My niece Holly showing us around SMU’s stables and arena.

On Monday we hung around the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Today we are heading for Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (See Monday’s post here: http://www.ewillys.com/2016/09/26/goodbye-west-texas-hello-wet-texas/)

First we went south to Fort Worth. My mid afternoon we were back at the motorhome. Then, we left for Dallas for a few hours.

On Monday I had a carefully orchestrated plan, had being the operative word. Things went awry early in the morning. First, was learning that the Cowgirl museum and Bowling museums in Fort Worth were closed on Mondays. Drats! Then, someone who she remained unnamed announced she didn’t want to go to any more museums. Oh, the joys of travel companions! But, then we discovered that the Fort Worth Bureau of Engraving and Printing was open on weekdays. Everyone was fine with that, so we were off (two hours later than planned).

As we were getting in the car, we realized that our shirts were appropriate for Texas.

Before visiting the mint, we decided to head downtown Fort Worth while traffic was light to see the Fort Worth Water Gardens. They turned out to be really cool!

One of the park entrances.

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Me and Zollie outside the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature. The sculpture is based on the book “David Gets in Trouble” by David Shannon.

Today we drove from Lubbock to Dallas, leaving behind the dry west Texas for nearly continuous rain. (See Saturday’s Trip from New Mexico | See Monday’s Trip in Forth Worth & Dallas)

Our path from Lubbock, to Abilene, to Dallas (rented a car for two days), and then to Roanoke for the night.

We left our Walmart “camp site”, which proved to be quiet and restful for the four hours I slept, at the break of dawn. I wanted to push us a bit, because I felt Abilene would take a few hours to see and we also had to rent a car and locate an RV park for the next two night. I’ll just say it right now: traveling in our jeep and using motels is SOOOOO much easier than dealing with this big motorhome for multiple reasons. Sure, we can save money a few nights staying at Walmarts (or state parks, some of which allow free camping due to Ann’s disability status). However, eventually we have to shower, especially in all this humid weather. I sweat just thinking about getting out of bed!

Anyhow, I digress. As we left the Walmart parking lot we quickly ran across this oddly named place: Bone Daddys. We weren’t sure whether it was a BBQ restaurant or some kind of sex shop. It sure was colorful on the outside!

Almost immediately after Lubbock we hit rain, light in some cases, heavier in others, that trailed us into Abilene.

Fortunately, the rain stopped just long enough to let us look around the Storybook garden area of downtown Abilene where we took these photos. We had the whole place to ourselves (Abilene is dead on Sunday mornings, which is great for parking the motorhome!

Me, Ann, and Zollie (named for the drug Zoloft). Zollie is her PTSD dog, though he’s so skittish she spends more time calming him than he her. He’s quite smart, but more cat than dog.

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Yes, I’m carrying my mother-in-law’s purse while I photograph a jeep. It’s not a business-as-usual trip for us!

We (Ann, I, and her mother Rosemary) began yesterday’s trip from Tularosa, New Mexico to Lubbock, Texas, by saying our goodbyes to Ann’s aunt and uncle. They were good sports about the “Secret Caravan” descending upon them. With that successful venture behind us, we hit the road for Abilene, though we didn’t quite make it that far. A Going Out of Business sale at Hastings was partly responsible for that, but more on that later.

Yesterday’s trip from NM to TX.

Our first stop was the local Lowes grocery store in Tularosa. We HAD to buy some frozen green chiles to bring back to Washington State with us. I can’t wait to make Chile Verde with them.

Soon, we were back in the motorhome. It was a beautiful drive up to Ruidoso (7000ft), then down to the “alien” town of Roswell, where Ann had one final McDonalds’ biscuit sandwich with chiles. She can’t eat the english muffins, but I can :-).

A McDonald’s billboard on the way into Roswell. Much better than the “I’m Lovin’ It” marketing campaign.

Next it was on to aging town of Tatum, where Roadside America assured us were some metal sculptures. This pair of jeeps were the first two “metal sculptures” we saw:

Two Jeep trucks at the western edge of Tatum.

The sculptures weren’t quite as impressive as those in California’s Borrego Springs, but they were still pretty cool, especially the cacti. Made out of 3/8″ steel plates, they were sturdy, but so were the prices!

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Below is a tentative schedule for our trip home. We’ve decided to begin by heading east so 1) we can see a little of Fort Worth, which we missed on our last trip, and 2) take my niece out to dinner (She’s in her freshman year at SMU … a long way from home). As usual, we have some museums, jeep stuff, and other things lined up to see. If the route is close to you and you’d like to meet us, just drop me an email and I’ll see what we can do. Just understand that since we are traveling in the motorhome with my mother-in-law, we don’t have quite the flexibility we normally do. Our tightest day might be Friday, as I’m trying to arrange several book-related meetings, but none are confirmed as yet. We begin our journey early Saturday morning with a trip to see the metal sculptures in Tatum, New Mexico.

On Saturday the 24th, we head east from Tualrosa. for Lubbock, where we will visit the Silent Wings Museum, among other attractions.