Saturday, April 28, 2007

Driving along

This green matches many of the fields we passed on our way up north. We left Dallas on .. um.. Tuesday, I guess. Today's Saturday. We stayed no more than one night at each stop between Dallas and here, so we've kept on the move. The upside is that we have not killed ourselves (myself) with long driving days, arriving by 3 just about every day.

We have driven 2-lane roads this whole way, and I've loved that. I have to say that the highlight of the trip so far has been Western Iowa's windmills along 20 and 71. For many miles, we passed hundreds of these huge electricity-generating windmills. I didn't stop for a picture, but I wish I had.

The other part of IA landscape that I enjoyed is the terraced farmland. Western IA is hilly! Lots of cattle, and even a small farm with beefalo!

So.. what are we doing in Iowa? We're in Forest City tonight, and we'll be here for a few days, getting a few repairs done on our li'l Navion. We have a small leak somewhere between the water pump and the main water tank, and a couple of other little things that need to be tweaked. Forest City is the "Mother Ship" for our li'l Nav. This is where she was made, and so we'll get to do a factory tour and such while we're here.

We're parked in the li'l campground that they have for Winnebagos awaiting service, and here's a pic! How about that beautiful blue Iowa sky?


I shot this before the party. All of the people awaiting service brought out their lawn chairs and have been talking about everything all afternoon. We went out for dinner at The Lodge with one couple, Nancy and Jay from Texas.

And here are some catch-up pics. Here's a picture I shot of a pretty building in downtown Dallas:


This is Lynell and David in Dallas. We shot their pic inside this RV!

This is where we went with Lynell for lunch. Can you see US in this pic?



And here is the long-awaited panoramic shot of the Texas bluebonnets:

Michael's on night 5 of his chemotherapy tonight and it's been going very well, with no untoward effects. We're getting along well, particularly when you consider that we've been living in this 23' RV for over 3 weeks! :D

Monday, April 23, 2007

Catching up

Hi from the Dallas Metro KOA! This is a really nice campground and we're enjoying our stay! Here's Michael in front of the li'l Nav and some pics of "Navion life." You can tell that we're staying fat and happy:






On Saturday, we drove here from San Angelo, and stopped at a rest area just south of Glen Rose. Bluebonnets abounded! Here are some shots I took there:






Yes, I realize that I'm going backward in time. Here is a pic taken in front of the San Angelo KOA:


And here are some leftover shots from my Hot Springs Trail hike at Big Bend. This was, for me, a nearly 9-mile hike, because I started at the Rio Grande Store.















Today we spent the day and evening with Lynell and her husband David. It was a great day, filled with great food, super-nice people, and seeing of meaningful Dallas sights! Now we're tired!

Friday, April 20, 2007

Here in San Angelo, TX

Hi from San Angelo, Texas! We're parked at a pretty little KOA on Knickerbocker Street. Don't ask where that is; our GPS found it for us, though! The drive ydy was pleasant, with many wildflowers to see along the way. We lunched at Pizza Hut's buffet, stopped at a rest area to walk around a bit, and then finished the drive, arriving in the mid-afternoon.

I went walking with Maddy around a mountain that's right across from the KOA. On the other side of the mountain is a lovely lake, surrounded by pretty houses, each of which has a dock, boathouse, etc.. My main complaint was that I was really thirsty! I don't generally bring water along for my routine 40-minute walks, but I do drink a bellyful before I go. Well, on this walk, there was a woman pushing a stroller and that baby's sippycup was looking very good to me. LOL!

Dinner was Manwich with artichokes and freshly sliced tomatoes, followed with cookies. Mmm!

This morning we have already done laundry, and I have my inbox down to 19 items, most of which are some lingering student assignments I need to go through before awarding Certificates.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Big Bend National Park

Hey there!
Enough people are writing "where are you?" messages that I thought I'd better update you. Actually I've been dying to sit down and blog, but there are two reasons that I haven't:

1) I've been too busy absorbing (and photographing) scenic splendor!
2) In the entire Big Bend area (far west Texas), there IS no internet access!

So here I am! From Van Horne, we drove on down to Presidio and stayed the night near Terlingua, just up the road from the Study Butte Landfill. I am thinking that I remember that Study Butte was on the Superfund Cleanup list, so Maddy and I walked the road to the now closed landfill. I can't find it on the EPA list, but that doesn't mean that my memory is faulty.

Big Bend was awesome. We drove there via Big Bend Ranch State Park, which afforded us amazing views of its own. Arriving in the park early, we drove down the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive. This is scenic splendor at its finest. We stopped at every pullout and just soaked it up. Here are some shots:




They call these Mule Ears... and it's easy to see why!


The non-working windmill at the Sam Nail Ranch:



These panoramas ... how fine PS CS3 is at panoramas! I think better than CS2 was. As with all my photos, I really hope you'll click these, so you see them a little bigger.




We drove all the way to Santa Elena Canyon and we both did the hike into the canyon!


When we began to feel the overload of scenic wonders, we headed off to the full-hookup campground at Rio Grande Village. Sure.. it's just a parking lot, but we did appreciate the A/C on these very warm afternoons/evenings!

I just love photographing flowers, and I love the extreme colors of the desert plants:




More pics later!