HOUSTON FOR A FEW MONTHS

Tuesday, November 11 – During the fall, Saturday is NCAA football for sports lovers, which is a group we are definitely among. We went to our daughter's, Carrie, apartment for lunch first. She has moved since we were last in Houston, and today is the day we got to see her new place. There's something else in town we haven't got to see, and we'll be meeting HIM at lunch as well.

Carrie still lives in the hustle and bustle of Midtown Houston. She moved into a newer and slightly larger apartment a few blocks from her previous location. It is a very nice apartment and has some increased security over her previous place. One of these security items we noticed immediately. There is a double entry gate system allowing only one car to enter the parking garage at a time. And you have to be buzzed in by the person living in the complex. Oh....and no dang speed bumps in the parking garage to rattle your car to pieces.

Carrie has a very nice apartment and a beautiful view of the downtown Houston skyline. We shared a wonderful Salmon fillet for lunch and even got to meet Michael, her special guy. They've been dating for a couple months but this was his first “family time.” Poor guy :-) He is a very nice guy and seems to fit right in.

A rainy day in Houston.

We then headed over to one of the many sports bars in Midtown so we could watch several football games at once. They also have patron games at the bar we enjoy playing…for free. Our competitive nature sometimes gets the best of us. Paul was the CHAMPION at ping pong, (Michael took it easy on him).

Paul takes Carrie out of the playoff.  

We also played several games of pool, tried our hand at ring toss, and enjoyed the football games.

Mike making a combo shot.

Mike and Carrie.

Another great day with family.

It was a fun afternoon, but it was getting dark and time for the older generation to slip aside and head for home. No use even trying to keep up with the younger generation.

Houston skyline from Carrie’s rooftop parking deck.

By the way…yes, we were in Houston for the last HUGE rain. We had 7.22 inches in just 24 hours. The bayou back of the Elks was brimming at the top. It had to be at least 30’ high.

After the water finally receded.

Now that the holidays are just about upon us and since we will be sitting for a few months, we won’t be posting much. Thanks to those that sent emails asking if we were doing well.

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

HOUSTON…HOME BASE FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS

Friday, October 30 – Our destination on Wednesday was Beaumont, Texas. Due to a forecast of rainy days along the Gulf Coast, we had changed our plans of spending time at several of our favorite Gulf beaches and decided instead to make a dash to Houston. We called the Elks Lodge in Houston and discovered all the paved sites were full until Thursday so we decided to stop for a night in Beaumont, Texas. The Elks Lodge there has six sites.

Marsha’s day of nightmares…bridges, bridges, bridges.

By the way, Louisiana did not surprise us by repairing I-10 while we were gone! What a disaster! That road has been a mess ever since we first traveled to Texas back in 2007. We've tried several other routes through Louisiana but haven't found any road in much better condition.

We had another goal and that was to get the 5^th wheel inspected. Texas recently changed the licensing requirements for trailers. If it weighs over 4,000 pounds, it must be inspected before renewing your license plates. We had already renewed our license plates on line. Since our trailer was out of state, the inspection is waved until you return to Texas. Our hope was to get the inspection completed before arriving in Houston and getting all comfy in our site. We sure didn't want to hook-up and pull-out in a couple days only to get inspected.

Searching on the internet we found Trailer Hitch Depot on the feeder road of Interstate 10, the route we would be taking in Beaumont. We called to confirm they could do a 5^th wheel inspection and headed in that direction. It was an easy in and out stop. Although we had to wait around about a half-hour for our turn and to complete the paperwork, the inspection itself only took about two minutes . All the fellow inspecting did was check that all lights worked, and that the vehicle was properly registered to us via the Internet. We paid our $7 to Texas and were on our way.

Unfortunately, upon reaching the Beaumont Elks Lodge, we were disappointed. They only had one site available. It was muddy due to all the rain Texas has been experiencing and was going to be a challenge to get situated into. After discussing it for about one minute, we said the heck with it and chose instead to drive the additional two hours to Houston. We were disappointed with the Beaumont Elks environment and can't recommend it as a nice over-night stop. Maybe it had something to do with all the rain, but they do need to do some house cleaning around their lodge, in our opinion.

We had a little battle with the Houston traffic (It was 3:00 and rush hours begins early in this metropolis.), so we skirted around the city on I-610 to the Houston Elks Lodge, which is actually in Stafford, TX, a suburb located on the south side of the city. Since all the concrete sites were full until Thursday, we pulled into a gravel/grass site to hook-up electric and water for the night. We did move over to Site #7 Thursday morning.

Our favorite site, #1, won’t be empty till the middle of the month.

Looking right.

Looking left.

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

FLORIDA TO LOUISIANA

Tuesday, October 27 – We continued our Westward travel this morning and have arrived in Slidell, LA. We traveled off and on in rain all morning.

We were surprised traveling I-10 across the Florida Panhandle of all the hills. We had the misconception that all of Florida was FLAT. Other than the rain it was a good and uneventful trip.

We did see a rainbow in all the rain.

We are at the Slidell Elks Lodge. The Lodge sits way down Elks Lane, a long country road off the highway. It feels like we are in the middle of nowhere. It has a park-like setting.

The sites are gravel right off the Lodge parking lot. We have 50 amp electric and water. They do have a dump station. There is a full-time host on the premises that checked us in and collects the $15 fee. We are the only ones here. We are here for one night.

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