Jacksonville to Alvarado Texas

We drove into Alvarado Thursday afternoon and right into the back lot of the Motor Home Specialists. MHS is where we purchased our Diplomat in May of 2010 and we wanted to see if they could take of a couple little nagging problems with the Dip and at the same time look up our salesman, Jimmy Campana.  Below (on left) is Jimmy.  Don't know who the other folks are as I pulled this pic off MHS website.  If you are ever in the market for a motorhome, see Jimmy.  He will do you right and he is just about the easiest going person you'd ever want to meet.

Above is our Diplomat parked behind one of the covered coach ports.  All 24 coachports were full of MH's sold and awaiting pickup by customers.  They sell a lot of motor homes (no trailers or fifth wheels, just motor homes) here, 989 to be exact in 2011, and Jimmy sold 108.  Not bad huh?

Above are the coach ports full of sold coaches.

We spent two nights at MHS in Alvarado.  Saturday was such a beautiful day, 82 & sunny, that we decided to make another visit to the Stockyards in Forth Worth.  In May 2010 when we bought our Dip, we visited Joe T. Garcia's in the Stockyards area, and we wanted to do it again  Great Mexican food.  And we were not disappointed again.

Below, Nancy at our table in Garcia's.  She didn't know I was snapping her mug, obviously!  :-)

 And below was our view just out from our table.  Nice ambiance.

After a tasty round of Chicken Fajitas for both of us and two big glasses of ginger ale (it helps to burp a little after eating Mex food) we decided to walk around a little in the famous & historic Stockyards district.

And wouldn't you know, luck had us witnessing a real live longhorn cattle drive right down the middle of the street by 17 of meanest looking steers (no cows) I ever laid eyes.  I haven't seen too many, for sure.  The old boys do this twice every day, and they looked so bored.  Even the cowboys looked a little forlorn.

 Miss Nancy enjoying the cattle drive on a very nice weather day.  And below catching up on things with Jennifer, our daughter in Alexandria, VA.

Below, a couple of old proprierterships in the district.

 So, the cattle drive took all of about five minutes.  The longhorns have a storied history dating back to post civil war days in the southwest, specifically southern Texas and northern New Mexico.  Millions of lomghorns were just wild range roamers and it took quite a bunch of rough & tough cowboys decades to round them up and march them off to the markets.  Does the Chisolm Trail ring a bell?

 We managed to sit and relax a little before driving to Alvarado, and slipped into the Stockyard Museum for a brief walk through.  Below is looking out into the Stockyard Street from the museum front steps.

 Below is a cute pic of a pic from inside the museum.  Humerous I thought.

 And below was something I thought catchy as well.  Red neck wine glasses.  It was Kerr Jars mounted on top of some sort of glass candelbras.  How ingenius.

Above was the end of the drive.  The cowboy at the end is called the "Drag" in drive lingo.  I learned that from a poster on one of the brick walls along the street.  And that brings our blog for today, to an end as well. 

We left Alvarado this morning (Saturday) and drove down I-35 to US29 and headed west into the little town of Marble Falls.  Yep, we are a Walmart.  We'll continue on down US29 tomorrow after topping off the diesel tank.  Price is $3.49, cheapest we have found since leaving Virginia.  So, till next time, RVing Beach Bums.