The Father–Not the Son (College Station–Bryan, TX)

 

We are in Bryan, TX, which is a few miles from College Station.    College Station is the home of Texas A&M and the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library. 

After a late start on Saturday (that is another story),  we left Livingston around 1:30 PM.  Since we only had 115 miles to go we weren’t concerned.  We arrived at the campsite in Bryan, TX around 4PM.  It is a nice campground with large pull through sites. 

Now for the “another story”.  I can see why the Post Office is going bankrupt.  They have no idea how to handle or track a package, nor do they care, contrary to what the ads on TV are saying.  If Fedex or UPS worked like the USPS they would be out of business in a heartbeat.  If you get a tracking number from USPS and see it is delivered. It does not mean you received it.  It means that is was delivered to the local post office, maybe.  Then it can go into Postal Heaven for all they care.  Well enough of this rant.

Yesterday we visited the Presidential Library of George H.W. Bush, the 41st president.  It is on the grounds of Texas A&M.  The grounds are beautiful and the library is very well done.  All of the displays and information is very well presented. 

After a hard day walking through the library we are relaxing today.  It is a little cool, high only of 57, but it is sunny.  We took a ride through beautiful downtown Bryan, TX, enough said about that.

Well Happy Passover and Happy Easter to  Y’all.  I think we are spending way to much time in Texas.  We are spending Passover here in our home, just the two of us.  There aren’t to many Jews in this part of Texas.  We tried to find Horseradish to go with the Gefilte Fish we bought in Atlanta.  Well it doesn’t exist here.  Closest place is Houston, 1.5 hours away. 

We still are loving it.

Get well wishes to Arlene.

Life is great on the Roan Road…

Ready to Move (Livingston, TX)

 

We are still here at Rainbow’s End Escapees Park.  Actually, we are waiting for a new slide topper to arrive.  The one we replaced in Atlanta isn’t working out and I had to order a new one on the internet.  It is scheduled to arrive tomorrow.  I will try and install it, with the help of a local RV repairman, and we should be on the move Saturday morning.

Monday we went to the Johnson Space Center with our friends Bob and Sue.  We met Bob and Sue, who also have a New Horizons RV, when we were both having work done at the factory in Kansas last summer.

We spent a great day touring the center.

Next stop is The George H. Bush Presidential Library.  More to come when we get there.

P.S. here is a picture of Ann with her official RV Driving School Certificate.

Live IS great on the Roan Road…

High Fives for Ann (Livingston, TX)

 

We are still here at the Rainbows End, the Escapees park.  We are staying here a few days longer so we can have the slide topper fixed again.  I had it replaced in Atlanta but now it is binding when the slide is brought out.  So I ordered a new material and will replace it.  It won’t be shipped until Monday, so it will not show up here until at least Wednesday. 

We found out that one of the driving instructors from the RVDrivng School is staying at the park.  So I arranged for Ann to take a lesson.  The lesson consists of two, four hour lessons split up over two days.  I was the ride along in the back seat.  I was warned not to say a thing under penalty of death.  The first day we took the camper to little used parking lot, where Ann practiced driving turning and backing.  The next day Ann hitched up the camper and I took it to a different parking lot where she practiced backing into a space.  Then she took the camper on the road, into traffic, making turns and getting onto and off the highway.  When we got back to the campsite Ann backed the camper into the site.

High Fives for Ann.  We are all very proud of her.

Life is good on the Roan Road…

Some Excitement this Morning (Livingston, TX)

 

After leaving the campsite at Ft. Pickens NP, we spent a few hours at the Navel Air Museum in Pensacola.  We had a guided tour,  It is a very well done museum.  They had Naval airplanes from it’s  beginning to the present time.   I would have liked to spend more time there, but we had do push on.

		Naval Air Museum VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

That night we stayed in a campsite in Biloxi, Mississippi right off the interstate.  We stopped around 2PM after some 250 miles.  We got up the next day and left around 9AM.  We continued West on I-10.

The second night we stayed in a campsite, also off the interstate, in Frog City, Louisiana following the same schedule.

When we travel like this, not in a great hurry, we stay in full hookup parks from Passport America.  Passport America has affiliated parks all over the US and they are 50% off, which makes it reasonable.  If we are really pushing it we will stay dry camp in a truck stop or Wal-Mart.  Get off the road around 6PM, eat, go the sleep and get up around 5AM and take off down the road.

    Welcome Center Entering Texas                                   Nice Welcome

On Thursday, we arrived in Texas!  We exited I-10 at Beaumont, TX and headed north, taking mostly two lane roads.  Boy oh boy, is Texas a big state.  Alaska is big, but there are a lot of beautiful mountains.  Texas is big and very flat, at least this part is.  The houses were far apart.  I guess you could call them ranches.  Everyone has an RV in their yard.  What do you want from 2 NY kids from the Bronx/Queens? (Note from Ann to “Those That Know”:  this road reminded me of Babylon, NY once upon a time when those were the days!)

We arrived at Rainbows End RV Park, which is part of Escapees, around 12:30PM and picked a spot, then went to register.  We planned to stay here until Monday and then take off for Las Vegas, visit with  Vic and Judi, and come back to Texas for the New Horizons rally, but things change.  After planning out the trip using Streets & Trips, which has a built in trip cost calculator, I realized the trip up and back would cost us over $1000.00 in fuel.  So we are staying in Texas until after the rally and then go to Las Vegas.

There is a lot to see in Texas besides George W.  Some plans are to see the LBJ and George H Presidential Libraries,  San Antonio and the Alamo, and Big Bend NP to name a few.

We were just laying in bed this morning around 7:30 when both our cell phones went off.  A message came on “High wind and Tornado Alert.  Get out Now” .  It was the “Get out Now” part that got us moving, fast.  We got dressed, put on our rain coats and took off for the Laundry Room.  It is a brick building with restrooms around the back.  There were about 6 of us there.  Don’t know about everyone else, I guess if you don’t know what is happening then you are OK.   Then the power went out.  We could see on our smartphone the track of the storm.  So when it passed we went home.  The power was out, I switched the hot water heater to propane.  The refrigerator automatically switches over.  All the lights are on 12V DC so they run off the battery. We made breakfast and sat down to relax.  We have our computers and the internet. If I wanted to I could turn on the inverter and have Satellite TV.  Life his hard living off the grid. 

Well the power just came back and the rain is stopping too.  All is back to normal.

Notice on the “States Visited” map, there are few more states filled in.

Love to Karen, John, Tommy and Mikey – delighted to hear that everyone in improving nicely.

 

Life is good on the Roan Road…

On Our Way West (Ft. Pickens NP, FL)

 

We spent a great few days visiting with Fran and Rick.  We also spent some time with Seth, Cierra, Chase and Cohen.

We left Largo, Florida Friday morning.  We took I-75 north and connected to I-10 west. After 320 miles we exited I10 at Pensacola and headed south through the tourist town of Pensacola Beach and onto the Ft. Pickens National Park.  Since we have the Senior Pass we can enter any NP, no change, and camping is half price.  That’s $10 per day for electric and water, there is a dump station we can use on the way out.  Since we will be staying 3 days it is no problem.

OMG SNOW IN FLORIDA???  No it is just pure white sand.

Our campsite at Ft. Pickens NP

 

                                   Santa Rosa Island Beaches

Today we went to visit the actual fort.  It is at the tip of Santa Rosa Island on the Pensacola Bay.  It’s claim to fame is that it was one of four forts that while being in a Confederate state it was in Union hands for the entire  Civil War.  Mostly because it wasn’t worth the effort to invade.  The other claim to fame is that it housed the famous Indian leader Geronimo after he was captured.

Next we visit the Naval Air Museum at Pensacola then head west.

Life is good on the Roan Road…