The Frugal Travelers

My Final Post

2011-12-01T13:42:00.001-05:00

It saddens me to no end to write this last post. My illness has not abated, no matter what the Doctor’s try. I have been on so many different medicines that I have lost count. Right now I am on 10, and none of them are working. I am headed back to the Doctor’s today. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

We have put a bid on a small mobile home, 2 beds, and 2 baths. The offer was accepted, and we closed on it yesterday. We are selling the truck and RV. Together, we are asking $35,000. Separately, we are asking $22,000 for the truck, and $16,000 for the RV. I have had quite a few nibbles, and hope to sell them soon.

I know a lot of you are wondering about Rusty, and on that end there is very good news. His cancer fell off about a week after the last time I posted, and the Doctor tells us there is very little chance it will ever return. He is his little wild self and still keeping us hoping.

I will certainly miss all of the people we have met along the way, and I know there will be a few of you that I will stay in touch with, but for right now I have to put my health first.

We loved the time we traveled and thank God we had the opportunity to do it. I love you all, and please stay safe out there. If you are ever in the Tell City, Indiana area, give us a call.

Rusty News

2011-10-06T16:40:00.004-04:00

Not a whole lot has changed for me. They did start me on a drug that I have to take before each meal and at bedtime. It will take a good 2 weeks to see if this treatment will work for me. My family doctor and the specialist have conferred and concurred that this is probably what is wrong with me. They haven’t completely decided that it is not pancreatitis, but think it probably is a bad case of IBS. He also put me on an anxiety medicine, so now I play the waiting game to see if it will work.

We took Rusty back to see the Vet. yesterday, and he didn’t like the progress the first shot of Cancer-killing medicine was making. He had to actually knock Rusty out then put several shots in and around the area on his nose. It already looks as if it is dying. The Vet. expects it will just fall off, but if it hasn’t within a week we will have to take him back. He also clipped his nails while he was out. He fore-warned us that when he started to come to, he would do a lot of moaning and groaning, but I have never heard this kind of noise coming from a dog before. It was like a very eerie keening. We were only home for about an hour, and he was trying to crawl across the floor. He was finally able to get to his feet, and I’ll be darned if he didn’t go right straight to his food and water bowl and start eating and drinking.

The doctor had told us he would probably sleep for 5 or 6 hours, but not our little bundle of energy. None of this seems to be bothering his eating or drinking habits, and he is still ready for any walks we decide to give him.

This is just a note to keep you informed about Rusty. We haven’t really been doing anything since I became ill, and we still are undecided about whether or not we will be doing more traveling.

Want to give a great big welcome to my 2 new followers. The first is HoboJoe If you have a blog, please send me the address and I will post it here. The second is Shirley. She has a really great blog. Check it out.

Stay safe.

Leaves Are Falling, And So Are My Spirits

2011-09-30T14:32:00.001-04:00

I don’t have a whole lot of news to report. I did see the Specialist on the 26th, but he wants a chance to study my records from my hospital stays, and he wants a chance to more thoroughly read all of the Doctor’s notes. His educated guess is that it may be IBS, a functional bowel syndrome, or non-ulcer dyspepsia. He has suggested trying a couple of different medications on me, but wishes to wait until he gets all information read. He also made strong suggestions about stress and anxiety, which he feels brings these conditions on. I know since Donnie’s strokes I have had to do all the driving, and at times this has been very stressful. Also taking care of someone you love ,and watching them die right before your eyes, has been my hardest challenge in my life.

We did get our remodeling finished, and I have a couple of pictures to share with you. We also replaced our hide-a-bed couch for a double reclining couch, and we love it. We also had our dinning chairs and stools recovered. I had the seat part of all of these covered in a very heavy clear plastic. We are old, and we dribble, so hope this takes care of being able to wipe them down with no damage to the material. Some of you may think this is a bit fanatical, but it works for us. The floor is so much easier for us to take care of. We just run a swiffer over it every day to stay ahead of our Rusty’s fur. I also bought a corner desk, which gives us a little more room.

I also would like to welcome my newest followers, and apologize for taking so long to do it. The first are Carolyn, Pamela, and Ralph. I couldn’t find sites for you, so please, if you have one, share it with me. The next is Gail, and then Wendy. I have not felt like reading blogs for a while, but as soon as possible I will check these two out.

I hate that my blog has turned into a health blog, but wanted to share with you that our hearts have been broken. Our little Rusty has cancer on his face. We have been taking him to the vet, and he is doing what he can, but Rusty will probably need surgery. It is on his face, very close to his nostrils. So far it hasn’t affected his eating or drinking. He still is the craziest, wound-up dog he has always been. I would love to hear from any of you that may have gone through any thing like this with your dog.

Hope all of you have a great fall, and we are still undecided about our future travel plans. It will all depend on what my Doctors do about this illness.

Stay safe out there. :)

Recuperating

2011-08-24T10:29:00.001-04:00

I am sorry I haven’t written for a while, but I just got out of the hospital late Monday evening. For over a month now I have had severe diarrhea and nausea. I completely lost my appetite, and was unable to sleep. I was first admitted on the 14th of Aug. and released on the 15th, with the diagnosis of diverticulitis, but just kept getting worse, so , was admitted back in on Tuesday. I then was diagnosed with pancreatitis. I was released again on Monday, but nothing has really changed. I am still having severe diarrhea and nausea. They are giving me meds. for those 2 symptoms, but I still can only eat very little and have lost about 9 lbs. I had an upper-GI test before leaving the hospital, but they can’t do a colonoscopy till my body settles back down and is more normal. After they do the colonoscopy, if nothing is found, the Doctor will then send me to a Gastro specialist. My family Doctor is in hopes they will do a scope on my pancreas to see if there is some kind of blockage.

We did get our remodeling done, but don’t really feel like posting any pictures. I also noticed I have several new followers and want to acknowledge them the way I usually do, and I promise I will as soon as I can be on here long enough to hunt up address’s for their blogs and so forth. Welcome to all, and am sorry this post is just about illness instead of something else.

Thanks to everyone for their concerns, and would appreciate all prayers. I promise to write more as soon as I feel up to the task. I miss you all very much and look forward to catching up on all my blogging friends.

Working

2011-07-15T08:06:00.001-04:00

Just wanted to let you all know that I won’t be posting for a few weeks. We have decided to do a little switching around while we have everything all torn up. Will tell you all about it when we get it finished. I won’t have time to read blogs either, but I will get caught up when all work is completed. Have a great summer and I will talk to you in a few weeks. :)

Getting Started

2011-07-10T11:47:00.001-04:00

My Doctor’s office called on Friday evening and moved my appointment up from the 12th to the 25th. We were going to wait till after the 12th to get started on the flooring, but now have decided to go ahead with it. We know it is going to be a long, drawn out process, but I think we are up for it.

My grand daughter, Chelsi came over on Friday evening & gave me a crash course in Wii. I now know how to turn it on, turn it off, and how to load the games. We also got it online, and we loaded some pictures to the photo part of the Wii. We also bowled a few games, and I played golf with it yesterday. Please don’t ask for a score, because it is very embarrassing, to say the least. At least I do know how to play a couple of games and it doesn’t seem so intimidating now.

Chelsi crashed on the couch Friday night and I got a couple of pictures of her gracefully sleeping till noon. How can they sleep so many hours? Not long after she got up and had breakfast, she got a call from her Uncle Quinton to go fishing, so off she went. She has loved to fish since she was old enough to hold a pole, and she catches a lot when she goes. Thanks again, Chelsi for all your help.

My son, Jon also took our truck and detailed it for us. He was really upset with us because there were so many bugs on the front of it. He says they destroy paint and chrome. Something about the acid in them. He did a great job, and yes we will try to do better about knocking the bug guts off of it after each trip. According to him, our windshield was a mess too. It looks really good now, but I am not holding out much hope that it will stay that way. It is not one of our top priorities. We do keep the maintenance up on the engine and transmission and so on, but keeping it spotless is almost impossible.

Here is Longdog2’s site. She did get back to me with an address, and corrected her dashboard so it could be found. I would also like to welcome new follower Phyllis. Her and her husband, Leonard are full-timers. She is from New Jersey, and he is from Louisiana. Check them out. She writes a very interesting blog. Also welcome to Michael. He is trying to figure out the full-timing life style. He is a very talented writer and you won’t be sorry you checked him out.

My best Buddy(Willie), and Herbie(my little brother and her husband), brought me a very large zucchini and a head of cabbage. I love cooked cabbage so fixed it the next evening for part of our supper. Thursday I tackled the zucchini, and made six small loaves of bread, and a chocolate cake that she gave me the recipe for. It is all good, and we will be eating on the bread for a couple of weeks. It freezes very well, so can be kept that way. Thanks again guys!!

Rusty has been jumping this same poor, little rabbit ever since we moved to this spot. All I can say is he must enjoy it, or he would find a different spot in the mornings.

I know that isn’t a very good picture, but the little sh-t won’t sit still long enough for a good picture. I think he has figured out that Rusty can’t get him, and is just teasing Rusty.

We got lots of rain again on Wednesday or Thursday. This is hard to understand. The west is begging for rain, and we are getting it by the buckets full.

Later… :)

Nothing Going On

2011-07-06T12:39:00.001-04:00

We left early Thursday morning for Colorado Springs, Colorado. We made it as far as Junction City, Kansas on the first day. That was around 600 miles, and almost too far for us. We had to make several stops for Rusty, and for ourselves. We stayed at the Motel6 there and were very satisfied with the room and our treatment. They even gave us a senior discount. Every little bit helps.

We made it to Colorado Springs late in the afternoon on the first, and Jay, my stepson, had also just pulled in from Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

It was so good to see all of the kids. Was I ever surprised when I got out of the truck and hugged my grand son, Jacob. He is now taller than Grandma. 12 years old and already taller than me.

Sorry, I didn’t get one single picture this trip. We just played games, ate a lot, and in general, just had a lot of family fun.

Colorado, and most of the western states, are under a burn ban, so, we didn’t even get to have very many fireworks. Jacob loves them and we did have a few small ones that could be set off in the street, and were very safe. We did see lots of them being shot up in the air, which was really dangerous. Colorado Springs is such a beautiful city, I would hate to see part of it destroyed by fire.

We started back on the 4th and made it home yesterday about 6pm.

I did do a bit of shopping while out there. Seems like Jennifer, my stepdaughter, and I can always do that together, and she always knows where the good buys are. Now some of you are going to think this is very childish, but I bought a Wii. I got a very good deal on it, and have wanted one for a long time. I got the Wii, 3 games, and the four paddles you need to play the games, all for around $200.00. The kids all talked like this was a steal. There is so much I don’t know about it yet, but Chelsi and Mariah are coming over today to help me figure it out. I was told that once you get it set up you can leave it hooked up and just switch from Wii to TV, so this is what I will do. I also understand that I can rent movies, and go on line with it. It also has a photo storage capability. Jacob set it all up on their TV, and made sure all was working well before we left.

Jennifer, bless her heart, burned about 50 movies for us over the last year. She knows that sometimes we are in spots where we can’t get TV. or just plain get sick of what is on, and need something to watch. This settled it for me, we are going to spend at least 1 month on the coast of Texas, way out of reach of any cable or Wi-Fi. It looks like an interesting park, and I have wanted to go there for a while now. We will probably check it out in January or February, in the new year.

Not much else going on. We do intend to get started on the floors the first of next week, and I want to check out a new double recliner for the RV, and maybe get the chairs recovered. This time I will have a heavy plastic put on the seats for protection. Our stools have it, and it doesn’t look bad at all.

Want to welcome my two new followers, Karel Van der Merwe, and Longdog 2. I couldn’t find a site for either of you, so, if you have one please contact me with the info, and I will be glad to post it here. Hope you enjoy the ride along with us.

Later… :)

Winter Family Reunion

2011-06-26T13:34:00.001-04:00

Let me start out by saying this has been a dream of Donnie’s older sister, Wilma for the past few years, and since she was diagnosed with breast cancer this past year, she decided it was this summer or maybe never. So many of their family, cousins, Aunts and Uncles, have passed and so she wanted to do it before any more left this world. All of her kids but one were able to come. Crystal, her oldest daughter and her family just couldn’t get away, but the rest were here with all their family. Donnie’s 2 kids couldn’t make it, and Nathan, Lois and Wayne’s son couldn’t make it. Several of their cousins did come and their only surviving Aunt is now in the Nursing home and couldn’t come. We had a ball with everyone that did show up, and the food and drink was abundant.

Dennis, Donnie’s younger brother, grilled 18 chickens, his son Darin made pulled pork BBQ, and they also grilled brats and hot dogs. We had creek fries, German potato salad, baked beans, some delicious salads that Melanie, Lois’s daughter, made. One was a pasta salad with cherry tomatoes, and fresh parmesan cheese. Eric, Wilma’s son, made green beans in a Dutch oven over coals, and he also made a delicious apple crunch the same way. There was home made cookies, banana pudding, I took a fresh fruit platter, and so much other stuff. Too many foods to list them all. I am sure no one went away hungry.

In this collage starting top left is Eric having a water gun fight with some of his nieces and nephews, next is Wayne ,in front of house. The shutters on the house were hand made by my husband when he remodeled the whole place . Next is Donnie’s two cousins, Earl and Carl, talking to Valerie and Wilma. Another picture of Wilma and daughter, Valerie. Next is Denny’s wife, Beulah talking to Carl, a shot of the guys bringing the picnic tables up from the lake, and the last is Denny cooking all that chicken.

One of Denny and Beulah’s grandsons broke his leg jumping out of a boat. You can see him in middle top picture, Wayne acting silly with a patriotic hat on, next are Don’s two sisters, Wilma and Lois, and bottom right is Don’s cousin Earl and wife Bertie. They are also very good friends of ours. We do a lot of scooting around with them when possible.

This is just everyone enjoying all the great food.

This is Don and his siblings. Lois, Dennis, Don, and Wilma. Top right is some of the young cousins and bottom is Don’s family with 3 cousins.

A good time was had by all, and for once the weather was almost perfect. Low 80’s with a slight breeze. I got a small sunburn, but nothing I am alarmed about.

Want to welcome my newest follower, Levonne. She too is a very talented writer and photographer. Check her out. You will be glad you did.

I have been having so many computer problems. A week or so ago my Hotmail quit working, and from looking on my own, and some help from Rick, I found out that thousands of users are having the same problems. Still having lots of trouble leaving comments and getting into my dashboard. May all be connected, not really sure. I have also had some people tell me it is something Explorer 9 screwed up. Who knows, I just know it is frustrating has hell.

Thanks for all of your encouragement and suggestions on our flooring decision. This will be a slow process , just simply because we don’t have to be in a hurry, but I will let you know how it is progressing.

Lest you think there is nothing to see here, when we get back from Colorado, I also intend to show a little bit of what Perry County has to offer.

Flooring Problem

2011-06-24T12:23:00.002-04:00

The floor guy finally showed up yesterday, and almost immediately started giving us reasons why we might not be able to have vinyl laid. His main reason for not doing it was the fact that our flooring, under the carpet, would soak up the glue used to glue vinyl down. I said that is funny, because Donnie put vinyl tile in our bathroom, toilet room, right after we got the RV and it worked just fine. Then he started telling us it would be a real job just getting our old carpet out. Duh!! Isn’t that their job??? Anyway, I finally just said, “If you don’t want to do it, Just say so”. He swore he wanted to, but just didn’t want to stick us with a job that may not wear right. Ok, so now Donnie and I have decided we can do it ourselves. After all, we used our own lumber from our land and built a 1600 square foot house, so I think we can handle doing this. Donnie is a Carpenter, and I make a damned good Carpenter’s helper. We think all that needs to be done is after we get the carpet up, and the floor good and clean, we will paint it with some kind of sealer, and the clue will work just fine. Nuff said…. :)

Last Saturday we went out and had breakfast with Herb and Willie. We saw one of our old friends at the restaurant and talked for quite a while. It’s always good to catch up with old friends. Later in the day we went to Herb and Willie’s to play Pegs and Jokers. Willie had all kinds of candy sitting around. Two of my favorites are circus peanuts and spice drops, and she had both of them on the table. I ate candy till I almost got sick. We had a great time, and I did survive.

Want to welcome my newest follower, John, Life in a Volkswagen bus. John is a very wonderful writer. He is in Taos, New Mexico right now, house-sitting for a friend of his. Check him out. He has just started his blog and needs our support..

We went out to Mark and Shannon’s on Sunday for a very good meal. She made a meal for all the Fathers in her life. Her Dad, Donnie, Mitchel, Mark, and Mark’s step dad, Tex. She grilled pork steaks, made a wonderful potato casserole, corn, beans, and I took a couple of fruit pies. She also cut a watermelon up and made a fancy bowl out of it, then stuffed it with all kinds of fruits. It was great seeing everyone, and we had a great time.

Our Winter reunion is Saturday, so I have been making Judy’s pretzels to take, and I am also making a big fruit platter with Carmel dip. My gang here in Indiana love Judy’s pretzel recipe, so have to make them when we all get together. I also need to make some ahead to take with us to Colorado.

I may not post again for a while, unless we do something that is of interest. I am sure everyone is getting sick of hearing about all of our family gatherings.

Thanks to Rod, I did find a Motel 6 that will let us have Rusty in the room with us, when we stop for the night in Kansas. I had asked him a few months ago about pet-friendly motels, and he got right back to me with the info.
You all stay safe and cool… :)

Sad News For Our Family

2011-06-18T11:44:00.001-04:00

My nephew, Tony and his wife, Erin lost their unborn child this week. This is so sad for our whole family, but especially hard for my baby sister, Jeannie. This would have been her 4th grand child. Tony and Erin and their daughter, Leah, will be leaving for England soon, for her 3 year stint for internship. Our hearts and prayers go out to these two great kids.

Yesterday morning Donnie and I went to a friends bar/restaurant for breakfast. My girl friend, Marilyn’s son, Jim Bob, bought this place a couple of years back and completely remodeled it. It is really nice now, and they have very good food. Best breakfast we have had since we got back home. I didn’t get to see Marilyn yesterday, but I did get to see Jim Bob and his father, Bob. We will definitely go back for another meal. We weren’t there very long when our friend Earl came in with another one of Donnie’s cousins, Carl, so we all had breakfast together. Good to see both of them. Earl just had to have another stint put in his heart last week, but is doing fine right now.

Donnie’s older sister, Wilma flew in from California on Thursday night. We stopped out at the old home place for a little while yesterday just to see her. We knew she would be tired from her trip, so we didn’t stay very long. She got to meet Rusty, and of course, I was afraid he would knock her down with all of his exuberance. I sure wish he would settle down, but I seem to worry about it a lot more than everyone else does. They are busy getting everything ready for next Saturday when most of the Winter family will be there. It should be a lot of fun, and I know there will be lots of food and drink, and conversation. We are looking forward to seeing everyone.

We watched “True Grit” the other day, and I agree with The old Geezer, the John Wayne version is still my favorite. We do like Jeff Bridges, but it was a case of comparing the two actors all the way through the movie.

We did a little geocaching yesterday. I picked out 5 cemeteries that have geocaches in them, and we went hunting. Sorry to say we only found 2 out of the 5, which is highly unusual for us. We just about always find the majority of them, but it wasn’t meant to be yesterday. I did take some pictures of some of the spots that I thought were particularly pretty that I will share with you.

This is one of the prettiest churches in our area. St.Mark’s is where Donnie attended church, and the brick building behind the church is the school he attended for grade school. Also our Angie is buried here. We lost her to breast cancer two years ago. She and Uncle Boone died on the same day, but two years apart.

The next stop was at the old sight of St. Joe’s church. It has been gone for quite a while, but there has been a grotto built on the sight where the church once stood. This is where we found our last geocache.

This is Lasher Cemetery. As soon as we got under that very large white oak tree, my GPS went crazy, so no luck here, but we did walk around and read some of the stones. We found the veteran that the geocache mentioned, but didn’t help us find it.

All of the old cemeteries are a favorite place to go. You can find a lot of history in these places, so we will keep searching them when possible.

Just wanted to show you the proof that we really are gardening while sitting here. Poor Herby! The woods behind their house allowed the deer enough cover so they could sneak up and eat all the tomatoes off of his vines. They didn’t bother the plants, just ate all of his tomatoes off… :(

Later…

Hiking Along The Mighty Ohio River

2011-06-14T12:11:00.001-04:00

Sunset Park is a small Park on the other side of the flood wall from Tell City. It is just a nice little park with picnic tables and a small playground for the kids. This is where the hiking trail starts and runs along side of the Ohio River for a mile or so. Tell City has finally gotten better at making places for people to walk and stay fit. There is also a few benches and a small parking area at both ends of the trail. We really liked it, and there is some History of the city depicted in murals painted by local artists.

This picture shows some of the murals, and the park along the river. Also bottom right is the new Medical Clinic.

The mural in the right top, shows on the left side, the different floods that Tell City has endured. The flood wall has pretty much kept the river away from Tell City in recent years.

It was really hot when we were down there walking, and Rusty was panting really hard, so we didn’t stay for a long time, but I am sure we will be going back.

Today we are getting lots of rain, but no storms so far. It is much, much, much cooler also. At 11:00am it is only 66*. I bought Donnie the new “True Grit” movie yesterday, so I think that is what we will be doing this afternoon.

Chelsi and I did go out to the relay on Sat., but because of the B-Day party we had to go to, we didn’t stay. It was raining and the girls were just getting their booth put together. It doesn’t start till 2:00pm now, and is over early on Sunday morning. The girls told me today they did manage to do $3,800.00, but they really had to work hard for what they made for the Cancer Foundation. They said that every year less and less people get involved. This is just my opinion, and I know we all have one, but I think more and more people are figuring out that more money is going to the people running these foundations, than to the research that everyone hopes its going to. Just sayin…..

We did go to Mason’s Birthday party and we all had a great time. That kid got so many pool toys. It will take him all summer to play with them. And, of course they will all stay at Grandma’s house, cause she has the pool. We had a really good meal of fried chicken, potato salad, and a very large selection of fresh fruits. Fruits were my favorite part. And, he had a very pretty Mickey Mouse cake, in fact 2 cakes, but I only took a picture of one of them.

A good time was had by all, and especially Rusty. He loves going out to Shannon and Mark’s house. They have 3 little dogs and he just runs and plays till he is all tuckered out. Good for him I think.

The only other news I have is about our floors. They are supposed to start working on them in a week or so. I sure hope so, because we are leaving for Colorado on the 30th of this month, and I would like to get it done before we leave. I have the vinyl picked out that they will lay, so the guy laying it is the only hold up.

Stay safe and cool…. :)

Huffman Mill Bridge

2011-06-12T12:40:00.001-04:00

First thing I want to do today is congratulate my beautiful grand daughter, Chelsi. She made the honor role again for the last semester. I am not only proud of her, but also her parents for helping her, and responding to her aid when they discovered she had a problem. She was diagnosed with ADS a few years back. Jon and Angie immediately took her to good Doctors, hired Tutors for her, and I must say the school system also helped them out. Instead of sticking her in a special class, as they usually do, they put her in extra reading and comprehension classes to boost her ability to learn and understand. It has made such a difference in her grades and her overall look at her future. She has always wanted to be a Chef, and still does. To say I am proud of them is putting it very mildly.

Want to welcome my newest follower, Wizard Oron. I could find no site for you, but please share it with me if you have one. I will be glad to post it here. Hope you enjoy ridding along with us as we get back on the road.

We had a great time with Herb and Willie on Thursday evening. We played games at their house until around 5, when their daughter, Charlotte picked up the grand dog. Shortly after we hopped in the truck and drove out to Leopold, Indiana to get our chicken livers. Again I forgot to take any pictures. Marcy’s is where we go, and it is a nice little Bar/Restaurant, and they do serve the best chicken livers, and plenty of them. Not as many as they once put on a plate, but still enough for at least 2 meals.

Friday we put Rusty in the truck and rode out to visit Huffman Mill Bridge. The Huffman Mill Covered Bridge crosses the Anderson River on County Road 1490 North connecting the counties of Spencer and Perry. This single span Burr Arch Truss structure has a length of 136 feet, or 156 feet including the 10-foot overhang at each end, with a portal clearance 15 feet 6 inches wide by 11 feet 6 inches high. built by William T. Washer in 1864 for the sum of $5,700.00, this bridge was named for its close proximity to the nearby Mill that had been built by George Huffman. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998 the Huffman Mill Covered Bridge was for many years secluded beneath heavy foliage as it carried local traffic across the Anderson River between Spencer and Perry Counties until 2004 when a new road bypassed the old structure; though now much easier to view, I’m always a bit sad when these grand bridges are no longer able to perform their designed task.

The Huffman Mill Covered Bridge is listed in the 1989 “World Guide to Covered Bridges,” published by The National Society for the Preservation of covered Bridges, Inc., as 14-62-05. It is so sad that at one time in Indiana there were over 600 covered bridges, and now only 90, with 2 others being repaired.

I took lots of pictures and will share them with you.

Most of the pictures are self explanatory, but let me help you with a couple of them. The water is Anderson River, a small river most of the time, but in spring floods it is always way out of it’s banks. The first collage is of Donnie and Rusty hiking over the bridge. That gives you some kind of idea how long it is. The next collage is of a small little town, Bristow. The feed mill is very old, but I couldn’t find any info on it. In the same collage is my favorite green house. This is where we always got our bedding plants, both vegies and flowers. The last collage is of one of the weeds that grows all over Southern Indiana and Kentucky. They are lilies, and I think they are beautiful, but most people treat them as a weed.

It is much cooler here today, but the humidity is unbearable. We are planning to take a hike with Rusty later, on another new trail here in Tell City. I will write more about it, the Relay, and Mason’s Birthday on another day.

I really would love your opinions on this. I have been thinking about adding AdSense to my blog, but would like to know what all of you think about that. I have broad shoulders, so please don’t spare my feelings. I can handle the Con as well as Pro. Thank you, all of your opinions mean a lot to me.

Stay cool…

Relay For Life

2011-06-08T13:03:00.001-04:00

The Relay For Life is held here in Perry County on this up-coming week end. I will be going out early on Sat. Morning to walk with the girls. Chelsi will go with me and walk too. There are always a bunch of booths that she likes to visit, so should be a fun time for us.

After all it is for a very good cause. I hope you all will get out and participate in your area’s walk.

Want to welcome my dear friend Judie to the land of bloggers. She is our friend from Alabama. They are trying to decide if they are going full-time or if they will remain part-time travelers. Please check her site out. She and Dick are two of the nicest people we have ever met.

I also want to thank John and Bridget for turning me on to homemade laundry soap. If I had known how easy this is to make, and how much money I would be saving every month, I would have done this years ago. It costs roughly 1 cent per load, and it does a really good job on the clothes, and I love the fresh scent of it. Thanks again you two!!

We also have another Birthday party this week end. It is also on Saturday. It is for my Great grandson, Mason. He turns 4 this year, and is a typical little boy. Wild as a striped-assed ape, and just as cute. Here he is last Saturday, threatening to spray GG with his water gun.

I also want to thank Laurie for the info she sent me about my ins. I called and talked to them about my charges, but they told me the raises are because everything you have to fix from an accident, keeps going sky high. He says paint, parts, labor is all going up, so how do you argue with that? He also said our RV and our truck will hold their value longer because of what they are, and how they are made. Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but we all need ins., so must pay it. Again thanks, Laurie.

We are going over to Herb and Willie’s house tomorrow to play games again. They have their grand daughter, Sidney and their grand dog, Boomer till 5:00pm. After they are picked up we are heading out to Leopold, In. for a chicken liver supper. We love those darn things, but don’t make a habit out of eating them. They are so full of fat, but just got to have some once in a while. There is a nice little restaurant there called Marcy’s. We usually go out there at least once while we are home.

Gotta run and finish my laundry. Will catch you all later.. :)

Traveling Plans Made

2011-06-05T13:36:00.001-04:00

We have pretty much decided to stay here until the fall. That will allow me to get everything settled with my Cardiologist and my Optometrist. We will be taking 2 or 3 trips this summer, but only in the truck. Early July we will be going to Colorado for a week or so. Probably in August we want to go down and see my sister Dottie and her husband, Mark. We are trying to talk Herb and Willie into going with us to Paducah. The last time we were all together, we really had a ball. I would also like to take a week end trip to Indy. Haven’t seen my family there since we lost Uncle Boone. My cousin called the other day and wanted to know when I was coming back up to do some garage sales with her.

Want to welcome my two newest followers: Jessica and April. Jessica, and her husband, Harry live in New York and hope to start full-timing in 2013. Check out their site if you get a chance. I could not find a site for April, but if you have one, please contact me, and I will add it here.

Had to go pay insurance the other day on the truck, for six months, and the RV for a year. $1200.00 for the two. Will someone please explain to me why they keep charging more for insurance, but the value of your RV and truck keep going down? Why does your insurance payments not reflect this?

We went out to eat with Herb and Willie on Wednesday morning. Thanks again guys for a great breakfast. After we finished eating we went to Leitchfield, Kentucky where they hold a big yard sale, with approx. 40 people set up, and there is also 1 large inside flea market and 2 smaller ones. Donnie and I didn’t find anything, but Willie found a new piece of Carnival glass for her collection, and Herby found a car to add to his Jeff Gordon collection.

We right now are experiencing some very strong storms. No tornado warnings, but straight-line winds again. I knew something would be brewing because we have had some unseasonably warm weather. Almost 100 here yesterday. I sure hope this makes it cooler. Our air runs nonstop in this type of weather.

Want to share a couple of pictures of our tomato crop. We are so proud of them, and can’t wait to eat our first home-grown tomato.

I don’t know if you can see them or not, but there are little blooms all over the two plants.

I did receive some good news on the medical front this week. I have been going in weekly for a blood test to make sure my blood is at the right consistency, but now I only have to go in every two weeks. Also, my meds seem to be working better, with only occasional skipping of beats.

This week my beautiful grand daughter, Chelsi had a 16th birthday, but we didn’t celebrate till yesterday. She had several of her girlfriends out for a pool party and of course family and friends came too. There were probably about 30 of us.

In the picture is a shot of the pool, Mason with his garb on, Aunt Shannon repairing one of the girls suits, Taco the dog in her finest, Chelsi in her Hawaiian garb, Chelsi’s mom, Angie, Chelsi in first suit, she had 3 different ones on . The picture in the bottom right is Tony and his daughter, Leah. They are here for a visit from Calafornia. They will be going to England with Tony’s wife, and Leah’s mom in just a few months for 3 years. This little girl is only 20 months old and not only does she talk, she also knows sign language. I am very proud of these kids.

The picture on her cake is one I took when she was only a year old. It says “Help, Mom is having a bad day, dial 1-800 Grandma”. It was always one of her mom’s favorite pictures. They also spelled her name wrong, but it was a pretty cake, and tasted even better than it looked. Chelsi in second suit. I never did get a picture of her in her third. she received 2 new ones as gifts. The picture, center bottom is another nephew, TJ. He and his wife Susan, and two daughter, Kayley and Hannah were also there.

This is a bunch of pictures of everyone getting ready to sing Happy Birthday to her. Notice in the bottom right the little girl with a finger up to her mouth. This is Chelsi’s BFF, and you can guess what is coming next…. :)

Food fight between Best Friends Forever!!! At top right is my silly SIL, after a few beers…. :)

It was a very fun day. Lots of food and drink.

Later….

Social Butterflies

2011-05-31T12:50:00.001-04:00

That is what we felt like this week end. We went to Herb and Willie’s on Saturday evening and played dominoes for the evening. We only stopped long enough to eat a bite, and then we were right back at it. I think all of our butts were numb by the time we got through. We had a blast though, and we are supposed to go to Leitchfield, Kentucky with them tomorrow. There is a big yard sale type thing down there every Wednesday morning, and there are a couple of small flea markets to look around in too.

Sunday we spent the day and evening at my daughter Shannon’s house. All the grandkids and my son and his family were all there. We had a great cook-out and then played games until late in the evening. My grand daughter's birthday is tomorrow, but her Mom and Dad are throwing her a sweet sixteen party on the following Saturday at her Aunt Shannon’s house. She wants to be able to swim with her friends, and Aunt Shannon has a pool. It is up to me to get all the girls there for the party. This will be lots of fun, but kids really wear me out lately. Especially the ones that are old enough to talk back.

I saw another friend at Wal-Mart this morning. Marilyn has been a friend for 50 years. She has moved to Kentucky, but was in Tell City doing some shopping. She has had some health issues for the last few days. She got ready for bed a few nights ago, sat down on the bed, and for no reason fell to the floor and hit her head. She didn’t say, but I am assuming she blacked out. She went to the hospital and they kept her for a couple of days. They ran all kinds of tests, but still can’t tell her what caused it. I am praying it is nothing too serious.

Yesterday we were invited out to the Winter home place. Donnie’s sister in California owns the home place, but, Lois his younger sister lives there right now. Her and her husband have been separated for over 20 years. One lives on top of the hill and the other lives down in the valley, past our old place. It seems to work for them, so more power to them. Anyway, they had a cook-out for her Husband’s family, and Donnie’s family. I finally remembered to take my camera yesterday. I have been forgetting it pretty often. Got a few pictures of all the kids swimming, and a few of the boys fishing. They caught several big bass, but I didn’t get a picture of that. I also got a picture of Rusty enjoying his freedom. When we take him to the country with us we let him off his leash, and he just runs and runs. There is also a picture of a fire pit where one of the guys made an up-side-down , pineapple cake. It was delish. The house and barns in the background are of Donnie’s home place where he and all his siblings grew up.

Don’t forget that you can click on the pictures to make them larger.

That’s it for our busy week end. Hope everyone remembers the reason for this holiday, and said a prayer for our fallen troops as well as the ones still in harms way.

Later…. :)

Blog Spot

2011-05-27T07:51:00.001-04:00

Can someone tell me what the heck is going on with Blogger? I have now lost my followers and my recent comments… I have had trouble with it for over a week now. Did every thing everyone suggested, but still acting up. HELP…….

Family Stuff

2011-05-26T15:09:00.001-04:00

Make sure you say a prayer for all the families in Missouri, Oklahoma, and all other States that have been so devastated with these Spring storms. We had a scare last night in our neck of the woods, but it ended up being some straight-line winds and lots of rain. Bloomington and Bedford, Indiana did get some serious damage, but no loss of life. We are still getting rain today. Our patio was destroyed. The plants were all carried out in the yard. One table I had on the patio was missing, and we didn’t find it till this afternoon on the other side of the park. Our outside carpet was clear across the yard. Right now it is pouring again. My weather radio didn’t shut off, it was just one warning after another till 10:00pm last night. I for one will be glad when all of this Spring weather is behind us. I spent part of the evening at my son, Jon’s house. He has a basement to get into. The beautiful yellow lily my grandson and his wife got me for Mother’s day was also destroyed.

Here is the site for one of my followers trailer camper. He has a very interesting site. Pheba has also joined us for the ride. I couldn’t find a site for you. If you have one, please let me know and I will add it here. Another follower is ain’t for city gals. This amazing person revamps little RV’s and makes beautiful little homes out of them. Check it out. It is really interesting.

Like everyone else, I have been having trouble leaving comments. I got a couple of tips about how to get around this, and so far it has worked. Thanks for your tips. You know who you are!! :)

I won’t bore you with my health situation anymore, but it is very puzzling to me that one day I feel fine and have all kinds of energy, and the next I have to drag this old body around all day.

I did manage to get the fridge defrosted and yesterday we cleaned the whole trailer and caught up all the laundry. It feels good to have everything all done at once. We also got the windows washed one day last week.

Tuesday evening, Don and I, Herb and Willie, and Joe and Boots all went out to eat at Ponderosa. We all ate from the buffet and had loads of fun talking and getting caught up with all the family stuff. We later went back to Joe and Boot’s house to introduce them to Pegs and Jokers. We had such a great time and now we are planning to do this once a week.

I ran down to the Goodwill store a little while ago and bought a whole bag of toys for Rusty to destroy. I got six toys for $1.82. It won’t take him long to tear them up, but at least my Frugal side won’t hurt as bad, and it looked like they had a pretty big bunch of them.

We took Rusty to the vet’s office this morning and got some Frontline and heart pills for him. He weighs a whopping 18 pounds now, and the Vet said he doesn’t think he will get much larger. He thinks he will top out at well under 25 pounds. He eats pretty good and seems to be healthy. He is still really wild acting when someone comes to the RV, but were told that is just the puppy in him.

Later… :)

Hanging In There

2011-05-21T16:17:00.001-04:00

Want to welcome my newest follower, Michael. I didn’t see a site for you. If you have one please let me know and I will put it up. Thanks for following along, and hope to hear from you often.

There is not a whole lot of news. I had to go back and see the Doctor on Friday and have another test. My EKG was fine, but I am still having some skipped heart beats. He wants me to remain on this dosage for another week, and if this doesn’t solve the skipping problem, he will put me on an additional heart med. The test on my neck didn’t really show anything, just some slight build-up in my right side, but the tech said it was nothing that would require surgery or meds. A bit of good news for a change. I am supposed to let my daughter know next Tuesday, she is also my nurse, if I think I need additional meds or if it is ok. If it is ok, I don’t go back till July 6th. The blood test for Coumadin will continue for a while though.

Since we know we will be here all summer, we are trying to make our home a little more homey. I bought a couple of green plants, and Donnie planted a couple of tomatoes in pots today. Some of you asked for pictures, so I will add this one collage. Keep in mind that this is a mobile home park, not an RV Park, and from what we have heard around town, she usually only rents spaces for permanent, leased spots, but I talked to her in person, and explained what was going on, and she agreed to let us have a spot. We do feel fortunate, and are very happy just to have a spot.

The pictures above show Donnie planting his baby tomatoes, our patio, a couple of plants I bought, and our surrounding area. Bottom right, way in the back is the graveyard where Donnie’s parents are buried. The tomatoes, BTW, are Brandywine, a very old heirloom, Amish variety. We grew a lot of them at our house in the country.

We also bought a new mattress for our bed. A pillow-top. I hope we don’t regret this. We both have back trouble sometimes and usually sleep on a firm mattress, but have wanted to try one of these for a while, so we shall see. Bless my little brother’s heart. He and my best Buddy pulled up when we got home with it, and Herbie helped Donnie get the old one out, and the new one in. We took the old one to my daughter’s house for one of her spare rooms.

We also finally got in contact with the man that is going to lay our new floor. He is going to find out from his distributor if laminate will work in here, or if we need vinyl. I really don’t care which, I just want something easy to keep clean and neat.

One other thing I want to see about while we are here, is getting our dinning room chairs recovered, or getting new ones. There really isn’t anything wrong with the structure part of the chairs, but the material on them has really started to wear. I had some of my chairs, out in the country redone, and the people that did it are still in business so that is where I will go to get it done.

We also got Donnie’s TV all hooked-up and my internet is lightening speed now. All of this doesn’t come cheap, but worth it to us.

We ran into my oldest brother, Joe and his wife, Boots today while we were looking for some new dog toys. They have a little Maltese, so know all about the dog toys. We have agreed to go to their house on Tuesday evening for dinner and games. It should be fun. They love Mexican Train also.

Forgot to mention that the Doctor also told me about something to get for my sinuses. It is called a Neti Pot. REALLY??? He says they really work, and he thinks it will help me with my allergies. He really doesn’t want me on any kind of sinus meds. right now. I found one of them, but haven’t tried it yet. I will let you know if it works.

Isn’t that the weirdest thing? I just crack-up every time I look at it, but if it works :))))

We did go to Red Lobster for lunch on Friday. I had a coupon, and I love their shrimp salad and soup lunch. I had the best potato soup with my salad, and Donnie had chicken. It was all good, but their garlic biscuits are the best.

I am getting all kinds of birds at my feeders again. I think this always makes you feel warm and at home.

Later… Stay safe..

More Tests

2011-05-18T10:13:00.001-04:00

Want to welcome my newest follower, trailercamper. I will get caught up on his site as soon as I can. It looks very interesting. Check it out!!

Not much going on here. I have been going in every Monday for a blood test, and so far my Coumadin dosage is correct. Not so lucky with my heart meds. My Doctor raised my dosage from 80mg to 120mgs, twice a day. I sure hope this works. I have to go back in Friday for yet another EKG, and then into the hospital for a Carotid Duplex scan. Sometimes I am seeing the Doctor twice a week, but I know he is only trying to help me. :)

A big congrats goes out to my nephew, Tony in California. He has just graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Digital entertainment and game design. He and his wife, Dr. Erin Marchand, and their daughter, Leah, and unborn child will be headed for either Japan or England for her internship through the service. We are all praying for England… :)

We have been walking again, and here in Tell City they have a fitness walk that we have been taking. It is a mile long and at the end is the Dog Park, so if Rusty isn’t already worn out, we can turn him loose in the Park and let him romp to his hearts content… I took a couple of pictures to share with you.

The honey suckle is in full bloom and so are the wild roses. It all smelled so good on our walk.

The trail is built along Windy Creek, but it has had to be dredged so much that it really isn’t pretty anymore. It used to create a lot of flooding in different neighborhoods in town, that’s why all the dredging took place. The dog park is bottom left.

A man is coming today to hook Donnie’s TV up to a digital box, so he can receive all the stations that I am getting. He is also going to setup my router for me. We tried, but I don’t think that Comcast is recognizing it or something.

We also have a man looking at the RV today to see if he thinks we can get laminate flooring in here, or if we will need to go with vinyl. I really don’t care which, I just want something easier to take care of. Wish us luck.

It is so good to see that Gypsy is back on the road, and I sure hope Judy is doing better by today. Both of these girls are so brave to do all that they do alone. I am not sure I would be that strong.

You all take care and I will catch you later….. :)

A Little Move

2011-05-13T15:38:00.001-04:00

We made a small move to town yesterday. Only a matter of 10 miles, but now we have full hook-ups at 50amp instead of 30amp at Shannon and Mark’s house. We loved being out there, but it took forever to dry clothes, and I would have to turn everything off in order to run the air. My convection oven would only run at full power if everything else was off so, this will be a little better. I already miss them though. Mark helped us with the move and backed us right in to our spot. We are putting up some final things today. Hope to get some rope lights for around the patio, and maybe a couple of potted plants to make it feel homey. I am going to get one of the beautiful butterflies that change color at night. They are solar powered and I will get a picture of it when I get it up and working.

We had a great time yesterday evening. Herb, my younger brother, and Willie, his wife and my best Buddy, invited us over for supper and games. We played Mexican Train till we could all tell it was past our bedtime. She made a wonderful supper of fried chicken, mashed taters, green beans and mac and cheese. She made the best gravy. She uses her potato water and makes a rue in the skillet she fried the chicken in. She pours all or most of the grease off first. Yum, Yum!! She also made a cake that I had gotten a recipe for while in Texas, and it was to die for. Thanks Herb and Willie for a great evening… :)

We are having cable and internet hooked-up today. We feel like we will probably be here through the summer, and we want to enjoy our time here. My heart had gotten back in sinus rhythm, but has already jumped out again. Shannon talked to my Doctor about it, and he told me not to worry, that they would be adjusting my meds to get the best result for me. Everyone is different and it takes a while to get it right. Got good news about my eyes on Tuesday. My pressure is back down and the headaches have let up a lot. Also the Coumadin level seems to be working for me, but from what I understand, it may need adjusting down the road. Things are starting to look up for me.

Want to welcome my newest follower, my beautiful daughter, Shannon. It really does my heart good when my kids take the time to read what I have to say. It is a great compliment as a Mother. I am so very proud of both of my kids, and all three of my step-kids. I love you all!!

I talked to a friend of our family this morning, who also happens to own a floor-laying business. She is going to send one of her crew around to talk to us about laying some new flooring for us. This old carpet is wearing me out, and I am so ready for it to be gone. I am thinking some kind of vinyl would be best with a dog. I could just run a Swiffer over it every morning, and damp mop when it needs it. I had it in my dinning room, kitchen and sunroom in the stick house, and it was so easy to take care of.

Gotta run and get some laundry done. Later… :)

P.S. Don’t know what is going on with blogger, but I had to repost my blog and lost all of the comments.

Thank You All

2011-05-06T08:41:00.001-04:00

Thank you all so very much. We have decided to do what most of you have said we should do. We have found a spot here in Tell City to park our RV, and we will just ride out the storm. It is nothing fancy, just a trailer park, but it will do till we can decide about full-timing, or not. The closest regular RV Park is about 35 or 40 miles away, that’s why we settled for this spot. It has all the hook-ups, and they pay water, sewage, and trash pick-up. We pay for our heat and electricity. Hang on to your hats, it’s $125.00 a month. A little old lady runs it, and she even says it is too cheap, but hates to raise her rates. Also, my niece has a fenced in back yard that I can let Rusty run in. Her house is just a few blocks away from us. There are also paved walking trails that we can walk, and we can take Rusty with us.

Having my daughter, Shannon, who is also my nurse now, close by will be a blessing. I will also get to see my son, daughter-in-law, and my beautiful grand daughter, Chelsi a lot. Me and my best Buddy will get to do more things together. She is married to my little brother, and I also have another sister and brother here to spend time with. I am sure the time will go fast. We played games last Sunday on Shannon’s family day, and hope to be a big part of those days.

Here are Chelsi and her BFF, Jessie. I had just sent Chelsi back home in Jokers and Pegs.

Shannon and her hubby, Mark. I think Mark looks way to serious.

Chelsi with her hair down.

Chelsi with her BFF, Jessie.

Going to get off of here. Have to get ready to go get another EKG. I have lost count on the number of tests and retests I have had. Again, thank you all so much for your input, and would still love hearing from more of you about my health situation. :)

Trying To Decide

2011-05-05T08:59:00.001-04:00

Welcome to my newest follower, trustnoone1018. I did not see a site for you, but if you have one, please let me know, and I will share it with my readers. Welcome aboard and I hope you enjoy the ride.

I went back to the Heart Doctor yesterday and found out what is wrong with me. I have a leak in my Mitral valve and I also have Atrial-Fib. He immediately put me on Coumadin. So, this blood thinner requires that for the first few weeks you have blood tests ever so often. I think he said at least once a week. After a while they will get me regulated on this med., but I will still have to have a blood test once a month. We could do this on the road, but if something would be wrong, I would have to hurry and get back to my Doctor, so, this is our dilemma. He has also put me on Sotalol, 80mg twice a day to help regulate my mitral valve and my a-fib. We are hoping this will do the trick, but are not sure yet.

Another problem with my health has cropped up also. I don’t know if I have mentioned it before, but I have Glaucoma. I went to see the Optometrist, at my daughter’s urging. I had developed a really bad floater in my right eye, and it basically left me blind in one eye. The Doctor did several tests, and discovered that my pressure was way over the top. So, I have lost part of the sight in my right eye. A tear in my retina was also mentioned. Also my cataracts on both eyes have gotten much worse. I have to go back next Tuesday for another check up. He put me on stronger drops and wants to see if it is working and he is also going to do a scan of my optic nerve the same day. I also had to get new glasses, and the Doctor hinted that he wouldn’t be pulling a 38’ 5th wheel with my eye sight.

This is where we are today. Trying to decide if we give up living full time, and get a house or someplace to live, or do we ride out the storm here at my daughter’s house and decide later. My nerves are screaming out, “make up your mind”, but my heart is saying, “ I don’t want to quit”. I must confess, I would be under a lot less stress if I were here with my own Doctors’, and family. We did a lot of traveling before without the RV. We could still go places and do things, but just not in the RV.

There is one more very large problem I have. The eye Doctor wants me to limit my time on the computer to just a couple hours a day. Preferably an hour in the morning and one later in the day. This is a real bummer… I love computer games.

I know that everyone out there has an opinion, and I would love it if I could hear them all. Help me decide what I need to do. Please… :(

No Real News Yet

2011-04-25T10:06:00.001-04:00

I don’t really know anything yet. The Doctor has ordered tests for Wednesday at an Owensboro hospital, and I will be fitted for a 24 hour monitor on the same day. If nothing is picked up on these then, I will wear the monitor for 20 days. He is a very good Doctor and wants to make sure what is going on before he prescribes any kind of diagnosis or gives me any kind of medication.

We have mostly just been doing family things so, I really have nothing to write about. I did get to spend the whole day with my little great grandson, Mason yesterday. He is 3, and loves the Easter Bunny so we had lots of fun watching him gather eggs and play all day. We also, of course, chased him around all day. Oh to have that kind of energy again!!

In this picture Aunt Shannon is trying to get Chelsi up. As you can see, instead sleeping in the guest room she slept on the couch with all three of Aunt Shannon’s dogs. Shannon loves her little dogs. Just to toot my own horn, the quilt she is sleeping under is the first one I ever made, and it was completely hand stitched. All blocks, seams, the whole darn thing. Took me forever! I learned really fast to put the hard parts together with a machine, and then I really went to town on them. :) The others are of Chelsi being shy.

This picture is of Chelsi and Erica, and Erica’s kids. Erica is an ex of my oldest grandson, Nick, but they have stayed very close and all feel the relationship may be rekindled some day. Long story short, she was married before and has three kids from that marriage, she then had her tubes tied and Nick wants kids so, we will see, but we all love her and the kids so have stayed close to them.

This picture is of Mason pulling some cotton candy out of one of his baskets and really enjoying it, with Grandma Shannon looking on. In the middle picture is Jon’s two girls, Chelsi and her Mom, Angie.

We also taught the kids how to play Mexican train and Pegs and Jokers. They really enjoyed both games. I am sure we will be playing both again.

We have had rain here, nonstop for the whole time we have been here. Every creek and stream are flooded, and the Ohio River is way out of it’s banks. I just heard on the news this morning that a lot of roads are starting to close due to high water. Flash flood warnings here everywhere.

My son, Jon, and my grandson, Mitch have started a little business that has turned into more than they thought when they started. They are remodeling bath rooms, and their specialty is tile patterns. They are beautiful and people are calling everyday wanting them. My grandson was laid off from his full-time job and goes back to it today so, Jon will try to keep their business going till he either gets back or can leave his job and do this full time. Right now it is the benefit side of this job that will have to be figured out. I wish them all the luck in the world. Jon just retired from 20 years of the army and found the inactivity at a desk almost unbearable so, I think he was ready for some physical labor.

As Sue says, I will write again when I have something blog worthy. Hope this will publish, my internet is not really very strong. Since I have been using the antenna that Mac told me about, I do pick up a lot better signal.

Hope you all had a very Happy Easter and didn’t over eat like I did. Stay safe…. :)

Made It to Indiana

2011-04-19T13:47:00.001-04:00

Just a note to let you all know we made it back ok. I have a very weak signal here so won’t be doing any posting and not much on line while we are here. I will get caught up with all of you at our next stop. My Doctor’s appointment is tomorrow, and will have to make plans after we find out what is going on with my heart. Catch you all later… :)

Falling Creek Falls

2011-04-16T07:20:00.001-04:00

Geocaching is still our favorite hobby. We hadn’t done any in Florida so needed to get on that. My goal is to geocache in each State that we stay in. I think as more and more kids take up this hobby, the harder and harder the caches are to find. I did manage to find a couple of them to hunt I thought these old bodies could handle. This is also something that Rusty can do with us, so, off we went.

Our first one was at a small Park, Falling Creek Falls. A really nice little park. Very well maintained. The first sign I saw was no dogs.. Darn!!! This just doesn’t seem fair to me. I guess a few people not keeping their dogs on leashes, and not picking up after them, ruins it for all of us. So again, Donnie stayed in the truck with Rusty and I went on the hunt.

I changed my mind and went back to the truck and told Donnie that this time we were going to take Rusty home and come back. There was a beautiful boardwalk that ran into the woods. I wanted Donnie to see this too. He had missed out on the springs we have visited because of no dogs being allowed, and I didn’t want him to miss out on this.

It was only around 10 miles back to the RV, so it didn’t take us very long. I had packed us a lunch and thought we would eat lunch after our hike.

This park is located on County road 131 just north of the 441/I10 interchange. Falling Creek Falls was opened October 2001. A joint project between the Suwannee River Water Management District and Columbia County, the property was purchased from the Parker & Hogan Families to protect and preserve the Falls for present and future generations. This park offers walking trails, restrooms, playground and the beautiful elevated Boardwalk to the Falls.

Hope someone can tell me what those mushrooms/fungus are. I have never seen anything like them. They grow something like a Morel, but they aren’t.

This was one of the prettiest areas I have seen since arriving here in Florida. I could have walked up and down these boardwalks all day. And the bonus is they really do lead you to a Falls. This Falls is also locally known as the Coca Cola Falls. You will see why when you see the colors of the Falls.

The picture on the upper left is the best I could get of the magical colors of this pretty little Falls. there was a Y in the boardwalk. The other way lead you to upper parts of the Falling Creek.

We did find our two geocaches and thought while we were so close to it we would go ahead and have a look around part of the Big Shoals Public Lands. There wasn’t really much to it. Just a kind of turn-around a bunch of hiking trails and picnic areas. We again paid $4.00 for a day pass. I took a couple of pictures and talked to the guy volunteering in this park, but he didn’t have much to say. He did thank us for stopping by. We ended up eating our lunch here and then headed on home to Rusty. I hate that he wasn’t with us, but also like doing some things with Don so, we will just have to pick and choose better when taking him along.

It was a fun day. We have really enjoyed exploring northern Florida and highly recommend it to all. Will write next on the road to home.

Want to thank Rick for mentioning Picnik a while back. It is a part of Picasa, and until yesterday I hadn’t really paid much attention to it, but I finally clicked on it and was amazed at everything you can do with it. Just for fun, I want to share a picture of the woods that I added some pink ribbons to in honor of my niece, Angie we lost over two years ago to breast cancer. Thanks Rick for all the help you give us challenged bloggers.

Later…. :)

Gulf Of Mexico

2011-04-13T09:25:00.001-04:00

Welcome to my newest follower, rmnorman1. I couldn’t find a site for you, but if you do have one, contact me and I will put it up here. Thanks for riding along. Hope you enjoy are crazy traveling.

Well, it has happened!! I received a comment today that I had to delete. I guess this is what you call spam. Not going to post the name because I think that is what they wanted. It was nasty and disgusting and is deleted. If I can figure out how to do it, I will block them. Nuff said.

The same day we went to see The Fanning Springs State Park, we also drove the extra miles to see the Gulf Of Mexico. I mistakenly thought by driving down to the city of Suwannee, that we could reach the Gulf. Not so. We did make it to the city, but could find no way to get down to the ocean. Bummer… :(

I was really wanting to see how Rusty would handle the waves so, I hadn’t given up yet. We finally stopped at this little Café/bar type place and I went in and talked to a very nice young man about directions to the Gulf. He told me it was possible, but there was a 15 mile drive down a dirt road. He assured us the road was in good condition, and when we came to the end of it, there were only a couple more turns.

The road turned out to be right in the middle of a swamp, so, it was really interesting. We could hear birds calling and at one point there was a small gator in the road, but he was too quick for me to get a picture. We also scared a coon and he ran off too quick for a picture also. I loved the road and would probably take it again. Very peaceful.

We had to make a couple more turns and then there it was. There were lots of people everywhere again, but I did manage to get a few pictures. That kite was being flown by an older gentleman, and I thought it was a hand glider at first. When it got closer, I could see it was a dragon kite. Very cool.

As you can see, Donnie did finally get Rusty down close to the water, but he was only interested in the little boy carrying the other little dog. It was one of those tiny little yappy dogs, but cute as a button. Didn’t really want anything to do with Rusty, and Rusty didn’t want anything to do with the water. I think he thought, “oh, no, another bath”.

We didn’t stay long cause we had a long trip home and the people that were already there were camping and cooking so, we hightailed it on out of there.

We took a shorter route home. Rusty had been a good boy all day, and we didn’t want to push his patience any more than we had to. Besides, me and Don were getting tired too. We traveled about 200 miles on this day and needed to get home.

Do you all ever eat smoothies? I have been making a lot of them lately. We were getting in a bad habit of eating ice cream waaaaaay too much. This way we are getting a treat, but it is filled with fruit and yogurt. They are easy to whip up in the blender, and I use frozen fruit and/or fresh. Some of them have 2 or 3 different fruits. I love them and glad I rediscovered them.

Later… :)

Fanning Springs State Park

2011-04-10T11:39:00.001-04:00

Want to welcome Ron, my newest follower. I could not find a blog for you, but if you have one, please contact me and I will add it here. Thanks for coming along. Hope you enjoy the ride.

Another great little State Park off of our list now. It was a bit farther away, but I thought worth the trip. This one was $6.00 for day use. I guess because they had an attendant and lots of info they hand you when you register. Somebody has to pay for all of that… :)

Fanning Springs State Park is located on the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail in Fanning Springs, Florida. This is a very popular clear water spring, as you will be able to tell by the amount of people in my pictures. Although I tried not to get them in photos, it was impossible, so I gave up and just took my pictures.

This spring produces between 40 and 60 million gallons of water daily. Visitors can enter the park by boat from the Suwannee River or by car. There are very nice picnic areas, playground, volleyball court and use the open areas for frisbee-throwing or football. A boardwalk leads from the springs to a gazebo on the river. You may see white-tailed deer, gray squirrels, red-shouldered hawks, pileated woodpeckers and barred owls. Manatees sometimes visit the springs during the winter months.

Fanning Springs served as the local landing for steamboats carrying products to and from local plantations until railroads crossed the Suwannee River in the early 1900s. The land has been used primarily for recreation since the mid-1900’s. It was purchased by the state in 1993. In 1997 the Florida Park Service became the caretaker of this marvelous site.

Sorry, but I just can’t seem to get enough of these moss-draped trees.

Again, Rusty was not allowed down by the springs. I went down and Don stayed with him. There were people everywhere so, I didn’t go all the way around it. I knew it would be pretty from the other side, but did not want to intrude.

Of course the Manatees were long gone by now so held no hope of seeing one. The swimmers would have frightened them away if there were any… :)

This was another great exploring day. I would seriously like to go back when not so many people are around, to see it from all angles.

Rusty has gotten on my bad side again. We were sitting here, Don watching TV and me on the computer. We both knew he was chewing, we could hear him. We give him rawhide chips to chew on so he will leave the furniture and our bodies whole. The last time both of us checked he was still chewing on his rawhide. The next time I looked up he had chewed a hole out of the carpet. I couldn’t believe it, a hole right out of the carpet. Good thing we are getting a new floor installed when we get to Colorado. I know all puppies chew, but this is a first for me. I didn’t scold him because I didn’t actually see the deed done, but know it was him. I guess this is all part of being a puppy parent….

Later…. :)

Troy Springs State Park

2011-04-07T14:07:00.001-04:00

We made up our minds that we had visited our last State Park without Rusty. If he wasn’t welcomed, then we would turn around and leave. Most of them will let you walk your dog, on a leash at all times, around the outside of buildings, but won’t allow animals inside. We understand that and will just work around it from now on.

So, with Rusty in tow we took off for Branford, Florida to see the Troy Springs State Park. It wasn’t far, just down 247. No great scenery jumped out at us so we just enjoyed the drive.

The depths of this spring contain the remains of the Civil War-era steamboat Madison, scuttled in the spring run in 1863 to keep it from being captured. A recent addition to the state park system, Troy Spring now has an entrance road, restrooms, an accessible walkway, picnic tables, and a riverside dock for canoeists and boaters on the Suwannee River. This 70-foot deep, first magnitude spring offers opportunities for swimming, snorkeling, and scuba diving. Only open-water scuba diving is permitted and divers must be certified; no solo diving is allowed. Trails for hiking and horseback riding are being developed. It is located right off of 425, 1.3 miles north of U. S. 27.

In the top picture is the entrance into the park , and because no one was collecting money, Don and I had to scrounge around to get $5.00 together out of our change. We had larger bills, but no fives. We did finally drop enough change in to the little envelope and went on in. You can see the picnic area and the really nice rest area. I met a nice couple who were getting ready to go for a dive. They had never dived here before and were looking forward to it. There is also a picture of a wild blackberry patch.

The next picture shows the long walk down to the springs and viewing area. Rusty was not allowed on it so he and Don stayed in the picnic area while I went down. A long walk, but well worth it. It was made easier on the climb back up, by them snaking the walkway back and forth across the steep hill. I tried to talk Don into taking his turn going down, but his knee is still bothering him so he stayed topside.

I guess you think I have lost my marbles in the third picture…. I took the pictures of the trees because I am fascinated by all the “knees:, anyway, I think that is what they are called. We were told in Louisiana that they are not new trees and really aren’t roots so, what are they?

Turtles must really love these springs. I saw several swimming around in it, but too far away to get a shot of them. The chicken was at a place where we stopped to wet our whistles. Not for sale, just standing out there. They didn’t even sell chicken, that I could see. What a hoot… you just never know what your going to see.

This was a fun little park and one I would recommend anyone taking the time to see.

Welcome to Andy, my newest follower. I couldn’t find a blog site for you, but if you have one please let me know. Hope you enjoy the ride.

You all stay safe.

Rain, Rain, And More Rain

2011-04-04T16:04:00.001-04:00

It pretty much rained here all last week. Sometimes it was actually raining so hard you couldn’t hear yourself think. I had gone to the grocery one day, and the rain came down so hard, everyone was pulled over to the side of the road. You literally could not see the car in front of you.

We did have a little break one afternoon so we took Rusty walking around the small lake/pond here at the park. I wanted to see if I could find any wild flowers or unusual plants. I did pretty good, and even scared up a Blue Heron.

OK, I will try to name some of these flowers, and if I am wrong, you all feel free to correct me. Top left I think is spider wart, right back: some kind of fern, bottom left: water lily, middle bottom: wild flocks, and I know what the other one is, I fought it in my gardens at home, but the name escapes me at the moment. Thistle???? How did I do? Click on the pictures to make them larger…

I am fairly sure these are water lilies. And they were my pick of the day. I think they are perfect flowers, surrounded by the perfect colors to show them off.

This is a picture of the blue heron I scared off and some more pictures of the RV Park and cabins. It was a nice walk and my second of the day in between rain storms.

Our plans have changed again. We had planned to go to South Carolina from here, but I am still having a bit of trouble with my heart, and my daughter, Shannon thinks it would be best for me to go to a Heart specialist. She works for a group of them and has moved my appt. up from June, to April. The only way I know to explain what is going on, is that it is beating out of rhythm. They think it may be A-Fib, but won’t know till they can do some tests. Quite frankly I am not used to feeling bad and am sick of it. I will be glad to just finally find out what the heck is going on, and do something about it.

We will leave here on the 16th and make a couple of over-night stops on the way back to Indiana. That should make for a less tiring trip all the way round.

I am so happy. I have had my bird feeder out for 2 weeks, or since we got here, and today I finally had some red-winged black birds stop and feed. They are the only ones I have seen on it, but hope there will be more. I know there is plenty for the birds to eat this time of year, but I do love to watch them.

Going to make this a short post. Later… :)

Columbia County Historical Museum

2011-04-03T10:55:00.001-04:00

The building that houses the Columbia County Historical Museum dates from about 1870. An unusual example of Southern Italianette Style, it features the typical square shape and low pitched roof as the notable architectural features. Typical of the homes of this period, the rooms are arranged symmetrically off of a broad central stair hall. The upstairs bedrooms are arranged in a similar fashion. a rear servants staircase leads to the kitchen wing and the back porch area. Wrapped on two sides by a two-tiered veranda, the exterior features are balanced with simplicity of design.

John Vinzant Jr., the first Clerk of Court of Columbia County, and a disabled Confederate Veteran, bought this house in 1880 for $450.00. His daughter, May Vinzant Perkins, lived here until she was 92 years of age. She was a widely respected and published poet, plus a feature writer for local newspapers. May Vinzant Perkins was named Poet Laureate of the State of Florida and a founding member of local service and social organizations. She continues to live through her poetry that is on display at the Columbia County Historical Museum.

We enjoyed this museum and especially liked the story of how they got the guns for their exhibits. Apparently some time after the war ended a party of black soldiers entered town looking for someplace to eat and to rest. None of the towns people would have anything to do with them until they came upon this one lady. She said she would feed them, but they must leave their guns outside. The men of the town decided the guns should be locked in a tool shed for safe-keeping. After the men finished eating they went outside to find the men of the town had a change of heart and beat the soldiers and ran them out of town without their guns. Later they disposed of the guns in Desoto Lake, here in town. Sometime later the people of Gator, (Lake City before it’s name change), decided to drain the lake to see if they could recover the guns, and sure enough they did. While they were doing this an older gentlemen came by and stated that there should also be a lot of pistols in there. He said for years the Sheriff and his deputes had been dumping guns into the lake that they had confiscated from criminals. They looked a little longer and came up with all kinds of pistols. Some of these same guns are now on display in this museum.

This is the outside of this pretty little museum. There was no charge for visiting, but we always make some kind of donation. This is run by volunteers only, and I must say it is in very good shape. I took quite a few pictures and will share them with you. Hope you enjoy them.

Wanted to thank all my friends and family for all the Birthday wishes I received on Friday. Yes, I am officially on Medicare now. I can barely believe I have reached 65, but here I am. My Hubby got me a beautiful ring for my B-day and I know a lot of people say the romance is out of a marriage after so many years, but not so. Thanks Honey, I love it.

Let me welcome my newest follower, Lila. She doesn’t have a blog yet, but they hope to sell their business and start full timing soon. Her husband does not want to sell the business and put their people out of a job in these hard times. I can understand that, and we will all be out here rooting for you when you can start.

Hope you all have had a great week end… :)

Lafayette Blue Springs State Park

2011-03-31T12:23:00.001-04:00

We were told by some readers to be sure and visit this place. I made us a picnic lunch, put a couple of soft drinks in the cooler, and we took off. I had read on line that dogs weren’t allowed near the springs, and this was true. One of the first signs we saw said no dogs allowed past this point so Rusty got stuck at home again. We weren’t gone a real long time, and he does well for short periods without us. We always ask the neighbors if they hear him and they always say not a peep.

It took us a little while to find it, but we finally did. It was another $5.00 day use fee, but not sure I would pay that again. It was pretty and fascinating to see all that crystal clear water, but the brochure made it out to be a lot more than it was.

We did have a very nice place to picnic and there was a nice rest area here also, but that’s about it. There were several kids and adults swimming in it, so, it was hard to get a shot of it. I did try to get a picture of the two turtles swimming around in the smaller of the two pools. You may or may not be able to see them.

I guess it was the time of day we were there, but all I got pictures of, as far as the water, were reflections. It is astounding that the flow out of this spring is between 14 million gallons and a very impressive 168 million gallons a day.

The Lafayette Blue Springs area was occupied by aboriginal people for thousands of years. Approximately 14,000 years ago Paleo-Indian people first began to filter into the area. Over the next 2,000 years the climate warmed and the natives subsisted on animals, fish, shellfish and wild plants found in the area. Native Americans populated the area until the end of the Second Seminole War in 1842. There are a number of aboriginal sites in the area.

We did spot a beautiful little green lizard. I am not sure what they actually are called, but he was a pretty little guy.

This is some pictures of the bridge to the other side of the springs. There was also more picnic tables on that side.

This is the steps leading down to the pools, but it was very steep so Donnie stayed up top while I explored a little closer. I tried to get the turtles in one picture. See if you can find them.

Catch you later…. :)

Suwannee River State Park

2011-03-28T12:37:00.001-04:00

We decided to take a trip yesterday to see this park. It is beautiful and right on the Suwannee River. We had plenty of chances yesterday to see it and hike along it. It was a blast. We think now this would have been more suited for Rusty, but we left him home on this day. I don’t think we will do that again. Especially if we know we are going to be outside a lot. I just have to remember that he is still young, and I think it is Don more than Rusty that needs to be trained. We will get it worked out. He is our forever dog, and we are his forever people.

It cost $5.00 again to get into this park for day use, but I thought it was worth every penny of it. There are hiking trails, picnic grounds, bird watching opportunities, and we saw several boats, canoes, and fisher people. There is a very large rest area with bathrooms and showers. We were very impressed with this little park.

If I remember right there were two very large parking lots, and there is also a place for RV camping, but didn’t look very large. Not sure our 38’ fifth wheel would fit in, but there were lots of smaller RV’s there.

This was my favorite part of the day. We had just started walking down one of the trails when I saw a sign about bird watching. Within the next few steps I heard this beautiful fellow looking for his lunch. You could hear the familiar rat-a-tat-tat, and I knew immediately what was making the noise. Sure enough, he was on the side of a tree about 10 yards away from me. I couldn’t get really close without scaring him, but I think you can see that it is a Pileated Woodpecker. I just kept snapping, but couldn’t get a really clear shot at him. I love seeing them. We had lots of them on our place in Indiana.

This is just some shots of the trail we hiked. I hiked a little farther than Donnie. He does walks with Rusty every day, but his knee still bothers him from when he fell. I think he may have done more damage than he thought.

This a little farther up the trail. That pole in the middle picture showed how high the floods were for different years. If you look closely at the middle picture on the left, you can see it standing on the bank next to that large tree. It would have been 10 feet over our heads when flooded.

This was a fun outing and I would pay twice that to go back into this little park.

I am getting so disgusted with my carpeting. It seems like every day I am cleaning a new stain. Since we got Rusty I spend a lot of time just cleaning up little stains he seems to bring in. Don always wipes his and Rusty’s feet so I don’t know how it all happens. I am really leaning toward having hardwood floors installed. Does anyone out there know if this will work with 3 slide-outs? My main concern would be tearing the hardwood up when we put the slides out or in. It would be so much easier to take care of, and I think, look better.

Want to welcome my newest followers. First is JO JO, she has a very cool site. Mother of 4, rvs part time and has a home in the White Mountains of AZ. Check her out.

The second is trustnoone1018. Sorry, I couldn’t find a blog under your name, but if you have one, please let me know and I will post it. Thanks to both of you for following along.

You all stay safe… :)

Stephen Foster State Folk Culture Center

2011-03-25T17:03:00.001-04:00

We started the morning out with a trip to Big Lots. Do any of you shop there? I like to check their grocery isles. They have Campbell's soups in the large cans for a $1.00 or sometimes $1.25. Best price I have ever found on it. Sometimes we just feel like a bowl of soup and salad or sandwich. I stocked up and won’t have to buy any for a while. After leaving there I ran on to a mural that I thought was cute, and a couple of old buildings, on the way to the Culture Center.

I really loved those old buildings. It looked to me like they may have some kind of old time gatherings or something there. If they don’t, they are missing a good chance. The little one with the chairs on the front porch is right down the street from the other two. All look to be from the same era.

Mr. and Mrs. Crafty are my 2 newest followers, and I just want to say welcome to you and hope you enjoy the ride. I looked at some of your crafts and really liked them. If you all get a chance, check out their site.

We had decided to go out and visit one of the Parks on this day and thought it was a good idea to take Rusty along. WRONG!! I don’t know what was the matter with him, but he was so wild. He wouldn’t settle down in the truck, and when we would get him out to walk, he would jump all over the place and want to go in the opposite direction from where we were going. We were really sorry we brought him on this day.

We did finally make it out to the Stephen Foster Culture Center, but Rusty was not allowed in any of the buildings so, we didn’t get to tour the beautiful museum or gift shop, but it was fun just driving around and seeing all the beautiful buildings and Memorial Carillon Tower.

The Park is located in White Springs, Florida and offers camping, canoeing and hiking along the beautiful Suwannee River. Since Rusty was acting up Don stayed in the truck with him and I got out and got only one picture with the River in it.

The centerpiece of the park is the Stephen foster Memorial Carillon Tower. The carillon, the world’s largest tubular bell instrument, plays concerts daily featuring the music of Foster and music for special occasions. The music can be heard all over the park, but we were not lucky enough to hear it. We did hear it chime though.

The museum is housed in an antebellum style mansion typical of those that existed in Foster’s era. I think the most famous song that Stephen Foster wrote was “Way Down Upon the Suwannee River”. You can tell by this park that he was very well loved. I took lots of pictures and will share them with you.

It was a $5.00 fee for day use, and they offer lots to do and see. The flowers, as you will be able to tell by the pictures, were really pretty on this day. Hope you enjoy the photos.

You will have to click on the picture to enlarge it and then you can see the big green wire balls hanging in the tree. The other is the back of the museum.

This is the front of the museum.

The tall box on 4 legs is a bat house, and from the looks of the bottom of it, they have been using it a lot. The rest of the picture shows the walk down to the large gazebo and river.

A beautiful park, and not the smartest move to take our puppy, but we did enjoy it and highly recommend it to you.

Later… :)

Osceola National Forest

2011-03-22T13:14:00.001-04:00

We haven’t been doing much, just kicking back and enjoying life. I did stalk another big bird, over by the pond/lake. It is a beautiful bird and I think it is a Heron, but not sure. Hope Judy can enlighten me on this. I guess to save a lot of wear and tear on Judy, I need to get myself a bird book. That way I won’t have to keep asking her what they are. I saw some little white birds, but before I could get a good shot of them, a lady and her dog scared them away. I think they were Ibis.

When I was through fixing supper, and cleaning the dishes and kitchen last night, I decided to go ahead and get my nightie on. Not too long after sitting down to watch TV there was a knock on the door. Donnie answered, because of my being indisposed, but my curiosity got the better of me so, I stood behind our stove and talked to the gentleman. Turned out he was a reader from when I still had my blog on my trip journal. Bill said he had been reading my blog forever and just wanted to stop and say hi. A really nice guy. He is staying at the Ocean Pond campground out in Osceola National Forest and was telling us about it. He didn’t stay but just a few minutes, but it is always nice meeting my readers.

Of course, he got me thinking about the campground so we took a drive out that way and drove through it and some of the forest. I thought we might see Bill and stop for a minute and talk, but we didn’t see him anywhere so maybe he has already pulled out. We loved the Park and I took a few pictures to share with you.

We loved this park. It only has water and electric and of course doesn’t offer Wi fi or cable, but for just a few days I could do without both of those things. It seems like more and more we want to be away from all the hustle and bustle of the towns. This just gives us another option when traveling from place to place. We also have the Golden Age Pass card that allows us to stay for half price. This park would cost us $12.00 a day with this pass. Not bad, and the surroundings are fantastic.

Tomorrow I may get out and visit a few thrift shops. I went out yesterday and visited the Chamber of Commerce office and picked up some info about the area. There is plenty to do and see around here, with several State Parks very close to where we are. We plan on visiting as many as possible. I also checked out the groceries and other places we will be utilizing. They have a very large Publix grocery here, but I was not all that impressed. May go there to get my meat though. Do any of you use this store? This is my first experience with them..

Want to welcome my newest followers, Allen and Connie. Please if you have a blog, share it with me, and I will share it with my readers. Welcome to you both and I hope you enjoy the ride.

Later… :)

Lake City, Florida

2011-03-18T12:07:00.001-04:00

I know I have been very lax in telling you about the RV Parks we have stayed in so, will take this opportunity to do so.

Montgomery South RV Park is where we stayed when visiting with Judy and Dick. It really was the nicest Park we stayed in on our 12 day journey. It is a rather new Park and the young fellow running it, Jim is a delight. Very helpful. Not a big park, but has all the amenities that are a must for us, at a decent price. $26.00 a night I think is a pretty good price, tax was included in the charge. We would definitely go back there.

The next Park on our trip was at Milton Florida, where we met with some childhood friends of my brothers, Harry and Kay. They came over to our site at Pelican Palms RV Park. The park was apparently an old KOA, but it was clean and had very good wi fi. Also full hook-ups. No cable, but when we are just staying a couple of days, we just watch what we can get on the antenna.

Harry and Kay arrived about an hour after we did. I had gotten some chicken, potato salad, and baked beans for lunch. Harry brought us a big batch of smoked cheese. It is made with pepper cheese, cheddar, seasonings, and bacon bits, then he smokes it. It is delicious, and Don and I have really enjoyed snacking on it. Thanks again, Harry. We talked for a couple of hours and got caught up on everyone at home. The guys had a few cold ones, then it was time for them to leave. Kay, Harry’s wife has to get up at a very early hour to get to work so, she must go to bed very early. She has been a cook at a local Nursing Home for a lot of years, and seems to love the work. Harry is retired from the service so, he keeps the home fires burning. It was fun and we hope to visit with them again.

While in Milton we had also made plans to meet with some old friends we made in Indiana 2 years ago, while I was taking care of my brother. Bob and Elsie also write a traveling blog, but don’t post often. You can find their site at the bottom of my list with the other blogs from trip journal. We met at Cracker Barrel, and it was like our last meeting was yesterday, cause we both read each other’s blogs. They are originally from New York, but are full-timing now. Elsie will be flying back to New York next week to spend time with a new grand baby, then, their plans are for out west, with their first stop at the Grand Canyon. Elsie also shared with me some of her new projects. She is making, or I should say weaving, a beautiful little basket. She also made a quilted billfold. I envy her the craft classes she has been taking. We just didn’t have anything like that this year in Texas. I had my camera with me and did remember to get a picture of them and us together.

Since Donnie’s back has been hurting for the last few days, we didn’t get to spend as much time with them as we wanted, but I am sure we will meet up again. They stay in Foley, Alabama for the winter, and have asked us to come down in our RV next winter and check their park out so, we might just do that. Thanks for a great meal and conversation Bob and Elsie!!

The Park we are staying in now is not a fancy park at all. From what they advertise on line, I thought it would be great, but I have learned that they take all their pictures to their advantage. It is called Inn and Out. It has everything we look for in a camp, but there are lots of permanent RV’s here and scores of kids. That would be ok with me if they respect our space, but so far that isn’t happening, and it really keeps Rusty going. Oh, well, we paid for a month so, will just have to get through it. We plan on doing a lot of sight-seeing so won’t be here a lot. The couple right next to us are friendly and have a great sense of humor so, maybe we can talk them in to playing games or something.

BIRD ALERT!!!!

I walked over to the little pond that is on grounds and took a gazillion pictures of what I think is an Egret, but not sure. It sure was pretty, but had black feet so, I could be mistaken on what it is. I am sure Judy will straighten me out on what it is. Let me warn you, I took a ton of pictures, but you can just ignore them if you want.

I honestly think this bird was posing for me. It hung around forever. It finally had enough of me stalking it, and flew to the other side of the Lake/pond. There was a little black looking duck swimming around when I first got there, but it wanted no part of me and escaped right away. I hope to see lots of birds and other creatures while we are here so, stay tuned.

Forgot to mention that the rent here, for the month, is $434.50, that includes all utilities, 70 cable channels, and very good wi fi. May be a little high for the type of park we are in, but we will make do.

Later… :)

Montgomery, Alabama

2011-03-16T10:43:00.001-04:00

We had another very uneventful trip from Gautier, MS., to Montgomery, Alabama. It was a very pretty drive, and what caught my eye more than anything else was all the redbuds and the wild Jasmine in bloom. When they were together it made a breathtaking view. I was driving so couldn’t get any pictures, but it was very pretty.

We reached Montgomery around noon, but again, I had a senior moment and lost Judy’s number. Had no way to get hold of her so, I panicked for the first few minutes then, I just happened to think about sending her an email. A little later I thought why not cover all bases so, I sent her a message on face book, and just in case she didn’t check, I sent her daughter a message also. Melissa, Judy’s daughter did see the message and got the ball rolling. Thank you Melissa.

We finally got to meet Judy and her husband, Dick about 30 minutes later. Believe it or not, it was like we had known each other for ever. After hugs, we hopped in their SUV and Dick took us to some of his favorite places, and even showed us another RV Park that is much closer to them. After riding around for an hour or so, we went by their house and got acquainted with Killer, their little dog. He is such a sweetie. They have a beautiful home and a large, fenced-in, back yard.. We felt so at home and welcomed.

After leaving the house, Dick took us to a very nice Mexican restaurant for dinner. It was great and Dick insisted on picking up the bill. Thanks again Dick and Judy for a great meal out.

The next day we took the truck and Rusty and went back to their house for some playtime for Rusty and Killer. As you might have guessed, I took a lot of pictures of the 2 boys romping in the back yard. Judy went out with them for the first few minutes, but after that they just had a ball.

Dick had prepared a meal fit for a king for our dinner. He made a roast beef with new gold potatoes, and carrots. He also made some very good baked beans, Cole slaw and rolls. That roast was so tender it just melted in your mouth. He is a marvelous cook. Judy is very lucky..

Judy seems to be doing very well with her bout with cancer. I was worried we were wearing her out, but the way she talked, she tries to live every day to it’s fullest.

Judy and I hopped in the truck and ran over to her Vet’s office and picked up some flea meds. for Killer and Rusty. We talked all the way over and all the way back. We had a wonderful 2 days with these great people and just know we will be meeting up with them again.

Thank you so much Judy and Dick for a great two days of visiting and eating. We loved it and love you.

I want to welcome 2 more followers. Rachel and Mactrailer. Rachel I couldn’t find a site for you, but if you have one please let me know. Mactrailer has one I have been reading and he is a wonderful writer. Check it out when you get time.

We are in Milton, Florida now and met with some friends yesterday and are meeting with other friends in a couple of hours. I will write more about these two meetings in a couple of days.

Stay safe….

Mississippi Cranes

2011-03-14T09:13:00.001-04:00

Let me start out this post by welcoming my 2 newest followers. They are Whitey and nantucketbreezes. I could not find a blog site for either of you, but if you have one please share it with me so I can mention it here. Thank you so much for following are crazy antics, and hope you enjoy the ride.

We have had a very busy 10 days since leaving Concan, Texas. We traveled across Texas on our first leg of the trip, next we traveled into and through Louisiana. Then, on into Mississippi, and now are in Montgomery, Alabama. Next we will be dipping down into Milton, Florida for a couple more visits with friends, and then on to Lake City, Florida for a months stay. It has been a whirl-wind, but we have enjoyed every minute of the trip.

We finally got to meet the “Bird Lady”, Judy.

She is such a warm and welcoming person. We clicked right away and talked non stop through our whole visit. Of course, we discussed the do’s and don’ts of blogging, but we also talked quite a bit about the cranes and the refuge where she is volunteering. We couldn’t have had a better time. She started us out with a movie about these majestic birds, then took us on a tour of the refuge and surrounding areas to see if we could spot some cranes. We were sadly disappointed for the first part of the tour, then magically there they were. They were pretty far away from us, but I did manage to get a couple of pictures of them. Judy has a big camera with long lenses, but I just have a small digital. If you want to see fabulous pictures of birds, and everything else there, check out her blog. The cranes we got to see were Cross Beak and her young mate. This is the first time she has chosen a mate so, this is an exciting season for the refuge.

After the tour, Donnie and I returned to the RV Park to take Rusty out to pee. I am not saying anything about the RV Park on purpose because, it was not one I would recommend staying in. I would rather just not say anything than to blast them. I will say the roads in were very good, but where you park was in bad shape. Nuff said… :)

We then went back to the refuge to meet Judy, and the gang she volunteers with, to go out to eat. She had first picked a BBQ place,The Shed, for us to go to, but when we drove by, the crowd there was just unbelievably large so, we opted for her second choice, Huck’s Cove. To say it was interesting, is putting it mildly. It was a hoot. We opted to sit outside and enjoy the air and the river. The River is “Singing River”. One of the gentlemen explained that folk lore says the way it got it’s name was people would camp up river from the small town of Gautier(Go-Shay), MS., and the town folk would hear them singing all hours of the night. Hence the name “Singing River”. We loved this place and they have very good food too. If you get a chance to meet this wonderful lady, Judy, you should.

We pulled out of Gautier, MS. early yesterday and made our way up to Montgomery, Alabama to meet my good friend, and faithful reader, Judy and her husband Dick. We met them last night and I will write more about these great people in my next post.

Catch you later… Stay safe.

Palmettos On The Bayou

2011-03-11T10:45:00.001-05:00

My nephew, Don had to work until 4:00 yesterday evening , but called and said he and Dena, his wife, would meet us at a restaurant here in Slidell. It was a great place, set back in the woods, with large trees filled with moss, around it. We had a great time visiting with the kids, and had great meals all around. Don also insisted on picking up the tab. Thank you again kids for a wonderful meal.

We talked quite a bit about his Dad, and other family. I was very disappointed to learn that my brother’s estranged wife/widow is taking the kids inheritance. My brother had left a $22,000.00 and a $10,000 policy for his Grandkid’s education, and she is fighting them for it. How can people be so cruel. This is what he wanted, and she knows that. Uncle Boone left his wife in October of 09 and moved in with my cousin, Charlotte. He had a very nice home and was able to enjoy the last year of his life. Charlotte has a very nice lower level to her house and they had come up with a rental agreement that was their business, and not mine. He told me several times, throughout the time I was with him, that he had these policies for his grandkids. It really makes my heart hurt that all of this is going on. They certainly don’t need to be going through all of this while still grieving for their Dad and Grandpa.

We had a great time with the kids, as always, but I did miss seeing my little niece and nephew. We will spend plenty of time with them the next time we all land in the same area.

We are getting ready now to head out for Mississippi. Catch you down the road. :)

Slidell, Louisiana

2011-03-10T14:31:00.001-05:00

We traveled another 320 miles to get here yesterday. Most of the trip was made on I-10, and just a little ways on I-12, to bring us from Baton Rouge, LA. to Slidell. It was an uneventful trip till the middle of I-12. There was a big rig that had a bad accident and blocked two of the 3 lanes. We were stuck for about 45 minutes, and my Hubby is not a very patient man, but we made it all safe and sound, with nerves just a little rattled.

The park we are staying in is called Pine Crest RV Park, and as you will be able to tell by the photos, it is nice, but we are stacked in here like sardines. Very tight fit at that. We are worried about getting back out of here. We have full hook-ups with free wifi, no cable, but we are picking up all kinds of stations on our antenna. The rate was $62.35 for 2 nights with Good Sam’s discount.

I know it doesn’t show in the pictures, but Slidell had a tornado hit here just before we arrived. Yesterday there was water everywhere and the ladies in the office told me at 9:00 yesterday morning the rain was so bad that all traffic was just stopped. Luckily no one was killed, but a lot of people lost their power.

My nephew called last night to say they would love to meet us tonight for a meal. His mother is here from Tell City, Indiana, and has offered to keep the kids for them. They are sending us an email later with the restaurant directions and name. Since he had to work so late, I didn’t want him to have to come all the way over here. It will be nice talking to him when we are not so filled with emotions about his Dad’s passing.

Donnie and I just got back from having lunch at Waffle House. This is the first time eating there since Uncle Boone’s death. That was his favorite morning place. A lot of memories came flooding back, and I think that was a good thing. I sure miss my big brother.

I was talking to Gypsy, by way of emails, last night, and she reminded me that it has been a while since I wrote anything about Rusty, or added any pictures of him. To start with his potty training is going very well. Since the bed mess up there have been no more accidents. He is acting funny though, and I don’t know if other dogs do this or not. For about the last week or 10 days he has really started to notice things more around him, and he is afraid of a lot of them. This is really puzzling to us, because he has always been such a friendly outgoing boy, now he kind of cowers back. Have any of you experienced this with your puppies, and if so, how long did it last? It is worse some days than others. Gypsy also asked for some pictures so, you can blame her for all of these.

This is where he is and what he is doing most of the time. Either playing with Donnie or me. And he loves the little shelf behind the couch. He also loves nipping at Donnie’s head. He is fine in here, but was afraid of the fan the other evening when I turned that on. I don’t know… it just kills me to see him act this way, but hopefully he will out grow it.

Want to welcome my newest follower, Carol K. She has a very good site and I have been reading and commenting on her site for quite a while. She is also my 100th follower, which is a surprise to me. I thought when I started on blog spot I would be doing good to reach 20 followers. Also want to add Dave’s site from the other day. He is just starting out and is going to do some traveling in Mexico in his New-to-him C-cab. Check both of these sites out. You won’t be disappointed.

I will talk to you again from Mississippi. Later.. :)

Fat Tuesday

2011-03-08T14:27:00.001-05:00

I have planned our trip deliberately to miss all the carryings on for Fat Tuesday. I am not that much of a party goer, and sure don’t care for all the crowds that gather for this kind of thing. The first year we visited Louisiana we made the mistake of being there right in the middle of it all so, we hid out and only attended one small Mardi Gras gathering at the RV Park. It was fun, but we didn’t stay long after all the drinking and loud music started.

We will pull out of here early tomorrow morning to make another very long trip to Slidell, Louisiana. I have talked to my nephew and it looks like we will be meeting them on Thursday evening for a meal out, and some visiting time. We will only be there for the 2 days so, won’t be doing anything else.

Friday we will pull into Mississippi, and have plans on Saturday to meet Judy, the Bird Lady, at the Refuge she is volunteering at now for a tour and meal later. I am really looking forward to meeting her. If she is anything like her Blog sounds, it will be a hoot. She most graciously offered us a spot for 2 days, knowing how frugal I am, but I had to turn her down. My Anal Retentive side had already made reservations in Gautier, MS. I also paid for it in advance and was told, very plainly, that if I broke the reservation I would still be charged, so we were stuck. The offer was most appreciated though.

Since we are so close to the last place that Judy volunteered, we decided to take a run out and see the birds that she so eloquently described. When we first pulled in we met a very nice lady named Marilyn. She told me she actually took Judy’s place, when she left. A very nice lady, and had very nice things to say about Judy.

I won’t go in to details about Anahuac, because we all read Judy’s blog and she has already told us lots about it. I will just say that I was blown away by all the geese. I won’t pretend to know the names of the birds I took pictures of, but you don’t have to know their names to appreciate their beauty. I will let the pictures show you what we saw.

I loved this refuge and hope to come back one day. I really loved the board walks and wish there had been some gators out, but it wasn’t meant to be. They have been seeing them, but not on this day.

Can’t sign off without mentioning Gator Junction. It is a very little place that sells BBQ. When we first arrived the Gentleman who is work-camping/hosting here told us about this place. He said it was the best BBQ in the State. I think he is right. We hadn’t eaten such delicious BBQ since 16th Street in Indy. Not only was it delicious, but they give you enough on two sandwiches, and 2 sides for at least 2 meals. If you are ever through here, give this place a chance. It is really good and very reasonable.

Want to welcome my new follower, David. I didn’t see a site for you, but if you have one, please let me know so I can mention it here. Hope you enjoy your ride along with us.

My internet has really been acting up for the last day and a half, so I am going to sign off while there is still a chance to get this posted. Talk to you from LA. or MS. Later…. :)

Turtle Bayou RV Park

2011-03-06T16:37:00.001-05:00

Wednesday we had made plans to meet with Ali and Ron at their Park. I do realize I spelled it wrong in the last post, so, I wish to correct it now. It is called Lone Star Corral, not Coral. Anyway, we did meet them, and right away I really liked them. They are very down to earth people, and very easy to talk to. We had to wait around for a short amount of time so Ron could escort a late coming RV to their spot. Ali and Ron are managing an Escapees Park, and this is part of their duties.

When Ron had finished we went to a place in D’ Hanis, Texas for supper. It is called Bill and Rosa’s Steakhouse. Let me tell you, we had some of the best food that we have had in months. Donnie and I couldn’t resist ordering the Liver and Onions, and when it came, we were really surprised at how good it was. Usually we are very disappointed, but not this time. We ordered the 1/2 orders… Ali had already warned us about their very large orders. She was right. There is no way I could have handled a full order. Everyone’s food was delicious, and of course the conversation was great. If you have a chance to meet these wonderful people, you should. I know we will come across them again in the future, and will be looking forward to it.

I was taking a picture of them while Ali was taking a picture of us.

Can you believe the size of these drinks?

Ali and Ron, a wonderful couple.

Inside of Bill and Rosa’s. A really nice place and the prices were right too….

Thursday I spent a little time doing some cleaning and getting things ready for our move. Thursday morning Nancy and I did run into Leakey for a little while to hit the Thrift shops. I didn’t find anything, but Nancy picked up a couple of books.

This picture is of the signs outside of the Humane Society’s Thrift shop. They now also offer a Vet in house. They sure were busy on Thursday, when we were there. They brought in one little dog that had gotten too friendly with a Porcupine, and he had quills all over his nose and mouth. Poor little pooch was really in a lot of pain.

Friday we spent the day filling up with fuel, picking up last minute groceries, and in general getting ready to pull out. I also had some laundry to catch up and a number of things to put back in their traveling spots.

We left early on Saturday morning and had a very uneventful trip. We traveled 321 miles to reach our stop here in Wallisville, Texas. We are at a very nice Park, or I like it. I had read some reviews that weren’t too favorable about this park, but I really like it. It is a Pass Port America, so we are staying right on Turtle Bayou, with full hook-ups, and free wifi, for $18.00 a night. I took a bunch of pictures, and will share them with you.

We are staying here for 4 days. I wanted to make sure the Mardi Gras was all over with before we go to Louisiana to see the kids. Haven’t heard from them so not sure if we will connect or not. We will just have to see.

We played games with the gang for the last time Thursday night. We will miss all the great people down there, but will be looking forward to next year.

Starting with the lady in blue blouse, Margie, Elizabeth, Elaine, Donnie, Paul, Bob, Rory, Bill, Nancy and Rudy. A great bunch and we will miss them all.

Talk to you in a couple of days. Stay safe… :)

Rusty On The Run

2011-03-01T13:58:00.001-05:00

My second big mistake with him. We had just got back from the grocery and he was anxious to get out, so I told Don to just let him out cause he wouldn’t go anywhere. WRONG!!! He took off like a shot. Never looked back, just kept running and running. Don did finally coax him into coming back to be leashed, but I won’t make that mistake again. The first mistake I made was thinking he was completely house broken. It’s uncanny, like he can read my mind. I was just thinking how good he had been for the last couple of weeks, and boom, he jumps up on the bed and piddles right in the middle of it. I was not a happy camper having to change all of the bed clothes. My daughter told me once that her dogs will do that when they are pouting at her for some reason, so the work on breaking him continues.

We had our potluck on Saturday morning. I guess about 40 people showed up again. Later in the day, Nancy, Paul, Donnie and myself played a couple games of Pegs and Jokers and then a game of Mexican Train. After playing games we all jumped in our truck and headed for Vinny’s Italian restaurant in Leakey, Texas. Nancy and I had some pasta dishes, Paul had a very large grilled chicken salad, and Donnie had a personal pizza. It was all very good. We always have a great time with Paul and Nancy. We will really miss them when we leave.

This morning two more of our friends pulled out for home in Illinois. Winnie and Wayne wanted to get on home. She has a brother that is quite ill and she wants to spend time with him before it is too late. God speed you two. Have a safe trip and hope your brother is doing better when you get home.

We have really been having some high winds this week. They started Sunday night when we got back from playing games. It was blowing the leaves so hard, it sounded like hail hitting the RV. They have quieted down for now. It has been a bit cooler also for the past few days. Only in the 70’s instead of 80’s.

Tomorrow evening we have plans to meet a fellow blogger. We heard from Ali and Ron last week that they would be work camping at Lone Star Coral RV Park in D’ Hanis, Texas, and wondered if we would like to meet. We love meeting fellow bloggers and/or readers of my blog. We will be meeting them at their campsite, a little after 5:00 tomorrow evening for supper and conversation. Looking forward to it.

We play games again tonight, and I am getting laundry caught up again. Other than that, it is pretty quiet here in rural Texas. Stay safe. Later… :)

Itinerary Done

2011-02-25T15:20:00.001-05:00

Yes, I finally just took a day, sat down, and got it all planned and reserved. We will stay the first 4 days after leaving here, in Wallisville, Texas. It is just a small place right before you cross the State line into Louisiana. Next we will be stopping for a couple of days in Slidell, Louisiana, to hopefully visit with my nephew and his family. I haven’t heard from them yet so, this may not be in the plans, but we are hoping. Next is Gautier, MS for a couple of days. Hoping to meet Judy, if she has the time. We then will take a small side trip to Montgomery, AL. to meet with a couple I have been talking to for a couple of years through my blog (old blog on mytripjournal and new blog on blog spot). You may remember me asking for your prayers for Judy, who has cancer. This is the lady in Alabama we are going to see. We can’t wait to spend a couple of days with these great people. Next we will make a stop in Milton, Florida. My little brother’s good friend, Harry lives in Pensacola, Florida, and we hope to at least go and eat with he and his wife, Kay. After a short stay in Milton, we will head on over to Lake City, Florida for a month’s stay. I will be writing on the road if possible, and will give you more info on our parks, etc..

It has been up in the 80’s here all week so, it was a big surprise when the temps dipped down into the high 30’s last night. Had been staying up in high 40’s or low 50’s. Spring is definitely here though. The grass is starting to green up.. It’s much harder to tell by the trees here. Some hold their leaves, and only lose them when the new ones come on.

Want to welcome my 2 new followers. The first is Wayne and Roberta. Check out their site. I have been following them for quite a while. The second is Mike and Gina. I know they have a site, but I can’t get the URL to insert. Don’t know what is up with that. But, welcome to you all. I hope you enjoy the ride.

We went to Uvalde on Monday and had the oil changed in the truck. Does it get on your nerves how the service depts. always say “you are next in line”, “and we will have you out of here in 30 minutes”, and then 2 hours later you are still there? Really drives me crazy!!!!

They did have a very nice waiting room, but come on…. :(

I took a picture of all the flags that Uvalde had flying for Presidents Day. They really take this Holiday seriously.

Like Nellie, I have been thinking very strongly about not blogging so much. I have come to a point where it all sounds the same to me, and I think I need a break. I will continue to have some updates, but not near as often. No excuses, just don’t want to do it.

We did take another drive this week. A couple of weeks ago we drove the 3 sisters, and I told Don at the time that we needed to do them in reverse so, that is what we did. This time we started in Uvalde on 55, headed to Camp Wood, then hit 335 over to 41 and back on 336. We didn’t back track on 337, we had done that before. It was just as beautiful going this way as it was going the other.

We still have been playing games really often. I will miss this so much when we leave here. Not all parks even have club houses for use, let alone schedule things for you to do in them. Hopefully we will find some along the way this summer.

Our dear friends, Marrolyn and Al are pulling out in the morning. She has been feeling really bad, and wants to see her family Doctor. We pray all is well with her, and that they have a safe trip home. They live in Childress, Texas. Up close to OK.

We are having another potluck breakfast in the morning. I am taking donuts this time. There is always soooo much food, but it is a lot of fun to get together with everyone.

That’s it for today. Later… :)

Happy Birthday Donnie!!

2011-02-20T13:05:00.001-05:00

Yes, today my big, tall, good looking husband turns 73. Most people are amazed that he is that old. I don’t think he looks that old either. We are going to celebrate quietly, here in our wheel estate. I am making him a cake that Marolyn gave me the recipe for. It uses 4 eggs, scramblers for us, 1 cup of water, 1/3 cup of oil, a yellow cake mix, and one can of Pecan, coconut icing. Mix all together and bake in a Bundt pan. Bake as directed for cake mix. I don’t carry a Bundt pan with us so, I am baking in a regular cake pan. Very moist and tasty cake.

I insisted yesterday that he get himself some new clothes. I don’t think he has bought a new pair of pants forever. It is hard to get him to shop for anything, but clothes he has no patience for at all. He picked out one pair of jeans and was through. I picked out 2 more pairs of pants for him and 2 shirts in the mean time. He finally conceded and kept them all, but it was a real struggle. Anyway, Happy Birthday Honey!! I love you very much.

Want to welcome Ross along for the ride. He is my newest follower and writes a very interesting blog about preparations for his own travel. Check it out if you get a chance…

A few of you have asked me to please post my frugality tips. Here is one more I have for you. We don’t have satellite of any kind. We opted not to get the very large and very expensive Hughes Net when we first started out. We did have direct TV for a couple of months, but soon discontinued that also. These two things are very expensive, and if you are careful you can always find camps with these amenities included. Some of you have mentioned the “It” factor. That word never enters my mind. If a Park is neat and clean, with friendly folks running it, we can make do. We try to make our own “It” factor, but don’t get me wrong, we do like clean and neat, but don’t need a big spacious site with the best views to be happy. I also try to stay away from Tourist Traps. When looking for a Park, I may try to stay 40 or 50 miles away from something we want to see, because I know from experience, that a park close to a Tourist Trap is going to be much higher in rates. It really has worked for us to just take day trips to something we really want to see or experience.

Thanks for all the good wishes for my grandson. He is doing great. I talked to him yesterday, and he is home and recovering nicely. Here is a picture of him right after surgery.

He was one sick boy for a few days. Again, thanks for all of your well wishes.

I received our game in the mail, that I had ordered last week. We are very pleased with it. It all breaks down and fits in it’s own bag for easy storage and carrying it for game night. I even talked Donnie into playing a couple of games with me yesterday. He won the first and I won the second.

I am so glad now that I bought the little Green Machine. For those of you that don’t know, it is a spot cleaner for your carpets. Since we got Rusty, it is really getting a big workout. It does a really good job too. Having an extra boy running in and out doesn’t help the stain situation at all, but we love him, and I think we will never, ever, regret getting him.

You got to love that face…. :)

I don’t know what is going on with the top two photos today. They are really small, and I have no idea why. Oh, Well, Live Writer, like all other computer programs, sometimes have a mind of their own.

I will make this a short post so I can decide what to make the Birthday boy for tonight. I wish you could smell that cake… It really has made the whole RV smell like coconuts and pecans. Stay safe… :)

An Emergency Surgery

2011-02-17T14:14:00.001-05:00

Tuesday night when we got back from the club house, my daughter had left a message on my phone. My middle grandson, Mitchell had an appendicitis attack and had to have it removed. When I talked to Shannon, he was in recovery and the Doctor had told them all was going well. I have been keeping up with his progress on face book. What did we do before computers?

We have stayed pretty busy this week. I apologize to all the bloggers that I normally read. It just seems like when we are down here, there is always something going on that takes up my time. I will try to do better from now on.

We had our big dessert night Sunday, and you would not believe the amount of dessert that turned up. We all played games after, and I thought I may have to go home. I love desserts and sweet stuff, but lately it doesn’t like me. I took a couple of shots to share with you.

I think there were around 40 people at Dessert night.

Monday Donnie and I decided to drive the Three Sisters. We took 336 out of Leakey, to 41, with a short trip over to Rock Springs. I wanted to see The Devils Sinkhole, but you have to have an appointment. Anyway, then we drove back on 41 to hit 335, we then took it to Camp Wood and there we hit 337, which completed the Three Sister’s drive. I was only able to get a couple of pictures, but if you are in this area, this drive is a must. Some of the prettiest scenery we have seen down here. Of course, they are all in the Hill Country so, that explains why it is so pretty.

Tuesday, Marolyn, Nancy and myself went to Uvalde to get our hair cuts. We went to Fantastic Sam’s. Every Tuesday they give cuts for $10.00, and boy did they give good cuts. I hope that I can find their shop for my next cut, somewhere down the road. We also hit some consignment shops while we were in there, but the other girls are making some beaded Christmas trees so, wanted to get back. I walked over to try and help them, and Pam from the office was lending a hand also, but we are sure the directions are wrong. We tried every way possible to get them to work, but Pam finally said she was going to email the company for new instructions.

Tuesday night we played games again, and we always have a great time. We played Pegs and Jokers and us girls were undefeated till then, but got our butts whipped Tuesday night. All in fun so, no one really cares. We did win the next game though :)

Don, Rusty, and I finally had a camp fire the other night. It was lots of fun, and once Rusty learned it was hot, he didn’t even attempt to go near it. He is just like Don’s shadow so, I was really worried that he would jump up on the pit when Don tended it, but he didn’t so, all’s well, that end’s well.

Yesterday, Joy, Nancy, Marolyn, and myself all went back to Kerrville, to do some more consignment shop, shopping. Joy got some wooden bunnies to put on her front porch at home. Nancy bought more books. Marolyn is always looking for sewing things, and found some, I got another shirt and nightgown. We always have a great time.

We stopped at a restaurant, The Lake House, that had been recommended to us by another camper here. He was right. The food was excellent, and the place just said “welcome” when you walked in. It was also overlooking the Guadeloupe River.

From left is: Nancy, Joy, and Marolyn. After finishing lunch we made a couple more stops then headed back to the camp. Last night was a potluck, but we opted out and stayed home instead. Tonight is another game night so, we will head over for that. Today is also live music, but I am trying to get some laundry done so, probably will skip that also.

Want to welcome my newest follower, Russ. Their site is very interesting. Check it out. Later….

Dessert Night-Yum Yum

2011-02-13T11:28:00.001-05:00

Yes, tonight is the night we all eat dinner at home, then go to the club house for dessert. I am making triple chocolate brownies. It takes a very large cookie sheet, and a very large oven to make them so, the office said I could make them in the kitchen over there. I will bring them back here and let them cool before adding powdered sugar on the top.

We ran into Uvalde yesterday to eat breakfast. We haven’t done too much of this since arriving here. Seems like something is always going on Saturdays. We went back to Ofelia’s, since we both love the food there. I took a picture of a beautiful clock hanging in there. It is not the best of pictures. I was sitting to the side of it, but it is so pretty I wanted to share it.

After eating waaaaaaaay too much, we ran over to WAl*Mart and picked up a few things. Price shock on diesel!!! $3.35 per gallon at Murphy’s Gas station. With our card it is still $3.32. We will have to do more sitting, than moving this summer, if the prices stay that high.

We ran onto a very nice little park yesterday, right in the middle of Uvalde. We were searching for two different things. The first was a pawn shop. Donnie needs a certain tool, and thought he might pick one up there for little or nothing, but no such luck. The second thing we were looking for was a place to walk with Rusty. No such luck there either, but we did find this pretty little park. There is a tribute there and is called Garden of Heroes. Very nice little park with some big ole beautiful rocks, several benches, basket ball courts, and a very nice playground for kids. If you are ever in the area, check it out.

I want to correct something I had in my last post. The place we stopped to have lunch Wednesday, is not Elaine’s Plate, it is Elaine’s Table, and it sits on the Guadalupe River, not the Medina. It is a little on the upscale of a place, but they have very good food, and very reasonable prices.

I know I don’t write enough about the Frugal part of my blog, but I am always afraid you will get sick of hearing how we save money, but just wanted to share with you, that since we are staying put for the winter, we have been able to stick some more money back. Moving all the time is nice, and some choose to do this, we don’t. We can always find plenty to keep us occupied, and we are very good at making our own fun. If no one else is around, we play games, watch movies, take long drives in the area, and go geo-caching. Being able to continue this life-style is what is important to us so, we do what we have to. I don’t think everyone out there could live the way we do, but for us it works very well.

Donnie’s Birthday is coming up in a few days so, yesterday he bought himself a new watch. We don’t really worry about gifting each other, cause we usually just get what we want or need. For valentines day we bought each other Pegs and Jokers. A new game we learned down here. Got it on eBay for $37.00. The cheapest one on there.

I don’t know how much weight Rusty has gained, but he looks bigger to us. We don’t take him back to the Vet’s till the 22nd. I took some pictures so you can see how big he is getting. He is still so full of energy, we don’t know some days if we can take it, but at other times, can’t imagine life without him. While Don was laying down yesterday, I put Rusty out on his lead. I attached the lead to the wrong ring, the one with his tags on it. Yes, by pulling on it, he sprang it open and lost his tags. My fault, and I am just so happy he didn’t get loose. We did find one tag, but his new name tag and others are gone.

If any of you have any idea of what kind of dog he may be, I sure would appreciate your guesses. I did put a chow and terrier mix in Google, and it sure looks a lot like Rusty.

Going to get busy on those brownies. Our weather has finally taken a turn for the good. It is supposed to get up in the 70’s today, and for the rest of the week. Lows just in 40’s and 50’s.

A Day Trip

2011-02-10T11:40:00.001-05:00

We took a very fun day trip yesterday. Nancy, her husband Paul, Donnie and myself. We first headed back to Bandera. They have a really nice RV Camp there, Skyline Ranch RV Park, and we wanted to talk to the folks that run it. Please do not take me wrong. We love the park we have stayed at here in Concan, Texas for two different winters, but the cedar pollen is really making me sick this time. Several others have also been affected by it, so some of us may try to stay at this other park next season. They don’t have any cedars in their park, and don’t expect the owners here to cut down their beautiful trees, just for a few of us. I am having nose bleeds a couple of times a day, and I constantly sneeze and feel stuffed up. We have one lady here that is taking 3 different medicines, with no relief.

Skyline Ranch RV Park is a very nice Park, and is priced about the same as Parkview. They also have game nights, bingo, potlucks, craft classes, and 3 club houses for patrons use. An extra perk is across the fence from the park is 2 longhorn cows/steers, and some adorable miniature donkeys. I took a few pictures that I will share with you of the park.

After talking to the owner of the Park and looking around we decided to give it a try next winter. We will miss everyone here, but it can’t be helped.

We left Bandera and headed a little North. I wanted to see the Stonehenge II that is near Kerrville, Texas. It is cute, but I thought it would at least be in a nice setting. There were a couple of statues copied from the Easter Island statues also. A bit of a disappointment, but it was a fun trip. I got a shot of Stonehenge, but it looked like it was in front of some kind of Art School, so we didn’t tarry.

It was getting close to lunch time when we left Stonehenge II, so we went on the look for a nice place to have some lunch. We found it on 39, right on the Medina River. It was a very pretty little place called “Elaine’s Plate”. Where we were sitting we could see right out over the river, and at one time 3 deer walked across the dam, but I wasn’t quick enough to get their picture. I had soup of the day with a half sandwich, Nancy and Paul both had turkey sandwiches, and Donnie had the special: a taco pie made with Fritos. It was all very, very good, and we all plan on going back. They were served with some potato skins that were slightly scorched, and believe it or not, they were good. That is the way they are made and a first for all of us. My soup was the best I have had in forever. It was a creamed pepper soup, can’t remember the French name.

We left after lunch and were on the hunt for the Motorcycle Museum. We did find it on 187, but it is closed through the week. I had looked on line, but couldn’t find a number to call and check when they are open. They are just opened on the week ends, so we will go back later.

We did run into a bunch of snow flurries yesterday. We are very cold down here again. Nancy and Paul’s water froze again, but ours survived. We let it drip every time it even gets close to freezing temps. It only got up to 40* yesterday and just the low 50’s today. I am sick of it!!!

Still playing games on several nights a week, and Sunday night we have a dessert night. We all eat dinner at home, then go to the club house for dessert. I think I will skip dinner. :)

Welcome to my newest follower, Donna K. She writes a very good blog. If you get a chance, check it out. Hope you enjoy your ride along with us.

Stay warm and I will catch you later….

Super Bowl Sunday!!

2011-02-06T14:10:00.001-05:00

Hope I am not stepping on any toes here, but I am backing “The Pack”. I really like their Quarter back , and hope he goes all the way. He was also my brothers favorite new quarter back, so hope they win in his honor.

Ok, enough of that. We are having a Super Bowl party at the club house tonight and everyone is just bringing whatever they want in snack foods. I am taking a tray with pepperoni, hard salami, Colby jack cheese, and cheddar cheese. And, lots of Ritz crackers . We had a good time a couple of years ago. Everyone usually plays games till the last quarter, then all eyes are on the game.

It turned out to be an all-girls-day yesterday. Winnie, Nancy, Marolyn, and mysellf. We started out by going to Bandera. The flea market we intended to go to must have been canceled, because we couldn’t find a soul around the Legion, where it was being held. There was also supposed to be one at Pipe Creek, a little place not far from Bandera, but it was also canceled. Just too cold for these Texans.

So, we decided to hit the consignment shops in Bandera, I think there were two. We found a few items, but not much. While we were driving around looking for others, we noticed a sign that said Kerrville 24 miles, and since we had all day we went.

The very first place we hit after getting to Kerrville was pretty nice, and I think it was just called The Family Thrift Shop. I got 2 very nice nightgowns for $7.00. One was new and one was like-new. The other girls got some sewing items, clothes and books.

After leaving this store we decided to go to Denny’s for lunch. Winnie had breakfast, Nancy and I had a lunch pizza on flat bread, and Marolyn had their nacho’s . Everyone agreed the food was very good, and the waitress headed us in the direction of another consignment shop.

It was another really nice one, and Marolyn really hit pay-dirt at this one. She uses lots of zippers, and materials to make items to sell and was able to get a lot of both here. While there, Marolyn struck up a conversation with two older, very well-dressed ladies, and asked them if there were more stores of this type, and they laughed and said, “ Kerrville is full of them”, so we all hopped in the truck and followed them to the next one. They were so sweet to do this for us. This store is called Rerun, and I think it was the nicest store I have ever seen for a thrift shop. Everything was neat, clean, and very organized. Marolyn was able to get more sewing supplies, Winnie got a new basket for her fruit, and Nancy got more books. The night gowns were my only purchase for the day.

After leaving that one, we stopped at a couple more, then made tracks for the RV Park. Last night was game night and since it was already going on 4:00, we thought we’d better high-tail it on back, but I am sure we will go again. We all had a ball, and made it back for game night.

We played Mexican train last night, another table played Pegs and Jokers, and the third played Golf, the card game. We have so much fun down here, and I thank God every day for the opportunity to do this. I wish you all could be here with us.

You all stay warm and I will catch you later… :)

Heading To Bandera

2011-02-04T16:08:00.001-05:00

On the first and third weekend of the month there is a flea market at the Legion in Bandera, Texas. Seven of us from here are going to run over and see if we can do any better than we did last week in San Antonio. It will be fun and get us all out. I don’t know about everyone else, but we have been holed up in our RV since Tuesday. We missed both game nights and a potluck this week. Once we got the pipes thawed we were afraid to leave for fear something else would freeze, or break. I know some of the campers had their drain hoses freeze and break, so needless to say, we have stayed right on top of things.

We did run to town earlier and pick up some snacks for tomorrow nights games, and also a snack tray for the Super Bowl Party here at the park. It actually got up to 39* here, but is supposed to go back down into the 20’s tonight.

One of the ladies, here at the park has been carrying a beautiful carry-all every time we play games or go shopping. I finally asked her if she made it and she did, so naturally I had to know what she sold them for. She sells them for $20.00 a piece. They are so nice. They are pretty large,quilted bags, have a zipper/pocket on the front, so if you want to run into the grocery and pick up a couple of things, your wallet and keys will fit in the front pocket, and items in the bag part. I could see my girls names all over these, so ordered 3 of them right away. Marolyn also makes a jewelry carrier. You place your earrings in the little pockets on the sides and your necklaces and bracelets in the middle. All of my girls wear lots of jewelry too, so these will come in handy also. Jennifer has a Birthday in a few days and this will make a nice gift for her. Jen’s is green, Angie’s is reds, and Shannon’s is fall colors. I will share a picture of Jen’s with you. Marolyn does all the work in these pictures.

It is hard to tell in these pictures, but all of these materials have a green background, so they all contrast well.

I had another woodpecker at the feeder this morning. When that happens, it just makes my day. I get scores of other birds too, but I think the woodpeckers are my favorite to watch.

I also got a picture of this beautiful dog. I have seen him several times, but Donnie is never with me when he is out, so I stopped and took a couple of pictures of him to show to Donnie. I think his coloring is very unique.

Want to share Alan and Marilyn’s site with you. I welcomed them as a new follower the other day, but didn’t have the address for their site at the time. Check it out, it is very interesting. And, again, welcome…

Also want to welcome Luci and Loree to my blog. I have read some of her site and find it very interesting too. Hope you enjoy the ride with us.

And, welcome to The Old Geezer. His site is very habit forming, and very informative, so please check it out. Hope you enjoy your time with us.

I have another question for you. I am taking fish-oil pills 3 times a day, 1,000mgs each. My question is can I take flax seed pills with these, or do you know of a site where I can find this kind of thing out? I have high cholesterol, but refuse to take statins. My ratio is 2.6, so I think my main concern is trying to lower bad cholesterol. Can someone help? Thanks…

We did finally remember to stop and get a tag for Rusty that has our info on it. It is very cute. A little bone with his name on one side and our info on the other.

Stay warm you all….. :)

Pipes Froze

2011-02-02T13:08:00.001-05:00

Yes, it got down to 17* according to the internet and my weather widgets I have on the computer. Not only did our pipes freeze, but the electric also was off this morning. Of course we didn’t know this when we were sleeping, so the electric blanket went off and didn’t come back on when the electric did. When the electric did come back on, we were able to listen to the news enough to find out that there will be rolling outages in our area until further notice. It will be this way, the weather, for at least a couple of more days, then a small warm-up, and then cold again. What a disappointment this year has been for weather here in South Texas. It is never really warm at night, usually in the 40’s, but this year is certainly colder.

I made chicken noodle soup the other night, and a big pot of bean soup last night. Nothing tastes better on a cold evening than a big bowl of steaming soup and warm cornbread.

We passed on playing cards last night. I hated doing that, but I guess with all the high winds, the cedar or whatever that pollen is called, was blowing around. I had a splitting headache all day yesterday. I love game nights, so won’t be missing very many.

We did play Sunday night and we had the biggest crowd that I can remember ever showing up. There were 13 of us playing golf, and six playing Joker and pegs. Hopefully we will get to play Mexican train again before we leave.

Right now our plans are to leave the 5th of March. Probably stop and visit with the kids in Louisiana for a day or so, then hit the panhandle of Florida to visit another friend in Pensacola, and maybe on to Carrabelle for a month or so. Nothing in concrete, but that is the plan right now.

Want to welcome my newest follower, Alan McMillan. I couldn’t find a site for you, so if you have one, please contact me with the address and I will add it here. Hope you enjoy the ride along with me and Don.

I did get the laundry all caught up yesterday, and went to the grocery on Monday. No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to get out of the grocery for under $100.00. You would think with just two of us it wouldn’t be so much, but it is. Don’s beer also comes out of the grocery, so that is in with it.

Going to make this a short post. The internet keeps going off and on too, so want to get this posted before it goes back off. Later

Can you find the man is these beans? If you click on the picture, and make it larger, he is easy to find.

San Antonio Flea Markets

2011-01-30T16:00:00.001-05:00

Five of us left the camp at 8:00am yesterday morning, for what we thought would be a fun day of flea markets. It was a lot of fun being with all of them, but these sure weren’t flea markets. We went to two, The Highway 90 flea market, and a new one that is called The Village Trader or something like that. They were both full of nothing but new stuff, and little cheap items. No antiques, or glass ware, or sewing supplies. Nothing that I am used to buying at a flea market. Al, Marolyn, Nancy, Paul and myself went. I think Al bought a sling shot, all the guys here at the camp like to mess with. Paul bought a gun, and a few strips of rawhide. I don’t think Marolyn or Nancy bought anything. All I bought was a couple of t-shirts for me and Donnie. There wasn’t even any really good food like is usually served at these places. Al and Marolyn both had a Funnel cake, Nancy had an ice cream cone, and I had a corndog. We had a really good time though, and that is why we went. There is another smaller flea market in Bandera on the first and third Saturday of every month, so we may go over and hit that one and grab a bite to eat.

We did find a couple of Antique shops and little second hand shops on the way home. I found 4 little Carnival glass bottles for my Best Buddy, and Paul bought me a Texas sized bag of oranges for driving yesterday. Al got his knife sharpened at one of the places we stopped; it wasn’t a complete waste of our time. I got a shot of the beautiful merry go-round at the last big flea market we were at and want to share it with you.

It was right in the middle of the flea market, as were other kid’s rides. There were picnic areas all around the area too. It was crowded so, I guess some people like these types of things, but just not my definition of a flea market.

On the way home we saw a very big grass fire. The traffic was actually stopped on the East bound lane of 90, our side was open so, we skedaddled on through. The smoke was just unbelievable. Later in the evening, I heard on the news, that a lady had been burning trash and had started the fire. There was a no-burn ban so, now she will not only have to pay a large fine, but for all damage and even for all the fire departments that were called. There were 8 called so , she is looking at a big chunk of change.

This morning we put Rusty in the truck and went and hunted down some fire wood. I have been wanting a campfire, and have really been craving some smores. We also have a pack of hotdogs that are just begging to be roasted. We haven’t had a campfire this year and I am really looking forward to it.

Tonight is game night so, the campfire will have to wait. Also, another big cold front is coming and they say it won’t get over 40* for a couple of days. We will wait till we get another warm spell for our campfire. The guy in Leakey we bought the wood from usually has a truck-load of fire wood parked along the street, and you can just buy what you want. We got enough for several campfires for $20.00.

I have a couple more shots of Rusty to share with you. He turned 4 months old yesterday so, I really don’t think he is going to be very big. We have spent oodles of dollars on toys for this puppy and he still carries sticks home to play with. He will play fetch with us, but he mostly likes his sticks. He also carries bones home, not to chew on, but to bury. What a dog!!!

In this picture he was trying to help Donnie with making his lead a little longer. We put him on a lead outside when the days are pretty, and he loves it. He loves to watch the other dogs that go by. This morning a big old dog broke loose from his owner and tried to attack Rusty. Luckily I was right there and got Rusty back before he could get hurt. The man that owned the dog was really sorry but, I know it wasn’t intentional.

From now on I am going to save my $’s and just get him sticks to play with. Catch you later…. :)

Out With Nancy

2011-01-28T11:30:00.001-05:00

Tuesday was the day I picked to introduce Nancy to geo-caching. She took to it like a duck takes to water. She jumped right in and started helping me find them. We found 8 out of 10, so, we had a great day. It was 65*, the sun was shining, you couldn’t have asked for a better day. I have a couple of pictures to share with you.

I must explain that we did invite the fellows to go with us, but Nancy’s husband, Paul, and her son were in a very serious tractor verses car accident a couple of years ago, and Paul still suffers from back pain. He had an appointment with the Doctor that adjusts your back. The name of the Doctor that does this escapes my mind. (another senior moment) Donnie has also been having trouble with his knees. Rusty tripped him the other day and he fell right on his knees, and I think they are probably bruised really bad. It was on the blacktop and that is pretty hard to go down on.

Speaking of Rusty, he is still doing very well in the potty department, but not so well in the minding. I know I can be a little too anal retentive but, I try to be more patient with him. All the dog-owners, here at the park, tell me to just give him time, that he is still very much a puppy but, I swear he is deaf. He doesn’t bite me though!! I have stopped that; he has Donnie chewed up all the time.

Welcome to my newest follower, Erik’s RV Blog. I look forward to reading his blog and seeing what it is all about. Hope you enjoy the ride along with us.

I have a couple of pictures of the kids I want to share with you. The first is of my 2 good looking Grandsons, and my adorable Great Grandson. Grandma is very proud of all of you.

The next is of my nephew, TJ and his beautiful family. Susan, and the 2 girls, Kayley and Hannah. I think I spelled one of the girls names wrong, but I think they will forgive me.

I have a couple of problems with writing my blog. I am sure they are probably simple to fix, but not for me. The first is setting my type to a certain text, size and so forth. I have favorites I like to use all the time, but every time I add a picture, or save my blog, it goes back to what ever. Can someone help me with this?

The second problem I have is with the watermark. The very first time I used it I must have hit something, because that watermark appears on every picture I post, so, I have to go in and delete it, then add what I want. I prefer to do like others and just have them have my blog name permanently, but just can’t figure out how to do this. Can someone help? I am so computer challenged sometimes… :)

Yesterday was Jam Session day. There were eight musicians that showed up. They added a man that plays all kinds of harmonicas. It really gave the music a better sound. It’s a lot of fun, and several of the campers got up and sang yesterday. Frank, Carolyn, Bonnie, and Bill all showed their hidden talents. Bonnie’s Mother, Betty also joined in on a song. We had a great time, and during the break we all had snacks and a drink. Winnie brought some fabulous brownies made with cream cheese. I have a couple of shots I will share with you.

There is always lots of fellowship at these gatherings. Mostly they sing funny songs, with a few sentimental ones thrown in, and lots of Gospel. That seems to be the number one favorite. Frank and Carolyn do a Patriotic song that always brings everyone to their feet. It is beautiful.

Tomorrow a bunch of us are heading up to San Antonio to a very large flea market. I think we will have a great day and I will let you all know how it goes. The nights have been very cool, but the days are perfect for walking around a flea market. It has been in the high 60’s or low 70’s every day.

That’s it for now, all you folks up north stay warm, and all you folks way down south stay cool.

Cancer Treatments

2011-01-24T15:41:00.001-05:00

Just want to make a short post today. In my comments yesterday I received a message from my good friend Judy in Alabama. She has cancer and is taking cancer treatments. Her and her Hubby would like to travel more, but are concerned about her health issues. What I need from you is some answers. She wants to know if anyone out there has received treatments while on the road, or away from home while traveling? I shared my experience with my brother, Uncle Boone, that we had in Louisiana last year, but would really like to be able to share more options with her. So, if you know someone, or have gone through this yourself, please comment here, and I will share the information with her. Thank you so much.

We played games on Saturday night and again last night. Part of us played Jokers and Pegs, and part of us played Golf, the card game. We love playing Mexican Train also, but decided on the other games. One problem everyone seems to have with the Mexican Train Domino game, is that you only get 4 trains in with a set, but up to 8 people can play at a time, so I got on line and hunted down some more trains. I found them on Amazon if anyone is interested. I ordered 30 because some of the other girls wanted some too. I think they had plenty of them though.

I talked to several people this morning by phone. I first talked to my girlfriend, Bertie. I hadn’t talked to her since my brother passed, so we had a lot of catching up to do. We always try to do something with Bertie and Earl when we are home. Our favorite is going to flea markets and going out to eat. I have a picture of Bertie to share with you of her visiting her kids and Grandkids in Florida.

Like all of us, she has been trying to lose weight, and has actually lost 10 pounds since the third. The sad part is, I found it. :)

I also talked to my best Buddy, Willie at home. I wanted to make sure my Girl Scout Cookie order was received, and we had some tax stuff to talk about, but she and I can talk for hours about nothing…. :)

I also talked to my SIL out in California. She is also taking treatments for breast cancer, but fortunately it is the very slow growing type, and she only has to take meds. to control it, but she is 75 and the meds. are very hard on her. She is also a severe asthmatic and is on several meds. for that. We mainly were discussing the Winter family get together at home this summer. It promises to be lots of fun. There will only be one day with all the family there, the rest of the time there will just be a few of us, and they have plans for Santa Claus Land, Canoeing, cave touring, and lots of campfires down by the lake. We will participate in the campfires, but will leave the rest to the ones that still have small kids.

Catch you later… :)

Breakfast Potluck

2011-01-22T16:55:00.001-05:00

I know I have fallen down on my blogging, but as Sue says on her blog, I just haven’t felt like we have been doing anything that was blog worthy. We have been shopping a couple of times, and we did do a little geo-caching. The geo-caches in Texas are a little more challenging for us old folks, so there aren’t a whole lot of them that we feel safe looking for. We did find 3 so, I will share some photos I took of the areas.

The last one was in front of this very nice Park and picnic area in Camp Wood, Texas.

When we were in Wyoming this summer, a very nice gentleman knocked on our door and said he was a reader. His name is Nick, and I remember he said he and his wife live in Casper, Wyoming. Nick, if you are still reading my blog, please contact me. I would love to know how you and your wife’s plans are coming along for full-timing. If you go to the top left-hand corner of my blog you will see about me, go to the bottom of that and click on view my complete profile, and you can contact me that way. Looking forward to hearing how your plans are coming along..

Mac, wanted you to know I ordered one of the WiFi amplifiers you told me about. I run in to weak signals sometimes, and I hope this will solve my problems. I read the reviews, and with what you told me, I think it should be just what I need to solve that problem. Again thanks!

If anyone out there can help with this question, I sure would appreciate it. If I move my followers to the top of my blog, does that mean I will be losing my header picture or making it smaller? I wish I had the guts to just go ahead and try some of these things, but I am so afraid of screwing everything up.

Thanks for all the answers to my going crazy question. I was glad to hear other people leave their TVs or radios on for their dogs too. He goes with us most of the time, but when we are going out to eat, or one of us can’t stay in the truck with him, we leave him at home.

This morning was our potluck breakfast so, I was up at 6:00am frying bacon. There was so much good food you wouldn’t believe. We had at least 3 different kinds of breakfast casseroles, bacon, spam, ham, sausage, sweet rolls, strawberries mixed with blackberries, biscuits and gravy, and that’s all I can remember. Of course there was coffee and several juices to choose from. There were probably about 40 people that came. Yes, spam… I hadn’t eaten any of that in years. It still tastes good…. :)

After finishing with breakfast, five of us girls went in to Leakey to do a little shopping. There was Winnie, Darla, Elisabeth, Nancy and myself. We hit all the Antique shops and second hand stores. We had a great time, but agreed, if they want us older gals to come shop in their stores they need to have public restrooms. :(

We are playing games again tonight at the clubhouse. We are scheduled to play tomorrow night too, but I could play almost every night. I have only turned down one time since Christmas, and then because the cedar dust/pollen had gotten me down. Some days it is a lot worse than other days.

We have sure had our share of cool weather and high winds down here this year. We are all talking about maybe going to a different place next year, but it is still in the talking stage. We are all retired so, nothing we decide is written in stone.

I made a pot of potato soup yesterday, and think I will stick it on again for tonight. That way I won’t have so much mess to clean up before we go play games. Gotta run. Later… :)

Lost Maples Café

2011-01-18T16:21:00.002-05:00

I had forgotten about one of the ladies, here at the Park, teaching us to make our own noodles, and set up a lunch with Mac and Dianna today. Mac reads my blog and I read his. He emailed a couple of days ago and wanted to meet, and we always love meeting our readers, and fellow bloggers. We met these great people at noon, over in Utopia, Texas at the Lost Maples Café. Mac is retired, but Dianna is still working, but they hope to be full-timers soon. They have a beautiful big Motorhome so they have that part taken care of, but still have other ducks to get in a row before they can begin their adventure full-time. We had a lot of great conversation, laughs, and some good food. We hope to run into these fine people again.

This little restaurant is very old fashioned. Not a big posh place, but you can tell the food is very good because it is always busy. We had eaten here once before with Joy and Jack a couple of years ago. Thanks Mac and Dianna for suggesting this meeting..

On the way home we ran across another Armadillo. I love watching these guys. They don’t seem to be afraid of us at all, so I was able to get a couple of shots of him/her.

While talking to Mac and Dianna, Mac mentioned some of the big trees here in Texas, especially one on the Texas coast that is over a thousand years old, and marveled at the fact that it hadn’t been destroyed in any of the hurricanes that hit the coast. This is a miracle in itself. That made me think of the large tree in Rio Frio, so thought I would share a picture of it, and a little history about it.

I am still amazed every time we pass this tree.

Want to welcome my new followers to the blog. Jeff and Sheryl are first, then Brian and Marla, last is Kathy and Robert. They all have their own blogs, and I find them all very interesting. Just click on their names and you can check them out too. Welcome aboard all, and hope you enjoy the ride.

I spent yesterday morning cleaning, and then in the afternoon we had to go back to Uvalde to pick up the rest of my heart meds. It went pretty well yesterday, but when I got home I noticed they had my refills all screwed up, so I called them right away and got it straightened out. I got a little bit of an argument, but then they realized their mistake and corrected it. THANK GOD!!

Do you all think I have gone a little over the top? I have started leaving the TV on for Rusty when we have to be gone for a while. Yes, I know he isn’t human, but it seems to me that it keeps him company when we have to be gone from him. I would love to know your opinion's on this, or am I just dealing without a full deck?

I want to take this opportunity to invite any of my readers or fellow bloggers, who may be in our area, to let us know and we would love to meet you. We can meet you half way or whatever works best for you. Just send us an email and we will get together.

That’s it for today. Later… :)

Baby Boomers

2011-01-16T15:53:00.001-05:00

A friend here at the Park, Winnie just turned 65 yesterday. Happy Birthday Winnie!!! She is just from January to April older than me. Nancy, another friend here at the Park is also 65, so there are oodles and gobs of us Boomers everywhere. According to the news, millions of us will be retiring this year. I got a news flash for you, a lot of us have been retired for quite a while now. Donnie was able to retire at 60, and we were able for me to retire at that time too. We aren’t rich by any means, but if you watch what you spend, or don’t spend, it isn’t hard to make it out here. Some of the bloggers I read, go to these big expensive places to stay, and I am not finding fault with that. I am glad they are able to do it, but we can get along just fine with our “not so perfect” RV camps. Mostly if they are clean, friendly, and on the cheaper side, we do just fine.

Last night was game night again, and this week we went. I love game nights, and wouldn’t have missed last week, if the Colt’s hadn’t been playing in the playoffs. We played the card game golf, then they talked us into staying and playing an extra game of Mexican Train. We found out last night that there are several versions of Mexican train, so we may play a different one next time. Another table was playing Jokers and pegs. We had pool players, and of course people watching the Steelers and Ravens. Here are a couple of pictures I took last night.

I was sitting next to Donnie, then Nancy, gone somewhere, then Al, Frank( our resident Minister), Marilyn, Dave, and Paul. This was our golf game.

This is the version we were playing last night, but some of the guys were talking about having other trains running around the outside of the straight trains in a circle or even 2 circles. What we have been playing is fun, but I would like to try the other game too.

I think Donnie is looking much too serious in this picture. In the background is Linda in the orange shirt, Bob on her left, Eva across from her, Wayne not shown, Walt not shown and Winnie, the Birthday girl. Playing pool is Mike and his sister, Crystal. There were all kinds of snacks too, but I forgot to take a picture of those.

Bill, in front, is from Michigan, and Nancy and Paul are from Minnesota. Bill is the one that told us about the big flea market up by San Antonio. I am hoping we can get a bunch to go up there one week end. No one really needs anything, we just like going, eating out, and all being together. Nancy and Paul also ride Harley’s, and they both brought their bykes with them. I was always afraid to drive one , but Nancy tells me there is nothing to it. She says the only bad part is when Paul goes so fast she can’t, or won’t, keep up with him.

By reading Judy’s blog, I found out what the big black buzzard-looking birds are that I have been seeing everywhere down here. I knew they weren’t like our buzzards at home, so glad to find out what they are. They have white markings on them and she called them caracara birds. Thanks Judy.

Want to welcome my 2 newest followers, Kenny and Kenny Wilkes. Isn’t that neat that they both are named Kenny? I could not find a site for either of you, so if you have one, please contact me and I will post it. Hope you enjoy the ride along with us.

I have been getting so many birds at my feeders lately. I got a picture of what I think is a House Finch, but if it isn’t I think Judy will let me know. It really has a lot of red on it. First time I have seen one this colorful.

Gonna run and get this posted. Later… :)

Rain, Rain, and More Rain

2011-01-15T15:06:00.001-05:00

It has been nasty, rainy, and on the whole just very gray and bleak. Very cold too. Makes you want to just either get in bed. or in your recliner and just sleep these dull days away. But, life goes on, at a very slow pace though.

I am so sick of Wal*Mart… We went in the other day to get our prescriptions filled, and were told it would be at least 2 hours, so I said I would be back the next day. Keep in mind, every trip to Uvalde is 30 miles each way. We did go back the next day, and you guessed it, they still weren’t filled, so we decided instead of making another long trip, we would just wait. The clerk assured me it would be no more than 10 minutes. One hour and a half later we finally got our pills, and I was shorted. I went ahead and took what they had, but that will mean another trip back on Monday. We probably will need a few groceries by then, but it is just the idea that they never do what they say they will do. Why do I stay with them? Because they are everywhere, and not all drug stores or groceries are. I don’t have insurance for drugs, so I take advantage of the $4.00 generic program they have. Nuff said…. :(

We did finally stop at a little road-side Taco place on the way home and got a couple of breakfast burritos. They were filled with eggs, potatoes and refried beans. They were really good. It is just a little hole in the wall, but I will share a picture with you.

The highlight of the trip that day was when I saw a Road Runner, but I just can’t seem to get a picture of one. I have tried many times, and failed each time.

I have to share this picture of my cousin with you. I stole it off of face book. Hope she doesn’t mind. She is a very big Colt’s fan, so thought this was cute. She has a whole room devoted to the Colt’s in her house.

Sam, of the 5th wheel vagabonds, put up some pictures from the past a week or so ago, and it reminded me of a picture of our dog, Cujo that I wanted to share with you. The beautiful black Police Dog is my sister and Brother in Law,s dog, Izzy. Cujo now lives in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, with our son Jay, and loves it there very much.

Want to welcome my newest follower, Lake Conroe Penny TX. I find her site one of the most informative that I read. I always look forward to her posts. Thanks for following mine Penny. In case I haven’t told you for a while, if you click on the different colored words or phrases, it will take you to a site.

Want to share a Christmas picture of my daughter, Shannon with you. She is so beautiful, and the best kid in the world. I love you Shanny, and thanks for the beautiful card.

On our walks with Rusty we often talk to different people in the Park. A couple of days ago Don talked to an old guy that is very familiar with the area, and they were talking about places to go and eat. So, when Don got home he was all worked up about this place over in Sabinal. Now if you remember, we just found a place to eat breakfast last week, but he insisted that we try this place out, so that is what we did this morning. It is a small place, right outside of Sabinal, Texas. It is a BBQ place to be exact, but they serve breakfast, so in we went. It was really good, and the little lady waiting on us was very fast. It was really cheap too, so now we have two places to choose from.

I realize those aren’t the best pictures in the world, but it gives you an idea of what it looked like. We were only there a couple of minutes, when all of these tables filled up. That always speaks highly of a place.

Tonight is game night at the club house, so we will be going over about 6:00. I want to leave you with one more picture of a crossing on the Frio River, over by the Concan Golf Club. Very unusual to say the least… :)

Camp Verde, Texas

2011-01-12T12:34:00.001-05:00

Want to start today by welcoming my newest followers, Craig and Sue. They are full time wanna be RVer’s. Check out their site.

We took a little trip over to Camp Verde, Texas yesterday. I love wooden nickels for geo-caching trades, and was able to get some there at the General Store a couple of years ago. The bad part is they don’t want to charge me for them; they give them to customers, so I left them a large tip. The drive to and from is beautiful. We took HWY 337 east out of Leakey, then hit 16 for a bit, then on to 2828, and lastly, on 173 to the General Store.

History in a Pecan Shell

The post was opened in 1855 on the banks of the scenic Verde Creek. It is most famous for the experiment with camels that was the brainchild of U. S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis. It wasn’t a bad idea considering the climate and terrain of the San Antonio to El Paso road. In fact, it would’ve succeeded, had it not been for one unforeseen factor-other animals panicked when they smelled the scent of the camels.

The general store opened in 1857 and served the soldiers of the Camp. The store’s owner was mostly only open the few days immediately following payday. The post office opened in 1887-long after the war.

Today the store is picturesque in it’s solitude, but has lost some of its quiet dignity with all the signs and banners. There’s a nice roadside park facing the store on Verde Creek.

The camp was captured by Confederate forces in February of 1861. They inherited the camels and a few Egyptian handlers and put them to work hauling cotton to Mexico to trade to the British for much needed supplies. The camels multiplied and reportedly were sold to a circus. Actually, they were dispersed to many circuses, a few zoos, and two men from Bastrop County even employed them in another failed venture to haul mail to Mexico City.

Nearby was a canyon that was used as a makeshift Prisoner of War Camp for nearly 600 Union prisoners in the early part of the war. The post was totally abandoned in 1869, although a Company of Texas Rangers used the remains of the fort as a campground for some time.

Camp Verde was also the post for the Confederates responsible for the lynching of 8 men near the Camp in 1862. (This info taken from the Camp Verde, Texas site).

Today we had to get up very early to get Rusty in for his last shot. We were amazed when they told us he had gained another whopping 3.5 pounds. Our little boy isn’t so little anymore at 11.6 pounds. He is going on 4 months old, and they said he is right on track to where he needs to be. He sure was hyper today, but not in the truck. He loves riding and usually settles right down. He has also been trying to dominate us, and the Vet says we need to get a handle on it now, before he gets so large that we can’t handle him.

Want to let the family know that Shannon called and said Mark, her husband, had come through his heart test just fine. They did find some minor blockage, but it can be treated with medicine. Thank God. There is a lot of heart problems in his family, so glad he had this done. I spoke to him for just a minute, and he sounded fine.

Not much going on around here. It is very cold, so everyone is pretty much staying inside. Nancy brought us some movies down yesterday, so we will probably just watch movies today. I thought about working a puzzle, but will wait on that. I do have several that I haven’t worked that my cousin Bessie gave me.

Haven’t heard from my cousin Charlotte in a while. I was hoping she might get to come down this winter, but don’t know if she will make it. I miss all of you guys in Indy.

Gonna get this posted. Catch you later…

Ofelia’s Mexican Restaurant

2011-01-10T15:09:00.001-05:00

We started out on Saturday morning with breakfast at Ofelia’s. We had eaten here before with our friends Cathy and Louie, but they didn’t make it back to Texas this year. The food is excellent here, and the best service in Uvalde. They took our order and within 15 minutes, we had hot food, cooked the way we asked for it, and nothing but smiles on our waitresses face. So, we have found our breakfast place. Plus they gave me a magnetic calendar.

After finishing breakfast, we had to go to Wal*Mart to pick up a few grocery items and some more Puppy Chow. Our young Rusty is up to a couple of cups a day. I am anxious to see how much weight he has gained in the last couple of weeks. We take him in Wednesday for his last booster shots.

Later in the evening I watched my Colts get beat, but it was a very good game and they went farther than what I thought was possible. After all, a lot of their best players were on the bench with injuries. There is always next year.

Want to welcome my newest follower, Vermily. Check out his site, he has a lot to offer. A teacher and photographer.

Just to do a little bragging here, I love my new purse. It is just the right size to hold all my crap that I think I have to carry with me. I mentioned I got it on sale, and I did. It was just slightly over $40.00, so think I did pretty good on a leather purse. It is made by Country Roads. Here is a picture of it. In case you can’t tell, it is dark brown.

Yesterday we had an early breakfast and then headed out to do some geo-caching in the area. I had 4 on our list, and we found 3, so it was a pretty good day. The first 2 were very cute. They had hid very large candy canes in cedar/Christmas trees. Very unique.. The last was at a Cemetery, Jones Cemetery. I will add a couple of pictures from the last.

The one we didn’t find was in Garner State Park. I had forgotten it was closed this week for some kind of hunting thing. Every road in was blocked off.

I had packed us a lunch and had put in some Puppy Chow and water for Rusty. He really loved all the walking and got really upset when I walked away from him. Do you think he is spoiled or what?

That’s it for today. Just getting laundry caught up and a few domestic duties done.

Please, pray for the people in Arizona.

P.S. I will not be using that text again. Sorry….

Sabinal, Texas

2011-01-07T16:16:00.001-05:00

Tuesday a few of us girls got together at the club house and had a short cooking class. Pam, one of the ladies in the office, here at the RV park, is writing a cook book, or rather collecting recipes for an RV Camp cookbook. Some of the recipes come from the patrons of the park, and some from Pam and her family. Anyway, she had a recipe for Spanish rice, and thought we would like to try it. It was a little spicier than what I make, but was very good. I think in a couple of weeks we are going to make home-made noodles.

Wednesday night we had another pot luck and game night. There were so many good dishes. I ended up making banana pudding, which always goes well, but we had 3 different kinds of potatoes, lots of meat dishes, several sides, and too many deserts. Nancy made a very good dish with corn, beans, tomatoes and home made beef wieners. It was a very good throw together dish.

Donnie has gone over to the club house a few times in the mornings. The guys all meet over there for coffee and chit-chat. Yesterday some body brought biscuits and gravy, and Donnie naturally had to try them, even though he had just eaten breakfast here.

A couple of days ago when we were driving back from Leakey, I spotted a bunch of deer eating at one of the baiting stations. The stations are everywhere down here. I still don’t understand the sporting aspect of bringing animals in, or baiting them in, then shooting them. Doesn’t seem very sporting to me, but that is just me. I took a couple of pictures of them.

We took Rusty out on highway 337, going toward Camp Cook. Some one here at the park told us that you could go up there and let your dog run loose. We found the spot, but were afraid to let him go. He will come to us, but there were lots of trees and lots of drop-offs, so I am thinking not a good spot for puppies. Maybe when he is older.

Yesterday we had live music had the Club house. Three guys from the area come in once a week and play and sing. Some of the campers get up and sing also. Frank and his wife, Carolyn sang a lot. Both are very good. They did one where Carolyn sang America The Beautiful, and Frank read the Pledge of Allegiance, as said by a prisoner of war. It was breath-taking.

This morning Nancy and I went over to Sabinal. We found 4 Antique/flea market type places. I got a very nice leather purse, which I needed, at 15% off, and a very cute little boot magnet that is also a note minder. I have been looking for a purse for over a year, and had to come to Texas to find one. Nancy also got one of the little boot magnet/note minders and a key chain. She also got some pants at a consignment shop, and I found some Nora Roberts books at the Humane Society thrift shop. We stopped and got a burger and fries for lunch and then headed on home.

Sorry it has been a while since I posted. Having lots of fun, and not even getting on line some days. I will try to do better though. Stay safe all you travelers.

Go Colts

2011-01-03T15:49:00.001-05:00

I had to do a little bragging. Our team won their division again this year. I think this makes the ninth year they have been in the playoffs. Hope they go all the way again this year. I am very proud of them. They have played most of the season with a lot of their best players on the sidelines, due to injuries.

They will be playing the Jets on Saturday evening, so you know where I will be.

Want to welcome my new followers. Sometimes I go days without anyone new, then all at once I get 3 new ones. The first is the Evans Family. They just started their blog, so check them out. It looks interesting to me. The second is Chuck and Anneke’s RV Travel. They have been blogging for quite a while and have a very good site. The third is Kathynindy 3. I couldn’t find a site for you, so if you have one, please share it with me, and I will post it here. Thanks to you all, and I hope you all enjoy following us.

My best Buddy made me a beautiful quilt several years ago, and I absolutely love it. It is the quilt we have used on our bed for 3 and a half years, but it is getting torn up from Donnie laying on the bed watching TV, so I washed and stored it away. When I was at Wal*Mart the other day I saw some quilts that I liked, so went back and bought the quilt and shams to match. They were only $36.00 for all, so thought that was a pretty good deal. I was very surprised when I got them home that they are actually made very well, not as good as Willie’s, but still very good. I will share a picture with you.

I also want to share another picture of our Rusty. I am glad to report that he is doing very well with his house-training, and has only piddled once on the floor in several days. He seems to like the carrying crate a lot better than the large wire cage we first had for him. He gets in his carrying crate and goes right to sleep. He is also holding his piddling pretty well at night. We shower him with love when he does his job outside, and he seems to be eating that up. He is also pooping outside and then sitting and waiting for his treat now. He is so darn cute.

We are having a cooking class tomorrow. Tuesday is usually craft day, but since no one has been doing any crafts, Pam decided we would just do some cooking. I think we are making Spanish Rice tomorrow. Should be fun. I will let you know how it turns out.

We are also having another Pot Luck Wednesday night. I am trying to decide whether I want to make a hamburger dish or banana pudding. There were a lot of deserts on Saturday, so I am leaning more toward the meat dish.

We did get all moved today. We like this site a lot better. We have a tree outside the door, but it is an Oak tree, so no nasty little berries on it, just lots of squirrels running up and down the limbs. This park is filled with squirrels. I took a couple of pictures of our new site.

Going to run and play some more of my new games. I am getting the laundry caught up, so am tied to the house this afternoon. Might as well enjoy my down time. Stay safe.. ;)