Wednesday April 29, 2015 Garrison, TX

My only cache for the day

We had a breakfast casserole ala Herb.  with biscuits, jam and cantaloupe.

The small cache

It was a beautiful day and we sat on the back patio for a while.  In the early afternoon we went out to try to find some geocaches.  We have been here several times and have done most of the caches near Herb and JoNell's house.  We tried a couple in a county line series and one in a cemetery with no luck. Two of my DNFs had other DNFs before me.  The cache owners haven't responded to needs maintenance notes and the area reviewer doesn't seem to follow up very quickly.  Gerri did help me find one in downtown Garrison.  I had looked here before.  I believe I found one here that has since been archived.

Molcajete at Rancho Grande in Timpson, Texas

After the last DNF we went to the Rancho Grande Restaurant in Timpson and had an early supper. Before going home we drove through downtown Timpson.  That didn't take long, it's only two blocks square.

Main street of Timpson, Texas

Back at the house we played two games of dominoes.  I won one and Gerri won one.

We called it a night after some visiting, TV and reading.

Tuesday April 28, 2015 Garrison, Texas

We had a late breakfast with Herb and JoNell.  Eggs, bacon, sausage patties, biscuits and gravy.

Later we drove to Nacogdoches to pick up some items from Lowe's.  I found a cache on the Lowe's parking lot.  I found another near the post office when we stopped there to mail some cards.

Nacogdoches City Hall

While in Nacogdoches we drove through the old downtown area.  On the way home we drove through some exclusive neighborhoods. They have had a lot of rain in this area and the ponds are full and there is a lot of standing water.  We had a few sprinkles on the drive back to the house.

We played a game of dominoes before supper.  Herb won that one.  We started another game and finished it after supper.  Supper was the leftover ham, baked beans and potato casserole with salad and bread.  We finished the domino game, I won this one.  Gerri won the third and last game for the day.

We went to bed at about 10:30.  I got interested in the book I was reading and stayed up until 1.

Monday April 27, 2015 Garrison, Texas

We had an alarm set for 5:30 the plan being to be on the road by 7.  With about 600 miles to drive we wanted to get an early start.  We had breakfast in the hotel lobby.  We took out almost all of the luggage in the car last night and it only took a little while to load up and get on the road.

Jackson, Mississippi Capitol Building

We made a short trip off the Interstate in Jackson, MS to see the Capitol Building.  There wasn't any traffic and we got to the capitol easily.  BUT, the dome was under remodeling and covered with scaffolding and draped with canvas.
















To Shreveport the trip was just a reverse of the way we had come.  From Shreveport on to Garrison there was no more interstate.  We had some rain along the way, the weather was mostly cloudy with some wind the rest of the time.  Once nearer Garrison we had some state roads.  Texas sets a high speed limit of 60 mph on most of these roads.  There was some construction on US 84 near Garrison. Well there were signs and cones, but we saw no workers.

We got to Herb and JoNell's by 3 PM.  We almost drove past.  Herb had removed the wire fence along the road and we almost passed the driveway.  The front of the property looked very different without the fence,

We visited until dinner time.  JoNell had cooked ham, baked beans, salad and a potato casserole. We had peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream for dessert which which we had later.  After dinner we played two games of dominoes.  Gerri won the first one and JoNell won the second.

After dominoes we caught up on computer stuff and read a little before going to sleep.

Sunday April 26, 2015 Columbus, Mississippi

 I got up in time to have breakfast with some of Gerri's classmates that were leaving today.  I brought coffee and juice back to Gerri in the room.

This used to be the Church of Christ

We went downtown and took picture as requested by Hollis.  Some of the pictures were downtown and some were near the base.

Downtown Columbus, MS

We did find the entrance to the base that gerri remembered using.  We also found a road that skirted the base with the fence and some of the remaining houses partially visible though the woods and brush.

The Barnhart home in downtown Columbus

Stephen Lee High School, at least it was in 1965

The General Lee Home

Columbus Stadium

Welcome to CAFB

This is the entrance to the base that
we couldn't find a few years ago

Remaining base housing

Last meeting with classmates

After returning to the hotel, Gerri met with some of the ladies from her class in the lobby and swapped stories of high school and the intervening years.

I went geocaching.  I found 6 and didn't find 3 others.







I got back to the hotel around 5.  Gerri repacked some of our clothes and we put all but the bags we needed for the night and in the morning in the car.

Tomorrow we plan to drive to Garrison, Texas.  About a seven hour drive, so we want to get an early start.  That way we will arrive at Herb and JoNell's at a decent hour in the afternoon.

Saturday April 25,2015 Columbus, Mississippi

We slept past the time to get the hotel breakfast.  After talking to some of the classmates in the lobby, we decided to drive to Tupelo and visit Elvis' birthplace.

1937 Plymouth

The house is in a park with a visitors center and gardens.  The church that he went to as a child has also been moved there.  The drive from Columbus to Tupelo was about 50 miles.  The house where Elvis was born is there and a museum along with a theater is also there where we saw a film about Elvis' life up to about age 13 when his family moved to Memphis, TN.  There was a 1937 Plymouth on display, it was the same model that the Presley family used to move to Memphis.  

Elvis' birth place

Boyhood Church

1937 Plymouth

Elvis at 13

Church closeup

The Plymouth also reminded me of the 1938 Plymouth we had when I was small.  Our Plymouth was black and much larger.  One of my childhood dreams was to be tall enough to see over the car when standing on the running board.  I also remember waking up many times already on the road to visit relatives in Tennessee, North Carolina and even Texas.  I realize that our old car and this one were the same size, but they seemed larger.

No this wasn't Elvis' outhouse

On the way back to Columbus we stopped at a Cracker Barrel and split a Reuben sandwich.  We also stopped at a CVS Pharmacy in West Point and picked up one of my prescriptions.


We got back to the hotel in plenty of time to clean up and get to the reunion activity at Lion's Hill, the country club at the golf course.  The activity tonight was a sit down dinner followed by a DJ and dancing.  The caterer did a really nice job and the dinner was excellent.  The party didn't last long after dinner and we were back at the hotel by 10.

Some reading and computer time ended the evening.

The planned part of Gerri's 50 Class Reunion is now in the history books.  Tomorrow there is a small get together of those at our hotel that don't plan to leave until Monday and others that live close by.

Friday April 24, 2015 Columbus, Mississippi

We stayed in bed too late to take advantage of the free breakfast, well free in that it was part of the price we payed for the hotel room.

Gerri visited in the lobby with some of the other class mates who were staying at this hotel.  At about 11:30 she and some others went out to tonight's venue to get things set up.  I read for a while and checked on things on the computer.  I had a problem with an account at Bank of the West and spent quite a while on the phone trying to get it taken care of.  They had no explanation for the problem, so I didn't really accomplish much.

Gerri came back to the hotel just as I was leaving to go geocaching.  She wanted to get to tonight's event about 4 an wanted me to come at 5.  I took her car to go caching and get some things at a nearby WalMart.  I found one cache and DNFed 2 before going to WalMart.  I found 3 in the WalMart parking lot and seven others nearby before another DNF behind a shopping center.

With 10 finds and 3 did not finds, I called it a day.

 After changing cloths I joined Gerri at the site of her reunion event at Jimmy Graham's Camp House.  There was a good turnout and Gerri talked to and reminisced with many classmates.  Food was good and plentiful.  Someone must had a lot of leftovers, especially chips and dips.  It rained a little but not enough to dampen the party.  People started drifting away at about 8:00.

Barbara Scholz Lazerio and Gerri

l-r: Janice Warren, Cindy Swift Cline, Gerri, Stella VanZanten, Deborah Hilton, Sallie Hardy, Dianne Dowdle, Sandra Mims

Gerri and Maro Malone Manning

After getting back to the hotel, the classmates that were staying at the Wingate, visited in the lobby for a couple of hours.

We called is a night after what seemed to be a long day.

Thursday April 23, 2015 Columbus, Mississippi

We had breakfast at the hotel and left West Monroe at about 9:15.  Only about 300 miles to go to Columbus, MS.  It was raining or threatening rain all the way.

I-20 Bridge across the Mississippi River

The Muddy Mo looking downstream 

We crossed the bridge over the muddy Mississippi and stopped by the welcome to Mississippi sign for a picture.  We drove east on I-20 and then north on I-55.  Then it was US-82 further east to Columbus.

We checked into the Wingate Motel at about 2:30.  We had stopped once for fuel and once at a rest area for me to find a cache.

Ruben's on the river bank

The Tombigbee River

Some other classmates of Gerri's checked in shortly after we did, Parks Mitchell and his wife Bev and then Debbi Hilton arrived.  We sat in the hotel lobby and visited until dinner time.  Parks, Bev and the 2 of us went to Rueben's seafood and steak restaurant for dinner.  Debbi left to meet up with Stella, another classmate who was staying at another hotel.  We enjoyed the Seafood platter of catfish, frog legs, shrimp, oysters and hushpuppies plus a choice of two sides with a salad.








We returned to the hotel after taking some pictures.  I also found a cache in the restaurant parking lot.  After more visiting in the lobby we went to our room at about 10.  Some reading and computer time finished the evening.

Wednesday April 22, 2015 West Monroe, Louisiana

We were up early enough to say goodbye to Curtis and the kids before they left for school. We said goodbye to Dana and were on the road at 8:15.

We planned to meet my cousin, Lawana Tom, in Canton, Texas for lunch.  I set the destination into my iPhone because the navigation unit in the car didn't accept the numbers. Our route was initially north on I-35 then the guidance took us on to the new toll road, I-45.  We avoided all the rush hour traffic and the accidents we had heard about on I-35 on the news through Austin.  This is the toll road that initially had a 100 mph speed limit.  It is now 80 because of so many deer strikes.

Gerri, Lawana and me

North of Austin we re-merged with I-35 and then went to I-35 East to I-20.  At noon we arrived at the Whataburger in Canton, TX where we planned lunch with my cousin Lawana Tom.  This is one of three Whataburgers owned by another cousin of mine that we haven't seen since he was very young.  He is Lawana's sister Kari's, son.   We visited with Lawana until 2:30.  We hadn't seen her since the fall of 2013.   We had a lot to catch up on.  Her husband died since then and she seems to be adjusting well.

We brought Lawana this painting done by her mother in 1990

Interestingly, when I checked in on Facebook that we were in Canton, I got a comment from Mike and Gloria Bunker that he had just passed through on their way to Dubach, LA.  Dubach is just north of Ruston off I-20 east of where we are spending the night in West Monroe.  This is the second time we have traveled near them, the other time was a couple of years ago on Maui.

B-52 Stratofortress

Shortly after we headed east after our visit with Lawana her father, my uncle Curtis called.  We talked to him until we got to Shreveport.  As we were driving through Shreveport we saw a black airplane fly across the highway, it was a B-52.  It turned and came back across.  I didn't get my iPad to the camera app in time for a picture.  Gerri's father flew the B-52 and said it was his favorite airplane.  I found a picture online of a B-52 lying in about the same attitude that we saw today.  The B-52's have been flying for over 60 years.  Over 700 were built and the SALT treaty now limit the number of operational strategic bombers to 75. The other surviving bombers have been moth balled.

We arrived in West Monroe and were checked in to the hotel by 6 PM.

Since we had a large lunch we decided not to go out for dinner.  After some reading and computer time we went to bed after watching the news, weather and the start of David Letterman.

Tuesday April 21, 2015 Kyle, Texas

Today was break from driving.  With the kids in school and Curtis working and Dana on a field trip with Vanessa it was also a day without visiting.  Gerri took advantage of the laundry facilities to catchup on laundry.

Dana and Vanessa got home at about 1.  Vanessa had started falling asleep in the car. she took a nap once she got in the house.  Brandon got home just before two.  He and I went to try to find some caches after I did a couple of errands.  Two of the screws holding Gerri's front license plate had come out, so I went to a parts store.  I also had one of my prescriptions transferred to a nearby CVS and went to pick it up.

The first cache we tried for was a DNF for me last December.  It was a DNF for us again today.  Our second try was another cache we had looked for before.  This makes three times we have failed on this one.  The next two we found pretty quickly after figuring out where to park.  We DNFed another one before giving up and going home.  Hopefully the cache owners will give me some help and we can find them next week when we return from Mississippi.

We went to the Texas Roadhouse for supper.  We had good food and the kids ate a lot and behaved well in the restaurant.


Tomorrow we head for our next overnight stop n Monroe, LA.  We do have a stop for lunch planned with my cousin Lawana Ford in Canton, TX.

Monday April 20, 2015 Kyle, Texas

Since we didn't have far to go today, we slept in.  We left the hotel a little before the check out time of 11am.  We were too late for the free breakfast.  I did wait in the lobby for a fresh pot of coffee to brew.  We took a cup each with us and hit the road for Kyle.

We made a stop for fuel.  We also stopped at the CVS in Kyle for large band aids.  I had used up most of my supply.  I have only found the ones I like at CVS.  They are CVS brand and have a gentle adhesive.  My skin, especially on my arms have become so thin that regular bandages or tape tears the skin when removed.

We arrived at Curtis and Dana's at about 1.  We had lunch with Dana and waited until the kids got out of school.

I got pictures of Brandon and Vanessa as they came through the door.  After hugs and kisses all around they had do do their homework.  After a little while the kids attention returned to their friends and normal routine.

Curtis got home from a hard day at work at about 5.
It seems today, 4/20, has been made some type of holiday by pot smokers and about half the student population cut classes today.  Either to smoke pot or just take advantage of any excuse  to cut classes.

Curtis took Brandon to baseball practice at 6:30.  We had dinner after they got back.  Shortly after that it was showers and bed for the kids.  We rented a movie from Vulu, an online rental service.  The movie was Gran Torino.  A Clint Eastwood movie from a few years ago.  It was very graphic in both language and violence.  The redemption of the movie was the underlying moral and social messages and commentary.

We went to bed shortly after the movie ended.  We have a full day here tomorrow before heading on toward Columbus, Mississippi.  We will be back here on May 1st and will have more time to visit over that weekend.

Sunday April 19, 2015 San Antonio, Texas

We wanted to get an early start, but this morning was ridiculous.  I had an alarm set for 4:30.  At three I heard an alarm clock go off in another room, followed by running water.  Shortly after that another alarm went off and rang for about 3 minutes, it was quiet for a while and rang for another three minutes.  It too was followed by the noise of a shower running.  I started to wake Gerri early but she was sound asleep  I laid there during another hour of hearing others getting ready to leave.  Gerri got up at 4:30.  It was still dark when we left El Paso at about 5:15.  At least the hotel had coffee, juice and some breakfast items.

We continued east on I-10.  We did stop for gas before leaving the El Paso area.  We stopped again in Segovia and had a patty melt each before continuing to San Antonio.  After some confusion with the GPS and traffic snarled by construction we got to the hotel and checked in at about  3.

Our reason for the stop in San Antonio was to visit Ken and Sylvia Harwood.  We met them in Indiana in 2008 at a Thousand Trails RV Park.  We saw them a few other times and visited their home a couple of years ago.

Their home was only about 10 minutes away and we went there after unloading a few items at the motel room.  We visited and caught up for an hour or so and then Ken cooked salmon steaks on the grill.  We had garlic bread, a baked potato and coleslaw with the salmon.

After more visiting we had desert.  We returned to the hotel at 9:30.  We don't have far to drive tomorrow to Kyle.  If the hotel and other guests cooperate we will sleep in, planning to get to Curtis and Dana's house about 2:30 before the kids get out of school.  We plan to spend two nights before heading on to Mississippi.

Saturday April 18, 2015 El Paso, Texas

We did sleep in today until 7:50.  I went to the lobby and got us coffee. Later I made myself a waffle, not bad.  I also had a biscuit with gravy.  The gravy was good but the biscuit had dried out.

That red X is a monument in Mexico.
The dark line in the tan strip to the left
is the Rio Grand and to the left of that
is part of the border fence.

I walked over to the equestrian statue, pictured in yesterday's blog, and found a cache hidden near it. We spent some time with computer stuff.  Rick and Rosie picked us up at about 11. We did some caching around the hotel and drove up a scenic drive overlooking the city. We could see into Mexico from a couple of the lookout spots.  We also drove by some exclusive housing.  In total we found another 15 caches and didn't find 1.  In about 5 hours of caching over two days we found 31 caches.  I found that many in a month on Maui last year.  It helps to have someone driving that knows where the caches are located, Rick had put out most of the ones we found and had found the rest in the past.

I-10 cutting through El Paso

Those mountains are in Mexico

A "Cache" starring Longwalker and the R&R Cruisers

This obelisk marks the end of the Franklin Range.
The southern most Rocky Mountains in The USA

Chicken Fried Steak.  Two large portions with mashed
potatoes and vegetables.

In mid afternoon we went to the Twin Peaks-Fountain Restaurant for a late lunch.  Rosie had a hamburger and the rest of us had the chicken fried steak.  The gravy had a hint of jalapeno peppers.  The portions were large and I was the only one that ate the entire serving. Rick and Rosie got the leftovers.  Since we are in Gerri's car for this trip, we have no way to store food or to re-heat it.








Back at the hotel we said our goodbyes.  Gerri and I both spent some time catching up computer stuff.  Gerri did some of her egg work and I logged the caches that we had found.

Some reading time brought us to an early bedtime.  We have reservation tomorrow evening in San Antonio which is about 550 miles away.  We plan to have dinner with Ken and Sylvia Harwood.  They are friends we met in a RV park in 2008.