Peace and Relaxation

First of all—Butterbean—thank you so much for the invitation—we are kind of on a schedule for getting to Aransas Pass.  Michael starts work early December and he wanted time to settle in and get the lay of the land so to speak.  We promise to stop by the next time we are in your area, our travel path took us to the east of you this time. 

Tonight we have landed a little earlier than last night—about 5pm we rolled into Lake Medina RV Resort near Bandera, TX.  We have stayed here twice in the past and just love this place.  It is difficult to find—you must drive through a nice subdivision, up and down some really serious hills before topping out at the resort.  It sits on Lake Medina, a lake used for irrigation purposes and with the Texas drought—it is once again almost dry.  The RV resort is owned by a ranching family and this land has been in the same family for over 100 years.  The young couple, Greg and Gina, who own this resort are just the nicest people as are the winter residents.  When we first came here about 4 years ago the people welcomed us with open arms.  We had a motorcycle at the time and the riding gang had Michael out every time they went.  This is where I learned to quilt—there is a woman, Carolyn, who is a perfectionist quilter—she taught me the basics that winter and she taught me to love quilt shops!

We left Wellington, TX about 9am this morning, after yesterday’s long drive, neither of us was in any hurry this morning.  The wind buffeted us about today and the temps were warm.  I have on my flip flops for the first time!! 

Tomorrow I will take some photos—of this beautiful park and the dry lake!

Tough Day

No internet last night, no blog.  Long day, over 650 miles, way too long in a motorhome, driving after dark almost smacked a huge buck deer.  RV parks filled with oil field workers, towns not big enough to have a Wal Mart or other area for boondocking.  Not a good day—today will be a better one!  Will write more when internet is more consistent.

We Landed For The Night

Of course we both had trouble sleeping last night and something or excitement woke us about 3:30am.  We just got up, gathered all the last minute stuff, secured the house and left.  It was a chilly 19 degrees as we were pulling out about 5:30.  One stop in Big Timber for fuel and we were on our way. 

567 miles later we are in Gering, Nebraska in a city owned RV park.  We stayed here several years ago when we were traveling in a 5th wheel.  That night when we pulled into this little park it was 14 degrees and our 5th wheel was frigid.  I have a photo of Michael sitting on the couch in his heavy coat drinking a glass of wine.  Our previous schnauzer, Jazz, was in her bed under a wool blanket.  Tonight it was 46 degrees when we arrived and parked.  The park has gone downhill since we were here before—there seems to be a lot of permanent type residents with dogs chained outside their rigs and no people present.  Not nice!

Having a bit of trouble with the reactivation of our Millenicom aircard so we are using the RV park wifi tonight and it seems to be working pretty well.

For dinner tonight we had Thanksgiving leftovers—yum, again!

This RV park is just outside the Scotts Bluff National Monument--

Onward tomorrow—stay tuned to see where we land! 

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful afternoon at Lonn and LoraLee’s.  Katie and Laci were there and we were sorry to miss Katie’s husband Michael—he was having Thanksgiving with his parents and siblings over near Livingston.  The food was outstanding—Katie’s turkey was delicious as were all the trimmings—mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, jello salad—the list goes on and on.  Katie made a wonderful cheesecake and LoraLee made pumpkin pie.  Around 4pm we said our goodbyes to everyone—sad to be leaving family behind but we are excited for this new adventure around the next corner. 

Me, Laci and Katie

Nat and Emmi having one last conversation.

The master carver at work.

A wonderful Thanksgiving day! 

Two More Sleeps

Yep, only two more and it’s a good thing—I don’t think my poor body can tolerate going up and down those motorhome steps too many more times!!  And the motorhome is full—no more room!  I even transferred most of the refrigerator and freezer stuff this afternoon.

We loaded the jeep--

Michael spent the morning washing the jeep, car and truck.  As you can see the jeep went in the trailer—both the truck and car fit in the garage. 

There was a 30% chance of rain and snow this afternoon and wouldn’t you know it—we got it.  Our nice dry ground for loading stuff is now another sea of mud.  Michael got antsy and took the motorhome down the steep driveway hill to park it in front of the shed closer to the county road.  He was just too worried we might get more snow than forecasted making it iffy getting the motorhome down that driveway.

This afternoon we drove up to Robyn and Claire’s to drop off a key—they are some of our army of caretakers.  It was good to visit with them for a while and they will be missed!  We will miss all our friends and family but are excited about this new adventure we are undertaking.  Keeps life interesting!

  He’s keeping a close eye on us—he just about ran completely over the hill before I snapped the photo—a mule deer.

Storm clouds brewing!

Last Trip To Billings For A While

Michael had a final checkup today after his summer surgery, I had a good haircut before I am forced to go searching for a new hairdresser in Texas and my husband had his first ever drug (as in illegal) screen test!  Our day started with us heading down the driveway before 7am dodging all those blasted deer all the way to town—we were successful today!  Emmi spent the day with Nat.

Things worked perfectly today—we had one appointment at 9am then had a couple hours to kill allowing us to join the other one million people in Costco!!  The person at the return counter told me there were over 200 people waiting for the doors to open and in the first hour over 400 people checked out through the cash registers!!  At Wal Mart we were able to activate the Tracfone—Michael very politely told the lady at the counter, “you have to activate this thing, my wife has lost her patience.” 

On to the haircut with Michael killing time at Harbor Freight.  We then had almost two more hours to kill.  We used them wisely getting Dairy Queen blizzards!!  With way more time to kill than we had errands we decided to just head to the doctor’s office which was performing the drug screen and physical—we were about 40 minutes early—lo and behold, they took him that early!!!  YIPPEE!!  We were heading out of Billings by 3pm. 

We spent some time with Nat visiting and moving pianos around.  Nat restores player pianos and recently got one working—it is so incredibly cool—just flip a switch and the thing plays beautifully.  This is how Nat keeps his brain and body occupied—and how he has reached the age of 90+! 

I have a long to do list for tomorrow—nothing big, just a whole bunch of little things such as cooking something we can heat up quickly for dinner on the road. 

Three more sleeps!

My Mom will probably murder me for putting this photo on the blog but I love it!  Yesterday was her birthday and the family took her to the local Mexican restaurant last night for dinner.  That is her great-granddaughter Elizabeth beside her and her granddaughter Niki looking around the sombrero. 

More Mechanical Work and Taking The Tree For A Ride

Happy Birthday to my dear Mom—the best of Mom’s!!

After our walk this morning Emmi and I were playing basketball when I noticed two small spots of what looked to be fresh oil right where the rear of the motorhome sits when parked out behind the house.  I retrieved Michael and he said what I was thinking—uh, oh.  (Well, not in so many words! )

So, Michael moved the motorhome to in front of the shop, elevating the rear on blocks.  The heater booster pump which he replaced last fall was now leaking again.  A couple hours later and we have a new pump and are good to go.  Yep, my handy/dandy husband just happened to have a spare pump sitting around!  When the first pump died on us Michael found several for sale on eBay—the seller was willing to make him a deal on four pumps—that’s how we came to have a spare.  And we travel with a spare, too!

In April, 1999 my friend Kathy and I opened Cinnabar Creek in Big Timber—a sweet little boutique with a coffee bar.  We sold clothing, jewelry, books, accessories, housewares—lots of cool stuff.  On our opening day my Mom and Dad along with my sister Ann and her husband sent us a “congratulations” potted Norfolk pine.  In the past I’ve had great difficulty keeping one of those alive.  This one survived in spite of me—it is now 6 1/2 feet tall!!!  It takes up a tremendous space.  In the past when we’ve been gone for a few months each winter, Lonn would come in the house occasionally and dump some water in the planter—it is really cool—not freezing in our house while we are gone so the plant did OK.  It would have a couple dead limbs when we would come home—we pruned it and each summer it would put out a new top and branches. 

OK—we are going to be gone longer than 2-3 months this year.  LoraLee volunteered to take the tree but when we tried to put it inside a vehicle today—nope, not going to work.  So, I called my friend Nancy who lives only a mile up the road from us and said, “how would you like to have a 6 1/2 foot tree??”  Nancy being the plant lover she is only hesitated a second before saying, “sure, bring it on up.”  So, we loaded it on the back of the Kawasaki mule (it was 50 degrees) and off we went.  Should have taken a photo—we looked quite comical!  

I spent the day baking cookies (six dozen) and finding stuff which needed to go in the motorhome.  It is amazing—you think everything is packed—you open a cabinet and find things that should really go with you.  Maybe we will get it all done!

Oh, and I did spend some time with Tracfone—such a wonderful company and I say that tongue in cheek.  Michael hates phones and refuses to carry a cellphone.  Last fall he gave in and purchased a Tracfone but we let the minutes run out when we came home in March.  Today I tried to reactivate the phone following the instructions on www.tracfone.com.  Not happening—seems I can’t reactivate the phone unless I have a purchased airtime card.  And I can’t purchase an airtime card with a credit card online—I have to go to a retailer such as Wal Mart.   All this because the phone wasn’t active.  I asked the guy (who spoke very poor English), “but I can go into Wal Mart and purchase an airtime card and not even OWN a phone, correct???”  Yep, you can do that but you sure can’t purchase an airtime card online with a credit card and then reactivate the phone.  GEEZ!! 

This guy and his friend greeted me this morning when I opened the back door to let Emmi out:

We are trying to get all our equipment into various buildings for the winter—the John Deere mini-excavator has a canopy which was too tall to go in the garage—Michael solved that problem--

Another busy day before departure!