Easter Egg Hunting

 

Visions of chocolate bunnies were dancing through my head as I was coming out of my coma. Easter is here and the Easter Bunny has dropped off some good stuff for the grandkids that are staying with us. Sherri and I tried not to disturb them when we got out of bed. I made the coffee and then pour it so we could enjoy a cup while we let the kids get a little more shut eye. Really we knew that when they woke up there would be no rest for either of us.

Wake up they did and Sherri made them aware that they had some candy in the kitchen that the bunny had left. Frankie our 3 year old wanted to know why a bunny would come by the house and leave eggs? Have you ever had to answer this kind of questions? Sherri did rather well with answering the question and it seemed to satisfy Franki for the time being.

 

Yes we had a great Easter Egg hunt  and everyone had a chance to hide and find. It took a while for the kids to calm down but they did and we got to eat some of that good food Sherri had put together.

After we ate the kids played some more and we got to visit some. We love to watch the little ones play and make be leave. We all stayed together until it got late and everyone had to call it a night. Tomorrow we all have to get back to the old grind. Sherri and I have to head out to Monroe for the week. The kids have to head back to school and their Mom has to get them ready for that time.

Sherri and I hope that all of you out there had a blessed Easter. Travel safely and come back to see us...

Somewhere in Time

Plenty of Work to be Done

 

Here it is Friday morning and I am trying to get up and make coffee. Knowing that making coffee will be the easiest thing I do all day... still does not make it that easy to get up and get going. We drank coffee and made the plan for the kids coming over. We talked each other up on how we would handle the two for two days! Our fears soon subsided and we were prepped for the coming event. Beds made ready and menus planned out. I think this will work out OK???

I built a fence around the side of our barn and came up a little short on the pickets due to a design change...some of you guys can associate with that so on the way home from the RV service center I had picked up enough to finish the fence and also some more 4 x 4 post for the barn's walls. I put an 8 ft post next to each upright in the barn 2ft in the ground with concrete to help sturdy them. This will help to cut out some of the sway in the gale force winds we get here in March and April. I still need 10 more to complete that part of the project. Digging all these holes with post hole diggers has been a daunting task.

Almost looks like I knew what I was doing.

The fence was a little easier to complete and I think it came out real nice...being this is the first fence I had ever built. It provides us with more privacy from the road. Now we can set out and not feel as though we are on display for the passer bys. Now that we have got this much done to our place we do not dread coming here for the weekend. Before we dreaded coming out here but now we really enjoy our own little campground.

I have to get everything in order today because tomorrow we have our two star borders coming for a two night sleepover. They will stay with us until Sunday and hunt Easter Eggs. Their big sisters and Mom will be over about noon time to eat lunch with us and then take the two little ones home.

Sherri and I both look forward to them coming but know that two night sleepovers can wear us down and leave us feeling sapped...

Somewhere in time

Back to Hays RV

 

We got up this morning and went down stairs to have some coffee. We are headed to Hays this morning to pick up our break system for the Jeep. they did not have the correct switch for it so we had to wait until today to get it. Not real sure how long it will take to get this installed but I am hoping that we will be in and out. I have several projects to complete at the Lake Lot and I would like to get started today.

Not much breakfast in the hotel but at least enough to get us started. We had coffee and visited for a short time and then it was off to Longview.

We arrived there a little late so we had to wait for the Tech to finish up someone that slipped in a head of us. He did get to us and we now have a break in the Jeep. They at first said that it would not work due to the fact the Jeep does not have a plug in that stays on when you turn the key off. We leave the key on when we tow...I guess to release the lock on the steering wheel? The book says we should undo the battery but I can't do that because the pump wont work on the break? I guess I will need to contact Jeep and see what I should do.

Well that is about all that happen on this day. We are back at the Lake parked in our new port and getting ready to relax for a while. Tomorrow I have to finish my fence and my patio cover. We are really settling in here and enjoying our place more and more each day. It will be a good place to come for free rent when not traveling on life's highway...

Somewhere in Time

Good Sam's Club Come Through

 

Sherri and I got up early this morning so we would have time to drink our coffee and visit for just a little bit before we had to pull out for home. We sat in the living room and sipped our coffee and recanted some of the stories we heard last night and laughed as we retold each story. It is so good to attend these reunions and visit with all the family once a year. I hope that next year some of our kids can go with us and meet some of their kin folk here.

While visiting with some of the family I learned that one of our cousins had called Good Sam's to get a tire changed. I am a member but never had to use them so I was curious to see how fast they came to the rescue. It was about 45 minutes and here they came. The guy pulled up to the MH and got right to work. In no time he had the tire off and the new one put on the wheel and back on the hub. Man I will have to say that it was very professionally done. Some papers were signed but no money changed hands and he was out of there as fast as he had arrived.

45 minutes and the guy was here to change the tire

Wham the tire was off and on the ground

Did not take long and the job was done.

I hope that I never have to have them come out for me but if they do as good a job for me as they did for our cousin then I will keep on paying for the service.

We stuck around until about 10:00 and then packed up...dumped...hook up the Jeep and we were on the road home. It was a 4 1/2 hour drive to the Lake and the wind almost drove me over the edge. I was so glad to pull into my barn when we got there. I was exhausted and ready to rest. Well the rest did not come about. I had to park level and load up the Jeep so we could head off to Tyler Texas for the week. This would be another 1 1/2 drive.

We arrived in Tyler late and checked in. Before we even unloaded our clothes we went out to eat. We then returned to the hotel and unloaded our stuff...shuffled up the elevator and unpacked. I took a nice hot shower and got ready for bed. I could not hardly hold my eyes open after such a long adventure...

Somewhere in Time   

Last Night at Grand Bayou

Once again we woke up to quite. No sounds what so ever. The temps outside had dropped over night and it was real cool inside the coach. I had to get up and turn the heat on so I could warm up some. I then went to the kitchen and made my coffee. Sherri wondered in about the time the coffee was ready to pour and we sat down and went over the menu for the days meal. This would be our last night here and we wanted to cook out some.

It was not too long and Sherri's brother Richard came knocking at the door. He came in to visit with us. We sat there for some time talking and then realized what time it was and we had to break up and get ready for the day.

I went outside and cleaned the patio for the first time today...knowing that I would have to sweep it off several times before the day was over. The wind has been blowing here ever since we arrived. All the little tassels off the pine trees have blown off and fell all over everything everywhere.

We spent the day visiting with family and the visiting turned into story telling that night. We tell all the stories from the days when we were young and when some of our love ones...who are now buried in the cemetery... where here with us. We hope that the younger generation will continue this tradition and tell their children these stories so we wont be forgotten. Our history is important and I want my children and my grandchildren to know about the family.

Here are some pictures of the older generation setting around the camp fire relating the history and telling the stories about how all this came about...

Somewhere in Time

 

Memorial at the Cemetery

This is all of Sherri's brothers... Richard, Danny, Randy and Rodney...Oh and that is me in the middle

I woke up to the sound of nothing outside. No sounds what so ever was coming from outside. It is so quite here that if a mosquito was to run into the window I would hear it. I pulled myself from the bed and went to the kitchen to make coffee. The tile floor was cold and by the time I reached the kitchen I was good and awake.

Sherri was not too far behind me and I fixed her a cup and we both sat down and enjoyed a cup together. She too was amazed at how quite it was here. Soon the fishermen started coming up and down the street going to the docks for the early morning launch. Then we could hear some of our bunch banging around outside and the morning began.

Sherri told me that I needed  to go into town and purchase something to tie the flowers to the ground at the cemetery. The wind the last couple of days here has been gusting so bad that many of the arrangements out there were blown up against the fence.

We all left our flowers and remembered all of those that went before us. Sad not having them around but then we will all be there someday.

We did get all the things we needed at the ACE Hardware and the flowers made it to the Memorial. We all visited while we were out there and made a donation to the Cemetery Committee to help take care of the grass and grave sites.

While there Sherri and I checked out our site to see if we would still fit in it. Hey you know we all end up in the same place sooner or later...

Somewhere in Time

Time on the Grand Bayou

 

Our site was so out of level that we had to run the MH up on blocks before we could let the jacks down

Everyone brought a covered dish

Sherri says this will be a good place to set up

Food Food

And more food

We had plenty to eat and we had a good visit with all the family

We had a good time and and good food. We will all get back together tomorrow and do it again...

Somewhere in Time

Headed to Grand Bayou Resort

We woke up at Diamond Jacks Casino RV Park. It was 6:30 in the morning and I made it to the kitchen to make coffee. Sherri was up not too long after I finished the coffee and I poured her a cup. We visited for a while and made the plan for the day. We were going to eat breakfast at the casino buffet and then continue our journey south to Grand Bayou.

We got to the casino about 8:30 and had a great breakfast. We love the omelets they make there. We washed all that down with orange juice and more coffee and then returned home. The girls decided they needed some groceries so they planned a trip to the store before we pulled out. Check out time was 12:00 noon so they had to hurry up and get their stuff and be back to get loaded up before then.

Sure nuff they made it back about 11:45...We had all the sides sucked in and were dumped and ready to hook up and pull out. We moved over to the parking lot to hook up the Jeep for the second time. Once again we went through all the steps one by one making sure we did each step the correct way. We made the final check on everything and then off we went down the Interstate.

We arrived in Grand Bayou around 1:45 and checked in at the office. We got our site assignments and proceeded down to get set up. Rodney and Becky pulled into their site and soon were ready to pull out the lawn chairs...us on the other hand were not as fast. Our site was a tad out of level and once we dropped the jacks to level our front tires came off the ground about 5 in. Wow no way I am doing this! We finally drove up on our leveling blocks and then dropped the jacks...all was well at this point and we got set up for our stay.

We spent the rest of the day visiting and relaxing on the porch. We were the only two RV's in this part of the park now...but tomorrow the rest of our family will be arriving and this place will be hopping. The area we are in are all pull through sites. We have tall pines all around us and when the sun goes down it is dark! I was really surprised how quite it is here with the park being just about full! A few cars and trucks come by now and again but for the most part not much noise at all.

We turned in around 10:00 so we could get some sleep. Tomorrow the gang will show up and we will be real busy visiting. It has been a year since we all were together so we will have a lot to talk about...

Somewhere in Time

 

Tow Bar and R&R

 

It was Wednesday morning when I woke up. I knew there was a reason I was anxious and did not know why...then it came to me...today we leave for our rest and relaxation trip. I have been working hard every day for a week getting our little place ready to live in and now it was time for me to have some rest away from home. Sherri also has been toiling away the hours getting all the pink jobs done in the new house. She too needs time to rest and have some fun.

I got up and made the coffee and then started getting the outside stuff done so we could leave by 8:00 am. We also are having the tow bar installed today so we can tow our Jeep with us on our future journeys. We are having that done at Hay's RV in Longview Texas. It is about an hour and one half drive for us this morning so we are leaving early to get that done before we continue our trip east. The plan is to get this work done and then head on east as far as Shreveport where we will stop for the night at Diamond Jacks RV park.

The Jeep went up and we went home

Lucky for us home was just across the street so we could keep tabs on it.

We arrived at Hay's on time and soon we were shown where we could park the RV for the day while we waited for the work to be completed....And wait we did. It took them from 10:30 to 4:00 to do all that had to be done. We were both thankful that we had our house there with us to rest in. Come to find out the break system on the Jeep that they had ordered did not have the correct switch in it so we did not get that portion of the order done. We will have to make a return trip to the shop to complete the work next Thursday.

This fat guy came out to hook us up...OH wait that is me!

 They pulled the Jeep up behind us and went through the hitch up procedures. It was pretty much straight forward and we felt comfortable knowing that we could do that part without too much trouble. Now the part about switching the Jeep over to tow...that was a different mater. We had never done this...and had some horror stories told to us by our fellow campers that if you don't dot your I's and cross your T's that you could tear up you vehicle real fast.

We both sat in the Jeep and Sherri read to me while I did each step methodically one by one. We checked and then double checked each other out until we were certain that every step had been completed to the best of our abilities. Then it was time...

We told the car we loved it and that we wished the best for it and us...then pulled out the drive way onto the street and headed to the Interstate and Shreveport...

I could not take my eye off the camera...watching the Jeep and where I was going was a daunting task but I managed until Sherri agreed to watch the Jeep and let me watch the road. All seemed well behind us and we did not see any fire so we assumed that all was well....

It was...we reached the Fly-J just outside of Shreveport where we fueled up and I checked out everything on the Jeep. Everything looked good and I finished fueling up and sent Sherri to pay the bill. In worrying about the Jeep and all I had forgot to hang up the pump handle on the main fuel pump...I was using the slave...so they could not read the register inside. They had to send an attendant outside to hang up the pump so it would register! Sorry! I need this R&R.

We met Rodney and Becky...Sherri's brother and SIL at the fuel stop and they followed us to Diamond Jacks. It was almost 7:30 before we got settled in to our sites and then we had to go eat. That meant I had to unhook the Jeep! Then I would have to hook it up again in the morning! OH ME now I have to start worrying all over again. I am sure that Sherri and I will be able to handle this once we do it enough...

Somewhere in Time   

Things are Coming Together But Almost Blown Apart

When completed this will be our screened in porch.

It was 2:30 in the morning and the phone was ringing. I heard Sherri say, "Hello"...and then she turned over and told me to turn the TV on. I did as I was instructed and when the picture flashed on the screen all I could see was a giant weather map with my barn right in the middle. Underlined in Bold letters was TAKE SHELTER! I knew right then I was in big trouble. Not that I did not expect this to happen...after all it is April and this is north Texas...and I did just erect a new Motorhome port. I would expect the winds to blow and blow hard with lots of lightning and thunder.

OK so we both decided that where we were at this moment was not the best place to be in this kind of weather so we got dressed called our daughter in Wills Point and told her we were on our way. She said that she too was up watching the weather and was just about to call us. It only takes about 15 minutes to get to her house but it seemed like an hour. The wind was so strong that the leaves were blowing off the trees. The road was covered with debris from people's front lawns and when the lightning lit up the sky you could see the ominous clouds billowing down on us. I felt like I was in a Storm Chaser program on the Weather Channel.

We arrived at Jennifer's safely and watched the weather channel with her. The local weather people were frothing at the mouth when it was their turn to speak about the conditions outside. It was like they were in a reporting frenzy! It was amazing how many adjectives they came up with to describe the impending doom that was soon to be in your back yard...Go to a safe room and cover the children with mattresses. A "Safe Room"... Most houses, I have seen that take a direct hit from an F 3 Tornado don't have any rooms left...now let me see which one of the rooms that are no longer there were the "Safe Room". Well for Sherri and I it was a no brainer. We knew we had no safe room so we hit the road to find one.

After about 5 hours of hearing these weather guys OOO and GAAA over what was happening we decided to take the road back home. Hopefully we still had a home and it was still covered buy our new port.

All was in one piece when we returned and parked under the port. It was real late and I did not want to take an inventory at that time so we both decided to turn in and look around in the morning.

Morning did come and we were both dreading getting up. I did want to check everything and make sure that all was accounted for. But before I could take that trip outside I had to have my coffee. That is what I did first and made sure that my sweet wife had her a cup. When we finished our coffee I did venture outside and looked the property over. Everything looked like it had faired well. We did have 80 mph winds out here...according to the report I got from the State Park Ranger.

We had to take the RV to the State Park to dump it and then drive into town to get our license plates and State Inspection. There went some more money...but we have to spend some more Wednesday in Longview when we get our tow bar and breaking system installed. I hope I have enough money left to buy gas to go to the lake in Louisiana. We are having a family reunion next weekend and we need to eat while we are there.

This picture kind a sums up how I feel...

When we got back from town I started on our fence in the back. I got all but two post in the ground...with concrete...and ready for the fencing material which I hope to get on tomorrow. I still have not arranged all the stuff I am storing in my bays. More on that later...

Somewhere in Time