As the saying goes, "Been there, done that, got the T-shirt!"

 

 

 

On our first stop on the new yearly adventure we hit Austin. Coincidentally they were hosting the 50th anniversary of the American Atheists organization and that sounded like an interesting start to the new year of travel.

 

Actually it was so much more than that it was incredible. There were over 30 excellent  speakers, authors, and panelists from Harvard and Oxford and much more that it was really rewarding. We attended as many of the presentations that we could and then the final dinner and birthday party of the organization celebrating Madalyn Murray O'Hare and her battle to keep our nation's church organization and government separate as it was designed and intended.

 

 

 

While here we decided to place the pin in the map and stay at a place right downtown near the event hotel located on Barton Springs. This was a 1950 trailer park that we normally would not have booked but it happened to be near the hotel of the venue.

Well. The park was as expected but really funky. I mean, we are right downtown and the place is ... eclectic ... I guess. Just behind us was a guy driving a Maserati car and there are more Airstreams than we have seen in a small park ... some dating from the 1950's and some brand new ... cool place and friendly management ... a real find.

If you walk out the front driveway of the trailer park and turn right this is the scene ... Uncle Billy's Brew house.  As a tribute to brother Billy who is an uncle we had to partake of whatever they had ... jeez.

And Uncle Billy didn't do us wrong. Here is their samplers of a variety of in-house craft beers ranging from a really nice pilsner to an awesome stout ... nice combination of hand crafted brews accompanied by the nacho beef platter in the center which served the both of us for dinner.

The final note was that we had a great time at the convention and in the city and met a couple of really neat couples that I hope will write us so that we can compare our mutual travel adventures and philosophies ... wonderful conference and new friends and we are already planning the next annual meeting in Salt Lake City in April of 2014.

 

Let's Go!

 

Those are the words of our 2 year old grandson and we are taking his advice.

 

Tomorrow we embark on the next adventure of the Flying Scotsman II as we head toward Austin for the next few days.

 

As you can see from the picture above the Texas roadsides are aflame with wildflowers this year due to the nice timing of rain and sun and I promise there won't be too many pics but it is so hard to resist the spectacular colors.

 

Part of the getting ready for the bus was its annual wash and wax. Luis and crew got $7 a foot to wash and wax ... let's see times 40 feet of Fiberglas ... yup. The result was the RV looking better than when we first picked it up in Katy some three years ago.

And yes, this will be our seventh summer as we left in the FS I in April of 2007 and headed to points unknown ... aaah you doubters. Yes we can live in a little over 400 square feet if it has the amenities that this RV has.

Here's the floor plan for those of you considering this way of life. This layout is perfect for us and yet gives us quite a bit of freedom to move about. You see two captain's chairs in the upper slide-out and we have removed one of them to place the "office" consisting of a file cabinet and computer console ... absolutely needed for our life on the road.

Other than that the 39 feet and 10 inches of space have made the last three years of travel quite easy and it has become our Hilton on wheels as we settle into our seventh summer on the road.

Oh no ... in the garage again!

 

Actually outside the garage as we couldn't fit in; fortunately it was a pleasant 60 degrees with low humidity and no wind ... beautiful ... just me and the 18-wheelers.

 

And this visit was for more of the routine but necessary stuff. Here's the Flying Scotsman up on blocks again but this time to get all six 22.5 inch tires rotated and balanced. We've done over 25,000 miles and there was a bit of wear on the front tires so it seemed time to refresh the rubber; at least reorient it a bit. $250 for the swap and balance job ... really not bad considering the "real" trucker behind me paid $850 to get his done.

It was interesting because the bus has its own leveling system, so the folks at the tire store just said, "make it go as high as you can," and I did. We normally use the jacks for small adjustments to the level of the home, but never get all six wheels off the ground ... scary but neat; 40,000 pounds of Flying Scotsman totally off its tires!

Then off to Kroger for the final fill up. Using the points we have built up at the store I got the fill at $3.49 a gallon; not a bad deal.

Monday we'll move sites from our one here in the woods at Aggieland to a more typical pull through site that is more accessible as we get the RV washed and waxed in preparation for our March 27th departure to ramble eventually to Canada for the summer. Also it will allow us to do all the final clean out of the basement bins and take the excess over to our storage unit here in Bryan and retrieve anything we might need over the next six months.

Last weekend we had to run up from Bryan to Richardson to babysit the g'kid as his parents were shooting a wedding in Dallas. We just left the RV in Bryan and went up there for the night.

 

Before Leigh left she gave Ev a new trike that we assembled but didn't quite get the Harley Davidson decals on as this picture was taken. He immediately took to the thing and kept saying the word "bike". Not sure but I think we have created a monster here.

 

 

After Mom left and after crashing the bike several times we began the slowdown process. This one failed as the blocks evoked more excitement as he crashed down a pretty tall tower.

OK, the next attempt involved the TV and a segment from the animation, "Cars." The absolute rapture is evident in watching the talking vehicles ... entertaining for the old folks as well I might say.

After the TV show was turned off he moved to his IPad and the concentration and dexterity for a two year old was awesome. He showed us how to turn it on and then move the icons around the screen and then picked his favorite apps to play with.

And then the final calm down toward bed involved the tub with a decent soap Mohawk in the orange hair ... cute little guy ... and never an unhappy moment.

Defeating the calm down process was his tsunami imitation below which required a lot of towel action and closing the shower curtain to keep from flooding the entire house.

All of which led to his hitting the sack with the worn out grandparents not far behind. Everett is a naturally happy little guy which makes sitting him a pretty easy chore. At the end of the day he brushed his teeth and then with blanket in hand toddled off to bed ... probably wishing to himself that he'd be happy when these old folks would leave and he could get some rest.

Fun time for all and then back to Bryan and the RV and our lonely Bandit the cat.

From our spot in the Aggieland RV Park in Bryan this sunset was spectacular. We had a massive fast moving front go through with 40 MPH gusts and some good rainfall and it ended with the view below.

 

 

As I mentioned before I had gotten some kind of neck nerve problem and endured the MRI and more doctor poking and advice. Then off to the young Dr to shoot some cortisone into the offending part of the spinal column which ought to bring relief. At the same time Jo-Anne contracted a pretty nasty flu-like thing that has taken some stiff antibiotics to wipe out.

Of course none of this means the ol' guys are slowing down at all and we have scheduled a very active spring and summer of further adventures with the Flying Scotsman around North America; and in about a month begin our trek to the eastern part of the continent.

In spite of these things we are still helping out with getting Bruce's Mom back into the assisted living wing of St. Joseph to again be with Dad. That move came off today and we are hoping all will be well with those two for the near future as we are going to motor up to the Dallas area to babysit little Ev while the kids shoot a wedding on Saturday night.

Above it looks like someone left the dust mop on the dash of the Flying Scotsman. But no ... it is a fat, very furry, happy cat named Bandit, sunning as only cats can do. How he takes the heat I do not know.

And for some closing art I shot the above sunset through our international flag banner.