Thursday morning we got up to a beautiful moon setting over Lake Grapevine and headed eastward with Buster as our guide.




Of course we met about half the population of Dallas in the hour it took us to get out of the city.





On the way east we had a 30 MPH wind from our right all day which made it a challenge. One the good side, the new Flying Scotsman is about 10,000 pounds heavier and a lot more stable than the last, making it a long but successful day. We could not have attempted it with the old machine.






After 400 miles and about 8 hours of battling the wind we came to rest in Vicksburg, MS, at the Ameristar Casino, right on the river. Unfortunately we were too bushed to hit the slots, but the park was great and we'll keep it in mind for future excursions.

Tonight, after another 400 miles with a lot less wind we are in Decatur, Alabama to visit our friends Todd and Diana LaVigne who live and work near Huntsville, but more on that later as it has been another very long day. The plan though is to depart here on Sunday morning, tornadoes permitting.

For the 26th through the 28th we are resting very comfortably at the Vineyards RV Park in Grapevine, just to the northwest of Dallas and near our daughter Leighanne and our favorite son-in-law Brooks in Richardson. This park is awesome and easily one of the best we have been in and a great start to the summer travels.





The sites are all paved and most front onto the lake and it is really a park-like setting. There's golfing and boating with a huge marina and some of the sites are truly spectacular. Tonight we watched a great blue heron at the edge of the lake getting his dinner ... cool.

On The Road Again!!

On Sunday, the 25th of April we loaded up the last of the stuff to be be put in the Flying Scotsman, closed up the house, got the RV out of its storage hangar, and moved it over to the Aggieland RV Park about two miles north of our house. We moved it over there to get it set up, pop out the slides and spend the night to make sure all systems were go for the trip to Canada. Here's the last load of stuff to be put in the car to be hauled over to the RV.

Then at the Aggieland RV park we set up and checked out all the systems.

And finally had a toast of Karly Zin from Paso Robles (recommendation from brother Bill) to toast the start of another trek to the north particularly with a neat new machine to carry us there.

My father has been a proponent, teacher, and writer about tourism for the last 70+ years so as my brother Bill was over from California for a few days, we thought we would treat Dad to some modern tourism. We got the RV out of the garage, loaded up brothers Bill and Richard, and of course, Dad, and headed out on a road trip to view the Texas bluebonnets. We took highway 21 over to Madisonville about 40 miles away, which is home to Buckee's ... a modern interstate highway fast food heaven. Here is Dad and Richard trying to decide from among the 10,000 choices of lunch treats in 40,000 square feet of floor space!

And here's Pop and I with the Buckee Indian ...

And then the boys (Bill in foreground) with their treats headed back to the RV to munch down. We popped the slides out in the parking lot, turned on the TV, and enjoyed the delectables from the store.

Dad had a wonderful time and really got a new perspective on the world of "camping" and the tourist trade of 2010; and oh, the bluebonnets were spectacular!

Tomorrow we have to go back down to the dealership to get some initial (final) repairs done to the Flying Scotsman II and I ran across a last picture of the original FS I just after we bought the new one.

On Monday the 5th of April we brought the old RV down to Katy to transfer all of the personal stuff from old to new. This was our last day with the old RV and it was about 12 hours of sweat and work. First was the walk-through of the new place, then the financial stuff for the new one, and then the physical moving of junk. I think Jo-Anne said, "Next time we hire someone to move all the crap!" Or something like that. It was a long, hot day near Houston and we were glad to get home at about 8 that evening.

OK, we have talked about the critters in the backyard for some time, and the coyotes are still just on the other side of the fence, but the last week or so has been pretty neat. First we had a bunch of new bunnies born in the garden that I dug up while weeding. A bit of a squeek and then four of these guys hopped out from behind the cactus. This little guy is about the size of your fist; maybe days old but now able to fend for his own.

And then this evil guy appeared, out for a quick bunny snack! Inside our fence this is a five foot rat snake; harmless to us but quite lethal to the bunny population.

And then, today, another challenge to the backyard appeared. This hawk, in the center of the picture to the upper right of the feeder, shot through the screen porch, is waiting for whatever juicy morsel appears in our back yard ... bunny, bird, or cat ... ooooo ... better look up Bandit! This was with a 20x zoom through the screen. As soon as I moved the screen door to go outside the bird took off; but he's local and has been here several times before.

And a closeup of the latest raptor to grace our fence ... pretty cool.

Last week we talked about going down to Katy Texas to have a new washer/dryer installed in the Flying Scotsman. We went to Katy ... they installed the washer/dryer .... but they put it in a new RV. We decided it was too much trouble to move the new washer so we left the old RV at Camping World in Katy and took the new one home.






Here's the next generation of the RV and it is a new, 2009, Damon Astoria 3778, with four slideouts. I guess it will be named the Flying Scotsman II unless we get really brainy and come up with a better name. The old RV traveled us well for three years and 23000 miles, but we felt it was a proper time to upgrade. The new machine is a diesel pusher and is 38 feet 10 inches long; about a foot and a half longer and 10000 pounds heavier than the old one.

We are ready to roll!

Bandit had been complaining about an ingrown toenail for some time so we decided to take him to the vet to have it fixed. So here is Bandit early last Friday morning complaining very loudly about the loss of his breakfast as the vet said not to give him any food that day.

Well ....

In addition to fixing his ailing paws while sedated, the vet, who also owns a very hairy cat and all the hairballs that entails, gave Bandit the requisite poodle cut. Now all he needs is the tummy tuck, eh.