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.



Lake Charles, LA to Jacksonville, TX

 Some of our followers have commented that our tree pics are nice, so I will post a few more from our fall trip to the Smokies in October.  These two pics were from our RV park in Cherokee, NC  I think the bird below, which is a little out of focus as it was about a hundred yards away, is a red-headed woodpecker, which are quiet rare.

The above pic is interesting.  See the small black speck?  It is a full grown black bear about a hundred yards away, and it was taken at the Fontana Dam complex.  This bear is walking around the tops of trees looking for nuts or acorns.  The bear was easily 80 to 100 feet above the ground.  We couldn't believe how nimbly this big fella was.

We left Lake Charles, LA yesterday and pulled into a Walmart in Jacksonville, TX around 5PM.  Did a little shopping and had us a pizza at Adolpho's next Walmart.  After that we walked down our supper by going into a Verizon wireless store to see the new 4G offerings as our phones are due for upgrades.  We looked only.  They are so expensive.

We leave here this morning and drive to Alvarado, TX, specifically Motor Home Specialists where we purchased our MH.  We plan to take our salesman out to dinner at the Stockyard (maybe Billy Bobs). 

 Brrrrr!  This pic makes me shiver.  It was cold up on top of this mountain on the Cherohala Parkway.  But eerily beautiful and awsome.

 Nancy getting close & personal with the icey tree.  And below is her pic!

We look forward to re-visiting the Smokies and the Cherohala area again as it remains one of our favorite places to visit.  After our visit in Alvarado/Fort Worth we will "waltz across Texas" and on into NM, AZ and eventuall Monterey for the AT&T ProAm in early Feb.  Tiger will be playing for the first time since 2002 and is paired with Tony Romo, and Tim Tebow will be there too.  But more on that later when we get to Pebble Beach.  So, till the next time, RVing Beach Bums westward bound!

On The Road Again...

The RVing Beach Bums are on the road again.  Last blog showed us in the Great Smoky Mountains back in October.  The above photo of a tee shirt in Fontana Village gift shop was of the Tail Of The Dragon, a section of about 10 miles of NC highway 129 that is just incredible.  You have to drive it to believe it. Great for motorcycles.

Saw this little fella at the Fontana Dam area.  Never did see Momma. 

Now, to bring our followers up to date.  We left Virginia Beach on Jan 6th with our ultimate destination (first stop of more than a couple of days) being Pebble Beach/Monterey, CA for the AT&T Pro-Am.  We did this last year and we really had fun. 

Our first stop was in northern Virginia that afternoon (Jan 6) to have a quick lunch with our daughter at the Lost Dog Cafe in McLean.  Yummy!  One hour with her and it was on the road again and back to work for her.  It'll be a year nearly before we see her again, and her babies.  We settled in Morgantown, WV for the eveing at Walmart.

Up early the next morning and we were off to Oregonia, Ohio for a brief 2-day stay with my sister Deborah (full hookups at her country home), other siblings Kevin, Brenda and our Mother Shirley in Lebanon.

Above pics from Cherohala Parkway in western NC & eastern TN.  Bright & early Monday morning the 9th, we were off to Ashland City, TN via Louisville, KY and I-65 to see my Sister Donna & her hubby Joe and my Brother Chris.  They live back in a holler about 10 miles from town, and have sunlight piped in at 2:00 PM each day.  And oh, if the creek don't rise, you can even drive to their house.  :-) 

Couldn't believe it was so nice down in the valleys, and 29 degrees up here at 4400+ feet.  Wow!  It was beautiful!  Our water pump broke while in Ashland City, so we went to CW of Nashville, and after $472, six boxes of fuses and a section of ground wire, we were off to Florida to visit my Aunt Dorothy and Cousin Cathy in Ocala.

Back down in the valley, the colors were just wonderful!

We also had to shave our front tires in Nashville as they became "out-of-round" and were vibrating pretty bad.  That was another $126.  So, Thursday morning, Jan 12, we left my relates in Nashville/Ashland City and headed for Ocala, via a sleepover at the Walmart in Macon, GA.

Can't wait for our next fall visit to the beatiful mountains of NC & TN.  Friday morning we were up & off to Ocala.  Pulled in to the Target about a mile from my Aunt's & Cousin's homes.  We visited with Aunt Dorothy & Cousin Cathy (her daughter) for a couple days and left Sunday morning.  Friday night my Aunt had a meal prepared and it was so nice to sit down & relax and get caught up since our last visit.  She is a great cook and has always enjoyed preparing talk-around-table-meals.  Very nice.

 My Aunt Dorothy & Cousin Cathy and one of her Scotties, Madison.

On Saturday, we were treated to a citrus pickin'.  Yep, a real pickin' of oranges, grapfruit and tangerines.  Wow!  Fun & yummy!  Thank you Cathy and her long time friend and runnin' mate, Connie, who is "much older" by the way...LoL    ...

 Me, up a ladder and Connie and Cathy.  The orchard belonged to Connie's relatives, and they had done their pickin' for the season, so we got what was left on the trees.  Got around two bushels or so of fresh citrus.  Should last us a month if we can keep them cool.

So, we watched Tebow and the Broncos get slaughtered on Sat evening and we said our good-byes and headed out of town on Sun morning headed to Pebble Beach, via several overnighters along the way.

 Some sort of crane on the shore of Lake Kerr where the orchard trees shadowed the sandy beach.  Such a nice piece of property.  The cottage and the orchard and the lake. 

In the Target parking lot in Ocala. 

Oh, our generator blew a fuse (as we found out later) Sun morning.  We decided to pull into our first RV Park (Pensacola RV Park) since leaving home on the 6th, to see if we could figure out what was wrong with our generator.  No luck!  So, Monday morning, after yet another stop at a CW in Robertsdale, Alabama, just across Mobile Bay from Mobile, and another $205 we were headed west on I-10 around 1:00 PM. 

Can someone identify these cranes? 

Monday evening and we pulled into the Imperial Palace (IP) Hotel & Casino in Biloxi, MS.  This is a huge place.  We overnighted here, made an obligatory deposit at the casino and were on our way the next morning, Tuesday, Jan 17.  And here we are, in Lake Charles, LA, and it's Wednesday morning.  After a yukky night of showers and wind, it's a beautiful, crisp morning, about 40 degrees and sunny.  Today we'll head for either Austin or San Antonio.  We'll let you know where in our next blog. So, till then, RVing Beach Bums, Joe & Nancy.