Where's Weaver

BASKETS, BASKETS AND MORE BASKETS

2012-01-29T08:21:00.001-06:00

Saturday, January 28 - FINALLY…Marsha has found some time to do a blog on all her baskets that she gave for Christmas gifts. She worked days on each of her baskets and made each one different. She used some of her dyed pine needles, sinew, special thread, beads and each one had one of her special gold pine needles from the moon tree. (If you don't know about the moon tree, you can read about it here.)She said every one that received a basket was thrilled to have one.

Chris, our sister-in-law, told Marsha…"If you ever think of making me a basket, I would like coasters. Can you do that?" Marsha said, "Is that a challenge?" Here is a little secret about Marsha…she loves challenges. She made Chris four and put cork on the back of each. We tested them with ice in a glass, and they kept the water off the table just fine.

This is her first cracker basket with handles. Marsha used walnut slices in each handle. She gave this to her brother, Mark's, girlfriend, Christina.

For a special friend, Red - that we taught with for years, she did her first three-level wrap design. She gave it to Red before Christmas, but he saved it to open Christmas morning. He called Marsha and told her how much he loved it. Glad you are enjoying it, Red! Miss you!

When our daughter, Kelly, saw Marsha's first baskets, she said she would like a smaller one. Marsha kept this in mind when she made Kelly's. She also wanted to do something special. This is her first basket using beads and an agate (stone) for the bottom. She was very happy with the finished product. Kelly was thrilled to receive this gift. (If you look closely, you can see the special gold pine needle in the top left area.)

She also puts her name on the bottom of each basket and dates it.

Carrie received Marsha's first attempt in making her biggest basket. This is her first attempt making these types of handles and a new stitch called the split stitch. Marsha thought it turned out just like she envisioned it. Carrie can't wait to have her next party and show it off.

Two happy girls.

Now she is biting at the bit to get started on her next basket using the tiles we had painted in Mexico. Before she can begin, we are in the process of deciding what best to use as the mounting material. When the first one is completed, you can be sure she will take some photos. We can share it because she is actually doing one for US to keep. This is a FIRST!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

NUEVA PROGRESO, MEXICO PART 2

2012-01-26T08:31:00.001-06:00

Monday, January 25, Part 2 - While are tiles were being painted by Alfonzo, we headed down to the Mercado for lunch and some famous Margaritas.

Who should we meet outside the restaurant but Jose, Alfonzo's brother. He is also extremely talented. He too paints only with spray paint, cardboard and plastic bags. Can you tell how bashful he is…LOL

Well, of course Marsha had to stop and look. Thirty-five dollars later we walked out with five more tiles and a beautiful black/white bottle to decorate the motorhome. She will be using the tiles in her baskets so we can't show you all of them. Some of our readers might receive them as a gift.

We really enjoy Arriba Restaurant and Bar.

We share a customary bowl of taco chips and a plate of Enchiladas. Of course we took part in the two for one price margaritas. Our favorite entertainer was there blaring out the tunes.

Marsha had to get into the action right away.

The margaritas must have been working their magic, because Paul got up and did the chicken dance. Yes, that is him in the blue shirt and grey hat.

We finished up our shopping and headed back to the border. We paid our 25 cents to pass through the turnstile, had our passports scanned, and returned to the USA without even a “welcome home” from the security folks.

As soon as you enter the USA, there is a little ice cream store. On our first trip here with our friends, Norm and Donna, we stopped there to have some ice cream. It is a tradition of theirs to stop and have a 2 for $2 banana split. Not wanting to break tradition, we stopped and had one. There are lots of people in there. Paul was looking back to be sure I hadn't left him.

For $1 each, they give a really good banana split.

It was a wonderful day. We had great check ups, super shopping, danced with the locals and ate our way through Progreso. We will probably go back at least one more time before heading out the end of February.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

NOS VAMOS A NUEVA PROGRESO MEXICO

2012-01-25T09:27:00.002-06:00

Monday, January 23 – We're off to Nueva Progreso, Mexico, this morning to visit the dentist. For all those who have never visited Mexico or want to, here is a quick tutorial to entering the country.

Take some quarters with you. You need one to enter the country and one to get out.

Next step is to walk across the bridge.

As you walk across, you can see the Rio Grande River that many illegals try to cross over to the USA. This is a view of the USA side. See the wall in the background?

You also see lots of hats sticking through the fence.

If you have a large head like Paul, you can be in two countries at one time.

You are now in Mexico.

We went to this same dentist last year, Dr. de la Rosa Saenz, and was quite pleased with his service.

We both have appointments for cleaning. Marsha only needed a regular cleaning but Paul received a deep cleaning.

Everyone asks us questions liked…Does he speak good English? Is it clean? Does he take credit cards? etc. Answers…Dr. de la Rosa was educated in the United States and lives in Mission, TX. He speaks excellent English. The place is very clean and sterile. There is plastic on everything.

He also takes credit cards, checks, and cold cash.

With a “clean” smile on our faces, we headed out to try to make a deposit in the Mexico economy. And a deposit was certainly made! Paul purchased a belt and got a hair cut that comes with a free massage…both for a mere $5.00.

Marsha found the Mexican tiles she was in search of for her basket-making hobby. Not only did she find finished tiles, but we found a family of painters that would paint scenes on tiles for her. These brothers, Jose & Alfonzo (in two different locations in Progresso), use spray paint and little bits of torn paper to complete these amazing paintings.

They are so good that we wanted to show you how they paint a tile. This Alfonzo starting one of the tiles.

He uses no brushes just cans of spray paint, pieces of cardboard and plastic bags.

He drew to cactus with the cardboard and now is using the plastic bag to make the flower beds.

He made ten for Marsha. Each one is totally different. Since several of her readers may receive one of her baskets with a tile, she only wants to show the one we are keeping.

It's unbelievable!

We will share with you the rest of our visit to Mexico in our next blog.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

BUSY, BUSY AND BUSIER

2012-01-22T17:07:00.001-06:00

Friday, January 20 – It has really been hot here. Here is a photo of our weather gauge. Notice the time…5:28 p.m.

Saturday, January 21 – Hidden Valley Ranch had a park-wide garage sale this morning, and we had a few items we decided to put out by the street for sale.

This is the smallest garage sale Marsha and I have ever had.....we've had some humungous sales in the past....LOL. We sold most of our treasures and made about $55 which Paul managed to use by purchasing a Pressure Pro tire monitoring system from the neighbor for $50 – a real steal !!! It's something Paul has always wanted but hasn't bought because of the high price. If you are unfamiliar with tire monitoring systems, they keep a watch on your tire pressures (in this case our Honda CRV) while being towed behind the MH and gives an alert if there is a blow-out or leak. It would be easy and a catastrophe to tow the car down the street with a flat tire and not even be aware of the problem.

We closed up the garage sale at 10:00 a.m. because Marsha was participating in a Ladies Style Show Luncheon at the Leisure Valley Clubhouse. She was modeling “Ropa” ware! Of course, she got Paul to work too! He was a server for the ladies luncheon.

Have you ever heard of “la Ropa” style show? Here in South Texas (it may be in other areas too) you can go to the Ropa store and purchase new or lightly-used clothing at unbelievable low prices. It comes in bales and you open them up and pick-out what you want. Then you normally purchase the clothing by the pound!

Well, the ladies select outfits from the Ropa and put on a show for the park. It was a sold out show and luncheon. Attendance reached 200 people. Each model wore an outfit and then carried one or two additional ones. The outfits were auction off to the highest bidder with some items going for over $20 and some for as little as $3. Marsha did very well and helped raise some big bucks!!! She looked smashing....don't you think?

First outfit

Second outfit

Third outfit

Our friend, Rick, was our auctioneer.

The decorating committee did a great job. There were three of these on each table…

You guessed it. Marsha was a lucky winner of a door prize….AGAIN!!!

Later in the evening, we attended another Country Dance at the clubhouse. The group was the Renaissance Rockers, a musical group made-up of doctors and other health professionals. They perform a mix of country and oldies. We've heard this group in the past and they are always well received. Another good time in the Rio Grande Valley.

Sunday, January 22 – Our friends, Angie & Rick, recently purchased a home here in Leisure Valley Ranch. We actually arrived here back on December 30 just in time to help them move. As a thank-you to all the helpers, they had a brunch this morning at their place. It's breakfast “in-a-bag.”

As Angie demonstrates

each person was given a plastic bag. We broke two or three eggs in the bag. We then went around a table and placed what ever items (bacon, sausage, mushrooms, asparagus, cheese, etc.) in the bag. You scrunch it all up. We then gave the bag to Rick, who placed them in big pots.

They cook for about 15-18 minutes. All the fixin's come out as an omelet. It was so much fun. They had tons of other stuff for us to eat, even Mimosas! It was a great breakfast and a fun time.

After enjoying the fun at breakfast it was time to relax at home and enjoy the NFL play-off games. A person can get pretty busy and exhausted here in the Rio Grande Valley having fun, so it's nice on occasion to just hang-out at the MH and watch some football.

Our landlord stopped in to visit. He has a Congo African Grey Redtail Parrot that rides all over the park on John's shoulder in the golf cart. Her name is Suzie.

She's quite the talker and it's amazing to hear her. She doesn't just mimic John, but thinks and creates sentences. For example: “John, Suzie says bye, bye.” She even tells John...”No John, you're wrong.” If she bites John, he'll swat at her (not really connecting) and she says, “Suzie is telling Martha (John's wife) and she'll put the stick to you!” She was chattering up a storm with us.

Don't run out and get one of these Parrots. John tells us they live to be 90 years old! There is a lady a couple blocks from the park that sells thousands of these birds all over the country. That might make a neat field trip!

Thanks for stopping over. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

A GREAT DAY IN TWO COUNTRIES

2012-01-20T10:27:00.001-06:00

Monday, January 16 – Paul did a minor remodeling project this morning. We purchased a small dining/kitchen table last year after removing our “fixed” table. The fixed table just wasn't located in the best spot and the new kitchen table had legs that made sitting at it uncomfortable. It seemed like we were always straddling a table leg.

So Paul ordered a pedestal table leg online. We were looking for a wooden pedestal, but they were either cost prohibitive or too big. If only Paul still had his wood shop....LOL. Anyway, the pedestal arrived in yesterdays UPS truck, and Paul installed it this morning.

What a difference! Makes the table much more comfortable. We may change the color in the future???? That's a decision for another time.

Before we headed to the guitar concert, we had dinner at Cheddars. We have never been here before. The food was delicious!

Rick, Marsha, Paul, Jane, Joe, Angie

After dinner we attended a guitar concert at the McAllen Community Center......Edgar Cruz – Guitarist Extraordinaire. He has been named the Oklahoma's Top Performing Artist and Acoustic Guitarist for more than ten years. He performed a repertoire of greatest hits, classical medleys, Latin favorites, originals, rock, jazz, mariachi, and romantic music.

All and all, it was an enjoyable concert and a good time out with friends.

Wednesday, January 18 – OFF TO MEXICO.....We headed to Nuevo Progreso this morning with friends, Angie & Rick and Jane & Joe. We paid our .50 to pass through the turnstile and cross-over into Mexico.

The first thing Paul noticed was the absence of the military. Last year the military had outposts at the border and on several street corners. There presence is no longer visible, and Rick mentioned they moved out of town last fall. Hopefully, that means they are no longer needed.

We feel very comfortable and safe while visiting this border town in Mexico. The people are very friendly, not too pushy, and seem happy to have us present and spending our American dollars. Marsha was looking for some Mexican tiles for her baskets. She did find one, but we'll continue to look next week when we return to Mexico for dentist appointments. We're going to get our 6-month teeth cleaning.

Typical street

If only we had space…wouldn't these just look lovely in the motor home?

We stopped at the pharmacy for some medicines. We wanted to get several “Z-packs” in case we get the cough that seems to be slowly spreading through the campground. Of course, with any medicine purchase you get a free margarita, so we moved next door for our drinks and to listen to the entertainment.

We sat for quite awhile because Joe decided to see the surgeon recommended by the pharmacist. He had a couple growths removed from his face. Luckily Angie is Hispanic and speaks fluent Spanish. She acted as his interpreter. She's been to this pharmacist many times in the past and was able to get a recommendation for a good doctor. Marsha took the camera and documented the entire surgery. She got a ton of close ups, but we won't gross you out with them. Isn't this what you always dreamed of…your surgery in photos.

Joe is alive and well. He looks great.

While we were waiting for Joe and having more than our free margarita, the entertainment started.

We have heard this guy several times. Actually, once in a while he hits the right notes…LOL. The girls decided they would liven everyone's visit by entertaining the crowd. They requested the Macarena. They were moving so fast, Paul couldn't get a clear picture. First time Marsha has danced in Mexico.

After Joe's surgery, we headed back to the border and our return to the U.S. We zipped right through customs and were headed home in no time. We stopped for lunch at one of Rick's favorite hamburger spots, Gonzales. They serve a half-pound cheeseburger that is huge. Marsha and I both brought half home for a later supper.

Another busy and enjoyable day spent in two countries!

Thursday, January 19 - Angie & Rick came over for dinner this evening to help with planning our upcoming summer travels. They have full-timed for over nine years and traveled extensively in California, Oregon and Washington, so are a good source on information of what to see and how to get there!

Rick brought over his computer with Streets & Trips software and convinced us to purchase the latest version. He has all the Points of Interest (POI) marked making it pretty nice for finding Elks Lodges, discount RV Parks, and other stops along our route.

We pretty much have our route planned, and we'll transfer it to my computer once I purchase Streets & Trips. I'll do a little “tweaking” and then post our travel plans in the near future.

After several hours of planning, Marsha served us a delicious Spaghetti Bake dinner complete with salad and garlic bread. What is it with RV'ers, trip planning, and food.....LOL

Check out the latest picture of Marsha's post eye surgery. She still has swelling below both eyes, but she is thrilled that she can see so clearly. Thanks to everyone for your prayers, best wishes, and emails. What a miracle!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

IT'S A WEDDING!

2012-01-16T22:04:00.002-06:00

Saturday, January 14 – Paul enjoyed the beautiful morning playing pickleball with several of his friends.

It was a perfect day....sunny, warm, and no wind. Since you play pickleball with a whiffleball the size of a baseball, wind is you enemy. If it's blowing more than a few miles per hour it becomes impossible to play.

We did something unusual today, especially since we are staying in a 55+ RV Park. We attended the wedding of friends, Luisa & Elmer.

We met them last year when we got involved in a remodeling project at Luisa's house (you can click here to read all about it). Elmer joined the work crew near the end of the project, met Luisa, dated for the past year, and are now married. Elmer is building a casita (a small house) here in Hidden Valley Ranch where they will be living once he is finished.

The wedding was held in Mission, TX at the Methodist Church. It was going to be a small family affair but grew as those things frequently do, into an event attended by about 50-60 family and friends. It was a fun event and the Bride & Groom appeared very happy.

BLOG UPDATE: Many readers commented with questions on how we like staying on a covered RV site. I worried at first we may not like it, and that we would have problems with out satellite TV and with Verizon internet service.

Well, after two weeks, I can report that we love it! The TV and internet are no problem. The roof keeps the MH clean and as an added and significant bonus, here in the frequently windy RGV, the roof protects us from the wind and especially keeps the slide-out awnings from flapping noisily in the wind!! This flapping drove us crazy at times last year!

Another plus is it keeps the coach warmer on cool mornings. Usually, I am unable to use the roof mounted heat pump if outside temperatures drop below about 43 degrees. Although an unusual occurrence here in the RGV, it happens. With the covered site I am still able to use the AC heat pump (it got down to 40 degrees Wednesday and it's running now!) instead of turning on that inefficient propane furnace!!!

We also have the use of a storage shed on our site and have found it indispensable. We park our bikes safely there, store chairs, the grill, and other supplies & equipment. Paul forgot how nice it was to have a barn for his “stuff.” Better get out of here quick before he starts accumulate too much “stuff.”......LOL

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

NEVER A DULL MOMENT IN MISSION

2012-01-15T11:42:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, January 11 – We met in the activity center this evening for a game of Farkle.

We learned how to play this game last year while in the RGV and joined the gang for Wednesday Night Farkle. We had three tables full of Farklers (is that a word???) and enjoyed ourselves. The women kicked butt at our table winning all four games.....JEESH!!!

Friday, January 13 – We went to the dance tonight with our friends. There seems to be a dance about every weekend here at Leisure Valley or at the sister ranch, Hidden Valley. These two parks are actually connected and many times you aren't clear which park you are visiting.

The entertainment was a one-man-band, Jeff Gordon. He sang with computerized back-up music. It was mostly our favorite, country with a mixture of oldies but goodies. We had a great time Texas Two Stepping and doing the Texas Waltz, as well as “gettin' down” with some oldies.

Marsha (in the purple), Angie in middle, Rick on right.

Of course it wouldn't be a successful dance without Marsha winning something. She won a door-prize! A “Winter-Texan” t-shirt. Why can't she win the lottery.... :-)

We had a great time.

Speaking of T-Shirts......we received our Bourbon Trail t-shirts in the mail. If you visit all the Bourbon Distilleries in the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and get your Passport Book stamped at their tour center, you receive a complimentary t-shirt. We are now “Official” Kentucky Bourbon tasters!!!

Thanks to our blogger friends, Jerry and Suzy, we now know the correct name for one of our bird pictures from our last blog. Being from Ohio, we were almost positive this was a Cardinal but weren't 100% sure.

Northern Cardinal

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

BENTSEN-RIO GRAND STATE PARK

2012-01-14T08:51:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, January 11 – Today we took a ride to Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park.

We wanted to hike/walk at the State Park. Serving as the headquarters of the World Birding Center Network, Bentsen SP is known worldwide as a hot spot for birding.

Elmer and his brother, Lloyd (father of Senator Lloyd Bentsen, Jr.) decided to save this grove of ebony trees and the surrounds 587.5 acres by donating it, in 1944, to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park opened in 1962.

With more than 760 acres of woodland and native gardens, not to mention hundreds of volunteer filled bird feeders, visitors can see hundreds of colorful bird species as well as other South Texas wildlife, such as bobcats and javelinas.

They have a small but information-filled nature center.

There is a tram that transports visitors throughout the park but looking for exercise, we chose to walk the entire four mile loop and the additional connecting trails through the park.

We really enjoyed the blinds built in several locations, where one can sit, open a trapdoor and watch the many birds visiting one of the feeders.

We know this isn't a bird, but the butterflies were plentiful.

We are certainly not “birders”, but it was an enjoyable morning seeing all the colorful birds. We think we have the names of some of the birds correct, but if you know the names of the birds photos not labeled, please let us know.

Chachalacas

Altamira Oriole

Green Jay

There is also a hawk tower where you can witness the amazing hawk migrations from a two-story observation deck.

We, unfortunately, did not see any hawks. They are common from the area of Ohio we were from, so we've enjoyed watching them soar overhead in the past.

It's sad to see how dry things are here in South Texas. By the looks of the vegetation one can understand the wild fires witnessed in parts of Texas last spring. This is a box of kindling just waiting to ignite. They need rain, lots of rain in Texas. Hopefully, it will wait until after we leave here on March 1 to start raining!

The Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park is one of three State Parks that partnership with local city parks and the US Fish and Wildlife Service to create the World Birding Center.

The other two are Resaca De La Palma State Park and Estero Llano Grande State Park. All being part of the Texas State Park System accepting our Texas State Parks Pass, giving us free admission. This pass has really paid off for us this past year. We've more than covered the cost by getting into so many State Parks free.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

MEETING BLOGGER FRIENDS…UP CLOSE

2012-01-12T15:19:00.003-06:00

Tuesday, January 10 – We met up with fellow Winter Texans, Gayle and Jim, at a local restaurant today for lunch. We follow each other's blogs and since both of us were in Mission, TX, for the winter, we made arrangements to meet. What a wonderful couple. It's interesting how much one has in common with other full-timers. They are in their forth year of full-timing, similar in age, like hiking and biking, and are interested in photography. Jim, as a matter of fact, gave us some great suggestions in our search for a new camera.
They are staying a few miles down the road at Bentsen Palms RV Park. We hope to get together again before winding up our stay in the RGV.

Jim, Gayle, Marsha, Paul (Don't sit in front of a window and expect to get a good picture:( )

Each morning when we go to workout, we see HUGE flocks of birds flying around Mission. Yesterday on the way home from the gym, there must have been 1000's of birds flying near our campground. From a distance it appeared like smoke in the air, but upon closer inspection, it was birds heading for their feeding grounds here in the RGV.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

EXTENDED WARRANTIES…GOOD IDEA?

2012-01-11T08:44:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, January 10 – Paul has been talking with Rick, a friend here at Leisure Valley, about extended warranties for the motor home. Rick blew a turbo charger on his MH last summer in Oregon, and it was an expensive repair. Fortunately, he has an extended warranty and most of the cost was covered by the insurance company.

With a big trip planned for this summer to Oregon and Washington, Paul is considering purchasing an extended warranty for our MH. It's a long way and will be our first trip in the Rockies! We usually aren't interested in purchasing extended warranties, but one of Paul's biggest concerns while traveling is a major breakdown. If purchasing the extended warranty would increase his enjoyment of traveling the big mountains and beyond, it might be worth it.

What do you think? Do you have an extended warranty on your RV? Have you found them worth the expense? Are they comforting? Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Hope you have a great day!

BACK TO THE '60s and '70s

2012-01-08T12:18:00.001-06:00

Friday, January 6 – .....We got all dressed in our hippie clothes tonight to attend the 60s/70s Dance at the Leisure Valley Ranch Activity Center. Our friends Lynn and Mike Murphy are the DJs, and we are going with a large group of friends we met last year.

Of course, Marsha volunteered us to be in charge of the popcorn machine. We arrived about 30 minutes early to get a supply of corn popped so it would be ready to go as people arrived. It's really not too big of a job. We only had to pop corn 2 or 3 times during the night. It's a self serve item, so all be had to do was watch when the popcorn was getting low and run over and put some more in the machine to pop.

Yes, that is our sign leaning against the machine. Marsha just thought it was a hoot to have a sign saying, "Make Love Not War."

We enjoyed dancing to the tunes from the past and visiting with many of the friends we made last year here in the Rio Grande Valley.

Carol, Angie, Marsha and Paul

We did make it to second place in the costume contest. We got beat out by Wilma & Fred Flintstone. They had an advantage over us. They own a lot here in Leisure Valley and had the hometown crowd supporting them. Here is a picture of the winners. Now you be the judge.

Marsha participated in the paddleball contest.

Guess what...she won! Here she is thanking the crowd for voting for her.

What a talented gal. Every holiday, Marsha buys those paddleball toys for the girls, and they laugh at her. I guess it's there responsibility to become experts, like their mom, and carry on the family tradition of winning a trophy for paddleball. Now where are we going to display this humungous trophy....LOL

For those of you who would like to read what is engraved…I mean…written on the trophy.

Paul entered the YoYo contest but was eliminated early. Being an expert Yo Yo competitor, he found it difficult to compete with the el cheapo YoYos picked-up at the Dollar Store. Guess he'll have to bring his championship YoYo to these Oldies Dances in the future......Ha Ha!!!

One of Paul's good friends is Mike, the DJ. They look like hippie brothers!!

The highlight of the evening was a spontaneous “sit-in” in the middle of the dance floor. The DJ's were shocked! “What are these darn senior citizen Hippies doing sitting in the middle of the dance floor?” The bouncers were called to break-up the peaceful demonstration. Paul remarked, “It's a good thing the bouncers came to help us up off the floor.”

The dance continued without further interruptions to the bewitching hour of 9:30 pm. After cleaning-up the Activity Center, it was time for all the old hippies to head home to bed!

Saturday, January 7 - After a bike ride around the RV Park this morning, we did a little house cleaning this morning. We decided to go through the basement of the MH and clean-out anything we haven't used in a while. They have park-wide garage sales here periodically, and we can sell off things we don't need. Surprisingly, we didn't find too much that we don't use. Now that's a shocker!!! We did put some things in the shed, and we did eliminate one plastic storage bin, but Paul thought we would be getting rid of much more than we did.

It was an amazing beautiful day. The temperature was in the low 80's, the sun was shining, there was no wind, and the sky was a beautiful blue. Marsha took advantage of the afternoon and relaxed in the sun. Paul met some guys and played Pickleball. If you're not familiar with Pickleball, it's like tennis for old farts. You play it with paddles similar to large ping pong paddles, a wiffle baseball, and a very small court (approximately 20 X 40 feet). Playing partners, you don't kill yourself and you get a good workout.

This evening, we went over to Angie & Rick's new house for happy hour. We helped them move into their beautiful new house just a week ago. They also invited two friends that just arrived yesterday. Thanks for a great time you two!

Joe, Jane, Angie, Rick

One thing for sure, there is never a dull moment here in the RV Park. If you want something to do, there is plenty of things to get involved in or you can just relax and enjoy the great weather.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL

2012-01-04T08:11:00.001-06:00

Monday, January 2 – The Verizon installation man arrived as scheduled this afternoon to install a satellite dish on our covered RV pad. Due to the fact that we are parked under a roof for the first time, our automatic roof satellite dish will not connect to the signal, so we have to get a dish mounted on the shelter.

Let me tell you, if you are ever in a similar situation, don't try to explain to your satellite provider that you live full-time in an RV and you need a “temporary” dish installed. They just can't fathom that situation....LOL. We must have been passed between a half dozen different operators before we gave up. On advice of our new landlord, we finally called back and just told them we moved and need a dish installed on our new place.

They were so happy to have us as a customer in our new location, they easily set an appointment for an installer to attach the new dish at no charge. Our landlord wanted to keep the old Dish Network satellite for future renters, so he now has two dishes on the RV shelter, a Dish Network and a DirectTV Network dish. Future renters just need to connect the TV wire to which ever satellite service they need.

It was then time to sit back and watch the BCS Bowl games for the remainder of the day. We did pry ourselves out of our chairs for an evening walk around the park. We are enjoying nice weather with highs in the upper 70's and lows in the 50's. The orange, lime, lemon and grapefruit trees are doing awesome. They taste as good as they look!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

PARTY, PARTY, PARTY!!!

2012-01-02T06:11:00.001-06:00

Sunday, January 1 – We started the new year off by attending a great party at the clubhouse. Ken and Brenda did the entertaining for the evening. They are really good. They play one song after another. They only took one break from 8-midnight. The dance floor was packed most of the evening.

You may think this picture was taken around midnight. NOPE…it was only 8:15. And yes, that is a cork in his mouth.

We sat with our friends Angie, Rick, Susie and Chuck. We talked, laughed, ate, drank and basically just had a wonderful evening.

We thought we better get a picture early during the evening. We just don't know what we will look like after a few dances.

Just before midnight, we all chose our hats and our noise makers. We got a HUGE bottle of champagne to share with eight people. Fortunately for us, two people didn't drink any and two others only had half a glass. That left a ton for guess who?

Paul has a pumpkin head. When we put our hats on…well you can see how well his fit.

We all decided this one fit him much better…what a girl!

We are ready to start this new year with hopes of another great year. We wish you all a wonderful healthy and safe NEW YEAR!

Paul, Marsha, Rick, Angie

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

WE MADE IT TO MISSION….HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2012-01-01T00:36:00.001-06:00

Saturday, December 31

We wish all our family and friends and HEATHLY and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Friday, December 30 – We traveled to Mission, Texas, today. It is located in the Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas on the border with Mexico. We pulled out of the Houston Elks Club bright and early for our trip. We drove through fog the first three hours of the trip.

Our first stop was at Prasek's Smokehouse in Hillje, TX, about 60 miles south of Houston on Highway 59.

Paul read about this stop on Rudy & Linda's blog, Home Sweet RV. You can see their blog here: http://www.mytripjournal.com/HomeSweetRV2012 . Not only do they sell fresh meats but also numerous flavors of jerky, BBQ, and smoked meats.

There is a wonderful bakery selling pastries and kaloches, cookies, and strudels.

They have a HUGE aquarium, beautiful gift store and the walls had unique decorations.

So after grabbing a cup of coffee and some breakfast sandwiches, we continued toward south Texas. Paul did take a moment to check the oil in the front bearing hub. A leak was discovered during routine maintenance, and we decided to wait till arriving in Mission to get it repaired. We stopped every 90 minutes or so to check the oil level and add any oil if needed.

Now this isn't something you see everyday while driving down the highway.

This guy was going 60 MPH with FIVE dogs in the back and NO tailgate. We think he is crazy, but the dogs seemed to be having a wonderful time.

Even though Paul had to add a little oil on each stop, it wasn't excessive, and we arrived at our location in Hidden Valley Ranch, Mission, Texas, by mid-afternoon. We are parked on a covered RV site. The site is huge.

We have no one behind us.

Street views

This is the first time we've parked under a roof. It's nice to get the MH out of the weather, but it has created a challenge. We could not use our roof mounted satellite dish because the roof blocks the signal. So after several frustrating calls with Direct TV, our satellite provider, we are scheduled to have a new dish mounted on the side of the RV cover on Tuesday and at no cost! Unfortunately, that means no TV till then. Darn....we're going to miss the bowl games broadcast over New Year's weekend!

UPDATE ON SATELLITE: One of our friends, Rick Radosevic, came to the rescue. He came down Saturday afternoon and helped Paul get a signal on a temporary satellite dish that we borrowed from Norm Leech, another friend, so we can watch football this weekend. RV friends to the rescue!! Thanks guys!

Other than that one stumbling block, we have a great site and are anxious to relax in the nice weather and enjoy the next two months here in the Rio Grande Valley.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

MARSHA'S BACK IN HOUSTON…TIME TO ROLL

2011-12-29T20:47:00.001-06:00

Thursday, December 29 – Just a short blog to tell all our family and friends that Marsha arrived at Bush Airport 20 minutes early…WHAT…EARLY? Her plane touched down at 12:10 a.m. this morning. We gathered her luggage, drove home and talked for a short time. She was all wound up, but Paul was ready to hit the sack. Paul said…we can talk all you want tomorrow. Marsha…that will never happen!

A bit about Marsha's doctor appointment on Tuesday. The doctor was on vacation so she saw the nurse practitioner. Marsha said she was very nice. The NP looked at the stiches but told Marsha they all must dissolve on their own. She did help a couple along by cutting the knots off of them. Marsha expressed that she was very happy with her left eye and how much more open it is. What a difference it has made in her sight, but she was concerned about all the swelling in the right one. The NP assured Marsha that it may take up to THREE MONTHS before all the swelling is gone. The NP's only concern was the amount of swelling still below both eyes. She said the amount Marsha had was more than normal. She would discuss it with the doctor when he called in the morning. She explained that doctor would do one of three things…
1. Do nothing…but that was unlikely to happen.
2. Prescribe a diuretic…Marsha explained that she can never take those because she was only born with one kidney.
3. Prescribe a Medrol Pak…Marsha explained that she can only take a short term dosage…again due to her kidney.

The doctor did prescribe the Medrol Pak. She began them today. She should see results by tomorrow afternoon. She…of course…can not wait.

Her only restrictions for the next four weeks are no strenuous exercise, running or other activity. She can work out at a low-key level…no sit-ups, crunches are any head up and down activities. She is not to use any lotion or creams around her eyes. She said she can live with these.

Thursday evening picture.

We are off tomorrow morning for Mission, TX, our home base for the next two months. We spent last winter here and really enjoyed all the friends we made. We are looking forward to the warm weather, all the super activities, and seeing our friends again.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

ANOTHER WONDERFUL, BLESSED CHRISTMAS

2011-12-27T09:03:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, December 27 – The Weavers and Wadsworths celebrated another glorious Christmas together.

The stockings were hung by the coffee table with care…and bulging with gifts. The extra little snowman stocking Santa left for Kelly's boyfriend, Dave.

It looks like a couple of girls were pretty good this year.

Before we opened gifts, we made a Skype call to Paul and Bella. It was a wonderful way to wish him a Merry Christmas. Marsha's dad had never heard of Skype and was just amazed the entire time we talked.

We showed you a picture with Carrie's favorite gift, the Kitchen Aid Mixer…here is Kelly's…

The girls gave us car mats for the front and back. A HUGE gift that we were going to purchase in Mission. They then gave Marsha several other wonderful gifts. THANKS again, girls, for the super gifts. Once Marsha and the girls opened gifts at dad's house, they headed for Rickie's house, Marsha's brother. They didn't have to go to far; his backyard butts up against dad's.

Marsha made baskets for everyone…those pictures will come in a future blog…but she also made one special gift for her sister, Stacie. Stacie was diagnosed with breast cancer just last November. She is only 40. Marsha's gift…a prayer shawl for comfort and hope for the future. Stacie was very happy to receive the gift.

Each year, we kids rack our brains trying to find something to get our dad for Christmas. Last year it was a new TV…this year a new tiller. Boy was he surprised and sooooooo happy to receive it. That should make putting in his garden this spring a little bit more enjoyable.

Marsha's Godchild and nephew, Keith, was so fired up to receive his gift from her.

Can you guess what is inside….remember he is only 30…

Great Lakes Christmas Ale. This is a beer locally brewed that only comes out for two weeks during the Christmas season. We never knew beer could cost so much!! But, Keith says it is the best gift he ever received…his standards aren't set very high.

We all received way more than what we deserved, but no one volunteered to give it back. Tons of food was consumed, and the traditional holiday photos were taken.

Carrie, Marsha and Kelly

From our family to yours….We wish you a happy and healthy New Year!!!

One last photo…an update on Marsha's progress. Each day the swelling goes down. She is still pretty bruised under her eyes, and even though you can't tell it from the photo, she has lots of stitches that haven't dissolved. She feel great and thanks everyone for their prayers and well wishes. She sees the doctor on Wednesday.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2011-12-25T01:34:00.001-06:00

Sunday, December 25

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY

2011-12-20T19:57:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, December 20 – Warning…there are photos in this blog of Marsha's surgery. Hopefully they won't gross any of you out!

Marsha's surgery on Friday went very well. Hopefully, this will correct the problems that were beginning to affect her vision. She had to have both upper and lower lids corrected increasing the expose to the eye. Dr. Shah told her that after all the swelling goes down, her lids will be even. She should have 100% of her field of vision back. To say the least, she is thrilled! The surgery took a little over a hour and a half. Our sister-in-law, Chris, took Marsha to the hospital and brought her home. Chris works in recovery at one of the local hospitals and was able to ask the doctor all the right questions. Nice to have a nurse in the family!

This is what she looked like when she first arrived home. She looks terrible but HAD NO PAIN AT ALL!

She has to put cold compresses/frozen peas on her eyes every 20 min. on and 20 min. off. Her eyes were so swollen, and the stitches were very tight. These caused some discomfort, but no pain. She didn't take any Vicodin the first day. What a miracle.

One of the biggest challenges is sleeping. She must keep her head erect. No lying down or on her side. Her back is hurting from just sitting in the same position. She has to try to sleep in this position for at least a week.

This is one day after surgery.

On Sunday morning, she woke up to more swelling than she thought her face could take. Our daughter, Kelly, and Marsha's dad thought she might need to go to the emergency room. Before they did that, Marsha decided to do at least two rounds of compresses and her frozen peas. After the second 20 min., some of the swelling in the left eye started to go down. It continued to go down the rest of the day. It was the third day after surgery, and usually that is the worst day for her.

It is now Tuesday, and she is feeling much much better. Sleep is not coming easily to her. She does doze off and on all day. She isn't allowed to put any more ice on her eyes. Nature has to take over from here. She doesn't like it, but she isn't permitted to go to the gym or do any strenuous work for a couple of weeks. She has a follow-up appointment next Tuesday before flying back to Houston on Wednesday.

The latest picture. Getting better slowly.

Thanks so much for your prayers, best wishes and love. It surely helped with the surgery!

HAPPY HANUKKAH to all our dear Jewish friends!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

MOTOR HOME MAINTENANCE

2011-12-18T19:04:00.001-06:00

Thursday, December 15 – Paul had RV Mobile Lube of Houston out to the Elks Lodge RV Park this morning at 8 a.m. to change the motorhome oil, filter, and lubrication.

We've had this company before and you can read all about it HERE. We are very happy with their service and recommend them to anyone looking to have service done while in the Houston area.

While greasing of the chassis, the fellow looks everything over underneath the vehicle.

He found two items he called Paul's attention to that need further investigation. A minor one consisting of a wheel weight that is coming loose on the inside of a front tire. These are placed there when the tires are balanced. We were unable to remove it or hammer it back in place. The tire will have to be deflated for this and that's a job for a tire repair facility.

The other area needing attention is a little more serious. The last couple times we traveled, we noticed a propane smell when braking. We thought we had a propane leak and Paul sprayed soapy water on the lines but was unable to find a leak. He then searched on line and found a fellow that said to look for an oil leak dripping on the brakes. Sure enough, the service technician found it today. The seal on the front left tire bearing is leaking.

We filled the reservoir with bearing lube and will have to get this taken care of in the very near future.

We'll either find a front-end/suspension shop here in the Houston area to repair it or wait till we are in Mission, TX, to have the work completed. Paul knows what to watch and how to add additional oil if need.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

GOINGS ON IN TEXAS AND OHIO

2011-12-15T06:15:00.001-06:00

Saturday, December 10 – Marsha is flying home to Ohio this morning for the holidays. With winter in full effect.....there could be SNOW in Ohio......so, Paul chose to hang out in Houston until Marsha returns.

Actually, Marsha has two reasons for returning to Ohio. Not only will she be sharing Christmas with her dad, brothers and sister and two daughters, but she will also be having eye surgery. As mentioned in a previous post, when we were in Ohio this fall for visits and doctor appointments, the doctor decided that her drooping eyelids were now affecting her vision. Unfortunately, insurance approval took time so surgery was scheduled to coincide with her holiday visit. She will be going “under the knife” on December 16, so keep her in your prayers.

This morning, Marsha will be flying out of Bush International Airport and arriving in Akron/Canton Airport later this afternoon. The plane was right on time.

What a GREAT day to fly!

OH NO…the GREAT day didn't last long. This is what it looked like when she was approaching Chicago…YUCK!

Chicago is beautiful from the air.

But good-old Ohio pulled through…clear skies, no snow.

Our daughter, Kelly, will be there to greet her. Carrie will fly to Ohio later in the month to join the family for Christmas. It should be a very enjoyable Christmas for the gals!

On Friday, we exchanged Christmas gifts. Marsha won't post her picture because she is too self-conscience about her eyes. But Paul is a gamer. He finally asked and received a gift from Marsha that the kids and Marsha have been bugging him about…A BIKE HELMET!!!

He had to check out how well it would protect his head.

Tuesday, December 13 – We recently received a recall notice for our new Honda CRV. It involves a needed computer adjustment necessary for improved fuel economy. We are currently getting about 25 mpg so any improvement would be a bonus. Called Gillman Honda, located about a mile from the Elks Lodge where we are parked, and they were able to get me in the first thing this morning. Paul will wait around the dealership while adjustments are completed.

The Service Recall only took about 30 minutes and Paul was on his way. He really liked the way this dealership service area was arranged. Drive-up entry where the information is written up.

They have a nice waiting room with coffee and free popcorn and newspapers, and a large window over-looking the service area so you can watch the progress and servicing of your vehicle.

Our car is on the right in the forefront.

They also do a free multipoint inspection and have a free exterior car wash. Nice!

Back in Ohio…Marsha is busy visiting family, friends, baking cookies and shopping. She did all her pretesting on Tuesday. EKG, blood work, blood pressure, etc. all came back good. She won't know what time surgery will be until Thursday. She does know she needs to be there two hours before the surgery. The surgery takes about two and a half hours and recovery about two. Our sister-in-law, Chris, will take her and pick her up. This way if the weather is bad Marsha's dad doesn't have to drive. The nurse made the strangest request. She told Marsha to purchase two bags of frozen peas. She explained that the package of peas would conform to the shape of her eyes much better than an ice pack. She is all set and really looking forward to getting her eyes done.

This will probably be our last post until she is feeling better. So until then, we wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HANUKKAH.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr IT's COLD IN HOUSTON!!!!!

2011-12-07T22:10:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, December 7 – With the temperatures dipping to the low 30's overnight and the daytime temperatures struggling to get over 50 degrees, it's time to break out the Vanguard Blue Flame propane heater. We store this in the basement of the motor home during the warmer times of the year.

We run the overhead electric heat pump (part of our air conditioner) when we can, but once the temperatures drop below 40* it isn't very efficient. We prefer the electric heater because here at the Elks Lodge the electric service is figured into you $325 monthly rent. FREE electric!!!

This is how Paul and Bella stay warm in the morning. (Taken before we hooked up the Blue Flame heater).

RV furnaces are very inefficient and don't really put our enough heat. I've heard of RV'ers going through a whole tank of propane in a matter of days using the RV furnace. Our Blue Flame heater is VERY efficient. I think we only filled our propane tank twice last winter (of course we try to stay where temperatures don't drop too low).

These Blue Flame heaters are ventless, so one must be aware of the danger of fumes. It is recommended you crack open a window when using the ventless heaters. As a rule, we NEVER sleep with the ventless heater running. Paul is an early riser, so he turns it on in the morning before Marsha get out of bed. It's nice and toasty by the time Marsha is ready to greet the world.

If you're an RV'er and haven't check out the Blue Flame heaters, we recommend them and suggest to check them out as an economical alternative to the typical RV furnace.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

SOME EARLY CHRISTMAS GIFTS COME TO CARRIE

2011-12-07T06:17:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, December 6 – Well the darn cold air from California has hit us. It is suppose to get down to 38 tonight.

As you can see, it is cold in places where it should be warm and warm in some places that shouldn't be enjoying our warmth.

We spent Marsha's last Saturday here with our daughter, Carrie. The girls spent a couple of hours decorating the house. Carrie has a HUGE Christmas Extravaganza this coming Saturday.

Two of Carrie's Christmas packages were too big for Marsha to take back to Ohio, so we celebrated an abbreviated "gift opening" celebration. Boy was Carrie surprised this year. Her first gift was from Paul.

What is that she is holding? A Virginia Tech Hokie Bird. It is a wind spinner. Here is a close up.

Her second gift was a real surprise to her.

She has asked several times for a Kitchen Aid mixer but knew it was too expensive a gift. BUT…when we were in Foley, AL, they have a great outlet mall. One of the stores is Kitchen Collection. They carry Kitchen Aid refurbished commercial mixers. They were only used once in a kitchen demonstration and then sent back to the factory for refurbishing. Well, if we were ever going to get one for her, it had to be now. The price was very good; the result PRICELESS!

Saturday evening we watched the Hokies play one of the most miserable games we have ever seen them play. Oh how painful it was to watch Clemson run all over them. VT was differently out coached!

After the loss, VT dropped from 5th to 11th in the BSC standing. Now here is the BIGGEST shocker of them all. Virginia Tech was picked to play in the Sugar Bowl against Michigan on January 3. When they made the announcement on ESPN, needless to say, a couple of the announcers were not very happy. Several higher ranked teams were overlooked. We can only speculate why they got chosen, but we are thrilled they did. They better not blow it this time!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

ROONEYISMS

2011-12-03T07:18:00.001-06:00

Friday, December 2 – The weather has been beautiful here in Houston, BUT we are in for a big change. It is suppose to get down into the 30s beginning on Monday….BURRRRR!

If you like Andy Rooney or not, he had a gift of saying so much with so few words. If you will take the time to read these. I promise you'll come away with an enlightened perspective. The subjects covered affect us all on a daily basis. Hope you enjoy these.

I've learned.... That the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person.

I've learned.... That when you're in love, it shows.

I've learned.... That just one person saying to me, 'You've made my day!' makes my day.

I've learned.... That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.

I've learned.... That being kind is more important than being right.

I've learned.... That you should never say no to a gift from a child.

I've learned.... That I can always pray for someone when I don't have the strength to help him in some other way.

I've learned.... That no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.

I've learned.... That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.

I've learned.... That simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.

I've learned.... That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

I've learned.... That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for.

I've learned.... That money doesn't buy class.

I've learned.... That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.

I've learned.... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.

I've learned.... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.

I 've learned.... That when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you.

I've learned.... That love, not time, heals all wounds.

I've learned.... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.

I've learned.... That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile..

I've learned.... That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.

I've learned... That life is tough, but I'm tougher.

I've learned.... That opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss.

I've learned.... That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.

I've learned.... That I wish I could have told my Mom that I love her one more time before she passed away.

I've learned.... That one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.

I've learned..... That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.

I've learned..... That when your newly born grandchild holds your little finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life.

I've learned.... That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.

I've learned.... That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

BELLA IS EATING AGAIN…YEA!

2011-11-30T09:15:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, November 29 – Yes it does get cold here in Houston. Look…

Even though it does read 34.6 at 7:00 a.m., by 10 it is up to 60. The last few days the mornings have been down right cold, but the days are sunny and warm. Got to love this weather!

Sometimes we just can't pass up a "You got to be kidding' me!" moment. What you don't see is four rusty water heaters in the front of this mess. Can you tell where this guy is headed?

Thank you to all who wished us well with Bella. Well finally, after almost 30 hours of not eating, she broke down and inhaled her food. We are so happy. We put the medicine on her afternoon food. She lets it sit there until she finally can't stand the hungry pains and eats it around 6. Since she isn't eating as much, we now only feed her twice a day.

It is that time of the year again. Marsha loves decorating. With limited space, she does her best to bring the Christmas spirit into the motorhome.

Paul, Kelly, Carrie, Marsha

Yes, she also decorates the outside…sort of.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

POOR LITTLE BELLA

2011-11-28T06:32:00.001-06:00

Sunday, November 27 – We noticed last Tuesday a hunk of Bella's hair on the chair. We had no idea how it got there. Just a short time later, Marsha saw Bella biting her backside and pulling the hair out. She tried to stop her but Bella was determined to bite herself. We put Hartline Flea meds on her each month and couldn't believe she had fleas. We decided to run to the store and grab a flea collar and flea powder. Come Friday, we noticed she had more hair missing and almost two bald spots on her backside. Time to get aggressive.

Paul asked a couple who live her to recommend a Veterinarian. They HIGHLY recommend Cambridge Post Oak Animal Clinic and Dr. Jacob. Paul called, and they got us in first thing on Saturday morning. We loaded up the little girl in the car. She isn't quiet sure what it going on.

Dr. Jacob and his assistant were WONDERFU! He did all the necessary steps to eliminate certain problems.

Now Bella wasn't too excited about this part of the exam. She was very touchy!

The Doctor showed us how dry her skin is and how flaky it is. No fleas found anywhere.

He said he believes she has some sort of allergy, and it is giving her very dry skin. He gave her and injection and an Omega-3 fatty acid supplement called Aller G-3 to put on her food once a day. We were so happy with the service. They were both very professional and wonderful to Bella.

Now that we are home, it looks like someone is hungry.

Well, the good news is the injection did the job. She is no longer biting herself, BUT she won't eat the food. We put only 1/2 squirt on the food, but she smells it and walks away. We just add some new food to the old and are waiting for her to get hungry enough to eat. She hasn't touched the food since lunch yesterday. Any one have this same problem with your pet? How did you get them to eat the food? The Vet said it would take a few weeks for the supplement to show a much shinier coat.

Today is Virginia Tech's last regular football game against arch rival Virginia. The football watch party was held at Sawyer's Sports Bar. We had front seats for the big screen TV. Here is just part of the crew ready to cheer VT onto VICTORY!

VT gets on the scoreboard first. 7-0.

YEA! Another touchdown. 14-0

VT went on to scores three more touchdowns and a field goal to win 38-0. VT won their division of the ACC. They now will play Clemson next Saturday night for the ACC Championship.

Thanks for inviting us, Carrie. We had a super time.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

ANOTHER WONDERFUL THANKFUL THANKSGIVING

2011-11-26T11:20:00.001-06:00

Saturday, November 26 – Another wonderful, fun-filled Thanksgiving. While Carrie and Marsha were hard at work in the kitchen, the boys played Corn Hole in the driveway. This is Carrie's one roommate, Nick, and Paul, showing off his great tossing form. After both teams had to go back to 11 seven different times, Paul's team finally hit 21 on the nose.

Is this considered "too many cooks in the kitchen?"

We actually had two turkeys this year. The first one was smoked…we won't go into the why Carrie had to run out an buy another turkey…on Thanksgiving morning at that. Let's just say it had to do with the smoker, a little grease flame-up and very dry grass. Although most of the turkey could be saved (only lost the wings), it was VERY YUMMMMMY! Darn near burned the house down too….YIKES!!! This was a smoker, outside, – not a deep fryer!

Carrie cooked the second turkey the traditional way. She does not put the stuffing in her bird, but does put lots of yummy vegetables in to give it a delicious taste.

Here is our hostess waiting for her guests.

Everyone brought awesome food, drinks and laughter to the Thanksgiving table.

What a wonderful group of young adults. We play the role of their mom and dad each Thanksgiving.

It is a tradition that Nick and Paul serve on the dish-washing crew.

Hope your Thanksgiving was a delightful as our was.

On Saturday, Carrie and Marsha did their marathon cookie baking. They started at 10 and finished at 3. They worked nonstop baking such favorite cookies as Chocolate Chip, cut-outs, Magic Bars, Funfetti, etc. Paul's favorite is the Ruglach. We made three batches of these.

Paul asks, "How can I help?" In unison, Carrie and Marsha respond, "Wash the dishes." Our wish is his command. Look how happy he is to help out!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL

2011-11-24T06:24:00.001-06:00

Thursday, November 24 - HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! – We have so much to be thankful for this year. We have been so Blessed with a wonderful family, great health and the ability to travel.

Our wish is that you and your family have a Blessed Thanksgiving!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

MOSLEY PARK…THE EDIBLE PARK

2011-11-22T19:06:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, November 22 – We spent most of our weekend with our daughter, Carrie. We did some outlet mall shopping on Saturday and watched a ton of great college football games. On Sunday, Carrie came down and watched the Cleveland Browns WIN.

We do most of our shopping in an area known as Missouri City. It is a newer area of Houston with every store imaginable. When driving there, we pass a walking park, Mosley Park. This 3.08-acre park is on the sloping banks of Oyster Creek. The park includes picnic facilities and parking surrounded by glorious pecan trees for a picture perfect setting. This trail is a head location for the Oyster Creek Jogging Trail. There is parking available, as well as an excellent opportunity for fishing.

The region’s first Edible Arbor Trail is located in Mosley Park. It features groves of newly planted hardy trees and shrubs that will produce edible fruits and nuts. The unique environmental project includes educational signage detailing tree facts and displaying sponsor logos. Ultimately, it will give visitors a chance to experience and taste nature.The Trail was just dedicated on November 10.

This was a new one on us…Mexican Persimmon.

Well, it seems me made a huge mistake in our last blog. Thank you to all who just ignored our ignorance and read on. BUT, our daughter, Carrie who lives in Houston, caught the mistake. We both can't believe that we didn't catch it. What was the mistake you ask? When we showed the picture of the traffic, we miss labeled the outer loop as I-610. It is really the Sam Houston Toll Road. That makes the inner loop I-610. So sorry for leading you astray!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM…TRAFFIC!

2011-11-19T07:30:00.001-06:00

Friday, November 18 - Sure glad we are heading South on 59 and not North into Houston. We witness this scene every morning as we head down 59 to workout at Anytime Fitness. These poor commuters are still about 15 miles from the city just creeping along and frequently stopped in traffic. Each side of the highway is SIX lanes wide. Just crazy!

We get a kick out of watching the morning traffic report. Almost every morning there are extreme delays. We are talking up to a TWO hour delay getting into Houston.

Here are two maps showing the traffic this morning. This one shows all the real-time accidents. The big green circle is I-610. The inner circle is I-10. It is only 6:30 in the morning. Rush hour goes on until 9:30 a.m.

Same time of the morning but this one also shows road work. Put those minus signs (accidents) + the road work signs = A MESS. Actually this morning was rather quiet.

Marsha can publish one of her Christmas gifts. This pine needle cracker basket is for someone who does not read the blog, because she DOESN'T have a computer….what? (I thought everyone had a computer of some sort.) This is Marsha's first attempt to put handles on a basket. Those are walnut slices in the handles. She did not use her nice new long needles. If you look closely, you can see on the rear-side, at the very top the gold "special" pine needle that she got from the sapling that went to the moon. She is pretty happy with her final product.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

MURPHY'S LAW…AND ALL HIS COUSINS

2011-11-14T22:18:00.001-06:00

Monday, November 14 - We don't post things like this, but this just hit home so hard we thought we would share it. All 19 have happened to one of us on more than one occasion. No. 11 just happened to us this past Sunday in church…no less. (Side note: We don't have big bellies or long legs, thank you very much! We sat in the aisle seat. You will see that we mean when you read #11.) Can you relate to any of them?

1. Law of Mechanical Repair - After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you'll have to pee.

2. Law of Gravity - Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.

3.Law of Probability - The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.

4. Law of Random Numbers - If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal and someone always answers.

6. Variation Law- If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now.

7.Law of the Bath - When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.

8. Law of Close Encounters - The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.

9. Law of the Result - When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.

10.Law of Biomechanics - The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

11.Law of the Theater & Hockey Arena - At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle, always arrive last. They are the ones who will leave their seats several times to go for food, beer, or the toilet and who leave early before the end of the performance or the game is over. The folks in the aisle seats come early, never move once, have long gangly legs or big bellies and stay to the bitter end of the performance. The aisle people also are very surly folk.

12.The Coffee Law - As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

13. Murphy's Law of Lockers - If there are only 2 people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.

14.Law of Physical Surfaces - The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich landing face down on a floor, are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet or rug.

15. Law of Logical Argument - Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.

16. Brown's Law of Physical Appearance - If the clothes fit, they're ugly.

17. Oliver's Law of Public Speaking - A closed mouth gathers no feet.

18. Wilson's Law of Commercial Marketing Strategy - As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.

19. Doctors' Law - If you don't feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there you'll feel better.. But don't make an appointment, and you'll stay sick.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

HOUSE CLEANING DONE…BACK TO HAVING FUN!

2011-11-13T21:55:00.001-06:00

Saturday, November 12 – With all the house cleaning chores completed, we picked up Carrie and her friend, Greg, and headed to the Offshore Drilling Museum in Galveston, TX.

It was nice to have Greg along, because he worked on drilling rigs in the past, and he was able to add background information to our visit. The museum is located in downtown Galveston, a short distance up from the cruise ship ports.

There were two ships in port and one sailed while we were there to watch. We were also lucky to see a drilling rig being towed out to sea while at the museum. Amazing!!!

The Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig is a retired jack-up drilling platform. A jack-up rig is a mobile offshore drilling unit with three or more long legs that can be jacked down to make contact with the sea floor. When the legs are set jacking continues until the entire hull of the rig is out of the water (usually at least 25 ft.) The Ocean Star was built in 1969 in Beaumont, Texas for the Ocean Drilling and Exploration Company (ODECO) fleet. It had quarters for 49 persons. It operated in up to 173 feet of water and was designed to drill a well to 25,000 feet.

The Museum features three floors of educational and interactive displays illustrating the story of offshore oil and gas exploration. One is able to walk through this production platform and explore the systems used in off-shore drilling. The museum is a self-guided facility. There are numerous models of the different types of off-shore rigs. The size of these huge rigs is staggering.

Shell's Bullwinkle jacket platform is 1,751 feet tall, and sits in 1,353 feet of water off the coast of Louisiana. The platform's legs are 10 feet in diameter, and the base cover 4.5 acres of seafloor. Twenty-eight piles, driven as deep as 400 feet into the seabed. The platform has 38,000 sq. ft. of deck area and a jacket constructed from 77,000 tons of steel.

The cost of these rigs and the servicing equipment needed to keep these rigs in production is unbelievable. It can easily exceed a million dollars per day!

Wearing atmospheric diving suits, divers can safely descend to 2300 ft. and work for extended periods. Powerful manipulator claws and specially built automatic wrenches, cutters and grinders give divers what they need to perform hundreds of deepwater installation and repair tasks.

A diver actually gets inside this thing.

Look how big it is compared to Carrie.

Pigs are devices that service pipelines. They pass through the pipeline to clean, to repair, or to inspect it. Pigs are entirely soft rubber, or are equipped with soft rubber rings that seal against the inside of the pipe. The seals make a slight oinking sound as they slide along—hence the name "pig."

After a leisurely tour inside the museum, which is located in the “housing” portion of the platform, we walked outside and experienced what is is like to stand on the drill floor of an off-shore rig.

You can visit the pipe deck, work the controls the driller uses to operate the drilling equipment, see the bits and other equipment used in drilling and roam throughout the three story drilling platform.

The traveling block lifts the load of the drill pipe during drilling operations.

An escape capsule, or pod, is the lifeboat of an offshore rig. Twenty-eight crew members could fit inside this escape pod and be lowered over the side of the rig. They are equipped with a two-way radio, safety gear, first aid supplies, water and a cooling system that pumps seawater over the pod until the crew inside can be retrieved.

This rig is so big; we look like midgets.

But it wasn't all play. Look at how dirty we got just walking around.

This is a great museum for only $5 for seniors. We learned so much about offshore drilling. Greg did an excellent job of filling in the gaps. Thanks Greg.

After our three and a half hours in the museum, it was time to treat ourselves to some delicious Galveston Island sea food. We headed over to the popular Strand Blvd. and the famous Black Pearl Oyster Bar.

We chose four dishes to share among the group. Paul was anxious to try Oysters on the half shell; Greg chose Alligator; Carrie selected the Cajun Shrimp; and Marsha the Boudin Balls. What a seafood feast! We all enjoyed sharing the different dishes.

We all had our favorites but the raw oysters were surprising enjoyed by all.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

FALL CLEANING

2011-11-10T22:10:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, November 8 – Day two of Fall Cleaning continued, that summed up our day. We jumped right into cleaning, after our morning workout. Marsha was scrubbing the kitchen area, and Paul was giving the woodwork a once over with Murphy's Oil.

He also was instructed to clean the vents under the refrigerator…Her wish is my command.

Of course, Bella wasn't about to move out of “her spot” on the sunny dashboard. That's OK, Marsha will just clean around you, Bella!

All the appliances were scrubbed, the stainless steel polished, the carpets swept, extra good, and the tile floor scrubbed. Oh, don't forget the windows, the TV's, computer screens, and all those dashboard electronics. The inside is sparkling clean and germ free…as much as possible.

Wednesday, November 9 – A miracle occurred here in Houston…RAIN! What a storm we had. It lasted several hours but only hours after it stopped there was no sign that it even happened.

Paul took advantage of the sunny weather to get back up on the roof to add some Dicor Roof Treatment to some "iffy" areas on our fiberglass roof. Don't want any leaks this winter.

Marsha has been diligently working on her pine needle baskets. She has one more basket to complete, and she will have all her Christmas gifts completed. She will share some pictures later. Some of the baskets are for people who follow our blog. Don't want to ruin any one's surprise.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

GIANT PRESIDENTIAL HEADS

2011-11-08T21:51:00.001-06:00

Monday, November 7 – Paul climbed on the roof of the motorhome this morning and gave it a good scrubbing. It's amazing how dirty it gets.....you would think the rain would wash it off!

Our roof is fiberglass and looks to be in good shape. Paul is going to put some protective sealer on tomorrow. It wouldn't be such a bad job if it wasn't for the fact that all that dirt and dirty water washes down the sides of the MH, and now he'll need to wash the entire thing in the near future. He actually chose to do it today because there is a chance of rain tomorrow, and he may have needed to wash off all the rain splatter and spots anyway.

While Paul was on the roof, Marsha began her fall house cleaning inside the MH. She gave the bedroom and bathroom a through cleaning. Tomorrow we'll clean the front half and scrub the tile floor covering. With that finished, we should be all set for winter.

Happy Birthday to Marsha's dad, Fred!

FLASHBACK TO SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5

Well here is something you don't see every day a…Pedal Party Bar. The bike holds up to 16 party goers, (that’s 15 seated and one standing in the middle as ‘Your Bartender’) . Physically, its about the size of a cargo van and travels at an average speed of between 5 and 8 miles per hour. The Pedal Party is rented on an hourly basis. Just to give you an idea of the cost…For 2-3 hours Sunday – Thursday, $160/hour; Friday & Saturday, $190/hour.

As we were driving back to Carrie's house, we stopped at David Adickes SculpturWorx Studio at 2500 Summer St. Houston, TX 77246. We were here a year ago and just can't get over these HUGE statues. Mr. Adickes has a degree in math and physics, but pursued art and studied in France. David Adickes art has been featured in many one man shows across the United States and in France. At his studio, he has on display 43 presidential heads, The Beatles, and we aren't exactly sure what his newest figure represents. We know it is a woman.

When we were here last year, the gate was unlocked. Today, we had to take some of the pictures through the fence. We couldn't get all the presidents or special people. Maybe next time.

Do you know who this is? Hint…NOT a president.

Now, you should get these two correct.

Now it gets a bit more difficult.

You probably can name the guy at the left edge, but what about the rest?

This is Marsha's favorite President of all time!

If you are in the Houston area, don't miss this attraction. It is awesome.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

JUST IN TIME FOR THOSE HOLIDAY FEASTS!!!

2011-11-06T11:49:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, November 2 – We joined Anytime Fitness and had our first workout session this morning.

We belonged to a health club before becoming full-time RV'ers and have missed the workouts. Since we will be here for two months and in the Rio Grande Valley (RVG) for the next two months, we decided to take advantage of Anytime Fitness locations it both areas. Actually, Anytime Fitness has 1600 locations throughout the USA, so we hope to find workout locations often during our travels. We pay on a monthly basis, so we can put our membership on hold if we have trouble finding a convenient locations to workout during our travels.

Although we keep pretty active with hikes and bike riding, it's been awhile since either of us did any weight training or elliptical training, so we'll see how sore we are tomorrow. We are off to a good start so there is no stopping now!

Friday, November 4 – We got up and ready to work out. We were met with this…

YES…that is frost. Amazing, because just four hours later, we were in the the 80s. Just a fluke for this time of year. The weather has been awesome.

Saturday, November 5 - We met up with our daughter, Carrie, this morning to catch up on her life and enjoy some college football games. She recently returned from Bogota, Columbia, and had some gifts for us. Thanks sweetie! She gave mom a beautiful necklace, ear rings, and bracelet, and for dad she had a sample of fresh ground Colombian coffee. She also gave us a nice Christmas ornament to hang on our tree.

Our first stop of the day was to find a Western shirt we could wear at a RESONSABLE price. Carrie said she knew of this really cool resale store called…

Paul and I looked at each and thought…sure we will find a shirt in here!

Well, to our amazement Paul bought TWO shirts and Marsha one. How does that saying go…Don't judge a book by its cover…or in other words….don't judge a store by its name.

We did find a few thousand things we could live without.

Now why exactly would be need this?

We went to one of the many sports bars on Washington Street in Houston to watch the game and enjoy each others' company. One of Carrie's favorite places is Tapps.

Being such a competitive family, of course, we had to mix in several games of corn hole. Paul won the first two games, and Carrie the second. Marsha complained that her RED bags were so flimsy…of course due to this she ended up in last the first game. Well, Paul had heard enough. He switched bags with her to prove it wasn't the bag. You guessed it…Paul came in last the last game. Could it be the RED bags?

What form…

It's so nice to be able to enjoy the outdoors in shorts and t-shirts in November...ahhhhh!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

HOME SWEET HOME…FOR AT LEAST NOW

2011-11-03T22:04:00.001-05:00

Monday, October 31 – After a little research on the Escapees' Forum about where to go for our annual state inspection, we ended up going back to Harrison Body Shop in Livingston, TX, the same place we had our inspection done two years ago. We arrived about 8:30 a.m. and moved right in for the inspection. Everything was up to snuff, and we got stickers for the motor home and our car. The tech even remembered to warn us about the dip between the driveway and the street that many motor homes get hung-up on and end up scraping bottom. They have two other exists and if you use them, you shouldn't have a problem.

After our inspection we headed over to the welcome center to hook-up the toad and head to Houston. Once again, even though there was some traffic, and we were driving in the fourth most populous city in the nation, we easily sailed through the city on Route 59 to the Houston Elks Lodge located in Stafford, TX, (just on the southern out-skirts of the city). The camp sites at the Elks are all full, but luckily they have two gravel sites on the end we can use until one of the concrete pads open-up.

We talked to Matt, who we met the last time here, and he said he was pulling-out tonight after work. We would be able to move into his site....this is the site we normally have when staying here. He pulled out just as it was getting dark, so we parked our car in the spot until morning. We'll move over there first thing tomorrow.

So we are in our “home port” until after the holidays. If you're passing through Houston on your way to warmer climates, stop and say hello!

Our site at the Elks.

Bella always enjoys herself when we are here. This time the is a pile of limbs close to our spot. She has taken it upon herself to clear out any moles, chipmunks or anything else smaller than her.

Here is her watch and wait pose.

Her sneak attack approach.

Her…I've had a long, hard day position.

We are sorry to report that she hasn't caught a dang thing…YET!

Just incase you are interested, here are some facts and figures about Houston…

The Houston Metro Area covers 8,778 square miles, an area slightly smaller than Massachusetts but larger than New Jersey.

Founded in 1836, the City of Houston has a 2010 population of 2.1 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau -- www.census.gov. Houston's population in 1850 was listed as 2,396.

The metro area's population of 5.95 million in 2010 is 6th largest among U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, according to www.census.gov, and a 26% increase since 2000.

If Houston were an independent nation, it would rank as the world's 30th largest economy

More interesting facts in the following blogs. All information is taken directly from the The City of Houston Official Site for Houston, Texas.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you back real soon. Have a great day!

NATIONAL NAVAL AVIATION MUSEUM

2011-10-30T09:21:00.001-05:00

Saturday, October 29 – We headed out early this morning bound for Kinder, LA, and the Coushatta Casino RV Park. After about three and a half hours of driving, we filled up at the Indian Casino gas station for $3.58, the lowest diesel price we've seen in quite awhile. We then pulled back to the campground only to find out they are FULL. What the heck! That's never happened to us before. The reason, we found out, is this weekend is the Annual Coushatta Pow Wow.

Well, we considered dry camping in the casino parking lot, but we wanted to watch some NCAA football and didn't want to run the generator for hours. So, we headed down the road to our next intended stop, Livingston, TX, and the Escapees Rainbow's End campground. That made for an eight hour driving day, which is way more than we like to drive in one day. We were on back roads and there just wasn't anywhere to stop.

We settled into site #68, and will be here until Monday morning so we can get our annual inspection stickers for the MH and Honda. We walked around the park to see what's happening. We ran into our friends, Marc & Joyce. The place is fairly crowded. I guess people are on the move to the South to avoid those cold temperatures.

As promised two blogs ago…After the air show, we headed across the parking lot from the Flight Line to the National Naval Aviation Museum. Again FREE admission and an amazing museum. There is so much to see, it is impossible to see in one day. The hundreds of aircraft on display have all been restored to original condition.

Fat Albert

Looking down at one section of the Museum.

There's just about every naval aircraft ever flown in combat, aircraft you can sit in for a picture, flight simulators, a huge display of aircraft carriers, and so much more.

The Navy/Curtiss Aircraft was designed during WWI as antisubmarine aircraft. It was a long-range patrol flying boat. The wing span 126'; length 68'; height 24'; max speed of 85 mph.

One of the most amazing displays is the Blue Angel Atrium where four jets used by the Blue Angels are suspended from the ceiling flying in their famous close formation. You get to see up close that eighteen inch separation of formation flying they are so famous for.

PB2Y-5R Coronado was outfitted as a flag transport and shuttled high-ranking officers. In August 1945, the aircraft and its crew flew to Guam, the forward headquarters for Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas, and soon embarked Nimitz's deputy, Rear Admiral Forrest P. Sherman, for the flight to Tokyo Bay to attend the formal surrender ceremonies ending World War II.

Coronado is the HUGE one.

The World's First Operational Jet-Powered Fighter…Me-262 which flew in 1942. Tope speed 540 mph.

"Long-nose" version of the F11F Tiger that was flown by the Blue Angels during the period 1959-1958. It was the last Grumman-build aircraft flown by the famed U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron.

Treasures of Lake Michigan…a stunning underwater recreation of salvaging aircraft found in Lake Michigan. Using special lighting, they made the planes look like they were still underwater. Just an excellent display!

With its distinctive green and white paint scheme, the latter color on top of the aircraft applied originally to early model helicopters to make the occupants cooler in the days before air-conditioned compartments, the helicopters that fly as “Marine One” are among the most famous aircraft in the entire world.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first President to employ an airplane for travel while in office, the use of a helicopter for short-distance travel first occurring when President Dwight D. Eisenhower climbed aboard a Bell UH-13J Sioux with its “fishbowl” cockpit for a flight in 1957.

This VH-3A served during the presidencies of Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford.

On 1 May 2003, the aircraft made history when President George W. Bush was a passenger during a carrier arrested landing on board the flattop. In so doing he became the first sitting chief executive to trap on board an aircraft carrier. As is customary, during the time President Bush was aboard the aircraft, it was known as "Navy 1."

Of course, we all remember the famous banner that was his back drop onboard the ship.

The Navy's Last Flying Boat…SP-5B Marlin. Its height is over 32' and wingspan of some 118' entered service in 1952. In addition to antisubmarine warfare missions, SP-5B marlins supported Operation Market Time, monitoring shipping traffic in the water off South Vietnam.

Can you find Marsha in this picture?

There is just so much to see in this museum that Marsha couldn't snap the pictures fast enough. If you are EVER in this area, this is a MUST see! Remember it is all FREE!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

CLOUDS…WHO CARES?

2011-10-28T18:06:00.001-05:00

Thursday, October 27 – Soaking up more sun on the beach! We tried to get Bella (our cat) to give it a try.....nothing doing! She was scared to death and wanted to go back home...NOW! She prefers to sit in the window of the MH and watch the ocean from there.....scare-dee cat!

She wasn't sure of the sand.

This is the closest we could get her to the water.

We had a friend that joined us for most of the day. He entertained us with a dance every so often.

We try to sample local cuisine in the different areas we visit, so while at the beach we decided to go out for a local fish dinner. Marsha Googled for the best seafood restaurants in Bay St. Louis, and we chose CUZ'S Seafood Restaurant. This is a family owned establishment. They specialize in fresh fish, shrimp, crawfish, crabs, oysters, gumbo, and over-stuffed po'boys. Paul had the Trout basket, and Marsha enjoyed the Shrimp basket. Both were delicious.

Friday, October 28 – With the sun coming up over the water,

it appeared to be another gorgeous day.

Hold on…what is this? Threating skies?

Fine, we will make the best of it. So what does one do on an overcast day…clean pine needles, of course.

We cleaned 2,000 pine needles just in a short hour and half. Although we cleaned 6,600 needles. Now each pine needle actually contains three needles. So Marsha has some 21,000 needles at an average of 16" each to make her future baskets. She is in heaven…but…she now has to wash them all and let them dry for at least two months. Wonder if she can hold out?

We took another ride today along the water to see how progress is going after the last hurricane and the big tropical storm they had last month. Looks like they are getting some of the beaches back in shape.

Yesterday we saw a little restaurant called da Little Café. It claims to have New Orleans style Beignets. We said, "What the heck let's give it a shot." WOW…they are in every way as good and just MAYBE better than the ones we had at the famous Cafe Du Monde in the French Market. We each had one of their loaded hot dogs…excellent!

Since this is our last day in Bay St. Louis, we decided to see if we could break even on our initial investment of $20 each at the casino. Our final total…Marsha $31.73; Paul $1.67. Not too bad for three days of sun and fun!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

ALONE ON THE BEACH

2011-10-27T09:31:00.001-05:00

Wednesday, October 26 – After a nice three hour drive, we arrived in Bay St. Louis, MS. We are staying at the Silver Slipper Casino Campground. They now call it Beachfront RV Park. We've stayed here in the past. It is located right across the street from the beach. We are approximately 150 feet from the water.

Looking at the rest of the park. Not too many here yet but Earl, Security Guard, told us they are filling up for the weekend.

Our trip through downtown Mobile was uneventful. Paul was a little nervous remembering the tunnel under Mobile Bay that we had to travel. Guess he's getting more confident driving the MH in traffic and through tunnels. He commented that it was easy.

We did have a minor scare. Our GPS directed us down a road toward our final destination when suddenly Paul went crazy. There was a railroad crossing directly in front of us that was impassable.

We would have definitely dragged bottom and probably gotten stuck. Look what happened to others who tried.

We should have known trouble was ahead when we saw this sign.

We stopped and unhooked our car. We backed into a nearby fire station to turn around. A neighbor lady came out and said that crossing has been the scene of many mishaps. Trucks get grounded there frequently, she informed us. They have to block the road, stop trains, and tow the trucks off the tracks. YIKES!!!

So after turning around, we backtracked to the main road and found the correct route to the campground. Be aware of those GPS directions and be prepared!

After setting up at the campground, we walked across the street to the beach and enjoyed the sun for a few hours.

We have the beach to ourselves.

There actually were people here at some time or other. During our walk, we passed this cute "sand fort." Can you see the little guns sticking up in the middle of the fort? Good imagination!

Marsha is standing where the water begins. Look how far out the tide is. Can you see Paul?

As we walked in the water we saw tons of bait fish. It was a hoot to watch them swim away from us. Some were in such a hurry, they jumped out of the water.

One observation. We are only about 150 miles west of Gulf Shores in Foley, AL. Here in Bay St. Louis, MS the water of the Gulf of Mexico is much warmer. We easily walked into the water and even mentioned we would be able to go swimming. It's not as warm as it is in July, but one could comfortably go in without freezing. Maybe Paul will give it a try later in the week.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

THE SOUND OF FREEDOM

2011-10-25T01:45:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, October 25 – Well, all good things must come to an end. Today is our last day in Foley, AL.

This adventure was NOT on Paul's “Bucket List”, but it should have been! Another MUST SEE! We spent the morning at the Pensacola, FL, Naval Air Station watching a practice session of the Blue Angels. AMAZING!!! And it's FREE! The Naval Station is the home for the Blue Angels and they practice several times each month. The shows are open to the public. Be sure to check their website for practice times if you are ever in this area.

The show started at 8:30 a.m. We were there a little early to set out our folding chairs for a front row seat. We did get one of the last spots, but being an air show it really wasn't necessary to be seated in the front row. They do have bleachers set up for those that prefer that type of seating.

The main thrill of these pilots is the ability to fly in VERY CLOSE formation!

They fly only 18” apart and at very high rates of speed. They twist and roll; loop and turn; and all in very close formation. While four planes are twisting overhead, two more Blue Angels are performing close to the ground. They head toward each other at very high speeds (approaching Mach 1) and roll on their sides at the last second missing each other by inches. Pretty scary!

They pull tremendous G-forces by sharp turns and zooming skyward in vertical climbs. They fly upside down in close formation, and join up in what's called a “delta” formation with all six planes flying in close formation.

The Blue Angels have flown over 10 different aircraft in the team’s 65 year history. Originally, the team flew four aircraft in the signature “Diamond” formation and expanded to six aircraft to showcase both the diamond and solos high performance capability as well as the precision formation flying taught to all Naval Aviators.

Today, the squadron flies the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet and the Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules. When the squadron receives a F/A-18 Hornet from the fleet, which are at the end of their carrier arrestment functionality, we make a variety of modifications, including removing the nose cannon to install a smoke-fluid system, inverting a fuel pump, installing a stop watch and adjustable constant-tension stick spring, as well as the world-wide recognizable paint scheme.

Landing…The leader is in #1.

The show lasts about an hour and by the end many watchers (including Marsha) are exhausted by their own adrenalin rush. The excitement is overwhelming! A GREAT show! We visited the Naval Air Station Pensacola also, but we will tell you about that in the next post.

We almost forgot to tell you that once in awhile the touristy part of our personality comes out. We had to go see the "World's Largest Octopus."…Really?

Some final pictures from the beautiful beach at Gulf Shores.

Oh yea…Cotton is a huge crop down here. The pictures looks fuzzy but there is just so much cotton on the plants. It is hard to tell one plant from another.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

THE SUN IS BACK…GULF SHORES, ALABAMA

2011-10-21T23:00:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, October 19 – We are back into the Central Time Zone, our favorite time zone. We're here at the Gulf Shores Elks Lodge in Foley, AL. We stayed here before and find it a great place to enjoy the beach, and it's close to all the big box stores if you need to do some shopping. It has about thirty sites with gravel sites and roads.

Our site

Looking down the road

You have a big grassy area outside your door to enjoy. Luckily they aren't very busy giving us plenty of room.

The sites are set-up with two RV's sharing the utilities pedestal parking front to back. So if you had a neighbor, you would be parked quite close.

It was a rainy drive from Augusta, GA. The forecast calls for clearing with warmer temperatures by Friday. The rainy & cool weather gave us a chance to investigate Google Reader for checking our daily blogs. We've read about others using it but just haven't had an opportunity to give it a try. We're sold on it! You list the blogs you read, and it notifies you when a new posting has been made. That eliminates checking all your blogs to see if someone has made a new posting. Now what are we going to do with all this time we save......hmmmm?

Across the street from the Elks Lodge is the Tangier Outlet Mall. So with a cool day on Thursday, we decided to do a little shopping. We mostly walked along the shops enjoying the sunny but cool day, but did find a few items we couldn't live without and a few early Christmas shopping ideas.

Friday, October 21 – With the sun shinning and the temperatures hovering around eighty degrees, we decided to go to the beach today.

It's very comfortable this time of year on the beach. The crowds were gone, it wasn't excessively hot, but the water is COLD.

No swimming, that's for sure! We enjoyed ourselves and soaked up some sun.

I should mention that there is no lingering evidence of last years oil spill. The beautiful white sand is definitely back.

Marsha couldn't help herself. She had to show what some people are wearing on this SUNNY, NICE day. It isn't winter!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

OUR LAST DAYS IN AUGUSTA, GA

2011-10-18T22:52:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, October 18 – We left Augusta this morning headed for Foley, AL. The trip would take us about 8 1/2 hours so we stopped in Montgomery, AL, at Woods RV Campground. It is a Passport America campground so $15 for an overnight stop was in order. There is plenty of space between each site, but the gravel drives are a bit narrow.

Our Site #306

Both sides of us.

A FLASHBACK TO OUR LAST DAYS IN AUGUSTA
Saturday, October 15 – Marsha found several sites to see in Augusta today. We started out with the Air Show that we were able to observe from Paul's brother John's back yard.

There were quite a few planes twisting and turning in the air over the city. One larger WWII bomber flew over several times. Pretty exciting!

We then headed downtown Augusta via the Titanic Leno's Butt Bridge. It crosses the Augusta Canal in the old industrial area of Augusta. A unique and very ornate bridge with lions and eagles located at each end. The Butt Memorial bridge was named in honor of Major Archibald Butt who was born in Augusta, Georgia on September 26,1865. He served as an Aide-de-camp to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft, and he lost his life after helping to save women and children on the TITANIC April 15, 1912.

Then it was off to one of Marsha's “must sees”......the “I feel good.....do da, do da, do, da, do”......James Brown statue. In 2005 the bronze statue was designed as a tribute to the godfather of soul in his home town of Augusta, Georgia. It also commemorate his induction into the Music Hall of Fame and the 2003 Kennedy Center Honoree. The "Godfather of Soul", in bronze, with cape and microphone.

The Savannah River flows right through downtown Augusta. They have a beautiful Riverwalk along the western river bank. It's a brick walkway with many beautiful flowers, wonderful shade trees, memorials, and benches to sit and enjoy the river. The Riverwalk consists of two (2) bricked levels the upper level accessible via stairways/ramps. Today was the Walk For the Cure using the park for their fund raiser.

Our last sight to check-out was the HUGE SOLO CUP. This is located in front of the Solo Manufacturing Company. The cup is over 2 1/2 stories tall and ten feet in diameter.

To finish off the day, we headed to our nephew's house to watch NCAA football and enjoy a low country boil.

Ryan & his wife, Holly, recently had twin boys – Graham and Hudson.

They also have a two year old boy, Noah.

These guys are big Clemson University football fans. They both graduated from Clemson. Even the six week old twins were dressed in their “game day” clothes. We wore our VT appeal and helped them on to a big win. Luckily, Clemson pulled out a thrilling victory over Maryland to remain undefeated in the ACC.

Ryan had prepared a Low Country Boil to enjoy before the game. He cooked sausage, potatoes, corn on the cob, shrimp, and Cajun spices in the pot of boiling water. Ummmm....Ummmmm....good!!! This was topped off with Key lime pie of dessert.

We got to play with the kids, and Marsha was so excited to hold a baby again.

The family minus the twins.

We had a wonderful visit with the Augusta Weavers. Thanks so much John Ryan and Holly for your southern hospitality! We truly enjoyed it.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

CELEBRATING OUR 2ND YEAR OF FULL TIMING

2011-10-17T06:13:00.001-05:00

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take.....but by the number of moments that take our breath away!”

UNBELIEVABLE.....the end of our 2^nd Year on the road! When we began this full-timing adventure, Paul asked Marsha to commit to two years of traveling. Well, time flies and we aren't near ready to settle down. Where did the year go? What amazed us? How many events took our breath away?

We began our second year amazed by the beauty of the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert in Holbrook, Arizona. Soon after, you could find us “Standin' on the Corner in Winslow, Arizona” listening to the song made famous by the Eagles.

From there, it was off to one of our favorite campsites – Elephant Butte Lake SP, NM where we saw our first coyote in the wild and enjoyed the “enchanted land” of New Mexico.

After nearly six weeks exploring New Mexico, we moved into Texas. Talk about seeing a BIG STATE. We stayed in Texas from October 25, 2010 until May 23, 2011. One of our goals for our second year was to slow down....I'd say we did pretty well!

We explored the gorgeous Hill Country of Texas visiting Boerne, Bandera, Fredicksburg, New Brunfels and other quaint little towns. We climbed Enchanted Rock where Paul helped the scared stiff Marsha off that geographic wonder.

And what would fall be, in the German settled Hill Country, without attending the Beer Wustfest in New Brunfels. We met up with friends, Jay & Betty Crane, who convinced us to head to the Rio Grande Valley for the winter.

We visited the Texas Gulf cities of Rockport, Port Aransas, and Corpus Christi. This is where Paul checked off an item on his “bucket list.” We saw a HUGE alligator in the wild at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. We also saw Whopping Cranes and Javelinas.

After a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday in Houston with our two daughters it was off to Mission Texas in the tropics of the Rio Grande Valley.

We spent January, February, and March enjoying the warm weather and making a whole slew of new friends. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we are returning there for two months this winter.

Spring found us back in Houston to spend some time with our daughters. We decided to continue our tour of Texas.

This decision was largely due to the extreme weather occurring in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Alabama – our intended destinations. We weren't ready to experience those wild tornadoes! Ahhhh! But Mother Nature intended to throw us a curve ball.....

Oklahoma Bombing Memorial

Arkansas..Pinnacle Mt

After a short stay in the Escapee's Rainbow's End in Livingston, Texas, we were off to visit three college towns. First was College Station, home of Texas A & M. Next was Waco, where we explored the beautiful Baylor University, and finally Texas Tech in Lubbock. Also in Lubbock was Paul's favorite museum – The American Wind and Power Center. You just have to see that museum!

Heading west we stayed in the beautiful San Angelo State Park. Another awesome Texas State Park where we recharged our bodies in preparation for the rest of Texas.

We entered Texas Oil Country visiting Midland and Odessa. This is home of one oil well after another. You could just hear the “ding” of the cash register driving through the land dotted with all this wealth, all these jobs, and all these oilmen. Paul feels like he is still cleaning off the motor home from all the dust stirred-up by all the pick-ups and oil service trucks.

Heading into the Texas Pan Handle we visited Amarillo. We stayed at Palo Duro Canyon hiking for several days on the many wonder trails. What a beautiful park!

We then left Texas after seven consecutive months in the state.....and we still haven't see it all. We were off to Oklahoma City. We were there to see the Oklahoma City Memorial. What a moving experience. A very sad day in American history and one of several highlights of our second year. We wanted to see the College Softball World Series but had difficulty obtaining tickets and after several near misses by Mother Nature and tornadoes, we decided to head back to the safety of Houston.

Paul took a break from “full-time life with Marsha” to help move our daughter, Kelly, to Ohio. She's been in Texas for two years and decided to return “home” to Ohio. After Paul flew home, it was off to Arkansas.

We searched for Diamonds in Murfreesboro, AR and spent the July 4th holiday weekend in Maumelle State Park. This was another favorite campground for our second year. We spent time in Little Rock and hiked and biked on many of the local trails.

It was then off to Red Bay, Alabama and the Tiffin Factory Service Center. Here we met up with friends Brian & Janet Henderson and enjoyed about ten days with them while getting some updates and repairs done on our motor home.

It was then off to Ohio, our hometown, to visit family and friends. We had doctor, dentist, and vet appointments to take care off. Paul and Bella checked out okay but Marsha needs some unscheduled surgery. She had an eye lid giving her problems and the doctor recommended corrective surgery. Unfortunately, they can't get insurance approval and the surgery scheduled until December.....JEESH!!!

We also upgraded our toad. Our Jeep Liberty was showing it's age and since it doesn't get very good miles per gallon, we decided to purchase a new Honda CRV. So far, that has been a delightful upgrade.

We found ourselves enjoying the Kentucky Bourbon Tour, near the end of our second year. A delightful experience spread out over two days in late September.

Then it was off to Ashville, SC to enjoy Mother Nature's paint brush and the fabulous fall colors.

We ended our second year of travel at Paul's brother John's home in Augusta, GA. We enjoyed visiting with John and Paul's nephew, Ryan and wife Holly and their family. They recently added twin boys to their family so it was a house full of kids!

The last two years have been quite an experience. I wonder what this year has in store for “WHERE'S WEAVER?”

SECOND YEAR INTERESTING STATISTICS

Starting Date: October 17, 2010
Starting Location: Albuquerque, NM
Ending Location: Augusta, GA

MH Miles:
We drove the motor home and our towed vehicle (Jeep & CRV) quite a bit less the 2^nd year. The motor home was driven a total of 12,357 miles (compared to 22,186 the first year). Our car was driven 15,631 miles in our 2^nd year (compared to 22,186 our first year).

We stopped in 34 different cities for over-night stays during our second year.
Private Campgrounds: 94 days
Escapee Campgrounds: 33 days
Nat'l, State, City Campgrounds: 24 days
Elks : 106 days
Winter in Mission: 69 (Thanks Norm and Donna)
Free: 39 days….Thanks family, Tiffin Motor Service Facility and FMCA

Average nightly CG Cost: $12.25

Longest Stay:
Leisure Valley Ranch (Norm's Place); Mission, TX

Best CG:
Maumelle State Park, Little Rock, AR (Marsha's favorite)
San Angelo SP; San Angelo, TX (Paul's favorite)

Worst CG:
Midland RV Park; Midland, TX…practically a gravel pit...so dusty.

Best Elks:
Lubbock, TX…A beautiful campground and a friendly group of people in the Lodge.

NO FUEL PURCHASED: JANUARY/FEBRUARY/AUGUST
Total Gallons of Diesel Fuel Purchased: 1031.41
Highest price: $4.05
Lowest price: $2.83
Average Price of Diesel Fuel: $3.63
Average Miles Per Gallon: 7.23
Best MPG: 9.36

Longest Driving Day: 364 Miles
Shortest Driving Day: 58 Miles

Number of States First Time Visited: (4) Arkansas, Indiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma
(NOTE: States visited must be in the MH since we began full-timing and we must spend at least one night in the state).

Paul's Top Ten Favorite Places but not in any particular order:
Enchanted Rock – Texas Hill Country
LBJ Ranch – Texas Hill Country
Port Aransas National Wildlife Refuse (gators)
Mission Texas – new friends & country dancing
Houston Rodeo
Micro Brewery in Houston with our daughters, Kelly and Carrie
Windmill Museum – Lubbock, TX
Oklahoma City Memorial
Palo Duro Canyon – Amarillo, TX
Garvan Woodlands Gardens, Hot Springs, AR

Marsha's Top Ten Favorite Places but not in any particular order:
Helen Keller Museum
Windmill Museum – Lubbock, TX
Port Aransas National Wildlife Refuse
Mission, TX
Houston Rodeo
Oklahoma City Memorial
Palo Duro Canyon – Amarillo, TX
Garvan Woodlands Gardens, Hot Springs, AR
Oklahoma State Capitol Building
Fredricksburg, TX (Hill Country)

Best Tour:
Bourbon Trail

Best Festival:
Wurstfest, New Braunfels, TX (Hill Country)

Best Restaurant:
McClard's BBQ in Little Rock, AR (Bill Clinton's favorite spot)

Marsha's Scariest Experience:
Enchanted Rock, Hill Country, TX

Paul's Scariest Experience:
Mt. Mitchell, Asheville, NC…car sick

Bella's Worst Experience:
Sand Burrs in Mission, TX ........ no grass to walk in

Largest Budget Expenses:
MH Upgrades
MH Tires
Groceries
Campgrounds

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

HOME OF THE MASTERS…AUGUSTA, GA

2011-10-15T15:27:00.001-05:00

Friday, October 14 – We are in Augusta, GA to visit Paul's oldest brother, John. We are staying at Heritage RV Park about fifteen minutes from his historic home. Each site is gravel with all sand roads. Each site has a HUGE picnic table. They are all being redone. Ours was taken away with a new one taking its place. Free WIFI. If you plan to stay here, be sure to make reservations. We have the best spot for overnight or weekly parking. Ask for Site #43.

Our site #43.

Down the road view.

John's home is a century home that he completely remodeled two years ago. It was designed by Willis Irwin who design the original Augusta National Clubhouse (Masters Clubhouse). We don't have many big sightseeing plans. We're simply hanging-out with Brother John.

Servants quarters. John added the outdoor grill area.

Paul and John in the kitchen.

We heard that Georgia is the place to fine l-o-n-g pine needles. So one of the first things we did was begin our search for pine needles. We found some nice 12” needles in the park next to the Tennis Club. We've been there twice and spent an hour each time picking up needles.

BUT John said, "Have I got the place for you!" He made a phone call to Carolyn who was his Administrative Assistant in his early years working for a paper mill. Marsha couldn't believe her eyes.

Here is THE place for the longest pine needles we have ever seen.

YES, your eyes DO NOT deceive you. These pine needles are around 15-17". Can you see the puny one that Marsha is now using around 7". What a difference!

This is how many we have collected so far. What fun…until we have to clean them.

Thanks John and Paul for helping collect these needles. Thanks Carolyn for helping us and for allowing us to collect these AWESOME needles. We could spend days there collecting these needles. This is just the front yard…you see the back!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

THE SOUTHEAST'S FAMOUS CHIMNEY

2011-10-12T21:22:00.001-05:00

Monday, October 10 - One more hike before the rain comes and cancels outdoor activities. We hiked up the steps to Chimney Rock this morning. This is a little too touristy for our liking, but it is something we wanted to see.

When we arrived it was drizzling, so we hit the small town.

Can you believe that in the spring/summer, there are huge rapids that flow through this area? Looked scary to us!

Chimney Rock, the 535-million-year-old monolith for which the Park is named, is considered one of the most iconic sites in North Carolina. From its top, you’ll soak in the 75-mile panoramic views of Hickory Nut Gorge and Lake Lure.

Where we are headed…waaaay up there.

We climbed the 1000's of steps up to the this towering 315-foot monolith located on the very edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains high above beautiful Hickory Nut Gorge.This is a fairly strenuous adventure.

Original steps

New reinforced steps.

At a soaring elevation of 2,280 feet with its 75-mile views, this mountaintop experience will take your breath away. Once you reach the top at 2280 feet you can see for miles and miles. It's an unobstructed view of Hickory Nut Gorge.

We then ventured down Hickory Nut Falls Trail. The reward for hiking this trail is standing below the 404 foot waterfalls at trails end. You also enjoy the sweeping view as you wind your way back the two miles to the Falls. The trail is rough. Hiking boots are HIGHLY recommended but…

Marsha and I were amazed to see how some people dress for the hike. One lady had on flip flops, another Crocks, and a third younger girl was dressed like she was heading out to the club for an evening of dancing. Come on people, this is the woods not the mall. (Side note: we watched all three of these ladies lose their balance and just about land on the rough rock.)

We picked the wrong time of the year to see the Falls. There wasn't much water falling, but it was a great hike!

More like a trickle than a Falls.

On the way back to the motorhome, we stopped at a little place for our favorite lunch.

We noticed something very strange in the car painting shop across the street. Is it really…Big Boy?

It was an enjoyable morning of hiking so the predicted rains can come now. That pretty much ends our time in the Black Mountains. It's on to Augusta, GA.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!