Monday March 14, 2016-Moving Day-Old Cotton Gin RV Park to Fernwood RV Park, Longview TX

We got up about 6 AM to begin packing up to leave for Longview TX, the first leg of the journey to Breaux Bridge Louisiana and the Louisiana HOC Chapter rally. It was dark and cold and I didn't want to go out, but when the sun finally came up around 7:30, I struggled  out and began working. We made good time and actually pulled out about 8:30, right on time. We traveled with old friend Bobcat and Mike and Peg. With light traffic, we made very good time down the highway until we decided to make a pit stop at an Allsup convenience store in Decatur where Stella and I had stopped on our way up here. I didn't notice that there was no crossover on the divided highway, so we rolled on, looking for another place to stop. We drove a few miles out of town and found another station with a large parking lot, suitable to us pulling trailers. We had gotten separated on the road, and only the Bobcat stopped with us. Mike and Peg saw us but didn't have a chance to take the exit to stop also, so we got our sandwiches and coffee and continued on.

We traveled on with Bob until the road split and I misread the sign, and we ended up on the wrong road. Bob took the right road, so he was ahead of us. We just took a scenic route, which I am good at finding! 

We all met back up at a rest stop but again, we were delayed in leaving. It was not really big deal, but we were about 5 minutes behind and we didn't get caught up until we arrived at the RV park. 

It was a good day to travel with blue skies and warm temperatures later in the morning. With the exception of the little boo-boo in Ft. Worth it was an uneventful trip. We should have a more exciting drive tomorrow with all the flooding in Louisiana.

So long.

Saturday March 12, 2016-Old Cotton gin RV Park

Today we went to visit the 501 Winery in Childress. Named for engine 501 of the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad, the old engine is now found in a park about a block from the winery. The winery is located in the old Women's Department Club building that was used for GI's to dance with and meet local women during the second world war. The owner gave a presentation about the winery and it's production before we sampled the wines. I believe that almost all of us bought at least one bottle. 

We came back to the park and prepared for our final potluck dinner. Mike, a friend that is soon to be a new owner of a toyhauler Heartland, prepared a delicious barbecue dinner consisting of brisket, ribs and sausage that he had cooked for about 18 hours. Man, was it ever good! The others of us brought side dishes and desserts and we had a fine meal and great times with our Heartland friends.

After giving out some nice door prizes with lots of laughter over the winners, the evening finally wound down. We turned in, tired but still excited over the fun we had. Tony and Erika, our new West Texas Chapter Leaders did a wonderful job and we will be looking forward to their rallies in the future.

So long.

Friday March 11, 2016-Old Cotton Gin RV Park

Today we went over to Quanah to visit the City/County Historical Museum. This place is full of artifacts from all over the area, and is very interesting.

This is a photo of the old railroad depot and is considered one of the most beautiful buildings of it's type in Texas.

Quanah Parker, leader of the Comanche Indians, for whom the town is named.

One of Quanah Parker's fancy headdresses.

A 48 star flag.

Did you know that Texas has this many species' of pecans? Me neither.

Don't try to go over this bridge. It's only 7'7" tall!

I believe this cell was used to house "tenders" or inmates who oversaw or tended to the other prisoners.

This appears to be a gunshot or possibly a shotgun through one of the walls of one of the cells. 

An old building next to the railroad depot. You don't see too many signs painted on the side of buildings any more.

I was told that the old brick streets date back to sometime in the 1920's when the Works Progress Administration put people to work under the American New Deal agency.

So long.

Wednesday March 9, 2016-Old Cotton Gin RV Park

I said that I would add some photos of this cool little park where we are attending the West Texas chapter of the Heartland Owners Club inaugural rally in Quanah Texas.

The office is located in the actual building that was the Quanah Cotton Gin. The park is actually in Goodlet TX but since there is no post office here, They use Quanah as their mailing address.

The lady that owns the park has done a good job of accumulating antiques from the area and displaying them in the old cotton ginning room that we now use as a meeting room or rally hall.

An old cotton sack sitting on a two wheel dolly in front of the wooden cotton gin.

The metal contraption is the dryer for the cotton that has been ginned.

More equipment in the ginning room.

This is one of two of these tables that came from an old Luby's Cafeteria that was being remodeled and re-purposed here. 

An old-style kitchen pantry cabinet.

This is an old ice box. In the olden days, people used blocks of ice to chill and preserve their food.

An old gas stove. 

An old wood stove/fireplace that we will likely use while we are here.

Our site at the park. We will fill up the park with Heartland trailers. After retiring, I have become fascinated by the history of these older places. I talked to the owner of the park and learned that the old wooden cotton gin was built some time in the 1800's and the metal dryer in bout 1931. They were last used in 1976. If I learn any more about the history of this place, I'll let you know. I want to do some research on Quanah and will put it in another entry, so stay tuned...

So long.

Tuesday March 8, 2016-Moving Day-Texan RV Ranch to Old Cotton Gin RV Park, Quanah TX

Today began badly. We had rain all night long but in the morning, it only got worse with thunder and lightning and heavy rains. A severe storm had come through, dumping large amounts of rain and at one point we were under a tornado watch/warning, although we didn't know it at the time. When we travel and stay someplace overnight, I don't change the local television channels because it is difficult to get the changes made by Dish Network-more on that later...

We were up early but out off going outside because of the rain, but I finally decided to brave the downpour and git 'er dun! Since I was delayed, Stella got most of her work done and when I went out, she was way ahead in getting things ready to go. I couldn't let that happen, so in less than 30 minutes I was ready to go! Of course, all I had to do was roll up the water hose, raise the jacks and disconnect and stow the satellite dish, but I was ready! I was cold and wet because it had started to rain hard again, to the point that when we pulled out I couldn't see the street to turn on and drove to the other end of the park to leave. NO, I didn't get lost in an RV park, but it did take a few seconds longer to get out the gate.

It continued to rain all the way through Fort Worth, thru some construction areas, making the drive slow and careful. We made decent time and the rain finally slacked off but we were way out of town and on the open highway, so speeds came back up and we made an easy drive of the rest of the way.

We were almost here when we passed a rest area and I saw our old friend Bob Curry (TX Bobcat). I honked at him and he waved and we proceeded on. He was also coming to this rally and by the time we got into Quanah, Bob had caught up with us, so we went into the park together. 

We got set up without any problems and soon discovered that this place is very cool! We knew that the park was originally an actual cotton gin and while walking around checking things out, there is the old cotton gin and other equipment in the "rally hall" where cotton was stored many years ago. I'll take some pictures tomorrow and show you around.

So long.

Monday March 7, 2016-Moving day-Palms RV Park to Texn RV Ranch, Mansfield TX

Yesterday, Sunday, we didn't do too much of anything but get things cleaned up and ready to go tomorrow. We did meet Kim and the boys at Kelly's restaurant in La Marque for breakfast. As usual, it was delicious and we all ate way too much! We topped off the fuel and came back home to finish up our chores. 

I didn't sleep well and stayed up until well after midnight, working on the Branson rally preparations. I finally went to sleep but woke a couple of times during the night.

This morning we were up at 6:30 but it was chilly again and it was after 7 before we started to work. We made good progress and pulled out about 9:30, q little later than we had wanted to but we made very good time through Houston and to the Ron Hoover dealership to have the new tires on the trailer filled with nitrogen. I am sold on this procedure and will keep nitro in all my trailer tires from now on.

They were waiting for us to arrive and immediately got started and were actually finished in about 30 minutes. Then, on top of that, there was no charge for performing this service! Wow!

We were soon back on the road and continued to make excellent time along the Gulf Frwy. We made our first stop at the Buccee's store in Madisonville where we ate our lunch and took a nice long stop. We continued on our drive but when I started to get drowsy, I pulled into a state rest area to walk around for a few minutes to clear my head. It worked, and we were soon back on the road.

It rained on us a couple of times but it was a very light rain. It held off until we arrived at the Texan RV Ranch for the night. After getting everything hooked up, I took Tramp to the doggie park to get some exercise in for him and we had just barely gotten back home when it began to rain. Lucky us!!

Hope I get some good rest tonight!

So long.

Saturday March 5, 2016-Palms RV Park

This is our last full week here and we tried to make the most of it. We met with friends and took care of last minute doctors appointments because we leave on the rally trail on Monday. We were busy all week and got a lot accomplished.

We got the truck checked out at a shop in Spring that we've used before and trust. We were especially interested in the truck brakes. We were glad to hear that everything seems to be fine and ready to go on our trip. We went by Rayford Crossing and had a last visit with Tommy and Susan.

We went to the doctor and got some new medications but otherwise, it was a routine checkup. They drew blood from me and we are waiting on the results of that. 

Friday I spent doing my spring cleaning of the underbelly and eliminating unnecessary items. I took lots of stuff out of the storage are and took it to Kim's house where I have stuff stored in her barn. Stella cleaned up the inside of the trailer and got rid of lots of leftovers in the fridge. It's amazing how much we accumulate since there's only two of us but many times we get a "doggie bag" at a restaurant and it goes uneaten, and so out it goes! We went to Wal Mart to pick up prescriptions but someone at the doctor's office had left off some of the vital numbers so of course, the sale would not go through. We later met Mike and Patrice along with Everett and Fay at the Grand Buffet in League City. It was a good meal and some wonderful memories with our friends.

Today I cleaned the truck. Well, actually my neighbor is a guy that seems down on his luck, so I paid him to wash and wax the trailer and wash the truck for me. I did help him when he had to get on the ladder to wax the front of the trailer. He will wash the truck tomorrow, We went BACK to Wal Mart to pick up the prescriptions but today the computer went down, so we still haven't gotten what we need. It seems like a huge hassle to pick up some test strips and other testing materials, but it will save us a lot of money. Just a big hassle!

We began filling the fuel tanks of the truck and will finish tomorrow when we finish running around. I hope tomorrow goes better than today.

So long.