2025 Airstream Travels

We are enjoying our stay here at Fredericksburg so much that we booked another full week. Today we toured the Pacific War Museum located downtown here. Why is there a Pacific War Museum in the heart of Texas? We wondered the same thing, until we learned that Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz was born and raised here. This collection of WWII memorabilia is housed in over 55,000 square feet of indoor exhibit space in two major galleries, focused on the life and leadership of Admiral Nimetz and the George H.W. Bush gallery in which the story of the Pacific War is illuminated.

We viewed over 1,000 artifacts including 15 macro artifacts such as planes, boats, tanks, and weapons. Outside the exhibits display thousands of plaques and bricks commemorating individuals and units of those who fought in WWII. There is also a Garden of Peace, a gift from the people of Japan and the Pacific Combat Zone, which features a living battlefield.

Topping off this awesome day, we stopped at a local eatery on Main Street. The Auslander is a German foods restaurant, serving great food and beer. This area was originally settled by Germans and their influence is still prevalent – especially in their local restaurants. I had a bowl of potato soup and large salad; Ron had a burger and German potato salad. He also ordered Apple Streusel to go and said it was fantastic.

Justice decided to make amends and revisit the dog park was he enjoyed meeting a couple other dogs. He was no longer grouchy bear but more like Pooh Bear!

We left Waco around 8:30am under cloudy skies, heading south to Hill Country and the next campsite in Fredericksburg, TX. It’s fairly flat around Waco but the further south we went, it became hilly and covered with scrub trees that must be a type of evergreen. We saw ranches with high fences, too with herds of what we learned later, are small antelope. I read they raise them for hunting.

Many of the ranches are also wineries, we must have seen dozens of them. It’s very picturesque area and I now know why it’s considered the most beautiful area of Texas.

The sun came out mid-morning and stayed out the rest of the drive. GPS took us off the interstate and onto some pretty narrow farm roads – all paved and in good condition but Ron had to keep both hands on the wheel to stay within the lines.

We arrived at Lady Bird Johnson Municipal RV complex around 12:00n CT. It’s a small park located at the edge of Fredericksburg and next to the county airport, a golf course, and county park complex. Truly lovely! The campsites are small, and Ron had to back in but he’s getting good at this rv stuff.

After we set up our camper, we took Justice up to the dog park adjacent to the campgrounds and the airport. The everything is bigger in Texas definitely rings true with the size of this dog park – it’s the largest dog park I’ve ever been to. There were other dogs there, all younger than Justice, who ran up to greet him and asking him to play. Justice was being grouchy bear and ignoring them, but he almost started to play once with a white dog with blue eyes who was playing in a mud puddle. I think he is tired from the drive.

There was a special fly-in today at the Airport with Santa arriving by helicopter. We didn’t see Santa land, but it’s really neat to see the planes landing and taking off.

Everyone is very friendly here and we met another Airstream couple, Deb & Steve, who are from Ohio! They are spending a month here before heading to South Padre Island on the Gulf to spend the rest of their winter.

The weather was so nice, we got out the Blackstone griddle and fixed a couple of fajitas. The park has great Wifi, cable TV, and full hookups, we are in the lap of luxury! This area has some historical sites and museums we plan to visit tomorrow.

We leave tomorrow to head further south to Fredericksburg, TX. It is 3 hours south of here in what is called the ‘Hill Country’ of Central Texas. It is a picturesque area of the State and for many, it’s considered the most beautiful.

Today it’s raining off and on with a strong cold wind out of the northwest. We hoped to get outside some, but the weather did not cooperate and most of the day was spent in the camper.

We worked on trip planning to hopefully get us in some warmer temperatures and less rain. Our next campground is the Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park and is named after the first lady and wife of former President Lyndon Johnson. The forecast calls for possibly a few warmer days but unfortunately there is a lot of cold temperatures in offing – especially next Thursday night. So, it’s either further south or west for us after Fredericksburg!

Another day of sunshine, temperatures are expected to reach 60 degrees but with abundant sunrise, very doable.

After a short day of work, we decided to visit the Magnolia Market that was created by Chip and Joanna Gaines, known for their HGTV’s Fixer Upper series. It is a unique marketplace in downtown Waco that encompasses two city blocks and is marked by two 120′ silos that were built back in the 1950s. It’s a really neat, picturesque development with quaint shops, food trucks, eateries, and retail stores.

We spent several hours visiting the area and Justice too since it’s a dog friendly area. He got to meet several other dogs and some people too. We enjoyed a pizza from a local food truck and took in all the sites.

It was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed it by the campfire.

We saw our first sunrise and sunset since leaving Ohio and what a welcome site it was! Ron & Justice have a routine each morning to walk around the campground. Justice seems to love it – not sure if it’s the walk or all the smells or that he gets to potty, but he loves it, and Ron does too.

Everyday we’ve been hearing a loud sound, like a huge jet engine landing almost making it feel like the ground is shaking. In researching it, we found out that it’s Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket testing site near Waco and that’s the sound we’ve been hearing.

Had some work to do today but with a scenic view out my window and an occasional stroll around the campground, if you got to work this is the way to do it. Justice and Ron spent most of the day outside, soaking up the sunshine and taking in the views. Ron saw 3 deer running across the field behind the camper and we see a lot of Common Crackles – large black iridescent birds with extremely long tails, eating bugs and whatever they can find at the campground. There are some Golden Eagles that nest on this lake but yet to see them, maybe tomorrow.

The gas prices are much lower here – $2.35 per gallon yesterday, hope they are in Ohio, too! Food prices are higher here though.

Rain off and on this morning but forecast has it stopping around 1:30pm CT. It’s warm, upper 60s / low 70s, and on occasion, we were excited to see blue skies – 2nd time during the past 8 days! We are starting to think our Vitamin D levels must be getting low :).

Between walks, Ron is resting up today after the long haul yesterday. I’m catching up on work, planning our next location and upcoming menus.

We haven’t had opportunity to use our Blackstone griddle or our Solo stove but think that will change starting tomorrow. So far, we are really pleased with several of the items we bought / brought along. These include: a small electric heater; Mr. Buddy a large propane heater (takes a few minutes to heat the entire camper); the Sure Call, our Cell signal booster – cuts out briefly but overall keeps us connected; Level Mate Pro – Ron is thrilled with this tool, saves time and frustration when leveling the camper; the Mellita pour over coffee pot – makes good tasting coffee with minimal fuss and has a stainless steel pot that keeps it hot for hours; the battery sensor that gives real time percent of battery used – it will really come in handy when we are on BLM areas and using solar.

Justice is doing well, enjoys the walks and all the new smells. He is sleeping well too in the camper, but he still likes to hang out in the truck at times.

It was a long drive today, 400 miles from Gulpha Gorge in Hot Springs to Midway RV Campgrounds in Waco, TX. Ron did well, getting quite comfortable pulling the Airstream and with no rain, good roads, although not ideal to travel that far in one day it went pretty well. Our goal was to stay out of the storm’s path, mission accomplished!

This is Ron’s first venture into Texas – he’s excited to be here. We saw a lot of large cattle farms enroute with houses looking like those in the TV series, Dallas from the 1970s/80s. They are large, imposing houses with brick facades and gated driveways – with fenced pastureland of hundreds of acres. The land is flat as a pancake, and you can see for miles.

We drove across a really long bridge today that crosses Lake Ray Hubbard. It was huge and we agreed that ‘everything is bigger in Texas’, including this lake. From here we soon hit the outer belt of Dallas before heading south to Waco. Traffic was a bit stressful, and I felt a little like mission control at Kennedy Space Center giving Ron updates on the route through this stretch. He passed the advanced Airstream maneuverability test today with flying colors.

It’s overcast but warmer here, currently 65 degrees with a slight chance of rain tonight and early tomorrow. After the cold front moves through the area, sunshine is in the forecast (woohoo:) but with cooler temperatures in the mid 50s during the day and mid to low 30s at night. We may have to use the furnace to make sure the water lines don’t freeze.

Midway RV Campground is on Waco Lake and a Corps of Engineers Campground, Army built and maintained. It is inexpensive and with our Senior America Pass, really inexpensive at $13 per night for electric and water. It is within Waco City limits, small with 37 campsites overlooking a lake of 79,000-acre feet of water. Good fishing here with crappie, catfish, large & smallmouth bass. Waco is also home to Baylor University, and we passed the campus enroute.

Today is our last day at Hot Springs and we decided to clean the camper inside and out, charge devices, and catch up on the blog. It’s chilly today and overcast, hope to get to some sunshine next week. We originally planned to stay in Texarkana area but after seeing the weather forecast, we opted for a longer drive day and made reservations at Waco, TX to hopefully get out of the storm’s path.

To enjoy our last night here, we picked out a local restaurant ‘The Ohio Player’ for the obvious reason and they also had good reviews on their food. It’s the oldest restaurant in Hot Springs, starting in operation since 1905 and has beautiful woodwork and decor from that era. We didn’t realize that Hot Springs was a big gangster hangout starting in the 1920s to the 1960s, and the restaurant was frequented by many: Al Capone, Bugsy Segel, Bugs Moran, Lucky Luciano, to name a few. Several other famous people also frequented the establishment including Babe Ruth in the early 1900s, Al Jolson performed at the Club in 1915, and Mae West in the mid1930s. It also housed illegal gambling and other nefarious activities throughout the early 20th century, shutting down in the 1960s. If these walls could talk quite a few interesting tales would be heard!

The food was great, and Ron enjoyed a local craft beer, Madden’s No 1, made with local spring water – he said it was delicious.

Tomorrow to Texas.

Today is laundry day at a local facility. This laundromat employs an older woman as an attendant who is extremely friendly and keeps the place spotless. I’ve not been to a laundromat in many years, but this facility gets 5 stars for cleanliness, all machines in working order, tv’s, and both washer and dryer efficiently did their job. The attendant is originally from Texas but her third husband was a truck driver and at one point, they drove through Ohio during a blizzard. That’s her experience with Ohio but she loves her job and meeting people, especially those from out of state. She made the laundry chore more enjoyable.

We went out to eat this evening at Longhorn Steakhouse (thanks Amber & Julio for the gift cards :)! We both had an awesome rib eye steak, loaded baked potato, and salad, along with a sauteed shrimp appetizer. It was excellent!

Finally, the forecast is calling for no rain and it’s a great day to visit the Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs. Bathhouse Row today consists of 8 bathhouse buildings that were constructed between the years of 1892 and 1923. This area along with the Grand Promenade is a National Historic Landmark District.

The Fordyce Bathhouse was our first stop to get our first National Park cancellation stamp in our Passport Book (first of many!). In its heyday, this had to be a state-of-the-art facility with baths, massages, exercise rooms, and most importantly, the hot springs filled with minerals. We learned that the hot springs in this area come out of the ground at 143 degrees and it originates from rainfall over 4000 years ago that seeped through the earth and rock formations, then is forced back up from fissures to exit the ground in various locations and can never be turned off. From the intricate floor tiles to the stained-glass ceilings on 3 floors, the costumes of that bygone era, it is truly a worthwhile visit.

Our next stop was the Lamar Bathhouse to purchase our National Park stamps, a dog scarf, and a drinking bottle we filled with the local mineral water.

The promenade is a wide sidewalk flanked by large Magnolia trees (fully green) and holly bushes (in bloom with red berries) on the other side. Here’s where I sat with Santa and told him all my Christmas wishes and we walked through the Christmas ornament arch. Justice met a lot of dogs; this is a very dog-friendly area! We stopped for some refreshments at Superior Bathhouse brewery for a beer for Ron, water for Justice and me. The brewery provided a water bowl and a free doggie scarf for all 4-legged visitors.

At several points, you can access hot springs coming right out of the mountains. Dipping our hands in, you can feel how hot the water is – really amazing.

From here we opted to visit the Observation Tower for some beautiful views overlooking the Hot Springs area. There is a long and winding road leading to the Tower and after parking you enter the visitor center to take an elevator up to the top where you can walk around the observation deck. It is a spectacular view of the town and surrounding countryside of hills and woods.

Later in the evening, at the campsite, we were going to wash dishes and discovered that our hot water tank would not come on. After several attempts to no avail, we knew there was a problem. We googled local RV repair and found a company that makes house calls. In a couple hours, the repair technician arrived and after a few minutes of testing, he determined that our thermocouple was bad. A few minutes and a couple hundred dollars later, he had us back in hot water.

Today was a restful day of no travel, walks, and catching up on work. Ron and Justice enjoyed a 1/2 mile trail straight up Gulpla Gorge Trail, crossing the creek that runs through the park. Justice couldn’t pass up a perfectly good opportunity to take a dip, jumping in the water for a short time.

A quick trip into town for our 2nd Roku purchase and later was able to get it set up to watch some shows. We made BLTs for supper and enjoyed hot showers later. It was nice to have a slow day to rest and relax.

It was a short drive today of 185 miles from West Memphis to Hot Springs. Rain again but with the shorter day, it wasn’t as difficult, and we had made reservations for 5 nights at the National Park. We booked our site through Recreation.gov and unfortunately upon arrival, we discovered our site had a steep incline and we couldn’t make it work. But the park service in their infinite wisdom, allows for changes to be made if another site is available. The neighboring site #8 was available and we were able to transfer our reservation to it.

This is a lovely campground, very small with 44 sites. It is in a gorge with a small creek running through it. The sites are close but still a lovely setting to camp in. We are so excited to be here and look forward to getting our first National Park stamp in our Passport book.

We were experiencing connectivity issues and decided to buy a new laptop. Not sure if it was laptop issue or phone issue but the new laptop is nice. After buying the laptop we ran into a WalMart for a few supplies and since we forgot the Roku we were going to bring with us, we bought one there. Somehow between buying the Roku and getting into the truck, the Roku disappeared – must of fell out of my bag in the pouring rain :(. Hopefully someone else is enjoying a free Christmas present!

Enroute back to the campground we went thru a Chick-fil-a for supper. I was thrilled because they offered gluten-free buns and grilled chicken. When we got back to the campsite, we discovered they gave us 2 GF buns – let’s just say Ron is really glad he doesn’t have to eat GF.

Hooked up the new laptop and was able to connect with our phone’s hotspot.

So glad to be staying in one place for 5 nights and everything is working well on the camper.

Started out in the morning in a light rain that stayed with us all day. It wasn’t too heavy until we got to Nashville, where it was a steady downpour. Traffic was heavy and with the road construction, we were down to 2 lanes – a concrete barrier on the right and semis on the left made for a white-knuckle day for a few hours. After we passed Nashville, traffic lightened up and the rain stopped – I think we passed our first Airstream navigation test with flying colors!

It was a long day driving of 5 1/2 hours in and out of rain, but we made it to our overnight stop at the Memphis KOA. It’s actually in Arkansas but right over the bridge from Tennessee. During our drive we crossed the mighty Mississippi which is awe-inspiring.

We didn’t have to unhook our camper this night either since the site was level and we were heading out again in the morning. For supper, we made spaghetti with our homemade sauce from home (delicious), and then we were to bed early again.

Heading to Hot Springs, AR tomorrow and our first National Park!

After taking care of some last minutes details, we started our journey to the Southwest. Our first reservation was made enroute and we arrived around 3:30pm at Dad’s Campground for our first overnight. The campground was located near the highway and when checking in, we met an elderly (70+) woman who was travelling to one of her kid’s homes in Texas. She is a full-time rv’er of 20+ years who travels between 3 of her kid’s homes. She was very kind and excited to learn this was our first major trip and wished us the best.

The gentleman who checked us in was also extremely nice and apparently an Iraq War Veteran (from his hat). He told us about a nice Mexican restaurant within walking distance and shared a few tips about Texas. Our site was a pull-thru and was level – a great advantage since we did not have to unhook. Very kind and accommodating camp host.

We got set up and checked our Level Mate pro to make sure we were level enough that the refrigerator would work on shore power. Then to dinner at the restaurant – it was really good food and along with the margaritas, we had a nice time.

I think we were all ready to get in bed early and slept well.