San Antonio, Texas - November 13 - 18, 2007

The drive down to San Antonio was interesting. While George loved the Ozarks and being able to use the "Jake Brake" going down the mountains, Katherine spent a great deal of time closing her eyes and praying. Mountains & bridges are not favorites for her! Grateful to be out of the mountains, Oklahoma, nice & flat, was a great place to spend the night en route to Texas. We camped at a really nice KOA in Checotah. Further south also meant warmer weather. It was wonderful! We got in early enough that we were able to enjoy the nice weather. However, we woke up to rain for the first time on our trip and boy, when it rains in Oklahoma, it really rains. This was our first time driving the motorhome in hard rain. George seemed okay with it and again...Katherine spent a lot of time with eyes closed & saying prayers. We spent Monday, Nov. 12th at the Waco KOA. Now the weather was in the 80's and we were told to be careful with Bailey and the fire ants. Oh great! Just what we needed! Luckily, Bailey got into the burrs and not the fire ants.

We arrived at the San Antonio KOA early on Tuesday, Nov. 13th. It was about 85 degrees and lovely! We had camped at this KOA with the kids & our travel trailer in 1993 and were glad to find that it was still a nice place to camp. Thanks to Bailey's need to meet everyone, it didn't take long to meet most of the other campers! After the long trip down, it sure felt good to relax in the hot tub that evening.

On Wednesday, we took the bus into the city. It was another 85-degree day! Even though we had been there before, George insisted we go to the Alamo - it's one of his favorite spots. After that, we walked along the River Walk. It really hadn't changed much from when we were there in 1993.

One of the officers Katherine worked with, Micheal Johnson, had taken a leave of absence from the police department to join the Air Force Reserves and was graduating at Lackland Air Force Base on Nov. 16th. Since we were in San Antonio, we decided to attend his graduation. On Thursday, we went to the base to get registered and attend the Coin Ceremony. Three other officers from Hopkins PD came down for the graduation and it was nice to have lunch with them on Thursday before the Coin Ceremony. Friday, the 16th, was graduation day for Micheal. WoW...there were sure a lot of people graduating that day! It was real interesting to be there and to be able to have Michael give us a quick tour of his barracks.

Saturday, we decided we toured the missions along the Mission Trail. Since they're considered national parks, Bailey came with on this sightseeing outing. Mission San Jose looked like it was the biggest of the 4 we visited. When we drove by the San Jose Burial Park (different name for a cemetery, don't you think??), people were celebrating and having picnics right next to the grave sites. It seemed strange to us, but they really do go all out in celebrating the Day of the Dead down here. It was amazing! We've never seen a cemetery so decorated up before! The flowers at Mission Espada were absolutely beautiful!


We left on Sunday to head home (and cold weather) for the holidays. We dropped the motorhome off in Bastrop, Texas at a friend of a friend's home. Joanne has 15 acres and offered the space for storing our motorhome while we're in Minnesota for the holidays. We started the 1200-mile trek home in the car and arrived safely in Eden Prairie on Tuesday night. Shortly after getting home, we were greeted with lots of snow and cold weather! We're looking forward to January and our return to Texas to pick up our motorhome and continue the adventure!

Branson, MO - November 7 - 11, 2007

We arrived in Branson, Missouri on Wednesday, Nov. 7th where the weather was a gorgeous 70 degrees during the day. But once again, the nights got cold and we were grateful for the furnace. Branson had a lot to see and do - almost too much. We had a beautiful site down by Lake Taneycomo in walking distance to their new hot spot called Branson Landing - great shopping (sales tax is much higher than MN)! We went to a Titanic Museum which was incredible. When we arrived, they gave each of us a boarding pass with the name of an individual who was on the ship & we didn't find out until the end whether our person survived or not. Lucky for us, both of our people survived. Mine was a 48-yr old dress designer who was in First Class & George had a 9-yr old boy in Third Class.

While in Branson, we walked up to Branson Landing each day and evening. The days were warm (mid to upper 70's) and it seemed strange to be surrounded by all the beautiful Christmas decorations and music. The nights cooled down to the 50's, but it still seemed a bit out of place to be looking at the Christmas lights. In the middle of Branson Landing overlooking the lake, there was a huge water fountain and in the evening there would be a Fire & Water show done to music. It was incredible (Bailey got scared by all the fire!)

We decided to see a show while in Branson. There were dozens to chose from and we decided on a dinner show called, "The Magnificent Seven". The show went through 7 decades of music beginning in the 1940's. The performers were outstanding and the dinner was delicious. Since it was the week of Veteran's Day (which they make a real big deal over), there was a set honoring our veterans and then a final set with Christmas music.

While Branson was fun, it was time to head further south. On Sunday, Nov. 11th, we packed up and headed south towards San Antonio, Texas.

Leaving Minnesota - November 5, 2007

We left cold Minnesota on Monday, Nov 5th and went as far as cold Des Moines, Iowa where we spent our first night. How ironic that the campground would be across the street from a casino since casino campgrounds have been our favorite camping spots since we got the RV! It was a really cold night and much to our dismay, our furnace quit working about 2:00 a.m. The temperature in our rig was a mild 54 degrees. Lucky for us, we had also brought some electric space heaters so we plugged those in & the rest of the night was pleasant. The next morning we discovered that the RV business we bought our rig from has a sister site which was about 1/2-mile from our camp site. We got there bright and early and it didn't take them long to fix the problem. We were on our way by mid-morning.

Oh, by the way, for those of you who haven't heard...George decided we couldn't be the only ones in the neighborhood without a puppy, so just days before Katherine retired, Mr. Bailey joined our traveling family. Mr. Bailey is an adorable (hopefully, soon to be fully housebroken!) little black Shih Tzu. George refers to him as a real "babe magnet". Where ever we take him, we are surrounded by people of all ages. He is a great traveler and seems to enjoy life in the RV.

The second night we stayed just south of Kansas City and the weather was a bit more mild. However, we were glad our furnace was working correctly as the nights do get cold down there. We got in late, set up camp, made dinner & went to bed - so much for Kansas City! We left early in the morning as we were anxious to get to warmer weather!