May 7-9, 2017 Valley of Fire State Park, Overton, NV

REFRIGERATOR UPDATE-WORKING AGAIN

About midnight last night the refrigerator started cooling again.  Relief!

THANK GOODNESS FOR THERMOMETERS
We rely heavily on 2 remote thermometers.  These are the kind where the sensor is placed at the location you want to measure and the display is placed where you can easily read it.  The display also has a sensor in it so it measures the temperature where the display is placed, too.  So it measures 2 places at once and we have 2 sets of these.

We have one sensor in the refrigerator.  The display is attached with Velcro on the wall just outside the refrigerator.  That’s how we know when the refrigerator is going out or heating up.  The sensor inside the refrigerator starts to go up.

We also have a sensor outside the RV, right above the door.  It reads the current outside temperature.  We have the display portion mounted inside the RV, right above the door.  So, when you look at the display, you see the current outside and inside temperature.  We use this one to tell how hot or cold it’s getting.  At night, if the temperature drops below 40 degrees we turn on the Arctic Pacs which are warming pads for our tanks.  These tanks hold our grey (sink) and black (pee/poop) water.  They have no insulation and are exposed under the RV.

You’d think we could “just go online” and find out the current temperature but often we don’t have online access or their weather station is in a nearby town, not in the mountains or canyon.

We didn’t realize how much we rely on these readings until we lost the outside sensor above the door on a very bumpy road several months ago.  We ended up ordering a replacement right away!

​VALLEY OF FIRE STATE PARK, Overton, NV
​We’ve been here before with Terry’s sister and brother-in-law and had a blast. We were encouraged to return by a little white envelope a friend gave us with suggested stops in Nevada. So, here we are! Thank you Steve and Marcia for the suggestion!

​Valley of Fire was Nevada’s first state park. It consists of all these different colored rock formations, most of which are beautiful red Aztec sandstone. On several hikes and vistas there are petroglyphs similar to what we saw at Fremont Indian State Park in Utah.

​The closest gas or groceries are in Overton about 10 miles away. To be able to camp here, you have to arrive early because the campgrounds are first-come. Sites open up usually between 9-11 am and are filled by mid-afternoon. Weekdays are much easier than weekends.

​We lucked out getting a site with power. We were arriving around 4:30 pm so we called ahead to see if there were any left. There were 4 power sites and 7 regular sites left! For first-come campsites, our usual plan is to camp right outside the park the night before then arrive early the next day as soon as sites open up. We’d planned to “boondock” (self-contained camping on open land) at Snowbird Mesa (aka Poverty Flats), 4 miles south of Overton on BLM land but we didn’t have to do it. We passed it on our way into the park. It’s a pretty neat flat, mesa area overlooking the surrounding valley. No facilities, just land and sky.

​PUBLIC LANDS (BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT-BLM, NATIONAL FORESTS, ETC)
​We’re so fortunate that people had the foresight long ago to set aside land for the public-all of us to use. A lot of this land is not developed except for maybe a dirt road or a very primitive campground or picnic area. We’ve seen BLM lands being used a lot on our travels, especially recently in Colorado and Utah where people are camping, fishing, hunting, hiking, snowmobiling and ATVing. In Idaho, we saw people fishing on the riverbanks in the national forests. We are so grateful to those individuals and groups that made this possible for future generations like us. Yes, it has to be managed so no one activity is done to excess but to have access to land which has become increasingly more expensive and out of reach to many people is a gift we should all treasure.

​CHANGE OF PLANS
​We got up at 7:30 am which is EARLY for us so we could leave and try to beat the high winds/rain forecasted to arrive later in the day but the winds have already arrived. We decided to stay here another day. That’s an advantage of first-come campgrounds! Once you’re parked, you can stay as along as you want, up until their max number of days allowed. In other campgrounds we’ve been forced to leave due to lack of availability to extend our stay. In Destin, FL we were able to stay by campsite hopping. We’d grab whatever campsite was available just so we could stay another few days.

​A NEW EXPERIENCE-COMPANY FROM GERMANY!
​The storm arrived and it’s been windy and raining. Two sites down, surrounded by RVs were 2 people camping in a small backpacking tent huddled under the awning over their picnic table. They looked cold. We’ve been there before! A long, long time ago in New Orleans we were in line all night waiting to get into the King Tut exhibit. It was winter and it was cold and rainy. Someone in an RV offered us a cup of hot something and invited us inside to drink it. It was wonderful! So, we invited these two people over for something warm to drink.

​Turns out, they were two young men from Germany. They were one week into a four week trip visiting our western national parks. Instead of wanting hot tea/coffee/hot chocolate, they brought 4 beers to share and we chatted for about an hour.

​Camping: Valley of Fire State Park, Atlatl Campground, Overton, NV
​Electricity, water, dump station, showers, Verizon 0-1 1x/LTE, first-come, cash/check only

May 4-7, 2017 Beaver/Minersville, Utah

A front is coming bringing snow to the higher elevations such as Bryce Canyon and high winds throughout the area so we headed “down the mountain”, again.  Currently, it’s hot in places like St. George, Utah, Valley of Fire, Nevada and Lake Havasu City, Arizona – hot like 90’s and 100 degrees hot!  After this front passes, temperatures will drop 20-30 degrees cooler for 3-4 days and it will no longer be the weekend which increases our chances of finding a campground site.

The wind is howling with sustained winds of 30 mph and gusts up to 50 mph – not a good driving day!  We’re glad we’re camped in a small county park on a reservoir.  We plan to stay here until the weather improves. There are only 2 of us camped here right now going into the weekend!  The sites are really close together but with no one here, it doesn’t matter!  We’ve got a front row seat overlooking the water with birds all around us.

We’re hoping to take it easy, letting my cuts, scrapes and bruises heal a bit, plan out the rest of our trip and maybe update the journal.

Top:  Our front row spot overlooking the reservoir.
Bottom:  My toe was badly banged up, in addition to other parts, preventing me from wearing a shoe.  It's my new look!

​BREAKING NEWS…SNAKE IN THE RV!!!!

This morning I grabbed my slacks that were neatly folded in a corner of the RV bedroom and a snake dropped on the floor! I thought it was a shoe lace for a minute until it started moving! Brave soul that I am, I hopped on the bed and started yelling “SNAKE! SNAKE!”. Terry started laughing like I was crazy until he popped his head around the corner and saw it.

​Luckily, it was a 18-24” garter snake. Not poisonous. Still, it was a snake!!! He picked it up and escorted it out…far, far away from the RV. I walked past it several times last night…in the dark! We don’t know how or when it got in the RV…

​We have been very careful not to leave compartments open, only hook up to electricity with the wire not touching the ground, not hook up to water or sewer unless we need to fill or dump tanks. Snakes were not on the list of critters people have warned us about. We have been warned about mice, pack rats, salmon flies, red ants, Carpenter ants, wasps, spiders making webs that shut down your furnace (and they did!) but not snakes.

 "It's just a garter snake!" Terry says.

​GOOD FISHING MEANS BUGS!

Okay, thousands of little bugs have gotten into the RV. It reminds us of Montana or was it Wyoming? Terry tried vacuuming them but that didn’t work. He tried using my hair drier and we actually saw a reduction. We have smashed, drowned and heated thousands of bugs! We’ll leave a light on in the front for the rest of them to congregate tonight…maybe the snakes will go there, too.

REFRIGERATOR IS REALLY DEAD

Okay, this was supposed to be a relaxing weekend, other than the high winds.  The refrigerator just died.  It is really dead now.  We moved what we could into the freezer that’s got ice in it.  Hopefully, it’ll keep our food from spoiling.

All the stuff that’s happened today makes us laugh.  Really, what are the odds of all this happening at once?  We are so lucky!  Wonder where the closest casino is located…Maybe we should buy a lotto ticket!

Camping:  Minersville Lake Park, Minersville, UT
Electricity, water, dump station, Verizon 1 LTE, showers

February 13-14, 2017 (Mon-Tue) Austin, TX

OUT OF SEQUENCE

LUNCH WITH JACKIE

The whole reason for being here is to see our goddaughter Jackie and her boyfriend if he’s available.  Once we set up camp, she drove to our campsite and “scooped us up” and took us to this awesome Tex-Mex restaurant, Matt’s El Rancho, where we enjoyed visiting and eating with her.  After lunch, she brought us back and we convinced her to try our electric bikes.  She’s sold!  It was very nice of her to work us into her busy day.

​PLANNING AGAIN

We’re staying here an extra day to ride out another thunderstorm. Meanwhile, we’re planning our next 2-3 weeks. Planning is a pain! It takes a lot longer than you’d expect. This time, it took 5-6 hours to plan 2 weeks. We have reservations in Big Bend National Park February 27-March 1 so we had to fill in the blanks leading up to and after that stop. To make matters worse, this weekend is President’s Day, so all of the local state parks are booked solid for the weekend. We’ll go to a less popular city park in Kerrville where we were able to get reservations.

​WEST TEXAS

West Texas is a different world. Many of the parks we had to call to make reservations because they didn’t support online reservations. You need to call and talk to a person. Some only take cash so we had to mail our money to them. One place said no reservations were necessary-they'd welcome ANY camper. At Sonora Caverns I asked what time they had tours and I was told “Thirty minutes after you get here!”

​Water is scarce and so is gas. Some charge to fill up your water tank. Cell reception is non-existent in many of the areas we’ll be visiting. There’ll be stretches of several days without cell reception or internet. I hope there are showers…If nobody’s here, I guess it doesn’t matter, right?

​Camping: McKinney Falls State Park, Austin, TX
​Electricity, water, dump station, showers, Verizon 2 LTE

February 12, 2017 (Sun) San Antonio, TX

OUT OF SEQUENCE

VISITING NEW BRAUNFELS AND EXPERIENCING VIRTUAL REALITY

New Braunfels was on our way to the campground so we stopped to see Terry’s brother Joe and family.  We dropped off family pictures and both got to try a Virtual Reality (VR) system.  Joe’s son Colorado was very patient with us, walking Peggy through the training and Terry through an easy car assembly game. 

Visiting family

Colorado showing us how he uses his VR system. 

​To start the VR experience, they mark the edges of your walking area, which in this case was most of the bedroom. Then you put on a headset that completely covers your eyes. It’s like wearing a big personal TV screen. You put on headphones so you can hear the tutorial or game. In each hand, you pick up and hold controllers. These are your “hands”. The controller has buttons, a touch pad and a trigger. The trigger can be used as if you are shooting something but it can also be used to cause your “hand” to grip something. You press the trigger to grip something with your hand or release the trigger to open your hand. Colorado also had a fan/air conditioner that blew on you while you played. It helped me keep from being disoriented. Before picking up the controllers, not being able to see my hands was disorienting.

Having the VR visor on but without the hand controllers is very disorienting.  It's like not having any hands!  A very strange feeling.  Having the AC fan blowing on me helped keep me from getting sick. 

Terry working hard trying to fix problems with cars.  Sometimes he poured the oil in the wrong place, dumping it on the floor! 

​I thought VR games would be very expensive but we were told they ranged from $5-60, with an average of about $30. That’s less than I thought they’d be. Also, one of the games he had was a global game. You could go anywhere in the world and experience going there as if you really were there! Can you imagine how this could be used for the disabled or people who are confined but love to travel?!?! It could also be used to teach history, geography and politics! I heard they were starting to use it to train people on various tasks. Pretty neat!

February 9-10, 2017 (Thurs-Fri) Lake Somerville, TX

OUT OF SEQUENCE...

Today we said our goodbyes to Debbie and Ralph and left Sealy headed towards College Station.  It’s been wonderful to just hang out, see family, friends and colleagues and get all the miscellaneous items fixed on the RV.

We both feel like we’ve been eating our way through Texas and have to get out of town before it’s too late!  So…what’s our first stop…The Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham because they were closed when we passed through 11 days ago.

BLUE BELL CREAMERY, Brenham, TX

“The creamery” in Brenham has been around since 1907.  Sometime in the 1930’s they changed their name to “Blue Bell Creamery” because their Blue Bell products had become so popular.  Blue Bell ice cream is known throughout Texas and the southern states.  Recently, they had serious safety issues with their production causing at least 3 people to die so they closed down for a period of time.  They have not resumed their full operation, including their tours so we settled for visiting their museum and sampling their ice cream.

Neat facts about Blue Bell ice cream:
 -They still sell their ice cream in ½ gallons instead of the slightly reduced size.
 -All their ice cream is delivered to its destination by Blue Bell employees using Blue Bell trucks.
 -From start of production to placing the ice cream containers on the shelf, it’s all Blue Bell employees.

$1 for a scoop of Blue Bell ice cream! 

In Texas, you can tell a good restaurant by the number of pickup trucks parked in front of it!   Sodolak's Country Inn was awesome and is known for it's Chicken Fried Steak (we shared this one!).  They also had T-shirts from fire departments all over the US.

​VETERANS PARK & ATHLETIC COMPLEX, College Station, TX

We saw a snippet about this park on either the Texas Bucket List show or the Texas Day Tripper show while at Debbie and Ralph’s. The park commemorates the service of veterans in each of the wars/campaigns throughout our US history beginning with the Revolutionary War.

​This park consists of several loops with each loop containing stations summarizing the specific war with a statue of a soldier in the specific uniform of that time period. There are 22 history points with the 22nd about the war on terrorism which does not exist yet.

​Strolling through this park is like getting a concise education about our history. Each station consists of a marble block with the campaign/dates, a statue and a sign. The statues are very detailed. The sign has the president in office, the US flag, the medal pattern a soldier would possess if they were involved in the campaign, how many people served and how many died. The Civil War had the greatest number of deaths of any war. The last paragraph of the write up tells you what were the results of each war/campaign.

​Many of the stations mentioned places we’ve been such as Vicksburg and Charleston which have more meaning to us now. We read about people whose names we recognized but now we know how they became famous. Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders were in Cuba! The “Halls of Montezuma” refers to a place in Mexico during the Spanish-American War!

​VISITING ED AND KATHLEEN, Round Top, TX

We lucked out! We were camping at Lake Somerville, near Round Top Texas where friends Ed and Kathleen are building a second home. Terry worked with Kathleen at Tymshare in Houston years ago. We drove the RV just inside the gate and were met by Ed and Kathleen on their “Mule”, a 4-seater ATV-like vehicle they used to show us around their property. The RV would not have made it. After years of having an outhouse, Kathleen was excited to have a real flushing toilet. I can so relate! They were excited about their beautiful home which was within 2-weeks of completion.

​For lunch, Ed and Kathleen took us into Round Top (population 150) to Bistro Napoletana. The food was delicious. The crab cakes are to die for! The company outstanding :-). What was also neat was the bistro used to be Ralph’s (Debbie’s husband) uncle’s “beer joint”! The capstone on the arch over the door had his uncle’s initials H.E.S. for Hilmer E. Schwartz and the year 1873.

​Next time...Round Top Festival Institute…In addition to stopping by and seeing Ed and Kathleen, we’ll try to attend a concert at the Round Top Festival Institute. The inside of their concert hall consists of gorgeous carved wood which is acoustical and visually renowned throughout Texas.

​GEORGE H. W. BUSH PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY, College Station, TX

We’ve never seen a presidential library and wanted to know just what exactly they put in one. We’ve passed several we wanted to stop at (Lincoln’s, Clinton’s-it’s glass over a river!) but it didn’t work out. Since we were in College Station we stopped at the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library (older Bush, 41st President not the 43rd President).

​As expected, the library walked us through his life, the different jobs and positions he held and the different people and family who influenced him. It reminded us of why we both had a deep respect for him. Prior to attaining office he was a Navy aviator, congressman, ambassador, Directory of the CIA, Vice President, etc. When he sold his oil company, he accepted significantly less money to ensure that all his employees would keep their jobs.

​Unexpected items we enjoyed:

-The First Lady’s calendar, day-by-day. It’s neat to see a “normal” day in the life of a First Lady.
​-A large section of the Berlin Wall. The western side has graffiti with words of encouragement. The eastern side is void of anything. A stark reminder of that period in history. Did the chunks of the Berlin Wall we saw in Missouri at the Churchill Museum have the same characteristics?
​-Funny TV clips of Former President Bush and Former First Lady Barbara Bush dealing with the confusion of having 2 different President Bushes.

​Camping: Lake Somerville, Somerville, TX
​Electricity, water, dump station, showers

February 23, 2017 (Thurs) Fort Stockton, TX

We’re officially in West Texas.  Most people drive Interstate 10 as fast as they can across Texas when they get to this area!  It’s a whole lot of nothing but high desert.  The only 2 TV stations we could get over the air were Spanish speaking stations.  If we lived here, I’d freshen up on my Spanish so I could watch the stations and hopefully get a different perspective.

Fifteen days ago we were in Sealy, Texas visiting family were the elevation is 200 ft.  The elevation here in Fort Stockton is 2,910 ft.  The wind blows here in Fort Stockton more often than not and it’s not a gentle breeze!

Texas highways and roads have been a nice change.  The lanes are wide, usually with a shoulder.  Going through the center of rural towns, the road is wide.  The road through Fort Stockton is even wider!

Paisano Pete, a metal welded sculpture of a road runner is a landmark in Fort Stockton.  As you look around, Fort Stockton has a lot of metal sculptures.  It reminds us of Hwy 2 in Montana where every town had a metal sign welcoming you.

Camping:  Hilltop RV Park
Electricity, water, sewer, no dump station, showers, Verizon 3 LTE, no WIFI, laundry

Top left:  The drive along I-10 from Sonora to Fort Stockton
Top right:  Paisano Pete, the road runner, welcoming people to town
Bottom left:  The very wide street going through town.
Bottom right:  Another dry, dusty campsite with a desert view that goes for miles.

Metal sculptures found around Fort Stockton

An example of the constant wind in Fort Stockton

February 22, 2017 (Wed) Sonora, TX

CAVERNS OF SONORA

A fellow RVer recommended we stop to see the Caverns of Sonora.  He told us it was worth the stop and boy was he right!  The cavern tours start 30-45 minutes after the first person signs up. We had about 8 people on our tour.

This cave contains every formation we’ve ever seen i.e. stalactites, stalagmites, flow stone, drip stone, cave bacon, columns, helictites, soda straws, drapes, cave popcorn and other formations.  It’s known for its helictite formations which are straws that grow sideways.

The tour takes you about 1.75 miles through the caverns.  The two entrances/exits are closed off to protect the caverns.  When you enter, the temperature is 70 degrees with 98% humidity which means it feels like about 80 degrees!  This is the first cavern we’ve toured that was warm rather than cool.  It also has a high concentration of carbon dioxide which can make it feel like you are at an altitude of 8,000 ft but once you acclimate to it, it is okay.  The tour guide took it slow and easy.

If you are near Sonora, stop and see this cavern!  We can’t wait to see Kartchner Caverns near Tucson, AZ to see how they compare to this cavern.  Kartchner Caverns are on our list of must-do stops on our way back home but we have been warned that we need to make reservations ahead of time…a challenge for us.

Camping:  Caverns of Sonora, Sonora, TX
Electricity, water, showers not private, Verizon 2 LTE, peacocks

Top left:  Driving to Sonora Caverns
Bottom left:  The land above the caverns
Right:  Two of the resident peacocks wandering around.

Bottom right:  "Cave bacon" 

Left:  Helictites
Top right:  Soda straws

Top right:  Part of a geode!
Bottom right:  a "fishtail"

January 29-February 8 Sealy, TX

What on earth are we doing spending so much time in Sealy, Texas?!?!? Well, we have family in Sealy. Terry’s sister, Debbie and Ralph live there and offered us a parking space between their house and corral with power, water, sewer, outside lights, a loaner car, access to DISH and someone to talk to besides each other!!!!  We are set. We may never leave!

The "family" relaxing watching TV. 

Every morning we woke up to the sound of four galloping horses.  It was very strange the first time we heard them. After the first morning, it brought a smile to our faces to hear them coming and going.

Our campsite with one of the four horses coming to be fed. 

RV MAINTENANCE
e have traveled about 18,000 miles since we left June 1st. When we are some place for an extended period of time with access to tools and resources we take the opportunity to do needed repairs. Like owning a home, a RV is no different. This time we have done the following:

-Changed oil, oil filter, air filter, lubed
-Replaced the broken overflow valve
-Installed new smoke/CO detectors that have a 10-year battery life
-Got the wheels aligned and tires rotated
-Defrosted the refrigerator (remember doing that?)
-Washed all the bedding (blankets, bedspread, etc.)
-Received a care package from California (thank you Barb!)
-Received a HUGE mail shipment with Christmas cards (thank you John!)

Top row:  Replacing the broken water tank valve (blue) with a new one (red).
Bottom left:  Waiting at the Peterbilt service center to see if they'd re-align our tires
Right middle:  Working on our AC.  It was not cooling down the RV.Right bottom:  Frost build up in the freezer before we defrosted it the old fashion way.

Getting work done on the RV is difficult because we require the RV back at the end of the day to sleep in it.  Many RV service centers are used to keeping an RV for weeks.  Nothing gets returned the same day.  We have had to make special arrangements in order to insure that they return our RV at the end of the day.  Because of this, Terry prefers to do the work himself if he can.

It was very difficult to find a place to get a wheel alignment.  The few RV service centers around here have a horrible reputation so we avoided them.  The tire centers can’t handle an RV due to our height and weight. That left us only one place, Rush Truck Center, a Peterbilt 18-wheeler service center.  They did a fantastic job at a reasonable price!  We lucked out.

MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Today was my (Peggy's) lucky day!  Ralph needs to take their 2009 Honda Goldwing motorcycle out to “run it” and I get to go for part of it!  It’s a large cruising motorcycle with a radio, cup holders, comfortable seats, heaters, cargo compartments, phone in the helmet along with communication between the driver and the passenger in their helmets!  Debbie and Ralph enjoy going out for a day along country roads but always get back in time to feed all their animals.  This particular day, Ralph drove out to Cat Springs where we’ll be going on Friday night for All-You-Can-Eat catfish.  Nice ride!

Top:  The head bandana actually has a purpose - to absorb perspiration when wearing a hot helmet.  I thought it was to look cool. Bottom:  Getting ready to roll!

VISITING JIM AND BEVERLY, Hockley, Texas
We spent an afternoon visiting with Terry’s old Tymshare boss, Jim and his wife Beverly in Hockley, Texas.  They have very interesting and diverse second careers as bail bonds people and ranchers!  They own a bail bonds company in Bellville, TX and told us about their business.  Wow, it’s a life we knew nothing about and hope it stays that way!

We toured their beautiful home, had an awesome lunch at Gringo’s Mexican Restaurant then went to their ranch where I got to drive a BIG tractor!  It’s so big it’s got air conditioning, a radio, lots of gears and knobs and attachments!  Jim rode standing up beside me to tell me what to do.  I'm ready to move some hay now!

Top:  Friends in Hockley. 
Left bottom:  Getting tractor lessons!
Right bottom:  If you need a bail bond in Austin County, this is the place to go!

NANCY COMING TO VISIT
​Our long-time friend Nancy drove out twice to see us, once to visit and once to have catfish! It’s always nice to see her. We pick up where we left off, no matter how long it’s been. She and Terry rode our electric bikes around the neighborhood then we all went out for Hinze’s BBQ in Sealy. Yum!

Having fun with a dear friend. 

FRIDAY NIGHT ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT-CATFISH in Cat Spring, TX
At the intersection of Farm to Market Road (FM) 949 and FM 1094 in Cat Spring, Texas is a little hole in the wall called Cross Road Tavern, also known as Cat Springs Country Club.  Every Friday night people come from near and far for their $10 all-you-can-eat fried catfish dinners.  It’s served buffet style, on paper plates where you sit down at long tables with friends and strangers.  If you want a beer, you get it at the bar, on your way in.  Well worth a visit!  Oh, and they serve Shiner beer, a Texas brand.

Friday Night All-You-Can-Eat Catfish Dinner at Cross Road Tavern in Cat Springs, Texas.

​FAMILY BBQ in New Braunfels, Texas
​Terry and his 4 siblings (Terry, Debbie, Keith, Kevin and Joe) gathered at Joe, Lynda and Colorado’s for a BBQ along with their spouses and other family members. We drove from Sealy to New Braunfels with Debbie and Ralph. Kevin was in from Colorado for a short time before he starts his new job. Keith, Paula, Jill, Tabatha and Mason came from San Antonio. We all had a great time visiting and catching up. It's been a long time since we’ve all been together...maybe as long ago as Mo Ranch in Hunt, Texas! We hope even more family members will be able to make it next time we all get together.

Siblings and family

BBQ at Joe and Lynda's. 

​VISITING WITH JIM
​Jim was a college roommate of Terry’s when I met Terry. We’ve been friends since college. The two of them had many “adventures” both during and after college - canoeing, skiing (water and snow), camping and flying/crashing radio control airplanes. We met Jim at a Tex-Mex restaurant in Sugar Land, about halfway between Sealy and Clear Lake, Texas. It’s always neat to catch up with him.

College roommates and long time friends.

VISITING WITH JOHN AND NANCY
​We met John and his wife Nancy for dinner in Katy (between Sealy and Houston) one evening. In the early years of their careers Terry and John worked for the same company. John and Terry had many “adventures” canoeing on the Guadalupe River, some good and some scary. John is responsible for introducing us to snow skiing a few years after we were married.

Colleagues and wives

SIGHTSEEING IN LA GRANGE, TX
Debbie and Ralph took us on a tour of La Grange Texas.  First stop was lunch at Prause’s Meat Market.  A family owned and operated market since the 1890’s!  When you order your meat for lunch, you are charged by the weight of the meat.  They have awesome brisket, pork and sausage!  In Texas, BBQ is served with a slice of white bread with no butter.  I just don’t get it.  What do you do with it? Terry says, EAT IT, OF COURSE!

Like many small towns in Texas, La Grange has the court house in the center of town.  Across the street from it is the Prause Meat Market, family owned and operated since the 1890's.  They add up your bill by hand on the back of a paper plate.  The BBQ is delicious! 

Second stop was Weikel’s Bakery, a family-owned Czech bakery known for their kolaches and other Czech pastries. Yum!

What can we say?  It's all delicious! 

Third stop was Monument Hill/Kreische Brewery Historic Site up on a hill overlooking the area. This site contains the remains of men who lost their lives fighting for Texas Independence on two different occasions. It also contains the remains of the Kreische Brewery and home of a German immigrant, Heinrich Kreische, a master stonemason and brewmaster. The ruins are well preserved and are an example of the stone used throughout the Texas Hill Country, a beautiful, cream-colored limestone.

Top right:  Monument and tomb of Texans killed in the 1848 Dawson Massacre and the 1843 Black Bean Death Lottery.
Bottom left:  Kreische house, he was a German stonemason.Bottom right:   Remains of the Kreische Brewery

​Last stop was a Classic Car Showroom on the way back from La Grange. In college, Terry bought a car, a yellow and white Nash Metropolitan convertible for $5. Never mind that it didn’t have a battery, that the convertible top was permanently down, that the frame was broken so the doors were jammed closed. It ran, if you push started it. What’s not to like? When it rained, it was no big deal – the water ran out of the rusted out floorboards. This place had several models of Nash Metropolitans, in addition to many Ford Thunderbirds and various other restored classic cars. It also had lots of old items we remembered growing up. Many famous people buy old restored cars from this owner.

Top left:  A Nash Metropolitan hardtop, not exactly the car he had but close!
Bottom left:  Serving a drive-in restaurant order
Middle right:  Remember these?  A drive-in movie speaker.  I think I drove off with one still attached to my window one time!
Scattered throughout the showroom were political "statements"...such as President George W. Bush asking if we miss him yet?  Also, Pelosi, Obama and Hillary Clinton in the back of a classic old police car number 54...Remember "Car 54 Where Are You?"?

​Camping: Debbie and Ralph’s, Sealy, TX
​Electricity, water, sewer, showers (very nice!!!), DISH TV, laundry, help with repairs, guide, someone other than each other to talk to, biscuits and gravy for breakfast!

January 28, 2017 (Sat) Somerville, TX

​Our ultimate goal is to get to Sealy, Texas where Terry’s sister Debbie and her husband Ralph live. On our way to Sealy, we’ll make two more stops. Our first stop will be in Brenham, TX at the Blue Bell Creamery for a tour and ice cream, of course! The second stop will be at Lake Somerville, just north of Brenham, to spend one night.

​BLUE BELL CREAMERY
​Closed! It’s Saturday and they’re only open Monday-Friday. That’s one of the disadvantages of winging it. We’ll be back.

Blue Bell is closed!  No wonder their parking lot was empty :-) 

​LAKE SOMERVILLE
​Our second stop is Lake Somerville to spend one night. We have fond memories of camping and waterskiing here in our car-camping days. It’s the end of January and it’s been warm. This weekend the campsites are all taken, except one which is available for one night We took it! We’re still having problems getting campsites on the weekends in public parks. We avoid private campgrounds because they are like parking lots and often do not give you a feel for the area. We use them in a pinch or if we need their facilities.

We got the last site.  We're parked backwards in the site to make it easier to level the RV.  It also allowed our big dining room window to overlook the lake instead of our neighbor. 

Camping: Lake Somerville, Yegua Creek Campground COE, Lake Somerville, TX
​Electricity, water, dump station, nice showers (not heated)

January 27, 2017 Jasper, TX

​We are camping here because this was one of our old stomping grounds. While we lived in Houston, we’d come out here with friends to waterski and camp. We’d often ski in the morning and then again in the late afternoon when the winds died down. This was in our car-camping days.

When we arrived, we didn’t recognize the park. The site they’d assigned us didn’t look anything like what we’d remembered. We got an RV site “close to the water” but it really was a swamp with alligator warnings everywhere. We don’t remember alligators! We’d never have gone waterskiing if there were alligators…would we?

Alligators!?!?!  We don't remember alligators in this lake when we were waterskiing! 

We decided to wander through the campground and see if we could find a better site and find the part of the park we remembered. As we rounded a bend, heading towards the main part of the lake, we both yelled “That’s it!” The view from that exact spot was what we both remembered as being where we camped. It was a tent camping site…makes sense because we were tent campers in the “old days”.

This is the spot we both remembered! 

We continued on past the tent camping to a place where we camped for the night. At dusk, we walked back to visit the area we remembered so fondly and ran into a younger couple, both teachers, camping. They had a dream of one day going off to see the U.S. Sound familiar? We must have talked to them for over an hour over their campfire.

The end to a wonderful day. 

Camping:  Martin Dies, Jr. State Park, Hen House Ridge Unit, Jasper, TX
Electricity, water, dump station