Yes We are Still Alive

 

First of all Sherri and I would like to wish all our friends out there a Happy New Year!

 

We have been real busy traveling back and forth across the state. When my sister went in the hospital in Amarillo we traveled there to be with her and my brother in law. She was in a coma that she never came out of and soon died. I would like to thank all of you that sent your prayers and well wishes to me and my family.

The funeral was in Abilene 100 + miles south of Amarillo. We drove there and spent a few days with the family and then it was back to the lake for a short stay.

As you can see we have been on the move for some time now. We did get a break at Christmas to head down to Galveston to see my other sister and brother in law. It was a bitter sweet visit…knowing we were the only two kids left now makes you realize that life is short with no guarantees.

We did have some fun moments…riding the ferry and driving around to see some of the sites. The weather was not very good and walks on the beach were short. The wind blew and the rains came but we made the  best of it.

I was disappointed that we did not get to do some of the things on the beach that good weather allows but we did have a good time. Kris enjoyed playing in the sand with his toys on the two dry days we had. He could not understand why we could not go out when it was raining…yes he is blond!

Kris and I did get to play on the beach some

The stockings were hung waiting for Santa

And sure nuff he showed up and left some great gifts

Our stay was short but sweet and we had to pack up and head north. Back to our refueling oasis at Lake Tawakoni. There was things there that needed seeing to and clothes to wash. These are things that you cannot put off too long.

We did have a great New Years eve fireworks show put on by our nephews and Kris. They enjoyed the light show and so did we. I hope that all of you did the same.

After the new years celebration we packed up once more and headed east to Jackson Mississippi to visit with our close RVing friends John and Bridget. We drove 6 hours to get there. They both met us at the Flying J where we were refueling and so we could follow them to their camp spot. We got the site across the street from them and set up camp.

Across Louisiana and on to Mississippi

Which way do we go from here?

Bridget had put a ham in the oven and they had us over for dinner. We had cabbage and black eyed peas with the ham and let me tell you…it was great.

Thank you John and Bridget for having us over…we sure enjoyed the food. They invited us to go the Bridget’s Mom and Dad’s house for a visit and a game of cards. They had us over just to beat the snot out of us…which they did! I wouldn’t have it any other way.

OK I know I have gone on too long. We will be back as soon as I can find another good signal to get on the Internet…

Somewhere in Time

Just Hanging on to a Signal!

The Internet connection has been terrible and today is no exception. I have maybe one bar and it comes and goes. I need to beef up my system but then I would rather eat so I will just find a better area for my computer.

I have to start this post over twice so I will send it on and hope that it will get to you all...

Somewhere in Time

Sherri Came to Visit

 

This morning I was brought out of my deep sleep by the silence. The park here has virtually emptied out and we are left alone in our section. They have 200 sites here and when we arrived last Friday we were surrounded by hundreds of RVs. Now the closest RV is five rows away.

This is a real nice park to stay a good while at. Being a Passport America park you have cheap rate and they offer it everyday except weekends. We will be here a week come next Friday.

I got out of bed and headed to the kitchen to flip the switch on the coffee maker. I sat down at the computer to see if there was any word on my sister. No one has called so I am not sure how her surgery went. I will call this morning and find out. Thanks again for all your prayers and well wishes. It is good to have friends when times are tuff.

Yesterday I got several chores completed…vacuuming the house on wheels was one of them. It looked real clean when I finished and I was proud of my job. I wanted everything to look real nice…Sherri was coming to see me and take me out to eat this evening. She was coming with some of our friends from work and we were going to Roxie’s. Roxie’s is a 50’s and 60’s diner in the casino. They have real good food at a descent price. I had checked on the buffet there and they wanted $19.95! Now I don’t know about you but that is ridiculous!

They all arrived about 6:00 pm and we decided to take the shuttle over to the casino instead of trying to find a parking place there. It was not long when the shuttle showed up. We had to holler to get him to stop…by this time it was dark and he did not see us.

We had a great meal and then headed back to the MH for a short visit. They all had to leave about 9:30 so they could get back to the hotel and get some sleep. Tomorrow is their last work day and Sherri will come home. We plan on leaving Friday morning so we can be back at the lake around 12:00 noon.

We have a Plummer coming to run our water lines to the barn so we would like to be there before they arrive. I wanted to get this all done before our first freeze. Right now we have water hoses stretched out over the ground and that is not good in freezing weather.

OK nuff said for today. I will just have to see what this day has in store…

Somewhere in Time 

Warmer Weather

 

This morning I woke up and noticed the temp in the bedroom was not as cold as yesterdays. I had to assume that the outside temps were warmer and sure nuff I was correct. I have a weather alert radio that my son gave me several years ago and it has an outside thermometer that transmits the temp from outside to the monitor inside.

AHHH…all is good! I flipped the switch on the coffee maker and settled down at the computer. It is so good to have a good connection. I have enjoyed reading all of the journal entries from all our RV friends.

I have not heard anything about my Sister. I did find out that she had suffered a fall two weeks ago. Evidently this caused some bleeding in her head which caused the stroke like symptoms. They have her medicated and did an MRI which will be reviewed by the doctor today.

I want to thank all of you out there that sent your well wishes to me on Facebook. I will let you know how she is doing as soon as I find anything out.

Meanwhile I remain here in Marksville enjoying the warming weather and getting some things cleaned up outside. Not only the outside but I have some plans for straightening out some of my cabinets inside. You know what I mean when I say that they can get cluttered real fast. Things seem to get tossed in them rather than being neatly put away.

I did get the bay that my electric cord is stored cleaned out. After many times of storing that cord in wet weather…the mud and grass had built up in there. I got the cord wiped clean and the bay vacuumed out. Sure looks good now…don’t know how long that will last.

I have several bays to go so I guess I better get to work. Hopefully I will have everything looking sharp…

 

Somewhere in Time

Winter is Here

Woke up this morning and found the temps in the MH cool to say the least. I came into the kitchen to turn the coffee on and checked the temps. It was showing to be 58! Wow…time to turn the furnace on and warm  things up in here.

Soon the coffee was ready and I poured me a cup and sat down at the computer. I went to Facebook and before I knew it my good friend Dee was chatting with me. It had been some time since we had chatted. I told her that I don’t always have a good Internet connection. When we are at a park that has WIFI with a good signal I try to catch up on my reading.

We will be here for two more days so I have a lot to do before I leave.

It is so good to see where everyone is and what they are up to. I did find out that many of my RV friends are posting less and less as they travel. I can understand…the more we travel the less time I have to post. Oh well it gives me more to write about when I can.

Sherri is working in Alexandria while I hold down the fort here in Marksville. My grandson Kris is here with me and we have been exploring the park while he rides his bike. This has given me an opportunity to walk more…which I really need.

Today we are going to the movies here to see Happy Feet. They have a theater in the Hotel with three screens. This is nice when you bring your young ones with you and they need some entertainment too.

Yesterday I was going to clean out the bays on the MH but bike riding took a higher priority.

Just got off the phone with my sister…she was calling about our sister in Abilene Texas. She had what they believe to be a stroke. We are waiting to hear back from the family on what happened. I will sign off here and ask for everyone’s prayers…

 

Somewhere in Time

Sherri is gone

I woke up this morning and forgot that Sherri had left for Alexandria for work. Kris and I are here by ourselves having to make do with no one to lead us.

The weather here yesterday was rainy and we had to spend a big part of it inside. Today is suppose to be sunny and a little warmer so maybe we can go out and burn off some of this energy. I just don’t feel good if I stay inside all day long. Even when I get sick I have to keep moving around so I get better faster.

We do a lot of bicycle riding here in this RV park. They have concrete drives and parking areas so there is room to ride a bike. With the weekend crowd gone I don’t have to worry that much with traffic.

Hope the weather man is right about that sun shine today. I have plans for cleaning out the bays and it would be nice if it was not raining while I was doing so.

Better get to cracking this morning so I can get everything done…

 

Somewhere in Time

Marksville

 

 

Sherri and I packed it up and headed east for Thanksgiving. We were invited to have dinner with our close friends Rick and Becky in White Oak Texas. Non of our Texas family was having Thanksgiving. The Kansas crew was a little too far off to visit so we just took the first invite we had! Brice invited us up to Kansas but being one day there and one day back leaves us with planning a longer time to do that. Last year we spent it with Dreamer friends in Aledo Texas. I guess as long as we don’t have anything going on here in Texas we will just go where we are invited…HA!

OK so we had Thanksgiving dinner which by the way was very good. We left around 3:00 pm and went back to the RV park. Our plan was to leave at check out on Thursday and head to Marksville LA. Before we leave Sherri wanted to go by Lowes and see if they had the Duro-Flame Fire place she has had her eye on. We have had a fireplace in the last two RVs and we sure miss them when the weather turns cold.

We struck out on finding the fireplace so she will have to check out the Lowes in Alexandria when she goes there.

Well I had mentioned that Rodney and Becky had bought them a Motorhome. They got a Winnabago Adventurer. I have some pictures we took when they went to see what they had. They ordered it…something we would never do…but it turned out OK for them…. so all is well. We like to see what we are getting before we buy it. I don’t like surprises.

Now what button was that I was suppose to push?

We got on the road and made one stop at the Flying J for fuel. I am real happy with my MPG so far and they say I should get better when we have more miles on the engine.

We arrived at Marksville, got our assigned site but found out that it was not very level. We had to raise our front tires off the ground about 4 inches before it was level. I don’t like my tires off the ground. I unhooked the Jeep and drove around the park until I found a site that was close to level. Then I drove back up to the office and changed.

We went back to the Motorhome and moved to the new site. We leveled up with no problem and got settled in. It was dark when we sat down to eat and finished the night off with a little TV.

Saturday morning we took a trip over to the Casino to see the Alligators and also to see the Christmas decorations. They have a theater there. Happy Feet is playing and Kris wanted to go see it. Later in the week we may just do that.

Saturday we decided to make our own Thanksgiving meal. Sherri had bought a smoked turkey with all the trimmings. She fixed it all up and we had our first Thanksgiving dinner in our Motorhome. Looks like Kris and I will have many meals on the left overs.

What would a trip be without a stop at Wally World. Yes we stopped to get some supplies for our stay here at the Casino RV Park. This turned out to be cheaper than I thought it would….which was a good thing. One thing I could not believe was the fact that this Wally World did not have any RV supplies!!! With a large RV park here across the street from the store you would think that they would carry RV supplies. Go figure. I will just have to do without until I get back to civilization.

When we returned Sherri took a trip over to the casino. This time she did much better and won enough money to pay for our stay here at the RV Park!  She will give it another try tomorrow before she leaves for Alexandria. I hope that she hits the big one so we can retire and hit the road….

 

Somewhere in Time

Doing Nothing Here in Lafayette Louisiana

 

Took another trip down here to Lafayette for the week. Sherri is working this week and I am just hanging out. It has been a while since I have posted so I thought I better get on line here and say a few words.

We don’t have a good connection at the lake so when we get on the road I have to take advantage of the connection we have and get out there to let everyone know that I am still alive.

Just want to let you know that my SIL and BIL are looking at buying a Winnebago Motorhome. They have one picked out but not sure if that is the one for them. They have a  Carriage like we use to have. Like us they have decided to get something a little easier to set up and maneuver from place to place. I don’t have any pictures as of now but I will get some and put them on my journal. 

Congratulations to Bridget and John Hatch!!! They are grandparents…Life will not be the same for you two. Grandkids are special.

We are planning on moving our home to Marksville La around Thanksgiving. We will stay in that area for a week or three and then head back to the lake for Christmas. We have to get out tree up in our new home (this will  be our first Christmas in our new Motorhome).

It has been raining here for most of the day and the temps have fallen somewhat. I hear we got some good rain at the lake…which means my grass will grow some. This is not good because I don’t want to mow!

We head back to Texas Friday morning. I have a list of projects to get done at the barn. The weather is just right for getting things done there so I hope to accomplish a lot. I will have to post some new pictures of the barn and all the things that we have finished…

 

Somewhere in Time

Halloween in Louisiana

We had Halloween here in New Iberia right after work. No we did not go Trick or Treating we just went out to eat at Duffy’s Diner.

Duffy’s is a 50’s Diner that serves all the food that is bad for you. You know like in the 50’s everything was bad for you but you didn’t know it until the late 70’s. It is a wonder we made it this long.

Other than working we just go out to eat and visit with all our co-workers. Not much excitement so I will go back to reading about those folks that are out on the road seeing the USA…

 

Somewhere in Time

A Trip To The Ft. Worth Zoo

 

Saturday morning I woke up in my grandson’s bed trying to remember where I was and how I got there.

Sherri and I had made the trip to Euless to visit with our grandchildren. We had not seen them in over two months and we both missed him so much. The plan was to go to the State Fair but then after some thinking we thought that might be a little too much for us and the kids.

The plan switched at that point to go the Ft. Worth Zoo. We had heard that it was real nice and ranked as the 5th in the nation. I looked up the Zoo to see the cost of getting in and then pondered the traffic and the parking issues. I came to the conclusion that riding the train over to the ITC and then getting on the bus to the Zoo would be the easiest. Kris likes the trains so this would be a double treat for him.

Had to wait a long time for the train…due to my planning

Finally the train pulled into the station.

And we all boarded

 

We got ready and headed to the train station about 11:30. I had to figure out how to purchase the tickets from the automated ticket machine. Once I figured that out I had to choose what ticket to buy. While trying to figure this all out I miss read the departure time and found out that we were 1 hour and 30 minutes early. OK…then I noticed that the tickets are only good for one hour! These are the one time one way tickets…so I began to panic.

Everyone was excited about the train ride

The wait for the shuttle to the Zoo was not long at all

Soon we arrived and headed for the entrance

Not to worry we got on the train….NO ONE…even asked for a ticket. We sailed on down to Ft Worth and then boarded the shuttle to the Zoo. It dropped us off just out side the gate and we were soon inside viewing all the animals.

This fellow could not figure us out

This was a favorite

Sherri and I were really impressed with the Zoo. One of the cleanest I have ever been through. Nice walkways to all the exhibits and plenty of benches to rest your sore legs and feet along the way.

This guy was really working hard at getting him something to eat.

All good things must come to an end…and we headed back home

The kids really enjoyed all the animals and the they helped take some of the pictures. We all had a wonderful day….

 

Somewhere in Time

It Is About Time !!!

I’m getting a raise!! I guess someone found out that gas and groceries have gone up and we old farts need more money to live on. I sure will glad to get some more money so I can buy some new clothes. These old rags I have been wearing now for three years are in bad shape.

I hope to get an increase on my VA disability too. It has been a long time with no increases. You know I knew that when election time rolled around they would throw us a bone! They get their raises and never go without.

This will make things better down the road…

Somewhere in Time