FINALLY, on the road again…

I know, we have been VERY remiss in updating this blog. It’s not that we haven’t wanted to; it’s not that we haven’t traveled to lots of neat places; and it’s not that we didn’t want to share our experiences with all of you… it’s just that, quite honestly, Pat’s been lazy and hasn’t kept up with it !!!! ;)) She’s not promising that she’ll be better but she is going to TRY.

So, what have we been up to for the last several months?

• Aug. 2009: Disney World and the Space Coast for a couple weeks.
• Sept.-Nov. 2009: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, etc. to see Autumn foliage and visit with lots of family and friends.
• Nov. & Dec. 2009: home in Flagler for the holidays.
• Dec. 2009 & Jan. 2010: Williamsburg, VA for the holiday festivities.
• Jan. & Feb. 2010: several trips around Florida including the Tampa RV show, the birding festival in Titusville and visiting friends and family up-and-down the state.
• Mar. 2010: a GREAT week at Disney World with the grand-daughters and a Birthday B-B-Q for Judy, son David and the two granddaughters, Skyler and Aris.

Now, for fear of sounding like one of those endless holiday newsletters, (like Pat’s Mom used to send every year), we’ll just suffice to say that, as you can see, we have been rather busy.

NOW, on to this trip…

Our first and foremost intention was to get to Texas to see the wildflowers. This was something Judy has looked forward to for several years and so we wanted to be there in the Spring.

We left Flagler the 30th of March, heading west, through the Florida panhandle, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and into Texas. We were joined the first week by our friends Freddie & Sally, whom we had gone to Alaska with. Along the way we stopped in Breaux Bridge, LA, The Crawfish Capital of the World, and had some dee-licous bayou/Cajun food. And, NO, we did not suck the heads off the crawfish; but the tails sure are good!

We arrived in Beaumont, Texas and spent a few days touring. Beaumont is the site of the first great Texas oil well in 1901. The Spindletop-Gladys City oil field spawned Exxon, Mobil, Sun Oil, Gulf, Texaco and a whole lot more of the present day companies that we associate with today’s oil industry. Beaumont is also the home of the Babe Didrickson Zaharias museum, honoring a woman, whom many believe to be the greatest female athlete of the 20th century. She excelled not only at golf, which she is most widely known for, but also track & field (winning Olympic gold in several events), basketball, softball, bowling, pocket billiards and many more sports. We also viewed a 24-foot tall fire hydrant at the Fire Museum. It was a gift to the city of Beaumont from Disney, after they used it to premier the re-release of 101 Dalmatians. The hydrant weighs 4,500 lbs. and can blast 1,500 gallons of water a minute!

Next it was on to San Antonio where we started our wonderful wildflower adventure.

To quote the official Texas Wildflower Report webpage:

“2010 has produced an Extraordinary Wildflower Season. If you have ever thought about visiting Texas to see the spring wildflowers, we urge you to do so this year. The bloom this year is the best in living memory. A prolonged drought followed by an unusually cold winter and plentiful rain due to El Nino, have combined to form the perfect conditions for a widespread and prolific wildflower bloom.”

Friends, we are here to tell you that this account does not lie. The profusion of wildflowers is absolutely PHENOMINAL. They are not only gorgeous but they are everywhere!! There are absolutely no words to describe their beauty. And NO photo can begin to show their beauty. We drove all over the area south of San Antonio and it seems that each vista surpassed the previous. We also went downtown to the Riverwalk and, of course, dined at Rudy's (our favorite San Antonio BBQ joint!). We also visited New Braunfels, one of the areas north of San Antonio which was settled by German immigrants and is steeped in German tradition.

From San Antonio we have driven north to Fredericksburg, another area settled by German farmers in the mid-1800s. We are now in the heart of the Texas “Hill Country”, known for its rugged terrain, its many rivers and, especially, its colorful displays of Spring wildflowers. This area was also the home of our 36th President, Lyndon Baines Johnson. We toured his birthplace, his boyhood home and the “Texas White House”, where both he, and the First Lady, lived until their deaths. It was very interesting and also had a double significance because of his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, who was so instrumental in the beautification of America. Lady Bird’s legacy lives on in the millions and millions of blooms planted not only in the state of Texas, but in our nation’s capital and also along the sweeping banks of U.S. highways. It is thanks to her never-ending quest for sustainable use and conservation of native wildflowers, plants and landscapes that we are enjoying this awesome proliferation of beauty here today. We have driven endless miles and taken countless photos of the incredible Texas wildflowers. This year’s display far exceeds anything we could have anticipated.

From here we leave tomorrow, Tuesday, the13th, for Austin. We will spend a week there, touring the area and visiting the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. It promises to be even more incredible.

Attached, as usual, is a link to some photos so you can see some of the phenomenal sights we’re experiencing. There is, however, no way to capture the beauty of the wildflowers!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0Sbs27hoxZMds

Please enjoy the pics and feel free to add a comment to this blog or drop us an email at PFerraro1@cfl.rr.com.

Soon…
Take care and stay safe,
Pat & Judy