Our First Granddaughter Trip!

Whether you read the title above as "our first trip with a Granddaughter" or "our trip with our First Granddaughter", you'd be correct! One of our long range plans/goals in fulltime RVing was to travel with grandchildren and spend some extended quality time together. This year we were able to realize that dream! Ashley's beginning homeschooling this year provided the perfect opportunity. After a great visit with Stacey and Darren and family in Hernando, FL, Ashley said 'goodbye' to her folks, we loaded her up along with her school books and began our extended "field trip."

First major stop: Pensacola, Florida. We stayed almost a week at the Pensacola Naval Air Station Family Camp right near the beach.
The Pensacola Scottish Country Dancing group meets on Tuesday nights under the direction of Richard and Connie Walker. They're a very cordial and welcoming group; stop in if you're in the area.

We had a blast and Ashley danced great! The Navy's Blue Angels have practice sessions on many mornings. These are free and open to the public. They practice directly behind the Museum of Naval Aviation, which, along with its simulators and IMAX theater, is a must visit.

Nearby is the Gulf Islands National Seashore, part of the national park system, and it includes Fort Barrancas, Fort Pickens and the nearby beaches.

Ashley wanted to explore every nook and cranny of the old forts.

On the road again! We spent a night at Yogi Bear's in Louisiana, then moved on to Texas. A Texas waffle was waiting for Ashley at our first stop in the Lone Star State. We spent a couple of nights in Beaumont before moving on.

Once in San Antonio area we began sight-seeing in earnest. Ashley and Roger spent an afternoon exploring one of the old missions, San Jose. Along with Concepcion, San Juan, and Espada, these compose another of the nation's national parks. San Jose is one of the most intact and beautiful.

Ashley completed the Junior Ranger program at San Jose and was duly sworn in, with appropriate ceremony.

We reconnected with our friends Jon and Geri Simms in San Antone and enjoyed some wonderful meals and dancing together.

We spent the next month between the Summit, San Antonio, New Braunfels and Kyle, Texas. Abey and family have a new home in Kyle and it's lovely! Phineas is loving all the attention from cousin Ashley and grandparents.

We enjoyed another visit to the Ethiopian restaurant in Pflugerville with Abey's family, Ashley and Meg's parents.

No trip to New Braunfels is ever complete without a walk in Landa Park and feeding the ducks.

Located between San Antonio and New Braunfels are the Natural Bridge Caverns and nearby Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. We spent a lovely day exploring both.

Finally the time came to move on. We spent a couple of nights at Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glen Rose, Texas. This is the home of remarkably well-preserved prints from several species of very early Texas residents.

It's really hard to overstate the value of this kind of field trip. We all had a wonderful time. It was, however, a very hot dry August and I'd recommend the fall or the spring for your visit.

We arrived in Oklahoma the next day. We experienced a blowout on a rear tire of the motor home; no associated problems. We spent one night at the Fort Sill RV camp, exploring the nearby Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.

After her daughter had been gone "long enough," Stacey flew up from Florida and spent a week with Andrea and us at Edmond, Oklahoma. We had a great time together exploring the area. We enjoyed a fun day at Frontier City, a local theme park. A short excursion to Arcadia, OK brought us to "Pops", an eatery dedicated to the soft drink. They have every conceivable type of pop/soda water/soft drink, from "All Natural Apple-Beer" to Avery's "Bug Barf" (kiwi-pineapple): "It's SODAsguting...Totally Gross Soda."

"Pops" is located along Historic Route 66 just a half mile from Arcadia's Round Barn. Both are within 5 miles of I-35 and worth including in your travels.
And yes, that is a GPS in Meg's hand; we had to pick up the local geocaches while we were there.

We enjoyed a fun meal together at the local Japanese steakhouse, entertained by the clever knife handling of the chef.

OK, be honest now: how many of you knew Oklahoma City had a river? Really? Well, we didn't until Stacey arranged tickets for our early morning cruise on the Oklahoma River. It's a 1 1/2 hour trip which includes a trolley ride back to your car at the dock. It was quite beautiful!

Of course, Ryan couldn't be satisfied until she "helped" the captain pilot our boat.

We stopped for a photo-op under this sign in Bricktown next to the ballpark, for obvious reasons. Oklahoma City has done a magnificent job of reclaiming and beautifying their downtown area and any visit should include lots of "wandering time." Take in a baseball game if you can. Bricktown Ballpark annually hosts the BigXII baseball championship tournament in May.
We visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial, a beautiful but grim reminder of the tragic bombing there in 1995.

Worth a visit! After a week Stacey and Ashley left us to return to their family in Florida. It was a wonderful "field trip" with our granddaughter, and the final verdict: we'd love to do it again! We're looking forward to the next time.

Thanks for reading.