On the Road Again----

The Schumacher 2014 Road Trip is under way! This year we are heading to Buckeye, AZ, via Harlingen, TX, Big Bend National Park, Tucson, and Casa Grande.  We are looking forward to seeing some new areas of this great land as well as visiting family and friends.
Day 1 - We drove through Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Oklahoma - 850+ miles.   Another 625 miles -- all of them in Texas! Not the most exciting landscape, but traffic was easy and we made good time.
We traveled on the east side of Kansas City to Joplin, Missouri and then into Oklahoma on the Will Rogers Turnpike.  An interesting set up on this particular roadway, after driving 26 miles on the turnpike you need to stop at a toll booth and pay $4.  We got off at the very next exit - 2 miles later - stopped at the tollbooth again and are given a $2 refund!
The next section of the drive was through Muskogee, OK and a bunch of other small towns.   Interestingly, much of this drive is through the Choctaw reservation and the only radio station that we could get was Mexican Polka music!!! Yes, Mexican Polka Music!!  Stopped in Durant, OK for the night.
Day 2 - was a rather short driving day, only about 300 miles from Durant to San Antonio - The toughest part of the day was getting around the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. That is one big, busy area!

We spent a relaxing afternoon and evening in San Antonio, strolling the River Walk, a river cruise, with lots of architectural and historic information and a great dinner on the River Walk.  It was warm even for San Antonio so we were able to eat at a sidewalk table.

Day 3 was a quick 250 mile drive from San Antonio into Harlingen - through lots of wide open prairie.  The hawks were having a field day - I'm not very good at hawk ID, so you'll have to take my word for it,  I think most of them were red tail hawks. 
So we are here in the Valley of the Palms - enjoying the (much) warmer than Minnesota weather. Visiting with Mom and Dad, cousins Jim, Judy & Don, Aunt Lorraine and lots of other friends.  I'm sure we'll have a few more pictures and adventures to share by the time we leave next week.

The link below will take you to an online album.  I need to figure out the slideshow link, but it isn't working the way it used to, so I'll need to check that out tomorrow!

2014 Road Trip Part 1

I think the slideshow is working now - you won't be able to see it on mobile devices tho - you'll need to click on the album above to see the pictures on your mobile device.
Slideshow for the pics above: