CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

Well, hello again. The carrier in the background is the USS Lexington from WWII. The ship is moored in Corpus Christi, Texas and so are we. We spent about 5 hours on board and felt humbled roaming through history. This is the ship where they filmed a lot of the shots for the movie Pearl Harbor. Even though Jimmy Doolittle launched his B25 bombers off the USS Hornet in real life during WWII the movie version was shot aboard the Lexington.

These two photos show both the beach at Corpus Christi and our campground. We did have a little problem occur on our first day. We left our camp to see the local area and used our GPS to get around. Well, after about 45 minutes the ole GPS decided to recalculate one last time! Normally we would also have a map in our vehicle, but we unloaded everything at the campsite the first day and did not put a map back in the truck. Now when this happens it's called LOST! We drove around the back roads trying to find the state park and put on a few miles before we found our way back. Moral of the story.....pay attention to where you are so when the GPS stops recalculating you can recalculate yourself back home!

After leaving the Corpus Christi area we headed to San Antonio for 10 days and visited the LBJ ranch. If you're ever in Johnson City, Texas this is a very nice place to visit. The National Park Service does a great tour of LBJ's Western White House; well worth the $2.00 to tour the house. The ranch is a driving tour for free! They give you a CD for your vehicle to listen to while you drive. Afterwards, we headed to the German town of Fredricksburg and went through the Admiral Nimitz WWII Pacific War Museum. Four hours later we had a great German Dinner and headed back to San Antonio.

While we were in San Antonio, we met our great friends Jim & Sue as they were travelling from Las Vegas. They spent 3 days with us. How great is that, eh?

So here we are with them at the Alamo. Now before I go too far there is a little story. (Isn't there always?) I'll try to keep this short, but....we parked Jim's car in a parking garage. Jim had to go back to the car to get Nancy's map and camera. But, Jim decided to move the car to a different spot because he's like that... So he comes downstairs and tells us he could not find the camera. I go back up with him and find the camera (where Nancy told him it was) only to find both doors on the driver's side of the vehicle wide open! Jim was in such a hurry to get to the Alamo he left the car doors wide open! Sue is going to have some door signs made saying "If found open, please close". We all (except Jim), thought that was a good idea. I guess his thought is "Don't Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out" so leave 'em open. All I can say is that you had to be there.

We did visit the oldest saloon in Texas, The Buckhorn Saloon and Museum. While there we also took in the Texas Ranger Museum. This was where Augustas and Woodrow from Lonesome Dove went in to wet their whistle. This is the scene where Augustas breaks the bartender's nose.

We walked around the River Walk and had a great Mexican dinner. San Antonio has great restaurants and really is a pretty nice city. There is a lot to do and see here.

We did a lot in the 2 full days we had together and one was to go to where both Jim & I got our start at being friends. The USAF. Lackland Air Force Base is where we both went through Basic Training in 1968. I did arrange to be sponsored to get on the base, but Jim was only in the San Antonio area for a few days and the on-site pass took a couple days so we could only take the picture here outside the main gate.

Two days after this picture, Nancy and I were authorized to drive on the base. We spent time at the Airman Museum and the Parade Grounds which brought back a lot of memories. I have to thank one of our camper neighbors here for sponsoring us to gain access to the base. It's been 43 years since I was here. Whew...where did that time go?