Lots has happened over the last 2 weeks
We went to the Doolittle Raiders Luncheon in San Antonio on Wednesday, 18th. These affairs are designed to support various charities, so they are quite large. We visited one of the hospitality suites before the meeting, and Bud was able to talk with Thatcher, the tail gunner for Ted Lawson's plane, 'The Ruptured Duck'. He was charming and as you see, Bud was happy to meet him. He and his wife are in good health and enjoy RV'ing. We chatted with another Raider's daughter; she said she was not aware of her father's participation in the war until much later - he simply did not talk about it. We also got to see Tex and Mazie Hill, and we all promised we would meet for dinner before we leave for CA; they are such charming people.
When we got home, we started getting ready to go to Pensacola for Bud's annual physical at the RPOW Center. We had rented an RV to see if we liked it, so the packing was a bit different from our usual one suitcase and a tubbie for Jack and Sophie and Smokey. The RV [shown here at our first camp] was 24 feet long and had a push-out on one side, full kitchen and bathroom with a shower, very roomy compared to our van. It was ready Friday morning, so we packed up and were on the road by 2PM. As usual, the poopers were asleep shortly after we started up. Smokey decided to sleep in my lap this first leg. She later started staying under the chair behind my seat; she liked the skirt that hid her but allowed her to look out and she could be near the poopers. The poopers liked it as they could sleep close to us.
We planned to drive along IH10 until we got passed Houston, and stop at the nearest KOA Camp. Shannon had sent a link to KOAs along the way and the new GPS had lots of campgrounds in the database, so we found one in Bayview fairly easily, just a couple of hiccups associated with road construction. Farther along, KOA's and other campgrounds and parks were closed as a result of hurricane damage. We learned to call ahead for reservations and ask what exit to use.
The huge variety of campers was fun to see. They ranged from pup tents to small trailers like this one to huge 40+ foot monsters. And the things people did in the camps was fun as well. Some folks had their site decked out with plants in pots and lighting around the perimeter of their patios or even around the bottom of their motor homes. Lots of folks had dogs, but they were mostly small, dust-mop types. No one seemed to have two big dogs with them, wonder why?The drive was really nice, especially in Texas as the wildflowers were blooming big-time. Some areas were blue with Bluebonnets, or rust colored with Indian Blankets or yellow with coreopsis.
As we got to the eastern edge of Texas and into Louisiana, it got pretty 'snakey lookin', with swamps and bayous and such.
We saw crawdad farms and stopped for lunch at a restaurant right on the water. We didn't want to leave the critters in the RV so Bud brought the food out to us. We were not really impressed, and I said I'd rather have shrimp or wait for lobster in October in Maine. We fed the poopers just a few since they were pretty spicy. Actually, we didn't use the RV kitchen like we should have, we ended up buying food along the way instead of fixing our meals, even though we had all the fixin's with us. Anyway, we stopped at Gulfport, Mississippi the second night, not one of our better choices, but it was late and we were tired and we knew we'd be in Florida for the next night. I didn't even take pictures of it. So we had a nice bowl of soup for dinner, took the poopers for their evening walk and went to bed.
posted by pdf Tex @ 7:44 PM
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