Happy with Harvey

During our drive from Florida to Texas, we thought about what might we find in Harvey when we arrive at his storage place.  We left him there almost a whole year ago so we were afraid that critters may have gotten inside but we are lucky because he is perfect but somewhat dirty and dusty on the outside. 

We are staying in Texas for one week to get Harvey cleaned up and re-orientate ourselves to camping.

Here's Tony with Tommy the truck and Harvey the RV at our campsite in Shallow Creek RV Resort
just outside of Tyler, Texas

There is always something to do in Tyler so after cleaning Harvey inside and out; stocking the cupboards and fridge; and, getting our home organized for our five weeks adventure tour, we took off to the Tyler Rose Garden even though the roses do not start blooming until the end of April, we wanted to see how the gardens were doing and to drive the Azalea Trail which starts at the Rose Garden.

We've been to the Rose Garden once before back in 2007 when we toured the whole of Texas and thoroughly enjoyed the Rose Parade and tea with the Rose Queen and her entourage.  We saw thousands of every kind of rose as Tyler is the Rose Capital of the World and loved it.  Today, however, there was a conference going on at the Center and mostly women were displaying their arts, crafts, photography and garden skills - we walked through a Zoo Garden which was very interesting in that it contained plants named after Zoo animals such as lamb's ear, crocodile tears, elephant fern, hens and chicks, tigers tail and rabbits cottonwood.  We'll have to come back to see the roses.

Here is Lin in the Zoo Garden - an amazing creation of plants based on zoo animals!

There are two things in this photo, a beautiful Peace Rose and a beautiful blue sky.  Today is a perfect day in Texas!!

The Azalea Trail started on March 15 and runs through April 7 so we were very lucky to see the azaleas at their best as we toured the trail on April 5.  It runs for ten miles through residential gardens and historic home sites in Tyler and its wonderful neighbourhoods that are classified as a National Historic District and some of the homes are pretty nice!!

We have never seen such beautiful azaleas as we have today on this Trail - they are breathtakingly beautiful and their smell is gorgeous.  Very well done, Tyler, Texas.

On April 7, we visited Kilgore and went to the East Texas Oil Museum.  During the 1930s, Kilgore became a boom town when oil was discovered.  The museum is fascinating with its authentic recreation of tools, derricks and the way life was back then with a Barber Shop, Movie house, a Bank, Gas Station, Drug Store and General Store surrounding a road that is steeped in mud with vehicles and horses very much stuck!  Those were the days the rains came down heavily and swamped the towns!!

Here is the muddy road.  It was interesting to go into each of the stores, the bank, movie house and gas station to see the way of life back in the 1930s but it must have been tough and very hard work out in the oil fields.

This road in Kilgore is known as the "World's Richest Acre" since this is were the major oil finds were discovered - certainly before well-spacing rules were made as there were 24 wells on 10 lots of land.  But this Acre has produced billions of barrels of oil and made this part of East Texas very rich.

Tomorrow we start our journey towards Frankfort, Kentucky with overnight stays in Little Rock, Arkansas and Nashville, Tennessee.

Will write more after touring Frankfort.