A Texas Birthday

Kai turns four this month. To celebrate, we went to a local children's activity spot and he and his brother, Levi, played very hard for two hours while we adults sat in the sea of frantic, over-stimulated children.

They had a great time, of course. I wonder if there have ever been any children that have been catered to the way we Americans cater to our children? Imagine an entire business built on an indoor fantasy world, with bounce houses, slides, miniature roller coasters, and periodic visits by Disney-Like characters (The Wiggles). Who needs Disney World?

Everywhere we go, in the grocery lines, in retail stores, people mention the state of the economy to one another. It is almost like the period right after 9-11 when Americans would quietly mention something about security to one another, or would meet each other's eyes on an airplane, or assure the security people before check in that you are not offended by them searching your bags.

It is like we are all waiting for something horrible to happen. We don't know what it is, but we all know it is coming.

I stopped in a Half-Price Book Store yesterday. It was packed with customers selling their books and buying more. The check out line was long and the woman behind me said, " I guess this is a good business to have in this economy."

I answered, "perhaps when people cannot afford to do anything else, they read." Two strangers, trying to assure ourselves that the horrible event was still some time in the future. After all, people still had money for books. At least half-price books.

Dallas is full of McMansions. The economy seems to be doing better here in Texas than it is in Florida. But, on a main boulevard a large, beautiful home had a FORECLOSURE sign in the front yard, the newest built houses have FOR SALE OR LEASE signs and recent commercial developments sit empty. Coming from Florida, I recognize the signs of an economic downturn.

This weekend we head for San Angelo where we expect to spend just a day or two. We love to visit family but look forward to getting on the road once again.

Pictures of Missouri

This is the Current River in Montauk State Park in South Central Missouri. Opening day of trout season will find the park full of fishermen.

On the way to Springfield from Salem we passed a number of Mennonite Familys in their buggies.

The old homeplace in Salem.

Mckinney, Texas

Today we are in McKinney, Texas visiting family. We traveled through Missouri, taking a circuitous route through the Ozarks to see places where we had once lived and then headed to Springfield, Missouri across Highway 65. We had wanted to visit Pioneer Village in Mansfield, but got there too late and it was already closed. So, we drove on to Oklahoma, hoping to find a place to stay for the night.

We had not anticipated that the route we were taking through Oklahoma passed through the Indian Reservations and their casinos. Every hotel was full and those that had a vacant room were very expensive. We stopped at a Hampton Inn that was full and I asked the desk clerk what was going on for all the hotels to be full on a Monday night.

She answered, "nothing." But I think it must have been some special at the casinos for there to be so many people traveling and staying along this God forsaken stretch of Oklahoma. So, we continued to drive until we got to Texas. By the time we were at the border, we decided to drive on to McKinney to our destination. We got in at 2:30 a.m. and woke everyone up. But we are here and plan to visit for a few days before heading out once again to San Angelo and Ft Davis, Texas.

Our son-in-law is a salesman and so we have to keep our eye on him constantly. He tried to sell our camper to the plumber when we were distracted for a moment. Fortunately, we were able to stop him before he closed the deal.

McKinney is very different from what I remember. When I was young and lived in Dallas, McKinney was just a cow-town. Now it is a booming, bustling suburban area. I can see why our children like it here, but we are looking for something a little less bustling for ourselves.

The Mexican food is good and that is a definite draw for this area.

Our Family, Springfield, IL 2-22-2009

We arrived in Springfield, Illinois ahead of schedule. A fierce storm was heading towards northern Florida so we decided to pack up and leave before it hit. We got out about 8 hours ahead of it.

Four years ago we camped on Long Key in Florida and got caught in the outer bands of Hurricane Jeanne. We closed up the trailer while it was damp and it took a long time to rid the trailer of the mildew that resulted. I do not want to chance that happening again, so we try to close down camp on a sunny day.

We have visited family for five days, spending time with our daughter, Amanda, and her husband and our son, Bryon, and his four sons. We have had a nice time, especially Saturday, when we attended a Trivia Night at the Elks Club and won Second Place, splitting $100. Trivia Nights are a favorite midwestern past time and we enjoyed ourselves.

We had thought we would stay longer, but everyone has jobs, and schedules and obligations and we hate to impose for too long, so we decided to get on the road again. On the next leg of our trip we will travel through the Missouri Ozarks, Oklahoma and on to Dallas to visit a daughter and her family.

We like the Midwest, but it is, as I have noted before, very cold. Tonight it is 15 degrees. I can understand why the snowbirds came to Florida in December and stayed until April. If I were a full time resident here, I don't think that even the poor economy could keep me from leaving for the winter. The older you get the harder it is to bear the cold weather.

So, tomorrow morning we resume our life on the road.

National Aviation Museum 2-17-2009

This morning we went to the National Aviation Museum that is about a mile from where we are staying on the Pensacola Naval Air Station. It is a wonderful museum, rivaling the Smithsonian. Our tour guide, Bob Jones, was a retired Navy pilot and gave a well-informed and interesting overview of about 20 planes (out of 94 in the museum) that were representative of different stages in Naval aviation history.

The most interesting were the early fighter planes like the Sopwith Camel and the bombers that were used at the Battle of Midway. As we toured, I thought of my father and how he would have loved this museum.

The Blue Angels are in the desert practicing right now so we will be unable to see them practice. This is a great disappointment since we had hoped to watch them while we were here.

The museum's planes are all original except one, the earliest plane

purchase by the Navy, and that one was built from original plans that were stored at the Smithsonian Institute.

We ate lunch at the Cubi Cafe that was outfitted with furniture from the Officers Club in the Philippines that was shut down. Lunch was very good, homemade breads, sandwiches and soups.

It was very good and the place was packed.

This period in our history, from the late 19th century through the Second World War was our age of heroes. I fear we will never see anything like this again in our country.

Ft Barrancas

Today we visited Ft Barrancas, located on the Naval Air Station in Pensacola. It is one of the system of forts built in the US in the 1800's to protect the Coast of the United States. These pictures are of the fort.




We walked to the top and could see the pass where enemy ships would have to pass.


Actually, the first time it was used was as a Confederate Fort during the Civil War The top of the fort where guns pointed out towards the Gulf of Mexico.

Pensacola Beach

February 15, 2009
Today we drove out to Pensacola Beach over the long toll bridge. Pensacola Beach is actually on a barrier island. When we visited here five years ago we stayed at the National Seashore Park. We remembered that we had eaten at Crabs on the beach and decided to go there once again for lunch and to celebrate our anniversary. This is a picture of Bill, my best friend and traveling companion for the past 31 years.

The food was excellent and reasonably priced. We ate out on the patio and watched the waves. The beach was nearly empty today, which was surprising since this is a holiday weekend.

The water is clear turquoise and the sand is white and powdery. These beaches are much better than those of Southwest Florida.

My only complaint is that it is cool and damp here. It did not get above 65 degrees today. I think what I am going to miss most about Ft Myers is the very warm winters.

Our lunch was delicious, though, making up for the cool weather.

Friday 13th, NAS Pensacola

It is cool today. We are used to living in Southwest Florida so it is difficult to get used to the cooler weather. By cooler, I mean in the 60's, which is not bad for February. But, it does get cold in the evening. We are using our propane heater to knock off the chill at night.

This morning we cooked and ate outside again, drinking our coffee while watching the sun rise over the Gulf of Mexico. Then, we took a walk along one of the mulch lined paths that can be found all over the base. The one running from the campground goes by a working lighthouse which is open for visitors ( but wasn't today).


We had hoped the Chief's Club would be open for lunch, but it wasn't. What a nice club, though, located right on the water with a covered grill and tiki bar on the beach.

There are no planes flying today, so it is relatively quiet. Since we have been here there have been a lot of campers who come through and stay for one night before heading out the next day. This is a popular spot for military campers just passing through. I am glad we decided to stay a while.

Pictures from Pensacola

Dutch Oven Cooking

My first attempt at dutch oven cooking turned out pretty good. I modified a peach cake recipe from the PapaDutch website.

This is a great website for recipes to use in a dutch oven, but many of them make giant serving sizes, so I will have to modify them to feed two.

I used 1/3 cup butter, 2 eggs, 1/2 c. syrup from a large can of peaches and a small, Martha White yellow cake mix. I mixed the ingredients together and poured them into the Dutch Oven, then put the peaches on top of the cake batter.

The lid went on with about 10 hot briquettes placed on top. The dutch oven went on a rack in the hot coals and baked for about 35 minutes. The result was delicious.

Next I am going to try cooking biscuits in the dutch oven. Figuring out temperatures is pretty tricky, but this seemed to work fine. Plus, I like that the cake browns on top as well as on the bottom as a result of placing the hot coals on the lid.

Camping Cook Station

I really like to cook and relish the challenge of cooking outdoors and making our meals as good as what we have at home.

We have owned our camper for seven years and I have learned a few things about camp cooking, like having duplicate cooking and eating utensils and leaving one set in the camper. But, I am always trying to improve my camp kitchen and update my recipe collection.

My latest idea for making camp cooking easy and enjoyable I got from reading outdoor blogs by men who have cooking outdoors down to a science. They write about their camp cook stations, chuck boxes (or grub boxes) and cooking over coals.

This has inspired me to do several things this time around. First, I have decided to set up a camp kitchen outdoors. For this I brought a four foot foldable table and hooked up the propane stove outside. I also bought a 3 qt combination Dutch oven that has a flat top with a lip that can be used as a lid or as a skillet. I am going to try to make a dessert with the leftover coals from our lunch today.

This morning I cooked breakfast outside as the sun rose, letting the coffee brew on the table next to the outdoor electric plugs while I cooked bacon on the iron griddle and buttermilk pancakes. We spread a plastic table cloth on the picnic table and breakfast was ready in no time.

Who needs a camper with a spacious kitchen when you can use all of outdoors?

Camping at Pensacola

February 11, 2009
We arrived at our campsite yesterday afternoon. We did not have reservations, so called to see if we could get a space at Pensacola Naval Air Station. We have an outdated copy of the Military Campsites Book and so we can never be sure if the information is still current.

We were lucky because someone had just cancelled their waterfront site and we could have it for $23 per night. SOLD! We will be staying here for a week.

This is a beautiful base with huge live oak trees, historic buildings and an eastern view over the Gulf of Mexico. Last night a barge was headed up the channel and we watched the blue and white lights of the tug boats from our campsite.

We came prepared to dry camp, but because we got a prime campsite, we do not have to use our generator. We did set up our kitchen outdoors, though. We brought a 4 ft folding table to use as a workspace and set our coffee pot out side.

We also hooked up the camp stove outdoors. The picnic table got a plastic cover and this morning we had coffee, bacon and buttermilk pancakes. We ate while watching the sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico. In the picture, you can see the Gulf of Mexico in the background.

Leaving Town.

Just about the time we settle in and start to feel at home, it is time to leave. Twenty years of military life has made us uncomfortable staying one place for very long.

But this time was going to be different. We thought we were going to stay in Florida forever. We bought a small business on the Gulf Coast and were determined to stay. So, what happened?

Next week President Obama is headed for our town to highlight the sorry plight of the economy. Beautiful, quiet Florida gulf coast, ravaged by greedy bankers, speculators and developers, has become a metaphor for what has gone wrong with America. No category four hurricane, no terrorist, could have done more damage to our community than have this band of criminals.

So, we have sold our business and with nothing left to hold us here, we have decided to pack up and leave. For the first time in our lives, we don't have any place we have to be, so we will travel, just for the joy of it.

The next few months our lives will be small towns, campgrounds, highways and back roads, places we have never seen before, and likely never see again.

The road is life, according to Kerouac, and I guess I have to agree.