Thursday, April 11th we left Waco about 9 for our 200 mile drive to Abilene, Tx., population 120,000 - elevation 1726, arriving about 2. Brother John and his wife Jackie live in Buffalo Gap, about 15 miles SW. We are staying at Dyess AFB for 3 nights. Last year our drive to Abilene was quite harrowing - the molding around our new windshield that was replaced in San Antonio was flapping in the wind. Well would you believe we picked up a crack in the glass on the drive today. Maybe next year John and Jackie should come visit us in Rockport. Carol and Al - Gary's sis and husband and nephew Chris and his wife Nancy arrived in Abilene last night about 8. A rough day to travel with strong winds, Chris and Nancy have a 40 ft. motor home pulling a 24 ft trailer. John and Jackie and son Michael joined them at the KOA , Jackie who is suffering from kidney failure had spent the day in dialysis, she was a little tired but in good spirits. We got there about 5, we ordered pizza for dinner. It's always fun getting together with Gary's family, they're so much fun.
Friday, April 12th the highlight of our day was a trip to the Commissary and Exchange on base, then we just puttered around until about 5. On our way to join John and Jackie at the restaurant we stopped at Fed Ex to get our taxes on their way. The weather forecast for tomorrow is severe thunderstorms (again), our plans were to travel Saturday, we'll stay until Sunday instead. We were told we'd have to change sites in the morning - what a hassle!
Saturday, April 13th, Wow what a nasty storm! We had to sign up for another night at 9 am, at least we have a place to stay but it does involve moving, pulling in the slides, disconnecting the utilities, etc in the storm. We were so happy, we didn't have to change sites, they moved the incoming people to a different spot. It was quite a storm, not only t-storms and wind but cold too! it was 33 but "feels like" 28. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr About sunset the winds died down. To amuse ourselves we played a little Yahtzee and read.
Sunday, April 14th, What a difference a day makes - bright sunshine and no wind. We left about 10 for Wichita Falls, Tx., we had to wait about 35 minutes for the Truck Gate to be opened. (Closed on Sundays) We got to Wichita Falls, population 105,000, Elevation 946, about 160 miles NE, yes we are going the wrong direction again but Gary wanted to go there. We're spending 3 nights at the Wichita Falls RV Park located next to the Wichita River at flood stage after yesterday's storm. Most of the rivers in Texas are usually muddy colored but the Wichita is red clay brown, the color of cocoa. After getting set up we decided to check out the falls. In 1878 a flood washed away the real falls, in 1987 the city re-established the falls, a 54 foot terraced cascade built downstream of the original falls. The falls are at the edge of Lucy Park, just a short drive from the parking lot we ran into a 50 foot flooded section of the trail. Hmm, now what? We ran into 4 Sheppard AFB airmen, they told us another way to get to the falls, we must have looked puzzled - they insisted we follow them. What nice young people. How crazy to see 54' of cocoa colored water cascading down. They weren't exactly Multnomah Falls but interesting. Later we went to the Mall to get Gary decked out for granddaughter Elishia's wedding. Everything was on sale. Bonanza! We ran across a mini golf in the mall, Lunar Golf, it was dark and lit with black lights.
Monday, April 15 Tax Day! The Safelite technician is scheduled to arrive between 8 & 5, luckily he arrived about 10:30. Not so lucky he couldn't fix the crack. Just great! Our third windshield in less than a year. Beside the cost it's such a hassle to replace, oh the joys of the RV life. We had lunch at Bricktown Taphouse and Kitchen. Yum! In the historic section of Wichita Falls we stopped to see the world's smallest skyscraper. In 1919, during WF"s boom years office space was very limited, a shyster from Philadelphia, claiming to be an engineer, sold them plans for a $200,000 project - after the papers were signed and money changed hands, construction began. No one seemed to notice the blueprints were measured in square inches instead of feet. By then the man from Philly and the money were long gone.
Tuesday, April 16, No thunder storms, in fact the weather is in the 80's. I stayed at the RV park while Gary went to the North Texas Historical Museum at the airport.
Wednesday, April 17, a beautiful day for our drive to Amarillo, we left about 9:30 for the 220 mile drive. Well it was, about 35 miles out of Amarillo we got caught in a nasty hail storm. Gary pulled over, the hail, about nickel size, was smacking the windshield hard, with the crack in the glass it made us nervous. Poor Luci, she doesn't mind t-storms but the noise scared the dickens out of her. The skies cleared again, we got to Big Texan RV Park about 2:30. T-storms started up again about 4. Only another 70 miles and we'll finally be out of Texas. We are going to get nosebleeds for sure, the elevation here is 3,672 and the population is close to 200,000.
That's it for this week. Enjoy the pic's.
TTFN,
Gary and Pam
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| Gary with sister Carol and Brother John |
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| Wichita River at flood stage |
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| Wichita Falls |
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| The World's Smallest Skysrcraper |
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| Wee Chi Tah Sculpture near the river |
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| Assorted photos from N. Texas Historic museum |
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| Boots |
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| Organ |
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| Many hats |
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| Sunset at Wichita Falls RV Park |
| Hail storm |
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