Yes, we are alive and well but plagued by computer problems, compounded by the fact that we are having a good time seeing old friends and having fun.

We are still in New Braunfels, Texas, and will be here for the next month or so until all the RV and human repairs are complete ... nothing serious for either but a necessary annual checkup and tone up.

I did want to mention a little town we spent a day in on the way and that is Mesilla, New Mexico. Just south of IH 10 and the center of Las Cruces is the original stage coach town of Mesilla. This is the history of the southwest and it hasn't changed much in over a 150 years or so. Here is the courthouse where Billy the Kid was sentenced to be hanged ... but a sheriff named Pat Garret saved the taxpayers the effort a couple of years later by shooting him in the back.


The Mighty Rio Grand River ... where you might get your shoes only slightly wet while crossing.


One of the back streets of Mesilla ... but very typical of the kind of places just off the main streets.

And the first brick building in New Mexico.

And if you can blow this up to read it ... a facinating story about the building and Mesilla in general.

The church which dominates the main square of Mesilla ... very tipically 1870s.

Mesilla, New Mexico was a really neat little place just off the beaten path, but so typical for the history that happened here not that many years ago.

Sorry about the delay, but when you are having a big pile of fun, sometimes the pictures come a bit slower. Yes we are again in New Braunfels, Texas after a super 10 month, 9000 mile run in the Flying Scotsman. We did survive the sand storm in west Texas, then stopped near Dallas and in College Station for a week each, and now have made it to our former home and to a really nice park. Right now we are planning on staying a couple of months to get "stuff" done and really don't know what the next adventure might be.

To catch up though, after the Big Spring sand storm we arrived in Arlington at the end of January to a very nice RV park and spent a week with our daughter and son-in-law who live in Dallas. Here is that bizarre food dude Andrew Zimmerman who's on the Travel Channel ... oops, no that's Brooks getting ready to prepare a 5 course event. Actually I think we went out for tacos ...

This is their studio where they work with prospective clients and show off thier tremendous wedding photo capability which can be found at www.brooksweddings.com

On the 5th of February we headed south for College Station and my parents place near Texas A&M. I'm sorry to say that we had so much fun there that I didn't take any pictures at all for the week. They are, however, doing great, and I was priviledged to attend a Rotary meeting with Pop where he has been a past President. 91 and going strong ... super guy!

On the 11th of Feb we packed up the Scotsman and headed further south to New Braunfels our former home. Like I said we'll be here for a while as we take care of RV, medical, banking, and other personal stuff. Right now we are looking at a run up the east coast beginning in May to then end up spending the summer with Jo-Anne's folks in Meaford, but nothing final ... hey we're retired. In the interim, I'll continue to publish photos about the local area ... the first of which is this park right on the Guadalupe River, right in New Braunfels. This particular park was totally flooded three times in past years and we sat up the road and watched RVs floating down the river. Now it's been wonderfully rebuilt and we will leave before the summer storms! And because there were several ducks just outside the back window of the RV, Bandit was mesmerized.

And to end today, here is Jo-Anne, Buster, and Bandit with a wine salute to a fantastic 10 month adventure around North America!!!

Wow, OK, it is catch up time. The last time I posted something, we were in Van Horn with the road runners and it was a KOA which was pretty good. Dark, quiet, peaceful ... the kind of place we like. Then we decided to head off to the east a bit. The next day was uneventful and the trip from Van Horn to Big Spring was a nice drive and the park in Big Spring was very good and we had a pretty uneventful night there. Then, unfortunately, we decided to head off for the Dallas area on Tuesday.

The run from Big Spring to Arlington was about 275 miles, which by our standards, would be a long day anyway. But early on, as we are heading due east, we picked up a solid side wind from the left or north which plagued us all day. Once we got out of the park in Big Spring we realized that the wind was so strong that we stayed on the access road at about 40 MPH for the first 100 miles to keep from being blown into the ditch.

The winds approached 55 miles per hour directly from the left side of the Flying Scotsman trying to push us into the gutter all the way. You could taste the blowing sand. We wondered why we only saw a couple of other fools in big rigs like ours ... duh. All the way, we kept looking at parks to stop at, but kept on truckin along. After Abilene, I finally got up the courage to stay on the Interstate at about 50 MPH and it seemed to work OK, but we were right at the edge of control every time we were slammed with another 60 MPH gust from the side.

As we neared Fort Worth from the west, the winds had caused a multi-car pile-up on IH 20 and those wrecks caused a grass fire to start, eventually burning several thousand acres. The area to the right in this photo was on fire and was burning as far as you could see.

Anyway, we are now safely parked in the Treetops RV park in Arlington and visiting with our daughter Leighanne and her husband Brooks who live in Dallas.

Our plan is to leave here on Tuesday and head for College Station and my parents house, spend a few days there and then head south for New Braunfels.