Winding down..

Well, folks!  It's about all over except the parking, unloading and taking the coach back to storage, until next time!

Today, we came from Robinsville MS, down good ole Highway 72, and ended up in Huntsville Alabama.  Tonight we are camping at the U. S. Space and Rocket Center Campground!  So far, it's a very quiet campground, since the sun went down!  During the afternoon, there were several groups from next door at the Space & Rocket Center Space Camp, who came, as a group, into a big open field near the entrance to the campground.  They had constructed rockets, and the staff was helping each one fire their rocket.  We were outside for a while, getting hooked up, and before we went to the grocery store, it was not out of the ordinary to hear laughter and squeals of happiness, as the swoosh of their rockets climbed into the air!!  We remembered the days in Cub Scouting when our Cubs made rockets and we fired them off at Boy Scout Camp!  It was such fun, and these youngsters were having a 'real' blast!!  (no pun intended)

We got settled in, did some grocery shopping to get enough for breakfast in the morning, and then just relaxed.  We had a nice dinner, and are now watching an episode of NCIS that we must have missed, somewhere along the line!!  

In the morning, after breakfast and our morning routine, we will head for the old home place!!

Folks, it's been fun!!  We have so been so blessed, and we have so much to be grateful for.  God has been so good to us.  Much better than we ever deserved!!

After tonight, we will have been on the road a total of 36 days. 

Not counting the trip from Huntsville to Chattanooga (which we won't need to re-fuel for), we have traveled a total of 5507.7 miles.  

Speaking of re-fueling, we have used a total of 739.544 gallons of fuel.   That's a lot of gallons, but I wouldn't change anything for the world!  We have had the time of our lives!!

Gas prices weren't as 'out of sight' as we had planned on.  They were all pretty consistent with the prices around home.  We had budgeted a certain amount for fuel, and we are way under budget on this!!!  Another thing to be grateful for.  

We've stayed in 23 campgrounds, in various states, here and there!  This does not include our 3 glorious days on the garage parking lot in Yellowstone!

Our coach did wonderfully.  Ignition troubles could happen anywhere, while trying to leave storage, or on the way to a campground.  Ours just happened to occur in Yellowstone, where lots of things are restricted about coming onto Government property, as well as only one garage to do service!!  We were thankful that they were there and were so helpful to us during our stay.  We did purchase a full set of tires, that's 6, while we were gone!  And we had to replace the battery in our tow vehicle, although, we are now thinking that we may be having alternator or starter problems on it.  We will have it checked out when we get home!

The 5 that started out with us, were not without trouble, themselves.  Both James & Wallace lost awnings on this trip.  James had air conditioner problems, and an electrical surge at one campground caused them to lose their TV.  Tom had trailer hitch problems, but ended up with a 'sweet deal' when he got it replaced with a brand new one, for his fifth wheel, at only a fraction of the cost of a new one at home!  Several had problems with their black tanks.  No trip is ever without problems here and there.  We're just grateful that the 5 made it home, safe and sound, and that we are this close to our home.  There was a lot more road construction that we went through than accidents on the interstates.  That's another thing to be grateful for, as well.  None of us had tire blowouts, nor accidents that could have caused injury!

We are grateful and blessed that during the time that just the 2 of us have been traveling, alone, that no major health issue has occurred.  It could happen so quickly.  We have some very good friends that are pretty close to our age.  They never travel without at least one other couple with them, just in case of illness.  We would have really been 'in a hum', so to speak, if something like that had happened.  Yet, one more thing to be grateful for. 

Maybe tomorrow night, after we get home, I'll post a lot of photo's from the entire trip, hopefully there won't be too many duplicates.  We've seen so much, and, believe you me, none of the photo's are even close to the real thing!  They just don't do justice to all we've seen.

For now, I guess I've rattled on enough, and I think I will finish watching the movie that Butch is watching, then we'll get a good nights sleep.  

The rest of 2012 has already been planned:   Cherokee Trail October camp out in Woodville Alabama, our family vacation with Nita & Joey to Edisto Beach SC, the Good Sam Rally at the Daytona Speedway, the Cherokee Trail November camp out in Hiwassee Georgia, a trip to Branson Missouri, a week in Nashville TN, and ending up the year with our annual week in the Smokey Mountains!   At the end of 2012, I will have been retired ONE year!!  Amazing how the time flies by, but I have enjoyed every minute of it, and I sure couldn't have been on an awesome trip like this, if I was still working!  I've done my time, not interested in that 4 letter word any more!!

Thank you, my dear friends, for traveling with us.  Just wish everyone could have gone with us for real!!

Goodnight and much love, always.

A day out and about....

Well, as you can tell by the pictures I've posted, we spent most of the day in Memphis at Graceland!  Those who know me well, know that since Elvis and I share the same birthday, we have this bond!!  lol.   Bestest of buddies we would have been had I ever met him.  

Have always loved his music and from the age of folks at Graceland today, pretty much everybody was real close to my age!  

It was a beautiful day, and since Memphis is just a short drive from Tunica (actually our campground & casino is in Robinsville MS) we decided just to go there after we were able to sleep late this morning, get cleaned up, dressed and had a good breakfast!  Hitting the highway was no problem at all for our little CRV!!  

I enjoyed it as much as I could!  Butch sat and waited on my tours to be over and kept up with the purchases I had made.  He was the 'bag man' today!  We had lunch at the Rockabilly's Burger Shop!  We shared a big burger and fries, outside at one of the covered picnic tables!  I was able to go through the Graceland Mansion, the Lisa Marie & Hound Dog II Jets, The Automobile Museum, The King & Pop Culture Exhibit, ICON: The influence of Elvis, and the Elvis on Tour Exhibit!  A full day 'with' Elvis, his music playing everywhere you go, in every store, outside, it was totally awesome!!!

I took tons of photo's but will only share these few with you.  Not everyone in the world is as excited to be there as I was!!!  

Graceland from the driveway

The formal dining room

Some of the beautiful flowers that were full of color at Graceland

Flowers, flowers everywhere

Elvis' trophy room.  From floor to ceiling-wall to wall-

His grave marker in the Meditation Garden

So peaceful in the Meditation Garden

Just had to take one more photo of it while waiting on the bus

Brenda @ Graceland

Butch @ Graceland.  Hard Rock Anniversary guitar for 2012

The Lisa Marie

from Elvis' Automobile Museum

Another one of his cars that is now at the museum

Everything here is ELVIS!

Elvis' Rolls Royce

We made it back to the coach at the campground, enjoyed the nice soft sofa, watched a John Wayne movie, "The Hellfighters", one of my favorites, and are planning on going to the casino for a while, then we'll have dinner at one of the many restaurants to choose from.

Now, we're back in the coach!  As full as ticks at a dog show!!  We had a wonderful meal at the Epic Buffet in the Hollywood Casino!  We had roamed around and I lost more than I won!  I didn't even play all I had set aside to.  Just no real sense in it!  Just had fun, played almost two hours on $100.

It's a beautiful clear night outside, and just a tad bit cool.  Now, my job is to sit with Butch and find a destination and campground for tomorrow, then get another good nights sleep, and we'll be on our way down the road tomorrow!

Thank you for traveling with us.

Goodnight and much love.

Maybe we'll try our luck..and maybe not!

Usually I don't have any luck at all.  In fact, I think the song lyrics, "If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all" was written exclusively for me!!

We left Jackson Mississippi this morning, after a great nights sleep.  It rained on and off all night in varying amounts from sprinkles to downpour!  But, it was cool enough for good sleep.  That's sure what we needed!!  Our spot was perfect, and after our morning routines, we pulled out in a mist of rain to empty the tanks, and move on down the highway toward our next stop, Tunica!  While we were riding, I called the Hollywood Casino and inquired about their RV park.  Yeahhh, got us a site for 2 nights, so we knew we were set for the night!

We had times today when it was raining pretty good, then other times when it would just sprinkle here and there.  But, all in all, we had a great ride up I-55.  Again, for a Monday, the traffic wasn't bad at all.

We stopped for fuel in the early afternoon and while there, got some lunch at a little quaint diner.  For the life of me, I can't remember the name, but it was in Vaiden Mississippi.  Lunch was already over for them, but we got sandwiches and had a great lunch.

We actually saw some sunshine on our way into Tunica this afternoon!  We hadn't seen the sun in a couple days!!

Rain over, but layers upon layers of beautiful Mississippi clouds

Sunshine peeping through the clouds

Real sunshine!!!

After a little while, we were close to the exit to Tunica.  Funny thing, as we took the exit and was riding around to the right, we heard this horrific crash!  Both of us jumped as if we had been broadsided.  But, when I turned around, alas, it was only the Mr Coffee that had, somehow, probably been vibrated loose from the slide it was in under our kitchen counter.  BOOM!!  Coffee pot broken all over the floor, water reservoir cracked and the other plastic parts of the coffee maker, were destroyed!!  Oh, but the slide-type holders were still screwed into the bottom of our cabinets!!  :-)

First thing after we checked in at the campground, and got parked was to get the broom out and begin to find all the slivers of glass, and gather up all the broken pieces!  Guess that solves the problem of whether to keep it or not!!   It was in the coach when we bought it, and thought that when we did any cool weather camping, Butch could use it to heat water for his hot chocolate.  When our friend, May Bell, camped with us in Georgia, it did come in handy to make her coffee in the morning.  Except for one pot we made when we were camping at the Sounders Estate, it had not even been used.  Since we are not coffee drinkers, it was a 'no brainer' on whether to try to replace it, salvage it, or just toss it!!   Needless to say, I filled a garbage bag with all the pieces, and toted it off to the nearest garbage container!!  Done and over with!  Now, all that is left is to throw away the coffee we have had in our cabinet, since we have no use for it.  Yeahhh..  Clear up some space for sure!!!

Tomorrow may be a day of sightseeing!  Since we are not that far away from Memphis, we may just drive into Memphis and see what we can get into.  Whatever we decide, I'll tell you all about it in tomorrow evening's blog!  I may or may not go to the casino.  I have such yucky luck, I'll just spend my money

It's been a beautiful evening tonight.  We just closed the big door to the coach.  We've been sitting here, watching TV with the screen door closed, and it's been very, very pleasant!

Mississippi sunset

Mississippi sunset

I think I will go on and join Butch, and we'll snore in sync, maybe!!  Tomorrow may be an exciting day!!  Who knows??

As always, thank you for traveling all these miles with us!

Goodnight and much love.

Moving on for a rest..

Butch and I really had a fun-filled, full day today!  

We got up early and attended the morning church services at the Mississippi Samboree, the Memorial service for all the Mississippi Good Sam members that have passed on during 2012, and for final words from A. B. & Jean Brantley, as this was their final Samboree before they head into State Director retirement.  The Brantley's will certainly be missed, but now that they won't be the State Directors any more, it might free up some time so they can travel around more to the other states and enjoy them instead of working!  

We had saved seats for Theresa & John and after everything was over, and the closing ceremony held, then several decided they would go out to lunch together after everybody was hooked up and ready to go.  We were invited, so that meant 8 of us headed out to the Golden Corral and invaded their food line, before the after church crowd started showing up!!  Good food, good friends, good times!!  

Theresa tried her best to talk us into going with them to camp for a few days at Percy Priest State Park, but we opted to move on down the highway a bit and, therefore, closer to home! They are really special people and we are so glad that we met them at the Spring Samboree earlier in the year.  Hopefully they can come to our Tennessee Samboree in the Spring of 2013!  

I just heard on the TV local weather that Texas, Louisiana & Mississippi has had more rain in the last 2 days than they had all last year!!  I believe that!!!  :-) 

It's been raining on and off all day, and we were hoping to be driving out of it, but unfortunately, it started before we got out of McComb and on the highway out of town!!  Of course, the crops need it so badly.  We've seen so many fields of corn and other crops so dried up, so even though it might be a bit inconvenient for us, it's much needed in this part of the country, so we just pressed forward!!  

We ended up on the outskirts of Jackson Mississippi at Le Fleur's Bluff State Park.  We called while we were riding down the highway to make sure they had room.  The ranger took my credit card information, gave me directions to the campground, and gave us our site number.  Now, how easy is that!!    It ended up being a double site, and we're backed toward the big lake.  And of course, if you know me, you know that I think lakes, oceans & any body of water is just for lookin' at!  Not interested, at all, in getting into it or on it with any kind of vessel at all!!  But, it was pretty to look at as the sun went down, while I was cooking us dinner!

It has just started raining again, but that's OK.  Our plans were to rest this afternoon, and since the check-out time here is 2 pm, we're going to just be moving slow and hopefully, can sleep good tonight, sleep in a little bit later than normal, and tomorrow will be all refreshed and ready to 'hit the trail' once again!!

I posted pretty much all of the pictures I took at the Samboree on last nights blog, so I think I will just thumb through my photo's again, and hopefully find some new ones (sorry is they're duplicates) and post.

Tomorrow is a new day, and we're just going to be heading on up I-55 and see where we decide to stop.

* * * * * *

The Red Barn - San Antonio TX --  quite an experience

The menu from The Red Barn..   it's brought to your table on the board!

The Koi pond @ the Tea Gardens in San Antonio

colorful flowers @ the Tea Garden

Butch @ the pavilion - Tea Garden, San Antonio

entrance way to the Tea Garden, San Antonio

River Walk - San Antonio

A view from the River Walk - San Antonio

The River Walk - San Antonio

view from the River Walk - San Antonio

high rise - from the River Walk - San Antonio

scenery from the River Walk - San Antonio

The River Walk - San Antonio

The River Walk - San Antonio

Our 'all you can eat' breakfast served at our campground, The San Antonio KOA.  And by the way, this WAS all we could eat.  But it sure was yummy!

Tomorrow is another day in our adventure, we'll see where we end up!!   Thank you for traveling with us!!

Goodnight and much love.

A Very Worthwhile Trip

We had our plans made, tried our best, and MADE it!!  Yeahhhh!!  I mentioned in yesterday's blog that we had a goal for today!  Yes, it was met!!  I will explain our goal as you read on!

We managed to get up early this morning, and left Beaumont before sunrise.  As we were getting things put away and gathered up, there was a slight rain beginning to fall.  By the time we got on the highway and on our way, it was a good rain, not downpour but from the looks of things in the West, a much needed rain!!

We drove, and please notice that I said 'we drove' to Tylertown Mississippi!   I drove through some very hard rain, and through quite a bit of heavy traffic, but I drove!!  That's a plus!!!  It managed to rain on us the entire way, with the exception of a few areas that it had just stopped, but all in all a good drive!!!

Tylertown Mississippi is the sight of the 2012 Fall Mississippi Samboree.   A gathering of Good Sammers from all over, and a great bunch of folks.  Our main goal was to surprise our sweet friends, that we met back in the Spring in Tupelo at the Spring Samboree.  Such a sweet couple, and they had no idea that we were even close.  She had let me know that she reads my blog everyday, and is traveling with us, wishing & hoping that her and John can do the same thing one day!

We found the Event Center where the Samboree is being held, was greeted and taken to our site, then we set about finding Theresa & John in the crowd.  Lucky for us, they were busy and didn't look up when we walked into the room.  I got really close to her and when she looked up, she said she had to take a double take, cause she thought she was dreaming!!  We giggled and teared up a bit, she was afraid she was going to start crying for sure, but we all were so happy to see each other.  Now, we are waiting on the evening meal, which is to be a fish-fry, and boy, are we ever ready!!!  Just glad we got to get here for at least some of the Samboree, to see A.B. & Jean Brantley, as it's his last term as State Director of Mississippi!

Our friends that we surprised, John & Theresa!

The Camellia Good Sam Chapter!!  Our adopted chapter!

Sweet Theresa!

Our ticket for everything!  We even won a door prize!  A folding side table!

Butch was tickled we made it to the Samboree too!

Our wonderful catered meal.  Fresh fried fish, chicken, hush puppies, cole slaw, french fries!!  Catered and cooked on site by a restaurant from Hattiesburg!!  Yummy!

The 4 of us has just about caught up on everything that has happened to each other since the Spring, and we'll finish up in the morning!  Theresa took the time to look through all my pictures, that I still have left on my phone, from the out West trip. Tomorrow will be the Sunday morning church service, the MS Memorial Service to honor those Good Sam members who have died in the last year.  Shortly after all of this happens, A.B. will close the Samboree and everyone will begin to pack up and head for parts unknown!!  

We are thinking we 'll head toward Jackson tomorrow, rest for the night, then move on elsewhere!!

Thank you for traveling with us, rain or shine!

Just wanted to add a few stats about our trip, so far:   We have been 'on the road' for 32 days and have traveled a total of 4811.9 miles.  We have stayed in 19 different campgrounds - plus 3 nights on the garage parking lot in Yellowstone!  Whew!!!   Proud of our accomplishments as we are living out a dream!!

Goodnight and much love

San Antonio to Beaumont!

Well today was quite an experience!  We left San Antonio this morning after having a big breakfast at the campground's chuck wagon.  All you can eat pancakes, that were honestly as big as the plate, which is what I had and couldn't eat all three of them.  Butch ordered the biscuits and gravy and boy, did they ever take care of him!  We stopped by the office to get our refund for last nights stay, and we met a couple in the office who were headed to Tennessee from California.  They wanted to go through the Smokey Mountain area as well.  We made sure we told them about Peace Valley, and I made sure they knew that the campground lived up to it's name!!!  

The morning was kind of overcast, but not raining.  We proceeded onto I-10 and headed toward our next stop which is Beaumont Texas!  I had picked a campground, called the number, the lady was so very pleasant and helpful.  We made arrangements for tonight's stop.  Hidden Lake RV Resort!  It's a beautiful campground with a lake where you can catch & release the fish.  It had everything we needed for a good nights rest before we headed on out in the morning!!

As we came down I-10, we noticed some dark clouds gathering off in the distance!  Now, we've seen clouds during this trip!  Not very often, mind  you, but there have been days when there were beautiful white,  fluffy clouds against a robin's egg blue sky.  Today, however, this was not the case.

These pictures were made as we approached Houston!  We stopped for fuel and lunch about 40 miles or so West of Houston, thinking maybe they'd move on!!  NOT!!   By the time we got into downtown Houston, there was a wall of rain that we just drove right into!!  It rained really hard for about 10 minutes or so.  So hard, that the rain looked about ankle deep on the roadway!  Naturally, everyone slowed down, well, most did, and we made it just fine!  Butch was driving like a pro, never missed a beat, and the only thing that really bothered him was me trying to put the brakes on from my seat!!!   I think I have a permanent mark on the carpet on my side, from my braking!!   Thing about it is, my brakes didn't work at all !!!    Anyway, we made it just fine and after about 45 minutes of rain, from pouring down to drizzling, it just all went away and the sun popped right back out and all was well.  

We arrived at Hidden Lake, got everything all set up, then gathered everything to do the laundry!  I loaded the washers and got them going, and by that time, Butch was in the laundry room with me.  The owners had a huge map of the United States with push-pins on cities that their previous guests were from.  Well, first thing we noticed was there was no pin on Chattanooga!!  So, I made sure before we finished that there was a pin right on the circle that represented Chattanooga!!  The owners were very pleasant and we all had some good laughs, as well as pouring over some maps and magazines that was in the laundry room.  Job done, we came back to the rig, put the clean items away and by that time, it was supper time!  

Now, after a big meal, clean up, we are about ready for a good nights sleep.  We are going to try to get up and be on the road, at least, by 8 in the morning.  Lots of miles to go to accomplish a goal we set for ourselves!  Will let you know if and when we reach that goal !!

I do know that the 5 are all at home now.  They made it this afternoon, and believe you me, Linda called to let us know they were home and she was heading for bed.  I think it was around 8:30 their time, so I know they are all worn out!!  Just grateful that they made it home safe and sound, and hopefully nothing else fell off their rigs, or they didn't have any more trouble!!!

Now, as I complete this entry for the blog, Butch is sitting, relaxed on the sofa and he's sound asleep.  Think I'll roust him and we'll go on to bed.  Didn't made many pictures today, due to the rain, but I promise to add more later!!

Thank you for traveling with us.

Goodnight and much love.

A Fun Day In San Antonio

What a great city this is!!  Now, our hometown of Chattanooga is wonderful, but this town is so chocked full of things to see and do.  Our day was just full of seeing wonderful things and learning all about the city of San Antonio.

The San Antonio KOA is undergoing a transformation of their front drive.  Oh, the gate driveway is great, but once you get through the gate, then you must turn to the right in order to maneuver around the campground.  Once it gets completed, they will have an awesome entrance way into their campground.

Our day started early as our tour bus was scheduled to pick us up at 8:15.  So we were waiting at the gate, and watching the workers who were busy as bees getting the driveway ready for the asphalt   A trolley picked us up and took us downtown to the tour bus office to transfer over to our vehicle that was to be our transportation and teacher today!

We met our bus driver, Tom, who was a retired San Antonio police officer, and a lifelong resident of San Antonio.  He really knew his city and you could tell he was a very proud resident.

Our first stop was the Japanese Sunken Gardens.  What a beautiful garden and city park.  It has awesome colored floral displays, a waterfall and is a safe habitat for Koi and aquatic plants.  It's a 'reuse' of an old rock quarry, and the quarry dates back to 1899.  It was completed and dedicated to the city around the time of the start of WWII, and the original name, Japanese Sunken Gardens, was not a popular name, so Tom said they changed the name to Chinese Sunken Gardens!!   Now, it's called by either name, and is even known as just the Tea Garden!!  All in all, it was a beautiful place.  It's close to the San Antonio Zoo, and Brackenridge Park, which is also a very well used, family style, park owned by the city.  I have included just a few pictures that we made today.

From the gardens, we headed to the famous San Antonio River Walk.  We rode one of the boats down the River Walk, and learned a lot about the area, and about the River Walk itself!  Very nice time, and we enjoyed it so much!  We did learn that the city is in the process of expanding the River Walk into other parts of the city.

Here comes our boat

beautiful

Yep, Butch enjoyed it as well.

very relaxing ride

all types of restaurants offer seating by the River Walk

Bells symbolises the Missions that were built there

Our next stop was into the downtown area to the Buckhorn Saloon & Museum.  The saloon was like what you see on western movies & TV shows!  The exception to this one was, it was opened by a man who had a vast collection of horns, animals, and used the saloon as a source to show them off.  While we were there, 3 men and 1 woman came in for lunch, dressed in full cowboy gear from the hats to big spurs!!  The exhibits of the animals are from all over the world and is reportedly to be over 500 different species!!  

the cowboys & saloon girl show up for lunch

just part of the horns!!

Texas Longhorn Steer

chair made out of horns

a BIGGER longhorn steer

We then went to the Texas Ranger Museum which was a fantastic history of the world's most famous law enforcement agency!  It had artifacts and, actually, a recreation of old San Antonio!  Very interesting place, and as you can see from the photo's, we enjoyed it and had a great time!!

Bonnie & Clyde's car --  wow, was it all shot up!!

a chuck wagon that would have been used by the Rangers

big display of weapons

maybe get into the bank vault???  hummm????

t'

We then went to visit the Alamo.  It's often called the 'cradle of Texas liberty'.  It was actually smaller than I had pictured in this pea sized brain of mine, but once you see the drawings and models of what it was back in the day, it was actually a huge place.  We also had enough time to tour the Alamo and to have lunch as well.  Butch and I found this neat deli around the corner, and was able to sit down and enjoy a relaxing lunch in the coolness of air conditioning!!!  yeahhhh!!!  

While at the Alamo, we saw a big display naming those who were killed during the big battle, along with the states that they were from.  We counted a total of 33 from our great state of Tennessee!  These were men who were killed, but didn't become hero's as some did!  Those bodies were cremated and are entombed in a big monument very close to the Alamo!  Quite impressive!!

Butch & Brenda at the Alamo

The Alamo

The Alamo

We also visited the Mission San Jose, a completely restored mission, and the Mission Concepcion.  Mission Concepcion is the oldest unrestored stone church in the nation.  

We were tired puppies when we were driven back to our campground, but we had a fantastic day.  One thing about it, we didn't have to listen to the lady in the GPS telling us where to go, we didn't have to find parking places, and we learned more about San Antonio than we would have if we had driven ourselves!  Good investment, as far as we are concerned!!

We've had dinner, watched some TV, and the workers have continued to work on the massive driveway for the campground.  We just had a knock at the door, and it was the owner apologizing for the late work and noise, and asking us to stop by the office in the morning, and he would refund our money for tonight's stay!!  Can't beat that!!!  Two nights stay for the price of one!!  What a deal!!  We were going to stop by in the morning anyway, because they offer a big 'chuck wagon style' breakfast for $3.00.  We will have breakfast there, get our refund, and then hit the highway toward Beaumont!!!

I know this was a lot to read, but hope you've enjoyed our tour of San Antonio, because we sure did!  Now to get a good nights sleep!!  

Thank you for traveling with us.  

Goodnight and much love.