Can I get away with saying 'what a beautiful day' again?  First day in the trip that I have been in shorts.  Sunny and very warm but with such low humidity that it was very comfortable.  Even getting with a temp of 39 it felt fine.  We went on a hike on the Seminole Canyon Trail, found some great views, had a great time.  Then a realxing afternoon sitting in the sun or shade doing a little reading.  Tomorrow we plan to go on a guided trip into the canyon, that's the only way they allow anyone into the canyon. Then on to Big Bend.  There we should have good wifi and I can catch up on photos.

Camping in Seminol Canyon State Park.  The Rio Grande is on the south end of the park, maybe a couple mile away.  South Texas has been quite interesting today.  Saw a grey fx cross the road in front of us, cool sight.  The change of scenery as we move from the hill country to the bruch country and the change from high brush to short brush and really wide open spaces is fascinating.
I'm not posting photos tonight because we are in remote country, no cell signal at all and the wifi is weak.  I have to put the tablet in just the right spot in the camper to link in, or walk to the bath huse where the wifi originates to get it to work.  But I'll tell you it was a fantastic sunset.  No light for miles so the stars are as bright as can be; a great sliver of a moon with Venus and Mars close by with a bright red sky below them.

Another beautiful day in Texas.  The Alamo was quite interesting.  I thought I knew the history of the site, but there is a lot more to it than I had imagined.  I knew it was an old Spanish Mission, but had a poor concept of the many uses it had over the 100+ years before the battle.  And then there all the uses it had in the following 150 years, including the US Army rebuilding the famous church front and adding a floor to it when it was a storage warehouse (1846-1877).

Then a long walk on the River Walk, a very nice walkway along the San Antonio River.  Running for 13 or so miles, we only did a couple miles, it is unique.  Check the photos!

And finally, a great sunset at our campground.  This campground deserves a mention too.  Nice and very quiet, well away from the interstate noise.  There are people here who are staying for the winter and one couple who have retired here.  Permanent campers.  They have another smaller camper that they take camping because the big camper has a metal shelter built over it.

A nice easy drive from Houston to San Antonio.  Sure was nice to get out of Houston.  Something about 6  or 10 lane interstate highways with 4 lane frontage roads beside them that gets to these two Vermonters.  I don't usually mind city traffic-- I don't LIKE it but I don't really mind it.But the sheer volume of high speed mega lane traffic, at 70 mph, just wears on me.  By the time my GPS tells me this is the turn I am past it.  So, glad to be out of that.  Hope San Anton isn't like it.

As we get further into Texas we like it more.  More open land.  Cattle.  This is the Texas Hill Country and it has some appeal.  That's the first impression as drive into it.  Tomorrow we'll explore San Antonio a bit.

This campground is nice.  Open, somewhat spacious, relaxed.  Well away from the highway, we can't hear much of anything.  Really nice after the last one.  That was right beside those 12 lanes of traffic.  Noise all night.  Here there are chickens and goats next door.

Tasajillo cactus, at the Guadaloupe County Texas rest area on I-10

The Space Center in Houston was well worth the time spent there.  Saw a lot of very interesting exhibits on the early history of space flight and the next generation too.  Many training mock-ups of ships, LEM and the lunar rover.  The 747 used to transport the Space Shuttle is also there with one of the mock up shuttles attached.  Some actual ships too, Faith 7 from the Mercury days, Apollo 17, the last of the Apollo program, moon rocks and Mars rock (both available to touch).

Then we spent a great evening with Fritz and Sandra Swanson.  Fritz is an old friend who was once a crewmate at rescue.  He's been down here for 15 years, I haven't seen him since his last trip back to Richmond 9 years ago.

I found the function to caption our photos too!

Inside the new Orion module.

Faith 7

Reproduction of Goddard's 1923 liquid fuel rocket

Inside Apollo 17

Apollo 17

Lunar Rover trainer, used by the Apollo astronauts for training before their missions.

Some guy in front of the shuttle Independance mounted on the 747 carrier airplane

A radio controlled model of the shuttle and carrier used to test the theory that a 747 could carry the shuttle.

Under the mounted shuttle

Here we are in Texas!  You know it's a big state when the mile markers start at 867.  We had a pleasant drive to the Houston area this morning.  Went for a hike in a wilderness park here in Conroe TX.  It's about 35 miles north of Houston, and 10 miles north of my old Rescue friend Fritz.  We're getting together tomorrow afternoon.  One thing I can already say is that this place is crowded.  You have to go miles up the road to cross the highway to go back again to get where you want to be, and it's all multiple lane fast traffic.

There will be a lot more to write about tomorrow after the NASA Space Center in the morning and catching up with Fritz in the afternoon.

We made it, we are now in the West!  Crossed the Mississippi at Baton Rouge around mid day, camping tonight at Sam Houston Jones State Park in Lake Charles LA.  The bayou country is impressive, the bridge over the swamp land, Atchafalaya Basin Bridge, is 18.5 miles long.  3rd longest bridge in the US.

We are expecting to spend a couple days in Houston, have to check out the Space Center and a few other places.

Finally got a great day, the truck is running mighty fine, sunny day, no cares.  We started with a short walk on a trail behind our campsite, down to the water.  Then we went to Ft. Morgan out on Mobile Point.  This fort was built in the early 1700s and changed hands several times over the next couple centuries.  French, British, Spanish, US, Confederacy, Union, US again.  It controls access to Mobile Bay from the sea.  In the 20th century it was manned during wartime but didn't see any action and hasn't been used since the late 40s.
It also has a nice beach.  And lots of oil rigs.  I counted 24 in view offshore on three sides.

I got into the Patriot's game and forgot to finish this last night.
Sunday 1/22/17
We made it to Gulf Coast State Park in Alabama, but what a tip!  A blow-out on the camper on I-16, yes Mike I checked the tires but didn't find anything, yet it was the same side so who knows... followed by a brake alarm in the truck  Then found out- remember the new tire on truck?- well they didn't tighten the lug nuts on the replacement tire.  So now I have 3 broken lug bolts on the truck.  And something is causing a brake warning and overheated front left brake on the truck.  I drove slow the last 40 miles to camp.  Earlier in the day we almost ran into tree!  While Carlene was driving we encountered a tree down on the right lane of the interstate.  Of course a semi was passing us on the left at that very moment.  She made it around the tree but it was close... it was a very rainy transit of Montgomery AL.
As forecast it had stopped raining in southern Alabama by the time we got to camp.

Monday 1/23/17
Went into Gulf Shores and found a great auto repair place, DJ's Auto Center.  They replaced the broken studs, replaced the front wheel bearing (the actual culprit) and sent me to a place for the new trailer tire.  And had his son give us ride back to the campground then back to the shop after the work was done.  How great is that for one day service!!
So we walked all around the campground and out to the beach.  The Gulf Shores beach is spectacular white sand beach and sand dunes.  The white sand beach goes for miles.  They don't allow pets on the beach but there were few people there so we took Cal out for a run in the sand anyway.  Had a great day, got all the broken stuff fixed, had a lot of fun.  Plus we extended our stay for another night so we can enjoy even more tomorrow.

We crossed the "Macon County Line" today, and stopped for the night.  With all the tornado warnings and even more 'severe thunderstorm' warnings west of here we didn't want to go further into the heavier storm area.  Looks like it was a good idea as we had a pleasant afternoon of overcast skies and even some Sun!!  Explored the older section of Macon city, some really nice old houses here.  Many are now used by schools and law offices.  Looks like the lawyers have the money for these places.  Had a great tour of the Ocmulgee National Monument.  Ocmulgee is this area where Indians were living between 11000 and 650  years ago.  They uncovered some earth lodges here, one has it's intact 1000 year old floor with a reconstructed lodge over it.  Photos below.

And this one is for Smith.  I must be in the South!

Today started out just a little like yesterday.  I thought I heard rain but when I opened the camper door it was not rain, rather water running out of the hot water tank onto the ground.  It was a simple repair, run to the hardware store for a new pressure relief valve.  Luckily there are two hardware stores here just a half mile from camp.  That’s impressive since this is a remote place with little more than a few summer shops in the beachfront community.  But they did not have any plexiglass.  Nobody does.  Not even Super Wal Mart in Walterboro where we got the new tire, it’s an hour away.  I wanted the plexiglass to replace the screen in the screen door.  Callahan took out the lower screen in frustration last fall when I left him in the camper at a cowboy shoot.

Speaking of the new tire, that went fine.  But the spare tire is now riding in the bed of the truck.  The hoist that held it under the bed would not fully seat the tire back in place.  After 10 years of road salt that device has quit.  Really, I was impressed that I could get the tire down to use it.  At this age I would not have been surprised if it had corroded in place and refused to give me the spare tire when I needed it yesterday. 

We hiked around the one trail again today.  Tried to check out the beach front campground but that was posted while the crew works to get it rebuilt from Matthew.  The storm completely destroyed it.  They won’t have it open until September.

Last night we were sitting in the camper when we heard a pop & a hiss, like air escaping.  Turned out to be one of my truck tires going flat.  While parked.  Actually a great time for a flat as opposed to while hauling the camper at 60 mph.  This morning I put on the spare and found a 2" cut on the sidewall.  Not repairable.  3 month old tire.  At least I was able to get the spare off the truck, it has been slung under the bed for who knows how long.  I never took it off.  I kept thinking I should but never got to it.
We went hiking on a short trail around the wetlands surrounding this campground, checked out the park's environmental ed center and took a long walk on the beach.
Plan was to head west tomorrow, but my new tire won't be at the dealer until 4 PM.  Not too bad, a day's delay here on the coast is better than heading west into the mess of thunderstorms running across all the gulf states now.  With enough luck we can stay east of it and then run west through it to the other end of it.

Savannah GA is a very nice, beautiful city.  Check out the photos.  It's 2 hours from our campground, a bit more than we expected when we picked this site with the idea of seeing both cities from one camp.  But it worked out OK.  We walked around a lot of the downtown area checking out the scenery.  Great old houses, great waterfront on the river.  On the way home it was a nice warm evening, the truck windows were open and we heard Peepers!  Also seen some signs of spring planting.
Tomorrow will be a little more relaxed on the beach right here at camp.