Friday September 17th 2010

WOW!! Did I ever have a scare this morning!!!  I will back up to last night.  I worked (played) on the computer for about 2 hours while Linda was watching her shows on TV.  Computer worked great  Now to this morning.  I opened up the computer and no lights. No nothing.  I tried the on/off switch and nothing!  I plugged it in again (had it plugged in last night) and nothing.  Now I’m getting scared.  I have about two thousand pictures that aren’t backed up.  I’ve been procrastinating. I finally tried the outlet in the bathroom and “voila” it came on. I let it charge until we were ready to leave but it didn’t get fully charged.  The outlet I had been using must have been a bad one.  What a relief!!

We are in Van Horn TX and it is very cool and kind of rainy this morning.  Thought I would take a picture of the mountains with the clouds, hope they turned out ok.

I thought this looked kind of interesting. I think the temperature was about 65 degrees and pretty windy.  The wind is in the right direction anyway, will give us a little push.  We stopped at the little Mexican restaurant again this morning for some breakfast burritos.  They were pretty good.  The breakfast at the motel left a little to be desired.

We drove for about three hours in the rain and then about the time we got to El Paso it cleared up and was sunny the rest of the day. It also got very warm.  We stopped at a rest area so I could walk around, got a picture of a grass hopper.

Texas grass hopper.  It was pretty good sized and had some different colors to it, not vivid, but it has a very nice pattern to it.  I thought it was interesting.

Now this is interesting….

We didn’t see any and was really thankful for that.

We made it to Benson AZ about 2:30PM, give or take.  We really made good time.  Had a hard time finding the motel but after stopping (on my own) we asked directions and drove right to it.  Very nice motel and the room is large with a sitting area, two TVs, micro wave and a refrigerator.  We will stay three days and so far this is the nicest and cheapest place. Made reservations online, got a discount I guess.

We called David and Marian and they were still in Safford, gave us time to get cleaned up and rest a little before they got here.

This is an old picture of David and Marian.  I didn’t take one today, maybe tomorrow.  I think this is the picture where we made baking powder biscuits and sausage gravy.  I think it was the first time Marian had baking powder biscuits.

We went out to eat at the 86 Restaurant.   The food was OK and the price was even better.  After eating we took a little tour of the campground where David works. If I have it right it is the Saguaro Co-op. it is an SKP park and for the middle of September it was quite full.  He says all the campgrounds around here fill up in January. I will probably take pictures later.  It was getting kind of dark.  While driving around we saw a coyote, didn’t get a picture, it was way to dark and he was way to fast.

 

Had to stop at the $100 store for a few things.  We will probably have a cook out tomorrow or Sunday. We went back to the motel and rested up before going to bed, well, we watched some TV….Night Y’all….

Thursday September 16th 2010

We stopped in Kerrville TX last night and stayed at a Super 8, which I may have mentioned.  Took a picture of it…

It was a comfortable motel, not a great one but nice.  We sure have stayed at worse.

We got on the road early this morning, wanted to make it to Van Horn TX today and then tomorrow we want to make it to Benson AZ.  We stopped for gas which was $2.83 a gallon.  Should have gotten it in Kerrville for $2.56.  Oh well, didn’t really want to get gas that early.  Linda wanted a breakfast burrito so we picked one up, it was a carne asada burrito and it was excellent as Linda can attest…

See???  She likes it!!  It was pretty messy but sure tasted good.  I had to stop a couple of times just to get out and walk around.  I think I am getting older and stiff!

We made it to Van Horn early, it wasn’t even 3PM!!  The speed limit is 80MPH though and I set the cruise on 75MPH and the little “girlie” car hummed along all the way!  We thought about a room at the El Capitan Hotel here in Van Horn but the rooms started at $95 and I think that is just a little high for me.  We settled on the Super 8.  It is OK.  We went to a little restaurant called “Papa’s Pantry”.  It is a little Mexican restaurant that had excellent food.  I wanted to take a picture of the waitress but she didn’t want her picture taken so I took one of Linda….

Food!!!  She is happy!! Linda ordered quesadillas and I ordered chili rellenos.  Now if you look at Linda’s plate the chili rellenos looks like a corn dog.  Tasted great.  We kind of wondered about the place but it was nice.  Talked to some ladies that were there at the table next to ours.  They were driving back from Tucson AZ and were going to travel on to Weatherford TX. 

 

They are sisters, one from Oklahoma and the other from Texas. They weren’t bashful about their ages, the lady on the left is 83 and the one on the right is 87!  Makes me feel bad that they can drive for 12 hours and I have a hard time making it 8 hours!  They were quite a pair and very happy. They ordered enough to take with them so they would have something to eat after they stopped at their motel.

We will probably stop here in the morning and get a breakfast burrito.  Their tortillas are excellent.  Home made and some of the best I have ever had!  We thought about buying some but we don’t have any room for them.

Oh, I was going to say I got a picture of some wild life…

These are Texas ants.  Can’t see them very well but they were pretty big. They had a stream going for  a good long way, probably getting stocked up or feeding their young, I didn’t ask, didn’t offer them anything either.  See you tomorrow…….

Wednesday September 15th 2010

I didn’t get Linda up very early this morning, about 8:20AM I think.  We got something to eat and then got on the road about 9:45AM. It was nice this morning but it is getting warm very fast, in fact when we left it was in the upper 80s and muggy.

Nice day to travel and didn’t want to go through Houston during the rush hour.  Tom Tom was very helpful in getting us through.  The only thing was the HOV lanes. I didn’t know what they were when I set the Tom Tom and found out to late that it was a fast lane and also a toll way.  We didn’t take it and Tom Tom kept telling us to get over there.  We stayed on I 10 and it worked out great.  This is the first time through Houston that we didn’t get lost.

Houston and road work.  Linda got a nice picture of the sky line here in Houston.  Sure took us a long time to get out into the country again.  We took a short cut around San Antonio and Tom Tom didn’t like that either but finally changed our course.  We stopped at a BBQ somewhere in Texas.  I have the address but don’t want to look it up….

Had to have Linda get me in a picture of this.  The BBQ was very good. A little expensive but good.  The inside was quite quaint!

This is the BBQ grill and it is working, I saw one of the guys open it to check on the meat I guess.   Linda got pulled pork and I had the sliced brisket.  They were both good and we ate on the fly.  I was getting tired so we stopped at a rest area which was very nice.  Had lots of bugs (beetles) but was still very nice.

We stopped at Kerrville for the night.  We stayed here at a campground on the way back from San Diego.  Sure is a lot nicer now than it was then. We got a room at the Super 8 and got settled in.  Linda is going to watch “Survivor” and “Big Brother” of which I don’t like either one. Time to get my computing done I guess. Anyway, we are going to take it easy and rest up for tomorrow.  I think we may try to make it to Van Horn, not sure, depends on how far it is to Benson AZ.  Good night y’all….

Tuesday September 14th 2010

Tuesday already, time to put the camper in the shop and head out West!  We had a lot to do this morning to get the car loaded and the camper ready to put in the shop.  I figured we would be really lucky to get on the road by 11AM.  Rick came over and picked  up the tow dolly and took it home (to his house).  We finished getting the car loaded and took it to the office at the campground and I went back and picked up the camper.  We always have a few things we forget but we got over to Paw Paw’s about 10AM and I thought that was really good.  I waited for about 20 minutes to get to talk to a service manager and he went out and I showed him all the things that I thought needed attention.  He figured it would be at least 2 weeks before they even got started on it which I figured would probably be a little early but you never know.  After  the walk through I got a picture of Linda waiting patiently outside the shop….

I think the service managers name was Dave and he gave us a ride back over to Sun Roamers RV Park to pick up our car.  He was very nice.  We got on the road at 11AM!!!!   I was very surprised. Oh, the price of gas here in Picayune went up twenty cents a gallon in two days.  I don’t understand why.  Anyway, we got on the road and had a pretty nice trip, we stopped at Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana. I’m glad there is spell check here, I can’t even pronounce that word let alone spell it. 

 

These are all at the visitor center.  I think it would probably be nice to take a guided tour of the swamp.  Looks kind of dangerous with all the snakes and alligators!  I can’t read the bottom of the middle picture. Looks like Atchafalaya.  Got me, my spell checker says this is wrong. Dummy, it need a capital “A”.

We were going to stop in Beaumont TX for the night but was crazy around there and we traveled on to Winnie TX.  We are staying in a Days Inn and Suites.  It is a nice room but the air conditioner wasn’t on and it was pretty warm in here. The temp was around 97 most of the afternoon but the air in the car worked very well. Now that is a cool “girlie” car!

We had stopped at a McDonald’s along the way and got some sandwiches (burgers) and for some reason they didn’t settle well with me.  I wasn’t hungry the rest of the day.  Had a few M&Ms with pretzels in them, had to try them, but wasn’t hungry the rest of the night.

Better sign off now, got 800 miles or more to get to the other side of Texas. Big state.  Night Y’all….

Monday September 13th 2010

This may be a short one today.  We are going to be getting the camper ready and packing etc.

I had to take a picture(s) here at Sun Roamers RV Park.  These sheds are on my wish list for back home in Missouri…

If we could build one of these at home we could rent our house and move all over.  Not going to happen, but these are really nice.

They would really be nice in the hot summer sun to help keep it cool. The park is nice and they keep it looking nice.  The bath houses are also very nice…

Lots of pine trees here

Went to Pam and Steve’s tonight.  Linda made fixings for tacos and taco salads.  Had a good evening and played some Mexican Train…

Millie and Anna Grace.

Pam is putting away all the dominoes and we were getting ready to leave.   Looks like Linda is having a great time!!  She was really tired.  Going to be hard getting her up tomorrow!!  We went on back to the camper and will get to bed, hopefully we can get on the road tomorrow before 11AM.  Rick is coming in the morning with his truck and will take our tow dolly back to his place so it won’t be sitting at Paw Paw’s.  Night Y’all…

Sunday September 12th 2010

We are going to go to West Union Baptist Church today.  We will meet Rick and Connie there.  We usually go to West Union.  Brother Bud Putman is the pastor and he is a very good preacher.  The air conditioning was out in the auditorium and was a little warm.  Rick helped to get it fixed before church time so that helped keep us from cooking in there.  Not sure what the temperature got up to today but on our way to church after 6PM is was still 92 degrees.  Kind of warm.

We went over to Rick and Connie’s after church and I went with Rick to pick up Aunt Virgie.  She was ready when we got there and kind of hinted that we were late! The ladies fixed a delicious meal of roast beef, mashed potatoes, all kinds of veggies and salads.  I ate to much of course and was miserable the rest of the afternoon.  I have a couple of pictures. This one is Sarah and her boyfriend Nathan….

Sarah is in nursing school in Jackson MS and she makes it home about every other weekend I think. 

I have a picture I want to put in here even though it isn’t really good, we were on the way to pick up Aunt Virgie and there were some Turkey Buzzards having lunch and we go just close enough to get a picture…

You can see one sitting in the tree on the left side and two in the ditch, well, just their heads.  They were pretty skittish.  I know this doesn’t fit in here but I just remembered it….

This is Steve, Pam and Anna Grace with their “muscle car”!  I know you would like this one Nick!  Steve was going to restore the car but with kids coming and going to school etc, etc there just wasn’t enough money to fix the car..  To bad, I think it would have been nice, a 1963 Studebaker Lark! Has a V8 engine and automatic transmission.  It does run! The body is, well, not the greatest.

Church tonight started out with the kids choir.  They did an excellent job. Very animated with their gestures, even the little ones. The church has grown a lot since the last time we were there.  Even the evening service was quite crowded.  The choir director resigned and Pastor Bud is now leading the singing and getting the choir ready for the Christmas Play. I’m not sure but I don’t think they have started looking for a choir director yet so it may be awhile.

We went over to Rick and Connie’s after church and Steve and Pam were there, we had a really nice night just talking and getting caught up on all the things that had been going on. 

I have probably missed things but I am ready for bed and I think I will just have to leave some things “unsaid” I guess….Bye Y’all…

Saturday September 11th 2010

Saturday morning and we have to travel on again today.  We enjoyed the Yogi Bear Campground at Pelahatchie MS.  It is a large campground and I took a few more pictures this morning…

 

I guess one of the problems with the campground is snakes.  Water Moccasins.  We didn’t see any, we didn’t try to see any, didn’t want to see any!!  We left the campground about 9:30AM I think and followed Jim and Gail through a couple small cities and I can’t remember the name but we got a picture of a Confederate Soldier in the town square…

 

Linda got this picture. Looks pretty good.  Sure wish I could remember the names of the two cities we went through. Oh well….

Here we are at the Cracker Barrel.. Had the waitress take a few pictures…

Glad she took a few, this is the only one that turned out.  Had a great breakfast.  We filled up with gas at Wal Mart, actually before we stopped here and got gas for $2.35 a gallon.  That is cheaper than MO!!!!

We got on the road about noon and we got into Picayune about 4:30PM.  It was a long drive and the road from Jackson to Hattiesburg seemed extra rough for some reason.  Still went well, had a good trip.  We checked in at Sun Roamers here in Picayune, just down the street from the $100 store. It seems to be a pretty nice campground and they have “wifi”.  Haven’t been able to get online the last couple of days. 

After setting up and turning on the “air” we went to Rick and Connie’s house and then we were going to see Aunt Virgie.  She is looking good and seems to be very happy!!  This is Ms Virgie and Ms Nell…

They are friends and their chairs are next to each other so they can talk. They seem to get along quite well.  We can see that even though Ms Virgie is happier she is really having a hard time walking.  She gets tired out after a few feet.  She has a wheel chair now because she can’t get around very well.  We had a really nice visit with her then went out to eat then back to the camper to get some sleep.  I am really tired tonight, been a very long day…..night y’all…