We off to Fort Stockton

Okay...so today we are back on the road heading to Fort Stockton for an overnight.  We are primarily traveling along I10 toward Yuma.  If anyone knows of any decent rv parks along this route please let me know.....

Kerrville Texas

We have moved on to Kerrville Texas...internet is pretty iffy....so hopefully our next stop will have a stronger signal....till then be safe and travel happy!

San Antonio

We arrived in San Antonio around 3pm on Monday.....staying at Traveler's World Rv Park.  The park is well kept, but the sites are small....but, boy this is one popular place.  It is only 3 miles from the riverwalk and I do think it is probably the best maintained park in the area.  There are quite a few permanent folks, but their sites are also well maintained.  Very friendly and helpful staff too.  I do recommend reservations....especially if you want a pull throw because most of the available sites are back ins.  Of course, we are here during Thanksgiving week so there are lots of folks traveling.  Here is a few pics of our site....

As you can see, we don't quite fit.  We have to put the tailgate down to clear the pin box to get that far in.  We do have a small concrete patio and the rv pad is pea gravel.  Fairly level.  This is an older park so lots of green.

This is our "hook up" side....another really close fit.  Our site is right at the entrance to the park.  So we do have lots of traffic to contend with....but I kinda like seeing all the rvs come in.....during peak check in time it is quite the little parade!  We had a Prevost motorcoach one day....so we ain't exactly slumming here...LOL!

This is our door side.  Enough yard for the furballs to do their thing.  See our electric cord coming across the yard.  Well, our electric box....(which is on the hook up side)....couldn't use the fifty amp.  We have never run into this before, but the box was designed in such a way that the bottom lip of the box prevented us from being able to push our plug all the way into the socket.  I went into the office and they had maintenance come out and take a look....and no....no one else had ever had this problem!  We both found that hard to believe.  Anyway, the box next to us was designed differently and we were able to plug into it with out a problem.  Hopefully they will not need to use that site while we are here.  Oh well, that is the "Goodelife" for you....as I have said before...Murphy just loves us.  I told that to the maintenance guy and I could see he was actually looking around for this "Murphy" fellow when the light bulb went on and he said, "oh, you mean Murphy's law"...
LOL!
Yesterday we headed down to the River Walk.  Decided to take the city bus as it stops practically right out our front door.  Not knowing exactly where we were...we did get off the bus a couple of stops too soon...but it was a beautiful day so a couple of extra blocks to walk didn't hurt us.  We checked out the Alamo and then meandered the river walk for a couple of hours.  We were back home by 3pm, fed the furballs, and decided we had better make a grocery run.  We had yet to buy our Thanksgiving turkey.  WOW and WOW!  I could not believe the masses of humanity at the grocery store.  We had to fight our way in and out, but we were victorious!  Found a nice fresh whole turkey breast.  Yes, we will have our Thanksgiving feast...just the two of us....Turkey and dressing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and noodles, and pumpkin roll with cream cheese icing for dessert! MMMmmmmm good!
Today; however, today I'm off to the San Antonio Zoo.
Happy Turkey Day....everyone....eat, drink, and most importantly be MERRY and SAFE!

San Antonio Here we come!

Today is our last day here in Beaumont.  Nothing exciting to report....making plans for our journey tomorrow to San Antonio.  It will be a longer than usual travel day for us...close to 5 hrs....so we are hoping to get an early start.  Our little furballs just do not travel well at all.....lots of panting and "ants in their pants".  They ware me out just trying to comfort them.
If you remember, I mentioned we had an issue with our steps.  Here is a photo of our problem....

As you can see...we had a nasty crack.  We had to support the steps with a bottle jack to be able to continue to use them.  Luckily Bill found a welding shop here in Beaumont.  He took the steps to them and they were able to weld the crack and also "beefed up" the other side as well.  So...we are back in business! 
Here are a couple photos of our rv site here in Beaumont....

 Here is our site.....and below is a "street" view.

Guess that is all the news...I'm excited to move on to San Antonio.  We were there for a vacation back in the early 90's, looking forward to seeing what I remember and what has changed.......

Spindletop

We landed here in Beaumont safe and sound.  Staying in a nice rv park called Gulf Shores.  Concrete pads and patios....almost all sites are pull throughs.  We are not, however, anywhere near the water as the name implies.  It's fairly nice now, but it seems to me they have quite a few permanent and semi-permanent folks here.....and they are letting them collect quite a bit of "junk" around their trailers.  If that continues....this place will go down hill very quickly.  It's not that I mind the "more permanent folks"...heck I may be one myself one day....it's all the "junk" that some seem to want to collect and store around their trailer. 
Our son Sam is here taking some classes on mold remediation and restoration.  We had lunch with him and his instructor yesterday.  It was a very interesting day, the instructor seems to really know his stuff and I think Sam is learning a lot.  After lunch, we toured a replica of an old oil "boom" town called Spindletop Glady's City Boomtown.  It houses a lot of antiques.  Many of these were damaged during a hurricane.  By the time the water had receded and the debris was cleared, many of the antiques (books, clothing, wall paper) were consumed with mold.  The instructor and his company were able to restore most of the items.....they have developed a new technology to accomplish this...it really is a very exciting opportunity for Sam and his company as this new technology is a much less invasive and cost saving procedure then what has been traditionally available.  
Now, pardon the proud mama....but I just have to say....I'm so very proud of my son.  He started his company with next to nothing.  He has worked so hard and I am so impressed with his business sense.... and it is all starting to pay off.  He still has a ways to go, but he has the vision and the drive to make his company a success.....and that, my friends, is a very "Goode" thing! 

Longview, TX

Yup, back in Longview Tx....had two glorious days of sunshine and temps in the high 70's.  Now it is grey with drizzle.....seems a cold front has tracked us down and will soon be seeing those 40's and 50's again....boo-hoo!
Tomorrow we will make our way to Beaumont.  Staying for about a week....looking forward to exploring the area as we have never been there.
Not much else to report....getting caught up on the laundry today.  Sure do love my in house washer and dryer!

North Little Rock Photos

As promised I have some photos for you today. 

Here is our site....not much room between neighbors, but ok for a night or two.

This is an old rail bridge which has been converted into a walking bridge.  We can see this from our site.  It takes you over to the Clinton Presidential Library and also connects to more walking paths.  We decided to check it out yesterday.

Here we go!  By the way, this rv park is fenced and you are given a gate code to get in and out.  There is also a small pedestrian gate adjacent to this walking bridge.  Very convenient. 

This is a view of the park from the walking bridge.  The black arrow marks our site.  If we ever come back through here again, I would like to stay in one of the back in sites along the river front.  I think they run about $25 a night vs. our $11.50 Passport America Rate for the "cheap seats".  I would really like to explore more of those walking paths and the park was surprisingly quiet for being so close to the interstate.  Funny, I have never considered myself a "water" person, but it is just so peaceful...just something really calming about the water.  The furballs and I could sit and watch the river for hours I think! Also...this is a busy little park and you are required to make a reservation for the passport sites, but I would recommend you make a reservation for ANY of the sites or at least call ahead for availability. 

Once across the bridge, we did decide to check out the Clinton Library.  It was interesting.  The photo is of the replica of the Oval Office which is on the 3rd floor of the library.  That was pretty neat to see and it is probably the closest I'll ever get to the Oval Office!
Today is another travel day as we continue our journey to Texas.  We plan on spending the weekend in Longview visiting Bill's Mom and brother.  Then it will be on to Beaumont!

The Sun....The SUN!

Finally as we made our way to Little Rock......the sun popped out and the grey skies gave way to beautiful bright blue ones!  The temps quickly rose into the high 60's.  We are parked in North Little Rock in a small city park called Downtown Riverside RV Park.  We are in the "cheap seats" do to our passport America rate, but we can still see the river.  I plan to get out today with my camera so more about the park and the area next post.
Last night we headed out to the local walmart, one of our needed items....a gallon of milk.  We both bout dropped our teeth when we saw the price....$4.18 for a gallon of milk.  I'm guessing that price has to do with the horrible drought this past year.  Anyway....despite the high milk price, we plan on enjoying our 2 night stay here in North Little Rock!

Hey...throw me another roll!!

Here I sit in Sikeston MO this am, my feet up in my easy chair!  Nice little park, Hinton RV, for a quick night or two.  Nothing fancy.....fairly level gravel sites, full hookups, plus decent cable tv.  They advertise wifi, but it is pretty bad.....weak signal and really slow. 
Last night we ate dinner at Lambert's, "Home of the Throwed Rolls"!  What a hoot!  Yes, they do actually throw the rolls at you and yes some miss their mark and end up on the floor.  You are NOT required to eat those....LOL!  Anyway I had chicken pot pie with a side of dumplings and candied yams...and those rolls....oh my....thought I'd died and gone to heaven.  Plus they come around and offer you "sides" of fried okra, fried potatoes, mac-n-cheese, and apple butter and molasses for your roll.  Real comfort food served in a relaxed atmosphere....my kinda place.  It was all especially good after a day on the road....a cold grey, wet day.
Once back at the rv we settled back in our recliners...cozy as little bugs in rugs....in front of our little electric fireplace.
Today we relax and tomorrow we head to Little Rock.  The weather looks like it might be improving a bit warmer and dry, but still really grey skies.  I soooooo need to see the sun!

Today is travel day....on our way to Sikeston MO!  Home of Lambert's Cafe and the only throwed rolls!  I can't tell you how many times we have been by this place, but never stopped.  That is going to change......we will be in Sikeston for two nights and one of those nights dinner is going to be at Lambert's!  I hope it is as good as they claim.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Bill did get the tv cable connector replace so hopefully no more problems on that front.....and so far the stairs are holding.
Illinois is on central time, when we arrived we had to push our clocks back an hour from Indiana eastern time.  Yesterday we had to do that yet again due to daylight savings time.  The dogs and I are having a little trouble adjusting to the new time, our inner clock just doesn't recognize all these time zones and "savings" time.  Bill......oh Bill can sleep anytime, anywhere....no problems there.  But me....I was in bed by barely 8pm last night and awake by 4am. 
It rained here last night and I'm not sure what the day is going to be like as it is still dark.  Hoping it's dry and hoping the temps start to rise as we head deeper south.....I sure do miss my flip flops and sunshine....where the heck has all the sunshine gone!

Satellite Issues.....

Our journey to Litchfield was uneventful.....just the way we like it!  But.....but...."Murphy" sure does seem to love us.  Yesterday our outside steps gave way.  They are only two years old and a weld has cracked on one of the supports.  We found that we can put blocks under the bottom step and if we stay to the side that is still supported we can still use the steps.  Which is a good thing....cause I can't imagine climbing in and out of the fifth wheel without them.  We are hoping we can get by until we land in Texas.  Then we can figure out if we can repair them or if we just need to replace them altogether. 
Our next issue with Mr. Murphy is our direct tv set up.  We had been having increasing difficulties with "tuning" in our signal and then one day we found we could only pull in one of the two signals needed.  We have a second tuner box in the bedroom so we hooked it up and had no difficulty in finding the signal....we checked out both cable leads on this box and had no problems with either.  So.....we naturally figured that the original tuner box in the living room was defective.  Called Direct tv and they sent us a new one, hooked it up and everything was fine.  No problems the whole time we were in Indiana.  In our set up yesterday, we begin having the same problems with this new tuner box that we had with the old.  We hooked up the bedroom tuner and once again we quickly and easily found the signal.  Finding it hard to believe that we had yet another bad box we begin playing with the cables, trying to determine which if any where bad.  This was a long and very confusing process.  Every time we thought we had the problem isolated....we would switch to the new box and NOPE that is not it either.  Finally...quite by accident...I discovered that moving around one of the cables from the wall outlet to the box would cause the signal to come and go.  It seems we have a bad connector in the wall outlet.  I managed to twist the cable into a position that held the signal and it is still working this am.  Billy will replace the faulty connector today and hopefully that will take care of our problem.  MURPHY....please go play with someone else!
The weather here is still cold and last night I awoke to the sound of a thunderstorm complete with hail and heavy downpour.  Fortunately, it only lasted a short time.....maybe that means a warm front is trying to move into the area.  That would be a very "Goode" thing!  LOL!

The Journey Begins

Yesterday was spent by both Bill and I finishing up last minute projects, trips to the grocery, and saying our goodbyes to family and friends.  Today we start our journey south.  We will be stopping in Illinois at a little rv park in Litchfield.  We are planning on spending the weekend there.  We try not to travel on the weekends anymore, being stranded on the side of the road on a Sunday was no fun at all this past summer.  
I'm looking forward to our journey, I love being "on the road".  I guess it brings the gypsy out in me!
Oh yes, my dinner with the "bitches" at the John Purdue Room was fabulous.  The food was wonderful and the company outstanding....of course!  We each added the "wine flight" to our dinner that night.  Each course was then paired with a small glass of wine.  I'm usually not a wine drinker, but I decided to give it a try.  I was pleasantly surprised as I enjoyed every one of the wine choices that evening....even the red paired with the main course was perfect!  My Auntie Di and Uncle Jim are the wine connoisseurs in the family.....I could not help but think of them with each glass....wish you could have been with us!