A Morning at the Museum

Bullock Texas State History Museum near the Capital Building in downtown Austin was immersed in children on school tours today when we arrived.  We persevered to see and enjoy very well done museum exhibits learning several new facts of Texan history in the process.

I came away with awe and admiration for the persistence that settlers had for making their way through what was then literally uncharted territory and a harsh environment.  There was no wood to even build homes as they knew them, so dugouts were created in the soil initially to provide shelter that according to the account of one settler "was always wet."  There were rattle snakes and hostile occupants of the land who were unwelcoming to the new settlers threatening their lives constantly.  The dust bowl of the 1930's yielded eleven hour dust storms.  Locusts swept down upon the new settlers like fog to devour all of their crops.  Why anyone stayed through all this is beyond my modern day comprehension of survival!  But they started a club called the "Last Man's Club" and convinced members to commit to staying the course through the Dust Bowl helping each other through hardships to collectively survive.

And yet settlers eventually made towns and roads, built railways, found oil and utilized the marshes to eventually grow almost 100 percent of the rice consumed in the United States.  Early Texans had a spirit that was unbreakable allowing them to grow into the strong and proud state they are today.  I would highly recommend this museum to anyone who visits Austin.

We followed this adventure with lunch, joining our friends, Mary and Bob, again.  Tomorrow we head further west again crossing Texas as far as Fort Stockton where we will spend the night.  Weather coming into California now is expected in the Texas Panhandle by Sunday.  We are hoping to be south of it, but time will tell.  We'll leave early, fuel up the coach and keep our fingers crossed for a good crossing over this same land that tested the settlers.  

East Houston to Austin, TX

We leave East Houston 9:40 am under bright blue sky and sunshine.  It feels glorious to see the sun after two days of steady rain, but the temperature is in the mid 30’s as we start out and the coach was cold when we first got up this morning.  By 10:15 am we are passing through the heart of Houston and traffic is slow in both directions.  Slow enough for us to notice that all of the support columns of the overpasses feature a decorative lone star in a super-sized coin-shaped medallion.  We pass super-sized warehouses also for Igloo, Goya and Rooms To Go.

We reach Sealy, TX where BAE Electronics features multiple military vehicles and trailers parked in their parking lot facing I-10.  In 1881, Daniel Haynes, a cotton gin builder, filled a request for a cotton-filled mattress, which started a company. He named this the Sealy Mattress Company after the town.   Turning off I-10, we head northwesterly toward Austin on Texas Route 71.  Near Columbus, TX we see the “Roadside Quail Farm” and a pasture of what appear to be deer lying in the grass.  Later the animals become even more exotic at an animal ranch featuring ostrich, gazelle and kangaroo!  Even cuter further down the road is a ranch with miniature horses.  We are definitely in ranch territory.

The countryside becomes rolling hills near Bastrop, Texas (established in 1832.)  Here for miles we drive through the remnants of a huge forest fire with just the burnt trunks of trees standing like wounded soldiers around foundations of homes that succumbed to the flames.  How many lives did the raging fire instantly change?  How many more who survived the onslaught now gaze out from homes across acres of burnt, dead trees?  It is a sad commentary of how fragile life is when confronted by the strength of nature. 

At 1 p.m. we arrive in Austin and settle into “Austin Lone Star RV Park.”  Here we connect with Jim’s friend of fifty years, Mary Louise.  BBQ is in order for dinner and we watch the sun set from a nearby restaurant atop one of Austin’s hills called “The County Line” where the BBQ is good.  Good friends, good food and good conversation end another day.

Snoopy’s Corner:

What Mom did not tell you is that we stopped for a delicious pastry called “Kolaches” (in true form for our travels) at a place called Hruska’s Store and Bakery.  Now I am watching my weight and did not try them, but Mom and Dad thought they were great.  They are filled with cream cheese and strawberry jelly in a roll that tastes a little like Hawaiian bread you can get at the grocery store these days.  But I will take salmon any day over that!

I am glad we are spending two nights here in Austin.  It will be a nice break from driving all day and give me a chance to watch for birds which I have been doing a lot lately!

East Houston, TX

Hammond, Louisiana greeted us this morning with a continuation of rain and decidedly chilly weather at 47 degrees along with lots of mud.   We get up early enough to get on the road by 8:45 a.m. to put this weather behind us we hope.

I-10 is busy with lots of trucks and cars making the rain on the windshield even worse with the water they project up from their tires.  A short distance down the road on our right in a field we see what appears to be hundreds of white, identical travel trailers parked in rows in a field.   A few are missing some siding and insulation is in view.  I wonder, “Are these the product of Katrina’s emergency housing?  Does the Government still own them and store them in this condition?  If yes, why are they not kept in good repair, stored in possibly some unused military or FEMA warehouses to protect them and made ready for the next inevitable disaster?”  I would love to know the story of these campers and the reality behind this view.  I want to believe the Government would not squander assets this way, but I also believe it is a real possibility.

We cross the Mississippi River at Baton Rouge and this river has high waters as well under stormy skies.  Now the road becomes a raised bridge for miles over swamps with standing water around the trees and marshy bayous of small streams and lakes flow into the canal below our road.  The trees are gray and without leaves with moss trailing from their boughs like silvery sheets giving the swamp a ghostly look in the rain.  My imagination runs wild with the tales of Tom Sawyer and Cajun lore sprinkled with a few pirate and ghost stories thrown in for good measure.  We pass near the Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge, a 15,000 acre preserve found about 30 miles west of Baton Rouge.  Established in 1984, it is part of the largest bottomland, hardwood swamp in the country.

Soon we see signs for Cajun Gumbo restaurants and other eateries touting they have the best “Boudin” (a type of sausage) and “Cracklings” (pork or chicken fat trimmings that have been deep fried to a golden brown.)  The gumbo is tempting but we continue on and soon we are passing through flooded rice fields and crawfish ponds near Crowley and Eunice, LA.  Normally the fields are flooded three times, the first occurring in April.  Mother Nature has helped out this year flooding them in late February.  One wonders what effect that will have on the crop?  The crawfish eat parasites that grow on the stalk of the rice plants helping to increase rice yields then hibernate during the hot summer months while the rice matures.  After the rice is harvested in October, the crawfish come out of the drying mud in the fields and they too are harvested in traps set to collect them.

Climbing the high bridge over the Lake Charles Reservoir we come down the other side to pass a BBG oil refinery complex before crossing the Sabine River into Texas.  We stop at the Texas Welcome Rest Stop and collect a map of Texas, view a swamp situated behind it and buy a candy bar for the road.  The swamp has a raised wooden walkway to several interpretive signs, but it is so cold we elect not to walk out to read them.  Maybe on the trip back we will have a chance to do so.  Intermittent rain and cold temperatures have stayed with us throughout the day and we are grateful to reach Houston East RV Resort and quit for the day.

Three States in One Day

Leaving Gulf Pines RV Park, in Milton, FL., we continued our westward trek today along I-10 crossing the Black Water River (shown above) just 26 miles east of Alabama.  The river is high from the current rain and other recent storms going through the area.  Interestingly, we spied a town along the way called “Bagdad”, Florida.  Which came first, Bagdad in Florida or Iraq?  Obviously it was Iraq’s Bagdad, but this Florida town may have been named the same because it also is situated between two rivers-the Black Water River and the Yellow River.

The other question that occurs to us is, “Why is the Panhandle part of Florida and not part of Alabama?  Well, throughout the 1800s Alabama indeed did try to annex this part of Florida.  In fact at one point Alabama even offered to pay $1 Million in Bonds to acquire the Panhandle with the blessing of its residents.  However the legislators of both states never brought the matter to a close.  Finally, some Alabamians decided the Bonds were too great a financial burden and the offer expired.  Eventually the railroad connected this part of Florida to the rest of the state and the matter of joining with Alabama faded into history.

We also learn there is a branch of the University of Florida In Milton.  Milton is not far from Pensacola where we subsequently crossed the broad Pensacola Bay.  The bay is protected by the Gulf Islands situated between it and the Gulf of Mexico.  The Gulf Islands have been designated as a National Seashore.  In 2004 however, Bagdad and much of this area were devastated by a hurricane that caused severe damage as far inland as twenty miles even shut down a portion of I-10 at the time. 

Crossing into Alabama we are impressed with the redness of the soil.  By 10:30 am we reach Mobile, see the USS Alabama from the Interstate.  Thirty eight years ago on another cross country trip, I toured it with my parents and brother.  Then the thrill of the day-we pass through a tunnel!  Tunnels in an RV are a hair raising experience and frequently tunnels don’t permit RV’s to pass through them because of the propane we all carry.  Luckily, this tunnel did allow us pass through AND that saved us an additional eighty miles we would have been required to travel to go around the tunnel.

We passed by Dauphin Island (named for the great grandson of Louis XIV) where today there are several bird sanctuaries.  Historically, the island sheltered Native American Mound Builders seasonally, served as a landing point for French and Spanish explorers continuing on to explore the Mississippi River and later became a trading depot for Haiti, Mexico, Cuba and France to exchange products with the local settlers.

By 11:00 am we cross into Mississippi with its welcome sign declaring it is the “Birthplace of America’s Music.”  We pass Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge before reaching Biloxi and crossing the Biloxi River (shown below.)  Like the other rivers we are crossing, the Biloxi River has reached the top of its banks and beyond.  Surprisingly, we learn NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center is found near Biloxi.  It is a NASA rocket testing facility.  I always think of NASA as being in Florida and Texas and naively did not realize they have other locations.

At 12:20 pm we enter Louisiana passing to the north of New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain to stop in Hammond, LA in the midst of a rainstorm about 4 pm.  The park is muddy on the banks of a small lake with a sizeable population of ducks wandering around the grounds oblivious to the rain.  The temperature is dropping and we are glad to be off the road!  

Florida's Panhandle

Today’s journey started from the Perry KOA campground (Perry, FL) at 9:30 a.m. under overcast skies although the rain stopped falling well before dawn.  We drive through Perry and it seems to be a small town that prosperity and growth have passed over, similar to so many other forgotten little towns across the nation we have traveled through.  Here, the townspeople are not even maintaining the status quo as building after building is boarded up or abandoned aside from an auto repair shop, a tiny Post Office and a few other businesses that appear to be barely hanging on.  A feel of the deep south permeates a cross street along our route with moss covered trees overhanging a porch.  Its early morning occupants enjoy rocking chairs as they observe those of us passing by in the yet misty air.  I can imagine the warmth of their coffee cups passing into fingers entwined about ceramic mugs.  I wonder what subject they discuss expressed in broad smiles between them?

North of Perry miles of tree farms interspersed with watery hammocks and the continuing sight of newly sprouted red leaves dominate the landscape with sparse evidence of settlement on U.S. 19 heading northwest toward Interstate 10 and ultimately Tallahassee.  Tallahassee became the state capital of Florida in 1824 and now is known as a college town-home to Florida State and Florida A&M Universities.  Unlike Perry, Tallahassee has the fastest growing manufacturing and high tech economies in Florida.  We could not see the city from I-10 but I spied our bird of the day, a red cardinal, as we entered the ramp to the freeway.  Later at a rest stop for lunch, we observed another for much longer as we sat at our dining table.  Foraging for food, he was oblivious to our presence.

There is a small town of just about 2,600 people also near Tallahassee called Monticello situated on just 3.4 square miles.  Monticello is the county seat of Jefferson County named after Thomas Jefferson and the town bears the name of his estate.  Notably, this city has the distinction of having the highest confirmed recorded temperature in Florida at 109 degrees!

Surprise of the day…long horned cattle grazing in the pastures of a ranch bordering I-10.  “Hey, Toto is this Texas?  Nope!”

Also I-10 is called the “Pearl Harbor Memorial Highway” in Florida as well as Arizona so I now realize that it carries that name across the nation.  Impressive, since I am a daughter of a Pearl Harbor survivor.

The “To Do List” got two other items added to it for the return trip.  We will have to plan a stop at the Tallahassee Museum of History and Natural Science.  A two and a half hour tour yields views of rare historic buildings, amazing native animals and beautiful natural grounds and is ranked as one of the top attractions to see in Tallahassee.  The second stop in the Florida Panhandle will have to be “Florida Caverns State Park” which I was surprised to learn existed here near Marianna, FL and the home of the only air-filled caves accessible to tourists.  Typically limestone fissures in Florida stop at the sinkhole stage not developing into caves.

We finally find sun near Gretna and Greensboro around 11:00 am.  Crossing the Apalachicola River we enter the Central Time Zone and gain an hour.  Panama City is next along I-10 (the largest city between Tallahassee and Pensacola) with both a Naval and Air Force base.  It was named Panama City during the building of the Panama Canal in an attempt to garner new residents from publicity related to construction of the canal.  Subsequently we learn of the National Naval Aviation Museum near Pensacola which seems logical knowing of Panama City’s military presence.

Shortly before we stop for the day in Milton, FL we see car carriers pass us heading west from the Daytona 500 Race in Daytona Beach.  They are traveling faster than us-onward to the next race but we do spy one at our park for the night later in the day.  In Milton we visit the local “Piggly Wiggly” grocery store before enjoying a homemade dinner put on by our KOA park.  This was a great opportunity to visit with other travelers and share a few laughs.  Where else can you get ham and bean soup with salad, scalloped potatoes and dessert for $3 a piece?!

Snoopy’s Corner:
I had a great day today.  Mom made a bed for me with a blue blanket I love.  I slept there most of the day.  In between though I talked to Puff and she told me all about the race car carriers.  She was pretty excited about them.  She feels great since the big tune-up and she’s doing a fabulous job taking us through the pine forests and rolling hills of the Florida Panhandle.  We heard it is supposed to get cold tonight.  Puff doesn’t mind.  She’ll keep us warm and keep those wheels turning toward Arizona and warmer weather.  We’ll get to Louisiana tomorrow.  Now, back to my next nap.

P.S.   Mom says she'll have more interesting photos soon when we get further down the road.  We're busy putting the "pedal to the metal" as they say, so right now so we are only getting shots out of Puff's windows.

First Day on the Road

10:00 a.m. and we head out the front gate of our community.  Jim is driving with Snoopy in the coach while I follow behind in the car.  We need to drive until we can find a long straight place to park both the coach and car (about 65 feet in length) to hookup the car with the tow bar  to the coach.  As we cross the Manatee River on the north border of Bradenton, I spy some dolphins in the river surfacing to draw in a breath of the fresh morning air as the sun glints across the water.

We connect to I-75 which will take us north past Tampa and onward to the hills and horse farms of Ocala.  Spring is in the air with new red and light green leaves interspersed with delicate mauve flowers of blooming trees I confess I can not identify.  But my artist’s eye longs to paint them.

White or black fences with elaborate gates dividing one estate from another follow the frontage roads along I-75 while passing through Ocala.  Horses seem to be grazing everywhere.  We pass a horse show with horses bearing English tack and riders decked out in the formal dress favored for competing.  The draw of the horse life from my youth beckons me to stop and savor the competition.

We turn northwest on Route 27 heading to Perry, Florida for the night.  A thunderstorm with ongoing flashes of lightening threatens as we progress west of Williston near Manatee Springs State Park but Puff the Magic Green RV takes it all in stride.  A spring in this State Park produces 100 million gallons of clear, cool water daily.  West Indian Manatees swim to the spring in winter up the Suwannee River to enjoy its warm waters.

Nearby is Dead Man Bay where the Steinhatchee River meets the Gulf.  Its interesting history dates back to 12,000 BC when prehistoric man settled here.  (Rumor has it that the Bay acquired its name in the 1500s when Native American Indians found several white men floating in the river.)  Spanish explorers such as Hernando de Soto passed through in the early 1500s followed by the Seminoles who migrated here in the early 1700s.  European settlers started coming to Florida in great numbers after it became a territory of the United States in 1812.  Sponge divers predominated in the 1940s and 1950s.  Now the area is known as the “Scallop Capital of the World.”  Now I know more about a spot on the map that seemed interesting just because of a name.

Continuing onward we encounter the town of Fanning Springs and nearby historical Fort Fanning on the Suwannee River.  People don’t realize the river was once a major military objective leading the U.S. Army to build the fort in 1838 in an effort to contain Indian raids that were occurring across North Florida during the Seminole Wars.

I may have spied a kingfisher sitting on a telephone line as we reached Perry, FL and the KOA campground where we will spend the night.  The rain continues and is expected to last through the night until about 3 a.m.  We settled in for our first night in the RV and even Snoopy seemed relaxed by the time we finished dinner.  It is taking a little effort to remember all the nuances of living in an RV, but we are all comfortable.  9:00 p.m.

Snoopy's Corner:
Whew!  I am on board and now I can stop worrying that something sinister is afoot like a stay at the Pet Spa.  It did not take me too long to get used to things again.  I rode along for the day under Dad's desk.  It was pretty comfortable.  I'm glad this packing stuff is over.  It was wearing me down (Mom and Dad, too!)

Night Before Hitting the Road

Well, tomorrow morning is the big day...we get underway on our trip west.  Puff is washed and loaded up (the car got a bath too!)  I walked around inside today to check things out.  It has been so long since I have been in the coach I had almost forgotten what it looks like.  Dad and Mom have been working very hard on it and it looks really homey.  Of course we will miss the house and our neighbors here, but we are ready to go and see the sights from here to California.

We've been lucky loading everything into the coach with no rain while we've been working on it.  It did rain last night in the middle of the night but that was no problem for us.  I had to make sure all my toys and food dishes were ready to go.  I have been a little nervous the past couple of days with all this packing.  I was worried they might be off on another trip without me, but Dad told me I'm going so now I can relax.  Whew!  That's a big relief.

Oh, by the way...have you ever seen purple toe nails.  Mom painted hers that color today "just for fun" she said.  Pretty amazing but Dad and I weren't all that impressed.  It must be a girl thing.  But if she's happy, we're happy.

Golly, I almost forgot to tell you!  Dad found a dead lizard in the screen outside the guest bedroom this morning.  I brought it to his attention and he went outside to rescue it and found the lizard had died there.  Must have gotten trapped inside the screen somehow.  Mom said it was a good thing the lizard did not get into the house.  I don't know...I would have rather liked that happening myself.

Well, I'm going to turn in and get some sleep.  Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day and I want to be ready.

Opening A New Door

I have a new habit.  I get up early with Mom and we sit together while she has a cup of tea.  (After I have my breakfast of course.  She always gives me some canned cat food warmed up in the microwave.  I can eat it cold, but she thinks it tastes better warm so I indulge her by waiting patiently while the microwave hums away for exactly seven seconds.)

She likes to wake up slowly in the quiet of the morning usually before Dad gets up too.  This is a time she can read for a few moments before the rush of packing begins.  She calls it her "thoughts for the road" time.  Actually, I know she is reading a really good book right now called "Open the Door-A Journey to the True Self" by Joyce Rupp.  Mom really likes something she read there this morning:

 "As I age, I think I am getting better at deliberately opening the door and leaving the known, safe realms behind."

It makes Mom happy to have a few moments of what she calls purely personal time-kind of like when she is painting.  As we fill in our new calendar, Mom says it reminds her once again that another chance beckons to us all to fulfill our dreams as we head down the road.

Anyway, we like our time together.  Sometimes though I can not resist getting into her knitting or trying to taste her tea, because I am usually more awake than she is at this hour.  However, that usually gets me into trouble, being a two year old as you know.

We heard today that the coach will be ready for pick-up on Wednesday.  This means we'll leave on Sunday morning Dad says.  It will take two days to pack the coach and Mom's going to the doctor on Thursday for a few tests (just the routine type she says so I don't have to worry about her.)  So we'll get everything done on Friday and Saturday.

Well, it has been a long day (I don't know where the time went!)  I am going to put my feet up and help Dad watch TV.  We are almost done with unpacking the boxes and maybe tomorrow we will hang up a few pictures.  This place really looks like home now!  We better not get a hurricane here while we are away!  

Big Storm

Mom and Dad got the coach up to Camping World today for its tune-up.  It was really foggy when they left but the trip went well and they were home before the big rain storm got here late this afternoon.  There was lightening, thunder and even a tornado warning!  It really poured down rain and we had some hail too but we heard on the news this evening the weather is going to be even worse from Atlanta to Maine overnight.  We are hoping the weather will improve along our route as we head west.

When they got home we worked on a few more boxes.  We were making progress until the UPS guy delivered six boxes of Good Sam RV Resort and Campground Directories  We have to take them with us to California in the coach.  The UPS guy thanked us however for giving him job security.  He worked so hard we gave him a Twix candy bar which he said was his favorite.  He was lucky too because he got here before the rain started.  He's our regular driver and a nice guy, but I still hide when he knocks on the door.

We've been watching the Olympics in Sochi.  Well, actually Mom and Dad have been.  I usually sleep on Dad's legs while they watch TV.  They are both tired of unpacking and I am worn out tonight from the thunderstorm.  It was really spooky.  We still think we have too much stuff, even though we got rid of a lot.  I have been finding yarn and ribbon to chew up, but Mom says it is going to make me sick.  She also said if I touch her antique crocheted bedspread I'll really be in trouble.  I am trying to butter her up by looking so pretty relaxing on it, but I guess I better leave it alone.  I think she means it...

Attack of the Boxes

I like to explore (as most cats do) but since the movers brought all of our stuff from Arizona it is almost more than I can keep up with.  Mom and Dad have worked from dawn until dinner time.  I do remind them about dinner so they won't forget!  For the last three days we have been unpacking lots of boxes and plastic bins.  Mom and Dad were pretty upset with the movers because several boxes were kind of smashed by the movers but so far the damages have been minor so we are all grateful for that.  One box even had water in it?!  Do you think the truck came through a snow storm or something?

Anyway, tomorrow the coach goes in for its tune-up so I will have a day of rest because Mom and Dad will be away all morning driving the coach up to Lakewood, FL where it will get checked out from top to bottom.  The tune-up is a good thing since we'll all be riding in the RV on the highway in just about a week now.  Mom will be able to write some of the blog when we get on the road, but in the meantime I am keeping you up-to-date on how crazy it is around here right now.  I have more time on my paws than they do...

This is our front porch.  They call it a Florida Room here.  I'm not sure why.  But it is a good place to hang out and watch the locals go by.  I think this box would make a good house, but it is just barely balanced enough for me to explore it.  Dad took these pictures of me with his iPhone.  Our wall pictures came in these boxes.  We put all these empty boxes outside for the trash fellows today and gave them a candy bar for loading so much onto the truck.  I suggested my Greenies cat treats but Mom said they'd like chocolate better.  Besides we're all going on a diet when we hit the road so we are trying to finish off the chocolate before we leave.  Everyone's gained weight staying here in Florida.  Well, I haven't really.  Besides, I know Mom will never give up her chocolate.


Well, here comes Mom so I have to run for now.  But check in soon and I'll let you know what else I have found in the house to play in.

Puff the Magic Green RV

I have decided to call our RV "Puff" because we live by the sea now and she is indeed a magical green camper that takes us to amazing places with awesome sights to see.  "Puff the Magic Green RV" sounds kind of neat don't you think?  Now don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed having the new house to live in for the past few months.  I have lots of room to roam around in at the house and a zillion places to hide my toys (especially my catnip mouse which I immensely enjoy doing every day!)

Watching the lizards and birds out of the windows here has been delightful too along with the occasional passing of a cat or dogs on on leashes.  Now I don't go outside here ever but I am enjoying Florida so far.  My favorite things to do here are running, climbing and of course cat napping, but then that is what being a two year old is all about right?  I must say Mom doesn't like me climbing up the kitchen cabinets to the beam that runs between the kitchen and living room though.  She's afraid I will fall, but I haven't yet.  Dad just thinks I'm funny.  I've even jumped down from there to my chair in the living room.  Well, I am a cat you know!

I did get my front nails removed while we've been here.  Mom and Dad are much happier because I am not making holes in the furniture anymore.  So over all losing my nails is a good thing.  Plus, it really wasn't that big a deal.  I have a very good doctor here.  He used a laser so I was hardly bothered by the procedure at all!  But I have digressed...back to the upcoming trip.

I understand we are leaving in just two more weeks.  Puff is going in for a tune-up next week just to be sure she can climb the hills between here and California.  Yup!  That is where we are going this year.  We'll stick to the southern route driving west and we hope we don't run into any bad weather.  It will take us about eleven days to get there.