Law West of the Pecos- Judge Roy Bean presiding!

Had a nice day today, rode out to Langtry.  Surprised at how small the town was.  One of those blinkers, blink and you'll miss it.  The visitor center was really nice and the bar/courtroom was really nice.  There was a nice cactus garden with displays of quite a few different cacti and trees.  After lunch we rode back into Del Rio to the Val Verde Winery for a tour and a few bottles of vino.  Tomorrow morning we leave early, well after 8am anyway, for LaJitas to spend 4 days at Big Bend.  Won't have cell phone service but I think the campground has wifi.  Fixing to bbq a steak and sweet potatoes with french bread for dinner to celebrate the end of our 1st week.

Law West of the Pecos, Judge Roy Bean

Inside of the bar/courtroom

Pecos River

New tires done, now in Del Rio

Well yesterday was a very long day. Got up at 5:30 to drive to the Goodyear place for 7:30. The guys started, then took a taco break about 8, then as they were removing the driver's inside tire one of the "bud" bolts broke. So they tried for an hour trying to remove the broken bolt. Finally one of the road service guys came over and pulled off the old tire and put on the new one with the rim still on the coach. I talked it over with the service manager and decided to leave the broken bolt as it was and get it changed later. Not so fast, they broke 2 studs when they were tightening the rim. So me and Peanut went searching for 20 new studs. After an hour and trying 5 places we found them at Wabash Trailer supply. Went back and Peanut starting hammering the old studs out and hammering the new ones in. They didn't have and couldn't find a hydraulic press. (Let me tell you it's hard to take a nap with all that hammering going on.) Finally about 4:30 they finished. I settled up the bill. I gotta admit with the problems these guys had they didn't give up. Every now and then someone would come relieve Peanut and give him a break. Overall I was pleased even with the problems they had.
Left there and tanked up at Flying J, drove over to Blue Beacon and had stuffed manicotti and corn on the cob while waiting in line (priceless). Got it washed and got back to the Escapees campground at 8:30pm. Had a bowl of icecream and a glass of wine and went to bed.
Changed the hose clamp on one of the radiator hoses that had started leaking.  Looks like it is working great.  Took a nice drive over to Del Rio, about 150 miles.
Sitting in Del Rio now at Holiday Travel Park for a couple days.  Then should head over to Marathon, not sure if we'll stay there or closer to the park.  Decisions, decisions....

Missions of San Antonio

We spend the morning in San Antonio seeing the San Juan and Concepcion Missions.  The San Juan Mission was very impressive with the entire structure pretty much complete with the area inside the walls about 5 acres.

 The altar in the church, the statues were very detailed:

 The Rose Window:

 Statues above the front door (they were repairing the lower section and had scaffolds set up):

 The grist mill which is water powered by the paddle wheel in the next picture:

 Concepcion Mission:

Tomorrow we leave about 6am to get new tires in San Antonio then will pick up the Jeep at the campground and head into Del Rio for a day or two.

First day to relax and sightsee

 These photos were at Hill Country Natural Area.  A small state park near Bandera (the Cowboy Capital of Texas).  Most of the park was closed because of the recent rains but we managed to do a short hike to this bluff overlooking this small river.  After we had to eat country fried steak for lunch with white gravy of course.

 This was at Camp Verde, this is where the US Cavalry tried out camels for the cavalry troops.  Anyone remember the movie?  Didn't see any camels but it was a nice park down by the river.

I also found a nice windy road through the hills.  Had fun zooming through the curves!  Cindy was too scared to take pictures.
Back at the campground enjoying the nice clear weather.
Tomorrow is another day to enjoy the area.  We'll move on down to Del Rio on Tuesday or Wednesday.

What a difference...

A couple hundred miles make.  After spending 2 days just west of Houston watching it rainnnnnnnnn........We managed to back out of our pull through space, back was asphalt forward was very wet and soft gravel, and leave. 
We're here in Hondo, TX at the Escapees Lone Star Corral private campground.  This place is very nice, sunny with some clouds passing over but dry and cool.  We're going to mass in a few minutes then eat a nice steak, hit the grocery store and head "home".
Tomorrow we'll sight see some of the local areas, either in San Antonio or out around here.
Monday I want to get the rear outside tires replaced.  They had some minor weather cracking but after getting here the cracks look worse so I'd rather replace them now and not risk a blowout.
Then we'll head on to Del Rio for a night or two, then on to Big Bend!

Down to a few hours

Dont want to count them cause then I might not sleep tonight.
We enjoyed a great meal and wonderful time with Scott and his family last night.
Said our goodbyes until we return in June for Ellas recital.
I aired up tires, waxed the jeep, finished loading the fridge while Cindy visited with her mom.
We have a dinner tonight with some good friends at the Bistro, which is a class from the John Folse Culinary Institute. We've been going for a few years now and are continually impressed with the food and service.
I hope to leave by 7 in the morning which should put us through Houston before the traffic rush. We'll spend the night just west of Houston while Cindy visits a good friend for a day or two then continue to San Antonio where we plan to take US Hwy 90 west towards Big Bend State Park.
Well that's all for now, I'll update whenever we stop and have wifi.
Wish us luck.

Almost ready

This has been a very busy week.  Cindy has been doing a wonderful job getting address changes, getting off junk mail lists, setting up our finances, not to mention getting the house ready to sell.
We spent a very nice weekend with our family.  Enjoyed good food and good times.
Then I spent a few hours redoing the backup camera system since the monitor mount broke.  Glad it broke in the driveway and not on the road.  I had to remove and re-run the wires to move it down to the console.  I won't have time to find another mount so it was just easier to move it.  Can't believe we only have 3 days until we head out.  Well that's all for now.