We left
Pacifica on Wednesday 2/3 and headed to Valencia Ca. For the most part we will essentially be retracing our steps for the trip back East. Valencia is a little northeast of LA. The campground was a nice one for a one
nighter. The day we left and headed for Desert Hot Springs it rained heavily and just south of where we stayed they had another round of mud slides.
We stayed at a different campground in Desert Hot Springs and on our second day we visited the outlet stores just west of town. Neither of us are serious shoppers but this outlet mall basically has just about every designer I've ever heard of and then some. We also took more pictures of the thousands of windmills that are in the west end of the valley. It is just unbelievable and not attractive at all. This is what you sacrifice for clean energy.
Day four we headed for
Sedona,
Az. We spent four days at this beautiful site. The weather continues to be cold and snowy but we did get one and a half pretty nice days. Our last day we took a four mile hike into The
Munds Wilderness area. It is really not far from town but pretty remote. We had a beautiful day and thoroughly enjoyed the walk. The trail is called the
Margs Draw Trail and the trail head is only about three miles from the campground.
Wednesday February 10
th we headed to Tucson
Az.. We spent three days here visiting with my cousin Steve Graham and attending the Gem Show which is in Tucson this time of year. The bargains here are really great, especially if you know what your looking for. People come from all over the world to buy and sell gems, jewelery, and misc. merchandise at various sites throughout the city. We only sampled one of these places. We had a great visit with Steve. Dinner one night and a visit to his new patio home the next day. Fortunately the weather cleared up after a pouring rain on day one.
On Saturday 2/13 we boogied 441 miles to Van Horn Texas. The
KOA in this town is really nice and the people were great. Although we didn't try it, they have a restaurant here that many of the guests said was really good. After a quick night we saddled up again and moved on to
Fredericksburg, Texas. This is a neat town up in the Hill Country that we visited back in 2007. The town has many nice restaurants, The Nimitz WWII Museum of the Pacific which we saw in 2007 and many very nice shops. The area was settled by Germans in the 1860's and the influence is seen everywhere, especially in many of the restaurants. On Monday 2/15 we Toured the LBJ Ranch which is only 16 mile east of
Fredericksburg. The ranch is partly in a Texas State Park and partly in a National park. It was an interesting tour. LBJ and Lady Bird are buried on the ranch and you get to see some of the house. The remainder of the home is under renovation and will be open in a few years. Lady Bird used this home up until her death in 2007.
On the LBJ property they have a farm that has been restored to the days when it was originally settled. Volunteers actually do all of the tasks that were done in the late 1800's and they take you through how they do it. They actually make all the food for the staff, who eat at the house each day. They milk the cows, slaughter animals, smoke the meats, can food, and do just about everything. It is different from other places that just tell you how it's done. They actually do it here, it's essentially a working farm as it was in the late 1800's. Really cool.
We left
Fredericksburg this morning 2/16 and we are now in San Antonio. The last time we visited the River Walk it was raining so tomorrow we will go down in better weather. I hope.
We will be leaving here on Thursday heading for somewhere in La. We really don't want to head back to the snow but we have much to do. Enjoy the pictures above.
We miss Sebastian very much. Jen has been sending us pictures daily so we can watch him grow. He's over 7 lbs. now and growing.
Life doesn't get better. Live it all!!
Bill and Eileen
Big Roadrunners here!!
Nice town. We stayed here on the way out!
Snow on the mountains north of Sedona. The snow was the night we arrived. (Click on the picks for a larger view.)
Happy Hiker!!
Cousin Steve visit in Tucson!
Steve's Arizona House! Really nice.
Three Graham's!
Future hamburger at the farm!
LBJ's elementary school! Located at the edge of the ranch!
School!
LBJ Home at the ranch!
Pool! 
