Well the weather to the west was suppose to be bad for high profile vehicles again today. So we have decided to stay in Abilene, TX until Sunday. This will still allow us to be to our reservation in Casa Grande, AZ on January 4 as scheduled.

We went to Red Lobster tonight and to see Little Focker Movie to celebrate another year. The GPS is great to get around a town you don't know anything about.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of our friends and family.

----GO MICHIGAN---- Gator Bowl tomorrow.

December 30, 2010 - Last night we noticed if we took our planned route we were driving into very windy conditions on route 40, which was taking us to Amarillo, TX. So do we stay one more day here and let it pass? But that didn't look good either. So we quickly packed up, slid in the sides, and away we went, heading south. We are now in Abilene, TX, good decision seeing it is 77 degrees at 3:30.

Taking the drive from Oklahoma City to Abilene we passed many fields of previously picked cotton. The next two pictures are big bales of cotton in the fields. It is so interesting taking pictures while driving 65 miles per hour with a digital camera. The first one I almost missed, then the next one you see is pretty good. Didn't show you the missed ones with nothing but the field. LOL

I don't have to explain the last picture. I actually put on flip flops to go out and take the picture. It is very nice, but I believe we are to get cooler temperature, 53 tomorrow. I just looked and they are to have windy conditions tomorrow. So we may not have escaped the wind, but we did get 77 degree day and we wouldn't have up north further. So heading outside with a glass of wine and a good book.

We arrived in Oklahoma City today around 1:30. We finally solved a question we had last year while driving across Texas two times. Where were all the beef cattle??? We found them in Oklahoma. It is very nice to drive along and see so many scattered about.

After setting up the trailer we took off for the "Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum". It was very touching. Note the pictures - The monumental gates as you enter the empty chair display each have a time stamped on them. 9:01 and 9:03, this is the time on each side of the bombing. The bombing took place at 9:02 on April 19, 1995.

There is 168 empty chairs symbolizing a life lost. Of that 168 chairs, there is 19 little chairs for the children that was lost. Then we went into the museum, it starts out with a heading. "A day like any other day". Then they walk you through the events and sounds. Even through we read and heard on TV what happened, it is really different reliving it through their eyes.

Any of you that gets a chance to view this scene, it is really worth the visit.

December 28, 2010 --- We are in Miami, Oklahoma for the night. We are finally where there isn't any snow. Our trip from Carlyle, Il today went well, it could have been worse. We stopped at a rest area and Bob looked at the tires, as he normally does when we stop. One didn't look real good, little bit of a bulge. So 5 miles up the road was a "Big O Tires". Thank goodness, this way we got a new tire before it blew and damaged the trailer. Tomorrow we plan to drive to Oklahoma City.

December 27, 2010 --- We left home this morning at 8:00 a.m. Drove to Toledo across to Fort Wayne to Indianapolis, and 50 miles east of St. Louis, MO. While driving Max (grandson) wanted me to text him when we got to another state. Max & Jessica went with their Father to Mall of America. It was funny when I texted him we were in Missouri and just crossed the Mississippi River -- he texted back we are just about to go over the Mississippi River too. How cute.

Here it is the day after Christmas. We had a wonderful Christmas with our family. We started packing the trailer the other day, so today we get serious. Plan to pull out the first thing tomorrow morning. Three months is a long time to be away from the kids and grandkids. Thank goodness for cell phones and computers.

Hello -- Here we are within two weeks of leaving for the Arizona/California area. We hope to pull out on December 27. Of course, it will depend on the weather. I will post things as we go. Have a wonderful Christmas Season.

Good Morning. It is Sunday morning in MICHIGAN. We arrived home yesterday afternoon.

Had a wonderful time, hated to come home, except wanted to see the kids, grandkids, Mom and family. We did come home a week earlier than planned. We cut short our time in Houston. Wanted to be here with Mom's health changing. Only problem now is we came home with colds that we've had for two weeks. So visiting Mom can't happen until we are better, but at least we are here.

We found the trailer to be just like home. With the recliner chairs and a bed bigger than the one at home it was very comfortable for the three months. There also isn't as much upkeep to the trailer as there is the house. LOL

Well we left Dickinson, Texas near Houston today. Yesterday was rainy, 60 degrees and we decided we were better off inside instead of running around Johnson Space Center. So we have a reason to come back here another year.

We took a nice route out of the area this morning. We could have taken route 45 toward Houston to connect to route 10. We didn't need to be in the traffic heading toward Houston at 8:30 in the morning. So we took this drive that kinda goes around the Galveston Bay to get to route 10. It was very pretty. We were glad we didn't take the expressway.

Driving along route 10 in Louisana was a real surprise. You hear about swamp, bayou and etc. but to see all this water was something. The bridge that spans all this area just goes on and on. You'll see one of the shots that shows the water in-between the two different directions of roads.

We are at Livington, Louisana tonight. Will go a little ways to the east and then head north on route 55 through Mississippi.

We miss the family. Not to mention our grandchildren. Barbara Jean had her 13th birthday while we were gone. Monday night TJ hurt his knee, he is on crutches - will see what happens with that. But Grandma is ready to get home to her family.

I must say, this has been a great trip. We have seen so much and enjoyed it all. But we have really found we love the southwest more than Florida. Why is it so far away???

I just read this to Bob. His comment was-- "If we moved to Oklahoma the southwest isn't that far". Very funny!!!!!

What a great bridge. The Galveston Bay is just south of this bridge, but there is little bays that flow into Galvestong Bay. Very pretty area.

It was shocking to see all of the oil refineries in this area. When we left Dickinson, near Houston, we took a two lane road over by the gulf. This took us by many oil refineries, in fact watching tankers driving out of their places. This is probably some of the areas they try to tell us was hit by hurricane and caused our gas/fuel prices to go up.

I missed the Welcome to Louisiana sign -- So here is the Welcome Center Sign.

This was funny. We had seen so many oil refineries and here is another. Oops, no it wasn't. After taking the picture I seen a sign --- Goodyear. But I got the picture. LOL

This picture and the next are taken along route 10. Now is it a swamp or a bayou? There was a long long stretch of this, we were on a bridge for a long time. We wish we had known it was long and we would have checked the mileage.

I have this thing for bridges. So the camera comes out when it looks interesting. So here is a unique bridge. Next picture will show you what this bridge spans. LOL

With all the waterways, swamps, bayou we weren't looking for this river --- Mississippi River. We just hadn't thought about it. Now we have seen the Mississippi River in New orleans, here near Baton Rouge, St. Louis, MO, and either or both Minnesota and Wisconsin.

We stayed at Dickinson, TX. We are about 30 minutes from Galveston, TX along the Gulf of Mexico. We crossed the bridge over Galveston Bay to get there. Had a wonderful dinner looking out over the Gulf of Mexico.

This is Galveston Bay on our way to Galveston and The Gulf of Mexico.

We are crossing the bridge of Galveston Bay and taking a picture of the skyling at Galveston.

This is the Gulf of Mexico. It was late in the day and temperaturee was beginning to go down. I believe it was around 68 degrees at this point.

The Galveston sign. Now we have seen the Gulf of Mexico from four different sides. We've been along the West side (Florida), the north side (Panama City), The south side (The Keys), and now the west side (Galveston). It was the beginning of Spring Break in Galveston.

This is where we ate dinner, Fish Tales. Very good food. We had a vew of the Gulf of Mexico from our table. You'll see the view from our next picture. We were surprised to see this place is owned along with so so many restaurants by Landry's. Nice atmosphere and beautiful view.

This is taken as we are coming back to the mainland from Galveston. It appears to us to be oil refineries on the mainland. LOTS

Our weather in Texas has been great. We have now moved from San Antonio to Houston. We were going to stay a week here, but cut it back to three days.

What a great trip we have had and seen so many wonderful areas.

We got to our campground in Dickinson, which is between Houston and Galveston. This was our welcome to our campsite, a little lizard. The neighbor next to us scared it away when I asked what is that. Later I told Bob I should have taken a picture of it, he said it is right back where you seen it before. Sure enough that it was. It was very sunny and 81 degrees so I think he found a cooler space to hid out of the sunny.

This is the Houston Skyline. Thank goodness we have "Alice" (GPS) to help us get through the cities we have traveled. Again, she got us through another city.

Forgot to post this, remember while driving today. In Texas, where we have driven, if a car is fast than you and isn't able to pass -- you pull over in this outside lane. We have had people do that and also we've pulled over for others. While at a campground in Arizona we were told this would happen. It is really odd and not use to that happening, but it sure helps.

We are finally beginning to feel like doing things and it is our last day at San Antonio, TX. We were here for nine days and only left the trailer three different days. The weather has been great, one of us or the other just didn't feel good with this cold we both have.

We went into San Antonio today. Went to IMAX and saw "Alamo, The Price of Freedom". It was very interesting. Then we went to the Riverwalk. Now that is something. This river has all kinds of shops and restaurants on the river. You also have steps to reach the stores on the street level above. There is also a big mall that connects in the same area. We went on the boat that covers part of the riverwalk too. The following pictures are of the boat ride.

So tomorrow morning we head for Houston, TX.

We aren't on this boat, but this is the type of boat that we rode on down the riverwalk in San Antonio.

This is the performer that were entertaining along the riverwalk. The next picture show where people are watching them. Celebrating St. Patrick's Day. As we went by one of the guys said something about -- What they say about men wearing kilts is true. You never thought you'd look at it from river level did you. (Their kilts were not short enough)

To those that seen Today show with Kathy Lee & Hoda. They had a show from San Antonio at this very sight. Such a great spot.

This tree is growing out of the block. You can go into a restaurant, but you don't see a tree in there. Strange sight.

A mural along the riverwalk boat ride. Really nice.

After the boat ride we went for a walk on the riverwalk. So it was time to stop for and drink and have a sandwich. What a great riverwalk, restaurants, shopping, and different kinds of shops along the way.

Well this is at the hunting preserve next to our campground. It looks like a deer, but he doesn't have a tail and it just isn't a deer.

This is one of the elks at the game preserve as we were driving to the campground. I'd like to do a drive through of the preserve with no gun, just a camera.

We have stayed in the park yesterday and plan to today. We just aren't getting better from these colds. Of course when you have two people ill, one feels better today, the other doesn't. Hopefully we can finish our sightseeing in San Antonio tomorrow, or it will be put off until another year. We leave here Sunday for Houston.

I hadn't mentioned that in the area we are in is a lot of Hunting Preserves and Dude Ranches. You can tell the hunting preserves with the tall fences along the roadside. The one next door to the campground has a website I found -- www.medinariverranchresort.com. Could not believe what people pay to shoot these animals. They have all kinds of animals too.

A comment about President Johnson's Ranch. The Ranger was showing us just inside his backdoor he had a refrigerate tapper for beer. Anyone stopping in knew to come through the back door and get yourself a beer and then find them in the house. He said the people on the tour told him when leaving, I really never care for President Johnson, but now I think with the tapper I'll change my mind. LOL --- Bob & I thought it was funny, because when we decided to go see his ranch, we said we never liked him -- but lets see what the ranch and house was like. We have visited different presidents homes in the past.

Miss posting this picture earlier. This was taken in the western part of New Mexico. The continental Divide. We seen it when we went west, but camera not ready, this time I was waiting for it.

We toured the LBJ National Park and Ranch. It was an interesting tour of the "Texas White House". The rangers give the tour and there comments are very interesting. He mentioned that Lady Bird didn't like the cattle part of the ranch, so when he died she sold off the cattle. The National Parks bought about 50 of them so the cattle on the ranch have the blood line from his cattle.

He also mention that she had asked the President if they could take out the tile floor in the dining room and put in a wooden floor. He said he didn't want to spend the money and the floor was fine. Ok, he died, and she changed it.

The family cementary is located here. This is where both President and Mrs. Johnson is buried. Their girls live in Austin Tx (Lucie), and Virginia (Lynda). About two or three times a month Lucie stops into the home. She brought back a big setting of china just awhile back and also gave her parents piano back to the home, as long as she could stop in and play in once in awhile.

We drove about 1-1/2 hours to the LBJ National Park by Stonewall, TX. We had a driving tour of the ranch with a CD. The National Park Rangers give tours of the house.

These two pictures are of the Texas White House.

This is a picture of the live oak tree in front of President & Mrs. Johnson's home. These trees are beautiful and huge.

This is President Johnson's boyhood home. This is on the ranch too. His grandparents lived there too.

FINALLY A Texas Longhorn. Can't understand what we haven't seen any. Oh right, we did in the back of a livestock trailer. But we finally seen two at Johnson Ranch.

They had a lot of canned "stuff". There was some that looked yuck. This jar was I wonder what that is?

They have a regular working home in the National Park. This was separate from LBJ's Ranch. There wasn't anyone nearby to ask -- what is that??? So anyone that knows what it could be you can pass the information on to us.

We were so surprised when we arrived in this area of Texas and they had cactus here. Of course being in Arizona they had all different kinds of cactus. There is even these cactus in the pastures. Sounds like a ouch!!!

If you look really careful you will find some type of deer in the picture. We believed this was one of the hunting ranches in the area.

This is at one of the many ranches in this area. I don't know if this is one of the hunting ranches or they just have buffalos on their property.

This is Tuesday, March 9th and we finally left the trailer after being under the weather since Friday. Actually we went to San Antonio today, but only did the Alamo and then grab a bite to eat and returned back to the trailer. We both still have horrible coughs, but Bob was so weak.

So we did get to the Alamo. The next five pictures are from there. It is so much easier to learn about the Alamo when you visit than what I remembered from school. We all know John Wayne did a movie on the Alamo, but the person that talked to us says it isn't quite the same.

It was interesting. The surprise is you just give a donation, there isn't any fee to get into the Alamo. We will be making a trip back into San Antonio we have other things we really want to do too. We don't leave here until Sunday. Thank goodness we have "Alice" (GPS) to help us with all the expressways and get us into downtown San Antonio and back out. Sure helps me as I'm the co-pilot.

This is one huge Live Oak Tree inside the Alamo grounds