Traveling with the Longdogs

Bubbles and Balls

Sometimes the best of fun can be had for little money and some time. A bottle of bubbles and some blow nets gave the kids an hour of fun.

On the other hand, balls can be lots of fun too. Just ask Harley the ball hound.

Can you tell he is obsessed with balls?

I'm ready, I'm waiting. Please kick the ball so I can chase it.

Willie is busy observing both the bubbles and the balls. Gretchen is in the house. She retreats when Harley is playing ball with someone.

Two of our grandchildren were scheduled to come and visit over the Martin Luther King 3 day weekend beginning on Friday. Their dad is here in Texas to spend time with them. Late Wednesday afternoon, Steve found out that both kids were going to have awards presented on Thursday morning. It's a four hour drive so Steve and his Dad left at 4:30 AM to make sure they would be in place at 0900. The kids didn't know he was coming so it would be a big surprise.

Morgan received an award for perfect attendance. Unfortunately, they presented awards to kindergarteners in place and did not have them turn around.

Cameron's second grade class received their awards at 0930. Cameron is the beaming angel who just recognized his Dad (near the center of the picture).

Here he is after his name is called to go upfront.

Cameron is the second child on the right. He received an award for achieving all A's and B's on his report card.

Here he is smiling at his Dad on his way back to his seat. The kids were both thrilled to see their Dad at the school and Steve was very happy he was able to be there for this event.

He also received an award for being a Second Grade Star student.

Later in the afternoon, Dad and Grandpa got to trail along with Morgan's class as they visited a Kid's Fair on a school trip. The two Dads spent the night in a motel and were able to pick up the kids before lunch to bring them back to San Antonio. I had a doctor's appointment on Friday morning so I missed all the fun.

Gruene with Steve

Today we headed north to Gruene, Texas for coffee and a walk around the town. First we stopped to have coffee at the Gruene Coffee House where they roast their own coffee.

You can have your coffee inside at little tables or outside. Right next to the Coffee Haus is the Pickle House. Fortunately, you can't smell the pickles.

Next we walked past a bunch of shops and through the garden shop where you can see these neat statues, all marked sold.

A visit to the General Store is always interesting. Lots of customers this day.

They carry lots of things in the store, all kinds of specialized foods and gift items.

These three Banditos were just hanging around.

Apparently the floor wears out with all the visitors so they repair it by nailing old license plates down where needed.

If you aren't fortunate enough to have an RV, you can stay in this lovely Bed and Breakfast. Back behind it they have all sorts of other bed and breakfast accomodations which look a little more rustic from the outside.

Just a hop, skip, and jump away is the Grist Mill Restaurant.

We didn't want to intrude but couldn't resist a quick shot of this bridle couple getting their photos taken.

This was a quick trip. There is so much more to see but this is one place I haven't included before.

It really is very small--one room only!

Gruene is always interesting to visit. Ya'll come back now.

San Antonio RV Show

Sunday morning two RVing friends and I met another RVing friend at the Joe Freeman Coliseum for the San Antonio RV Show. We had coupons for $2 off the $10 admission price but found out at the last minute that anyone belonging to an RV club could get in for $7 on Sunday. Sounding good right? Just as we were coming up to the ticket kiosk, a man stopped us and said he had three free passes he hadn't used this week. We shared amongst the 4 of us by each chipping in enough to come up with the $7 for one ticket. And we payed it forward by giving our $2 off coupons to some people in line behind us. Everyone was feeling real good about then. If you've never tried "paying a favor forward", do it because it feels real nice.

We headed inside to look at all the RVs. Sorry, no pictures this time. One of us was seriously looking and the rest of us were just checking for new things to do in our current RVs. Between us we currently have a crank up hardsided camper, a 5th wheel (me), a class c, and the final member of the group actually has 3 rigs right now--all 3 travel trailers (two restored and an Avion which she just got to restore). As you can guess, she is very handy and does great work. Anyway, we all know just a little bit about RVs. It's always interesting when one or all of us look at RVs. Most sales people start talking down and assuming the ladies know nothing. It becomes especially irritating when the sales person knows little about his own product. Smart sales people know there are a lot of women RVers out there and a lot of them don't travel with a man.

Anyway, we saw lots of RVs. What we didn't see was RV products and supplies of any kind. I think that was a really big mistake as not everyone goes to buy a new RV. They want to see what is new that they can use with their existing RV. That was very disappointing. This year the RV show split off from the Boat and RV Show. It was actually a show put on by 4 RV dealers.

Oh, well. One of our group found an RV she was interested in so there was a bit of fact finding and negotiating. You'll have to stay tuned to find out what happened next.

Whooping Cranes and Granger Lake COE Parks-Texas

Yesterday was a really great day. I headed up to San Marcos to meet my friend Birdie. After a fairly quick breakfast at Cracker Barrel, we headed towards Austin and caught the Tollway Bypass on our way to Granger Lake. As her nickname indicates, Birdie is very "into" birding and she had heard about whooping crane sitings at Granger Lake. Coastal Texas is the winter headquarters for the endangered whooping cranes who were down to a population of about 20 a number of years ago but now number somewhere around 300 which is still pretty small for the whole country. Here is Birdie setting up her telescope. We were thrilled to see SIX whooping cranes. One group of three looked like a family with a cinnamon looking youngster and two adults. The other three were unmated males according to my expert.

Although we could see them very clearly with Birdie's big telescope and binoculars, you are just going to have to take my word that they are on the shore in this picture as my camera just couldn't get a clear shot that far away. You may see some white specs on the sandbar on the right side of the photo. There were six pelicans there.

During our visit around the lake, we also saw 3 Great Blue Herons, 1 Great Egret, and 4 Double Crested Cormorants in addition to American Wigeons, several Gull species, and Coots, Malards, and another type of ducks. Birdwise, it was a pretty good day!

The entire shoreline of Granger Lake is either a wildlife area (4 different ones) or a Corp of Engineer park (3 different ones). We saw the whooping cranes while we were right next to the south end of the dam so they were on the shore of the Sore Finger or San Gabriel Wildlife areas. First we visited the COE Hdqtrs and checked out the historical marker in front of it.

The largest of the COE parks, Wilson H. Fox Park is currently closed for renovation work and is scheduled to reopen in April. We got to check out Taylor Park and Willis Creek Park.

The sites are nice with paved surfaces, a great picnic table cover, water and 30 Amp electric.

The only downside was that the water views were obstructed by a lot of underbrush but there was a good hiking trail down below.

We took a little path down from this site to get to the hiking path and found....

these great views with lots of birds on the water.

Due to the droughts in Texas, the lake levels are low and many boat launches are unusable but the one at Taylor is open. There is also a dump station in the park, restrooms, and a playground. Rates are $18-22 (1/2 for National Park pass Golden Age/Seniors).

We also drove around to visit Willis Creek Park. We liked the layout of Taylor Park a little better but found a hidden, not advertised benefit at Willis Creek--4 of the sites have sewer connections! ($22 for these or half off that for seniors with the park pass).

After 1 Oct, you can stay 14 days at the COE parks and then get extensions so staying all winter is definitely possible.

All in all, we couldn't have asked for a better day. Hope you enjoyed riding along!

Thoughts on Travel

It's the beginning of a new year so RVers are plotting and/or dreaming of all the places they will visit this year. So far my established plans include two outings with the Pink Flamingos (a group of about 20 women RVers who just like to RV), one in April at Stonewall, TX and one the beginning of November at Potter's Creek on Canyon Lake in TX. I am co-hosting the second one so there will be lots of research and planning for excitement as we progress through the year. But there will be lots of others added during the year. The Texas Boomers are another great group of friendly RVers that have lots of events planned throughout the year. I joined after meeting a few members at a Braunig Lake GTG last year. Just recently, one of my RVing girlfriends also told me about the Get' away Gals which sounds like another fun group of women who like to RV that I might have to look into a bit more. Since DH doesn't like traveling and RVing as much as I do, I just have to work around him and make my own fun. I have cousins from Canada who are wintering in Casa Grande who are working on me to come out there this winter. Still have to see on that one. And then, one of my two sons and my grandkids like to RV too so they will be wanting to go. Lots of things to look forward to.... And I get my National Park pass this February.

I ran across this interesting quote from an unexpected source which is pretty on target for RVers.

"Your travel life has the essence of a dream.
It is something outside the normal, yet you are in it.
It is peopled with characters you have never seen before and in all probability will never see again.
It brings occasional homesickness, and loneliness, and pangs of longing.

But you are like the Vikings or the master mariners of the Elizabethan age, who have gone into a world of adventure, and home is not home until you return."

—Agatha Christie, British mystery writer

Little Known and Interesting Facts about Texas

For those of you visiting Texas or planning to visit, here are a few interesting facts to ponder:

The distance from Beaumont (east side) to El Paso (west side): 742 miles
The distance from Beaumont to Chicago: 770 miles
El Paso is closer to California than to Dallas
King Ranch located in South Texas is larger than Rhode Island.

Gives you a better idea of just how big this state is. There are pine forests in the east and dry desert in the west. The Rio Grande valley in the south is semi-tropical but the panhandle has definite winter weather with snow. You can find anything from alligators to buffalo in Texas as well as long horn cattle and many other breeds. Most things in Texas are big but not the deer!

We have something for just about everyone and you can pick your climate. There are big sophisticated cities, western towns, beach towns, and small towns. There are beaches on the ocean or on lakes. We have mountains and plains.

You'll see cowboys, city slickers, fishermen, and RVers--lots of RVers. We call them Winter Texans instead of Snowbirds because they are very welcome here. Come and visit.