Planning for a visit to the Lone Star State

     Last year at this time I was recovering from cancer surgery.  Our planned trip to Texas had to be postponed.  I am so happy that this year Rick and I are both healthy and strong, and ready for another long RV trip.  We took many short RV trips with our family and a long car trip to Florida in the spring, but it has been more than two years since our last long RV trip to visit the many narrow gauge trains in Colorado.
     Like many RV'ers we have a map on our camper door which has stickers for each of the many states to which we have traveled.  It would be nice to get them all filled in - I can't remember just how many we still have to visit - although Hawaii will probably never get an official RV sticker even though we have been there often by plane.  So looking at the map I saw that a trip which would fill in Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana needed to be planned.
    I have talked about the author Nevada Barr who writes mysteries featuring a female National Park Ranger.  The books are set in parks all over the U.S.  Two of the recent books have settings that we will visit on this trip:  Big Bend National Park in Texas and New Orleans Jazz Historical National Park in Louisiana.  One stop along the way will be to the International Quilt Study Center and Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska.  We will be driving along the Gulf coast and hoping that both the hot weather and any fall hurricanes have passed.  The trip should give us another month of summery weather, though, and then we will be home in time for Bennett's birthday and Thanksgiving - we just can't miss family gatherings!
     It is hard to say goodbye to our grandchildren but we will be talking to them on FaceTime as often as we get good Internet connection.  Bennett's class has a story about a lost Gingerbread Man who is wandering around.  We will be sending postcards from many states to the classroom from the Gingerbread Man.  A fun project!   I look forward to traveling with all of you again.  Our first stop will be in Iowa.