Heading Home

Our last 2 days on the road were spent driving east – from Texas to Louisianna to Mississippi on 3/6 (Thurs.) with a stop at the Mississippi Welcome Center in Vicksburg to view the mighty Mississippi. We spent the night at Walmart in Meridian, MS, and drove the remainder of the trip on Friday. It was amazing how green everything suddenly was when we crossed the state line from Texas to Louisiana – grass and trees – and “spring things” blooming – daffodils, irises, and redbud trees. It was beautiful and felt good to these home-grown southerners. As we head to Rome, we’ve been reflecting on our trip – our winter exodus for 2008. – and it’s been a good trip. We enjoyed the Blue Grass Festival at Jekyll Island (in spite of the cold weather), our stay at Lazy Days Rally Park in Tampa with meals at the Crown Club and our meeting of another Country Coach couple who are full-timers, and of course, Key West with good seafood and bicycling. Then we headed up the Nature Coast to Crystal River/Old Town and enjoyed Florida’s biking trails there, one to the coast and one on an old railroad bridge across the Suwannee River. From there we went to Santa Rosa Beach’s Topsail Hill State Preserve Park, an excellent park and beautiful area of sand dunes and pristine beach. Then we headed to Bayou Country around LaFayette, LA, where we met up with Jan and George from Birmingham who would be our very enjoyable traveling companions for 18 days. We enjoyed Cajun cuisine and music at PreJeans and Mulates, and then headed to San Antonio where we enjoyed Mexican food and music as well as the River Walk, Alamo, and other areas including the German settlement of Gruene, TX. Then we began our last leg of the trip to Tucson, AZ, to the Country Coach Winter Rally with an overnight stop at Las Cruces, NM, where we ate Mexican food at La Posta Restaurant in the old settlement of Mesilla. The rally was highlighted by seeing old and new friends, a day trip to San Zavier Mission, Tubec artists community, and Nogales, Mexico, visiting Sabino Canyon with its amazing assortment of cactus, and complimentary service on our motorhome from Country Coach. Then it was east to Silver City, NM, where we toured the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument and hiked the beautiful Catwalk of Whitewater Canyon. From here Jan and George headed to New Orleans and home to Birmingham, and we headed to Midland, TX, to tour the Petroleum Museum and George W. Bush’s Childhood home – as well as enjoy Texas beef brisket BBQ. Then we began our “LBJ tour” visiting the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park including the LBJ ranch, cemetery, and childhood home, and also the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum in Austin, TX – an interesting and impressive array of history of that era, much of which we remember. We were impressed with the amount of legislation Johnson was able to pass including consumer and environmental legislation and public TV. Austin was also where we attended a Hillary Clinton rally and saw Chelsea who accompanied her mother. Hillary was warmly received by the large crowd, and we felt a sense of history at the prospect of a woman president. This was the second of our “political events” of the trip, having seen Bill Clinton at a rally for Hillary in LaFayette, LA, where George shook hands and spoke with him. At Austin we discovered we had an engine oil leak so detoured north to Dallas to a Cummins service facility for repairs. Since we were in Dallas, we visited the downtown area, the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealy Plaza recounting the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and ate a steak lunch before again heading east toward Rome. After 67 days, we’re approaching Rome – having had a great trip and glad to be coming home!