Wifi at last pictures-

Aligator - Everglades

Aligator swimming across river in front of our canoe

Fire in campground- Little Manatee River State Park

Kitching Creek- Jupiter Florida

Bette Midler Look alike St. Augustine FL

Dog chasing squirel - collier Seminole State Park Naples FL

Red Shoulder Hawlk Collier Seminole State Park

Ponce De Leon life size at  4 feet 9 inches tall St. Augustine Fl

Shark valley- Florida Everglades





Castillo San Marcos St. Augustine FL.

Jupiter Florida

I still don't know what's happening to my blogs. I have been using an IPad app that allowed me to post pictures but for some reason the app isn't working properly. If we make it some where that has public wifi I will post some photos. We have lots of alligator pics.

After our two week stay at Collier Seminole state park we ventured off to Jupiter Florida. Jupiter Florida is located on the Atlantic Ocean about 90 miles north of Miami. It's basically a high end community filled with snow birds. The area is home to Tiger Woods and his 65 million dollar new home. Hasn't any told him that there is a real estate bust in Florida? I must say that the area is beautiful filled with lots of waterways to park a boat behind your house. The weather has been great except for one day that we experience a storm that had very high winds attached to it. Jack and I were out riding the bike when we were caught in the storm. The winds were so strong that we were pushed out of he bike lane and into the traffic lane. Lucky for us we were only a block from his sisters house, so we rode there and waited for the storm to pass. When we got back to the campground our shade tent had blown down, the BBQ had blown off the table, the out door carpet was blown 30 feet from the RV, tents through out the campground were blown away, one camper's tent was blow about 200 yards away from the site landing in a tree.

We are staying at johnathan Dickenson state park. The sites are great, gravel long enough to park at 45 footer and two autos, fire pits, and bbqs. Bath roans are new the only problem with the campground is all the trees were lost in a hurricane so there is no shade. Some day when the newly plated trees are large it will be a really nice park.

One morning rented canoes right here at the campground and pebbled down the Locahotchee river. The Locahotchee river runs through the camp ground and is one of Floridas wild and senic rivers. We had a great time seeming alligators swimming in the river, ospreys in their nests feeding their young, and lots of fish jumping out of river.

Beach, bike, paddle and good food that's Jupiter. We have had some good meals, one lunch at the Mantee island Grill in Port Salarno, a short ride north of the campground where JAck and I split a wonderful portabello sandwich that was made with artichokes, olives and feta cheese. Yummy. Tonight it's off to a place called Leftovers for an oyster salad that Jack has had when he's been down here visiting his sister. He says that it's the best meal that he's ever had. We will see......

For the last couple of days we have been just enjoying the beautiful Florida weather. Yesterday we rode the bike around Jupiter Island looking for Tigers house. Of course we didnt find it. Apparently you can't see thhe house from the street, on the other hand Jupiter Island is just beautiful full on huge houses all with lush tropical landscaping ocean views or Hobe sound views, or perhaps a golf course view. Great biking very little traffic and what traffic there is is moving slow. After riding we went back to the beach on Jupiter Island to fish. Well we didn't catch any fish but we did see lots of sharks jumping out of the water. It was quite a sight.

One day we went to a St. Louis Cardinal, Florida Marlins spring trainig game. The Cardinals play in Jupiter at a new stadium complex that has new housing, restaurants, golf course and even a Scripps research center. This will be our second spring training game having gone to a Red Sox, Braves game in Fort Myers. The game was fun. The Marlins and Cardinals share a nice complex.

Tomorrow it's good bye to Jupiter and hello to St. Augustine.

Aligaitors Everywhere part two

Shoot, somehow I lost an entire post regarding our stay at Little Manatee River State Park. To make things short the camp ground was nice but we left a day earlier than planned due to a forest fire. The fire burned between the campground and the ranger station. We departed Little Manatee in the middle of the night arriving at Collier Seminole State Park. Collier Seminole is located 15 miles south of Naples Florida just at the start of the Everglades.

The park is nice, very tropical in feel. The area is in a royal palm hammock, hammock being an Indian word for forest. The park, reminds us of being in Hawaii; Hawaii without a beach, instead we have alligators and bugs. Sites are small, parking the RV in dirt/ grass under oak trees and palms. Lots of shade which is great since temperatures are running about 80 degrees. The main activity here is canoeing the Black river. The river winds through the largest mangrove forest in North America. The park rents canoes or kyacks for $5.00 an hour or you can take a guided tour for $25.00. We were lucky and made friends with one of the camp hosts who lent us his tandem kyack. We had a great time paddling down the river. Lots of birds, we didn't see any gators. They are everywhere down here. Twice we rode our. Ike from the campground to Everglades City seeing more than 30 alligators in a canal that runs along the highway. After awhile alligator spotting became sort of boring.

Besides riding the bike, and canoeing, we also visited the Shark Valley part of the Everglades National Park. There at the Shark Valley we took the tram ride which follows a 15 mile trail through this section of the Everglades. Very interesting, beside seeing more alligators of various sizes, from babies to 15 footer, we spotted many varieties of birds including great blue herons, egrets, tricolor herons, wood storks, red shoulder hawks, osprey, and a turtle or two. The naturalist also explained the landscape, the various hammocks, alligator holes, sawgrass prairies and also the various animals other than alligator that live in the Everglades.

The Naples area is famous for their beaches, so we also spent parts of a couple of days at the beach and exploring Old Naples. The beach around the Naples pier is very nice with good public access points, nice sand and beautiful blue water. This time of the year the water temp is about 70 very nice. We also went to Marco Island's South Beach and Tiger Tail beach both nice beaches but public access points are few and far between. Florida likes to line their beaches with Condos that close off public access to the beach.

Other high points we had a very nice dinner at a German Resturant named Mozarts on Marco Island, we had drinks at Stans in Goodland which is a dive of a place and on Sundays Stan and his band plays music outside. Several hound red people of various ages from 21 to 80 hang out drink, dance and pretend in the case of the old people that they are young again. Stan's was very interesting.

Alligator everywhere, part one.

Shoot, I don't know whatsnhappening with any of my. Logs. I've written two logs since Orlando and neithermb blog seems to have been posted . Here I'm trying again. After Orlando we traveled to Little Manatee River State park which
is located 35 miles from Sarasota Florida. The campground here is small o ly 39 campsites, the park lies along the banks of the Little Manatee River. The main activity is canoeing the river. The plan was to spend three nights here but we shortened the stay to two nights due to a forest fire that went through the campground. Because it's been three weeks since wemstayed there I won't write much more on our stay. I'm posing this right now so I can see if it Posts.

At Last Disney World

We have finally made it to Disney World, and have survived 8 days at the Worlds Happiest Place.
Amanda, Todd, and Alec joined us at DW, staying with us in the motor home.
Alec with his popcorn hat on


We camped at Fort Wilderness a Disney Resort. Great campground. What else would you expect from Disney? Our site was surrounded by lush vegetation and backed up to a canal. The landscaping was perfectly manicured to look wild yet it was watered by a drip irrigation system. All the sites have power, water, sewer, and are paved. The campground is located on the same lake as the Magic Kingdom, there is a boat that runs from the campground to the Park. This makes it very easy to travel from one to the other. Besides all the Disney Parks to go to the campground also has pools, beach, boat, bike, canoes rentals, horseback and pony rides, wagon rides, campfire sing alongs, movies, Restaurants and a bar.
We went to all four parks, The Magic Kingdom, Disney Hollywood Studios, The Wild Kingdom, and Epcot. Alec was a wee bit young to enjoy it all but had fun with the Disney caracturors, such as Buzz Lightyear, McQueen , and Nemo. We all had a good time and thought the Wild Kingdom was the best Park. All in all Disney World it's self is an amazing place.
Alec at the Wild Kingdom









The Big Boys with Pocahontas.





Alec with McQueen



We took two days off from playing at the Parks, one day we drove to Jupiter to spend some time with Jack's sister, her husband, and Mom. Jack, Todd and Uncle Ed went fishing catching enough fish to have for dinner. As you can see it was a perfect Florida kind of day, sunny and about 72 degrees. The other day that we took off from the Parks, Jack and I watched Alec while Amanda and Todd went shopping at the outlet Mall. We all had a nice and easy day. Alec even went swimming at the pool, and went digging in the sand at the beach.

After Disney we are off for a few days at Little Manatee River State Park which is just east of St. Petersburg from there were off to Collier Seminole State Park which is just south of Naples. The weather is warming up so we should have some nice beach weather ahead.


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Destination Destin Florida

We packed up the RV and headed east toward Florida. The Gps lead us across the Mississippi River, a toll bridge ($2.00 for both the RV and car) across the Mississippi River. As we leave New Orleans the view from the free way shows large tracks of land free of structures and littered with debris. I assume due to Katrina. There are ads along the road and on the TV for companies to lift your house for free or to remove debris from your lot for free, al paired for if you have federal flood insurance. Interesting to me that people want a small Federal Government, and yet these same people don't equate the help they get after Natural disaster is from the same government.

As we travel through Louisiana into Mississippi the landscape changes nearly instantaneously from bayous filled with cypress trees to a landscape of pine forests lining the freeway. Then on to Alabama where the the landscape again changes to oak trees and wide open fields, then into Florida and the oak trees into pines trees again. We turn off the freeway toward Gulf Shores Florida. This route takes across a toll bridge, $11.00 it costs for the RV and jeep to cross this bridge. Welcome to Florida, a lot like California, in the cost of things. Texas was the cheapest, cheap groceries, close to 30% less than California, cheap gas, ferry rides, cheap camping. Here in Florida gas prices went from $2.99 in Alabama to $3.15 in Florida just crossing the bleared. Food is more expensive here in Destin then in Texas but still less than in California.

Destin, is on a barrier island about 50 miles east of Pensecola. We are staying at Henderson Beach State Park. Great campground, huge private campsites, and I mean huge campsites, great and I mean great bathrooms, heated air conditioned, large tile showers and everything spotlessly clean. The campground is located in the sand dunes, a short walk from the beach. Now the beach goes on for miles, made of this soft fine grain white sand that doesn't cling to your feet. It's just lovely.



One empty campsite at Henderson Beach



Our campsite at Henderson state beach



The beach Destin Florida



-More of beautiful beach in Destin

Our first day in Destin the weather was great we strolled around town, walked along the beach, drove to the National Seashore looking for a dog beach - no luck with the dog beach, just enjoying the sunny weather. Had a $2.00 beer at the harbor at a dog friendly bar.




We just had a nice easy day.

Over night another cold blustery storm blew in. We woke up to another cloudy and chilly day. We decided to drive to the National Naval Museum in
Pensacola.

Great airplane, Naval history museum. Lots of historical planes, exhibits from WW1 through Afghanistan, space travel, and air planes up the wazoo. It's really an interesting place where you could spend two days exploring.


Blue Angels F18 hornets.




Jack in the cockpit of an F 18.

We had a great time at the museum. Be sure if you ever find yourself in Pensacola go to the National Navel Museum, supported by donations and not the government.



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Noshing in New Orleans

Campsite at Bayou Segnette State Park, Westwego, LA
Westwego is just across the Mississippi River from New Orleans.




















Nicolas Cage's tomb in the St. Louis cemetery in New Orleans.

Finally the weather has cleared up and sort of warmed up here in New Orleans. It's great to get out and see the city. The state park that were staying at is a 6 mile drive to the Algiers Point ferry that takes you for free to the French Quarter. What more can you ask for, free ride, and free all day parking. So, we took the ferry and spent the day walking around the French Quarter. What a crazy place. The first thing that we did upon landing in the French Quarter was to have coffee and beignets at the Cafe du Monde. On trick that I read about on the Internet is don't wait in line (the line is out the door) at the Cafe du Monde, just walk right in and scout out a table. It took us maybe a minute to get a table. The coffee and beignets were both tasty with enough calories to power us for the rest of the day. It was about 40 degrees out with a good wind making it chilly to walk around.
We toured around the French Quarter, taking in St. Louis cemetery, St Louis cathedral, Bourbon St, etc. It is nuts how at 11 am people are walking down Bourbon St drinks in hand going from bar to bar. We we looking for some jazz music but did not find any. What's up with that? New Orleans the center of the jazz world and on place had a jazz band playing. We hiked around town, stopped for oysters at Le Bayou Restaurant on Bourbon St. Walked in and out of the fancy Jewelry stores on Royal street then had an ok dinner at some restaurant not the best of food. But not bad. Jack had a chicken dish covered in a creole sauce, I had crab cakes just ok. But we need to get back to the dog so the meal had to do. That evening at the State park we enjoyed the howling of a pack of coyotes. Not what I expected from a park so close to a big city.




Saint Louis cathedral



Interior of St Louis cathedral .
Second day in New Orleans we took the ferry into town. It was actually a nice day sunny and 60 degrees. It nice to be warm.
The decided to take the St. Charles St trolly to the Garden district to tour the beautiful homes.



Waiting for the trolly- not my bottle, Jack thought that it was funny. Also bad hair day...time to get a hair cut.




Bourbon St



Historic St. Charles Ave Trolly




Archie Mannings house



Ann rice's house



We walked around the garden district, if you have a walking tour map you can walk pass houses belonging to Ann Rice, Archie Manning, Nick Cage, Sandra Bulock, and the house that Jefferson Davis died in. We didn't pick up a map-I would suggest stopping at the tourist info desk located at the start of the Garden District to get a map, even if you don't pick up a map, the houses are beautiful and walking through district is fun. We decided to have a late lunch, or an early dinner, we couldn't get into the Jazz brunch at the Commander's Palace Restaurant in the Garden District but instead found a local Restaurant that was fabulous . Actually, my IPad app found the Restaurant it was great. Glad that I brought my iPad. If ever in New Orleans have a meal at Coquette, for $25.00 per person we had a three course meal. Jack had roasted oysters, pork belly wraps, and beignets for desert. The beignets came with mocha pot du cream and a caramel sauce tomdip them in. God, the beignets were sooooooo good. Better than the beignets at cafe du Monde.

I had Bibb lettuce salad with fried pig ear, gulf shrimp with grits and fennel, for desert blood orange panna cotta. Everything was to die for. The best meal we have had in months.
After such a huge meal, we were done for and headed home to watch the Super Bowl. Great day, great meal, what else can you ask for?



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BURRRRR in the Bayou

Just hanging in away from the cold

Here we are in Louisiana and its bone chilling cold.  We a woke at the A+ RV park in  Lake Charles Louisiana  to a hard freeze.  Ice everywhere; when we pulled in the slide large shards of ice fell off the roof of the slide.  Our plan is to drive east toward New Iberia ahead of the front that is suppose to bring freezing rain, sleet, and possibly snow to the region. 
We took highway 14 a secondary highway from Lake Charles toward New Iberia Louisiana,.  It was a pleasant trip taking us though farm country and lots of small towns.  The country looks very prosperous with lots of pieces of property with cute brick houses on them.  All the houses along the route look like they have new roofs.  Perhaps due to the hurricanes that blew through here 5 years ago.  The farms look like they're growing rice.  Nearer we get to New Iberia the rice fields change to sugar cane fields. 
We arrive in New Iberia and the weather isn't much better then in Lake Charles.  Its 33 degrees with a wind chill making it feel like its 22.  Burrrrrrrrrrrr.
l.  Were staying at KOC Campground   not the best  of RV parks looks like there are lots of full timers and people still living in FEMA trailers. Its $25 per night with cable and fishing pond and a pool ha ha.  Once we settled in we decided to take in a tour of the Shadows upon the Treche.  Ia house built in 1830 by a sugar grower named Weeks.  The house has all the original furniture from the 1830 that Weeks shipped from Connecticut .  They even have the original bill of sale for for the bed room furniture.  When the house was donated to the historical trust, by a direct decedent of Weeks,  all the furniture, dishes and 17000 historical documents came along with the house.  It was an interesting tour, walking the grounds would have been fun it it was warmer and perhaps also in the spring when the azaleas are blooming.  There are other plantation houses and gardens in the area to tour, along with the Tabasco sauce factory tour.  But we have decided to press on east to be ahead of the weather.  Freezing rain, sleet  and snow is forcasted for tomorrow.

Shadows on the Treche

On ward toward New Orleans.  Next stop is Westswego LA where we will be staying at Bayou Segnette State Park fjor $18 per night with electric. water, and free laundry.

Due to ice on several bridges we are forced to detour off the highway, taking the Old Spanish Trial through Bayou Country.  The detour takes us through several small towns one in particular, Franklin, had a cute historical district that was lined with beautiful old homes with huge oak trees with Spanish moss hanging from their branches.  Very scenic.  If we we not in such a hurry to make it our spot for the night it might have been fun to walk through town.  Also its bitter cold out so the desire to walk is less then usual. 
We have settled in to the campsite for the day, waiting for the weather to get to us.  Its off to New Orleans tomorrow.  Hopefully it won't be too cold....

Walking through the Bayou-

Campsite at Bayou Segnette State Park Lousiana

Tornado warnings!

Here we are hunkered down in the RV, wind blowing , dark clouds, thunder, lightening, the RV is shaking like a boat on the high seas. Tornado warnings are floating across the TV screen, the dog is moaning all very scary. The storm is right above us it's hard to see out of the windows. Once the storm passes the temperature is expected to drop from 68 to 40! We are planning to go out and explore Lake Charles once this is over.... I hope that it ends soon.
So far no hail I hope that continues hail and RVs don't mix.

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Location:Lake Charles La

Good bye to the Lone Star State

Armadillo Willy isn't he cute? Guadalupe State Park, Texas











Today is our last day on Mustang Island.  What a great day.  Temperatures were 80, winds were slight, it was just a great day.  We did the wash, then loaded up the jeep and drove to Padre Island National Seashore.  Padre Island National Seashore is a 60 mile long barrier island (the longest in the the US)  wild sand dunes, 60 miles of beach, areas to kayak and to fish, and great Bird watching.  Its ok to both drive and camp along the beach, $8.00 a day to camp.  We drove along the beach for 5 miles, lots of birds, people fishing, camping and just hanging out on the beach.  It must be nuts here at spring break and during the summer.  Its not really season here until April.  Water temperature is just 55 so not a lot of people in the water.  Nevertheless it was a great day.  Other than the beach, fishing, and birding, there isn't much to see in Corpus Cristi.   We did have a nice lunch at a place named Snoopys located at the end of the bridge leading from CC to Padre Island.  Funkie place along the water just perfect.  Great sea food.  Jack had an oyster sandwich which consited of perfectly fried oysters on a roll with letuce and tomato, I had shrimp creole wonderful shrimp cooked in a spicy tomato sauce served with cole slaw and rice.  Both meals were perfectly cooked along with wine and beer it was only $20.00.  .

All that I can say is  beach here on Padre Island is very nice and I would certainly come back for the beach.  If we didn't have to be in Florida I would consider staying here for a few more days.  But we need to move on, if not because of the need to get to Florida but also the weather is changing and we want to get ahead of it if we can.

Camp Site at Mustang Island State Park, Corpus Cristi Texas

Padre Island National Seashore

Jack- Fishing Mustang Island State Park

USS Lexington Corpus Christi Tx

Campsite- Guadalupe State Park Tx

Today, Jan 31 we left Mustang Island and headed toward Louisiana.  The weather is changing today its expected be 75 in south Texas today then perhaps snow tomorrow.  So were off.  Headed toward Huston then east toward Lake Charles LA.  Once again the landscape in Texas changes heading from CC to Houston. The landscape near Houston turns from dry looking mesquite land to farm land.  The first real row crop looking ranches that we have seen.  Quite pretty land, flat but nice green and attractive.  About 25 miles from down town Houston the affluent burbs of Houston begin.  Everything is big, big malls, big houses, big office buildings, big medical centers.  The skyline of Houston is big and tall.  We stop at only one of two Costcos in Houston to buy coffee, wine, bread and gas.  Costcos are very few and far between in Texas.  It turns out the gas at Costco was not the cheapest that we saw.  Gas ranged from $2.75 to $3.05 between CC and Houston.  Costco was priced at  $2.95.  Once we gassed up we headed east.  The weather is falling apart so we stopped for the night just outside of Lake Charles LA at an RV park off the freeway.  Nice place, A+ Motel and RV Park.  For $25 per night you get a concrete site with table, wifi, cable tv.   Not a bad place just down wind from an oil refinery.  I wouldn't want to spend a great deal of time here but for a night or possibly 2 its not bad.  rI weather permits its off to Baton Rouge LA for a few days then off to New Orleans.

One last thought.  Both Jack and I enjoyed Texas.  The land in interesting, the people are friendly, the roads are excellent, and the food good.  Texas was not what I expected.  

Texas State Capitol, Austin Texas

On The Beach

We departed Guadalupe State Park headed for the gulf of Mexico, Corpus Christi to be exact. The route to Corpus Christi took us through San Antonio out of hill country into flat ranch land. The hill country dissolved in to the burbs of San Antonio about 12 miles from the city limits. San Antonio has a population of over 1million people the strip malls start about 12 miles from the city center. Traveling through town of a million plus people there wasnt a lot of traffic. San Antonio has an easy freeway system. Nice new roads, beautiful overpasses constructed with red rock, there seems be lots of tax money at work... Could it be a strong congressional delegation?


Destination today is Mustang Island State Park.

Mustang Island is a barrier island that lies between east of Corpus Chisti and the Gulf of Mexico. We arrived at the park, pulled up to the office and the first thing that we saw was a sign in big letters "Watch out for Snakes". Yikes, what did we get ourselves into? It turns out that lying inamoungst the beautiful sand dunes that lay between the campsites and the ocean are three kinds of rattle snakes. The rangers just suggest not to walk through the dunes. No problem...
Great park $16.00 per night.
Fishing is suppose to be good so Jack bought a new rod and reel so that he could fish. Two days in still no fish... But he is having a good time.
Friday, we rode the tandem 35 miles round trip. The destination was Padre Island national Seashore. What a great ride. Beautiful country, marshes, sand dunes, blue sky, birds of all kinds, people fishing, hunting, flat roads, no traffic. Just a great bike ride.
It's ok to drive on the beaches here. So you can drive for 15 miles along the shore from Mustang island to the end of the national seashore. Just beautiful.

Today, we drove into CC. Well, not much to see in Corpus Cristi, a very nice sea wall with great views of the bay but no one out walking, no restaurants no shopping. It was a very odd downtown. City fathers should work harder selling the area. After walking around town, we drove back to Padre Island and had a great lunch. Jack had an oyster sandwich, I had shrimp creole. Both meals were great and not too expensive $20.00 for both along with a beer and a glass of wine.
Prices here in south South Texas are about 30 % less than in the the Bay Area. Today,
One more day here at Mustang Island; tonight we are expecting strong thunderstorms. That should be exciting. Then a cold front moves in and temps drop from 71 to 46. We are lmoving a head of the front on to Mississippi.

Great camp ground. For $16.00 per night you get, water, electricity, grass area, pic nick table with a sun cover and an ocean view. What more do you need? Maybe WiFi would be nice. I have lots of pictures to load. I need my computer!

Texas Hill Country

Im having problems posting pictures. I'll post when I have WIFI.
Its been a few days since I updated my blog. The day after we toured the bat caves we woke to snow flurries. This was quite a surprise since it had been 75 degrees during the day and not cloudy when we went to bed. We packed up the RV and headed east towards Texas.
No silly snow flurries were going to stop us. Before we out of Carlsbad the flurries were done and blue sky broke out. Today's destination was Ozuma Texas 200 miles to the east. More high desert country, a few ranches and oil fields. Not much in the way scenery. Texas's speed limit for autos is 80 m/hr for trucks it's 70. M / hr. The traffic moves fast though this part of the world, the road is in excellent condition; Texas must spend more money then California on ther roads. They have all been in excellent condition. FYI Texas also has a 20 billion dollar deficit like California and are looking at steep cuts in spending.

We arrived in Ozuma too early in the day to quit driving so we pressed on. We finally reached Junction TX about 80 miles east of Ozuma and 130 miles from San Antonio our destination for the night. We stayed at a very nice KOA on the banks of the North Llano River. Big sites, pool, pic nick tables and the river. If I'm ever back in this part of the world in the spring or summer I would stay here. It's to cold to take advantage of the location the night is suppose to drop to 22. During the drive to Junction, the desert gave way to rolling hills studded with oak trees and Texas junipers. The landscape looks like the Auburn area.

The North Llano River KOA was just a short trip to our next stop, Guadalupe River State Park located out side of Boerne Texas. Boerne is a town about 40 miles north west of San Antonio. The main drag of Boerne has lots of cute shops, cafes, wine stores etc. Quite a nice place and looks prosperous. The main drag lies along the banks of the Guadalupe river. Boerne looks like a place that I could live in. Guadalupe  state park is about 12 miles out of town we have a large site with water and electricity for $20 per night after paying for a Texas state park card which costs $60. This is just a great park located between San Antonio and Austin that we are going to stay for 5 nights. Wow, I just saw my first armadillo.... What a funny looking creature.

Today, we drove up to Austin. Nice drive of 80 miles. Downtown Austin is dominated by Lake Lady Bird. Quite a nice lake with walking and biking trails. Austin must be an out doorsy town as there were lots and lots of runners and bikers moving around down town. We toured the state Capitol. The Texas state legislature only meets of 140 days ever other year something that California should consider. Perhaps something. The Texas state Capitol building is larger than the Capitol building in Washington.  Once we finished our tour of the capitol we ventured off to the LBJ Library and Museum.   Good tour, free of charge the only presidential library that is free with exhibitions highlighting LBJs life.  LBJ was born in the Texas Hill country and lived in Johnson City as a child.  I wanted to tour the LBJ ranch we probably will not get to it.  Tomorrow we are off to San Antonio.

San Antonio, another interesting city.  We toured The Alamo, walked the river walk, toured San Fernando Cathedral (oldest Catholic church in the USA).  All very interesting and worth the effort.  The River Walk was neat.  The City really did a fine job with it.  All in all both Austin and San Antonio is worth a visit.

Next stop Corpus Christie and the gulf of Mexico....  Hopefully nice beach weather ahead.

Holly batcave Batman!!!!









Entrance to the Bat Cave

We left Tombstone AZ two days ago traveling south east toward El Paso Texas.  East from Tombstone the landscape looked remarkablely like the southern San Jauquine Valley near Bakersfield.  Mesquite, yucca cactus, brown grass, lots of rocks and high mountains peaks spread here and there.  Miles and miles of what I would call high desert landscape.  There wasn't much to look at.  Just before we reach the New Mexico State line out of this barren landscape there was a vineyard and a few miles of Pecan ocrchards.  Wine in AZ????. That was the only break until we reached Las Cruces New Mexico our stop for the night. 

 

We stayed in the Shady Acres RV park, $30 / night with hookups, wifi, and cable TV.  The park was located in an industrial / motel area by the highway of Las Cruces. The park was for the most part was gravel sites with some sites with winter grass (brown).  We had a pull through site just gravel very dusty.   There were some long term RV's stay there.  The park wasn't bad for the night but I don't understand why someone would want to spend the winer season there.  There wasn't much to look at and no where to walk to.  The area was somewhat depressing.   The gravel RV site seems to be the theme in the southwest.  Anyway what the heck it was  only for one night and in the end the park had great bathrooms. 

 

We awoke to another perfect southwest morning, cold but clear.  We have been lucky daytime temp are much above normal up to the low 70's so there isn't anything to complain about.  We left las Cruces heading toward El Paso TX with the goal reaching Carlsbad New Mexico.  The trip was more of the high desert landscape, not many towns, houses or even cows to look at.  We stoped for lunch at the Gradalupe Mt. National Park, the highest point in Texas and about 40 miles from Carlsbad.  Great views from the park head quarters.  We thought that we would spend the night at the park but the RV sites here were just a parking lot so we decidede to go on to Carlsbad. 

 

Carlsbad New Mexico,  small town along the banks of the Pecos River.  During other times of the year it must be busy here because there are lots of motels along the highway.  The motels must provide for people visiting Carlsbad Caverns National Park.  There isn't much else in town other than a nice bike path along the Pecos River.  Were staying at another gravel RV Park, Carlsbad RV Park,  $30 per night with all the usual amentites including an in door pool, which is closed....Oh well.  One thing that I found suprising about Carsbad is that this small town in the middle of no where had a preforming arts center and a small airport.  The performing arts center was totaly unexpected.  Who know that there is culture in the middle of nowhere?

 

Today we spent the day exploring Carlsbad Caverns National Park- a ture adventure.  After hiking down 850 ft into the bat cave, which took 45 minutes   you reach a massive catherdral room filled with calcite formations of unbeliveable demenisons, and crystal clear pools of water.  Taking the hike down the trail it seemed like u were decending into hell.  I can't really discribe the trail down into the caverns.  If you're a weenie you can take an elevator down to the main chamber.  I would not recomend the elevator since the hike down was awesome.  Park entrance fees includes an unsupervised tour of the cave, for addtional fees there are some other supervised tours that you can take to other parts of the caves.   We chose to take a special tour of the lower cave.  This tour is only open o 12 people per day and costs an addtional $20 per person.  Since its not season we were lucky and there was only one other person on this tour.  The tour takes you down underneath the prinary cave uisng ropes and 3 ladders and takes 3 hours to tour the lower cave.  The tour was beyond discription.  Certainly worth the time and admission. 

 

Jack in a small cave of the main chanber of the Lower Cavern



Jack in the Main Chanber of Carlsbad Cavern



After an exciting day underground we finished it with an excelent dinner at Larez Mexican restruant.  Good place to stop for the best flour tortillas that I have ever had,and  excellent chile rellanos.

Off to San Antonio Texas tomorrow.



Shootout at the OK Corral

We traveled from Quartzsite to Tombstone AZ on Friday. This was one of our longer travel days, 311 miles in total.  We bought gas in Tucson for $2.61 per gal.  I don't really understand why gas is so much cheaper here in AZ versus California.  It doesn't see right that gas in LA costs 75 cents more then in Tucson....

We pulled into the Wells Fargo RV Park in Tombstone AZ around 6:00 PM.  It was too dark to get a good look at the place, they gave us a spot in front close to the highway.  No picnic table at the site, the site is gravel with out any shade, large clean bathrooms .  Having no shade could be a consideration later in the year but for us the sun feels great. Since it was dark when we arrived we decided to go out for dinner.  The folks who run the RV park directed us to the Longhorn Diner for food.  We had a great dinner,  Jack had the chimichanga.  It was filled with pulled pork and it was yummy.  I had the Dixie fried chicken.  The chicken was great .  For $11.00 they gave you four pieces for perfectly fried chicken, cole slaw, and mash potatoes.  It was a great deal.  I would go back just  for the chicken. 
Saturday we spent the day exploring Tombstone.  What can you say about an old western town that has built a tourist business around the Wyatt Earp's shoot out at the OK Coral?  The main street of the town is closed to car traffic so its pedestrian friendly.  Both sides of the street are lined with shops selling sliver jewelry, western wear, and the usual nic-nacks found in tourist spots around the world.  Several times during the day for a small charge you can watch the re-enactment of the famous shoot out.   In addition to the shoot out there lots of private "museums" that charge entrance fees to view the historical items.  These museums include a museums dedicated to the worlds largest rose bush, 9000  square feet of a single rose bush, the Tombstone courthouse,  Bird Gage theater, ride in a stage coach or a covered wagon, etc.  In addition to Tombstone being the site of the "Shootout at the OK Corral" its also an old sliver mining town.  In lite of this we chose to take a sliver mine tour at $12.00 per person.  It was a very interesting tour where they took you  several hundred feet down into an old sliver mine. I would recommend taking this tour.  It was neat to see walk the tunnels and to learn how the miners worked mining with only hand tools.   All in all, if one is in the area then Tombstone is worth a half day stop.

Today Sunday we took a short 16 mile bike around town.  During the ride we discovered a nicer RV park in town it is the Stampede RV Park.  If we ever come back I would stay at the Stampede, larger sites, some trees, and off the main highway. 


Stage Coach- Tombstone

 The views around here are just beautiful.  Large mountain ranges across high desert country.  The elevation here is about 4500 ft so the ground cover is much different then what you see in the Tucson After our morning ride we drove to Bisbee.  Bisbee is an old copper mining town turned artsy.  We walked around town, in and out of various antique, and art galleries.  We didn't buy anything. Who needs art when you're traveling in an RV?  Anyway,  Bisbee is a very cute town again worth a stop if you find your self in southern AZ. 

Monday we are off to New Mexico.