We are headed to Illinois but are not burning up the highways! Our first day ended in Deming, NM which gave us a good start to see The White Sands National Monument in Alamogordo the next afternoon. From there we traveled across central NM to spend a few days just north of Carlsbad with our Son-in-Law Roger's aunt Marilyn Raily and her husband Bob at The Ranch, an Escapees Park for full time RVers.
After saying goodbye to the Railys we leisurely drove across Texas to San Antonio to sightsee and see old friends Bill and Jacquie Hurley. Bill was Jeff's predecessor at Twin Commander and they are former fellow RVers. The weather has been beautiful but did reach 99 one day in San Antonio. (Its getting time to head north!) One of those beautiful days was spent visiting the Alamo and San Antonio's Riverwalk.
The early history of South Texas is fascinating and a great deal of it occurred around San Antonio. It is the second oldest city in the US after St Augustine FL and Texans are understandably proud of their heritage. The other big attraction of downtown San Antonio is the Riverwalk. This stands as a model for downtown development across the US and provides a beautiful afternoon of boat rides, eating, and entertainment.
This has been another chance to "veg out" for a couple of days and one fun way to do that is visit the Texas hill country. A balmy Sunday afternoon in Lukenback listening to young musicians emulating Willy and Waylon gives a true flavor of rural Texas. From there we visited Wildseed Farms, a large prairie flower seed company that provided Sue an opportunity to add a few fresh flowers to the m/h.
The LBJ ranch is a few miles down the Perdanelles river from the Wildseed Farm and was our last visit of the week. President Johnson spent his life within a few miles of the ranch and it certainly is a peaceful setting. We leave tomorrow for the Dallas area to visit old friends Chuck and Janet Koehler whom we knew in Illinois 25 years ago as well as a short visit with Bob and Barb Via, aviation friends who now run a cattle ranch and from there up to Oklahoma City for more old friends. As it warms up we will follow the warm weather to Chicago by the end of the month.
