Where do I begin? Houston to Corpus Cristi

I left you hanging in Houston a long time ago. Houston was great! The sun shone, it was warm, I did civilized things with my sister and Tom, and enjoyed not driving! I showered every day, what a joy. I left Houston on a Tuesday, decided to "see" Texas, not just drive through it, so I headed south. Didn't get all that far the first day and camped at a manmade lake that was built to cool the power plant that was there. The lake is now nice and claims to be the best bass fishing in Texas. Birds chirped as though it were spring, ducks and geese were on the water, fish jumped - very peaceful and nice. There was only one other camper. My water pump is on the fritz so dishes are wiped with a paper towel. I learned that there are a lot of Germans in Texas and so those towns are nice and neat. The further south I got the more desparate the landscape and the towns.

Hildegard developed a severe knock but I was near a town with a Toyota dealer and we limped there and she was fixed. Fantastic! The water pump fixed itself.

I headed for the Aransas National Wildlife Preserve on a bay. I got there in the dark, signs about mosquitos and no camping, so I picked up a brochure, backtracked and parked myself on a bayou - beautiful sunrise. I was excited about taking hikes in the nature preserve and headed out early in the morning. Tank top, peddle pushers, and mosquito repellant. I ran into a lady who suggested I put more clothes on. I told her I was O.K., lots of repellant. She said "oh, honey, that's just an appetizer". She also warned me about alligators. I was worried about snakes but bravely headed out with bare arms and all. The mosquitos loved me, I was watching for snakes, when I saw the alligators! They are a much bigger thing to worry about than snakes.

I headed right back to safety, put more clothes on, and did not stray far from Hildegard. The preserve is really beautiful though and I'm very glad I drove the 16 mile loop.

Corpus Cristi a beautiful and clean city that probably has the "death to mosquito trucks" patrolling because I didn't see one mosquito (even though my eyes were swollen from the bites that I sustained earlier, I could still see a little).

Sun in Houston

I drove through the northeastern part of Texas to get to Houston. It took a bit of time, after all Texas is BIG. The surprising part to me was that it was all green! Green fields, lots of trees, lots of huge lakes - not at all what I expected. Apparently Texas had had 3 weeks of rain too. I finally made it to Houston and am now staying at my sister's. Having a great time. Took Hildegard in for a check up and she checked out fine, got another oil change but she needed nothing else. I'm going to hang out here for a while, do no driving at all, bask in the sun and enjoy the company of family and her friends. Went to a party two nights ago, went to the symphony and heard Brian Stokes Mitchell - a fabulous baritone singing Broadway songs.

Rain in Oklahoma

I left you in Sioux City, Iowa and I left late the next morning to start my rainy period. I made it to Oklahoma and it rained the 3 or 4 days it took me to go through Oklahoma. Oklahoma was pretty much like I expected it - pretty trailer trash but I felt safe in Hildegard. I can't even begin to tell you the areas I drove around, my GPS was sending me in circles, I started with lots of gas and almost ran out in an area where I had no idea where I was, but I knew that I didn't want to be there. A kind gentleman on a tractor appeared out of no where and gave me directions on how to get to somewhere - the somewhere was Slaughterville - Great!!!

I did, however, manage to find a beautiful place before leaving Oklahoma, Turner Falls State Park. There was a mountain and the Turner River flows through this sandstone and eventually falls 75' and continues to flow on standstone, creating little step type falls. I spent the night in their campground and was, again, the only person there.

Sioux City, Iowa

I'm here! Started yesterday morning parked between a row of hunters, there was snow and ice out and it doesn't get light here until 8 A.M. The hunters did get on their way around 6 A.M., scraping their windshields with hard core Minnesota scrapers, not the little plastic stuff we use. I got on the road at 8:30, on snow and ice, it was treacherous and I was scared silly. Once you get on the road in farm country, you can't get off. There are no turnouts, especially not in the snow. I drove for two hours, I could barely breathe, and then had lunch at Pipestone National Monument. This is a sacred place to the indians, some have an old story that they come from this place and that the red in the rock is the blood from their ancestors, so it is sacred. I took the 3/4 mile trail with snow and ice, kept myself from falling, but forgot to take my camera. It is a very cool place.

My phone died. Found out the only AT&T store is here in Sioux City. Got there in time, the guy fixed it to his and my (happy) surprise. It really doesn't matter much at the moment since there is no AT&T serviced out here. I wonder why they even have the store, who are the selling to? Who would want a server that doesn't serve the area? Another mystery.

I spent the night in the local Hilton. Very nice, very warm, all the amenities you could wish for. The weather is turning to rain. That is actually a good thing - not snow.

Yesterday I poked around Hillsboro and Shelly, Minnesota because my in-laws came from there. Camped at another state campground on the Buffalo River in Minn. - only one other motor home. Today I did laundry, took a shower (first time in 5 days) and it was cool, but fantastic! and I have internet. That brings me to the present and hopefully tomorrow I will figure out how to get you to this site. Good night.

My campsite for the next night was definitely more beautiful. I spent a good deal of the day driving just south of Lake Sakakawea, a very large lake, and then drove below and on the largest earthen dam in the U.S., I think it's name is Garrison Dam, and then camped at a state campground on the lake. It is a huge campground and beautiful, well kept, manicured and I was the only person staying there. White tailed deer hopping around, I took a long walk, picked flowers, grasses and leaves for a vase. Nice!

These are the badlands of North Dakota, pretty awesome and also beautiful, but the shapes could be strange, provocative, eerie. From there I was driving on the interstate - not a happy thing for me. It was snowing, slushy for the most part, but still not great and the traffic was whizzing past me kicking up more stuff to throw at my windshield. It was tough driving and then I saw that there is a Beulah, North Dakota. I called Graham to see if I really needed to go there and he himmed and hawed about it, but, yes. So I did. The good thing is that it got me off the interstate and on to a more reasonable road. I got to Beulah just before dark but in time to catch the local hardware store still open. I was looking for a Beulah sticker, they of course had none. I did get some WD40 to not walk out empty handed. The man was nice, helpful, it was a really nice hardware store and had everything! He also told me that it was going to snow in the night. I found an abandoned - hard to say what it was - RV park in town and decided I would spend the night there. In the meantime the guy at the hardware store told me the local diner had Monday night German buffet night. Well...I didn't recognize most of the things but they did have excellent cabbage rolls. My dinner, including tea, with the senior discount came to $11.25. I then decided to watch Monday night football at a bar. That was interesting. A lot of men in this bar - probably 50 - 100, there was one open chair at the bar so I took that one. It turns out most of these men work in a cold mine near Beulah - Beulah is a big mining town and they also have a coal fired power plant. They also have a coal liquification plant where they turn coal into natural gas. Tom, the guy I was talking to was 27 and from Minnesota. He told me that most of the guys are from elsewhere, they make good money, they work 9 months out of the year because the mines are closed in winter. These are open pit mines with huge - huge earth moving equipment. I learned all kinds of things about Tom and from him. It was nice and on top of all that Minnesota won which makes people in North Dakota happy. I toured the liquification plant the next day. Interesting!

I'll show you my camping accommodations in the next pictures.

If any of you know how to work a blog, please let me know. It seems there is no ability to edit it once you have put pictures on and you can't move the pictures around. I'm tearing my hair out but am determined to get on with it. Anyway, I made it to just this side of North Dakota and was going to camp at the Badlands of Montana. It is a fantastic area and I drove almost to the end of the hairy road to get a great view of the whole place, but there was not one soul camping there and there was talk to snow in the night. I did not want to be moored in that godforsaken place!!! I found another AAA rated campground using my trusty little GPS - it was pitch black out and I had no idea where I was going. The campground was no beauty and someone should write a letter to AAA (but not me). It stormed that night, limbs fell on Hildegard and we got out of there pretty early in the morning.

I finally crossed the border into North Dakota - virgin territory for me - and I was happy as a little piggy. Got gas, was told there was going to be 2 feet of snow later that day so I thought I would move along quickly. But -- the Theodore Roosevelt National Park was just a few miles away and that couldn't be missed. These are the North Dakota badlands and they are beautiful. I drove the 36 mile loop and saw antelope, white tailed deer, and bison. All the grasses have turned color and the leaves on the trees were in full autumn. I told the ranger there that Graham and Aubrey were National Park Rangers and she was overjoyed. It was really a beautiful place to be and in the summer they have musicals and do a full blown tourist thing there.

On to the rest of the world and came upon Ashland, MO while trying to avoid freeways. Ashland looked different, but I stopped at the gas station there to find out the road I wanted to take was a very bad, widy gravel road along a river with possibilities along the way. I made the wise decision to continue on to Broadus. Ashland is at the foot of a pretty nice mountain in the middle of the grasslands.

Montana and North Dakota

I left you all in West Yellowstone and the beauty of Montana. Montana, as you travel towards the east, is less and less mountainous and eventually looks like eastern oregon. My first stop after camping at Big Timber was Little Big Horn (Custer's last stand). I wanted to be where the white man got beaten by the Indians and it felt good to be there, but I went back the next morning and the sadness of the place came to me - a lot of people died there, young men, old men, fighting for a piece of land that to this day is marginally inhabited. We go to war for???

Hoping This Works

You all have my latest report in an email I sent, now I'm trying out the blog. The Grand Tetons and Yellowstone are so totally beautiful and interesting and they really aren't that far away. If you take a two week vacation you can more than see everything and have time to relax. I didn't send any pics of Old fFaithful or the famous lodge at Old Faithful, but here they are.

The Beginning

I finally started this journey on Wednesday, September 16, 2009. Woohoo!!!! I made it all the way to Fort Klamath where I visited with Graham and Aubrey. On to Boise where I visited with Brad and Mirella. The rest of the U.S. awaits.