WRAPPING IT UP IN LIVINGSTON

Saturday, December 19 – Beautiful day today! Very sunny with high in the 70's....Yes! Planned on watching the Division III Football Championship between my ole' Alma Mater, Mount Union College, and Wisconsin Whitewater. They are playing in Roanoke, VA. There is a huge winter storm dumping 1-2 feet of snow, so the game has been delayed till late this afternoon. We would have been able to watch it on ESPN2 but now that is postponed, it is on ESPNClassics….can’t get that:(   UNC plays Texas in basketball. Kelly, our oldest daughter, is a big UNC fan and will be in Dallas at the Cowboys HUGE stadium to see the game. Now, who do I root for???

Well, Mt. Union lost and UNC lost. BUMMER.

Sunday, December 20 – What's with the dang weather.....32* this morning when I got up. Had both furnaces running! Good news is the high today will be in the 60s!!!

Received an email from Bill Smyth this morning. It was in response to a posting I made on a blog. In my signature block, I write: “formally Canton, OH.” Well, he precedes to tell me that he and his wife are full-timers since 2005, after selling their house in Lake Cable – the same neighborhood Marsha and I lived in for 27 years! I returned and email. See if I can find out more about them. It's a small world!

Marsha and I attended the First United Methodist Church this morning. Very nice Advent Sunday service. Sang many of our favorite Christmas carols. Their Chancel choir was absolutely excellent. They had a harmonica player who was so good, he sounded like he was playing a flute. Rev. Mike Mayhugh had a very moving sermon on “Prophecy Fulfilled.” (Micah 5:2-5) We enjoyed the service. Everyone was very friendly.

Man, was it a nice day today. Sunny and in the low 70's. It is so refreshing to have sunny days. So we decided to take a ride to…….the Allan B. Polunsky Unit. Individuals convicted of a capital offense and sentenced to death are transported from the county of conviction to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Correctional Institutions Division in Livingston, TX….just lovely! Male Death Row offenders are currently confined at the Polunsky Unit. We didn’t stick around once we saw that they search your entire vehicle before you can even park. We had no business being there so away we went. Scary place!


We also visited the Trade Days of Livingston. It is held in Pedigo Park. This is a huge park with all types of sports fields, picnic areas, etc. They have a big light show there also. Shoppers can enjoy two covered pavilions and open-air lots that are host to a wide variety of food, arts and crafts, collectible and antique vendors. There weren’t many shoppers when we were there, but it was early.









Can’t find any food vendors in Ohio like these.  Baked potato? Turkey Legs? What is a Po-Boy Pie?





How about some of these light fixtures? Pretty nifty. I can see them in some of your homes. The first one is only $499.00. What a steal! If we only had more room in the MH.



We went up to the ice cream social tonight at the activity center. A very large group there tonight. We really enjoyed talking to the other RVers. Stayed and played Mexican Train. Again, we had a gang. Our new friends, Joyce and Don, stayed and played for the first time. It was a great time!

Another great day! Thanks for visiting. Hurry on back….ya hear!

#2 INJECTION

Wednesday, December 16 - Still wake up early. It’s rare that I sleep past 5 a.m. I try like crazy to stay up later in the evening but it's tough. The sidewalks roll up early here, nothing on TV, so I sit down to read and the next thing I know I'm asleep at 9:30. Holy Cow! Need to find an evening activity that keeps me awake. Guess I'll have to become a computer Geek!

Decided to go ahead and get a second spinal block injection before leaving the Houston area. Appointment is scheduled for Friday at 11:30!

Nice day today......finally. Washed the motor home and did several outside jobs.....Wonderful!

Marsha and I went up and played Mexican Train tonight. That's always fun.

Thursday, December 17 - ITS OUR 2-MONTH ANNIVERSARY! Yep, we've been on the road since Oct. 17, 2009. One thing we've done, that many beginners fail to do is to take it slow and not act like you're on a vacation. I'm sure that's because of family time in Texas for the holidays and getting this “roughed-up” body of mine in shape.

Went up to the activity center for dinner tonight – pork chops. We enjoyed talking with new friends, Don and Joyce, and out doing each other with travel stories. FUN!

Friday, December 18 – Off to Houston, again. We've made a several trips to the Houston area. Mostly for Paul's doctor appointments. I'm getting a second spinal block injection today. All went well. Home by 4 p.m. and chilled the rest of the evening. Marsha caught up on some of her reading and playing with Bella.

YEA….THE GENERATOR IS FIXED

Sunday, December 13 - I think my back is on the road to recovery. I feel much better today! On a scale of 1-10, 10 being perfect, I think I'm about a 7. Now granted, I'm taking it easy and really not doing anything, but the improvement is dramatic. I took my daily walk today. A very short one, but felt exhilarated for a guy that use to walk over 5-miles a day, it felt good to get back at it! Spent the rest of the day watching football and enjoying too many of Marsha's cookies.

Monday, December 14 – Relaxation Day! Did some future long range travel planning. Trying to decide where to go after Quartszite, AZ.. Laundry day too. Marsha is teaching me how to do the laundry.....uh, oh! She thinks I need to know this when she's in Ohio. Yeah, sure!

Went up to the social hour this evening. Met a couple from NH that just hit the road….full-timing for three days. Ironically, they are parked right behind us. There were several couples introduced that just started out. At the social, any one new to the park stands-up and introduces themselves. Kind of interesting to hear about their experiences and where they are originally from.

After cleaning up, we went out to a Mexican cantina for some Margaritas. There aren't too many places in Livingston to party.

Tuesday, December 15 – Off to Houston Cummins RV Center today. Still experiencing stalling problems with the Onan generator. Onan is built by Cummins, so I'm hoping they can diagnose the problems correctly and repair it.

WOW....that was an A+ repair facility. They figured out the problem, a broken temperature sensor, in no time and had us on the road soon after lunch. A little lighter in the wallet but it's our house and has to be kept up! Hopefully, the repairs will level off once we catch-up on what the previous owner may have avoided. Well, we're ready for Quartszite! I hope!!!

 

Went out and looked at Christmas lights tonight. Boy, I'll tell you what, for a small town of just over 5,000 people, Livingston, TX, sure spends the money on lighting up down town. They have lights all over downtown, plus two parks have drive threw lighting displays. We also took a few pictures in the campground. It's surprising the number of RV's that are decorated or have light displays. Neat! Marsha loves this kind of stuff! Note from Marsha: The pictures just don’t do justice to how beautiful these lights really are. Due to our little digital camera, many pictures did not turn out:(  The County Courthouse is located downtown. On top of the building is a beautiful star….not shown in picture below, and along one side is a huge lit American flag.