11/3/12 - Saturday - The journey begins, house is winterized and we were ready to go. Headed to Nappanee, Indiana for minor service at our RV's birthplace, Newmar Corporation. A 4 hour drive, weather was great with no construction or traffic.
11/4/12 - Sunday - Sunday drive around the Amish Heritage Trail through Goshen, Middlebury, Bristol, Elkhart and then into South Bend and Mishawaka. We had a great Italian dinner with Sharon, one of our Ferris friends at Papa Vino's Italian Restaurant in Mishawaka. It was wonderful catching up with her.
11/5/12 - Monday - Tour of the Newmar Plant watching them build the motor coaches was amazing to see. They build 3 or 4 in a day with quite the production process. (No pictures allowed). Service work completed with one incident, a small 1/4 inch scratch in the paint which they will repair tomorrow morning so delayed a few hours leaving tomorrow.
11/6/12 - Tuesday - Repair done and looks brand new, thank goodness. We drove to Effingham, IL and spent the night in the Wal-Mart Parking lot. Woke up the next morning surrounded by Trucks, Trailers, and Motorhomes, it was amazing how many spent the night. One of our neighbors, quite the unique vehicle.
11/7/12 - Wednesday - Uneventful travel day. Jerry did a great job driving right through St. Louis where we saw the Arch but were not able to stop in the RV. Spent another night in a friendly Wal-Mart parking lot in St. Robert, Missouri. We met up with one of the RV'ers that was at Newmar when we were there, they were also spending the night at this Wal-Mart.
11/8/12 - 11/12/12 - Thurs-Mon. Arrived in Springdale, Arkansas to visit Jerry's Ferris roommate, Steve and his wife Sharon. We had a wonderful visit, enjoying Thai and Indian food along with Sharon's wonderful cooking with herbs from her own garden. We visited Sam Walton's original 5&10 Store, Sam is the founder of Wal-Mart. Below is his original store in Bentonville, Arkansas that has the Wal-Mart Visitor Center and Museum in it. They have all the old toys and candy for sale along with an ice cream soda shop. We also visited Crystal Bridges, an amazing art museum and outdoor garden with wonderful walking trails.
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11/13/12 to 11/15/12 - Traveled to Hot Springs, Arkansas, home the mineral Bath Houses built in the early 1900’s. People have used the hot spring water in therapeutic baths for more than two hundred years . It takes 4,000 year from the time the rain enters the earth to come back up to the surface as mineral water, that means that the water we tasted today entered the earth at the time the pyramids were being built. That is amazing. We climbed to the top of the lookout tower to view the Hot Springs area, they still have some of their fall color. We stayed at the Hot Springs National Park KOA.
11/15/12 to 11/16/12 - Drove to Texarkana, the town that borders 2 states right in the center of town. The Federal Building/Post Office sits right on the state line. Judges from both states occupy the building. The official address is Texarkana, USA. Our campground was very unusual, it is the Four State Fairgrounds RV Park. They have a circular drive that has the hook-ups in the center of the road. For you Christmas Bazaar folks, there was a big Mistle Toe Show in the pavilion. It is hard to believe what this place would be like when the big fair is going on. We toured downtown Texarkana, stopping at the Federal Building and the Ace of Clubs House, a very unique house.
11/16/12 - 11/18/12 - We drove to Caddo Mills, Texas, northeast of Dallas and stayed for 2 nights. We spent Saturday touring the South Fork Ranch where Dallas was originally filmed and is currently being filmed in the remake. While we were there they were having Wheel of Fortune tryouts, what a surprise that was. They were expecting 5,000 people for the tryouts. Needless to say we did not even attempt to try out.
11/18/12 to 11/20/12 Arrived in Fredericksburg, Texas, a town very similar to Frankenmuth, Michigan with it's German heritage. We spent Monday walking the main street, going through the tourist shops, fudge shops and enjoying the local German Sausage plate while listening to a Blues Band and enjoying the local brew. On Tuesday we hiked up Enchanted Rock, the second largest single piece of granite in the US. It was a very steep hike up and almost worse coming down. A great workout!!
11/21/12 to 11/22/12 On Wednesday we visited the Lyndon B. Johnson Ranch, home of the Texas White House while President Johnson was in office. He spent 25% of his time there with many deals made right on the front lawn. The tour included the whole first floor of the Texas White House, unfortunately no pictures were allowed. Lady Bird's bedroom was as she left it including her clothes in the closet, it was pretty amazing to see. There was a working farm in the park from the late 1800's/early 1900's. The called the small Air Force One "Air Force One and 1/2". The pecan trees had pecans ready for harvest by the squirrels and Jerry.
After the LBJ Ranch tour we visited Wildseed Farms, one of the stops for the Monarch Butterfly migration.
Thanksgiving was spent at a pot luck in the RV Park club house, we enjoyed lots of good home cooking along with a deep fried turkey, ham and brisket provided by the park owners.
11/23/12 On Friday we visited the National Museum of the Pacific War that included the Admiral Nimitz Museum. I would highly recommend this museum to anyone visiting the area. It was a comprehensive history of World War II on the Pacific front. It was very well done, we were there from 9:30am to 5:15pm and didn't see it all in detail.
11/24/12 On Saturday we visited Johnson City, the boyhood home of President Johnson touring his boyhood home. We also hiked at Pedernales Falls State Park hiking around the falls. We then met Lucy (one of our Ferris friends) and her fiance, Charlie for a wonderful dinner in Johnson City while viewing the Christmas lights.
11/26/12 Visited Luckenbach Texas, made famous by Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson's country song. Population is 3. The Post Office/General Store/Beer Joint first opened in 1886. It may be the only Post Office with a Beer Joint in the back. Great country music every afternoon and evening. We liked it so much we went back the next day for the evening entertainment. A very laid back relaxing place that everyone should visit once just for the experience. Some of the items in the General Store look like they have been there since 1886. The locals were very friendly and welcoming.
11/28/12 Drive through Hill Country visiting the towns of Kerrville, Bandara and Comfort. Stopped at the Museum of Western Art and the Riverside Nature Center in Kerrville. We ate at a small restaurant in Bandara with Thomas Haden Church at the next table (actor in Spider Man 3 with a few other credits including the show Wings from a few years ago). That was quite the surprise.
11/29/12 Drive through the Hill Country including Llano, Buchanan Dam, Burnett and Kingsland. Llano is famous for the Red Top Jail. The Buchanan Dam is one of the largest of this kind in the US. The Longhorn Cavern State Park has the original Administration building that was built by the CCC back in the 1930's. The architecture reminded us of the Mayan Ruins. Great view of the Hill Country from the Observation Tower at the park.
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