Good-bye Tyler, Hello Vicksburg!

We left Tyler, Texas at 9am headed for Vicksburg, Mississippi. At one point we were going to go to Memphis, Tennessee, but we decided it was too far for our timetable, as we want to be in Montgomery, Alabama in about four days.
 

The Number 1 RV Park of Tyler Texas
click image to enlarge

But this morning I have to thank our BedSaver.

When I hooked up the trailer, it was too high for the hitch in the bed of the pickup truck. I thought, no problem, I'll just pull ahead a bit, raise the trailer a bit and try again. Except that I didn't have the trailer high enough so when I pulled forward the pin on the trailer dropped into the BedSaver and saved my truck (and my butt).

I simply raised the trailer a little bit and successfully backed into the hitch on my second attempt. And I learned my lesson.

Driving from Tyler to our new digs in Vicksburg, we noticed the scenery getting greener and greener, and the humidity going higher and higher. To get to Vicksburg we had to drive across the entire state of Louisiana, but we're now just on the east shore of the Mississippi River and Louisiana is still across the river on the west shore.

After parking at the first site we were assigned in the Ameristar RV Park, I hooked up our 50amp electrical connection, went inside the trailer to start up the air-conditioning system, but nothing happened. WTF?

A quick glance at my Progressive surge protector and power monitor showed a ground fault error. Wow! Another gadget I added to my RV saved my butt, that's two butt saves today if you're keeping track.

I went back to the office, let them know about their problem and the site, and was immediately given a new site, which was even better than the first one. And at this site the power connection was up to snuff.

While I set up the RV, Marianne remains in the truck with Molly and Coco and the air conditioner running. When I'm all done, she comes into the RV with its air conditioners running full blast cooling the living spaces.

I was drenched with perspiration, no, make that sweat, as I understand ladies perspire and men sweat. And I needed to take a break (read nap).

The Ameristar RV park is right next to the Ameristar Casino (makes sense, right?), a make-believe paddleboat dry-docked permanently unto the shore of the river. Under no circumstances would this thing ever float, but it's a way for the gaming industry to abide by the legislation allowing casinos in the state.

With a casino that close, there has to be a buffet, right? Right! The RV park offers a shuttle ride to and from the casino. It's like leading lambs to slaughter….

The shuttle driver must have been a NASCAR fan, because he got us there quickly. During the I had to hang on to the seat in front of me, and stop signs were only optional. At the casino I was so shook up, I literally fell down the steps of the van unto the tarmac of the casino - an impessive grand entrance.

Entering the casino I felt I was in another country. The distinct odor of cigarettes and cigars overwhelmed us. Even though the din of dings and dongs of one-armed bandits (no, I know, there are no longer any levers to pull on these slot machines, it takes too long to lose one's money, just buttons to press) were calling us to feed them with our money, but we made a beeline to the buffet.

If you haven't notices, the buffets are getting sneakier now: when I paid upon entering, I was asked what I wanted to drink. Diet Coke would be fine, that was above and beyond the $15.99 per person dinner price, and then would I like to add a tip? What? I haven't even tasted the food or experienced the service and you want me to pre-tip? And to make it easy for you, when you run your credit card through the reader it asks you what percentage you want to give: 10%, 15%, 20% or? I played it safe and chose the minimum 10%.

We were led to our table by the slowest hostess in the history of hostessing. Did this casino really need to use the lame to seat people? I was beginning to wonder if 10% was already too much.

The food was good. Although Marianne ate more desserts than anything else, when I went to get my desserts (yes, plural), she had to try some of mine too.

With our bellies full, we were ready to return to our trailer, but the forced march through the casino (you know they always hide the buffets in a corner of the casino where you must walk past almost all of their slot machines to get to the food). The siren song of the slots was too much for us. We succumbed.

We found a couple of side-by-side slots, but we must have picked the two unluckiest/stingiest machines in the entire casino because within minutes we were down $40 between us. Sheesh, you think they could have at least strung us along for a time before totally crushing us. But no.

We got back on the shuttle for the hair raising ride right back directly to our trailer.

Ruminating, we spent the rest of the evening watching TV and fighting with the weak Wi-Fi signals in order to catch up on email and Facebook.

I passed out long before Marianne, I don't even remember her getting into bed, nor Coco sneaking in between us. But I do remember Molly barking to protest her being locked out of the bedroom.

High temperature today: 96°
Miles driven: 270

Tyler, where are you?

Because we decided that we'd spend a full day exploring Tyler, we'd try to take a guided bus tour of the city. The operative word here is "try".

We got up at 6am (that's 4am for you folks out on the West Coast!) in order to be at the Tyler Chamber of Commerce no later than 8:50am to board some sort of tour bus. As we were driving to downtown Tyler we saw a Wendy's which beckoned us with their sign for a Southern-style biscuits and gravy breakfast.

No breakfast here, stranger. In fact the place doesn't even open until 10am. But across the street we saw a local donut shop, you know, a diabetic's dream.....more beckoning.

Of course I had to go, even though Marianne wasn't too sure. But when she saw they had croissants she was instantly happy. I ordered three glazed donuts, because that's basically all they had, unlike the 20 varieties of sugar and white flour mixtures deep fried in grease offered down the street from us in Oceanside.

Marianne wanted/needed a croissant. So the Thai woman behind the counter. (How did I know she was Thai? Because all Thai store owners have photographs of the Thai royalty plastered on the walls of their stores close to the cash register. Nothing beats the evil eye of a king when it comes to guarding your money. Any way, the woman grabs a croissant from the case next to where my donuts had been peacefully resting just moments before, sticks it in a white paper bag, and jams it into a microwave for 30 seconds. Out comes a croissant with egg and bacon. Amazing? Sure, but I don't want to think about it. 

Marianne takes one look at the instant croissant and decides she needs ketchup to spice it up. Sorry, no ketchup, just mustard (sounds like a famous Saturday NIght Life skit: Pepsi, no Coke but delivered by Seinfeld's soup Nazi). Marianne being as resourceful as she is, makes instant ketchup by adding strawberry preserves to the mustard. Who knew?

When she couldn't finish her concoction, after I had inhaled my three donuts, she offered the remnants to me. I just wanted a taste of that instant ketchup. Trust me, it doesn't taste like ketchup at all, but it was pretty good. So, the next time you want to walk, or in this case, taste on the wild side, grab some mustard and strawberry preserves and put it anything you'd normally put ketchup on, and report back to me.

We made it to Tyler Chamber of Commerce about 18 minutes until 9. The place was locked up tighter than a drum, but the sign on the window (and their website) announced that they would open at 9am. And anyway, that tour bus was supposed to be there at 8:50am.

Looking at how desolate Tyler's downtown area was this morning, I had my doubts not only about the bus, but the chamber as well.

8:50am came and went and no bus.

9:00am came and went and no chamber.

Oh for two. My favor. I win. Or I lose. Depends upon how you look at it.

At 9:15am we crossed the street to get into our truck and re-plan our day. With a brochure we got from the rack at the chamber, we were going to find all the exciting sites in Tyler all by ourselves, with assistance from the lady residing inside the GPS who does a pretty good job getting us to where we want to go; but then we need to know where we're going.

A few blocks away was the 1859 Goodman-Legrand Home and Museum a historic Tyler building built by folks before they could waste their time on the Internet. I failed to put its address into the GPS since it was only down the street a bit. But as luck would have it, we drove right by it. Missed it completely.

We sheepishly put the address into the GPS, and she figured out right where it was and led us right there with her voice, graphics, and of course the ding-ding of her bell when it was time to make a turn, now!

We drove into the estate which was now part of a park and right into the middle of a wedding that would be taking place shortly since the preparations were well under way. Remember what I wrote about yesterday and inbreeding? Okay, this may have been an affirmation.

The brochure said this place opens at 9am, but the sign on the door said otherwise - 10am. We shot some photos of the exterior and decided the inside wasn't worth waiting for.

1859 Goodman-Legrand Home and Museum
click on collage to enlarge

Tyler is supposed to be the rose capital of the nation, so we went to their famous rose gardens. It was nice, but I guess they've never heard of Encinitas. After a quick walk around the gardens, and the obligatory visit to the gift shop we were ready to head for the next attraction.

Tyler Rose Garden
click on collage to enlarge

Brookshire's World of Wildlife Museum and Country Store is a strange museum featuring 450 mounted examples of wildlife and a replica 1920's grocery store. Brookshire is a grocery chain down in these parts, and the family has been hunting exotic animals for the better part of century and what better idea than to take all those animal heads and bodies and put them into a building that also houses a century old grocery store. Makes perfect sense to me....

On the way out of this attraction we were accosted by a lady who wanted to know where we were from, had we signed the guestbook, and would we like our picture taken with a stuffed bear holding up a signs proclaiming our friendship. Well, I guess that's what you're up against when they don't charge an admission fee.

Brookshire's World of Wildlife Museum and Country Store
click on collage to enlarge

Next she wanted to know if I was a veteran. Since I don't have any tattoos, it was just guess on her part, but then she wanted to know if I was retired. Do I really look that old? The gist of all of this is she wanted us to visit what she considered the world's greatest museum dedicated to veterans. I didn't tell her that just last week I was blown away by the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg.

What I failed to understand is that if this was really was such a great museum, why was it only open from 10am until 2pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays. But since today was Saturday, I let it go at that. She insisted we had to visit this place, just 11 miles down the road.

And then another five miles further down the road we could eat the best hamburgers ever, called Legends. And she was proud to herald that they have free baked beans there, right next to the salad bar, but that they might not tell us about the beans, so she was doing us a favor. Since it was getting close to lunch and we were running out of places to see in Tyler, we headed 11 miles down the road.

We must of driven by the place, because I didn't see anything that resembled a museum, and I even missed Legends and I can normally smell a hamburger joint from at least a league away (in case you don't know how far a league is, allow me to educate you: a league the distance a person could walk in an hour). I missed the joint because I was busy flashing my lights for three miles at a guy ahead of us who was driving a might too fast and had part of this furniture load drop off the flatbed trailer he was hauling. When I finally flagged him down and gave him the sad news, he just replied, "I'll git it."

When we'd driven about 20 miles, we realized we'd missed everything, so we turned around. And just where I had flagged down "Git it", was where Legends was. We stopped in ordered a couple of cheeseburgers and an order of their equally famous onion rings. But as the girl behind the counter was ringing up my order she spilled the beans on the beans.

We had a couple of bowls of the beans since the broth was really good, but the beans were just so-so. We waited what appeared to us to be an eternity for our cheeseburgers. We got them and dressed them up with what wasn't a salad bar, but rather the fixin's for the burgers.

In and Out Burgers don't have to worry at all, their burgers are way better. In fact, I didn't even eat my entire ½ pound burger, and that's saying something about either me, or the burger.

After leaving the burger joint although we looked, we never did find that veteran's museum and then wondered whether or not that woman at Brookshire's had a financial or family interest in the burger joint.

But all was not wasted since we passed an Exxon station selling diesel for $3.599, just 4¢ more than my best price ever of a couple of days ago, so I filled up again.

Back at the trailer it was pretty hot on the concrete slabs, so we hunkered down for a bit until the lure of the laundromat became too overbearing. We finally gathered our laundry, hike the 20 steps to the shed that held the two washers and dryers, each of us loaded up our clothes in separate machines, put in $1.50 each. Thirty minutes later we were back to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer and insert another $1.50 each. And thirty minutes after that we had washed and dried clothes.

After all that work, we had to rest for the remainder of the day. Hey, we're on vacation!

Austin to Tyler, meh.....

Many years ago I passed through Tyler, Texas and I for some reason I was impressed by this community, so I decided that I would visit it on this trip.

After four nights in Austin, we pulled up stakes and entered Tyler into the GPS, which then demanded we travel Interstates all the way. Sorry GPS, we're going to go the back roads, through towns like Taylor, Hearne, Buffalo, Palestine (pronounced pal-s-steen), Frankston, and Lake Palestine (you already know how to pronounce it), before arriving in Tyler.

The GPS complained with a number of "recalculating" incantations, but after putting the it on mute for a while, "she" finally recapitulated and led us on a back road tour to Tyler.

Upon our arrival at our destination, we checked into the "Number 1 RV Park of Tyler", which is basically a number of cement slabs where RV's park next to one another a la a parking lot. Since there were no trees for shade, there wouldn't be a problem with satellite TV! 

On a side note, I'd hate to see the "Number 2 RV Park of Tyler". But hey, this one is clean and close to everything, so they claim.

We were assigned spot #1, so that makes us the number one in the number one! One is a prime number, one plus one is two and that's the only even prime number, and one next to one is eleven, and even that is a prime number. So, according to my calculation and the alignment of some dwarf stars, we're in a prime location! At least that's what I tell myself.

After unhooking the truck from the trailer - I'm getting really good at this - we decided it was time for a Wal*Mart Super Center run to pick up groceries and various sundries. I'm of the opinion if you want to truly see the face of America, you just need to visit the local Wal*Mart.

That being said, I'm concerned about Tyler. I'm afraid that there might be extensive inbreeding in this area; I can't prove it, but I have my suspicions. Trying to keep a straight face while people watching here was a real challenge. I'm extremely lucky to get out of that store with my face not contorted from trying to suppress my thoughts externally! You know they have a website dedicated to the oddities in Wal*Mart, and I'm convinced that more than a few were photographed here.

We spent the rest of the evening catching up on email since the WiFi here is the best we've had so far on the entire trip. The great WiFi may be that we're just 50 feet from the office.

We're also only 40 feet from the laundry room, so that may be another omen....

There are no pictures with this edition of the blog (other than that Wal*Mart link, above), because quite frankly I found nothing I wanted to permanently etch for posterity on on this leg of our journey. . .

High temperature today: 99°
Miles driven: 230

Relatively Austin

After going, going, and going like the Energizer Bunny since we had arrived in Fredericksburg a few days ago, we finally had an easy day.

Yes, we did start out earlier than usual because at 10am we had a brunch date with Marianne's older sister, Chris's youngest child, Adam Garland, who just gotten married in Guanajuato, Mexico last month to his lovely bride, Diana. We met the couple at their cute condo about 10 miles from our RV site. Although we had met Diana previously, this was the first time we officially had an opportunity to welcome her into the family. In a week we'll all be together in Montgomery, Alabama for the big Till family reunion. 

This should prove to be the definitive year of weddings for Till grandchildren: first Adam, then in October, Maggie, the only child of Marianne's middle sister, Janet, then Laura, the daughter of Marianne's youngest sibling, her brother Peter, and finally our daughter Nikki. These weddings are also all spread out: Adam's was in Mexico, Maggie's will be in South Carolina, Laura's in Montgomery, and Nikki's in Southern California (site still to be determined....).

A few minutes later, Adam's oldest sister, Rebecca, who also lives in Austin, showed up with her new boyfriend, Kevin. Since everyone was very hungry, we piled into two cars, once of which was Rebecca's new car, a Mazda 6, and headed to downtown Austin to one of the Austinites favorite breakfast restaurants.

With the Austinites: (R-L) Rainer, Adam, Diana, Kevin and Rebecca
click photo to enlarge

Even though it was the Fourth of July and the downtown area was mostly empty, we still couldn't find street parking, so we ended up parking underneath the downtown Hilton in their parking garage. I know parking in these places can be expensive, and while walking on the way out I noticed that it was free for the first 15 minutes, but the next hour was $9.

We walked around the block to their favorite crepe place but it was jam packed with diners, and the waiting list would be about 45 minutes to an hour. Way too long for six starving people.

We debated as to where to go next, and the winning place was a Colombian restaurant just a short drive away.

Back we walked to the parking garage, and when we got to the payment booth, we discovered that we were there 16 minutes, so I was out $9. I paid via credit card and then gave Rebecca my credit card to pay for her car. But Rebecca has never rolled over quite that easily. She put up a fuss, and got out for free! Way to go Reba!

When we entered the Colombian restaurant we were the only ones there, which is a omen which normal scares me about restaurants. But we were escorted to our table and quickly ordered some fruit mimosas which came back as giant smoothies. Delicious!

We all ordered what we wanted, and since Marianne and I don't normally eat at a Colombian restaurant it was a stab in the dark. But I was enlighten when appetizers appeared, they were delicious. And when the plates of food came out, I just discovered my new favorite restaurant in Austin! This was the best food I've had on the trip. The meals a lovingly home-cooked and a tasty as tasty can be.

After brunch we parted ways, since Rebecca and Kevin were heading to Lake Austin to go boating with friends. We went back the Adam and Diana's condo to pick up some things we forgot there, and then we got into our truck to head back to the RV site.

Yesterday when I took one of these same roads coming back from San Antonio, I drove past a Shell station heralding their $3.559 price for a gallon of diesel fuel. When I drove by it today, it still had the same price posted, so I quickly made a U-turn and filled up with the cheapest price that I've ever paid for diesel in the 14 months I've owned this truck! Yes! Thank you Texas!

Back at the campground we lounged around, debating whether or not to wash our clothes (the nays won, two to none). As we relaxed in air-conditioned comfort we finally noticed how full the campground had become. It was almost totally full. It had only been about 20% occupied when we showed up. Now kids were riding their bikes, skateboards, and scooters, parties where happening all over under the awnings and canopies of the various RV's, music playing and an occasional fireworks pop.

But come sunset, we watched four different fireworks shows within a mile or two from the park. We strolled through the park taking in all the sights and sounds of the Fourth of July in Austin, Texas.

Life was good.

Miles driven: 22

Maximum temperature: 99°

San Antone and Remember the Alamo

We had planned that on this trip we would visit San Antonio, and this morning would be that day. But as usual we were late in getting started, and then we debated whether or not we really wanted to go, especially after we realized it was over 110 miles just one way from our campground to San Antonio.

I quickly created a compromise: we would drive 70 miles to New Braunfels, another famous German community in the Hill Country south of Austin on the way to San Antonio. 

And this would also be the longest time we would ever leave Molly and Coco alone in the air conditioned trailer.

After an hour driving without pulling the trailer, of course, we made it to New Braunfels, drove through the downtown area which was nowhere as commercialized as was Fredericksburg was. But because of that, Marianne instantly expressed her desire to continue the addition half hour on to San Antonio. Yes!

San Antonio near The Alamo
click on collage to enlarge

We set our GPS to lead us to The Alamo; cruising down the highway at 70 mph we made it in no time. Finding parking took as a little longer than usual, but with our "Mueller-find-a-parking-spot-luck" we finally scored spot just three-quarters of a block from The Alamo, and it was $10 for up to eight hours, acceptable!

As we headed to The Alamo which we were inundated with hundreds of high school-aged kids with backpacks literally overrunning the area. This was because there was a some sort of Lutheran international crusade in town. We see these kids continually throughout the rest of the day.

Obligatory Alamo Pictures
click on collage to enlarge

We got our obligatory Alamo photos including the courtyard and then went inside were photography is prohibited, but as I remember from being here almost 40 years ago, there's really not too much inside to photograph anyway.

We headed a couple blocks away toward San Antonio's famous Riverwalk. I'd never been here, but Marianne had when she flew in here to rendezvous with her good friend Marsha Killian from Michigan to spend some girl time together a few years ago. Marianne insisted that I had to see this place.

We bought our tickets and waited in line to board the next open-aired cruise on a circular circuit among the shops, cafe's  and more kids, who just so happened to make up 90% of the passengers on our and every other boat.

Even though the temperature was approaching 100° it wasn't too bad on a moving boat on the river especially as it passed under pedestrian and vehicle bridges and floated underneath large scrub oak trees.

After the 35 minute cruise we briskly headed quickly toward an ice cream store where we stood in line with more of those kids, paying outrageous prices for a couple of scoops of the refreshing treats.

With our brains thoroughly frozen, we navigated the maze of shops, tunnels and canals to find the 800' Tower of the Americas, the tallest structure in the area, which would afford us a great view of the downtown area and the entire countryside. Plus as another reward there was a restaurant and bar at the top that rotated 360° every 75 minutes.

As with all tourist traps, there was a $10.95 charge per person to ride the elevator to the top, and climbing the stairs is not allowed. But as we were waiting in line behind another group of kids, we were approached by a gentleman who just gave us two tickets! Great! We didn't have to wait in line anymore and got on the elevator for the ride to the top.

Riverwalk
click on collage to enlarge

The view was impressive, but the best part was sitting in the bar enjoying a couple of Ultimate Margaritas and an order of coconut shrimp. Life is good!

We hated to leave our air-conditioned elevated position, but we had to make our way back to our truck and drive the 110 miles back to our campsite in Austin.

We did run into some rush hour traffic, but made it back in one piece to find a couple of dogs that were super excited to see us again! They hadn't torn up anything, nor did they have any accidents! Whoopee! At least now we know we can leave the dogs for up to 8 hours by themselves and they can survive just fine.

The rest of the evening was spent editing photos.

Miles driven today: 225
Maximum temperature: 101°

Austin - A Capitol Idea

Awakening at 6am to 70° on our first morning in Austin was a pleasant surprise. Molly and Coco were ready to head to the dog run. Strange how even as puppies three years ago when we were here last, they remember this extremely large dog run. They pulled me with all their might to this dog nirvana. Maybe they wanted me to see the big red orb of the sunrise poke through the trees.

Sunrise Over Austinclick photo to enlarge

Today we would head to downtown Austin and see the sights. We'd been here several times, but never really spent any time in the downtown area. We put the city center into the GPS and were amazed to find that it was 25 miles away and would probably take close to 45 minutes to get there. Whoa....we didn't expect that. I guess it's true that things are just bigger in Texas.

But the GPS was accurate and we ended up in downtown within the hour. I was happy to be driving my Cowboy Cadillac, because almost every second vehicle was a pick-up truck, although mine was betrayed by our California license plates. Yet I felt people were treating us a bit nicer, since merging into traffic was a breeze, people opened spots for us, which unlike California, I didn't have to use my Redneck Horn all that often!

Driving into the downtown area we found Congress Ave. with the state capitol building dominating the high end of the avenue. We quickly found the parking garage right next to the capitol, gathered our gear and walked a few hundred yards to the impressive building, which is currently the largest capitol in the nation. . .remember, this IS Texas.

The first thing we noticed was the amount of activity in the area. As we were walking we stopped at a crosswalk and were joined by an aging hippie woman (isn't that a dichotomy in Texas?) who explained to us that she was going to register to speak before the state senate in support of abortion rights.

People with signs both pro and con on the issue were all around, and busloads more were coming, as this was a historic issue in Texas with Governor Rick Perry calling for special sessions to force his anti-abortion agenda but he was being thwarted by a senate filibuster led my a former teenage single mom who was now a senator.

But before gaining admission to the capitol building, one had to go through an airport-like security system, complete with TSA-like workers. Marianne put her camera to her eye and was quickly admonished by a stern faced, no nonsense woman who told her that she could shoot all the pictures she wanted once she passed through this elaborate security. Marianne meekly complied.

I shouldn't have been so quick to snicker to myself, since it took me three tries to get through the security scanner which beeped it's displeasure with me. With all my worldly possessions in the plastic bin passing through the x-ray scanner, I was required to go through an inspection by another officer with a handheld wand. I finally passed, gathered my belongs and found ourselves under the rotunda of the capitol dome among a tour group, which we quickly joined.

Following with the group, we were first shown the empty senate chamber and given historical data by a very entertaining guide. From there we were led to the house chamber and regaled with more stories of the history of this building, which was constructed as the capitol building when Texas was it's own country (The Republic of Texas) before joining the union becoming the 28th state in late 1845.

We were also led down into the bowels of the building which now had wings in several directions leading to new annexes holding the offices of the legislator and other government entities. Ending up in one of these annexes I smelled food and Marianne smelled shopping.

We were both right, the capitol cafeteria was right next to the capitol gift shop. When the tour ended I couldn't find Marianne, but I instinctively headed back toward the gift shop, and when I was almost there, she popped her head out of the door to reconfirm my instincts.

After browsing through the store, I was the only one that purchased anything! A T-shirt with "Texas" emblazoned across the front.

But that smell of food was making me extremely hungry and I attempted to convince Mair to eat there. She stated that being in downtown Austin she wasn't going to eat at "no cafeteria". But I persisted, convincing her that my experience at eating in capitol buildings was a capital idea, because not only do visitors eat there but also the senators and representatives, so it just had to be good.

When she saw the array of food, she was impressed and we quickly got pulled pork, fried okra, and vegetables, we didn't have to wait to be waited on! And the best thing: our meals were only $8.06 each! I'd like to personally thank the citizens of Texas for subsidizing my food choices.

Upon leaving the cafeteria we were overwhelmed by the sound of hymnal singing, so we followed our ears to find a large group of abortion foes singing with armed state troopers around them to make sure there were no incidents. Everything was respectful.

We found our way out of the maze of corridors back into the heat of the day. We photographed some of the interesting statues on the capitol grounds, visited the visitor's center, and meandered back to the parking garage to retrieve our truck to see more of Austin.

Again we headed through downtown on Congress Ave. across the Congress Ave. bridge, home of the nightly bat exodus, a spectacular we had first witnessed almost 20 years ago. From there we wanted to see a swimming hole about a mile from downtown where Marianne had been informed would be topless bathers. I'm a fan, I'll go!

We drove along the Colorado River (not the same Colorado River Californians are familiar with), what they call Lake Austin around these parts, where folks were kayaking, canoeing, and stand-up paddle boarding. When we finally found the area where the topless activities were supposed to be, the parking was unfortunately impossible. Oh well....

We head back to our mobile mansion for a couple of hours of relaxation before a dinner party at our good friends, Debbie and Tim McCasland's home overlooking Lake Travis, very close to our RV spot. Debbie's sister, Kathy picked us up shortly after 5pm and as we were driving to their home we noticed just how low the lake was. Islands were popping up were I had seen bunches of boats just three years ago. I was to learn that the area is in the midst of a three year drought and the lake is only at 33% of its capacity, down over 60' from the level I remember.

Debbie and Tim invited us into their beautiful home, and after some reminiscing about old times, we had a delicious home-cooked meal of lobster bisque and fresh tossed Caesar salad, followed by creme brulee with fresh strawberries and spearmint leaves. A meal fit for a king! After a bit more rehashing old history and watching the gorgeous sunset from their back porch, Kathy brought us safely back to the RV park where we walked the dogs, decompressed, and hit the hay.

Tim also gave me a dozen different baseball hats from the car dealership he works at, each one is unique and includes many of the car marques they sell. Thanks Tim!

In and Around Austinclick on collage to enlarge

Maximum temperature: 96°

Miles driven: 50

We're in LBJ Country

We departed Fredericksburg shortly before noon for the 60 mile drive to Austin. But on the way there was a stop we had to make, the Lyndon Baines Johnson home just outside of Stonewall.

We exited highway 290 to get to the LBJ ranch which is run by the National Park folks. We thought it would be an easy jaunt off the road to the visitor's center to see the ranch house.

But no.

Sure there's a visitor center, but it's not that well marked and by the looks of things there weren't too many cars in the parking lot, and definitely no RV's. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a sign with an arrow pointing toward the LBJ ranch house tour. Hey, why not, it shouldn't be too far down the road.

This little jaunt ended up taking us through the entire ranch, from one end to the other and back before we got to the actual ranch house. We drove by the "new show barn" (the old one was right next to the house and Lady Bird hated the smells and flies so she made Lyndon construct a new one practically at the furthest point away from the house on the spread), a 5000+ foot runway, cattle grazing, horses, and even antelope. I was leery of driving our big rig through this meandering one-way asphalt road with low overhanging branches. Of course we were still the only RV for miles around.

We finally found ourselves next to LBJ's private jet and since we were an RV we got to park right next to the jet, closer to the home entrance than any other vehicle! What a deal!

After some pictures we entered the hangar which had been turned into the welcome/reception center for the house tours. We paid our $3 each for the tour that would start in just a couple of minutes, where we joined about a half dozen other folks to follow a ranger on the tour of the grounds and home.

My new favorite photo of LBJ, long hair and all taken in August 1972
just five months before he died at just 64.
click photo to enlarge

The poor ranger was not match for me on presidential history, little did he know we've made it a point to visit as many presidential homes as we stumbled upon on our previous RV journeys - I think we're up to a dozen already. . .I wonder if we'll find any more on this trip.

Marianne and I were amazed how humble the home really was. It started as a small ranch home that LBJ bought from his aunt in 1951 and he just kept adding to it whenever he needed more room. So the house was somewhat of a mismatch architecturally and in design layout. No, it wasn't fancy at all, it's claim to fame was the number of telephones throughout the house over 70 in all, even one attached to the leg of the dining room table. Remember this was an era before wireless and cell phones. LBJ just had to be connected. Heck, his living room had three side-by-side TV's that were continually on the only three networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, all day long.

LBJ was born on the ranch but in a different house, about a mile away. Also on the ranch is another home built by his father, Sam, and there's even LBJ's school house. Today there additional caretakers homes, a Secret Service trailer ensemble (used when he served as vice president and president), and now facilities for the rangers.

After LBJ died in January 1973, Claudia Taylor (aka Lady Bird Johnson) continued to live at the ranch for another 34 years until she died in 2007 at age 94. Both of them are buried about a half mile from the home in the Johnson family cemetery on the ranch. There are no large mausoleums or monuments, but only headstones. For all of their wealth, they didn't live opulently nor were they interred that way.

After a couple of hours on the property we motored on to Austin to the La Hacienda RV Resort, the same place we stayed on our around the U.S. odyssey in three years ago with our previous trailer. To refresh your memory, here's the link to that blog: Coming to Austin in 2010. The place looks pretty much like we remembered it except that the trees have gotten bigger.

And for the first time I had to back our fifth wheel into a site. Up until now, every site we've camped at was a pull-through site, make things as easy as mud. But backing our beast into a site was a bit of a challenge but with over seven years of experience backing in our previous two trailers, I've quickly adapted.

And hooking up and unhooking the truck from the trailer is no longer giving me wet palms. I think it's actually easier than with a bumper pull travel trailer and all the additional torsion bars and their associated chain links and anti-sway bars. When we camped with Paul and Deb Cervone throughout California and Oregon last summer I always wonder how he got done so much faster than I did even if we started simultaneously. Now I know. Live and learn.

And if I've said it once, I'll say it again, pulling a fifth wheel is a much nicer experience that with bumper pull travel trailer. This is due to the fact that close to 20% of the trailer weight is supported in the bed of the pick-up, Although our fifth well is technically 38' long, it's only about 4' longer than our previous travel trailer because of this overhang. In other words all is good (so far!).

The LBJ Ranch House Tour

click on collage to enlarge

Maximum temperature: 99°
Miles driven: 82