Branson MO

WED June 2

With “chores” didn’t get to bed until 11:30 last night but it was nice and quiet with crickets and small birds and we slept in this morning.

A bit of shopping, relaxing and off to see what Branson has to offer. My impression is a lot of big names on marquees but not many of those names in town rather, Legends impersonators, and son’s of, as in Roy Rodgers & Dale Evans, son of, RR & DE, brothers of, Marty Haggard, lots of places to eat and buy t-shirts, a very ersatz and chintzy town, but fun if you know what you are getting yourself into, we had fun.

We ate well as we always do and we saw the REAL Yakov Smirnoff, “WHAT A COUNTRY!!” in a show and laughed and laughed. He told stories about people coming to this country and not being familiar with our customs and idioms such as what he said he thought when he saw a “Baby Changing Station” [guess it’s where you go if you don’t like the baby you have] and he wanted to buy a car and ask where he should go and was told to go to the car so he went to a lot full of cars, it was really a parking lot and saw a woman give a man a dollar bill and she said “blue Cadillac” and the man went and got her a blue Cadillac. Yakov’s punch line to those stories was “Bet you never thought of it that way but you will now.” He also talked a lot about love and laughter between two people and it is true that people who love each other laugh with each other.

When we left the show we saw lightening far off to the NW so when we got back to the campground I rolled up the awning and later at night there was wind, hard rain turning to hail, I slept through most of it. Wake up in the morning to find water on the shelf on the side where I sleep and so on the way south to Little Rock we stopped at a shop in Harrison AR and a tech put a lot of sealant on for free. [Will do permanently when I get back to AZ in SEP.] And it’s a good thing we had that taken care of because we were hit by 2 heavy rainstorms in the afternoon, had to get a 2-handed grip on the steering wheel and slow down on the Interstate.

We were going to stay at Naval Support Activity Mid-South, used to be NAS Memphis/Millington, campground and we had a very hard time finding it only to be very disappointed in the condition of the place when we got there so off to the Good Sam campground a block from Graceland, hook up and crash into bed.

Driving Northeast

TUE June 1

Driving NE from McKinney TX through the rolling hills of TX and OK and then watching the country change to the mountains of ARK and into MO, long day behind the wheel.

But the day was broken in McAlister OK with lunch with Ron Miller. Said he was doing fine but missed the Mexican food of AZ.

Dallas TX

SAT May 29 – MON May 31

Texas, land of high water towers.
Dallas, land of high church steeples.

McKinney TX

In Dallas area to visit my brother Gus and his wife Dianna who I met when I was in college and have a very special relationship with; family is great, close family that you are real friends with is even greater.

Anyway, super time talking and catching up from the last time we saw each other and touring around Dallas together.

We went to Dealey Plaza where JFK was shot, saw the painted “X”s on the roadway for where he was hit and a few yards on another X where Governor John Connelly was hit. Had a walking history tour from a street-guy who played on the conspiracy theory angle and all-in-all had a very enjoyable 1+hour. Also saw the Texas School Book Depository. They have left the second to the top floor window on the right, where Lee Harvey Oswald took his position, open and for a fee viewable and the “grassy knoll” no fee charged.

We also drove out to “Southfork Ranch” and saw the opening TV shot of the gate and house for the 1978 - 1991 night-time soap opera “Dallas” that we used to watch religiously.

And in keeping with the spirit of Memorial Day we went with Gus & Di to a dedication of a memorial to armed forces veterans in Wylie TX. Now this is the way Memorial Day should be spent. A small town got the spirit to raise money and build a small memorial to veterans and to have the official dedication on Memorial Day; speeches, music & singing, color-guard, saluting and “Thank you for your service.”, very, very nice. Afterwards we went to another small town for a lunch picnic of Di’s & Gus’s horse friends, more thank you's, LOTS of good food and fellowship galore. A really great day.

San Antonio TX

TUE May 25 – FRI May 28

Marla joined me here for a few weeks and we had a wonderful time in San Antonio with O & MA. We just hung out and were turistas; La Mercado, Mi Terria, Fort Sam Houston, Cooper’s BBQ, Jim’s Chili-cheese burger with shoestring onion rings. Mexican food and BBQ, how can you get better than that?

One night we went to hear Ollie and the band and really enjoyed ourselves.

San Antonio is growing like mad and Brooke Army Medical Center seems to be either doubling or tippling in size, lots of MILCON dollars.

Also found some time to do some minor on the trailer and organize a few things to make traveling a bit easier.

Spring Branch TX

MON May 24

Left Corpus Christi and drove north to San Antonio area to visit my sister and brother-in law for a few days, hang out, swap lies, get caught up on family and be tourists in San Antonio.

Drove past oil refineries leaving Corpus Christi and fields of corn. Got off the interstate once for a MANDATORY snack stop of fried pork rinds and a coke and when getting back on was passed by a Cardinal Health semi; Shawn your company is out there.

Padre Island TX

SUN May 23

What a great day. Today I went out to Padre Island and had a blast just hanging out on the beach, reading and eating good food.

Except for going to get something to eat I spent my time at the National Park Service P.I. National Seashore because I have a National Park Service Golden Age Passport and don’t have to pay and they had the best facilities. I joined a Park Ranger on a 45-minute beach tour and she explained how along this area of Texas coastline up to 17 Gulf currents converge and besides making that a very good fishing area it also brings in a lot of seaweed and trash.

The wind has been blowing in from the Gulf at a steady 25-30 MPH with gusts to 35 for the last 2 days and that means very high salty-air humidity and buffeting the trailer around at night.

But the water is great. 820 and lots of waves to swim in. I have spent more time in the water here in the last 2 days than I did in the San Diego waters in the 23 years I spent there. And I have gotten lots of use out of a sports towel that Di & Gus gave me a couple of years back.

A couple of things I learned about beaches here. “…in Texas all beaches are public highways and all traffic laws apply…” Yep you can drive on a lot of the beaches in your car but be careful of getting stuck in loose sand; bet the local tow companies just love to charge to pull folks out. Also here the County charges a fee to park on the beach, $12.00 for a 1-year permit, so keep driving or pay for the permit.

Corpus Christi TX

SAT May 22

A nice slow day of less than 150 miles as I drove North from Brownsville to Corpus Christi where I am staying at the Naval Air Station RV park right on the bay. Temperature is mid-80s and the air is heavy with the feel and smell of salt from the Gulf and bay.

I haven’t been to NAS Corpus Christi since 1962 or 63 and it has definitely seen better times but it is hanging in there and shows visitors a very welcome time.

SAT was shopping day and laundry day, not exciting things but necessary things.

Oh yes a couple of things I forgot to mention about yesterday in Brownsville:
A FIRST: and that is one of the things this trip is all about, firsts.
I was approaching a high school; not a first.
There was a school crossing sign both before and after the school; not a first.
The FIRST was under the school crossing signs were additional signs that said “No cell phone use.” I have been in lots of places that either banned cell phone use or restricted use to hands-free but this was the first time that I had seen banning in the school area.

The second thing I forgot to mention was I drove passed the Customs & Border Protection Detention Center, read prison, in Brownville area and it was well back from the road and screened by lots of vegetation, fencing and armed guards.