Back to Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort - We Made it.

 Canadians can come back this year, but the RV park still has many more vacant spots than we are used to seeing.  The fear of Covid is real and still around down in South Texas.  Our RV park is in the southern part of Mission, Texas very close to the border.

We lost our pecking order spot by missing last year, so we were moved a few spaces south to another lot nearby.  The park is in good shape and the grass is green and lush.  All features of our Cougar travel trailer are working well.  But the weather is Hot.  

Thank God for A/C.

The next four lots next to us are empty.  However, here on the last day of the year more campers are moving in.  

Go Blue.  A big Orange Bowl game later today.

🏈

Out of the Dark and into the Light of Day - Finally

 All went well

We enjoyed this beautiful Christmas tree at the hotel that reminded us of the Season - even though the weather remained hot.

We had a short drive to the storage location to find this critter under the unit when we opened the door...

What a surprise. (below)

He/she was a freshly dead rat that was not even smelling bad yet.  The proprietor came over and picked it up and said they would burrow from unit to unit.  We were a bit alarmed that maybe they had gotten inside of our trailer but found not even a mouse dropping or ant inside.  Our rodent/ant poison that we had left behind seemed to still be doing its job.

 Miss Kitty came out after 22 months in the dark.  We had to blow up the tires a bit, but other than that she is in good condition.  Dusty - but in fine working order.

This was an interesting trailer that Karen noticed and captured, with her fine photo skills, that was parked at Move It Storage in La Feria.

Tomorrow the RV park.

🎄

Through Houston On the Last Leg of Our Journey

 

Day Three brought us from Nacogdoches, Texas on to the Rio Grand Valley.  Since we hit the Texas state line we have been seeing temperatures at or near 90 degrees.  Above you see the skyline of Houston before we drove through the city.  We saw a little rain but mostly cloudy skies as we drove into a brisk hot southwest wind most of the day..   We spent the night at a Holiday Inn Express in Harlingen and today we plan to break our travel trailer out of its almost two-year hibernation.

We hope it goes well.

🔐 🔓

December 2021 - We Make It Back to Texas

 In the second weekend of December we hosted another annual family Christmas weekend at Splash Village in Frankenmuth.   Consequently, Karen and Bill spent a quiet Christmas Day in Frederic by themselves, and left early Sunday morning for the deep south.  At home there is very little snow, but more is on the way so we left town to stay ahead of the storm.

We made it to Marion, Illinois on our first day of travel and we are now in Nacogdoches,  Texas in a Comfort Suites.  With two full days of driving and 1242 miles behind us we were ready for a drink!

We have another day of driving tomorrow to get down near Brownsville to see if Karen's baby is ready to come out of storage and play.  We have already seen temperatures near 80, but the truck A/C is working well.

What a change from Northern Michigan!

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We Say Goodbye to the Upper Mississippi - The Party's Over (for now)

 On Thursday, October 21, evening we all put our luggage outside our cabin doors to be picked up and moved to the buses.  After a very early breakfast we vacated our rooms and disembarked.  Our bus carried us from Red Wing to the Minneapolis Airport.  We were told that the reason we did not continue sailing upstream to St. Paul was because the river depth was too shallow due to lack of rain.

Bob Grunst picked us up at the airport and gave us a quick tour of the city nearby.  Bob is a friend of Bill's from their old college days and a retired college professor who now lives in St. Paul with his wife, Sue.  We wanted to see the largest shopping mall in North America so here it is above.  It was still quite early so we did not go in to do any shopping, but instead headed for Frederic after dropping Bob at home.

It has been a fun trip with great weather and we will miss our cozy cabins on the water- each with its own balcony.  As well as.......

Happy hour each evening at 5:30 with live music and...

... a table of hors d'oeuvres  (Francis loved the shrimp) ...........and..

....... a great stocked bar and trained bar tenders with any top-shelf liquor or drink a person might want.

(all included in the price)

Just like currently in Michigan, we saw signs like this above in all the cities in which we stopped.

One mystery that was never solved for us was how the Red Wing Shoe logo, above,  turned out to be so similar to the logo of our beloved hockey team in Detroit????? (Go Wings!)

We had a very fun and educational trip with our neighbor and friend, Francis, on American Cruise Lines, and would recommend American to anyone who would like to try a smaller boat in which to cruise.

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Red Wing, MN - Another Neat River City with Lots of Sights

Per usual, we started out with a sound breakfast in the dining room to keep up our strength for another day of interesting speakers and places to visit.  Here is fellow passenger, Francis.

Next we saw a slide presentation of Mississippi steam boat history, and heard a few river songs by Bobby Durham who is our resident river expert.

Then we got another lecture by Mr. Samuel Clements, above, about slavery while he was growing up in Hannibal.

Mark Twain is portrayed by Richard Garey on our boat and he is outstanding, truly wonderful to watch and hear.  He answers questions as Mark Twain and should not be missed if you ever get a chance to see him in person!

Before lunch we walked a few blocks into downtown Red Wing and saw the old headquarters of Red Wing Shoes: above.

We walked across the street and entered the Red Wing Shoe Museum.  Are you ready for what the sign above is advertising?  Look below.

Here it is with Karen posing for size comparison.

Here is the label on the tongue.  It is a size 638-1/2.  Guinness confirmed that it is the largest boot in the world.

After lunch we rode around the town of Red Wing and hopped off at the Pottery Museum.  At one time in years past there were three pottery factories in town because there is great clay nearby that was mined.

This man put on a demonstration for us with a pottery wheel.  He grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan and attended Western Michigan University.  It is a small world indeed.

Crocks like this were common in America for a wide variety of uses.

The famous "Little Brown Jug" was made in this town and here is an exact copy on display.  It is the jug that the  University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota play for each fall.

As we headed back to the boat we noticed these interesting floating boat houses in the harbor.  They are here all year and rise and fall with the depth of the Mississippi.

Tomorrow, Friday, we disembark for an early bus ride back to St, Paul and our car.  It has been a fun trip and we are not quite done yet.

🚗  ✈  🚢

 

Minnesota - We Visit the Town of Winona by Land and by Water

 On Thursday we had breakfast while the boat was still chugging northbound, entered the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin, and left Iowa and Illinois behind.  We watched the boat land at the city dock and we boarded a bus for a hop-on / hop-off tour of Winona.  We found out that Winona is an Indian word meaning "first daughter."

We hopped off at the city history museum that had some interesting exhibits.  Here is Karen with a sleigh.

Here is Francis with some heavy-duty equipment.  (Imagine that)

Here is Bill with one of Winona's old fire engines.

After lunch we joined a group from our boat to get on another boat.  (much smaller)

This is our tour boat above, and we were taken on a 1-1/2 hour cruise into the backwaters of the Mississippi for some unusual sights.

These houses on floats are used as cottages, and some are permanent residences.  Many are tiny and sell for  as much as $150,000 or more.  The people get a five-year lease and do not own the land or pay property taxes.  Some run on generators or have no electricity at all.  The buildings go up and down with the depth of the river and stay at the same location.

We found the boat houses to be a strange place in which to live or vacation!

Now here is a RV not on wheels, but on stilts and floats to manage the river waters.  We certainly enjoyed our small houseboat tour, and the captain filled us full of so many local facts that we could hardly digest them all!  It was fun.

The section of the Mississippi in which we are traveling this week has 29 lock and dams to lift boats higher as we go upstream.  They are built and maintained by the Federal government and charge no fee for any boat - large or small.

This picture on the wall above our bed is an accurate portrayal of the Upper Mississippi and its tributaries.

Tomorrow is our last full day on the river, so if you are still with us on this journey - come back to see if we make it.

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Dubuque, Iowa - Another Beautiful River City

 This is what our boat, American Melody, looks like from the bow at most of our river ports when we dock:

And this is how we needed to dock on Tuesday morning in Dubuque:  (below)

After another delicious breakfast on the ship we boarded a hop-on hop-off bus for a tour of the city.

We climbed off here - at the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, and it was a very good decision.   The exhibits were fantastic and a pleasure to see and experience.

These three volunteers were our tour guides.  (just kidding)

This big blue fish stood guard in front of a very-old paddle wheel tug boat that was open to the public to explore - and we did.

This aquarium full of diamond-back water snakes was really unusual and special to observe.  The weather again was excellent so it was another pleasant day on the Mississippi as we make our way north.

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Davenport, Iowa and Beyond

We awoke Monday to another crystal clear morning on the Mississippi River.  We were tied to the main dock at Davenport with the cities of Moline and Rock Island, Illinois just across the river.

Today our bus excursion took us sightseeing around Davenport and stopped at this location below:

Isabel Bloom was an artist who created and sold solid cement miniature statues and other art objects in her gallery in Davenport.  She has died, but here manufacturing gallery lives on, and gives tours to visitors.

This lady showed us how she handled the molds and how she opened each one up and cleaned the piece.

We caught this guy, above, looking down onto the manufacturing floor at the workers.  He said that  he loved work - "he could stand and watch it for hours!"  😏

Karen knew all about Isabel Bloom and was the main reason that we picked this tour.  She bought a small item to bring home to Michigan as a souvenir. 

Next our bus took us over the Mississippi into Illinois where we drove through Rock Island and Moline.  Above was a John Deere factory with new equipment parked outside.

It just so happens that the hourly workers at John Deere are on strike.  We passed these picketers at the entrance to one of the manufacturing plants.  Consequently, we could not visit any of the John Deere attractions that are frequent stops on tours.

Our boat pulled out of Davenport at 2:00 PM for a long northward journey tonight toward the town of Dubuque.  Stop by tomorrow to see what gives......

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