Viki and I spent the morning at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. We stopped to visit for a few moments in the small and charming Japanese Garden.

Here is a close-up of the beautiful little fence that encloses the garden.

The overstory is the layer of foliage in a forest canopy or the trees that are a part of that canopy. The Overstory is also the title of a Pulitzer Prize winning book that Margaret and I just finished reading.

Paul and I made the final stop of our recent RV trip at Stephen F. Austin State Park in San Felipe, TX. The park is packed full of big, beautiful trees. As I have spent a lot of time reading and thinking about trees lately, these really caught my eye.

I saw this little butterfly on the beach in Alabama. The sun was so bright I couldn’t see my phone screen, so I had no idea if she was even in the frame when I took the photo. Margaret says it’s a good picture – so I’m posting it!

We spent four days in Orange Beach Alabama, famous for the beautiful white “sugar sand”.  We had such a relaxing stay. And I think they have the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen in the continental United States.  Naturally, my photo doesn’t do it justice.

Last night we stayed in a very nice Forest Service campground right on the Ohio River near New Matamoras, Ohio.  This is the beautiful view from our window…

Paul reserved this particular spot because of the great view. As you can see, there are lots of trees…

The view from the other side shows just how close we are to the tree once our slide was out. We aren’t touching the tree, we had about an inch to spare.

It was a very tight fit. Paul did a good job of shoe-horning us in!

We are in Geneva Ohio. Our 1800 mile drive north has not been rewarded with cool weather.  Regardless of the temperature, the calendar and the produce proclaim autumn.

We’ve seen lots of pumpkins and gourds.

Mums and Fall Asters abound.

Yesterday we drove from Missouri to Kentucky. We crossed the Mississippi River and then, almost immediately, the Ohio River. Apparently we were just upstream from where those rivers join. Between Missouri and Kentucky, we briefly passed through Illinois.

We’ve crossed the Mississippi River a number of times and have always been on enormous bridges. But yesterday we “lucked” into the two tiniest, skinniest little bridges imaginable to cross these two huge rivers. It was so tight we almost bumped mirrors with an oncoming semi.

Don’t look down!

The other morning we were all packed up and ready to head off for a long day of RV driving when I remembered a photo that I just had to take. I asked Paul to hang on and made a quick dash to get my picture.

On my return he asked what was so interesting that I needed a photo. “A stump…a really good looking stump”. Let’s just say that Paul doesn’t love a stump as much as I do! But he is very patient.

It’s not just the stump – it’s also the interesting fungus.

We’re on the first leg of our extended RV trip to Ohio to spend time with Paul’s family. Tonight we are staying in Glen Rose TX (near Fort Worth) at a funky old park operated by the city.  In addition to RV sites it has a gigantic swimming pool, cabins for rent and is home to an annual blue grass festival. It has a distinctly 1950’s vibe.

Here is a row of rental cabins cleverly and aptly named –

Shack

Shanty

and Hut!

I’ve been very attracted to the floral shop at my grocery store lately with all the pretty fresh flowers. It’s been so hot and dry here that everything in the yard has turned brown. I guess the floral shop is providing a colorful reprieve.