Fort Stockton, TX

Shortly after hitting the road yesterday we passed this sign:

Can you imagine living in a town called Welfare? It would have been interesting, if we had the time, to drive through just to satisfy our curiosity.

So far, the drive from San Antonio west through Texas has been a lot of nothingness. There are lots of rolling hills of desert country, with pinion pines, scrub and sand with some prickly pear cactus thrown in. It looks a lot like driving some of the stretches in northern Arizona.

The campground we are staying in is the Fort Stockton RV park and it is, literally, an oasis in the desert. It is the only game in town - actually within probably 100 miles - so the park is about 75% full. It isn't bad though, and the cafe they have here has a great reputation for fine food - too bad it is closed for the Christmas Holiday season.

After getting set up we drove into town to see what the town was all about. We stopped at a DQ (Dairy Queen) and had a Sundae and Blizzard - the first in probably 6 or seven months - and drove around looking for the Fort (?). It turns out that the town has some historical significance;

Most of the history is around the Civil War period. Almost all of the old, original buildings have been refurbished and/or rebuilt, with the exception of this one, which was built around 1855, and is considered to be the oldest house in the town:

It wasn't very recognizable as a house. The town is, unfortunately, mostly forgettable.

We plan to get an early start today as we want to arrive in Las Cruces, NM very early for New Year's Eve. It's not that we are planning to go out and party someplace, but we want to make sure we beat the traffic of those that are going out to party. We will stay in Las Cruces for 2 nights and have a chance to see some of the town that we thought might be a consideration for retirement. We are anxious to see what the town is like. Have a happy and safe New Year everybody...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Alamo, Riverwalk and Lunch With Friends

We got an early start yesterday so that we could fit everything into the day that we had planned.  Starting with the Alamo, where we arrived at around 9:30 AM:

It is a fascinating story of the battle that lasted 13 days between February 23 and March 6, of 1836. There were 189 defenders, mostly Texans, that went up against approximately 1500 troops of the Mexican army. Of course, they never had a chance against such overwhelming odds, but is an example of men making the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.

As we began to enter the memorial, we walked down a walkway to the mission:

As soon as we entered the main building we were informed that there would be no photographs allowed, so there is nothing on the inside that was recorded. It was difficult to get the "feel" for the desperate situation that the defenders faced as there were high rise buildings all around the memorial. Part of the original monument and battlefield are now streets and businesses. It was still exciting to relate the actual site to the many portrayals of the battle.

There was a bronze plaque outside containing a copy of the letter that the commander of the Alamo (Colonel William B. Travis) had sent out to the world, carrying pleas for help to defend the Alamo:

Following our time at the monument, we went across the street where the Riverwalk started. We could still see the Alamo from the Riverwalk entrance:

The Riverwalk is a marvel in itself. It was constructed at a level below the street and consisted of about 2 miles of walkways along the river that had many shops, eateries and hotels along the way. Below are a few shots of this spectacular area:

There was also a chance to ride one of the boats on the river:

We passed on that as the walk was a much better way to see everything on the river.

Finally, we arrived at the area of River Center:

which was a huge enclosed mall, 4 stories high. There was every shop imaginable in this complex and one could spend an entire day just at this one location. We were getting a little tired of walking, so we called it a day for the downtown portion of our day.

We connected with our friends, Karen and George Foster, at a Mexican restaurant that was about halfway home for us, and not too far from where they were staying in New Braunfels, TX. It was called the Alamo Cafe, and it was a great place for us to meet and get caught up on our activities since last year where we both worked in Cody and at Amazon. They looked terrific - Karen had lost lots of weight since we last saw them - and we had a wonderful time talking about both of our adventures:

They are planning to spend the summer in South Dakota, working at a campground near Sturgis. That is one of the nice areas that we spent a little time visiting on our trip east from Cody last year.

Today we head for Fort Stockton, TX, in the middle of nowhere, but halfway to Las Cruces, NM where we expect to go tomorrow. It looks like another great weather day and it should go smoothly as we will be on I-10 the entire day...

Boerne, TX

It was another fine day for traveling with sunshine the whole way. We left the Houston area at around 9 AM and made it to Boerne, (pronounced burn-ee) TX by 2 PM. It is located about 20 miles northwest of San Antonio which will make for a quick "getaway" tomorrow since we have already gone through town.

We are staying at a very nice park - Alamo Fiesta RV Resort - which is right off the freeway. Our site is a nice, level and long pull through space which enables us to leave the truck hitched during the stay:

After setting up and making contact with our friends Karen and George to arrange to meet today, we took a short drive in the area to check it out.  It is a pretty area with rolling hills and nice homes.

Today, our schedule includes visits to The Alamo and the Riverwalk, and meeting up with Karen and George for lunch at one of the very good Mexican restaurants in the San Antonio area. We understand that the Mexican restaurants are among the best in the country, so we'll give them a try.

It looks like a fun day ahead in San Antonio and we look forward to seeing these areas where we've never been before. The weather promises to remain excellent, so that is definitely going to make it more enjoyable...

Baytown, TX

Since it would be a longer travel day for us yesterday, we left earlier (8 AM) than our normal departure time (9-10). It didn't take long though before we lost time. With all the freeways cris-crossing in Houston, as we were leaving, Josie got separated from me and we lost about 1/2 hour getting connected again. She got back on the freeway but was 5 miles ahead of me. It is very difficult to stay together when there is business rush hour traffic and we aren't familiar with the freeway system. Combined with no signage until you are on top of the turnoff, it's a wonder it doesn't happen more often. This was the first time it has happened to us in all of our travels. Anyway, we got together again and went the rest of the way with no problems.

We made it to Baytown, TX and the Houston East RV Resort at around 3 PM. With a few stops, one at this Texas Welcome Center:

and traveling 317 miles, it wasn't bad. The nicest part of the day was that we had sunshine and clear skies the whole trip. It was the first time we had nice weather since we left Campbellsville. Our nice site is pictured below:

We received our information, including airline tickets for our training class in January. We had been hearing all along that it would take place in either Denver or Dallas. Forget that. We will be traveling to Eugene, OR, on January 8th for 2 weeks of training to take place in Corvallis. We will be staying in a Hilton Hotel in Corvallis while attending class at a local Holiday Retirement Community in Corvallis - the Stoneybrook Lodge. We will have a rental car and all of our expenses covered. It should be exciting.

Today is a travel day to San Antonio which is about a 250 mile trip. We plan to connect with our friends from Cody - Karen and George - who have a home in New Braunfels, TX, just outside of San Antonio. It will be nice to see them again and catch up on each other's activities since last year. They were in Cody again this past summer so it will be nice to get an update on that experience. We also plan to visit the Alamo and the Riverwalk while we are there for 2 nights.

We'll have breakfast this morning and be on our way, hopefully, by 9 AM...

Final Day in New Orleans

Once again it was raining and very foggy most of the day. It was tough getting started because of the dreary weather, but it turned out to be a very exciting day for us.

We started by walking to the St Louis Cemetery (No. 1) which was located at the edge of the French Quarter, and right next to our campground:

There were 2 of these, a block apart, so we only went to the first one assuming that the second one would be the same. One visit here was enough anyway as it wasn't a very cheerful place to go. It was an amazing place though. The tombs were all original, with the exception of a few that were updated and rebuilt. For the most part, they all dated back to the 19th century and into the early 20th century:

This was one of the oldest which dated back to 1838:

We didn't stay very long as once you see what it is like, you want to move on.

The French Quarter was alive and bustling. Yesterday was the day that the Saints (pro football team in New Orleans) had their final Monday Night Football game against the Atalanta Falcons. The game didn't start until 7:30 PM, but people were everywhere - wearing their Saints' jerseys, hats and painted faces - at noon which is when we arrived. The Superdome, where the game was being played, was only a few bocks away.

Our plan was to walk down Bourbon Street, go down 2 blocks to Royal, and walk that street to the end, and go back up to Bourbon street to complete the circle. It was the largest block party we've ever seen, and it is this way 24/7 in this place. We took many pictures, some of them below:

Louisiana has an open container law which allows people to walk down the street carrying an open bottle or drinks. Most people were carrying a drink of some kind, and every place along the way was selling them. One place, which we thought was unique, is below:

As you can barely make out on the sign - "Beer for a Bra" - there were bras hanging all over the place. It continued to be crazy, and we stopped in one of the places to get a drink to carry around:

I ordered the "Hand Grenade" on the left and Josie had the "Tropical Itch" on the right. They were so good, we had 3 of them as we walked around Bourbon Street. At the end, the walk may have been a little wobbly.

Our walk took us to Royal Street where there are mostly shops and galleries, and, at the end of the street we took a shot of the high rise to show the lingering fog:

It was then back to Bourbon Street to complete our walk. It was getting even crazier as people were partying from the balconies at some of the locations:

The French Quarter is a fascinating place. If you have never been here, add it to your list of "must do" places. New Orleans will never win a prize for the most beautiful and clean city, but you can't beat the good times you will have here. This was one of the most memorable Christmas holidays we've ever had. It was a wonderful stop along the way.

We move on today to head west on I-10. Our destination is just short of Houston and will be our longest day trip on our journey west - 317 miles. We are suppose to have nice weather for a change...

Christmas Day

We hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas Day and enjoyed their special time with family and friends.

Ours was a quiet and relaxing morning after which we took a short trip to see the Hurricane Katrina ravaged section of New Orleans, the 9th Ward, where recovery has been a slow and painful process. We also wanted to see the homes that Brad Pitt had committed $5 million to help build for some of the homeless families in that area. It was a sobering experience.

The scene while driving around the neighborhood was one that revealed many different outcomes for the recovery. There were many homes where people just walked away and abandoned their homes, either as a result of no insurance, or just not wanting to take a chance on going through the same experience again someday. These are some shots of some of those abandoned homes:

Then there were areas where the homes were just torn down, leaving nothing but a foundation:

Another objective we had was to see where the levee break had occurred during the storm and to see the new, stronger levee that was built to replace the fractured levee. We could visualize the horror that must have swept through the area when we arrived at the levee. This first shot is taken from the street level and one can see how much higher the levee sits above the road:

There was a section at the end where we could drive up to take a couple shots from the "inside" of the levee where you can see, clearly, how much higher the water line was above the homes:

Finally, we came to the area in the lower 9th Ward, on Tennessee St, where the new homes were being built by Brad Pitt's "Make it Right" foundation:

The construction methods are said to be state of the art and an example of how construction techniques will be followed in future developments. This shot shows the method, using R-Control foam panels and this was exactly the material that we had used in the construction of Nan's home that was attached to ours in Lake Tuck, WA. I guess we were ahead of the curve for construction techniques:

There was still so much to remind people about the devastation to the area. We took this shot of a sign, still standing, that was placed there by a frustrated resident:

You really learn to appreciate your own situations as you see the difference that this tragedy has made in many people's lives. There is still a long way to go for this area to fully recover, and it may never happen.

While walking around the French Quarter on Saturday, we saw that there was a Harrah's Casino at the edge of the French Quarter. Of course, we had to visit that before leaving the area. We paid a visit there at around 5 PM and played until after 9 PM. We didn't do as well as the experience in Tunica, MS, but we played for 4 hours before our money ran out. Each of us had found some fairly good machines to play, but they just never "hit" the bigger jackpots.

Our goal today is to do the rest of the French Quarter and prepare for departure tomorrow. It has been a very different and wonderful Christmas holiday for us...

New Orleans, LA

Merry Christmas everybody.

Once again we left early to get to our destination in time to enjoy some of the day. We arrived in New Orleans, at the French Quarter RV Resort, at around 12:15 PM. The drive was 177 miles and was entirely on I-55 with the exception of the last 10 miles which were on I-10. The Resort is just off the freeway and we are surprised at how nice this place is for being in the heart of town, next to the French Quarter. Our site is spacious:

and we can see the New Orleans skyline from the campground:

After setting up and getting information at the office, we walked to the French Quarter which was just across the street. We did some research on churches nearby and there were several in the French Quarter. One, St Marks Methodist Church, was not too far from us so we wanted to go there to check it out and see what time the Christmas Eve services were being held. There was a sign outside showing normal service times, but none indicating special services for the holidays. There was a telephone number that we called and we left a message to return the call with the service times. We never received a call back and, regretfully, never made it to a service last night.

Our plan was to walk around some of the French Quarter to get a feel for where everything was located. The unique architecture of the French Quarter makes it a special place. I was here on business about 40 years ago and noticed that everything had aged tremendously (of course) from what I remembered. We walked south to Decatur St which is close to the Mississippi River and where the French Market was located-

All of the streets looked pretty much the same:

but only a few were restricted to pedestrian traffic only. Also along Decatur Street was Jackson Square where the horse and buggy station was located:

and the famous St Louis Cathedral:

As we walked along Decatur Street, we spotted the New Orleans Hard Rock Cafe where we stopped and had dinner (big burgers):

Since we have 2 more days here, we decided to begin walking back to our campground and save the rest for another time. Everything was closing early for Christmas anyway.

The main street with just pedestrian traffic is Royal Street which we crossed as we were walking home:

We will spend more time on this street, along with Bourbon Street:

Today we will relax in the morning and then venture back to the French Quarter later today. There are some other places we talked about visiting while here, such as Brad Pitt's "Make it Right Homes" that he has provided to Hurricane Katrina victims. We also would like to view some of the Water front areas, including where the Industrial Canal Levee broke during Katrina, and perhaps the historic cemeteries and Garden District.

With the exception of a few sun breaks yesterday, we have had no sun since we left Campbellsville, KY on Tuesday. The forecast is for rain again today and we will be glad to see some sunshine again. With today and tomorrow to visit these places, we just hope the weather cooperates for us...