Hattiesburg, New Orleans and San Antonio

 Hattiesburg, MS was our first stop where we had dinner with sister-in-law Vivian Fitzpatrick, nephews KC, and Ray (and beautiful girlfriend, Shelley) who we had not seen in way too long.   On to Ponchatrain Landing outside New Orleans for 3 days.  We LOVE New Orleans so we went to our usual haunts—Jackson Square, Felix’s, Café DuMonde, Bourbon Street, Bombay Club in Hotel Conti.  Had dinner at Tujague’s and while out in the Garden district we found a new favorite –Superior Seafood (we had Profiteroles for dessert-yum). 

Had to have some oysters at Felix's

It rhymes!  Bourbon Street was torn up to put down new drainage but we managed

New Orleans and San Antonio are celebrating 300 years anniversary in 2018

Haven't managed to remove Andrew Jackson from Jackson Square yet.

Peyton's Childhood home in the Garden District
 

Café DuMonde is a must--yummy beignets

Superior Seafood in the Garden District--we will return

On Saturday after Thanksgiving we were on the road again toward San Antonio.  What a wonderful new-to-us destination.  We stayed at World Travelers RV, 3 miles from Riverwalk—we will go back.  Close to a good bike trail, the city bus and easy to get to. We had great margaritas, dinner at the top of the Towers of America space needle and walked the Riverwalk. 3 days later, we traveled down I-37 by Corpus Christi, to our winter home—VIP La Feria RV near Harlingen, Tx.  We are 7 miles from the Mexican border and assured that there are very few temps below 50 degrees.  There are a lot of mid-western “Winter Texans” here—mostly from Wisconsin and Missouri.

 



At the Alamo they had docents that explained the weaponry and details of the 1836 battle for Texas



The Riverwalk is very cool-a river like roads through downtown San Antonio.  They had decorated for Christmas and we took the boat trip throughout.

Will have to return for the Cinderella ride through town.

This is where the Alamo Bowl is played--hopefully Tennessee will return to bowl games some day. 

We had a fabulous dinner at the top of the Towers of America, this was built for the 1968 Worlds Fair and now Landry's has the revolving restaurant atop.



Sunny Days-RV liked the Travelers' World RV there--best we have seen since Florida last year. 

  

November 14, 2017

As we ready the RV to head south the next day, I get a call from Nancy, my sister-in-law that my brother Tom Leeton has been taken to Vanderbilt Hospital and is not expected to live.  In June he had been diagnosed with brain cancer, they went to MD Anderson in Houston and had (we thought) successful surgery to remove 95% of the tumor.  The prognosis that I understood (I am known as Pollyanna) is that he would come back to Nashville and have a regiment of chemo and radiation and this would prolong his life.  We were hoping that he would have his ability to talk clearly and his balance back so he could play his beloved golf but this was not to be and so we lost my wonderful brother to this awful disease on November 14^th. We buried Tom on the 17^th at Williamson Memorial in Franklin and Monday the 20^th with heavy hearts we headed toward our warm winter.

Tom was the oldest and much revered

Bless his heart--he had to put up with 4 younger siblings

Brooke was his adored daughter

In 1978 we gathered for Christmas, as we did every year and we always took a "class picture"



In June 2017 we had a party for niece Abby and new husband Myles--Tommy loved a party

PA, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky then Home for the Eclipse

Through Pennsylvania and Ohio we trekked to Elkhart, Indiana the RV Capital of the United States! We checked out the RV Hall of Fame and museum, Notre Dame University,

Notre Dame Campus was beautiful and we of course had to see "Touchdown Jesus"

The Administration Building had all these murals of Christopher Columbus

There was a wedding every hour at the Church

The Student Center was huge and adjacent to the football stadium

  

and looked for Bradd and Hall to buy a new dinette and sofa for the RV. We even found an RV salvage store that had extra shelves, brackets and such. 

Elkhart is really an artsy place.  Seward Johnson large art is displayed throughout the town.

Love the Elk

Reminded us of the Barksdales' Airstream from back in the 80's

Yes, there really is one of these

Weird ones

Aqua was big

Hollywood types used them a lot

 

 On the way home we stopped in Bowling Green to have a diesel man Fitz knew –Gary Sabo –answer some questions—we ended up getting a new gas tank made and installed.  We were just in time to join the Kids and Lake Crew at Center Hill for the solar eclipse on August 21^st—unbelievable.  We have decided this is a great way to spend the hot months of July and August—travel north. 

Part of the Barksdale Clan--we watched the eclipse from their porch

 

Part of the Fitzpatrick Clan

 

Lake Crew had a drone that flew up and took our pictures

 

Those on the water said the water became absolutely still

 

An awesome site
 

August 2017 Roaming through Massachusetts and Northern NY

After putting Katie and the kids  on the airplane in Portland (first plane ride!) we visited Kennebunkport (Arundel Wharf for dinner) and regrouped—its awfully quiet after a couple of weeks with the kids and we are shifting gears. 

We hated to see them go!

Beautiful seaside homes on the Maine shore

Kennebunkport and the Bush Compound

On July 19^th Fitz and I head out to Plymouth, MA and Pinewood RV.  There we visited Hyannis, Provincetown (best kept secret on Cape Cod—those that live in Key West during the winter, come here in the summer), Boston (the USS Constitution was being launched after extensive refurbishing), Plimouth Plantation and Rock (small!!!), and to ritzy Nantucket (went across the island on a city bus to Sconset Beach where Bill Belichick has a huge home—8 gardeners were working in the yard).


Boston had some beautiful architecture

Fenway Park--almost makes you want to like baseball

USS Constitution was having a huge ceremony



Nice churches
 

Provincetown was a great surprise

Great dinner at P-Town

West Point was the next step and while the military academy was totally worth the trip, the RV park proved to challenge even the best of drivers.  Down the mountain in a windy twisty fashion we traveled to sit beside the Hudson River and for 24 hours we wondered how in the world we would get the RV out of there. 

RV Park at West Point or as Fitz calls it "The Hell Hole"

 

The Chapel at West Point was beautiful



West Point was renovating (isn't everyone?) but we had a great tour and learned a lot

West Point hovers over the Hudson River-- spectacular views and quite proud of their football team too

  Rhinebeck/Hyde Park, NY and Interlake RV was next and we visited Val-kill, FDR Home and Library, a Vanderbilt Mansion (Frederick—the favored grandchild of Cornelius who inherited most of the Vanderbilt wealth).  In Poughkeepsie we walked across the Hudson River and ate a fabulous lunch in Rhinebeck at the Beekman Arms.  Met a man named Neil Hammitt who drives for an older lady who is a professional classical pianist out of Cleveland, TN—they travel by RV all over the US-mainly going to music festivals!

In Rhinebeck--history dates back to a meeting place for the Colonials during the Revolutionary War

 


FDR Home in Hyde Park

FDR Library

Living room for FDR Mansion

The walk over the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie was fun

Val-kill was on the Roosevelt Land in Hyde Park and is where Eleanor lived full time after FDR died--
they had a small furniture making business there for a few years



The Vanderbilt Mansion was next door to FDR's place

Vast renovation on the Vanderbilt Mansion