A lazy day at Pecos.

Pecos was always only gonna be a night stop on our way to Roswell. And if i'm honest we did bugger all here.

We sat outside to watch a wonderful storm, my filming is a bit rubbish and I kept missing the lightning but it paid off in the end. We also had two humming birds for entertainment, local residents of the park. It was a very pleasant stop over for the night.

After the storm passed and the winds had died Adam played with his Drone again so theres some footage of that too.

Ali

Sonora Caverns

I spotted an RV park on the web at a perfect halfway point between San Antonio and Pecos called Sonora Caverns. It has the largest privately owned active caverns in the USA. It sounded like fun so we decided to head there for an over night stop. We have been following the 2.2.2 rule of RVing... namely try not to drive more than 200 miles a day, never drive for more than 2 days in a row and always try to get to your destination before 2. This means you dont lose all your days driving.

Sonora was all it promised to be. We booked a guided tour (walking for beginners) which was about 2 hours long. The caverns are pretty warm, about 71 degrees but with a 98% humidity which makes it feel like 85 degrees. The caverns are wonderful. With vains of Quartz as tall as me running in the walls along side the walkway, I grinned the entire time round. I skipped almost the whole way too. It was awesome.

The view from the RV

Stalagmites and Stalactites 

Domes in the ceiling made by gas bubbles 

Purrrdy

Look at that cauliflower 

This is called "The belly of the whale"

and a pic to prove he was there too

Ali

San Antonio, Texas

Lelo...its me in it.....

Well today was a brill day. we actually got to go do some real sight seeing.
We are staying just outside San Antonio, Texas. For anyone that doesn't know this is the home of "The Alamo" A Mission built originally by the Spanish to convert the native americans that ended up being a monument in history as the scene of a battle that helped secure Texas' independence from Mexico. (and yes i did steal that from a guide book....you dont think i knew all that myself did you....?)
Anyways we drove to San Antonio, only 10 mins down the freeway, and walked round for the day. 


The centre of the city has a large river running thought it (the San Antonio river) and we did "The River Walk" which basically takes you thought the city along the river side, which incidentally is below street level so you walk under all the main streets and  past loads of historical sights. It was awesome. We finished the day with a river boat tour. Then home again, home again, jiggerty jig...

Ali




Oh and heres some photos

The Alamo (or at least the front of it)

The Plevins At The Alamo

Monument commemorating 100 years of Texas independence

Aztek Theatre

our lunch at "Ritas on the River"

Healthy Chocolate.....20 flavours of toffee/chocolate apples....nom

Marriachi Band at "Ritas"

Wonderful optical illusion building on river tour (look ma, no walls)

Marriott Hotel where Fairmount Hotel used to be

Statue of Saint Antonio

On the road

Well today we started our trip, in the way it's suposed to be, with Ali sat next to me and the toad behind us.  We are now at Brauning Lake RV Resort just outside San Antonio.  To date it's the poshest RV park we have been to, we don't yet know what is posh and what is not but compared to the other two this is posh.  We are here for two nights, which gives us a whole day tomorrow to go have a nose in San Antonio and to see 'the alamo'.  I'm sure there will be a post about that then.

Oh and here's that footage from the AR Drone taken at the Shiloh park, in it you can see the RV and toad connected.

/Adam

Ali here, I've also got a little video for you just because I was so excited to be sat in the rig....lol. sorry.....

Back to Houston

Well today we left Rainbows End, and headed south back through Houston by a couple of miles to Shiloh RV Park, we plan to be here for just two nights.  The reason behind this return trip is so the car can be turned into a toad (towed).  We ordered the parts and booked this when we bought the RV and car so we know they will be able to fit together.  I'm kinda looking forward to it, the first drive with the car behind us, and Ali sat next to me.

The park here is basic, but it's all that we need, I'll see if I have time to take some flying footage tomorrow which is something I'd like to try at all the sites we go to, weather permitting.

We have taken some time today to look at our route over the next few days and weeks, so we have a rough idea as to where we are going, how long we will be stopping and so on, but the first destination is Roswell!  It's going to take a few hops to get there but it's a destination.

/Adam

here's Ali

Our last night at Rainbows End.

Ok, so we have decided to leave Rainbows End a day early. We where supposed to be leaving on Thursday morning early to get back to PPL to have the towing stuff put on the car and rig but rather than be up at 6 in the morning for a 2 hour drive we have decided to go a day early and stay at another RV camp for a couple of nights. There's an RV camp just down the road from PPl about 20 mins drive. Shiloh RV park in Richmond. It looks lovely, so we are off to there in the morning. We can then get up at a sensible hour to get the car to PPL Thursday morning no hassle. Yey...

 We havnt really done much the last couple of days. It's been bloody hot. In the 90s every day. Too hot to do much at all. We did some washing and had a couple of walks in the evenings when it got cooler. But apart from that we have been very boring...it's been great.

 Ali.

And this is me flying again,

/Adam

Sunday Lunch

Well we decided to venture out to Livingston today, have a look around. We didn't get very far as most of it was closed.... Bummer... But we found an amazing cafe/store called The Courthouse Whistle-stop cafe. It was a huge antique and thrift shop attached to a cafe. Real home cooked Texas food too. We had Sunday lunch. Nom nom.
I had pulled roast beef with twice cooked mash potatoes and green beans and Ad had chicken and stuffing with French fries and mushrooms. It was bloody lovely. We had a good look round and spotted a welsh tea towel hung up. It was from Llangair PG where mum lives. How cool is that. After I told the owner of the connection she insisted on giving me the full address and I was to pass it to mum as she wants a postcard all the way from Wales to put up in the store. We took loads of pics, which you can see but no video today as tinterweb is still messing about and it takes hours to download... Will be back soon though. Promise...

We're back!

Sorry we've been away for a bit, we have had some amazing storms here and it knocked the wifi out at the camp site. As you can tell now though we are back in business. It's rained most nights with awesome thunder storms. We have had some rain during the days too but it doesn't last long and the temperature doesn't rally fluctuate much, it's still frigin hot. It's lovely here though. The campsite is pretty basic but very clean and tidy and well patrolled. We have a laundry, pool, club house, library amongst the usual facilities. Everyone is so friendly here and we seem tone the youngest on the site. Lol.

There are some pics of the site and a couple of vids of the new rig for your viewing entertainment. I even let Adam have a go. Bless.

We are stayin here till the 18th which is when the car is booked in to have the towing stuff fitted then we are off for real. Wool.....

Window shopping.

Hi everyone..well we spent the day window shopping in the hope it would take our mind of the fact we are just waiting for the ok on the RV. Not sure it completely worked but we made it thought the day anyway. And I managed not to buy anything from the wonderful aray of shops in the mall. Much to Adams glee....


There are some pics of the lovely shops I wasn't allowed in and a short video. We are both knackered and it's our last night in the hotel. If the RV isn't ready tomorrow then we will have to find a cheaper hotel for the rest of our stay. Cross your fingers, and anything else you can that it's all a GO for tomorrow.

Ali.

Discovery Park.

We journeyed in to central Houston today. Starting in Discovery Park. What used to be a car park, in 2008 the city decided to clear it and make a 12 acre rec park. It's a lovely space with a canoeing lake, dedicated dog walks and a central amphitheatre for events It's lovely. Lots of art too. There where loads of people and kids around. It's well used. We also walked to Minuit Maid Park home of The Astros baseball team. There was a game on so loads of fans outside. Opposite where two old houses on concrete stilts. They had been moved back to their original plots for renovation after storage while the stadium and surrounding area had been developed. It was pretty hot again today so didn't stay out too long. Back in our room for a nap and then the weather changed and an awesome thunderstorm surrounded the hotel. We got some video.

Kemah boardwalk.

Today is the first day we have had 'nothing to do' as in, we have the car, we are waiting on the RV.

We got an email last night saying there was a bunch of work that was needed to be done before we could pick the RV up, a big downer.  But this morning, in reply to my questioning email I got an OMG email from the sales guy, he'd sent us an email about another RV! ours is fine short of a rattling AC unit which they are investigating.  Either which way the RV isn't going to be ready on Saturday (boo) so another weekend in the hotel is what we will be having.

I got to have a play with the AR drone today too, out on a little patch of grass next to the hotel, it was fun and I'm looking forwad to playing some more.

This afternoon we went to the beach, well not quite.  We went to the coast, a little place called Kehma, imagine Bognor but at 90 deg! and American big.  We had lunch in a place that had a HUGE aquarium in the middle of it, it was cool and the food was good too.

On the drive we drove through a 'shower' it was quite a downpour.

OK, enough from me, here's her

/Adam