Georgia Hospitality

One of the great things about our journeys is the ability to meet up with old friends and make new ones!

Last weekend was Graduation at Georgia Southern University. Almost all of the folks staying in this park over the weekend were taking home kids from college. By Monday most everyone had gone home and it is very quiet here. We will be here through this weekend and depart on Tuesday, headed south into Florida. I made reservations at a fancy golf resort called The Great Outdoors that is a suprise for Danny, who is out playing golf as we speak! He has met up with some guys here in Statesboro and according to him, is playing pretty good.
Last Saturday we went to a park in Savannah and attended a Military Reunion picnic for Christy's husband's Special Forces Airborne Unit.
It was a fun day even though it sprinkled and rained! Her dad cooked hamburgers and hotdogs and she said it was as if the guys hadn't been apart, that they picked up where they left off 19 years ago and really enjoyed each other's company. I think it was a great thing that she organized it.
Tuesday night for Christy's last night here, we spent back at Jeff and Bettina Double's at their Country Estate for another fantastic meal and patio conversation.
I feel blessed to have been introduced to such special people and I hope we get to spend time with them again.

Trees in the South

We left Robertsdale Alabama and made out way on across the panhandle of Florida to the end of I 10 and headed north into Georgia last Friday. We stopped for the first night at Quincy Florida and then arrived at the KOA in Kingsland Georgia off of Exit 1 Saturday morning. At first I thought it was the smog from Jacksonville that was obscuring the views, and then was to learn there is a huge troublesome forest fire in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

They have closed that park, and I feel bad for those who live there. Lots of trees everywhere and of every variety around here. We spent the weekend in Heavy smoke, and it rained ash all over everything! We spent lots of time at the Fernandino Beach and Amelia Island back across the Florida border, so it was a good weekend.

KayCee had a ball on the beach...and got braver and braver going into the water. Monday morning we headed up the Interstate 108 miles to Savannah GA and the Savannah Oaks Resort.

Spending one night down in a total tree obscured campground and our Satellite wouldn't work so we moved on Tuesday to Statesboro Ga, and a very nice RV Park by a motel. Everything works and it is very quiet.

We met my girlfriend from California yesterday when she got off the plane for a great southern seafood meal at her favorite place - Carey Hilliard's Restaurant. We met her mother for the first time and then she took us to some friends house that live in the country but are from England. We had the best evening! In fact are going back tonight for some more visiting on the patio! It is so relaxing here. Unfortunately we still can smell and see smoke from that same fire, but not as strong. We have an extremely busy weekend.

Her mother has an art studio and teaches painting classes in this quaint barn in a country setting. She also has a garden and dug us some fresh new potatoes, can't wait to fix them! Christy's husband was killed in Germany in a military accident several years ago. He was an Airborne Ranger in the Special Forces and their Reunion is this weekend. Saturday we are invited to their picnic in Savannah. I have found a wonderful pet sitting service to use while I'm here and I really enjoy that. Tiffany Gates trains military bomb and drug dogs, and owns one fantastic Shephard. It makes my life even more stress free! It is very fun catching up with old friends and making new ones! Have a great weekend.

Rainy Day in Foley Alabama

We have been on the move and stopped for one night in Louisiana, one night in Mississippi, and then arrived in Robertsdale for several days while we receive our mail from the past month.

It has been really hot and steamy here along the Gulf Coast, until today, when a front went through and dropped the temps about 15 degrees to tolerable. A light breeze this morning and the sun was shining but by 1 p.m it was all overcast and the Thunder heads were gathering. I discovered several things we were out of and went to look for a grocery store. Lo and behold I found a Winn-Dixie. Then on down the highway further was the Original Lambert's Cafe...home of the "Throwed" Rolls.
We went to the other one south of Springfield MO. a couple years ago..and the atmosphere was a complete Hoot! They literally Throw piping hot out of the oven dinner rolls across the room at ya...

You order an entree and sides off the menu..but servers are serving up hot fried okra, buckets of fried potatoes, macaroni and tomatoes, and all the extras that you could ever want to your table all the time.

All you can eat...and you walk out of there stuffed. I was trying to be good, and I brought a lot of food home!

We have small Magnolia trees here in front of the coach and at the entrance to the park there's mature trees that have lots of blossoms.

They really welcomed this rain...we have received about 1/4" today. One thing I don't like is stinky wet dog...so foofy dog got to wear her raincoat and so did her master! We drove through Mobile Alabama yesterday.

Noticed increased presence of Border Patrol Vehicles. Lots of ships, even a Cruise Ship in port. We got to go through a tunnel under the bay, and across on the beltway, a highway on cement pillars in the water.

Back on dry land we drove about 30 more miles ot our destination. Some people that used to run a restaurant in our hometown live in Mobile. She has a catering business and they had us over for a fantastic fish dinner last night. Tomorrow we are getting together and I am praying for sun as we are going to Gulf Shores and a place called Flori/bama. Should be a good day and I want to walk on the beach for a while.

A Month in Texas

Well, it’s been a month to the day since we’ve left our winter home in Arizona. I need to apologize for taking such a long break!
We have spent the entire month in Texas and have seen many more cities, towns and countryside than we expected!
We stopped in San Antonio for about a week touring the city, the Alamo and the Hill Countryside trips to Corpus Christi then traveled to the middle of the state and stopped in Schulenburg off of I 10 because a friend from our hometown had his business there and we wanted to visit with him for a few days.
He owns his own business and operates roadside Tool Sales with a semi and travels in an RV. He has a Truck Driver for the Semi and shares the RV with him and two adorable black and white Shih Tsu dogs, Sammy and Sadie.
KayCee had fun playing on the beach with them. We planned on heading on east into Louisiana a couple of weeks ago, stopping for a day or two and driving some side trips down to the Gulf Coast and beaches but it turned into much more than that!
We all had moved to the eastern part of the state, when he became very ill and ended up in the hospital with a collapsed lung!
It continued on, and he spent 9 days in the La Grange hospital, then he was transferred to another hospital in Austin by Ambulance and a heart and lung specialist finally released him and said he was on the mend.
It has been a very busy, wild time and I’m glad he’s going to be alright. It is one thing to be out on the road and traveling to other states to work and play without knowing anyone, but being in the hospital and having serious issues, I would hope I had someone around to count on.
I wouldn’t have thought to go on down the road until we knew that he was going to be alright, or other family was here. His wife Connie and Daughter Missy drove down from Nebraska when he was transferred and they said he was going to have surgery! Anyway, while being based in Beaumont Texas, we traveled back and forth through Houston quite a few times and are comfortable with doing that.
Met up with a friend of DH’s that hunts Pheasants in Ne. He took us to a great Seafood place called Captain Tom’s, and we did some shopping at a new Bass Pro Shop off of I 10 in Katy, TX.

We visited Port Arthur, south of Beaumont along the coast, witnessed damage still visible from Hurricaine Ike.

We got to drive down along the beach at Crystal Beach and witnessed all the rebuilding from the hurricanes. All of the houses are up in the air on grand stilts…there was even a mobile home with an elaborate ramp system up the side instead of flights of stairs! We got up this morning and broke camp, heading east on I 10. We crossed into Louisiana and passed Lake Charles and Lafayette. We stopped in Breaux Bridge for the night at Pouche’s Fish n Camp. I was able to find a Louisiana state pin at the truck stop where we stopped for some liquid gold (diesel fuel) and we will continue on East tomorrow morning. I have no phone or Internet service here, so glad it’s only one night.

Phew! Got through that and tonight at this writing, we are in Biloxi Mississippi. We arrived this afternoon, unhooked the car and went driving down on the coast. Had seafood at Snapper's Restaurant on the beach before coming back for a snooze! We will only have a short day of about 90 miles tomorrow so won't be in a hurry. Maybe I can sleep in...

Extreme Touring Week

It's been an extremely busy week, packed full of activities every day. If I had to choose a favorite, I think it would be our stop at Gruene on Tuesday. It was not planned and a pleasant suprise. Wednesday we were picked up by a tour bus at 8 in the morning and didn't get back until after 5pm.
There were lots of stops on the tour and lots of walking. Included on the tour was the Mission San Jose, Japanese Sunken Gardens, Buckhorn Saloon and Museum, Texas Ranger Museum, The Alamo, Mission Concepcion and the Mexican Marketplace - El Mercado.
We were so packed full of facts and figures that I couldn't begin to retain it all, much of which I took notes on, and I won't bore you with all that here. The tour also included a boat ride in the river downtown by the Riverwalk.
It is mainly a hotel district, packed full of shops, restaurants and bars, but the architecture and historical buidings are supurb!
If you want to learn about San Antonio History I would highly recommend doing it this way. The Buckhorn Museum had tons of animal mounts and pictures using rattlesnake rattles. Bonnie and Clyde's car, complete with death certificates and bullet holes. We had time on our own and stopped at the Buckhorn Saloon for a quick bite and I know we didn't see everything there. The tour bus driver was very knowledgeble and made the day fun. Thursday we got up early again and headed down I 37 to the southern Texas Coast.
We drove on through Corpus Christi and stopped on Padre Island for lunch at a place called Snoopy's Pier. It was by recommendation of a friend and turned out to be a good one.
The shrimp and fish was melt in your mouth good and we had an added bonus while dining out on the deck to watch the Blue Angels practice their formations getting ready for an air show.
The skies were overcast and the wind was really blowning so the day at the beach didn't turn out to be a good one.
We drove by Mustang Island State park and out onto the beach itself. Drove up the beach a ways and continued up to Port Aransas, where we took the ferry across to the town of Aransas Pass. With the weather not cooperating, we decided to return to our home base at Elmendorf rather than stay in a hotel for the night.
I had packed and prepared, but was just as happy to make the drive back to the coach.
I still really like my own bed! Friday was another driving day, only this time we headed Northwest of the city, to a town that boasts to be the Cowboy Capital of the World! Now we ate some pretty good Texas BBQ there, and browsed through some western shops right downtown.
The town of Bandera, with a population of less than 1,000, has lots of older buildings and homes and has a Frontier Museum with a carved totem pole in front, but I cannot see where they can claim that title!
I let DH go for the two hour museum jaunt, and I kept KayCee company outside and in the car. When DH returned he couldn't really give me any facts or names of famous Cowboys to remember, and they didn't have any printed material so that was that.
We left some of our money on Main Street though, after lunch, he bought a pair of shoes and a hat stretcher in one of the western shops, so all was not lost. Today was a regroup day and we went to Wally to stock up, spotted a detail place across the street and had the Suburban Detailed and Waxed. Now that is done for the summer. I am doing laundry and tomorrow morning we will pull into a self serve truck wash and attempt to wash the dirt off of this coach. We will only travel about 100 miles tomorrow and meet up with a friend of ours that is crossing our path. I made reservations today in Savannah Georgia for the 9th of May, so now I have a goal to achieve! We wil bid San Antonio good bye for now, and I know there's lots more to see on a future visit.

Change in Pace!

The saying is "Everything is Bigger in Texas!" Well, I want to change that a little to "Everything is Faster here in Texas!" The wind that we traveled so hard to escape got here about 10:30 yesterday morning, and it was no day to go sightseeing or be outside. We took the opportunity to regroup, study some brochures and get a plan for the rest of the week. It blew about 40 all day and finally started to settle down here about 8:00 last night and it wasn't a bad evening when the dust settled. We lucked out and met a lady at the office that walks and cares for dogs here in the park while their pet parents tour the city so we got on her short list. We will be taking a trolly tour of the city and the high points, including the Alamo and River Walk downtown.
Today we headed north into the hill country and stopped off at Camping World in New Braunfels to pick up a couple things that we've been looking at. We purchased an Electrical Surge Protector for the coach. I've been wanting one since the beginning that and decided with all the strange campgrounds and Parks we will be visiting this summer, it would be a good idea to be safe. We took a few minutes and looked at several new Coaches and small Camper Vans, since I have decided to start planning our summer in Alaska for 2013. I know for sure we will not take our coach up there and I want something small, efficient and economical. That took the rest of the morning and then we continued on to the little town of Gruene, which turned out to be a very pleasant stop.
The Gruene Historic District At the Water Tower was born in the 1840s when some German Immigrant Farmers arrived in New Braunfels to find very little acreage available, and therefore purchased land down river. They ended up being Cotton farmers and thus the town of Gruene. A large Brick Victorian home now stands as a B&B, a mercantile store was built in 1878 and a Cotton Gin powered by the Guadalupe River was added soon after.
The original burned in 1922, and was replaced by an electric model. It now houses the Gristmill Restaurant and Lounge where we had lunch today, out on the patio.

Another Building, The Gruene Hall, is the original Dance hall that has been the venue for many many famous musicians and has served as a movie set in the 1960s.

Most of the businesses in the town did not survive the Great Depression, but the Hall never closed. We looked around and poked in and out of a few shops, where I found my Texas Hat pins for the collection.
Yea! Now that's done I can focus on other things tomorrow. We made our way back to the park before rush hour. Everyone is moving at a much faster pace around here! Seems like I need to ramp it up a bit after kicking back all winter.
In Whole Foods I got ran into by a grocery cart this morning that was in way too big of a hurry. Geeze!!!! We have to be up and ready to hop on the trolley at the office before 8 in the morning, so I better get around and switch to touring gear! I'm wearing my running shoes! Thursday we will leave for Corpus Christi for a couple days of beach and water. So my week is booked pretty full. Stay tuned!