Jan 30, 31, 2012 Blessing Hotel & Spaghetti Dinner

Monday morning - take car to Craig's Tire to fix the lights on the car - the passenger side light was not working, and I got stopped Friday night and was given a written warning by a policeman...grrr.  So, after an hour and a half they said they needed to order a part, come back tomorrow. 

I came home and we decided to go for a ride - and ended up in Port Lavaca where we decided to drive on to Blessing, TX.  Our friends, David & Janet recommended the Hotel Blessing - and OMG were they ever right!  The hotel is fabulous, and they serve lunch on two old wood burning stoves, it is an all you can eat buffet.  It is truly amazing - for a Monday here is what the pots and pans held:  First of all, lots of salads...tossed, broccoli, coleslaw with apples, applesauce, pickled beets, fruit salad, fresh yeasty homemade rolls, cornbread, and on the stove - green beans w/bacon, hominy w/jalepenos, corn, butter beans, spinach.  Mashed potatoes and fluffy rice.  Beef tips with mushroom gravy, roast beef slabs, country fried steak, pork chops that were 1.5 inches thick, breaded and fried...apple cobbler and cake, ice tea and coffee...and the bill was $17 for both of us!!!  WOWOWOWOW!!!! 

On the drive home David slept most of the way, he gets tired so easily any more - it is worrying but we go on :)

This morning it was back to Craig's Tire to get the light fixed.  I highly recommend this garage - they did the same thing that the Chevy garage did in Wisconsin the only difference is that the bill here was $43...and WI was over 200.  Hmmm, stay away from dealers!!!

This evening we joined our friends Janet & Dave at their RV park, Coastal Oaks for a spaghetti dinner - it was excellent, but the best thing about it was the company! 

We are now snuggled in for the night, and tomorrow we head down the road to Mission TX, where we will continue to eat our way through Texas :) 

Dave and Janet - we had a wonderful week - and we'll look forward to seeing you in PA!!!

Jan 29, 2012 Butter Churn in Port Aransas

Well, we continued to eat our way through Texas, being picked up by Dave and Janet and chauffeured down to Port Aransas, where we met with Mary and Don at a restaurant called the Butter Churn. 

Once again, they didn’t steer us wrong – it was a wonderful buffet with country fried steak, fried chicken, fish, pasta, all sorts of salads, cornbread, fresh yeast rolls, 8 or 9 veggies, and wonderful desserts.  I did not take pics of the buffet – there were too many people milling around, but here is one of the two couples we enjoyed with lunch! 

We ate our way through the buffet, and then we shopped at the Dollar Tree, looking for ‘solar dancing flowers’…unfortunately they had none :( 

We came home and I did some laundry, and hit the hay early. 

Jan 26 – 29 Eating our way through Rockport TX

Well, we are poorer by about $900 – new water heater plus labor :(  The good news is that one of the places here had one in stock, and the repair guy had time to put it in, AND we now have lots and lots of lovely hot water!  Woohoo!

Friday was a get ‘er fixed day – and Friday we went to Port A Pizzeria where we had wonderful salad bar and pizza buffet!  We went with Dave and Janet of course, and with two of their friends, Don and Mary.  A good time was had by all!  Then in the evening, we went to ‘Moon Dogs’ a little restaurant/bar on the bay here in Rockport.  It had been recommended by our repair man, who said go there and get their brisket nacho’s…he really knew what he was talking about!  I am not normally a fan of nacho’s, so I ordered a burger, and it was the best burger I’ve had in a long time.  Here are a couple of pics, but believe me, they do not do justice to the SIZE of these plates!!!  Oh yeah, the nacho’s pic was after David had eaten on it for 15 minutes!!!  Whew, and it was the small!

Saturday morning I set my alarm (oh man, I hate that!) and picked up Janet at 7 am, picked up Barb right after,  and we headed over to the Allegro Key Women’s Rummage Sale, their biggest fundraiser of the year.  We stood in line for 1.5 hours, with probably 300 people behind US…it opened at 8, they will only allow 25 in at a time because of fire code.  I got a nice long sleeved denim shirt with nautical theme and a waffle maker for $4.50 total.  Janet and Barb got some nice things too!  We then went to the Rockport Vendor Market where we about got blowed away – wind gusts of 30 mph, coming off the bay and very cold!

Saturday afternoon was naps, (can’t miss that!) and then we picked up Janet and Dave and headed for the Seafood & Spaghetti House in Port Aransas that they love, and boy, can we see why!  I had the seafood feast, David had the pasta platter, there was a wonderful soup and salad bar with fresh garlic rolls…and we had zero room for dessert.  On the dessert menu was something we would have loved to try…Butterfinger cheesecake with butterfinger sauce…now doesn’t that sound SO good!  We got back home about 9 ish and just sat around and moaned about how full we were! 

We skyped with daughter Tanaya and the great grandbabies, Aliyah and Landon, and got our belly laughs in for the day - they are so very adorable!  Aliyah has an amazing vocabulary for such a little one, and Landon in his 'jumper' was a dancin' fool.  We really laughed a lot! 

Update on Abigail - she is out of ICU, only has 1 tube left, the tumor weighed 5#, and she is doing as well as can be expected.  I am still requesting prayers, as she has a long way to go for chemo - they said that she was born with the cancer but that it just became active the past couple months. 

Dave and Janet, and David my love, thanks for helping me make wonderful memories!

Jan 26, 2012

Once again, we’ve been too busy living life to write much on a blog, so an update is in order J 
We had a couple of days of getting the MH ready to roll, and on Wed, the 25^th we headed down to Rockport, TX.  Rockport is a lovely little town on the gulf coast of TX that we really enjoyed when we spent 4 months here in 2009/10. 

But, before we left, we went out to dinner with Bob and Jan Wheaton, and Armando Vasquez, who will have left the park by the time we get back on Feb 8^th!   I got to pick the place, so we went to Napoli’s in Castroville.  Oh my, what a good choice!  A couple of us had pasta combo’s, David had a Stromboli that he said was fantastic, Jan and Bob had fettuccine alfredo, 1 with and 1 without chicken ;)  A great dinner with wonderful friends – what more can you ask for!

Once we arrived here in Rockport, we called our friends, Janet and Dave and we all went to China A for a wonderful dinner.  I didn’t get any pictures last night, but I’m sure to tomorrow!

This morning we had quite a shock – I turned on the hot water heater and we were just having our coffee when we heard a ‘pop’ and then water running – we found that under the refrigerator there was hot water running – outside in a bay…so we turned off the hot water, and then all the water…called a mobile RV and tomorrow they will come and let us know if it can be fixed or have to be replaced :(  I SO hope it can be fixed!  Of course I didn’t get a shower this morning, this campground doesn’t have a ‘shower house’, so it was a cold wash and heated a pot of water on the stove to wash my hair.  After all this mess, we went for a drive, had breakfast at Alice Fay on the Bay restaurant, continued to drive around town, did some shopping at the historic district, stopped at Stevie Lew’s BBQ and picked up some ribs and pulled pork to bring home for dinner.  And that’s what we did – came home, played ball with Cinder, and I made baked sweet potatoes and salad to go with the BBQ – it was very very good and we are now snuggled in for the night.

Abigail

Abigail is the one all in pink...please say a prayer for her and her family..thank you!

Jan 21, 2012 Updates

So…update since Jan 5^th  We’ve been so busy, but not doing really exciting things.  I’ve found it is very hard to keep up a blog when you are just ‘livin’ life’! 
We have social hour at the clubhouse Mon, Wed and Friday at 4 – we go to the Nutrition Center for lunch most days when it is not chicken (David is allergic), and really, the meals are great, can’t beat the price at $3.00 each, but we go even more for the social aspect of it.  You arrive by 11:15, sit with a group of people that you may or may not know, chat for about 15 minutes and then get a really good lunch – then chat for another half an hour or so and then go about your business :)  We really enjoy it!

We’ve also remodeled our shed and repaired the driveway here at LSC.  Here are some before and after pics – it was a very busy couple of weeks!  David already has two computers on his new ‘bench’ working on them!  IF there is enough wifi mojo I’ll put some pictures up!

One of the other things we have been doing is seeing doctors – David has seen the ENT specialist at Audie Murphy, and Feb 9^th he has surgery to permanently implant ear tubes – he met with the GI specialist last week, and this past week he met with the pulmonary folks, the Optical folks for new glasses, the purple team Dr who put him on metformin – it’s official, he’s listed as a diabetic, and the pharmacy specialist to order all his new drugs!!!  We now have more appointments the week we had slated for Big Bend :(  Dang it!

Today at the clubhouse LSC hosted the ‘fiddler’s’, a great group of musicians that come here twice a year and jam – we have a wonderful pot luck lunch (I made a terrific taco casserole) and spent a couple hours listening to some pretty good music! 

Monday nights a group of us ‘gals’ go for an early dinner and then play bingo at the local church – have a great time and make a donation every week!  David and Bob usually go to a Mexican restaurant for dinner – he won’t have as much fun now – he’ll have to eat healthy!  Friday night it is bingo at the clubhouse, and Sunday is ice cream social followed by card bingo…all great fun!

We just found out that they have found a tumor on my cousin’s kidney, it is cancer, and they will remove her kidney at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh on Monday.  She will then have to endure 21 to 22 weeks of chemo…She is 6 years old, so if you could, please say a prayer for her.  Back at the beginning of October, we had a picnic and the kids went on a hayride – Abigail is the one dressed all in pink. 

Jan 5, 2012 Appts and 'stuff'

We've been quite busy, and I'll post pics when the 'shed' is done, but we have a contractor here doing some deferred maintenance, and making our shed our home! There was a piece of siding that was cracked, and we lucked out on that, as they had stored several pieces they didn't use up in the ceiling - which we found when we removed the ceiling tiles that were stained. I'm so glad we don't have to try to match the faded siding! We are having the building sealed, painted and new flooring put down. Now, our shed is just 12 X 24, so although it sounds like a ton of work and money, it is just a modest amount :) We should never have to have this done again, considering we only spend 5 months or so a year here! We also are having some driveway maintenance done - which in this case meant cutting off the cement cap at the end, removing the crumbled stuff and then tomorrow we get new concrete! Yaay!

I've had two days of training on our Membership Committee here in the park, and it is very interesting. Don't know when they want me to go back, but I'm sure they'll let me know!

Today was 2 appointments at the VA in San Antonio for David, a blood draw at 10 am, then an appt to see the ENT specialist at 3:30...he goes back in 5 weeks and they will put permanent tubes in his ears - YAY! He should never have to go through another 5 months of agony with his ears!

Between the two appointments we went to the golf cart store in and got a mirror for the golf cart - it is hard to see behind ya without one! Then we went to Sam's and got some much needed supplies - I'm planning on making Chili for a group of us for dinner on Sat evening - looking forward to that!

Thought you might want to know what our plans are for the next year...our plans are always set in jello, but here goes:

Last week of Jan we are going to try to get to Rockport to spend a couple days with our friends, Dave & Janet, then Feb 1 - 7 we will be in Mission TX with Ron and Kathy (yippee), then back here to LSC and a possible trip to Big Bend with some folks from the park...then mid March we will head toward New Orleans, spend a week or so down there, then make our way leisurely up the Natchez Trace, and on into PA, arriving there around the beginning of May. We will be spending the summer there, clearing out the house, having yard sales, and making the house 'ours', and if all goes well, we will be spending lots of time with our grandkids that have been in Japan for 3 years...Yaaay! It's possible we may have the with us for 5 - 6 weeks!

We plan to be in Myrtle Beach for the USS Tolovana reunion, which is the ship that David served on in Vietnam. From there we will mosey on down to Pensacola for the Blue Angels 'Welcome Home' show...then make our way back here to TX by Thanksgiving. That's the plan...and it can change at a moments notice...follow along and see how we are doing with it!

We love this RVing life :)

Jan 1, 2012 Happy New Year

I started out the New Year by forgetting my camera for the NY Eve party...not good!  I also started out the year by making 3 commercial pans of yummy cornbread, to go with black eyed peas, corned beef & cabbage, and too many finger foods to name!  All this with about 80 of our friends at the clubhouse here in Hondo, TX.  We had a very nice time, eating and chatting with friends!  We were home by 9:15, David was asleep in his chair by 9:45, and I was playing solitaire and watching the ball drop in San Antonio on TV...then the fireworks started here - whew, they went until about 1:15am.  Happy New Year!

I thought about the past year - Last Jan 1 I flew to Pittsburgh because my Mom was ill - and after one thing led to another she passed away March 8.  I love you mom and miss you everyday - but then you know that!

I flew back to San Antonio on April 11th, and on April 25th we started our 'summer' trip, which took us through NM, AZ, UT, CO, WY, NE, IA,WI, MI, IN, OH and back to PA.  It was a simply marvelous trip, where we were blessed by the birth of our first 'great' grandson, with few problems and was very healing.

Aug 9th we were in Cortland OH when my Dad called, said he wasn't feeling well, could I come - of course I did and within a few hours the diagnosis came back that he had pancreatic cancer.  The docs said 3 months at best, we called in Hospice and we had two and one-half marvelous months!  Dad had no pain, and we did everything he wanted to do.  He was at peace and ready to go be with mom.  We did a lot of serious porch sitting, which was what he wanted.  Dad passed away Oct 23rd.  I love you dad and miss you everyday - but then you know that!

On Nov 15th we started our journey back to TX - via Tampa to visit with our precious daughter, Dawn.  She came through the fire of a year in Afghanistan, and the loss of both her grandparents.  She is a strong, compassionate and amazing woman - I'm so very proud of her!  We got to see her 6 nights, and each one was wonderful!  I love you Dawn..but then you know that!

We went through MD, WV, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL, MS, LA, and finally back into TX. 

Throughout the entire year, the love of my life, David and I stood hip to hip and shoulder to shoulder, enjoying every vista, every experience, every sorrow.  Darling, I love being with you every day - but then you know that!