Catching up on Texas History

Up early and off to breakfast to get ready for our road trip to Goliad and some more Texas history.

Our first stop was at the Fannin Battlefield Historic Site located just south of Fannin, Texas. It's a mile south of US59 on FM2506, plenty of signs on the road and plenty of room for any size rig to easily get in and out. We missed this site the last time we were in this area and wanted to make sure that we got to it this year. This is the site of the Battle of Coleto Creek, where Col Fannin surrendered his 342 troops after a two day battle with General Urrea's and his Mexican troops.

To read about The battle and Fannin's Massacre check our blog from Jan 2009

We continued down to Goliad State Park to tour the Mission Espiritu Santo, first built at this location in 1749, this was the center of life for this area up until 1830 when many reasons forced it to close. It remained in ruins until 1931 when the Texas State Parks took control of the site, in 1941 the CCC moved in and did the restoration that we see today. It was a great place to spend a nice sunny day.

The restored Mission

Inside

Canon found in the River behind the Mission

Fannin Massacre Monument

The original wall, all the names engraved in the back wall of the Monument.

Victoria,TX, Riverside Park

We left the Rio Grand Valley the other day and did what for us what was a very long drive (230 miles) to Victoria,Tx. . We wanted to stay here for a week and I called all the parks in the area and they all were full with Winter Texans, we could find one or two days but not a week, digging deeper into the shadows of the internet I found a park that said “No problem, we'll save a place for you”. When we got there we found that it was a small park, 20 sites with full hookups 30/50 amp, nothing else, but it was half the price of all the other parks so that made it look pretty good. It's about 75 percent workers here to build the new Caterpillar plant, about half have their family with them and all seem friendly.

Our first stop was at the Visitors Center where we ended up spending about 45 minutes talking with the people and making a list of all the best places to eat and things to see and do, Super friendly, the president of the Chamber of Commerce gave us his card and told use to call him at anytime if we needed anything while we were in town.

We drove across town to the Texas Zoo, WOW the TEXAS ZOO, everything is BIG in Texas so this might take all day, NOT. It's a very small zoo but a very nice one, we love zoos and take our time going through them and we spent a little less then an hour there, we find that in the smaller zoos the animals seem to be more active and sometimes a little different. So sit back and take a tour of the TEXAS ZOO.

AS ALWAYS, CLICK TO ENLARGE A PICTURE

One of the two 11 month old Barbary Lion twins, less then 100 remain.

Cute little Badger.

Grey Fox

And the Winner is

The Zoo is located in Riverside park so when we left we just followed the road through the park which also follows the Guadalupe River, after passing a few ponds, the golf course, a Minor League (A) baseball field and then we came upon the Rose Garden. It's January and I figured there wouldn't be too many blooms but figured it was worth a stop, there were about 6 workers there cutting back the roses. When we talked with them they said that the ones they were cutting back would be blooming by the end of February. Less then 20 percent of the garden was in bloom but it was still very impressive, we would love to see it in the spring when it's at over 90 percent. Everybody apologized that there weren't more blooms for us to see but we were happy with the ones that were there, and now through the magic of digital photography they are here.

The last thing we found was before leaving the park was the half full City Campground, information we could have used yesterday. There are 18 sites with full hookup 30 & 50 amp, all are pull through, nine are pretty good size loops and the other nine are in a line and a little smaller. There is a self registration station and the rates are $12 a night or $60 for the week, like I said information we could have used yesterday.

Sorry for all the pictures but I got carried away.

New Year - New Look - New Atitude

You vill read dis BLAG, you vill like dis BLAG, and you vill do it NOW!!!!!.

OK,...... how about just two out of three, a new year and a new look.

I'll Start out the new year by wishing everybody A Happy, Healthy, Prosperous 2011.

I figured that I would surprise Cathy with some homemade cookies to start the year out right. I am no longer allowed to bake cookies, go figure.

Actually this is a picture my brother emailed me, but they look like gingerbread and anytime I see gingerbread it reminds me of the holidays during 1977.

I had gone down to Florida to visit the folks during the holidays, after about a week my next door neighbor called me to let me know that my house had been broken into, when I asked him if he was able to secure the door they broke in, he said there was no need since there was nothing left in the house to steal.

I got home about a week later and my neighbor and his wife, who were both a little sick in the mind, had arranged a surprise for me, they had baked a bunch of gingerbread cookies and left them on my dining room table. The thing is they were designed as my house and a bunch of gingerbread men running out the back door carrying my TV, Stereo, VCR and Microwave. After I stopped laughing I made a pot of coffee and ate two of the bad guys.

Enjoy your 2011 travels.

Our 2010 Travel stats:

The Motor home traveled 4217 Miles, a little under average for us.

The toad, PT Cruiser, traveled 17440 miles, a little over average.

We stayed in 29 different parks in 13 states, one new one Oklahoma and made a few day trips to Mexico.

Our longest one day drive with the motor home was 244 miles and the shortest was 48 miles

Good times and memories, to may to count.

Again have a Great New Year