Back home again

We came home on thursday ......but what a grand time we had!

Christmas morning we woke up to this:

and then Courtney and Maddie came down the stairs all bright eyed and bushy tailed ...

Of course, after the gift distribution and the opening and admiring and, of course, a great breakfast of sausage and egg dish plus a bunch of other stuff we had to rest:

Note there are 5 dogs here ... 4 doxies and an "old dog"

Keith cooked his famous steak dinner with baked potatoes and all of the fixin's ... simply deeeelicious! Wednesday night he repeated it with grilled pork chops! Here are few pics we took during the visit:

All in all we had a great trip! We were glad the RV part didn't work out in that we were able to spend more time with the family.

Talk to you later ...

SAN ANTONIO

     Well, we did't do the RV thing. Saturday morning we discovered the whole heat/A/C system didn't work nor did the Aqua Heat (internal diesal boiler that provides hot water for heating and utility). So, we decided to drive the car and freeload with our granddaughter and her family. The traffic was not too bad from Houston ... the 75 mph speed limit helps keep things moving ... some folks were REALLY moving. Lots of law enforcement action! The weather was good; cloudy, but that makes it easy on the eyes.

     When we arrived the Houston Texans were in a world of hurt at the hands of the Vikings and they never did recover.  For some unknown and incomprehensible reason, the San Antonio TV carried the Cowgirl game. What kind of a town IS this? 

     Last night our grandson-in-law (is this a REAL title?), Keith, bar-b-qued some really yummy chicken breasts that complemented the dirty rice (Cajun) and steamed broccalli that was dinner. Very, very nice!

     Tonight we plan to go to church and then spend the evening waiting for Santa.

     More to follow ....

HEADED FOR SAN ANTONIO FOR CHRISTMAS

     The RV finally got out of the shop; however, we will have to return it for some additional attention. Those items aren't going to prevent us  from spending the week in San Antonio with Jean and Jim and their two dogs and Courtney and Keith and Maddie (new great granddaughter whose real name is Madelyn Jean Germany) and their dog, Boco. Should be fun with the four miniature doxies and the rest of us. Jean and Court even have the menu for the week sorted out!

     We are spending the day loading up and getting everything ready to go tomorrow bright and early. Hopefully we will get to the Fort Sam Famcamp, a really nice campground on the base, in time to watch the Houston Texans beat the tar out of the Vikings.

     Took this picture this morning .... we are all ready for Christmas:

     More later ....

September in South Padre Island

On September 26 we packed up the car and headed for our condo at South Padre Island. Sadly the RV is still in the repair shop from our July 12th accident, It is doubtful we will make our October Rally with the Kountry Lone Stars South bunch ... dang! The purpose of our trip is to continue work on the kitchen and take care of some changes in the contents of the unit inasmuch as we have changed management companies. It is now being handled by Seaside Services; their description of the place is on their website: see http://southpadrebeach.com , search for condominiums and select Beachview. We are #207.

The main reason for coming was to install new kitchen cabinet hardware. The hardware you see below is brushed nickel on black lacquered cabinets.

Today (Saturday) Beckett and I took a walk on the beach ... we didn't do that when we had Maxie in that she was fearful of the surf noise. Beckett took to it big time! The entry point to this beach is right across the street from Beachview. It was in the lower 90's today.

Then, of course, he had to investigate an interesting crab or crawdad hole under this chaise lounge chair. Luckily the inhabitant didn't take offence to that and give him a pinch for his nosiness!

We took a drive to Julia's in Los Fresnos for their superb Saturday Special - Tampiquera which appears to be a Mexican sampler --- fajitas, a taco, a chalupa, a tamale, guacamole (sp), refried beans and Spanish rice plus their dynamite chips and dip ... all this with a huge tortilla! We figure we will be hungry .... maybe Tuesday.

That's it from here ... we head home in the morning ... the weather wizards say there will be lots of rain in Houston so watch out for flooding ... oh boy!

Summer Journey - Home Again!

This last leg was a bummer ... we left Coushatta in the rain and it rained very heavily through most of the leg. In Winnie, Texas, an hour from home we were in the right lane and came over a rise at about 55 mph in moderate rain and Donna advised the traffic was slowing. I started slowing and suddenly she warned that a car(s) had stopped ahead. I slammed on the brakes but was hemmed in by a disabled truck on the shoulder being hooked up to a wrecker and traffic in the left lane. There was no place to go! The resultant collision wrecked the black car ahead of me which in turn hit the lead car. The occupants in both vehicles were injured; but, not life threatening and were taken off by ambulance. We found out later the woman in the lead car suffered a broken wrist and the man in the second car sustained cuts on his head. Donna and I were not injured. The rig didn't fair too well. The front plastic section was torn away as well as the right light and turn signal. There are scrapes along the right side.The steps are trapped closed by bent metal, the dash air is inoperative, there is damage to the jack system and generator (it still runs). Both windshields leak at the top. Although I was cited for failing to control speed, looking back on all of it, it was absolutely unavoidable. We will just have to see how it plays out. Thankfully, everyone came out of it; it could have been far worse. When you look at the second vehicle it is a miracle.

We were able to rope the front end together and drive home. Here are some pics:

A sad ending to a really wonderful summer trip.

Summer Journey - Coushatta Casino

Last day on our journey  ... we are in the Red Shoes RV Park which is part of the Coushatta Casino complex. We stayed here on the first day of our trip. We started out with a battery problem on our tow car ... only a year old too. Fortunately we were able to drive to a nearby Nissan dealer and they relieved our worries and lightened our wallet a bit and got  us underway in short order. It rained most of the way to Kinder ... sometimes pretty hard. It looks like we will have to deal with ugly weather from here to home.

Last night we hit the casino ... lost a few bucks and had nice meal. So here we are getting ready for the short trip to League City.

Wrap-up later ...

Summer Journal - Bowling Green, KY and Grenada, MS

We spent the night yesterday in Bowling Green, KY. Great trip down but it was a super long day of  driving. There were a number of detours due to construction ... sadly, they either have little money for signs or little interest in putting them out; ...the detours seem to be poorly marked and trail off into nowhere. At one point we gave it up and selected an alternate route on our own. Fortunately we had a fairly good feel for the routes involved.  There was a bit of rain when we arrived. The KOA is one we have stayed at for a number of trips to and from Ohio and have always found it a nice stop ... the site has a concrete pad, table and four chairs and a bench. The full hookups include cable and WiFi. Beckett really likes the large dog run!

The trip to our next stop, Frog Hollow Campground, MS, was interesting. The drive honed my "driving through heavy rain" skills ... folks with no lights on and  slowing to 30 MPH in serious rain on an interstate adds an interesting dimension. Neverless, we got through Nashville and Memphis and headed south.

Frog Hollow is a great campground located at Exit 211 onn I-55! Not too big ... concrete pads ... good service ... would be ideal for a small rally (they have a fully equipped, but not too large rally hall). The campground is owned and operated by Beth and Larry Muschinski, who really give you personalized service. Beth is a frog geek as evidenced by the following pics:

                                                               This the place!

                                                                  Frog stuff outside

                                                             More frog stuff outside

                                                           Even more frog stuff outside

                                                               Some frog stuff inside!

                                                               More frog stuff inside!

We had hoped to get into Coushatta Casino in Kinder. LA  tomorrow night, but, alas they are having a grand opening of a new hotel and the place is packed. Hopefully, we will try again tomorrow; but, consider L'auberge de Lac (sp?) in Lake Charles as a back up. It is another casino ... we saw Regis Philbin and his wife Joy there a number of years ago and had a great time. They have a dynamite buffet!

More when we get a chance ...

Summer Journey - Ohio

It is sweltering today ... almost 100 degrees ... parked in the open, the A/Cs are working hard to keep it comfortable ... we even had to break out a fan!

Yesterday we joined our nephew Scott Donaldson and his family at Leota's place in Sebring --  96 degrees out! -- His wife Tracy, sons David, Cody and Cole plus David's special squeeze, Jenn, who is starting Vet's school at Ohio State next month. David, a professional golf course groundskeeper, got a job in Columbus where they will share a townhouse while she is in school. We all enjoyed a feast of chicken, pizza, several salads plus melon for dessert. Here are several pics:

Cody, the aspiring photographer, a high school junior

                         
                                                               Watermelon? Too late!

                                                        Scott, Cole and David

                                                          Tracy, Leota and Jenn

Tonight we plan to join an old college chum, Donna Jean Ermlick, for dinner.

More later .....

Summer Journey - Ohio on the Fourth

You know you are in the mid-west when it is the 4th of July ... flags flying ... bands playing ... guns firing ... parades on the march ... Here at Cutty's it is a BIG DEAL! The Marlboro Police led the parade through the campground, followed by the colors, Army trucks ... then old cars ... a "Tiger Cage" full of kids ... decorated golf carts ... and decorated bicycles. Here are some pics:

                                                                   Army trucks

                                                           Pat, Leota and Donna

                                                                         
                                                                  Neat car!

                                                                 Decorated carts!

                                                              Cars in Parade

                                                                           Tiger Cage

There were all kinds of things going on ... mostly for the kids ... face painting ... hat making ...

Tonight we plan to grill some steak with baked potatoes, corn and salad ... a perfect ending for a 95 degree day.

More to come ....

Summer Journey - Ohio

The trip to Cutty's Sunset RV Resort in Louisville, Ohio was pretty uneventful once we got going. I place my car braking supplement (Brake Buddy) in a plastic box I keep in the back of the car. I had removed it at Deb's to put some other stuff in the car and forgot to reload it into the car ... left it in Deb's garage. Sooooo..... when we were all ready to leave, no box. Luckily a quick call to Deb let to her bringing it out to us. An hour later, we were on our way. Enroute we lost most of our fresh water ... I suspect the one way valve in the water line failed so when we turned on the water pump, it pumped the water overboard.

I had forgotten how curvy the Pennsylvania Turnpike was! Seems like you are in a constant left or right turn for the whole $40 ride. It was in the 90's the whole way.

Cutty's is a really nice campground that caters to mostly weekenders who have an assortment of Park Models, trailers, 5th wheels and motor homes parked there on a permanent basis. A nasty storm has just moved through dropping some much needed rain ... not enough says the locals; they in a serious drought. Our sister-in-law, Leota Donaldson, has dropped in to visit and stay for dinner.

Summer Journey - Northern Virginia

We were hit with a huge storm on Friday night ... about 10:30 the rig started rocking ... stuff was hitting the roof ... lots of thunder and lightning ... the electricity cut out for just a few seconds and came back on and stayed on. There were millions of folks losing power in the greater Washington DC area ... several people killed by falling trees ... a real mess. Many are still without power here on Sunday. We stayed in the RV on Saturday because our daughter had no electricity until late on Saturday. There were lots of trees down in the campground and debris everywhere.

Today we all went out for a late breakfast and are now getting the rig ready for the trip to Ohio.

Will get back to you later ....

Summer Journey - Northern Virginia

Back again ... Since our visit to NASM last Wednesday, we have been busy with a bunch of stuff ... mostly driving to and from the Jackson's house while spending the afternoon and dinner with them. The last three days were spent dealing with a credit card compromise wherein someone ran up about $9000 on our card in a couple of days which required us to cancel the card, get a new one and notify (dang) all of the folks who directly tap into our account on a monthly basis. The folks at the fraud shop at VISA have been incredible and have worked with us to determine what is valid and what is not --- I know, that's their job!

Our son-in-law, Kevin, installed a 26 inch flat screen TV in the bedroom of the RV ... what a difference! We are camped in a very wooded area .... no satellite .... over the air TV is kind of iffy it seems.

Wednesday, Donna linked up with a former teacher friend, Kathi Williams, who taught with her at Cherry Run Elementary School here in Fairfax County some years back; they had a five hour lunch!

Our visit here is winding down ... yesterday I called a couple of old friends .... one is moving to Colorado since her husband had passed away earlier this year; the other couple are in poor health.

We leave for Ohio on Monday.

More latter .....

Summer Journey - Northern Virginia

We drove through rain showers from Virginia Beach to Bull Run Regional Park Campground in Centreville and after setup joined our daughter, Deb, her husband, Kevin, our grandson, Danny and members of Kevin's family who came in from Canada and New York to celebrate Danny's graduation from high school the next day.

                                                                                                                         
     
We gathered in the parking lot at the Patriot Center (George Mason University) for a tailgate breakfast of coffee and bagels.. Here are a couple of pics:

                                               Danny with his Uncle Robin and Aunt Camille

                                                               With Cousin Marlena

                                                                   Getting ready!

                                                 With Grandparents Ethel, Donna and Gene

                                                  The Jackson boys - Eric, D, and Robin

                                                                 The Proud Parents!

                                                                       The Jackson Clan

The Patriot Center provided an intimate setting for the several thousand attendees and the ceremony was very nice ... the motivational speaker did his thing which was funny, inspirational and, for the graduates, forgettable ... Dan was a National Honor Graduate, Centreville Scholar Candidate, FCPS Advanced Placement Studies Diploma Candidate and and Early College Scholar. He is headed for James Madison University to major in mathmatics. It goes without saying, we are very proud of him and his accomplishments. Here he is:

After the dust settled we celebrated at Deb and Kevin's home with the rest of the family.

On Wednesday, Kevin, Eric and Gene hit the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles International Airport. Here are some pics of the shuttle that was one of those "stolen" from Houston:

More later ...