We left home on March 14 and arrived safely back after 50 days on May 2nd, having covered 4,331 miles, attending Rallies in Perry, GA, Tampa, FL, and San Antonio, TX and visiting Houston, Galveston, Big Bend, Del Rio, Langtry, Austin, Dallas, College Station, and Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas.Our first stop was the FMCA rally at Perry, GA, traveling 195 miles. There, we met four fellow Sun City RVers, including Walt & Chris, Harry & Marilyn, Rhoda & Les, and Bob & Eleanor. The rally included many seminars of interest to RVing, displays by various vendors, infomercials, and of course thousands of motor homes. We had a nice camp site between two pecan trees. It was dry camping, no utilities, but we were self sufficient, at least for five days while we were there. At left is a picture of where we camped. Yes, they are all pecan trees.
Freightliner had on display new tires for the rear which replace the duals. I'm standing next to one in the picture, they are really wide, which you can't tell from the front. From Perry, we traveled 349 miles to Seffner, FL for the Freightliner Rally at Lazydays, one of the largest RV dealers on the East coast. At both rallies we met old friends Danny and Marcie who we first met on our River Road Caravan. Unfortunately, the Rally was a bore, little to do as an organized group, although we kept busy, mostly looking at new motor homes. The previous month, I had dropped off my Bachman locomotive to have it converted for battery operation at John's Hobbies in Summerfield, FL; so, we spent a day to pick it up. At the same time we visited Don Garlits "Big Daddy", NHRA's Number 1 Drag Racer of of the last 50 years, drag racing museum located nearby. He was the first to break the 170, 180, 200, 240, 250, and 270 MPH barriers. By the time we got back, it was evening. At right is one of the Freightliner chassis exhibits.From FL, we headed towards Huston, TX. While traveling through the FL panhandle we encountered severe storms and tornado warnings. Although I10 remained open, many other roads, especially those going North through GA, were closed due to flooding. On both the 27 and 28th of March, we had to spend several hours at rest areas waiting out the tornado warnings, high winds, and heavy rains. While traveling through LA, we stopped at the same RV park that we had stayed in while on the River Road Caravan last October. We even got to say hello to the same lady and her two girls who had minded Millie while we were sightseeing in New Orleans last Oct.
From there we went to Kemah, TX, between Galveston and Houston,Marina Bay RV Park, having traveled a total of 1,241 miles. We liked this park and stayed there a week, visiting the Houston and Galveston area. We enjoyed NASA Space Center Houston and spent two days touring the facilities, which were really outstanding.
At left is a mock-up of the Orion space capsule which will hold 6 astronauts. It will go to Moon and Mars in upcoming space missions. I'm standing in a mock-up of the Shuttle at right. Below is our official NASA photo.
We spent one day in Houston, visiting the Natural History museum and walking around the underground passages in downtown. But, WOW, what traffic! The highway system was amazing, 8 lanes all over the place, cars whizzing left, right, straight forward. We were glad to have gotten back to Marina Bay safely. We visited the San Jacinto Monument which commemorates Sam Houston's victory over Santa Anna, thereby gaining independence for the Republic of Texas.
Next to this monument is the battleship "Texas" which served in both WW I and WW II. It is steam powered (like the nuclear ships of today), originally using coal, but later oil. 
You can see the San Jacinto Monument between the gun barrels of the "Texas". I toured the "Texas" and saw in addition to the usual facilities such as barbershop, bunks, latrines, mess, a sign for the prophylactic room, one of the necessities for service men on long sea tours.
We also visited the Haak vineyard located several miles from our RV park in Kemah. We enjoyed wine tasting and a delightful dinner outdoors right next to where the grapes were growing. The setting sun, as you can see, was very bright, causing us to squint.
Galveston also provided many opportunities for sightseeing. On the Gulf coast, the beach was nice, but not of the same caliber as Hilton Head.
Hurricane Ike caused huge waves to go over the statue where we are standing. In the Houston-Galveston, there was much evidence of damage, including beached boats and blue tarp FEMA roofs. Our RV park was also flooded and downtown Galveston had over 4 feet of water as shown in the above picture. We also visited an oil rig museum and saw a traveling raptor display, live birds of prey, including eagles, hawks, and owls.
A beautiful American bald eagle is posing for us with Lill.
We visited the railroad museum, but it was closed as a result of the flooding. The yard and adjoining RR terminal building housed the museum on the ground floor.
Otherwise, the terminal was open, it housed several government service agencies on the other floors. From the ladies restroom I got a nice picture of the yard as seen above left.
Our RV park was within walking distance of the Kemah boardwalk, an area of amusement park, restaurants, and a large marina. Good food and drink were enjoyed here more than once!
We left Kemah on April 5 and headed 642 miles west to Ft. Davis, TX. En-route, we drove through San Antonio via I10 and were surprised as to how big it had grown since we were last there in 1961 on my way out of the Army at Ft. Bliss, TX, to my new job at Martin-Marietta in Orlando, FL. The highway system is a maze of 4 and 6 lane highways, ramps and overpasses. In 61 we drove into San Antonio, visited the Alamo, and exited, in probably less than one hour. This can not be done today. We enjoyed two days at Ft Davis,
visiting Ft. Davis, the old Army fort,
which was along the trail from San Antonio to El Paso. El Paso is 200 miles to my right in the picture above,
and the McDonald observatory. Two hundred miles was the closest that Lill wanted to get to El Paso! Our visit to McDonald was just great. It had super displays, great lectures, and a night program with several telescopes aimed at Saturn, the moon and various stars.
While there we witnessed a large meteorite traveling through the night sky and illuminating the darkness with a bright green and red glow. It was a one in a million sight, the largest meteorite we have ever seen. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a picture of it.From Ft. Davis we made our way to Big Bend on April 8, a short trip of 285 miles. We traveled through the town of Alpine where a DISA college of mine, Jim, lives, but unfortunately they were tied up on that day and we couldn't get together.
Our approach to Big Bend was via Marathon on the East side of the NP. The scenery was as spectacular as when we first visited 48 years ago while I was stationed at Ft. Bliss. So far, our trip covered 2,312 miles and $822 in diesel fuel.The two pictures below show how we camped back then; slept in station wagon and ate out under a pavilion.
We camped at Rio Grande Village from 8 to 12 April, boon-docking, no electric, water or sewer, except for what we carried with us, using our generator only between 8am and 8pm. We could not get any radio stations, thank goodness for XM radio and Direct-tv. No internet or cell phone service as well. At this lower elevation, about 1,800ft, the temperatures were in the high 90 in the afternoon, and 50s at night. Unfortunately, when we had to shut our generator off, it was still very hot. Dust and wind prevailed all through our trip in Texas.
We spent most of our timehiking at Boquillas Canyon, Chisos Basin, Hot Springs, and Santa Elena Canyon, and driving from one end of the park to the other. At Boquillas Canyon, it was very windy.
You can see the wind whipping at us in the photo on the left. The Rio Grande is at our backs, here in Boquillas Canyon, we heard a Mexican singer, on the other side of the river, who was once featured on NPR. His magnificant voice boomed through out the canyon. Here, the water levels are low, and lots of Mexicans cross the river to sell trinkets to tourists. What they do is leave their articles, usually walking sticks, jewelery, painted rocks, etc, on the American side along with a price list and a jar to collect money. Periodically, they walk or ride across the Rio to collect their money or replenish the junk for sale. Also, periodically, the rangers come by and confiscate their goods. All this is as a result of closing the border since 9/11. Since the Mexicans keep a close eye on their goods for sale, I doubt if tourists steal their goods or money. You'd be surprised as how quickly they can cross the river. These trinkets are placed all along the park's Mexico border.
Chisos Basin is some 6,000 ft high and thus much cooler. We hiked several trails here and it was here that we had camped some 48 years ago. As a young married couple, we slept over night in our 1961 Plymouth station wagon, the camp site at which we stayed is still there and it was a real thrill to see it again like it was 48 years ago. The one thing that was not there were the stables from which we had a nice horseback ride to the "Window", as shown below right.
That area is now developed with a lodge and cottages. What a shame, that ride was the highlight of our trip there in 1961.
Here is a beautiful sunset at the "Window" and us hiking on some of the Chisos Basin trails.
At this altitude, hiking, although strenuous, was cool and comfortable. We took our time and enjoyed the scenery.
The Chisos Basis was much cooler than in the lower elevations at Rio Grande Village.
Not far from Rio Grande Village is Hot Springs. This is the remnants of a spa built along side the Rio Grande at the beginning of the 19th century.
The waters were 105 degrees, which in 96 degree weather doesn't do much for you. 
It was a sort but nice hike to the Hot Springs. In the pictures of the hot springs, it is the Rio Grande River in back of us with Mexico in the background. Needless to say, there were trinkets for sale along the path to the Hot Springs.One of our trips was outside the park to Terlingua which is just outside the East entrance. Terlingua, to be kind, has not much to offer, but it did have a ghost town within it, the remnants of the mining
town that it once was. We didn't find any ghosts, but there were people living in some of the buildings that from the surface looked uninhabited.We also drove on a number of dirt roads, some of which were longer than we had anticipated.
Here, we tried to get to the balanced rock, but the dirt road was 8 miles long and at 15 mph, it would have taken us two hours just to get there, so we turned around. We did see the balanced rock in a picture in the ranger station.We also had visited Santa Elena Canyon back in 1961 and were anxious to see it again. The Pictures below were taken in May 1961.
From a distance, it looks exactly as we had remembered. But up close, we noticed that the grove of reeds by the river side were gone, replaced by a silted bank about two to three feet high.
This is a result of the flooding last fall when Mexico had to release a lot of water from a dam that flowed into the Rio and silted the canyon where the Rio and flooded our campground at the same time.We left Big Bend on April 12, traveling 144 miles to Langtry, TX. I wanted to visit Langtry because of a Western movie about Judge Roy Bean staring Walter Brennan and Gary Cooper I saw.
Below is Walt in the Jersey Lillie, while at right Lillian is entering the courthouse/saloon.
The real Judge Bean was an interesting person who advertised himself as the Law west of the Pecos in the 1880s. He insisted that the town was named after his idol, English actress Lillie Langtry; his saloon and courthouse were named the Jersey Lillie. Others insist that the town was named after a civil engineer named Langtry who directed construction of the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway in the area.From Langtry, we traveled 199 miles to Del Rio, TX, staying on US 90, which is right on the border with Mexico. We stayed at the Holiday Trav-L-Park. At this point we had traveled 2,570 miles.
Del Rio is near the Amistad National Recreation Area which features Lake Amistad, a man-made lake formed by the dam across the Rio, just below where the Pecos empties into it.
There, we visited the Val Verde Winery where we tasted and bought some excellent tawny port and red wines, the lake and dam, Seminole Canyon State Park with its aboriginal cave paintings, and two local museums. The museum at Seminole Canyon had a nice exhibit of pictographs where I'm pictured, while below we saw cave pictographs such as this, they varied in age from several hundred to well over 2,000 years.
At this point in our trip, Millie had accumulated a lot of Texas dirt and needed a bath really bad. Afterward, she smelled more like an indoor dog again. Occasionally, we had meals in the motor home, but most of the time we ate out - Texas beef can't be beaten. 
In Del Rio we visited 
the Whitehead Memorial Museum where Judge Bean is buried. At left is a picture of a Spanish road marker, while below Lill and I are in an exhibit area.
Here we are pictured with the famous judge. 
The border with Mexico is in the middle of the Amistad Dam.
We stayed a total of four nights in Del Rio, one of our treats was breakfast at IHOP and a nice steak dinner. After we left, we realized that one bottle of Port was not enough, but too late to go back to Val Verde and get another one. From here, we headed to San Antonio which was only 59 mile away. We stayed there from 16-26 April, attending the WIT San Antonio Fiesta Rally. The Rally started on April 19, but we got there two days earlier, on Friday, April 17th. On Saterday, we visited President Johnson's Museum
and Library in Austin, TX,
which was about 90 miles from our campground, Admiralty RV Resort.
Many evenings in our motor home were spent relaxing with a good book. Usually, while Lill read, I was busy on line, depending upon the quality of the WIFI or editing my pictures. The Fiesta Rally started on Sunday with an orientation and then a Mexican dinner at Mamacita's.Monday was a full day touring missions in the area
and viewing the Fiesta River Parade while we dined outdoors at Michelino's Ristorante Italiano. 
In 1961 we had visited the Alamo on our way to Florida after being discharged from the Army at Ft. Bliss, TX. Except for the "Davy Crockett" hotel sign, the Alamo is little changed. The cars and clothing styles have changed a lot in 48 years. That's Lill in the black cowboy hat walking towards the Alamo
The River Walk area where we dined is lined with nice restaurants, hotels, condos, etc. On Tuesday, we had our night in Old San Antonio. We visited La Villita where we enjoyed entertainment, food, souvenirs, and music representing the many ethnic groups that have settled in the area: Mexico, Germany, Italian, French, Irish, etc. This event is only held at Fiesta time in San Antonio.
I was surprised to learn of the strong influence of German settlers in the area.
The following day we had a private barge tour on the San Antonio River. On each of our trips, we were transported from our campground by motor coach, below is a picture of us waiting to board the bus for a trip.
Thursday, April 23, was a shopping day; we visited the Mexican market in downtown San Antonio, where I bought myself a nice Texas hat, which I'm wearing while leaning on the bar in the Buckhorn Saloon & Museum. From there we visited the SAS shoe factory where we saw how they make shoes and how they sold them. The factory had a very interesting museum/store, featuring antique cars, lots of candy, and of course shoes.
While in San Antonio, we all visited the Alamo for a photo op. The Heroes of Texas Independence provided an excellent backdrop for our group photo of all the participants representing 14 states and 23 Winnebago motor homes.
Lill in a blue t-shirt and me in a white t-shirt are in the lower right.
Friday is our Big Day! The Battle of Flowers parade, where we had reserved seating. The theme is "Hats off to Texas".
The whole purpose of this parade is to honor the Texas heroes of independence who gave their life at the Alamo and place a floral tribute on its lawn for each of the fallen defenders. The parade is both festive and solemn to honor these heroes.
It began in 1891 and is the largest parade in the country planned and organized exclusively by women. There are 100 organizations that belong to the Fiesta San Antonio Commission and Fiesta includes 107 santioned events during the 11-day celebration.
As you can see, there were many different floats, marching bands, horses, and antique cars in the parade. The Budweiser Clydesdales and Dalmation were even there!
The climax of the parade was the placing of flowers at the Alamo,
a solemn tribute to Texas' heroes of independence.The day after the parade, we toured the Texas Hill country, visiting Lyndon Johnson's Stonewall, TX ranch nestled on the banks of the Pedernales River.
In the adjacent show barn are Lyndon's various automobiles, mostly Lincolns.
He did have a German Amphicar, the blue convertible above, which is an automobile that can go in the water as a boat.
From there we visited the Nimitz museum in Fredericksburg, TX, which was founded by German settlers.From there, we stopped at Luckenbach for a quick beer and some bull riding.
I got on the bull after, not before, I had a local brew. Luckenbach is a bikers destination, mostly H-Ds were there.
Sunday, April 26, was the last day of the rally; we visited Sea World of Texas which was within sight of our campground. The RV park provided a shuttle.
We saw several shows including sea lions, dolphin, and Shamu.On Monday we said our goodbyes over coffee and danish, then we left for Dallas, a 157 mile trip. We stayed at Plantation Place RV Park in Sunnyvale, TX. In Dallas we visited my old DISA colleague Ed Casper and his lovely wife Nancy. Our total travel distance to see them was 3,033 miles. Nancy and Lillian both worked at Perot Systems in Reston. We hadn't seen each other for ten years, so we were all happy to be reunited again, even if it were for two brief days. As Lill and Nancy talked about the people they knew at Perot, Ed and I silently listened: the people at DISA were not interesting individuals, therefor they provided no conversation. Or, is it that women just like to talk about anyone. Nancy is an artist who paints under the name Nancy Baird and showed us several of her wonderful paintings. We got to their house on the 27th and after a nice tour of their place, Ed treated us to a nice steak dinner. The next day we got there in the afternoon and visited South Fork Ranch, the Ewing home of "Dallas" fame, where the four of us are pictured. The other picture is of Ed at his PC where he spreads the "DISA news" to the scattered DISA retirees.
Again, Ed treated us to dinner, after which we spent a relaxing evening in their house.The visit went too fast, on Wednesday April 29th, we left for College Station, Texas A&M, and the George H. W. Bush Museum and Library, a trip of 306 miles.
We parked in their parking lot and were able to spend the night there in our motor home. The museum is the nicest Presidential one we've seen and so far we've visited the Eisenhower, Johnson, Truman, Clinton, Hoover and Roosevelt Presidential museums. Johnson's was in my view had the least interesting and unimpressive exhibits and facilities.
And here we are in the Oval Office on President Bush's chair, and you thought it was Bill and Monica.
Here are some of the exhibits we saw on Iraq and Bush's stints at the UN, congress, ambassador to China, and White House .
And, the grounds were beautiful and well maintained.
Below, Lill is looking at the site where the Bush's will be buried, their daughter Robin is already there.
The statue with the horses represents the freeing of East Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall which took place during Busch's administration. We left College Station on April 30th and drove along the Texas Independence Trail to Washington-on-the-Brazos where the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed.
On the way, we ran into some trouble as a result of the recent severe storms in Texas. The road was closed, but there was no sign at the turn off, with the motor home and tow, when I encountered the road closed sign, I had no place to turn around.
I was fortunate in that there was a Texas DOT person on the scene inspecting the damaged road. He opened the road for me and I was able to cautiously proceed to the historic site and Star of the Republic Museum.
We got to Washington and toured the Historic Site of Independence. Below is the Star of the Republic Museum. The printing press exhibit was very interesting. It tells about Gail Borden, the publisher of the Telegraph and Texas Register, who kept the free press rolling until Santa Anna had the press thrown into Buffalo Bayou. Gail was also a tireless inventor in addition to being a great newspaperman. His most interesting invention was the "locomotive bath house", an innovation where women could bathe in the ocean at different locations on the coast equal to men, but without the exposure. He invented one of the earliest forms of hardtack and jerky, a biscuit with meat, that was the precursor to C-rations for the army in the field. His most successful invention was condensed milk, also for the army in the field, which gave rise to Borden's milk products of today.
The pictures below are of the replica of Independence Hall and of me posing as George C. Childress drafting the Declaration of Independence.
And, yes that is the nice Texas hat I got at the Mexican market in San Antonio. That object on my left is not a whiskey bottle, but a lamp.
We left Washington for our 1,116 mile trip back home, traveling along I10 to Mobile, than North towards Montgomery and than East through Auburn, Al, Columbus, GA, Perry, GA and on to I16 East towards Savannah. While we were overnight in Montgomery, we tried to call Michelle, no answer, left a message, but she didn't return our call, so, we were unable to visit her at Auburn.
Along the way at a rest stop, we ran into a family from China who wanted to see our motor home. So, I gave them the grand tour.
After 50 days and 4,331 miles, we arrived home, safe and sound; and nice Carolina weather.
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