New Orleans

We continued east to Lafayette, where we stayed the night. The next morning, the kids completed the Jr Ranger program at the Acadian Cultural Center, which is part of the Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve. As we learned from watching the movie and viewing the exhibits, the word Cajun came from the Acadians, French people who settled in eastern Canada in what is now Nova Scotia but which they named Acadia. They were eventually forced out by the British, and some of the survivors came to settle in southern Louisiana. Jean Lafitte was a pirate who helped Andrew Jackson defeat the British at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. He really didn't have much to do with with the Acadians, other than all of them being located in south Louisiana.

We headed east on I-10 to New Orleans. The weather had cleared up, and the mixed forests of Big Thicket had given way to wetlands filled with thin hardwood trees. Much of the freeway was built on bridges or causeways, but in places were it wasn't, Louisiana reminded us of areas around Disney World, although in Florida the trees are taller, more spread apart, and greener. We stopped in Baton Rouge and ate at a Cajun restaurant. We talked the kids into trying the fried catfish, while I got the fried alligator. I was disappointed that the fried catfish was breaded and deep-fried rather than pan fried like my alligator, and the kids weren't impressed with it. Jennifer did try my alligator, and said it was good, but didn't want more than the one piece. We knew it would be tough to visit the French Quarter of New Orleans in an RV, but we wanted to see the Jean Lafitte site there, as well as the New Orleans Jazz site. That said, if you ever consider trying to drive an RV to the French Quarter on New Years Eve, reconsider. The traffic was terrible, and it took us over an hour to figure out how to get out of the city and on our way again. Worse still, the Jazz site was closed. The above picture is of the kids trying the door. I dropped Susan and the kids off on Decatur St near the Jazz site, then they walked down to the street to the Jean Lafitte site while I tried to avoid the road closure to pick them up on Canal Street. They said the Jean Lafitte site wasn't too impressive, and complained about the crowds and smells, but at least we got to see the French Quarter. Once we finally got out of New Orleans, we turned southwest, and headed for Houma, where we stayed the night.

Big Thicket National Preserve

We survived the night without a tornado spinning our RV apart, and continued east on I-10 through Houston. The lightning, hard winds, and driving rain of the day before had given way to overcast skies and scattered showers. We counted the Sam's Clubs and Walmarts we passed between Katy and downtown Houston. It looked like many shopping centers had recently been built. Passing through Houston, I tried to stop to see the San Jacinto Monument, but was unable to figure out a way to get to it that didn't require a ferry ride. The best I could do was take a picture of it from the mainland, as seen above. At 570 feet, it is the tallest column in the world, and commemorates the 1836 battle which secured Texas' independence from Mexico. We continued on to Beaumont, where we ate lunch and did a little shopping. The rolling plains we had been driving through since leaving Austin gave way to woods of mixed types as we approached the Big Thicket.
We drove about a half hour north out of Beaumont and reached the Big Thicket National Preserve visitor center. We were the only ones there, and watched the movie, wandered through the exhibits, and finished the Jr Ranger program. The kids also made paper Ranger hats, as shown above. It was fun having the Ranger all to ourselves. Susan spent a lot of time talking to the Ranger about the effect of recent hurricanes on the Gulf Coast area. The Beaumont area was hard hit by Hurricane Rita in fall of 2005. Big Thicket, established in 1974, was the first National Preserve. The designation was designed to give some protection to the plants and wildlife of the area, but less than that of a National Park. An amazing diversity of plants and animals from many parts of North America live in the Big Thicket region of southeastern Texas.

LBJ Ranch

We left San Antonio, and headed up to Johnson City, to visit the Lyndon B Johnson NHP. It was too late to visit his ranch, located about 15 miles west of town, but we were able to tour his boyhood home, watch a film about his Presidency, and look around the Visitor Center. By then it was 5 pm, so we found a nearby RV park to spend the night. Johnson City was named after an ancestor of LBJ's.We headed west out of Johnson City to LBJ's ranch this morning. The weather was getting darker, wetter, and windier. LBJ had been born on the ranch, but his family moved into town when he was a boy. After he became a Senator, he bought it back from his aunt, and while he was President, it became the Texas White House. The kids turned in their Jr Ranger programs, looked at the exhibits, and watched a movie in which LBJ recalled growing up in the Hill Country of Texas, and showed off his ranch.

We then headed back east and drove to Austin, where we stopped at a Sam's Club for provisions. Austin had the same kind of freeway configurations as San Antonio, and it took me a while to figure out how to get to the Sam's Club. While we were inside, the rain started coming down hard. After fighting afternoon traffic, we headed southeast out of town. The wind and rain continued, hard at times, and there was a lot of thunder and lightning. We didn't make as good as time as I hoped, and finally stopped for the night in Katy, TX, about a half hour west of Houston.

The Alamo

Next we drove to the Alamo, which is in downtown San Antonio, next to the Riverwalk. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anywhere to park the RV, so I dropped off Susan and the kids to look around while I circled around. They said it wasn’t very impressive – there was a fairly long line to get in and there wasn’t much there. No descriptions of the battle and nothing about the men who fought there. Susan said the National Parks service definitely do a lot better at maintaining and explaining the importance of historical sites. I was disappointed because I had read of the Masonic ties of the men who fought at the Alamo, and really wanted to see the site and learn more about it.A few years ago, I had explained to the kids why the Six Flags parks were named that, but I think it took going to the Alamo for them to really understand it. In the above picture are the six flags that have flown over Texas – those of Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederacy, and the United States.

San Antonio Missions NHP

After Sea World, we drove to Mission San Jose to pick up the Jr Ranger program for the San Antonio Missions, looked around the visitor center, and watched a movie, then headed out to find a place to eat, a Starbucks frothing pitcher, and a place to stay. We found dinner fairly quickly, but drove around at least half of San Antonio looking for a Starbucks and a place to stay. The freeway system around San Antonio is pretty interesting. The city is divided by interstates 10 and 35, and 410 forms a loop around it. Plus there are a couple of other freeways and expressways forming spokes into it. Many of the freeways and expressways also have one-way, multi-lane frontage roads running alongside of them.

This morning, we drove to Mission Espada, the southernmost of the San Antonio Missions, via Lackland AFB. We couldn’t get onto the base, but Military Dr cuts through the middle, so we were able to see a fair amount. The sky was cloudy, and the winds had picked up, and we were glad we had gone to Sea World the day before. From Mission Espada, we worked northward toward downtown San Antonio, looking around and doing the activities at each of the missions. From south to north, the missions are Espada, San Juan, San Jose, and Concepcion. The kids were awarded their badges at the last mission, as shown above.

Sea World

This morning, the water pump was still on the fritz, so we looked up an RV dealer between Kerrville and San Antonio and stopped to see if we could get it fixed. Luckily, the good people at Ron Hoover RV in Boerne where able to help us right away. The technician determined that the pump had never worked at full capacity, and put a new one in, all in less than an hour, with no cost to us. We continued east into San Antonio, dropping in elevation, and the juniper bushes began to be interspersed with trees. It was only 11 am when we left Boerne, and the weather was sunny and warm, so we decided to hit Sea World. When we visited Busch Gardens Williamsburg in the fall of 2005, we bought Platinum Passes, giving us admission and parking at all Busch Gardens/Sea World parks for two years, so just entering for a few hours didn’t cost us anything.Sea World is on the west side of San Antonio, so we pulled into the parking lot about 11:30. We ate a quick lunch and hit the park. Sea World San Antonio features four rides – a rapids ride called Rio Loco, a log ride called Texas Splashdown, and two roller coasters, Steel Eel and Great White. There were hardly any lines, so we rode the water rides twice, then the coasters once. None of the rides had much in the way of theming, especially the rapids ride. We also watched the Pirates 4D movie, which was okay. All of the rides are located in one section of the park, and we didn’t want to crisscross the park to watch the killer whale and dolphin shows, especially since they weren’t being offered that frequently due to the low crowds. So we walked through the exhibits and the Hospitality House, tried to pet the dolphins at their cove, and headed for the exit.

Fort Davis

We headed southeast out of Van Horn to Fort Davis NHS. Fort Davis was established in 1854 to guard travelers on the trail between El Paso and San Antonio from Indian attacks. It was abandoned during the Civil War, but reoccupied afterward, with a large contingent of Buffalo Soldiers. National Historic Sites usually have better Junior Ranger programs than National Parks and Monuments, and Fort Davis was no exception. The program made the kids explore the ruins and reconstructed buildings of the site, answering questions along the way. It took about two hours to complete the program and watch the video.

We drove almost 450 miles today, most of it on I-10. The speed limit is 80 mph in western Texas, but my RV won't go much over 75. I don't remember the dealer telling me, but it must have a speed regulator. Still, the cab is pretty noisy at 75, so I'm okay with not going any faster. There wasn't a lot to see for most of it, although I did see the stereotypical armadillo on the shoulder at one point. I had originally planned on stopping for the night at a state park near Junction, but our water pump started acting up, so we decided to push on and get closer to San Antonio so that we would have internet access and usable cell phones if we needed to call someone in the morning to set up a repair. We ended up in Kerrville, about an hour west of San Antonio. The landscape did get a little nicer as we moved east, with large juniper bushes on rolling hills replacing brown grass and cacti on flat land surrounded by rocky bluffs.

Christmas in an RV

After we secured a campsite in Van Horn and ate dinner, the kids opened up some of the presents we had brought with us. This was the first time we had been away from home on Christmas Eve. The wind blew pretty hard that night; we were worried that Santa wouldn't be able to find us.

Luckily, Santa was able to find us, even with all the wind, and leave gifts for us in the motor home, without any of us hearing him. My suspicion is that he timed his entry to coincide with a passing train. So we spent the morning opening his gifts and having a relaxing breakfast. Susan and I used our small coffee maker to make mochas. We forgot to pack a frothing pitcher, so we had to use a large saucepan. Of course, we didn't realize we hadn't packed one until after we had passed all those Starbucks in Arizona. I proposed heading south to Big Bend park, but that plan was voted down 3 to 1, so we spent the day hanging out and doing laundry at the Van Horn KOA. The picture above is the view from our RV, looking north to I-10 and downtown Van Horn.

Guadalupe Mountains

It took a little under an hour to drive from the Carlsbad Caverns Visitor Center to the Main Visitor Center at the Guadalupe Mountains NP in Texas. We thought we'd have an hour to do the Junior Ranger program, but upon arriving learned that the visitor center closed at 4:30, so we had less than a half hour. Luckily the Ranger took pity on us, and gave us the badges anyway, as long as we promised to make the kids do as much as they could.

We watched the short slide show, and looked around the visitor center, which had some nice displays of plants and animals. If it hadn't had been Christmas Eve, we might have stayed at the campground there, and done a bit more in the morning, but the visitor center wasn't going to be open Christmas day. I would have liked to look around at the old buildings at Frijoles Ranch, and in McKittrick Canyon. Guadalupe Peak is the tallest mountain in Texas; it's 8749 feet tall.

Carlsbad Caverns

On Christmas eve, we left Alamogordo and headed to Carlsbad Caverns NP. I had envisioned that the area near the Caverns would be mountainous and wooded, sort of like what we had seen around Jewel and Wind Caves in South Dakota, or the Oregon Caves, so I thought it would be a nice area to stay at for Christmas Day. However, it's not like that. Rather, the Caverns are in a big tall hill on the edge of the Chihuahuan desert.We decided to try to quickly complete the Jr Ranger program at Carlsbad, then go to the Guadalupe Mountains, and then drive south to Van Horn for the night. We listened to a brief talk about bats, then went down the elevator for a walk around the "Big Room". We only did about half of the total trail through it - it would have been nice to have had more time to go to the very back, as well as walking overland to the natural entrance.The "Big Room" at Carlsbad Caverns is pretty impressive. I'm pretty sure it's much bigger than any cavern I've been in before, and it's full of limestone formations. It takes over an hour to make a circuit around it - as I mentioned earlier, we took a shortcut and cut out the back half. From talking to the rangers, spring time would be a good time to visit the park, because the bats are active then. Plus it would probably be a little greener. I'd recommend spending at least 4 hours to experience this park, although we got a pretty good feel for it in about 3. It takes about 20 minutes to drive from the highway to the visitor center.

White Sands

We spent the night in Maranda, AZ, and on Saturday we continued east on I10 to Las Cruces, New Mexico. We then turned onto highway 70, and drove to White Sands National Monument. The dunes there are impressive, but I was hoping there'd be more information about the adjacent testing ranges. Since we got there fairly late in the day, we had to rush through the Jr Ranger program in order to get out onto the dune field before it closed. We didn't have enough time to see the movie, or hike among the dunes before it started getting dark. I'd recommend allowing two to three hours to really see this park. We then drove into Alamogordo and camped at an RV park.

Driving through the southwest has its advantages and disadvantages. The roads are fairly flat and straight, so you can cover a lot a ground fast. The drawback is that the roads are fairly flat and straight because there's not a lot out there, and what is there is pretty spread out, and there's not much to look at in between.

Saguaro Cacti

We left Joshua Tree NP and continued driving east to Mesa, AZ, where we stayed the night. The next day, we turned south and visited Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. We watched the video there, then walked around the museum and the ruins. It's a nice little park, and it only took us about 2 hours to see almost all of it.

After Casa Grande, we continued south to Saguaro National Park, noted for its numerous saguaro cacti. The "g" in Saguaro is silent. Saguaro is split into two districts on either side of Tucson, AZ. We visited the western section. It had a nice visitors center, with a decent slide show, but wasn't compelling enough to visit both sections. It took about two hours to finish the Junior Ranger program there. We could have spend a little longer doing some hikes, but a light rain was falling.

On our way

On Tuesday, we left home for an extended RV trip across the southern states.  On our first day, we drove south on I5 to Corning, CA, where we stayed the night. On Wednesday, we continued south over the Grapevine, after which we turned on I210 and headed east. We camped that night in Pomona.

On Thursday, we stopped at Joshua Tree National Park. We grabbed Jr Ranger programs at the visitor center at Joshua Tree, then continued east to Twenty-Nine Palms, where, following a stop at the Oasis visitor center, we turned south and drove through the park. The kids were awarded their badges at the Cottonwood visitor center.

We weren't real impressed with Joshua Tree NP. I guess we've seen too many deserts in our years driving through California and eastern Oregon. The Joshua Trees themselves were pretty neat looking, as was the field of cholla cactus. We watched the movie at the Joshua Tree visitor center, but it was on a small television and the sound wasn't very good. It may be that the Oasis Visitor Center has a better video. For people coming from the east, I'd recommend entering from the north, and exiting out the west; those coming from the west should enter at Joshua Tree and go out at Twenty-Nine Palms. There's not as much to see in the southern part of the part.

Installations

On Tuesday the Bethel initiated a new member. On Thursday I was installed as Senior Warden of Bend Lodge.

 

And today the Bethel held its winter installation. Our honored queen is repeating a term. 

We installed nine girls this term. After installation we enjoyed refreshments.

Veteran's Day

 

Today, we took part in Bend's Veteran's Day parade. I rode in a float with the Bethel.

While Bryan walked with his Boy Scout troop.

Jennifer also met up with the Girl Scouts.

Holidays at Disneyland

California Adventure went from having its letters look like Candy Corn on October 31st . . .

to looking like Candy Canes on November 1st.

Of course the Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay fits in with both Halloween and Christmas decorations. 

We spent three more days in the parks after Halloween, enjoying the rides and shows. Thursday we ate lunch at Storytellers, and in the afternoon the kids made Mickey and Minnie dolls at Build-A-Bear. Yesterday we headed north and stopped for the night in the Bay Area, where we visited friends.

Halloween at Disneyland

 

At the end of October we headed down to Disneyland and spent five days hopping between the parks.  For the first two days the parks were decorated for Halloween.

The first night we stayed at the Paradise Pier Hotel, which is right across the street from California Adventure, but then we switched to a room at the Grand Californian, which is even closer. 

Our room had a great view of Grizzly Mountain, which for the first night had cobwebs projected onto it.

In California Adventure, they had replaced the Golden Dreams movie with a Golden Screams show.

We had fun meeting Jack Sparrow while we had lunch at the Blue Bayou.
 

More Scouting

 

On Thursday, the Bend Lodge hosted its annual Eagle Scout dinner, honoring new Eagle Scouts.  Bryan enjoyed the chance to visit with his former Cub Scout Den Mother.  

This weekend, Bryan camped out with his Boy Scout troop.

While Jennifer went out to a pumpkin patch with her Girl Scouts.

And then attended a "Purple Party" with Bethel 11 at the Lodge.

Around Oregon

 

The first weekend of this month, Susan and I spent the weekend in Newport. We drove up to Depoe Bay, checked out the Devil's Punchbowl and the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, and ate at Mo's.

 

Since moving to Bend, we've visited the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in Portland several times. This weekend, we checked out the Star Wars exhibit.

In September, Susan took the Bethel to an Oregon Job's Daughters Leadership camp near Eugene.