WanderWomenAway: Wander Women's Wanderings.....Dec 2015

In July of 2015, we sold our home and traded our 5th wheel trailer for a newer, bigger model. Off we went! We were on the road until November 2.

We also made a trip to the Austin area for Christmas with Gail's side of the family ......

Fabulous meal at J&B's Beautiful Home

Connette in her element with Grandkids!

.....and a trip to Mississippi in early 2016 to meet up with some dear friends from Florida for a long weekend. Including stops in Louisiana and Arkansas.

Davis Bayou National Campground, Ocean Springs, MS

Caught up with two more friends at a casino in Gulfport.

Lovely little private campground in Arkansas

Continued my quest to visit the Presidential Libraries. The William Jefferson Clinton Library/Museum was my third, following JFK and FDR in 2015.

We left home again April 21 and spent the night in Sweetwater, TX. We stayed at the Nolan County Coliseum -- they have RV spaces primarily for events, but there weren't any campers there that night. There were a lot of horse trailers, tho! Some sort of collegiate rodeo event Fri-Sun.

The main reason for stopping in Sweetwater was so we could finally visit the National WASP WWII Museum on Friday. WASP=Women Air Service Pilots, the precursor to WAF (I enlisted in the 70's). It was an awesome experience. Highlight was seeing my mother's cousin's name and photo!

Pointing at cousin Mary Jo later in life

When I enlisted, I could only dream of flying!

Friday we moved on to Carlsbad, NM, where we stayed at Carlsbad RV Park, right on National Park Highway.

Checked out the visitor's center at Carlsbad Caverns National Park on Saturday and then went on down to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, just across the state line back into TX, having decided to see the caverns with an earlier start on Sunday. GMNP (GUMO, they call it) includes the highest peak in Texas--Guadalupe Peak at 8751 feet. We visited Frijole Ranch Museum, which is a few restored buildings--home, school, spring house and barn---that were all locked up! Nice hike from there to Manzanita Spring. Gail saw a couple of horned toads, but I didn't. Darnit.

Sunday, we took the Natural Entrance hike down to the Big Room (did I mention that the elevators are down for maintenance??). Five minute walk from visitor's center, then switchbacks down. Covered 1.5 miles with a 750' drop in elevation. Then a 1.5 mile stroll around the Big Room, then the 1.5 miles back UP the 750'. These two Medicare Broads got it done, tho! We don't need no stinkin' elevator! We did hit the swimming pool as soon as we got back to the RV park, tho.

The next day an elevator would have been nice to help us in and out of the trailer! LOL. I had sore shins and hips and Gail had sore calves and hips. But we still took a couple of walks around the campground and then went into Carlsbad to the Pecos River Beach Park. Beautiful area and Molly has sure enjoyed having us with her all day today.

We were anxious to get on to Arizona to see Sherry & Ray, but a day or two of really big winds kept us at Carlsbad an extra night.

On our way to see S&R, we stopped at Kartchner SP on S's recommendation. SO glad we did! The hike around the park was cool and the cavern was awesome! Unfortunately, photography is forbidden inside. Plus the "nursery cave" was closed due to birthing season.