A Walk In The Park

Not much happening here the past few days. We're just waiting for Wednesday so we can move into our new home. We hung out at the park yesterday and watched movies and football and read. It was a nice relaxing day but not a lot of opportunities for blog-worthy pictures. I took a couple of walks around the RV park to see if I could find anything interesting.

I took a photo of our van and Jeep because it is starting to hit home to me that our travel days in the van are just about over. It's been a good little motorhome and has taken us to some amazing places the past five years. I'll be sad to say good-bye to it...

My morning walk took me to a field right outside the park with some pretty horses...

...and a pond inside the park that has had a heron sitting on a pipe every time we've driven or walked past. I almost thought it was fake but I finally saw it move yesterday. It reminds me of the heron that was always in the pond outside our condo...

Last night, we walked around the park to look at all the Christmas decorations. The light displays didn't photograph well but I did get a couple of nice shots of some of the decorative pieces. Some people really go all out-even in an RV park. I love that...

We brought some Christmas lights with us so we might do something simple in our new rig. I'm still not sure where we'll be for Christmas. If we haven't sold the van by then we'll probably still be in the Houston vicinity but we hope to at least be on the outskirts in a more remote setting. We're looking at Lake Conroe, the Sam Houston Forest or maybe even Galveston. Wherever we are, I'm sure it will be fun.

I hope all your holiday plans are going well. Thanks again for stopping by.

Texas Update

As most of you know from my Facebook posts, we've been in Texas for the past two weeks, buying a motorhome and getting the Jeep inspected, titled, etc. We left the Livingston area yesterday and moved to Spring, Tx near the dealership where we are getting our motorhome. We went in this morning and finished signing all the papers. We'll be taking possession of it Wednesday and will probably stay in their lot a night or two to get use to things and make sure everything works

I finally have an afternoon free so I thought I'd update the blog with some random pictures from Livingston since that's technically my new hometown. We were downtown yesterday and I snapped a few pictures of the water tower, movie theater and courthouse ...

It's a pretty typical small Texas town. I liked it. I really liked the park we were in. That was in Onalaska, Tx. I posted a picture from there the other day but here are two more. The first is another shot of the lake and the second is this weird playground they had that I think is some kind of water sprinkler park. I thought it was cool looking...

I've been debating about how many pictures of the new motorhome I want to post on the blog. I think I'll wait until we are in it and have some nice pictures of the exterior in a pretty setting and post them on Facebook. It's very pretty and we're super-excited about it so here is a preview shot of the interior...

Our (tentative) plan is to return to this park next weekend since it is so close to the dealership. That way, our first drive is a short one and we're still nearby if we need to get something checked. Then we plan to head to a state park or Corps of Engineer campground. We're very anxious to get out of the Houston area and into a more natural setting and there are several parks not too far from here that should be perfect. I love researching parks and routes so this is the fun stuff.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Hello From Texas

I'm sorry I haven't updated the blog in a while. We've been in Texas for over a week and it is very nice here but we've been busy shopping for a motorhome and taking care of residency issues. We haven't done much sightseeing or picture taking. Most of today's pictures came from the RV parks we have stayed in.

This past week, we were in Baytown, Texas. We stayed at a very pretty park that had the nicest people working there. Actually, everyone we've met in Texas so far has been super-friendly. I didn't take many pictures in the park but I did snap this one photo of the palm trees around the swimming pool...

We've had gorgeous weather. It has hit 80 degrees almost every day with bright blue skies...

Today was a travel day. We moved about a hundred miles north to Onalaska, Texas. I thought we were in Ohio at one point because we passed through both Cleveland and Dayton on our way here. We're staying at a park on Lake Livingston. It has a nice sandy beach leading up to the lake...

I didn't build that sand castle in the foreground. I did walk down and stick my feet in the lake and I was surprised by how warm it was. No one was swimming but I'm seriously considering it if it stays this warm over the next few days.

We came to this area to take care of some business in Livingston, Tx. Livingston is our new home town. This is where our mail forwarding service is located and where we will get our licenses and register to vote. We should officially be Texans by the end of the week.

The big news is we bought a motorhome Friday! It's very nice and pretty much exactly what we were looking for. It should be ready for us to move into in about a week. We're very happy and relieved to find a motorhome so perfect for us so quickly. I am so glad we will be in it by Christmas. We didn't know where we were going to put a tree in the van.

Thanks again for stopping by. Our travels should get more interesting when we finish all this stuff and get back on the road in our new home. Stay tuned...

I Love Louisiana!

 I'm running out of ways to say how great our days have been and how beautiful everything is that we have seen. Today was fantastic. We're in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite states. It was in the low 80's today and yesterday. Lousiana reminds me of  Florida but more rural and swampier. The small towns are charming and have so much character. The people are great. They smile and wave like they know you and I love the Cajun accent. I love the Cajun music and food, too. We might come back here later this winter after we get our motorhome.

We had lunch at a really cool restaurant in Breaux Bridge called Cafe Des Amis. It is part restaurant, part art gallery and the food was terrific. From there we drove about 45 minutes to Avery Island. Most of today's pictures were taken there.

Avery Island is home to Tabasco. It is a salt marsh and the peppers are grown there and the factory is there. We could have toured the factory but we didn't as we were mainly there to visit the private wildlife sanctuary and gardens that were established there by Edward McIlhenny, the founder of Tabasco.

 McIlhenny was a naturalist and conservationist who pretty much saved the snowy egret from extinction. He imported and bred hundreds of plants on Avery Island and turned it into a bird sanctuary. Each year, thousands of herons and egrets migrate there in the spring and 20,000 herons are born there every year. As the lady in the visitor center said to me, "If I were a bird, I would want to live here."  Here are just some of the things we saw today...

This is the Bayou Petite Anse...

Some alligators we saw, sunning themselves...

These beautiful old oak trees were everywhere...

There is something blooming on Avery Island year round. In the spring it is azaleas and wildflowers but right now it is camellias. I wish I could add smell to this blog so you could smell the grove of camellia trees. I think this was my favorite part of the island...

Last, but not least, we saw lots of herons and egrets...

We extended our stay here another day and may end up staying Friday, too, in order to avoid the Black Friday traffic. We're only about 400 miles from where we plan to go in Texas so, hopefully, we'll be looking at new motorhomes by Monday.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Final Day On The Natchez Trace

We finished driving the Natchez Trace today and are in Natchez Mississippi tonight. We had another great day. Lots of pictures tonight.

Another shot from the campground at Lake Tiak-O'Khata this morning...

The highlight of today came early this morning when we took a walk through the Cypress Swamp. Actually this has been a highlight of the trip, so far...

We left the Parkway for a short trip to the Mississippi Craft Center. They had lots of interesting crafts inside but I particularly liked the metal sculptures and bottle trees outside...

Back on the parkway we followed the shore of the Ross Barnett Reservoir for about twenty miles...

Our last stop on the parkway was another hike along the old trace. This was a part of the trace called the Sunken Trace. You can't really tell from the picture how deep it is but it was about twenty feet deep...

We should be in Louisiana tomorrow. We have a short drive to a very nice RV park in the heart of Cajun country. We plan to spend a few days there before moving on towards Texas. Thanks again to everyone for stopping by. A special thanks to TiogaGeorge for stopping by and leaving a comment. TiogaGeorge is famous in the RV world and I was honored he paid me a visit. Thanks George!

Day Two On The Natchez Trace

We're in a wonderful park tonight on Lake Tiak-O'Khata in Louisville, Mississippi. It is only $20.00 a night for a full hook-up campsite with cable tv and we have the place pretty much to ourselves. This is the view behind our campsite...

Our day started in Tupelo with a trip to the house where Elvis was born. We had planned a quick stop to snap a picture of the house but it was so nice there, we ended up walking around for a while. It was in a very pretty, park-like setting where you could walk around the grounds and read plaques with interesting stories from his early life. This is the house...

...and a statue of Elvis as a boy...

Then, it was back on the Natchez Trace for another great drive. I really love this parkway. The scenery is beautiful and there are so many interesting stops and nice hikes. With the weather in the 70's today, we were probably outside walking and looking at things more than we were driving. We saw more Indian Mounds...

and took another short hike on the old trace...

This hike brought us to a group of 13 graves for unknown Confederate soldiers...

At one point on today's drive, we came upon a two or three mile section that looked like there may have been a fire but it was actually caused by a tornado that hit the area in April of 2011...

As we get further south, we are finding more foliage on the trees and though they are past peek color they are still very pretty...

Tomorrow will probably be our last day on the trace and the pictures should start looking very different than the ones from today and Friday. As you get deeper into Mississippi, the parkway runs through some swamplands and cypress groves. I'm looking forward to that. After we leave the trace in Natchez, Mississippi, we will be entering Cajun country. That's one part of the country we haven't visited yet so that should be lots of fun.

Well, that's all for tonight. Thanks again for stopping by!

The Natchez Trace: Nashville to Tupelo

We had a nice time in Nashville but I didn't take many pictures. It's definitely a fun city that we plan to visit again some day. We were there primarily to pick up the Natchez Trace which is just south of Nashville. It is also very conveniently located near the Loveless Cafe. They are known for their wonderful southern cooking and we had dinner there last night and breakfast there this morning. I highly recommend a trip to the Loveless Cafe if you are ever in Nashville.

I wish every road in the country was like the Natchez Trace. It was a beautiful drive with lovely scenery, very little traffic and a lot of interesting stops along the way. Most of today's pictures are from the trace.

This is the view from one of the overlooks...

...and another view, a little further down the road......

...the double-arch bridge...

...an old tobacco barn...

...and a shot of the parkway through the windshield...

There are several places along the parkway where you can see the old trace. Here is a shot from one of the places where we were able to walk the original Natchez Trace...

We stopped at this memorial site to Merriweather Lewis. He died about 200 yards from this spot and his ashes are buried in the monument. It is believed that he committed suicide there but many people think he was murdered...

There were several Indian burial mounds along the trace. This one was used to bury sacred artifacts...

We plan to take the parkway the whole 444 miles down to Natchez. It was getting dark as we arrived in Tupelo so we may stick around another day to explore the area. Up until today, we were traveling in places where we had been before so we're excited to be in new territory. We added two new states to our "states visited" map today: Alabama and Mississippi.

Thanks again for stopping by. I hope everyone has a great weekend.