. We always like a good flea market even though as full-timers we don't usually buy much. The Speedway was only about half an hour away so we headed there on Saturday.

Unfortunately, it was a cloudy, windy morning and the market didn't have a very good turnout of vendors or customers. But we were curious so we decided to go anyway. The next photo shows some of the vendors close to where we parked.

The market had a lot of the usual flea market stuff, but there was also a lot of merchandise that had a western flare that we had never seen before - like the decorative longhorn steer head on the table in the next photo of wrought-iron lawn art.

There were also these rocking horses (the dark one on the left is a bull)...

 

...these Texas-themed storage bins...

...and these bird houses made from cowboy boots.

 

Margery particularly liked these children's chairs and rockers by fatratfamily.com.

 

Even though there wasn't a big turn out of vendors, we still got to see a lot of interesting things. We stopped at Walmart to restock some groceries on the way back to the motor home and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. We'll be out and about again soon because we still have a lot to see in the short time we will be in Dallas.

Amarillo, TX

We left Taos and headed southeast to Amarillo, TX. It would be a little too far to make it comfortably in one day, so we stopped overnight in Tucumcari, NM, at Cactus RV Park. Cactus RV is located on historic Route 66 close enough to I-40 to be convenient, but far enough away that there is no way you could hear the traffic.

Cactus RV is on the grounds of an old motel, and the old motel rooms still run down the eastern side and across the back of the campground. It feels a little bit like a piece of history. The campground has full hookups (no restrooms or showers, so self-contained RVs only), free Wi-Fi, and cable TV.

There are a few bigger shade trees, but mostly there are smaller trees (primarily junipers) between the sites for privacy. All sites are level and most are extra long pull-throughs so you don't have to unhook if you don't want to. Cactus RV is great for a one- or two-night stop, especially at the Passport America rate of $13 a night plus tax.

The sites at the front of the campground are all gravel and there are some in back that don't seem to get much use that are in an open, grassy field. The photo below shows our site at Cactus RV.

From Tucumcari, it was about a two-hour drive to Amarillo, although we lost an hour to the time change going from Mountain to Central time. We arrived at Ft. Amarillo RV Resort in the early afternoon. It was Sunday and the office was closed, but they had a little packet of information for us with our name and site number on it at the night registration desk.

Ft. Amarillo RV is located west of the city just off I-40. In fact, I-40 overlooks the campground and there is some traffic noise from the interstate. The roads and sites are gravel (it looks like some parts may have been paved at one time). They could use a little fresh gravel to reduce muddy spots when it rained and to cut down on dust when it was dry. The sites are mostly pull-throughs.

The campground has full hookups, free cable and Wi-Fi, an indoor pool, a hot tub, an exercise room (with two weight machines, a set of dumbbells, two treadmills, and a stationary bike), a putting green and a tennis court. Each site has a small, concrete patio. The spacing of the sites isn't too bad for a private campground, and they also have 3 foot high privacy fences between sites. The photo below shows our site at Ft. Amarillo RV.

 

Fort Amarillo RV Resort is also home to Lizzie Mae's Mercantile. It's a country gift shop much like we seen in Pennsylvania and Ohio but not in the Southwest, so it felt a lot like home. :) It's crammed with collectibles, Southwest home decor, jewelry, purses, locally-made jellies, and many more things. We were able to do a little Christmas shopping. :)

Last year we spent a good bit of time farther south in Texas, and we were curious about the northern panhandle. Since our route back east this year took us through the panhandle, we scheduled a week stopover to explore Amarillo. This got us a weekly rate at Ft. Amarillo RV Resort that averaged out to a little less than $21 a night.

We had previously researched  Amarillo on the internet and found some sightseeing possibilities, but we also needed a stop near a little bigger city like Amarillo because Margery needed to do a little shopping and because Paul needed to find a Lowe's or Home Depot for a few supplies for some minor RV repairs.

Approaching Amarillo, we ran into something we haven't seen for a while - rain. Oh, we've seen a few thunder showers, especially in Taos; but we haven't seen several days of off and on rain. Well, a rainy day was a good time to get our shopping done.

Then on the second day of 80% chance of rain, we started out with a breakfast buffet at the Big Texan Steak Ranch. The Big Texan is famous for its 72 oz. steak dinner that's free if you can eat everything, including the shrimp cocktail, salad, baked potato, roll, AND the 72 oz. steak, in an hour or less. If you decide to try it, you get to sit on the stage so everyone can watch. About 8,000 people have successfully completed the feat since the restaurant opened in the '60s. If you don't make the one hour time limit, the meal will set you back $72.

The photo below shows the outside of the Big Texan. Even on the overcast, rainy day we were there, the bright yellow color almost hurt our eyes. They offer free limo service to and from nearby motels and campgrounds. The limos with the cattle horns on the hood are parked to the right.

That's Paul posing in the photo below, and that's about as close as he's going to get to a 72 oz. steak.

Maybe the Big Texan's steaks are better, but the breakfast buffet was mediocre at best. Even though they had made-to-order omelets and pancakes, we thought the buffet selection was rather limited and the food was pretty dried out. At a cost of $8.95, we were very disappointed; and we think the Der Dutchman breakfast buffets in Waynesville and Walnut Creek, OH, are much better and a couple of dollars cheaper.

After breakfast, went to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum about 15 miles south of Amarillo in Canyon, TX. The Texas Panhandle lies in the southern Great Plains, and the museum covers the history of the area from fossils of prehistoric animals, through the archeology and history the Plains Indians, all the way to modern times. There are also collections of American art, Native American art, and firearms.

In the photo below, Margery is checking out a model of an Indian pueblo.

Water has always been important to the plains. The Ogallala Aquifer underlies about 225,000 square miles of the Great Plains, including much of the Texas Panhandle. The museum has a collection of windmills, which were (and still are) used to pump water from this underground aquifer.

 

The museum has a lot of information on the history of oil in the Texas Panhandle. Oil was discovered in 1925 and the boom of oil discovery continued into the 1930s. The photo below shows a pump jack from that period.

 

As we left the museum, the rain had stopped, at least temporarily. We hit a few light showers on the way back to the motor home; but by late afternoon, it looked like the rain was pretty much over.

We gave the weather an extra day to clear, then headed back down toward Canyon, TX to visit Paol Duro Canyon State Park. The name Palo Duro translated from the Spanish means "hard wood" and came from the mesquite and juniper trees found in the canyon.

The canyon was cut into the soft, sedimentary layers of the Texas Panhandle by the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River. Although the river isn't very big, we saw evidence of its power. The road through the park crosses the river several times and there was dried mud all over the roads at the crossings indicating the river had overflowed its banks during the recent rains. One branch of the road was still closed due to high water even though it had been two days since the rain had ended. The water in the river was red with mud indicating the river was still at work to deepening the canyon.

Palo Duro Canyon, which is called the Grand Canyon of Texas, is about 120 miles long, up to 20 miles wide, and a maximum of about 800 feet deep. The state park, which was opened in 1934, comprises 26,275 acres in the northernmost part of the canyon. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built most of the roads and buildings in the state park. The photo below is looking down the canyon from the visitor center.

In the closer view below, the flared formation to the lower right of center is called Spanish Skirt.

 

The Lighthouse is a famous formation in Palo Duro Canyon. The hike to the Lighthouse was 5.75 miles round trip with a vertical climb of over 800 feet. With the difficulty making the 3 mile hike with a 480 foot climb to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park recently, we decided to pass on the hike to the Lighthouse. We had to settle for a telephoto shot of the Lighthouse from about 3 miles away. The Lighthouse is just to the left of center in the photo below.

The visitor center had a very good video about the history of the canyon. The first inhabitants thousands of years ago were nomads who hunted mammoth and bison in the canyon.

A Spanish expedition came to the area by way of Taos in 1541. The Apache were living in the canyon at the time, but they were soon displaced by the Kiowa and Comanche. In 1874, the Native Americans were removed to reservations in Oklahoma.

In 1876, Charles Goodnight came to the canyon and started JA Ranch. The ranch, which still operates on a smaller scale today, had as many as 100,000 head of cattle at one time.

Beyond the visitor center, the road descended down into the canyon. As is did, we could see the brightly-colored layers of orange, yellow, red, and mauve in the canyon walls.

Down on the canyon floor, we stopped at a reproduction of the dugout shelter used by Charles Goodnight until he could build a proper house. It was pretty grim - dark, dank, and musty-smelling. We could only imagine what it must have been like mixed with animal smells, dust, and wood smoke.

 

But the location was beautiful. These rock layers were near the dugout.

 

And the formation shown below called Fortress Cliff was not too far away.

We passed the fellow in the photo below on the road and turned around to take another look. By the time we got back, he was off in the weeds, so this was the best photo Paul could get. He wasn't about to chase a 4+ foot diamondback rattlesnake into the tall grass.

The canyon is also the home of Texas, an outdoor musical drama featuring fireworks, special lighting, and a cast of 60 actors, singers, and dancers. Unfortunately, the last show of the season was the day we arrived in Amarillo, so we missed it.

After we left Palo Duro Canyon, we stopped at a roadside pull-off about a mile west of the campground called Cadillac Ranch. Cadillac Ranch is located in a field just off the frontage road that parallels east bound I-40. Cadillac Ranch was built in 1974 and was the brainchild of an art group called the Ant Farm and consists of 10 Cadillacs ranging from 1949 to 1963 models. The model years represent the "tail fin" Cadillacs.

The graffiti-covered cars are buried nose first at an the same angle as the sides of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. In 1997, the installation was quietly moved two miles west to be farther from the growing city. The public is encouraged to visit the site and to express themselves with spray paint. The vehicles are occasionally repainted various colors to commemorate special occasions or to simply provide the public with a fresh canvas. Are they junk cars or art? We'll leave that for you to decide.

As we like to do, we again left ourselves a day at the end of our stay to catch up on chores. We cleaned the inside of the motor home, Margery did several loads of wash, and Paul washed the car and finished washing the outside of the motor home.) On the day before we move on, we also like to do things like check the tire pressures and stow gear to prepare for departure, and to have a little time to relax. We are continuing our eastward migration.

On April 1 we left Mission, TX, and headed north to San Antonio home of the River Walk and the Alamo. We stayed at Guadalupe River State Park just north of San Antonio. The sites in the park are well spaced with trees and shrubs between. Although we very much liked Bentsen Palm Village where we stayed in Mission, the more natural setting of a state park was an enjoyable change after having been at an RV "resort" for a month.

Having seen the Alamo Village  movie set in Brackettville, TX, about two months ago, we were anxious to see the real Alamo.

Construction of the Alamo, which was originally called Misión San Antonio de Valero, was begun in 1724. The mission was closed in 1793 and in the early 1800's the Spanish stationed a cavalry unit at the former mission. The soldiers called the mission the Alamo (Spanish for cottonwood) in honor of their former home.

Texas was originally claimed by Spain and was later part of Mexico following the Mexican Revolution. Many Americans settled in Texas and became Mexican citizens. In 1835 internal strife in the Mexican government led to General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna abolishing the constitution and declaring himself dictator. These acts eventually led to the famous battle in 1836 where roughly 200 heroic Texans perished defending the Alamo holding out for 13 days against the overwhelming numbers of Santa Anna's army. Among the men commanded by Col. William Travis were Jim Bowie, famed knife fighter, and David (he didn't like to be called Davy) Crockett, frontiersman and former U. S. congressman from Tennessee.

Less than two months later on April 26, 1836, Santa Anna was defeated by Texan forces commanded by Sam Houston in a battle that lasted 18 minutes. Santa Anna himself was captured enabling the Texans to extract a treaty granting them their independence.

Whereas Alamo Village depicts the Alamo as it was in 1836 without a roof and with earthen ramps inside, the real Alamo has been largely restored. The only other original building that survives is the barracks, which now serves as a museum. The Alamo stands on a 4.2 acre plot in downtown San Antonio and is surrounded by serene gardens and live oak trees.

Near the Alamo is one of many entrances to the River Walk or Paseo del Rio. The San Antonio River makes a loop through the downtown area and lies one level down from street level.

The River Walk can be accessed by means of steps from most of the many overhead bridges and through several buildings that front the River Walk.

There has been development along the river throughout most of the history of San Antonio, but a comprehensive flood control plan created a bypass channel with flood gates and flood pools in the 1930's and made possible the River Walk as it exists today. Major planning and renovation of today's River Walk took place in the 1960's. Plans for improvements and expansion are ongoing.

The River Walk is a quaint, picturesque area of shops and restaurants along the San Antonio River. There are 35-minute narrated tours of the River Walk aboard small, colorful boats. The buildings have been built or renovated in the early Texas or colonial Mexican style. Walkways wind along the river and are lined by beautiful landscaping and shaded by overhanging trees. Many of the restaurants have tables with colorful umbrellas right along the water where you can sit, eat, and watch families of ducks scurry out of the way of the tour boats. Down along the river it's easy to forget about the hustle and bustle of the city above. See Photo Album 016: San Antonio and the Hill Country the for more pictures of River Walk.

At the western end of San Antonio is the Market Square  or El Mercado.

This historic area houses dozens of cafes, restaurants, and shops selling Mexican pottery, clothing, leather, jewelry, and art. El Mercado claims to be the largest Mexican market outside of Mexico. Of course, we could only window shop. :)

To the north of San Antonio are several German settlements dating back to the 1800's. Gruene, (pronounced Green) which is one of these towns, was just about 30 miles west of where we were staying. It was founded by Henry D. Gruene in 1872 when he established a grist mill on the banks of the nearby Guadalupe River. This general store was one of many of his later businesses.

Gruene is a small town that is full of quaint shops, restaurants, and bed and breakfasts. This is is the Gruene Mansion Bed and Breakfast.

After a week in the San Antonio area, we left for Fredericksburg  which is deeper in Texas Hill Country. Hill Country is an area of rolling, sometimes somewhat rugged, limestone hillls in central Texas that runs from San Antonio roughly 75 miles northward and from Austin roughly 100 miles westward.

Hill Country attracts millions of tourists each year and is dotted with quaint towns, wineries, bed and breakfasts, shops, and art galleries. The area is very picturesque, even when the wildflowers are not in bloom, but we were thrilled to arrive at the peak of bluebonnet season.

One of the things we liked about the terrain was that although the hills could be covered with trees, generally the trees were only 15-20 ft. high which meant when getting to a rise in the road, you could see over the top of the trees into the valley and on to the next hill.

Fredericksburg is another of the German settlements in this area of Texas. The town was named for Prince Frederick of Prussia. After being so close to the Rio Grande River and the Mexican border for the past few months, it was strange to see the German influence. We were used to seeing the names on streets, mailboxes, businesses, etc. in Spanish, and we were now seeing them in German.

Fredericksburg is the home of the National Museum of the Pacific War.

Admiral Chester W. Nimitz,  who was the Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific during WWII, was born in here  so Fredericksburg is a fitting home for the museum. Neither of us ever had the chance to study WWII when we were in school, so we really appreciated the opportunity to learn more. The Museum follows the entire history of the war in the Pacific from early Japanese aggression against the Chinese through the attack on Pearl Harbor to the dropping of atomic bombs and the Japanese surrender. Throughout the progression of the displays about the war in the Pacific, there was information about what was going on in Europe and the rest of the world. There are many interesting exhibits from a real B-25 bomber to photos, diaries, artifacts, and mementos.

The Museum of the Pacific War includes the Japanese Peace Garden. The garden was a gift from the Japanese people to the American people to promote good will after the war.

In addition to learning about WWII and driving the back roads looking at wildflowers, we also visited Enchanted Rock. Below is the view approaching Enchanted Rock from the south. Enchanted Rock is the large dome just to the right of center. Little Rock is to the left.

Enchanted Rock is a pink granite dome that rises 425 feet above ground level. It is a steep 20 to 30-minute walk to the top. See Photo Album 016: San Antonio and the Hill Country the for more pictures of Enchanted Rock, including views from the top.

After spending about two weeks of almost daily sightseeing in the San Antonio and the Fredericksburg areas, we needed a little time to catch up on grocery shopping, laundry, and relaxation. So we moved about 20 miles down the road to the Kerrville-Schreiner Park to get outside the bustle of the main tourist areas. A former Texas state park, Kerrville-Schreiner Park is now operated by the city of Kerrville. It has sites along the Guadalupe River on one side of the road, but we opted for the quieter sites with reportedly more wildlife on the other side of the road. We weren't disappointed. Deer came through in the mornings and evenings and frequently stopped to graze. Some of them came quite close to the campers, but Molly seemed to make them a little nervous so they stayed about 20 feet away from us.

Although we traveled through major produce-growing areas most of the winter and had little trouble getting vegetables, one of our favorite things that is hard to find in the southwest is fresh basil. We had been thinking about trying to grow our own and now that it was spring and we were in an area with numerous nurseries, we picked up a basil plant and also a cilantro plant.  Although fresh cilantro is plentiful in the grocery stores here, we never seem to have it when we want it; and, unlike many other herbs, cilantro is one herb that there is just no substitute for fresh.

Paul stopped at Lowe's and picked up some small pieces of lumber and some paint to build a caddy for the potted herb plants. The caddy will help keep the plants upright during travel and will make moving them outside easier. In spite of not having a table saw, drill press, and belt sander, he was able to turn out a respectable-looking caddy using hand tools.

Near Kerrville is the Thousand Hills Cowboy Church. We had the privilege of worshiping there one Sunday during our stay. This was a truly unique worship experience with the service taking place in a corner of their partially-completed horse arena, complete with "horsey" smells. The ministry reaches out to cowboys, ranchers, and country people with their no-nonsense message and old-time country/western gospel songs.

At the beginning of the service there was an announcement for the benefit of newcomers. We were told not to touch the electric fence that surrounds the property as "it is hot and will definitely give you a perm." I was only one of two men there without a hat, and Margery was only one of two women not wearing jeans. The pastor's red heeler dog sat on the platform with him as he preached and recited cowboy poetry. It was definitely a non-traditional service, but the message was right on, and we felt surprisingly at home.

One of the other things we did during our stay at Kerrville-Schreiner was some broad planning for the next several weeks of travel. After leaving the snowbird areas, we are noticing that campgrounds are getting busier on the weekends as the weather warms. One of the great things about being retired and being full-timers is being able to be flexible in our travel plans. However, we don't want to get caught short with no place to stay, so we are finding that some planning and making some reservations are necessary. As they stand now, our plans are to backtrack through the Davis Mountain area of Texas and then head toward New Mexico.

We arrived in Mission, TX, on March 1 for our month-long stay at Bentsen Palm Village. We made reservations to stay a month sight unseen because their website provided excellent pictures of their sites, and we weren't disappointed. The RV park is well layed out with full hook-ups (including cable and Wi-Fi), ample space between sites, paved parking pads and patios, and nice landscaping.

Mission, TX is in the Rio Grande Valley, which is at the lower end of the Rio Grande River in the southern tip of Texas. The area referred to as "the Valley" runs from about Rio Grande City through Brownsville and on to the Gulf of Mexico. The area is not really a valley, but a delta formed by the Rio Grande River.

Spring had arrived in the Rio Grande Valley shortly before we did. Temperatures were in the 70's, eventually rising to the upper 80's by month's end. Another thing that we really liked was being on the far end of the Central Time Zone where it didn't get light until 7:30 in the morning (good for sleeping in!) and dark at 8 p.m. making it seem like summer!

Being at the beginning of spring break and since South Padre Island is a popular destination for spring breakers, we decided to take our day trip to South Padre Island our first week before it got too crowded. We also wanted to take a dolphin tour. Just 1 1/2 hours from Mission, we found South Padre Island to have a comparatively small resort area with a very nice beach that was even open to cars.

However, as we drove up the coast,  we were surprised to see how much of the island has undeveloped beachfront property.

We had made reservations for our dolphin tour with Colley's Fins to Feathers tour. Our tour guide, Scarlett Colley, has a deep love for the dolphins. Their tours of 2-6 people on a very stable pontoon boat makes for an enjoyable, educational, and up close encounter with the dolphins. The bottle-nosed dolphin are native to the Gulf of Mexico and South Padre Island.

During our cruise, Scarlett stopped several times to scoop up nets full of Sargasso Seaweed. In this seaweed live tiny shrimp, which Scarlett collected to use as food for some of her fish back at the research center. She even scooped up a Sargasso Fish which is wonderfully camouflaged to look just liPhoto Album 015: Spring in South Texaske the seaweed. See the for a picture of the Sargasso Fish.

This was the longest time we have stayed in one place, and it gave us an opportunity to take care of some small projects. Paul used the workshop at the park to refinish a couple of the tables in the motorhome that had become water-spotted.

And I finished the quilt I had started over a year ago. Yippee!

One of the great pleasures of our stay included bike riding into Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park. Bentsen Palm Village was located just outside the state park which is also the World Birding Center.

The state park is a crossroads of north and south bird migration, so it's easy to become a "bird nerd." Additionally, this is the only place in the world where  Green Jays  live. They are beautiful.

During our evening rides, we would often see  javelina, (also known as the collared peccary) which, although they look like pigs, are not related but are actually from the hippopotamus family!

While in Mission we attended the Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show, which was much like a county fair with animals, crafts, art, flowers, etc. It was great to walk through the barns and see all the kids working so hard preparing their animals for judging. Whole families participate in the event.

Also nearby in Harlingen, TX is the Iwo Jima Memorial. Located at the Marine Military Academy, a private college-prep school in the military tradition, the memorial is the actual gypsum plaster model used to cast the bronze memorial in Washington, D. C. The gypsum model was donated to the academy by artist Dr. Felix de Welden. Dr. de Welden was so impressed by a picture of the flag raising taken by photo journalist Joe Rosenthal he completed a scale model of the sculpture within 48 hours of seeing the photo. Over a period of 9 1/2 years Dr. de Welden increased the size of the sculpture on a grand scale. The figures are 32 feet tall and the flag pole is 78 feet long. Since the memorial is made from gypsum it must be repainted every 3 years. The relatively constant temperature and humidity in the Valley also help preserve the memorial.

The Battle of Iwo Jima was a hard-fought, important victory for the U. S. Marines and Navy. During the 36 day battle, over 6,800 U. S. personnel were killed and almost 20,000 were wounded (for a total of about 1 in 3). Almost all the 22,000 Japanese on the island were killed.

Because of the proximity of the area to Mexico, the influence of the Mexican culture was evident everywhere. The first time we heard an announcement in Wal-Mart in Spanish, it took us a minute to figure out why we couldn't understand it! The Border Patrol presence was everywhere and border patrol stops are routine at designated posts along major highways. There were also several other things that were noticeable. First, dance halls are popular with these fun-loving people. Secondly, we saw many very attractive adult day care centers. Finally, the majority of houses whether in the city  neighborhoods or the ranches or small homes in the wide open space, are gated, which means they have fences (mostly wire) around their property with closed gates across the driveway.

As we evaluate this winter's experiences in Florida, Arizona, and Texas, we're thinking we'll probably spend most of the winter in Florida next year. Although we liked Yuma, we couldn't find a park that would take reservations for just 2 months. Although we really liked Bentsen Palm Village, the wind which we had heard about, really annoyed Paul particularly. For over half the month, the winds gusted to 25-30 mph. This limited our use of the patio although we got some good resistance training when we were biking, and aggravated Paul's allergies.

We're heading up to the Texas HIll Country to catch spring there and all the beautiful wild flowers we've heard about before heading west through New Mexico.

There are additional pictures in Photo Album 015: Spring in South Texas including some of our discoveries while spending time in the bird blind, some of the beautiful landscape plants at the RV park, and additional photos of the livestock show.

We left Tonopah, AZ, with temps in the 70's heading for southwest Texas hoping the weather forecast for highs in the upper 60's would hold. Our destination was Davis Mountain State Park, elevation 5-6,000 feet. Similar to our travels west earlier this year, we ran the gambit of weather. Going across the Sonoran Desert, we were captivated with the clouds and weather we could see in the distance.

As we climbed in altitude crossing New Mexico on I-10, we  encountered  lumpy "rain."

We waited out the weather at the Escapees' Dream Catcher Park in Demining, NM. This full-hook-up campground with pull-throughs is close to I-10 and is an easy in/out.

As we approached El Paso, TX, the Rio Grande River becomes the border between the United States and Mexico. This 1,885-mile river which begins in the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado  flows south through the middle of New Mexico and then southeast as the border between Texas and Mexico emptying into the Gulf of Mexico at Brownsville, TX.

It's not exceptionally wide as it passes between El Paso and Juarez, MX, and Mexico is easily seen from I-10. "So near and yet so far" came to mind as we thought about  the  many  people who risk so much to enter the US.

Across from where the above photo was snapped, we were struck by how dwarfed these El Paso houses looked by the mountains behind them.

Davis Mountain State Park was our homebase for four days while we explored the area. This full-hook-up campground is in the most extensive mountain range in Texas, and we were captivated by its rugged beauty.

While we were setting up, a herd of mule deer grazed freely and were not at all shy. Mule deer have larger ears than the white-tail deer found in Pennsylvania.  

Our drive to the top of one of the peaks in the park provided us with a stunning view of the area.

The state park is just 4 miles north of Fort Davis, a military post from 1854 - 1891. Abandoned during the Civil War by Union Forces, it was re-occupied and re-built in 1867 for the newly organized Ninth U.S. Cavalry. The standard of living in this 1867 re-built frontier outpost seemed to us to be rather sophisticated. These furnishings were ordered by Commanding Officer Benjamin Grierson's wife specifically for their move to this residence.

Leisure-time diversions included a band, a library, a chapel and a school. Because many officers had their wives and families with them, the women organized social events, i.e., balls, charades, and dinner parties.

Fort Davis is 30 miles north of the town of Marfa, home of the Marfa Lights. These orb lights have an unexplained history. Ten miles of the road to Marfa was dirt while it's being re-constructed, so we put an excursion to see the lights on our "to do" list in the future.

However, we did attend a Star Party at the McDonald Observatory which is part of the University of Texas at Austin. The night was clear (with temps in the low 30's) which enabled us to see an incredible array of stars. We viewed the sky through several telescopes but the most captivating and memorable for both of us was seeing Saturn complete with rings. It was an amazing experience. The observatory could be seen from a distance.

Not far from Ft. Davis is the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute where we toured the outdoor exhibits and botanical gardens. This is a great view of Mitre Peak which saw when we were on the Hummingbird-Butterfly Trail.

There was an excellent and educational mining exhibit. What a thrill to find this MSA Mine Spot mine lamp on display. As a manufacturing engineer for MSA, Paul oversaw the building of quite a few of the molds used to make this very lamp.

Leaving Davis Mountain SP, we continued south to Seminole Canyon State Park. Home to Native American rock art, The Fate Bell Shelter Tour is a rugged hike to the bottom of the canyon to see the pictographs first hand led by members of The Rock Art Foundation. The rock overhang in the distance is the Fate Bell Shelter. Although it's hard to tell from the photograph, the floor of the canyon at this point is at least 100' below the rim.

Unfortunately, because of the ruggedness of the trail and Margery's bad knees, we were unable to take the tour, but the state park headquarters had an outstanding interpretive center.

Wondering where the canyons that crisscross this area come from, we learned that hurricanes which hit the lower southwest edge of Texas can dump up to 20 inches of rain in this area helping carve out the canyons.

The area around Semiole Canyon is one of those diamonds in the rough. A short distance from Langtry, TX, we toured Judge Roy Bean's Saloon and home. Known as "The Hanging Judge," there's no evidence that he ever hanged anyone. One or two were taken to the gallows, but were allowed to escape.

This colorful character was self-named "the Law West of the Pecos." Only in the old west could a murderer known for dueling, gambling, and swindling by selling watered-down milk and stolen firewood be appointed a Justice of the Peace. Here is a sample of Judge Bean's "law."

Between Langtry and the state park, there were some great observation points. Here in the foreground you see the Pecos River. Right beyond the cliff at the end of the far bank it flows into the Rio Grande River.  The hills in the distance are in Mexico.

One of the benefits of keeping a loose travel schedule, is the freedom to change plans on a moment's notice. Seeing an advertisement for Alamo Village, "the most active and versatile outdoor movie set," we put it on our itinerary.

Located in Brackettville, it was built by John Wayne and ranch owner Happy Shahan in the late 50's for John Wayne's movie, Alamo. This working movie set includes no false fronts and everything needed for a western film, i.e. hotel, bank, sheriff's office and jail, undertaker's shop, blacksmith, and livery among many other buildings including, of course, a replica of the Alamo.

Today, the real Alamo in San Antonio consists only of the restored mission building. When defended by the famous freedom fighters, however, the Alamo was a sprawling mission-fortress covering nearly four acres of ground. John Wayne and Happy Shahan constructed two distinct areas: the Alamo mission complex and the western/Mexican town.

During our visit, we met the  "marshal," Rich Curilla, a fellow-Pennsylvanian and a '69 Penn State graduate in film production.

Rich was a wealth of information about the movies and stars who are part of the Alamo Village history. He had great stories to share about Jimmy Stewart, James Garner, John Schneider and Matt Damon; but his all-time favorite was Mary Stuart Masterson who stared with Drew Barrymore in Bad Girls filmed in 1993.

More than 200 major motion pictures, music videos, commercials, and documentaries have been filmed here including Lonesome Dove and James Michner's Texas. The next filming is scheduled for early May, and the Village will be open to tourists during filming. Marshal Curilla helps tourists find the best viewing locations without disrupting the filming.

Rich told us about some ambitious plans on the drawing board for Alamo Village, and we look forward to returning in the future.

Historic Fort Clark Springs was our "home" during our visit at Alamo Village. Fort Clark was established on the banks of Las Moras Creek by the U.S. Army in 1852 to protect a segment of the "lower road" from San Antonio to El Paso as well as frontier settlers from Indians and bandits. Virtually all cavalry units including the the 9th and 10th "Buffalo Soldiers" were  stationed here before it was decomissioned in 1946. General George Marshall, US Chief of Staff, and General George Patton, famous for his operations in North Africa, both during World War II, served here in the late 30's.

Today, Fort Clark is a gated resort and leisure-living community. Over 80 historic buildings, many still in use for their original intended purposes, are preserved in this unique community which includes an RV park with full-hook-ups and Texas-friendly residents.

Lake Casa Blanca International State Park is located in Laredo, TX; and it was our "holding" location until it was time to check-in to our March destination.

This was a busy, suburban park that saw a lot of activity during the week and on the weekend. The Mexicans are a fun-loving people who enjoy spending time together as a family.

Laredo was a charming city with a shopping district down by the Laredo International Bridge to Mexico that reminded us of "The Strip" in Pittsburgh...full of colorful, ethnic stores. We were struck by the architectural appeal of the area.

We had made reservations for the month of March in Bentsen Palm Village in Mission, TX, so our transient travels through southwest Texas came to an end all to quickly.  We didn't have time to visit Big Bend National Park but we've put it on our list for another time. However, we were looking forward to staying planted in one place for month, the longest we will have spent in one place since we went on the road last July.

Check out the Photo Album: 014: Journey to South Texas for pictures of the campgrounds we visited and more pictures of our adventures.

One of our final excursions before leaving Florida was a trip to Daytona to tour the International Speedway. Being NASCAR fans, it was a great opportunity to learn about the history of the sport and to actually experience the 31 degree bank! This picture of the Daytona race on the beach in the 1950s was remarkable for the undeveloped area to the right of the beach as seen in this picture!

Additional pictures of Daytona and other experiences are in Photo Album: 011: Heading West on I-10.

We enjoyed our month in Florida and now understand why so many snowbirds call it home during the winter. In addition to visiting with Pittsburgh friends, Pat and Wink Daniel, at their home in The Villages and also with Paul's aunt whom we hadn't seen since Paul's dad died, here are some of the reasons we liked Florida:

• There are so many live oaks, that it’s green all winter.
• Even when it gets dark early, you can still spend the evening with the door open.
• You can drive in and out of rain showers within 1 mile.
• The clouds are puffy, cumulus, and seem like you can touch them. They are rarely steel grey all over like Pittsburgh skies.
• You can hear birds chirping even in December.
• Flowers bloom in December…even wild flowers.

Our goal this winter is to explore Florida, south Texas, and Arizona for consideration for next winter. Much to Margery's surprise, Florida is worthy of serious consideration. : )

We try to maintain a four-hour travel day so we allowed 2 1/2 weeks to travel the 2,200-mile, 45-hour drive to Quartzsite. We left Bushnell, Florida on December 28 planning to get to Rainbow Plantation (another Escapee park) in Alabama for the new year's weekend. As we traveled north on I-75, the number of palm trees decreased  while we traveled through horse farm country. Watching the changing terrain  has been one of the most interesting things we have found about traveling west.

We were amazed by the number of pine forests in the panhandle of Florida.Our weekend in south  Alabama gave us the opportunity to see the less developed and more accessible beaches of Gulf Shoes and Orange. Even though it was gray and threatening rain, we drove down the peninsula and found large stretches of beach with no houses blocking beach access. There was also quite a bit of property for sale which made us wonder if some homes were destroyed during Hurricane Katrina.

Our travels across Louisiana and eastern Texas deserve another trip before forming an opinion. We drove through heavy rain which caused this small pond at our overnight stop to overflow its banks.

We spent the weekend in Livingston,TX, at the home base of Escapees. The highlight of our stay was attending a church where teenagers filled the whole front half of the church and took the initiative to stand during worship, to raise their hands in praise, and to be pro-active in moving out of the pews to greet adults during the fellowship portion of the service. It was also the first time we ever saw the minister's wife walk down the aisles shaking people's hands and welcoming them to the service for about 10 minutes before the service. The other thing we appreciated about the service was the opportunity for quiet, personal prayer...lasting more than 20 seconds.

At this juncture, we revised our travel schedule several times as the forecast for nighttime temperatures in the teens was predicted across the south. We had planned to stay in Pecos for three days, but we revised our plans to stay only two days so we could move out and get far enough west before the low temperatures hit.

The high point of our stay in Pecos was the West of the Pecos Museum  which is housed in a saloon built in 1896, by R. S. Johnson, a former Texas Ranger. The red sandstone building included the saloon on the first floor with bedrooms upstairs. In 1904, the three-story Orient Hotel was added and was in use until the mid-1950s.

There were over 50 rooms of exhibits: artifacts, history, and West Texas lore. Additional pictures in the photo album capture some of the notable and quirky displays.

Another fascinating thing we learned was the presence of the Permian Sea, a large underground saltwater sea located under the west Texas desert. Water from this sea is pumped to the surface and used to raise "the sweetest, cleanest, best-tasting shrimp." The Permian Sea Shrimp Store is definitely on our list to visit  when we pass through Texas another time.

Pecos is also known for its cantaloupe. Although the varieties grown in other areas are the same, climate, soil, and cultivation methods account for the distinctiveness of Pecos melons. Pecos cantaloupes first became popular and in wide demand when they were sold to the Texas and Pacific Railroad to serve in their dining cars.

As we traveled I-10 across west Texas, the landscape changed dramatically. The live oaks and other trees became smaller and were eventually replaced by mesquite and creosote bushes and prickly pear cactus. We passed miles and miles of this landscape never seeing a house or a person and rarely grazing cattle.

At the end of western Texas, entering New Mexico, the terrain began changing again. We were struck by these mountains rising above us.

When we are traveling on successive days, we usually stay at Passport America campgrounds along the interstate that provide pull-through sites. These are very convenient, but not too quiet., so we were delighted to find Caverns of Sonora. Located six miles from the interstate and situated in the heart of a ranch, there was an RV park in addition to the caverns. Unfortunately, I was not able to take the cavern tour. The sign in the office said there were 360 steps on the tour and 1 3/4 hours of walking. That's more than my knees can handle. However, the wildlife and quiet in the area was amazing!

As we continued across  New Mexico and into Arizona, the changing landscape continued to enthrall us.

Driving through Phoenix on a Saturday proved to be a challenge as the road seemed inadequate for the amount of traffic. However, as we pulled into Saddle Mountain RV Park (a Passport America campground) in the setting sun, we were rewarded with the changing colors on the mountains surrounding the campground.

While staying at Saddle Mountain, we took a day trip to Wickenburg, AZ . This town deserves more than a couple of hours to explore so this trip we reconnoitered for a more in-depth visit in the future.  Located on the northern edge of the Sonoran Desert, we were captivated with the colors and textures of the vegetation and the beauty of the mountains. We'll sure to be back to visit the Hassayampa River Preserve, Desert Caballeros Western Museum, and Vulture Mine which is an abandoned gold mine. Wickenburg is also home to Rumuda Ranch offers biblically-based residential programs for women and girls suffering from eating disorders and related issues.

Although we've had two nights in the 20s, we did miss lows in the teens as we had hoped. Thursday we travel the 70 miles to begin our Quartzsite stay. This will include self-sufficient camping in the desert…meaning without any hookups. We will depend on our water tanks, generator, and batteries to provide us with electricity and heat. Conservation will be the word of the day. We look forward to sharing with you our Quartzsite experience.