May 31, 2006

Ok, Wednesday, the 31 of May.  How about that.  Tomorrow is June 1.  Guess we'll miss the Lebanon Street Fair.  Not much of a loss for us there.  It rained off and on most of the day today.  Apparently, there is a low pressure area in the Gulf of Mexico, that is just sitting there, and supposedly, this will give us rain the rest of the week.  High temps today were only in the mid to upper 70's.  Actually, that feels good to us instead of the 90 + temps we had for the last week or so. We went on a little field trip today.  Headed south on I-45 towards Conroe.  I found a little computer shop and bought an extra hard drive for my computer.  I want to make sure I can keep a current backup for this thing.  After leaving the computer shop, we headed further south towards Houston.  There is a community there named The Woodlands.  Appropriatly enough, there is also a mall there call "The Woodlands Mall".  Go figure.  Anyhow, this is not your momma's normal shopping mall.  When we entered the  mall parking lot, there was a sign on the right side - "Valet", meaning Valet Parking.  When was the last time you pulled into a mall and had a Valet park your car?  Well, we chose not to avail ourselves of that service.  Getting inside the mall, it was quickly evident that this is not the type of mall we normally shop in.  Some of these were "high end" stores with price tags to match.  Surprisingly to us, there were a decent amount of people inside shopping, and by that I mean "buying".  Most of the shoppers were carrying a bag or two of stuff they had bought.  Hey, gotta keep that economy moving.  This was a two level mall, with a street level, and an upper level.  It was not a partial upper level either.  There were as many stores upstairs, as there were downstairs.  Stores including, Abercrombie and Fitch, Sears, J.C.Penny, Dillards, Foley's, were there.  Leaving there, we headed a little further south to stop in at a Flying J.  Sherry was looking for a t-shirt that had Texas written on it, and Flying J has some inexpensive clothing.  Like 3 for $10.00, or $3.99 each.  Most of what was on the rack was larger sizes, but after looking for a little while we found one that would fit her.  Definately worth the couple of mile drive, as opposed to the $15.99 and up at the mall.  Heading north again, we stopped in at Gander Mountain.  They have a retail store just north of Houston, and we decided to take a peek inside.  Somewhat like Cabellas, but not as large.  Gander has some cute items, in addition to all of the outdoor stuff they sell.  So we are back home, now.  There are a few pictures posted tonight.  Hope you enjoy them.

This pic was taken just to show the architecture of a couple of the stores.  Most did not look like this.

And then there is Coyboy Kia.  If you look close, you can see a handgun in his left hand.

Back at Thousand Trails.  Some people just like to camp in something small.

Different angle.  These things are typically about 13 feet or so long, and can be pulled with just about anything.  They only weigh a hair over a thousand pounds or so.

Then of course there is the A-Frame.  This is a little hard sided pop up.  The A portion of it folds up or down in about 30 seconds.

Another view.

And another.  Notice the air conditioner sticking out the side.

And another.  The tow vehicle is longer than the camper.

And yes, they had a couple of greyhound dogs.

Of course, the next guy was in a tent.

Then of course, we have the older rigs.  This is a late 80's Southwind, by Fleetwood.

And an early 80's Southwind.

How about a newer Dutch Star Diesel Pusher? Really nice....

Or, maybe a Dynasty?  These things are really expensive.  Note the tag axle in the rear behind the drive axle.

Remember the guy that came in last week with a popup being pulled by a black pickup truck?  The pickup was loaded to the gills, in the rear.  This van also showed up at the same site, and just look - they have the van jammed full as well.  They brought more stuff along for a weekend, than we have for a 2 month trip.  Go figure.

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