Las Cruces

Wind, wind and more wind.  We drove from Van Horn to Las Cruces today.  We got going early because they were predicting strong winds, with gusts of up to 70 mph.  Well folks, they weren't exaggerating.  Luckily we got going early, because the wind has got stronger through the day.  As you might guess it is no fun driving our faithful steed, Silver, with gusting winds.  It really reminds us of the December we spent in Cape Town in the caravan, with the South Easter blowing day and night.  When the wind stopped we couldn't sleep, we weren't used to the silence.

If the wind drops tomorrow we will continue to a State Park called Elephant Butte, otherwise we will stay here for another day.

Van Horn, Planning

Today was "veg and  plan" day.  After having a good breakfast in the Cafe, we went for a leisurely walk into "town," it consists of 2 streets with nothing much to see.

We then set to planning the rest of our travels.  This afternoon 3 very smart RV's pulled in for the night.  They really look like the Rock Stars have arrived.

Tomorrow we are off early to Las Cruces.
For those that are interested, the 3 RV's are Prevost's, cost around a million Dollars each...

South Llano River Park

We have just spent the last 2 days at the South Llano River State Park.  It was just what we needed, a beautiful park, large sites and lots of beautiful walks.  We went walking a couple of times a day, the best one and the one that surprised us both, was yesterday afternoon.  We decided to do a late afternoon walk on the Fawn Trail, left the RV at 4.45pm and got back at 7.00pm.  Exhausted, but feeling very proud of ourselves, especially after checking the GPS and finding we walked 4 miles, up and down hill and dale.  There were some really steep hills, and what goes up must come down.  One thing is for sure, we wouldn't have been able to do that walk last year before Dirk's knee replacement and before we stopped smoking.

We also met a couple with roots in Africa.  They were walking past and heard our accent and immediately came over to chat.  Meryl is from Zimbabwe and then Durban and she met her husband Ray, in Durban while he was working there.  We had a great evening together, with Dirk and myself picking their brains about where to go and what to do, on the rest of our tour.  They, like us, love to travel and have seen a lot of their country.

Today, we did a very long drive from South Llano River to Van Horn, 320 miles.  The park is very basic but not bad considering we are in the desert.  They have a quaint little cafe that does good home cooking suppers and breakfasts.  Sampled the supper tonight, may have the breakfast tomorrow.

Not sure at this point what we will be doing tomorrow, so keep tuned.

San Antonio Raceway

The pictures say it all.
Dirk

Well folks, the pictures might say it all, but I'm sure all ladies will agree, Dirk owes me a couple of hours of shopping time.  Any comments?
Colleen

Fredericksburg

This morning we hired a car and did a trip up to Fredericksburg, which is North West of San Antonio.  As you might gather from the name, it is a village of German heritage in the Texas Hill Country.  We had delicious coffee and muffins for morning coffee, a stroll around the town and drove back to SA.  We decided we had seen enough of old buildings for the day.

This evening, seen we had a car we decided to go out for a steak.  Well, it was one quick lesson on how to turn a steak dinner into American Fast Food.  The steak was good, but the speed with which it was served, spoilt the whole atmosphere.

Tomorrow we are going to a drag race, so I'm not sure whether I will be doing a report.  On Sunday we are moving on to a State Park for a couple of days, so no communication folks.  So, until we get back to civilization, it's cheers for now.

Still in SA

Still in San Antonio. We used the city bus and went into the city to do some walking and exploring on our own. We walked the River Walk and then after getting Starbucks coffee, I left Dirk to drink his coffee and watch the passing sights, while I did a spot of shopping. (Suffering from withdrawal symptoms)

We then went to the Tower of the Americas, saw a 4D movie called Sky over Texas. with shaking seats, water sprays in your face and neck etc, it was not our scene, thank goodness it was only 12 minutes long. Then up we went to the top of the tower, 75 floors above ground. Unfortunately it was overcast and drizzling today, because the view was spectacular, and could have been even better on a sunshine day. Had a bite of lunch and headed home on the bus, to do some housewifely chores, like laundry.

Hope the weather clears up tomorrow.

San Antonio Tour

As I told you yesterday, we were going to explore San Antonio today.  We were picked up at the RV park at 8.30am, after picking up a few other people we headed to the tour operators office in the center of SA (not South Africa).  The tour started with the Riverboat Ride, which is cruise down the romantic San Antonio River, with sidewalk cafes, lush tropical foliage and charming boutiques. Onto the Japanese Sunken Garden which is built in the old stone quarry.  We were then off loaded at the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum and Texas Ranger Museum and left to our own devices to explore that and the Alamo.

For those of you who don't know about the Alamo, here is a short summary.  The Alamo is the Cradle of Texas Liberty, established in 1718 as Mission San Antonio De Valera, the first of five missions built along the San Antonio River, where Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Colonel Travis and 186 valiant men sacrificed  their lives fighting for Texas Independence.

After lunch, we went to Mission San Jose' and Mission Concepcion.  The Mission San Jose' is the finest example of a completely restored mission in the USA renowned for exquisite stone carvings including the famous Rose Window.  The Mission Concepcio'n is the oldest unrestored stone church in the nation today. it was where Friars Christianized the Indians.  Some of the original frescos are still visible within the rooms of the mission.

Then the last place to visit, and the most uninteresting, was the local market.  It was fine if you liked loud music, beer and useless trinkets, meant to separate the tourist from his money as quickly as possible. This week is the Fiesta week, with parades and dancing to celebrate the heritage of San Antonio.

All in all it was a very interesting day, organized as only the Americans can organize history and museum tours. Colleen.

The last picture shows me with the 6 significant flags that have flown over Texas.
Let me tell,
1. Spanish
2.French
3.Mexican
4.Texas(Lone Star)
5.Confederation.
6.The Stars and Stripes.
Now you know.. Dirk

Alamo Country

Today was a very straight forward trip from East Houston to San Antonio about 250 miles.  It felt a bit like driving from Johannesburg to Durban, through the Free State.  The road just seems to go on forever, with very few hills, farm lands with cattle grazing alongside the road.

We are at a very nice KOA park on the outskirts of San Antonio.  This was one of the original KOA parks it was opened in 1986 and is still owned by the same family.  That's just a bit of useless information for you.

We will start exploring San Antonio tomorrow, then decide how many nights we will spent here.

Baytown, Texas

Today we traveled from Baton Rouge up to Houston East RV Park, Baytown, total of 246miles.  One thing we decided is that you can tell how wealthy a State is by their roads.  Louisiana's roads are by far the worst we have traveled on.  The one section was so bad, it felt like we had square tyres.  Cross the boarder into Texas and feel the difference, wide smooth, beautiful freeways.  The traffic was quite heavy, but it was Monday morning, and Louisiana doesn't have any Rest Areas to pull off into.  You have to go off the freeway into one of the small towns or gas stops.  So 200 odd miles was enough for one day.

It is not the greatest RV park, but it will do for the night.  It is situated on the service road of the freeway, so lots of road noise.  Hopefully once we close up for the night the noise will be less.  There are lots of permanents here, but definitely not low class, there are some pretty fancy trailers, 5th wheelers and a couple of RVs.

Since I made curry and rice last night, tonight is going to be easy supper, frozen pizza, heated in my convection microwave.  Maybe tomorrow my man will treat me to a steak dinner in San Antonio.

Baton Rouge.

Moved up to Baton Rouge, only about 75 miles away from New Orleans, the RV park is next to a school and a beautiful park.
Spoke to the local RV repair man Jerry, he crawled under the RV and
pronounced that my radiator was full of crud and has to be washed out.
Took a drive out to his farm where Jerry performed the clean up.
Hope that solves our overheating problems.

Dirk

PS.
Had a great $5 breakfast at the RV park this morning and Colleen
made some delicious curry and rice for dinner. Had to have a glass of wine out of our crystal wine glasses.

More N O.

1.  Well, what can I say!  This is the end of a very long, enjoyable day.  Once again up early and onto the shuttle into town.  This KOA is so organised, and pleasant.  We have had a different driver everytime we have been on the shuttle and everytime they do a different route into or out of town and give a different mini tour of the area.  New Orleans has turned out to be a very interesting city.  We have seen some of the devistation done by Katrina.  The city is only now getting back on their feet.  The driver/tour guide this morning welcomed us, saying they are so pleased to see the campers coming back this year.  This is the first year they have had campers coming to N O since "the storm".

Today we went on the Steam Paddle Ship the Natchez on the Mississippi River.  It is the only steam paddle ship still operating on the Mississippi.  It was a 2 1/2 hour cruise with a very informative narration. We had a really good lunch on board, it consisted of Jambalaya, (type of bean and sausage soup served with rice) fried chicken, salad and dessert all for $10.

This afternoon we did the Super City Tour, which was a bus tour of the city, explaining the design, architecture, heritage and culture of the locals.  There are still some very beautiful old homes in N O and the locals are so proud of their city and heritage. The next Picture proves that we still think of those back home..

N O Tour.

Up early today, onto the KOA shuttle bus, off to the French Quarter.  We did not realise that the driver of the bus was going to give us a quick overview of the area, which was very interesting.  Part of the tour went past and through the cemetry.  New Orleans cemeteries are unique. Although New Orleans cemeteries are similar to those in places like Paris and Mexico City, they are different. The tombs and wall vaults in New Orleans cemeteries are actual resting places of remains. The structures in other cemeteries are usually memorials with remains interred in crypts below ground.  As you can see these are above ground.

We were dropped at the Grayline bus terminus, to pick up our tickets for the day's outing.  Today we decided to do the Swamp and Bayou Tour.  Taken by bus about 20 minutes drive out of town, then onto a swamp boat.  We learnt all about the difference between swamps and marsh land, man made waterways and natural waterway, called bayou.  Saw lots of Alligator and turtles, their large alligators are about the size of our baby crocodiles.

We came back into town, had lunch (sorry Dirk had breakfast) at 2.30 at The Famous Gumbo Pot restaurant.  I tried Gumbo for the first time, it is a soup like dish with rice in it and probably all the left overs from yesterday, but really delicious. We did a bit of walking around, looking at the shops, the different between old and new is amazing, and caught a cab home. - Colleen

New Orleans

After a casual drive, arrived in New Orleans at about 2.00 pm.
The RV behaved itself with no trace of overheating...
We now have to decide where and what to visit in NO for the next
2days or so. Will keep you posted.
Dirk

The First State Park.

It is a State Park called Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park.  For those of you who do not know about state parks, they are always beautiful, usually in amongst trees, with water and electricity connection but no Internet connection and usually very weak cell phone reception.

Went out to photograph the deer that had come to eat and met our neighbour. Needless to say they were gob smacked that we were all the way from Africa.  Had a good laugh, with them teaching us how to say New Orleans. It goes something like, Nuleens, all one word, all one pitch.

So after a very quick and easy supper, there was nothing else to do but have a good laugh watching the movie, Meeting the Fockers, our family thought this was an appropriate movie for us to watch.

After a good nights sleep, we were up early, cup of good coffee, walking shoes on and off for an early morning walk.  Did a short walking trail then went to the shop to get the directions to the Iron Works.  After exploring these and taking many photos we continued our walk back to the RV for breakfast, shower and on the road.  After a quick discussion with Henry, we decided to stop in a little place called Meridian, Mississippi to try and find a RV Center, once again they don't do engines.  Dirk has spent the best part of this afternoon, scouring the internet to find that this is a common problem, caused by a few things, but nothing fatal.  So tomorrow (Wednesday) we are pushing through to New Orleans to find a recognised dealer.  As long as it is only the engine that gets a little warm and we keep our cool, all will be well.

Overheating.

Thank goodness we had a rest day on Sunday, because today (Monday) turned out to be a little more nerve racking.  We left Nashville at about 9.00am went to the RV shop to check and pump the tyres, (ever tried pumping truck tyres?) then made a stop at Wall-Mart for a few things.  We're on the road again, cruising down the I65 in Tennessee, enjoying scenery etc, suddenly temperature goes up, with warning lights on, cools down going down hill. Exit the highway at Exit 334 to go to Hood RV Center, sorry sir, we don't look at engines, go across the road to Direct Inc, they will help you.  Joe the mechanic looks, scratches his head, not much communication goes on at this point. Eventually he tells Dirk, 'just back it up into the second garage.'  Dirk is very chuffed that Joe has so much confidence in his reversing abilities, but he did it very well. Joe uses air pressure to blow out the radiator core to get rid of dust and road dirt, then washes it and blows it dry again.  This cost us a whole $45.  We go for a quick test run and all seems OK, so off we go again. But once we are on the road again, Dirk has to nurse it up the hills.  We eventually get to our camp for the night at 5.15pm.

The Grand Ole Opry, Nashhville Tennessee

Arrived in Nashville at about 5.00pm after a pleasant but long drive..
Had to rush to get ready in time for the 7.00 pm show.

A lot of fun, for those that dont know, Nashville is the hub of Country music. The Grand Ole Opry is a Country and Western Radio/Tv show and has been going for about 85 years.

Today was oil service day.

The trip up the I75 was to the RV dealer to perform the oil change etc.
Tomorrow is grocery day and Saturday morning we set of on our travels.

Nearly ready to go.

We are in Dayton Ohio, another week or so and we will hit the road.
The RV looks even better in the flesh than in the pictures.