Wednesday, Jan 21, 2015
Colleen & Darrius, thank you for your hospitality and a great time.
Left Colleen & Darrius’ for Las Cruces, NM, where we were going to spend the night but instead kept driving to El Paso, TX. We were going to stay at a Hampton Inn but they were full so we stayed in a Holiday Inn Express, in downtown El Paso. The hotel was nice but dated, could have used some serious updating. The carpet by the elevator on the fourth floor was gross, other than that we had a good evening.
Thursday, Jan 22, 02015
Got up early we knew we would have a long day, over 500 miles to San Antonio. To our surprise it was snowing when we went to load the car. Now we left the north so we wouldn’t see any snow but I guess I forgot to tell the weather people about that. Travel was slow in some places but overall not bad just a long day.
We got to the Hampton Inn in Selma, TX, north of San Antonio on I35. This hotel is not easy to get to, it takes traveling a couple of frontage roads but we eventually made it.
We had dinner at Houlihan’s restaurant a couple doors from the hotel, not a bad place to eat but we are going to try other places.
Friday, Jan 23, 2015
We went to the Base Exchange at Lackland AFB. I haven’t been to Lackland since 1966 and surprisingly nothing looked like I remembered it. It was fun to go there even if I couldn’t remember anything about the base, understandably in the last fifty years they have revamped the entire base.
Saturday, Jan 24, 2015
We headed for McKinney State Park, http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/mckinney-falls, to see Dave & Shari Frantz, they are camp hosting at the park until March, I believe. What we saw of the park is very nice, campsites are water and electric but they aren’t on top of each other which is nice.
We went to lunch at the County Line, http://www.countyline.com/index.html, the food was very good, I had some bread pudding and it was just way my mother made it when I was a kid.
We then went to the President Johnson Library, http://www.lbjlibrary.org/, one of my goals is to visit all of the presidential libraries and we were close so we went to see what was there. It was very interesting, I never knew much about him except he was president when I went to Vietnam. It was a good visit.
We did enjoy visiting with Dave & Shari, we hope to see them in Mt Pleasant this summer at Crossroads RV Park.
Sunday, Jan 25, 2015
Today we went to church at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, nice church, http://www.olph.org/, we normally arrive 20-25 minutes before Mass begins because I want to get a seat in the back of church and scope out where the restroom is located, this is to avoid problems later. When we arrived the parking lots, there were two of them, were almost full, I thought maybe I made a mistake on the Mass time. No, we were early, as usual, it seems the people of the parish like to get to church early to get a seat. There were probably 30 or so people standing in the back. I asked one of the ushers if this was the norm for a Sunday and he said yes. He also said they are intending to enlarge the church. It is was nice to see the attendance so high.
This afternoon we went downtown to the Alamo, http://www.thealamo.org/, or, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamo_Mission_in_San_Antonio, I haven’t seen the Alamo since 1965 and didn’t remember anything about the last visit except the front of the building. It was good to see more today and maybe I’ll do some reading about it.
We also found the River walk, http://www.thesanantonioriverwalk.com/m , I didn’t find this that exciting, it looks to me to be a manmade tourist idea.
The rest of the evening was spent reading, computer play and watching TV.
Monday, January 26, 2015
Got up this morning and got caught up on my receipts for the trip, I enter them into Quicken. I was going to run a report to find out what we have spent on this trip so far but I didn’t. It has been fun so far and it doesn’t matter how much we spend.
Sarah did laundry, I went to find quarters, found a bank not too far from us.
Had lunch at Applebee’s, had to use the rest of an ecard.
Clothes shopping for Sarah at Ross, she found a couple of nice things.
Starbucks this afternoon, I don’t drink coffee but I like the chocolate chip drinks.
Went to Verizon, I did it to get info on new phones. I believe we will get a Windows phone for myself and an IPhone 6 for Sarah. We are going to get them when we get back to NE or sooner.
Lazy the rest of the day.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Left San Antonio about 9:30 in the morning and arrived in Houston about 1:30. The car was really dirty so we found a car wash and got the outside of the car looking pretty good.
Didn’t have any trouble finding Jose & Emma’s, ,house the GPS took us right to it. We visited a bit and then go t settled into “our room”. Thank you Ben for giving up your bathroom for us.
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Today Jose took me to the VA so I could get my port flushed. This is a BIG VA, it makes Omaha and Des Moines look tiny. It was an interesting experience. Jose, thank you for taking me to the VA, I believe I would have eventually found it but it would not have been the good experience I had.
Metro ride downtown on Houston’s metro system, I love trains so this was right up my alley.
We had lunch at Treebeards restaurant, http://treebeards.com/. This was a very good restaurant, they serve cafeteria style, and the carrot cake was delicious.
After lunch we walked to Minute Maid Park, http://houston.astros.mlb.com/hou/ballpark/, it looked to be about five blocks from our current position, we started walking and it may have been only five blocks but they were long blocks. In total for the day I walked about two miles for the day, I was tired when we got back to the house.
Rummicube, this game is addictive. Jose & Emma had the game and we started playing it, but had some questions so we get out the instructions, they didn’t help much because they were in Portuguese. They had two games at one time and gave away the ones with English instructions, but it didn’t matter because we were able to play and we played most every evening. It was a great time.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, http://www.mfah.org/, is a very interesting place. We went to see a Monet exhibit which was ending in a few days. Now I know next to nothing about art but the Monet exhibit was very interesting. Of course there were other paintings which didn’t make any sense to me. I remember taking an art class in college and I could never come up with the same explanation for the painting as the instructor so I never received a very good grade for the class. All in all they had some nice art and we enjoyed the visit.
Goode & Co, http://www.goodecompany.com/restaurant-seafood1.asp, is great seafood. My favorite dish is the Campechana De Mariscos (Mexican Seafood Cocktails), now don’t ask me how to make it but it is fabulous. I don’t even remember what else we had.
Tonight we met Sarah’s great-nieces, Abby, Alexandra and her boyfriend Ian, and Sarah’s cousin Rebecca who happens to be Abby and Alexandra’s mother. Anyway we met at the Liberty Kitchen and Oyster Bar, http://www.libertykitchenoysterbar.com/, good food, good conversation. We had a great time, thank you all for taking time to meet with us.
Friday, January 30, 2015
George H W Bush museum at College Station, TX, http://bush41.org/, is quite a place to visit. Like the Johnson library I learned a lot of things about Pres. Bush I did not know. But then again I have never been one to follow politics like a lot of others. This library is quite big and filled with a lot of interesting displays and some interactive exhibits. Pres. Bush was a naval aviator and flew off aircraft carriers so they have a video game type exhibit giving a person the opportunity to try landing on an aircraft carrier. You are given three chances to land successfully and needless to say I wasn’t successful, I crashed all three times. As with the other libraries there was more to read and see than time permitted but it was a great visit.
Potbelly Sandwich shop, http://www.potbelly.com/Shops/ShopLocator.aspx?PotbellyShopId=128, good place to eat if you happen to be in the area.
Saturday, January 31, 2015
Jose & Emma were going to the theater with their friends, Gloria & Albert, forgive me if I got the names wrong, they were having dinner before the theater so we joined them. We met at Patrenellas, http://www.patrenellas.net/main/, let me tell you the food was fabulous and the service was excellent. We enjoyed meeting Gloria & Albert and wish we could have spent more time with them, next visit we will do that.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Went to Church at St Cecilia Catholic Church, http://www.saintcecilia.org/, nice church, somehow reminded me of a church we went to in Mesa, AZ, the priest wore cowboy boots. He said he had a pair for each color of vestments he wore.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Today we went to see an Air Force buddy of mine, Sylvester Rios. Sylvester and I spent time together at the 366 USAF Dispensary at DaNang AFB, Vietnam in 1967, we were Aerospace Medical Specialist, fancy name for a paper pusher. We had a great visit with them and Sylvester thank you for lunch. Hope to see you next year.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Left for Lafayette around ten and arrived at about three after an uneventful drive
Went to dinner with Bill, Mable, Chuck and Brenda, had a great time visiting with them.
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
We were following Bill & Mable to Thibodaux, their home, and since I have been wanting to go to Avery Island since we were here last so today was the day we stopped. It was rainy so we did not drive through the gardens but we did see them bottling the tabasco sauce and visited the country store. Now you can’t visit the store without buying some of their stuff and we did.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Did not do much today just hung around the house. We did go to Bubbas for PO Boy sandwiches, oyster and shrimp. Yum!
Friday, February 6, 2015
Wedell-Williams Memorial Aviation & Cypress Sawmill Museum, http://www.louisianastatemuseum.org/museums/cypress-sawmill-collection-and-wedell-williams-aviation-museum/, this museum is about airplane racing in the 1930’s and the history of cypress sawmills.
There are several rebuilt racing planes from the thirties, for the life of me I don’t know how they could see out of those planes let alone get into them.
The Cypress museum was interesting, a lot of the equipment used in the early 1900’s to cut down the trees etc. They had a section of a tree dating back over six hundred years old. A plague told of the early days of the cutting of these trees when they cut a tree over 3950 years old.
Lunch was at the Atchafalaya Course at Idlewil, white beans, rice and catfish, very good.
Mr. Charlie’s Rig, http://www.rigmuseum.com/, was our next stop. This was the first offshore drilling rig in the gulf, https://www.asme.org/about-asme/who-we-are/engineering-history/landmarks/250-mr-charlie-oil-drilling-rig, quite an interesting tour. The rig is now used to train people to work on the offshore rigs.
Saturday, February 7, 2015
The car needed to be washed and Bill was taking his to get washed so we followed along and had the car cleaned up.
Next was a visit to the Verizon store to get new phones. I was going to wait until we got home but decided what the heck. Sarah and I both got the IPhone 6, I was going to get the Windows phone but I thought I would wait for them to get more apps, there are a couple of apps they don’t have yet which I use a lot.
Grand Isle, LA, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Isle,_Louisiana, was our place to visit today. On the way we drove through Fourchon, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Fourchon,_Louisiana, this is the port where Marcus, Sarah’s nephew, goes out of to supply the offshore rigs. He pilots a 170 foot boat similar to this one,
Had a great time at both places. There is so much to see here, it is the same but different from home.
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Church was at, http://www.stjoseph-cc.org/, St Joseph Co-Cathedral in Thibodaux. I have never come across a Co-Cathedral before except here in Thibodaux.
For lunch we traveled out to Nottoway Mansion, http://www.nottoway.com/, we had a great lunch followed by a very interesting tour of the mansion. You can read about the mansion so I won’t go into details about it.
Monday, February 9, 2015
National WWII Museum, http://nationalww2museum.org/, was on our agenda for the today. Now this place is big and one day does not do justice to it, but I really enjoyed it. We saw Tom Hanks “Beyond all Boundaries” a film about WWII. This is a must see if you are in New Orleans but allow two days to see if you want to read all the plagues.
The museum is rebuilding a WWII PT boat, PT 305, http://www.nww2m.com/category/pt-305-update/. To learn more about the PT 305 see, http://www.nationalww2museum.org/see-hear/collections/artifacts/pt-305.html, this boat was built in New Orleans by the Higgins boat building company, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgins_Industries. They also built LCVPs about 20,000 of them for WWII, these boats were used in both theaters of operations and in the Korea and Vietnam wars. A couple of links to Higgins boats, http://www.nola.com/175years/index.ssf/2011/11/1944_higgins_industries_in_new.html,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Higgins
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
We didn’t do much today, hung around the house, had lunch at Bubba’s.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Lunch today at the Fish N Hook, had the T-Boy Burger, a BIG hamburger. I may have to have another because mine fell apart and Bill’s didn’t, he said I did not hold it correctly.
The rest of this week will be getting ready for Bill & Mable’s annual Mardi Gras party, we look forward to helping as much as possible. I am sure Sarah will be more help than I will but I will try.
I wanted more pictures but I can’t seem to find them, not sure where they are.
That is all for now.
Until later.
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