New Braunfels and Gruene, Texas

Last night their was a huge thunder and lightning storm.  I love storms and it was even louder in the RV.  This morning we bought some rafts (at Walmart) and headed to Landa Park to float down the Comal River.  This is the thing to do in this little German town.  On the river there are chutes for your intertube to go through.  It's kinda like water slides along the river.  It was a lot of fun.  We floated for an hour and a half and then walked back up to the part with the chute and did it 4 or 5 more times.  I took pictures but with a waterproof non-digital camera so I can't post them.  After we finished being drowned rats we got back in the RV and headed to Gruene.  This was such a quaint European looking town.  We really liked it!  We went to the famous Gristmill River Restaurant which is located in the ruins of the 129 year old cotton gin on the banks of the Guadalupe River.  It is a very unique and beautiful restaurant with it's many decks nestled in the trees overlooking the river.   We sat outside on one of the decks and we were really enjoying the view, but unfortunately some other wildlife was enjoying it too.  First, Peyton let me know of a lurking cat nearby.  Everyone that knows me well knows that I am afraid of cats, kittens or anything that resembles a cat or kitten (My biggest nightmare would be stuck in a room, house or country alone with multiple cats).  The sad thing is the kids know how bad my fear is and are always on the lookout for the vicious, four legged beasts.  Well, that's not what made us move from the deck, it was another little pest "the bee."  It is funny how such a small little insect can cause so much fear in my normally tough children.  The bee liked their soda and decided to take a seat on the lid.  The bee would sit and the boys would get up and flee.  After a few times of this repeated, commotion we decided to move inside.  The view from the huge wood shutters was just as impressive.   After dinner we were leaving the restaurant and saw the biggest truck ever.  The question is why?  But this is Texas and they say everything is BIG in TEXAS.  We left Gruene and drove to Austin and are in a campground.  There is a huge tornado watch in the neighboring communities.  We will let you know if we see any effects of the tornado in the morn.

Additional pics

The one hard thing in the blog is posting pics.  They are hard to drop in and if I put to many they start deleting themselves.  So I wanted to post a few more from yesterday.  

The Alamo, River Walk and Mi Tierra

Today we headed to downtown San Antonio.  After about an hour of figuring out where to park a 40 ft beast we took the city bus (we parked forever away) to historic Market Square.  This is the the center of Mexican Culture.  I had read about a famous Tex-Mex restaurant in my book "1,000 Place to See Before You Die in the United States and Canada" called Mi Tierra.  So I was very much looking forward to going there for lunch.  It didn't disappoint and we all enjoyed the atmosphere and our great food.  We then walked to the River Walk.  It was so beautiful.  I really enjoyed it.  From the street you would never know that such an amazing river city lay below you.  I reminded me of what Italy would be like.  Waterways lined with restaurants, shops and hotels.  Water taxis taking you up and down the river.  One water taxi we saw served dinner as you floated and enjoyed the atmosphere.  As we walked I along the river lined with trees I saw so much wildlife mixed in with the pedestrians.  There were the baby chicks, the one red-eyed duck, the new born humming bird, and the duck in the waterfall that looked as if it was paid to pose for a picture.   If it wasn't so hot and sticky in San Antonio I would move there just so that I could enjoy that walk on a daily basis.

We took the River Walk to the Alamo.  We had the kids make a pamphlet with questions about the Alamo before we left the motorhome.  When they arrived they were anxious to find the answers to the questions they had written.  Here is the basic Alamo history for those of you who do not "remember the Alamo".

The Alamo was built in the 18th century as a Mission by the Spanish Empire called "Mission San Antonio de Valero."  It was used for 75 years to educate Native Americans and convert them to Christianity.  It was abandoned and then used as a fortress for many military actions in the 19th century.  The most famous of these was the 1836 Battle of the Alamo.  Texas was in a 10 year struggle for independence from Mexico.  The Texian and Tejano volunteers had won a few battles in the area against the Mexican troops.  This did not make General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna very happy and he decided to to show the Texans he was the boss.  So he led over 6,000 Mexican troops from Mexico City to the Alamo.

Inside the walls were a mere 160 men (there were also woman and children seeking safety behind the thick stone walls).  One of those men was "the King of the Wild Frontier,"  Davey Crockett. Santa Anna and his troops attacked for 13 days but the defenders held there ground.  One of the reasons they were able to hold the Mexican soldiers back from storming the walls was because the difference in weapons.  The Mexicans had muskets which did not shot as far as the Texan's rifles.  So they could shot the Mexican soldiers before they reached the wall.  The defenders also had cannons which the Mexican soldiers didn't have.  During the 13 days William B Travis, commander of the Alamo (also one of the youngest men at 26 years old) wrote many letters in search of backup from US troops and local volunteers.  However, only one town, Gonzalas, on the eighth day sent 32 to help bring the total defenders up to 200.

  Travis is remembered for drawling a line in the sand and saying, "those prepared to give their lives for freedoms cause, come over to me."  Only one man did not cross the line.  On the 13th night all got quiet and the defenders let down their guard.  That's when Santa Anna's men scaled the wall and one of the first men to die was William Travis.  By morning all the men were killed (except one

 slave, Travis's slave,  the mexicans didn't believe in slaves so they released him).  The Woman and children were allowed to live.   The reason the Alamo is so respected today was these defender's willingness to die for their beliefs and their country.

Anyway, the Alamo was a

 great history lesson for the boys and us as well.  After the Alamo the boys went in a mirror maze.  They had a blast bumping into the walls and trying to beat the maze record.  Which both Tanner and Sterling did.  Tanner's record 0f 26 seconds slaughtered the previous record and Sterling's record of 57 seconds with 3D glasses on also killed the 3D record.  They went in the maze so many times they could practically do it with their eyes closed.

After the maze we headed back to the RV, had to find gas (which was very expensive $4.26 cents per gallon) and then drove to New Braunfels.  We are staying the night at Walmart... again!  

Day 2, San Antonio

Today was chore day!  We did 9 loads of laundry (fortunately all at the same time), and did a lot of organizing the motorhome. We also packed up more stuff to send home.  We have decided the less stuff we have the less stress we have.  With that said, we still need to eliminate a ton more stuff.  Besides organizing, the kids did a bunch of homeschool, swam, rode their rip sticks and built a Lego castle.  

Since I don't have much to write about I thought I would take this time to answer some of your comment questions.  First, Kathy said I should keep track of cool quotes.  Well, Kathy you must have forgotten that my memory left with each child I gave birth too.  I'm having a good day if I remember what I did that day.  So I agree that quotes would be cool, but by the time I blog I can't remember anything anyone said.  Kerry suggested that we put the squirrel on the blowhole to see if it would float.  I'm surprised that the kids didn't put the squirrel there because they tried flying everything else they found within a mile perimeter.  Pop wants to know if I'm go

ing to learn to drive the "big rig?"  The answer is Yes.  I have driven it, but not a lot.  I'm going to start driving it more and make Dave make lunches (that way I can speed up on the turns so he will fly all over the place).  My dad said that he thought there was great trout fishing in Bottomless Lake.  Well, we actually talked to the ranger about that.  They tried to stock the lake with trout but there was so much algae in the lake that all the fish

 they stocked were floating belly up the next day.  Hi Carter, you wanted to see a picture of the clown alien.  I don't have a pic of the clown one but I will post all the alien pics I took.  Betsy wanted to know how life on the road is and if everyone has their own place to go when they need to.  Life on the road is interesting all the time.  You have to work hard to keep your 

patience, and when you are frustrated you have

to thank God and remember that he is teaching us

 so much during this great experience.  Finally, many of you have asked about my Roswell theory.  Well, there are too many people who saw the unidentified object crash into the farmland near Roswell for there not to have been an object.  So I believe there was a crash, but I believe it was a government test plane that they didn't want the public to know about.  So it was a huge government cover up.  If I was the president and I had some top secret plane that could help the US  I would have covered the whole thing up as well.  If anyone got hold of a piece of the plane all the hard work and advancement on technology that helps the US to be a world force would be instantly

copied.  

Tip of the day:  You can meet a lot of nice people in a laundry mat.  All people have is time when they are waiting for their laundry, so they love to chat.  We met a few Texans who had a great deal of tips for our trip.  Best tip was where to find the best Tex-Mex food.  I'll let you know tomorrow if it was any good.  Well that's it in a nut shell.  Love you all!

San Antonio, Texas and Mother's Day

First, I want to wish my mom and Dave's mom a very Happy Mother's Day!  We love you both so much and we so appreciate you both.  We honestly are so blessed to have such great mothers!  We also want to wish all our friends and family a great 
Mothers Day!  Thanks for all the nice texts and posts!

Well. today we drove from Carlsbad, New Mexico into San Antonio, Texas.  Dave wanted to go straight to Dallas and I wanted to go to San Antonio.  Last night we decided we would go with Dave and go to Dallas, but being Mother's Day Dave surprised me and drove to San Antonio. When we arrived we decided to go to the 

Six Flags here in San Antonio.  It is only open on the weekends and we have a season pass.  Our goal is to visit all the Six Flags Theme Parks, and we figured we may not get back to this part of the country.  So this Mother's Day was an adrenalin rush.  This Six Flags kinda had a German Theme which might seem weird for 

the middle of Texas, but actually there is are a few towns nearby that have a very strong German influence.  There wasn't as many high speed roller coasters as Six Flags Magic Mountain, Valencia but the kids still had

a blast.  My favorite ride was the Scooby Doo Mystery House where you get a laser gun and you try and zap the ghosts.  The last ride of the day we went on the Rapids twice

and we all got soaked (I added a pic of us all wet).  It was worth it!  We really laughed hard trying to make the boat turn so that we wern't the unlucky one to go directly under the water fall.

 Tomorrow we hope to

 get laundry and some organizing done! Yeah!

Carlsbad Caverns

We tried to get a early start this morning , but it never seems to work.  We did manage to head out at a decent time.  We drove straight to Carlsbad, New Mexico.  We only stopped to chat with a nice police officer who had pulled us over for speeding.  Luckily we did not get a ticket!  When we got to Carlsbad we headed straight to Walmart!  It had been a few days since we had been to a Walmart and we missed it dearly.  We bought a ton of grocery's and then made it to Carlsbad National Park.  We went in the Natural Entrance (if you don't want to walk you can go down the 75 floor, 774 ft elevator).  We are glad we walked, it was stunning!  First, you drop down into the cave entrance where the bats fly out at night.  You can smell the bat guano (poop).  The 86 degree temp quickly drops to 56 degrees as you descend into the cave.  You continue 1.5 miles down steep damp trails until you reach the Big Room (which is the size of 5 football fields).  The whole 750 ft decent is amazing.  Once in the Big Room you can see fascinating cave formations with names like Rock of Ages, Mirror Lake, Bottomless Pit and Painted Grotto.  The Carlsbad Cavern has over 114 miles of passages making it the 5th longest cave in the world.  

The kids once again got their Junior Ranger badges, making them a Junior Ranger 5 times over so far!  We ate a BBQ chicken dinner in the RV and walked back down to see the bats fly.  Right now their are

 a couple thousand bats. However, at the end of July they have counted 1.8 million!  The ranger said that so many bats fl

y out of the cave that you can't even see the the cave (It is just black with bats).  

Tip of the day: Don't forget sunscreen!  Yesterday my old age got to 

me and I really thought I had sun-screened Peyton (I started to but he had sand all over him so I told him to rinse off.  I sun-screened the other boys and Pey snuck off and somehow I got distracted and forgot him).  What a huge mistake!!!  He is in so much pain today and I feel horrible!  I definitely learned my lesson (so did Peyton who now doesn't hate sunscreen). Next time I will be sure that the boys are double sun screened.

New update:  Sterling was playing catch with Dave and we think he dislocated his pinkie.  It looked tweaked so Dave decided he would pull it back into place.  I used distraction and Dave Pulled.  Sterling went through the roof :(  He is soooo tough and I know that hurt sooo bad.  We splinted it and are praying it is ok.

Also we are so happy to get all your comments!  New people are signing on and commenting every day!  Thank you so much!  We miss you all so much and hearing from you 

all makes us feel great!  If you have any suggestions of where we should go next please let us know!  We are heading East from Carlsbad towards Dallas.

Bottomless lake State Park

We enjoyed this campground so much we decided to stay an extra night.  This is the first time we have stayed at the same campground 2 nights in a row.  We have really enjoyed being able to relax and the kids enjoyed swimming in the lake.  Dave also was very happy to wash the motorhome for the first time, and even happier that each of the boys helped and had fun helping. We also tried fishing, but the park ranger (who was very nice) informed us that there is an endangered fish in this lake that can only be found in two lakes in the world.  This being one, so fishing here is a no-no! This lake is 90 ft deep at the natural underground spring that supplies the water for the lake and nearby river. That was my one small piece if history for the day.  I forgot to mention that a black widow almost landed on my face yesterday as I was looking in the electrical box which turned out to be her home.  

Peyton enjoyed the playground and we all enjoyed the nice hot showers.  

Tip of the day:  built a sandcastle, throw a football and play on the playground! Dave and I usually watch our kids do these things, but we have decided to join in.  We were surprised at how fun it was and how much my kids enjoyed having us play with them.

Sterling's Birthday, Lincoln and Roswell, NM

Well, today is the day that I spent the entire day in agonizing pain, then was rushed in for an emergency C-section so that Sterling could make his way into the world.  It was definitely worth it (but when he is driving me nuts in the 300 sq. ft. space I need to remind him of the pain part!). Before I get into our day I wanted to thank everyone who posted a birthday wish to Sterling!  He really loved it!  

We got an early start and headed to Lincoln, New Mexico, home of "Billy the Kid" and the Lincoln County War. What a wonderfully preserved

living "ghost" town.  You really feel like you are in 1878 (except for the huge Monaco Diplomat parked along side the road).  We watched a movie on the history of Lincoln and William Bonney, aka Billy the Kid. We then went through one of the many buildings open to the public.  This was a museum that had fabulous artifacts of Apache and Western history.  We learned a lot there, but that was just the beginning.  

Let me back up, yesterday when I was reading to the kids about Lincoln,

I read about a historian/cowboy who was the expert on this area.  He has been on the History Channel, Discovery Channel, and every other show about Billy the Kid and Western history, he has also written many books about the area. Well when we left the museum we saw this large group of New Mexico officials.  In this group I heard someone say Drew Gomber. I immediately recognized his name and told Dave we need to see if we can sneak into his tour.  Well, we got to talking to him and were invited to join the tour.  All you history buffs must be jealous because it was a great tour and we learned so much.  Gomber was also very humorous which kept the kid's interest.  If you know nothing about Billy here is a quick synopsis...  We don't know exactly when Billy was born, nor do we know his exact age when he died (experts think he was around 21).  We do know that a citizen's war broke out in Lincoln over mercantile.  You see, Murphy/Dolan had the Mercantile monopoly in Lincoln and wanted to keep it that way.  Tunstall, a young English man, decided to open his own general store in 1877.  This did not go over well and Tunstall was murdered in 1878.  Well, this started the Lincoln County War.  One of Tunstall's employees was Billy the Kid. He and other Regulators didn't take Tunstall's death lightly.  They shot the the sheriff (they should write a song about that) William J. Brady and deputy George Hindman.  Billy was hit but escaped.  Three days later they shot another Dolan defender.  The Regulators came back to Lincoln and were held up in McSween's house which was next to the Tunstall merchant store (Drew said that they would have gone to the store but a family with children were in the store so they went next door, this was a mistake because the store has steel bullet proof plates in there doors and there wall's were too thick to shot thru.  If they went there they could have been safe in there for a long time) .  Well they were held up in McSween's house for 5 days.  Meanwhile the Merchants set the house on fire.  Billy and a few volunteers ran out of the house as a decoy and over 1,000 shots were fired at them.  Only one of the four men died.  McSween also died when he exited the house after the decoy party.  Billy got away but once again returned to the neighboring area.   Sheriff Pat Garette (who was hired to hunt down the Kid) eventually caught him and convicted him

 for the death of  William J. Brady (the funny thing was that their were 35+ regulators, and Brady had 12 bullet holes in him when he died, but Billy was the only one Garette was interested in hanging).  Billy was sent back to Lincoln be hung in 1881.  They placed Billy in the court house (which use to be the Murphy/Dolan store) with two deputies J.W Bell and Robert Ollinger and a few other prisoners.  Billy said he had to use the outhouse and somehow got Bell's revolver (historian's debate on how he got it, Drew thinks he took down his escort and stole his gun) and shot him dead (you can still see the hole in the wall on the staircase).  Ollinger was across the street with the other prisoners having dinner.  He heard the shot and headed back to the courthouse.

Well, it was said that an ammunition room in the courthouse had a broken lock and Billy went in and took Ollinger's shotgun.  He aimed it out the window of the courthouse and shot Ollinger in the street.  He hopped (since he was still shackled) out on the deck of the courthouse and asked if anyone wanted to try and stop him (he was kinda the local hero so nobody did) so then he asked to borrow a horse and an pick.  He sat for almost an hour and worked on his shackle and then mounted the horse and rode out of town singing. Drew said that Billy had quite the personality, he was kinda the life of the party. Billy was later found again by Garrett (he was at a neighboring city visiting his girlfriend) and this time Garrett didn't try to arrest him he just shot him down.

Well, as you can see we really enjoyed the tour.  

We then went to Roswell, NM and went to the UFO Museum and a few really cool stores.  I won't go into the history of this city since I want to spend time playing a game with Sterling on his

birthday.

Anyway, it was interesting and I definitely have a theory on what happened in Roswell.  I'm sure your interested, so ask me later.

 Sterling wanted to go to a Chinese buffet for his birthday dinner.

We had a great dinner and headed to the Bottomless Lakes State Park.  We were pleasantly surprised at how nice this park was.  The kids played and went swimming in the lake and then we had ice cream cake in honor of Sterling's birthday.

Now the boys are watching a video of themselves and Parker doing a skit.

They are cracking up!  What a great memory.  What a busy and exciting day!

Posted by familydream (aka Cindi) accidently logged in as Dave (I'm not high tech enough to know how to fix it)