RV trip, week 33

We’ve polished off a lot of Blue Bell ice cream in recent weeks, so when we discovered the Blue Bell Creamery was located in Brenham TX, we had to take a tour. Best of all, the tour included ice cream.

While at the creamery, I discovered a local Jersey farm that welcomed visitors. Natalie says Jerseys are her favorite. The other girls were not interested in milking a cow.

Natalie got to try her hand at milking. Success!

I did too. Funny, I didn’t notice that fresh pile at the time:

We came home with these farm-fresh eggs. The blue-ish ones are from a so-called “easter egg” chicken which has a gene responsible for the blue shells:

…and of course I had to get some raw milk. Jon, being the milk connoisseur of the family, thought it would taste more exotic but agreed it was just really good milk. The cream was wonderful in my coffee!

That day was also a travel day, so it was a convenient opportunity to wash the RV (one can tell it’s Spring now, unlike the bug-gut-free Winter we enjoyed.)

While we were out, Jon stopped at a tire place to use their air compressor. The air compressors at gas stations — and even truck stops, surprisingly — just can’t seem to put in the full 120psi that our RV tires take.

Since visiting Kennedy Space Center in Florida a few years ago, Houston has been on our “must see” list.

We also got to tour Johnson Space Center and saw the new Mars rover:

I intentionally picked a day when they would have an astronaut as a guest speaker. I am so glad I did, as that turned out to be the best part of the day.

We traveled again on Saturday, stopping at this state park for a picnic lunch. There were more bugs! Jon and Carrie were driven inside because of the gnats at this site. They weren’t bothering Emily, Natalie and me as much, maybe we needed a shower?!

We stopped in here too for a little more Texas history:

When we arrived at our campground, we found this little spot across the street. We walked there after dinner:

The girls wanted to take a dip, but the pool was unfortunately not quite ready for summer. (That green water was not a festive nod to St. Patrick.)

This is a pretty large campground, so the girls and I are examining the map to figure out the best way to get around:

The sign was promising, but we haven’t seen any yet:

But the wildflowers are plentiful:

And there are lots of butterflies:

Since the girls preferred activity wasn’t open, we dug out the basketballs from the storage compartments. It was fun to do something new.  There isn’t much in this area in the way of field trips, so I am looking forward to a slower week, catching up on our school work and maybe a little more basketball.