Saturday November 6, 2010-Rayford Crossing RV Resort

Thursday my biggest news was that my truck came back from McAllen. The service writer, Chapa, drove it back followed by the tech that had worked on the truck in another vehicle. Chapa had originally told me that he was going to drive a motorcycle into the bed of the truck so he could ride it home, but he didn't realize how much there is in the bed of the truck. A tool box, fifth wheel hitch and the hundred gallon fuel tank pretty well takes up most of the room in the bed. At any rate, he got it back down here to me. The mechanic that actually did the work came with him to answer any questions that I had.

Thursday night was the first street party after all of the winter Texans arrived back for the season. It was decided that the party would be moved indoors because it was cool and very windy. There was a good turnout and it was good to see all of our friends together. After the party was over, I hosted a campfire at our site. We sat outside in the cool night air until the fire died and everyone got sleepy and went home. It was the perfect way to end a very nice day.

The coffee drinkers have certainly returned. I guess we have drunk so much coffee, we have worn out the brand new coffee urn that Gwen bought for us last season. The coffee doesn't get very hot and we are sure that one of the burner elements is not working, so Gwen promised to buy a new one for us.

Stella had gotten a call from Enterprise that they needed to get the car back because it was getting too many miles on it. I had told Jeannie, the saleslady at Tomball Dodge, that I would be in today to work on the purchase of a new truck, so it put me in a bind for time. I had to drive to Timber Ridge (near Tomball where the car dealer is) to get the car, drive back to Enterprise (on I-45 near Rayford) to change cars, then drive back to Timber Ridge to get the truck and go back to the dealership. It never occurred to us to merely exchange vehicles. At any rate, I got it done!

I got to the dealership and learned that the truck that we wanted had been sold, so we were back to square one. We drove around and looked at everything they had but there was nothing that appealed to me. There were two more trucks at other dealers that I might have liked but the dealers wouldn't trade them. She finally found a truck that would work and we finally made a deal. It took all day long, but I bought a 2010 Dodge (or Ram as they call them now), 3500 crew cab with the diesel engine and automatic transmission. Sheesh, I didn't remember how hard it is to negotiate the purchase of a new truck.

I came on back home and tried to rest a bit, but I had forgotten that I had signed up for bingo tonight. When I got here, I found that our new friends here in the park, Ernie and Debbie, had spent all day fixing barbecue brisket, so supper was fixed for us. Thank heavens! Debbie had also made a huge crockpot of cheese dip that she wanted to send down to the bingo night, so our food was done. We had a good time at bingo and of course, I didn't win (they've got to have it rigged) but we had fun playing with our many friends here.

Saturday morning I got up and made coffee for the guys. Everyone at coffee was interested in what I had bought and we discussed our dealings with car dealers. I won't go into our thoughts about cheating car dealers and manufacturers but it wasn't very pretty for them. They rank right in there with politicians in our estimation. No offense to my Dad, who was a long-time Ford dealer.

I went to Master Hitch to have the hitch removed but when I arrived, they told me that they could pull off everything that I wanted removed while I waited, so that's what I decided to do. I got to watch my car shows on TV while the work was being done. My friend Tom was on vacation but I'll see him when I return to have the hitch and other items installed.

While I had been driving to Master Hitch, Cameron had called me asking where I was. He wanted me to come down to see them, so when I got through I drove on down to Texas City to visit with the boys. They agreed to come help me move the tool box and a few other things out of the truck into our storage room, so when we got done, we went out to eat at Gringo's restaurant in Texas City, one of our favorites. We had a very good time together. It has been a month since I have seen them and both seem so much more grown up. Wow...the changes!

When I got back home, I was too full to eat again and was feeling poorly with the onset of a cold. I went in and laid down about 8:30 and the next thing I knew it was midnight. I got up about 4AM, which is very common for me and immediately found that Mike had mentioned me in his blog Homer and Lucille. Mike made some very kind comments about me and my blog and I thank him for them. Its nice to know that others appreciate my writing. I want to thank everyone that follows us in our travels and adventures. I'm sure that at some point, we'll stop traveling but we'll have this to look back on and remember our good times. I urge all of you to think about starting a blog, even if you're still working and feel like you're not doing anything noteworthy. It might be interesting to look back on your thoughts. Thanks again.

So long.