Lynn & Larry's adventures

July 19: The End

2009-07-19T19:58:00.002-05:00

The time has finally come to end my blog. Our life has calmed down a whole bunch and probably not worth the extra time it takes to write this up and then take up your time reading virtually nothing. I can't begin to tell all of you who have followed our adventures how much fun it's been to share all of them with you. It's kinda like the first time Larry and I went on a vacation without the kids. All I could think of was how much they would have enjoyed seeing this or doing that. Life events are much more fun if shared with others.

Many times on our adventures I thought that my kids or my grand kids would have loved being here to enjoy this fun; and how much my cruiser friends would have loved to eat at this place. By getting to tell all of you about it helped me feel like I was with many of you and not quite so isolated.

Larry and I are glad that we got to do our year and a half and will do it again in a heart beat if the financial circumstances get better. We may travel again in the future but it will be by train, plane or automobile - maybe bus.

Thanks to all of you who gave me such great feedback and encouraged me to write. I've printed out all of my blogs as we went along and we now have a great notebook full of wonderful memories.

As my favorite cowboy said "Happy Trails To You, Until We Meet Again".

Look for me on Facebook.

July 6: Mr. P.T. and Happy Birthday USA

2009-07-06T19:59:00.018-05:00

Larry Dean Brown
1947 - 2009

Mr. P.T. Our Mr. P.T. The best Mr. P.T. ever. What can you say when you've lost a great representative of our hobby and a truly good friend. Larry Brown was all of that and not just a good friend to me but to all he met. He was always upbeat, happy, positive and enthusiastic about the little P.T. Cruiser. He won the title, Mr. P.T., in Eureka Springs, Arkansas and was absolutely thrilled with the title. We all had a great time getting him ready for the fashion show, where he modeled the latest in rain wear, which we have always needed at this particular car show. Riding in the parade (where he sat atop the back seat of his convertible); and of course the big question and answer part of the contest where we told him to say, no matter what the question was, his answer was to be "All I want is world peace!" Larry was a hoot and loved every minute of it - no matter how funny we made him look (note the Wal-Mart bags on his feet) - he really, really enjoyed it.

Larry was described as a gentle giant. He led our club as president for several years and did it with quiet dignity. Every suggestion was taken to heart and he made sure everyone was heard.

His funeral was Friday, July 3rd. There were 16 P.T.Cruisers that traveled 20 miles east of Wichita to Augusta and 5 other cars joined us there. We were a pretty impressive sight especially with Larry's car being driven right behind the family car to the cemetary. We all hope we did him proud - we even sounded the ahooga horns in his honor.

Larry was a friend to all of us in the club and his loss will be an emptiness in our hearts. BUT, I'm pretty sure he's cruizin' with his wife, June, in a P.T. Cruiser - and heaven should be big enough for them to cruise for a long time--and they won't be a needin' the top.

Part of Saturday and part of Sunday was spent trying to help Rebecca put up our old swimming pool. Some parts are missing so we didn't get it completed - maybe next weekend. Please note my extremely great supervisory skills. No one, and I mean no one, can sit in a lawn chair, suck down a Pepsi and point at what needs to be done as well as I can.

Saturday evening we drove to Winfield where we celebrated the birth of our nation with a big fireworks show and BBQ with an old high school girlfriend, her family and friends.

Sunday we went to another fireworks show in Goddard. One of our members had several fireworks stands in Goddard and he gathered up all the leftovers and had professionals come in (see the picture of them putting in more black powder in already made cylinders) and blow them all up, pretty much it seemed all at once. However, one of the big ones went off early or wrong (again, refer to the picture of the home made fireworks) and injured one of the workers. He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance but will be OK. He was injured around the eyes (wore protective goggles thank goodness) and was shot with sand from the explosion. This happened right at the end so I don't think we missed much. It was as if someone dropped a torch on top of a semi full of fireworks and they all went off for about 15 minutes non-stop.

We celebrated the life of a good friend and the birthday of a great nation. As they say, "Life goes on" but it sure gets lonely when you loose the people you love.

June 28: Picnic at Brenda's

2009-06-28T21:14:00.012-05:00

One of our cruiser members, Brenda, has allowed the cruiser group to meet at her house for 5 years for an annual picnic. She has a great back yard full of paths, flowers and lots of shade trees. The club provides the hamburgers and bratwurst and we all bring side dishes. The temperature was hovering around 100 deg but several people brought fans so we were at least comfortable. As the day wore on, a front moved thru and the temperature dropped to the 80's. A great time was had by all and the variety of food was great - not to mention it was all just plain good cookin'.

We also held a brief monthly club meeting after dinner and tried not to doze off.

Today, Rebecca, Nathen, Larry and I all went to Cheney Lake just for a picnic and swim. Willie and Austin were in Missouri helping his parents move to Lebannon, MO. Willie came home tonight and Austin is staying there for another couple of weeks.

The only news I have on job hunting is the City of Park City has accepted my resume and now wants me to go thru their battery of tests. I'll do that Tuesday afternoon but won't hear anything on that until after the 17th. The job is for Data Entry/Police Clerk.

June 22: Job & Car Show

2009-06-22T17:13:00.018-05:00

Sorry to be running so late with my blog but I was hoping to have some good news on my search for a job. None so far. However, Larry now had his "dream" job. This is the one he talked about all winter--delivering parts for Automotive Supply. He can now wear shorts which as the Canadians will all remember, was his favorite thing to do. Unlike Guy, Larry almost always wore a shirt.

He talked about how he's come full circle. He used to delivery newspapers and telegrams. Now 48 years later, he's still delivering stuff.

I'm still searching. Sent out 5 resume just this week alone. Still working at the mircrofilm place and they're cross training me now for paper scanning. Talk about a soul crushing job - WOW - I can barely stay awake. I'm glad now when I get back to the microfilm department.

Saturday we went to the Mopar show at the Sedgwick Co. Park. It rained when we got there, cleared up and poured down with another rain storm at closing time. A great time was had by all.

The Coke PT owned by Larry & Delma Nulf. One of these days I'm gonna sneak in a Pepsi into his display.

First black convertible is The Darthcruzer owned by Henry & Anna Monton; the second one is the Coke PT; the third one has cool ghost flames and is owned by Steve and Sharon Mundy. The last one is the K-State PT owned by Dave B. out of Topeka. At the very end you can just see the trailer that belongs to another PT from Oklahoma.

The ghost flames:

Darthcruzer:

Larry's new hairdo and the gang under the canopies that we always seem to need.

And just for those of you who can't tell yet that we were at a Mopar show, here's some photos for you.

This is a 67 or 69 Fury (can't remember - go figure). It in now way is anywhere near stock condition. This is a complete re-do. How about that cool engine.

The oldest Dodge on display that day and it was sitting on a trailer.

The big fins and spoilers of the Chrysler/Plymouth era.

I tool a look at my blog one day - the way you all see it - and discovered that my wording doesn't always match up to my pictures. I hope all of you have been able to adjust my thinking and figure out which picture I'm talking about.

Also, I'm on the verge of giving up the blog. Our lives aren't that exciting anymore and I don't want to bore anyone. I will probably do Facebook as soon as I figure out how it works. I set up an account and I've already had several people ask me to join theirs. I've accepted but I don't know where to go from there. Someday one of the kids will be here and can help me. In the meantime, I'll publish a blog or two just to keep the relatives, at least, current on what we're doing.

June 7: Garden of Eden and Mac

2009-06-07T19:37:00.014-05:00

As promised, here is the second installment of the Mystery Cruise from last Saturday.

The Garden of Eden, located in Lucas, KS, was built by Samuel Perry Dinsmoore, a retired schoolteacher, Civil War Veteran, Farmer and Populist politician. You can see some of his political view points in his sculptures.

He began building the garden and his home in 1907 at the age of 64. Over 22 years he fashioned 113 tons of cement and many tons of limestone into this unique cabin (it's made of limestone but shaped to look like logs) with its surrounding sculptures. In 1924, at the age of 81, he married a 20 years old and they had two children - both now living outside of Kansas. His son, John, is the youngest surviving child of a Civil War veteran.

Dinsmore built this 40 foot tall limestone "log" mausoleum for himself and his first wife. He is laid rest in his hand-made, concrete coffin that has a side window for viewing his mouldering body.

From Lucas, we headed east out into the country roads. We stopped at the Vonada Stone Co. Farm. Here they make limestone signs and markers of all types. Also, benches and sun dials. We got a demonstration on engraving limestone and one on actually making the limestone fence posts. Our tour guide, Brenda, drilled a hole for the stake and wedge that help split the rock. We then went on a very scenic trailer ride out into the pasture to look at a small quarry and some Oak trees planted on a hill that were part of an original homestead act that required planting of trees on your land.

The day ended up in Lincoln, KS where we enjoyed dinner at the Hungry Hunter. A great time was had by all.

On the way home, I took this picture from Ron's car as it traveled down the highway. The thunderheads were over Newton and were gone by the time we got there.

And special thanks to Ron for taking all these great shots for me.

On a sadder note, my mother's companion and dancing partner for the last 9 years passed away on Sunday the 5th. Gene and I drove down to be with her for several days. The memorial won't be until around the 20th and we won't be able to be with her then. She seems to be doing well but misses Mac very much.

June 1: The New Job and a Mystery Cruise

2009-06-01T18:11:00.017-05:00

My new job does work with microfiche but I'm working on microfilm. The microfilm is both 16mm and 35mm. The local county government has decided it needs to replace some old microfilm so I'm now helping this company with that project. There are suppose to be a total of 2500 rolls of film. We make two copies: 1) A diazo copy for the county to use daily; and 2) a silver copy that will go to the salt mines for storage. This will last about 3 months (unless I find work elsewhere) and the cost to us tax payers is a mere $100,000. The reason for film as oppose to CD's is that the life span of the information and the CD itself have not yet been determined. The life span of diazo film is over 100 years and the silver is suppose to be good for 500 years. Not sure how they can determine that and not the life span of a CD but I guess that's not my problem. I am still putting in applications at other places still hoping to get full time employment somewhere.

Larry is still working at the hotel - delivering tooth brushes, unclogging toilets, helping young co-eds move to another room because their a/c was broken, trying to fix a broken elevator, policing the parking lot looking for non-paying parkers, etc. Not a bad job description for the title "Shuttle Driver".

Today and tomorrow are his days off this week and he went swimming today. Met an interesting guy in the pool - Larry Grimes. The two of them had quite a visit about the apartment complex. They're about the same age too but Larry says Larry has more hair than he does. Wonder if Darrell is around somewhere.

Saturday (while Larry was working), I went on a mystery cruise with the P.T. Cruiser group. I rode with Ron & Janet. We left north Wichita at 7:00 AM (my eyes were almost open) and headed north. First stop (potty break) was just north of I-70 on the highway going to Wilson Lake. Stopped at a store called "Kansas Originals". A really neat place. I bought a new T-Shirt and pin. I think everyone bought something.

This was on the scenic Post Rock By-Way heading north to Wilson Lake. More on the post rocks later.

Next stop was Lucas, KS originally known as the Garden of Eden. First stop, however, was at the Grassroots Arts Center. To take the description of the artists from their brochure, "Grassroots art is made by self-taught artists working outside the academic structure of fine art and beyond the cultural traditions of folk art......" Generally, someone turns 65, has lots of time on their hands and says "Wow, look at all this junk in my closet, yard, garage, etc. Maybe I can do something with that." It was an interesting place but a little mind boggling.

Left is a a car made from the old style pull tabs - the ones that always got thrown down or you put in the can and hoped you didn't swallow it.

This lovely sculpture on the right was all the trash taken from a drained lake. Kinda like those I Spy books. Can you find the marble, jack, toy cow, etc.?

Limestone is a big deal in this country. This antique car and school yard scene was carved from a chunk of limestone by a lady that filled up a whole room in this museum.

More limestone but these were done by master masons. The stained glass window is actually pieces of glass and the bottoms of broken bottles.

We then walked over to the Deeble house where there are thousands of Barbie Dolls and other dolls made into so many different things that my mind kinda went numb. Notice the aluminum foil walls - ceilings were the same way. The lady that made these lived here until she ran out of room and moved out. In the backyard are scenes from postcards that she collected. This one is from Mt. Rushmore.

I have no idea!!!

From here we went to the Garden of Eden. I asked another photographer to take over for my royal assistant, Henry, and I don't have those photos yet. They are well worth waiting on. They'll be in the next edition.

Thank you, Henry, for taking all these lovely photos for me. I still can't believe I walked out of the house without my camera.

The Garden Of Eden and the Vonada Stone Co. family farm will be posted as soon as I get the CD with the pictures.

May 25: Veteran's Day

2009-05-25T12:43:00.012-05:00

Thanks to all of you veteran's who served our country so that I could have the freedom to type what I think in a blog. I have many other freedoms that you have earned for me and I truly appreciate all of those freedoms and all that you did to guarantee me those freedoms.

We went to two cemeteries Friday and decorated my dad's grave, Larry's mother and sister's graves and my step-dad and his first wife's graves.

Larry has undergone thorough training at the Marriott. All employees have to requalify every year and he was lucky enough to get in on that training almost immediately. He now knows how to direct people to the proper location by a special "point" and to make eye contact within 15 feet. He's proud to be a part of a special team - according to his essay answers. He's still bringing home tips so I'm proud too.

I finally start a temporary job tomorrow. The company name is Imaging Office Solutions. They convert paper documents into microfiche or computer files. It's for 3 to 5 weeks so that will get me out of the house. I'm still applying other places but this will bring in some money while I'm waiting.

After determining that the grandfather clock we bought was really too big for out apartment, we exchanged it for another smaller grandfather clock. Here they are so you can see the difference. The new one isn't as flashy but I think it's a better fit.

Most of you will remember all those flower pictures I took over the last 1 1/2 years. I assembled 12 of them together into a collage and have mounted them in the entry way of our hall.

We drove down to see Larry's brothers, Dean and Don, Sunday. Dean was a little under the weather so we didn't get to eat out with him and Lethia. Don was doing well but his potassium and calcium is high. He loves cheeseburgers so that may have to stop. Or at least get the hamburger on a different kind of bread and without the cheese.

Friday evening Larry and I assembled a new BBQ grill. Today we hauled it back downstairs and put it in it's rightful place along with half dozen other grills. Tonight Larry cooked a steak and a chicken breast on it. Very tasty--no new paint or oil taste to it at all. I couldn't get a closer picture because the camera kept wanting to focus on a cypress tree branch between him and me.

This is our view of the pool from our front door (left) and our balcony (right). There were people finally in it this afternoon. First time all weekend. The pool is heated so it would be good now but the outside temperature is only in the upper 70's, lower 80's and still a little cool for me. But by next weekend I'm sure we'll be splashing around.

If I survive a week working (getting up before 9:00 am) I'll let you know how the new job is going.

May 18: Another week of spring in Wichita

2009-05-18T13:11:00.011-05:00

This past week has been pretty uneventful. I applied at a couple more places - one on-line and one in person. I did hear back from a local car dealership that wanted me to work everyday plus every Saturday. I called them back after thinking it over and decided I wouldn't mind working every other Saturday - but not EVERY Saturday. It was good to at least be offered a job. Larry continues on his shuttle/bell boy/security/coffee making/trash-picking-up job. He brings home an average of $10/day in tips. We think this might cover out eating out for awhile.

Trina came over Wednesday with Samson. We all went for a walk along the lake. By the time we got to the end of the trail, Samson had had enough. Between Larry and Trina, he was carried part of the way back. I took a picture of one of our swans because they always seem to go around with one or the other foot up. I don't know enough about swans to know if this is normal or not. I do know that the male also does this so maybe it is normal or they're trying to keep the turtles from nibbling on their webs.

Saturday I went to a Cruiser Ladies Luncheon. We had a fruit salad (each of us brought a couple of ingredients) and Oatmeal Muffins. Cheese Cake for dessert. A really good lunch. Then I demonstrated the glass etching that I learned in Corpus Christie. Everyone brought a glass item and I provided the templates and liquid needed to eat into the glass. Everyone made a pretty item and I think some will try it at home.

The first picture is of the beautiful table that Brenda had sat for our meal including recipes for the muffins and the cheese cake. The one on the left is Brenda working on her template for her glass. The right one is Sharon and I working on our glass bowls.

Thank you, Pam, for taking pictures that day for me.

The Wichita River Festival is over and Larry and I didn't participate too much this year. We wanted to go to the Block Party but severe weather stopped that. Larry worked the night of the big fireworks show so I didn't go to that either. Most of the week was a rain out - sure hope they made enough money to do it again next year.

Our cat, Gypsy, gets up on the dining room table and stares at Cuddles, the cockatiel. When Gypsy makes a move in her direction, Cuddles leaves the safety of her cage (because Larry leaves the door open) and flies out around the room and tries to come back to her cage. I have caught a moment in time when she missed the cage (probably trying to fly out the door), crashed into the sliding glass door and fell to the floor, probably just as the cat intended. Larry and I always rescue her and get her in the cage. Usually by this time Gypsy is confused and running away. The mark is left by the high content of dander that this breed of bird has. Also makes dusting a full time job.

May 10: Wichita River Festival

2009-05-10T19:07:00.010-05:00

The beginning of the week was pretty normal. Get up each morning and check the internet for jobs. I mailed off 4 last Monday and will have done 3 by tomorrow. No one has even called yet for an interview. I keep thinking it's the economic situation and not my age that's keeping me from getting calls. I also know that there are several thousand other people out there looking for some of the same jobs I'm looking for. I'll just keep plugging along - surely something will come along. The end of the week marked the beginning of the Wichita River Festival - a week long celebration of Wichita becoming a city. It's our 36th year and I actually attended the very first one - even before I knew Larry.

Friday night is the Sundowner Parade. I walked with the CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) group that I've trained with in the past. I'm back and trying to get active again. CERT is a Homeland Security organization.

Today, Mother's Day, Rebecca and family and Larry and I went to the Botanical Gardens. They are free on Mother's Day and as part of a River Festival event. Took some family setting pictures there and then headed for downtown where the bulk of the activities are being held.

Austin hopes to someday become an Army Ranger so he's been looking forward to going to the Army display all week. However, we found out that you had to be 16 to participate in most of the stuff. He could do the push ups and pull ups but nothing else. Nathen was allowed to register eventhough he's only 15. He got to do the rock climb and go thru a trailer where a Hum Vee drove thru the streets of Bagdad.

The boys wanted me to do the Guitar Hero gig that was part of the "Army Strong" program, so I joined them for Michael Jackson's "Beat It". It sure was long. Nathen played lead, Austin on the drums and I was the bass part. I'm pretty sure I was the oldest one playing in the hour or so that we were in the area. There was even a smattering of applause when we finished.

I'm volunteered with CERT to help keep the paddle boats in the correct area of the Arkansas River this next week from a boat, so Larry (on the nights he doesn't work) and I will still be River Festivaling thru the week. Hopefully, between job interviews.

May 3: Larry's New Job

2009-05-03T11:02:00.004-05:00

Larry is employed. He pretty much got a job his first day out looking. He is the shuttle driver for the Marriott Old Town. Driving a 9 passenger van back and forth to the airport, local businesses and other points of interest. He's not too fond of the "monkey suit" as he calls it but it comes with the job. He did make $20 in tips one night and $35 this morning. He works either 6 to 11am or 4 to 9pm. Sometimes he will work both shifts. This is every day of the week with every other weekend off and every other Monday and Tuesday off.

He has to stand around when not driving and look busy. He runs errands to the rooms and keeps the coffee fresh. There was a wedding at the hotel last night and the bride threw the top of the cake at the groom. Cake was all over the walls and floors. Not sure how long that one will last. He also got to see a whole gaggle of "Miss Teens" that were staying there for a local pageant.

I, on the other hand, have had no luck what so ever. I'm registered at 4 employment agencies and have applied for a couple on my own. I am applying for every receptionist, secretary, office clerk or admin. assist. job that's out there. We should go back to Texas. That employment agency had me working within a couple of days of applying.

I mailed a resume today and faxed one. Tomorrow, I'll fax another one when their line isn't busy.

The trailer is still on consignment and the truck is listed on Craig's List and Auto Traders. So far no responses on either of them.Today I parked the truck in the Twin Lakes Shopping Center parking lot with other "for sale" cars. Maybe that will raise an inquiry or two.

The trees here are pretty much fully leafed out, cutting down our view of the lake. But it seems so woodsy that I'm not complaining much. I watched a Robin run a Cardinal out of one of the trees yesterday. Lots of wildlife. Sitting on the balcony one evening, we listened to all the ducks and geese coming back to the lake from where ever they had been. They are a noisy bunch.

My mom and Mac went to the Sweetheart Dance in February and no one would run for the King & Queen so they agreed to. Then found out that several other couples agreed to it also. Anyway, they won. Aren't they cute.

And, I'm sure most of you remember me telling you about the Mustang that my mom won at the casino. Well, I finally got a photo. Pretty cool looking.

I have scanned these pictures from a paper they scanned the original photos to and sent to me - thus the poorer quality of photo but they're good enough for me.

April 26: New Apartment

2009-04-26T12:20:00.006-05:00

We're still working out where stuff goes in this apartment. Neither one of us can believe that all this "stuff" came out of our camper.

We've had to purchase curtains. A "scarf" for the living room window and regular drapes for the bedroom and therefore a new bed spread. The new bedroom curtains are "busy" and the old bedspread was "busy" and neither were good together. I also am going to need a bed skirt.

I have a new desk with hutch for my computer which is now on wireless. We purchased a 6' table for my scrap booking and a 4' table for Larry's ham radio. Still haven't hung any pictures. Waiting until I get any more that I have from the basement boxes collected to see what I still need to purchase.

We did purchase another piece of furniture. I call it a tower. It was mostly to hold our little TV in the bedroom (note the black tower in the corner of the bedroom picture). We had never had a TV in the bedroom until we got the camper. Now we're kinda spoiled. We like to go to bed about 10:30 pm and watch Leno usually thru his first guest. Now that he's going to be on at 9:00 pm and we're not much into Conan, and we'll both be working, not sure we even need one in the bedroom. But by golly we have the piece of furniture for it.

I've put in about 6 resumes - most on-line. I like sitting here in my scrubby clothes and applying for jobs. One, however, did require me to get dressed and out the door at a reasonable hour and fill out an application in their office. I'll have to get used to that,the getting up early and dressed part.

Larry has walked into a couple of auto parts stores to apply as a delivery driver. One took his application; the other said he had to apply on line. We've done that for him at a couple of other auto parts stores. He's going to go look into the car dealership's this week to see if they need someone to put in the paper floor mats when you take your care in for service.

Grandfather Clock - what Grandfather Clock. Oh yeah - the one shown in the living room picture. We happened across a Grandmother Clock at Penney's that we both sorta liked and it just snowballed from there. We went to a clock shop and found this one - it sorta dominates the room - but Larry really likes it. I like it too - it's just soooo big. The gong and chimes are quiet - fortunately, and it has an automatic night shut off feature for the gongs and chimes.

All in all, I think the worst of the move is behind us and now we're just trying to settle in to apartment living - something new for both of us. There are still stacks of stuff sitting here and there that I'm not sure yet what to do with, but they will eventually find a drawer or shelf. And we still have boxes of more stuff in the basement to be dealt with.

The trailer is out at Flint Hills RV on consignment and the truck is currently listed on Craig's List and will be in Auto Trader by tomorrow night. Our children are all still employed for which we are both grateful. Maybe they will support us if the time ever comes to that - heaven forbid.

2009-04-16T21:19:00.009-05:00

I know it's been awhile, but we've been moving. I haven't had time to sit at the camper and upload my blog - I apologize for those of you who have been waiting patiently for an update.

Our good friends from Prince Edward Island, Tom and Rita, whom we spent the winter with in Texas, stopped by Wichita on their way home. We took them to some of the touristy things here in Wichita. Your trip to this town isn't complete until you've been to the Keeper of The Plains sculpture. We went to Nu-Way for another Wichita local dining place, played some cards that night and had ice cream. The next night we went to Strouds for some pan fried chicken. Larry got his fill of gizzards along with his dark meat chicken. The rest of us had chicken fried steaks. That night we found a Braums for some of their delicious ice cream. Tonight, we went to the local Lion's Pancake and Sausage feed. Came back to the apartment and had some more ice cream. Man I love it when we have company. Tom and Rita are leaving in the morning for home. We wish them well and safe travels.

Tom was nice enough to take a picture of Larry and me with our new '06 PT Cruiser. We traded in the Crossfire for this little beauty. I'm squinting into the sun - that's not my normal expression.

Here are photos of the apartment with the new furniture. You should have heard those young men grunting as they hauled the sofa and loveseat into the apartment. Setting up this apartment is like starting all over again. We need stuff from wall hangings to soap dishes. I have quite a list.

Left is the living room from the dining room. Right is the dining room from the living room.

This is the walk thru kitchen. You can see the front door open in the hall way.

This is our huge bedroom. We've neither one had a bedroom this big. This picture shows about 2/3's of the room. My back is almost against the window. The mirror isn't mounted yet which is why it's at an odd angle sitting on the dresser. Please note the current trash can hanging on the door knob to the bathroom.

This is our view out the balcony. Buster enjoys being out there too. He did walk thru the railing and out onto the rain guttering today. Larry got a hold of him before he slipped off. We'll be watching him a little closer from now on.

Gypsy has found a view in the spare bedroom to view the birds in the pine tree just outside the apartment. I raise the blinds every morning so she can look out. Buster can't jump that high anymore.

Though all of this moving, packing and hauling, Larry and I have been able to keep our backs reasonably healthy. In fact, last night was the first night I haven't taken a Motrin in several months.

We have cleaned out the camper. Everything is here in boxes. Tomorrow we go back to the camper and clean it. Our plan is to have it to the R.V. lot for consignment by Monday. The truck is suppose to go into a repair shop Tuesday for the dents in the top of the bed from when the 5th wheel fell on it. Larry has also purchased an '03 Chevy S-10, a repo from a local bank. So we'll still have two cars to get us around. My plan is to be job hunting by next week.

April 8: Update on the storage move

2009-04-08T21:05:00.003-05:00

It's been friggin' cold here. It got down to 21 deg. yesterday morning. Larry was into shorts today. Typical Kansas weather. I still think we should have stayed in Texas another couple of weeks before heading for Louisiana.

But we're here so we're getting stuff done.

We have hauled many boxes to the basement storage area of the apartment. We had both grandsons one day and just one the next day. Today, Larry and I hauled everything from the storage area under the trailer in several boxes and totes. We're down to just what we really need to live with. I'll try to get a photo of the apartments for the next update.

I have seen a pair of white swans on the lake and I've been told that there are 5 swans total. Apparently, they have tried to keep the babies on the island in the middle of the lake so the turtles won't eat them, but something got them out on the island. The lady I was visiting with thought maybe foxes; I suggested maybe owls or hawks. Not sure what a fox would be doing out on an island and if one would survive very long on baby swans.

Larry felt that I needed a big TV to watch the final NCAA basketball game. We now have a 40" LCD sitting on the floor of the trailer. A little over kill for this size living room but I'm sure it will be better in the apartment.

We've had one call on the trailer. We put an ad in the paper this last weekend and it will again be listed this coming weekend. As soon as we get it cleaned out, Larry will be hauling it out to Flint Hills RV for consignment. He seemed to think that a triple slide will do well.

Larry has gotten several doctor appointments out of the way. He's applied with the Goddard school bus system but our apartment is about 40 miles round trip from Goddard. He'll be looking for work closer to home but always has the bus job to fall back on. They called him about completing his paperwork so I think they want him.

There were a couple of jobs available in the paper that I was interested in but will wait until we have completed our move first.

Nothing planned for the next two days. Will probably try to clean some of the camper but I know it will be much easier when everything is out. We are taking Austin (our Grandson) to the salon Friday afternoon for a hair cut--FINALLY!! Probably won't get it as short as I want but it will be better. Maybe I can get a before and after picture. He really is pretty. AND, he's getting his braces very soon - he seems excited about that.

Probably won't have much more to say until we've moved in and screwed up our backs more and worn out our muscles. Fortunately, we do have the grandsons and maybe a son-in-law for the weekend. I'll try to take pictures of move-in day, especially since I know I won't be in any of them.

April 3: Finding a new home

2009-04-03T16:38:00.002-05:00

We haven't been just sitting around for two days. Wednesday and Thursday we drove around looking at apartments listed in an apartment guide book. Plus we were searching for duplexes or town houses that might be available. By yesterday afternoon, we had wondered north to the Amidon and 21st Street area and decided to look at the Twin Lake Apartments. These apartments have been here since I was a kid - never once thought I'd live there. But we stopped by and liked what little we saw because they were closing down. We told them we'd come back today to look at apartments.

Again, because we liked what we saw, we decided to go ahead and get furniture. We drove to Cherry Orchard - too expensive; then went to Furniture Row. They were reasonable so we purchased a bed room set (bed and dresser w/mirror), a dinning table with 4 chairs and a sofa with matching recliner. We tried to go cheap but furniture isn't cheap. Plus we know that this will be our last furniture buy. Now we need accessories like coffee table, end table, desk and a couple of lamps.

Went back to the apartment today and looked at 4 different floor plans - only one on the first level. The one we ended up applying for has a balcony and a view of the lake except maybe when the trees leaf out. There are 5 heated pools at this facility - not sure in the summer if that's a necessity but I'll be using them anyway. They also have active clubs. Again, not sure we'll get too involved but it's nice that they're there if we want to.

They will accept our cats but it's costing a $200 non-refundable deposit. Coming home to a pile of yellow puke in the middle of our carpet, I can see why it isn't refundable.

Here's the web site to these apartments:
http://www.weigandomega.com/residential.php?action=view&ID=17
You'll have to copy and paste to get it to work.

April Fool's Day

2009-04-01T10:28:00.011-05:00

We're back in Wichita, camping at Blasi Campground on the west side of town. But here's the fun we had getting here.

I took this picture just before we left Wayne's so I didn't get it on the blog on the day they had all that fun re-wiring the TV.

We decided to pull out of Texas on Friday, March 27th, and head for Oklahoma even though they were predicting some really bad weather for the day. Apparently the bad weather formed behind us as we traveled north but we did run into some good rain.

We set up at Afton Landing, a small Corp of Engineer park just west of Wagoner, OK. The next day as we were visiting with Larry's brother Dean and his wife Lethia, the snow hit. Tulsa got 6" but Wagoner only got an inch or two. By bed time it was mostly melted off. Me thinks we came north way too soon.

Dean & Lethia have two pot bellied pigs, 7 Guinna's (that are quite vocal), three Bantams, and several other assorted beautiful chickens. They also have 2 large dogs and 4 cats. The Bantam hen laid eggs and a Bantam Silkie hen sat them. When we got there she was raising one of them that Larry is holding. They are so small. The breed is BB Red.

That afternoon we went to visit Don in a care home in Muskogee. First time we've seen him up in a wheel chair and out of a hospital in a couple of years. He looked really good.

March 29th, Sunday, we again spent the day with Dean & Lethia and went to visit Don again. His wife, Kathy, was already there and we got in a good visit with everyone. The weather was so pretty that we went out to the courtyard to visit.

Monday, March 30th, we drove up to Salina, OK which is east of Pryor and visited with Jim & Judy Wilson whom we had met while wintering in Corpus Christi. On the way up, we stopped at Chouteau at the Amish bakery. Apparently tour buses stop here too. Anyway, we bought about $40 worth of goodies. We bought raisin/oatmeal, iced sugar and snicker doodle cookies, no bake cookies, banana nut bread, apple butter, beef jerky, gummy bears and two dry mixes for corn noodle chowder soup and bacon cheddar soup. I'm sure this is all stuff we needed. Could have bought more - like maybe several different cheeses but we weren't going to be close to refrigeration for awhile so we passed on that.

They have a beautiful home with a view of Lake Hudson. We enjoyed sitting on their deck. Judy BBQ'd some chicken along with several great side dishes and some left over smoked brisket and smoked ribs. We had a great meal and visit.

A severe storm was rolling thru Oklahoma that night so we headed back around 9:00 pm (also, the campground closes and locks the gate at 10:00). We got home just in time to sit thru the storm. No hail, just rain and wind. Larry wanted to camp under trees for protection, but after we got parked we realized that the trees are still dormant with no leaves. Not much protection but possibly there was some wind break. I think the storm was pretty mild as it passed over. It was a little more intense south of us toward McAlister. Me thinks we came north way too soon.

We pulled into camp and were setting up when Trina came by to visit. She'd been further west of town at the gun range practicing for gun qualifications. We then went out to eat and she actually paid for our dinner. What a surprise that was.

After dinner, we drove to Rebecca's and she was cooking dinner. They're all doing well and Nathen (14) was even filling out a job application. I told Austin (12) that he needed a hair cut - that he looked like a really pretty girl. He said "Well at least I'm pretty!" I told him that was not a goal he needed to be striving for.

Larry got up this morning and went over to the camp ground's laundry and washed a jeans load because after 1 1/2 years of this, we both only have one pair of jeans that we can get into and they were dirty. Actually, Larry has had to purchase another cheap pair that is a size larger than he started out in. He has now left to visit the dealerships about how to do consignments for our trailer.

Late this afternoon, we went apartment/home looking. That was depressing. What we can afford looks like an apartment. What we liked was a little expensive for our situation right now. We really think we'd like a duplex or town house. Only one neighbor and a little yard to play with.

Tonight I did our taxes. That was also depressing. Merrill Lynch was unable to deduct taxes when we were first taking money out of our accounts to put into a cash account to live on. So we owe money again this year. Hopefully next year will be better.

I'll try to keep the blog going for awhile because we have lots of friends and some family that are way out there - from the state of Washington to Prince Edward Island and south thru Oklahoma and into Texas - who will want to know how we're holding up. We will try to stop the eating out so much, however, the cruisers have already let us know that they're going to a local Mexican restaurant Saturday. Some things will never change. We do plan on joining the local Y to get more exercise and, who knows, maybe loose some weight so we can get back into our clothes.

March 16: Lake O' The Pines & Cypress Springs Lake

2009-03-26T13:07:00.006-05:00

Our day in Longview was a day of running around. We did laundry, tried to do banking but they don't have a Bank of America, got the head light replaced in the Crossfire, ate at Cheddars and this took almost all day. Our campsite was really pretty as have been all the Corps of Engineer campgrounds.

We're now at Wayne and Sharol's although Sharol is in Wichita right now. It's been really rainy here but I hear the weather in Wichita is expected to be worse. Doing laundry here at Wayne's and eating leftovers - both his and ours. The sprinkler running in the yard is actually the septic system running out clean water - pretty cheap lawn watering system.

This was how Larry and Wayne spent the afternoon. Hooking up a new DVD/VHS box to the old system - but making it new by eliminating the old DVD box and another box which was the VHS. The hardest part was keeping track of which of the half dozen remotes actually did the work required to make the TV and satelite work. It was really quite funny at one point. They had the TV turned up loud and both of them yelling to be heard over it. I sat back and was laughing behind my hand wishing Sharol was here to witness all this. I finally took the controls from Wayne's hand and turned it down. Amazing!!! Sharol - the picture is much better - you'll like it. They're still in there yelling Video 1 and Video 2 at each other. I think it'll be OK, Sharol - I think. What could go wrong!

We'll leave in the morning for Oklahoma - hope the weather cooperates. Sharol called to let us know that Wichita is expecting 6" of snow tonight or tomorrow. Hope it doesn't move thru Oklahoma and that it's all cleared up by the time we get to Wichita.

March 22: Days of Rest

2009-03-22T17:42:00.006-05:00

Yesterday and today, we hung around camp. Watched several NCAA basketball games and drove into town for a Subway sandwich.

Because of the area we're in, the KU game was not going to be shown and we had stayed here another day just so we could watch KU play (plus the Lady Vols will be playing tonight also). So I got out the computer and found CBS Sports on-line and watched the KU game thru that medium. The auxiliary fan conked out so Larry had to re-wire it -- the switch was broken. Then I was able to watch basketball on the computer again.

After the KU game, we went for a short walk on a 4-wheel trail that runs around the three ponds we're camped by. Didn't want you all to think that Larry and I just tear off across the country looking for trails that take us into the back woods. Check out this photo and you'll see how far away from civilization we were today.

Tomorrow we're leaving for Lake O' The Pines just north of Longview, TX. The next time you hear from me will probably be Tuesday when we go into town for prescriptions and do some banking. Probably have to latch onto some motels wi-fi again. At this point in time (and that's always subject to change) we will probably be back in Wichita by March 31st or April 1st. We probably will start out camping at Lake Afton and see what happens with getting the trailer sold.

March 20: Cane River Plantation Trail

2009-03-20T16:54:00.012-05:00

Cane River National Heritage Area in northwestern Louisiana is a largely rural, agricultural landscape known for its historic plantations, its distinctive Creole architecture, and its multi-cultural legacy. Historically this region lay at the intersection of French and Spanish realms in the New World. Today it is home to a unique blend of cultures, including French, Spanish, African, American Indian, and Creole (straight from www.caneriverheritage.org if you want more information). It was truly a unique drive. There were thousands of acres of land that grow cotton, pecan orchards, cattle pastures, corn soybeans and grain sorghum. But cotton was and still is King.

Oaklawn Plantation was constructed in the 1830's and sits at the end of the third longest oak lane in Louisiana. It is privately owned so there was no getting out and walking about.

Magnolia Plantation House was the one plantation we were going to tour - however, it was closed today. I did take a photo of the wild Wisteria growing up into the tree beside the house. This plantation is the largest in the area. It didn't look that large; maybe the size was based on all the out building still sitting around the property. The home does have 27 rooms and a Catholic Chapel.

St. Augustine Catholic Church and Cemetery was founded in 1803. It is the first Roman Catholic church established by and for people of color in the U.S. This is the third church built on this site.

We ended up at Melrose Plantation. This home was established by a family of free people of color around the time of the Louisiana Purchase. This became an artist colony in the 20th century.

This bedroom was a guest room and the lopsided chair was specially built for a lady guest that was slightly deformed. When she sat in the chair, she could sit straight up. There was a rolling pin bed in this house too but I didn't take a photo.

This out building had 14" walls and a 12' wide eve. This was to keep the sun from shining on the walls. It was about 20 deg. cooler inside and stays about that ratio all summer long. The posts that support the corners were only added right before Katrina and Rita came ashore. Normally the eve is held up with 3 beams radiating out from each corner of the building. It is thought that it was used as a store house.

Clementine Hunter was a field hand and later a cook for this plantation. As artists started coming for extended visits, she decided she could paint from the oils they left behind. She began to record the people, life, and scenes of Cane River in her bright primitive style and soon attracted the attention of a number of collectors. Clementine’s national recognition was evidenced by exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the New Orleans Museum of Art before her death in 1988 at age 101.

Her colorful murals surround the second story of the above African House. This painting was in one corner of that room. It was of wash day - always Monday. She wasn't too impressed with men and always showed them lazing around. You can see one in the door way and one on the banks of the Cane River fishing. Clementine pictured herself painting in the upper right hand side. You can see the women washing, rinsing, ironing, sweeping and bring a tray of drinks probably to the guy in the doorway. Her painting of women picking cotton leaves out men. She felt that the women picked the cotton clean while the men were just in a hurry to get it done and over and left too much still on the plants. She also didn't like the son of Melrose who inherited the home when his daddy pass away. Nor did she like preachers. In her paintings, she would show preachers and the son as being about the size of small children in relation to everyone else in the picture. As far as I could tell, she mostly didn't like men. She was married 3 times. Not sure what happened to them.

All of these plantations were owned by Creoles who had earned their way free and eventually became slave owners themselves. At one time, 18,000 acres were owned by 10 families--all brothers and sisters. Only 16,000 acres are currently in the hands of their descendants.

On a sadder note, when we returned to our camper, Virginia Hayes called to let us know that her husband and our good friend, Kenny, had passed away. He was riding his Harley and apparently had a heart attack. They are in Apache Junction, AZ and she now has her kids and several friends with her to help get the rig and Kenny back to Wichita. Kenny took us fishing on Texoma and showed us how to catch lots of strippers. We loved sitting around the campfire in the evening with Virginia and Kenny and all of their friends while we were at Texoma.

We met Kenny and Virginia at Lake Afton when Larry turned too sharp under too low of a tree. We jammed the a/c unit into a tree and the jet ski trailer jack knifed into the rear bumper of the trailer. Kenny came out of his camper (probably because of all the noise), put a jack under the jet ski hitch and made me stand back while it all came apart. Then they both guided me out from under the tree - this was all in the dark of night. This was the same time frame that Larry had his back surgery and Kenny and Virginia offered to check in on him while I was at work. A year later we ran into them again at Lake Afton and showed him the Crossfire that Larry had traded the jet ski for. Kenny's words were "Ya shoulda bought a Harley." He was a great guy and we will miss him.

March 19: Downtown Natchitoches

2009-03-19T21:19:00.010-05:00

Historic downtown Natchitoches was our goal today. We stopped at the visitor's center to get our walking map and headed out. It was about a 2 mile walk but we cut it short about 1/2 mile by not going to Fort St. Jean Batiste. I have determined that Natchitoches is an Indian name so if we go to the local Indian Cultural Center, I'll inquire about how it's pronounced and a story I heard about two Indian brothers that this town was named after and the other was Nacogdoches in Texas.

The whole area was lined with hundreds of pots of tulips of every color - some double tulips too. Lots of hanging baskets of pansies. As you can see, the architecture is the same as at the French Quarter in New Orleans.

The first home I took a photo of was the Prudhomme-Rouquier House. It was about a block from the downtown area. Built about 1790, it was the largest home in town. Tours were by appointment so we didn't go inside.

This home is the famous Steel Magnolia House/Taylor House. It was the primary location of the 1989 movie Steel Magnolias. Today it is a bed and breakfast. It was about two more blocks down from the above home.

The American Cemetery was not very good for driving thru (I felt like we were 4 wheeling in the Crossfire) and there were signs posted that you couldn't park. So I just snapped a photo out the window of the dogwoods with a stone in front. The cemetery was established early in the 18th century. The oldest marker dates to the late 1700's but we didn't find it. Also, this is the cemetery where Shelby from Steel Magnolias was buried.

The Roque House was built around the time of the Louisiana Purchase. It has no nails and was built by a freedman of color. The house was lived in until 1941 and was named after that occupant, Madame Aubert Roque. It was moved here from its' original location.

Another picture of the beautiful Azaleas blooming all over in this state. They grow like wild weeds. I also am seeing Wisteria growing like wild vines--blooming out of cedar trees and pine trees.

As we told you yesterday, we did sit on a hard bench and cheer on WSU and KU. They were up against Northwestern and University of Central Oklahoma. The WSU girls got beaten once by UCO, but that was the only time I saw WSU loose a race. I don't think I saw KU win any. This is a slow sport. We waited about 20 to 30 minutes between heats. Next time I'm taking a book. In this photo, WSU men are in the lead, followed by KU and if you look closely on the left you'll see what looks like a black stick in the side - that's a UCO oar.

I included the video because it had all the KU kids yelling in the background. They'd already lost but the kids cheered them on anyway.

Tomorrow we're heading for the Cane River Road to do the plantation tour. Only three are open so that will cut down on Larry's misery.

March 18: Natchitoches, LA.

2009-03-18T19:55:00.003-05:00

Another big 1 1/2 hr. drive and we land in Natchitoches, LA. I have been pronouncing this wrong (along with many other people) for all my life. It is pronounced Nac a tish. I'm anxious to hear from my French speaking friends to get a real French pronunciation of this one. The locals seem to thinks it's a Louisiana thing - may not be the original way to say it.

Natchitoches is the odlest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase. It was established in 1714. It was originally an outpost on the Red River to trade with the Spanish in Mexico. The sucess of trading with the local Indians, prompted leaders to establish a trading post here and named it after the local Natchitoches Indians. The Cane River Lake is where the Red River once ran. Over the course of years of normal current and flooding, the Red River changed it's course and bypassed Natchitoches. Northwestern State University is located here, too.

After we got set up and established TV and Wi-Fi - YEA!!! we drove into town for lunch. Ended up at a place called the Chuck Wagon. It was a converted Wendy's and served basic American food. Larry ate fried chicken and I had a chicken fried steak. The big deal was in a closed off room there were a lot of students. Larry asked about them and we found out that the KU rowing team is down here for spring break training on the Cane River. We chatted with them (I of course informed them that I was K-State but they were OK with that) and we all went our way. We decided to drive downtown to see the area and got out to walk. Found WSU is also here. We visited with them and found that there is going to be a scrimmage tomorrow between several schools. Larry and I will wear our WSU t-shirts tomorrow and go cheer them on. Small world.

Tonight as I sit here updating three days of my blog on Wi-Fi (after days without it - I'm just really, really excited to have it back) and watching TV (yea!), I can hear frogs around the small pond behind our camper. Probably have to close up the windows tonight to block them out. We're also camped behind a truck stop so I'm hoping that won't be too noisy.

We will be seeing several more plantations. I'll try not to bore you with too many photos - Larry says once you've seen one, you've seen them all. But I enjoy the history of them - and the beautiful landscaping. The downtown area looks like the French Quarter in New Orleans and there are several restaurants to try out before that diet plan goes into effect. Larry's anxious to try real Creole/Cajun food - maybe not crawdads - but the other stuff. I'll be looking for fried shrimp or hamburger steaks - maybe another chicken fry. Meat Pie is the big food around here so I'll try one of those. And I'm sure the desserts will be unique too.

In case you didn't notice, I've updated three days, so go back and check out the other two if you started here.

March 17: Hiking

2009-03-18T19:08:00.011-05:00

We went hiking today. It's hard for Larry to get me out for a walk around the camp ground but I can't wait to go hiking. This was a 2 mile walk along a path called Eagle's Nest Trail. It followed a small part of land that juts out into the lake. We had a hand drawn map and a list of flora and fauna we'd see. However, there were no pictures so we had to guess at what we were looking at. Fortunately I knew some of it but not nearly enough. I saw a weed that had a sign that said "Do Not Touch". Looked to me like a weed that I'd yank out of my garden in a heart beat. Read my flier and determined that it was a Bull Nettle. It's needles sting when touched. It was only about 3 inches high but already looked bad. Never did figure out why they could put a sign on this weed and in two places where leaf cutter ants crossed the path but couldn't identify the trees and shrubs along the way. I determined one tree was a sassafras tree and we sampled the leaf. Tasted like sage. We both hoped it wasn't a fatal sample.

The eagle's nest had been damaged in hurricane Rita so it was no longer used. But it was a really nice hike. Found lots of stuff to take pictures of:

Well - I don't know what I took pictures of. This flower on the left smelled a little like a honeysuckle. The one on the right was very delicate. This white bell was about 1/2" long and notice the little bit of pink flower up closer to the leave.

This is the one of thousands of dog woods in bloom in the area. On the right are a couple of bigger ones and grew along side the tall pine trees.

This beautiful butterfly finally stood still long enough for me to get a picture of it. I couldn't even find the lizard in my camera until Larry got a stick and made it move. It did seem to want to stop and pose for a long time. Larry finally tried to catch it but it was way too fast for him.

This is the visitor's center. It had a view out the back of the lake that was just beautiful. It was closed today - only open on Saturday's so we didn't get in on any informative seminars.

This state park is very new but we had to jack up the wheels on the right side about 5". Our neighbor said he couldn't believe that a contractor didn't already own or wouldn't spend the $12 required to purchase a level to make level camp sites. The bottom step came to Larry's knee. We have another step that we put on the ground but it still made for a big step for me. There is also no TV, cable or wi-fi. Larry played a lot of Hearts on the computer and I got a lot of reading done. A night or two without news and computer isn't bad but that's about all I could handle. Especially with the NCAA March Madness coming up. Gotta get to TV and Wi-Fi somewhere.

I have also scanned about half of my slides I brought with me. The last group "Grimes" has as many slides as the others put together. I also have Larry's slides that he has from his previous life to scan but he has to sort them first.

Tomorrow we head for Natchitoches and a private camp ground WITH TV AND WI-FI.

March 16: Toledo Bend Lake/Alexandria, LA.

2009-03-18T17:35:00.013-05:00

We pulled into Toledo Bend about 1 1/2 hrs. after leaving Lake Charles. We're working our way north slowly. Toledo Bend opened up in 1969 and has become a huge fishing lake. There was a tournament going on while we were there.

In my younger years, I grew up in a great neighborhood probably typical of any neighborhood in the 50's. I grew up with boys - no girls my age anywhere close. I leaned to play ball - any kind of ball; I leaned to love snakes, lizards, frogs (never did get close to spiders), hide & seek and kick the can. The kids I grew up with were great. All we wanted to do was play outside (mostly some kind of game involving a ball), ride our bikes and run over to the river to play there. We dug holes (forts) in the railroad that ran behind out house and killed many an enemy playing "army" or "cowboys and Indians".

One of my good buds, Norman, lived in New Orleans. He is now moving to Treasurer Island, Florida on the coast. His home in New Orleans was flooded by Katrina but he's rebuilt it and sold it. He and his wife, Sharon, have been in Europe for 7 months but returned to New Orleans to visit Sharon's relatives. They are now on their way to Kansas to visit relatives. We met them in Alexandria LA. We ate lunch at Ryan's and had a great visit. Talked about old times and our current situations. Now we can only hope that someday, we'll get to visit them again in their new home on the east coast.

We got into Alexandria about 9:30. We had lots of time to kill so we looked up the Chrysler dealer to replace a head light on the Crossfire. The only dealer in town did not have a Crossfire trained tech so they couldn't touch it. We're driving the car only during the day until we can find an authorized dealer. Lord knows how long that will take.

To kill time, we went to the mall and ate a small lunch. Then drove to Kent Plantation House. This home is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is an authentic Creole plantation house built around 1796 prior to the Louisiana Purchase. Standing on the original land grant from the King of Spain to Pierre Baillio II, it offers a glimpse of the French, Spanish and American cultures that have influenced Louisiana. All three flags fly over the entrance. Also, Spain only gave land grants to Catholics so we know that Baillio and family were Catholic which was apparent by some of the furnishings in the house. The picture on the left is of the front court yard--looking out to the area where I took the picture on the right.

The plantation house is one of the oldest standing structures in the state of Louisiana. Together with its outbuildings, it preserves the homestead of a successful Creole family typical of a Louisiana colonial era working plantation. Alexandria was burned to the ground by those "damn Yankees" in 1864. This home and a Catholic church were the only two structures left standing. The home owner kept his family and a few slaves in the home to keep the soldiers from burning it down. Plus the home was along way from Alexandria at the time. The Catholic church was left standing because the priest stood on the front steps with a shotgun in his hands. Apparently God was on his side.

Construction of the house was completed in 1800.

The house, originally only six rooms, is typical of Louisiana colonial construction. It is raised off the ground on brick pillars to protect it from the flood waters of Bayou Rapides. All of the materials used to build the house came from the land: the clay used for the brick pillars, cypress for its sills and beams, and mud, Spanish moss and animal hair for its bousillage walls--sort of a French stucco. It was then white washed.

In 1842, Robert C. Hynson purchased the house from Baillio heirs. He had come to Louisiana from Kent County, Maryland and the house was named for that area. He added the two square wings on each side of the gallery.

This is the dining room. I took this for all you antique geeks out there. I knew you would love the buffet on the side with secret drawers and the table laid for dinner. Note the board over the table is a shoo fly fan - goes to a cord over in the corner and operated by a small black child.

This is the master bedroom. It is in the square add on on the right side of the home. The bed is a rolling pin bed. If you look close enough, you can see the rolling pin on the head board. In the morning, this was lifted off (and I'm told it's quite heavy) and rolled over the feather bed to get the sunken spots out from over night sleeping. Again, this was a slave function.

The small chair at the foot of the bed had a name but I can't remember what it was called. It was used for saying prayers and rosaries. Laid across the top of the chair were hand carved wooded rosary beads.

This is one of the out buildings. It was where the slaves did the washing and ironing chores. The object in front that looks like a small stool with a long handle on it was the agitator that was worked back and forth in the wash tub. Our guide is showing us the lye soap molds. See all the irons on the bench - they are all different weights.

Another crop besides King Cotton, was sugar cane. The cane was worked down to a syrup (another story) and boiled in this building in four different sized vats. They started with the biggest and worked their way back to the smallest. The syrup was boiled down for molasses for their own use. The rest was then boiled further and would form a crystal on the top. This was allowed to dry and was collected and became brown sugar.

More on our hike on the 16th later.

March 14: Lake Charles, LA

2009-03-13T17:21:00.024-05:00

I want to thank Quality Inn, Wingate and Candlewood Suites for allowing me to sit in their parking lot and access their Wi-Fi. However, the inconvenience of driving off in the car and not having all my backup paperwork with me is a pain.

Thursday, we drove what is called the Louisiana Outback. They tell you to take snacks, water and have the car filled up because there are no conveniences along the way. We got out at one trail and walked the 1.5 mile trail. Not too much of a hardship because it was paved. One short distance was covered by a boardwalk. We walked along Alligator Alley and only found a dead one - just enough to let us know that they actually exist in this area. The land is at sea level and is still recovering from Ike. Larry is pointing to grass that shows how high the water was in this area when the hurricane came to shore. Yes, Wayne, this is where we were when you called - who knew there would actually be a cell phone signal out in this wilderness.

On the way back around this loop, we stopped at LauBerge Casino. This picture is of the hotel area - the casino is off to the right. It's the newest one in the area and had a really good buffet. I even ate a carrot souffle that a lady told me I absolutely had to try. She said it tasted like sweet potatoes - I told her I didn't like sweet potatoes - she said TASTE IT!! So, I graciously took a small spoon full and absolutely loved it. It really tasted more like pumpkin pie. We proceeded to the casino and managed to loose about $40. What a great day.

Friday (a much colder, wetter day than we've had in months), we drove thru Lake Charles to visit all the historical area. The photo of the Azaleas was taken on the edge of this area. Since I don't have my brochures with me, I can only tell you what I can remember - and we know how well that will work. Some of these homes date back to the 1880's. These homes are in three different parts of town. The oldest neighborhood where the Masonic Lodge is located along side a Jewish
Temple (odd how those things work out); another neighborhood developed in the 1920's (I didn't get any pictures there); and the last neighborhood along Lake Charles where the really wealth y lived.

Though this area is a walking park along the lake. A 911 Memorial is also located in this park. Two local residence lost their lives at the Pentagon. There is a marble slab from the Pentagon that marks the names of these two men. The I-beams are from the World Trade Center Towers. It was a really beautiful memorial.

We're leaving here tomorrow morning and heading for the South Toledo Bend State Park. Not sure what hotel I'll have to find in that remote area but I'll find something to get in touch with all of you. Sorry if this isn't up to my normal levels but sitting in a truck for an hour with a bad back makes me want to cut this short. I'll post again when we're further north.

March 11: Sulphur, Louisiana

2009-03-11T17:28:00.011-05:00

We made it to Louisiana today. We wanted to stay a short time in this state so we could add another state to our map. We'll see Lake Charles and visit a couple of casinos (read buffet's) and then start heading north.

Meanwhile, the few days we had left in Livingston were well spent. The pollen from the pines is awesome. You can see the pollen on the car. Even the cobwebs had a hint of green to them. Clouds of pale green pollen could be seen drifting past the camper like smoke. On Monday we went geo caching in the

Escapee Park. There were two and we found one. You can see the Care Center in the background. Not great odds for us but it was a good walk.

We drove over to the state park and went for a hike. Hiked back to Duck Pond - no ducks - and Frog Pond - one frog. It was suppose to be about a mile round trip - but the map wasn't real detailed and I think we ended up walking about 1/2 mile more. There are fallen trees everywhere. Signs of Hurricane Ike are all around: in mounds of tree chips and many fresh tree stubs. The paths were cleared but I don't think I would have taken off across the woods to an adjoining path - too many trees down.

Yesterday, we went on the Welcome Tour of Escapees. We visited the mail service - the largest independent mail service in the country. Ate chicken sandwiches for lunch at the club house and donated blood at the Care Center. Bingo was last night and once again we didn't win anything.

Our new campground is just west of Lake Charles. The Wi-Fi is free for 8 hours - after that there is a fee. So my computer will be up all evening for Skype visits and to check e-mails. We'll also be checking out places to see and things to do while we're in south Louisiana. We're suppose to get rain for the next three days and I hate to complain because I know they really need it - especially Texas. I hope they get 3 days of rain - it's badly needed down here.

This part of the world (including Livingston, TX) bounds with blooming bushes and trees. The Bradford Pears are almost past the peak of their blooms and the red buds are trying to stick out to show off their color of pale violet between towering pine trees. The Azaleas are wonderful splashes of pinks and whites everywhere you look. It's like they're bursting out of the ground. The fruit trees are all blooming too. Many other bushes are blooming in beautiful shades of pinks and reds that I don't have a clue what they are. The Iris are also in full bloom. The ones we saw at the visitors center were about 4' high. I've never seen Iris that big--and they were bright sun shiny yellow. The Daffodils are fading in their blooms too.

We plan to leave here Sunday morning and drift northward. Hopefully I'll find another Wi-Fi spot so I can update all of you.

March 5: Livingston, TX - Escapee Campground

2009-03-06T15:01:00.003-06:00

The night before we left Corpus Christi, a bunch of us went to the Silverado Smokehouse for dinner. It was really, really good. Goodbyes were said the next morning and that was really, really sad. I'll miss my "Tom Hugs" but maybe Larry will pick up the slack; or my grandsons when I get home.

Gypsy didn't travel well. She was in the truck with Larry when we first started out. She hid in some corner and we had a hard time finding her when we stopped for lunch. We left her and Buster in the camper for the rest of trip - because, again, we couldn't find her. When we got ready to put out the slides, I found her beside the bed, backed into a nice little cubby hole. It was a long time before she finally came out.

We have already done one happy hour and a swiss steak dinner held at the activities center. Larry got to play pinochle Wednesday night and will again tonight. Probably next Monday too. We're thinking of leaving Tuesday. Still nothing definite yet.

The TV here is strictly local and not much available here in the piney woods. We get CBS and ABC but both are snowy. I'm getting a lot of reading done and Larry plays hearts on the computer. We're trying to walk more so maybe my back will get better. I'm usually awake by 7:30 every morning with my back and may get another hour's sleep if I'm lucky. I'm really hoping walking will help.

We washed the car, truck and front of the trailer today. I also cleaned the windows on the trailer. We really like this campground. Everyone is really friendly. Even the lady that checked us in came from around the counter and gave us both a welcome hug. They welcomed us at happy hour and when we leave, they'll all say goodbye at happy hour.

The wi-fi here is payable by the day, week or month. I paid $3 for 24 hours and have to come to the manager's office to use it. So I have until 3:00 pm tomorrow to play. Will probably get another 24hours Sunday or Monday to update the blog again. Wanted everyone to know that we're here and well. Can't use Skpe because it would anoy other people here in the same room.

We don't have any great plans for our week here. Not really a lot of historical stuff to see but will probably drive over to the lake and maybe do a couple of geo's. I'll let you all know Sunday or Monday how the week's gone.

March 1: More Updating

2009-03-01T17:49:00.019-06:00

Valentine's Day was celebrated with another pot luck dinner. This year, we added some entertainment. There were jokes told, a lady played her lap harp - really pretty to listen to, Elise and Lawrence did a Burns and Allen routine, and one couple performed a Ukraine Barn Dance. It was really pretty charming and I'm sure Larry and I could demonstrate it to any of you who might wish to see it. The foot work was intricate but we're reasonably light on our feet. The highlight of the evening, in my opinion, was the Kitchen Band. I played the Kazoo and Larry played the triangle ( pie pan, hanging on a string and tapped with stick).

Then Tuesday came and Elise and Guy had to leave. They were headed for Florida to attend Daytona's Bike Week. I've been in contact with them since and they're doing well. It's cool in Florida too--they've been running the furnace.

Thursday, Feb. 19th, we drove over to Goliad, Tx to visit a beautiful old town and learn some more of Texas history. Goliad is one of the oldest municipalities in Texas. Settled in 1749 by the Spanish, they occupied this town until 1821 when Mexico won its independence from Spain. We did some antique shopping here and looked thru several boutiques (I bought a new pair of earrings).

A fort and mission just south of town, the Presidio La Bahia was part of the Goliad settlement. The first offensive action of the Texas Revolution occurred here in 1835 when Local colonists captured the fort and the town. The largest single loss of life in the cause of Texas independence happened here at this fort. Over 300 men were marched out to the walls in three groups and were shot. The Goliad Massacre inspired the rousing battle-cry, "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" Somehow the last part has gotten dropped thru the years of history. For more information about the NINE flags over Texas, go to: http://www.presidiolabahia.org/under_nine_flags.htm

Between 1846 and 1870, the Hanging Tree (now in the courtyard of Goliad) served as the site of court sessions. Death sentences were carried out immediately with a rope and a strong limb. We were really hoping to see a noose hanging from the tree for effect, but none was seen.

The local RV dealership, CCRV, had an open house, so we all caravaned down for free hot dogs and door prizes. Walked thru several 5th wheels and a couple of motor homes. None of us were interested in purchasing at this time but it's always fun to look.

Once again, we gathered up a group and went geo caching. Looked for 7 and found 6 - not bad odds for the day. Ended up at Whataburger for dinner.

Please note that every group has to have a supervisor (or someone that's too old and too fat to climb the ditch between flat land and woods - I prefer the term supervisor).

February 25th we went to see Gran Torino and eat dinner at Golden Coral. Great movie if any of you need a recommendation.

This past Friday, we said good bye to Jim and Judy from Salina, OK - just east of Pryor. They were heading up to Canton, TX for First Monday. I'm sure we'll get to see them again - Oklahoma's not that far from Kansas.

Tomorrow we leave for Livingston, TX. There is an Escapee campground there (we stayed there last year on the way down here). We'll be there a week or two and then meander over to Louisiana. Check out that country for a couple of weeks and then head back to Texas to visit Wayne and Sharol. Then progress north to see Dean and Don (Don is back in a care home and out of the hospital).

We'll be saying goodbye to everyone right after coffee and donuts. That will be hard but we all knew this would happen at the end of the winter. All over Texas, Arizona and Florida, folks are saying goodbye to friends who have become like family. The good thing is that most of them will see each other again next winter. Since we're giving up this life style, we'll have to go to Canada to see most of the friends we've met here. We're hoping that will happen and that maybe they'll come thru Kansas on their way to and from south Texas.

I've given up my Sprint data card because the wi-fi here was excellent. I didn't see any point in paying for it for the 4 months we'd be here. Heading out for the boonies again, I'm not sure what my status will be for on-line communications. I may have to go sit in a hotel parking lot to download e-mails and update my blog.

So for now, that's it from south Texas--hope to update from Livingston and Louisiana. We'll be seeing most of you in April.

Feb. 26: Back In The Saddle Again

2009-02-26T17:11:00.015-06:00

After almost 3 1/2 weeks and about $400 later, I now have a computer with a fan accessory attached to the bottom. We sent it in to Best Buy because the left fan was out (right one worked great) and was slow coming up. The service center in Louisville, KY sent it back with neither fan working. They did say that the left side USB ports heated up and we had a heat sinc problem - duh. FANS DIDN'T WORK - HELLO!!! Now with the attachment (purchased from another computer store) the lap top runs cool - yeah!!! Now for a few updates. I did keep notes and will try not to bore you with too many details. I will use this as my diary so that's why I try to keep up on what we're doing. Years from now when I look back on this I'll be able to see what we did and how much we ate and ate.

January 27th, we were visited by my cousin Connie and her husband, Dave. They were on their way to the valley to meet up with a group of 10 more happy campers and would then lead them on to the southern tip of Mexico. They'll be gone 2 months. Here they are in front of the Big Tree.

On January 31st, us girls all decided to do a group breakfast in the rec hall. Each of us did something different. Claire and I cooked pancakes. It was great and good food was eaten by all.

Larry called Bingo that night. He didn't get razed too badly and he really did quite well. (Notice he's wearing his glasses.)

Larry and I took a group out Geo Caching. Pete and Judy from Minnesota and Rick and Mary from Topeka, Kansas. I think we converted some more folks into this fun game.

The Super Bowl Party was Feb. 1st and we were pretty well divided on who we rooted for. We all brought finger foods just in case we were to get hungry which I'm starting to think is pretty hard to do in this group. Of course the 3D at half time was enjoyed by some of us who had the special glasses. (They didn't really appreciate my flash going off.)

We had a dine out at Texas Road House for supper and then lunched at Super Salad and Jason's Deli on other days. Went to On The Border with a couple from Iowa, Ed and Caroline. They are "work kampers" and much loved by all here in the park.

We had movie night with a DVD of John Pennita a comedian that was extremely funny. I'm not sure, but I think Larry dozed off during the showing even with all of us laughing.

We were back to swimming by Feb. 9th and hope to keep it up until we leave Tuesday, March 3rd.

I started physical therapy on Feb. 11 for my back. They have me doing about 30 minutes worth of exercises on the floor, 3 times a day, every day. So far, not much improvement. I'll keep up the exercises, but will scale back to twice a day, every day until the end of March when they said I could go to once a day, 3 times a week. Something to look forward to. My best guess at this point in time is that I'll have to have an MRI when I get back to Wichita to see what's really happening.

Several of us attended a Pink Hockey Game on Feb. 13th for breast cancer awareness. It was really cool to see the pink ice. The players from Corpus wore pink jerseys and had pink sticks (which they auctioned off). They brought in a pink limo with 3 cancer survivors and we saw their stories during one of the period breaks. They raised $35,000 that night.

More to follow: A Valentine's Party and a field trip to Goliad (and more dine outs).

Feb. 4: computer in for repairs

2009-02-01T21:27:00.002-06:00

UPDATE: Computer has been sent into Louisville, KY to have the fan replaced. They predict 2 weeks just for that repair. Then Best Buys Geek Squad will have it for a period of time to clean it up. Hopefully under 3 weeks before I can update the blog without going to a borrowed computer like I'm doing now. I'm keeping a personal written log and still taking pictures. Hope you all hear from me soon.

Jan. 25: Geo Caching Class

2009-01-25T14:46:00.011-06:00

Another typical week of working and eating and playing cards.

Thursday night, one of the ladies, Janice, brought her quilt blocks up to the club house. The embroidery part was done at home before they left. She's been doing the piece work since they got here - at least a month ago. She laid them out according to the picture she was working from. It really is beautiful. We're all anxious to see the finished product. She said she thought it would be a couple of days before she had something together enough to photograph.

One of the men who lives in the park, made this really neat picnic table. He designed it, built it and painted it. He's trying to market it to Home Depot or Lowes. Also is going to make a pink ribbon one for the local cancer society to raffle off.

We did have a designated game night Friday night and a couple of folks showed up who don't normally. We played Mexican Train with the newbies and another guy learned to play Queen of Spades.

Yesterday, I taught another Geo Caching class. Larry and I had hid three simple geo's in the RV park and located 3 great headstones over in the cemetery. After some basic instructions, we divided up and headed out to find the ones in the park. All were found and they all got good at playing with their GPS.

It was a little chilly that day (60's) so some elected to hunt in the cemetery on a warmer day. The rest of us headed out as a group to the cemetery but when we got there we broke out into three groups again. One was our last name, one was the relatives of this Hatch RV Park and one was a Pvt. that was killed on Okinawa during the war. They found them all so I think they're ready to hit the real world of Geo Caching. The couple with Larry on the left, Mary and Rick (from Topeka) didn't know our last name, so even when Larry placed the GPS on top of the headstone, they didn't have a clue. I had titled the GPS "Name of a good friend".

The whole team: me, Mary, Rick, Elise, Judy, Pete, Larry and Claire.

Larry and I will probably get up a group to go out after my job ends this next Friday. Larry and I have decided for me to give up working for our last two months of retirement. When we go back to Wichita to work full time will be soon enough to be getting up early and working 40 hours a week - yuk.

Last night was movie night and we saw a DVD of Jeff Dunham and his "friends". He's a ventriloquist and his friends are Walter, Peanut and Jose Jalapeno on a Stick. Quite a funny evening. If you want to find some free videos, Google "Walter the dummy" and see what you come up with. Achmed the Terrorist is pretty funny too.

Larry helping Claire and Lawrence get down some more delicious grapefruits.

Tonight the park got together a group and we all headed to Fudruckers. Great burgers and malts.

Tomorrow, my cousin, Connie, and her husband, Dave, will be here for a couple of days. We're excited to have relatives coming to see us. It means more exploring the area and more great food to eat not to mention getting caught up on all their news. They are on their way to the Valley to lead a caravan on into Mexico.

Finally, just for those of you who think it's always great here in Corpus, here's a photo that was taken in 2004 (I think) of a snow that lasted about 20 minutes before it was all gone.

Jan. 20: Anniversary & My Mom, The Gambler

2009-01-19T15:45:00.010-06:00

34 Years Later.....

We were told that the Canadians get together each year for a quiet dinner; we were invited and felt honored to be included. We brought baked beans (Bush's) which I doctored up. Hamburgers were the main meal - my favorite - and the men BBQ them (except Larry who was in the kitchen with the women folk). We laid out our plates and all the food dishes on the table in the kitchen, took the picture and filled our plates.

Just as we were about to chow down, Elise came behind Larry and me and told us this was a party to celebrate our anniversary. We all had small glasses of white wine and all raised our glasses in a "congratulations" toast. For dessert, we had Oreo blizzard ice cream cake. Do these folks know me or not.

It sure is nice to come into this RV park, so far away from home, with friends from last year who are so special to Larry and me.

As many of you know, my mother (who will be 81 in February) loves to play the machines at the local casino. She calls it "contributing to the Indian children". Around Christmas, she was sitting at a machine and heard her name called out. She was asked to pull a bag out of a box. Well, all those years of playing the machines paid off. She won a 2009 red Mustang with stick shift. In deference to her age, they gave her a white automatic. She thinks it's nice so she's keeping it. I'm sure her and Mac will look real sharp pulling up to the senior center for the afternoon dances.

Tuesday, we inaugurated a new president. We have lots of expectations for this one lone man and it's really to all of our benefit if he does well. I didn't vote for him, but I'm sure going to cheer him on. I was at work and was thinking "I can tell my grandchildren I was around when this great part of our American history happened". However, now my grandchildren are around too. I'm thinking the point here is they can tell their grandchildren where they were when President Obama was administered the oath of office - sorta.

Jan. 18: Our Anniversary

2009-01-18T15:29:00.015-06:00

Our week was pretty uneventful. With me working, there's not much time to go play.

However, Larry did go with several people from the park to a small local community, San Patricio. It was named after Saint Patrick of Ireland and settled by 200 Irish families in 1829. Their only obstacle was drought and Indians. The Mexican government welcomed them because they wanted the area colonized in the hopes of holding onto Texas (first town in Texas to hang a woman). Fast forward and the railroad bypassed San Patricio, the county seat, buy went thru Sinton, which became the new county seat (Mr. Sinton had lots of money). It was pretty much a ghost town until 1971 when it was revitalized and many of the homes in the area were restored.

Now, St. Patrick's day in San Patricio has turned into a multi-festival day with the Rattle Snake Races in the spotlight - which we hope to attend in March. AND, for $20 I hope to be in the race. But with a couple thousand other people hoping for the same thing (well, maybe not all of them), I might be in a long line. I'm thinking this sound like lots of fun and hope that Larry will be really fast with the camera.

They toured the small museum and.....

the courthouse with a jail which apparently some of our folks ended up in - but it doesn't really surprise me--these older people tend to be kind of rowdy when they're out and about.

The photos are all from Tom Offer and Guy Cote (both Canadians soaking up our American history) - thanks men for allowing me to use your pix for my blog.

The group ended up eating at the "Butter Churn" buffet in Sinton which they all said was great (but most of us know how much Larry loves buffets). I'm anticipating a return to San Patricio with much of the same group just for the dinner. The beautiful painted mural was on the outside wall of the restaurant.

For our anniversary, we skipped the pot luck dinner here at the park and went to Texas Roadhouse and then a movie, Mall Cop. We got to the movie an hour early, so we walked the parking lot for about 20 minutes trying to digest that big dinner. The longest line at the theater was to "My Bloody Valentine" and found out that it was in 3D - still didn't sound like my kind of movie.

Today we defrosted the refrigerator and in general, cleaned house.

Elise took this video when Henry & Anna were here. This is a typical happy hour--except we don't usually have this many Kansan's. This year there are 3 couples of us Kansan's here for at least a month. Last year, Larry and I were an oddity - most people come from further north. We also have a couple from Oklahoma this year.

I want to get this posted so there will be a special edition this week on our surprise anniversary party last night. Also, my computer is acting up and I may have to take it in to see what the problem is.

Jan. 11: A Week With Good Friends

2009-01-10T21:39:00.022-06:00

My new job with Susser (same company I worked for last week - different department) is checking up on the 160+ new Town and Country convenient stores that Susser purchased. We're making sure they are posting all of their invoices. We get the invoices and compare them to a list of invoices posted for that day. Any discrepancies go to accounting; all daily postings that are OK, go to the scanning team. Not the most challenging job I've had but it'll pass the time until another one comes along. This one is suppose to last about a month.

Our good friends from Wichita, Henry and Anna, were here all week. They kept themselves busy with local attractions during the day and we spent the evenings with them. We went to Niko's Steakhouse the first night; Place To Be the second night; KFC Wednesday night and I fixed a vegetable soup Thursday night.

I took off Friday because that is a light day for the mail and we all went sight seeing. We headed for Port Aransas. Crossed on the ferry, did some sourvenir shopping and ate lunch at Moby Dick's Restraurant. Then drove on south to Padre Island National Park. Did some beach combing and found shells, jelly fish, and other interesting things. Larry got in the water but none of the rest of us were interested in getting into 62 deg. water.

The ferry ride.

Henry taking a picture of Anna.

Larry enjoying the "warm" water of the gulf.

They told us that you could find really unique items washed up on the Padre Island shores.

Anna, beach combing.

That evening we ate at Kiko's. A local Mexican restaurant that has been around for many years.

Saturday, we headed north again but went to the Rockport/Fulton area to Goose Island. We spacifically went there to see "The Big Tree". This tree is thought to be one of the largest in the nation (not sure where the red woods of California fall in this estimation). It is estimated to be over 1000 years old and has a circumference of 35 feet. At 44 feet in height, it's branches streach out about 90 feet. It was pretty impressive.

We also found a vine hanging from a tree. Larry didn't know whether to try smoking it as he did in his youth of swing from it. Needless to say, at his current age, he did neither.

Located close to this tree was another one that we could actually get close to. Notice the nice people helping to hold up the branches. They won't be there 1000 years from now. Guess that's when the steel posts come in handy.

For lunch we ate at a Whataburger and had Dairy Queen for afternoon treat.

The Fulton Mansion was completed in 1877. The house featured ornate trim work and furnishings and the latest technological conveniences including modern plumbing, central heating and a gas lighting system. The house was lived in by the family until 1895. In the early 1980's it was restored and opened for visitors. We didn't take the inside tour but I'm sure it would have been very interesting.

The view of Aransas Bay from the front porch.

Of course, you get two old geo cachers together and there will be geo caching. I had pulled four down off the computer for the day but only found two. The two we found were big enough to have goodies in them--which are the kind we like. They were located at historical markers and gave a short history of the area or the person the area was named after. Anna found the one on the right. Used a stick to pull it out so we could access it. The men were deeper in the woods bushwacking because that's where the GPS took them.

The other two were a micro (size of a magnetic key holder) and a nano (size of a bullet). We didn't find them but they led us to a beautiful memorial along the coast and a great place to see birds. The other black ones I haven't identified yet but I think they must be some kind of heron.

Of course, Larry brought bread to feed the gulls.

Notice the Roseate Spoonbills.

For supper, we met at our home and had a great hot dog meal.

Sunday was a kick back day. Henry and Anna rested in their hotel while Larry and I ran some errands.

We all met up again for supper at Jason's Deli tonight - already trying to light. Back to work tomorrow and a week of eating lighter. Might even get in a walk or two.

Jan. 4: A New Year

2009-01-03T20:25:00.003-06:00

My new job that started last Monday, is with the Stripes organization. They are a convenient store associated with several service stations - mostly Valero. There's a little more to the company but that's the basics. I learned to work the computers, taking service calls and dispatching those calls to techs. A whole new process for me. The reason I was learning this (and folks from Berry Tractor will appreciate this) the current dispatchers were going to continue training all week on a new system. So I had to learn the obsolete system and by tomorrow it will no longer be used. But, by tomorrow I will be working in the accounting department of the same company. They have a month long job there so I'll be occupied for quite a while. This company has free fountain drinks, fresh ground coffee and a full kitchen with tables and a ping pong table. There's also an exercise room and a "romper" room for children of the workers to stay. They seem to be a real employee oriented company.

Our New Year was celebrated at the club house with about 40 or 45 people - just finger foods this time. The Texans down here like to celebrate the new year with guns. One of our friends was going to go outside to look at the fireworks display when a semi-automatic machine gun BAR or some such weapon went off and he made an immediate about turn, slammed the door shut and sat back down at the card table. We all decided we were better off inside than return to our campers. Larry stayed to play more cards but I headed for home. I walked all the way back (less than a block) with a plate on my head to protect me from falling bullets. The celebration went on late into the next morning. In fact, they were still celebrating last night but at least they're down to fireworks now. Guess they ran out of bullets or shells or whatever they were shooting.

This is the group watching the TV as the ball in New York City drops down.

Of course, the men had to all go swimming on New Year's day. Us girls just sat around and watched. One of our men, Laurence, newly arrived from Canada, wasn't quite up to getting in just yet. They've all been swimming every day since then too. Temps have been the the upper 60's, middle 70's this week. The water temperature is still too cold for me.(appx 75 deg)

Last night was another pot luck dinner so we were full again. Larry stayed and played cards afterwards but I came back to the camper to watch the Indianapolis Colts get beat.

Today, Larry and I went bike riding over on the sea wall sidewalk again. There was a sea fog in the area and it was much cooler than here in the RV park. This picture is of the Corpus Christi downtown skyline in the fog. We rode about 5 miles. After we were thru riding, we sat along the sea wall and drank our Pepsi and Gatorade and watched the pelicans diving into the bay for fish. Either it was real entertaining - or it just doesn't take much to thrill us anymore.

Our good friends, Henry and Anna, will be here tomorrow so we'll have lots of visiting to catch up on and more site seeing. They'll be here a week and then head to San Antonio for another week and then back home. This is their first step to becoming RVr's by next year.

Dec. 28: Christmas in a hot climate

2008-12-26T16:58:00.016-06:00

Monday I finally went to a local clinic to have my shoulder and foot checked over. My ankle is sprained and my shoulder is bruised. Nothing I didn't already know but glad to know there was nothing more. I also got my flu shot while I was there.
The men(?) decided to go swimming Christmas day just to say they did. Here are photos of them getting in (the air was about 75 deg and the water was the same or cooler) and posing for photos. I directed the video and I think they did reasonably well. The two guys on the left end are Guy and Joe and they're saying Merry Christmas in French. Tom, on the right, threw out Feliz Navidad. The guy by Larry is who we call "White Guy" is Richard and he's from Topeka.

Natalie was the lone woman to get in. She is married to Joe and they are both French Canadians. She speaks some English and is always smiling. And then as you can see, the event photographers were plum tuckered so we sat in the shade where it was cooler.

Christmas day we attended the dinner in the club house. The park provided two spiral cut hams and we all brought in the rest. I took Taco Bean Soup. As you can see, there was lots of food and about 50 people in attendance. I had a new dish. It's meat pie - not mince meat pie - just meat pie. It was hamburger browned and then cooked between two layers of pie crust. Then you pour maple syrup over it. Really quite tasty. It's a French Canadian Christmas traditional food. Others said their meat pies were with chicken and pork hunks cooked between the crust.

Caroline cutting the ham in the kitchen.

Friday, Larry and I did laundry. Got back to camp long enough to unload and head out with the group to go play pool. The tables are free - we have to buy drinks but that's sure not a problem.

My first game was sad - I couldn't even hit the ball. By the last game (2 hours later) I managed one simple combo. Larry had Elise as his partner and they did quite well. Tom and I ended up winning the last game so I felt like we were the champions. Guy and Rita did well too. Rita and I had the same problem - actually hitting the ball.

Here's Guy showing Rita where to hit the ball.

Tom making his Minnesota Fats hit on the ball.

And because we needed sustenance, we ended up at D.Q. The boys wanted to go to Hooters but we felt (us girls), at our age, we should spread out the excitement.

Went to Hooters Saturday afternoon. Made the boys happy. This was after we'd gone to Harbor Freight - apparently they were having some kind of a big sale. I spent about $8 (for Bingo prizes) and Tom and Rita spent about $4 - so we got out pretty cheap.

I finally went swimming after we returned from Hooters. Corpus broke their record high that day and it was 90 deg. I felt that was good enough to go swimming, just didn't expect the water to be so cold. Didn't linger long in the water - mostly sun bathed.

I have another assignment to work Monday & Tuesday mornings at the local Valero offices. Just answering the phone while their people are in training.

Dec. 21: Hard surfaces meet soft skin

2008-12-21T15:19:00.017-06:00

This week has been busy. The company I worked for in Alice called and wanted me again for one more week. So I had to get out of bed again and drive almost a hour each way for 4 more days of work. We think we're done over there but we'll see.

Larry spent the week trying to find a card shuffler, getting a hair cut, swimming and playing cards in the club house. Our friends here in the park are really good about hauling him around with them to keep him entertained.

On the down side, Wednesday as I was coming down our stairs from the bedroom to the kitchen, I fell. I have a really bad sprain of my left ankle and my left shoulder has something wrong with it but not sure what. I pretty much landed on that shoulder and right now I can't lift my whole arm forward. I can more it backwards and up about half way to my side. After working with my arm last night, I can now raise it up in front of me without too much grimacing.

Then Thursday, Larry fell over a parking block and skinned up his knee really bad and tore up the palm of his right hand. It also has a really bad bruise - going down his wrist. But we applied polysporin and dressings so it's dried up really well. Needless to say, everyone in the park is picking on Larry (everyone else is showing me the respect that I obviously deserve by not mentioning my injuries or klutziness too much). They want to help him walk. They yell at him to walk slowly. They ask if he should have his glasses on. They offer to help him up and down curbs or pot holes. In general, they are really having a good time with him.

We both are moving more carefully and slowly, because as you know, after a fall you find more sore places. Fortunately, I don't think falling down screwed up either of our backs further.

We went to the hockey game Friday night and I got a picture of Elise and me with the Sting Ray's mascot, Rascal. However, the one Larry took has us frowning at him because he was having a hard time working my camera. The picture here is the one Tom took of us finally laughing at Larry. Tom also took a picture of me taking a picture of all of them.

Here's one of me taking a picture of all of us who came to the game from the park; and my picture of the group.

When ever the Sting Rays make a goal, a small group of fans throw baby sting rays out onto the ice. Still haven't decided if that's really cool or really gross. We did win so we saw the little boogers twice and once again at the end of the game.

This poinsettia tree is right next door to us - you can see our camper in the background. It is the largest poinsettia I have ever seen. It's a little spindly this year but still impressive.

We have 3 different ants around our camper that Larry goes out and tries to keep contained with chemicals. One of them is this leaf cutter. They are the larger of the three and I probably don't have to worry about them getting in the camper. They will, however, kill a tree if given the opportunity. Of the other two smaller ants, one is a fire ant so we try to stay on top of them and keep the crumbs and sugar cleaned off the counters.

The cats "seem" to be getting along better. Today they chased each other back and forth never coming very close. When they got too close, Gypsy would hiss and swat at Buster. He held his ground this time and chased her. They went back and forth for quite a while until I think they pooped each other out. Maybe there is hope yet that they'll start liking each other.

Tonight we went on a tour of the city to see the lights. An area of the city is know as Candy Cane Lane. It's a whole block of these large candy canes as shown in the picture with lots of neighboring block homes being decorated. I couldn't get the lane of canes because there were too many cars coming at me.

However, I took these three along Ocean Drive. This street has lots of big beautiful homes. I wanted to get some palm trees decorated since being from Kansas I can associate palm trees with the Christmas season. I also got some Mesquite trees in the circle drive way and a large Live Oak with red lights--all trees of Texas.

Dec. 14: Trip home to Wichita

2008-12-14T20:38:00.017-06:00

The trip home was much more dramatic than the trip back to Corpus. North of Oklahoma City we ran into snow and ice. Slowing down to 50 MPH, we finally arrived at Rebecca's home around 9:00 pm. That day, we went from 74 deg. in Corpus to 21 deg. in Wichita. Right now (Sunday 8:40pm) it is 13 deg in Wichita and 73 deg. here. It only took us 12 hours to get back to Corpus vs. the 15 hours it took us to get home.

It was a busy time for those 4 days we had there. Rebecca was constantly studying for tests and finals. Trina had us out to her academy Wednesday evening for a family session on stress management. The class covered officer suicide. I call it the elephant in the room - everyone knows it's there, but no one wants to talk about it. Wichita now has a special team to help with this problem.

The next day we went back to the academy and had a BBQ with everyone. After that lunch, I met a couple of the girls from my work and we had another lunch. Then that night, we met a couple of friends from the cruiser club and had supper. It was Larry's birthday so he got the sombrero treatment along with being sung to.

Friday was Trina's graduation at 10:00. Larry's brother from Waggoner, OK, Dean, and his wife, Lethia, drove up for the ceremony. My brother, Gene, and his wife, Cindy, drove in from Newton. Rebecca took the day off and the boys were out of school for the day. Willie is not working at this time so he made it too and was able to get Nathen back to school for 1/2 day (required for trying out for the bowling team). Her family was well represented. That grin on Trina's face is because after about a dozen of the graduates crossed the line with no applause or cheering, her Uncle Dean decided she should be the first, and all of us, of course, all joined in. The chief, as he presented her a diploma, said "Must be your personal cheering team." Trina's first day is Tuesday. She's been assigned the east side and will be on 3rd shift. She also knows that she will be working both Christmas eve and Christmas day eve. Trina does not like her hat (they call it a bus driver hat) and her bun in the back made it sit a little high on her. The middle picture is of Trina and Justin. He graduated from the academy also but will be going into the Sherriff's Department. He was previously in law enforcement at Reno County and Olathe, KS., so he has some experience going into his new job with Sedgwick County.

The graduation was held at Friends University - established in 1898 (previously Garfield University from 1887 to 1898 off and on) probably the oldest university in Wichita if not the whole south central area. It is a beautiful old building (most of the campus has been modernized) and I was only in it as a young girl doing a piano recital on the first floor. I've never been in the upper part of the building and heard many others saying the same thing. The stained glass window was at the back of the auditorium.

Around noon we all went to Old Chicago for lunch and then to Trina's apartment for cookie cake and ice cream. On the way home, we stopped at a bowling alley to watch Nathen try out for the Goddard Bowling Team. Won't know until tomorrow if he made it or not - grades may pose a problem for him - but his scores were great. Here's a picture of him bowling with his orange Tigger bowling ball.

Saturday, Rebecca, between taking finals on line and studying for more, cooked and served dinner (Trina made the gravy). We also played games. Hopefully, here studying paid off and her finals are all OK.

This dinner was our Christmas since we'll be here in Corpus Christi at that time. Trina and boyfriend, Justin, came over for dinner (and to play Guitar Hero - and who wouldn't want to). We had gotten each of the boys a very small radio controlled helicopter called a Mosquito. Kinda cute and they can be played with in doors.

I have discovered a new game - Guitar Hero. Boy is that a fun game. I spent most of the weekend playing bass and the lead occasionally. The last hour, before we had to go to bed to get ready to leave in the morning, I discovered the drums. Obviously, I am a frustrated drummer. Was probably a drummer in a former life. That was soooo much fun. Unfortunately, the drums are a borrowed instrument for the boys, but there is always next Christmas. Photos and video will show my enthusiasm. The song, in case you don't recognize it, is "Living On A Prayer" - one of the few on the game that I actually knew. The hand sticking up at the left is Willie on bass - Nathen is on lead, but let's face it - it's all about the drummer.

Dec. 7: Corpus Christi

2008-12-07T17:57:00.004-06:00

Been listening to the neighbor - all day - tune up his ATV - with all the backfiring and thinking life on the lake was much quieter. But I know he'll shut it down by dark.

Not much of an active week for us. I worked 5 days last week so that was an adjustment. My job is complete tomorrow. I'll work 4 hours in the afternoon and that will be the end. Larry ate out with the group from the park. They went to Landry's Seafood House for lunch. Landry's is located on an actual boat so it went up and down with the high tides they had during Ike. He brought me home a three layered chocolate cake. It was so rich, it took me three days to get thru all of it. (Photos complements of Tom Offer of P.E.I.)

Tuesday we leave for Wichita because Trina graduates from the police academy Friday, the 12th. We'll be heading back to Corpus Saturday or Sunday depending on if I have another assignment by Monday. Looking forward to seeing family and friends even though we'll only be there a few short days.

We've started meeting at a couple of camp sites around 4:00 in the afternoon and hang out for a couple of hours having drinks and swapping lies. It's jacket weather down here (60's during the day) although some are still in shorts and short sleeve shirts or tank tops. Still playing cards each evening around 7:00. Did bingo last night.

Not much to report. Just wanted to let you all know we're still alive and well in beautiful Corpus Christi. Next Sunday I'll have photos of family from Trina's graduation.

Nov. 30: Thanksgiving Week

2008-11-30T11:57:00.010-06:00

I worked three days this last week and the company I work for was nice enough to pay me for the holiday. A nice little surprise. I'll be on my own for two days next week so we'll see if I can keep myself busy. Ashley has a hard time doing her own work and finding things for me to do too.

Larry and I went swimming on Thanksgiving day and the day after. It's been a little cooler here since a cold front came thru late Friday night. Temps have been down in the 60's - too cold for me to go swimming. Larry went several times last week and today with some of the Canadians - temp. is 67. Another front is coming thru tonight and it should get clear down into the 40's overnight and 50's during the daytime.

Thanksgiving dinner was great. The owners fried two turkeys and provided a spiral cut ham. Larry got the honor of carving the turkey. He got to work with only the dark meat (the owners had already pulled the breast off and cut it up). Later, it was all put into aluminum pans and reheated in the oven. Everyone brought great side dishes. We had the mandatory green bean casserole, several dressings, mashed potatoes and gravy, candied sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce jello mold, couple of salads, rolls and turkey & ham. I brought the pumpkin dessert that I like to make - the recipe from P.T. Cruiser friends. The serving table is the air hockey game table. You can see the arch that goes over the top that keeps the score and time. They have special made plywood pieces to fit over the table and then we lay down sheets and a table cloth. Makes a good buffet surface.

There were lots of leftovers that we all got together the next night and ate again. Stuffed two nights in a row.

A couple more Canadians have moved in yesterday and I understand that the park will be full by January. Six of us (4 Canadians and us) went to the local hockey game last night - the Corpus Christi Ice Rays. About 4 of the 5 starters are from Canada. We played the Mississippi Riverkings. We girls all came away with free T-shirts so we'll be properly attired by the next game. They do play the Wichita Thunder occasionally - just not this year. I didn't take pictures at the hockey game because one hockey arena looks like another. However, I will take the camera next time because the mascot is really unique.

Almost every night, we meet our friends, Elise & Guy (pronounced Gee with a hard G) Cote (pronounced Kotae) and play Farkle and Queen of Spades. They're from the Quebec area. The other couple that came in yesterday, Tom & Rita, are from Prince Edward Island - more frequently referred to as PEI (home of Anne of Green Gables written by a distant cousin of Tom's). Rita said Texans seem to know about both Prince Edward Island or PEI as the Canadian locals call it. She said in Florida they kept asking what part of Rhode Island were they from? There have been other Canadians in the park but most move on to the valley after a day or two or a week at the most. By the end of January we'll be full of Canadians - which is good. Makes for different conversations on politics, food and traditions. It seems that our health discussions are about the same everywhere.

Nov. 23: Working around Working

2008-11-23T20:09:00.016-06:00

This week has been a new experience for Larry and me. He's been left home alone and I've gone off to work - neither of us is used to that. Larry has gone swimming, attended the ice cream social and went to the dine out at a seafood place in Rockport where they dump the boiled shrimp, in the shell with the head, out on the table on wax paper. He did put in an application at the O'reillyAuto Parts store to drive a delivery truck but they haven't called back either.

My job in Alice (named after the King Ranch owner's daughter) is about 90 miles round trip. I work for National Oilwell Vargo which does sales, service and parts of oil rig equipment. I've been doing scanning, data input, and filing. So far it seems to be very interesting. Monday I get to learn a new copier already. Their old one was two years old. I'm replacing a lady who had a breast cancer tumor removed with full reconstructive surgery. Larry has not been called for any further assignments. We did complete a job application on-line today for Pet Smart. He thought maybe he could be a stocker.

We got the idea because we were in Pet Smart buying new kitty toys for our new cat and saw a sign that said they were hiring. The cat is a 2 1/2 year old calico that I named Gypsy. We bought Soft Claws for her nails but may eventually get them removed. So far her and Buster haven't seemed to hit it off. They hiss and growl at each other every time they get within eye sight.

Friday we went to the local roller derby - Hurricane Alley Roller Derby. We watched the Broads on Quads and the Black Eyed Bruisers - I think. They have a web sight: www.hurricanalleyrd.com. We sat on the front row. The front row gets giant fly swatters and when a girl gets an infraction, she skates by the front row and everyone gives them a swat. Then they either rejoin the pack or go sit in the penalty box. The fights that broke out were not very genuine. But it was loads of fun. My personal favorite was Side Show Sally. She's over 6' tall and quite hefty. When she blocked - you were blocked; when she was the one who skated thru the pack to make points - you got out of her way. This is a picture of her with her trophy of the year for best blocker skating past the fly swatter row.

Here's a short video of the fun that we had. The "arena" is just a small cord taped down to outline the track and the whole thing takes place in an old store located in an old strip mall. The area is about the size of a Goodwill Store.

Last Monday, we took the bikes up to Ocean Drive and rode along the coast. It was a beautiful day but probably didn't get much exercise because we just cruised. Went out on all three piers that are located here and rode around on them. One of the piers holds Joe's Crab Shack and Landry's Seafood Restaurant. The other has a boat ramp and a place to buy fresh fish. Took this picture of the USS Lexington and a shrimp boat that as coming in. Notice how calm the water is - no wind. We'd never been to the coast when the water was this calm. Totally different than when we were there last weekend.

Tonight we watched the Canadian Football Leagues super bowl - the Grey Cup. One of the Canadians here has Canadian satelite. They ran a cable from her camper to the club house and hooked it up to the TV in there. Some of us were rooting for the Montreal Alouettes; some for the Calgary Stampeders. There were 9 of us watching and Larry and I were the only Americans. Half of us were for the Aluettes and the other half for the Stampeders - made for a loud evening. We all brought snacks so we didn't starve. The Stampeders won. Canadian Football rules are different from ours: 3 downs, 110 yard field, 30 ft end zone, 10' wider field and 12 men. There were other odd rules but those were the most obvious - especially that end zone.

We've also been playing Farkle and Queen of Spades every night this week with our French Canadian friends who arrived last Sunday. Tomorrow it's back to work but it's a short week and Larry's going to do laundry. He's also going to apply at Auto Zone to see if they need drivers. Also going to go to another employment agency to see if they can keep him busy. He's done the dishes for me two nights but doesn't like messing with dinner. We ate out twice and I cooked something quick one night. He's going to BBQ tomorrow night.

Nov. 17: A beautiful week in C.C.

2008-11-17T10:18:00.006-06:00

The wi-fi was down last night so I didn't get to put in my weekly blog until this morning. Good thing to do while I'm waiting 30 minutes for my thyroid pill to digest.

Our temperatures here have been in the lower 80's all week. A cold front came thru and now the day temp's are in the 60's. People are rushing to local retail stores to buy warmer clothes. Larry and I are still in t-shirts - Larry's still in shorts , I'm in jeans. Suppose to be in the 70's all this week with Thursday being around 81.

We both went into a local temp agency Tuesday and completed the paperwork and tests required. Larry got an assignment Wednesday morning to unload a truck. He and a couple other guys showed up but the truck didn't. He got paid two hours to do nothing. Today he's going to go to O'Reilly auto parts store by us to apply for a delivery job.

This morning I got a call to work 3 weeks for an oil company in Alice (about 50 miles west of here). I took it and it starts Wednesday. I'll have to get up at 6 am (that's in the morning--AAAGGGHHH), eat breakfast and drive west by 8:00. That will be an adjustment. I'll let you know how all that goes in next week's blog.

Saturday was a pot luck dinner at the club house. Not a lot of people but lots of really good food. I took a spaghetti casserole.

Yesterday we took the bikes over to Ocean Dr. to ride the sidewalk along the shore. Larry had to pump up my tire before we left and it was flat again by the time we got there. So we walked for 20 minutes and then sat and watched the kids in the skateboard park (and BMX bikes that weren't suppose to be there). Got up and walked some more.

Because it was my birthday, we went to Niko's Steak House. I had the Margarita Chicken (image that) which was wonderful. Larry had the usual prime rib. We both split a dessert of 1001 choc. chip 3 layer choc. cake. I'm not sure there were that many choc. chips in the icing but we definitely got our share of chocolate. Came with a scoop of ice cream too.

Then instead of exercising like we should have, we vegged out and watched Dallas finally win a game.

Since we're not doing too much new and exciting, I'll probably just wait until Sunday nights to update the blog. If something major happens between Sundays, I'll let you all know.

Nov. 9:

2008-11-08T20:51:00.008-06:00

Thursday we spent some time with mineral spirits and rags cleaning off all the caulking around the trailer. The factory must have set it outside in a dust storm before the caulking dried. It's been dirty since we took delivery on it. While at the factory this past September, they told us how to clean it up so it's all pretty much back to white again.

Then we drove to the beach to see if we could detect any hurricane damage. Since both hurricanes split around Corpus Christi, there was none that we could see. Apparently a couple of the piers were lost due to some wind and mostly high tides but we didn't get that far north to see anything.

These pictures and sounds are from Mustang Island. We hadn't been there when the waves were that loud and the wind that high. It was a noisy afternoon.

Friday was a beautiful night for football. The temperature was in the 70's and palm trees were gently blowing in the wind. The local refinery was glowing just across the interstate like a small city. We both took sweatshirts (Larry in shorts)and walked across the street to attend the district 26 5A playoff. A team from south of San Antonio, Converse Judson, played Corpus Christi's best, Carroll. When we left in the third quarter, the San Antonio team was up by about 30 points. There was soooo much to see that I didn't get to see some of the game. We sat on the visitor's side because their ticket line was smaller. The home fans and visitors are divided by a chain link fence which begs the question "Why?". The home team had their band and what looked like the New York Radio City Rockettes cheering squad. They had pom poms and they all moved in sync with the band. The visitors brought a semi loaded with their band equipment. When half of the lights went out for about 30 minutes in the 2nd quarter, it sounded like a real battle of the bands. They finally figured out that they could play one at a time and actually be understood.

Saturday we drove west about 12 miles to attend a ham fest. While there, we attended a lecture on switching from analog to digital TV (I read NOAA fliers); and another one presented by the National Weather Service on hurricanes.

Came back from the ham fest and went swimming. The temperature was about 74 degrees and the pool was about 80ish. Not too bad as long as you stayed out of the slight breeze that came around every now and then. Larry even got in the hot tub. I didn't want to get heated up to 100 degrees and then step out into 70 degree air. I just sat in the sun and dried off.

I have also noticed that the locust are still in full voice down here. I even saw a locust shell today. And the ants are everywhere. We put down stuff around the tires and front jacks and sprayed the electrical cord and water hose to try to keep them out, but there are lots of them to fight. There was a whole trail of the larger leaf cutter ants but after I swept them off the patio, they haven't come back. There are smaller black and red ants and some of these are fire ants. We definitely want to keep them outside.

Today we watched football (can't get KC down here but always get Houston and Dallas) and took a couple of walks. Tuesday we'll be going to one or two employment agencies to see if thay can get us some temporary work while we're here.

Nov. 4: Election Day in Corpus Christi

2008-11-04T20:09:00.007-06:00

I am so tired of all of this election stuff that we tried to run errands today and did laundry tonight. But here I am, back at the trailer, and Larry has CNN on. I make him watch Fox part of the time so he can see the bias on both networks. Kinda fun to sit back and watch them but I'm ready for this to be over.

Our camp site is along the west side of Hatch RV Park. We have shade trees and grass with a cement patio. The campers that come in for a week or two stay out in the middle of the campground with no trees. However, they get to put their campers on cement and have to set up their patios on the grass.

I have my own private grapefruit tree right in my back yard. Although I have been told that I have to share with the whole park. But it will be pretty cool to just walk out and pick my tree ripened fruit. Also, I think I have a Christmas cactus growing on the other side of the grapefruit tree. I'll get a local to verify that. It's getting ready to bloom out. Also, the mobile home next to us is owned by a retired pastor and his wife. She has a Poinsettia plant that is as tall as the end of her trailer. I should get a good picture of that this year.

Temperatures here have been running in the 80's during the day and down into the upper 50's at night. We're back to running the A/C day and night.

There are lots of workers in this park until the end of November. The local refinery is being rebuilt so it can produce low sulfur diesel. According to one guy Larry talked to, Valero is the only refinery producing diesel for most of the midwest area.

There is one couple that is slated to arrive any day, one middle of this month, one the end of December and another the middle of January. They were all here last year with us and we're really looking forward to catching up on all the news. All but the couple that will be getting here in January are from Canada.

This tree is one of those gorgeous oak trees that grow down here. They spread out short and squatty--like the Founders' Oak. This is the type that will grown a branch 20+ feet out before starting to grow up. I took this at our last camp ground in New Braunfels. These trees are everywhere. Now I know why Fredericksburg gave the oak tree pollen count all day long - it was always extremely high. They put out an acorn about the size and shape of a 9mm bullet. We are currently camped under one of these trees here at the RV park. I swept quit a few of those acorns off the patio when we set up yesterday. Don't know if they're edible or not - I'll have to find out.

Guess now I'll just sit back and see if I can stay up late enough to see who will be my next Commander-In-Chief. And as all the candidates say "God bless America".

Nov. 1: Wurstfest

2008-11-02T10:31:00.020-06:00

Ya know, I love Myron Floren as much as the next guy, but after roughly 8 hours, I'd had all the German music I needed in one day (and if you don't know who Myron Floren is, ya all are not the accordion lovers I thought you to be). But I did have a great time and really enjoyed taking the short videos knowing that you all could share this fun music with Larry and me.

We took the River Road from Canyon Lake to New Braunfels. This lake crosses the Guadalupe River 5 times and follows the river most of the way. It was absolutely beautiful. We met the bicycle ride that was part of Wurstfest. About 1000 riders were registered and I think they all showed up. Fortunately, they were coming at us and we weren't behind them trying to get around. I got out on a bridge to take the picture on the right that I thought was showing some fall colors and Larry was saying I should check out the other side. When I turned around I saw lots of fall colors. We seem to be following the back side of the season. Not many trees turning colors yet around here.

We got to the park early (Wurstfest didn't open until 11:00am) so we went on a train ride that circumvents the park. Found out the squirrels have been conditioned to get food from the train. They came a runnin'. Even begged--as I captured in one photo.

The train also went by the Founders Oak. This beautiful tree was huge and fenced in so I'm assuming it's important. I could not find one piece of information on this tree on-line so I'm assuming it's a tree from olden days when the area was "founded". I should write for Wikipedia. These particular oak trees have a very strange growing pattern. They just send out branches where ever, some even along the ground. One home had steel cylinders up under the branches to support them for about 30 to 40 feet before the branch finally shot up into the air again. We've seen these supports under trees before but not for this long of a stretch.

Inside the gates to Wurstfest, the first thing I did, before the lines got long, was buy my beer tickets. You can only buy beer with tickets--$4 for one cup of beer. No place on the inside took credit cards, so about half way thru the day of feeding Larry, we made a trip to the on-site ATM. Photos attached of feeding Larry. Wurstfest is all about the sausage and he did them proud--even ate some sauerkraut. He had 5 sausages on a stick, a sausage & kraut bun and a sausage on a stick with a dinner roll. We shared the fried potatoes. I had potato soup, German Choc. Cake, pig in a blanket and German Choc. Pie. And, of course, one beer. My obligatory alcoholic beverage for the day.

There were 12 groups performing and some of them performed 3 times during the day. From 11:00 to midnight, you could listen to 24 performances. I've captured 3 of them here: The first group is the TubeMeisters. The second band is the Sauerkrauts. And the last guy was Kerry Christensen, Master Yodeler. He was extremely entertaining - even Larry enjoyed him.

There were bands and orchestras. The bands were in the "little tent" and the "big tent" depending on the size of your band. Both tents were always full. The orchestras were in Wursthalle. This is a very tall, long building that housed bars, picnic tables, a large dance floor and the orchestra. There is another 1/3 of the building behind me in this photo. People danced everywhere. At both tents where they could make room and especially in Wursthalle - the dance floor was filled. Let me tell you, there were people there older than me - much older - that I could not have kept up with. Probably why they've managed to achieve their age.

I now know why the Germans can drink so much beer. Not only do they dance A LOT, but it's an aerobic workout just sitting there. They have sing along songs, drinking songs (you have to learn in German) and move-your-body songs. You sway left and right, forward and backward and then stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down. And then you dance some more. One audience participation song was "Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonalds - kinda like YMCA. Enough activity to keep you sober.

The groups did try to branch out and play stuff other than polkas. I heard Ghost Riders in the Sky in German by the master yodeler (that will send tinkles up your spine). And I heard a remake of Alabama's "Ya Gotta Have a Fiddle In The Band". The words to this one went "If you're gonna play in Deutschland, ya gotta have a tube in the band. That bass guitar is hot but not in a German umpah band." It wasn't just all polkas, marches and waltzes. Cow bells were popular too.

The arts and crafts fair wasn't very big but if I needed to get my German outfit (there were many, many people there attending in their traditional German leather shorts, suspenders and hats), I could have done so there. Did buy a small package of choc. pecan toffee. Really, really good. These Texans really know how to make good food with their pecans.

Oct. 31: Gruene & Geo'ing

2008-10-31T17:36:00.007-05:00

Wednesday, we went into Gruene (pronounced Green by the locals). "When German immigrant farmer Ernest Gruene and his wife, Antoinette, and their sons reached the newly established city of New Braunfels in 1845, they found prime acreage already scarce. They crossed the Guedalupe and opted to acquire nearby river frontage. Thus was the Community of Gruene established", from Prosit the New Braunfels magazine.

Cotton was the cash crop of the area for many years. A boll weavel outbreak ruined the cotton crop some time in the 1930's and the town because mostly deserted. In 1974, a revitalization of the area helped Gruene into one of the most popular and visible tourist attraction in Texas. The Gruene Historic District was placed on the National Register for Historic Places in 1975 and the District itself and many of Gruene's buildings have Texas historical markers.

This is just one of several bed & breakfasts in Gruene. The white building at the end of the street is Gruene Hall. It has never closed even in bad times. The oldest continuously opened saloon in Texas.

Great place for antiques but I don't have room for any. I found a pecan place and bought some hot pecans and some candied jalapenos. Then we went to the general store and bought some pecan honey butter and a package of chili fixin's.

We ate at the Gristmill which is a rebuild cotton gin from the 1870's that was originally in the area before it burnt down. This great place is located under the water town in the above photo.

We watched this pair of deer, off and on, for many hours Thursday. All of the deer here are pretty fearless - we walk withing 10 feet of them many times. They're weary but not jumping to get out of our way. However, this buck "protected" this little doe all day. When she laid down, he stood close for a long time--ever watchful. He would eventually lay down too. When she moved, he moved. He made advances several times but she'd have nothing to do with him. He was always on the look out for predators--none of which I have seen in the almost two weeks we've been here. Finally, after many hours of this frustration, he turned and chased her clear out of our viewing area. Don't know what happened but I think he may have paid for dinner and didn't get rewarded well.

Today, we took a couple camped across the road from us geo caching. They really enjoyed it and plan on getting involved themselves. Also going to share with their son who is retiring himself soon.

Tomorrow is Wurstfest - be prepared for that great music that I'll get on video for all of you.

Oct. 26: Canyon Lake, TX

2008-10-26T11:57:00.010-05:00

Even though we're out in the open, this is a really pretty camp ground. We do a walk of a mile in the morning and about 1/3 of mile in the afternoon. On good days, we're doing another mile walk in the evening. These walks always take us to areas where there are deer. We have seen so many deer on every walk, that we were disappointed to just see two yesterday morning. This morning we didn't see any but there are lots of people in the camp now. This afternoon when we walked up to the gate house to pay for another week, we saw two. Tonight around the campfire, a small herd moved around us in the dark - we could see only their silhouettes - about half a dozen of them.

I took these two pictures of the deer from right at our camp site.

We've had a campfire the last couple of nights and had a beautiful sunset two nights ago. Our days here have been in the lower 80's and the nights in the 50's.

Friday afternoon I carved a pumpkin but it will be dried out by Halloween and I'll probably have to do another one. And that picture of me really lends credence to the theory that a camera will add 10 lbs to you. Good Lord!!! Larry took that and we've had a chat about making me look good from now on. He said something about being able to only do so much.

And this lovely creature, a Turkey Vulture, showed up because our neighboring campers left and threw out some garbage for the local wildlife to eat. This one took full advantage of the treasure and was all by himself for about 30 minutes, then his buddies shows up--about 5 more of them. They are much more beautiful soaring the skies.

Yesterday I managed to get both the KU and K-State games on satelite. I use the term "games" loosely. KU and K-State showed up. I'm anxious for the Texas and Texas Tech game next Saturday even though that's the day we're going to be at the Wurstfest - I'll be checking the scores on my cell phone.

I've been uploading these larger icons for your viewing ease, however they really screw up my editing of the print-matching-the-picture ability. So I'll be going back to the smaller versions.

Oct. 22: Canyon Lake

2008-10-22T20:23:00.004-05:00

As you can see from the picture, this campground is out in the middle of nothing. There were some camp sites up in the trees but we chose to be closer to water. During the summer this probably wouldn't be a very good site but with the cooler temperatures it will work out OK. Canyon Lake is west of San Marcos and 25 miles northwest of New Braunfels.

We drove into New Braunfels yesterday for dinner. We ate at Oma's Haus for some more good German food and equally good German chocolate cake.

Today we just hung out around camp. Had a bike ride this morning and may have over taxed my back. We went on a walk this evening, after the front came thru and dropped the temperature from around 82 to 74 degrees. As we walked up into the tree covered area, we found ourselves surrounded by deer. About two dozen - does and bucks. They're all very small - Larry says he wouldn't waste a tag on any of them. They seem to be only a little skittish around campers and one camper is even feeding them.

Buster likes to find a place in the sun and nap.

There won't be a whole lot of things to see and do here but there is a historical district in Gruene which is part of New Braunfels. There is a restored German village consisting of 14 structures that have been furnished to the era of 1849 - 1881 and, more importantly for Larry, several unique eating places in this same district.

The biggest reason we're here, other than to see the area, is from Oct. 31 to Nov. 9th is the Wurstfest. We'll be here for the first weekend. This includes an accordion jam session, polkas, yodeling, a group called the Seven Dutchmen Orchestra, Oma & the Ooompahs, Ed Kadlecek & the Fun Bunch and the Sauerkrauts. Too many other bands and orchestras to list. There is the Knights of Columbus Arts & Craft Show and the Wurst Craft Show & Sale in Texas--two things I'm looking forward to - Larry, not so much. He is pretty excited about getting to see Kerry Christensen, Master Yodeler. I'll be sure to get some video so we can share with all of you. There's also a melodrama, "Raiders of the Lost Wurst" that we'd like to get to. I have to call for reservations. I'll take lots of pictures and try not to drink too much beer.

My back is still a problem but I can at least sleep at night. The doctor gave me some really good pain pills that I tried to take as prescribed; however, I got nauseated and dizzy. So I put up with some discomfort during the day and take it only at bed time.

We'll be leaving here Nov. 2nd for Corpus Christie for the winter. I'll try to get some physical therapy there for my back.

Oct. 19: Cypress Springs Lake, TX

2008-10-19T20:40:00.007-05:00

We've been here at Cypress Springs Lake for 3 nights. Wayne and Sharol's home is on this lake and it is truely a beautiful area. The winds have been great and the lake has been calm. The days have been cool
and sunny. Both of the guys washed
their cars and then today put together one of the outdoor entry lights and remounted it. It was quite a process.

As always, Sharol is cooking in the kitchen making really good things for supper.

We had our advanced voting ballots forwarded to Wayne's PO Box in Mt. Vernon. Larry's voting ballot arrived yesterday but mine hasn't yet. We're waiting until tomorrow or Tuesday to see if it comes by then. We have to be out of this campground because there's a big camping club rally here starting Wednesday and they will be here thru next weekend.

We do plan on being gone by then and will be heading for New Braunfells, TX northeast of San Antonio.

Oct. 14: Much more striper fishing

2008-10-14T18:12:00.009-05:00

Well, I made up for not getting any fish two days ago. You can see from the picture that our catch today was much better. We now have 4 to 5 meals in the freezer. We were fishing before a weather front came in and in a light fog from about 8 am to 11 am. The big one was 21 1/2". Your total catch can be 10 fish but only 2 of them can be over 21". In case a game warden is looking at this, one of those fish in front of me belongs to someone else. Larry finally landed 3 today but he was a late bloomer. We'd fished for about 2 hours before he finally caught any. We threw back half dozen.

I found out that stiper fishing consists of looking for the birds working the water where the shad are breaking the surface and running for their lives. It's almost like we come to their rescue by catching those big fish that are chasing them and running off the birds. There were enough fish caught that I got a cleaning lesson and jumped right in. It was a really fun day.

Good Day for Lynn!!!

Larry....Not so much!!!

Last night we drove over to Kenny & Virginia's camp ground and I brought all the stuff for cooking Tonka Pies or some people call them fried pies. We cooked apple and cherry and cut them in half to serve all 14 of us. The out of focus picture shows most of the group--a few of the ladies got cut off and three of us were doing the cooking.

Tonight we're doing our own campfire if it doesn't rain and just hanging out at camp. Tomorrow it's suppose to be raining so we'll probably do laundry and later watch the debate.

Oct. 11: Striper Fishing

2008-10-11T17:53:00.010-05:00

We're set up at Buncombe Creek Camp Ground on Lake Texoma in Oklahoma. Our goal is to do some Striper fishing. We've driven over to our friends campground on the other side of the lake for the past two nights for some good conversation and a great campfire. Had Samores the first night and I'm taking over stuff to make campfire pies tomorrow night. Our campground has a curfew: 8:00 pm Sunday thru Thursday and 10:00 pm Friday and Saturday. The gate is locked and if you're going to be out later we have to make "arrangements" - not sure what that entails but we've been trying to be back in plenty of time.

Last night, from around the campfire, we all wondered out from under the trees to see the Space Station sailing from north to south across the western sky. We were fascinated - doesn't take much to entertain us.

Today we got a call at 7:30 from Kenny that the winds were low and we could go fishing. Kenny Hayes, our friend we met at Lake Afton last year, came to our courtesy dock that's located right by our camp ground and picked us up in his Skeeter fishing boat. By land, their camp ground is about 20 minutes away - it's 2 minutes by water. His wife, Virginia, stayed behind to make some food dishes to take to a pot luck dinner they're going to tonight. We headed for the flats along with bunches of other weekend fishermen.

Larry caught two Stripers and one white bass. Lynn caught nadda.

The water temp is around 72 deg which is still too warm for really good Striper fishing. No one around us was catching any thing of size - some were catching more but still under 20". Kenny acted like a true guide. We used his equipment and he netted and took off Larry's fish for him. Repaired our lures when we got hung up on stuff - EVEN CLEANED OUR FISH. We really appreciated all that he did for us. The dock at their campground has an awesome cleaning station and Virginia met us at the dock with a bag to put our cleaned fish in and some seasoned flour she uses when they fry fish.

I cooked that fish for tonight's dinner - OMG that was great eating. There really is something to eating fresh fish. Larry was so proud that he put dinner on the table - quite the hunter/gatherer.

The weather is not suppose to be too great for several days so don't know if we'll get in any more fishing from the boat. Kenny gave us a couple of lures to use if we wanted to fish from the bank. May try that tomorrow. Can't watch football - the only network we get is NBC. And none of tomorrow's games will be on satelite. Might as well fish.

Oct. 8: Ft. Gibson Lake

2008-10-08T21:17:00.007-05:00

We're at Taylor Ferry campground on Ft. Gibson Lake just east of Wagoner, OK. This is our spot - my back is to the water. We had a very photographic fog this morning so I went down to the water to see what I could do with it. The geese looked almost like ghost ships cruising by.

We came here to visit Larry's two brothers, Don & Dean. Normally, Don is in a care home in Muskogee just south of Wagoner. However, about 3 this morning, he was moved to a hospital in Tulsa. Don has a hard time getting his dialysis because he can't sit for very long - it becomes too painful. So he convinced the home staff that he could skip Tuesday's dialysis, therefore ending up in the hospital. We went to visit him this afternoon but he was pretty wiped out because that's what dialysis does to him. I'm not sure he even knew we were there.

This evening we ate with Larry's other brother Dean and his wife Lethia (left), along with Don's wife, Kathy (middle). We had a great visit and good food - BBQ. In the morning we leave for Texoma to do some striper fishing.

Oct. 5: Fall Festival & Challenges

2008-10-05T19:26:00.017-05:00

Our weekends are always full of activities. The Goddard Fall Festival had beautiful weather (except for the wind) for a parade. The marching bands were out in full colors and the Shriners were well represented too. Our PT Cruiser Club was present and I have photos of a couple. The video is from Larry's high school North High and this is one of their fighting songs.

From the parade we descended on a member's local warehouse for hot dogs and hamburgers. Always good food found with this particular member and his wife.

He also drove the convertible with the Grand Marshall in the parade.

Did I mention the wind. If any of you remember, I've sorta complained about the total lack of wind in the last several states we've been in. WELL, Kansas has made up for it - just like I knew it would. Note the flags in this picture. Also, notice that there are no flowers present. Larry and I quickly placed them on the north side of the camper to shelter them from the gusty winds up to 30 to 35 MPH. They were looking pretty sad.

Today, Rebecca participated in the city's Corporate Challenge put on by Wichita Greater Sports organization. Her and her partner, Henry Torrente, played doubles. While they didn't fare well, they looked really good. They're also hoping their company (Learjet/Bombardier) will win the T=Shirt contest.

After the tennis competition, we all left to go eat at Red Robin. The "Balloon Man" made Austin an eye hat. Every little boy's dream. Photo taken on son-in-law's phone camera.

And for our last challenge of the day, Trina help me get my computer so it will download my checking accounts into Quicken. She held this expression thru most of the time. She will be going thru evasion driving skills for the next two days. It's another of those pass-this-test-or-fail-the-whole-academy type of events. They have to drive the whole course in under 3 minutes.

Then we drove down to Derby to eat with a girlfriend and her husband. Diane and I graduated from high school together and have kept in touch. Another great Mexican meal. That made about 4 Mexican meals in a week's time.

Tomorrow is another full day but more about that later.

Sept. 28: Lake Afton - week 2

2008-09-28T19:55:00.010-05:00

After two weeks (almost) at Lake Afton, we have moved to the other side of the lake. We're now closer to the RC Airplane area. Gives Larry something to watch during down times. We've had another week of follow up doctor appointments and more gatherings with friends and family based on food. And, more to come.

This weekend the kids all came out and we had a small BBQ. The boys (and grandpa) got to get in a last-of-the-season swim. Today we went to Tanganyika Wildlife Park (www.tanganyikawildlife.org). Rebecca's department at her work had a family day at the park complete with BBQ. Pretty interesting place. The boys fed Lorikeets and lemurs. I put the camera down on the ground and got a cool picture of this tortoise. I took several and they came right at me - must have thought I was going to feed them. The Gibbons made the most noise. We heard one of

them when we pulled into the parking lot. Rebecca, whose home is just behind the park, says you can hear them at her house too. I've attached a short video because a long one would be very annoying.

Trina ran in the Race for the Cure Saturday and volunteered to help at a car show at Wichita State University today. Apparently you have to volunteer a lot while in the police academy. In two weeks she will be doing evacive driving at Hutchinson.

Larry has one more sleep clinic - he didn't pass because he only got 1 1/2 hours of sleep and Medicare requires 2 hours of sleep study. So he'll get another night of being wired - this time with the help of a sleeping pill.

My x-rays on my back showed arthritis, slipping discs and scoliosis - nothing that Tylenol arthritis strength a couple times a day won't cure. Also spending time on the ice pack and then hot pad. They want me to do physical therapy but they can't get me in until the week after we leave so that won't happen. Maybe I can do something this winter when we'll be at one place for a longer period of time.

This next week will be devoted to catching up with friends and relatives that we haven't gotten with yet--once again around food.

2008-09-21T20:33:00.008-05:00

I finally figured out how to upload my video. You click on the "video" icon instead of the "picture" icon. Duh - mental head slap - duh. Now you've missed out on the blues from Memphis and the Bluegrass from Kentucky but by golly I managed to save the ride that Larry rode at Silver Dollar City. Be sure to turn the volume up. That's Nathen with the white hat on backwards watching.

This past week has just been a whirl wind of getting a few errands ran and doctor appointments completed. Larry did a sleep clinic that he'll get the results on Tuesday. We're hoping he slept enough for them to have some results and he doesn't have to go thru this again.

Plus, my sciatic nerve has flared up this past couple of weeks so my lower back has been killing me - especially in the mornings. I have a follow up with the doctor Wednesday to see what the x-rays show. I think it's getting better but not fast enough.

Took Trina to lunch yesterday and had Rebeccca and family out this evening to roast hot dogs. Trina was studying all weekend for a test Monday; and Rebecca and Willie are doing homework all weekend for their classes. Quite the studying group.

Saturday night we met with all of our cruiser friends. That night's meeting was a Spangle's at Broadway and Kellogg. Inner city location with lots of interesting people passing by. Thankfully no drive by shootings. We took up the wheel chair spot between all of our cars and sat outside and visited. In the first picture you'll see our little Crossfire trying to be inconspicuous between all the big cruisers.

The next two weeks will be spent getting together with other friends and relatives for more food. Wow it's great to be back home - like we never got to eat while we were away.

Our plans have changed for October. We originally we going to go to Montgomery, TX to a KOA camp near Lake Conroe for a Hitchhiker Rally - about 30 miles north of Houston. However, it was canceled because power companies from across the country are staying there. Now, we'll be heading for NE Okla to visit Dean and Don; then to Lake Texoma for some striper fishing; then to NE Texas to visit Wayne & Sharol; then to New Braunfells, TX for a couple of weeks. Finally on to Corpus Christi where we'll spend the winter. We'll be chris crossing Oklahoma and Texas like we're trying to dodge a bullet.

Oh, and check out my cousin Niki's blog--it's one of the links on the left. They do a walk thru the swamp every Labor Day and she takes great photos. Someday I hope to make it so I can muck up some shoes too.

Sept. 14: Lake Afton

2008-09-14T17:36:00.004-05:00

We arrived at Lake Afton Thursday night after the camper had spent the day in repairs. They were done with us around 3:00 so we headed on into Wichita which was about an 1 1/2 hours away. Of course, we were driving in a pouring down rain.

On the way, we decided to stop by Riverton, KS and enjoy a sandwich at Eisler Brothers Deli. This little shop is set into an old gas station that sits on approximately 13 miles of Route 66 that goes thru Kansas. We've been here before with ham radio special events and with our P.T. Cruisers on our way back from a car show in Eureka Springs, Ark. Inside is the original convenience store complete with a Route 66 gift shop. We got our pop out of a cold Coke tub with the cap opener on the side. Sat at tables outside on the "porch" to eat. Usually he has lots of flowers sitting on that flat wagon but the shipment of mums was coming in that day and was running late.

Since getting into Wichita, we have had 10 inches of rain sitting out here on the lake. Lots of flooding on the west side of Wichita and the lake did come up but not enough to threaten us. In the past two weeks we've experienced about 20 inches of rain. The rain here in Wichita was the remnants of some tropical storm that hit the Baja area of Mexico combined with a front that came thru. We didn't get anything but wind from Ike. After not having any wind for the past 2 months, this is a little overwhelming. Should make for better campfires and Larry says his charcoal works better.

In just 3 1/2 days, we've had dinner with both girls, gone to a Pow-Wow and met with all our cruiser friends at a local diner and had one whole day at camp. I'm sure the next three weeks will also bring more dinners with friends and family.

Sept. 9: More from Shell Knob, MO.

2008-09-09T21:21:00.002-05:00

Our last night at Shell Knob and I reflect back on what a great two weeks it has been. We've had family here for fun times and visited with good friends. Thanks to Doug & Janie for dinner at their house and some fun visiting. Thanks to Duane & Barb for more great food and a wonderful visit. Nothing like some home cooking for people who don't eat at home often enough.

We pull out in the morning for Chanute where the camper will get some repair work done on Thursday. They want us there at 7 in the morning. I don't think I've seen that kind of time since I retired. It'll be a really new experience to have me up at that hour. It will depend on when they get done with Beauty as to when we head for Wichita. My best guess is that by Friday sometime we'll start that way.

Looking forward to seeing all our friends and visiting more with family.