This morning we took a trip to Denison, TX, a town of about 22k. This is the home of the birthplace of former President Dwight Eisenhower. This appears to be a fairly nice home, but it is across the street from the local rail road. there are still some tracks and the road bed is still visible in the area. In that time, it was smoky noisy steam engine with coal smoke and soot and lots of noise. So, it was really not a desirable part of town.

The family had moved to Denison from Kansas as that was where his father found work, cleaning steam engines for the rail road. He was born Oct. 14, 1890 and the Einsehowers returned to Kansas in 1892 before he was 18 moths old.

Eisenhower and his five brothers grew up in Abilene, Kansas, which the boys considered their hometown.

After high school and a local job, Eisenhower was accepted to the Military Academy at West Point. Upon receiving his commission his first post was Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, where he met his bride-to-be, Mamie Doud.

U.S. Army Gen. Eisenhower's role in winning World War II prompted Dennison's citizens to make the hero's birthplace a memorial. Eisenhower's first visit back to his birthplace was in 1946 as a war hero. Encouraged by friends to seek our nation's highest office, Eisenhower hit the campaign trail and returned to Denison in 1952. In 1953, Eisenhower became the 34th President of the United States, increasing the historical importance of the little wood-frame house at the corner of Lamar and Day streets.

On our return to the campground, we stopped at a BBQ house and picked up some brisket and other goodies for lunch.

It is back on the road in the morning, however we would have liked to have stayed here a few more days, but we need to be in Fort Smith, AR on Friday.

We finally got our brake lights on the motor home and the van fixed and we were back on the road about noon. We made our way east on US82 to the town of Sherman and then north on US75 to Denison, TX. We are currently at Grandpappy's RV resort on lake Texoma. This is a huge place including a marina and a yatch sales as well as rental cabins and a large RV park.

This is a little early for the big crowd of boaters and campers, but there is several hundred sailboats in the marina as well as larger power boats under roof along the shoreline.

This is a big reservoir that is used for flood control. It appears to be
down several feet, however you can see the high water mark, way up in the trees. It is difficult to tell what the normal pool level really is. We can see the lake from the campground as the complete complex sets on a point out in the lake.

We will be here for a couple of days and will explore the area around the lake as well as the historical sites. There are several units in the park, however several do not be in use this time of the year, but it is really hard to tell.

We did fill up at the local Wal Mart for $2.43 in Sherman, TX, a pretty good price for this area. We have seen it as high as $2.69 in this town.

The photos are of a portion of the marina area as well as some of the campsites.

We made it as far as Gainesville, TX. We hit a detour in town and went through a residential area and bottomed out the hitch on the pavement. We pulled off at a safe place and found that we had nearly severed the cable that controls the brakes on the van. We checked and could not find a cable and also discovered that the brake lights on the motorhome
did not work.

So we decided to take the van off and go to the local Tractor Supply and get a piece of 7 wire cable and make a new one. When Evelyn tried to hook up the drive shaft, she could not get the van out of park. In checking, its brake lights were also not working. Apparently there is an electrical connection between the brakes and the shift lever. So as a last resort we called the Good Sam ERS and the sent someone out and they attempted to find the fuses and fix the problem, but could not. They escorted us to a place a short distance down the road called T & T Trailer sales and RV repair. We are parked alongside the highway in a parking area next to the facility.

About 4pm someone pulled up in a pick up with a flat bed trailer, opened the gate and drove in. Evelyn went over and asked if we could get the cable so I could get the ends replaced and then we would go to the local Ford dealer to have the van checked as well as the motor home. He got her the cable and came over and looked things over and said that he would have his electrical man get on it first thing in the morning and get us on our way. So, here we set, kinda like at Wal Mart, but with lots more traffic outside, but not as many lights.

Our photo is of the beautiful court house in Decatur, TX. Sorry that Evelyn missed the top part of it, a really beautiful ornate building.

The hamfest at Weatherford, TX was small, but nice. It was held in a church gymnasium, a nice facility. There were a lot of vendors and we saw some that were at the hamfest 2 weeks ago. Even saw Henry from the Texoma hamfest in Oklahoma. The doors opened to the public at 8am and there were several waiting to buy their tickets and see what was for sale. We started off a little slow but it picked up and we had a fairly decent day.

It was supposed to last until 1pm, but the crowd had thinned out considerably and they had the final drawing at noon. Several of the vendors were packing up and by shortly after noon and the drawing, it was all over. We were loaded up and back at the motorhome bu 1pm. We had some pizza for lunch and it was time to take a nap as we were up at 6am, much too early for us normally.

The wind has been blowing and gusting all day from the southwest. We decided to leave the church parking lot and head north up sr51 to Decatur, TX and see how it was trying to drive in this wind. We did not want to stay at the church being Saturday night. We finally made it to Decatur, to the local Wal Mart and pulled in. It was really rough staying on your side of the road including the paved burm with the wind blowing from the side. The wind is still blowing and gusting to about 35mph, according to NOAA radio, so we will sit tight till morning and see how it is at that time.

We are working our way to Dennison, TX and the Eisenhower birthplace to check it out. Hopefully we can get there in the next day or two, if the weather permits.

Court house at Mineral Wells, TX











Court house at Weatherford, TX

We left the Odessa, TX fairgrounds and headed toward Hamlin, TX where there is supposed to be a free campground near the middle of town. We found it without any problem. It is on us83 and well marked "Hamlin RV Park" It was reportedly to have electric however we found it had full hook ups at about 8 or 10 spaces. Right on the highway, but as soon as it got dark, the traffic reduced considerably and it was fairly quiet. It is across the street from the street department and apparently maintained by them, all at no charge to the public. There were 4 other rv's that came in after we did, so we were not alone and felt safe with others close by. One from North Dakota, another from Nebraska. They both were headed home but were wondering if it was not a bit early in the season, especially for North Dakota.

We moved on to Mineral Wells, TX for the night at the local Walmart. We spent some time inside the store shopping for some items we needed and retired for the night.

Wednesday, we moved to a Passport park near Mineral Wells named West End RV Park. After our experience in Midland with full parks, we call West End to see if they had room for us. I got an answering machine and after a while got a call back stating that they had plenty of room. The book indicated that they had 100 spaces, so we did not worry about a place to park.

The park was about 4 miles north of town and back a one lane dirt road that was rough and full of holes. The park was fairly nice, with full hookups but only 3 or 4 other units there, a couple looked like they were there on a permanent basis. The laundry was one washer and one dryer out on the porch and they did not look very clean. The park would only rate 1 star, in my opinion. They kept no records, just took our $20.00 for two nights stay and said find something that you like and hook up.

In the afternoon it started raining. Later in the day the rain picked up and turned to hail for a short time. It was small, maybe dime sized, but it was sure noisy on the roof of the motor home.

Thursday, it was bright, cold and windy. There was mud and water everywhere, however there were cars and trucks coming in and out of the drive, so it apparently was not to bad. Evelyn took the laundry to to town to a coin laundry, probably cleaner than the facilities here.

We left Friday morning for the 20 mile drive to Weatherford, TX and the Couts United Methodist Church. It was only about noon when we got here, so had to wait until 6pm to get unloaded and set up in the gymnasium for the hamfest tomorrow. The doors open at 7am for us and 8am for the public. They were happy to see an engraver as they had not had one for several years. Hopefully we will do well tomorrow.

Our photos are of the court house in Mineral Wells and the second one is in Weatherford. We took a photo of the hail and it showed up better than I thought.

As I stated a few days ago, we went to Midland for the hamfest on Saturday and intended to spend the night, however we spent Friday night and it really turned cold and windy. We did not have any hookups so had to rely on the generator and the furnace to keep warm. We wanted to find a campground in the area but all were full, so after the show was over we returned to Odessa to the fair grounds where we had electric. The temperature got below freezing on Friday night and our neighbor from ElPaso stated that when he let the dogs out about 4:30 am it was blowing sleet down the street.

We had a good day, at least it was warm inside the building and the crowd was pretty good. Obviously too cold to do much outside, so why not do something inside. We packed up and headed back the 15 or so miles to the fair grounds where we found the lot pretty full. There was a gun show going on Saturday and Sunday, as well as a horse show with many horse trailers and there was a hockey game going on at the Coliseum. There is power at all of the parking lot lights, so we found one, hooked up and so we are still here on Sunday and will spend the night. It got quite cold last night, about 35 degrees this morning, but we stayed warm with electricity keeping our electric blankets in operation.

The sun is shining but it is still windy and cold. It is supposed to warm up tomorrow into the 60's and then warmer the rest of the week.

As I write this at 4:45 pm, a big semi came in pulling a stock trailer with the sign on it "Pro Rodeo's Rockin riding show". The lower deck was loaded with bulls with short stubby horns, apparently they were for the bull riding contest, but where? Possibly they are here just to lay over for a few days before the next competition.

Lots of things going on here, a carnival is set up out on the corner, but it does not appear to be in operation, beside it is too cold and windy to enjoy the rides.

On our trip through New Mexico we saw a large amount of Holsteins cows. We did not see any facilities for milking, so they were either to young to breed for milk cows or the were to old to produce sufficient to
keep in the herd. We did see one sign that indicated it was a feed lot operation, so I would assume they were being fed making them ready for market. It looks like several thousand head as you can see in the attached photos.

There were huge fields of grass and alfalfa that they cut for hay and lots of large bales of hay stored for future use. It would take several tons of hay to feed this many animals.

We are still at the fair grounds in Odessa, TX. A beautiful day, near 80 degrees with a light wind. They are predicting a cool spell tomorrow and Saturday with a high of about 60 degrees. So it goes here as well as other parts of the country in the spring. We will dump our holding tanks in the morning and take on fresh water as it will be a while before we will have the opportunity to do it again. We are good for at least 10 days, maybe more if we are careful.

We only have a short drive to Midland and then set up tomorrow afternoon for the hamfest on Saturday. We will spend the night at the site and leave on Sunday am.

Photo of snow on mountains in Deming, NM













Saddleback Mountain RV Park

Saturday, Evelyn did the laundry and we got the inside of the rig cleaned up from the rally. We only had rain one day, the first day, and the rest was dry and dusty. The wind blows all the time and there is dust in the air, so you never get through cleaning.

While at Gila Bend we saw a couple of other rigs that were at the rally as well. One was the gal that sells Mary Kay products. We also discovered that the batteries were dead, or nearly so, in the van. We put the charger on and left it on overnight and it started alright. When we left we stopped at the Wal-Mart in Casa Grande and had them checked.. One was alright and the other needed to be replaced. They were quite busy and after about 3 hours got the replacement installed. When we checked out, it was under warranty and did not cost anything. What a break. I did get a haircut and Evelyn got some groceries and we got back on the road.

There is not any roads that go east and west other than I10. It is a boaring road with lots of traffic. Between Phoenix and Tucson, it is 3 lanes wide, both ways. With a 75mph speed limit for cars and trucks, things are really moving.

We spent the night in a vacant lot behind Gas City, a large truck stop that has a large paved area for parking RV's and semi rigs. A bit noisy, but we managed. A bit cool in the morning, but the furnace took care of that. It was off to Deming, NM and the Dream Catcher RV Park.

We had followed clouds all day and as we came into Deming, the streets were still wet from the rain and you could see the snow on the mountains. We spent the night and it got down to 32 degrees and thankfully we had electricity so the electric heater really came in handy during the night hours.

We were needing fuel so we checked the prices as we came thru Deming and when we got to the RV park it was $3.29/gal. We had seen it on the other end of town at $2.73, so it was back through town for fuel then back to the park for the night.

We got a fairly early start and headed for ElPaso on I10. right through town and we just kept moving and covered almost 300 miles for the day. However, we did detour a bit from I10 and went south toward the Rio Grande and picked up sr 20. A nice blacktop road that followed the valley. Lots of irrigation and crops growing and being planted. One of the big ranches was named Border Land Ranch. Not sure I would like living that close to the Mexican border, but apparently they do not mind. The road finally ended at I10 and so it was back to the rat race. Speed limits in Texas are 80mph for cars and 75mph for trucks and 65mph at night for both. Do they really fly around you when you are not traveling at nearly that speed.

We spent the night at Saddle Mountain RV Park and truck stop. It is near the town of Balmorhea, TX. a really nice park with all pull through and very well landscaped areas between the spaces. Not really handicapped accessible as you could get the lift out and down but no room to get off the end due to the rocks and cactus, however, a nice park anyway.

Our photos are of the Bowlin's Continental Divide gift shop, (tourist trap) and restaurant. It was only about 5 miles from the real Continental Divide, but close enough, I guess. We did see two or three other places, tourist traps, that also had the name of Bowlin on the sign boards. The second one is from the Dream Catcher RV Park in Deming, NM. New snow on the mountain, as the gal at the office said it had all melted before last night. The third photo is of the nicely landscaped areas between the spaces at Saddle Mountain RV Park.

We are currently in Odessa, TX at the county fair grounds. A nice paved spot with electric. water and dump is available. We will be here until Friday am when we go to Midland for the hamfest on Saturday.

The rally is over with coffee and donuts this morning and it was back on the road about 10am. We had a very enjoyable time at the rally, lots of interesting seminars and a couple of good entertainers. On Monday, Davaid Bradley, a very good C&W singer and yodeler and very talented guitar player. He had played with the 'Sons of the Pioneers' for several years. He entertained for about an hour and a half. He even came back the next evening for a short program, all very good.

On Wednesday, Michael Hargis gave a very nice show. He was a singer and sang songs from the 50's, 60's and 70's as well as some newer tunes. He had work in a theater in Tombstone, AZ for 5 years before taking his show on the road. They bought an MCI bus and removed all of the seats and converted it to a motor home, all in 90 days. Quite a job, it would seem to me, but that is what they said. They parked just across the drive from us and it looked pretty nice.

I attended a seminar on Boondocking. A lot of good ideas were given on how to stay longer without a hook up to external power. One fellow has even devised a way to flush the toilet with water from the gray water tank. That would save a lot of fresh water over time. Another has attached a sensor to his hot water heater and he only heats it to 110 degrees and then shuts it off and takes his shower with all hot water, saving the lost water while mixing with the cold. He even fills his coffee pot with the cold water before the hot water gets to the shower. Just lots of ideas that could really add up to savings on fresh water and lp.

We thought we would go to Mitry Lake again this year but with all of the rv'ers in the area, everything was full. We checked with the local Escapees park and they were full with 3 waiting for the overflow parking. So, we decided to come back to Gila Bend, where we can generally find a place. We filled up at Loves, $2.85/gal., in Gila Bend. A bit higher than Mesa, but it is probably up there as well. Our usual park had some openings so we will be here for a couple of days and then head on toward Tucson and points east.

Our photo is of the desert along I8 on our way back from Yuma. As you can see, it is really getting green from all of the rain we have had in the last month or two. TV said that Yuma had more rain since the first of the year than they had all last year and over the yearly average to date.

The word is that with the rain coming so late, the weeds will grow and smother out the flowers and then when it gets dry the weeds will die and you will not see the pretty flowers you would if the rain had come earlier in the winter months. So it goes in the desert world.

Well, we are back on the road again. We left Mesa this morning about 11:00 and headed south and west toward Gila Bend. We have a favorite campground here and we will stay a night or two taking care of the motor home and getting it ready for the Gypsy Journal Rally that starts on Monday. We will go in after noon on Sunday, before the big rush on Monday. We need to get in early to get our handicapped spot near the buildings. Then we will be quite busy with seminars, etc. until Friday morning. We will leave before noon and head out. We may go to Mitry lake for a few days, if we can find a spot to park.

We have a tentative itinerary as follows:
March 20: Midland, Tx. Hamfest
March 27: Weatherford, Tx. Hamfest
April 3: Ft. Smith, AR. Hanging Judge Hamfest
April 10: Memphis, TN Hamfest
April 17: Kansas City, MO

We will visit friends during the week between hamfests and be back in Indiana the later part of April.

There is a lot to see in the Phoenix, AZ area. There are mountains all around the valley. In the recent years
it has grown to the point that when you come into the valley on the east, into Apache Junction, you find almost continual businesses and mobilehome parks including RV parks, ect. The valley is approximately 50 miles wide including Mesa, Tempe, Phoenix, Avondale, Goodyear and Buckeye. That is along US 60 and I10. There are numerous other towns that all run together with little distinction between them. Sun City used to be on the edge of town, and now there is Sun City West which is really 5 communities and now surprise is the edge of town.
The highways and interstates are huge. The interchanges run from small regular ones with on and off ramps to a short stack with 3 or 4 levels and the big stack with 5 or 6 levels. US 60 through Mesa and adjoining towns is 6 lanes wide, each way, plus entrance and exit ramps. This time of year, with the snowbirds in town, the rush hour seems to start about 6am and runs continually until about 10pm. However, traffic moves quite well and the cities have spent lots of money on their roads and seem to be keeping ahead of the growth.
The photos are of the Mining Camp Restaurant. Lots of old equipment and photos of the era of the gold rush in this area. You see the Superstition Mountains in the background, as well as three of us, Merle, Nancy and Clark as we prepare to eat our fill.
Yesterday we drove up to Tortilla Flats, another old time settlement started by another gold mine in the area, that was covered up by its owner before he died and no one has ever found it again. It obviously existed as he made lots of money from the mine, but no one else knew its whereabouts.
It is an interesting drive up sr88 out of Apache Junction. A narrow mountain road with generally a 25mph speed limit with 15mph curves and two one lane bridges. A really pretty drive.
We will be leaving Mesa on Thursday for Yuma and then we will be heading back east.