A REVIEW OF OUR FIFTH YEAR ON THE ROAD

October 16, 2014 – Today is the end of our 5^th year on the road. If you're a long-time reader, you know we full-timed for three years and then became snowbirds. We now own a small home in Canton, OH, where we spend several months in the summer visiting family and friends. During the colder months, we visit family and friends in Texas and other warm areas in the south.



This 5^th year was spent in preparation of our daughter, Kelly's, wedding and doing some major renovations to our summer home in Ohio. If you peruse our spreadsheet (below) of interesting facts, you'll see we cut way back on travels this past year. We spent most of the winter in Houston, TX, and the summer in Canton, OH.

We began the year, beginning October 17, 2013, back in Mission, TX , the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas. We like to travel there to visit our many close friends that live there and to make our annual trek to Progresso, Mexico for dental check-ups.

L-R Paul, Marsha, John (Shoeless Joe), Angie, Rick


November found us back in Houston to spend Thanksgiving with our daughter, Carrie. It has become somewhat of a tradition for her to have many of her “twenty-something” friends over for a huge Thanksgiving dinner. We enjoy playing “mom and dad” at this fun event!



We then flew to Canton, OH, to spend the Christmas Holidays with immediate family. Marsha usually spends most of December in Ohio with Paul showing up just before Christmas. He stays back in Texas to care for our cat, Bella....or is it to avoid the cold and snow in Ohio???? Surprisingly, it was warm enough in Ohio for Paul to mow the grass, mostly leaves that mother fall deposited while we were gone. That didn't last though. By Christmas day it was snowing, so Paul and daughter, Carrie, grabbed an early flight back to Houston. Poor Marsha got snowed-in and her flight was delayed for several days....ha, ha!!!

Mowing one day


Snowing the next day.


Merry Christmas


This past December was especially memorable because our daughter, Kelly, became engaged to a wonderful guy, Dave. What a great Christmas event!!! We were thrilled and excited to spend the first part of 2014 preparing for the “big event.”



Because we wanted to be available for wedding preparations, dress shopping, shower planning, and other decisions mom and daughter needed to make for the big day, we decided to spend the entire winter in Houston, TX. This became especially nice when Kelly and Dave visited Houston in February for a day of wedding dress shopping and a family get-together. Dave even got to spend a few hours hitting the golf ball, which is one of his biggest “loves”.....after Kelly of course! He also bought his first pair of real cowboy boots.



Dave’s golf form.


Winter wasn’t only for wedding planning. The end of February marks Houston Barbecue fun. Carrie always has a big tent to celebrate with friends, and this time we were able to crash the big party. Oh, what fun!


March welcomed the Rodeo to Houston. This was our second opportunity to attend the big rodeo and we really enjoy the festivities. Of course, Marsha and Carrie went to one of the many concerts to see Adam Levine and Maroon 5 perform. Poor Paul had to miss that event.... :-) .




April found us heading back to Ohio. Paul had a long list of projects to complete, and Marsha had orders that  they needed to be finished BEFORE the wedding.....YIKES!!! He jumped right into a total kitchen redo and was able to finish it with several weeks to spare.

Before

After


With the wedding fast approaching, Carrie flew to Ohio to help Marsha with the wedding shower for Kelly. A well-planned event (who would expect anything different form Marsha) that was a big hit with Kelly and the family. Of course there was a bachelorette party for all the girls at a resort town on the shores of Lake Erie. They aren't talking much about that.....LOL



July was the big day. Kelly and Dave were married on July 19. A day to remember, for sure! Everyone enjoyed the church ceremony and the celebration afterwards. Great planning allowed the entire event to go off without any problems.




Paul finally has a guy in the family to help with several projects he had planned for the remainder of the summer. I'm sure we'll have many more projects in the coming years!

With summer coming to a close, we headed to Augusta, GA. With several stops along the way for hiking and sightseeing, we eventually arrived in Augusta to visit with Paul's brother and the “Southern Family.” We also participated the the Walk for ALS, and yes, we did the “ice-bucket” challenge, too, in memory of our sister-in-law, Delores.



We then meandered across the Gulf States to Houston for a couple days, a quick stop to see Carrie in Houston, and then down to Mission, TX, where we begin our 6th year. This was the first time we finished a year of travels at the same location where it began!

 
Here are some interesting facts comparing this year to our previous years of travel. Enjoy!!

	YEAR 1	YEAR 2	YEAR 3	YEAR 4	YEAR 5
Different Cities Overnight	54	34	40	27	18
Longest Length of Stay	79	69	70	138	172
Location of Longest Stay	Livingston, TX	Mission, TX	Canton, OH	Canton, OH	Canton, OH
Average Length of Stay	7	11	9	14	20
No. of States Visited	20	11	16	15	10
No. of States Visited 1st Time	17	3	7	5	0
No. of Days in Home State of TX	166	195	127	153	199
Average Campground Cost	$12.80	$12.25	$15.33	$13.52	$14.21
Gallons Diesel Fuel Used	1,678	974	1,038	687	705
Highest Price for Diesel Fuel	$3.22	$4.05	$4.60	$4.16	$4.03
Lowest Price for Diesel Fuel	$2.54	$2.83	$3.57	$3.46	$3.26
Average Price/gallon	$2.84	$3.63	$3.92	$3.82	$3.65
Average Miles/gallon	7.36 MH	7.21 MH	7.31 MH	11.54 TR	11.5 TR
MH Miles Driven	12,357	7,428	8,641	NA	NA
Car Miles Driven	22,186	15,631	18,496	NA	NA
Truck Miles While Towing	NA	NA	NA	7,923	3,600
Truck Miles While Sightseeing	NA	NA	NA	10,854	10,687

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

FROM HOUSTON TO MISSION, TEXAS

Friday, September 3 – We arrived in what feels like home to us – the Houston Elks Lodge. We are here to visit our daughter, Carrie, before heading down to the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas to see friends for a couple weeks.

The beautiful sky over “our” beach in Bay St. Louis saying good bye.

Not sure why this feels like “home.” We spent all last winter here, enjoying the people, nothing spectacular about the campground, Houston traffic is....well, Houston traffic, love that we get to see our daughter – when she's not working. Guess we just feel relaxed here, for some reason.

We were pleasantly surprised to find the campground with several vacancies. This place has been packed for the last couple of years. It may have more vacancies because they recently raised there rates ($25/night or $400/month – cheap by Houston standards). The nightly rate is a little high, in our opinion, but the monthly rate is reasonable. Or it could be that three RV'ers here have recently moved on. The former camp hosts decided to sell their RV and get an apartment, and two other “workers” living here for local jobs have decided to move. So hopefully we'll be able to find a spot here when we return in November.

Houston skyline.

Regardless, we'll be here through the weekend and then head south to the Mexico border for three weeks. We will then return here for the months of November and December. After the holidays, our plans are to head to Arizona for the winter and spring baseball....go Tribe.

Sunday, September 5 – After only two days at the Houston Elks CG, we pulled up the jacks and headed about 200 miles south toward Goliad, TX. We planned on staying in Goliad, but when we got in the area it was only 10:30 a.m. – that was no 200 miles. Must have goofed when planning our route on Google Maps.

So, we pushed on towards Mission, TX, in the Rio Grande Valley. We arrived at Leisure Valley Ranch about 2:30. Longer than we like to drive, but we stopped several times and broke the ride up into manageable segments.

We are on friends, Amy and Steve's, casita lot. They are away for summer travels and have rented their site to us again this fall. We stayed here for several weeks last fall. We plan on being here three or four weeks to visit old friends and travel to Progresso, Mexico, for dentist check-ups.

They own this empty lot next to us also.

Looking right.

Looking left. That is the clubhouse on the left.

We have done nothing but socialize since we arrived. There goes our diets, and we are on our way to again joining AA once we leave here….lol

Angie and Rick, again, entertain us at their beautiful home.

When Angie and Rick visited us in August, Angie asked Paul if he could use his skills and make a prayer request box. Paul got to work right away and had it finished in a day. We brought it and gave it to Angie to present to the leaders of the group, Donna and Reynold.

Paul, Donna, Reynold, Angie

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

BAY ST. LOUIS TOUR

Wednesday, October 1 - We took a tour of Bay St. Louis this afternoon, and they even paid us! Yep, the Tourist Board received a grant from BP (oil spill settlement money), and all we had to do is show our driver license that we were from out of town, and we received $10/each to spend in most of the local stores and restaurants. The gal at the Visitor's Center liked us so well, she actually gave us $20 each! So we're heading to Tony's Seafood Restaurant for dinner tonight. Dinner out is an unusual treat for us. Thanks BSL!

Bay St. Louis is attempting to rebuild tourism after the BP oil spill and Katrina. It was practically wiped-out by Katrina. The good news about that is everything is new! There's tons of dollars being spent here.

These post lights are everywhere.

The walking tour begins on the corner of Beech Blvd. and Main Street. There are over 24 stops along the way at historic buildings and eclectic little shops. Some of the places we saw were the Main Street United Methodist Church built in 1895 an outstanding example of Carpenter Gothic Architecture. A style in which craftsmen attempted to replicate stone carvings by using intricate woodworking techniques.

We strolled by the Louis Piernas House where the first black postmaster in Mississippi lived.

We jumped the RR tracks to see the Depot built in 1928, now serving as the Visitor's Center.

Costumes were on display from the Mardi Gras.

Across the street is the Brothers of the Sacred Heart cemetery. A Cemetery exclusively for the Brothers that served at St. Stanislaus College, the oldest educational institution on the Gulf Coast.

Back across the RR tracks, we found the Cedar Rest Cemetery with graves dating from the 1820's. Interestingly, each Halloween the cemetery attracts hundreds of visitors for a unique tour where descendants of those buried here perform reenactments of their ancestors. The lady at the Visitor's Center described it “as if the buried descendants came back to life.” This isn't intended to be a scary thing, but rather a historical reenactment. Cool!

This is only a very small taste of the walking tour of Bay St. Louis. By the way, Tony’s was delicious. Paul had the seafood platter, grilled, and Marsha had the Gumbo. Both were excellent!

We want to share just a few snapshots of our beach time here at the Casino. Again, we had the beach all to ourselves.

We did have one little visitor.

When Marsha was doing some research about Bay St. Louis, she ran across this…Bay Saint Louis' newest resident: An American Bald Eagle. She said wouldn’t it be cool to see that awesome sight. Well, guess what. She was talking to her dad on the phone and stopped and yelled…It’s the Eagle. We saw it fly right over our 5th wheel into a tree about 50 yards behind us. What a treat.

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