We said goodbye to New Mexico on Easter Sunday after working the morning shift at the visitor center. We were anxious to start the trip home and since we were taking a longer route to get there, we thought we would get a few miles under our belts. We headed to Corpus Christi Texas to visit a friend that has been laid up since Christmas. We had talked to his wife Deb but we decided to not tell Lew and just surprise him, which we did. It was nice to see him and since we were there he has had good news and hopefully he will start getting better and get back to Michigan this summer.
On the way we stopped in San Antonio Texas for two days, taking this opportunity to take a mini vacation on the way home. We visited the Alamo and took a walk on the River Walk. The Alamo is right downtown and it was interesting to see the artifacts and surrounding buildings. You are not allowed to take any pictures inside so this is about all I have of the Alamo. The River Walk is also downtown and is very nice. The walk is about one mile long and is along the river which is below street level. There were a ton of restaurants and a couple of hotels that overlook the river. There one five and dime but mostly food places and bars (must be a Texas thing).
We toured the USS Lexington while in Corpus Christi. It's a self guided tour and you had access to almost all of the ship. We spent a lot of time climbing up and down the ladders to all of the different decks. There are five different tours and Holly did four of them but skipped the fifth one which was the engine room. She was the smart one because the ladders down to the engine room were more like ladders then stairs. For those that have never toured or served on a ship the ladders between decks are steeper than stairs but not quite as steep as a ladder. For someone with bad knees, it was a challenge.
They had a lot of displays on the hanger deck. Holly tried out for the Blue Angles but decided not to enlist.
This brought back memories from when I was in the Coast Guard (not really I never spent time in the Brig) we didn't have a brig on our ship.
Holly tried out the Flight Officers chair on the bridge and thought that she could handle that job.
We took the boys down to the Gulf of Mexico and let them run on the beach. They haven't been able to do that since we left Washington and they really enjoyed it. We said goodbye to Lew and Deb and headed to Gulf Shores Alabama. We have our names on the list to be hosts at Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores and thought we would swing by to get a look at the park, plus the weather in Michigan was still cold (little did we know we should have gone to Florida for two weeks and waited for the weather to get better).
The state park in Alabama was very nice. It is about one half mile from the Gulf of Mexico. They have their own fishing pier that has been rebuilt since it was destroyed by a hurricane. We took a walk out and watched many of the fisher persons (how is that for being politically correct) landing several different kinds fish. The weather was fantastic and we had a nice time while there. Just hope we can land one of the camp host jobs there this winter.
These pelicans were hanging around the fish cleaning station waiting for any scraps that might come their way.
This is us just enjoying a walk on the board walk going out to the beach. The sun was out, the sky was a wonderful blue and the sand was white as white can be.
We headed home to see family and friends and make doctor appointments I had made before leaving New Mexico. We arrived home to cold weather and rain, rain, and more rain. Bah humbug! We were able to see our granddaughter Mikayla as Mike Teevee's mother in her school's play Willy Wonka. She did a great job!
This may be the last of the blog for a couple of months. I go in to have my right knee replaced on April 30, and as a surprise to us, Holly has to have hers replaced also. She goes on June 4. We have nothing planned as of this time for the summer except staying home and recovering and getting ready for winter. We may take some time and head north for a little R&R...we just have to wait and see. Don't worry, we are still planning on doing our work camping and traveling so check back every once in awhile and we will be "ON THE ROAD" again as soon as possible.
