December 19-21, 2014, Nacogdoches, Texas to Chicago, Illinois

After driving a week to get the bus to a spot warm enough that it won’t freeze we left it in Nacogdoches and drove to Chicago to spend Christmas with John’s family.

Gas just kept getting cheaper. Too bad we didn’t have the bus to fill up here. The cheap gas is in a town on the Texas border that is surrounded by clay soil. It is a huge pottery producing area, most of the terra cotta pots for plants that are produced in the US are made here. Welcome to Arkansas.  In Arkansas we discovered that most of the leisure wear has a camo pattern.

 

Vista of Arkansas. Trees as far as you can see. In Newport, Arkansas where we spent the first night one of the Christmas lights displays on the lake included a sea serpent!

Welcome to Missouri. In Pocohontas, Missouri there is a 4 foot meteor in front of the court house.

Vista of Missouri. Lots of hardwood trees. The home of Anheuser-Busch in St Louis Missouri.

 

The Gateway arch in St Louis. The state line between Illinois and Missouri is in the middle of the Mississippi river, so the sign is on the middle of the bridge. We spent the second night in Litchfield, Illinois. It is on the old historic route 66. The museum was closed tonight and tomorrow so we could not see it. We did have dinner at an old route 66 attraction diner, the Ariston Cafe.

     

John wearing his napkin in the Ariston Cafe. We were very brain dead after so much driving. An Illinois vista. Lots and lots of farms.

When we arrived at Dean and Bridgett (John sister) Timson’s house we went for a long walk in the Brookfield zoo. It was so nice to not sit in the car. . . Ursula this giant walrus was a long time resident of the zoo. When she passed away they built this statue of her, and it is dressed for Christmas. John, Me and Dean with the polar bears.

 

John, this cute little girl who wanted to be in our photo, Bridgett and Dean with a loon at the zoo. Patrick (John’s nephew) and his wife Kristen Timson came over for dinner and brought their new baby Samantha Rose-all dressed for Christmas.

 

Bridgett feeding Samantha Rose while the rest of us have a yummy pasta and meatball dinner. Kristen, John, Dean and Patrick.

December 18, 2014 Nacogdoches, Texas

We toured Foretravel motor home factory today. Foretravels are  top of the line, extremely well made  custom coaches. The Fore family started making coaches out of their home in 1967. The first coach they made was a high school project made by father and son. They make about 20 a year and they are all custom. They used to make more ready made coaches, but the market has changed and they have a small niche market now.

This is a chassis. An engine installed on the back of the chassis.

The front of the coach. The green thing is the generator. It is on a bed comes out so you can work on the generator. The second photo is the beginning work on a slide. They make everything they can here in the shop. They have their own fiberglass , wood, paint and who knows what else here.

This coach has the washer dryer installed in the back, and the walls for the bathroom and kitchen. You can see the huge bays underneath here. There are two full sized storage bays, the rest hold the batteries, tanks, inverters, heaters, compressors etc.

The front of the same coach. Lots of wiring. The generator is in the in position. Andrew our tour guide and John examining the wiring.

The top or roof of the coach is in the fore ground. Sides, slides and roof on this one.

The front of another coach. Andrew and John looking at the next two newest coaches to come off the line. They are finishing them up to take to a big RV show in Tampa in January.

The cabinet shop. John and Andrew are looking at the gas, water and waste tanks.

Andrew showing us around the new 2015 IH-45. IH stands for Iron Horse. There is a TV on the outside. In the kitchen is a pull out drawer dish washer.

And the TV coming down from the ceiling in the front.

December 17, 2014 Nacogdoches, Texas

We came to Nacogdoches to see the Foretravel motor coach factory.

Foretravel was one of the types of coaches John considered buying when he was RV shopping. But he found a better deal on our Country Coach. We went to the Foretravel factory today hoping for a tour, but will have to wait till tomorrow. Here is the factory and the new 2015 models. In their lobby they have this 1970 model, number 48 produced. Outside and inside shots. It even had a bathtub in the bathroom.

Inside the 2015 models are a little too fancy for us, but they are lovely. They are all electric, which would mean that they need to be plugged in all the time. Could not run out and spend 2 weeks in the middle of the desert in one of these. Two bathrooms, very fancy shower. The beds are like recliners and you can change the positions of each side, but if you want to snuggle your sweetie you get to sleep in the crack between the two halves.

Coming from Colorado where there are no leaves on the trees it is nice to see green leaves, and blooming camellias. This is the historic first University here in Nacogdoches.

  Inside the university there is a museum. Downtown historic Nacogdoches. Even still has the same brick streets from 1923 .

   

Saw this great rocket ride in an antique shop.

December 16, 2014 Nacogdoches, Texas

Another 200 mile day today. We drove from north east Texas to south east Texas.

We drove through Paris, Texas. Did not find the Eiffel tower there. There was supposed to be a statue of Jesus with a cowboy had, but John didn’t want to drive around town looking for it. The bottom of the photo is historic downtown Paris. A couple other sights. Armadillo eggs stand, you know you are south when you see crawfish for sale and a memorial to Bo Pilgrim, he had a chicken processing plant that employed the whole town. We have been seeing dead armadillos and possums by the road, another sign of the south.

As we headed south in Texas the trees got taller, then we were in pine forests.  I had heard that east Texas had trees, but I really didn’t believe it. This part of Texas looks more like Louisiana than Texas. The bottom part of the photo is the turn off into the RV park we are in . Camp Tonkawa Springs. I like the Indian chief in an inner tube on the sign. This slow sign is in front of  the office.

The bus at Tonkawa Springs RV park. We walked down to the spring, they have swimming here. Only in the 60’s today, so no swimming for us.

     

We practically have the place to ourselves. Very peaceful here. There are Sika deer and guinea hens. They say the deer will eat from your hand. They call the hens the mafia. They seem more like a group of hysterical women running around together squawking as they run.  We paid for a month here. It is cheaper than two weeks here, and much, much cheaper than two weeks at the place in Louisiana we had planned on leaving the bus while we drive the car to Chicago for Christmas with John’s family.

 

Trees with leaves and berries on them. I only recognize the holly trees. It was a sad day for our basil plants today. They have been traveling around with us for about a year. They did not survive being indoors in Colorado. They were infested with white flies and aphids, also got a little frost bit trying to get some sun outside in Colorado. We tried all kinds of sprays, but the bugs just kept coming back. We had to euphonize them today. We also don’t have room for any more pesto in our freezer. Here are the 20 cups of leaves becoming pesto, the bugs that fell off on my pants while I was plucking the leaves off and the full freezer, the first and 4th shelves are packed with pesto. 

The plants and their infestation. We will adopt some more plants and raise them to travel with us.

I found out later that there was an Eiffel tower Paris and it had a red cowboy hat on it. I got this photo from the internet because I could not talk John into driving back to see it.