My sons can testify that every family vacation would include factory tours. Mom loves seeing how things are made, and because they are usually free they make a cheap educational break for precious vacation time. So Tuesday was blissful when we actually scheduled two factory tours!
We were up very early because we had to be at the Toyota plant in southern San Antonio by 8:45. We were joined by the administrative team from Shell Oil as we took a very interesting tour through the plant that produces a new Tundra or Tacoma pickup every minute. This is a picture of the first pickup that rolled off the San Antonio production line on November 17, 2006.
There are no pictures allowed inside the plant, but we heard and saw the "just in time" production line up close as we rode trams through most of the processes.
Even if you aren't lucky enough to get to schedule a plant tour, the museum at the plant is very interesting. It has good displays and video presentations that explain the Toyota process and history. We learned that the company founder's name was actually "Toyoda". They changed the spelling because to write the word "Toyota" in Japanese took 8 strokes, which "suggests increasing prosperity." Even when retired, we are learning things!
Here's a picture of Mark with the earliest pickup that Toyota made. Does anyone remember the Stout?
We stopped by Olive Garden for lunch, then on to one of the most famous shoe factories in the country. SAS is one of the few companies that make their shoes in the United States, and they also have a great factory tour! They take you on the production line and you get to touch and see each step of the shoe manufacturing process, and talk to the workers. Don't expect huge machines and automation. These shoes are made one-by-one by hand. We were amazed that the workers we talked to had been working there from 22-35 years! Again, no pictures were allowed in the factory. But the general store beside the factory is very picturesque!
SAS stands for San Antonio Shoes, but our tour guide said she heard is stands for "Sexy After Sixty." Known by their customers for being very comfortable, we usually think of them as very utilitarian black and brown lace-ups. This picture proves that their basic style has exploded into colors!
They also hand-make children's shoes that are very cute.
Mark's favorite part of the general store was the ice cream shoppe. Their prices are ridiculously low, so if you just need a snack, it's also a great place to stop. Popcorn is 5 cents per bag, and fountain drinks are ten cents! Mark found that a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a coke will make a wicked good coke float!
You might notice the SAS sack in Denisa's hand. She is officially a baby boomer because she bought her first pair of SAS today. Actually, Mark spotted a pair of black shoes that looked a lot like the dancing shoes that Denisa literally danced the soles off last month. They seem to be very comfortable!
It was a great morning of factory tours, and we would recommend both stops!
This was the first Sunday since we left home that we didn't have a relative to give us advice on the best church to attend. So we asked one of our neighbors here at the RV Park, and ended up at a great little church in Sabinal, Texas. Our new friends offered us a ride to church, but we took our own car so we could continue down the road to Garner State Park for the afternoon.
While we are now in flat Texas country, just ten miles north the rolling terrain of hill country begins. We still haven't seen the sun since we arrived, but the temperature on Sunday was good for a hike in the hills at the state park. Of course, we would pick the most strenuous hike that took us to the top of the tallest peak. This is the view of Mount Baldy from the parking lot below.
Notice the full-size pickup that looks tiny at the base.This hike was uphill all the way!
We are always amazed at the beautiful landscaping that happens when God does the planting.
It was cloudy and even misty part of the time. When we were half-way to the top, we could still see the Frio River through the fog.
But as we went higher, the clouds got thicker. We will have to return to see the great views from these look out points that were clouded in on this day.
We knew we must be pretty high when we had to share the trail with this mountain goat.
To affirm that we made it to the top, we have the picture of the summit sign with Mark's appropriate pose.
There are many trails at Garner State Park, and we made a loop trail of something over 2 miles. This included the Old Baldy trail to the Foshee Trail and then back to the car on the Bird Trail. The steep trail going up was actually easier than our descent on the rain-slickened muddy rocks. We sometimes had to hug the trees along the trail as our feet slipped on those wet rocks, and our shoes and jeans were a muddy mess by the time we got back to flat ground.
We then took a walk along the Frio River that runs through the park. It is beautiful clear river, and we are hoping for some warm weather so we can put the kayak on it before we leave this area.
The cypress trees along the water our huge. We stood beside them to give some sense of scale to their size.
We had the park almost to ourselves this cool and misty Sunday, but we have heard it is packed in the summer. It's also a beautiful place to visit in the fall when the foliage is changing.
Mark tried to take a picture of a duck standing on the dam at the end of the river. He was surprised that it stood still while he inched his way closer on the 6-inch wide lip of the dam. Mark was 30 feet out on that narrow ledge when he started thinking what his options would be if that bird went into attack mode. It could have involved getting very wet! The risks we take in getting good blog pictures!
After a good long afternoon of nature, we drove the winding hill roads back to our RV Park. We spotted this beautiful axis deer with an impressive rack on the drive home.
Even when retired, there are schedules to keep. We had to be back by 6:00 for the Sunday evening ice cream social. Afterwards, there was card bingo in the rec hall. We have played versions of this game at other places, but Denisa really liked this version. There were 28 people playing, and we played 14 games, and she beat all the odds and won 3 of the games. I hope her winnings don't bump us into a higher tax bracket!
On the road to the long process of becoming Texas residents, we have hit a few bumps. The main bump is caused by the fact that we can't simply turn in our Oklahoma driver's licenses for the same Texas license. In the state of Texas, one must obtain a special "Class B Exempt" license to drive a motorhome that weighs more than 26,001 pounds. We have gotten some inaccurate information from some official sources about this process. But we've found that we must pass a written CDL exam, and then take a driving test in the heavy weight vehicle. We had hoped to do all this while staying in sunny South Texas, but just found out that the earliest we could take the driving test down in the Rio Grande Valley was May 7.
So we headed north toward some less busy DMV offices. We stopped in at the Hondo DMV office on Friday afternoon, and submitted all our paperwork and signed all the papers. We were a little nervous, since we haven't taken a written exam in years. We had to learn very worthwhile information from the CDL manual, such as the headlight configuration of tractors manufactured after 1972. Just ask us about the maximum length allowed for pole trailers, and the allowable red devices that can be used on the end of poles that are too long. We had to memorize the color of reflectors, and the minimum and maximum heights they can be located. We know about the regulations for mud flaps (and that they must be hung 8 inches from the highway surface), and other important information necessary for the safe driving of our motorhome.
Mark accused Denisa of sneaking in more studying time. Ever since we took those general education classes together 35 years ago, we have been very competitive about trying to outscore each other on exams. So we are glad to report that we tied on our written CDL exams. We both scored 95%, and were just glad it was over the 70% that was required! We would have taken a picture outside of the DMV office with our paper acknowledging our passing grades. But it was raining at the time, and we didn't want to get that precious piece of paper wet.
Passing that test meant we could get an appointment for the driving exam, and we are now scheduled for March 9. This is the last step in becoming real Texans, and the last thing that keeps us from our next destination.
For now we are very comfortable in site 97 at the Lone Star Corral RV Park between Hondo and D'Hanis. This is a co-op park of the Escapees full-time RVer organization. Instead of writing out the word "Escapee" it is usually written "SKP". This group knows all about living full-time on the road, and their main office in Livingston, Texas also handles our mail forwarding service. Each lot in this co-op park is owned by a member, but can be rented out to travelers like us if the owner is traveling somewhere else. They have activities at the club house, and social hours filled with announcements and plenty of conversation so you can get to know your neighbors. Each lot also has a "shed" for the owners to spread out into when they stay here. We are enjoying the half-price rate available to first-time visitors, and have been very happy here.
We'll be checking out this area just 45 miles west of San Antonio until the DMV is satisfied with Denisa's ability to drive our motorhome. (We're not worried about Mark passing!)
One of Denisa's favorite parts of visiting South Texas during past spring breaks was the sweet smell of citrus blooms. It's one of her favorite aromas. So Denisa is so excited that we stayed long enough to smell the citrus blooms this year! We wish we had a smell-a-blog option, because we would love to share it! Citrus fruit is amazing to us, because a ripe piece of fruit can hang on the tree and will still be a fresh tree-ripened piece of fruit months later when it is picked. A tree will also start blooming for the next crop when the mature fruit is still hanging on the tree.
But our month-long stay is over in Mission, so it is time to pack up and head down the road to our next location.
"Packing" included picking fruit to take along with us. The orange tree on our lot and Denisa's mother's tangerine tree were just covered with fruit. Mark used a ladder and stretched to the tallest branches to pick, but there were still bushels left on the lower branches. We squeezed oranges from the tree beside our motorhome, and froze quart bags full of "liquid sunshine" to take with us. We love having a full-size residential freezer that allows us plenty of freezer room! When slightly defrosted, this makes a slushy orange icee that you can eat with a spoon. Completely defrosted it is fresh squeezed orange juice that will make it hard for us to go back to drinking the kind you buy in the grocery store. We even had one bag of grapefruit juice.
The back of our car has become our citrus storage unit, as we have way too much to fit in the refrigerator. We are excited that we could bring a taste of the Rio Grande Valley north with us, and we can continue enjoying plentiful citrus for a good while later.
The day we left, Denisa's Mother fixed us a going-away breakfast, and we were on the road around 9:00. After being city dwellers for so long, it was nice to be on the open road, and we were surprised to see all the wildflowers blooming in the highway medians.
While we were driving north to our next destination, we texted with Denisa's sister who was heading south from Oklahoma City. While we were enjoying wildflowers, they were driving 10 miles per hour on I-35 in snow and ice. So we're thinking that it isn't spring everywhere!
We have been enjoying the activities at Bentsen Grove Resort! Denisa looks forward to clogging class every week, and they even tried to get her to be part of the clogger show at the park. These season-ending shows are well attended by the park residents and most of them are standing-room only! Seeing how good the advanced dancers are has made Denisa realize she has wasted away all those years going to work. She should have retired and started clogging years ago!
We also really enjoy the line dancing classes, and went to the end-of-season line dancing dance. We could have included a picture of Denisa facing the opposite direction of the rest of the more advanced dancers (that turned the correct way). But it was just too blurry--and Denisa "accidentally" deleted it.
Even with the classes to attend, on beautiful days we just have to get outside to enjoy the sunshine. So we tried another bike trail.
We have name it the "Roadrunner Trail" because we saw four different roadrunner groups while we were biking. Some even slowed down enough for a picture. We assume this means that Wile E. Coyote was not in the area.
The bike trail weaves through terrain that is covered with mesquite and prickly pear cactus. Those thorns really inspire you to keep both hands on your handle bars, because veering off the path could be very painful.
Mark obviously does not follow the two-handed rule, because he likes to take action shots while biking. Most of these shots are taken of Denisa's back side, and those are usually "accidentally" deleted. Other pictures he takes are close ups of his bike or his shoe. Occasionally these random pictures are "accidentally" published on the blog.
Blake had planned the perfect itinerary to fit in with his work schedule. He found the perfect flights to give him the maximum days to visit us while only missing one day of work. But some times perfect plans are quelled with imperfect weather that cancels flights all over the country.
Blake was supposed to fly back to Shreveport on Monday evening, but we found out that his flights had been cancelled. He rescheduled his flights for Tuesday evening, and we had another day of South Texas fun! The good news is that the storm had shut down his office, so it didn't even cost him a vacation day to stay another day with us.
Mark, Denisa, Mema, and a couple friends had planned to go to a performance of the New Shanghai Circus on Monday evening. We managed to shanghai another ticket for Blake, and he got to enjoy the show with us. This group has a theater in Branson, but spends some of the winter months touring the country. We could use the entire blog entry to describe the amazing feats of acrobatic and balancing skills that this troupe performed. There was the guy that flipped bowls on his head while balancing on a board that was rolling on a tube.
There were the bicycling tricks that ended with one guy pedaling a bike around the stage that eventually added 9 more passengers. She attempted to take pictures, but the lighting and Denisa's distance from the stage were working against her success. This is a poor attempt at capturing another group of girls each twirling 7 plates on the top of poles while doing splits . .
Or the guy that did a tight rope act upside down while walking on his hands. He also juggled while tight rope walking. It was a great performance!
The cancelled flights also meant another day of playing pickleball and ping pong and other games. It was a cool weather day, so we enjoyed homemade soup for supper. We took Blake back to the airport 24 hours later for his rescheduled flights, only to find that they had been canceled again!
With another 24 hour extension, Mark and Blake headed to a sports bar in order to watch the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team win handily. They found that Beef O'Brady's is a great place to watch basketball on 11 foot screens. Those NBA players are already tall, but they looked even bigger on that big screen.
We had another day with Blake, so played more pickleball and shuffleboard. Blake has asked more than once, "How much money do I need to save so I can retire too?" Considering that he graduated from college just one year ago, I think that he needs to work a few more years before he is ready to play pickleball and shuffleboard on a full-time basis.
We made the trip to the airport again on Wednesday evening. It was actually snowing in Shreveport that day, and one of his engineer friends was planning to do some snowman building. So we weren't very hopeful that the flights would actually go out this time. But the third time was the charm, and Blake made it safely home to Shreveport by 10 p.m. We had a great time with him, and enjoyed the 5 days and nights he got to stay with us!
After church on Sunday, we headed to South Padre
Island for a day at the beach. It was cloudy, but no wind, and the
perfect temperature for a walk on the beach looking for shells. We used some of our treasures to spell out the name of the island! (We know that "Padre" means "Father" in Spanish, so it would have been more appropriate to have Mark in this picture. But Blake was the only one we could convince to lay in the sand.)
We also got the obligatory pictures of Blake with Mom and Dad at the beach. There was the footprints in the sand picture,
the picture of Blake's reaction to the cold wave that came in as Mom snapped the picture,
and the picture of us with our best John Travolta pose.
Blake has always hated sea gulls, so here is a picture of him avoiding the gulls at the beach. I think this dislike of these birds is deep seated since that incident when he was three and a gull pooped on his head. It's amazing that he still likes going to the beach after that!
The sand was velvet fine, and it just seemed like a jumping contest was in order. Blake obviously got the most air time,
and the camera missed Mark in flight, but caught his landing. (The pictures of Denisa's pitiful attempts were too pitiful to publish here.)
We
stopped at a new (to us) restaurant on the island--Yummy's Bistro. Here we ordered
three different shrimp meals that we shared. We had Texas shrimp
scampi, shrimp chipotle, and shrimp Camaron. After eating one-third of
each dish, we all declared it a new favorite eating stop when we visit
Padre Island.
We walked by the visitor center to take a close look at the sand castle out front. It was sculpted 14 months ago, then sealed with a mixture of elmer's glue and water. It still looks very good after its second winter outside.
We also made a stop on the Bay side of the island, to
watch the Sunday afternoon kite flyers,
and a close-up of a few of the kites.
It's a family tradition to stop at the Padre Dairy Queen for ice cream. The tradition is still going strong!
