Summer Fun and Canoeing

Last weekend we went on our last camp out with our Good Sam's Club - Freedom Travelers.  We sure had a great time with all our friends. We have been camping with most of these members for many years. At first we had a pop up and then "upgraded"  to our travel trailer and recently  to our motor home.  They have been excited about us going on our full time adventure and have offered lots of advice and encouragement.  

This camp out was held at our favorite local campground-White River (see previous postings for more information). Most of the sites are along the White River and several of our camping friends also love to canoe. John and I love to canoe and have struggled with how to best continue to do this on the road.

Our RV-Dreams friend Howard and Linda offered a great solution.  There is an inflatable kayak called the Sea Eagle that will work out just great.  They demonstrated it @ the Kerrville RV-Dreams Rally.  We purchased one a few weeks ago and wanted to try it out here on it's maiden voyage.  

The kayak, air pump, and paddles conveniently all fit in this bag. This bag could easily fit in one of our bins underneath the coach or in our Jeep.  It sure will be a lot easier to take along than the canoe.  

There is an included  foot pump that will blow it up very quickly.  We used it along with an electric pump that we also owned.

Here it is being  inflated.  It did not take very long to do.  We had practiced this procedure a few days earlier at the campground. 

Ready, set, go!

We were a little nervous at first because this is a kayak and maneuvers differently than  our canoe.  It is much more responsive but also feels more unstable.  It also took us awhile to coordinate the paddling.  I'm not sure we have completely figures all that out yet.  :) But, we managed to stay dry and had a great time. 

Our friends Jerry and Marcia went along with us in our canoe.  They like our canoe so much that they decided to buy it from us.  This is a picture of a trip the next day with Marcia  as my partner. 

Here is a little video that my friend Carol made of us.  We are approaching the boat launch at the campsite.  There was a very good current for this time of year.  If you listen very closely near the end you can hear all the cicadas!. 

I also put together a scrapbook of our camp out.  We will miss camping with them each month but hope our paths will cross often in the future.  Some of the members are talking about coming out to meet us next summer in Colorado.  

Personalize a photo album

RV-Dreams Rally October 7-12, 2009

We were excited to attend this full-timing RV seminar presented by Howard and Linda Payne . We have been following their blog @ RV-Dreams. com for almost a year. They organized an excellent rally in Kerrville Texas @ the Buchhorn RV Park. Over the next four days they presented nine excellent seminars that included the following topics

• Full-Timing Preparation
  
• What does it cost to full-time
  
• No right way to be a fulltimer
  
• Packing your RV for full-timing
• Buying an RV-Pro's, Con's and Must Have's
  
• Working on the Road
• Solar and Boondocking
• Emotional aspects of full-timing
• Choosing camp grounds and RV parks

Our instructors-Linda and Howard Payne have been fulltiming in a 5th Wheel for 4 years.
It was a great opportunity to meet others who are already fulltiming. Many of them opened up their RV's for tours. There were were many fun activities and some delicious pitch in dinners.



We were very excited to meet Randy and Pam Warner. We have been following their blog and have enjoyed reading about their journeys. The started fulltiming in a Tiffin Allegro Bus about 5 months ago and have an excellent blog called the Roadrunner.
They have found their "purpose" by volunteering for Habitat for Humanity and the Nomads.
They really inspired us and answered so many of our questions.


Buckhorn RV Park was a great location and the facilities for the classes were excellent.



Our friend, Carol Miller (cowboy hat), invited us to stay with her in beautiful Monaco motorhome. This allowed to stay in the campground and near all the activities. We really appreciated her hospitality. Mella and Jim have recently purchased a Excel 5th wheel and will be full-timing soon. They will be spending the winter in New Hampshire in their new rig (brrr)
The conference ended with a Rascal Flatts song "My Wish". The words of the song were so appropriate.

"I hope the days come easy and the moments pass slow, and each road leads you where you want to go, and if you're faced with a choice, and you have to choose, I hope ou choose the one the means the most to you. "

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

San Antonio Texas October 3-7, 2009

We decided to attend an informative conference for full-time RVing organized by Howard and Linda Payne. They have an excellent website and planned this conference in Kerrville Texas. Prior to the conference we spent three days in San Antonio touring all the sights. After flying flying from Indy to San Antonio via Southwest Airlines, we headed to the Drury Inn located right along the picturesque Riverwalk. The hotel has a great location and the breakfast included each morning was very good.

We decided to get an overview of the area and took a Trolley Tour with an hop on and hop off feature. One of our stops was along the Mission Trail at the San Jose Mission This mission was established by the Catholic Church in 1768. The missions were primarily religious centers where the Coahuiltecan Indian population was instructed in the Catholic religion and taught European beliefs. This is now a National Park and the 25 minute video in the visitors center was very well done and gave a balanced account of what has occurred




We spent several hours there enjoying this tranquil site. The highlight was a beautiful Sunday mass. The church is still active and each Sunday they have a mass open to all @ 12noon that features guitars, brass, and the local church choir. It was delightful!


All of the construction was completed by the local Indians under the direction of the monks and everyone lived behind the enclosed walls. Five missions were along the trail separated approximately every 5 miles along the river. The San Jose Mission is the most extensive.




Another stop along the trolley tour was the King Williams District. We later went back and took a walking tour of these beautiful homes the were built by German immigrants.

We enjoyed spending time along the Riverwalk. There are narrated barge tours that cruise along the river. We had a delicious dinner one evening @ Boudours. The barge came right to the restaurant and we enjoyed our dinner cruising the river and seeing all the sights. It was lots of fun and the highlight of our visit.

No time in San Antonio would be complete without visiting the Alamo. Most tourists are surprised to find it located right in the downtown among all the skyscrapers. Before touring we saw an IMAX movie that depicted the battle and some of the history. It left us wanting to read more about this battle. Davy Crockett was one of over 200 hundred men that died at this battle.

Our last day was spent walking through the beautiful San Antonio Botanical Gardens before we left for our RV-Dreams Rally. It was a very pretty garden and we enjoyed a nice lunch on the premises before taking off for Kerrville. (Check out the handsome guy next to the trumpet vines)

We left San Antonio and dove about 1 1/2 hours to Kerrville through the Texas Hill Country. We met up with our friend Carol. We decided to visit LBJ's Ranch the next morning. It was called the Texas White House and was the family home for Lyndon Johnson.

LBJ traveled there often during his presidency and he is now buried there. It has recently become a National Park and admission is free($1 to tour home). Upon arrival we watched an excellent film in the visitors center. In addition, we received a CD audio to play in the car as we drove around the property. A park ranger gave us a tour of their home and showed us LBJ's amazing car collection. It included one car that he used to drive through the river and surprise his guests.

We enjoyed our visit and the Hill Country and are very excited to attend the rally tomorrow.