The Palmer Express

Only a overnight stop for us but beautiful sunsets.

Roadrunner, not much else in Fort Stockton. Prices were high for fuel and food.

More art, the 3 horses on the right change to a copper color when the sun hits them at the right angle.

Unfortunately the day we went here it was drizzling, cold and foggy. They had closed the part of the trail that went to the top.

Due to the weather the pictures didn’t turn out the best but we had a good time doing the 6 mile trail around enchanted rock.

Stonehenge II is 90% as wide and 60% as tall as the original Stonehenge in England.

Yet another unseasonably cool and blustery day. The story of our trip.

We spent a day walking around Fredericksburg and had lunch in this German restaurant. It was an interesting town to visit.  Lots of shops and restaurants.

The view of South Padre Island as we’re crossing over the 2.4 mile bridge.

Did the tourist thing and got our picture by the South Padre Island sign.

Top of the lighthouse, John, our brother Tim, and Karen

Blizzard South Padre style.

Kite festival, huge kites, fun to see.

Windy day fishing on the jetty

Surf fishing, caught a few whiting, and a couple of catfish.

Crossing the walking bridge to Mexico

Getting serenaded while getting pampered.

Beautiful day for a walk on the beach.

Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge tram ride.  Rainy start to the day, cleared off and got to see the Northern Aplomado Falcon roust.

Nilgai antelope, brought over from India in the 20’s, some say they were for a zoo, some say it was for hunting.

Bay fishing catch, most are Karen’s

Puffer fish

John, Mark, Michele, Sue, Tim, and Rich.

Tim, the Stranger within the poster.

Mark’s first time at oyster on the half shell.

Our last day together I think we’re all exhausted.

Heading out to San Antonio. Picture was taken by Michelle from a top the light house.

Natural Bridge Caverns, hidden passage tour, beautiful cave, we got to experience total blackness.

San Antonio river walk, Tower of Americas off in the distance.

More of the San Antonio river walk, lots going on in town, rodeo, music festival, and the lantern festival, you would never know it from these pictures, not sure how I cropped the people out.

Mutton Busting, the 4 year old here was picked up by the clown and when he gave her a little shake, a whole bunch of dirt came out of her helmet.

Concert by Cam, ‘the man hater’. After the 3rd song and all the relationships are bad and men are mud monologue, we left (we weren’t the only ones). Found it to be really odd for her to be doing this at the rodeo where 90% participants that day were male.

We finally got a dog so we can be real rv’ers, his name is Tony. We left when the crowd got to be similar to walking around the state fair.

Lanterns on the water, it was kind of a bust, they were talking about they floated around the river walk but pretty much stayed where they dropped them in.

They did have a parade of lighted floats.

Buckhorn Saloon & Museum, lots of ‘stuffed’ animals here, worth going to experience.

From the top of The Americans Tower, if you can find the little white column, to the right is the Alamo.

On our way there was a couple of miles of debris from Hurricane Harvey.

Our first night here we ate at Mickey’s Bar  & Grill. Food was good, view was great,  and we had fun watching the porpoises.

Three oil rigs in storage by Port Aransas.

The Jetty in Port Aransas, wear your sneakers if you want to walk it. Fun to watch the ships from here.

Selfie at Port Aransas beach.

The beach at Mustang State Park, road 3. The State Park and road 2 are closed for repairs.

The Galveston-Port Bolivar ferry, this free ferry ride lets you bypass Houston.

The view from our campsite. Sight 55, our only complaint would be the security lights that belonged to the condominiums right next to us.

We toured the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Museum, to many interesting facts to try to share. We were surprised that it didn’t have a lot of propaganda supporting the oil industry.

John working hard on the oil rig.

We didn’t stop at Pleasure Pier as it was raining, maybe next time.

We did the tree sculpture tour, some were beautiful others were rotting away.

We asked these locals if they knew a good place to get fresh seafood, they recommended Katie’s.This is Katie’s fresh catch selection of the day. We went with the Golden Tile fish which was delicious.

 

We parked at Sam Houston Jones State Park.

Konriko Rice Mill, oldest rice mill in America.

Tabasco Factory, by the time we left my eyes were burning a little bit.

Mash is stored in oak barrels for up to 3 years, they put salt on top to help keep impurities out.

This was taken early afternoon.

911 Memorial, beams are from the World Trade Towers

Our first bonfire of the trip, a lot of the campgrounds we stay at do not allow fires.

Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana, miles of beaches and only a few houses here and there. Have a full tank and either snacks or a picnic because there is nothing out there.

Brrrr, hard freeze for two nights.

Beignets and coffee at Cafe Du Monde, in the French Quarter, taste like a big fluffy funnel cake.

Muffuletta sandwich at The Market Cafe.

Joan of Arc

Lots of frozen pipes, New Orleans pretty much shutdowns when the temperatures drop to close to freezing. So many frozen pipes and loss of water they had portable potties at the airport. A lot of museums and restaurants shut down. Mind you this happened Tuesday/Wednesday and some places were shut down till Saturday.

Inside of St Joseph’s plantation house. Doors were aligned to provide better air flow. Woodwork was all done by hand. 6,000+ square feet and at one time housed 23 kids and their parents, (two families) with two bathrooms installed later. This is still a working sugarcane plantation.

Oak Valley Plantation, beautiful grounds. We had to take the picture and go as they were getting ready to shut the bridges down. As crazy as it sounds they close them at dusk and they don’t open them till much later in the morning.

We ‘parked’ our home, turned on the furnace, and headed back to a South Dakota.

Supermoon over Lake Cochrane SD.

Cheerleaders for Alexis & Elysa’s basketball game, they won! We got a ‘couple’ looks.

Cheerleaders for Joseph’s game, they ended up losing but not by much. We got a ‘few’ more looks.

Beautiful Biloxi sunset

Mom wasn’t felling well so dad and her went to the doctor Friday afternoon to get things checked out. Not finding much they decided to transfer her to Sioux Falls. Saturday morning she passed away from septic shock.

Magdalene Marie Wollum (Maggie) was born April 29, 1934 to Joseph and Barbara (Achartz) Kronabetter in the little back bedroom on the Kronabetter farm. Maggie was baptized, confirmed, and finished school through the eighth grade at the St Leo Catholic Church in St Leo, MN. When Maggie was a little girl she enjoyed helping her mother with cooking and cleaning in the house. In the evening, after school, she had to help her father do chores.

In 1955, Maggie married Ronald Roles and to that union five boys were born: Roger, Mark, Timothy, Daniel, and Steven. They lived right outside of St Leo farming and raising their family. Ron passed away in 1961.

In 1965, Maggie married Harvey Wollum at Our Saviors Lutheran Church in New Ulm, MN. The new Wollum family of seven became a family of ten when Beverly, Karen, and Krist were born. Harvey and Maggie raised their children on the Wollum family farm and eventually retired to their lake home on Lake Cochran.

For fifty-two years, Maggie watched her family grow and met many new friends with Harvey by her side. She took pride in being a mom, wife, and eventually a grandmother and great grandmother. She will be remembered for her love of Wheel of Fortune, card playing, bird watching, and “choir practice.” Maggie enjoyed so many beautiful years full of happy memories surrounded by family and friends near and far.

Goodbye mom, we miss you.