December 1, 2013 El Paso, Texas

We had heard that Interstate 10 through west Texas could be boring and tedious so we were prepared to be bored as we drove from San Antonio to El Paso. I never knew Texas was so huge! We found the drive anything but boring. Once we were outside of the San Antonio city limits the traffic thinned out and we had little traffic to contend with the rest of the way, which is always nice. Perhaps it is because the terrain is so new and different, but we were fascinated with the changing terrain and the time passed quickly. So much open land and we were entertained with the 80 mph speed limit signs, the windmills in the middle of oil fields, the oil derricks, and the breathtaking mesas and scenery around us. At points along Interstate 10 the road had been but through towering cliffs of limestone.

Mexico as it appears from the U.S. side

Mexico

Mexico

a dried up Rio Grande River

After a one night stopover in Fort Stockton, we arrived in El Paso for a one night stay. We had originally planned to stay several nights, but the cold weather changed our plans. We arrived early enough to get in some quick sightseeing before dark. Since our campground was a quick 5 minute drive from the Mexican border, we decided to drive down to the border. We drove along the tall fence and river separating the two countries and noticed the border patrol vehicles. We could see through the fence into Mexico with many many small houses crammed very close together dotting the hillsides. We rode along a dried up Rio Grande River. There was a very long line of cars on both sides of the border waiting to get into or out of the United States. It wasn’t a surprise since it was the end of a holiday weekend. We grabbed a quick geocache near the El Paso airport before heading home.

November 27, 2013 San Antonio, Texas

We spent Thanksgiving at Thousand Trails Medina Lake which is about an hour west of San Antonio. The campground was nothing fancy with gravel sites, but it was quiet and peaceful and we enjoyed seeing the abundance of deer who had little fear of humans and would come very close.

The campground provided a very nice Thanksgiving meal and it was fun to spend time with fellow RVers, exchanging stories, ideas and tips. This time of year many of the RVers we meet are full time, or at least full time half of the year. We met people who have been full timers for 7+ years and they are an inspiration to us as they describe their adventures and all the wonderful places they have been. We have also been impressed with some of the solo RVers, including several women.

Friday we drove into San Antonio. It seemed small and quaint after visiting Dallas and Houston, and I enjoyed the lack of traffic and the ease with which we were able to get around the city. We visited the Alamo where we had to wait in line which wasn’t a surprise on this holiday weekend.

While waiting we enjoyed a view of the city Christmas tree and live music. They do not allow any photography inside the Alamo Shrine which was just as well since the lighting inside is very dim and not conducive to good photography. It was interesting to read about the history of the Alamo since that is not something covered extensively in American history. We spent some time walking around the grounds of the Alamo compound. We didn’t see a lot of flowers, but plenty of cactus!

Next we walked along the famous Riverwalk. Near one of the entrances we found a band of fireman called “Backdraft” and we spent a few minutes listening to them and watching people dance to the music, including Sparky. The band was very good!

The Riverwalk is a lovely area. I am sure it is beautiful at night with the lights, but with the wind picking up, the temperature dropping, and the hour drive, we decided to head back home. One thing we discovered early on in this adventure is that wherever the RV is parked is home to us. We jokingly say if we don’t like the neighbors or the neighborhood, or we want to see something new or do something different, we just move! Nice!

November 12, 2013 Day Trip to Galveston, Texas

Since Galveston was only a short drive from Houston, we decided to drive down for the day. We chose not to visit the NASA Johnson Space Center because there is little to see with the Space Shuttle no longer in service. It was a cold and very windy day to drive to the beach. Galveston, also known as Galveston Island, is very pretty and is was so good to see the water again. We have missed it!

We drove around the city where we saw many beautiful, old, historic homes and churches.

Moody Mansion

Among them was the Moody mansion which was built in 1895 and once home to one of Texas’ most powerful families. It has been restored and is open for tours.

We then drove down to the beach and drove along Seawall Boulevard, enjoying the Gulf of Mexico. On this windy day there were many whitecaps and crashing surf. One thing we noticed in Galveston is there are no hotels, condos. cottages built on the beach. Everything is built across the seawall and on the other side of the street. There are miles and miles of uninterrupted beachfront to enjoy. We saw little beach access parking, so that could be a potential problem.

Next on the list was a tour of the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig and Museum. Houston is known as the petroleum capital of the world, and we saw several working oil refineries on our way to Galveston.

The Ocean Star is a retired drilling rig which we were able to board and tour. The rig had three floors of interactive displays and models that explained the story of offshore drilling and detailed explanations of the process. We watched a very informative video on offshore drilling. The outside exhibits on the third floor were a challenge in the wind and cold!

Some of the interesting facts from the museum brochure included:
–Today it is estimated that 60% of the world’s recoverable petroleum and gas reserves are located under the oceans.
–In the United States approximately 70% of our petroleum reserves are offshore.
–Currently Texas and Louisiana produce 93% of all the USA offshore oil production.

November 8, 2013 Houston, Texas

On the way to Houston we stayed one night in the Sam Houston National Forest at Cagle Campground. What a nice campground! We had a large site with a concrete pad and full hookup. This is not what is usually available in a national forest campground!

We arrived in Houston for a 5 night stay at a private campground about 13 miles outside of the city of Houston. It was a nice site with a concrete pad and full hookup, but without the space, trees and privacy we found at the national forest campground. It also had some traffic noise from the interstate close by. It seemed more like a concrete jungle after the state parks we have grown accustomed to camping in. After dealing with the mud and dirt from all the rain in Dallas earlier in the week, the concrete pad was nice, but we would have really liked some trees and grass!

On Sunday we drove into Houston to visit our friend Priscilla and her husband Roy. We met Priscilla when we lived in Northern Virginia and she is now living in Houston. It was SO good to spend time with them! We had a great meal at a barbecue restaurant and after eating they gave us a nice tour of Houston and Rice University campus.

Monday we drove 45 minutes to Brazos Bend State Park to do some geocaching and orienteering. It is hard to find permanent orienteering courses and we were pleasantly surprised to see they had one in this park. While driving in we noticed signs saying the area had alligators and venomous snakes. We drove to one lake in the park and walked around and to our disappointment we didn’t see any alligators. We pretty much decided we wouldn’t see any that day because the lakes were way down from the ongoing drought in Texas. We decided to find two geocaches near an observatory in the park. As we parked our car we encountered two elderly ladies who calmly and nonchalantly told us they had seen an alligator on the trail near a small bridge over the water. We thanked them for telling us and thought they surely had seen an alligator in the distance sunning on a far bank. To our astonishment as we walked down the path we came upon a huge alligator estimated to be 7 or 8 feet long five feet away from us. We figured if those two ladies could get by him alive, so could we, so Bill told me to give him the camera in case we had to start running. He took my hand and led the way as we slowly and carefully walked past the alligator. If truth be told, he had to slightly pull me past the alligator because my feet were not so eager to walk past the creature. We found our geocaches and then headed back down the trail thinking we would once again inch our way past Ally Alligator. To our amazement, in the short time we were gone, the alligator stretched his body across the trail, blocking our way. Since it didn’t look like he was in any hurry to get on his way, we had to find another trail back to the car. Bill and I both agreed this was the closest we had ever been to an alligator of that size….a once in a lifetime experience when you least expect it! Never thought we would leave Florida to have a close and personal encounter with an alligator in Texas! On the way to the car we saw another huge alligator on a small island in the water and a little baby alligator sunning on a rock in the water. We also saw many turtles, a bunny, and a lot of birds.

While orienteering later in the day we saw another 7 foot alligator on a bank across the lake, but he dove into the water before we could get a picture so we had to be satisfied with one of him in the water as he swam away. We came home tired and happy from our fun and exciting day in the park!

November 4, 2013 Dallas, Texas Part 3

On Monday we awoke to the sound of rain. Since they were calling for rain for the next 3 days, we decided to go ahead with our plans to drive back into Dallas to visit the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

The Bush Library opened in May, 2013 and is located on the campus of Southern Methodist University, where Laura Bush attended college. They had over 300,000 visitors in the first 3 months.

The library is very well done, with friendly guides eager to share what they know, and many interestingexhibits. The library did not spend much time on Bush’s younger years or campaigns, but the majority of the exhibits talked about his time in the White House. The exhibits included information on the tragedy of September 11, including two mangled beams from one of the World Trade Center towers;

Beams from World Trade Center

defending freedom around the world,

Bush’s call to Americans to serve and help others,

An example of correspondence a president performs on a routine basis

Presidential Seal medallion on ceiling in Oval Office

life in the White House, and the Oval Office. They had an exact replica of the Oval Office during Bush’s presidency and we were allowed to walk around the room and look at all the items. There was a replica of the presidential desk that most presidents have chosen to use. There is a plaque on the desk that explains the wood the desk was made from came from an English ship called the “Resolute” during the time of Queen Victoria. Therefore the desk is called “The Resolute Desk”. An interesting side note about the desk is that a front panel was added during Roosevelt’s time to hide his wheelchair. The ceiling in the Oval Office has a medallion which is incorrect because an Italian artist made the stars with 8 points instead of 5. Everywhere else the seal’s stars have 5 points.

They allowed Bill to have his picture taken sitting at the president’s desk.

The Bush family will continue their public service through the Bush Institute located next door to the library. The Institute uses research to develop and implement policies that offer practical solutions to pressing national and global problems.

Unfortunately we left the museum right at rush hour, complicated by rain and fog.

No, this is not an accident. It is a machine that moves barricades from one lane to another to form HOV lanes during morning and afternoon rush hour.

The way they do their HOV lanes in Dallas is really strange. They have machines that move the barriers from one side to the other to create extra lanes depending on which way the rush hour traffic is moving.

We never saw an entrance to the HOV lane and never found another entrance or exit the entire time we were on the interstate. We could see the HOV lanes, which had very light traffic, while our lanes were bumper to bumper, but no way to get on. Very strange indeed!

After a quick stop for dinner and grocery shopping at Walmart, we finally arrived home. It was chilly and the rain had picked up to a steady rain, so we were glad to be home!

October 30, 2013 Dallas, Texas Part 2

Heavy rains and some wind hit on Wednesday so we spent the day inside watching tv and listening to the weather forecasts of flooding. Luckily the storms that passed through were not that bad even though Bill had to venture outside at one point to raise our surge protector higher off the ground because of rising water. As Bill stepped off the RV steps onto the ground he was up to his ankles in standing water. Once the rain stopped the water quickly drained away and the next morning we saw some minor flooding in the campground, but thankfully not as bad as it could have been!

Thursday evening we drove into Royse City to have dinner with Cody and his wife Jeannette at a Mexican restaurant. Cody and Bill are Boy Scout friends who met at the 2010 Jamboree. It was great seeing them!

Friday we drove once again into Dallas where we visited the Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum

where they had one of the world’s largest collections of original Norman Rockwell art. The exhibits included the founders of scouting, uniforms past and present, the Jamboree, personal journals of past Scouts, information on the Order of the Arrow, and various Boy Scout awards including Eagle Scout.

This is the front of the Boy Scouts of America headquarters, across the street from the museum. We found a geocache here!

Next we drove over to Arlington to see the Texas Rangers Ballpark and right next door was Cowboy Stadium.

That evening we had a wonderful dinner with Raul and his wife Adela in their lovely home in nearby Grand Prairie. Bill and Raul worked today in Boca Raton, Florida in 1998.

October 24, 2013 Dallas, Texas

Up a big hill and down a big hill all the way from Oklahoma into Texas. We passed through miles and miles of open land, with a few cattle now and then grazing in the rocky fields. We traveled down the Indian Nation Turnpike through various tribal areas, often driving for miles without seeing another vehicle in either direction.

We arrived at Lake Tawakoni, a Thousand Trails campground near Point, Texas. The campground was basically deserted so we had our pick of campsites.

On Monday we drove into Dallas

and our first stop was the Frontiers of Flight Museum, an aerospace museum affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution and located at Love Field. It has a large collection of artifacts, information and vehicles related to the history of aviation and space exploration. Among many exhibits it has the Apollo 7 command module, a World War 1 biplane, artifacts from the Hindenburg, and over 200 World War II aircraft models.

They had a special exhibit for the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. An Air Force One plane like the one that brought President Kennedy to Dallas on that fateful day and then took his body back to Washington. It was also the only plane in which a president was given the oath of office, the only time the oath was administered by a woman, and the only time the oath was administered in Texas. While not the actual plane, it was reconstructed inside to show what the plane looked like that day. It is interesting to note that Air Force One used today is about twice the size of the one used in 1963.

Next we went to Dealey Plaza and the 6th Floor Museum (JFK.org) at the former Texas Schoolbook Depository where Oswald shot from during the Kennedy assassination. The museum was well done with an audio tour that took you throughout the sixth floor and explained in detail the events leading up to that day, beginning with the start of Kennedy’s political career and ending with the aftermath of the assassination which included the shooting of Oswald by Jack Ruby and the Kennedy funeral. My only complaint is they did not allow ANY photography. I would really have liked to take a picture of the area, enclosed in glass, where Oswald was sitting during the assassination. They found Oswald’s fingerprints here on some boxes and everything is arranged the way it was found that day. The area has been preserved so the floors and walls, etc are the way they were November 22, 1963, which was also Bill’s 10th birthday. The building is now owned by the Dallas County Administration Building. One exhibit they had that was especially interesting were 9 possible conspiracy theories about what really happened that day. The bottom line…we will never know for sure. When we finished at the museum we went outside to the Grassy Knoll area where Bill took some pictures, including the two X’s marked on the street to show where the Kennedy limousine was located during the shooting.

Bill added arrows to the picture to show where Oswald was located and the two X’s in the street marking the location of the limousine

This is where Zapruder was standing on the grassy knoll when he filmed the assassination

Building ahead and grassy knoll on the left

October 19, 2013 Tahlequah, Oklahoma

As we passed from Arkansas into Oklahoma, the difference in the terrain became very apparent. Instead of fertile farmlands with farms, silos and windmills, we now had large areas of open land with no signs of farming. Occasionally we saw cattle grazing in the fields. We passed through small towns with magnificent views since we could see for miles around.

We were a little concerned about our next destination, Cherokee Landing State Park outside of Tahlequah, because we had been unable to reach anyone by phone. A call to another Oklahoma state park assured us that Cherokee Landing was open, so we decided to take a chance. We arrived and were happy to see the park was open and about half full. We were delighted with our site, overlooking beautiful Lake Tenkiller, with a concrete pad, 50 amp service and water. Our first day here we decided to explore the town of Tahlequah and do some geocaching as that seems an excellent way to explore a new area. Our experience has been that geocaches often take you to places you would not ordinarily discover.

Tahlequah was founded in 1838 as the capital of the Cherokee Nation. It is also the home of Northeastern State University. One of the really neat things about the town is that all the signs are written in English as well as Cherokee. If the name sounds familiar to any of you, it is featured in the book, “Where the Red Fern Grows” by Wilson Rawls. It was also voted one of the Top 100 Best Small Towns in America.

Sequoyah, a Cherokee who created a syllabary which made it possible for the Cherokees to read and write.

All signs in the town are in English and Cherokee. Muskogee is another name for the Creeks, a Native American people from the southeast.

We also visited the site of the Cherokee nation capital building, built in 1867. On the front lawn of the building we found a mini Statue of Liberty, which was dedicated in 1950 by the Boy Scouts “as a pledge of everlasting fidelity and loyalty”. Throughout the town while geocaching we found several beautiful murals.

When we arrived back at our campsite Bill went outside the take some sunset pictures and came back in to tell me there was a bald eagle in a tree right across from our campsite. We went outside and watched him for quite awhile. It is not everyday that you get that close to a bald eagle!

The next day we went to the Cherokee Heritage Center which included a Cherokee National Museum, a Tsa-La-Gi Village, and a Cherokee Genealogy Library. Bill spent quite a few hours researching his Cherokee heritage, without much luck to his disappointment. We took a guided tour of the Tsa-La-Gi village which was quite interesting. Among many things we learned:

the village consisted of seven clans,
how they solved conflicts using stickball competitions which is similar to lacrosse,
how to make arrowheads and blowguns.

We learned that Cherokees were very resourceful in taking worthless items such as European smoothbore trade guns which they took apart and made into many items they could trade and use in their everyday lives. The Cherokee Museum contained many interesting exhibits, including a fascinating one on the Trail of Tears.

The museum is located at the site of the original Cherokee female seminary which was opened in 1851 and destroyed by fire in 1837. These three columns are all that remain of the original building.

This monument is dedicated to the Cherokees who lived before 1907. The top of the monument has the names of the 7 clans.

October 16, 2013 Bentonville, Arkansas

We awoke to the sound of rain, but luckily the rain stopped in time for us to pack up and head to Bentonville in northwest Arkansas to visit family. The over three hour drive took us over a mountain which included a tunnel

and some beautiful lake views. We stopped in Lowell, Arkansas at a Camping World to have our electric steps repaired and then headed to Bentonville, best known as the home of Sam Walton, founder of Walmart.

Our first day in Bentonville we went down on the square and toured the Sam Walton museum. This museum not only gives a biography of Sam Walton, but includes the story of the founding of Walmart.

Outside of the museum they had a replica of one of Sam Walton’s trucks. He was known to ride around Bentonville in his pick up truck.

Bill was happy to learn that Sam Walton was an Eagle Scout.

Later in the day we went to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art which was founded by Alice Walton, daughter of Sam Walton. It opened in November, 2011 and is a glass and wood design with pavilions around two creek fed ponds. The museum features American art from the Colonial period to contemporary art.

During our visit Aunt Shirley went geocaching with us for the first time. She was quite good at it and found several geocaches.

The next day we went to the Mildred B. Cooper Memorial Chapel in Bella Vista, right outside of Bentonville. It is such a beautiful, spiritual place and weddings and funerals are held there, as well as people who come just to meditate.

October 14, 2013 Little Rock, Arkansas

One of our hopes is that we can visit as many Presidential libraries as possible on our journeys around the country. Our next stop was a short two day stay in Little Rock with the purpose of seeing the Clinton Presidential Library. We did not want to stay right in Little Rock so we had a little trouble finding a campground outside the city, but one not too far away. After finding the first campground not acceptable, we settled on a small private campground in Conway. We set up camp and settled in for the night. Imagine our surprise when later in the evening we discovered quite by accident that the Clinton library is closed due to the federal shutdown. Foiled by the government mess again! Because the library is a national archive, they are closed. Not seeing the St Louis Gateway Arch and Lewis and Clark Expedition museum was disappointing. This was just plain annoying!

Since our full day in LIttle Rock was one of a steady rain, we used the day to catch up on paperwork and chores around the RV.

Through the Eyes of the Selphs

Bill and Diane's travel notes and pictures