April 1 - April 9. Rayford Crossing RV Resort - Spring, TX
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| Parrots at the Rayford Crossing Office |
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| Part of the Welcoming Committee |
We've settled into Rayford
Crossing RV Resort and it's been perfect for our needs. It's a very nice park with a concrete pad for
the coach as well as a pool and hot tub.
We're on the northern outskirts of Houston,
near The Woodlands, but NOT IN Houston. The road system and the drivers of Houston sure take some
getting used to. We haven't had a day go
by since we got into Texas
when we didn't see at least one car with a cracked windshield. Most days we see several. Lane weaving, tailgating, and cutting people
off seem to be the norm for this area. Hmmm...might explain some of the cracked
windshields.
There have been several days
in the past week with predictions of rain, but only one day that was actually
rainy. This gave us plenty of time to
collect ourselves.....get out for our daily walks, catch up on laundry, get the
blog up-to-date, straighten out the budget, get our taxes filed, and deal with
the decision that's been looming since we left Florida. How far west would we go on this trip?
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| This is a REAL Texas Longhorn |
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The Texas Longhorn in the above picture was at a home located about 1/2 mile from our campground. While it looks fearsome, it was actually very docile when we stopped to take it's picture.
The original plan was to
travel to Arizona for a bit more family
visiting and then head up into Utah
to see more of the National Parks. We
have a nephew and his wife in the Phoenix area
of AZ and a niece in Tucson,
AZ. Our niece is working toward her doctorate
degree and with her team at the Univ.
of Arizona recently
discovered that genetic mutations in titin (an essential protein needed for
proper muscular function) can cause skeletal muscle disease. Our nephew and his wife just celebrated their
1st wedding anniversary. In addition,
Jan's brother and sister-in-law from Minnesota
will be in Arizona
from 4/11 to 4/20 visiting their children (our nieces & nephew). This created a strong temptation to go
further west. We saw the Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon,
and Arches for 2-3 days each last year, but that's not nearly enough time to do
them justice. We wanted to do more at
those parks and venture into several parks we didn't see in 2013. Northern Arizona and Utah are treasure troves of parks and April
and May are terrific times to see those areas, but we need to be back for
doctor and dental appointments by mid-May.
We're currently about 1,600 miles from home and heading west would add
at least another 1,200 miles getting to AZ, an additional 1000 miles as we
travel in AZ and UT and then another 500 miles added to the return trek home. We looked at this decision from every
possible angle and finally decided that we simply don't have the time for this
year and will now start slowly moving east rather than west. Of course, after 3 months on the road and
having the time of our lives, our definition of home may be changing. It's very simple, but we're extremely
comfortable in the coach and have everything we need. The only thing we really miss is seeing our
kids, grandkids, and great neighbors and friends and Jan's hair dresser.
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| Bluebonnets |
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| More bluebonnets |
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On Friday (4/4) we took a
break from the need-to-do list to have some fun. The weather looked beautiful and Lea (Bob's
niece) had mentioned that the wildflowers in Texas only bloom for a couple of weeks each
year and that they were gorgeous right now.
Lea pointed us in the direction of Brenham,
TX which is only about 60 miles
away. She was "right on
target" !! Absolutely gorgeous
Bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrush flowers, and Cutleaf Daisy wildflowers were
everywhere. We spent the whole afternoon
exploring the Brenham area and finding these beautiful splashes of color. In addition, we found longhorn cattle which
pop up in some of our pictures and got pictures of the gates to a few big
ranches in the area. We wrapped up the
day by heading to a restaurant called Crabby Daddy for some great Cajun food.
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| A sea of cutleaf daisies |
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| A closer view of the daisies |
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| The gate for the Double Star Ranch |
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| Gate for the Rocking C Ranch |
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| Bob, Nicki and Lea after dinner |
While on the subject of food
(one of our favorite subjects), we have to mention that Texas has wonderful restaurants. There are tons of choices for seafood, Cajun
food, Mexican food, BBQ, and beef or steak.
Our last night here (4/7), Lea and Nicki joined us for dinner at
Pappadeaux's. What a treat to be able to
have one more visit with them and dinner was delicious. Bob and Jan had shrimp and cheesy grits while
Nicki had tilapia and Lea had sea scallops.
Everyone looked happy with their selections.
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| Jan, Nicki and Lea....like the color coordination on the shirts? |
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| Nicki and Lea |
As we are about to leave
Spring, TX, we have to wish a very Happy Birthday to Jan's Aunt Anna Mary in Ohio who turns 101 on
4/8. Sure hope a few of those longevity
genes got passed along.
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While we had planned to pull
out on Tuesday (4/8) heading east, strong wind advisories caused us to pause
and extend for one more day at Rayford Crossing.
For our "bonus
day" in the Houston area, we decided to
head to Pundt Park which is part of the Spring Creek
Greenway. The wind became a non-factor
for our 3.5 to 4 mile walk through the park.
Later in the day Lea joined us for another final visit and a wonderful
Mexican food dinner. While watching the
late night news, we heard that the wind gusts had gotten to 45 mph that day
which made us really glad we'd postponed driving the coach. Tomorrow we start east and will be heading
for the New Orleans
area.
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| Bald cypress trees |
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| Just a little wildflower | | | | | | |
