March 26, 2013 - Day 1

Left LSC after telling everyone goodbye, got on the road at 9…had a very uneventful travel day! 

We stopped not too long after we got on I-10 and had a bowl of cereal, then went until time to use the facilities – we stopped and got a tank of gas (just shy of $200), then we stopped again for a quick walk break and had some string cheese and peanut butter crackers!  We arrived at Fort Stockton about 4 pm, and I got an early dinner ready – we had tuna noodle casserole and stir fry veggies – I have LOTS of veggies that would not fit in the freezer, so we will be eating veggies the next couple days!

Our plans are to spend tomorrow night at The Ranch in Lakewood, NM, then head to ABQ, arriving there Thursday night.  We will get up Fri morning and drive to Denver to visit with Ron and Kathy Bernard, dear friends of ours.  Ron is battling cancer right now and could sure use your prayers folks.  We will stay in Denver Fri and Sat nights, then Sunday it will be back to ABQ to start our sojourn to CA on either Monday or Tuesday.  We do love ABQ, having spent some time there when the kids were there, and we might need a day to just ‘catch up’.  I’ll let ya know!

March 24, 2013–Time to get out of D’Hanis

 

Well here it is the end of March already, and we have had a great winter season here at LSC in D’Hanis, TX.  We’ve done much but mostly the same things as last year.  One notable exception, we went to Washington DC to attend our daughter, Dawn’s Retirement after 21 years in the military.  We also helped them move into a new house, and visited with many friends – some old and some new!  It was marvelous getting re-acquainted with the Ashworths, the Lepleys, Yolanda and many more friends that we have met through the years with Dawn & Daryl.  Of course we spent some wonderful quality time with the grandkids too! 

Here are some pictures that don’t do justice to the entire event!

		Dawn’s Retirement VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

		More Retirement VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

After the retirement ceremony they chartered a night time trolley tour of the Washington memorials and monuments – wow, what a difference from daylight!  Our trolley driver was ZUMA and he was a hoot.  Here are some pictures of that!

		Trolley tour VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Jan 18, 2012 Mission TX

Man we have been busy…mostly driving around, seeing the sights, eating lots of great food, and catching up with friends!

On Wednesday we went to Harlingen and visited with Kay and Greg Sluyter, our friends that we met through Red Dale National Wagon Train.  We had a marvelous couple hours catching up and eating some fantastic bbq!  Of course we were too busy chatting to remember to take pictures!

On Thursday evening we met up with Bob & Lynda, friends whose blog we have followed several years, and last met up in Mackinaw MI about 18 months ago…they are here in Mission at Retama Village where they call their winter Texan home.  They’ve done lots of work, put together some very colorful chairs, fire pit, bar and BBQ.   I was remiss in taking pictures, but here is one Bob snuck in on his blog   After chatting for a while we went to Chuy’s for a tasty dinner of very good Mexican food!  They have a very good blog if you are interested…

http://because-we-can.net/Because_We_Can/Journals/journal130117



Today our park had a craft sale – Doris, Bill and I went up, had biscuits and gravy for breakfast and wandered around the craft and vendor show.  I got 3 new ‘scrubbies’ for doing dishes….saw a lot of neat stuff but didn’t get anything else.  Late lunch at Gatti’s pizza palace – terrific salad bar, we got Senior prices so we were totally stuffed for $14…Again, no pics…I’m really falling behind on this! 

January 2013 Mission TX

 

We have been busy living life!  When last I posted it was December 20th – and now it is January 13th!  Some of the things we did were:

• Christmas Eve David and I made chili for about 100 people – and we did a ‘dirty Santa’ gift exchange – lots of fun!
• Christmas Day – I made cole slaw and we went to the clubhouse, where the club furnished HAM, rolls, and the rest was pot luck – very good!  I made eggs benedict for our breakfast and it was delicious!  Here is a picture of my Pizzelles
• 
• New Year’s Eve David had yet another tube placed in his right ear – we had dinner at Johnny Carino’s and then went back to the park.  I had started a crockpot full of kielbasa and sauerkraut, and there were many many good dishes to bring in the new year! 
• New Year’s Day – we started the new year properly with oatmeal – football and parades, and wonderful shrimp stir fry for dinner – followed by fresh baked pumpkin pie…what a great way to start out 2013!
• Jan 7 was all day doctor appts for David in Kerrville, where we discovered we were doing better than we expected – his A1C was 7.2, last year it was 8.6, so doc was happy – and now he will see a podiatrist because he has some kind of growth in his foot that is making him limp badly.
• Jan 8 we headed to Mission, TX with our friends, Bill & Doris Lane.  We are staying at a Passport America park, Mission West, where we paid $245 for two weeks, including electric!
• Jan 9 we just hung out enjoying the great weather.
• 
• Jan 10th we went to Mexico, crossing in Progresso.  We went to the dentist and the wait was 3 hours – so we left there, went to an optometrist where I got an exam and 2 pair of progressive glasses for $320…can’t kick about that!  We also got 5 Z packs of antibiotics and some omeprazole, for $56.41.  Now if I get a sinus infection I’m covered! 
• Jan 11th, we just hung out, letting David’s foot rest.
• Jan 12th, our park had an open house, with several units brought in from Ron Hoover, golf carts, scooters, free food, door prizes and 5 different entertainers, each band playing about an hour from 11 to 5.  Lots of fun – I went up every hour to check my door prize tickets – we got a hat, and cony dog and ice cream from Weinerschnitzel…we’ll pick that up probably tomorrow! 

Nov 22 through Dec 20, 2012 Hondo doings

November 29, 2012

We’ve done quite a bit – the motorhome and ‘shed’ are decorated for Christmas :)  We had a marvelous Thanksgiving dinner with approximately 100 friends. 

I am the electronic Calendar activities lady here in the park…and I’ve been busy getting the Dec calendar ready to go to print.  There is always something to do here…just as an example, Mon, Wed, Fri schedule looks like this:  9am exercise, 10am line dancing, 1pm Bridge, 4pm Social Hour, 6:30 all manner of games, from Texas Hold ‘em to Hand and Foot dominoes and everything in between until 9pm.  The rest of the week is similar, but different, with busy needles sewing club, 8 Ball Pool, Mah Jongg,  Bingo, card bingo, Ice Cream Socials, Chicken dinner, omelet in a bag breakfast, pancake breakfast, Orientation, plus lots of holiday events going on.  Is it any wonder we need a calendar to keep it all straight!  Whew!

Of course, we participate in a lot of these events, as well as doing our own thing – a group goes to a local restaurant El Azteca on Tuesday evening where they have roll back enchilada plates for $5, that include three enchiladas, rice, beans and homemade tortillas.  On Thur mornings we go to El Charo for breakfast as a group. 

Then David has Dr appts, as a matter of fact we are going to Kerrville tomorrow morning for his pulmonary testing.  Next week he meets with the specialist to see what if anything can be done.  I wish they could give him something for the coughing – that is the worst. 

I did do some black Friday shopping, getting a bread maker, pizzelle iron, and a TV for the shed – and just made arrangements to get a picnic table for our lot here.  I shopped online at Sam’s, Home Depot and Lowes, the least expensive picnic table I could find was over $300…found a guy in San Antonio that makes ‘em for $125 for a nice, painted 8 foot table…David and Bob will be going to pick one up on Sat morning, and get some new batteries for our golf cart.  That should be the end of our ‘big’ spending for the winter! 

Dec 7, 2012

Boy, we’ve been busy!  David had Doc appts in San Antonio, I’ve been playing Bingo, and Card Bingo, and had some fantastic meals – both at home, at the Nutrition Center AND in restaurants, had a meeting with our Thrivent Financial Advisors, made several loaves of bread, just generally trudging right along!  The weather has been phenomenal – highs in the high 70’s and lows in the 50’s…gotta love it!

Dec 8, 2012

Tonight we had a block party here on our lot, to honor the lady that used to have our lot!  I made sloppy joes, there were grilled hot dogs, potato salad, macaroni salad, veggie plate w/dip, salsa and chips, brownies, cookies, chocolate candy, kolatches…everything was excellent, everyone brought their own chairs and drinks, and we just had a great time! We started at 4:30 ish and went until 7:30…NICE!

Dec 17, 2012

Once again just living the life :)  Christmas preparations -  made a batch of Pizzelles, baked a Texas Sheet Cake, and hope to get chocolate Pizzelles for our D’Hanis kids – need to make 3 dozen, so that will be on Wednesday. 

On Saturday the park did omelets in a bag – two egg omelet, ham, cheese, mushrooms, onions, jalapenos, hot sauce, along with toast, fruit cup and coffee for $3…what a deal!

We’ve been to San Antonio several times, and will be going tomorrow too!  I have been going in to play Bingo with Bob & Jan Wheaton, and Armando.  We leave about 11:30 and get home about 4:30, except last night when we stopped at Panda Express for take out dinner – boy it was delicious! 

Today Cinder has a groomer appt, as do David and I for haircuts – different places from Cinder of course…grin. 

November 4, through Nov 22, 2012

Sunday, November 04, 2012

Punkin Park Campground

43037 Billville Rd
Hammond LA  70403

We traveled about 200 miles today, and were glad of the extra hour we had.  After battling rain for a couple hours, we pulled into this park about 1:30, and had some Taco soup for lunch.  This is not the best park we’ve ever been in, and I must say that as it got dark, we closed up tight.  There seems to be some loud people, squealing tires, and just general malcontent here, and we would not stay here again. 

I made porcupine balls, baked sweet potatoes and veggies for dinner.  We ate and enjoyed the end of the Steeler game where they beat the Giants – yahoo!  We’ll take a win any way we can get it!  

Monday, November 5, 2012

Pine Grove RV Park, LLC
1102 Alan HickmanDr
DeRidder, LA  70634
www.pinegroverv.com

After another 190 mile day, we arrived here about 3 pm.  This is a very nice small park in town.  Very clean, spacious sites,  electric, cable, good wifi, for the princely sum of $10 per night (Passport America). 

We jumped into the car and headed to Wal-Mart because we were out of some basics, milk, eggs, bread, dog food J  The most important of the basics was the dog food!  We then came home and had leftover Taco soup, and it was yummy the second time around too!

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

We got up and headed out to Coushatta Casino.  What a great day!  When we got there we signed up for the Player’s Club card – and the lady that gave them to us said we were in luck, the Buffet was on sale for $5.50 per person on Tuesdays…we were happy about that, so we went and played some slots for a while, then went to the buffet.  I must say it is one of the better buffets we’ve been to in a casino.  Very large variety, extremely fresh, the stuff that should be piping hot was, and the stuff that was to be cold was icy!  We waddled out (it was $11.00 including drinks) and played some more slots.  We ended up coming home with a surplus of $8.75…now I would consider that a successful casino experience!

We spent the entire evening and part of the night watching the election returns.  Very happy with the outcome :)

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

We got up to a very disturbing phone call, telling us that our daughter that lives in Grand Junction, CO was in the hospital and had a heart attack in the middle of the night.  She is really too young to have this happen.  We spent quite a while just trying to wake up and deal with the fact that Tanaya is in the hospital.  Later on we got to talk to her and assure ourselves that she is doing ok – they put in a stent and she will go to Cardiac Rehab for a couple days.

Otherwise it was a very lazy day!

Thursday, November 08, 2012

Hanks Creek Campground
Lake Sam Rayburn
Zavalla, TX

We got up and on the road this morning by 9 am – and we drove until noon when we arrived here at the Corp of Engineer park.  We are in site 24, which is marvelous.  We have an inlet on the door side of the motorhome, and the lake out the front windshield.  This lake has 750 MILES of shoreline, and is big enough that it makes its own waves…amazing!  Since it is a Thursday, there are hardly any people here – as a matter of fact, in this loop, there are only 2 other campers!  There is a very nice shower house just across the way that I can use in the mornings, since there is no sewer here, just a dump station, which means about Sunday we will have to go dump! 

The lady at the gate said they have quite a few reservations for the weekend, so I think it will be fun watching all those folks come in and set up :)  

We have NO internet here, and little to no phones.  David did manage to get a text msg to Tanaya telling her we have limited service, I’ll get one off to Dawn soon.  We will go into either Zavalla or Lufkin tomorrow to check them out, and probably have late lunch/early dinner.

When I put lunch on the table today, David took a bite of carrot, chewed, inhaled and promptly got a couple pieces of carrot in his lungs.  This was followed by almost 2 hours of pretty nonstop coughing.  I thought I was going to have to take him to an ER, but finally he coughed 1 piece out – and after another excruciating coughing bout, the second one came out.  It was exhausting for him, and after about 10 minutes to calm down, he fell into a deep sleep.  These spells don’t happen very often, but when they do, they are extremely frightening for him.  Me too but in an entirely different way.  When you have COPD and can hardly breathe anyway, and then you can’t stop coughing, it is terrifying!

The plan was to get out the grill and make burgers, but I think it will be soup for dinner, tomato with grilled cheese, very good comfort food. 

Friday, November 9, 2012

After a wonderful lazy morning of sipping coffee looking at the lake, walking Cinder and making a good breakfast of pancakes, bacon and eggs, we got ready and drove into Lufkin.  It is 20 miles away from the campground, and we stopped in Huntingdon where there is a library, and the sign on the outside said ‘Try our free wifi’ – we went in and oh my, every site we use was blocked – couldn’t get to our blog, couldn’t get to BING, or MSN, could not get to facebook – sheesh.  The excuse was that the school paid for the wifi and they blocked students from using all that – David said they really ought to take down the sign, it’s pretty misleading!   We went on into Lufkin where we found a McDonalds and we got a couple drinks and used their wifi for about an hour.  We then went to Olive Garden and had soup, salad & breadstix for lunch – boy, we love that lunch! 

 We came back home and just kind of vegged out for a couple hours, then made burgers on the grill for dinner…life is good!

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Once again it was sip the coffee on the banks of the lake, take Cinder for a walk, play a little fetch with her, made ham on the grill outside (don’t ya just love the smell of cooking outdoors), grits and eggs – yum!  Then it was go outside and read a while since David was busy getting the file ready to upload to the LSC site, and just hang out.  About 1:30 we went into town to use the wifi at DQ, and of course we had lunch there – David had the steak finger basket and I had a grilled chicken salad – and a small butterfinger blizzard :) 

David talked to Tanaya and she is doing much better – on lots of drugs, but hopefully that will stop her from more heart trouble!  I called my aunt Nancy, who is really more like my sister…my Aunt Kay is not doing well, she is in the hospital and is having issues remembering things, she is seeing/hearing people/noises.  She is only 74, and too young to be going through this!   Wished Nancy a happy birthday, talked to Harry too.  David and I chatted on the way home that we may have to go to PA and take care of Aunt Kay – whatever will be will be, I don’t have an issue with this – if need be we will go and aunt Kay can move into the spare room with us, and I’ll take care of her.  I know Nancy would help too – Kay is the only sister she has left.  I’m glad my mom doesn’t have to see this – she was so broken up when Aunt Leila died.  I love them so much, it just breaks my heart!

We came home, went for a walk, played with Cinder, and had a bite to eat (David had cereal, I had pepperoni, cheese & crackers) and got ready for bed early – I just hate Daylight Savings Time – it is dark too early and stays dark too long! 

Sunday, November 11, through Tuesday, Nov 13

Stayed the last couple days and did literally nothing – hung around read J

Wednesday, Nov 14, 2012

Traveled to Bastrop, TX where we stayed at a very overpriced KOA – NEVER AGAIN! 

 Thursday, Nov 15, 2012 through Nov 22, 2010

We pulled into Potters Creek, Canyon Lake COE park, site 89.

This is a lovely lake, most all the spots are very nice, and we watched about 40 rigs come in – the weekend campers.  There was a group here that I didn’t go introduce myself to, but they reminded me so much of our camping clubs in WY and CO.  they had a pot luck Saturday night and it looked like it was a lot of fun.  Just not feeling very social right now :(

We went for a drive into Gruene and stopped into Camping world, looked at some units…didn’t buy anything J  Had a very nice lunner at a place called ‘Granny D’s’…David had country fried steak and the works and I had a patty melt, then we shared a piece of coconut cream pie. 

We expect to be on the road bright and early (around 10) on Tuesday morning and hope to pull into Hondo by 2…I’ll try to post some pictures then, as we are on our Mifi and the upload speeds are abysmal…the park has wifi, so I might just put up a bunch of pictures from the last couple weeks!

Oct 28 to Nov 4 Summerdale Plantation Blue Angels

Sunday, October 28, 2012

We drove about 90 miles and arrived here at Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale, AL.  This is our second year at this park, and we really like it.  We like the lots (HUGE, LEVEL and TREES IF YOU WANT’EM), very nice folks, and best of all about 10 miles away is Foley, which is a very nice sized town with all the amenities you’d want.  Super Walmart, plus many other grocery stores, clothing stores, outlet mall, etc…at least 100 restaurants, including Lambert’s, home of the throwed roll. 

After setting up we got in the car and went to Lambert’s for lunner, then stopped at WalMart where I got some much needed groceries, and now we are back home, and will be going to the Ice Cream Social at 6 this evening.  Doesn’t get much better than this!  It is a balmy 75 outside with touch of a breeze, so no need for AC  or heat, although that will change tonight I’m sure J

It is so nice to be settled in for a week!

Monday, October 29,2012

This was a working day – we had to have Cinder to the groomers by 9 am in Spanish Fort, AL.  We got there about 10 minutes early, and we then had breakfast at Cracker Barrel, followed by shopping at Best Buy, World Market, and Bed Bath & Beyond. 
 
One of the things we did when we went full time was take out the heavy old TV in the bedroom, and found a Rubbermaid box that fit the opening that I use as a ‘baking box’.  However, now we have lightened the bays up, I have room underneath for this box.  SO we got a TV for the bedroom.  It is crazy, we got a 19 inch LED TV that weighs 5.6 lbs for $100…that is amazing! 

We came home and I gathered laundry, got that all done, then we had leftovers for dinner and after walking Cinder, we just hunkered in because although Sandy was wreaking havoc on the East coast, here it is very chilly.  About 38 degrees….brrrr!  However, it will be 70’s by lunch time tomorrow!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

It was a lazy morning, we slept in until almost 9, futzed around a while, I went next door and visited with Ellie Meacham – her hubby Jim was grocery shopping, so we chatted a couple hours.  We made a date for lunch tomorrow.
I came home and then went into Robertsdale where I got a wonderful pedicure and manicure, and picked up Mexican for dinner. 

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

This was a ‘working’ morning, we got the entire cockpit area of the motorhome cleaned, all the rubber on the windows conditioned, windows washed and the little vacuum came out and got under the seats and along the walls.  It always feels so good when that area is done, David helps because I can’t get the part in front of the steering wheel done unless I put a pillow on the steering wheel and lay on it! 

The weather is gorgeous, it is to be 75 degrees, the sun is shining and all is well!  Oh yes, remember last year when we got ‘satsumas’ the orange/tangerines that peel easily and are like eating liquid sugar…well, here at the park a lady has a tree and they are ready, she said help yourself…so we did!  I got a bag for us to eat now, and I’ll get some on Saturday for the trip J  Boy, we love them!

We went into Robertsdale and had lunch with Ellie & Jim, nice time chatting and doing some more catch up :)  I had an open faced roast beef sandwich, fries with gravy (haven’t had any of those for at least a year), and a nice salad.  We didn’t see anyone dressed for Halloween, and I missed seeing the little ones!  Maybe next fall we will stay in PA for Halloween – all plans are in jello ya know!

Thursday, November 01, 2012

We got up and around and finally headed to Gulf Shores to the beach about 11.  They have a very nice public beach with FREE parking about ½ hour from here in the park.  We carted our chairs out to the hard packed sand, got into the water about thigh high – it was COLD – 67 degrees….bbbrrrr.  We sat and watched the waves and the people for a couple hours, then we took a drive through Gulf Shores and toured the state park. 

They have 408 sites, all with full hookups!  That is all well and good, but they were less than ¼ full, and I think it is because of the price.  $31 to $44 per night.  The sites were nice, paved, roomy, picnic tables and fire rings, not too close together but for sure not ‘isolated’, and I would hesitate to pay that.  The sites that are lakefront – you couldn’t even see much because of the tall grasses, and there are alligators, so who would want that?  There is no ‘beach access parking’ and it is a good mile from the closest site to the beach.  I just think that is why they are not too busy!

We had a very late lunch at Papa Roccas and it was very good – we then came home and went next door to Jim and Ellie’s for happy hour – which stretched to 3…gotta love those! 

Friday, November 02, 2012

Happy Birthday Dawn!  We had a full day planned, so at 6:15 we called and sang Happy Birthday to dear daughter – didn’t get to talk to her, but knew she would have a good day!

We left home at 7 am, and pulled up to the gate at the Pensacola Naval Station at 8…got waived through and went to handicap parking, got a wonderful spot to set up our chairs and settled in for a LONG day filled with aerial delights.  We had never seen the Blue Angels perform, and I must say they did an outstanding job….but from 9:30 until they performed at 2, there were helicopters, migs, all manner of jumpers, funky looking airplanes, walls of fire, you name it and it was out there! 

I did get a little more sun on the back of my neck than I wanted, but as soon as I realized it I went back to the car and got my umbrella…at least I didn’t COOK.  David’s monk spot is very red and so are his shoulders!  After the beach yesterday and today on the flight line, I’m as brown as I was in July! 

Of course they had all the carny food there, I had a corndog for breakfast and David was good and had a protein bar I had taken along – we had hamburgers for lunch and then about 2 we had a big pretzel…so on our way home at 4:30, we stopped for some dinner – and lucked into a Friday night seafood buffet that was $11 each including our drinks.  It was actually pretty good, with fish, chicken, shrimp, gumbo, deviled crab and all the usual veggie and salad offerings.  The shrimp and hushpuppies were outstanding! 

We got home around 6, and can’t remember the last time we were this tired.  I took Cinder out for her evening stroll and David was napping when we got back – I expect we will be in bed early tonight!

Saturday, November 03, 2012
This was a get ready to go day – we cleaned, dumped tanks, and just did stuff that needed to be done.  Went to the flea market and got some fresh lettuce, garden tomatoes and nice strawberries, so we had wonderful salad for dinner, along with leftover Italian :)