We left Texarkana for Ash Flat Arkansas on the back roads, as usual. However the road finally took us to I30 for a while and as usual, it was jammed with traffic and the pavement was relatively new but very rough. It appeared to be just poor construction that made it so rough. Soon we were back on US67 and once past Bald Knob the road was pretty good, but we had some wind that made it difficult to stay on the road.
As we were approaching Ash Flat, we began to notice the damage to the trees and utility poles as a result of the recent ice storm . Many of the trees had the tops broken out and there was still debris all around that had not been cleaned up. We saw several utility poles that had been replaced and some of the broken poles were still laying in the ditches.

We spent the night in Ash Flat and visited with friends last evening and with others this morning before we fueled up and left. We had a short run today to Boomland near Charleston, MO. We saw ice damaged trees in varying degrees all the way here and tomorrow will be going to our cousins in western Kentucky where they had a lot of damage and were without power for 19 days. Some of the trees we saw appeared to have been twisted off near the ground. Possibly by a tornado but not sure. They just looked differently from the other trees that were just broken down due to the weight of the ice.
Our photos are of Lake Livingston in Texas. The first is of the bridge showing the whitecaps on the lake. The second one is of a campground on the shore of the lake with beautiful views of the water and bridge. The third photo is of the bridge from the boat ramp on the other side of the lake. This is a quite large lake and was quite rough on this particular day. Off to Kevil, KY tomorrow on some really back roads.

We left the north west side of Houston on Friday morning after a nice visit with our friend. We traveled across the north side of the city on the back streets to stay out of the freeway traffic and headed for US59 and then north to Cleveland, TX and on to Livingston, TX, the home/headquarters of the Escapees RV club. This is a quite large facility. They have purchased ground as it became available and have a lot of camping spaces as well as permanently owned lots where people have put homes and garages for their RV's, etc. They also have a complete CARE center with an area where you can park your unit while you are rehabbing from surgery, etc. You can stay in your own unit and they will come and assist you with anything you need. They also have a day care facility where you can leave a loved one while you go to town, shopping, or other things you need to do. They have prepared meals available as well as long term care in their facility.
We went to happy hour and were introduced and met a lot of nice people, some there for a few days or a few weeks.
On Saturday we toured the area and saw Lake Livingston, a quite large lake, which was very rough as the wind was blowing and there were whitecaps every where. Lots of nice homes around the lake, many only a few feet above water level.
The photos today is of the entrance to the Escapees park and of the Polk County Court house in Livingston. This is a much different court house than you see in many of the smaller Texas towns. The town is not very big but it is clean and much like a resort town you see anywhere.
We left Livingston this morning and took US59 north to Lufkin and Nacogdoches and then picked up US84 at Tenaha, TX and across the Toledo Bend Reservoir into Logansport, Lousiana. Some of the US roads in Lousiana are not very good, just rough old concrete that really needs to be paved. Then north on US171, skirted around Shreveport and on north on US71 to Tearkana, AR for the night. Fuel is only $1.82 in this area so we will fill up before we hit the road in the morning. Tomorrows destination is Ash Flat, AR, which is close to Chrokee Village and we will see friends that live there before heading north.

We left the McKinney Falls State Park near Austin, Tx and headed for Houston. As usual we took the lesser traveled roads to eliminate a lot of traffic and see some very nice country. Across US290 through the hill country, the Blue Bonnets were in bloom and in some areas the ground was covered with them. What an interesting color of blue.
We found a place to park near Jersey Village, a north west suburb of Houston. We met an old friend of many years and had dinner with her and then back to her apartment for more fellowship and a very enjoyable evening. We ate at a local Cafeteria and the food was excellent, especially the liver and onions. I also had asparagus and mixed squash.
We are back at the motor home and ready for a good nights rest. We will fill up at the local Sams Club where the gas is only $1.85 and then head for Livingston and the Escapees headquarters. We will be there over the weekend attending the Health Fair.
Our photo is of our rig in McKinney Falls State Park.

The trip to the McKinney Falls State Park was uneventful except for the wind that we had encountered the previous day. The park is nice and lots of room between the sites however they are really not very handicapped accessible as the spaces are narrow and the terrain falls off from the pavement making it difficult to get off the lift. However, after changing spaces and some maneuvering we were able to get the motor home close to the edge and have enough room to get the lift down and only an inch or two from the end of the lift and the ground. You just have to make do with what you have.
Yesterday we met some friends and visited the Bob Bullock Museum in downtown Austin. A very interesting place if you want to learn about Texas, before and after it became a state. Apparently they were trying to decide if they wanted to be a part of Mexico or the United States. Mr. Sam Houston was one of the leaders in Texas and spent many months in jail in Mexico for his activities. Mexico wanted to control all of the people and they were all to be Catholic and abide by everything the Mexican government said. The people finally decided to join the United States. Many immigrants were invited to come to Texas to settle and start farms and businesses. The rail roads were given large grants of land on which to build rail roads and then they sold much of the land to the settlers. Many immigrants were processed through the port in Galveston as well as other ports. Later we went to a Greek restaurant for Gyros and Baklava.
Today, I did some work and we met them again for lunch at Rudy's Country Store, a really great BBQ place. You are given a basket to put your food in, the brisket is served on heavy waxed butchers paper and a stack of bread to do what ever you wanted. You could have slaw, potato salad, beans and a few other sides along with your drink. When we ordered, we were asked if this was the first time we had ever been there? Our friends said, "say no", so we said no and he brought us some samples of their brisket as well as turkey. Both very delicious. We chose the brisket, a half pound each. You buy it by the pound at $12.88 per, but really worth it. Probably the most delicious brisket I have eaten. There are several of these restaurants around Texas and they really feed a lot of people. You eat off of picnic tables inside or outside, what ever you prefer, or can find a place to sit down. everything is disposable and you put your trash in the barrel and the plastic basket in the holder when you are finished.
Tomorrow we are off to see another friend in Houston.

Up early on saturday for the hamfest. In our travels the two prior days we had changed two time zones. We needed to be up by 6am CST but our biological clock said it was 4am or some early hour. Any way we made the opening of the show at 8am and had a good day. There were lots of vendors with lots of old equipment as well as new. It was well attended and all of the vendors seemed to have done well.

We spent Saturday night at the Lions Club and hooked up and headed toward Brady, TX for the night. We took sr 159 to Sterling City and picked up US87 on into Brady. Monday morning we headed for Boerne, TX to the Top of the Hill RV Park. It really is the top of the hill. It overlooks I10 some distance away. On our way, we passed through Mason, TX and one of the nicest court houses we have seen for some time. It is one of those town that you come in one side, make a jog around two sides of the court house and then out the other side of town. We stayed on US87 into the town of Fredericksburg. A really quaint little town that is quite a tourist trap. Lots of things to do, museums, restaurants, antique shops and many interesting and historic places. One pictured is the Museum of the Pacific war and the other photo is of the business called

Dos Peaches. Many years ago Germans settled this area and brought with them many of their crafts as well as many goats, for milk and meat. Many of the things still carry their old German names and ways. We saw many peach orchards as well as vineyards and wineries. A very interesting town to visit and spend a few days just bumming around and seeing what is there.
We are currently at the Top of the Hill RV Park and have just returned from Boerne having dinner with the Drew's. People we have know for several years, also full time rv'ers originally from Carmel, IN. Mike is working at the Guadalupe River State Park for the winter. It was nice to see them again not having seen them since last winter at the Lone Star Park in Hondo, TX. They will be back on the road in May.
Tomorrow we will do some laundry, dump the holding tanks and be back on the road to Austin to the McKinney Falls State Park.

We got away from the Guadalupe Mountain National Park about noon and headed east. We took US 180 to a small gray road on the map Ranch Road 652 whch went cross country with lots of desert and a few oil wells. We picked up US285 at Orla, Texas and picked up SSR302 and them US385 into Midland, Texas.
The roads were fairly good and the terrain was fairly level with a few hills, but just rolling hills, no mountains. The closer we got to Midland the more oil wells we saw. Several were pumping and a lot of big trucks were on the road moving tanks, etc.
We could see in the distance a long ridge and the closer we got to it we could see that it was covered with wind generators, it looked like a hundred or more. They are really huge once you get close to them and the blades move very slowly, but apparently furnish a lot of torque to run the altenators.
We are currently located at the Midland Lions Club where the hamfest will be on Saturday. We will set up tomorrow afternoon and get ready for the hamfest to open at 8am on Saturday.
The photo is of the mural on the side of the Lions Club building. It is really a large facility and they apparently are very much involved in the eye glasses portion of the organization as they have several units that go out and fit eye glasses.

Wednesday we got away fairly early, a little after nine. We got on I10 and headed east toward Las Cruces. I needed to stop at Radio Shack and exchange some switches that I had purchased. Fortunately I noticed that they were N.C.(normally closed) and I wanted N.O.(normally open). I checked on their website and found a store just off of I10 in Las Cruces, so that is where we stopped. We needed to stop at a Walmart for some groceries and there was one just across the drive. A Subway was close by so we ate a Subway for lunch.
I10 in this area there is really not very much except desert. From Deming, NM you climb up to the continental divide and you stay pretty high, around 4000' but when you get close to Las Cruces you drop down drastically to about 3000' or so. On the east side of town you start your climb, back up to about 4000'. We needed to fill up with fuel and get some LP gas so we stopped at Flying J at exit 0 in Texas. We got back on I10 and took it into El Paso and picked up US 180 and headed cross country. We knew that we would be staying in the Guadalupe Mountain National Park for the night and there are no facilities, only
beautiful scenery. We got to the park about 6pm and there were no pull through spaces left, so we started unhooking he van and a fellow came over and said, why don't I move my van and small trailer over to one of these spots and you can have the pull through. That worked out fine, we were a little long for the space, but we did not have to unhook the van.
The photos are of Guadalupe Mountain and the road going up to it. In the bottom photo you can see out over the area and see the road that comes up to the mountain. The park is on the back side of the mountain. A beautiful place and a great place to hike as there are many there to do just that. There is not much else there to do.
We will enjoy the morning here, get some work done and move on toward Midland, Texas.

Photos for previous blog

Back on the road again. We left Mesa at 9:06am and took southern Ave east to avoid some of the traffic on US60. We picked up Us60 near Apache Junction and headed towards Globe, AZ. It is mostly 4 lane divided highway until you get into the mountains and then it is 2 lane with a few passing areas. some of the grades are 6% and that is a little tough when you are pulling a 6000+ pound van. We made it without any problems, other than having to pull in second gear a lot of the long grades at about 35 mph. there were enough passing lanes that the traffic did not back up too much.
We picked up US70 outside of Globe and took it south east toward Lordsburg, NM. This takes you down through a large Indian Reservation which is typical for Indian reservations. We saw some cattle and some irrigation going on, but really not a lot. We did see snow on the top of a couple of mountains.
The first photo is of Ocotillo Bay, a really fancy condo,, gated community, where a acquaintance of mine lives. The condos start at $200k and up. They appear to be small and very close together. Most are on a water way that are all connected. The green is a 27 hole golf course with 20 of the holes over water. He says it is the toughest course in Arizona. It is very well kept and beautiful.
The second photo is of snow on the mountains. This is the only place we saw snow on the way down to Lordsburg.
The third photo is of our friend Harry Butts and myself. Harry is in a nursing home after suffering a stroke.
He is doing pretty good but he is 85 or 86 and has diabetes and taking all into consideration he is doing pretty well. We will spend the night here at the nursing home and will head east in the morning.

In our travels we have seen many feed lots where beef was being fattened for market. This is a feed lot that has thousands of Holstein cows, apparently from local dairies that are too old to produce milk efficiently or as a result of the slow down in the market as a result of tight money. I assume that these will be sold as "cutters and caners" on the auction market.
It is obvious that the slow down in business is hurting all segments of business. We have noticed several fast food facilities that are now vacant. One of the local Radio Shack stores has closed in the last week or so. We see that the auto parts stores are doing better than normal business, as more people are making their own repairs to save money. The cost of fuel is still below $2.00/gal so people are still traveling, but as money gets tighter I am sure that all traveling will slow to only necessary trips to the store, etc.
As far as RV travel is concerned, I think that it will be a very efficient way to live if you do not travel too much. You can stay in lots of places for $10 to $12 per night and stay many places for less than that or even free in some areas. If you do not mind boon- docking, you can really save money. You have to eat, where ever you live and as long as you prepare your own meals and stay out of the restaurants, you can save money. You can eat out at several places with local coupons quite inexpensively. You just have to watch and take care to not get carried away with the coupon thing. Once in a while makes a nice change of pace.
We will be going on the road soon and we will be watching what we spend. Of course we have to have fuel,
but we will watch and buy fuel at the best price we can find and keep our camping expenses down as much as possible. We will take our time and pay attention to the local terrain and things to do that are free of charge. It will still cost the same amount of money per mile of travel, but we will spread it over more days and enjoy the trip more. After all, it is the opportunity to see this beautiful country that is important and not the fact that you made the trip in the shortest amount of time. It is really difficult to get out of the vacation mode. After all, what is the hurry.

During our outing yesterday we took a trip to the Heart Attack Grill. This is on the west side of Chandler almost to Tempe. It is a white building and looks very sanitary. We did not go in as we had just eaten at Joe's Farm Grill. However, the name is enough to make you want to go and see what it is all about. I first learned about it from an e-mail I received with a website to the Heart Attack Grille. The parking lot was about half full, but this was about 3pm in the afternoon. We did see a SUV there with a generator on the back. There was also a diesel pick up with a brand new travel trailer on it in transit to a
dealer somewhere. So, it either has good food, nice scenery or just attracts a lot of attention from its name. From watching the video, it appears to have a nice menu and all of the items you would image in a small restaurant. Apparently their big thing is their hamburgers with all the trimmings. They say that their Heart Attack Burger has 8000 calories. Now that is enough to clog up your system, one way or another. Their fries are cooked in pure lard, which sounds like they would be quite
tasty.
I think that you should decide for your self if you need to stop by and check it out yourself. However, the scenery might be enough to want you to come back again and again. Here is the website to the Heart Attach Grill. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4632991n?source=search_video If this link does not work just Google Heart Attack Grill video and you will find the link. There is a short CBS commercial first, but worth the wait.

We had many errands to run today. We left about 10am and did not get back until after 4pm. While we were out we stopped at a place we had seen on tv's Diners, Driveins and Dives. It was Joe's Farm Grille. This located on the south east part of Chandler, AZ and is located on what appears to be the remaining of a large farm/ranch from years ago. In looking over the grounds you see gardens of all kinds of herbs, fresh vegetables and most of the items you will find in their restaurant and coffee shop. Where ever possible they use organically grown items, most from their own farm. The Coffee Shop serves breakfast and lunch items and the main restaurant serves a more extensive menu. You can eat inside or outside at many picnic tables and umbrella tables or just sit on the lawn, what ever suits your fancy. In the Coffee shop is a room where
you can just relax, log on to the wi-fi and surf the net, do your homework, etc.
You can see from the surrounding area that the homes and condominiums are being built everywhere and the city is growing in all directions. I admire the owners of the restaurant to hold their ground and stand on their principals when they could have sold out to the developers and retired wealthy and lived happily ever after.
They have also spun off another restaurant in downtown Gilbert called Joe's Real BBQ. We have eaten there on several occasions and really enjoy the food. They have their own
smokers and have pork, chicken and brisket as well as sausage. All is quite tasty and a treat to the taste buds. They even have a restored John Deere tractor inside the restaurant to add to the atmosphere.
The photos are of Joe's Farm grille. The grounds are well manicured and on all of the fences you find grape vines that are just beginning to leaf out for another season of production. The tree is huge and must be nearly a century old. It has had some supports
under some of the limbs as they are just huge. I do not know what the tree is, but it looks like a Live Oak tree you find in Texas. We found more of these huge trees around the grounds which indicates this farm has been around for generations.
All in all, a very enjoyable place to visit as well as a nice place to have lunch.

The weather has been quite nice the past few days. A bit cool at night but in the 70's during the day.
Nancy had her eye surgery this morning at 6:30am. A bit early, but that was her appointment. They seemed to have patients lined up for their surgery one after the other. It only took about 20 minutes to do the surgery but additional time to get things ready to go and then some time after the surgery was over. She and Evelyn was home about 9am and all was going well. Drops were needed every 2 hours or so, but all went well and no pain at all. Back in the morning for a check up and then another day this week and that will be all for this eye unless there is a problem.
The photos are from one of my favorite parks, Big Bend. You can see the Rio Grand River and the mountains on the Mexican side. Quite high and very steep. A difficult place to cross into the U.S.. On the U.S. side it is just waste land where the high water flows and washes things away during the rainy season. However, we saw areas of the border that were not protected, from what we could tell, at all. However you did see a lot of Border Patrol vehicles along the roads and there were several check points away from the border where they checked your vehicles. They would ask strange questions at different areas. One, ask if I knew about ham radio. I have my call letters on the front bumper of the van. We chatted a few seconds about communications and he sent us on our way. Often times they will ask
where you were coming from or going to. Generally there would be two or three that checked your vehicle. One ask if I had anyone in the back of my van and I said no, just a couple of wheelchairs. He took a quick look and sent us on our way.
When we leave here we will be going to Lordsburg, NM to see our friend Harry. That is a bit close to Mexico, too close for me, but we will be going on east across I10 and that gets really close to the border. We will not be stopping after we leave Lordsburg for a
quite a while as we can get over 500 miles without refueling. that should put us into Texas and out of harms way, as far as the border is concerned.

The weather has been partly cloudy the last couple of days and the temps in the mid 70's, but nice. We have been getting things done in the house as well as in the motor home. Nancy has eye surgery on Monday morning and has to go back a couple of times for a check up. Then it will be a couple of weeks before the other eye is done. We will be leaving on the 15th and heading toward New Mexico and then to Texas to visit friends and the escapees main office in Livingston, Texas. We will stop in Lordsburg, NM to see our friend Harry who is in the nursing home.
Our photo is of one of the picturesque sun sets here in Arizona. They vary with the amount of clouds but are really something to see. When there is not any clouds, darkness comes in about 10 minutes. The citrus trees are in full bloom and things really smell good. There is still a lot of fruit on the trees, but the new crop is on its way.

Photo for blog.

The weather has been very pleasant the last few days. As you can see on the thermometer it was 91 yesterday. It was overcast in the evening and part of this morning, but the sun was nice. You can see the orange tree in the background. It is loaded with bloom and oranges as well. I do not understand the way things grow out here. Back in the mid west trees lay dormant in the winter and in the spring when the sap begins to flow the trees bud out, flower, and begin to produce. Here, there is no dormant time, all of the citrus bloom while they are still producing and start all over again. It apparently works as it has for many years and probably centuries, so who am I to question right from wrong.
We attended the HTC Mesa Lunch Bunch yesterday at the Bell Air Country Club dining room. a very nice facility with quite good food and reasonable prices. We had 17 or 18 there. I got to see some members that I had not seen in years and we got to talk over old times and rallies of the past.
Nancy is the secretary of the local Polio Echo chapter. Someone donated a Hoverround scooter to them and they did not know what to do with it as no one really wanted it, so they stored it here at Nancy's. I put it on Craig's List this afternoon and about 7pm I got a call and I think I have it sold. They will come and look at it tomorrow afternoon. It was only on there about 5 hours. I have sold several things on Craig's List, all very quickly.
Today has been a busy day, I started on some rally things, got the appendages for the badges made and ready to drill so I can install them easily at the rally in June. I was busy with engraving most of the day and evening. I fixed steaks on the grill and we had baked potatoes and broccoli and all that good stuff that goes with a steak dinner. Not really sure what tomorrow will bring, but that is the nice thing about being a full time rv'er. Often times you do not know what you will do tomorrow, but it always seems to turn out to be something interesting, sometimes something you never even thought of doing. We will be here until about the 15th of the month and then we will be on the road most of the time until the middle of April.

Not a lot going on the last day or two, just taking care of some things around the motor home. We need to get started on cleaning and polishing the outside before we hit the road in a couple of weeks.
The weather has been ideal with highs in the 80's and lows in the 50's. Certainly much better than the reports we are getting from the mid west.
The photos were taken in Glacier National Park. The first one is of Big Horn Sheep. They had stopped to feed in a stand of evergreen trees and started on up the mountain. Very majestic animals.
The second photo is of the lodge at Logan Pass, elevation 6646'. This is as high as you can go on the Going To The Sun Highway. This is also the place you park and hike on up the mountain to
one of several cabins you can rent for a period of time. I understand they furnish wood for heat and cooking as well as kerosene for light and the rest is up to you. We saw several people putting on their back packs and heading out on the trails for what would be a very interesting experience. Pictures can not describe the beauty of this area.
The third photo is from the Going To The Sun Highway down one of the canyons and you can see, several miles away, the river that is way below you.
The Going To The Sun Highway is a narrow two lane road and the vehicle on the outside has only about a two foot rock wall protecting you from a long fall down the mountain. The other side of the road goes straight up most of the time. They say that the best way to really enjoy this road is to take one of the renovated tour limousines which has a convertible roof that they open so you can see what is above you as well. The size limit on the highway is vehicles not over 20 feet in length. Our full sized van was about as big as you could take. However you go, it is one of the most spectacular drives you will ever make.