On Sunday, we drove 166 miles to the Blue Bonnet RV Park in Mission, Texas. Mission, McAllen, and Pharr are at the "Tip of Texas" west of Brownsville.
Monday, we went shopping at Camping World and the H.E.B. grocery store. That evening, we had a wonderful visit with Joe and Arlene Strain, a couple we'd parked next to at last year's Fall Escapade in Goshen, Indiana. They prepared us a great steak dinner!
On Tuesday, we did some shopping at Sam's Club and took all three tires back to the local Goodyear tire store (the two flat ones and the last of the remaining original tires that Earl had replaced with one of the new tires we bought in Ozona). We got an adjustment and were able to purchase a new tire for only about $70. Of course, had we known at the time we had the first flat tire that three others were going to go bad, we would have gone ahead and bought four new all steel tires. Oh well, hind sight is always 20/20!
Tuesday evening, we visited with Don and Margaret Leonard, fellow New Horizons owners who we met at the New Horizons Owners rallies. We had a great visit with them and went out to dinner at Las Caneras, where we had some delicious Mexican food.
We had planned leaving Mission on Thursday morning, but Wednesday, as we were driving around town, the fuel filter clogged up on us again. We barely limped into the Freightliner dealer where we had to leave the truck overnight since they were too busy to get to it right then. We rented a car and returned to the RV park.
Picked up the truck Thursday afternoon and then took our picnic table out to Don and Margaret Leonard's place for them to store until this Fall. The only place we have to put the table while we're traveling is behind the chair in the living room and, since it's a real pain to deal with there and we probably won't have any use for it on our Alaska trip, we decided to let Don and Margaret keep it until we can pick it up later this year.
Friday, April 6
Drove 166 miles to Smith's Trailer and RV Park in George West, Texas. This is the same RV park at which we'd stayed on our trip down to Mission. It's a nice, quiet park that's not listed in either of the campground guides we use.
Saturday, April 7 through Friday, April 13
We drove 112 miles to the Lone Star Corral -- an Escapees park -- in Hondo, Texas. We had lunch in Hondo at Margarita's, a Mexican food restaurant, after we'd set up.
On Tuesday, we took a trip into San Antonio to see the Alamo and the River Walk. I was surprised at how small the Alamo is -- I'd thought it was a much larger building. And I learned some things about the Alamo that I never knew, or at least had forgotten: it's original name was Mission San Antonio de Valero and was a home to missionaries and their Indian converts for nearly 70 years. It wasn't until the early 1800s when the Spanish military stationed a cavalry unit at the former mission, that the name was changed to the Alamo (Spanish for "cottonwood") in honor of their hometown Alamo de Parras, Coahuila. There is a wall inside with the names of the 189 men who died in defense of the Alamo.
The River Walk is located on a portion of the San Antonio River that loops through town. This portion of the river is lined with shops and restaurants and there are tour boats that travel the loop. The river here is small since the river's headwaters are springs located about three miles north of downtown. These springs are part of a vast underground lake called Edwards Aquifer which is 180 miles long and varies from 5 to 30 miles in width. We had lunch at one of the restaurants along the river, Cafe Ole.
On Wednesday, Earl played golf at the Hondo Golf Club and we went out to dinner at Bill & Rosa's where we had a steak dinner. And Thursday found us back at Margarita's for lunch.
Saturday April 14 through Monday April 16
Saturday we drove 96 miles to the Fredericksburg RV Park in Fredericksburg, Texas. After setting up, we went to the Auslander Restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner and had some great German food.
Sunday we drove out to the Wild Seed Farms, the largest working wildflower farm in the United States. The fields were ablaze with the blooms of poppies, moss verbena, Texas Paintbrush, Texas Bluebonnet (the Texas state flower), and others. We tried to get into a couple of other places, but it being Easter, they were closed, so we went back home and prepared the chicken we got for Easter dinner.
On Monday, we went to the Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Museum which contains exhibits on the early history of Fredericksburg and the career of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. Also included in the museum was the National Museum of the Pacific War which tells the story of the people, battles and campaigns of the Pacific War. One of the exhibits here was a Japanese midget sub captured at Pearl Harbor.
We also drove by the local cemetery and walked around. This is a very old cemetery, but still in use -- there was at least one grave from the 1700's.
Tuesday, April 17 through Monday, April 22
We drove 199 miles to our home Coast to Coast park in Whitney, Texas -- Suncountry Resort. The fields around the park are filled with blooming Texas Paintbrush and Texas Bluebonnets. Of course, Maxx loves to go for long walks in the fields!
On Wednesday, we went to Radio Shack and bought a weather radio. This is one that can be programmed with up to 15 counties and will turn on when the National Weather Service issues a weather warning. We figured it might be wise to get one of these devises since we're going to be heading into the part of the country that can have tornadoes this time of year.
On Thursday, we drove into Waco to the Social Security office where Earl signed up to start receiving Social Security when he turns 62 on July 19. Of course, the first payment won't be until September. While we were in Waco, we had lunch at the Olive Garden and then stopped by Office Max to pick up some office supplies.
Friday, Earl went golfing at the Lake Whitney Golf Club while Maxx and I stayed home and did laundry (Maxx is a really big help!).
Saturday, we did some grocery shopping and went out to dinner at one of the local restaurants in town. We also had a nice visit with the people parked next to us.
Monday, April 23
We drove 209 miles to Kiowa Park at Waurika Lake near Hastings, Oklahoma. This is a Corps of Engineers park and most sites have both water and electricity. This is such a nice park that we decided we definitely must come back again.
Sunset over Lake Waurika:
Tuesday, April 24 through Thursday, April 26
Drove 237 miles to the New Horizons factory in Junction City, Kansas, where we're going to have some changes made to our fifth wheel -- permanent shelves in the pantry, a cupboard in the bathroom (the area that contains the shower and toilet), etc. There are two other couples here that are also having stuff done to their fifth wheel and one couple who is picking up their brand new fifth wheel. We had dinner at the Cracker Barrel with one of the couples who are here having changes made to their fifth wheel, Tom and Kay Seliskar. The couple who are here picking up their new fifth wheel, Brad and Rama Katz, are a very nice young couple (in their early 30's) who are just starting out on their fulltiming lifestyle.
On Thursday, we did some grocery shopping and made a run to the hardware store to pick up some pegs for the coat rack that we're having Horizons make for us. In the evening, we barbecued hamburgers and had dinner with Tom and Kay and then played Mexican Train Dominoes with them.
Friday, April 27
Before we left the New Horizons factory, Kay gave me a copy of their story about how they came about buying a New Horizons fifth wheel. I realized I'd read their story before on the RV Consumers Group website and exclaimed, "Oh, so you're those people!" The short story is that when they came to tour the factory, Tom and Kay discovered that they lived in the very same house that Harold Johnson, the owner of Horizons, Inc., had built and lived in many years ago in Burnsville, MN!
We drove 112 miles to the Triple J Campground in Russell, Kansas, the hometown of Bob Dole. We stopped by Smoky Hill winery on our way here to pick up some wine -- we had stopped here in 1998 on our way back from touring the New Horizons factory and like some of their wine.
Sunday, April 29
We drove 84 miles to the Sunset Park Campground in Smith Center, Kansas where we will be touring the Excel factory (a fifth wheel manufacturer). After arriving and setting up, we had lunch at Paul's Cafe.
Monday afternoon, we drove down to the Excel factory and a very nice young man, Jay, took us on a tour of the factory. We were quite impressed with the quality of their work (of course, we already knew they manufactured a quality fifth wheel -- RVCG rates them 4 stars). After the tour, Jay followed us back to our fifth wheel so that he could inspect a New Horizons. That evening, we had a delicious steak dinner at Duffy's Steakhouse.
More nap buddies:
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