Tues. 5/19… (Austin , TX ) Last day in Austin
area. Rick and Janie were going off to visit with Zel, but changed their
mind. Bill & Treasa are going to the
movies. We decided to drive around the Austin downtown area. We had seen much about the city on TV and
heard about their unofficial slogan ‘Keep Austin Weird’. So we explored the
area a bit and then went to the grocery store. The girls have been seeing
supermarkets all around Texas
called HEB. We got curious and checked
the good old web. Named after the founder, Howard Edward Butt, it grew into a
corporation employing 80,000 people. I’m glad they didn’t name it ‘Butts
Grocery’. We have Butts on every corner
in Texas ! J After
everyone got home we decided on Golden Corral for dinner. They have just opened on right across I35
from our campground. The place was a bit
disorganized but we finally found Cory who helped us at our table. The food was ok, some really good, some
buffet food. This is our third GC (not
on this trip) so we’ll try others along the way as we travel. We (ok, Lydia ) did a
load of laundry. We have been using our
washer/dryer in the rig pretty regularly but once in a while she wants to do
jeans and blankets when we can use the campground laundry. More machines, less
time. We watched Monday night’s DWTS before going to bed. We will watch the finale tomorrow
afternoon.
Wed. 5/20… (College Station , TX ) We
pulled out about 9:15 this morning for the 104 mile run to College Station . It was a really pretty drive off the
interstate through farmlands and ranches. We made a fuel stop along the way and
while we were in the store, Bailey decided to drive again.
While traveling, Lydia called my
sister to ask her to mail our Chevron gas card (ours expires in June). We’ve set it up for the New Iberia campground, so hopefully get it then.
We got in to town and are actually a ways away from College
Station , in a little town called Bryan
at the Primrose Lane MH & RV
Park . This is another Passport America park. PA parks are usually either out of the major travel
paths or don’t offer many amenities.
This is both of those but it’s clean and the spaces are easy in and
out. We are here for two nights.
Before we set up the
inside we did a pretty good cleaning which was needed from the dust and mud we
have tracked in the last few days. Janie made dinner, flautas, rice, beans,
chips and strawberry shortcake for dessert.
Yummy! After dinner, we headed
home to watch the season finale of DWTS.
We liked the outcome. America got it
right!
Thurs. 5/21…
(College Station , TX ) The plan for these two days was to go to the
George H W Bush Presidential Library and then to Blue Bell Creamery. It turns out that Blue Bell is still closed
and the plant is cleaning, retooling and sterilizing due to a Listeria breakout
a while back. So that is out. We took off around 9:00am and found the
Kettle for breakfast. Not bad and
reasonably priced too. Good choice. Next we made our way to the Texas A & M
University campus where
the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum is located. AAA plus senior discount got us in for $5.00
ea. and off we went. This is the senior
Bush (George H W). This museum was
really nice! You follow Bush’s life from
birth through his service, then college and marriage and then into his
political career. There are many, many
interesting exhibits. This is a touch
and feel museum. You are even allowed to
sit behind his desk in the Oval Office!
(see pics). Although he served only one term he did make an impact on
the US .
He and Barbara seemed to both enjoy their time in the White House as well as
family time in their summer home in Kennebunkport
MA .
On the grounds we saw
the rose garden area and their future burial site in a nice wooded area beyond
the pond and gardens. Their daughter
Robin (1949-53 who died from leukemia) is buried there.
After that, we made our
way back home to rest for a while. I
needed to find a Lowe’s to replace a couple of fluorescent tubes in our bathroom
so Bill and I made that run while the others rested. Lydia looked up quilt stores and
found one in the area so she and Janie headed off to find that. Treasa is cooking tonight. We had short ribs,
potatoes, veggies, and lemon bars which were very good. Eating in like we have been doing mixes it up
a bit and the girls decided to take turns making dinner so that seems to be
working out too. All good meals! We talked about our route tomorrow. We drive southeast to Houston
and then work our way south to League
City . Afterward, we took Bailey out for a walk. Lydia said ‘Take her off the leash
and let her run’. She got into a boggy grass area and ran wild. See the picture below. It smelled so bad we had to take her right in
to the shower to bathe her!
Fri. 5/22… (League City , TX )
Today’s drive was 140 miles. The day
started out pretty rough for us. I have
a sticky lock on my tow bar so I have to hook up and make sure both arms are
locked. I pulled out about a foot and
heard a pop! The arm lock came
loose. I had Lydia pull the coach up and locked
it no problem. But we were now committed
to turn left out of our space which made the right turn out of the park
impossible. So I turned left and went
down a residential street to go around the block. Turns out it was a cul-de-sac! But after jockeying around for a few minutes
we made it out. The drive took us into
the greater Houston area, which meant greater Houston traffic! But we got through it ok and arrived at
Safari Mobile Home Community and RV Park in League City , TX .
We chose this park as it is between Houston and Galveston ,
both of which we plan to visit while here. This is a nice place. More of a
mobile home park with a few RV spaces but it works for us. We’re in the trees
but I was still able to get a signal from the roof satellite dish. Still waiting to have to pull out the remote
at one of our stops! We went to HEB and got a few things as Lydia fixed a
chicken casserole dish with salad. We
found fresh lemon meringue pie so that was our dessert. Everyone enjoyed it all. Tomorrow we plan to go to the Johnson Space Center .
Sat. 5/23… (League City , TX ) We ate in and left around 10:00am. The Johnson Space
Center is a big
place! We had seen it before (in 1987)
but it was totally different this time! Treasa found some discount tickets at
the RV park so we got in for $10.95 ea. senior discount which was half
price. Cool! We decided to take the red tram tour first
(the line was shortest). It went to the space station full scale mockup plus
the Saturn 5 rocket building. On the way
there we were told this was ranch property and they maintained livestock
(longhorns) there still today.
In the mockup building
we went upstairs and viewed the room from a walkway. Pretty cool how they simulate space in
there! All of the astronauts trained
there before their flights.
On the way back we
stopped at the Saturn 5 rocket building.
When we were last here this exhibit was outside and has since been moved
indoors due to deterioration from the elements.
Once back at the center we had
a quick lunch (very good) and then went back for the blue tour which went to
the mission launch control center. We
saw they older control room back in 87 so this was way more modern. They will use it again as the next program ramps
up and it will be off the tour then so we were lucky.
After we got tired we headed home and Janie fixed dinner tonight – corn chowder, biscuits, salad and cake. Yummy! I decided to walk the dog to the baseball complex across the street from our campground. They play little league equivalent ball here and the place was very well maintained. I didn’t go in because I had Bailey but what I saw was nice.
Tomorrow we head to
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