Out of Texas

We finally fueled up and headed out of Texas. Anthony is the last city, or town, in Texas you pass through before crossing into New Mexico. We did actually cross into NM. Honest, we really did. See the sign?? It says welcome. This is where we actually crossed the Rio Grande, not much of river anymore, as it flows south from the mountains around Albuquerque. If we were to jump on I-25 headed north, we could follow it further. Alas, we parted ways in Las Cruces and continued West. New Mexico roads aren't a whole lot different from Texas, (or any where else actually) and we didn't travel a whole lot through New Mexico. Our ultimate destination was Arizona. The sign entering there also says welcome. (People are so friendly here, but that's another story, another time)!? The sun was setting again, so we decided to make an additional stop for the night in Eloy, AZ. This was outside of Casa Grande. We could have continued on, but didn't feel we had to fight the sun in our eyes and arrive Yuma in the dark and try to get setup. We opted for an early night and joined the party at the RV park in Eloy for cake and ice cream. (Halloween and a birthday to boot). A little walk with the doggies and we were all ready to turn in early. Yuma was looming on the horizon. Not long now!!

The Rio Grande and El Paso

El Paso city, on the Rio Grande. (You can almost hear the words to the old song here, huh)? There is almost 600 miles from San Antonio to El Paso. (548 according to the Texas map we picked up along the way). We are not in a real big hurry, so we stopped along the way and spent the night in an RV park outside of Balmorhea. Stopping before dark allowed us to grab a sunset picture and then a sunrise shot also. (Can you guess which is which)? I have hint for you. The one with the power pole is the sunrise. Unfortunately we couldn't move far enough right or left to get it out of view, so think of it as a marker. We headed out shortly after sunrise. The dogs had their breakfast and we had coffee. We couldn't get over the speed limit in Texas. 80 mph for cars and 65 mph for trucks and night time. We continued westward, along the Quitman Mountains. Do you see the Rio Grande?? We couldn't either. We needed to get closer to El Paso. There we got our 1st view of the Rio Grande. The center of the river is the boundry between the U.S. and Mexico. The mountains off in the distance are in Mexico. El Paso is a large industrial city, sprawled out through the valley, bordering the town of Juarez, Mexico. The Rio Grande is all that separates these two cities. Lots and lots of people live here. Lots and lots of traffic through the city. I would like to say it is the largest city on the border with Mexico, but our friend Linda was corrected when she posted this fact. Thus, I will refrain and we will move on.

Leaving San Antonio

Roads leave San Antonio every which way. West is our direction, so West we head. I-10 is a long and winding road. Not a whole lot of traffic once you get away from San Antonio. This was a relief as we motored on down the road. The Interstate road system commissioned by the Eisenhower admimistration in the late 50's and early 60's criss-crosses the U.S. in every direction. The road we travel follows through canyons cut from the rock, still baring the scars of the drill. It becomes quite long and even the puppies couldn't resist a nap.

SAN ANTONIO STROLL

Remember the Alamo, but take a San Antonio Stroll. We did this in two parts. First the Alamo where Santa Ana, self-proclaimed Mexican leader, with more than 2000 soldiers laid seige to less than 200 Americans trying to protect a fort and a mission on the San Antonio River in 1836. One of the protectors of the fort was Davy Crockett, alas, all perished when Santa Ana stormed the fort. The Long Barrack and the mission (The Alamo) is all that remains today. The 175th Anniversary of the fall of the fort is in 2011. Part two is the stroll along the famous "Riverwalk" in San Antonio. You actually walk along a man-made canal, about four feet deep, carved to relieve flood waters at one time. Don't know how long it actually is, but we walked it all, first one side and then the other. We even had lunch at the Casa Rio, the first restaurant to offer outside seating along the river in 1946. (You can recognize it by the colorful umbrellas on each table). It was a beautiful day, reaching into the high 70's, but the walk along the river was shaded and cooler than up above on the street. Paco and Pepe enjoyed that stroll too. They didn't have to walk though, as we carried them for security reasons. Tired little puppies by time we were done. The dogs too!!

A DAY LIKE ANY OTHER DAY

A visit to Oklahoma City is not complete without viewing the Oklahoma City Memorial. This memorial was created after the horrific bombing of the Federal Building in April, 1995. We walked through this memorial, first from outside by the relfection pool, and then inside from the third floor down to the gift shop and exit. A somber reminder of what Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols wreaked upon the people of Oklahoma City. The field of empty chairs symbolizes the people killed and where recovery teams believe they were located within the building. The bigger chairs were the grownups, the smaller chairs the children. The first row was the first floor, etc... Across the reflection pool was a lone elm tree, now known as the survivor tree, and a symbol of hope and life. The memorial was large with a vast amount of displays. All of them are not shown here, just a few glimpses of what was there. Upon exit, were walked upon a 'path of pennies' This was started when a boy who lost his mother in the bombing, asked, "Just one penny-for my Mom"? He recieved several, and then several more. $55,000 worth, (over 5 million pennies) to help toward this memorial.

NATIONAL COWBOY MUSEUM

So you want to be a cowboy? Momma, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys!! These and another phrases have been said again and again. Yet, to get into this museum you have to be a cowboy. Yeehaw!! There are a lot of them. Some fictional, some real, all cowboys. Some immortalized on film like Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers (and Dale Evans), Tom Mix, etc. Of course, who could forget the Lone Ranger ("Who was that masked man?") and his trusted companion Tonto. In the main entrance was an 18 foot tall sculpture of the 'End of the Trail' This work was almost destroyed after being at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. It was saved and restored in all it's glory, here to greet visitors once again. There were many, many different rooms. All carried some relationship to cowboys. There were hand-tooled saddles and bits. There were beautiful paintings by Remington, Russell, Lovell and many others. Some rooms you could take photos in, others you cannot. Therefore, the selections are limited. Enjoy the suit worn by Robert Redford in "The Electric Horseman" and some of the Indian artifacts. We get to enjoy the experience of being at the 'National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum'. Happy trails to you!!

OKLAHOMA!!

Where the wind comes whipping across the plains!! That indeed is the true story. We were in winds from the time we headed West from Missouri to where we finally parked in Oklahoma City. The night before we left Branson, we met up with our friend Tom and his new wife Dianne, at Lambert's Cafe in Ozark, MO. Lambert's Cafe is the home of the 'tossed rolls', and they do throw them to you. The sun was setting while we were there, so we captured the sunset for you to see. While in Oklahoma City we visited other friends during the evening. We spent the next day seeing the area. We went to the National Cowboy Museum first and the Oklahoma City Memorial later in the afternoon. Thanks Roy for showing us around.

Branson, Missouri

Time to tell a little about Branson. Got here Thursday, Oct 21 and will be leaving tomorrow morning, Oct 25th. Branson sits on a cluster of hills. Like real hilly, but then we are in the Ozark mountains. Known for country and variety shows, there a number of theaters all vying for customers. We just explored around Branson itself and even went downtown to the waterfront on the White River. It is interesting country. We also took a side trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas instead of taking the motorhome. This was a good thing. We thought Branson was bad, wrong!! Eureka Springs is hillier yet and a whole lot narrower with its streets. It is an old, old town in the hollers of Arkansas. We did visit the Baker Hotel, supposed to be haunted, and walked briefly through the town. On the way we stopped where they hold the great passion play, "Christ of the Ozarks". Pretty elaborate sets and a huge statue of Jesus you can see across the holler from Eureka Springs. We headed back to Branson for the rest of the weekend and we will prepare to move on to Oklahoma City. From the old postcard sayings, "Wish you were here"!!

KANSAS CITY--HERE WE ARE!!

Yup, a short stop in Kansas City, MO as we pass through from the high plains of Nebraska and Kansas to Branson, MO. Even though we say KC we are actually in Independence, MO. Home of Harry Truman and Jerry's sister Sarah and Brother-in-law Hugh. We are staying in the Temple Square RV park, hence the picture of the Temple spire. It is pretty majestic standing above the trees. Stainless steel and quite high, it spirals upward. We would like to take a tour some day if the timing is right. We did make a visit to the Midwest Geneology Center.WOW!! Talk about records for anyone researching their 'roots'. To quote Darth Vader; "Most impressive"!! Off to Branson in the morning. It is about a four hour drive from here through some Lake Ozark country. Hopefully the fall colors are still vibrant and we will see some reds, yellows and umbers.

High Plains Drifters

Sunday the 17th we left the rv park in Greeley and headed east. We went through Colorado and Nebraksa for a short ways. Then it was on into Kansas. We saw lots and lots of corn and wheat fields along the way and plenty of long straight roads.

For the night we stopped in Russell Kansas, with it's claim to fame as the home of senator Bob Dole.

Sculpture Park

After we were out of Estes park we went to Loveland, CO to the sculpture park. We walked through the park and saw lots of great bronze sculptures. One was by a famous guy we know.

Jeff Oens has one of his works in the park along with many other artists. It is a very pretty park with a lake and nice walkways all around.