Headed on our excellent adventure for 2013

November 12, 2013
     This is my first attempt at blogging.  I am doing it mostly to help me remember this winter.  As I get older I find it harder to remember things.  In some ways, that is a good thing. 
     We finally got all loaded up and left at the crack of 10:00am today.  I told Robyn that next year we are leaving everything in the 5th wheel including clothes, dishes, shoes, etc. and buying all new stuff for the house.  That way we will not have to move so much.  We blasted out of Colorado and stayed the night in Clayton New Mexico.  Not much of a place and there was no TV at the park.  Robyn played on the computer and I napped, then we went to bed.  No use over doing it the first day. 

November 13, 2013
     Day 2 of the trip.  Left Clayton N.M. and headed to Amarillo Texas.  Stayed at an RV park just down the road from The Big Texan.  For those of you who haven't seen The Big Texas, it is a restaurant that advertises a free 72 ounce steak.  You have to eat the steak, a baked potato, salad, 3 shrimp, and a role in 1 hour.  If you can do that you get a free t-shirt, your picture on the wall of fame, and the steak is free.  We did not try this but instead we each had the best chicken fried steak we have had in a very long time.  Oh buy the way, I forgot to mention, if you try to eat the big steak, you have to sit at a elevated table in the middle of the dining room.  No takers this trip but last time we were here there were 3 people trying it.  We watched and only one man got the job done. 

November 14, 2013
     Day 3 of the trip.  Left Amarillo and drove to Snyder Texas.  We are headed to visit some friends in Austin TX for a couple of days and then maybe do some fishing in a lake North of Austin.  Snyder is about half way there.  This part of Texas has a lot of oil and natural gas production so Snyder reminded me of Gillette, Wy.  Besides the oil and gas they raise a ton of cotton here and were harvesting it as we drove by.  Pretty neat to watch. The RV park we stayed at is about 10 miles north of Snyder.  It is located 2 miles east of the highway and back in the middle of a mesquite forest.  There are 2 other RV's here.  No one to check us in so I checked with a person in another RV and she said "no one is here so just pick a place, get an envelope, put your payment in and that is all you have to do".  So that is what we did.  We drove by Happy Texas.  It sounds like a great place to live but there weren't many people there.  Texas also has the "The happy State bank" and there weren't many people around it either.  I guess happy in Texas is just a state of mind. 


    

Crystal River, FL

Here we are watching the manatees from a bridge in Crystal River. We saw quite a few as this is where they like to winter.
This is a mother and her baby.

Here is a family of four.

On the way to Crystal River we stopped at this shell shop. Talk about your giant crab!

They had all kinds of shells and some really big ones. Aren't they pretty!?

KANAPAHA BOTANICAL GARDENS

We went to Gainesville today to the botanical gardens. They were really neat! These pretty flowers were right at the entrance.

They had all kinds, sizes, and colors of bamboo. It was very dark inside the bamboo area.

These water lily pads looked like giant pie plates. They had different flowering lily pads, too, with little water falls around.

The camelias were gorgeous! This one had just a tinge of purple on the very edges. Can you see it?

Alan liked this flower and it is very different. We saw so much I may post more pictures tomorrow.

Way down upon the Suwanee River

There are lots of these green plants growing in the water on the Suwanee River. The trees look bad from all the floods.

We are in a state park at Manatee Springs and this is the boardwalk.

Alan said these are vultures in the trees. They looked just like the cartoons where they keep circling around you.

We saw a manatee where the springs empties into the Suwanee.

Way down upon the Suwanee River, far, far away. That's where my heart is turning ever. That's where these old folks stay.

Horseshoe Beach, FL

I think this little police car is all they will need in this small town.

Here is where we bought 5 pounds of shrimp for $20. The shrimp are from Apalachacola, FL.

This oak tree is estimated to be 300 years old. We ate at the cafe behind it and had the best shrimp dinner right here on the Gulf of Mexico.

Which patio would you rather be sitting at?

Saint George, Utah

This is where the owner of the RV park lives. It is quite a house and just up the hill from where we stayed. Here is the road into the park looking down on the town. We did not get any pictures of our cute little neices that live here. I am going to have to take some of my own pictures and not leave it up to Alan. We went to Michael's baseball game which he won.

We had a gorgeous view of palms and red rock but it was a little bit of a tight fit. Alan did great as he always does and parked it like a champ.

I think we were the biggest trailer in the park. We didn't get pictures of Cedar City probably because it snowed and somebody was really bummed out. We are home now and getting ready for our Caribbean Cruise. Hope to have some pictures for you of that. Adios for now.