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Scroll through this page to read the entire travel journal.

Jan. 19^th – Monday  MLK day
Depart for our journey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (NOT!)

When we went to pick up the RV to take it home and do the final loading, an electrical fire occurred in the battery compartment and we lost 3-4 hours of prep time. We had so many last minute things to finish that this knocked our departure date off until the following day.

Jan. 20^th – Tuesday
We finally hit the road! Bill has spent the last few weeks often encountering frustrating obstacles to getting his projects done like Alex ripping a huge hole in a porch sbbbcreen after he had finished fixing all of them. It seemed ironically fitting that Becca wound up moving a crucial clip that goes to the car tow dolly as we were trying to depart.

We did a lap around our cul de sac and headed out. We had good weather and an easy drive up to Flagler Beach . We had a great campsite right on the ocean at Gamble Rogers State Recreation Area .

Jan. 21^st – Wednesday
We began our morning with a walk on the beach. We feel like we have the beach to ourselves. Bike took Alex on a 10-12 mile bike ride. That afternoon we went over to the Bulow Plantation ruins. The girls learned some history of the area and how the plantation was burned down during the second Seminole war in 1836. That evening we enjoyed a campfire.

Jan 22^nd – Thurs.
The girls took a walk on the beach after lunch and found a beautiful purple starfish. We spent the afternoon in St. Augustine doing several walking tours of St. George Street, Flager College , and the Castillo San Marco. The ranger at this old, historic fort, gave each of the kids junior ranger pins. We stayed until it was dark to enjoy the nights of lights decorations where they decorate most of downtown and the Bridge of Lions in white lights.

Jan 23^rd – Friday
We left Flagler Beach to travel inland. We stopped at Ravine Gardens State Park and road our bikes around the ravine. We stopped at a playground in the park and spotted both an American Lady and Wood Satyr butterflies. Laura picked up too much speed going downhill and crashed into a fence (thank goodness away from the ravine!). We arrived at Paynes Prairie State Park outside of Gainesville. We had a campfire. The weather was quite chilly but the heaters in the RV work great!

Jan 24^th – Saturday
We went to the Payne’s Prairie visitor center to learn more about this unique habitat. Traveling through the park we saw a deer and a wild turkey. Laura enjoyed spotting the cardinal that lived near our campsite.

We went to the Gainesville Public Library that afternoon. Bill accessed our email and the girls enjoyed the time reading while Sandra read many, many books to Alex.

We did a classic campfire dinner of hot dogs cooked on stick with s’mores for dessert. We’ve been reading the Horse and His Boy by CS Lewis in the evenings.

Jan 25^th – Sunday
Laura really wanted to see some Manatees after reading about Manatee Spring State Park in our guide book. We decided to head over to the west coast of Florida. Our rig was too big to stay at the state park but the ranger recommended a county park located at Hart Springs that had full hook ups and had just recently opened. We arrived and found ourselves the only RV (except for the campground hosts). We picked a spot right in the middle of the park. It’s nice to have full 50 amp hookup and a sewer connection (fellow RVs can appreciate how nice that is – it means we can do small loads of laundry in our washer/dryer combo unit and not worry about running both the microwave and coffee maker at the same time). After we set up, we biked down to the springs through a trail in the woods. Bill and Alex were in the lead and saw a wild sow with her piglets beside the trail. The springs feed into the Suwannee river and there is a nice boardwalk that takes you along the springs to the river and through a cypress swamp. The campground hosts are very friendly and helpful and we have free firewood for a lovely campfire. They lent us some movies to enjoy. They also give us lots of good information about the area.  

Jan. 26^th – Monday
We drove to Manatee Springs in the afternoon. Our first trip down the boardwalk along the spring to the Suwannee failed to yield any manatees but our second trip down produced some. They were in the middle of the water and therefore were a little hard to see except when they briefly surfaced for air. In addition, we saw several different types of fish and Becca spotted a brown water snake (non venomous) curled up near the spring. We dipped our toes in spring which is 72 degrees. After returning, we swung by Hart springs on the off chance there may be some manatees there also (they only come there when it is very chilly) and then Bill and Becca walked from Hart springs to campground and saw wild pigs again.

January 27^th – Tuesday
We continue our general routine of conducting the basic math, spelling, and writing lessons in the morning and then take our time breaking camp before we head on up to White Springs. Our drive to the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park only takes a couple of hours. It is a gorgeous park – lots of live oak draped with Spanish moss and beautiful buildings. We have a nice pull through site but it is too cold to enjoy a campfire. We do see a gray fox later that evening when driving through the park and read about him in our mammal field guide (and learn that this is the only canine that can actually climb trees!).

January 28^th – Wednesday
We go to the onsite Stephen Foster museum. He was America ’s first professional composer. We learn more about him and the songs he wrote which include – Old Folks at Home (aka Suwannee River), Oh Susanna, Camptown Races, etc… The museum houses artifacts such as the desk on which he wrote Suwannee River (after finding an appropriate name of a two syllable southern river in an atlas) and detailed dioramas depicting 10 of his songs. We then went over to the carillon tower which houses 97 bells that play some of Foster’s tunes during the day. After that, we went to the girls’ favorite place of all, the gift shop, while Bill took Alex his favorite place, the playground.

January 29^th – Thursday through February 3 - Tuesday
We get an early start on the road since we have a fairly long drive up to North Georgia and don’t want to get stuck in any commuter traffic around Atlanta . We are staying with our dear friends, Kathy and Karen Brannon, and their mom, Jessie Smith for a couple of days. This also gives us a chance to update the website! After this we plan to head down to the Florida Panhandle. We went to the Etowah Indian mounds. The museum was closed but we walked the mounds despite the chill. We also spent a couple days just relaxing, eating way too much tasty southern home cooking, and took a picnic lunch at the top of beautiful Carter’s Dam.

February

February 3 – Tuesday
We head back south to hopefully warmer temperatures. The RV stayed toasty inside and held up despite night time temperatures below freezing. We stop for the night in South Georgia at Reed Bingham State Park . Bill stayed there once before when traveling alone with all the kids (brave man!). They have pull through sites so we don’t have to unhitch the car. The night gets chilly but we still cook on the campfire and make s’mores.

February 4 – Wednesday
We decide to spend a couple days at Three Rivers State Park. It is a pleasant park on a lake with 3 campground hosts (and only 5 other campers). It has the cheapest firewood on our trip so far. Bill jokes that he didn’t factor firewood and ice cream stops into the budget!  We tried and failed to make a wi-fi connection work at Flying J (the truckers and RVs favorite fueling station) on the way. Staying connected online has been the only annoyance of the trip so far.

February 5 - Thursday
Three Rivers is a good base to go explore Florida Caverns and Falling Waters State Parks before going down to St. George’s Island State Park. The caverns are great – they were originally developed to help make a tourist attraction ala Luray Caverns and were one of the CCC camps created during the great depression  (We can usually spot the CCC projects based on the stone work). We have a private tour of the caverns (they occur every hour and we’re the only ones at that time). The ranger makes sure we don’t bump our heads or step in any big puddles and shows us many wonderful features including some eastern pipistrelle bats. We take lots of pictures!!! We then drive over to Falling Waters, home of Florida’s largest waterfall. It goes into a deep sinkhole – how else could we get a decent sized waterfall in this pancake terrain of a state!  We end the evening with a stop at a library in Marianna.

February 6 – Friday
Bill manages to get a connection at our campground using a phone line at the ranger station. We get a later start for the road but we’re only going a couple hours. We pull into St. George’s Island State Park . The drive across the bridge to the island was rather tight in our big rig but it handles well so we manage without a problem. It’s a windy, occasionally rainy day but warm. A cold front is moving in (who keeps turning down the thermostat on the east coast?). The park is large – it’s 4 miles from the entrance to the campground and it covers the tip of the island bordering Apalachicola Bay and the Gulf of Mexico . We are fortunate to get a spot as they’ve been full most nights and it’s the weekend. We plan to spend two nights here before continuing on the coast and making our way to Alabama. It’s very gray and rainy but we get a walk on the beach. We later take a drive into Apalachicola (known for it’s oysters) and buy some fresh seafood to cook for dinner. We also pass the Dr. John Gorrie museum. He’s the dude that invented the ice machine! He did it to help relieve the suffering of his malaria patients and we all benefit from his discovery.

February 7 – Saturday
Brrr! In the high 40s but the girls and Sandra still go to the beach for the morning ranger talk about beachcombing. St. George’s is supposed to be good for shelling and with the stormy weather, a full moon creating a higher than normal tide, and an approaching low tide we should get some decent finds. Becca finds a starfish, cockle shell and clam shells while Sandra finds a large Lighting Welk and some Olives. The day is very relaxing with several walks inland to an eagle’s nest and again on the beach. 

February 8 – Sunday
Bill and Becca make it to church (Bill loses his bet that most services start at 11 and one little sleeping head can’t get ready in time.) We move further west along the coast to Grayton Beach and drive along the “Redneck Riviera” in Panama City – and it’s a well deserved name. Pretty dead during the winter but the number of Daiquiri stands gives a glimpse of how it must get during spring break.

February 9 - Monday
It's a cool, gray day. We spend much of the day doing homeschool and errands like laundry. The girls are enjoying cooking items from their “A to Z Cookbook”. Becca made Quick Cheeseburger Pie” last night and Laura made “Pizza Pockets” today. We take a nice walk on Grayton Beach (Rated America’s Best Beach by “Dr. Beach” in 1994.). The sand is as soft and fine as confectionary sugar. In the early evening we take a spin through the nearby towns including Seaside (featured in the film "The Truman Show") which has funky yet attractive architecture and even has cool street lights.

February 10 - Tuesday
We pull into Gulf Shores State Park in Alabama where, although we knew it would be long shot based on calling ahead, we’re hoping we might get lucky and get a site for the night. But for the first time, we don’t get our first choice of parks. We spend the night in a private RV Park, Island Retreat, which the girls liked because it had cable and we like because of the full hook ups and pull through.  For dinner we drive to Mobile and hit the Brick Pit, the first place of the trip that has been recommended in the book, “Road Food.”  We also drive by other recommended locations, the Dew Drop Inn (which allegedly inspired Mobile native and now Palm Beach resident Jimmy Buffet to write Cheeseburger in Paradise ) and Wintzell’s Oyster House, Mobile’s oldest restaurant.

February 11 – Wednesday
Number 3 on the waitlist turns out to be our lucky number and we get a lakefront site at Gulf Shores State Park. We do  bit of the usual stuff – home school work, internet access, restocking the pantry before changing locations. Later that afternoon we drive down to Ft. Morgan, one of the two forts built to protect the entrance to Bay. Despite the cool, rainy weather, the girls have a blast. They like the relatively unfettered access to all sorts of areas in the fort. We buy them a very informative coloring book about Historic North American Forts in the Museum Gift shop. The girls also add to their civil war knowledge as this fort was involved in the Battle of Mobile Bay. This battle was the origin of the phrase “Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead!” uttered by Admiral Farragut to encourage his ships to ignore the mines (called torpedoes back then) lining Mobile Bay after one sunk the USS Temcumsa.

February 12 – Thursday
More rain…a front is stalled overhead. Late morning finds us headed to Pensacola to visit the Naval Aviation Museum. We plan to go to Hopkins Boarding House for lunch and the girls are looking forward to their famous fried chicken but we get skunked. The restaurant is closed for renovation! While we’re in the parking lot, at least three other cars pull in and are disappointed too. We head back to a restaurant we pass – Chet’s – that seemed to have the hallmarks of a typically road food find –an unassuming exterior mobbed with cars and people waiting outside to get in. We go in and enjoy watching the hostess who seems to greet practically everyone by name. She immediately brings crackers to the table for the kids after seating us. (The fact that Alex was staring through the doors for the most of the time we were waiting must have clued her in that this kid wanted to eat!).  The oysters were very tasty and the prices low. We make a quick stop at Joe Patti’s seafood and buy some fresh scallops before heading over to the museum.  Since it is on the Navy grounds, security is heightened and we have to detour from one entrance to another and answer ‘no’ to questions like “Do you have an weapons, explosives, or knives on you?” and show a driver’s license. Bill asks "Do unruly kids count?", but that’s not on the banned list.

The museum covers all facets of naval aviation and the girls enjoy the displays. They can climb into the cockpits of some the planes and learn about different styles of aircraft, air craft carriers, and wars – though mostly World War II. Admission is free and the displays are beautifully done. We also watch the IMAX film, the Mystery of Flight, and they have more information to add to their timeline as well as an interest to see the Blue Angles live at an air show. We get home for an early evening.

February 13 – Freaky Friday
What a jam packed day! It doesn’t start out too well – no mail as hoped for at the post office and we miss the ferry we wanted to take across Mobile Bay by minutes (along with about 4 other cars!). So we decide to salvage our trip into to Mobile by hitting some "RV Trips for Dummies" (by some Frommer's contributors) market highlights. Our first stop is the “Sweet Home Farm” where the proprietor has been making natural cheeses (no preservatives or coloring) for 20 years. He lets us sample some delicious cheeses and we buy some Elberta (the house cheese named after the farm's location), Bleu, and Bama Jack. Yummy! We then cruise over to the Burris Farm Market in Loxely where we dig into huge portions of Strawberry Shortcake and Laura gets a fresh apple dumpling. We finally head out for Mobile by interstate and the science museum. Bill drops the family off and then heads out to Bunkley's, a huge RV parts store, to find some replacement parts for the RV. With three kids, usage, and  rumbling down roads, things will break with relative frequency and the right match isn’t always easy to get.

Upon entering the museum, the fire alarm went off so the kids and Sandra wind up on the street. Not having their coats (those are in the car with Bill), they head out to find a warm spot until they can go back in and they come across Bienville Book Store. This turns out to be a fortunate episode because Sandra finds information about Mobile ’s Mardi Gras parades. (These allegedly precede New Orleans' parades, probably from when Mobile was the capital of the French territories but that whole claim seems unfounded). They head back to the museum and the kids have a blast with all the hands on exhibits Alex in particular delights in the water area. Becca likes building circuits.  Laura works with a boy she met to create their own computer fish and ocean environment.  Other areas the girls really enjoy include a lab for chemistry experiments and a place to build and ride your own virtual roller coaster (like at Disney Quest).  

After the museum, we dine at Wintzell’s Oyster House for an early dinner where the girls like reading all the funny sayings by the late owner that are tacked up all over the walls. Examples include “A theory is a hunch with a college education.” We then head down to the parade route and easily find front row positions. All the kids love the Mardi Gras Parade put on by the Order of the Incas. The floats are done in a Friday the 13^th horror film motif - the theme is a Nightmare to Remember - and the riders toss beads, moon pies, and even stuffed animals! Alex tells Bill “Daddy, I got a toy and I got a necklace!”  Becca and Laura have heaps of beads and the kids have two stuffed animals each.  On the way home, we stumble across yet another Mardi Gras parade in the town of Fairhope. We quickly pop into a parking spot and easily get right up front. It’s a much smaller parade hosted by Apollo's Mystic Ladies and it has less of the traditional brass bands (more local rock bands towed on trailers) but it’s still fun and the kids get even more beads and moon pies. Alex earns yet another new nickname, "Moon Pie Man," since he likes to gobble up moon pies and seems to enjoy the banana even more than the chocolate. The two youngest children fell asleep during the remaining drive back to the RV.  

February 14 – Saturday, Valentines Day
Bill treats Sandra to breakfast in bed. J It’s still gray outside. We knew we’d get poor weather at times but for residents of the Sunshine state, we’re hoping for some sun soon! We debate if we’d prefer cold and clear to warmer and gray since those seem to be the only choices. Most of the morning is spent with errands, picking up the mail, groceries, and laundry, and the girls enjoy reading books – Becca reads the story of Helen Keller and Laura reads a fictional New England Girl's Journal of 1830-1831.

In the afternoon we go over to the small nature center at the park. It turns out to be a gem. There are tanks full of native live species of turtles, snakes, baby gators, a possum, and a skink. After the girls are there a bit (Alex is napping), the ranger takes the possum, Marlu, that they raise from a baby out and lets them pet her. Becca is fascinated by how the tail can hold her finger. She then lets them feed the turtles.  She also takes a large Black Pine snake, Houdini, out of her cage. Finally, the ranger hands us some fun papers on animal tracks and sea turtle activity sheet.

Bill struggles to get on line at the campground but there appears to be a problem with the phone lines. We are finally successful at the resort hotel also run by the state park.

February 15 – Sunday
This time the whole family makes it to a contemporary service at Gulf Shores Methodist church. We then return to pack up the RV and head to New Orleans but we encounter a problem. The front jacks which help keep the RV stable when we camp, will not retract. Since these large metal posts touch the ground, it is impossible to leave the site to work on the problem and let an incoming camper in. Bill does a wonderful job of troubleshooting the problem and creatively moves a switch from the functioning rear jacks to the stubborn front ones. Voila! Success and we are off without hours of hassle or the expense of an onsite RV mechanic! We drive to our new location at Fontainebleau State Park in Louisiana. It is across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. We set up camp and then go to Middendorf’s, a renown catfish restaurant, for a late dinner.

February 16 – Monday (President’s Day)
Bill’s uncle and his family live in Carriere, MS, only 30 minutes from the state park. We call Uncle David to arrange a time to meet and learn that Aunt Wilma has the day off from work for President’s Day.  The girls mutiny about doing any more schoolwork today since it is not a “school day”. We drive over to visit Uncle David and Aunt Wilma and have a lunch worthy of an entry in the Roadfood book at Dockside Seafood. After lunch, Bill’s cousin Kathy and her family came over to visit.  Much to the joy of the girls, Kathy’s two daughters are 14 and 12 years old – just the ages the girls adore. We spend most of the day there before returning to our RV. Wilma sent us off with a bag of delicious homemade praline’s using pecans from her parent’s home. Alex missed his nap and is so worn out that he falls asleep on the ride home and doesn’t wake up until the next morning.

February 17 – Tuesday
We do some home schooling as well as take a bike ride around the park. Shortly before noon, we head into the Big Easy, the Crescent City, Nor’leans. Our route from the campground takes us over the world’s longest bridge over water – 26 miles. Sandra gets reoriented to a city she hasn’t seen in almost 25 years when she took a trip there with her dad and best friend, Cathy. We drive past the Superdome and down Canal street then cruise onto Decatur into the French Quarter. After a quick buzz through, we go to the Bon Ton Café for lunch. We’re a tad underdressed but enjoy our meal and the kids display top notch behavior. After we head back to the French Quarter to look at the architecture and mardi gras decorations. We park right across from the Café Du Monde and enjoy some of their famous beignets. These ‘French donuts” are like mini fried dough you get at a fair but the dough is slightly heavier and they come covered with a pile of powdered sugar. We stroll around Jackson Square, looking at the art for sale and listening to street musicians. Afterward, we enjoy watching a street performance by very funny and athletic troupe from NYC.  We decide not to stay for any parades and head back to across the lake. We stop at Krummel’s Bakery in Mandeville and purchase a “king cake”. This Mardi Gras sweet tastes similar to a coffee cake or breakfast Danish. It originally was a plain cake with a dusting of sugar. Today they are typically frosted and come with a variety of fillings.

February 18 – Wednesday
We spend more time on school work and then decide to head back to New Orleans. The girls want to go to the Aquarium and we want to find the National Park we passed yesterday in the French Quarter that may give some history of the pirate, Jean Lafite. We drive all over the French Quarter but somehow can’t locate it again. Even a stop at the tourism center doesn’t help! All is not in vain because we at least get some muffelatta sandwiches from the Central Grocery before going to the aquarium. We enjoy looking at their exhibits which include penguins, river otters, frogs, and natives from the bayous of Louisiana. 

After another round of beignets (Alex slept through it yesterday), we decided to attend a ‘real’ New Orleans Mardi Gras parade. We stayed along Canal Street. Although we heard horror stories of rowdy behavior and problems with crime, we scoped out the situation and feel that we should be OK. One of the reasons for our trip is to experience events like this and although we didn’t plan to be here around Mardi Gras our motto is “carpe diem!” There is a substantial police presence, the crowd around us seems pleasant, and we are not near the more popular and rowdy parts (aka St. Charles St) of the route. The only problem is, no one can tell us which side of the street the parade will go down! There are two parades tonight and they take slightly different routes down Canal to boot. We wind up with a much longer wait than we expected and move three times (as the barricades shift) until we get a spot for the first parade by the Saturn krewe. A real nice lady hands each girl a necklace while we wait for the parade and we talk to the fellow tourists around us. We enjoy the floats and the girls get more beads, some doubloons and toys. Part way though, Alex fell asleep and was so tired that he snoozed through the marching bands. We don’t have to wait too long before the next parade but do manage to get on the same side of our street that the car is located on. The second parade by the Muses is even nicer and includes the Shriners, one of whom stops his motorcycle and hands Laura two roses. We mention how we love the Shriners and how Laura is a patient at the Tampa Shriners Hospital to a fellow by-stander who turns out to be a Shriner too! Many of the people standing next to us give extra beads to the girls. Mom catches a soft soccer and football for Alex – happy boy! The parades finally end and we have no problems with traffic heading home. All the children fall asleep on the way. The history around Mardi Gras and the krewes are interesting and we’ll try to locate a good website to include (recommendations welcome!).

February 19 – Thursday
We leave Fontainebleu and head up to Natchez , MS. We make a stop at Port Hudson – the last Confederate stronghold along the Mississippi. Bill’s Uncle David had mentioned the research that Bill’s mom had done showed how some ancestors of Bill’s had come here with their regiment from Connecticut to fight against the Confederates entrenched there. On the way there, we had accidentally turned into the Port Hudson National Cemetery and we wind up having to take the car off in order to back up and turn around. This cost us some time and we didn’t reach the state park in Natchez before 5 p.m. so we ended up in a private campground in Natchez for the night. We take a drive into historic Natchez to look at the antebellum homes and get take out food from Cock o' the Walk restaurant including “fried pickles” before turning in for the night.

February 20 – Friday
It takes most of the day to drive from Natchez , MS to Murfreesboro, AR since we have to take a combination of highways and two lane roads to get from one point to another. We do enjoy a brief ride up part of the historic Natchez Trace Parkway. Along the way we stop in Monroe, LA in our quest to find a dealer to replace our front tires. One is wearing badly and we need to have an alignment. However, Freightliner dealers who do the alignments don’t sell tires and most Michelin tire dealers don’t carry the special heavy duty RV tire that we need. After some phone calls, we find both in Little Rock and plan to go there Monday.

February 21 - Saturday
We are camped at Crater of Diamonds State Park. Laura, usually the last one up, is awake early and ready to spend the day looking for diamonds. We searched among 38 acres of plowed area, walking up and down the rows in search of a metallic glint the size of a match head. The odds are very low that we will actually find any. Later that morning we  attend a talk by the park ranger about the other types of interesting stones we might find and watch the video about the park’s history and three main ways to locate diamonds - looking at the surface, dry screening some dirt, or rinsing the gravely dirt.  After lunch we decide to rent the screen, bucket, and shovel so the kids can get even muddier than they already are. No diamonds but the weather is lovely and we have a good time. We get a great winter rate on the site and the firewood is the best bargain yet - $2 for a large bundle. We enjoy a large campfire that night. (Yes, including the obligatory s’mores once the coals are just right!)

February 22 – Sunday
We spend another day of schlepping through the diamond field and enjoying beautiful weather. Some guys that Sandra talked to a little bit yesterday who had been coming here for years were the only ones who had found a diamond that day – an 11 point one (about 1/10^th carat). The three of them had worked very hard all day going through many 5 gallon buckets of dirt. They didn’t have any luck today but bring some of the gravel home to go through more carefully. The girls do better getting ‘finds’ at the gift shop!

February 23 – Monday
We make the short trip over to Degray State Park. We planned to use that location as a base to go to Little Rock and deal with the tires. But when Sandra called to confirm that Looney’s Tires still have the tires in stock, she discovered that they had been sold on Saturday. Another lesson learned of life on the road – see if you can pay for it over the phone when something is that hard to find! Degray turns out to be a beautiful park. The park has a lodge resort which has been renovated in the last couple of years and the campground is nearly empty. Our lakefront site is one of the most beautiful we’ve had yet.  We take a drive into Hot Springs to do some banking and see if we can spot a Volvo dealer because now a warning light is flashing on the dash of the car. We suspected that Alex may have pushed a button when he was climbing around in the front. It turns out that the only Volvo dealer in Arkansas is in Little Rock but the light goes off after Bill fills the car with gas. It wasn’t looking very pretty to have both of our transportation methods needing work at the same time.

February 24 – Fat Tuesday
The home school time gets occasionally interrupted by bird sightings. There are lots of blue jays, cardinals, red bellied woodpeckers, tufted titmouse birds, and a beautiful blue bird (we think may have been an indigo bunting) flitting around the camp ground area. Most of our neighbors already left earlier that morning (except the guy in the tent next to us with the massively bright lights he has set up and leaves on all night – thank goodness our night shades do a decent job keeping out the light. We have dubbed this odd neighbor "Halogen Man."). Late that afternoon we go to Hot Springs to visit the National Park. We tour the Fordyce Bathhouse which was built in the 1920s. It offers an interesting look into the whole spa culture which lasted from the mid 1800’s until shortly after WWII. The girls and Sandra then decide to go to the Hot Springs Spa to ‘take the waters’. Bill graciously takes care of Alex who, being less than 3 and not fully potty trained, can’t go. The girls really enjoy the warm waters in the large bathing pool and also have a good time exploring the various hot tubs and saunas. We enjoyed a tasty dinner at Mickey’s BBQ in Hot Springs (sadly the namesake died last year but his family still runs it).  The Roadfood book scores with this one! Another wildlife highlight for the day is spotting a skunk crossing the road as we drive toward our campsite.

February 25 – Wednesday
The day is cold and rainy which makes a perfect day to focus more on school work and errands. Bill, Alex, and Becca all go to get haircuts. Becca goes first, no problem. Bill goes next, no problem. Alex, who is woken up from a nap, goes last, big problem. He gets so upset by being held on mommy’s lap for the ‘tickle bug’ (electric hair trimmer), that we have to stop the proceedings and try to get him to settle down. He finally does settle down enough to have a half way decent hair cut. The stylist was very patient and tried very hard to work with Alex. Fortunately he calmed down before another little boy came in also needing a haircut… the stylist's shoulders’ did visibly slump when faced with another potential tantrum situation! Bill paid one of the largest haircut tips of his life and Sandra is grateful that she actually did pack the “Wahl home haircutting kit and video!” Since the haircuts took longer than expected, we go to McClard’s BBQ for dinner. This spicy BBQ was often served when President Bill Clinton was in office. Lots of letters and pictures from him and the likes of the airforce one crew line the walls. Menus include the story behind the sauce.

February 26 – Thursday
Naturally, since we’re pulling out of this lake front site, today dawned bright and blue! Sandra has come down with a cold so Bill does most of the driving. We head down to our planned stop which is about a third of the way between Texarkana and Houston. We are driving down 59 and think that should be the theme route number of our trip…In Alabama, we took 59 to go from Gulf Shores to Mobile. In Louisiana we used 59 off 12 to get to Fountainbleu and we also used 59 in Mississippi to go from 10 to Bill’s uncle’s house. We seem to keep taking 59 in every state we go!
Texas has one of the better state visitor guides and the entry for the town of Jefferson intrigued us enough for a stop. We went to the historic Carnegie library first. The librarian was very friendly and has done some extensive RV travels also. Laura read a book about the history of Texas while Becca enjoyed some Texas ghost stories. We also toured the local historical society museum which is housed in the former post office/court house. We went into an old fashioned styled general store and then bought some slices of pie, including buttermilk, at the restaurant next door and then headed out again. We planned to stop at Creek State campground but when we went on the road that should have lead to it, the sign to the campground must have been missing. Rather than turn around, we decided to continue. We didn’t see any commercial campgrounds that appealed to us so we kept going until we reached Lake Livingston State Campground and stopped for the night.

February 27 – Friday
Since the remainder of our drive is short today, we take our time breaking camp and Bill does laundry. It takes about 2 hours to reach the McKethen’s home. We receive an amazing welcome. (How many people would tear down their car port so that you can get into their driveway!!!)  
The kids are so excited to have other kids to play with again!  

February 28 – Saturday
Yeehaw! The Houston rodeo is here! Everyone heads over to downtown to watch the rodeo parade. It is the most horses we’ve ever seen in one place. It’s fun to watch the different groups, riders, costumes, and wagons. Some of the riders have their horses do fancy steps for the crowd (one rider even gets down and does a few of his own). The street sweepers come through periodically to clean up after the horses – particularly before the marching bands come through! It is one of the longest parades we’ve been to and we enjoy it very much.

February 29 – Sunday (Leap Day)
We went to church with the McKethen family. Active Alex paid a visit to the nursery for much of the service. Much of the rest of the day was spent having a lovely time of general rest and relaxation.  

March

March 1 – Monday
Bill successfully achieved getting both new front tires and an alignment. On Saturday he located a nearby tire shop that had the tires we needed at their local warehouse. They came in and he had them installed before noon. Then he spent the remainder of the day at the Freightliner service center to get the alignment done. We hope it lasts well!  These big tires are pricey. We also are treated to ‘date night’ as James and Maya watch the kids.

March 2 – Tuesday
We went  with Maya and Lian to the NASA, Johnson Space Center in Houston. On the tram tour, Sandra’s thrill was seeing the historic mission control room that was used until 1995 to support space flights from the Apollo missions through Shuttle launches.  Here’s Becca’s write up about the field trip: “It was really fun. A lady let us go on a ride. And the ride was really fun. We ate lunch and then went to a play place. Lunch was good but playing was even better. We even got to touch a moon rock! Me and Lian [Lian and I] got to go in a rocket ship. I wanted to go on a ride but you had to pay. In the play place you could shoot balls down at people. In 1969 the first man went on the moon.” The center has many historic artifacts as well as a lot of high tech, interactive displays and rides. Maya was the audience volunteer who demonstrated what life is like in the space station.

March 3 – Wednesday
Spent the day doing home school and errands.  One of the small things you notice on road trips is how different areas of the country call some items by slightly different names. In most of the east coast, you would do laundry at a Laundromat, around the gulf coast, the common name is Washateria. We wonder what names we’ll encounter in other parts of the country but no matter what you call it, Bill proves that he is the laundry king yet again today.

March 4 – Thursday
We went to the Houston Livestock Show with Maya and Lian. The kids enjoyed looking at all the different animals brought in for the show competitions. There were beef and milk cattle, llamas and alpacas, rabbits, swine, and more. There were no chickens this year due to the avian flu virus outbreak and the usual buyers from Mexico of cattle would not be making purchases because of the ban on US beef due to the mad cow disease quarantine.  Becca and Lian enjoyed a pony ride. All the kids enjoyed the petting zoo which had a deer and some wallabies in addition to the usual goats, sheep, and donkeys. We enjoyed laughs at the pig races. Later that afternoon we enjoyed a visit to the  Houston Museum of Natural Science. We love how our annual family membership to our local science museum gives us access to many other great museums. There we toured the Cockerell Butterfly Center which has a wonderful tropical area full of live butterflies mostly from Central and South America with a few from Asia . Butterflies that were especially beautiful included the blue morpho and rice paper butterflies. We rejoined Maya and her kids and she treated us all to dinner at Luby’s.  That night, to keep with our NASA trip of earlier in the week, we watched the movie October Sky.

March 5 – Friday
We spent the morning getting ready to drive over to San Antonio. We’ll be spending a couple nights at Fiesta Alamo RV resort and plan to attend the Alamo activities scheduled this weekend in honor of the historic battle.   

March 6 - Saturday
There is finally a full, beautiful day of blue skies and sunshine after a week of gray skies and rain. We join up with Maya and the kids in front of the Alamo. Today is the anniversary of the battle of the Alamo which occurred March 6, 1836. We watch the San Antonio Living History organization do a 3 part re-enactment of the historic battle. The first part introduced the key defenders, such as Travis, Bowie, and Crockett,  and the last evening of their 13 day defense. The second part focused on the women who were among the few survivors. The final scene was the climactic battle where the large number of Mexican forces from Santa Ana's army overwhelmed the defenders shortly before dawn. The volunteers did a great job and the scenes included cannon and musket fire. 

After the Alamo we went over to the nearby River Walk area were we stopped for lunch. We strolled around the riverfront for awhile after. It is a lovely area and it gives San Antonio the more intimate feel of a small city instead of the 9th largest in the nation. In front of the Hilton, Sandra noticed a secret service man and overheard another walker mention to her daughter that he was there to protect one of the presidential candidates who was in the hotel. Sandra asked her which one and she said "John Kerry". We continued to walk and enjoy the stroll along the river. Finding wheelchair ramps to cross over the river was a bit challenging but eventually we made our way around most of it. At the end, we found ourselves in front of the Hilton again just as Senator Kerry's motorcade was pulling up. We waited and the media contingent came out and went down the nearby steps to set up for their photos or to head into the hotel. Then Senator Kerry came out and greeted the by-standers. He stopped to talk to our group and Becca asked "What's your name?" "John Kerry" he replied and said "You have beautiful blue eyes!" He then graciously posed for a group picture (boy that digital camera can be so slow to set up for the next shot!!!).  Now Becca wants Mom to vote for him! Bill says only if he names Becca as his Vice President, then he will!

After that bit of excitement, we returned to the Alamo to tour the Shrine and Long Barrack areas. Maya capped off our wonderful day with treats of ice cream.  

March 7 - Sunday
The weather was beautiful for another straight day. We decided to hang out. We gave the RV and car a good wash. The RV roof takes some time. Later in the afternoon, we drove through nearby Boerne (pronounced Burn-e) and over to the Guadalupe River State Park. There the girls enjoyed wading in the water and all the kids had fun at a playground. 

March 8 - Monday
Bill had noticed that the tow dolly's tires were wearing a bit and it had a shimmy so he took it to a nearby shop after we checked out of the RV park. Turns out it was a good thing because the cotter pin was broken and the wheel could have fallen off! While it's being repaired, we went back to San Antonio for the afternoon. We had lunch at El Mercado. We then tried to go over to the Institute for Texas Cultures but unfortunately it is closed on Mondays so we headed over to the Witte Science Museum. There we went through a special exhibit on bones and then a display on the animals of Texas. We review the rhyme about identifying highly venomous coral snakes vs. the similarly colored but harmless king snake - "red touch yellow, kill a fellow, red touch black, venom lack" - and hope we never need to use it! We then drive to Pedernales Falls State Park outside of Johnson City (west of Austin) and arrive just after the sun sets. A nice couple that has been full timing for 3 years helps us select a good site and navigate into the back-in site by flashlight.

March 9 - Tuesday
The girls do most of their school work outside. Bill took Alex on a bike ride around the park (including up 'cardiac hill' to register at the park office) to view the falls and then the wading area further downstream. Signs warn about the dangers of flash floods and the flood markers we drove by on the road leading to the park mean we'll be keeping an eye on the weather and water level. In the afternoon, we drove to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. We enjoyed walking through the center, gardens, and a bit of the trails. Now that the flowers are emerging and it is sunny and warm, the butterflies have become more active. We then went to Austin for an early dinner at Hut's Hamburgers. Afterward, we enjoyed a short walk along Town Lake down to the Congress Avenue bridge so we could watch the world's largest urban bat colony emerge shortly before sun set. 

March 10 - Wednesday
Becca goes on an early morning hike with Bill down to the river and swimming area. While the girls do some school work, Sandra takes Alex on a short hike to Twin Falls. There are jack rabbits, scrub jays, and road runners all around our campsite. In the afternoon we went down to the river to play in the water. Laura rode in the backpack on Bill's back, and Alex on Sandra's shoulders while Becca carried herself! Late that afternoon we headed to Lockhart and stopped on the way at the Wimberly Pie Company where we lived out the motto of 'life is short, eat dessert first." From there we drove through San Marcos to Lockhart, the "Buckle of the Barbeque Belt of Texas". There are three places in this small town known for its BBQ and we decide to try Black's which has been run by the same family since its founding in 1932.  It's BB Q is flavorful but not worth traveling so far out of the way. On the way back, Sandra decided to try to stop at the Blanco Bowling Club Cafe. This funky place is a cafe in front and a small bowling alley in the rear. The Roadfood book raved about its meringue pies and while it was nearly 8 p.m. and the restaurant was still open (lots of places close at 6 or 8 out in the Texas hill country) they had sold out of pies. We stopped at the Hill Country Cupboard in Johnson City (near the junction to the road to the state park). This restaurant proclaims to have the World's Best Chicken Fried Steak but we just got a few slices of pie to go and can't verify that claim! We played a few spelling games on the remainder of the drive (e.g. A-r-e w-e s-t-u-f-f-i-n-g o-u-r f-a-c-e-s a-c-r-o-s-s T-e-x-a-s?), enjoyed gazing at the clear night sky, and spotted a jackrabbit along the road. 

March 11- Thursday
Bill took Alex on a 5 mile hike through the park. For lunch, we drove up to Marble Falls and had lunch at the Blue Bonnet Cafe. This place was road food heaven - tasty country cooking and awesome pies. We then took a drive through other hill county towns such as Llano on our way to Fredericksburg. En route, we saw some roadside blue bonnets (it's still to early in the season for the famous fields of blue bonnets that blanket the countryside) and a nest with bald eagles on the side of the road. We stopped at the Wildflower Seed farm, a large producer of seeds. They have a beautiful gift shop area, many friendly cats roaming around, and a soon to open butterfly house. When we returned to the campground, Becca and Sandra took a hike down to Pedernales Falls (trying to walk off some of that pie!). We spent a relaxing evening together and worked on the website (including Laurabug.com). There are no data jacks on the pay phone at the park so email and website updates must wait.

March 12 - Friday
We took back roads from Johnson City to New Braunfels (where yes, we stopped for lunch at the New Braunfels Smoke House) and then down to Mathis where the Lake Corpus Christi State Park is located. We plan to stop hear and then head closer to the city of Corpus Christi tomorrow and plan to stay for 5 days. With many schools on spring break this week, we should be able to get into a 'first come, first served' county park  - especially if its one that's not located in the desirable beach areas. We pulled in by early afternoon and took a walk around the park. Many of the spring wildflowers are out as well as butterflies.  Still no data jacks!

March 13 - Saturday
We head out with plans to stay at one Nueces county park west of town but when we drive out there it seems too far out of town and too small and we decide to head into town. We then get one of the last spots at the county park on Padre Island outside of Corpus Christi. The sites are basically a paved parking lot and close together (as Bill says, he's never been close enough to see the salt crystals on the table in his neighbors RV before!) but they are also inexpensive and right on the ocean. The day is cool and gray so after we set up we drove down into Corpus Christi. We went to a huge playground along the bay. After that, we decide to take the long way back over the ferry at Aransas Pass. During the five minute boat ride, we get treated to seeing 3 dolphins frolicking in the water. They seem to enjoy leaping in the wake of the boats and even flip their tails. 

March 14 - Sunday
We attended church at Island in the Son United Methodist. The pastor, Steve Clinton, turns out to be from Juno Beach United Methodist (one of the churches that combined to form our home church, Oceanview UMC) and had just returned from Lake Park, FL where he was visiting his sons! Such a small world!  Afterward, we go to the beach. Becca takes a jellyfish tally while walking on the beach (12 moon jellies, 4 man of war). It's a good thing we went to the beach before lunch because after, it began to rain, rain, and rain some more. We decided to drive back to the 'main land', go to the library and run some errands. The girls enjoy diving into some books while Alex naps and Bill and Sandra take turns reading email. After the library, the neon "Fresh Hot Now" sign (any fellow junk food addicts will know what that means!) caused us to miss some stores that closed by 5. It's a perfect movie night, so we make our first Blockbuster run of the trip and the kids enjoy Jungle Book 2. Then we fall asleep to the sounds of the waves, wind, and rain.

March 15 - Monday
We spend the morning getting ready for Sandra and Laura to fly to Tampa. Laura needs to go to her scheduled check up at the Shriners' Hospital. She has Perthes disease and they want to see how her hip is progressing. We make time to stop at the Birding Center at Port Aransas where we hope to see the rare Whooping Crane. They winter here and there are only about 50 of them left! We think we spot the large white cranes near some roseate spoonbills but aren't really sure. We take the ferry again but no dolphins this time!  Sandra and Laura get to the airport early. Laura's crutch that lost it's tip in the mud at Crater of Diamonds makes for an interesting stop at the security check point but the staff is very friendly and the 'girls' get through without any body searches. One even gave Laura some Jolly Ranchers after getting the OK from mom. They arrive at Tampa shortly before midnight.

March 16 - Tuesday
Laura met with the nurse practitioner and physical therapist and has x-rays. Her status is about the same - a little more degradation of the bone which was expected, but her hip is still contained in the socket and her range of motion reasonable. She gets her new crutches adjusted correctly. Sandra and Laura enjoy the rest of the day chilling in the hotel, going to the Tampa Museum of Science and Industry and watching an IMAX double feature of Australia and Lewis and Clark. Bill, Becca, and Alex went to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge which is 35 miles north of Aransas Pass where they see an actual pair of Whooping Cranes. Becca writes "We got to watch movies and stay up late while mommy was gone. We watched Peter Pan, Alladin, and Lady and the Tramp. We saw animals and wild life center too! My list of animals: javelina, frog, alagator, whooping crane, heron, fish, duck, butterflies, vulture." 

March 17 - Wednesday (St. Patrick's Day)
Laura and Sandra flew from Tampa to Corpus Christi. Bill, Becca, and Alex went to the museum which had replicas of Christopher Columbus's ships that were built by Spain in honor of the 500th anniversary of his voyage. We all spent the evening relaxing together back at the RV.

March 18 - Thursday
We broke camp and headed down to Mission, Texas. On the way, we said 'thanks' to Lady Bird Johnson as we enjoyed the bursting wildflower blooms lining the side of the road. The Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park no longer offers RV camping but there are several parks on the road near the park. We found a very nice place, the Bentsen Palm Village RV Park. The park is new and the roomy sites are planted with native plants that attract birds and butterflies.  Plus we have free wi-fi! The girls and Bill drive to the NABA International Butterfly Park which is just down the road.

March 19 - Friday
Most of this day was spent by the girls catching up on lots of school work. In the morning, Bill and the girls made a brief trip to the butterfly park. Laura writes "When we went to the NABA Butterfly Park we saw a Tawny Emperor and a Fatal Metalmark. We also saw South Western Lantana and Hackberry [plants]. The Fatal Metalmark was on sage and the Tawny Emperor was on a butterfly feeder. Now the park is small, but later it will be huge! They are going to plant more trees. It was actually a field before they bought it!" After that, Bill made appointments at Camping World for the RV to get an oil change and lube and at the Volvo dealer for the car. He also took Alex on a bike ride down to Bentsen-Rio Grand State Park and saw lots of birds, butterflies, and border patrol agents! 

March 20 - Saturday
In the morning, Bill took the car in for servicing and the girls wrote short stories. We made another visit to the butterfly park and then drove around the Mission/McAllen area and went to a mall. We had thought about going into Mexico but want to check out the details about car insurance coverage. Later that afternoon we hung out around the RV, the girls played Legos in the pavillion, Bill washed one side of the RV while Alex played ball outside. Sandra made dinner and watched TLC shows like "While You Were Out" and "Trading Spaces" and is cooking up home improvement projects once the family returns to Florida. In the evening, we played Scrabble.

March 21- Sunday
We went to church at the First United Methodist Church in Mission. It was a recently added contemporary service and is held in their small chapel. The sermon title was "The Hissing Sin" (who wants to guess what that is?). On the way out, Pastor Charlie Baskin asked Becca "What's your name?" "Rebecca" she answered. "That's a name in the Bible" Pastor Baskin replied. "I know" said Becca "We have the book." The pastor got a chuckle out of her response and related this story to Sandra adding "I may have to use that!"
 
In the afternoon, we headed southeast to Progresso, TX. We decided to go to Mexico by crossing over the pedestrian bridge there. It turned out to be the 23rd annual "Tourist Appreciation Day." Adults pay a quarter to cross the bridge and there is no customs to go through to speak of in Mexico. Heading over the bridge, there were people standing below at the base of the river that held upside down plastic bleach jugs attached to sticks. They used these to gather change that they begged from the crowds. Another thing we noticed was the incredible number of dental offices. The low prices ($10 cleanings, etc.) must draw many people over the border. The town of Nuevo Progresso was jammed with crowds. The streets swirled with sounds and activity. Music pounded out of large sound systems or came from small bands or individuals. Sellers had their merchandise laid out on tables, pushed on carts, or carried on their backs. The bustle was overwhelming. After walking down the main street for awhile, we went into a large store. The girls bought little dolls and we bought Alex a cowboy vest. It was almost 4 o'clock so we decided to head back over the border. Many others had the same idea and the line stretched over the bridge, around a corner, and far down a side street. At first it was slow and we thought it may take an hour or more to cross, then suddenly we were walking briskly. We barely paused to answer "yes,  we are American citizens", then flashed our drivers licenses and were quickly across.  In spite of the crowds, the Mexico trip was a success in another way since Becca is now motivated to learn more Spanish so next time she can "read the signs".

On our way home, at the recommendation of Sue Sills at the NABA park, we stopped at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. We walked on a 2 mile trail and encountered three chachalaca birds in the trees as well as spotted some other birds that we haven't seen before but were not able to identify. We also saw a very pretty Mexican Bluewing butterfly.  We discovered while reading a field guide to mammals several days later that the Santa Ana NWR is also the "best odds" place in the country to see an ocelot in the wild.

March 22 - Monday
Bill took Alex on 10 mile bike ride in the morning, stopping at the NABA park on the way. They saw a question mark butterfly. This area is very popular with birders and butterfly enthusiasts due to its unique ecosystem in the US. There is a section in our bird book dedicated to the birds located mostly in this area. In the afternoon, Bill took the RV to Camping World to have the oil changed. It takes 25 quarts of oil! Sandra and the kids ride bikes to the NABA park and see some beautiful butterflies including what they think is an orange sulfur and a very long tailed butterfly. Unfortunately the butterflies don't pose long enough or close enough for any pictures.  

March 23 - Tuesday
We manage to get an early start and travel up 83 past Uvalde to Garner State Park. The park is named after James "Cactus Jack" Garner who was vice-president under FDR. It was built by the CCC and is located along the sparkling clear Rio Frio.  There are lots of deer in the park - both white tailed and axis - an exotic that got loose from a game ranch. 

March 24 - Wednesday
After some school work, we head out in the afternoon to tour the park. The weather is poor so we don't go on any hikes. We stop at the park's visitors center which has an impressive collection of Texas themed books for kids. We then traveled into the town of Uvalde and lunch at a Rexall Pharmacy lunch counter that serves Mexican food. The decor looks like it was stuck in the 60s with a section for "Gents Scents" in one corner and reminded Sandra a lot of her hometown pharmacy. As we head out, Sandra strikes up a conversation with the pharmacist/proprietor, Alan Carmicheal. He has several recommendations for our trip out west. We told him we were planning on going north to Junction and then west on I-10 toward New Mexico. He recommended stopping at Sonorra Caverns. He has also made 20 trips to Big Bend park and although we've not planned to go there, he gives us pointers in case we change our minds.  He also hands us his 'copyrighted' (as a joke) copy of tips for tubing the Frio Rio. We also follow his tip and travel a block from the pharmacy to the headquarters of the First Bank of Texas, Uvalde whose offices are an ornate concoction of red leather furniture, Remington western sculpture, and marble old fashioned grandeur that somehow looks impressive rather gaudy and more enjoyable than the sterile beige boxes too many banks are today. It makes you wish all banks were designed to make it feel like a worthwhile destination instead of such a mundane chore. We stop at the Humane Society's thrift store and load up on a bag of books for the kids. 

Late that afternoon Bill took Becca and Alex on a hike to White Rock Cave. They had lovely views (but no camera). Above the cave, they heard some strange noises and went to investigate. There were goats on the hillside!

That night we pondered the map of Texas and the places Mr. Carmichael talked about. Bill remarked "Well, we can't do it all..." to which Sandra responded "I've been thinking. What if..."

March 25 - Thursday
Deciding that there is a way to do it all we extend our stay at Garner State Park and take a day trip to Sonora to visit the Caverns. The day is overcast and cool, a perfect time to hang out in a cave. We have a picnic lunch once we reach the caverns and then buy tickets for the extended cave tour. The kids enjoy looking at the peacocks roaming the grounds while we wait for the tour to begin. Our tour guide,  Justin, is a huge cave enthusiast and is very knowledgeable about the caverns and their formation. He helps Laura at different points as she is doing the whole 2 mile tour on her crutches. The cave is very humid (98%) and warm (71 degrees) which feels warmer since bodies are unable to cool themselves through evaporating perspiration at the level of humidity and no breeze! The cavern is jammed packed with rare helictite (we need to look up the spelling on that one!) and other unusual formations. It is the most beautiful caves we've been in and the amount of amazing formations is almost overwhelming. We take a beautiful drive back through back country roads and encounter some amusing things including loose cattle one the road.  That evening we have our first campfire in a while and invite our campground neighbor, Adam, age 6, over for s'mores.  

March 26 - Friday
Bill took Alex and Becca on an early morning hike up to Crystal Cave while Laura (who can sleep in like a teenager) snoozes.  Bill then rents tubes so that the girls can take turns with their parents tubing down the river. Tubing down a section of the Rio Frio winds up taking much longer than anticipated since the strong wind blows the tubes upstream so only one run is done.  On the way out, we asked the rangers about the goats on the hill. It turns out that they are a well established herd of feral goats, not a native species. We drive over to Seminole  Canyon State Park.  It is a gem of a campground set high on an the top of ridge overlooking the canyon.  The  desert is bursting with flowers after a recent rain and the sunset paints the sky. Shortly after arriving we are greeted by the campground  hosts from the Mission RV park.  They have left Mission for the season and are on their way to CA.  This is the first time we have seen the same people in 2 different campgrounds. Unfortunately the beautiful setting also makes for some strong winds so we leave the slides in to avoid tearing the slide awning covers.  The gusts occasionally woke us up.

March 27 - Saturday 
At Seminole Canyon we go on an rock art hike in the morning.  The canyon is named after the Seminole Indian scouts who helped the army in that area, obviously not natives to the area. There are  4000 year old pictographs on the walls in a canyon shelter.  The guide of the tour is a volunteer who has an amazing amount of knowledge about the studies about the Indians who lived there and the possible meanings of the pictographs. Right after our walk, we drove to Big Bend National Park.  The only campsites available in the park are dry camping (no water, electricity or sewer) at Rio Grande Village Campground. We feel set up for it since our water tank is 2/3 full and we have a generator plus house batteries.  No generators are allowed after 8 pm.  Luckily, the desert cools down a lot at night since it is in the 90's in the daytime.  
We head over to an area of the park where a hot spring is supposed to be, right on the banks of the Rio Grande.  Unfortunately,  Hot Springs is flooded with cold, muddy Rio Grande water. The river is very high from 2.5 inches of rain that occurred about a week ago. Along the trail to the spring, there are Indian pictographs, petroglyphs, and middens. There are also cliff wrens nests on the walls although the birds have not returned to nest yet.  Near dusk we see a javelina and a rabbit along the road side.

March 28 - Sunday
We stopped at the Rio Grande Village  visitors center for recommendations. The park host had told us that Ranger Rob Dean who staffed it was 'the best.' The park is larger than Rhode Island and covers terrain that ranges from the Rio Grade river, to the Chihuahua desert to Chisos mountains. We buy a national parks 'passport' book for the kids to stamp as they visit various parks. Based on some of Ranger Dean's suggestions, we take a drive up through the mountains and into the Chisos Basin.  We stop at the visitor's center and the girls pick up books for the junior ranger program. do the short paved Window View walk and see two deer as well as fantastic views. We had lunch at the Chisos Basin lodge, surrounded by more views. We then headed back toward our campground area. We stopped at Dugout wells, an old ranch site that still has a working windmill.  Then we drove to Boquillos Canyon, pausing at the overlook at the Mexican village of Boquillos de Carmen.  We hiked on the trail into the canyon. We spotted goats on the cliffs across the river in Mexico. The wind gusts blew sand from the giant sand slide into our faces but that didn't stop Sandra and the girls from climbing to the top and doing the 'slide' down. That evening we went to the Ranger led slide presentation on Mountain lions. We now know what to do should we encounter one of the parks estimated 15 - 25 mountain lions. We would not run but put the kids on our shoulders to look larger, wave packs, shout or sing, and if needed, throw rocks. Our odds of encountering a rattlesnake are much higher.    

March 29 - Monday
In the morning we join with Ranger Dean for a walk to learn more about the animals that live in the park. He interprets the tracks left in the sand and mud from the night before from various animals such as a kangaroo rat, gray fox, nutria, beaver, snakes, and even insects such as the ant lion. He also gives us a history of the original Indian inhabitants and the Langfords who settled in the area around 1913. Sandra and Becca hike the 3.5 mile trail from the Hot Springs to the campground. Since it takes them longer than planned (it covers high terrain with lovely views and a snake encounter) Bill packs up the RV, vacates the campsite, and completes a dump station stop by himself (quite a feat). We moved the RV across the park to a commercial park just outside in the town of Study Butte. We then go back into the park to do the Ros Maxwell scenic drive and a hike into Santa Elena canyon. We stop at the Castolon ranger station since the girls have completed all activities for their age groups (plus more) and become Junior Rangers! They receive a certificate, a patch, and a pin. We hope to do more of these programs at the national parks we visit. Each park has information and activities to work on that are unique to the park. 

March 30 - Tuesday
We work on making website updates before heading out to Ft. Davis, a couple hours drive to the north. We camp at Ft. Davis/Indian Lodge State Park. This park is a noted bird watching site and home of the rare Montezuma Quail. We go to the interpretive center which has a lovely bird viewing display that includes microphones which pick up the birds' songs and pipe it into the building. We see a house finch, white winged doves, an acorn woodpecker, scrub jay, and yellow finches. Laura has now added bird watching to her butterfly hobby. 

We make a brief visit to Fort Davis, home of different cavalry units including 'buffalo soldiers', who were regiments of African-American troops who helped protect citizens and travelers in this section of Texas from Comanche and Apache raids. 

In the evening we went to an educational Twilight Program and then night Star Party at McDonald Observatory. The girls learned about the five planets currently visible to the naked eye in the night sky - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter - and their orbits. As part of an illustration about orbits, Becca played the role of Mercury and Sandra was the earth. Hopefully Becca will never forget that Mercury orbits the sun 4 times for every 1 orbit the earth makes! In addition, we looked through telescopes at the Moon, Venus, a star cluster, the Orion nebula, Saturn, and Jupiter.

March 31 - Wednesday
Bill took the girls on a morning bird watching trip (We decided Alex would be too noisy and disturb the bird viewing so Sandra stays with him to do stuff around the RV and go to the playground and adobe lodge built by the CCC). Becca came back early but Laura and Bill continued on. Their bird watching expedition took them all round the Ft. Davis area an they saw red tailed and black hawks. In addition they saw elk and prong horned antelope. We then moved the RV to Balmorhea State Park. At Balmorhea we had a west Texas 'snow storm' - the cotton wood trees were in bloom and the fluff flew through the air and covered the ground like snow. Balmorhea Park contains the San Solomon springs - a massive spring that was made into a pool area at the park. The spring is a constant 76 degrees. The large pool/spring is often used by SCUBA classes for certification dives. We enjoyed swimming in it. The pool also contains schools of fish and also large snapping turtle which Bill didn't tell the girls or Sandra about until the next day! The park also includes a small cinega - a Spanish term for a desert wetland - that houses a variety of fish (including two rare species), turtles, and birds. We treat the girls to cable TV that evening after they write an essay about their visit to Big Bend.

April

April 1 - Thursday (April Fools Day)
At last a new state and a new time zone to boot! We drove from Balmorhea up through Pecos and into Carlsbad, New Mexico. We are now on Mountain Time. We relaxed in the morning and got off to a late start and made several stops along the way - filling up diesel and propane at Flying J, stocking the pantry at a Wal-mart Super Center, and finally picking up our mail at the post office. We spent the night at a less than stellar RV park right at the entrance to the park in White City but at least we caught up on the laundry. 
Sandra failed to play any of her usual April Fools day practical jokes on Bill this year. She must be slipping.

April 2 - Friday
We set of for any early morning trip to Carlsbad Caverns since we wanted to move the RV from this location. Doing 3 one night stops in a row is a bit tiring though! On our way on the 7 mile drive to the caverns entrance we almost had an accident. Two deer leapt up over the banking onto the road right in front of our car. Bill adroitly swerved and missed the second deer by bare inches. Whew! It makes us truly appreciate all those who are praying for our safe travels.  

Once we reached the visitor's center Bill put Alex in the backpack and took  Becca on the 45 minute walk down the natural cave entrance to the main attraction of the caverns - the big room. Laura spent time working on her junior ranger book before she and Sandra took the elevator down to the entrance to the great room. The large cavern area is over 750 feet below the surface and is as large as 14 football fields. We all met up where the natural entrance path converges with the trail around the big room.  We enjoyed the large formations and various features (like the 'bottomless pit' which drops down 140 feet).  Afterwards we headed back to the RV for lunch and the girls worked more on their activity books toward the junior ranger badges. We returned to the caverns where the girls did some ranger activities to complete their books and receive their certificates. One of Laura's activities was to write a poem in a cinquain format that describes her experiences at Carlsbad. She wrote:

Caves
small, big
growing, dripping, living
are growing every day
Nature

After the caverns, we drove onto the Brantley Lake State Park and found a delightful place to set up camp (as long as the large group of ants under the RV stays outside!). We've seen a few scaled quails and a jackrabbit. The kids love the playground at New Mexico's newest state park campground. That night we experienced a thunderstorm with dramatic lightning over the plains and then heavy rains. We brought the slides in so we wouldn't have to worry about the slide covers tearing or have their flapping keep us awake. 

April 3 - Saturday
On the news the next morning, we learned the Carlsbad had streets flooded and experienced hail. Since we're perched high on a hill, we had no concerns about flash floods at our site itself. We spent the rainy morning relaxing and then headed to Roswell to check out the UFO Museum and Research Center. The free center was founded by two men who were relatively close to the 'event' in 1947. It presented articles and reports from that time. It has another section that covered UFO sightings and hoaxes. Becca doesn't believe the crash was caused by aliens. Laura hasn't stated her view yet. We spent the remainder of the afternoon at the Roswell public library. It had a wonderful and large children's section that even included a fish tank, parakeets, and toys. We had dinner at the Nothin' Fancy Cafe (apparently George W. picked up an order of Ribs and sides for Airforce One back in January which may be as close as we get to the man himself). 

On the way home, we encountered increasingly hard rains. As we turned on the side road that led the 6 miles to our RV, we had to slow down as the driving buckets of rain turned to hail that covered the road. We become increasingly concerned about the water running in streams on the sides of the roadway that occasional covered the roadway. At one point, a broad stream of water covered the road. It was not too deep but was flowing quickly and made us a bit nervous that the car might stall in the middle of it. Laura found the weather rather exciting but Becca was frightened and prayed that the hail would stop and we'd arrive safely back to the RV and thankfully both occurred.

April 4 - Sunday
It rained throughout the night. Given the fact that some streets in the town of Carlsbad were being evacuated due to the continued rise of the Pecos river, we did not head into town to attend church. Bill and Becca took a walk to survey the flooded areas around the campground. Laura and Sandra played Monopoly while Alex watched some videos.  We then decided to head over to Amologordo and try to avoid additional soggy days. We drive over the mountains, through Cloudcraft and actually encounter snow on the ground. It is above freezing so we pause for a brief snowball making session before heading down the road that had been warning large trucks "6% grade for 14 miles, check brakes". The exhaust breaks work great keeping our speed low as we quickly leave the snow behind and move back into desert terrain. We set up camp in town at a former KOA park.

April 5 - Monday
We set off to do a tour of the Billy the Kid Scenic Byway. It takes us through Ruidoso Downs which has massive and graceful horse sculptures across from the visitor's center. We then headed to the town of Lincoln, the focus of the Lincoln County War that propelled William H. Bonney, aka Billy the Kid, into infamy. From there we drove to Capitain for lunch and a visit to the Smoky Bear Historic Museum and gravesite. We continued on to the Three Rivers Petroglyph area that contains over 20,000 primitive carvings on the rocks. We  headed back toward our RV but then kept going on to White Sands National Monument to take in the Dunes Drive at sunset. The kids absolutely loved romping on the powdery white sands. When Alex got into the car he said "That was so nice!" and then "Mommy, can I go on a dune again?" 

April 6 - Tuesday
In the early afternoon we went back to White Sands National Monument. The girls worked on and completed the Junior Dunes Ranger program. They also had more fun playing on the dunes including sliding down the steep sides in a plastic bucket! While walking the Interdune trail, we were entertained by the stealth bombers that flew by a few times. That evening we set up camp outside of Las Cruces. 

April 7 - Wednesday
We went to the White Sands Missile Range Park and Museum. We had to register our vehicle and have the hood and trunk examined before we could get in since it is on a military base (a little more scrutiny than we had at Pensacola). We saw many examples of rockets that have been tested at White Sands including an example of the bomb casing for Fat Boy which was tested without a casing at the Trinity Site. (We could have gone to the actual ground zero site this past Saturday for their bi-annual public tour but didn't do it out of concern for the kids due to the lingering radiation.)  We then drove to La Mesa, chili growing capital of the world for a tasty lunch at Chope's - a long established hole in the wall. We then made a stop at Stahmann's Pecan Farm. We just happened upon their once a week tour and saw the shelling plant as well as the candy making facility. Our guide also gave us some history and facts about the company.  It is the largest privately owned pecan farm in the world. The Stahmann's established it back in 1932 and have patented equipment for cracking and shelling the pecans. They use a cold process to better preserve the flavor of the pecan. They've been making candy, pies, and cookies since 1982.  The tour concluded with sampling some freshly made candies. Yum! 

April 8 - Thursday
In the morning we bought new tires for the tow dolly and then went to a carwash that had a large enough bay to wash the RV.  We then drive to Rockhound State Park near Deming, NM. We set up in a spacious, pull-through site with a view of the playground. We decided that this would be a good location to stay over Easter. The two New Mexico state campgrounds we've stayed at  so far have had lovely facilities - new playground equipment covered by large sun tents, covered picnic tables set in concrete with nearby grills, and large, level, sites.  At this park, you can find and take up to 15 pounds of rocks such as varieties of jasper, silica minerals, quartz crystals, and agates. We hope to find a geode or a 'thunder egg'. We all went to the visitor's center, and then Bill hiked to the top of the mountain while the girls went to the playground and Alex and Sandra tried to nap.  

April 9 - Friday
Sandra tells Becca "go find me a geode".  Based on our conversation with the local rock shop where we bought a lapidary hammer and a book the state park has been "pretty well picked over" and we weren't apt to find any geodes.  We ventured a ways from the trail and Becca found what looked like a geode.  Then she slipped on some loose rock on the hillside and fell into a prickly pear cactus. She looked like she had tangled with a porcupine but was very brave while Dad removed half a dozen larger spines (over an inch long).  The smaller ones had to wait until we returned to the RV and got tweezers. Ouch! 

April 10 - Saturday (Laura turns 9)
For her ninth birthday Laura got to choose what to have for lunch and dinner.  She chose two different fast food places, McDonalds for lunch and Sonic for dinner. Becca hid her presents throughout the RV so Laura had to find them before she could open them. We also took Becca's rock to the rock shop and had them slice it in half to see what was inside.  Becca's rock turned out to be a very pretty thunder egg (basically a geode that is solid all the way through as opposed to hollow). Bill purchased the Rockhound's Guide to New Mexico as well as a lapidary hammer. The girls colored Easter eggs. 

April 11 -Sunday (Easter)
The Easter Bunny somehow managed to track our whereabouts and made a visit to the RV.  We went to Church in Deming.  After church we drove back to the RV on roads that were icy from snow, sleet, and hail.  We waited out the bad weather and then moved to City of Rocks State Park after it cleared.  Becca lost a tooth that had been loose for weeks. 

April 12 - Monday
We crossed the continental divide for the first time on our trek when we took a day trip to to Gila Cliffs Dwelling National Monument. Bill brought Laura up to the cliffs in the back pack, while Sandra occasionally carried Alex and Becca trotted right up like a regular mountain goat. In the afternoon, we stopped to do some rock hunting in Gila river.  The drive through the mountains was beautiful. We encountered snow, mule deer, and wild turkeys.  They have re-introduced the Mexican Grey Wolf to the Gila National Forest but the ranger said that he has never seen or heard them and we didn't have any luck spotting them either. It is rather late by the time we've made the loop heading back to our RV so we stop in Silver City for a tasty Mexican dinner at Jalisco's Cafe. 

April 13 - Tuesday
We took our time making our way over to Arizona and Lake Lyman state park. The scenery on the drive ranges from deserts to forest from mountains to mesas. We included a stop in just outside of the town of Luna to rock hunt agates on roadside where road construction cut through the hill. 

April 14 - Wednesday
We went to Petrified Forest National Park and Painted Desert.  It has loads of petrified wood despite years of removal by early pioneers before it became a park and gorgeous desert landscapes of dramatically covered geological layers.  We began our journey at the Rainbow Forest Museum where we walked the Giant Log trail. We then stopped at the Jasper Forest overlook. Along the drive, we saw logs poking through the bluff. Bill and Becca did a 3/4 mile hike at Blue Mesa. We also stopped at Puerco Pueblo, the ruins of a pueblo that may have housed up to 1,200 people around 1250 A.D.. It also had a number of petroglyphs on the rocks along the canyon wall. We enjoyed stopping at the various lookout points over the Painted Desert and concluded our trip with a stop at the Painted Desert Visitor's Center. The girls added another Jr. Ranger badge to their collection.  Sandra picked up a Gem Trails of Arizona book so that the family's new rock hounding hobby can continue.

April 15 - Thursday
We stayed in Holbrook at a KOA park for another day just to chill out.  Bill took Alex for a bike ride while the girls did schoolwork and Sandra tidied up the RV.  After lunch we did a little rock hunting for petrified wood, stopped at the local visitors center and then went to Dairy Queen for ice cream.  Holbrook has the old route 66 running through the center of town.  It also has some wild west history.  A shootout with the sheriff gave a local watering hole the name Bucket of Blood S