READY TO MOVE ON…HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Sunday, December 31 - After an extended stay at the Houston Elks Lodge, we are ready to head South on Wednesday, January 3, 2018. We will be staying in Mission, Texas, to enjoy visits with many long-time friends, trips to Mexico to get some dental work done, and hopefully enjoying some tropical weather.

We arrived in Houston in mid-October in time to jump aboard the Houston Astro's baseball run for the World Series Championship. We enjoyed cheering them on and attending the celebration parade with our daughter, Carrie.

We've been trying to keep-up with Carrie and her friends cheering on their favorite NCAA football teams. We've also enjoyed spending as much time as possible with Carrie.

Marsha flew back to Canton, Ohio, in early November to celebrate her dad's surprise 90^th birthday with family. Rather than return to Houston for a few weeks then turn around and fly back to Ohio for the Christmas Holidays, she decided to remain in Ohio and spend time with her dad, family, and friends. Paul and Bella held down the fort in Houston.

Doesn’t he look super for 90
 

Paul stayed busy doing some maintenance on the 5^th wheel. He replaced the dining room light, blocked access to Bella's hideout under our bed (She likes to sneak under there when she senses we are about to travel.), installed fantastic fan vent covers on the RV roof, replaced the dome over the shower, replaced the back-up camera in the truck, waxed the RV, and replaced the RV toilet. Busy hands stay out of trouble.....LOL.

As Christmas drew near, Paul and Carrie flew back to Ohio to join Marsha and family for the holidays. We suffered through a little bit of snow at our oldest daughter, Kelly and Dave’s, house. Just enough to remind us why we head south in the winter. She has a beautiful place in Ohio's snow belt, but we'll enjoy it through pictures, not in person.

Kelly and Dave’s house.

We had a wonderful Christmas with family at our Ohio home. Of course, Marsha prepared a magnificent dinner. We exchanged gifts, drank a few adult beverages, and enjoyed being with family for the holidays.

Dave and Paul playing a little poker.

The family minus a few. Dad wasn’t feeling well…dang.

Everyone enjoying a good meal.

Ever year Marsha makes a homemade gift for all the gals. She was in a bit of a panic this year. She was unable to get the materials for the special gift she had in mind this year. Once she arrived in Ohio, she had to go to work fast to come up with a new idea. She scanned Pinterest until she found the perfect gift…a ribbon tree. She made about 24 trees to give to family and friends. No two were alike. She was very happy with the results. Every one that received one gave her wonderful compliments.

We made our way back to Houston soon after Christmas to prepare for our trip to the Rio Grande Valley. After ringing in the New Year, we will be spending a couple months traveling around South Texas before deciding our future destinations.

Goodbye Ohio snow.

That should catch everyone up on where the heck are the Weavers. Happy New Year to all. Be safe and enjoy 2018.

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

HOUSTON ASTROS WORLD SERIES VICTORY PARADE

Friday, November 3 - We are headed to downtown Houston this morning to attend the Houston Astros World Series victory parade with our daughter, Carrie.

Carrie, Stacy, Holly.

She has a spot all picked out in her parking deck across from where she works. She blocked off a large section on the third floor so we can see the parade from above. She has a whole group of friends meeting her there to watch the parade. 

This is a reflection of the parking deck in the windows of Carrie’s building.

The traffic was horrible, so we rode the train into the main street station and walked from there.

We could barely move along the sidewalks. Thousands and thousands of people. We had to move into the street, but we finally got to our location.  We later learned that there were so many people riding the light rail train that it became overwhelmed and had to leave people waiting at the stops. Luckily we arrived almost four hours early and successfully reached our stop.

Small example of the crowd.

We had quite a wait for the parade to begin. Of course, we enjoyed a few adult beverages, lots of laughs with Carrie‘s friends, and a lot of people watching. The streets were alive with cheering and all kinds of crazy behavior. People just having a good time no problems whatsoever. But there certainly was a huge police presence. That’s good. As a matter fact on the top floor of the parking deck where we were watching the parade, they had a SWAT team. Scary but reassuring.    

On the ground.

There were sharp shooters on all the surrounding buildings. From the reflection of Carrie’s building, can you see the sharp shooter on our parking deck?

We passed the time by tearing up paper and making confetti. Paul had brought a big bag from our paper shredder but of course Carrie needed more.

What is a parade without some confetti! We made tons and tons of it.

Finally the parade arrived at our location and oh what a wonderful experience. The Astro players were riding on huge hook and ladder fire trucks. There were bands and of course cheering like crazy. Everybody was having such a great time.

Texas Southern University's Ocean of Soul Marching Band was excellent.

Need we explain.

Astro’s mascot, Orbit.

Let the confetti fly.

George Springer, MVP of the World Series.

Astros

What the street looked like at the end of the parade.

What it looked like below us after the parade.

Carrie even got named MVP by the crowd for popping a foaming champagne bottle over the edge of the parking deck after the parade. Yep....pretty crazy.   

Yes, this crowd is looking up at Carrie. Everyone was taking photos of her. After she popped the cork, the crowd busted out with MVP, MVP, MVP. It was amazing.

There were hundreds of people cheering Carrie on.

After the parade, we headed back to the train station and grabbed our train for the 20 to 30 minute ride to our truck. Unfortunately with all the crowds and all the stops, it took nearly an hour to reach our destination on the train. The newspapers and TV stations reported that over a million people attended the parade. We believe it! We then had a short 20 minute drive  back to the Houston Elks Lodge RV Campground. 

We sure had a great time cheering on the Houston Astros World Series champs. Too bad it could not have been the Cleveland Indians but seeing the Astros do it for the city of Houston after all they have been through was a wonderful experience. A fabulous day. Thanks Carrie for having us join your celebration.

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

ANOTHER WONDERFUL SATURDAY WITH CARRIE

Saturday, October 21 – These are exciting times in Houston for sports fans. Now that our Cleveland Indians are out of the playoffs, it seems only right to cheer for our second hometown's team to win the World Series. What a boost it would give to the residents of Houston. Go Astros!!! We were sure happy to eliminate the Yankees from the playoffs! LOL

But I'm ahead of myself. Saturday means college football in our family, and we were meeting up with Carrie and some of her friends to cheer on our teams. Being in a town like Houston with young people relocated here from all over the country for work means we have to find a place with about a hundred TV's to watch NCAA football. That's no problem with numerous sports bars all over town. We met at McIntyre's in what is referred to as the Heights part of Houston. Of course there was food and beverages and cheering going on. We were here to cheer on Virginia Tech, Carrie's alma mater.

Virgil, Carrie, Nick

We've been with many of these friends in the past and always have a great time. They sure know how to have fun and always make us feel welcome. Not only were we eating, drinking, and cheering but there is always some competition involved. Today it was shooting hoops. Now why would a couple of “seniors” let kids half their age challenge them to shooting basketballs. LOL It was great fun but a little embarrassing for Paul to be totally out of their league! Note from Marsha….I came in second….WOW!

Paul’s is the second score…hehe

Guess who the winner was.

We always make an early exit from this gang. No way to keep up with their enthusiasm and youthfulness. We're not as young as we once were......ahhh the good old days! We arrived back at the Elks in time to settle in and watch the seventh game of the ALS – Houston elimination of New York and a trip to the World Series. The girls (Marsha, Carrie, and Kelly) enjoy watching these games together via iPhone texting. What fun!

The World Series begins Tuesday night so it will be another exciting week here in Houston! I'm sure we'll find some way to cheer on the Astros. UPDATE:  The World Series is tied 1-1. Houston plays there first home game tonight. GO ASTROS!

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

TEXANS/BROWNS GAME…ANOTHER DEFEAT FOR THE BROWNS

Sunday, October 15 – We never dreamed we would be attending the Houston Texans vs the Cleveland Browns football game while here in Houston. We didn't even have our home team shirts to wear....dang! Carrie, our daughter, got extra tickets at work – in the corporate Club Seat Section - and they didn't cost us a dime. She already had four tickets down by the field, so we joined a couple of co-workers of hers and enjoyed the game. This is Marsha’s first professional football game.

Prior to the game there is the necessary tail-gating. What a fun time that was. We joined Michele, a friend of Carrie, and her family and friends in the parking lot for food, drinks, and people watching. There was even the required bus decorated in Houston Texan colors to complete the experience. It was a fun group, and we enjoyed getting “pumped” for the game.

Our Hostess and Host, Peggy and John Wayne.

They have a great tailgating set up.

We arrived early to see if we could lend a hand.

There were tons of Browns fans tailgating.

Of course, Carrie had to welcome them with her famous pudding shots.

Nice boots.

Most people wear the name of a player on the back of their shirt. Not the Browns’ fans.

Ignore those shirts we have on.

Unfortunately, the Browns continued their losing streak. Our adopted team – the Texans – put on a good show for the fans. It was nice to enjoy the game in a stadium with the ability to close the roof. It was 90 degrees outside so the roof was shut and the AC was going full blast. COOL....LOL

Before the game started, we walked around the Club section…so this is how the other half lives…LOL  There was a very good band playing songs to get the crowd fired up. Before we knew it, the lead singer grabbed Carrie, and she was out there dancing with the band. Y’all probably know she is our shy daughter…NOT!

Texans getting ready to enter the stadium.

All Browns’ players standing for the national anthem.

We had such high hopes for the Browns starting with the first play.

Yes, we did get a touchdown, and Marsha can actually prove it with her photo. Look at the bottom left part of the photo. Browns have the ball and touchdown.

After the game we returned to the tail-gating area and enjoyed a cold beverage and ate a few left-overs before saying our good-byes to Carrie and her friends and headed home. We rode the light rail train to the stadium, so we avoided the post game traffic. We had a pleasant ride back to our truck. This is a pretty good deal. For $15, we parked all day and everyone in the car received free round-trip tickets on train.

Once reaching our train stop, we jumped in our truck and were back at the Houston Elks campground in about 20 minutes. Even though the Browns lost we sure enjoyed our day. Another fun weekend here in Houston!

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