On Safari at the OKC Zoo

 Saturday we put on our safari gear and hit the OKC Savannah, well the Zoo anyway. It turned out to be one of the nicest days of the week and the zoo was packed. It was a great day out with Josh, Kaileigh and our little Grand Daughter Clara, but by the time the day ended we were all pooped.

 Young Giraffe stretching for a bite.

 Grey Wolf caught in mid howl.

 Mercat checking us out.

 Kaileigh was fascinated with the color and stripes on this guy.

 Not what you want to see on a hike in the mountains.

 American Symbol

 Enjoying the sunshine

And his opinion of the whole thing!!!

The OKC Zoo is much nicer than I expected and it appears they are continuously making improvements. One issue that aggravated us, was the doors are left open to the rear area of the exhibits so the animals can retreat out of sight, which many of them did. We understand the animals come first, however a better exhibit design is needed, it's kinda disheartening to pay to see only half the animals. That being said as you can see, many were out and I was able to get some pretty good shots. If you would like to see more, check out the Gallery on the right side of the page.

Again, a good day out with family and the zoo is worth a visit should you be in the OKC area. Take care, hope you enjoyed the shots and we'll see you back here again.    

Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge, Louisiana

 It's been kinda slow around here this last week waiting for baby to come. Mostly just day to day life and Sheryl still trying to recover from the stomach bug we caught down in Texas. So, instead of telling you how much laundry we did or what we had for dinner each night, I thought I'd post a few shots of my venture out to the Atchafalaya NWR while we were in Louisiana. The Atchafalaya NWR is approximately 15,000 acres of wetlands, just off I-10, west of Baton Rouge (think, the 22 mile bridge) Now since it's a wildlife refuge and swamp, roads are few and far between and I only had a couple of hours. This area would be much better explored by boat.

 Bayou

 Cajun Living

 Wet Bridge

 Fog on the Atchafalaya

 Critter Track

 River Fog

Foot Bridge

Hope you enjoyed the shots, it was a cold, rainy day. I had been cooped up in the RV for several days, between he ice storm in Pensacola and the days of rain we had in Louisiana, I just had to get out, even if just for a little bit. The swamp is a beautiful and unique place and well worth a visit. Of course it's best seen by boat, so if you happen to be in cajun country, grab a guide and head out into this vast wetland, you won't be disappointed.

OKC and a Grandbaby soon to Come

We were finally able to leave Dallas behind and make it into Oklahoma City and the Tinker AFB FamCamp. The trip went smooth with no drama as we had enough of that with hitting ice on I-20 coming into Dallas. We'll be here for a month or two as we have doctors and dentist appointments. Of course the main reason for leaving warm and sunny Key West was to be with Josh and Kaileigh as they bring us another little grandbaby into the world. Speaking of which, with all the delays we had getting here, it shouldn't be long now before the little one makes her grand entrance. We'll also work on taking care of some general maintenance items on the motorhome and Jeep. Heck we may even find time for some fun stuff around town to help keep us occupied in between baby visits.
So, thats all for now, stay tuned for more from OKC and Grandbaby Central!!!

Happy Birthday Chris

 This week we've been on Dallas visiting our kids, Chris, Kayla and of course our grandson Easton. As usual when we get to visiting, pictures just seem to go by the wayside, so we'll start with the one above. We were only going to stay a couple of days, but since it was soon to be Chris's birthday, we decided to stay and help celebrate it. One thing Kayla had planned for him was a Dallas Stars Pro Hockey Game.

 It was quite a game and experience as we have never been to a professional sporting event before.

After the game, it was home to birthday cake and a little relaxing before heading back to the RV. Now for the sad part, Sheryl and I woke up the next morning feeling terrible, we don't know where we caught it but a stomach bug was in full force. I called the kids to see if they were ok and of course they were just fine. So I guess we are just getting old, since we were with the kids all day and ate the same food, getting older sucks...lol.
Today we are finally getting over it and have plans to leave for OKC in the morning as long as the weather clears. We have been trying to make it up to OKC for the birth of our newest grandbaby, but it seems as if Mother Nature has different plans for us. Each time we want to start that way, another winter storm blows our way. So hopefully we'll make it up there tomorrow, we're cutting close as she's just about to pop!
Until then, we'll see you next time.

Storm After Storm After Storm

 Wow, it seems I have been neglecting the blog lately, so we'l do a quick catch up. After leaving Sanford Florida, we made a strait shot into the panhandle area and Crestview/Eglin AFB.We stayed for a few days at the Eglin AFB Famcamp while visiting friends and family in the area, it was good to see everyone again and catch up. Our future plans were to make our way towards the Austin, TX area, however, the weather seemed to have different plans for us. With the weather changing rapidly for he worst, we thought we'd stay put here in North Florida for a bit. We did decided to move on over to NAS Pensacola for a few days, figured we would at least be heading in the right direction and just for a change of scenery if nothing else.

 Well, those couple of days, turned into a week and what a week it was. Like most of the country we were caught up in the winter storms and the ice storm that wreaked havoc on the south. The storms just seem to keep coming one after the other, if not here, they were in the area we were wanting to go. While sitting tight in Pensacola, we did get a good dusting of snow and a really good bit of freezing rain and ice. In the picture above, thats a 10 foot ice laden branch that fell from the tree above our rig and landed 8 feet away. Earlier, I had moved the Jeep out from under the trees and parked in a clearing, thank goodness I did, as anothe ice laden branch fell right where it was parked, talk about dodging a couple of bullets, we did!!!

 After a few days being cooped up in the RV, the weather had finally cleared, so it was time to shed some cabin fever. We took a ride over to the Gulf Islands National SeaShore and Ft Pickens. The part of the seashore we visited are the barrier islands directly across the bay from Pensacola.

 Ft Pickens is on of three Civil War Forts that were constructed to protect Pensacola Bay and the Naval Shipyard there. The Fort was also used during WWII as a look out and defensive position just in case.

 On of the WWII gun emplacements standing watch over the Gulf of Mexico.

 After a couple hours at Ft Pickens, the weather started to change for the worst again, so it was time to get back home to the rig. Tomorrow we head west as far as we could.

And west we headed, making it as far as south central Louisiana. We stopped in Henderson, LA and the Cajun Palms RV Resort, which was recommended bay a friend in Pensacola. Now you know how loosely the term resort is used in the RV Park world, well we can honestly say, this is a true Resort. On top of being very well maintained with paved roads and all concrete pads, there is a large clubhouse, general store, pool, putt putt golf course and even high dollar fully covered RV Spaces. By far the nicest RV Park we have ever been in.

Of course when in Southern Louisiana you have to do Cajon food. Right next to the RV Park was this gem (again recommended) Crawfish Town USA, so Sheryl and I gave it a try. All we can say is Wow, what a great place and great food, and they will even pick you up at the RV Park. So without going on and on about the place, we'll just say, if you are in the area and want some great Cajun Food, you have to try this place, heck it was good enough we went back a second time before we left.
Speaking of leaving, we ended up staying a few more days here and the weather again turned pretty bad, why drive in it if you don't have to right? We did however finally leave and have made it to Shreveport, LA and the Barksdale AF Famcamp. This is just an overnight stay, for tomorrow we;ll go into Dallas to visit our daughter and son in law and of course grandson Easton!!!. We'll be staying there through the weekend before going up into the bitter cold north of Oklahoma.
Whew........were all caught up now, just the down and dirty. Kinda odd all the RV Parks since we left Sanford and had no or very poor WiFi, hence one excuse for being lazy about the blog. Another excuse is Facebook, it's so easy to post a quick update as it's happening, makes it easy to forget to put it here. Ahhh the worries us fulltimers have, ok that's enough rambling for now, and we'll see you in Dallas next.