Algodones, Mexico

We spent the last week of April going back and forth across the border for various treatments.  Our first day across we had breakfast at the open air restaurant set in behind various shops.  Then we picked up 2 bottles of "creamed tequila".  We had a taste of it last year, yummmm..good stuff!
The next day, Monday we headed across before 8am to see Dr. Brock and Danny and hopefully start some chelation treatments.  They are incredible.  Even tho' their chelation rooms were always full with "winter visitors" coming and going, they remembered our names on sight and who had recommended them to us!!! They said Al and Roxie had been there earlier in the year and are doing great!  Always good to hear about friends!!
So now it is time to hook up to chelation.  Bob spends the time getting an appointment with; a dermatologist for him( at my request), and a dentist for cleaning for both of us.  After my first treatment we head back across the border with 2 more (1 each) bottles of "creamed tequila".  OOPS!!!  Only allowed 1 liter per person every 30 days.  We were given the option of returning our purchases or dumping them out.  Hmmmm... back we go to return them........  darn!!!!
It was so HOT Tuesday that we did not go across.  Wednesday we had decided to be there by 7am, get our treatments and get back home before it got HOT again.  Much better!
I went with Bob to the dermatologist to have his head examined.  The Dr. wanted to know why we were there.  He checked Bob's head and said all was fine, nothing cancerous. Thank you, Lord! All this for $30 and no referral from a regular MD.  Why can't the rest of the world be this simple??
Next was my glasses, check-up, 2 pair of glasses (using my old frames)and no-tinting this time, $149  I had my teeth cleaned, then went across the street for my haircut, while Bob had his cleaning. Then back home for the day. As you can tell, the prices for services are so good that there are a lot of US and Canadian citizens taking advantage of the Mexican  services. Most of the doctors,dentists and technicians were trained in the US and the medicines are the same ones sold in the US--- Just a lot cheaper. No pictures as Jan's little camera is broke and to lazy to take the bigger one over.

Mexico

We are in Andrade Ca. which is the name of the border crossing into Los Algadones, Mexico. We have spent the last week since leaving Boerne, TX traveling across the southern Texas plains to Carlsbad, New Mexico.  We spent two days there and went to the Carlsbad Caverns.  Carlsbad Caverns National Park is a United States National Park in the Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico. It became a national park in 1924.  What an amazing place. I took the hike down the natural entrance while Jan looked around the gift shop and then she took the elevator down 754 ft to the Big Room where we met and continued the tour together.  We left Carlsbad traveling through the Guadalupe mountains ( they have a neat, informative visitor center at the park) and then on to El Paso,TX and Las Cruces NM where we spent the night. The next day, heading towards Tucson, AZ  on  I-10 we began seeing signs saying “ see the Thing” after 150 miles and signs every few miles Jan said we should stop…. ha-ha, like I wanted to go to a tee shirt shop. Well the signs also said there was a Dairy Queen there also, so I thought okay—Ice cream sounds good so we stopped. Well it was a tee shirt shop, but we spent the dollar each to  see the Thing.  Boy was I surprised, so surprised that I had to go out to the truck and get the camera and take some pictures. The Thing is in a collection of old cars, wagons buggies, guns, wood carvings and many other strange things housed in three steel pole buildings behind the gift shop and I talked to the manager who would or could not tell us much about the collection.  He said he read that it was started by a world traveling family of collectors in the ‘40’s in California and spent some time traveling with a circus. He wouldn't say  much else except thought that it arrived a this location in the mid ‘60’s and has been there since.  I took some pictures and did find one website roadsideamerica.with a review and a short video.  I am glad that Jan’s curiosity was aroused and that we stopped at this old time roadside attraction. Stopping at Tucson and leaving early for us we stopped at the Space Age Restaurant ( complete with a flying saucer on it’s roof) in Gila Bend for breakfast and headed towards Yuma and the border crossing. Arriving in mid-afternoon to 88 degree temps and an almost empty campground. I am also loading more pictures of all of this on our web albums.

New Mexico

We left Borne TX and the Escapees Class BoF Rally with kind of mixed feelings. This was a great rally and we met a lot of neat new friends. Much fun but, the urge to see new places was felt by all.A few were staying a while but we pulled out on a nice sunny morning after a week of clouds and lots of rain.We headed north and drove through many miles of beautiful wildflowers. All along the route to San Angelo (our first planned overnight stop) we saw people stopped along side the road taking pictures. At a couple of our stops we talked to local people and the all said that it has bee a few years since the flowers have been so profuse. The last few years have been so dry that not many flowers showed.  a great spring to be in south central Texas.We left San Angelo and felt lazy so we only traveled about 125 miles to Midland. We stopped for the night. Midland is the center of most of the TX oilfields....the area produces one fifth of the nation's total petroleum and natural gas output and has the third-largest oil field in the United States. . It is also hometown of former First Lady Laura Bush and the childhood home of former President George W. Bush. It is also home to The  Commemorative Air Force (CAF). Associated with the CAF is the American Airpower Heritage Museum. Leaving this morning we traveled across the plains of south Texas.  It still amazes me when I think of people traveling across this country on foot and horseback.The vast distances and unyielding landscape are still mind boggling today, let alone on horseback at a time when there were no roads. arrived early..... (Mountain Time change) to the warm weather we have been looking for..... It was 86 degrees today. The Caverns tomorrow.

Escapee Classes of Full-Timers Rally

We have spent the better part of this week at the BOF ( birds of feather) of the Escapee Class Rally at Boerne, TX. Your "Class" is the year you became a fulltime RV'er. The 2005 class had the idea and the 2007 group developed it into a yearly rally. A total of 25 rigs arrived for this rally.  Since there were mostly 2007 attendees, they adopted  the other years as well.  It led me to believe that the Class of 2007 are the ones that know how to party!!!  The group knew where the fun bars and good food could be found.  In a little town near here called Bandera,  the 11th Street Cowboy Bar, cowboybar on Wednesday night  you take your meat, they stoke up the grills and everyone throws their meat on the communal grill at the bar.  You can get a side salad, roll, baked potato or green bean casserole to go with your meat for $5.  Since we have been doing nothing but eating, we choose just to get the $5 fixin's.....and dessert!  There was coffee and rolls to start the day for the people that did not chose to sleep in.  There was a pot-luck one night.  Favorite dessert contest on another night.  Tacos in-a-bag another night.I don't think anybody went around here hungry. There were a few seminars during the day, blogging, geocaching, volunteering and Alaska travel. This link skit is to a you tube video of the entertainment one night by  the RVG Troupe,some rally crazy people. All in all, a fun time and a bunch of neat new friends that we will look for as we travel or at next years rally. We are heading west to Carlsbad, NM and then Yuma, AZ and then north to Reno, NV.

On the Road Again!!

The ltlgrntruck is on the road again. We left Rockport Friday morning with hugs from our new friends—Dave and JoAnn from Indiana--vanilla.  Heading north to Smithville TX and an ATHS chapter truck show –here--- we traveled through the wild flower capital of Texas.   Living in MI all our lives we are use to spring being green—Texas is different as most of the winter it is quite green and so spring means the wildflowers. The colors are amazing---Red, pinks, oranges, whites, yellows and of course  blue.  Just beautiful every where we look.  As we pulled out of the commerce center parking lot we were flagged down by a woman in a pickup truck and she said park in the firebarn lot and follow me home.  We are having happy hour and will grille some steaks and chicken later What a welcome.  There were about 15 or so people there--- members of the Yellow Rose chapter.  They all welcomed us and made us feel right at home. We stayed in the parking lot overnight and early in the morning(7 am) left for the park. It was a beautiful day with about 50 trucks and 100’s of people looking. Smithville was having their Jamboree festival.  About 20 of the trucks left the park and lined up to join the parade. We went around and through the town with 100’s of family’s lining the streets. After the parade we headed west about 20 miles, found a campground and crashed. Sunday afternoon we let for Boerne TX and the Class of 2007 Escapees Rally. A couple of years ago some people decided to form a Birds of a Feather (BOF) group with fulltime classes--- 2005,2007 etc. So now they are having these rally’s each year.

Patriotism

I was looking at the flag we have flown on our trailer for a couple of years and saw that it was looking a little worn. more I looked ,the more I started to think about the great country that we are so privileged to travel in.  As you have seen in the last post, we took a trip with Jessica to San Antonio last week.  I love the Riverwalk and the boat ride and the restaurants.  The other place I like there is the Alamo...... Alamo and Texas are amazing places. 200 or so people died here fighting for a freedom we take for granted.  It is a place in the USA that you can see and feel that people gave their lives for freedom.  Texas seems to feel and show and remember patriotism more than any other place we have been.  Everywhere we go we see the American flag and the Texas state flag.  In San Antonio around the Alamo no buildings can be built that cast a shadow on it.  Since 1905,  The Daughters of the Republic of  Texas have been entrusted with the care and maintenance of the Alamo with no money coming from state, local or federal governments.  All monies come from the gift shop and donations. What an amazing way to show respect for the sacrifices the people made.  As some of you know Jan and I do not own a tv so we get our news from the internet and more and more I am getting frustrated with our president apologizing for our country.  Jan is on Facebook and she has received posts from many people, and one was a video by Rush Limbaugh(some of you may not like him, but you need to watch this video. What Obama (truely) inherits! Jan also found this website..renewamerica   that I think we all should look at and check out. This cornerstone is on the Masonic temple in San Antonio.  I think we all have to look at going back to educating our kids and taking care of  our family, friends and neighbors and not asking for handouts and loans from the government.  I am also going to post some other links at the side of the blog if anyone would be interested

2010 Spring Break with Jessica

Since our granddaughter, Jessica's friends all had spring break at a earlier time than she did, it was decided that Jessica would come to Rockport, TX to visit us for her spring break.  She was hoping for great weather, which with temperatures in the low-mid 70s, and no rain came close to fulfilling that desire. Tuesday, March 23 we picked her up at Corpus Christi around 4:30pm.  We went from there to Mustang Island and did a quick drive along the beach.  A couple dolphins were spotted a ways off shore.  We then got in line to take the ferry from Port Aransas across the Intercoastal Waterway to Aransas Pass, where the dolphins usually play in the wake of the ferry.  I think the dolphins were on break, also, since they were not visible on the ferrytrip.  Darn!   While going through Aransas Pass, we decided to stop at a jam session at the old theater there.  There were only 3 people performing  so we left  early.  we planned on starting the day with a trip to the Rockport cemetery, where the wild flowers were in bloom  From there we took Jessica to a cafe we had heard about from several people, Turtle Bay Cafe.  My kind of cafe, breakfast served until 2pm!!  We found the cafe quite easily as we were told to look for the brightly painted, in various colors, cafe on the right hand side after going over the bridge.  !  Couldn't miss it!  While waiting for our food, somebody from there told us about a swamp near there where a couple alligators have been seen.  When our food was served, on paper plates, we were pleased to find that the food was as good as we had been told.  Leaving there  very full, we headed to the swamp to see the 'gators in the wild.  Sure enough one was right where they said it hung out.  It even swam towards our car for a photo shoot.  Could see why the man at the cafe told us DO NOT  GET OUT OF THE CAR!  We, also, included a side trip to Goose Island to see the "big tree".  Of course, the Fulton Mansion was a "must do".

Thursday, around  1pm we dropped Grizz off at the boarders and headed to San Antonio.  We found a motel within walking distance to the Riverwalk and the Alamo. We rode the boat thru the Riverwalk at night with all the lights lit up.  Friday we went to the Tower of America, saw the 4D movie and rode the elevator to the top.  We stopped at "Dick's" for lunch.  Their main objective is to be "dicks".  They throw your placemats  at you, insult you, took Jessica's sunglasses off her head etc.  Literally being dicks.  Drinks come in "manly" or "girly" size.  After that we went to Market Square.  Saturday Bob went to the car show on the beach at Rockport.  He got a plaque for 2nd place in the truck division.  After retrieving Grizz, Jessica and I checked out the downtown shops and a flea market.  Sunday was spent back on the beach, and Monday by the pool at the rv park.  All too soon the week was over.  It was time to get Jessica to the airport and head her towards Michigan.