The HUGE state of TEXAS!

Frist town we visited in Texas. Fort Stockton. We spent the night in Walmart parking lot next to the local carnival. The boys and I rode the Crazy Mouse 3 times (ugh for me)! It is the largest mobile roller coaster in the world! The sweet southern gentlemen workers let us ride it for free. Boys loved it, but my stomach did not!

Stopped for a stretch break in this tiny town. Beautiful park with a Davey Crockett memorial, surrounded with pecan trees

Appleby family signing our camper in Bastrop, TX

Aunt Susan

Horses that live right next to Aunt Susan

Michelle Smith

Ian Appleby

The whole beautiful Appleby fam!

Exploring Austin. It was hot hot hot here! 96 degrees with 70% humidity!

Hanging in the grass waiting to see the bats at night at Congress Street bridge in Austin

Hanging out at Perdernales Falls State Park outside of Austin

Celebrating 20 years on marriage in Austin!

Curren with his birthday present HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Curren's Birthday 4/25/11. We waited 3 days in Bastrop for his new E-Revo RC car to arrive. Everyday for 2 weeks he said" I wish I had my E-Revo." or " If I had my E- Revo, I would drive it on that path or that ramp or that dirt or those rocks" He was obsessed! Now he has it and is loving it!

Easter Sunday in San Antonio. The poor easter bunny had to catch 2 buses and walk 2 miles to get those sweet boys their Easter baskets.

Next is San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Port Aransas, Rockport, Texana and beyond

New Mexico

New Mexico is a beautiful State. It offers so many amazing sights and beautiful campgrounds.

First we stayed in Albuquerque, but didn't do any thing fun, just got new tires. Boring, but very much needed! Oh and I got a pedicure. Not so boring, but very much needed!

Next we went to Elephant Butte outside the town of Truth or Consequences. This was a great spot on the lake, but the winds were blowing up to 70 mph!!. We could hardly walk on the beach without getting pelted with sand. We had to carry Teddy it was so bad! The next morning was super nice and calm and we enjoyed hanging on the he beach, digging in the sand and picking up trash. Zane even found a whole string of old, dead dried up fish. Ich!

One day we spent at the White Sands National Park. That was a blast! The sand was warm and soft and bright white from the gypsum sands blowing into the area. Some of the dunes were 80 feet high. We rented a saucer to ride down the dunes. Even Teddy got to play. That was one of our favorite days so far! That night we stayed at a beautiful camp ground called Oliver Lee with gorgeous views of the Valley on one side with us tucked up near the Mountains.

Lastly before heading out of New Mexico, we hit the Carlsbad Caverns. So amazing!! The stalactites and the stalagmites with truly Gods work. Too cool! These pictures just don't do it justice though.

New friends

• We met a great family when we arrived at the Petrified Forest on Thursday. The Munday family pulled into the Visitors center as we were. They http://mundaytravelers.blogspot.com/ have been traveling for over 10 months now and are heading back to their The home in Canada. We all hit it off and ended up spending the whole day together, exploring the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. So much fun meeting another family like ours! The boys really hit it off and were having guns fights, Legowars and even became Jr. Rangers together.




• The Mundays are the first to sign the back of our camper.




• Wishing the Mundays safe travels!

The Petrified Forest and Painted Desert are really interesting. They made a really big deal about not stealing the petrified wood. They even showed a film of a guy being arrested and handcuffed for stealing the wood. Looking at the hillsides of the forest, you can see what the ravages of what human hands can do. Chunks of wood blasted by dynamite are all over the place.

Meteor Crater

The Meteor Crater was cool. The museum was very informative and had a lot of interactive things for the kids to do. The actual crater was not as exciting for the boys, but the story behind how is got there and how fast it was formed is mind blowing. It was formed in 10 seconds! The Meteor Crater is huge. 550 feet deep and could handle 20 football fields with 2 million fans watching! Crazy.