Friday, March 26, 2010

Texas

Note changes to our map on the left. The blue markers are of our 2008/09 travels, and the red markers are of our 2010 travels.


We arrived in Rockport TX on the 11th of Mar. We stayed at a just "OK" RV Park. The weather did warm up, and the Texas sunshine felt great.


While there we toured Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. While there we saw a few alligators, and a heard of Farrow Hogs. They took off before we could get some good photo's. We did get one(see photo's). We also saw 3 Whooping Cranes from about 1000 yards. We viewed them through our binoculars. They are on the endangered list, and there are fewer then 200, according to the parks info. They winter here in the refuge and surrounding area. We also saw quite a few different shore birds. We hiked a few of the trails and came across several alligators to close for comfort(see photo's). They were also enjoying the good weather.


We took a drive over to Port Aransas. You board a free ferry to the island. Its a 15 minute wait for a 5 minute ride. On the island we went to the beach and acted like tourist on vacation. Blazer even enjoyed the beach.


We also went to see the "Big Tree". It is in Larmar TX. It was very impressive. The sign tells of it being over a 1000 years old. We then went to the "Boiling Pot" for dinner. They bring the food and dump it on the center of the table. This is your plate. It is a cross between a Maryland crab feast and a New England clam bake. Very very good. It went good with a Shiner beer. Ed - that ones for you. We enjoyed the area very much and will return someday.

We then went to Willis TX on Lake Conroe. We are at a nice Thousand Trails Park. The park was quite busy when we arrived as it was still Spring Break. On Sunday the park really emptied out. It's now maybe half full. Boy do we like Sunday nights, you full timers know what I mean. We are here till the 29th, then its off to Livingston TX till the end of April. We are volunteering at the Escapees Care Center.

There are some picture below of our trip to Progresso Mexico while we were in the Rio Grand Valley. We went with some friends and had a great time. Note the heavy military presence in the pictures.

Blazer is still a little lost. He is calm, just laying around. Ever since we had him Lilly was his security blanket. We guess he is still missing her, just like us.

Thats it for now. Keep the emails coming as we love hearing from you all. Photo's are listed on the left cloumn under archives

More photo's from Texas










Friends go to Mexico


























Photo's from Texas


























Monday, March 15, 2010

Lilly 2/1/1995-3/1/2010


1)A couple weeks ago, after a bath. 2)about 8 years ago, not much grey. 3)Her last week

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Nevada to Texas

We did make a News Years resolution to update our Blog about every week. Well here it is mid March and this is only our second Blog. I guess we mised the mark. We will try harder in the future. We have a new computer and are in the process of updating our email address book. Please email us back so we can see who is getting our Blog. Let us know if you wish to continue receiving our Blog, or if you wish to be taken off the list. While viewing our blog please sign up to be a follower, and feel free to leave a comment. Just click on "comment" at the bottom of the blog and leave a comment.

We left CA and headed for Pahrump NV. We were in Pahrump for 9 days. We stayed 2 days at Terrble's Lakesde Casino and RV Park. Then we moved to Charleston Peaks for 7 days. Both were super parks. While Paharump we visited Crystal City. This is the home of a " Brothel Museum", an active brothel. It is in the middle of nowhere. We met a super couple that gave us a tour and told us the history of the brothels and the area. We stopped along a deserted desert road to check a map as our "Destiny" our GPS said to turn here on what looked like it was going to the middle of nowhere.The super couple pulled along side of us and asked if we were lost. Imagine that,thinking we could be lost. We said we were going to Crystal City and they said "that's where we live, follow us". Oh no following strangers again, in a strange city( on a deserted desert road). Oh well life's an adventure. This turned out to be a great time with the "strangers".

We also met up with friends Betty & Shorty. We had lunch and talked about Alaska, as they were the couple we were suppose to go to AK with in 2008.

Next we went to Las Vegas at a Thousand Trails park along Bolder Highway. We were there for 2 weeks. Our son Cy flew out and spent 4 days with us. We had some great family time with him. We toured Hoover Dam and Red Rock Canyon. We also visited the "strip" and some of the Casino's. The following week we had a lot of rain, more than they had in the last year according to the TV weather man. We were supposed to go back to Pahrump to visit our friends, but bad weather and Lilly's failing health kept us put. We took Lilly to a SUPER VET in Las Vegas and with his encouragement and new meds we brought her home. She seemed to be doing much better.

Next stop was Earp CA. It is across the river from Parker AZ., belowLake Havasu. A very nice Coast to Coast Park. It has about 7-800 sites right on the Colorado River. We stayed 4 days and saw a lot of wild donkeys. We also checked out the Blue River Casino in Parker.

Casa Grande here we come, our next stop. Another great Coast to Coast Park. We toured the Casa Grande ruins. We also attended a Indian festival with crafts, music and dancing. It was a very interesting day.

We then headed to Benson AZ. We stayed at Valley Vista Coast to Coast Park. The Escapee Park was full and we were 5th on the dry camping list.From there we moved next store to San Padro RV , this was a Passport park and we stayed there for 2 weeks. Our friends Janet and Mike Carter came an spent 2 weeks with us. Maybe some of you may remember them from Disney. This was a nice park with many things to do in the area. Blazer loved it, this was a great place to run in the desert. We were 40 miles from Tucson. The countries biggest Gem & Jewelry show was taking place. There were 35 different locations set up in Tucson with all types gems,rocks and beads. We did go 3 times to some of the sites. We also visited Tombstone ( a very fun town) and Bisbee AZ. We also went to Nogalis Mexico. We also visited Saguaro National Park. This is where the type of cactus we saw in the old westerns and expected to see all over the west. But this is one of the few places they grow.

After Benson we headed for Texas. We had an overnight in Balmorhea and another stop at the Lucky Eagle Casino, the only land base casino in TX. It is in Eagle Pass. The casino has a 15 site RV park. It's just a parking lot with full hook ups for $15. a night.

Then off to the Rio Grande Valley TX. We spent 2 weeks at the Tropic Winds RV Resort. It is a great park. We stayed here with Thousand Trails. Texas is experiencing the cooldest winter in 15 years.Of course, we're here. It was 90 when we left so it is starting to warm up. While there Lilly took a turn for the worse. See Lilly's tribute above.

We went to a BBQ cookoff (Smok'in On The Rio) with some of our Escapee friends who are spending the winter in the Valley. There were 6 couples from our Escapee chapter. At the cook off we got to be judges in the semi finals of the chicken part of the cook off. There were 135 entries and we had to taste and judge the 9 semi finalists. It was great fun. We went to Progresso, Mexico with the group also. It was really fun especially since it is happy hour all day long with 2 for 1 Margarita's. Our friends knew their way around Progresso. We also went to Pepe's On the Rio for a final visit with them. They had entertainment from Branson, everyone danced and had a wonderful time. We were leaving the valley for Rockport TX. the next day.

From Blazer: I really miss Lilly. She has been the best friend I ever had. Mom & Dad are very sad, it is lonely without her.