North By Southwest

This year we decided our route to Yellowstone would be across the south and then up through the southwest visiting some places we have in the past plus maybe some new ones.  We left Orlando on April 1 making our way north through Florida and then west along the
     panhandle.  You can always tell you’re near a military base when there’s a U.S. Navy Blue Angels F-9 Cougar replica at the rest area and representations of their flight formation decorate the highway overpasses!

 

We continued our way west through Alabama passing by the USS Alabama that is stationed in Mobile.  This 680 ft. battleship was launched and commissioned in 1942 and had its last run in 1946.  During her years of service, she earned 9 battle stars and was called “Lucky A” during World War II because she lost no American
lives on board due to enemy fire.  She’s a National Historic Landmark located at Battleship Park (we made a stop there a few years ago).  We could see her before passing through the 3,000 ft. long George Wallace Tunnel that takes you under the Mobile River where I-10 then continues on above Mobile Bay.

 

Continuing through Alabama and Mississippi was fairly uneventful, but it was kind of cool to see the old and new Vicksburg Bridges side by side spanning across the Mississippi River.  We took the new one (old one is closed) crossing over into Louisiana, and while in LA we tracked down a Popeye’s Chicken (www.popeyes.com) cause Russ was havin’ a cravin'…and it was mighty good!!

 

Spring seemed to be in the air and on the ground with lots of flowers and trees in bloom as we traveled across the south.  I tried to snap some pictures as we sped by so here’s a sampling including the bluebonnets that seemed to be everywhere in Texas, which would be our next stop.

 

  We were running a little ahead of schedule and decided to contact our friends, Kelly and Lynne, who live in DeSoto just south of Dallas.  We figured the last time we had seen each other was early 2008 though we’ve continued to stay in touch all this time.  Kelly and Russ worked together for a number of
years, and we’ve always remained close friends.  They picked us up at the Walmart near them and took us for a fantastic breakfast at Acapulco’s (sorry no website), basically a little hole-in-the-wall place with huge servings!  We sat and visited for a couple of hours, and our server couldn’t have been nicer.  Afterwards they gave us a
little tour of the town before driving us back to the RV.  It was Lynne’s birthday, and she was expected at a family gathering that afternoon otherwise our visit would have been longer.  It was so great to get this chance to catch up and see each other again.  We all vowed that we can’t let it be another 7 years!

 

We continued on down the road a bit stopping for the night at the Walmart in Bowie, TX, and the next day in Amarillo making our way to New Mexico.  We have often marveled at the amount of money that’s spent on state signage and what we refer to as highway art.  We think NM outdid themselves with their state welcome and just look at the beautiful décor not just on the overpass but also underneath.

 

     Since we were still a little ahead of schedule, we decided to contact our friends, Cathy and John, in Albuquerque to see if they might be available for a visit.  They were our neighbors in the late 80s when we lived there, and I even drove her to the hospital when her firstborn came into this world
because John was working.  I actually held Anna when she was just a few hours old, but a few months later, Russ got transferred and eventually we all lost touch.  Cathy and I recently reconnected so the timing was perfect! We parked at the Sandia Resort & Casino (www.sandiacasino.com), and they arrived after work with
pizza and Greek salad from Dion’s (www.dions.com) …very yummy!  Anna showed up as well, but unfortunately her fiancé wasn't feeling well and her brother couldn’t make it either.  But what a thrill to see Cathy, John, and Anna after all these years!  We had a great visit, but they had to work the next day so finally had to leave.  Had we known what the next couple of days would bring, this visit might not have had to be so rushed, but more on that in the next blog post.  Hopefully it won’t be anywhere near 20 years before we meet up again!

 

Before closing I’ll share a couple more photos from our stay there such as the RV with the beautiful Sandia Mountains behind (shame I didn’t get the sun shining on them!), Abby enjoying a little off-leash time, and just one of the hot air balloons we were fortunate to see during our brief time there.