Lake Medina, TX

We are going to visit Thousand Trails campsites while in Texas.  Lake Medina was the first. This campsite needs a lot of work, the trees need trimming and the road are full of potholes. We were able to get a site with 30 amp and water, no sewer.  They claimed to have a honey truck and after being here for a few days we ordered a pump out.  They never came.  Cherie called the office and they said their truck had broken down.  A few days later, we went to the office and asked if the truck had been repaired and they indicated it had as they promised to pump us out the next day.  No such luck, again they never arrived.  This is not a campground we will be back to.  The only nice thing about this place is that it is a deer preserve.  The deer are so used to human contact that you can feed them right from your hand.  Every day and night there were over 20 dear around our campsite.  The dogs were not too happy though.  They wanted to go and play with the deer.

One night we took a ride out to a winery and then afterward we stopped in for dinner at the 4Way Roadhouse, they had a guy singing and playing guitar and during one of his songs, this guy (about 90 years old) came up and started playing the spoons.  It immediately had us thinking about Janette because her brother used to do the same thing.  

While here we visited many cities in the area, one being Kerrville and the other Fredericksburg. We had great German lunches at both.

We were also able to visit with our good friends Lori and Alan Hernandez. We took one day and visited the missions in the area.

We also enjoyed a few nights around the fire.

Christmas day 2020

 Well, for the most part, we had a very relaxing, nice Christmas day. We lounged in bed until we HAD to walk the dogs, lol; then after a nice walk along the beach, we came back to the RV and had a good brunch, waffles and bangers (Scottish breakfast sausages).  We made phone calls to friends to wish them a merry Christmas and then about 3:30ish decided it was time to walk the dogs again. We decided on a nice long walk to get our 10,000 steps in.  On our way back, Cherie was looking across the street and saying merry Christmas to some people when Martha (because she was tired) slowed down and Cherie tripped over her, landing hard on her left wrist.  Everyone asked if she was ok, and of course, she said she was. She found it difficult to get up, but was able to with help from Graham. He said, "I think you might have broken your wrist.". Cherie, of course, denied that could be the case.  " let's just get back to the RV and ice it," she says.

We get back and as she starts to ice it he, she feels the pain radiating her arm.  She says, I think we should go to the ER. Upon having X-Ray, they discover that it is indeed a broken wrist. Cherie's comment, "damn, I hate it when he is right.". The good thing is there is still time for an uplifting end to 2020.  

Corpus Christi, TX (Christmas Eve)

We stayed at Pio Pico for about 10 days visiting South Bay friends and family and then went up to Vista to stay at the Elks Lodge for 2 weeks.  While there, we had lots of dinners with our friend Janette and watched lots of Hallmark movies, which Janette and Cherie love (Graham puts up with them:)).  

We took a week to travel from Vista to Corpus Christi. We arrived yesterday and our next adventure has begun with us parked on the beach at NAS Corpus Christi.  We were greeted with tropical weather of 75 degrees and high humidity followed by a night of gale force winds of 35 to 40 knots and waves breaking over the seawall.  We brought two of our slides in to protect the awnings.  The winds finally calmed down today around noon. 

It is Christmas Eve and this afternoon we will decorate the RV, tonight we will attend Christmas Eve services at the Protestant Chapel on base.  We have not been to church since all of them were closed in March. 

Wrap up

 We stayed in Flagstaff for about 5 days to visit with our daughter, Danielle; and had a wonderful visit.

We arrived back in San Diego on November 24.  We traveled through 17 states and stayed at 38 campgrounds. What a trip!

Highlights were: Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Indiana (Amish Country & visiting Bob's nieces and nephew), Henry Ford Museum, Frankenmuth, visiting with Ninette and then Danielle.

Graham and I will soon be heading to Corpus Christi, Texas for Christmas and bringing in the New Year.  Despite COVID19, we traveled the country and met nice people and saw a lot of this great country.

Amarillo, TX

 We stayed at the Big Texan RV Ranch, so had to have dinner at the Big Texan Steak Ranch & Brewery.

The next day was spent at the RV, doing laundry and relaxing.

Bardstown and Hodgenville, KY

We wanted to go to a Bourbon distillary while in Kentucky, however, we would've needed to make advance reservations since all tours were limited to 6 people only.  So instead we found a whisky museum.

 After the museum, we drove to Hodgenville and went to Abraham Lincoln's birthplace. The memorial had 56 steps up to the top and a replica of the log cabin where Lincoln was born inside.

Memphis, TN

We celebrated Bob and Sharon's 61st wedding anniversary at Folk's Folley, an upscale restaurant in Memphis, Nanette and her husband Kenny, and Barbra with her husband.  .  

 While in Memphis, Bob and Sharon spent the day with Ninette and Graham and I went to the Pink Palace Museum.  The main feature of this museum was the story of the Piggly Wiggly grocery store and the man, Charles Saunders, who innovated grocery store shopping as we know it today. It also had other eclectic items on display.

Groceries were stacked in aisles and you could put the items you wanted into a basket and then check out at the end.

Other interesting things:

World War I art made from shell casings.

Doctor's office, turn of the century.

Dentist office turn of the century.

Nashville, TN

We arrived to early to see any real shows, however, we did go to Nashville Nightlife, where we had a buffet style dinner and heard some country music.  It was an offbeat place and most people who were there were probably over 60, laugh out loud!   

We went to the Belle Meade Plantation:

Children's dollhouse

Kitchen

Slave's quarters

Dairy, a main source of income

Owner's original cabin before Belle Meade was built.

Since we still had some time left in the day, we went to the Parthenon, a full size replica.  Nashville is often referred to as the Athens of Tennessee.

The shield is 58' in diameter.

Elizabethtown, KY

 On this two day stop, we found a Elizabethtown Nature Park with this lovely veteran's memorial.  It was interesting that they had a statue dedicated to the, often forgotten, Civil Service workers who support our deployed troups.  

Some of the RV's were decked out for Halloween.