Top 10 Workplace Tours

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Jelly Belly Factory

    

Top 10 Great Americans

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Statue of Dwight Eisenhower
in Denison, Texas

Top 10 Museums

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Higgins Armory Museum

Top 10 Tacky Tourist Traps

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Devil's Tower

 

Top 10 Unique Eateries

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Top 10 Historical Sites

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Alcatraz Island inmates

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Get your kicks on Route 66

 

 

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Peace and Quiet in Guadalupe Mountains National Park

By Patsy

For the past few years I have been craving peace and quiet. I know it‘s surprising that a mother of 5 boys would wish for a little relaxing quiet, but I do. What can I say? I‘m strange that way. It seems that in our family of boys, there is a constant barrage of noise. If the boys aren‘t talking to each other, they are talking to their father or me. If they aren‘t talking, they are singing some silly little tune, or possibly humming the theme song to something really important, like Star Wars. If they aren‘t speaking or making music, they are simply making noises. They can imitate rockets, lasers, bombs and just about any type of vehicle known to man. This is not uncommon for boys...it is actually the norm. And, sadly, my sons are extremely normal.

I have long strived for silence in my home.. if only for a few minutes, only to be disappointed time and time again. I can‘t count the number of times I have been sitting at the dinner table with my children struggling to follow the 3 conversations that are simultaneously going on. I have threatened bodily injury if the boys don‘t stop interrupting me in order to quote nonsense, change the conversation, or just make irritating noises. Over the years, I have become an expert in extending time outs for the boys because they simply cannot sit in a quiet chair without making noise or asking if it‘s time for them to get out yet. My days are filled with the sounds of rambling monologues, bickering dialogues and numerous bodily function noises. I just want a little peace and quiet.

Last night, my goal was finally achieved. We have been working our way west through Texas and we stopped at Guadalupe Mountains National Park. This beautiful mountain and it‘s range, are right in the middle of the desert. The silence was amazing. No tourist shops, no highways close by, no towns within miles. In short, it‘s pretty isolated. Walking through the trails and climbing the smaller foothills was simply beautiful. I never really thought the desert could be so pretty. But the best part of staying here was yet to come.

There were rules in this park. Quiet between 8 pm and 8 am. This was going to be good, I could feel it! We finished our hikes, had dinner, cleaned up and got ready for bed. The youngest boys were in bed by 8 pm, and the quiet began to descend. Then, shortly thereafter we told the older boys they needed to spend some time reading in their beds before going to sleep. It was now 9 pm and the quiet was almost complete. Finally, about 9:30 pm both my husband and I realized that all our children were in bed asleep, and the quiet was absolute. No noisy children, no loud neighbors, no sounds of cars passing on the street, no motors, no people, no nothing. It was real, unbroken quiet!

Oh, just to be able to think quietly! It was like a little slice of heaven. The animals on the mountain even seemed to be striving for complete silence. I could read without distraction, write without constant interruption and sleep with the peace of a quiet world. It was wonderful…or at least it should have been. So why is it that I was distracted by too much quiet? Why did my mind keep straying from the book that I was reading because I was listening for…anything? Why was it that I couldn’t sleep a wink? All I could do was lie in bed and listen to the slow rhythmic breathing of my sons as they slept and try to keep myself from trying to copy their rhythm with my own breathing.

‘Tis sad that I, the women who craved peace and quiet, would suddenly find myself in the midst of the quietest night known to man, and wishing that I had something noisy to listen to. I’m pretty sure it is all my sons’ faults. They have gotten me so used to noise and chaos, that I will probably never again be able to truly enjoy quiet. (Sigh) So tonight, as we prepare for bed in the next RV park, I will pray for a barking dog, passing motorist or noisy neighbor so that I can sleep, and I will continue to blame my children for having destroyed my ability to rest in peace.

Campground review - Saddleback Mountain

Driving down a lonely stretch on Interstate 10 on our way to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, we found a Passport America campground (I have the IPhone App for PA). We had driven a long time the day before and spent the night in a Texas rest stop (free wifi!). But we wanted to stretch our legs so this little campground in Balmorea called Saddleback Mountain RV Park was better than it sounds. We also saw some fun looking quail in the park.

Nearby attractions - 5 - If you drive far enough you can reach Guadalupe and Big Bend National Parks, another state park and the McDonalds observatory.

Staff - 5 - Gas station employees take you cash and tell you to find a site.

Natural surroundings - 5 - This is a newer RV Park and it has very few young trees. A couple of blocks from the bay. Has the open field feel.

Value - 8 - We paid 10.00 for one night with our Passport America card.

Bathrooms - 2 - None, except at nearby gas station, which were yuck. No showers either.

Roominess - 7 - Not crowded and lots of room for the boys to explore. Plenty of room at the site too.

Facility fun - 5 - Small walking path nearby and nice views of mountains. There was a restaurant on site that I think is open during the summer months.

Cleanliness - 7 - Actually they really work hard to keep the park clean and all the desert plants well groomed.

Facility usefulness -3 - Gas station with some food on site.

Overall - 6 - OK stop for traveling lonely Interstate 10.

Bay RV Park

The Johnson Space Center near Houston Texas was tops on our Texas list of the things to see. Passport America has lots of parks nearby, but we chose a quiet little park near the Galveston Bay in San Leon called Bay RV Park.

Nearby attractions - 9 - Located right in between Houston and Galveston and 30 minutes from Johnson Space Center.

Staff - 8 - Overly nice. They kept insisting we come to the New Year's Eve party even though we had other plans.

Natural surroundings - 5 - This is a newer RV Park and it has very few young trees. A couple of blocks from the bay. Has the open field feel.

Value - 7 - We paid 17.50 a night with our Passport America card. The rate on the site said it should have been $12.50

Bathrooms - 5 - Clean enough but the showers were tough to figure out and one leaked all over the rest of the bathroom. Out of TP more than once.

Roominess - 6 - Not too bad. We had a telephone pole on our site so it was a challenge backing in

Facility fun - 4 - Not much to do on site except a New Year's Eve party.

Cleanliness - 8 - New park, feels clean and crisp.

Facility usefulness -5 - Cheap laundry, no propane. All sites back-in.

Overall -6 - We would recommend the RV park, especially if yo are just looking for a decent place to stay while seeing the Houston area.

Houston Children's Museum

Tanner made a caterpillar with wings at the Houston Children's Museum on New Year's Eve. The place was super-crowded, but we had fun anyway. Cool thing is we got in free due to our reciprical membership when we joined the Rockford Discovery Center. These memberships rock!

A little boy

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Johnson Space Center in Houston

In 2005 our family of four visited the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and had a blast. So many cool rockets and displays and we even got to go into the retired Columbia Space Shuttle! So 5 1/2 years later and a bigger family and we were really excited to go to the Johnson Space Center in Texas.

The only disappointment we had was bad timing on our part. This week was probably the worst week of the year to do anything geared for kids. Everyone is out of school, bored with their Christmas toys and home from travels, so this place was crawling with families! At times it was stifling. But we did not let this dampen our enthusiasm.

Well, we did let it do a little dampening a couple of times. Still we managed to see all the special shows, exhibits and even rode the tram to see Mission Control (thought of Ed Harris) and Rocket Hall.

We all loved the moon rocks and learning how the astronauts go the bathroom on the International Space Station. Here are our favorites exhibits. Chase liked the special effects in the Blast-off theater, while Brendan liked learning about Astronauts on the big IMAX. David liked the traveling Lego Knights exhibit and Tanner liked building robots. Blake liked touring the fax Space Shuttle best and Patsy enjoyed the Mission Control tour the most. I enjoyed going down the rocket fast slide in the play area best of all! Seriously I enjoyed telling my boys about brave Americans like Alan Shepherd, John Glenn, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin the best. And going down a super fast rocket slide!

So as you can see, despite the crowds we had a fun and memorable day!

PS for some reason on our tram ride we saw several deer traipsing around the Space Center complex. Strange.

Campground review - Colonial Del Rey

We really wanted to park the RV for a few weeks during Christmas and set up a tree and put up a few decorations. We also wanted a warm locale. Glad we didn't pick Florida this year. We settled on Corpus Christi, Texas, which turned out to be a decent pick. The campground we picked was Colonial Del Rey, close to Padre Island.

Nearby attractions - 8 - Fair amount of things to do in Corpus Christi and of course there are beaches and lots of water nearby.

Staff - 9 - Very kind peeps here. Everyone took a real interest in our little guys!

Natural surroundings - 6 - There are plenty of trees here, enough to block our satellite service. Close to a busy street and fire department.

Value - 7 - We paid an average of $24 a night most of it as a weekly rate. This is their busy season with lots of winter Texans.

Bathrooms - 8 - Decent and well kept up.

Roominess - 6 - When we had neighbors on both sides it felt crammed a little, but the boys still rode bikes almost everyday we were there.

Facility fun - 8 - A pool and hot tub (big plus for me), library, small playground and again lots of planned activities, mostly for the older folks. We did take part in several of their Christmas activities.

Cleanliness - 8 - Good maintenance crew.

Facility usefulness - 8 - Laundry with the best and cheapest dryers we have seen, full hook-ups, dumps, no propane but a truck comes around every day but Sunday for those needing a fill-up, several shower stations. They also let us receive packages there.

Overall - 8 - We will always remember with fondness our stay at this RV park during this Christmas season.

Sunset reports on Christmas

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I thought they had completely forgotten about my present when what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a warm cozy bath while the boys were near! It felt so good and all my muscles relaxed. Literally all of them relaxed and everything that was pent up inside me just came out in a moment of sweet release!!

Well 2011 is just around the corner. We are in Houston, Texas right now for this celebration! Hopefully the fireworks wont make me jump out of my skin! They give me the creepy crawlies!

USS Lexington

Christmas this year has been really very strange for us. Of course, living in an RV has made my normal Christmas decorating impossible. I usually have between 3 and 4 trees, outside and inside lights, wreaths, garlands, electric candles in the windows and a complete set of Christmas dishes in my arsenal of Christmas décor. However, living in Howard the RV, I have shaved that down to a tiny 28” tree, a few garlands covered with lights and a set of “snow ball”lights hanging outside the RV. But, the lack of decoration isn’t the only thing that has made this Christmas different.We are also in south Texas (Corpus Christi, to be exact) and the weather is something that I am not used to. Being a northerngirl for most of my life, I can’t get over the feeling of celebrating Christmas in shorts at the beach. Not that I am complaining in anyway, shape or form. I love this weather and I have to admit to a certain amount of nasty snickering when I hear of a snow or ice storm hitting one of the other states. I know I should be ashamed of myself, and I probably will be someday, but right now, I’m not. Right now I’m just enjoying the wonderful weather and hoping to see no snow during our entire RV trip.

During our trips to the beaches, we have seen some really amazing things. Today, we decided to visit the U.S.S. Lexington docked along the beach. It is opened for tours and set up as a floating museum. As we walked through I was awed by the amount of room there is on an air craft carrier. We climbed countless stairs, that were more like ladders and toured more levels than I can remember. As the boys walked through the ship and learned about all the things that make a craft like that work, we started to see them pretend to be sailors on the ship. I heard Brendan tell Chase “The Bridge is all clear, Sir” and I saw each of the boys take turns pretending to fire the guns in the turret. Finally, our whole family sat down in the officer’s meeting room around the conference table and demanded that “Captain” David issue orders to replenish the ship’s stock of chocolate. David was all for it, so I’m pretty sure that a requisition form will be filledout immediately.

However, as we went through the ship’s chapel, I was suddenly reminded ofthe men and women that served on these amazing vessels. My brother in law is serving in the Army as a Chaplain and as we looked at the Chaplain’s quarters, the boys were all asking if this was like Uncle Matt’s job. Now, as we finished our tour of the ship, I looked with different eyes at everything around me. What would it have been like to live and work on this ship for those men and women that risked their lives to protect us? What would their Christmas have been like?

This Christmas is a little different for our family, but I can’t imagine what Christmas must be like for those serving in the military during the Christmas holidays. So many of them are so far away from anything that is familiar. They are far, far away from family and friends. Some are facing dangers that most of us could never even begin to imagine. I have to say that I was truly humbled as I walked through this air craft carrier and realized how much these brave men and women were willing to give up just to keep the rest of us safe and comfortable.

What my family is changing this Christmas is minor compared to the changes our military faces when they are stationed overseas for the holidays. If you know of anyone who has served in the military, won’t you take a few minutes to try and imagine what they and their families have given up in order to serve you? Just let them know that you are grateful for what they have given to you. I think my family is going to be finding ways to show our appreciation to the armed forces this year. God Bless our Troops.

Pape's Pecan House and Nutcracker Museum

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San Antonio River Walk

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The Alamo

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