Gatlinburg

We got an early start today because had planned a full day. First we headed to downtown for the girls to see Fountain Square as it was shown in the TV series "WKRP in Cincinnati". Their father watches the reruns at home. It's one of their favorites

The Cincinnati Reds are also a favorite.

Next we headed to the the famous Cincinnati Zoo.

In the eagle flight cage the girls compare their arm span to the eagles wingspan.


The zoo has some great exhibits. The giraffe area is elevated so you can see them at eye level. Below is one of the birds from the "Wings of Wonder" show.

Gatlinburg

We headed out about 9am this morning. The storms were gone and the sun was strong as we drove into the Cincinnati area around noon. Our campsite was at Winton Woods County park. It's about 2 miles from the home I grew up in.

This afternoon we rode our bikes around the park. They have some great bicycle trails here.

Then we headed out in the jeep to explore more of the park. We found the horse riding stables and girls went exploring.

Later in the evening the girls entertained us with their sparkler routine.

Gatlinburg 2008

We headed out this morning about 10am. Our grandaughters Paige and Emily are joining us on a trip to the Great Smokey Mountains. Our trip will take us through our home town of Cincinnati so we decided to take a couple of days and visit friends and relatives as well as show the girls the area.

We are taking two days to get to Cincinnati. Along the way we saw a great deal of flooding across the state of Iowa and Indiana. The first night out we stayed in Brownsburg, about 30 miles west of Indianapolis. Then the storms with large hail began to roll in so we packed up at 11PM and drove to the south side of Indianapolis. It was much calmer for the remainder of the evening

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Home Again!

I didn’t mention in yesterdays post that Paul offered the parking lot of their offices for us to set up camp for the evening. He said the only thing that might bother us is the trains that run close by. They did wake us up twice during the night, but we were able to get right back to sleep. The engineers on those trains love to blow their whistles! The last train that came through about 6:30 a.m. woke us up, so we decided to head out earlier than originally scheduled.

We arrived home about 4:00 p.m. As always, it was great to get away from the cold winter weather, but it is also nice to be back home! We are looking forward to seeing all of our grandchildren. We didn’t get to celebrate Easter with them so Kathy has planned an Easter egg hunt for our next Sunday family get together.

Till We Are “On The Road Again”!!!!!!

Gary & Kathy

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Travel Tuesday

We headed out of Fort Worth about 9:00 a.m. Tuesday morning.
The mileage remaining to Des Moines is 770 miles. Our goal was to drive at least 400 miles or about ½ way. About 100 miles out of Wichita, Kathy suggested that we call Paul, Shirley and Wanda Farmer, Wichita Roto Rooter, to see if they would like to get together for dinner this evening. Wanda and her deceased husband originally started the Wichita franchise back in the 1950’s. Over the years we have become good friends with Wanda and her son Paul and his wife Shirley. They run an exceptional Roto Rooter business and employ many members of their family. They are also very nice people for whom we have a lot of respect and admiration.

They are always trying to give back to the community and have recently allowed a Golden Gloves Boxing Club for the kids in the area to set up an arena/gym in one of their unused buildings. Here is picture of Wanda and Shirley and the head of the program.

I couldn’t resist putting on the gloves and head gear.

As always, Wanda is a great host. She took Kathy and me, Paul and Shirley, and Jane and Ray to a lovely restaurant for a wonderful steak dinner.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 -

Our original plan was to leave today, but severe storms are predicted for the entire day. The severe forecast was for a very wide area extending from Dallas all the way up to Oklahoma City. We felt the wise thing to do was to take a lay day and let the storm pass over and depart on Tuesday.

As it turned out, the severe weather dropped a little further south than predicted. We had several severe thunder storm cells pass directly over us late in the day at the campground. There was a cell to the south and one to the north that spawned tornado's in the Dallas / Forth Worth area. We thought about getting out of the RV and going to the concrete laundry building, but it was locked. We kept an eye on the track and severity of all the storms by watching the local TV station which had continual coverage as the storm rolled across the area. We still think it was a wise decision to stay here because some of the storms in the Oklahoma City area caused damage to homes and businesses. I would not have wanted to be driving the RV in such a storm.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Great Bike Trails

Kathy and I are really impressed with Ft. Worth. There are some beautiful communities here and a thriving downtown area. Today we enjoyed a bike ride along their Trinity Trail system. It follows alongside the river and breaks off to additional trails at several of its branches. In total we rode close to 30 miles and never had to cross a street, not even when we went through the town. Here is a shot of the trail as it narrows to go through a shopping area north of town.

We stopped for lunch at the historic Ft. Worth Stockyards area. It's now a tourist shopping area and a stopping off point for the motorcyclists out riding on a pretty day.

While we were riding we came across a fun raising event called the "Mud Run" sponsored by the Marines for a local hospital. It was a 6 mile run with various obstacles along the way including a wall to scale, a wire tunnel crawl and a mud hole to run through. Here's a shot of some of the female contestants after the mud hole.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Ft. Worth

We arrived in Ft. Worth about 10:30 this morning. It was only about 90 miles from Waco. We decided to stay at a very small campground, Midtown RV, in the center of the city. We wanted to be close to the the coliseum and Billy Bobs. Midtown RV has only 18 sites but it's popular because its in the center of the cultural district and only 1 mile from town. No pool, no laundry, no tennis courts, no health room, just location, location, location.

On my way back from a shopping trip to West Marine I discovered a beautiful park within 3 blocks of our campground. We had a couple of hours to spare so I picked up Kathy and we headed back to the park to spend some time at their Botanic Garden. They had a Rose Garden, a Fragrance Garden, a Conservatory, a Perennial Garden and a Japanese Garden to mention a few. We decided to tour the 7.5 acre Japanese garden.

It was absolutely gorgeous and Kathy took a lot of photos so she would have some ideas to take back home with her.

The main reason we headed back to Ft. Worth was to take in a rodeo at the world famous Cow Town Coliseum. It's 100 years old this year. Besides hosting indoor rodeos year round a number of famous entertainers performed there including, Elvis, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash.There was the standard bronc riding, and calf roping stuff. They even included the kids in mutton chase. Here's a bronc riding photo of the rider and horse coming out of the pen.


Following the rodeo we head over to Billy Bobs. I wrote about it in a earlier post. It's the world's largest country western "honky tonk bar". I bet it hold 5,000 or more. As it turned out we were in luck, our rodeo tickets got us in free. And to top it off a famous country western singer, Craig Morgan was there in concert. He has a number of top hits. He put on a super show. We did some dancing on their arena size dance floor and even tried a line dance. We had a great time!

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Departure Day

Sorry for the delay. I'm posting both yesterday and today below.

We headed out of San Antonio this morning about 8:30 to visit Fredericksburg, a quaint little town about 75 miles to the northwest. Kathy remembered it from our trip two years ago as a place with a lot of interesting shops. The damage to our accounts was minimal with only four items purchased for family members. We had an excellent lunch at a German restaurant. On our way out of town, we stopped at Wildseed Farms. They carry a variety of wildflowers and plants. The catalog that Kathy picked up, gives a lot of ideas for wildflower gardens that Kathy will use when we return. We then headed east to pick up I35 at Austin to continue our trip north. We found one of our favorite campgrounds, WalMart, and stayed the night in Waco, Texas – or Wacko as some people call it.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Bike Ride to the Missions

Over the last couple of days, the temperature has reached the mid 80’s, which is a little two warm for our taste to go on a bike tour. This morning, however, with temps starting in the high 60’s we decided it would be a good time to take the bike that runs adjacent to our campground and visit several of the missions. The trail runs along the San Antonio River just south of the city and runs all the way out past the outer freeway belt that surrounds the city. In total it is close to 10 miles long.

It was our understanding that the missions were immediately adjacent to the trail. But this was not the case. As we rode along the trail, we saw a sign by one of the roadways that directed you to two of the missions. We left the trail and began following the signs to the mission not knowing it was taking us across several major roads. At one point we even encountered a dog who followed us for a couple of miles. He was smart enough to stop and turn back. We finally made it to the Mission San Juan (photo below) and noticed that the trail that we exited ran within a couple hundred yards from the trail.

Since we were near the end of the trail, we decided to go out and visit Mission Espada. It is the oldest of the five San Antonio missions and the farthest away from downtown San Antonio along the mission trail. This mission (photo below) is also currently a religious residence and does not allow tours other than through the church.

The interiors of each of the missions we visited were simply decorated and are still in use for Sunday services. Mission San Jose (below)was the largest and most preserved one that we visited. All the walls and the majority of the structures are still in tact.

There was even a grist mill (photo below) that was still in operation for display purposes. The missionaries had built a series of aqueducts that diverted water from the San Antonio River to the grist mills. The water was used to power a paddle wheel that turned the large grind stones that converted the wheat to flour. By adjusting the height of the top grind stone, they could very the fineness of the flour.

Following a dip in the pool to refresh ourselves, we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and to watch the West Virginia/Xavier NCAA Playoff game. Xavier is a Cincinnati team and we have several relatives and friends who are alumni. Rah, Rah, Xavier won in overtime!!!!

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Remember the Alamo

This afternoon we headed to town to check out the Alamo. On the way we drove past a neighborhood of 100+ year old homes. A number of them have been restored to their original grandeur.

The Alamo is in the center of downtown San Antonio. Not all of it remains; the outer walls were removed years ago. We didn't realize that it is totally maintained by the "Daughter of the American Republic" The grounds are beautifully groomed and contain a lot of flowers.

After the Alamo we headed to the river walk for a boat ride and then a walk around the San Antonio River. The riverwalk area was originally completed in 1942. There are loads of restaurants, shops and hotels on both sides of the river.

It didn't take long for us work up an appetite and a thirst. Earlier we passed a Mexican restaurant that looked to be serving some great meals. And,they had a special on Margaretta's. We weren't disappointed with either.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - King Ranch

We left Padre this morning about 10:30 after checking out at the park office. We had to pay for 1 more night of camping because they mixed up the departure date and didn't charge us for the last day at check in.

We arrived in Kingsville about 1:30, just in time for the last tour of the largest working ranch in the U.S. Originally it was over 1.2 million acres but today it's a mere 825,000 acres, or a little larger than the state of Rhode Island.

The main house is close to 20,000 sq. ft. and has 17 bedrooms. There are also over 130 houses spread around the ranch for workers to live in.

This is Lolo, a real live cowboy on the ranch since he was born 79 years ago. He is the fourth generation of his family to live and work on the ranch. Lolo spoke to our group about his life and exploits on the ranch.

There are over 60,000 cattle on the ranch. The Texas longhorn above is kept around merely for show because they have developed better breeds for today's meat markets. There are also over 300 horses used by the cowboys to herd the cattle.

We arrived in San Antonio around 6:30 this evening. It's a good thing we made reservations. A group of 40 motorhomes and 5th wheels took every remaining site.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 A Windy Day for Kites

Today is our last day at South Padre. Tomorrow we are going to head up to San Antonio by way of Kingsville. I have always wanted to visit the King Ranch.

This morning I worked on getting the RV ready for the trip. First was a complete wash of the exterior. The salt environment leaves a lot of residue on all the surfaces. The roof was the worst. I also checked the tires, the coolant, the oil, hydraulic reservoirs and topped off the batteries with distilled water.

This afternoon we headed to the beach to fly a kite that we gave our granddaughter Paige last year. We could not get it to fly at that time so we brought it with us. Fortunately there was a kite store on the island that showed us how to set the kite up properly and suggested we add a longer tail for the high winds.


With a little adjustment we finally got it flying right. The photo below is zoomed in because Kathy had all the string out and it was pretty small in the original picture.

I’m standing on a man made jetty at the entrance to the port of Brownsville. As you can see there are quite a few people fishing here, there are even more behind me. As we were walking out to the jetting a very large cargo ship was making its way into the port.
The statue below was erected in memory of the fishermen who died at sea and never returned. There were a dozen or so individual’s names including their boat name inscribed on the blocks around the statue.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Easter Sunday

We headed into Brownsville this morning to attend Easter Sunday Services at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. By todays standards it's rather small as cathedrals go. It was built in the 1850's by a priest who began his carrier as an architect and cabinet maker. Today's service was broadcast on television across the Rio Grande Valley.

Following mass we headed over to a Mexican flea market. There were probably 200 booths selling a variety of items. Some of the goods, like boots and clothing were new but most had what I would call garage sale items. The Mexican food stands smelled great but we had just eaten lunch. We did buy some fruits and vegetables.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Laguna Wildlife Refuge

We decided this morning to head out to the Laguna Wildlife Refuge. There are a number of walking and bicycling trails throughout 88,000 acre park. It's the largest protected refuge for a large variety of birds and wildlife in the Rio Grande Valley.

The route we decided upon is 16 miles long and runs partially along the bay that overlooks S. Padre Island. There are also some long stretches of road that are almost completely enclosed by trees and plant growth.

When we reached the shore line we walked out onto the new overlook that was constructed to help you view some of the many birds along the shoreline. There are other overlooks where you can look out on the open prairie land.

While we saw a lot of different birds we didn't see any animals out on the prairie. The ranger told us upon our return that the best time to view the animals was at dawn and dusk. They tend to stay in cool areas and not graze on the prairie during the heat of the day. The Ocelot, pictured below on the sign, is nocturnal and seldom seen during the daylight hours. We're glad we didn't meet up with one on our bikes

On our return trip to S. Padre we got to experience the legendary traffic jams that occur everyday during spring break. It took us an hour and a half to the travel 4 miles back to our campground. The picture below is the 1/2 way point; see the backup of cars?

In an earlier post I mentioned that most of the bars don't really get busy until 10 or 11. With the help of our friends Bev and Sheilah we have been hitting a couple of local places that cater to a wiser and more mature group, like us. Our favorite has become Palm St. Pier; they serve great seafood and have live music 5 nights a week. The last several nights their entertainer has been Johnny Mac, playing 50's, 60's and 70's hits. We enjoyed every song he sang and could sit and listen to him for hours.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Bike/Beach

It's another gorgeous day on South Padre with temps in the high 70's and wind under 10mph.

We didn't sleep too well last night. Late in the evening a large family and their friends setup camp directly behind us. There was talking, laughing and even kids screaming until the wee hours of the morning. With the help of our AC system running and the TV on we managed to get to sleep. When we awoke we saw that the site actually had four families with a trailer, a large tent and 4 vehicles, two with air mattresses in the back. Later in the morning the park ranger informed them that they would have to split up into several sites.

With the low winds we decided to go on another bike ride this afternoon. We rode up and down the many cross streets on Padre and even looked at a couple of new condos for sale. Of course with all the stores we couldn't resist stopping in a few.

Next stop was the beach near the Radisson. The party was still going on with thousands of students soaking up the sun and having a few refreshments. A large group setup directly in front of us. Below is their group picture.

The army recruiters setup a display and a climbing apparatus for those macho enough to accept the challenge. Here is a zoomed in shot of a young gal who is close to reaching the top of the 70 ft. structure.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Port Isabel

It was a gorgeous day today! The temps were in the mid to high 70's and the wind about 8mph. As I have mentioned in previous posts the wind has been pretty strong down here and it has been difficult to ride our bikes. With the decrease in wind we decided today would be ideal for touring the Port Isabel area on bikes. Our first stop was the Port Isabel Light House. It was constructed in the mid 1800's to guide ships through the barrier islands.

After buying the tickets to tour the lighthouse Kathy climbed up 15 steps of the 76 total steps. Her fear of heights took over her senses and she turned around. She said she didn't realize the spiral staircase would be open metal steps. I continued to the top "clucking" like a chicken.

Following lunch on the water at Pirates Landing, we rode around the area checking out the homes on the canals on either side of the port. Here is a beautiful place that we couldn't figure out whether it was a one home, several condos, or a resort.

The look of the city is a mixture of old and new and often they are adjacent to each other. Here is a beautiful old hotel that doesn't appear to be getting much use. I imagine in its day it was a showplace.

Rio Grande Valley - 08 - Full Throttle Beach Party

This morning we headed over to the University of Texas Pan American Aquarium. There was a large display of sea turtles, dolphins, porpoises, shark jaws, sea shells, etc. Kathy is standing next to a whale skull in the photo below.

Following lunch we thought we would see what the spring break crowd was up to at the "Full Throttle Beach Party" on the beach behind the Radisson Hotel. There were several thousand "breakers" listening to the music, participating in various competitions ranging from tug-a-war, to bull riding and dancing. The various flags you see in the photo are from a variety of universities, including ISU, and are meeting points for the students.

Click on any photo to enlarge.
Warm weather and beaches are a magnet for sun bathers in bikinis and today was no exception.

The whole crowd was very well behaved. The entire area was was being watched over by a dozen or so police officers on ATV's positioned around the perimeter. They interacted very well with the students and even posed for pictures with them. Of course there is a lot of drinking and dancing going on. There was even this old guy who thought he would try his hand at chugging a beer with the group.