Livingston, LA again

We liked Lakeside RV Park that we visited a few weeks ago so much that we decided to stay there again. Today, we drove back to the Great River Road area to visit some more old plantations. Our first stop was at the Laura Plantation, a Creole plantation dating back over 200 years. Our hour-long tour really covered a lot of the Creole history of the area.

A few miles down the road we visited Oak Alley Plantation that got its name from the twenty-eight evenly spaced oak trees planted in the early 1700's in two rows leading to the Mississippi River. These three-hundred year old oaks were simply awesome. The beautiful house was built in 1837 by a rich Creole sugar planter to take advantage of the view provided by the oaks. Again, we learned more about the history of the Creole people. We even sipped on a mint julep while sitting on the veranda. When in Rome...

On the Road Again

On Wednesday, 4/1, we decided to head North a bit so we went to Waco, TX for the next stop. The weather North of us didn't look good, so we decided to alter plans and go back South again. After a overnight rest in Willis, TX, our next stop was in Beaumont, TX. We visited a nice botanical gardens near the campground and did a little mall-walking. No pictures this time...sorry. This morning, we drove back to Lakeside RV Park in Livingston, LA (where we stayed a few weeks ago). Tomorrow, we hope to go see some more old homes and plantations in the New Orleans area. Then, on Monday, we'll start following the Mississippi River north for a while. Stay tuned...

San Antonio - Day 4

Today, we fulfilled our mission of seeing all of the missions. There are five old missions in San Antonio and we have seen three of them so far. Today we saw the other two. The first one was Mission San Juan Capistrano which was built in 1731. A few miles away was Mission San Francisco de la Espada which was built in the same year. It must have been a busy time for the missionarys of the day.

From there, we drove to the King William Area where there is an abundance of historic and architecturally interesting homes. We took a guided tour of the Steves Homestead that was built in 1876 by a German emigrant who made his money in the lumber industry. Then it was back to the Riverwalk for some more strolling, sipping and dining. That is one cool place...

The LBJ Ranch

About a 1.25 hour drive North of San Antonio we arrived at the Lyndon B. Johnson Ranch which is located about 14 miles West of Johnson City, TX. After getting Susan's picture with another dead President, we took a drive around the ranch and saw a replica of the house where he was born, the Johnson Family Cemetery where he was laid to rest, lots of long-horned cattle, farmland being planted and the runway where LBJ's Air Force One used to land. We then took a tour of the Texas White House and visited his Presidential Office at the house.




...and now for some things completely different. If anyone ever says that Texans don't have a sense of humor, show them these pictures. As we were driving back to Johnson City from the ranch, we spotted a longhorn steer made out of spare auto parts, the entrance to a small ranch with a unique name and the Hill Country Cupboard (read the sign carefully).

San Antonio - Day 2

We started our day on a mission - actually by visiting two of the most famous of the San Antonio Missions. Our first stop was at Mission San Jose (locally known as the "Queen of the Missions") which was started around 1720. We were unable to enter the church due to Sunday Mass but the grounds were impressive. Our next stop was at Mission Concepcion which was built in 1731. Sunday services were over by the time we got there so entry was no problem. There are two more missions along the Mission Trail but we didn't have time to see them today.



We then headed out to the Riverwalk where we enjoyed a Tex-Mex lunch on the river. After lunch, we headed over to SegCity where we took their Premier Tour of San Antonio on Segways. This was our third time riding a Segway and we felt like pros. Fortunately for us, we were the only ones that had booked this tour so we had Emzy (his given name), our wonderful guide, all to ourselves. He took us all over San Antonio where we saw places like the Buckhorn Saloon & Museum, the Historic Theater District, the USA's Oldest Continuously Functioning Cathedral, Floodgate 5 and a downtown marina, the Southbend of the Riverwalk, the King William District dating from the 1850's, San Antonio's Oldest Suburb from the 1700's, Hemisfair Park with the Tower Of The Americas, the Alamo and many other fascinating and historic sites! We covered over 6 miles in our 2 1/2 hour ride. Thanks Emzy! After a well-deserved rest stop at an English Pub on the Riverwalk, we headed back to the RV to prepare for tomorrow's adventure.

San Antonio, TX

Here we are in San Antonio (birthplace of my wonderful wife Susan) so we thought we'd start our stay by visiting the places everyone thinks about when San Antonio is mentioned - namely the Alamo and the River Walk. Fortunately, both are very close to each other in the center of town. The tour of the Alamo is free (unless you opt for the audio guide which we did) and starts with the familiar church which now houses a shrine to those who fought and died there. Then we walked through the beautiful courtyards and the barracks museum. Quite a place.



From there, we walked about a block to the RiverCenter Mall located on the River Walk and boarded a guided river tour boat. It took us for a complete trip through the River Walk area while our guide explained the many interesting places there were to see. After that, we headed to Durty Nelly's Irish Pub where we enjoyed lunch and cold beverages seated at a table five feet from the water's edge. Ahhh....








To end our first day in San Antonio, we drove out to Brackenridge Park and walked around their awesome Chinese/Japanese Tea Garden area for a while. Lots of water features, gigantic coy and foliage to enjoy. So far, San Antonio is provong to be a very scenic place.

Houston, TX

After an overnight stop in Kinder, LA, we arrived on Wednesday in New Caney, TX - which is just North of Houston. We visited an old friend and software developer Jan Hoelterling and had the good fortune of meeting his lovely wife and children. They treated us to a delicious home-cooked dinner and showed us their RV. What a lovely evening...thanks for everything!

We spent most of Thursday doing laundry and doing some repair work on the roof of the RV to fix the DirecTV satellite dish that had ceased functioning a few days earlier. I finally got it fixed but forgot one little detail - I had opened a roof vent to talk to Susan while testing the fix but forgot to close it. Normally not a big deal except that afternoon, while we were at the WalMart, a severe rainstorm hit. Needless to say, having a 12" hole in our roof during a 1.5 hour downpour meant that we spent most of the evening mopping up the floor and drying out the carpets. You can bet that we'll never forget to close the roof vent again! Fortunately, no permanent damage resulted. Tomorrow, we're off to San Antonio.