Branson, Missouri

Had a great 2 days in Branson, despite the tornado damage from leap day this year, as seen in the first 2 photos, many of the theatres are open. We found an RV park right off the "strip", and were able to walk to see the "Clay Cooper Show", "Ride the Duck" -  a tour of the city, Table Rock mountain and Table Rock lake in the amphibious "duck", and go to Stonehill Winery for a tasting tour. Our first night, we also took a taxi downtown to the Landing, to Ernie Biggs (erniebiggs.com) to see the dueling pianos, we like those. Lots of fun, this one more rock and roll than the one we were in in San Antonio.   

a pizza place on the strip

you can get chicken here.....!

 Gerry went thru the Titanic museum, and thoroughly enjoyed it....why is the museum here? The unsinkable Molly Brown was from Missouri...

Wine tasting at Stonehill, they've won many awards.

Continuing on our way home, Monday night we spent at Robertsville State Park, Missouri, where we built a fire and sat outside in shorts until bedtime! We haven't done that all winter, and rarely are able to do that in PEI all summer! 

Today, Tuesday, we drove thru Illinois and most of Indiana, staying tonight in Richmond, Indiana, almost at the border of Ohio, at Grandpa's Farm RV park, likely the last park we'll find open. Also sat outside until bedtime in shorts, but cooler weather coming.

Texas, Arkansas, March 28-30

Historic hotel, Hot Springs, AR

Quapaw Bathhouse on Bathhouse Row

The gymnasium in a bathhouse that is now museum

A sign in one of the shops, Eureka Springs, AR...yowzers!

Healing waters in Eureka Springs, too....

the past tense of "get er done"...

Spent our first night on the road at Walmart in Tyler, Texas, a dry town. Wireless at MacDonalds. Destination for day 2 was Hot Springs, Arkansas, the boyhood home of Bill Clinton. We are happy to see hills after the flatness of Texas, although northern TX was quite pretty. Hot Springs is a historic town due to its mineral waters. People used to go there in the early 1900's to "take the waters", deemed to be therapeutic. There are many Bathhouses along Bathhouse row. Baseball players also came, they were heavy drinkers, and they believed that following a binge, the water would "boil out" the alcohol...today we KNOW that works with hot tubs and saunas!!! :-) Lovely town in the Ozark Mountains, nice shops and restaurants. We toured and walked around the town, there are still 2 bathhouses open, but we opted to find a home for the night and cook out as it was so warm. Found a site at the Hot Springs National Park, on the other side of the mountain. The town is actually in the park, very unusual. Great evening there, quiet, lots of birds and trees and nice neighbors. Also great hiking trails, we took a short hike before setting out for Eureka Springs on Friday morning. Several people recommended this town, even though it is out of our way, we have time. We took the scenic route, very winding, or as the sign said "crooked and narrow road ahead"! After a few hours of that we took the main highway! The trees are all budded out and there are some beautiful white and purple flowering trees. We arrived Eureka Springs, in northern Arkansas, about 5:00, parked downtown at the courthouse, narrow streets. Walked around the town, checking out menus for dinner, peeking in shops. Found the Garden Bistro, with an outdoor table and had a great meal, pasta with mushroom sauce for Ger (a restaurant and he orders vegetarian...we've come a long way!), burrito for me. The amount of food is overwhelming...the chef comes out to check on us. We ask her if she has doggy bags, oh yes, I'm a country girl, I like large portions! Lunch tomorrow! Both dinners came with salad, and steamed asparagus and snow peas...burp! Great RV park, Wanderlust. The next morning I took the trolley downtown to have a proper look in the shops, while G did some writing.

Our last days in Port A, March 24 - 27

We're trying to pack things in now that we have wanted to do while here. I biked to Aransas Pass, 7 miles, after the ferry, picked up some groceries and checked out the town while Gerry golfed on Sunday.

Monday we biked over on the ferry and met Hector from Coastal Bend Kayaks, at the Lighthouse Trail Park to rent kayaks. He brought all the gear and maps and planned a "float trip" for us. We kayaked up the Lydia Ann Channel, watched a big tanker heading out to sea, then in thru the mangroves. There are many waterways thru the mangroves, coming out into small lakes, with markers here and there to guide the way. Had our lunch on a duck blind, nowhere else to stop as its all muck! Great sunny, calm day for Texas. Wonderful to be out on the water again, in with all the birds and butterflies.

The weather turned very warm all of a sudden about 10 days ago, has been 90 degrees many days, using A/C now, often at night...quite a change from the cold winds when we first arrived.
Today we cleaned up, packed up, and then took one last bike ride to the beach for a dip to cool off, ahh. Tomorrow we are on the road again, starting our way north and east.

boats in the channel from bridge

Lydia Ann Lighthouse (private)

Lunch on the duck blind

USS Lexington Museum, Corpus Christi

beach fashion, 2nd from left. My bro Ryan started this trend 30 yrs ago!

the Barber chair in the ship

the dentist chair 

Gerry toured the Lexington, a navy ship decommissioned in 1991, which played a major role in the Pacific in WWII. I walked the beach and people watched....

Port Aransas, mid-March

Well, I have not put any posts up here for awhile as my computer was being used by Gerry, since his calved almost as we arrived here. Has got new motherboard and new hard drive, thanks to the excellent Paradise Computer, 1 block away. So I only had the iPad to use, which is more difficult to blog on, so was avoided...

Gerry has golfed several times, with Dick from Michigan, James who was next to us for a weekend, and just biking out on his own to meet up with whomever else was there. He has also been fishing a few times, and his best day was with Bob from Minnesota, who took Gerry out surf fishing down the beach from the town. Gerry caught 2 whiting and just as they were packing up, a nice pompano. All were delicious, and he had mucho fun, so he is hooked for getting better set up next year. James came back again, and his wife Marcella joined us for dinner after. They live in Sinton, about 40 miles north of here and are into growing organic food since their son was diagnosed with are rare stomach condition several years ago. He does the research, tells them what they need to know and they follow suit, he is very healthy now. So there was much discussion and sharing of info about healthy living. We've made plans to meet them next year. James brought Gerry some "micron magnets" to attach to the oil filter & transmission oil pan, which attract the micron particles so that they don't circulate in the motor..., amazing!

pompano

whiting

We've been hanging out with Jack & Karin from Oklahoma, they took us to the National Seashore for a long beach walk, then to lunch in Corpus Christi one day. Then we all went out to Bernie's Beach House on Wed night to dance to the PA Rockers, a group of winter Texans who play 50's and 60's music. What a hoot! Everyone was up dancing, great music, great singers and the band is really into it! We met others from our park, people from Ontario, Maine, etc.

We also rented a car for a weekend, $9.99/day! Went across the little 5 min ferry to Rockport & Fulton and to Corpus Christi one day.

One of the large ships going thru the channel at Port A to Corpus Christi

Live bait for fishing

a pretty eel in the aquarium in Rockport

alligators at the National Wildlife Refuge

We've also attended 2 pot lucks in the park, great food! Starts at 5 and we are home by 6:15, unless you are staying to play Mexican Dominos! On Sat night there was an appreciation dinner and dance put on by the management. Brisket, beans and salads, tons of food, all very good. The music was a DJ who comes several times each winter to this park, and lip syncs to all the music, he's very good and the choice of tunes is great. Everyone got up dancing to everything and he kicked us out at 9:30 with "Take your drunken ass home" (Big Al Carson) "if you don't know what to do with yourself, take your drunken ass home"...! 

Spring break

Well its spring break here and we have noticed the change in traffic, in our little town. Now biking on the streets is treacherous, what with all the golf carts on the roads, half tons with people in the back (yes, this is Texas, those things are still legal!), and lots of families.
We took 2 bike rides on the beach, one almost to the end, to go any further you need a 4 wheel drive. That was treacherous also, on the return trip on a hot Tuesday. There was quite a traffic jam, with cars, mostly trucks, and college kids all over. Let me try to paint a picture for you, then you can look at the pictures below.

There is the water, then people doing the usual beach things on the beach, then there are posts to stop the vehicles from going closer to the beach, then there are the vehicles parked straight in, as I said, mostly trucks, then there are about 10 feet of sand, then the road (sand), wide enough for about 3 lanes, then more sand and in some places next to that are RV's or trailers or tents set up, then the sand dunes. Where the vehicles are parked, many have all 4 doors open, with music blaring, people may be in, on top or in the back or around the "truck", drinking beer, playing football catch, modelling their bikinis, or yelling at those across the road that are modelling their bikinis. Then on the road is a constant stream, going both ways, of mostly trucks, loaded with girls "modelling" bikinis, or guys blaring music or looking at the modelling of bikinis.....does that give you the impression? It reminded me of when someone got their first car and they had to drive it up and down main street to show it off, like a parade....
Some "trucks" had things painted on them like, "honk if you are horny", "tit police", and such...hmmm, but they are all having alot of fun, mostly. The police are very present, Gerry saw them making some people dump out large vats of beer on the ground...did I bring too much, Officer ?

beach before break

during break

someone brought their blow-up doll

a truck being stopped by police

Gerry's birthday & other

Was in such a rush to publish my last post, after neighbors dropped in, I forgot to mention Gerry's birthday, March 5. His last two birthdays, we had parties, as we were in BC & then Halifax, where we had friends and family, but this year, we had only arrived here 5 days earlier and so spent a quiet day and went out for dinner at a nice restaurant, Shells. The food was amazing and huge quantities, we had enough gumbo left over to start a big soup a few days later.

Asian Shitake Beet Salad, Beans & Rice

a sand castle compound

A Black and white warbler, at the Birding Center

We've been reading "Eat to Live" and using the wonderful recipes, and Gerry has lost 15 pounds so far! One day while he was standing at the sink his pants literally fell down to his ankles...no belt, mind you. But he is doing great and we are both enjoying the flavors and new combinations of food.