Just to Recap (Kerrville, TX)

 

While in San Antonio we visited the Witte Museum and the Japanese Tea Garden. 

The Witte Museum is a history of Texas from the time when the Indians roamed the plains to the Oil boom.  While not as big or in depth as the Texas History Museum in Austin.  It is still worth the visit.

Next we visited the Japanese Tea Garden in San Antonio.  It was an abandoned rock quarry.  It was begun in 1899 and completely restored in 2008.  It has a 60ft waterfall and many ponds filled with Koi.

I ordered an new toy.  An Electric Bicycle.  It can be used with full electric power or electric assist.  Electric assist gives you about 50% power while peddling.  So, when going up hill, it makes it easy.

We departed San Antonio for Kerrville last Thursday.  The trip was only 125 miles, so we pulled into Buckhorn RV Park around 2 PM.  This RV park is where the NHOG (New Horizons Owners Group) is holding its rally.  Since Tim and Carolyn are the rally masters and we are on the organizing committee we figured we would arrive early to give them a hand.  Other rigs will start arriving next Saturday.

So stay tuned, same time, same channel, for the next nail biting installment of “Roan on the Road”.

As always, Life is good on the Roan Road…

A Visit with Davy Crockett (San Antonio, TX)

 

The other day my eyeglasses, which I had for about 4 years, broke.  Good thing I have an old pair of glasses as a backup.  We figured that since it would take at least a week to make a new pair,  we would wait until San Antonio, where we planned to stay for at least a week.  As soon as we pitched out tent, so to speak, we headed for Wal-Mart and the vision center.  They said they could not copy the old glasses (it was against the law).  So I had to have an eye exam before they could give me glasses. 

Here we sit until the new pair of glasses are ready.  I did not want to leave right after the glasses were ready because if there was something wrong, then what?  We are staying in San Antonio for an extra week and then we will head out.  Where?  We are not sure.

On Saturday we took the bus downtown to the Alamo and the River Walk.  Big mistake,  wall to wall people.  Never do that again.  From now on we will do our sightseeing during the week.  Crowds aside, the downtown area is very well done. 

The Alamo

 

The River Walk

The downtown area has a canal running through the area. It was started in the 1920s and completed by the WPA in the 1930s.  In 1968 the canal was extended to include the area for the World’s Fair.  It is a beautiful place to walk with many, many, many restaurants.   Oh, did I mention that there are many places to eat?  There is a 30 minute boat ride that takes you around the canal.  Of course, we took the senior citizen discount.  Even with the discounted price, it was a rip off.  They pack you in as many as can possibly fit.  You are sitting shoulder to shoulder with the next person and all you can see is one direction.  Sort of like being on the Number 7 subway during rush hour.  The guide tells you to look ahead and see this and that.  It is imposable to turn to see anything and taking pictures is out of the question.  His jokes are stale and corny .  Of course, at the end he expects a tip according to the sign on the boat. 

We did go the River Walk Mall.  Let me tell you.  A mall is a mall, is a mall.  East coast to West coast they are all the same and have the same stores.  Well, we did find a Western Cowboy store and I bought a Cowboy hat!!  Now I am a real Jewish Texas Cowboy!

More to follow, so stay tuned.

Live is really, great, on the Roan Road.

P.S.  We are having so much fun!!

Raindrops Keep Falling on MY Head (Fredericksburg, TX)

 

I am sitting here while the rain pounds the coach.  There is a line of thunderstorms coming through. “Boy, they do things in a big way here in Texas”.  Last night it was even worse.  I watched the line of thunderstorms go through on my smartphone.  Lots of rain, hail, thunder and lightening.  We are nice and warm and dry, so we are good.  I have internet, the only bad thing is the satellite went out for a few minutes because of the heavy rain, a real bummer,  I think part of The Jon Stewart show did not record.  All in all we have had great weather.

To backtrack a little We left Bryan, TX for Austin on the 26th of March  to see the LBJ Library and play tourist in Austin.  

Austin, Texas

LBJ Library – I took pictures of the LBJ Library.  Unfortunately the pictures are lost some ware in cyber space and I cannot find them.  The Library is very well done and tells the story from boyhood to his death. 

Lady Bird Wildlife Center.  A beautiful botanical garden of plants and flowers of the area.  Unfortunately it is a little to early for many flowers to be in bloom.

State Capital Building -  It is a beautiful complex with many fantastic gardens. 

Bullock Texas State History Museum -  Unfortunately I could take pictures of the outside of the burlding and the lobby.  I could not take any pictures of the displays.  The museum is very well done with dioramas, video displays and movies.  It takes you from the beginning when Texas was part of Mexico to present day Texas.

Fredericksburg, Texas – I real surprise.  Nice town, great things to see.

Johnson’s Boyhood Home -  Halfway between Austin and Fredericksburg, along US 290, is Johnson City.  It is not much of a town.  This is where LBJ was born, it is run by the National Park Service.

LBJ ranch (Little Whitehouse)

The LBJ ranch was and still is a working ranch.  As you drive through the ranch, the cows and horse roam free.  LBJ used to take Air Force One to an Air Force Base near San Antonio then take a Gulf Stream, or as he would call it, Air Force 1/2 to the ranch.

The Main house is right on the Pedernales  river.  It is not very big and a very down to earth house   There was at least 4 phones in each and every room.  Except Lady Bird’s bathroom, it had only one. 

 

Then, there was a real, pleasant surprise.  Fredericksburg is the birthplace of Chester Nimitz.  In his honor they placed the National Museum of the Pacific War  here in Fredericksburg.  The museum consists of two parts.  The first part is a centered around the Japan-US conflict.  Starting with the history of Japan, the war with China all the way through the surrender of Japan that ended WWII.  We spent at least 5 hours going through this part. One part of the exhibit is an actual casing from the A bomb.  There were 6 built at the time. Only one was used. 

 

The other bomb that was dropped was a different design. 

The next day we went to the Pacific Combat Zone.  It is a recreation of the battle of Tarawa,  Also on display was a PT boat, and a TBM Avenger.  The staff is knowledgeable and friendly.

(Note:  we have seen some great museums on our trip so far.  However, the ones that we have seen here in Texas are really first rate.  Y’all need to take a trip here and see them for yourselves.) 

Get well wishes to Robert.

All pictures are taken by Ann and Roy

Next stop, San Antonio and the Alamo.

Life is Great on the Roan Road….

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…