CHARITY, CHILI, AND FUN

Thursday, June 2 – Today was Marsha's birthday. Kelly called and invited us out to dinner. We met her and Carrie (both our daughters) at Pappadeaux Restaurant for dinner. It was a great time. They surprised Marsha with a birthday cake....the waiters and waitresses even sang to her.....LOL   An enjoyable evening......thanks girls!!!

Birthday girl.

Not much embarrassment here. Especially when the gal announced Marsha was 29.

Kelly, birthday girl, Carrie, birthday girl's date.

Friday, June 3 - We go from tornadoes to this…GEESH!

AIR QUALITY ALERT in effect until Friday, Jun 3, 8:00 PM

...OZONE WATCH FOR TODAY...

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT in effect until Saturday, Jun 4, 8:00 AM

...HOT WEEKEND ON TAP...

AFTERNOON HIGH TEMPERATURES NEAR THE CENTURY MARK ARE EXPECTED TO THIS WEEKEND ACROSS MANY PARTS OF SOUTHEAST TEXAS. RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES ARE IN JEOPARDY.

DO NOT KEEP CHILDREN OR PETS IN CARS WITH WINDOWS ROLLED UP... EVEN PARTIALLY. TEMPERATURES INSIDE A CAR WITH THE WINDOWS UP CAN REACH OVER 150 DEGREES QUICKLY...WHICH WOULD RESULT IN HEAT STROKE…..NO KIDDING!

Saturday, June 4 - What a surprise we had when RV after RV began pulling into the Elks. Our quiet little hide-away, here on the fringe of Houston, is being turned into a street festival.

They're here for a Chili Cook-off. What fun! There are 67 entrants, and we're going to be one of the judges for the finals! Now how the heck did that happen?

Even though is was only 9:00 a.m., it is 5:00 p.m. some where!

Our daughter Kelly came over to spend the afternoon and her neighbor and best friend, Janelle, came along. They volunteered to be judges too.

The group doing the cook-off is the Chili Appreciation Society International (CASI). Their mission is to promote chili and raise money for charity. What a friendly bunch of people. They invited us to breakfast and all their activities. One of the rules is everyone must cook outside, on the premises where the cook-off will be held. They all decorate their cooking area.

There were cooks everywhere.

They started the day with a “bean cook-off”. We didn't judge this. Marsha didn't want to spend the night in the MH after Paul ate Chili, drank beer and ate beans. We'll see how she does with two out of three.....ha ha! They had 20 entries in the bean contest.

One event we did attend....no eating here, only laughs.....was the wienie decorating contest. We did judge this. They only had 6 entries....hilarious!

Barbie on the beach. She even has a bellybutton ring. We also remarked that that is a pretty hot dog!

The chili contest was between 67 chili cookers! This chili organization travels all over Texas and western Louisiana competing in chili preparation.

Judges, please take your seat.

You would think judging would be an easy task....NOT!   We had 26 samples we had to judge. That is after they had TWO semi-final eliminations. We had to take a sample of chili, eat crackers/cheese/grape/beer/pop/water to cleanse the pallet (oh.....and you're not permitted to go to bathroom).....repeat 26 times....UGH.....full, have to pee and tired of chili.

Paul enjoying the FIRST of 26.

Marsha closes her eye as thinks…only 25 more.

Kelly's friend Janelle doesn't eat beef…OH NO. She judged on looks, smell, and taste of the sauce. Of course, sometimes you have to look real close before tasting.

And then taste just a little.

And this was Kelly. All smiles and taking a huge spoonful at the beginning.

Now that we are at 18 or 26, she looks a bit different.

We completed our task, it was a fun experience, and we had all the chili and beer we cared to eat and drink! To think they do it all again tomorrow.....gag me!

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

WHAT A WAY TO SPEND THE DAY

Sunday, May 29 – The Elks did a wonderful job with displaying the flag for Memorial Day.

We spent the day at Kelly's. It is our anniversary, and she asked us to go to her place to "hang out". We watched some NCAA softball and sat by the pool. Just another nice day with one of our daughters.

 

Wednesday, June 1 - Paul had an appointment at PPL of Houston, an RV dealership here is south Houston this morning.

This is the repair facility Carrier Air Conditioning insisted we visit to get warranty service on our one-year old air conditioner. This is the forth service call we have had on this unit. Although, under warranty, Carrier no longer makes RV Air Conditioners, so we have had difficulty finding anyone to attempt repairs on the unit. One way or the other, this will be our last attempt for service. If PPL can not repair/replace the unit, we will cut our losses and replace it with another manufacture's model.....Paul believes this is what Carrier is aiming for.....delay long enough that we throw our arms up in disgust and replace it at our own cost!

Well, after sitting at PPL all morning (5.5 hours), we finally gave up and headed home. No sooner had he arrived at the Elks, John from PPL called and said Carrier authorized installation of a new AC. They are shipping one out tomorrow (they say), and we should have it installed at PPL by the end of next week. We shall see!! Stay tuned!

Since the temperature has been in the high 90s every day, we have been spending several hours at the Elks pool.

They have done a great job with the maintenance on the pool. From the picture above, you can see the huge patio around the pool, and underneath the extended roof is another big sitting area. There is a window and door that goes directly into the bar area. Real nice!

 

FLASHBACK TO Monday, May 23 –We ended our day of touring on a lighter note by visiting the Oklahoma State Capitol. The building is built from white Indiana limestone with a base of pink and black granite.

The pink granite is from Troy, and the black granite is from Cold Springs, OK. Each of the state's 77 counties donated materials to be used in the construction. Containing 650 rooms, the Capitol occupies 11 acres of floor-space.

We rode the elevator up to the fifth floor and toured the building “top down.”

The dome soars 190 above the state seal on the first floor. It is 80 feet in diameter with colors inspired by gaillardia or Indian blanket, the state wildflower.

Looking down at the Seal.

There is Oklahoma works of art hanging throughout the building. Isn't this appropriate…a tornado scene…YIKES!

Beautiful murals describing life in Oklahoma then and now.

We entered the Oklahoma House of Representatives, the State Senate, and the Supreme Court.

House

Senate

Look at the newest Senator hard at work.

We have no idea if we were allowed on the floor. We didn't see anyone around so we ran in and ran out. We probably looked very silly on the camera.

Supreme Court

On the first floor is the Galleries with rotating exhibits by Oklahoma artists. The collection comprises more than 100 works of art by Oklahoma artists. Here are a few of Marsha's favorite…

Desert Dancer

Every one loves a clown.

Donkey head

And her favorite of all…Women looking over man's shoulder as he reads the paper.

A very attractive Capitol building and a recommended visit if in the Oklahoma City area.

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

BACK IN HOUSTON

Friday, May 27 – After seeing the Oklahoma City is going to have more sever thunderstorms and possible tornadoes, we packed up and headed back to Houston. No use pushing our luck.

It is really hot here…98. The wind is blowing but nothing like OK City. We are very happy about that. Going to lay low today and just chill.

FLASHBACK TO WEDNESDAY – We met a couple full-timer classmates of ours today. Full-timer's that began traveling in the same year (in our case 2009) or 2008, and belong to the Escapee's RV Club, get together whenever in the same area to exchange “war stories” and try to out do each other with travel stories. We met up with Steve & Carol at the Fire Lake Grand Casino in Shawnee. After chatting for a while, we headed over to the Casino for some lunch where we continued getting to know one another.

After a nice lunch, we decided to try our luck on the slots. We signed up for a players card which got us a free game of Keno and $10 credit on the slots. We each put in $5 and after about an hour Paul walked away with $12 in his pocket and Marsha had $13.

Oh....I forgot one thing. The casino had a free ice cream machine and free soda. We each had a bowl of ice cream and it was GOOD!

After hugs and hand shakes, we said our good-byes and headed home to prepare for tomorrow's trip. We're heading back into Texas to the Houston area to visit the girls and help our oldest daughter move to Ohio.

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