Wed., Oct. 22. We took Luci to Doggie Day Camp at Petsmart so we could go to the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, located on the campus of SMU. This is the fourth presidential library we've been to. Several years ago we saw Ronald Reagan's in Simi Valley, Ca., the following year we visited Richard Nixon's in Loma Linda, Ca., last year we visited LBJ's in Austin located on the campus of University of Texas. We were rushing toward Wichita, Kansas last month, we didn't realize Eisenhower's is located in Abilene, Ks, we missed it by about 25 miles. We talked about taking a day trip back but it was over 100 miles and the weather was nasty. Bush's Library features exhibits using artifacts from his presidency, video and interactive exhibits to show you the key parts and decisions of his presidency. There is quite a section on 911, the oval office, family and exhibits about his life in the White House. I loved the pictures of the gowns Laura wore for inauguration and state dinners. The gifts from heads of state to George and Laura are gifts to America. Beautiful silver and gold objects but what really caught my eye was a diamond and sapphire necklace, earrings and bracelet. I wonder if she ever wore them. Afterward we went to lunch at Jakes, a place that specializes in burgers, we had the Screaming Rooster, a very spicy chicken sandwich. MMMMMM good but HOT. We headed back to Arlington before rush hour started in Dallas. Of course I wasn't driving but the traffic seems much less congested than the Portland area. It seems most of Texas is under road construction, especially driving down from Oklahoma City. We picked up Luci and headed back to Tree Top RV Park.
Thurs., Oct. 23, We headed back to downtown Dallas to see the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealy Square, the building where Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK. Being there sure put everything in perspective, it seemed so much bigger on TV. Everyone remembers where they were that day, it was my junior year in hs and I was in bookkeeping class. When you first go into the museum they give you audio tour ear phones but I found that distracting, I ended up taking them off and read all the captions. They do not allow any pictures to be taken on the 6th floor, flash or no flash. The pictures we took of Dealy Square were from the 7th floor where they had photo mosaics of Jack and Jackie, 50,000 pictures of her for his and 50,000 pictures of him for hers. Back on the 6th floor you go through chronically the day as it unfolded then pictures of funeral. The corner window that Oswald shot the president is glass enclosed reproduced to look exactly like that day. There was a section on the Warren Commission and how they used all the film shot by Zapruder and other photo's for evidence. After, we walked on the grassy knoll and Dealy Plaza. There were X's painted on the street where the shots hit, I found that a little creepy for some reason. We walked around the historic area downtown Dallas. It is really a beautiful city.
Friday, Oct. 24, We left Arlington about 10 for a relatively short drive to College Station, home of Texas A&M and the George HW Bush Presidential library arriving about 2:30 for just one night. As I said before, all Texas is a construction zone. As we reached our turn, the road was all torn up, of course we missed our turn, we saw the RV park as we were going up the overpass. Nothing makes Gary happier than to have to find a place to turn around, go through the construction again only to miss our turn (again) FUN. We finally arrived, it was a little "tense" in the coach at that point. The RV park was pretty full but no one was around which was curious. What a racket, you have to rent the space for the entire football season for probably 8 or so Saturdays. The Aggies were on a bye thank goodness, it would have been nuts there. A stiff adult beverage was called for. I headed for the pool for a little "time-out".
Saturday, Oct. 25, We got up early to get the coach departure ready, the manager gave us a couple of extra hours, we didn't have to rush that way. George HW Bush (two middle names, his parents couldn't decide who's father's name to use) Presidential Library also preserves pictures and documents from his presidency. In 1955 GB was a pioneer in the field of offshore oil drilling, one whole room was exclusively about the industry. One interesting fact, 1 gallon of oil equals 42 gallons of milk. The first oil rig, the Scorpion was off the coast of Aransas Pass, Tx close to Rockport, Tx. It showed his early life with his family, time of WWII as a 20 year old pilot he was water rescued twice, once because of enemy fire and the second, engine failure right after taking off from an aircraft carrier. The rest of the library chronologically his life from US Senator, UN Ambassador (appointed by Nixon), Ambassador to China, Director of the CIA, VP to Reagan and of course president. Outside the library is a beautiful pond and rose garden, we walked around the pond, it smelled so fragrant. (I'm a rose sniffer when I walk through neighborhoods, you've got to stop and smell the roses) A sign at the edge of the pond was a surprise, it is stocked with fish and you can catch and release. As we finished our walk we saw a sign saying "Graveyard", across the bridge is an area waiting for George and Barbara, their daughter Robin died of leukemia is there now. He and Barbara are living in Houston carrying on with their public service. We left College Station about 1 to head toward Ft. Hood Killeen Texas. On our way out of town we saw about 10 turkey vultures having a nice lunch, as we drove by one of them flew off and almost hit us. That would have been trouble, they are big birds. Then as we made a turn north we heard a crash! Somebody (me) forgot to put the Velcro strap on the frig. Things went flying, what a mess! I won't make that mistake again. Most military bases are easy to enter, show your ID and they direct you to Fam Camp. Well Ft. Hood is not one of those. We followed the directions, entering at the correct gate, well we had to turn around and go back to another gate to get inspected. Gary had to open all the doors to the basement for them to check for ???, then we were sent back to the first gate. We finally got into Fam Camp and set up.
Sunday, Oct. 26, Gary's nephew Chris and his wife Nancy live in Harker Heights with Nancy's mom Dottie, just about 10 miles from the base. We had our mail forwarded there, we haven't gotten our mail since Hart Ranch in Rapid City, SD. We took Luci with us so she could play with Neavah (heaven backwards)their chocolate lab. They have a lovely back yard with lots of trees to keep it cool. Chris, retired Army, is now working as a civilian employee at Ft. Hood. On our way back to base we'd decided to drop Luci at the coach when we went to the commissary. As we pulled in the guard asked us if we had a temporary permit. We said no, no one said we needed one even though we had to go through two gates to get in the day before. He grudgingly let us in because we were staying at Fam Camp. We dropped Luci off and left to go to the commissary at another gate. Big Mistake! No temp. permit no admit. We had to go to the visitor center to show the registration and insurance for the Jeep. Would you believe we didn't have the current insurance card. Well no insurance no admit. We still needed to get back to Fam Camp somehow. The supervisior came to help, still no. The clerk got the bright idea to look at Oregon DMV and low and behold it showed current insurance. Arggggghhhh! We got our temp permit and undaunted off we went to the commissary, back to Luci and an adult beverage.
Monday, Oct. 27, We said good bye to Ft. Hood and headed toward Austin. Another short drive of under 100 miles, we had reservations at Lone Star RV park. Our rate for two nights through Passport America was $12.50 each, but the third night was going to be $100. Well no. It seems the Formula 1 US Grand Prix was coming up this weekend in Austin and corporation doubled the rate. They did lower it to $50.00, still too much money but what could we do. It was a nice park, lots of trees but we were able to get satellite reception. After settling in we drove down to Zilker Park on Lady Bird Lake for a nice walk and a little geo cacheing.
Tuesday Oct. 28, Austin, the Texas state capital has a population of about 800,000 and growing very fast especially judging by the road construction. Austin is like Oregon's Eugene, we saw T-shorts saying "keep Austin weird". Locals are afraid the influx of new people will take away their quirkiness.
Last year we visited the LBJ library and the capitol building. at one time the capitol was the tallest building in Austin by law (just like Salem) Not any more. The Colorado River runs through Austin with a series of dams and lakes. Lady Bird Johnson Lake right in the middle of town, a beautiful park with 15 miles of trails along both sides of the lake. Many years ago LB visited and was appalled at the dirty lake. She championed it's restoration of the lake, now Austin gets its drinking water from there. After she died, the lake, formerly called Town Lake, was renamed Lady Bird. We went to see Mt. Bonnell, a 5 acre park overlooking Austin Lake, (the second of several). We had to climb 104 stairs up, I had to stop to "admire the scenery" a couple of times before making it to the top. You could see Austin's beautiful skyline and the mansions along the lake near the park. We had reservations with Capital Cruises for a sunset cruise along Lady Bird Lake to see up to a million bats fly out from underneath the Congress Street bridge at dusk. When they retrofitted the bridge to include heat expansion joints the bats discovered the 6" slits about every 4 feet or so made a perfect place to live in the summer. In the spring 25 million pregnant bats fly 650 miles from Mexico, the babies weigh 1/3 of their mama's weight. Bats never stop flying, no coasting for them. When the babies are born they sort of bungee jump out of mama on their umbilical cords. Bats live 15-20 years. have a wing span of 6 inches and eat 15 tons of bugs( collectively) every night. They can swim but have to get to shore to dry off before they can fly again. Who Knew?
Wednesday, Oct. 30, we left early for Canyon Lakes Recreation area which is operated by Sam Houston Joint Base in San Antonio.(where we stayed last year for a month) We were a bit apprehensive after our experience at Ft. Hood. No troubles no hassle. The park is located on a lake formed behind an earthen dam about an hour or so north east of SA in what they call Hill Country. It is beautiful here. The woman that checked us in told us there were a million deer. I think she was exaggerating, but there are many, many here. Our neighbor here was feeding them out of her hand, Gary tried but they were pretty skittish around him, the new guy in town. The weather is lovely, we had dinner outside and walked down to the lake on one of the many trails. We'll be here until Saturday when we leave for Rockport.
TTFN,
Gary and Pam
Our place at Tree Top, see Dolly?
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