Realising the Dream
Travelog of RVW members Maggie Birchmore and Di Chawner
e-mail: di.mags@virgin.net

Texas We left Big Bend feeling baked with the heat. We headed to Fredericksburg, a small town with a history of German immigrants who settled there. The German influence is very prevalent today and the town with its bars, restaurants and hotels reflects this. Whilst we were here, there was a food and wine festival. There were plenty of samples and wines to taste and we enjoyed a few, needless to say. From Fredericksburg we headed to Bandera, a sleepy cowboy town where we had the opportunity to ride a Texas long horn steer. Quite an experience and luckily he was quite docile! Another first to add to our list.   San Antonio was our next stop with its famous Riverwalk, Mission Trail and shops. We had an opportunity to try out a Segway. It was another first which was very entertaining, especially for onlookers. We also had a chance to see a Basketball match. We decided it is a quick and deceptively simple game, involving very tall people. It was a good evening although we sat so far up in the gods we needed oxygen! We liked San Antonio and would recommend this place to anyone to visit. It is easy to get round with its buses and central location for all its attractions. These of course include the Alamo. The remains of the Alamo stand as a reminder of the times when Texas was part of Mexico. Davy Crocket and Jim Bowie were two of the 200 or more who died at the Alamo. From San Antonio we went to Belleville and called in on an old traffic officer colleague of mine who is now a Texas resident. He has been here for 2 years now and this was an opportunity to catch up with him. We arranged to park in his front yard (he has 5 acres) we gratefully accepted his hospitality. We stayed a couple of nights then moved on again this time to Livingston and the Escapee Park. Once again we began the task of cleaning and getting ready for storage. We became a hit within the park as everyone seemed to want us to clean their rigs too. Tough! I reckon we could have made a fortune! We stayed for Thanksgiving, a big festival here with its usual turkey dinner. Everyone was so friendly and we find it is always good fun at these parks. We were able to meet up with Wilma and Marge who live in the park and enjoyed many an evening with them. Wilma also helped us out with a few technical problems with the motorhome. Wilma and Marge are fellow RVW (RVing Women). It was soon time to leave and say our goodbyes. We headed to Lufkin to a garage that could check the wheel alignment on the motor home. Yet another job to be done! I had noticed uneven tire wear so it was best to check it out. After that finally we headed to Little Rock, Arkansas and then to Branson, Missouri. Branson is a strange place with loads, and I mean loads, of theatre shows be it musical, magicians, orchestral or variety. Some 30 to 40 theatres in all, in a small town of 6,000 people sitting in the Ozark hills. Despite taking a wrong turning and having to unhitch we arrived finally and stayed there for a few days. It became noticeable now that the weather was getting colder. They said it was warm for the time of year but to us it was definitely colder. So much so we decided we had to move on and we did a day earlier than scheduled. The most important issue now was to get to Independence, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, and our storage place for the vehicles. When we arrived in Independence it was a nice warm day and we set ourselves up for our 3 day stay. That night we checked the weather forecasts and it was ‘Windy’ for the next day. Well, that was ok as we intended to have a quiet day and stay put. The next day it was windy with 35mph gusts plus the temperature began dropping. We were so glad we drove up when we did as neither of us like driving in high winds. That night we checked the weather again, this time they were forecasting a "wintry mix" of sleet, snow and ice. We decided to close in our slides and put away our water hoses, just in case. Well that turned out to be a very good thing. The temperatures dropped to 20F and then it began to snow, and snow and snow. Finally with 3 inches of snow everywhere and icicles hanging off the vehicles, it stopped. We began to become concerned. How were we to get to the storage facility, the underground mine. It was only 5 miles away but the roads were treacherous. That night it was still freezing. The campground owner was out with his snow plow trying to clear the road. We checked the weather channel again. The following day was due to be ok but cold in the morning and more 'wintry mix’' and ice later. We decided we would go to storage in the morning, hoping that the roads would have been treated and if it got above freezing some of the snow would melt. The next morning it was 32F and then just above freezing. I spoke to the owner again and he got his plough out and went off to try and move some of the ice off the road. The road off the site went down a slight incline till it met the side road. I didn’t fancy sliding down that in the motorhome! We finished packing up, Mags went outside again with the hairdryer and defrosted the water faucet, we were then able to empty the tanks and wash them through. We were ready to go, the temperatures were dropping again. It was now or never. We set off. Mags drove the car and followed me. Slowly we crunched over the ice and saw the magnificent effort the owner had made to clear the road as we headed off to our storage. We were so relieved when we finally entered the mine. Phew! We finished sorting ourselves out and left the vehicles in their safe, warm and dry home. We got to the hotel and by the evening the temperature had dropped to 15F. The next day we spent in the hotel as an ice storm came through with the temperature no more than 17F all day. The next day we flew to Houston, a sunny 72F. That’s so much better!  So that’s it. A close call. The ice storms are even worse in Kansas now. We left just in time! So our next journey will be different. 2008 we will let you know what Europe is like - travelling by RV. Di & Maggie (The Brits)

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Last modified: Feb. 2, 2008